O'Reilly has two great loves in his life. The other one is the Earth Fleet.
Xinjao O'Reilly was a player character in TI Season 4.3. He served in the Earth Fleet and fought for the Earth Federation primarily against the Christian Federation, but also against the Jurvain and TI Rebels.
Early Life[]
Xinjao was born to a Chinese mother and Irish father, both dockworkers in the Port Arthur system near the Eastern Bloc border. Living on an orbital space station near the repair dock, he began learning about starship engineering as soon as he was old enough to hold a wrench.
Earth Fleet Career[]
After graduating from vocational school with honors, he was recruited by Earth Fleet. After a tour with a construction battalion in a Fleet shipyard and another aboard a starship, he was promoted to Petty Officer 1st Class and posted at the St. Michael's Star space dock as a construction foreman.
While there, he fell in love with Jennifer, a civilian contractor. Although things were serious for a while, she forced Xinjao to choose between her and his career… and he chose his career. For years after than he never dated, turning to pornography instead and developing both a massive collection and a porn addiction.
To get away from Jennifer and St. Michael's Star, Xinjao took the OCS entrance exam, passed, transferred to Avalon, graduated as an Ensign, and was posted to the Mars Utopia Planitia Yards as a construction supervisor. His previous enlisted experience often bonded him with his men, and they became a highly effective unit.
After his Utopia Planitia tour, Xinjao was promoted to Lieutenant (Junior Grade), and assigned as Chief Engineer to the EFS Valiant, a sixty-year old destroyer on inner-system patrol duty that was constantly falling apart. Not only did he manage to keep the crate together, but the ship managed to get an Efficiency award (the first time in 30 years!). Completing his tour on the Valiant, Xinjao was promoted to full Lieutenant and posted to the Phoenix Yards as a Junior Contractor.
EFS Schaumburg[]
After only one tour at the Phoenix Yards, Xinjao promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and assigned as Chief Engineer to the EFS Schaumburg under Captain Erich Von Shrakenberg. O'Reilly quickly became good friends with Lieutenant Gergenstein. After only four months on board, the 3rd Civil War broke out.
While patrolling the Rios system, the Schaumburg was caught in the first Jurvain invasion of Rios. As the main Jurvain invasion fleet was coming through the jumpgate, Captain Shrakenberg crashed a civilian freighter into the gate, destroying it and the Jurvain troop transports exiting the gate. With their ground force gone, the Jurvain battle fleet was forced to withdraw, but not before being bloodied in a three-way space battle between the Grand Council Loyalists, Auntie Sarah's TI Rebels, and the Jurvain naval forces. The badly damaged Schaumburg limped back to Avalon.
EFS Benedict[]
While the Schaumburg was repaired in dry dock, Captain Shrakenberg (along with Gergenstein and O'Reilly, who had been promoted to Executive Officer) were transferred to the EFS Benedict, a hundred-year old destroyer, as part of Task Force 23, which carried out a cee-fractional strike against the TI Rebels' fleet in the New Madrid system. Although the raid was successful, the Benedict just barely survived it… only to be ambushed by a Jurvain battlecruiser.
Crippled and impossibly outgunned, Captain Shrakenberg agreed to surrender himself to Jurvain custody if they let the Benedict escape. Making the spacewalk from the crippled Benedict to the Jurvain vessel, Erich snuck a fusion cannon warhead along in his "luggage" and threw it into the Jurvain ship's airlock, crippling the battlecrusier. Although Erich pushed himself away, he couldn't escape the blast, lost a few limbs, and was almost killed. As executive officer, O'Reilly assumed command of the Benedict, finished off the Jurvain vessel, and personally made a spacewalk to retrieve the unconscious Shrakenberg from the flying debris field.
Phoenix Yards[]
Promoted to Commander, Xinjao was transferred back to the Fleet shipyards in the Phoenix system, shortly after it had fought off an attack from the Kingdom of Enoch. Exposed on the edge of Federation territory and weakened from attack, Xinjao was tasked with repairing Dock 14 and fortifying it for a siege, with orders to hold out until help arrived.
The Christian Federation invaded the system and managed to defeat the Federation picket, partly through the use of unarmed suicide ships. Wanting to seize the Phoenix Yards for themselves, the boarded the individual docks rather than destroying them. Although they took Dock 14, Xinjao and his men (the "yard dogs") managed to escape and hide in the bulkheads, from which they launched a guerrilla campaign against the occupiers. In the final decisive battle, the yard dogs ambushed the Christian troops and, although O'Reilly was badly injured (and ultimately lost his left hand), the engineers won and took back Dock 14… only to find out that they were the only dock that had held out successfully. Ordered by Calton Reks (head of the Righteous Army) to surrender or die, the yard dogs escaped to the planet below, leaving the injured O'Reilly behind.
Surprisingly, in an attempt to convert him, Calton Reks spared O'Reilly's life (and deleted his porn database, which earned him O'Reilly's eternal hatred). Although technically a prisoner, Xinjao was tasked with constructing and repairing the Christian fleet at the Phoenix Yards, and given considerably freedom to accomplish that goal. Instead, O'Reilly (and a resistance network of ex-Fleet engineers and yard dogs) sabotaged the Righteous Navy's flagship, the RNS Saint Andrew, and the Phoenix Yards itself. When the Saint Andrew blew, it took most of the Christian Federation's 1st Fleet with it.
O'Reilly was immediately captured and tortured (during which he lost an eye to a soldering iron) to reveal the names of other Phoenix resistance members. He was rescued shortly after by the resistance, and they escaped to Avalon, detonating the Phoenix Yards behind them as they left.
Task Force David[]
O'Reilly was promoted to Captain and given command ot the newly-repaired Schaumburg. Although O'Reilly was obsessed with crushing the Christian Federation, Earth Fleet merely established a defensive containment policy against it, considering the TI Rebels and Jurvain to be a more immediate threat. Determined, O'Reilly leveraged his new-found (and unwanted) celebrity as a Hero of the Federation to pressure Admiral Vorheis into letting him organize a volunteer task force for an offensive against the Christian Federation. Although the Schaumburg was the only Earth Fleet vessel included, the New Israel colony from Cronos provided a dozen support freighters and six antique warships from their "orbital naval museum."
Once assembled, Task Force David disappeared into hyperspace for a three-month raid behind enemy lines against the Christian Federation. Although they were popular in the press and good for Federation morale, the raid accomplished little. Although they successfully liberated Alpha Centauri and Tarkin, both were worthless systems with little or no strategic or economic value. Their only significant achievement was the liberation of the Phoenix system, during which the Righteous Navy's (admittedly tiny and pathetic) 2nd Fleet was almost destroyed.
Postwar[]
Narrowly avoiding being convicted of war crimes, O'Reilly retired from Earth Fleet after the Third Civil War, married Leisa Horton (a member of both the Phoenix Resistance and Task Force David), started a family on the New Israel colony (one daughter, Rachel O'Reilly), and eventually converted to Judaism. With the outbreak of the Vin Shriak War in 2251, O'Reilly was pressed back into active duty by Admiral Nirav Patel (who, ironically, had served under O'Reilly on the Benedict). Xinjao was only allowed to retire (again) seven years later after the end of the Second Vulthra War in 2258.
Behind the Scenes[]
O'Reilly was created by player Ed Stasheff in season 4.3. The character was parly inspired by the engineer Chief O'Brien from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Even Xinjao O'Reilly's name was inspired by Kirayoshi O'Brien, Chief O'Brien's half-Japanaese, half-Irish infant son.