Len Shaneshle was a Human male from Alderaan. He served as a lieutenant for the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone wars and achieved the rank of commodore or admiral among the Confederate Remnants.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Growing up in Alderaan, Len was a kid ahead of his time, widely regarded amongst his small town as an excitable and creative boy he was constantly challenging authority. He had settled down into adolescence and became increasingly disillusioned with the Republic with which Alderaan was generally in favor of. Len joined the small security force of the planet and quickly rose through the ranks, Len was ambitious and longed to acquire a position in an actual military force.
Separatist crisis[]
In the throws of the Separatist crisis, Len was one of he few petitioners for Alderaans Secession from the Republic.
Alderaan was scouted and contacted by the Count Dooku to join the cause, despite the counts appearance in person, the general consensus was against secession. Len used his security clearance. to get close to Dooku and would finally get the courage to introduce himself to Dooku as Shaneshle right before the transports were set to depart. Count Dooku must of seen some of the the young Shaneshle's potential and genius for he allowed him to join the ships and leave Alderaan to meet the Separatist council.
Shaneshle, although unproven was given a position in the leadership starved forces of the Confederacy by Count Dooku, having confidence in the abilities of Shaneshle.
Clone wars[]
The outbreak of the clone wars came as a surprise for Shaneshle, who had expected, in his idealist ways, the Republic to gradually submit to the Confederacy and the shift to power to come without lost of life as more and more planets secede to the Confederacy.
Startled by the landing of the unknown Clone armies in Geonosis, Shaneshle lost many positions in the area of the southern Hemisphere of Geonosis that he had been assigned to. It would be Shaneshle who would pull out the stops and prove to be the superior commander when faced with an assault led by a Jedi Knight. His unconventional and highly adapted methods would save the fledgling confederacy a lot of losses, although he would receive negative views from his stubborn officers for his tactic of giving up Hardcells to the advancing clones to allow the highly important Core ships to leave the planet.
He would constantly prove himself in numerous planetary and space skirmishes in the upcoming months although he would always be looked down by his veteran commanders, who viewed his tactics as reckless and overly reliant on variables such as morale of the clones and mindset of the republic commanders. His quietness and insecurities over his position in the Confederacy would allow other leaders to consistently take credit for his achievements.
When Shaneshle was offered a position as a planetary defense coordinator in a Deep Core mining and foundry world, Shaneshle accepted quickly, eager for more responsibility and importance in the separatist leadership. Unbeknownst to him the planet was Gauss, a harsh world whose unpredictable magnetic activity made communication nearly impossible, the assignment, needless handy work to keep Shaneshle busy and out of the spotlight.
Upon arrival on Gauss Shaneshle discovered the mines to be abandoned and the factories tiny and run down. Shaneshle quickly built upon the foundries, restarted the mining operations to feed his constructions and tapped into the sheet ice reserves to sustain food growth for the small number of organics that were under his command. Shaneshle was however, disturbed by his assignment and constantly tried to establish communication with the rest of the CIS for further briefings on his mission. One such message that managed to be delivered off the planet by a shift in the magnetic fields, was intercepted by a Republic fleet which sent a small detachment led by Jedi Master Muscularis to cleanse the CIS out of the Deep Core.
The Republic detachment rapidly set up base near Shaneshle's establishment, Shaneshle was unaware of the attack group, an effect the magnetic activity had on sensors, until an assault caught him off guard and substantially damaged his infrastructure before his battle droids could respond and drive off the attack.
Although the Republic forces were superior in strength to the droid army he commanded, Shaneshle's brilliant leadership and ability to construct additional droids to cooperate from loses pulled Shaneshle from the brink of defeat time and time again, even when faced with raid after raid from the Jedi.
New order[]
Shaneshle's means and morale to fight were increasingly scarce as Master Quartz led the relentless attacks. Shaneshle, exhausted with no will left to fight, was drafting a declaration of surrender when, unexpectedly, Muscularis defected to his side. Shaneshle found a new ally and new morale as the Jedi Master staved off attack after attack of clone troopers.
Shaneshle and Muscularis were preparing to deliver the final blow when, in response to one of the rare cases were a distress call escaped the magnetism, an Imperial fleet arrived to reinforce the detachment and blockade the planet.
Shaneshle eventually built up a significant strike group and assaulted and captured an Ion cannon set up by the clones while Muscularis infiltrated and destroyed a number of Star Destroyers docking in an Imperial shipyard set up on the planet.
With preprogrammed droids targeting a number of ships in the blockade with the captured Ion cannon, Shaneshle, Muscularis and the remaining Confederate forces escaped into Hyperspace to meet with the main Confederate Fleet.
Remnant fleet[]
Tell me Jedi, taught for compassion and serenity, have you lost everything you held dear, everything that kept you going to the hands of this...this Empire?
—Shaneshle
...yes...yes i have...
—Master Muscularis
Shaneshle was shocked to find that the CIS had been defeated, the droids deactivated, when he entered Imperial space. Shaneshle set about raiding former Confederate installations and reactivating the Battle droids that lay dormant. With constant hit and run tactics, Shaneshle's fleet evaded the Empire and quickly acquired a significant number of Droid Starfighters, frigates and capital ships to take on a territorial Imperial fleet and come out victorious. This fleet became known as "The Iron Plague" by the fearful Imperials.
Shaneshle even managed to liberate several outer rim planets from the Empire, although these would often only consist of battle droids catching a small Imperial garrison off guard and the citizens and their starships being evacuated off world before nearby fleet groups could respond.
TIE Bombers attempt a run on the disabled Providence-class Cruiser.
Shaneshle was devastated by the news of Alderaans destruction and the deaths of his entire family by the Death star. He began to fall deeper into a depression that had been brooding for some time, He attempted several risky and outright dangerous maneuvers that were seen by Muscularis as suicide runs that caused serious damage to both the Imperials and his small fleet. He refused to join the Alliance to Restore the Republic claiming that they would return the galaxy to the state that required the confederacies formation. Muscularis reluctantly agreed to stay with the group.
Later life[]
No, enough war, i have known an eternity of war and i can tell you this, no one benefits. If we are to thrive or even survive in this galaxy we must stay out of conflict. Leave the Republic and the Empire to their petty squabbles, these...these weapons i have acquired must be laid to rest,kept only to ensure we do not suffer the fate of Alderaan.
—Shaneshle, establishing the policies of his world
Refusing to join any interplanetary governments, Shaneshle set up colony on a outer rim world where he and Muscularis accepted refugees into his planets growing population, he would stay independent and refrain from military action while keeping a large force for defense that would ensure his worlds safety and independence well after his death in 36ABY.
Behind the scenes[]
Shaneshle was designed to be similar to an Imperial officer, although young, a rookie and operating for the CIS. The name of the character came from the closest pronunciation the author could manage of a town in Wales. Shaneshle was officially a commodore within his Confederate remnant fleet, although his duties resembled more closely an Admiral of the Fleet.
See also[]
- Battle of Gauss