Vapen Van'an

Vapen Van'an is an officer in the Emperor's Hammer holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He has served as the Squadron Commander of Theta Squadron in Wing II aboard the Imperial-II Class Star Destroyer Warrior and Combat Operations Officer Assistant (COOA) for the Emperor's Hammer TIE Corps. He is currently the Flight Leader of Theta.

Early Life

Childhood

Vapen was born on Balosar in 2 ABY. As a young boy, his parents were both caught up in the Balo mushroom trade, leaving him with a lonely childhood, but also allowing him the freedom to explore his city and planet on his terms. This encouraged his free spirit, rebelliousness, and a bit of the legendary Balosar selfishness. Eventually his parents were both caught by the New Republic for dealing death sticks, leaving him alone on the planet at the age of 13.

Young Adulthood

After both his parents were imprisoned, he became involved in the same thing that had separated him from his parents: the balo mushroom trade. He began harvesting, eventually worked up to planetary transportation and to his dream job-Inter Planetary Transportation. He got to pilot a starship loaded with product throughout the galaxy. Until 25 ABY, Vapen was an elusive mushroom transporter, known for his knack at being able to get in and out of the mission target without being spotted.

Near the end of the year, Vapen was arrested by the New Republic for selling balo mushrooms and sentenced to 5 years. His jailtime helped him to avoid most of the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. Finding out about the battles he missed gave him a bit of relief, but also inspired a desire to find out about combat and the experiences he heard about from some of his fellow prisoners. His cellmate was a member of an Imperial offshoot called the Emperor's Hammer and that a pilot of his caliber would fit in with the TIE Corps. In 30 ABY, upon his release, Vapen fell back into some of his old ways and contacts. After a close call with the Republic which could have lead to more jailtime, he decided to seek out the group his old cellmate told him about. If not simply to get back at the government that had imprisoned him (wrongfully in his opinion).

TIE Corps

ISDII Warrior Patch

Early Career

After pirating his way through the galaxy, Vapen found his way to the Imperial Remnant, the Emperor's Hammer(EH). He began his service to the EH in the TIE Corps aboard the Imperial-II Class Star Destroyer Warrior assigned to Rho Squadron where he piloted a TIE Interceptor.

Rho

While in Rho, he served as Flight Member for three months under the commandership of Fr0Zen. Under Fr0Zen's leadership, Vapen captained Rho's team for Chalquila Cup II, where the team would take first place. In Rho, Vapen spent a brief time as Flight Leader, until moving up to Squadron Executive Officer when Westric Davalorn took command of the squadron.

Theta

After a month in the XO position for Rho, the commandership of Theta Squadron became open and in May of 2022 under Battlegroup II Commander, Vice Admiral Marenta, Vapen took command of Theta. In his first year, Vapen became very loyal to Theta, helping build the squadron through Raise the Flag 2022, with a strong performance helping the Warrior to second place. From there, the squadron went on to help the Fleet in the final battle with the Ishtari in Imperial Storm V to destroy the bug threat. Theta's membership slightly dwindled between Imperial Storm and Squadron ReMobilization in 31 ABY (2023), however Theta was still able to put up good numbers for the event. They unlocked the ability to change their squadron objective and ships, but elected not to for the reason that the squadron was effective and enjoyed their current assignment.

Additional Roles

• Assistant to the Combat Operations Officer

In September of 2022, Vapen was appointed by Miles Prower as a COOA, shuttling to the VSDII Aggressor to perform his duties. He retired from this role in December of 2023.

• Professor at the Imperial University

Also in September of 2022, Vapen joined the Education Committee for the IU. He quickly become a Professor in a number of courses, primarily history. He retired from this role in December of 2023.

Courses Vapen was a professor of:

• Basic Flight Maneuvers
• History of the Dark Lords
• History of Galactic Republic

Starfighters Flown

JV-7 Escort Shuttle	TIE Defender	TIE Interceptor
Unit(s): Theta Squadron, Wing II, ISDII Warrior	Unit(s): Theta Squadron, Wing II, ISDII Warrior	Unit(s): Rho Squadron, Wing II, ISDII Warrior
Position(s): Flight Leader	Position(s): Squadron Commander	Position(s): Squadron Executive Officer, Flight Leader, Flight Member
Rank(s): Lieutenant Colonel	Rank(s): Captain - Lieutenant Colonel	Rank(s): Sub-Lieutenant - Captain

Promotion Records

Rank	Date Effective	Time Held
Cadet	09/20/2021	1 day
Sub-Lieutenant	09/21/2021	3 days
Lieutenant	09/24/2021	2 months 9 days
Lieutenant Commander	13/03/2021	4 months, 5 days
Commander	04/09/2022	3 months, 5 days
Captain	07/15/2022	3 months, 2 days
Major	10/19/2022	5 months, 7 days
Lieutenant Colonel	03/26/2023	Incumbent

Gallery

Vapen has produced a number of works, including digital art, video, and written works during his time in the TIE Corps

Renderings of Vapen's Visage

Vapen's Original Profile Picture

Banners

Vapen Van'an has designed a banner for the TIE Corps and it's squadrons:

Firebird Squadron 2022

Multimedia

• Produced a video animating the moves and showcasing the strategies from the fourth iteration of the annual war game, Imperial Storm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU1UMVJ585k

Fiction

• Co-authored File:The Marcan Express.pdf with Westric Davalorn in 2022. In addition he made many of the chapter art images featured in the work.

---

Positions Held
Before	Position	After
Pete Mitchell	Theta Squadron Commander May 2022 - July 2024	Matt Brass