Dorja

Dorja was a male Human starship captain and officer in the Imperial Navy.

Taking command
A Human male with the family name of Dorja was born on the planet Coruscant in or before the year 65 BBY to a wealthy family with a long tradition of military service to the Galactic Republic. His father, grandfather, and four more preceding generations had all been naval officers, with two of them having commanded a ship of the line and at least one having reached the rank of Admiral. Dorja followed the family tradition and joined the Galactic Empire's Imperial Navy at some point after the Republic transitioned into the Empire in 19 BBY. Around 1 BBY, Dorja had a daughter, Vana. Embracing the tenets of Galactic Emperor Palpatine's New Order, the call of space, and the thrill of command, Dorja became the captain of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Relentless before the year 4 ABY. His cautious tendency to not engage an enemy in direct combat led to the Relentless suffering no casualties while under his command.

In 4 ABY, as the Galactic Civil War raged between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, Emperor Palpatine drew the Rebels into a trap at the moon of Endor, where his massive Death Star II battlestation was under construction. Death Squadron, a task force of more than thirty Star Destroyers and support ships, the Relentless among them, was hidden behind the far side of Endor, and when the Alliance Fleet arrived in the system with the goal of destroying the incomplete Death Star, the trap was sprung. The Imperial fleet converged on the Rebels, who were contained in-system by interdictor cruisers. Captain Dorja kept the Relentless removed from the Battle of Endor's main combat and suffered no casualties, but the Rebels won the day when a strike team blew up the shield generator that was protecting the Death Star from the moon's surface, in turn allowing Rebel fighters to enter the battlestation and fire the shots that destroyed it.

The Emperor was dead, but the Imperial fleet continued to fight for nearly four hours. Imperial morale was extremely low, and after the destruction of Death Squadron's flagship, the Executor; the battlecruiser Pride of Tarlandia; and sixteen Star Destroyers, Captain Gilad Pellaeon of the Chimaera ordered a retreat to the planet Annaj. Dorja almost refused to follow Pellaeon, an officer junior to himself, but he did not disagree with Pellaeon's assessment of the situation. After a two-day trip to Annaj, a council of war disintegrated when no clear chain of command could be established in the wake of Palpatine's death. Several officers took their forces and declared themselves independent warlords.

Crushed aspirations
The Imperial throne was taken by Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, who chose to fortify strategic systems and fortress worlds, thereby putting the numerically- and economically-stronger Empire on the defensive. Pellaeon held the fleet together for the next five years, during which time Dorja conspired to wrest control from him. On several occasions, Dorja came close to taking action and seizing command of the Empire, but the rest of the fleet officers respected Pellaeon and believed that he was worth following. Nevertheless, Dorja was finally ready to make his move in 9 ABY, when Imperial Space had been reduced to a quarter of its former size by the Alliance's successor, the New Republic. However, his plans were halted by the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn from the Unknown Regions. Thrawn was given control of the Empire by its remaining Moffs and by the Imperial Ruling Council, and was also put in charge of the military forces of the warlord fiefdoms of the Pentastar Alignment and the Ciutric Hegemony. The Grand Admiral left an adequate reserve of ships to defend the Moffs but took the twelve Star Destroyers remaining from the Battle of Endor, forming a personal fleet from six of them and leaving the other six, including the Relentless, as a secondary force under Dorja's command.

Dorja saw the exclusion of the Relentless from Thrawn's primary armada as a personal slight against himself. He was also unhappy that a non-Human such as Thrawn was in command of the Empire, but he kept his head low and his opinion private, waiting for the opportunity to seize control. Thrawn spent six months reorganizing the fleet and performing strategic raids along the Imperial–New Republic borders before stepping up his campaign. During the campaign, the Relentless was sent to the planet New Cov as part of a regular tax collection raid, but the Imperials discovered two noteworthy ships docked in the planet's capital city of Ilic: The Lady Luck, a yacht belonging to former New Republic General Lando Calrissian, and the personal X-wing fighter of the New Republic Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. Several dropships containing stormtroopers and army troopers were sent to the surface to search for the high-profile enemies of the Empire, and when Skywalker, Calrissian, and Han Solo&mdash;a famous New Republic captain&mdash;escaped the planet, Dorja pursued and dispatched TIE fighters. The sudden arrival of three Dreadnaughts from hyperspace turned the tide of the battle, as the newcomers hit the Relentless with an ion cannon barrage before escaping along with the New Republic team.

On New Cov, the Imperials picked up the ship thief Niles Ferrier for attempting to steal a cargo of biomolecules. Soon afterward, Thrawn contacted the Relentless and asked to speak to the prisoner, and Dorja brought the shackled Ferrier to a holocomm unit and called the Grand Admiral back. After making a point to remind Dorja that he had let Solo, Skywalker, and Calrissian escape, Thrawn instructed Ferrier to track down the dreadnaughts that had attacked the Relentless at New Cov. He then told Dorja to provide Ferrier with an unmarked freighter to use to complete the task and ended the call. Ferrier succeeded, and Thrawn acquired 178 warships from the legendary Katana fleet. With his new dreadnaughts, all of them crewed by clones, the Grand Admiral changed tactics and began to reclaim territory from the New Republic.

Thrawn took the Chimeara, as well as several cruisers that were hidden under cloaking devices, to the planet Ukio and captured the world from the New Republic while other Star Destroyer captains of the fleet, including Dorja, were sent to make various feints at other targets in order to draw the New Republic Defense Fleet away. Dorja spoke to Thrawn via hologram while en route to his target, and was given the command to strike. Not long after the successful operation, when the Chimaera was at the Bilbringi Shipyards, the insane Dark Jedi Joruus C'baoth&mdash;whom Thrawn had recruited to aid with his campaign&mdash;used the Force to take control of the minds of everyone on the ship's bridge in a display of power to the Grand Admiral. When he let go, the men were left limp and exhausted; Pellaeon contacted Dorja and requested a 500-man caretaker crew for the following six hours. Not long afterward, a battle with New Republic forces at Bilbringi saw Thrawn betrayed and killed by his bodyguard Rukh, and with his death, his campaign was brought to an end.

The Empire's last gasp
"And if I may, sir, I'd like to echo Captain Nalgol's sentiments. I'm honored to once again serve under your direct command.''" "I'm pleased to once again lead you, Captain. During my time on the Chimaera I often felt that you had more leadership potential than circumstances allowed you to develop. Perhaps we'll have the opportunity now to judge that evaluation." "''I'll do my best to prove you right, sir."

- Dorja and the man he believed to be Thrawn, in 19 ABY

Following Thrawn's death, a group of Moffs and Fleet Commanders took control of the Empire. Imperial Civil War soon broke out, however, and although the feuding factions were united into a Dark Empire by a reborn Palpatine, Palpatine's final death saw the fleet once more splinter into warlordism. In 11 ABY, the last vestiges of the Empire ceased to exist, but in 12 ABY various warlord fleets were united by Pellaeon to form the Imperial Remnant. By 19 ABY, Dorja was serving Supreme Commander Pellaeon's Remnant from the bridge of the Relentless. The Star Destroyer fell within the Braxant Sector Fleet, which was under the direct command of Moff Vilim Disra, but it was also one of the primary ships used by Pellaeon to patrol Imperial Space. Dorja's stances toward both Pellaeon and Thrawn had changed radically in the ten preceding years&mdash;by 19 ABY, he trusted Pellaeon's word and judgment and considered it an honor to have served under Thrawn.

With the Remnant having been pushed back to just eight backwater sectors in the Outer Rim, Pellaeon realized that the war was lost and decided to sue for peace with the New Republic. Although he convinced the Remnant's ruling Council of Moffs to support his plan, the Sinister Triumvirate of Moff Disra, former Emperor's Royal Guard Grodin Tierce, and the con artist Flim&mdash;who was posing as a reborn Grand Admiral Thrawn&mdash;set into motion a plot to thwart Pellaeon's plans and seize control of the Remnant. Disra summoned Dorja and three other Star Destroyer captains to the Moff's palace on the Remnant's capital world, Bastion, and in his office, he gave them each a datapad full of instructions. Captain Trazzen of the Obliterator and Captain Argona of the Ironhand felt that removing four Star Destroyers from the sector fleet for any length of time was a poor tactical move, while both Dorja and Captain Nalgol of the Tyrannic questioned Disra's authority to send them to Bothawui and Morishim&mdash;planets outside of his sector.

Disra indicated that he would thus choose other captains to take part in a "history-making military campaign," but Flim, dressed as Thrawn, walked into the office and stated that he had chosen the four present captains for a reason. The four stunned captains quickly recovered themselves and stood at attention, and "Thrawn" told them that for the time being, he could not answer any questions about how he had survived. The captains pledged themselves to his leadership and agreed to keep his survival a secret. Dorja asked no questions about the courier he had been assigned to intercept at Morishim, and told the Grand Admiral how pleased he was to serve under his command. Although Disra feared that Dorja would see through the facade, Major Tierce had believed the ruse would only work if they could fool someone who had served directly under Thrawn in the past. On their way out, Dorja vouched for Thrawn to a still–somewhat skeptical Nalgol.

When the CR90 corvette of Colonel Meizh Vermel, Pellaeon's messenger to the New Republic, arrived at Morishim, the Relentless dropped out of hyperspace right behind it and began to fire on its target. Vermel's attempts to transmit an offer of parley to New Republic General Garm Bel Iblis was jammed by Dorja. Lando Calrissian and the New Republic's Rogue Squadron were in-system at the time, and they managed to dilute the jamming enough to receive a garbled, nonsensical recording of Vermel's message. The corvette was then brought aboard the Relentless via tractor beam, and the Star Destroyer re-entered hyperspace. Dorja contacted Thrawn, who reprimanded him for allowing even a fragment of Vermel's recording to reach New Republic ears. He then interrogated the corvette's crew, who had no inkling of what Vermel and Pellaeon were up to.

When the Triumvirate was ready to reveal "Thrawn" to the New Republic, Flim and Tierce took the Relentless and an Interdictor cruiser to an area of deep space and intercepted the Lady Luck from hyperspace. Calrissian was giving New Republic Senator Porolo Miatamia a ride from Cilpar to Coruscant, and the two were brought aboard the Relentless to speak with the Grand Admiral. The New Republic was dealing with a major internal crisis following the discovery of a partial copy of the Caamas Document, a datacard which revealed that several Bothans were responsible for the long-ago Destruction of Caamas, and Thrawn offered to his guests to personally sit down with the Bothan clan leaders and discern specifically whom was responsible. His offer served the Triumvirate's aim to bring about the collapse of the New Republic from within by causing political infighting in the Senate.

Top captain of the fleet
While Pellaeon waited in the Pesitiin system, the Chimaera blind and of contact from the rest of the galaxy, the Triumvirate took to using the Relentless as their flagship. Dorja ferried them to the planet Kroctar, deep in New Republic territory, where the Kroctari Lord Superior Bosmihi contacted the Relentless bridge and asked Thrawn for re-admission into the Remnant. A Kroctari delegation arrived aboard the Star Destroyer, and under Thrawn's orders, Dorja personally met them and escorted them to a conference room. The ship's next stop was the planet Ruuria, where Dorja met with a Ruurian ambassador who was also interested in switching sides. After the ambassador's shuttle left the Relentless, eight Marauder-class corvettes jumped into the system and attacked. From the secondary command room, Thrawn instructed Dorja to launch six Preybird-class starfighters to intercept, but the order was recalled after Disra figured out that the attackers were Diamala. Thrawn had Dorja execture a Tron Boral maneuver, followed by a full-closure Marg Sabl sweep by the Preybirds&mdash;the pair of maneuvers had been used to great effect by the real Thrawn in a previous battle with the Diamala, and as such, the corvettes fled without any shots having been fired. Dorja informed the Ruurians that an attack on their world had been averted, and then took the Relentless back to Bastion. The Unified Ruurian Colonies later pledged themselves to the Remnant.

While on the Imperial capital, the Triumvirate learned that General Bel Iblis was planning a strike at the Imperial Ubiqtorate station at Yaga Minor in order to retrieve a full copy of the Caamas Document and end the New Republic's crisis. Dorja took them there in the Relentless so that they could provide a demonstration of "Thrawn's" tactical genius to the Mistryl Shadow Guards, a group of assassins whom they hoped would ally with the Remnant. At the Ubiqtorate station, Dorja contacted Thrawn in the secondary command room and notified him that the Tyrannic was approaching the base. Since the Tyrannic was actually away on another mission, the Triumvirate knew that it was Bel Iblis's Star Destroyer with false transponder codes, and Dorja accordingly told the base's General Hestiv to allow the warship to pass the outer perimeter before putting all defenses at battle readiness. Dorja also executed another order from Thrawn and placed the Relentless between the station and the incoming Destroyer. It was caught in a number of the station's tractor beams and began firing on them, and Bel Iblis's task force, hanging back from the station, began to attack. When the information broker Talon Karrde arrived in his starship, the Wild Karrde with what Karrde claimed was the ultimate bargaining chip, Rogue Squadron escorted him through the battle lines toward the Relentless.

The Triumvirate and the Shadow Guards made their way to the bridge, but everyone present was shocked when Pellaeon arrived shortly afterward. Talon Karrde had uncovered a datacard revealing the Triumvirate's ruse and had brought the information to Pellaeon, and, on the Relentless bridge, Pellaeon brought the lie to an end. Dorja protested that Captain Nalgol had gotten a positive match from a skin sample taken from Thrawn, and Pellaeon countered that records could be altered. Major Tierce tried to appeal to Dorja, claiming that Pellaeon was jealous that Dorja had been spurned by Thrawn in favor of Dorja, but Pellaeon revealed the final card up his sleeve: Major Tierce was a clone of the original Grodin Tierce and existed as a failed genetic experiment of Thrawn's. Karrde's associate Shada D'ukal killed Tierce before he could attack Pellaeon, and the Supreme Commander told Dorja to call a medical team to the bridge. Pellaeon also told him to order all Imperial forces to cease their fire against the New Republic, but Dorja pointed out that they would expect the order to come from Thrawn. Pellaeon agreed, and Flim, in fact glad that the ruse was finally over, also obliged.

The Mistryl Shadow Guards disappeared back into the galaxy.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Rebellion
 * Dark Force Rising
 * Dark Force Rising 3
 * The Last Command
 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * Destiny's Way