Korolov IC History

= OOC Information =
 * This is Korolov's IC History. These are the events of his life from the time the character entered the grid on Mon Nov 23 20:04:46 1998. 7 ABY

Golden Age & Dark Discoveries (7 ABY–11 ABY)
One of the Tribune's first assignments was to work with the Sith Lara Grayson to 'free' Venus Dekan from Caspian hands. It was here that Korolov and Sinestra set off a bomb in Fountain Square that filled the fountain with millions of soap bubbles to distract the Caspian authorities from their true objective, Venus Dekan. With the Imperial Consort in tow, the pair made their way back to Korolov's ship Praetorian and returned to Imperial space. Emperor Valak liked how the pair worked together and sent them off to the Imperial fleet to assist Warlord Jarl Rellik in his campaign against the New Republic, aboard the flag ship HIMS Emperor Valak. While aboard, Korolov and Grayson were able to prevent a coup staged by a renegade Imperial Tech and an army of battle droids he had cobbled together. So too during this time, Lara noticed something rare in the Royal Guardsman. She reported this immediately to her master, who called for his Tribune to return to Dreven.

Precipitating this, Valak had directed the Royal Guard to build a second academy on the planet Ord Trasi &mdash; a secret even from Imperial High Command. It was at this second academy that Vassily Korolov would again become a student. For Bacharan Valak was more than a leader, he was a Sith Lord, growing greater and greater in power as time progressed. He recognized the same thing in Korolov that Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader had sensed, a strong connection with the Force, coupled with his desire for revenge, and overwhelming hatred of the Jedi that would sculpt him to be the perfect weapon.

So Bacharan Valak began to train him, first and foremost in concealing his power. Valak knew there would be a day he would have use of the Guardsman and did not want to reveal his hand before that day arrived. He was also taught to channel the Dark Side, drawing its power to make him, stronger, faster, and more destructive on the battle field. His training progressed slowly, as the Emperor's attention was needed everywhere. It was Lara Grayson that first showed him how to fight with the Lightsaber. However again, his training progressed slowly as duties elsewhere for both of them sent them in different directions. Lara Grayson remained on Ord Trasi to fight the Jedi, and Vassily Korolov returned to Selene where trouble was afoot.

Deception & Revolution (11 ABY–12 ABY)
As Valak's control of the Empire started to slip and the 'Usurper' Osbourne began to exert more and more control, Korolov returned to the Empire. Adopting the identity Baron Anatoli Black, Vassily's primary job was to keep Valak informed as well as act as a conduit for the Emperor to rally his network of supporters throughout the Galaxy. To accomplish this Vassily adopted a Majors rank in the IGF and worked his way into Osbourne's court. He quickly sensed that 'Emperor' Osbourne did not have the power to rule. Using his connections he was able to recieve an appointment as Imperial Advisor to the IGF, where he quickly built his own Special Forces command, named Black's Dragoons.

It was during this time that Anatoli met Kathryn McGuire, a famous Holo-film star with Starlight Studios. The Hapan woman and Vassily had a passionate romance, though fundamental beliefs kept them emotionally apart. Notable appearances together were at Presav Elana Tracer's inauguration on Caspar, The Selene Day festivities, and at the Imperial Swoop Races on Athaniss where 'Kate' was filming a commercial. The bliss was not to last long, as General Vorn Paro requested Black's Special Forces regiment to help draw the Republic into a trap on Coruscant. So Vassily gathered his regiment and boarded a Star Destroyer bound for Coruscant.

During the Fourth Battle of Coruscant, Black's Dragoons played a key role in 'defending' the main starport when the New Republic Marines attacked. Given the order to fallback, the Dragoons did so, allowing the NR Marines to be suckered into the trap that Vorn Paro had so deftly laid for them. During the duration of the siege and attack, the Dragoons fought along side the 9th Stormtrooper Regiment lead by Korolov's protege Petra Doom. After the New Republic had been allowed to flee and turn the invasion into a complete rout, the Dragoons, along with the 9th Regiment loaded back on to transports and returned to Selene.

It was on this trip back that Vassily Korolov had come across the man that had been a subordinate, and one time adversary, Lorn Rhys. Vassily had not been the only one to sense Osbourne's inherent weakness. In a dinner meeting in the Skyhook restaurant overlooking Imperial City on Selene, Lorn brought Vassily into his plan, with Valak's assistance, to unseat Osbourne and launch the Empire into a new golden age.

Vassily's role was easy enough &mdash; he and Valak both kept their respective allies out of the fight. So when Whitecoats invaded the palace on Selene, only a handful of Stormtroopers or Royal Guard opposed them. Most had been transferred to different posts in the days and weeks leading up to the 'coup'. After Selene, he would assume control over the Rhys's Imperial Military and head to Dreven, where remaining officials loyal to Osbourne were sent to 'Re-education' camps that quickly and efficiently executed the 'traitors' and their families.

After Lorn Rhys assumed the throne, Korolov was given his first mission. He was sent to Kashyyyk with the HIMS Sovereign to engage the Republic fleet and bring back Mailyn Raines. Vassily knew that it would be suicide to send a single Star Destroyer against a Republic battle fleet, especially following the Neo-Imperials attack on Kashyyk the week before. Vassily rounded up two Star Galleons loaded with children orphaned in the Selene attack. He also loaded an extra several thousand aboard the Sovereign, to use as human shields. Jumping the Star Galleons in first, he positioned them in between his flagship and the Republic fleet. He then broadcast to the system that the Jedi were to hand over Raines and nobody would get hurt. The Republic fleet responded by arming their weapons, calling the Sith on his bluff. In response he had 10 children expelled out of one of the Sovereign's airlocks and had it broadcast to every ship in the area capable of displaying holo-film. This enraged the New Republic Military, but the Jedi Witch Jessalyn Valios was able to convince them to hold their attack, while she and Raines went to the Star Destroyer to negotiate.

A crew member holding secret loyalties towards Osbourne tried to execute Korolov during the negotiations but her blast was absorbed by his armored helmet. During the melee that ensued the traitor escaped with the Jedi and Mailyn was left behind. Having accomplished his mission, Vassily ordered the Sovereign to fire on the Star Galleons while they began to make the jump to hyperspace. The turbolaser shots destroyed the navigation and life support systems aboard the Galleons and they began to lose orbit, forcing the Republic Navy to abandon any hope of pursuit to save the lives in danger. Upon returning to Dreven, the children who died were declared Martyrs for the Empire by Emperor Rhys and Mailyn was brought to meet with the new Emperor.

Rise of the Darkside (12 ABY–14 ABY)
Lorn Rhys had a secret behind his sudden rise to power. Not only were his Intelligence connections both inside and outside the Empire superb. He had the backing of a powerful Dark Side Master, the sinister and beautiful, Darth Pain. She had been training Rhys in more and more advanced Dark Side powers, but it was a ploy and aboard the newly refitted HIMS Conqueror, Emperor Rhys's bid to usurp his Mistress and take her power for himself partially succeeded, he was able to gain a great deal of her power, but 'died' in the process. Emperor Lorn Rhys was interred in the Chamber of Heroes in the Imperial Palace on Dreven. The weakened but still strong Darth Pain took the reigns of power for herself and declared herself Empress Pantara. She appointed Vassily, Archduke of the Galactic Empire and charged him with waging a war of attrition on the New Republic. He transferred his flag to the HIMS Conqueror and set off to bleed the New Republic with a series of holding actions designed to trade systems the Empire could no longer realistically protect for New Republic blood.

Darth Pain was to become the 4th Sith that Vassily Korolov would call Master in his journey into the depths of the Dark Side of the Force. She was by far the most merciless Sith he had encountered. She taught him how to use his opponent’s advantages against themselves, as well as how to channel that dark side itself to inflict great agony in his victims. He had acquired a lightsaber during her battle with Rhys, by taking the former Emperor's saber from his charred corpse. His Echani training from his days in the Royal Guard made him almost a natural with the Force-'attuned' weapon. However as in the past, his training would not last long before the business of ruling the Empire would take focus once more.

Bureau of Operations spies as well as Naval Intelligence recon flights had detected the buildup of Republic Naval vessels and transport vessels being diverted from nearly every member world to staging points around Corellia and Chandrila. It could only mean one thing, Invasion, and it could only be one place, Coruscant. As Archduke and commander of the Imperial War Machine, Vassily Korolov assembled his fleet and rushed to the former Imperial capital world to execute Darth Pain's grand strategy

The Fifth Battle of Coruscant was everything the Emperess had desired. All strategic Imperial assets in the system had been withdrawn weeks before the battle. Millions of COMPFORCE Assault troopers and hundreds of thousands of Stormtroopers were left to defend the planet while the Imperial Navy put up a show of trying to defend the system. Their plan was to draw the Republic fleet in and force them to commit to fully invading the System. The New Republic obliged, breaking a hole in the Defensive fleet, forcing the Imperial Fleet to micro-jump to the other side of the system where the two fleets would battle for days in star fighter skirmishes. New Republic Special Forces under command of Master Skywalker himself had infiltrated the planet and brought down one of the planetary shield generator emitter stations. This created a large enough gap to start landing assault transports loaded with Republic Marines.

The fighting over the next several weeks was savage as the densely populated planet lead to a great amount of 'collateral' damage on both sides. Though doubly so with the Empire's indiscriminate use of heavy artillery and explosives to make redoubts and defensive perimeters as their forces retreated across the planet's surface to pre-designated evacuation points.

A second large scale battle between the Republic and Imperial fleets bought time for the ground forces to continue to bleed the invaders. The COMPFORCE assault divisions were almost completely wiped out. The legions of Stormtroopers fared little better, however at least 3 divisions were still combat ready when they reached their evacuation shuttles on the far-side of the Planet. Pre-set charges in half a dozen shield generator arrays were detonated remotely from orbit as a huge hole was opened and hundreds of small and large transport ships took off in a mass exodus. Covering their escape were several squadrons of Ground Support TIE Fighters who were assigned to the planet's garrisons before the invasion.

Aboard the I2SD Conqueror, Archduke Korolov orchestrated the fall back, sacrificing many smaller cruisers, frigates, and Star fighter squadrons to screen the larger Command vessels and lightly armed troop transports as they fought their way through the Republic fleet to jump points outside of the planets gravity well.

It was soon after the Imperial 'defeat' at Coruscant that Vassily is once again contacted in secret by a horribly disfigured Lorn Rhys now using the 'Sith' name, Darth Malus. He offers to share some of the power he took from the ancient Darth Pain if he assists him in destroying the Empress. The pair also get the assistance of Mailyn Raines who has her own reasons for hating Darth Pain. The three collaborators sneak into the Throne room at the Imperial Palace. Darth Pain's own coterie of advisors and minions were the first to fall. Her Wookiee body guard wielding a stripped down heavy blaster was the first to fall to Korolov's saber. Losing first one arm, then the other before his head joined the pair. Two dozen Royal Guards charged the Empress and though while all of them were killed, they were able to land several weakening blows. Between Malus's contest of wills with Empress Pantara and Mailyn's last minute arrival with vengeance in her eyes and her former master's shattered lightsaber in her pack, she drew her own blade, ignited it, and beheaded the Sith Witch. However before the fatal blade was struck, the Sith Witch cursed them. One of her minions, the spirit of a corrupted Jedi Knight, imprisoned in the disheveled body of a half-dead, centuries old Kath Hound was released and informed the three Sith that the Sith's curse was strong and powerful and would bring the three great misery, he would answer no other questions before his spirit disappeared, the powerful curse binding him to his own prison disappearing as the Empress died.

Emperor Malus's reign would be short however, perhaps the curse in regards to the disfigured shell of a human being had been true. Vassily spent the next several months after the Empresses building his own power base. After being given a palace on Dreven and assigned away from his warfleet to put the damaged Intelligence Networks back into order, Vassily began to seed both the Bureau of Operations and ISB with his agents. Using his position as High Lord of the Galactic Empire, he was able to root out any remaining Osbourne appointees and increase infiltration in both the IGF an Imperial Navy, both long thought to be rife with traitors. He also still held his rank as Tribune of the Royal Guard and used that to turn both the Guard and Stormtrooper Legions into his own private army, invoking the Emperor's Will anytime it suited his purpose. He had even managed to have a Star Destroyer, the HIMS Inquisitior and Strike Cruiser HIMS Ravager transferred from Naval High Command to COMPNOR, in which he crewed the vessel entirely with COMPForce personnel and established The Inquisitor'' as his flagship.

So when Tyler Damion began to exert his power on the Navy, Vassily Korolov was probably the only person in the Empire capable of resisting him. The two Sith had several encounters, starting with an attempt by Damion, calling himself Darth Malign to convert the High Lord to his cause at the point of a lightsaber. The battle that resulted with climactic as the pair destroyed the main conference amphitheatre on the Inquisitor. It was also here that Vassily encountered an old friend. The enigmatic Lara Grayson had chosen that moment to make her return to the Empire public. Darth Malign had also hinted at his new 'Master', Aleister Vadim, Grayson confirmed the rumor and after Vadim had left the Inquisitor, Lara instructed her former student to travel to Ord Trasi to Valak's hidden temple where the two could talk outside the reach of the Empire.

On Ord Trasi, Lara convinced Vassily that Vadim was indeed powerful and would lead the Empire to a height of Glory that even Valak had only dreamed about. She also agreed to resume his training and to set up a meeting without Malign present where Vassily could speak with the would-be Emperor. It was amid the jagged, inhospitable peaks that Vassily Korolov almost died. Lara Grayson hadn't actually been intent on killing him, however the ability to survive was what distinguished powerful Sith from corpses and with that in mind blew up a rock bridge that he had been crossing. Unable to manipulate gravity to keep from falling, Vassily fell over 10,000 feet. Giving himself entirely over to the darkside during the fall he landed amid the broken rubble. He broke nearly every bone in his body. His left arm was destroyed beyond the ability to repair it and he clung to life by a thread. But it was enough; the Darkside strengthened him, along with the Droid surgeons aboard a nearby orbiting Star Destroyer given to Grayson for her special operations. The implanted a cybernetic arm onto the Sith Warrior. His new arm was so advanced that it mimiced the full range and flexibility perfectly, without any of the latency assosciated with prosthetic arms. After several Bacta treatments and a Force Induced healing coma from his teacher, Vassily returned to Imperial space to meet with Vadim. Tensions between Korolov's forces and those loyal to Malign had begun to run high. Aboard the HIMS Malevolence Vassily delivered the heart of the Galactic Empire to Vadim. While having little paitence for Vassily's arrogance, the Emperor was impressed at the life-long Soldier's plain spoken language and lack of Embellishment. He agreed to continue the High Lords training in exchange for avoiding a time consuming and counter-productive power struggle.

Korolov had been ready to start the 4th Imperial Civil War before stepping foot on the SSD. COMPNOR infiltrators had been contacted on the Malevolence's squadron of Escort vessels. Cells on the Four Imperator-class Star Destroyers flying in close formation had been activated. Agents aboard those vessels had made their way towards the vessels engineering levels set to detonate atomic scuttling charges to turn the vessels into a demonstration of the power. However, Vassily Korolov was able to send out the recall order before the mission had progressed too far into the action phase.