Draft Bio: Rill Yandingalu (Lt., UFMC)

Rill Yandingalu
Current Rank: Lieutenant (UFMC)
Species: Grawn-Ti
Date of Birth: 2352 (age at Deliverance game start 29 years)
Parents: Clan Yandingalu (Grawn-Ti offspring are raised by the clan in creche and no special importance is placed in actual biological parentage.)

Short Biography:
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Rill is a Grawn-Ti, a heavy-worlder and militia trained. Her race has only had contact with the Federation for the past half century and is currently a Federation Protectorate species. With the ongoing attrition from the Dominion war, many Grawn-Ti have been donated to the Federation as Fleet Marines. Rill is one of these, having grown up in a clan which merged together two clans...One which remained on Grawn and was familiar with pre-industrial technology, and another which was enslaved by Hillali from a neighboring star system and trained to fight using modern energy weapons and concepts. This clan had extensive contact with the Federation (who freed their relatives fifty years ago) and as a result Rill grew up around Federation athropologists, sociologists and envoys.

As a mature member of her clan, when the opportunity to serve the Federation came, Rill jumped at the opportunity to see faraway lands and stars that her once-enslaved grandparents had spoken of. Even as a child she showed distinct leadeship qualities, and having entered the UFMC 'fast' training course and has been a fairly successful fleet Marine officer since. Her first command was at the Battle of Monac, and members of her platoon were some of the only Marine survivors from that disastrous defeat. She has refined her abilities since, been reassigned with her surviving platoon members to the 1013th Reaction Company (Headhunters) and her specific platoon has been assigned as shipboard Marines for the aging USS Deliverance.

(( If you really want to be scared by her long Bio, scroll down. ))

LONG Biography (Very Long):
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Born on Grawn IV in 2352, Rill is the offspring of a 'repatriated' clan, a clan which diverged at the dawn of the Hillali enslavement and continued as two separated clans with the same name and same history of songs while for two hundred years they were parted by half a light year and an intensive difference in technological exposure. Half a century ago the two clans merged again when the Grawn-Ti slaves in the Hillal system were freed. Some of Rill's creche-parents were survivors of the slave-warriors, while some were more traditional Grawn-Ti who still remembered when handmade firearms were the most advanced weapons a warrior might choose.

The repatriation was kinder to the Yandingalu clan than some. Unlike those clans who had been taken whole by the Hillali, there were ancestral lands and hunting grounds, and shelter and welcoming if wondering relatives. The lost clans had none of these, and were forced to rely on charity from the clans of Grawn and the newly befriended Federation while lands were found or constructed for them, a process that took decades.

Rill was a relatively average child during her time in the creche, possibly a bit more rambunctious and precocious than the norm. What did distinguish her was an indefinable social skill. It was not that she tried to lead, but that other children of her creche followed her was rapidly obvious, and it was a trend that continued as she grew.

The repatriated clans were the first clans the Federation communicated with directly, and Yandingalu had a certain pride of place in this...Not first among the slave-clans but certainly one of the more notably educated and skilled by their Hillali colonial masters. Federation observers were made welcome on clan-lands, invited to hunt (they did not always decline) and by the time of Rill's youth welcome even within the clan-halls of Yandingalu. Rill found the aliens fascinating. She was too young to have ever seen Hillali, but the various observers, human, Vulcan, and others, were always certain to draw her attention. Since they were in the clan-hall, they were clearly safe, and friendly, and while strange to Rill's eyes, in her view evidently some sort of relatives.

As such, she lost no opportunity as a child to indulge in leg-tackling the occasional Terran, lap-occupying amused Deltans, and humbly asking entirely stoic Vulcans for help with grooming or backscratches. More than most children, Rill tended to attach herself to alien 'aunts' or 'uncles' when they were present...Possibly because they were less likely to idly cuff her across the room if she was out of line.

Since the likely way to the stars lay with the militias, and the stars were where all these wondrous folk and their exoskeletons came from, it was no surprise that Rill enlisted at the earliest opportunity. To those who'd witnessed her behavior in the creche, and her tendency to simply assume leadership, it was no surprise when she was put in charge of a claw (squad) of other recruits, and then a band (platoon). In back-and-forth raiding games with neighboring clans, she excelled at finding the right place to be to make the most of her troops. She had a child her third year in the militia, and had to quit her band for almost half a year, grumbling all the while.

For a year she spent more time in the creche, playing with the cubs there, and gradually working herself back into fighting shape, jostling for position in the claw of the crecheguards. As she was preparing to reapply to the militia, the Council of Clans made an agreement with the Federation to dedicate militia units for training as Federation Marines. Rill jumped at the chance.

Becoming a Federation Marine was much more difficult than militia-training and work. For all of her time around aliens, she found herself little-prepared for many of the concepts that the Marines tried to drill into her, and in typical Grawn-Ti fashion, pushed back (This pushing on the part of Grawn-Ti recruits was consistent enough that Marine instructors received education on the concept of gahn, and began dealing with 'why and wherefore' questions by simply saying 'It's the gahn of the Marines. Follow it.'). Success did not come nearly as easily for Rill in the Marines as the militia, and she (like many of her associates) was repeatedly promoted, then busted back down to Marine. Finally, something took, and her innate leadership abilities harnessed at a somewhat simplified and fast-paced OCS intended to get Grawn-Ti leadership for the growing numbers of Grawn-Ti platoons (While it was not UFMC policy to segregate platoons by species, it was often convenient for logistics reasons, and the racial abilities or beliefs of diverse aliens sometimes benefitted from this 'unofficial' policy.). After her second run-through, she graduated as a corporal and was quickly breveted to second lieutenant, a rank she would lose and return to several times.

Her first and possibly most tasking ground assault action was during the attack on Monac IV when a mixed contingent of Terran, Andorian and Grawn-Ti marines (designated Reaction Companies One through Three) were landed to destroy planetary defenses protecting the Cardassian/Dominion shipyards. The marines advanced in a rough skirmish line, which reacted rather poorly upon finding itself well within a command-activated Cardassian minefield at the same time the defenses in front of them chose to react to their presence. The skirmish line sagged backward except where Grawn-Ti troops were present. Quickly, the Grawn-Ti arrived at the conclusion that advancing into an unknown minefield was not particularly more dangerous than retreating into more of the same unknown minefield. Most of the claws moved forward with an alacrity that surprised the Cardassian defenders. Stubborn, reckless, fearless, determined...Pick an adjective, every Grawn-Ti there was simply following the gahn of the Marine Corps as they saw it...the Grawn-Ti squads fairly well dragged the rest of the skirmish line along with them, taking horrendous casualties but managing to breach the primary Cardassian defenses.

Unfortunately, just as demolition teams were within sight of the surface-based photon torpedo launchers they were tasked to destroy, a recall signal came. Federation-allied Klingon starships were being driven off, the mission to destroy the orbital shipyard was clearly a failure, and Allied fleet assets were beginning to rout. Confused by the recall order with the objective so near, Rill's platoon was one of the few near another mixed platoon which arranged its own exit from the scene.

With no Federation troopships able to come down, the majority of the troopships out of transporter range and getting further away every second, the Andorian Marine Captain Garesh made a snap decision and, grabbing a handful of captured Cardassian naval officers, absconded with a Cardassian patrol ship (still grounded as its weapons were offline for maintenance) having packed it to the gills with Marines.

In the confusion of the attack, they made it to orbit, and were able to communicate and close with the rear guard of the withdrawing fleet just before the Cardassians figured out the ruse. Before the ship was destroyed, one-hundred and seventeen of the nearly two hundred marines on board were transported to the shuttle hangar of the IKS Ko'Hakht, and repatriated to Federation forces almost a week later.

Captain Garesh was promoted posthumously to Colonel. Random chance put Rill's surviving squad near Captain Garesh on the ground. Random chance again had her squad as one of the first that the Klingon transporters locked onto rather than one of the last.

With less than ten percent of the Reaction Companies surviving, Federation Marine losses at the battle of Monac IV were some of the highest during a single engagement in Federation history. Survivors were taken off the line for a period of two months for counseling and rest. Having lost half of her first combat command and lived through no particular actions of her own, Rill struggled for a time with bouts of depression and sudden rage. UFMC counselors sent her back to Grawn IV for the second month of this period, and after time in her clanhome she pulled herself together and returned to duty; a bit more worn, a bit more drawn, and a bit more determined.

Rill has gone on to become an exemplary Grawn-Ti Marine, only having lost her Lieutenancy once in the wake of Monac, and that for failing to obey orders to fall back and let the enemy retreat. She is not the best rifleman. She is not the best combatsman. But she has shown an ability to lead others coupled with excellent tactical cunning in the field. If a job can be done by the troops under her, she tends to find the way to best do it. If a job can't be done, she tends to probe at the problem until told to pull back or pull out...And, at least now, she reluctantly obeys that order when given.

Rill has been assigned to the 72nd UFMC Marine Expeditionary Force for the last six months, and is a member of the 1013th Reaction Company (Unofficially, 13th Headhunters). The Headhunters have specialized in shipboard operations, both defensively and offensively as boarding parties. The two-squad platoon she leads has been recently re-assigned to the USS Deliverance to enhance shipboard security and permit flexibility for special-action covert or raiding away-teams as well as working under the Deliverance's Chief of Security to maintain a safe and secure working environment on the cruiser.

(Headhunters and similar 'shipboard combat detachment' teams have little to no heavy weaponry (few if any type IV phaser teams, absolutely no mortars) and tend to be equipped with a mixture of Type III phaser carbines as well as standard rifles. Headhunters also have some specialized demolitions equipment (mouseholing charges as well as standard demolition equipment) used for hit-and-run raids against installations or starships, or room-and-corridor fighting offensively or defensively. Headhunter squads have some limited knowledge of the layout of various vessels operated by Federation-hostile races, as well as knowledge useful in sapping or sabotaging them. They couldn't tell you what the parts of a Cardassian warp core were, but they can recognize one and know about where to put a demolition charge on it. )