Orion Gale is Kiffar mercenary. Highly skilled with blasters, he has made a successful career out of being a bodyguard and bounty hunter. He currently works alongside Reiden Karr of Scholae Palatinae.
Character History
Birth & Early Life
Kiffex
Orion Gale was born in 5 ABY on the planet Kiffex to loving parents Vaela and Ray. His mother Vaela was a baker with a small, family-run bakery and restaurant located in the neighborhood in which Gale would grow up. His father Ray had once been in a high-level position at the ship-building company Fondor Shipyards, which was located on the planet Fondor, a short hyperspace trip away from Kiffex. One day in 2 ABY, while his father had been at work, there was an accident where the machinery malfunctioned and dropped a small piece that was in the middle of construction. Ray had seen it start, and pushed the workers he had been talking to out of the way, saving them. Unfortunately, he was unable to save himself; the piece fell to the floor, crushing one of Ray’s legs. Ray had spent years of service there. However, he was aware that younger employees always had their eye on him, hoping to take his place one day. Couple that with the accident that cost him his leg, he had decided to retire from the company. They offered him a generous package, including payment for a cybernetic prosthetic for his crippled leg.
Thanks to the rich soil of Kiffex and the money from his retirement, his father was able start up a small farm to supplement his family’s income from the bakery and restaurant. It was hard work, but he would come to enjoy it. About three years after he began the farm, he and his wife welcomed their first child into the world, Orion Gale.
Orion had a normal and happy childhood, filled with fun stories told to him by his parents, fun vacations, and going to school. Throughout his education, he always paid attention and did his best, but he always wanted more out of life. As he reached his teenage years, some of his classmates began to bully him. It bothered him, but he always tried his best not to let it get to him too much. But all this came to a head when he was fifteen years old.
Teenage Years
It was at that time that a close friend of his was being bullied, one of the worse cases in the school. Orion stood up for him each time, but each time the bullies never backed down. In one instance, the instigators began getting physical, pushing his friend around. Orion had witnessed enough. Notifying the staff of the school seemed to do nothing; the bullies always got away with little more than a slap on the wrist. Orion pushed back. The leader of the group was a couple years older. He obviously did not like being challenged, and he balled up his hand into a fist and took a swing at Orion. The younger boy ducked under the arm and popped back up, launching a punch of his own, which landed squarely on the bully’s face. After the initial shock of the moment wore off, the group of bullies ran off. They never bothered Orion or his friend from that moment forward.
Orion’s parents were surprised at the actions that their son had taken. At the same time, however, they were proud of him for sticking up for his friend. That one moment would come to resonate with him. He began taking some basic self defense classes, and he excelled in them. Not long after that, he would become a skilled fighter.
When he reached the age of eighteen, Orion decided to expand on his inventory of skills. He wanted to train with blasters, despite his parents objecting. He tried to assure them that he was only learning how to use them as a safety precaution. He reasoned that if he were to venture offworld, there may be times when hand-to-hand combat can only get you so far. He also pointed out that simply having a blaster could be a potential deterrent for those that may wish him harm or take advantage of him. Knowing full well how stubborn their son could be, his parents relented and gave him their blessing to begin his training. He only intended to use a blaster as a matter of last resort, but it would be good to know how to use them just in case, regardless of the situation. One could never be too careful. He began his training, always seeking out more information, other teachers. After two years he had taken part in numerous competitions and challenging bets, proving himself a more than capable shot.
Orion with his first blasters
Adulthood
Throughout his training, Orion had been keeping something a secret from his parents, one he dared not tell them. He began forming a plan in his mind to leave Kiffex one day and become a bounty hunter. He had learned after standing up to that bully three years prior that he had felt a thrill that day, and he liked the feeling it gave him. While he truly did want to learn how to use blasters for the sake of safety, a small part of it was in preparation for the future. After all, Orion could not think of a better way to get a thrill than traveling the galaxy and hunting down criminals.
Working at Fondor Shipyards
At the age of twenty, Orion had decided to seek employment beyond simply helping his mother at her bakery and his father on their farm. Of course, he had been employed in other local businesses in various capacities, but he still yearned for something more, something different. With his skills in combat and blaster use, he felt that trying his hand as some kind of security guard would be a position in which he could do well. Using his father’s connections from his life before the farm, Orion was able to secure an interview and subsequent employment working security at Fondor Shipyards.
Fondor
While the connections alone may not have been enough, especially since his father hadn’t worked there since before he was born, the managers that had interviewed Orion were impressed by his training. They had gone so far as to pit him against some of their current security officers to see how he would fare. Despite the challenge of facing others that were older and more well-trained than himself, Orion managed to do well. He quickly defeated two of the five officers and took some time with the third before subduing him. Unfortunately the final two teamed up and he reached a standstill against them, but was able to land a few good strikes before the person managing the sparring session called an end to the match. After seeing his performance, Orion was hired right away. He eventually came to earn one of the company’s highest paid salaries among security personnel. He was also put in charge of training any new security officers to join the team.
Orion’s employment at Fondor spanned four years, and was mostly uneventful. There were a couple break-ins, and even a few employees of the company that had attempted to steal some research data and scaled prototypes, most likely in an effort to get a payout from a rival company. However, Orion could usually spot the suspicious parties involved. Then again, being the scientists and engineers that they were, the would-be thieves were rather bad at hiding their nervousness, so it wasn’t overly difficult to spot most of them. But over time, Orion grew to become bored with his job and prospects in life. Sure, it paid him well enough, and he liked that visiting home was a relatively short trip back to Kiffex, but it still left him wanting more, craving the thrill that he had first felt years ago when standing up to that bully, and the same thrill that came when he began training with blasters.
Physical Description
W.I.P.