Jax Erinos, born Irian’Jaxerias, is a Mandalorian Warrior selected from Arcona’s Mandalorian Clan for the Fade Initiative. He is a martial arts and demolitions expert, a former commander, and a long time freedom-fighter sworn to the service of Atyiru Entar.
Mandalorian Soldier -- Fade Initiative - Operative #006
Physical Description
File:Jax-headshot.jpgJax smoking
Jax is a dark-skinned, thirty-three year old Zygerrian male, with his species' iconic furry, angular features, elongated fangs, bony spurs around his chin, and horns protruding over his feline ears. Most of his hair is a muddy brown, with some a slightly lighter, tanner tone, and all of it is startlingly well-kempt for a long-tenured mercenary soldier and ex-convict, largely due to the influence of his Twi'lek mothers. His piercing cyan eyes reveal a certain fire of emotion, usually ranging from anger and excitement to vicious contempt. Jax has many scars, including a large slash stretching from jaw to brow across his nose and cheek, plus several tattoos acquired throughout his life, all of which make quite the storied tapestry out of his skin.
Jax typically wears fighting leathers over simple cloth pants and shirts when not in the full battle armor more classic of a bounty hunter. He is very well-muscled and athletic thanks to a lifetime of grueling work and dedicated training. However, he's had his share of mishaps, and along with his multitude of scars, has also lost his right leg and the lower half of his left arm. Both were eventually replaced with top-of-the-line cybernetics, courtesy of his charge, Atyiru Entar. At any given time, he carries several knives and a blaster pistol, though both see much less use than his fists and feet. He also carries enough volatile explosives ingredients to blow up an ISD, but he doesn't talk about that one so much.
History
The Unbound (4 ABY - 21 ABY)
Born of a simple fling to a Zygerrian slaver on Bespin, Jax was discarded and left for dead as an infant. However, he was saved from the cold by his mother’s own Twi’lek slaves. The women named him Irian’Jaxerias, after their home colony, and cared for him as they could. When the group was traded to another slaver on Korbin, they smuggled Jax along with them.
Jax grew up in a harsh environment of grueling, menial work done largely in shadow. He was a sort of “duct rat”, always having to squeeze into whatever space he could to hide from his family’s masters. When one of him many mothers fell sick or was too exhausted to work, Jax would do their duties quietly for them, giving all the relief he could manage. Eventually, he expanded him outreach, sneaking around the compound to help other slaves, particularly those that fared much worse compared to the entertainment-oriented Twi’leks.
It was life as normal, but where others did not know any better Jax knew a meager taste of freedom in anonymity. As he grew and watched the Zygerrians through a pseudo-slave’s eyes, he also grew resentful and ruthless. He exploited his quasi masters at every turn, subtly sabotaging guard rotations and stealing everything from needles to bandages to soap to knives. He would escape the compound and explore the shadowport, hiding on the rooftops or in corners, observing soldiers as they trained or merchants as they bargained. Then each morning he returned to his mothers and put his stolen bits of knowledge to use. All the while, he hoped one day to free his family and crush the men and women they served.
Eventually, an opportunity presented itself. Their current master was killed in a sour deal, and the entire compound’s “product” was sent back to Zygerria to be redistributed. At his mothers’ urging, Jax left their care to go among him own species. However, Jax did not assimilate. A plan in mind, he worked as a mercenary and thief-for-hire, building his fortune. When he had the money, he joined the Zygerrian Slavers Guild, and spent a year tracking down and purchasing all the scattered members of his Twi’lek family. Together again, he and his mothers set themselves up on the space Jax was allocated for his business on Elerion, building a base there.
Jax continued his miscellaneous work, along with some profitable, albeit cheated gambling in Elerion’s casinos, in order to meet his expenses. Every slave he added to his operation was freed and given pay enough to seek opportunity elsewhere. Although his efforts in liberating handfuls of people were considered progress, Jax was dissatisfied. He still ached to lash out at his fellow Zygerrians and any other slavers. With that in mind, he began plotting an undertaking: to undermine the Zygerrian slave trade from within.
However, his ambitions were ended shortly after they began. His infringement was discovered by the Slavers Guild and Jax was arrested and imprisoned. All of his slaves, including his Twi’lek family, were executed. Jax would spend the next five years incarcerated on Zygerria.
The Reforged (21 ABY - 26 ABY)
Jax changed during his imprisonment. Armed with desperate hatred, experience in leadership, charisma, and a special kinship with the oppressed, he quickly formed a following among the other convicts. His two most trusted supporters were Ko-Ehni-Ta, a Cerean former demolitions expert who had displeased his buyers in the black market and Llirak, an ex-military Zabrak. Both men taught Jax their respective skill sets, honing him into a weapon. In return, Jax saw to it that their triad became the most respected “family” in the prison.
Approaching his sixth year as the unofficial ringleader of “his” institution, Jax received notice from his informants in the guard of the outbreak of the Yuuzhang Vong War. Desperate to get him and his people out of the region, Jax staged a prison riot that resulted in the deaths of most of the facility’s guards and several convicts, and the escape of the majority of the prison’s population. In the chaos, Jax lost his right leg, and saw his second pseudo-family’s massacre.
Following his escape from prison, Jax fled Zygerria with the aid of his Zabrak friend and stowed away on a slaver’s ship. Once out of orbit, they killed a guard and stole his uniform so that Jax could disguise himself as one of the slavers. He seized the pilot while his friend proceeded to cut down the rest of the crew and commandeer the vessel, freeing the slaves on board. They traveled to the Mid Rim before hopping to the Expansion Region and then to the Inner Rim, where Jax released the slaves in Coruscant. Finally free, he and his friend parted ways, but not before Llirak gave one last confession: he was not merely ex-military, but an ostracized member of a Mandalorian Clan that served powerful people, the Erinos. He recommended that Jax seek them out if all else failed, and then left.
- "You’re a tough sort, kid, and you fight for your freedom. You can’t get much more Mandalorian than that."
- ―Llirak, former member of Clan Erinos
Bitter but purposeless, Jax stayed in the Inner Rim and got cybernetics to replace his lost leg. During his time in recovery, he met many wounded soldiers, particularly as the number of injured increased during the Yuuzhang Vong War. As his rehabilitation progressed and the need for more bodies to replenish the army’s ranks increased, Jax volunteered his service.
The Infamous (26 ABY - 30 ABY)
Jax’s time in the military was a many-faceted thing he speaks little of. There are no words for the horrors of the Vong or their tactics. Nothing to encompass the smell of burning hair and skin, the twisted faces of alchemically abominated people that were people no more, the way strong men and wise men and low men all scream the same when they are afraid. There are no words.
Amidst the unspeakable chaos and perdition, Jax once again chafed against masters of a different kind. He loathed his military commanders, seeing the discipline and order as another type of leash. Rather than fight them, however, Jax instead decided to circumvent them. His natural leadership abilities drew his men to him, and he was soon elevated to the rank of Sergeant, heading a small commando unit.
Shortly thereafter, however, Jax was removed from command, demoted, and placed in custody pending review of his criminal record. In the midst of war, his superiors had finally discovered he had lied about his history and was an escaped convict. The Zygerrian was dishonorably discharged and detained until the end of the war two years later in 29 ABY when he was sent back to the rebuilding Coruscant, under guard, for trial.
Unwilling to be imprisoned ever again and irate at his treatment, Jax took his chance and rebelled against his captors in a dangerous attempt that destroyed their transport shuttle at a refueling station on the Byblos spaceport. Jax escaped with his life, but barely, and at the cost of many burns and ruined cybernetics. He recovered in a local clinic, but was plagued by nightmares of the war and paranoia of being hunted down. As soon as he was able, he bought passage out to the Dajorra system, where a thin, unappealing hope for escaping conviction remained: his old friend’s Mandalorian Clan.
The Reborn (30 ABY - 37 ABY)
Jax eventually discovered the Erinos Clan deep within the Dajorra system, finding them to be a powerful network of soldiers, laborers, brothers, sisters…and servants. The revelation of an entire populace of people sworn to a group of Dark Jedi revolted Jax, but he had little better alternative. After many humbling and grueling trials, Jax was welcomed as a member of the Erinos, leaving his old life behind to become one of the Mando’a.
Working with the Mandalorians, Jax found he was pleasantly surprised. What he had anticipated as a new face to the same visage of indentured servitude turned out to be an honest brotherhood, where it was not bought and paid ownership but earned loyalty that inspired everyone’s fealty. The Mandalorians possessed a spirit unlike any other, independent and indomitable—that they conscripted to their Sith masters willingly showed immense respect and fortitude. Serving Clan Arcona as part of their armed forces came to mean something to Jax, for while he was a solider and a servant, he was also a free man.
For the next seven years, Jax Erinos would be a diligent, elite, and deadly member of the Arcona Armed Forces and a free Mandalorian. He carried his dirty, ruthless, and bloody history with him and put it to use fighting Arcona’s many battles, rising once more to a commander amongst the Mandos. He was still wary and cynical, but he was content in supporting his brethren.
It all ended in blood and fire in 38 ABY on the battlefields of Beregen.
The Indebted (38 ABY)
The Dark Crusade had been as much of a hell for the mundane soldiers as it had been for the incredible powers of their Force-wielding lords. When they were not being thrown against men and women just like them, they were being massacred by the occasional One Sith Force-wielder. Jax saw his share of such horrors, and though different from his previous experiences in battle, the atmosphere rife with death and hopeless numbness was nonetheless the same.
As the year turned from 37 ABY to 38 ABY, so too did the desert world of Beregen. Despite the fact that many of the strikes on the planet were small, concentrated attacks performed by the elite Dark Jedi of the Brotherhood, much of their mundane armies were still deployed to the slaughter. Jax led one such unit of soldiers, following after the Force Adepts that paved a path closer and closer to the heart of the superstorm over Beregen’s Sith ruins. Such it was that he came upon the enormous palace that was the Clan’s target, and to the warzone outside its gates.
The fighting was thick, and they were outnumbered, having advanced beyond their fellow squadrons but fallen behind of their Jedi masters. Jax’s men fought well, but eventually even they were overwhelmed by a stray One Sith apprentice. Jax was cut down, but was saved with the arrival of a lightsaber-wielding woman in white who drove off the apprentice and healed him and his men. The woman introduced herself as Atyiru Caesus Entar, the Aedile of one of the Houses he served, having stayed behind in the courtyard as her elder brother stormed the palace. Shortly thereafter, Jax blacked out.
He awoke in a medbay aboard the BAC Darkest Night, recognizing the doctor that tended him as Atyiru. His injuries had been extensive enough that she had needed to amputate part of his left arm, but he had otherwise been healed. Silently furious, Jax merely waited in terse silence until the medic left, unwilling to admit he owed her his life, and was, once again, indentured without choice.
As Jax recovered, he brooded over his debt to Atyiru, and the two butted head constantly. Jax took offense to her almost childlike, carefree, and positive attitude, feeling toyed with every time she failed to mention compensation for his safety. Atyiru, meanwhile, chafed at Jax’s condescension and suspicion, growing steadily more irritated at his obvious efforts to dislike her.
Finally, during a rehabilitation session as he worked with his new cybernetics, Jax had had enough. He confronted Atyiru about the topic, and the two erupted into a shouting match that echoed down the corridors.
- "You think I’m so horrible, so low that I expect something from you for helping you? What the frak is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me? Ni’duraa! You di’kutla takisit! You're the fool here!
- "Hut’uun!"
“How dare you call me a coward?! You're just a little girl! You know nothing!”
- "Don't you dare presume to have any idea what I know or what I’ve seen! You’re broken. I can sense it. But so am I. We’ve both seen frakking terrible things, so you don’t get to come here and presume upon me! You want to make yourself indebted to me, find some reason to resent me. You’re trying so hard to put me into the memory of all your pain, but you know what? You don’t karking get to. I won’t do it again. I’ve had all that I can take, and you’ll never understand what I’ve faced, just like I’ll never understand what you have. Now get the frak out of my medbay. And take your life-debt with you."
“This isn’t over, shabuir."
- "Yes, yes it is."
- ―Atyiru and Jax fighting
At his next session, Jax asked Atyiru to spar with him, despite his handicap. After he accepted that is was against her medical advice, she agreed. They only fought for a few minutes, but it was enough for Jax: he called a stop, then told Atyiru to tell him the story behind one of her scars, and in turn she could do the same. Bit by bit, they got to know each other a little better, though some of the mutual coolness never quite dissipated. The topic of Jax's debt did not come up again, and eventually, as Clan Arcona moved to leave Beregen behind, he joined the Fade Initiative and swore himself to Atyiru's service, leaving his unit in the Erinos under new command. Atyiru accepted with the stipulation that Jax stay back to back with her instead of in front of her. They had a cordial, if somewhat distant and cynical sort of friendship, and were unfailingly dedicated in the way only war could shape.
Personality
Jax is a proud, gruffly charismatic soldier-type that likes a smoke, a cheap drink--no matter how close to bathtub gin it gets--and a couple good friends to share the former two with, plus a good bar fight...or three. He is a man that prizes his freedom nearly above all else, second only to those he may view as comrades or family, and he loves to actively express it. He is a fighter, but a dedicated commander, often inspiring leadership in his peers with his 'we stand free together or not at all' sort of attitude. He has a soft spot for mothers, the unfortunate, and those of the lesser criminal persuasion, yet despises slavers and cartel lords with a terrible hatred. He takes great care in his personal appearance, an odd trait in his burly repertoire left over from his childhood in a house full of women.
Over all, Jax could be described as a renegade, unbent, unbowed, and unbroken, neither good nor bad. He has a sound heart, a righteous soul, and a clever mind, all accented by a bloody but honor-bound history.
Combat Specialization
Martial Arts
Jax is a master of both K'thri and Echani, taught to him in his prison days and since practiced and applied with vicious vigor. He fights mainly unarmed, using limb, tooth, and horn, but will occasionally incorporate the knife techniques called for in Echani. His alteration between the soft, elegant, dancing style of K'thri and the harsh, ruthless honesty of Echani make for an odd mix that often throws off his opponents, allowing him to win as much with surprise as with skill.
Explosives
He could destroy a city block with a bar of soap and some string. Another skill aquried and since honed from his inmate days, Jax takes a certain unholy glee in watching things go BOOM. He's something of a pyromaniac, and revels in the total destructive catharsis that is any good explosion. In his opinion, fire is bright and fire is clean, and it can purge even the darkest of stains and melt the thickest of chains.
Trivia
- Jax fell head over heels for Captain Arcia Cortel the first time he met her aboard the Nighthawk during Operation: Revival and the subsequent Operation: Resurgence. Atty doesn't tease him about his romanticism as much as she might because the Captain not only has no interest in Jax, but actively hates him for preventing her from going down with her ship. Instead, they share their mourning over their unrequited love lives.
- Jax's character is a loosely-based amalgamation of the characters Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen from the Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch.
- Jax talks like his words went through a meat grinder despite being well-educated.
- Jax is a chain smoker but doesn't go for drinks much.
- Jax is terrible at most cantina games