Unlike most members of the fabled KAT Fleet, Speaker for the Dead was not born on Mraa, but on the outpost world of T’lar on the border of Mirak and ISC space (CW3). At that time T’lar was newly colonized still a frontier world which limited the opportunity for advaced education. At an early age Speaker’s family noticed that he had a voracious appetite to learn anything of the world beyond their remote planet. He talked constantly of "seeing the galaxy" to the point of annoyance.
At the age of 17, Speaker went to the planetary Captital (a thriving community of 5000) and enlisted in the Customs Police, the only semblance of Mirak military force then in existance on T’lar. He quickly rose through the ranks of the Customs Police until, at the age of 22 became the second youngest member of that force to ever be given command of a vessel.
His rise to prominence was at the beginning of the General War. The ISC attacked without warning and the only force to oppose them in the sector was the Customs Police and their force of tiny police frigates. Losses were great and several of the ranking officers were killed in the first days of the war. Speaker himself narrowly escaped death at the hands of an ISC heavy cruiser, barely managing to escape with a heavily damaged ship. He made his way to Starbase 32 for repairs and was appalled to see that several other police ships were there in as bad or worse condition than his. Worse, the officer in charge of the base, an elderly Commodore was totally innefective in efforts to co-ordinate repairs to the ships and organizing a defence for the assault which was sure to come. Speaker took the job upon himself and got the ships back into fighting order and making preparations for the defence of this crucial starbase.
When the ISC showed up to capture Starbase 32 they ran into a buzz-saw. Speaker’s motley force of 8 police frigates held off 2 ISC CA’s and 3 CL’s for two days until the regular Mirak navy could reinforce them. Though he lost 5 of 8 ships in the battle, Admiral Gook, the commander of the releiving force gave credit to Speaker for saving the base and most likely the entire sector. In recognition for this acheivment Speaker was given a field commision to the rank of Commander in the Mirak Navy and invited to join the elite Kzinti Assault Taskforce.
Unfortunatly T’lar was one of the most hotly contested planets of the entire war, changing hands six times. Speaker’s entire family was killed in the war, as he almost certainly would have been if he had not left home. This has resulted in a deep hatred in Speaker for the ISC....a hatred that is as deep as most Mirak have for the Lyrans.
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