Grov Bricker


Early life


Not much is known about Bricker's early life, though it was widely known that he was born and raised on Corellia. During his years as an adult, he decided to become a pirate, and gained ownership of the Mourning Glory; a ship that for the most part, outclassed the average smuggler ship, but was nothing more than that. Bricker was able to gain a crew during his years with the Mourning Glory, including a Twi'lek engineer named Xanai Sowan that he enjoyed the company. Nobody though, was as reliable as Kalen Naal; Bricker's First Mate, one of his closer friends, but secretly the Hapan Prince, Isolder.

Capture by Hapes


Not long before the first Death Star exploded, Kalen and Bricker decided to take a daring shortcut through the Hapes Cluster on one of their trips. As a result, their ship was pulled out in the Transitory Mists. Worried, Bricker was unsure about the Mists, but Kalen reassured him that there was nothing to worry about. He explained to Bricker that there were no mines, and that the Hapan Queen, Ta'a Chume, never left Hapes itself. He checked his astromech droid, Arf, on information about the cluster, but only found that Ta'a Chume lived and ruled the Hapes Cluster.

Much to Bricker's horror, they had been stopped right in front of Star Home, the Queen Mother's personal transport. Amazed by the sheer size of the ship, he barely noticed that the Mourning Glory was in Star Home's tractor beam. Bricker wanted to prepare the crew and attempt to fight, wanting to do something due to the torture stories he heard, though Kalen had told them they were fiction. Kalen, however, told him that they wouldn't kill a Hapan due to the limited gene pool, and that he should decoy himself as the ship's captain, due to his knowledge of the Hapan language.

The Mourning Glory then entered Star Homes hangar through its massive underbelly. With the help of Xanai, Bricker explained the situation to his crew. Thanks to Kalen's negotiations with the Hapans, violence was avoided, though Bricker and Kalen were taken onto the Star Home itself. The crew was unharmed, and confined to the ship. After a long walk where they were led in the dark, silent, they met Ta'a Chume herself. She placed them under her command, and Bricker and Kalen were to be soon interrogated.

Though at first they were allowed a lot of freedom onboard Star Home, Bricker and Kalen left the huge ship in chains. Their crew were placed onto one of Hape's prison moons, and the captain and first mate soon found themselves in a dungeon beneath the Fountain Palace. Bricker tried desperately to break free without success, and soon enough Ta'a Chume began interrogating Kalen, without acknowledging Bricker's presence. After failing to find Isolder's location from Kalen, she sentenced both Bricker and Kalen to death, much to Bricker's chagrin. He tried to bargain with the Queen Mother, who continued to ignore his pleas.

They were moved to an amphitheater for the execution, which was to be made public among the women of Hapes, though no men attended. There, Ta'a Chume announced false crimes to the crowd, stating that Bricker and Kalen had violated Hapan borders multiple times, taken Hapan women as slaves, and refused to take justice for their crimes. She stated them as enemies of the state, though all they had done was enter Hapan territory. Though they were allowed to beg for mercy, and Kalen tried to explain the situation, though they did not listen. Bricker tried as well, but made a bad attempt to do so.

Before the executioner fired the Gun of Command, the traditional way of executing a man, Lady Elliar interfered, gave Kalen a second Gun of Command, and shot Ta'a Chume. He ordered her to release Bricker and the crew, much to Bricker's relief, and revealed to him to that he was Isolder. Ta'a Chume quickly recovered, and convinced Isolder to return home, as the Chume'da. Bricker was then given his ship and crew back by Ta'a Chume under very strict conditions.

Aftermath


Released from Hapan custody, Ta'a Chume thanked Bricker for unknowingly helping her return Isolder to her, and gave him mercy. However, Bricker was never to return to the Hapes cluster again, or his life was forfeit. He was then escorted out of Hapes with his crew by a Hapan Battle Dragon, though he tried to push Ta'a Chume into giving him a first mate, a deal she refused. Though he pitied and envied his old friend, Bricker really just wanted to get off Hapes and get a Gun of Command.

After he returned to his ship, Bricker published a memoir of the events that occurred. He titled it: Planet of the Amazons: The Tale of the Pirate Ship Mourning Glory. He used his story to popularize the "Amazon" image of the Hapans. Due to its lavish details and its Amazonian image, this memoir quickly became a bestseller, though many claimed not to own it. This story helped Bricker to become well-known, and more importantly, Bricker gave people factual information about the Hapans.

Personality and traits


Bricker acted somewhat Corellian; cocky, never played by the odds, but also acted like a captain, and very often feared for his life and that of his crew. He was very easily angered when his life was in jeopardy, and was even more angered when somebody endangered his. He enjoyed women's company, especially that of Xanai and other Twi'leks as well.

Bricker was very optimistic by nature, but in the most dangerous of the situations, he realized how much trouble he was in and how it would become very hard to get out of. Because of this, he tried his best (though he did a very poor job of this) to get himself out of danger in anyway possible.

Behind the scenes


The character of Grov Bricker was developed by Cory J. Herndon for the 4-part story, Hapes: Ladies First, on wizards.com.

Appearances