Yara Xiadani - Character Background

Father: Jex Xiandani
Age: 71
Position: Correspondent, The Homesteader Companion

The Homesteader Companion is a folksy paper of the people. It stays away from politics and investigative journalism and instead puts a focus on the good people of the UGS Homesteader. Almanac entires, advice columns, personal interest pieces - these are the things that highlight the positive and make folks feel better about life aboard this magnificent ship.

Mother: Hilea Jamari-Xiandani
Age: 64
Position: Manager, Office of the HHS (Homestead Health & Services)

Homestead Health & Services, or HHS as its more commonly known, is the centralized healthcare system for citizens of the UGS Homesteader. HHS provides basic medical support and services, up to and including surgeries. The system is free to all, and mostly efficient. Certain treatments (specialists, extensive treatments) may require longer wait times, so private “concierge” doctors are still used by the wealthy and influential.

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Year 4147 thru 4162 (Zero Term)

Yara was raised in the Capricius Sector. As home to a large portion of the ship's inhabitants, its dozens of decks filled with bazaars with rows of shop stalls, entertainment dens showing old holovids, and bars of all varieties provided a diverse setting for an inquisitive young mind. Clean and orderly, Capricius Sector served as a wonderful backdrop to shape the personality and nature of a young girl aboard ship.

Yara rated as Average on intelligence testing and her family, while not unknown in the community, certainly didn’t have a place of prominence. But Yara applied herself in school and graduated in the top 10% of her class. It was during these formative years that Yara displayed her talent for writing and, having a way of putting people at ease, worked on the school ePaper and yearbook.

During her final year, Yara’s father got her an internship at his place of employment; The Homesteader Companion. She did well enough that after her graduation, the eZine took her on as a cub reporter.

Year 4163 thru 4166 (First Term)

Yara’s first years with The Homesteader Companion were spent doing assigned interviews with people chosen by the site’s editorial staff. While not glamorous, she showed a real talent for it, and even picked up some good contacts along the way.

CONTACT
Kendrick "KC" Casey (KC (Genhuman) )
Yara interviewed Kendrick "KC" Casey, a young man that was meeting his Beta law duty by serving in the Army immediately after completing his A Levels. Although KC entered the service with no greater aspirations than to be a cook, his story became part of the Homesteader Heroes series when the ship was near a planet and while retrieving supplies from the surface, they somehow got embroiled in a war that was happening on the surface. KC made it through without a scratch, and his story was exactly the kind of “feel great about the military” piece she was looking for. They stayed in touch over her years on the Homesteader Companion whenever she needed a 'former military man's opinion' on other pieces.

Current: Imagine Yara’s surprise when she and KC reconnected again as he was the 'Celebrity Chef' that catered her retirement party from the Navy. It seems they’ve both came a long way over the years.

CONTACT
Nathan 'Val' Valentine (Nathan 'Val' Valentine )
Nathan 'Val' Valentine was a young recruit in the Fighting 95th, a spearhead battalion that specialises in making planetfall and creating a beachhead for following troops. Her article, "First In, Last Out" about the unit and it’s personnel went viral. Many of the soldiers featured in the piece became well-known faces used by Army recruiters, and Val’s story of rising from the very depths of the the ship and society to serve in this elite fighting unit put him at the top of that list.

Current: During her final year in the Navy, Yara bumped into Val again on the flight deck while making an inspection tour of Scout ships that were on special joint-op duty with Naval command. While she didn’t say anything, it was obvious the years had been hard on him, bringing to mind the old saying, “You can get the boy out of Tauricius, but he’ll still smell like shit.” Maybe that’s what she liked about him, and she vowed to stay in touch.

CONTACT

Year 4167 thru 4170 (Second Term)

Yara’s next four years with The Homesteader Companion were quite similar to her first stretch. But her natural way with people and the popularity of her articles allowed Yara to pitch her own stories as opposed to just taking assignments. After 8 years amongst the hard-working, industrious citizens of the UGS Homesteader, Yara made more contacts and learned to dig deeper, looking for more meaning than what was simply on the surface of a story.

CONTACT
Joseph Romanoff (Joseph Romanoff)
On a routine patrol, he came upon a mugging. The suspect fled into a residential area of the ship that had been undergoing upgrades to it's power systems. As a result, the twisting corridors were darker than normal. Coming around a corner, a teenager burst out of a door, and in the moment, rookie law enforcement officer Joseph Romanoff panicked and shot him. Fortunately, the young cop was armed with a stunner and the teenager wasn't killed. Officer Romanoff was brought before the Inquiry Board and was discharged from the force.

The incident was very public, but Yara took a different tack than the other news organizations. She wrote an article on the human aspect of it - the remorseful young rookie trying to live up to the expectations of a thankless job. She took the time to get to know young Jospeh, only 2 months older than she was and tasked with tracking down criminals in the underside of the ship. They formed a mutual respect for each other and her article, SecondsI Between Life and Death, was one of her best that year.

Current: While Yara hasn’t spoken with Jospeh in several years, she’s kept tabs on his career with law enforcement.

CONTACT

CONTACT

Year 4171 thru 4174 (Third Term)

Yara’s next phase at The Homesteader Companion was spent working on deeper pieces, delving into the histories of the people she interviewed, weaving a more meaningful story that was representative of the whole person and not just what they did or where they did it. She did fewer pieces, but they were longer format. And while she didn’t meet as many people, she made an important contact during this part of her professional journey.

CONTACT
Enok Lund, Correspondent, The Homesteader Companion (NPC)
Enok was a veteran journalist at the Companion. Seeing real potential in Yara, he took her under his wing and started pushing her to write more insightful, meaningful pieces. They spent a lot of hours at the office together, learning from each other and building a strong professional relationship.

Year 4175 thru 4178 (Fourth Term)

These years were a turning point in Yara’s young life. While working on one of her usual articles, Yara started seeing discrepancies in the stories and odd offhand remarks coming from employees of The Triskelion Corporation. She decided to work closely with Enok on what might be a big story. The more they dug, the more it became evident that this was going to be something outside the norm for The Homestead Companion; an investigative piece about possible corruption at The Triskelion Corporation. Just as the pieces of the puzzle started to come together, Enok suddenly quit The Homestead Companion and, less than a week later, the very story they had been working on was aired as a Special Investigation Report on HV1 (Homesteader HoloVid channel 1) with Enok as the Senior Correspondent.

Yara had been betrayed by someone she trusted and thought she knew, and it shook her belief about journalistic integrity to the core. Disillusioned and angry she left her position at The Homestead Companion. Enok had set himself up as a rival, but in order to stand her ground, Yara knew she had to learn some things the folksy Homesteader Companion could never teach her.

Yara left her career as a journalist with a decent savings, some hard-won intelligence, and a name that was recognized by her sizable readership.

(Enok Lund is now a RIVAL and not a Contact.)

Year 4179 thru 4182 (Fifth Term)

Yara’s new career was supposed to be spent as a new member of the Agency, using her natural people skills and investigative nature in their intelligence branch. Perhaps she would even be able to unearth some interesting facts about Enok that would help set the scales right. However, she came across as “overly driven by personal focus” during the interview process and was rejected. Knowing that at some point in her life she’d need to serve in accordance with the Beta law, Yara elected to enter the Draft. She was quickly recruited by the Navy and joined the crew of the UGS Homesteader.

During her 4-year tour with the Navy, a meteor swarm struck the UGS Homesteader, causing structural damage to several decks in the Cancericius and Aerilicius sectors. During the ensuing rescue and reconstruction operations, Yara saved the life of Petty Officer FIrst Class, Engineering Division Stauala Ehruasea, an Aslan female and fellow Naval crewman that became a lifelong friend and Ally. Yara turned this experience, and the recognition of her heroism during the event, into a commission and officer rank of Ensign.

Year 4183 thru 4186 (Sixth Term)

Yara’s second tour found her living the life of every low-level officer; keeping ship’s logs, filing reports, and doing anything else her superiors felt were below them. All of the tasks assigned to Yara included one similar element - writing. And this was something in which she excelled. Her reports set new accuracy records and increased her team’s efficiency by 53%. While others saw the work she was assigned as mundane, Yara applied the same veracity and dedication that served her so well as a writer for the Homestead Companion. Her diligence and ablities paid off when her superiors noticed her exemplary work. She received a promotion in the field, and moved up again during her annual review, finishing out her term as a Lieutenant.

After such rapid success, Yara couldn’t walk away from the Navy. But also she knew life changed at 40, so hitting the gym as well as the books became a new passion in her life.

Year 4187 thru 4190 (Seventh Term)

Yara’s third tour with the Navy was both an ending and a new beginning. In the midst of another tour of duty that focused mainly on excellence in administration, she was called in to provide logistics support in the aftermath of a massive explosion in the Scorpicius sector. Yara worked closely with Cryn Glewhand (Cryn ) who was representing civilian authorities tasked with assisting the Navy's relief effort. Numerous hours on synced Comms stations gave them a shared “in the trenches” friendship.

Yara was recognized for her exemplary efforts in the aftermath of the disaster and promoted to the rank of Commander. She’s was a high point in her career as the promotion was tied not just to her years in service, but directly to the act providing of aid to others. She also gained insights into both naval tactics and piloting small vessels as much of her work dealt with the expediting of transport ships and emergency supplies.

With a real path to Captain (or beyond) before her, Yara shocked her superior officers by deciding to muster out of the Navy. This has been a watershed moment for her - an epiphany. Yara realized that she wanted to do more on a personal level to help people, and that her military service didn’t always allow for that. Her parents were starting the latter years of their lives and she wanted to be able spend more time with them - a luxury that her responsibilities as a naval officer didn’t always allow.

Yara leaves 12 years of service with a small amount more in her savings, but her success isn’t measured in credits. She takes great pride in the Guardian of Terrestria blade that was presented to her upon her retirement in recognition of her storied Naval career. It is always by her side as a personal reminder of what she can accomplish through discipline, drive, and humanity.