Dain Falkvell was born in 27 BBY on the planet Cauper, in the Melantha Province of the Tapani Sector. Born to one of the noble families of House Melantha, he was a soft-spoken child and had trouble making friends, preferring to play alone. From an early age, he had a fascination with starships, and would find himself absorbed in holos of Republic fighters during the Clone Wars, his imagination captured by tales of courage, daring, and skill.

As Dain grew, the quiet timidity of his childhood gave way to the drive and aggression of a young man frustrated by the increasing restrictions of his nobility. Still inspired by visions of fighters tearing across the sky, his naturally quick reflexes lent themselves well to his hobby of speeding through the air lanes of Cauper, leaving his responsibilities behind for the freedom of the open air, and the thrill of adrenaline coursing through his veins.

But every ounce of raw talent he had for piloting was matched by his social ineptitude. With every passing year, it seemed he was obligated to appear at yet more banal events and dull celebrations, expected to mingle and forge the alliances that would serve him in adulthood, and as his irritation grew at each appearance, he only became more blunt, blithe, and arrogant. Certainly no longer the shy, withdrawn youth of his early years, he had become no more skilled at speaking - just more outspoken. It didn't take long for him to chafe the egos of other brash young nobles, and before long, Dain had gained a dubious reputation as a duelist.

Dain, however, was not an ordinary duelist. He refused to duel with swords, or with blasters, and as he was always the one challenged, he had his choice of weapons, and it was always the same. His weapon of choice was the airspeeder, and the battlefield was a long, empty stretch of air, at night, with a high-speed race to the end. If a nobleman was foolhardy enough to demand a duel to the death, they rode through an increasingly perilous stretch until one of them crashed. Dain quickly found he enjoyed these duel-races far more than his usual daredevil stunts, and started baiting more skilled pilots into challenging him.

Mortified, his family redoubled their efforts to make a respected gentleman of him. Dain's access to speeders was gradually restricted, and all within a year, he was knighted, arranged to be married to a girl he had spoken to maybe twice, and sent off to an Imperial flight academy, where his family hoped his interests would be turned to something more productive.

While there was a time that he might have enjoyed the idea of going to a flight academy, it came as the last in a series of decisions made without his consent, and the experience was tainted with bitterness. Even his skill as a pilot was challenged - no more did he face bored and foolish nobles, but elite pilots of all backgrounds, many of whom had been flying longer than he had. Raw natural talent was no longer an adequate substitute for honed skill, and for the first time, he found himself outclassed by his peers in the cockpit.

Determined to retain some control over his life, Dain tempered his unstable aggression into something focused, and threw himself into training, devoting everything he had to mastering the craft of a fighter pilot. As it had before, flying served as an escape from the other concerns of his life, but it was no longer the aimless recklessness of his youth. Dain practiced relentlessly to best his rivals, and he was not humble about it, either, his attitude nearly costing him his place at the academy on a few occasions.

That attitude also earned him a rival, a young pilot from Kuat named Ryall Vargo. While Dain was self-absorbed, seeing the academy as a means to an end in his relentless crusade to be the best, Ryall was a man of conviction who subscribed to the Imperial doctrine of keeping the galaxy in order. Ryall was at odds with Dain's political apathy from the get-go, and their rivalry only became more fierce as Dain grew to match him in skill. Eventually, however, Ryall graduated and went on to become a squadron leader, while insubordinate Dain was put on patrol to deal with pirates aboard a ship called the Beheader.

Once again finding politics to be an obstacle to his goals, Dain became still more terse and abrasive, relieving stress during pirate skirmishes with brazen displays of skill, reckless chases and daring attacks that annoyed his superiors to no end. Ignoring all else, he would fly straight for the most skilled enemy pilot and engage them in a dogfight. He officially achieved ace status within the first couple of battles, and was granted control of a TIE Interceptor for his efforts, but his ability was the only thing that made him valuable to the domineering Imperial officers, who could not tolerate his sense of independence.

Then, it happened. While patrolling for pirates, he found himself in his first battle with a Rebel cell, and it changed his perspective forever. Bored of the Imperial tactic of overwhelming numbers, he was thrilled by the bravado of the X-wing pilots, and truly challenged by their skill in a dogfight. For the first time in a very long time, the visions from his youth of starfighters fighting legendary battles at the hands of fearless pilots reappeared in his mind, and a fateful thought emerged: 'I should be flying like that.'

Not long after that, Dain's superiors on the Beheader at last grew tired of him, and were all too eager to send him to the badly understaffed Kuma, where he would continue to serve as a fighter pilot. As he settled onto the new vessel, however, Dain's treasonous thoughts began to come to a head...

Placard Hunter (Stay on Target, page 19) - 5

Dain's greatest priority is testing himself in dogfights against the most skilled pilots he can find, proving his worth to himself and others while severing the most dangerous limbs of the enemy squadrons. He at least tries to follow his orders if the mission is essential, but if an appealing enough target challenges him, he won't let anything get in the way of their duel. As much of a strategic issue as this can be at times, it undeniably looks good in propaganda holos.