"Rrah" Lowurra

Lowurra
Biographical Information
Race	Diathim
Homeworld	Kashyyyk
Mother	Gratobuck
Father	Shorbecca
Spouse	None
Siblings	None
Children	None
Born	Year -1 Day 149
Physical Description
Gender	Androgynous
Height	2.8 Meters
Coloring	Varies
Eye Color	Varies
Political Information
Affiliation	New Republic
Rank	Citizen (COL, ret.)
Positions	Proprietor, The Galaxia Mercantile
Prior Affiliation	Rwookrrorro Commonwealth
Awards	see below

Lowurra was born a young Rwook male from the tree-city of Rwookrrorro, on Kashyyyk. On Katunda, Helona 32 of Year 12 CGT, Lowurra graduated from the New Republic Military Academy and entered service to the Rebel Army. During an emergency deployment to planet Derra IV, Lowurra was exposed to the Metamorphosis Virus. Despite his illness he continued to remain dutifully at his post, even while his biology was painfully transforming.

Description

Nearly three meters tall, Lowurra's appearance varies depending upon the beholder. Typically, Lowurra appears as an exotic winged member of the observer's race, bathed in golden light.

Early Years

Lowurra was born Datunda, Nelona 4, 1 BCGT to parents Shorbecca of Raachwoorr, and Gratobuck of Braashaak. His father Shorbecca served the local militia as a warrior and was renowned in Raachwoorr as the greatest Ryyk master in the city. His mother Gratobuck was a maker of tree-drums as well as a performer and music instructor. The two met at Starport Kashyyyk, where Gratobuck was performing for militia officers at a convention. They made a home for themselves in Rwookrrorro and it was here that Lowurra was born.

Early in Lowurra's youth it became clear that he was destined to become a warrior, like his father. He quickly outgrew the other cubs and became unusually strong for his age. While it was expected that Lowurra would demonstrate natural talent for melee, like his father the Ryyk champion, his mentors were quite surprised that he seemed to take to the Bowcaster with a much higher degree of proficiency.

Lowurra was still a cub when the Empire scourged the tree-cities and hundreds of innocents were slain during nights of horror and brutality which became known as the Black Forest Massacre. He was taken into hiding in the Shadowlands with his mother, much too young to wear the Baldric and carry arms, while his father fought with the Kashyyyk Resistance. Only after Operation Forging Freedom had liberated the planet was it safe for Lowurra and his mother to return to the tree cities to be counted in the Republic census.

When asked for his full name by a Galactic Administrator who was on his first day at the job on Kashyyyk, Lowurra answered with his single traditional Wookiee name. However, because of Administrative policies the archivist insisted that Lowurra also provide a "given" name to complete his files. While most Wookiees simply adopted a more Basic-sounding formal name, or split their traditional name into two parts, Lowurra was quite stubborn. In Lowurra's neighborhood there was an expression "G.I." meaning General Item, a reference to the common items available for sale in local shops. When asked what "kind" of Lowurra he was, Lowurra answered "G.I." While the Administrator was quite keen with Shyriiwook, he did not understand the local expression and simply recorded what he heard, "Rrah".

Lowurra completed his Hrrtayyk ceremony on Datunda, Nelona 24, 12 CGT and ascended to adulthood according to Wookiee tradition. The ceremony was witnessed by Chieftain Elijah Shoryyhn and Elder Jorvan Drey, and involved the rescue of stranded Rwook and droids from Imperial space. Lowurra, an occasional smoker of Wildwood Flowers, was entrusted with the Pipe of Arriaddik during the consummation of his Hrrtayyk. It had been won by his great-grandfather in a duel and handed down for two generations, Shorbecca now passed it to his son.

As Imperial power descended over the galaxy, Lowurra took to the stars and entered service to the Army of the New Republic to serve as a rebel assault trooper. Like many of Lowurra's generation, he had remembered the terror of the Imperial slayings from his youth, and had been raised to show gratitude to the New Republic and to bring Wookiee vengeance to the Empire for it's brutality on Kashyyyk.

First Tour

After accepting his commission in Kanopis on Year 12 Day 214, Lieutenant Lowurra was assigned to the “Archangels” Division, part of a larger Battle Group which also included a Navy Fleet and a Starfighter Wing. Lowurra began his career shuttling starships to a new Rendezvous Point in deep space. Battle Groups frequently displaced this way, and it gave Lowurra an opportunity to view the impressive size of the Group armada. He marveled at the massive Mon Calamari cruisers and A-Wing squadrons which swarmed like Bandara between the titanic hulls.

The next three months were spent in garrison on his homeworld of Kashyyyk, constantly drilling and conducting small unit maneuvers against dangerous predators that threatened the tree cities. Lowurra frequently took liberty to visit with his friends and relatives in Rwookrrorro, although the luxury of a homeworld assignment would be short lived. After Lowurra was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on Year 12 Day 307, the Battle Group got rotation orders and pulled out to a new Area of Operations.

Once again he found himself on long hyperspace voyages, relocating the entire fleet from Mytaranor to Arkanis. It was a grueling process for Lowurra, who was quite familiar with starflight and navigations but had a terrible time expressing himself to multi-racial bridge crews who often didn't understand Shyriiwook.

Lowurra received his next promotion to Captain on Year 13 Day 45, and nearly a month later was appointed Executive Officer of Archangels Division. His massive Wookiee frame, warrior ethos and high standards of professionalism on Kashyyyk had been recognized. With expanded responsibilites, Lowurra deployed to Arkanis system on a logistical support mission to assist Juganoth Mining Corporation. The next few weeks were spent hauling piles of confiscated Raw Materials to secured storage facilities, and it was during this detail that Lowurra responded to a distress call from Arkanis I and the bandit wars began.

Archangels Division deployed against the rampaging brigands, but the mission was soon interrupted by a civil war within the Infinite Empire. The diversion was quite short, and while Lowurra expected to see some tense action, he spent most of the operation swooping through space, scanning hostile vessels and maintaining system surveillance.

Lowurra was promoted again to the rank of Major on Year 13 Day 121 after returning from Infinite Empire space and leading several highly successful missions against bandit forces on Arkanis I. However, while Lowurra continued to grow as a warrior and strategist, his typical Wookiee behavior often hampered his social interaction with civilians. In an effort to groom his diplomatic interactions, Lowurra was sent on leave to attend the coronation of King Rick Farlander in neighboring Falleen Federation space.

Upon his return, Lowurra began to organize his first Group expedition to check escalating bandit activity in Koobi. Group Operation Artemis ran for nearly three months and crippled the looting operations of the brigands who had moved in to terrorize the populations of three different planets.

During the operation, Lowurra tried his hand at running for a Senatorial seat. Despite the social skills that he had learned and practiced for the Falleen ceremony, he was unable to suppress his Wookiee rage when criticized by those who challenged his qualifications and in the end, the campaigning experience only reinforced Lowurra's disdain for political affairs.

The end of Group Operation Artemis marked the end of Lowurra's first Tour of Duty. He didn't even need to contemplate a second Tour, but he was still required to take a short leave for rest and recreation back home on Kashyyyk before his next term of active duty and was decorated with the Outstanding Excellence Award for his victories in Koobi.

Second Tour

Lowurra returned to active duty Year 13 Day 250 and resumed field training exercises with Archangels Division in Koobi. During a break in the drilling schedule, he went on a security detail to patrol the urban zones on Rodia and Tatooine. Lowurra was particularly impressed by the chaotic lifestyle which prevailed on Tatooine. During his first Tour he had established a reputation for deporting suspicious individuals who lingered around homeworld starports, and in the nefarious cities of this fast and loose desert world, Lowurra frequently had to be restrained.

The following month, Lowurra applied for and was granted Governorship of the Kashyyyk system. It was the greatest distinction which the Republic could ever have bestowed upon Lowurra, bringing great honor to his family in Rwookrrorro. He began to develop plans for significant urban development and employment reforms to improve the quality of life in his home system, although his service to the Army often postponed implementation of these projects.

After getting situated in Kashyyyk for his governorship and hauling a personal corvette into the orbit of his homeworld for use as an official transport, Lowurra received a priority transmission instructing him to mobilize for war. On Year 13 Day 357, Lowurra departed from Kashyyyk bound for what would develop into the first great infantry battle of the Second Galactic Civil War.

While some Army Divisions were daunted by the logistics of mobilization, the Archangels were already in a state of essential readiness from the bandit wars in Koobi and were also in relatively close proximity to the escalating crisis in the Derra system. Lowurra quickly prepped his Regiment and engaged hyperdrive engines, arriving in Kira CW sector on Year 14 Day 20 as the Army's advance reconnaissance element. He wasted little time, deploying the Republic satellite network and linking up with friendly Galactic Alliance forces on the surface of Derra IV.

For the next four months, Lowurra was engaged in combat as part of the joint Galactic Alliance expeditionary force officially designated as Operation Peacekeeper. Upon arrival, it was quickly determined that the source of civil unrest in the urban areas was the mercenary group First Sun who, despite their projected image as merchants and saviors, aggressively sought to block access to public facilities and dominate all planetary resources through brute force. Once these mercenaries had opened fire upon Galactic Alliance formations, they were declared as enemies and roughly ejected from City (9, 8), which was referred to during the early campaign as “Barracks City” or BC.

Black Sun agents had begun to arrive and although the starport city was securely occupied by the Galactic Alliance, sporadic clashes with mobsters and warlords continued for weeks. On Year 14 Day 53 Lowurra was on a routine combat patrol to the neighboring City (10, 8) “Stadium City” or SC, when he encountered an Aurora Tech expeditionary force which had just landed and was vulnerable as it unloaded it's equipment. Lowurra took a fighting position in the north block of highrises and caught the expedition completely by surprise. With just one Company of infantry, he managed to rout the entire expedition without suffering a single casualty of his own.

Shortly after this encounter, Lowurra became extremely sick and it was initially feared that he had become a victim of the Great Animosity Plague, despite the new vaccinations he had taken prior to deployment. Fortunately, Lowurra was out of his armor when the violent transformation process began, and it then became clear that he had contracted the Metamorphosis Virus from the experimental preventive elixir he had taken. Lowurra's fur fell out as he shrank shorter and grew wider, a biological process which subjected him to great discomfort, and over the next few days he transformed into a Gran of Kinyen.

The change was difficult for Lowurra to adjust to, but once the fever broke he returned directly to the front line. While his new stomachs wouldn't tolerate anything other than Army protein pellets, nor would his new lungs handle Wildwood smoking, the three new eyes protruding from Lowurra's hircine head provided him with an unimaginably rich and detailed view of his surroundings.

On Year 14 Day 58 the Imperial 3rd Legion, supported by a Tresarian expedition, arrayed itself and waged a full scale assault upon City (9, 8), more commonly referred to by Archangels troopers as “Barrackstown” at that point, and clashed heavily with the city's Galactic Alliance defenders. The terrific struggle which ensued raged on for two weeks, reaching heated crescendos on Days 60, 64, 65 and 67. This series of encounters would later be known as the Battle of Barrackstown. Suffering an estimated sixty percent casualties in the assault, the 3rd Legion was forced to withdraw north into the forest and await the arrival of reinforcements. During the course of the battle, Archangels Division lost four of it's riflemen and collected one hundred thirty one enemy dogtags. Deakon Jarvis of the Freedom Warriors coined Lowurra's nickname during the fighting, referring to him as "Blood and Guts" over Alliance channels.

With control of Barrackstown firmly established, joint Operation Peacekeeper forces repaired the damage to the perimeter net and resumed patrols to the outlying districts. Sporadic fighting would continue for weeks as the routed Imperials resorted to guerrilla tactics in an attempt to harry the defenders and isolate patrols.

Division medical staff had informed Lowurra that the result of the Metamorphosis Plague was permanent and that within a month the virus would have run it's course. However, Lowurra once again began to feel the nausea and disorientation that he had previously experienced. Rushed to sick bay aboard his frigate, Lowurra endured a second transformation which was more gradual and significantly more uncomfortable than the first. It would be his last biological conversion before the virus expired, and Lowurra emerged a few days later as a Diathim of Iego, the very namesake of his Army Division.

Insisting to be declared fit for duty once the fever had broken, Lowurra again returned directly to the front. While his body had twice been transformed, he found that his mind and heart were unaltered. He was still very much a Wookiee on the inside.

On Day 79, Lowurra received a battlefield promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, and shortly afterward accepted a position as chief military advisor to the newly arriving Arkanian Brotherhood forces as the majority of Galactic Alliance elements pulled out to deploy on other fronts. During the Operation Commander's brief absence from the field, Lowurra was appointed as Officer In Charge of all remaining Galactic Alliance ground forces. He immediately began conducting counter-ambush missions into the north woods to draw Imperial forces out of hiding.

Combat in the dense, tangled groves was quite unlike fighting in the narrow corridors of the cities where the Alliance had a complete defense net installed. Casualties were high on both sides and although Republic forces were typically outnumbered, the Imperials were once again uprooted and fled to the southern woods, hotly pursued by the Republic Army.

On Year 14 Day 140, the surviving Imperial officers were relieved by the 2nd Legion which promptly descended into neighboring “Stadiumville”, as it was now called by Archangels troopers. The remaining Republic Army elements conducted a stubborn defense, but were ordered to withdraw and return to Republic space to pursue other objectives. Lowurra was the last officer to withdraw from Stadiumville, covering the Army's retreat even though at great cost, and he remembers it as the most disappointing order that he ever followed. For his exemplary service during the Battle of Barrackstown, Lowurra was decorated with the New Republic Achievement Medal and a Group Commander's Citation, and his Battle Group also received the Meritorious Unit Medal.

Awards