 Name: Ruescott Melshi
Born: Between 39 BBY and 30 BBY
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Height: 1.83 meters
Hair color: Black
Eye color: Brown
Skin color: Light
Move: 10
DEXTERITY: 3D+1
Blaster: 4D+2
Brawling Parry: 5D
Dodge: 5D+1
Running: 3D+2
PERCEPTION: 2D+2
Bargain: 3D+2
Hide: 3D+1
Persuasion: 5D
Search: 4D
Sneak: 5D+1
KNOWLEDGE: 2D
Business: 2D+2
Intimidation: 4D+2
Law Enforcement: 3D
Streetwise: 4D
Survival: 4D+2
Value: 3D+2
STRENGTH: 3D
Brawling: 5D+2
Climbing/Jumping: 4D+2
MECHANICAL: 2D
Repulsorlift Operation: 3D+2
TECHNICAL: 2D+2
Computer Programming/Repair: 3D+2
Machinery Repair: 4D
EQUIPMENT
Prison Uniform,
FORCE SENSITIVE - N
FORCE POINTS 2
DARK SIDE POINTS 0
CHARACTER POINTS 4
Description: Ruescott Melshi was a human male who came to resent the Galactic Empire, the successor state of the Galactic Republic, growing up. By 5 BBY, he was imprisoned and forced to labor at the Imperial Prison Complex on the moon Narkina 5, producing complex machinery bound for the Empire's secret superweapon, the Death Star. During his stay, he met fellow inmate Cassian Andor, warning him not to maintain hope about escaping. Soon after an incident occurred on another prison level, rumors soon spreading that a whole unit of prisoners had been killed by the Empire.
After their prisoner colleague Ulaf suffered a stroke and was euthanized, Andor discovered that the Empire had been covering up the fact a prisoner meant to be released had been transferred between levels instead. As a result, the manager of Melshi's room, Kino Loy rallied the room's inmates to start uprising the next day. The prisoners successfully fought their way out, helping the rest of the prison escape as well. Afterwards, Melshi and Andor fled through Narkina 5's canyons. They were netted by two aliens when trying to steal their quadjumper, but the aliens ultimately sympathized and helped them flee to the planet Niamos. There, Melshi parted ways with Andor in hopes of doubling their chances of spreading the word about the prison on Narkina 5.
Biography
Prisoner of the Empire
Ruescott Melshi was a human male born at some point between 39 BBY and 30 BBY. Growing up in the galaxy ruled by the Galactic Empire, the successor state to the Galactic Republic, Melshi grew to detest the fascist government. Melshi was eventually imprisoned by the Empire in the Imperial Prison Complex on the moon Narkina 5 as he, alongside all the other prisoners there, were deemed labor-worthy. Because of this, prisoners were all put in teams of seven to work assembly lines that produced complex mechanical widgets that were eventually used in the construction of the Empire's secret planet-killing superweapon known as the Death Star. Melshi was assigned to Table Five in Unit Five-Two-D on the facility's fifth level, where he labored in twelve-hour shifts in a team that included the prisoners Jemboc, Xaul, Taga, Ulaf, and Ham.
Melshi went through a daily routine that included eating food from a tube, waiting for the floor to be safe to step on, group showering, and working. The unit, managed by the prison laborer Kino Loy, saw its seven tables pitted against one another, with the top table getting flavor in their food and the last placed one getting "fried" by the electrified floors made from Tunqstoid steel. In 5 BBY, a successful heist on the planet Aldhani resulted in the Public Order Resentencing Directive legislation being passed, which doubled all prisoners' sentences.
Melshi's table experienced a new vacancy, which resulted in the team running behind on the unit leaderboard the day after their seventh member was lost. During the last hour of their shift, the room was called to a halt to receive a new prisoner for table five. The new inmate was Cassian Jeron Andor, who went by the alias "Keef Girgo." After having a run down with Loy, Andor went to table five as the laborers resumed their shift and had an introduction with Melshi's team.
The team soon started to discuss the repercussions of falling behind on the leaderboard by ten points. Upon questions as to whether Loy would be lenient due to the team vacancy, Melshi claimed that ten points was too much to allow that, soon adding that the Imperial superiors were laughing at them. When Xaul called Andor "new guy," Melshi corrected the inmate, telling him to call "Keef" by his name. Shortly after, Loy received a message that their work levels were too low, and he instructed them to work extra fast for the remaining thirty-nine minutes of the shift. The team got to work, with Andor watching and learning from what they were doing. The table ultimately came last in the unit, and thus the seven inmates were fried as standard discipline.
The routine
After the shift, the unit's inmates were led back to their sleeping block, where Andor was given a brief tour of it by Jemboc. Upon prompts by Melshi, the prisoners questioned "Keef" about the Public Order Decree. As it had occurred during their sentence, the prisoners were desperate for news, though Andor denied any knowledge of it. As the other inmates spoke about getting punished for the rebel activity, Melshi chimed in and told Andor that the days on his sentence did not matter: the Empire would simply keep them there until they no longer had any need for them, and leaving was just a dream. Loy overheard the prisoner and shoved him against the wall to stop him speaking. At that moment, the nightly alarm began sounding, prompting the prisoners to head for their beds as the floor prepared to electrify.
Over the next thirty shifts, Andor begun conspiring with Melshi and fellow unit prisoner Birnok to try and form an escape plan. In the meantime, Andor became accustomed to the daily factory routine Melshi had already gotten used to. Not long after, Veemoss, a worker at table three, took his own life by stepping on the sleeping block hall's floor while it was electrified during sleeping hours. Melshi and the other inmates threw around comments about the loss of a worker and the disturbance until Loy told them to be quiet and the intercom voice gave the rest of the unit ten seconds to return to their beds.
Level two incident
The next day, Melshi and his table were laboring when Andor began predicting that a new inmate would arrive to join table three, additionally choosing to swap with Ulaf when the old man had a problem with his hand. After Loy confirmed Andor's suspicions on the new arrival, the latter smirked at Melshi, who looked back with a poker face. As the prison guards prepared to bring the new arrival, Andor left to make a run to the refresher so he could file and weaken a water pipe as part of his escape plan. Melshi watched the man leave for the refresher room.
After the new inmate was taken in and the shift finished, Melshi and the rest of the unit waited at their bridge alongside their room's night shift unit. With no sign of movement, Melshi remarked that the Imperials could keep them on the bridge forever, though Loy rebuked that he had said enough. Taga began receiving sign messages from the inmates on the other side, indicating that something was occurring on the far side of the facility's second level. A few seconds later, the lights on the bridge cut off, then were shortly reactivated. Loy made excuses about the prison staff making counts, but Melshi sarcastically questioned why they cut the power to do so, to the floor manager's annoyance. Taga and other sign communicators began receiving word that something serious had happened on level two, and Loy argued with them before the group was then advised by the intercom and proceeded to their sleeping block as usual.
At their beds, Melshi watched from his bunk as Andor attempted to probe information from Loy—whose bunk was beside Melshi's—about the guard numbers, though the floor manager was insistent that such behavior would be regrettable. Taking a different approach, Andor supported Melshi's stance on the facility, stating that the prisoners are cheaper than droids and easier to replace. After Loy made his opinion clear, Melshi shrugged his fingers at Andor, who proceeded to assert to the manager that the Imperials were not listening to them.
Breaking point
The next morning on the bridge, the Five-Two night shift had heard a rumor that both shifts of unit two-five on level two had been "fried." Skeptical, Kino turned to Zinska, the Five-Two night shift floor manager, who said it was because the inmates were causing trouble. After the two shifts were put "on program," Ulaf asked what had happened, and Melshi responded that they all had been set free. Without hesitation, Loy turned and began beating Melshi for sharing his opinion again, but was quickly stopped by Andor, who encouraged that Loy not reveal their level of awareness.
Near the end of the day's shift, Ulaf's well-being was severely degrading and at the end of the shift, the old man collapsed from a stroke. Though the team tried to cover him up, it was no use, and Melshi and Cassian promptly assisted Ulaf halfway across the bridge before he could not walk any longer. Loy supervised, having Zinska summon a med-tech to tend to the suffering worker. Waiting for a med-tech to arrive, the floor manager ordered Melshi to continue to the sleeping block while he and Andor stayed with Ulaf. Unfortunately for Ulaf, the medic, Doctor Rhasiv, was unable to help him and had the man euthanized.
When Kino and Cassian entered the sleeping block, the other prisoners were able to see that Ulaf had not made it back. Andor then began telling spreading what he and the floor manager had heard from Rhasiv: that Unit-Two-Five had been "fried" because a released inmate from four had reappeared among them and the facility staff wished to quash the rumors. Several other inmates in the block were skeptical of Andor's claim until Loy shouted that no one was getting out. The floor manager confirmed the rumors to be true and advised Melshi and the others to get their heads back in their cells and figure their situation out.
The uprising
The next morning, the inmates rose from their beds, and Loy announced that their days of counting shifts were over, telling them to make their escape look good. Thus the unit went to their usual shift, with Melshi glancing at Andor as the latter eyed the barely visible prison guards above them. As the guards began preparing to bring in a new inmate, Cassian made a final run to the refresher to burst the water pipe he had been filing. Once a guard checked that the room's inmates were working as usual, Melshi gave the go-ahead to the rest of table five, who began gathering equipment to use against the guards along with the other tables. The prisoners were then placed on program, with many, like Melshi, concealing tools behind their backs.
Andor returned, having burst the water pipe to start a flood coming from the refresher. Once the new prisoner began descending on a lift, Ham and Xaul started a fake fight, distracting the security so that Andor could jam the lift halfway. After another table broke pipes as a distraction, Melshi threw a tool at Loy, and the floor manager had the unit begin throwing equipment at the prison guards. The guards fired at the prisoners, killing the new inmate, Birnok, and several others. The security then activated the floor, but the growing pool of water from the refresher short-circuited the electricity, cutting the power to the floor. Loy led Melshi and the others in continuing their assault, though some, like Xaul, fell victim to blast fire.
Andor was able to climb up and defeat the guards, and Loy ordered the others to start climbing. Melshi and his companions made it up and gathered available DH-17 blaster pistols, splitting up to free other workrooms. He and several others made their way to one room, where a security guard gunned down one of his fellow inmates. Melshi fired back at his attacker and took cover before coming out again to shoot the guard down. The prisoner then shouted to the room, now interrupted from their shift, advising them to climb out. A trio of prison guards then tried to ambush Melshi and his companions, only to be gunned down from behind by a group of inmates, including Ham, Jemboc, and Taga. The two groups started walking down another corridor.
Meanwhile, Loy and Andor seized control of the facility's command center and had the main power supply cut, which made the complex resort to its backup supply. Loy then broadcast a message to all of the inmates, condemning the prison owners and calling on the prisoners to take control and escape. During the announcement, Melshi ascended up the prison stairs and reached the command center. He stood guard until Loy finished his speech, with the pair and Andor making their way towards the exit with many other prisoners. They reached a landing pad overlooking Narkina 5's oceans, with Andor telling Melshi that they had made it. With inmates jumping into the sea to get away, Loy revealed that he could not swim, though Andor and Melshi could not hear what he could say. As the floor manager said it louder, the other two were pushed off the ledge.
Fleeing Narkina 5
Melshi and Andor swam to land and were separated from the other escapees. The pair ran across the land as Imperial patrols begun searching for the escapees. The next day, the two hid on the side of a cliff as a TIE/rp Reaper attack lander patrolled for fleeing prisoners. Melshi lost feeling in his hands and complained to Andor, stressing that he could not climb back up. He then confirmed with his companion that the TIE was leaving, and they were able to get back up.
Melshi and Andor eventually spotted two alien fishers. Cassian deduced that they had not walked there, and Melshi concluded they should go around for a better look. As Melshi and Andor got to a closer spot to the aliens, the former spotted a starship, which Andor identified as a quadjumper, though he was unsure whether he could fly it as the model was old. Melshi thus got up and started running for the ship. Andor wanted them to be careful, but Melshi doubted that the aliens were fast enough to stop them, ignoring his friend's further warnings. The pair therefore sprinted towards the quadjumper, only to activate a trap that snared both the escaped inmates in organic netting.
The Keredian fisher, Dewi Pamular, spoke to his brother, Freedi Pamular, about the reward for turning escapees in, adding that the prison had spoiled their water. Melshi and Andor insisted they had done nothing wrong, specifying that the Empire was to blame. Freedi claimed that it did not matter if the two were alive or dead, drawing their knife. Melshi and Cassian begged for them to not go through with it when Dewi begun ranting how the Empire would kill anyone. The Keredian assured the prisoners that they would not be dying and Freedi released them from the nets. Dewi then asked where they wanted to escape to. Melshi and Andor exchanged looks before the latter suggested the planet Niamos.
The aliens took Melshi and Andor there, where Andor retrieved some of his possessions from before he was imprisoned. Afterwards, Melshi waited by the sea while Andor made contact with an associate of his, Xanwan, on his homeworld Ferrix. During the call, Cassian learned that his mother, Maarva, had died. Once the call was over, Melshi checked on his companion, then remarked that all the space and fresh air felt like a dream. He questioned how many other prisoners might have made it off of Narkina 5 and said that the galaxy had to know about what the Empire was doing with its prisoners. Melshi advised his friend that they should split up to double their chances, and Andor, in agreement, gave him a DT-15 blaster pistol. The two then embraced before parting ways.
Equipment
While a prisoner of Narkina 5, Melshi wore paper-thin, white and orange prison scrubs, bearing no footwear. During his shifts at Table Five he utilized a riveting tool. In escaping the Imperial prison, the inmate utilized a DH-17 blaster pistol. On Niamos, Melshi wore a blue and gray patterned shirt over another gray shirt. He also donned with gray trousers and brown shoes, and was given a DT-15 blaster pistol by Andor.
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