Zur'Tora vas Azhana

History
Zur’Tora was born an only child aboard the Chayym, one of the liveships that are part of the Migrant Fleet. His early life was relatively normal. He liked to explore the large liveship and meet new people. Albeit this wasn’t very hard as socializing with others was basically unavoidable as a Quarian. He was also very curious, and this led into a knack for technology which started a bit earlier than others with similar traits. Zur’s smooth sailing, however, was interrupted when he received an upgrade to his envirosuit to accommodate his growth. A malfunction in the suit caused a rupture, and he was quickly infected. He was sick for almost two weeks. The experience exposed him to truly how weak his species was. Quarians are physically stronger than most races but their immune systems really bring them down. Zur has kept this in mind to this day. After receiving a suit that was not defective, he could move on to early education, where he didn’t receive any special treatment but his teachers did take note of his interest in technology.

Later in his life, near the end of his standard education, Zur was able to start planning for his pilgrimage. He was at the point in his life where he was learning about all the different races of the galaxy. But when he learned about the Hanar, he was intrigued. His classmates would make fun of them, but Zur saw more. He wanted to visit Kahje, the ocean world home to the Hanar. He wanted to see the Drell and see how the two species lived together. Zur knew where he was going to visit for his pilgrimage, and nothing could get in his way.

At the age of 19, Zur began the mandatory self defense training required to go on pilgrimage. He was offered the opportunity to be trained to handle pistols, and a choice of one other type of weapon. Remembering the suit incident, Zur decided it would be best to be be trained into something longer ranged as to not put himself at as much risk; snipers. Zur turned out to be a fast learner, and quickly got better with his aim; it wasn’t perfect, but it was substantially better than when he started learning. He was also given a tactical cloaking chip due to his proficiency in technology and his weapons training, curious as he was, he messed around with it for a bit, before getting some looks of disappointment from others. With training completed, Zur was, or thought he was ready for his pilgrimage to Kahje - an adventure he would never forget.

Zur was able to hitch a ride on a Drell cargo ship headed for Kahje when the fleet was near a common trade route. Zur was simply able bribe his way on board, the only thing he had to do was not stir up trouble. The ship was relatively small, so it only had a crew of about ten people. The ship had to make a few stops in the traverse. When the ship was stopped near the terminus systems, they were boarded by pirates. Zur remembers it perfectly. A firefight broke loose, and Zur was caught in the middle of it. He pulled out his arc pistol and prepared for his first real combat experience. He took cover and assessed the situation. The pirates were not focused on Zur, in the confusion of the ambush, the pirates were able to down three crew members, and Zur watched as they killed them. He came out from behind cover and initiated. At this point two other members of the crew had arrived, this time armed. The fight broke down to Zur getting cornered, escaping by using his cloak, and allowing the armed crew members to neutralize the pirates.

Zur searched one of the bodies and found a datapad. This datapad had the pirate’s orders and it also contained the dead man's switch that alerted the pirates that had been following them to open fire. There was no time to rest, the ship was in danger, pirates could be anywhere waiting to swoop in and reap the rewards that their inside source was supposed to acquire. The ship was preparing to make an emergency jump to Kahje when the pirates opened fire, and nailed the ship as it entered a mass relay. Zur and the ships remaining engineers started frantically working to keep the ship from falling apart in FTL. However, the damage sustained before hitting the relay forced the pilot to crash land on Kahje Everyone on board braced for impact. The Drell were excellent internalizers, they were rather silent, Zur, however was not a drell.

Zur woke up to one of the drell poking him to see if he was alive. His whole body was sore, his visor was cracked but not breached. He limped his way out of the ship to find the remaining crew outside, the captain and one of the engineers had died in the crash. Half the crew remained. The pilot explained that the automated defense system definitely picked up their signal and help was probably on the way. A few of the other crew members were injured, but it was nothing major. The engineers were assessing the damage and they marked many things as damaged beyond repair, but most of the core systems were intact.

Zur, limped his way back to the ship to investigate. He noticed all the things that the engineers had marked. For the most part, they were right, some of the systems were just so busted up that they were not even recognizable. But then he came across something that left him confused. Some of the unfixables marked by the Drell, when viewed by Zur, were actually fixable. He was confused because the engineers were just as proficient as him. He called one of them over and pointed out the problem by showing the engineer what he had missed. He had the engineer go tell the other engineers to re-evaluate some of the secondary systems and attempt repairs. While most things couldn’t be remedied in this fashion, it did allow for the ship to be repaired to a state where it could fly, but not break orbit.

Once help had arrived, they were initially surprised to see the crashed ship was in much better shape than they anticipated. They were also not expecting to see that there was a Quarian among the survivors, quickly they became suspicious. The crew quickly dismissed the S&R team’s assumptions that Zur had malicious intent; he was here for his pilgrimage and had assisted in neutralizing the pirates that had boarded their ship, he had offered his help in fixing the ship with the other engineers as well. With everyone on the same page, the S&R team helped to lead the ship back to civilization.

Once Zur and the crew arrived, they parted ways. Zur explained what he wanted to do with the ship to the Hanar. The Hanar were skeptical about the idea at first and said it was a waste of resources. Zur explained that with a ship that would be an excellent way to strengthen diplomatic relations with the fleet, and may open up to a trade. To further convince the Hanar, he offered to work without pay. All the Hanar would have to do is supply Zur with materials, and a place to stay. The Hanar accepted. Zur was put at the head of the repair project and since the original ship was modular there were many possibilities to what he could do to it. He planned it out and decided he would turn it into a science ship for research and exploration.

After about five months the repair effort was coming along nicely. The Hanar gave support where necessary, and Zur was doing a good job being transparent and open to suggestion when it came to leading the project. However, one day, when Zur was looking over the plans he was approached by one of the Hanar tasked with watching over the project as a whole to make sure nothing went wrong. This Hanar’s face name was Osedio. He was rather young like Zur, and was curious about other races. He asked if Zur could take some time to tell him about his people. At this point Zur had almost forgotten the original reason he came to Kahje, and was happy to take a break and exchange information about culture. What Zur didn’t know, however, was that this specific Hanar would become one of his closest friends.

The original conversation lasted for a couple of hours. The two told stories of their people, they even in depth about their people’s religion. The two started to talk on a daily basis. Osedio showed Zur around the local area and told him about the monuments and ruins of Kahje. One night, Osedio told Zur about mindfish, and Zur told Osedio what he had to do to get intoxicated. Another time, Osedio explained how his people had to take classes to learn how to not get offended when presented with impoliteness. This lead to another conversation about how their races are looked down upon.

During his pilgrimage, Zur really integrated into the Hanar society. He learned to be extremely polite and forgiving, and - while he didn’t fully convert - he built a respect for the Hanar’s views on the protheans. He also provided the same salvaging tips that he gave to the old crew of the ship to the new workers on the repair project.

On another occasion, Zur and Osedio were having another conversation where Zur had brought up the terms of his deal, and how the Migrant Fleet would commonly mine the resources of the planets in the systems they visit. Osedio said he knew a little bit about this already, and explained how the Hanar were genuinely concerned that the fleet would do the same to their colonies and territory. Zur would be solely responsible for negotiating with the fleet in hopes of securing diplomatic relations.

Osedio offered to help him prepare how he would bring this up to the fleet; an ultimatum. When the idea was suggested, the Hanar were skeptical. Zur reassured them and said that he would stay true to his word, and if he can not secure relations, he would have the ship returned to the Hanar. When the ship was completed Zur was offered the privilege of naming it. He wanted to give it a name that would really fit both cultures that it was built on top of. He eventually decided to name it “Azhana” which when translated from Keelish, roughly means “water” but more importantly, “ocean.” This was in reference to Kahje, a planet consisting of 90% ocean coverage.

Zur originally planned his pilgrimage to last only about a year or so, but after he started the repair effort and met his new friend, his pilgrimage ended up lasting six years. When the decision finally came to determine where the ship would go, Osedio explained that Zur has proved to be a functioning member of Hanar society during the six years he has spent on Kahje. Osedio, who also knew all about the pilgrimage due to Zur’s stories, vouched that this ship would be a respectable gift for Zur to bring back, and that he could be trusted to secure good relations. Zur was humbled. After some consideration, the decision was made, and Zur would be given a temporary crew to help him bring the Azhara back to the fleet, but Zur would have to be captain as there was no point to assign a drell captain as they were not staying permanently if the deal went well. Before Zur left, Osedio had one last thing to show him; his soul name. He told Zur that he looked to him as one of his own, and he has learned more about Quarian culture than he could ever imagine over the past six years. His soul name can be roughly translated to “One Who Listens and Learns.” This explained to Zur why Osedio had invested so much of his time into a stranger.

The return trip from Kahje was odd for three reasons. Reason one was because it felt the same way it did on the way there for Zur. It was one quarian with a drell crew but without the pirates and crashing. Reason two was because he actually felt like he missed Kahje, but that is probably because he missed his friend. Reason three was because Zur was captain and had people looking up to him, instead of him looking up to them. He also had a lot resting on his shoulders as the Hanar relied on him to secure a compromise. It took Zur a a bit to get over the learning curve, but he got the ship back safely. Upon the successful return to the fleet, Zur provided the code to denote a successful mission as he was returning in an unknown vessel. Admiral Daro’Xen was fascinated with the ship. She requested it be placed in the Special Projects arm of the fleet, and Zur’Tora remained captain as he knew the most about the ship.

Zur interjected and reminded the fleet of the ultimatum. He had told them about it a few months before his pilgrimage ended; the fleet gets the ship only if they leave the Hanar’s resources alone if they were ever to pass through. The Hanar also offered a trade deal where they would provide resources they were in surplus of. Daro’Xen, still fascinated by the ship, vouched for compliance with the offer. With the support of an admiral, Zur had a foothold, and was able to secure the agreement. Once the ship’s Drell crew was swapped out for Quarians, Zur had a lot of reacclimating to do.

Daro’Xen promptly had Zur’Tora vas Azhana start having his crew utilize the research capabilities of the Azhana to contribute to the research on how to defeat the Geth. However, not even a year after his return and his Geth research had started, the Reaper war began. Now his ship wasn’t just being used to for researching the Geth, but more so why they had become suddenly stronger. This ultimately lead to the Battle of Rannoch after it was discovered that a Reaper was upgrading the Geth. While he never specifically fought planetside, as he had to manage the Azhara, he and his crew did extensive study to try to give their race the upper hand. Later however, it turned out that the Geth and Quarians would make peace after the fleet bombarded the aforementioned Reaper. Zur was fine with this for the most part, however, he was still wary of them after all they had done.

Crew synergy was of utmost importance to Zur. He made sure that everyone aboard his ship was working together and efficiently, and when Shepard launched the attack on the citadel, This synergy came into play. Every single Migrant Fleet ship with any weapons of some kind were sent in. Including the Azhara. Many ships were lost in the battle, and if they weren’t destroyed, they were most likely damaged. The Azhara was inevitably hit a few times, however, the crew was able to keep it functioning for some time, but as the battle raged on this changed. In an effort to keep the quarian population alive, the fleet sent away as many weaker and/or critically damaged ships as they could. The Azhara escaped in an all too familiar emergency jump, but remained in a somewhat operational state.

Shortly after the Azhara’s escape, it was learned that the crucible did not fire. Zur and the Azhara crew regrouped with the remaining quarian population. Zur, however, would be given a second chance to get back at the reapers as one day Zur woke up to an invitation to RIFT in his inbox. After much contemplating he accepted the offer and left the ship to his second in command.