Deric was born 32 years ago on the planet Chandrila, an idyllic core world, to wealthy parents. As the third of three children, Deric was freed from the constraints placed on his older brother and sister, each of whom were expected to uphold the family's traditions. It was known as far back as Deric can remember that Kyren would run for a Representative's seat in the Senate (eventually to work beside Mon Mothma) and Liria would become a doctor like their mother.



From an early age, Deric was inquisitive, always looking to collect more information, more knowledge. When the Clone Wars broke out he became fascinated with the Jedi and the Force, wishing that he had their sort of talent, though try as he might he couldn't move anything with the Force, read people's minds, or do any of the things he read about or saw on the news vids.



Though he was only 13 when the war ended and the Jedi were declared traitors, Deric knew it couldn't be true. The Jedi had been guardians of peace throughout the Republic for a thousand generations, and they would never have attempted to overthrow the Chancellor, who had declared himself Emperor much to the approval of Deric's parents and his older brother. Their approval of Palpatine began a gradual divide between Deric and the rest of his family (save perhaps Liria who was very much apolitical) that would continue over the next two decades.



Deric excelled in his studies, and let home to study Journalism at the University of Alderaan, landing a position as political reporter with the Independent Network News right out of school. Though initially assigned to "sentient-interest" stories that would wind up as backup material if there wasn't enough “real news” to broadcast, his skill had him quickly moving up the ranks, interviewing Senators and Representatives, including one interview with the man who became his personal idol, Garm Bel Iblis, shortly before the Corellian Senator's reported death.



Secretly, using his contacts and friends within the Senate and the Galactic media, Deric began an investigation into the Jedi Order, trying to determine if they really were the traitors that the Emperor and a long series of exposés from various media organizations claimed they were. The Independent Network News was one of the few organizations that had not done such an exposé, nor vigorously vilified the Jedi, so Deric assumed they were interested in the truth, not realizing how tight a line the news organization was walking, risking Palpatine's displeasure by not toeing the Imperial line.



Two years prior to the battle of Yavin, Deric had managed to piece together a picture of what had actually happened, that the Jedi had determined that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine would not give up the emergency powers granted him during the Clone Wars, and as an emergency measure had attempted to arrest him and remove him from power. Palpatine and his Senatorial guards had managed to overcome the Jedi threat, and Palpatine chose to see it as an assassination attempt, and use it as an excuse to have the Jedi exterminated, ending the only threat to his regime, proclaiming himself Emperor shortly thereafter.



Presenting this to the Chief Editor, Karolyn Voss, Deric was dismayed when she refused to run the story. Despite the fact that Deric had sourced everything, had personal interviews with those few eye-witnesses to parts of the story, and had significant evidence supporting his story, Voss knew that if the INN tried to run such a story, they would be shut down. Disgusted by what he saw as cowardice on Voss’ part, Deric resigned his job and sold the story to a secessionist holonet log, who posted it all, including the byline.



When the story came out, Deric found himself blackballed from any new journalistic pursuits. He bounced around Imperial Center for several months before finally leaving, figuring that he could get a job with a news network away from Imperial Center. He returned to Chandrila, but his parents would not take him in, angered by the damage he had done the family name by publishing his story. 



About nine months after his arrival on Chandrila, approximately one year ago, while Deric was writing a story on mysteriously vanishing food surpluses and strange troop movements in and around the Core, he was startled by a strikingly beautiful white-haired woman who sat down across from him. She spoke to him in a lyrical accent from Alderaan and told him that his work had been followed for a while by a group that she worked for who were loyal to the Old Republic, and wished to meet with him. She handed him a ticket for a trip on the Queen of Empire, a luxury liner due to depart from Chandrila a few days later on a month-long round-trip tour of the nearby worlds.



The ticket gave Deric a luxury stateroom aboard the liner, and an extensive expense account. Though wary of what he was getting into, Deric decided to enjoy himself. He had been on occasional cruises with his family, but even they had never been able to afford such an incredible room. He even had a human butler. A week into the voyage, during a stopover on Corellia, Deric discovered why he had been given such a large room when he returned from lunch to discover two additional men in his room. It turned out that his butler was an Alliance operative, and he had allowed a bodyguard and Senator Garm Bel Iblis, a man Deric had thought to be dead for nearly ten years, to enter the room.

Bel Iblis explained that the only way he could escape pursuit by Imperial agents on Corellia was to stow away aboard a ship. Figuring that the Empire would not expect him to have the audacity to stow away in a luxury state room aboard the most famous cruise liner in the Galaxy, they had purchased a state room, and needed somebody whose loyalty they could count on to cover it up.



Deric desperately wanted to interview Bel Iblis and post his stories about the corruption throughout the Empire, and the truth behind Galactic events, but the ex-Senator refused, stating that it was better that people thought he was dead for the time being; that he could do more good while nobody was looking for him. Still, the two had many conversations over the next three weeks about politics and the state of affairs around the Galaxy. Bel Iblis predicted that the Emperor would be dissolving the Senate before too long. Too many Senators had ties to the Rebel Alliance, using their power to covertly support it, something Palpatine simply could not tolerate.



Before he departed at Alderaan, Bel Iblis gave Deric contact information where on Chandrila he could go to join the Rebel Alliance and put his journalistic talents to work. For the next nine months, Deric worked on a documentary about the Alliance to Restore the Republic, posting interviews with members of the Alliance (their faces in shadow and voices digitally altered) as well as some scenes from the front lines of raids against Imperial bases and storehouses. About three months ago, while filming one of these raids, Deric was shot, and had to spend a week in a bacta tank. When he emerged he discovered that the Empire had destroyed Alderaan, and that his cell had been forced to retreat to the Alliance's primary base on Yavin 4.

While there, Garm Bel Ibis and Mon Mothma had a falling out of sorts, and Deric was invited to join Bel Iblis in his own private war against the Empire. Though strongly tempted, in the end Deric declined his idol’s invitation, owing to commitments he had made to film the Rebellion’s plight. Even so, Deric shares many of Bel Iblis’ reservations about Mon Mothma, including concerns about her pursuit of personal power, and this mistrust of the Alliance leadership has reflected back on him somewhat, meaning the relationship between him and the Alliance are cooler than normal for someone who has been with them for so long.



Deric was on the ground at Yavin 4 when Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star, and he filmed the medal ceremony for posterity. Almost immediately afterwards, he aided in the evacuation of Yavin, knowing the Empire's vengeance would be swift, and they would strike Yavin conventionally. Catching one of the last transports out before the arrival of the Imperial Starfleet, Deric was shuffled around for a bit before finally being assigned to document the resistance efforts on Arda I, a strategically important planet located between the Middle and Outer Rim.

Deric is an idealist who has taken one too many punches to let his idealism shine through any longer. He has long since left behind the notion that a reporter can truly report something from a neutral perspective. He doesn't so much hate the Empire as oppose it on philosophical grounds. Freedom is his guiding inspiration, and the Empire represents tyranny and oppression. While he's not convinced that the Alliance's leadership truly intends to restore the Republic, he sees them as the lesser of two evils. And if they are indeed genuine, they are a force worth fighting for. And regardless of their intentions, the Empire is a force worth fighting against.

He's determined to record the struggle of the Alliance for public consumption, and willing to put himself in harm's way to do so. And since he has abandoned the idea of journalistic neutrality, he is willing, sometimes even eager to provide his knowledge and skills to assist the team in its objectives.

Recruitment: 5

Recruitment: Deric sees the struggle against the Empire as a worthy one, and the Alliance as the best way to fight it. Though he may not be entirely convinced of the Alliance's intentions, he sees it as a weapon that can be used to destroy the Empire, and once that is done, if it proves necessary, it can be destroyed itself. But to stand any chance of the first, the Alliance needs recruits. And for the second it needs recruits who are truly dedicated to the ideals of freedom.

Deric is somewhat taller than the average male with blue eyes and facial hair he keeps trimmed to a short beard and mustache. He is almost always carrying one recording device or another, documenting his surroundings and what is happening, editing the footage down to the "interesting bits" in his spare time. He typically wears fairly nondescript clothing, preferring to blend into the background and be unobtrusive when possible. He keeps most of his media gear in a specially designed backpack when he's not using it, and the only weapon he carries is a short-range stun pistol for self-defense purposes.