Valkra (KIA)
From Star Trek: Theurgy Wiki
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| Name: | Valkra, Daughter of Sira | ||
| Rank: | Sogh (Lt.) in the KDF | ||
| Position: | Combat Engineer | ||
| Species: | Klingon | ||
| Age: | 37 | ||
| Gender: | Female | ||
| Orientation: | Bisexual | ||
| Birthplace: | Mor'em Cha, Qo'nos | ||
| Height: | 5ft 11in / 1.8m | ||
| Weight: | 200lbs / 91kg | ||
| Hair: | Black, plaited | ||
| Eye color: | Dark brown | ||
| Played by: | Gina Carano | ||
| Writer: | Top Hat | ||
| Interests | |||
| Blood wine Personal fitness | |||
| Education | |||
| 2347-2357: Mor'em Cha Academy 2357-2364: pa' Daa'maq, training | |||
| Service Record | |||
| 2364-2366 Apprenticed 2366-2371 IKS Hemlom | |||
| Decorations | |||
| 2375 betleH 'obe' - Order of the Bat'leth | |||
Valkra was a lifelong member of the KDF ground and naval forces, until she heard the news of the parasite threat communicated by House Martok. She volunteered for secondment to the Theurgy in 2381.
Biography
Early Years
Valkra was born into a Line of her House that tended to produce fighting Klingons for Daa'maq's fleets. As per House tradition, she was sorted into a mangHom group to share classes and training; it was instilled from a young age that group cohesion and success triumphed over any individual glory that came at the expense of the whole. It was a boisterous upbringing, but the grizzled educators and drill masters were firm enough to keep control.
Once her schooling and basic instruction at the House garrison was complete, she was apprenticed to her grandfather K'Temek - a technician and mechanic. She found a satisfaction in plugging disparate components together to create something new, and learned to find an enjoyment in it. In her scant breaks allowed in the long days, she spent every available minute playing with his cantankerous old grishnar cat. More than a few of the older scars on her hands were from the teeth of that cat.
KDF Service
Her first assignment after her apprenticeship was as a bottom-rung Bekk aboard a Bird-of-Prey - every Daa'maq soldier was expected to start at the bottom of a meritocracy despite their family's position in the House. The Hemlom was an old vessel, but one with a storied past that kept Valkra's technical skills in demand. When she wasn't aiding the ship's engineers to keep the ship running, she was part of the ship's usual landing party and boarding team. Most of their conflicts were the usual border skirmishes, client world policing actions, and one notable campaign against a Syndicate alasho who had grown altogether far too large for her boots.
Aboard the Hemlom, she climbed to Devwl', and was placed in charge of the landing parties rather than merely participating. She ran an effective intruder unit, with her skills as a technician enabling the more martial components of her team to disrupt enemy action with greater effectiveness. Valkra relished combat, and frustrating her enemies from fighting back properly was something of a guilty pleasure. Its crew lived well in its honour, and lost none in their pursuit of the goals of the Empire.
Dominion War
In 2371 Valkra attained a greater posting aboard a Vor'cha attack cruiser; the Daqchov, under Captain Sotugh. On that ship she found a new unit, five among two thousand aboard. The ship itself was relatively fresh off the assembly lines at Ty'Gokor, and so its crew were keen to prove their honour. Their first thought was that it was to come with the Enterprise-D's demise over Veridian III - the Federation would surely answer the destruction of its flagship with a declaration of war. The UFP had been worthy adversaries in the past, even if they played word games to downplay their own imperialism. The Federation were to disappoint them, however, as no such declaration came. House Duras were squarely blamed for the act of betrayal, and as the reciprocal destruction of the ageing D-12 had concluded the incident, the High Council waved it off as the action of a few renegades, barely worth mentioning. True to form, the UFP accepted this insult with good grace.
Unfortunately for the Daqchov, they had to wait another two years for the collapse of the Khitomer Accords and the war around the Cardassian and Bajor sectors. For all that Cardassian ships were generally inferior to Klingon design - and the Vor'cha squadrons employed by them in particular - they put up a worthy resistance, even if their ultimate fate was sealed. The Daqchov achieved several victories in that conflict, though none particularly worthy of song. It wasn't until 2373 and the entry of the Cardassian Union to the Dominion, with the military support provided by the latter power, that the Federation-Klingon alliance was restored as Jem'Hadar ships bolstered the Union defence. In the galling retreat from Cardassian space, the Daqchov took heavy damage. Almost none of its guns were mounted in its stern, after all. The ship was laid up in dock for weeks under repair and to take on replacement crew.
Once war was joined proper, the KDF as a whole relished the opportunity to test themselves against the Jem'Hadar both in space and on the ground. The Dominion proved to be almost entirely honourless however, striking from personal cloaks, laying minefields, and putting entire civilian populations to the sword, among many other atrocities against good taste. Just about the only 'honourable' thing of which the Jem'Hadar appeared capable were suicide ramming runs against larger Alpha Quadrant vessels. For most of the Klingon participants, this was disappointing. For Daa'maq, it merely meant the gloves were taken off; hit-and-run tactics, delayed-fuse torpedoes, Vorta assassination missions, and chemical warfare were employed as needed. While the Reman shock battalions and the larger portion of the KDF slugged it out with the Jem'Hadar on their own terms, Daa'maq's group-victory philosophy was put to frequent use. Coupled with information provided by the spies of House Mo'Kai, their contribution to the war effort was significant.
On one of the final sorties of the war, while the main battlefleets of the combined Federation, Romulan, and Klingon forces returned to Cardassia to end the conflict once and for all (though this outcome was far from certain at the time), the Daqchov was sent on a supply-chain destruction mission to harm the Dominion further even if the assault on their Alpha Quadrant capital failed. They were to poison the main local repository of Ketracel White so that any Jem'Hadar soldier who ingested it would be debilitated. Valkra was part of the landing force - every non-naval warrior aboard the ship would be beamed into the facility to ensure victory.
Her team's objective was the station's communication array - if the Jem'Hadar called for help once they realised they were under attack, they would be lost. While most of the rest went to dismantle the production facilities as a false flag to distract the defenders from their true goal, Valkra led her team deeper into the administration complex. The defence was fierce as one might expect, and one by one her comrades were killed. By the time they sabotaged the comms gear, her unit was reduced to only her and one other, the battle coming down to hand-to-hand combat the closer they came to the control centre. Eighty percent of the rest of the landing force was killed - the factory destroyed, the stockpile tainted, the objective complete - but on return to the Daqchov they were informed that the war was over and that the Dominion had surrendered. Given how tight-knit Daa'maq fighting units were, this made the victory all too bitter. The dead were honoured with song and celebration, but there was an undercurrent of anger for the waste their deaths represented.
For her grit and leadership, she was promoted to Sogh and inducted into the Order of the Bat'leth at the end of the war. She did not choose to display the honour on her sash.
Post-War and Aldea
Upon return to Klingon territory aboard a victorious (if reduced) fleet, Valkra returned home to the family estates around Mor'em Cha. Given that she was one of a small number of survivors from her ship to have made it alive through the entire war, she was recalled to the fortress Daa'maq used as the seat of their House. She was to teach a new generation of youngsters in the Daa'maq way, and become one of those veteran instructors she herself had looked up to as a child, so that her knowledge and experience could be passed on before her demise on a battlefield. She spent several years helping to shape the next generation and impart the hard lessons she had learned, while taking the opportunity to look to her own training as well. It was worthwhile work, and the philosophy drilled into her from a very early age helped her not to rankle under it for a while - but she was first and foremost a soldier, not a tutor.
As soon as propriety allowed, Valkra transferred onto the next KDF ship heading towards the borders. One of the few remaining Vor'chas belonging to the Internal Security Force, the IKS Qigh'YoD, agreed to take her on as a technician and warrior, though the ship itself had a crew drawn from several Houses. She initially found it difficult to adjust, having spent so long among her own people, but ultimately a Klingon was a Klingon, and her record spoke for itself. She soon found a new group to call a unit, even if they didn't think of it quite that way.
The ship was assigned to client world defence, and made the journey to Aldea. It was, on paper, honourable work - as Aldea owed certain tithes to the Empire, so too did the Empire owe an oath of protection to their subjects. But there were only so many cowardly rogues and pirates one could prosecute before the task got boring. When Martok came to Aldea with news of the Borg attack in the Azure Nebula, singing songs of war and sacrifice, and of standing with the supposed traitor-ship Theurgy, Valkra's interest was piqued. More so when the news came from the Chancellor that there was an extra-dimensional threat to the entire galaxy... no Daa'maq soldier alive could have resisted such a temptation.
Her time working with Mo'Kai had left her with more than one friend in the various information networks of the Empire, and it didn't take too much effort to get a fuller picture of the events in the nebula, and a message to Zyrao Natauna. Valkra informed the captain of the Qigh'YoD of her decision to leave, and reported to a transport bound for the cloaked shipyards in orbit.
Valkra was seconded to the Theurgy, and the fight of a lifetime.
Personality Profile
Valkra was a bon-vivant, and as much as she threw herself into the fray of battle, she celebrated her victories just as hard. After any given fight she could be found in the nearest bar raising toasts to daring feats and the honoured dead. However, she was also a little backhanded with her praise of others. It was clear she viewed Klingon ways - and particularly Daa'maq ones - as superior, and would usually frame her comments as complimenting others' attempts at matching their quality. She was raised in the Daa'maq tradition - namely, that the final victory brings more honour than any individual act, and so subterfuge and deceit were deemed perfectly acceptable in pursuit of success, whether or not the rest of Klingon society might agree.
Regarding conflict itself, she was quite philosophical. There were rituals to be observed before and after combat, in the name of preparing oneself for the afterlife, and every Daa'maq member was expected to study the principles of war for the extent of their lives. While personal, martial honour was de-emphasised in favour of its group equivalent, all conduct was expected to be 'honourable' - namely, that whatever the activity, it must advance the whole, and be performed to the best of one's ability. The lowliest menial worker and the genius naval architect enjoy just as much esteem in her eyes, so long as they contribute.
Physical Profile
Valkra was tall and well-muscled, honed over a lifetime of training pits and dozens of conflicts. Her hands and knuckles were criss-crossed with the scars of innumerable battles, and she had a long scar across her face from a Jem'Hadar kar'takin strike during the Dominion War. Her shoulder-length dark hair was usually plaited to keep it out of the way, and she brushed and re-braided it before every battle (as far as is practical).
She favoured the KDF uniform when on duty - the short tunic and armoured outer cuirass practical and protective for most situations, and almost always accompanied by her disruptor and various daggers worn about her person. Off-duty, she usually swapped the cuirass for a tank top, or looser training gear. In all cases, she wore the Daa'maq sash - a gold-cuffed black wrap around the waist, with the spare length hanging down the left leg to display the Imperial Trefoil.
Appearances
Aldea Prime
- HIq HInob pagh Hegh HInob | Day 27 - 2135 hrs Valkra meets Lieutenant Khorin Douglas
Director's Cut
- yo'SeH QIn ghor | 2381 Valkra engages in anti-piracy action at the behest of a client government
