Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/Week 43, 2015/0

Doctor Gorman Vandrayk, also known by the nickname "Camper," was an Arkanian Offshoot scientist who went on the run from his former employer, the Arkanian biotechnology giant Adascorp, for over thirty years. Celebrated for his brilliance during his years as a university student and later with Adascorp, Vandrayk's pioneering research into the exogorths&mdash;a species of mysterious space slug found in many disparate regions of the galaxy&mdash;led him to learn how to control the beasts and direct their movement. Vandrayk's fascination with the exogorths was purely scientific, but when he realized that his bosses at Adascorp were planning on weaponizing the beasts, Vandrayk fled in a junk-hauler called The Last Resort and took his indispensable knowledge with him. During his years on the run, Vandrayk met a young Offshoot named Jarael, who had spent much of her life in a slaving ring and wanted out. Vandrayk helped Jarael escape, and, in return, Jarael promised to protect Vandrayk as he grew more advanced in age. Eventually, the pair settled in the Lower City of the planet Taris, where Vandrayk, known to the world as "Camper," was regarded as an addled tinkerer who occasionally dabbled in rigging old escape pods to conceal wanted fugitives.

Vandrayk and Jarael rarely left their home until 3964 BBY, when an underworld acquaintance of Vandrayk's, a Snivvian criminal named Marn Hierogryph, showed up at The Last Resort with the most wanted man on Taris in tow: Zayne Carrick, a former Jedi Padawan falsely accused in the slayings of his Jedi class. When a large force of law enforcement and several Jedi Masters arrived in search of Carrick, Vandrayk took flight with Jarael, Carrick, and Hierogryph in The Last Resort and escaped pursuit. Although initially at odds, the group eventually grew close, and Vandrayk aided Carrick in his quest to find out exactly why his classmates were slain, and later in saving Carrick from execution when he briefly turned himself in to authorities. After leaving Taris behind, Jarael was mistaken for a Jedi and kidnapped by Mandalorian warriors on the planet Vanquo, during the Mandalorian attack on the planet as part of the Mandalorian Wars with the Galactic Republic. Vandrayk was more than willing to fight the Mandalorians himself to get her back, but with the help of a Mandalorian named Rohlan Dyre, the group rescued Jarael and a number of Jedi captives from a Mandalorian-held station on the planet Flashpoint.

Vandrayk and Jarael still valued their anonymity over everything and parted ways with Carrick and Hierogryph the following year. Yet Vandrayk's health was failing&mdash;its cause eventually revealed to be allergens in the air filtration system of The Last Resort, which had not flown in years&mdash;and, fearing for her friend's life, Jarael took the ship to Arkania in the hopes that an Arkanian doctor could help him. There, she was discovered by Adascorp, which manipulated her into helping bring Vandrayk back to them. Holding them both aboard Adascorp's mobile headquarters, the Arkanian Legacy, Adascorp head Arkoh Adasca threatened Jarael's safety to force Vandrayk to finish the exogorth project he had abandoned decades earlier so that Adasca could then sell control of the exogorths to the highest bidder in a play to make Adascorp a galactic power. Partially due to the help of Zayne Carrick, who happened to be aboard the Arkanian Legacy as the prisoner of a Republic delegation, Adasca's plot was foiled. After years on the run, Vandrayk got the last laugh, ordering the exogorths to tear the Adascorp ship to pieces and end the Adasca line. With a final holomessage to Jarael, Vandrayk took his leave in The Last Resort, leading the exogorths out into Wild Space so he could remove their implants and let them be what nature intended again.