Calson was a Human male trainee starfighter pilot who was under the command of Ranna Gorjaye at some point during the Galactic Civil War. During a training patrol over a planet, Calson crowded the formation and clipped the wing of Gorjaye's fighter, sending both craft crashing into an area known as the Wilds. On the ground, Gorjaye ordered him to fall in line and follow her to a nearby settlement, but Calson refused to take orders from a woman. Setting out on his own, he was killed by a corvaj, a predator native to the Wilds.
Ranna Gorjaye, Calson's superior officer
Calson was a Human male junior officer who was part of a training patrol of starfighters under the command of Ranna Gorjaye during the Galactic Civil War. During a flight over a planet, Calson crowded the formation, clipping the wing of Gorjaye's fighter with his own craft. The two ships subsequently crash-landed in the Wilds, an area of heavy jungle and swamps inhabited by insect swarms and vicious predators. Before Calson could unstrap himself from his stricken fighter, Gorjaye—who had quickly freed herself from her own stricken fighter—manually opened his cockpit and dragged him out. Calson angrily told Gorjaye that he could take care of himself.
Gorjaye gave Calson a verbal dressing down for his actions that had led to the crash, telling him that he had to follow her orders to survive. Calson disagreed, refusing to follow the orders of a woman. Indignant, but aware that Calson was her responsibility as he was her subordinate, Gorjaye used a directional transponder and a datapad map to locate a settlement seventeen kilometers northwest from their current position and suggested that they head out immediately.
Calson, however, had other ideas. During his descent, he had spotted something in the Wilds and planned to investigate. When Gorjaye ordered him to follow her, Calson relieved himself of her command. Taking his survival gear bag, he used his blaster to begin clearing a path through the jungle. Shortly after leaving Gorjaye, Calson was ambushed by a corvaj, a predator native to the Wilds, and was killed. Gorjaye survived, escaping the Wilds.
Calson was a trainee pilot, but he was not a skilled flyer. His overconfidence in his own abilities led directly to the crash-landing in the Wilds, and eventually to his own death. A chauvinist, Calson refused to take orders from women such as Gorjaye, even though she was his superior officer. Ranna Gorjaye considered Calson to be a "rowdy runt."
Calson first appeared in the short text story Survival Class, which appeared in The DarkStryder Campaign published by West End Games in 1995. The story served as part of Ranna Gorjaye's backstory.
The planet on which Calson's death occurs is never identified in the text, but Gorjaye's biography states that she received flight training on both the planets Salliche and Raithal, indicating that the planet could be either world, although there is no evidence in the story to suggest that this is the case. The only part of the planet mentioned by name is an area known as the Wilds; while the planet Kiffex is known to have an area called "The Wilds," no source to date has established a link between the two locations.
- The DarkStryder Campaign
- The DarkStryder Campaign, Deluxe