Lev Gora

Lev Gora is a NPC of the ISD-II Challenge, created by Anahorn Dempsey as part of the Real Heroes of the Challenge competition.

Autobiography

My name is Lev Gora.

No one has heard of me. Not much of a surprise, as I am not a famous TIE Fighter Ace. I wouldn't know what to do in the cockpit of a TIE Fighter if you put me there. Nor do I have any desire to. People you have heard of.... they're usually dead. And I prefer to live. And so, I do my duty, keep a low profile, and make sure I don't get on the wrong side of one or another of the higherups. But - let's start at the beginning. For some reason, I was asked to write down who I am. Not sure why, but part of keeping a low profile is doing ad you're told, even if you don't know why. Maybe it's because a new Commodore was appointed. I'm not sure who it is, some guy that got promoted from a TIE squadron. Naiser I think it is. Not sure about that.

Anyway, I digress. For me, the beginning was Pereta City on Abednedo. My parents, both from Corellia, for some weird reason decided to move to Abednedo. Don't ask me why, it still doesn't make sense to me why anyone would willingly live on that backwater piece of crap. Still, I learned some skills there. Enough to get hired as a technician. And so, I got off that rock as soon as I could. My first job was Chief Maintenance Officer aboard a Baleen-class Heavy Freighter, the Dark Sky. Don't get too excited though, I was Chief Maintenance Officer there, and in that capacity I supervised exactly one crew members aboard: me. It was easy work, as the Captain wasn't taking many risks. We weren't getting chased around, we weren't getting shot at, and so life was easy.

Well, until we ran into a group of Pikes. At least, I think they were Pikes. Or maybe it was someone whose name is Pike. No one ever told me much of anything there, so your guess there is as good as mine. Although from what I know of the Pikes, it was probably someone named Pike who wasn't an actual Pike. I'm still not entirely sure how or why, but that encounter ended with the crew either dead or taken prisoner, the cargo stolen, and me all by myself adrift on the Dark Sky. Now don't get me wrong, I knew that ship inside out, knew where every bolt should be. But when I woke up after the attack, the engine was no longer in a state that I could fix. No more escape pods, main and backup generators were ransacked. It was pretty much over and done with. Heck, I couldn't even send a distress signal anymore as the comm array had been destroyed. And the ship's main computer too. So what do you do in such a situation? I'm not sure, there were no protocols. No guides. No one ever told me what to do when you find yourself alone, stranded on a derelict spaceship somewhere in deep space, light years from the nearest star system. Maybe I should write that guide one day. Who knows when someone might need it.

Probably never. But you never know.

Anyways, I'm not sure how long I'd been adrift, but suddenly I heard a loud bang. No sensors of course, but I'd know that bang anywhere. Someone had locked onto our docking ring. Which gave me two options: meet them with open arms, or hide until they left. The latter seemed the safe option at the time, but of course that did have the downside of me still being adrift and possibly even worse off that I was now. And so I went for door number 1. I hurried towards the docking ring, and just as I entered the corridor, I saw three guys in white armor walking towards me. I stopped, and waved at them. They must have panicked or something. I remember I saw one of them raise their rifle at me. And the next thing I know, I'm sitting in a dark room tied to a chair. Well, at least I wasn't on the Dark Sky anymore, that was for sure. After that, I did some talking to this guy in a neat grey uniform. Never di catch his name. But he did give me a choice. He needed mechanics, and as I claimed to be one, he would see if I was good enough to be useful. Of course I wanted to know what the pay was, I'm not accepting just any job, you know. But apparently he expected me to take the job. Without pay. Something about an airlock, space and explosive decompression. Not my favorite way to die, and so I took the job.

That was 5 years ago. All this time, I've been a mechanic on the maintenance team aboard an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer. I'd heard of these ships of course - everyone had. But I'd never thought I'd actually get to see one. Well, to be fair, I haven't seen this one yet either, I've been cooped up on the lower decks for all this time, but that suits me fine. Don't draw attention to yourself, do your job right, and you get food on a daily basis, and a place to bunk for the night. And I'm actually a Chief Maintenance Officer now with people who actually have to do what I say. Only 5 of them, but that's 5 more than in my last job. And not too many. If I get promoted again, I'll have to supervise 20 of these 6 man units like the one I'm in now. That means people start noticing you. And you don't really want that, do you?

I think that pretty much sums it up for me. I'm not all that interesting. I don't have a high profile job, I'm not a hero of the Empire, and I'm...

Well, I say Empire, but I'm not actually sure how much of an Empire we are. I've been doing a little reading on Galactic history, and it seems the actual Emperor of the Empire died about a year after I was born. So can we be an Empire if there is no Emperor? Who knows, people do crazy things. Except me. Crazy things get you noticed, getting noticed is what gets you killed. And I intend to die of old age. Of very, very old age. Preferably on some world where it's always sunny, plenty of food. And plenty of Twi'lek dancing girls for all. I've got a few years to figure out how to do that. Maybe I'll write another tidbit once I get that far. Assuming someone then wants to know of course.

Lev Gora, MC-11543 Chief Maintenance Officer, Main Engine Crew #16, ISD-II Challenge