Floran Welby
Floran Welby is an original ReExpanded character created by HandofThrawn45 (Gregory O. Scott).[1]
Biography
As a young lieutenant, Welby was stationed at Bothawui with the New Republic Fifth Fleet for the first two years of the Yuuzhan Vong War. She served as the first officer of the Endurance-class fleet carrier Intrepid, under the command of Captain Pollum Morano.
In 27 ABY, Intrepid was sent to Charros as part of Task Force Cloverleaf to intercept a Rimward offensive by the Yuuzhan Vong. During the battle of Charros, which the task force won despite heavy losses, Welby admitted to Morano that she had been glad to be away from the front lines. She witnessed the destruction of the New Republic Star Destroyer Thunderhead when it was rammed by a Yuuzhan Vong vessel, and when a transmission came in informing them of a full-scale Yuuzhan Vong invasion of nearby Rathalay, Welby was among the first to realize that the attack on Charros had been a diversion.
At the battle of Rathalay, where the ships of Task Force Cloverleaf were caught in a Yuuzhan Vong interdiction field, Welby reluctantly initiated a slow retreat from Rathalay, where Intrepid had taken on refugees from planetside. When Intrepid was breached by grutchins, Welby was shocked by Morano's order to open the affected sections of the ship to vacuum. Soon after, Morano personally went to help repair Intrepid's starboard engine, leaving Welby in command of Intrepid. When the retired Grand Admiral Grant landed aboard Intrepid together with the Jedi apprentices Eryl Besa, Anakin Solo and Tahiri Veila, Welby pushed back against Grant's attempts to take over command of the ship and the task force, but was ultimately unsuccessful in keeping her from subverting the New Republic's chain of command. Grant's strategy succeeded in holding the Yuuzhan Vong advance and destroying the interdictor, and the remnants of Task Force Cloverleaf were able to flee the system with the help of a Dornean relief force led by Etahn A'baht, whom Morano had called for help before his death.
After the battle, A'baht expressed his sympathies to Welby and encouraged her to embrace her grief, lest she end up as twisted as the Yuuzhan Vong. A'baht also expressed his opinion that Welby deserved to keep the rank of Captain she had held as a brevet rank during the battle of Rathalay.[1]