Post by Susan on Feb 7, 2013 9:48:10 GMT -5
Name: Avanni Silas
Age: 27
Race: Echani
Birth place: Eshan
Height: 6’2
Weight: 166lbs
Eye Color: Silver
Hair Color: White
Theme
Appearance: Avanni is a fairly tall and muscular Echani male. He doesn’t think he sticks out in a crowd, despite his lean, athletic frame. Although his Echani attributes do tend to make him stick out a little, the white hair of his people being uncommon in most other societies. He rarely bothers cleaning himself up, and is often found in a rather unkempt condition. Hair, whilst short enough, wild and untamed – with a scruffy unshaven chin to match. His nose is a little crooked, broken a long time ago for reasons long since forgotten.
He generally wears just a generic padded flight suit, almost all the time. His flight suit is an off green colour, with lighter green pads on the shoulders, elbows, and knees. Avanni does not quite know why the pads are there, but it’s comfortable, so he has few complaints. He doesn’t really see the need to dress up in anything fancy, believing that the utility of his flight suit suits more or less every situation. If need be, he would wash some of the stains off, but that’s about it. He often always keeps his gloves on, even when he does not need them – mostly because of his left hand.
When he was younger, he was trying to upgrade a component on a small cargo vessel, and instead caused a minor overload. This lead to a moderate burn on the back of his left hand, which caused some pain and made the hand unusable for some time. The injury has since healed, leaving a slight scar, and whilst he does prefer to disguise it, he does not feel the need to remove it via the use of cosmetic surgeries. The scar is part of who he is, and he doesn’t see any need to change that.
Personality: Avanni has always enjoyed risk, and can often be considered to be quite reckless. But he always believes that whatever he does, while it may carry risk, he is good enough to avoid any serious ramifications. That’s not to say he is, he’s just confident in his abilities, to the point of arrogance.
He prefers his own company to the extended company of others, but is not averse to surrendering to the pleasures of the flesh, on a temporary basis. He does not bother too much with his appearance, but does think he is good at talking to people, even though he only chooses too on occasion. He is very self involved, and will always put himself in front of others if the need arises, he doesn’t really understand the need to relate to the issues of others.
Avanni does not trust easy, and as such he prefers to work alone, and does not spend more time than is necessary with other people. He travels the galaxy without putting down roots, staying at any one location for no more than a few days. He often looks down on others, especially non-Echani, and will treat most with scorn. While he doesn’t trust easy, he is prone to respecting others – especially those that he has seen, or fought, in single combat. He does not think that there are many in the galaxy that can match an Echani in unarmed combat – although he will admit that some must exist, if only due to the vastness of the galaxy. But if any do exist, it’s none that he has yet met.
While not really a compassionate person, Avanni does not take perverse pleasure in the suffering of others, and does not wish to be an instrument of such. He would never accept a contract to traffic sentient creatures, although it’s pretty much his only restraint when it comes to business. He has transported illegal arms many times, and whilst he recognises the threat they pose – the way he sees it, he does not pull the trigger. Once the delivery is completed, he is distanced from the weaponry and they no longer have anything to do with him. If he transported slaves, however, he would be facilitating their suffering.
Profession: Smuggler
Equipment:
Flight suit
Worn Blaster Pistol
Skills:
Echani Martial Arts
Basic knowledge of ship mechanics
Experienced pilot
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 6
Intelligence: 5
Speed: 6
Leadership: 1
Unarmed: 7
Melee Weapons: 4
Ranged Weapons: 2
Ship Name:Redrum, Bulls-Eye Class Light Freighter.
Bio:
A healthy baby boy.
Avanni Silas was born on his people’s home world of Eshan, to a medic and a baker. He never knew his father, the baker who abandoned his pregnant mother. To be fair, he isn’t even sure if the man was a baker, the information given to him was rather lacking. But it was not really something that was entirely necessary. As he grew older, he did have some questions about his origins, as was natural. But he didn’t need to know that much, he never knew or needed his father. He had his mother.
His mother worked a lot, and as such was perhaps not around as much as she could be in Avanni’s early years. He was mostly cared for by a myriad of hired help or relatives, but his mother would spend as much time with her child as she could. She taught him to walk, she taught him to talk, and eventually – she taught him to fight.
Wax on, wax off.
As a young child, Avanni was enrolled into education and went to school to learn with other Echani children. He was never a shining student, but nor did he ever really struggle. He tried hard and did what he was told, just like he had been raised to do. After school every day, he would return home and play with his mother. At the time he had never really thought of the games they played as anything more than a bit of fun. But as he grew older, he realised that they were preparing him for the life ahead, and were the first step in his immersion into his people’s culture.
He was trained how to fight from a young age, firstly by his mother – but as he grew both in age and in skill, his teachers changed. After his mother, his uncle took over the tutelage. And Uncle Ba’ora was not as kind and forgiving as his sister. Whereas Avanni’s mother, Aeryn, was slow and careful with her only child, his uncle treated any and all failings as weakness. In his early childhood and going into his teenage years, Avanni despised his uncle, loathed the man with every fibre of his being. He was driven hard, relentlessly by the man, punished for even the slightest wrongdoing. Avanni wasn’t quite sure how to channel his hatred, so he just pushed himself harder to prove Ba’ora that he wasn’t just a snivelling failure. That he could do what he was commanded – and better than expected.
And eventually, he proved that. It took a long time, and a lot of hard working, but the training and discipline drilled into him by Ba’ora shaped the child into the young man that he would become. On the day that Avanni bested Ba’ora in a spar, the teenager was treated with something he never expected from his uncle and teacher, respect. Avanni was congratulated on his skill and technique, and the young Echani was both shocked and in awe. It was then that he realised that, whilst his uncle may be a bit of a bastard, it was not without reason. It was certainly a very different training method than his first tutor, but he would later learn that every teacher had their own style.
Good things come in three’s.
Several months after his fourteenth birthday, Avanni ‘graduated’ from Ba’ora’s tutelage. The young boy was well on his way to becoming a young man, and due to the aggressive training over the years, he had become quite adept at Echani martial training. He felt himself strong, skilled – he was confident in his own abilities. His next and last instructor would teach him the error of overconfidence.
Aeryn was careful and understanding, Ba’ora was harsh and unforgiving, Hagan brought something else to the table. A friend of his mother’s, Hagan Duresh was a former officer in the Echani military. A veteran soldier, he resigned his commission after a particular gruesome conflict. Although Avanni was never given the details of such conflict, and was never brave enough to ask. Hagan was not quite as brutal as Ba’ora, but his style wasn’t entirely different. Avanni would still be punished for the slightest of failings, but unlike with his uncle – he would actually be told where he went wrong, and instructed how to do better.
Avanni came to respect and admire the former soldier, and the young Echani thoroughly enjoyed his sessions with Hagan over the years. The majority of his life he had been trained in various forms of hand to hand combat styles, and over time he became adept at all that he learnt. It was Hagan who tested him with the higher tier, more advanced skills. And Avanni struggled much more than he had thought he would, and it was a real blow to his confidence. He thought that he was skilful, that he was something special. It turned out he was just an arrogant little child. More than a few times he just wanted to give up, he wasn’t made out to be an Echani, quite clearly he was just born on the wrong planet. But each time, Hagan convinced him otherwise. Mostly by a stern word or a whack to the head, but the message always got across.
Avanni had always been a loner, and whilst Hagan was his teacher, he became his first real friend – and Avanni looked up to the man immensely. On the day that their training together had finished, and Hagan deemed that Avanni had mastered all that he could teach him, the soldier gave his student a passing gift. It was only an old blaster pistol, but it was in good condition, and it was the one Hagan had used during his service. He taught Avanni how to use it, although the boy wasn’t really the best, he cherished the gift immensely. He carries the weapon at his hips at all times, although very rarely uses it. It was more a sentimental object, rather than a weapon.
After finishing his combat training with his various teachers, Avanni still had his academic studies to finish. He didn’t spend as much time on what he saw as the more boring aspects of his tutelage as he should have done really, but scraped through okay. The only academic subject he actually really enjoyed was when studying about the other planets of the galaxy. From everything he learnt, whilst they sounded interesting - they didn’t sound any better than Eshan. It wasn’t like he wanted to leave his home world, he did one day want to experience all the glories the galaxy had to offer. But the way he saw it, Eschan glittered brighter than any world in the universe. Not that he was bias, or anything.
When he was done with all of his education, it was time for him to decide what to do with his life. Everyone in his life, his mother, his uncle, everyone all gave him their advice. But a long time ago, Avanni had already decided what path he was to take. Inspired by his mentor Hagan, he decided to sign up with the military. Not just on Eschan though, he wanted to see more. So the next time the Republic recruiters blew through town, they had an eager recruit all ready to join up.
Fly away little bird.
He signed up and barely had time to say his goodbyes before he was whisked away to basic training. He wasn’t sure why, but mobilised infantry didn’t really appeal to him. It wasn’t that he shied away from the risk and adventure of frontline action – he just didn’t see himself as disposable infantry. So he joined the Navy. He had always found star ships interesting, but he had never really envisaged himself at the helm of one – until the opportunity presented itself.
And so he went off to flight school. He went through aptitude tests, physical fitness tests, reflex tests, lots and lots of tests where people poked him for no real reason. And he was eventually declared fit enough to be of some use, and sent off to training. As it turned out, he wasn’t that bad at piloting after all. Running through simulations to begin with, at least, and he felt he handled the basics quite well. He assumed that the reflexes he honed through his martial training played a part in this, but he quite enjoyed being good at something.
Not that he excelled or anything, consistently scored in the top half of his class, but never burnt any brighter. He never really wanted to be at the top either. He knew how good he was, he didn’t care if others were better – he was confident in his own abilities, and that was all that mattered to him. And he couldn’t wait to experience piloting his own rig himself, not just in a simulation. No matter how real they felt.
His first real taste of actual flight was in a two man trainer vessel, in tandem with an instructor. He’d already logged hundreds of hours on the simulator, and managed to complete the course without too much difficulty. Although the landing was a little bit bumpy, the Echani rookie wasn’t quite comfortable with that part. He would have preferred to have stayed in the air, but as explained to him, that kind of went against the point. But at the day, whilst he may not have completed his first flight at the optimum level, he also didn’t crash and burn both him and his instructor to a crisp.
As he had throughout the rest of his life, whilst at the Republic flight school, Avanni Silas mostly kept himself to himself. He didn’t go out of his way to make friends. He didn’t point blank ignore people, he socialised when he felt the need arise, but never to any great extent. He would talk to his bunk mates, he would eat lunch in the common areas, and discuss the day’s training with others. But he never considered any of them his friends, not really – they were just other people with similar qualities to him, in a similar situation to himself. But even Avanni made connections sometimes, and when he met Drax Kolbar, a young heavily built Zabrak, the Echani may have finally made himself a friend.
Avanni and Drax were paired together for simulated trained of a duel piloted vessel, and they sparked up a conversation when they first met. Avanni didn’t really speak a lot, but fortunately Drax made up for that by talking enough for three people, Avanni had never met anyone who enjoyed the sound of their own voice so much. But really, he didn’t mind – it was all part of his new friends charm.
Drax nicknamed his ‘little Echani buddy’ as Avi, mostly because he was too lazy to pronounce all three syllables. They interacted often, and whenever they ever had the choice too, they paired together in grouped training exercises. Not that they often had the choice, mind. Although when they were not in training or what not, the little free time they had they spent together. They enjoyed sparring with one another, quite a lot. Both had really varying techniques, and often Avanni found it difficult to read the Zabrak in close combat. Drax Kolbar was the first person that Avanni had ever met that he felt was an incredibly skilled combatant. Avanni has still never met anyone who mastered the dance of combat as well as his friend Drax.
Unfortunately, after they both graduated from flight school – Drax second of the class, the two friends were separated, given different assignments. They were both posted at different locations in the galaxy, and it was somewhat of an emotional moment for Avanni, although he felt confident that they would keep in touch. And so they did, as often as they both could, they would send vid bursts detailed as much as they were allowed to about what they were up to. But overtime, the time between communications became longer, and less frequent. Eventually they stopped altogether, Avanni being the one to fail to respond to his old friend. He kept putting it off for various reasons, and he was always too busy with his assignments, this that and the other. Eventually, he just forgot, and Drax Kolbar became nothing more than a memory.
During his time in the Republic army, Avanni was never involved in any major combat, and he never ranked higher than a private. He was licensed to fly several class of ships, the largest being a Patrol ship, although he had more experience in one man interceptors or Assault craft. He generally favoured assault craft, he was happy enough working with a small crew, and he felt the size and manoeuvrability of the ship suited him well. He was well experienced with flying personnel transports, as well, and quite often his Naval responsibilities lay with troop transportation. It was a mundane task, but he knew it was important, and carried it out every time to the best of his ability.
Although not every time was perfect. He had been part of the Navy for more than six years and had flown countless of transport missions, but one time was a little different to others. He was transporting a small squad from base to base on a small planet, and the troop transport he piloted had a malfunction in a rear component, forcing lift to completely evaporate. The craft went down quickly, and Avanni struggled to keep it level, eventually having to force a crash landing. The impact left three dead and five seriously injured, including Avanni’s co-pilot, Miles Tanner. Avanni himself was relatively unharmed, but woke up in a field hospital several hours afterwards with little recollection of the incident in question. He didn’t leave the hospital for several days, despite being physically fine. An investigation into the occurrence came up with mechanical fault as the cause, and there was nothing that anyone could have done to prevent it. That didn’t make Avanni feel any better, though. Two of the injured soldiers died on route to the hospital, although the other three eventually recovered and were honourably discharged. Avanni himself was offered that same choice, and albeit with some hesitation, he took it. The Republic Navy was not the place for him anymore.
Static.
After being discharged, Avanni was not quite sure what to do with himself. His first thought was to try and make contact with his old friend again, but decided against it. After a quick lookup, Lieutenant Drax Kolbar seemed to be faring quite well in the Navy, and Avanni felt that he shouldn’t bother his old friend. His second thought was to go home, but he struck that one off straight away. His family was informed of what happened, and he had spoken with them, but he wasn’t sure if he could face them just yet. He spoke to his mother and his uncle, at least. He didn’t even have the courage to speak to Hagan, he didn’t want his old mentor to see the failure he had become. Avanni spent a lot of times in outer rim ports, drinking all sorts of slush and just about barely existing.
Eventually, it dawned upon him that he couldn’t carry on this way. For one thing, his credits balance was dwindling at an alarming rate. He was on Corellia when he saw the job listing, and thought it suited his abilities, and it was worth a shot. It was just a transport assignment for a shipping company, pilot a ship from A to B. He sobered up for his interview, and while he hadn’t been a pilot for a short time, his record was good enough for the position. It was a no risk haulage contract, so they hardly needed a hot shot fighter pilot. So he got the position, and it seemed he had a new calling.
And the life of a merchant freighter pilot was ohhhhh so interesting and entertaining. Even after a few weeks of it, Avanni was bored out of his skull. It wasn’t even like the routes were mixed up and different each time. It was literally hauling the same cargo, to the same destination, day in day out. It was mind numbing and the Echani despised every moment of it. While his time in the Navy never afforded him with any real combat, it was still much more interesting and exciting than this was. But end of the day, there wasn’t that many options for a washed up Republic pilot.
Squeaky bum time.
The most interesting thing to happen to Avanni during his year or so as a Freighter pilot was being seized by Republic border control and searched for contraband. Avanni wasn’t aware the ship was carrying any, and in any case he was kept isolated in the cockpit during the search. In the end, the search turned up empty, and Avanni was begrudgingly sent on his way. He noted the encounter as a whimsical tale and thought nothing else of it. A few days later, however, he was on Corellia doing his daily training regime at a local gym, when he saw someone he hadn’t seen in a fair while.
Miles Tanner looked a little different from the last time Avanni saw him, for a start he had less arms than the Echani recalled. His former co-pilot approached him at the bar, and for a few moments Avanni thought the maimed human was going to take his retaliation for the crash, but it turned out he had it all wrong. Unlike Avanni himself, Tanner didn’t blame him for the accident, and seemed to be quite at ease with what had happened. Avanni wasn’t quite sure how the human had got over it so quick, he still hadn’t – and he had not suffered as great a loss as Tanner. They spent a little time reminiscing about the old times in the Navy, but not too long, because tanner got quickly to the reason why he had approached. As it turned out, Tanner also went into civilian piloting after he left the Military, but not quite in the same manner as Avanni. Tanner was a smuggler, and clearly didn’t mind talking openly about it to his old comrade. He span tales of adventure and wonderment to Avanni that had him on the edge of his seat. The risk, the reward, it thrilled the Echani and it made him realise exactly what he was missing in his life. And the thing he was missing, Miles Tanner could provide.
Tanner had heard about Avanni’s brush with the border patrols, and wrongly made the assumption that they were both in the same trade, which probably explained why he was so cavalier about his criminal activities. Despite the revelation of him being green when it came to criminality, Tanner still made the offer to Avanni, an offer that really did intrigue him. He had a ship, he had the cargo, and he had the destination. The human just needed a co-Pilot. From what he remembered from the Navy, Tanner was quite a good pilot, capable enough. Avanni knew he was better, though, and it appeared Tanner himself recognised this also. Becoming a Smuggler sounded really interesting, exciting even, but Avanni was not so sure. He’d never really done anything illegal before, he toed the line from time to time – but never actually crossed it. And smuggling illegal commodities in the republic was so far past the line, that the line would become a dot on the horizon. However, his resistance to the idea didn’t last that long, and once Tanner told with him what his share for this one job would be, all of his reservations dissipated.
And so he agreed to become Tanner’s pilot. He thought, why not, should be a bit of fun. He’d only have to do this one job, and he’d have a hell of a lot of cake to show for it. And then Tanner shown him the ship he’d be piloting. It was a stock freighter, and not even a high end one at that. The Bulls-eye class was a ship he’d always admired, though. He’d never actually flew one – he piloted larger rigs as his time as a merchantman, but he’d always wanted too. And as soon as he sat in that Pilot’s chair and activated the start-up systems, Avanni knew that he had arrived. He wasn’t made out to be a Navy Pilot, or a Freighter merchantman. This, this was where he belonged.
The delivery that Tanner needed assistance with was a one stop mission from Corellia to Iridonia, with an assortment of legal commodities stored in the hold. As well as that there were some not so legal commodities, including a fairly large quantity of spice. Tanner himself had fitted the ship, Redrum, with several hidden compartments. Really, there was no way to be a smuggler without them. And so the next day Avanni took some time off from the Haulage company, and took control of the Redrum, setting course for Iridonia. The delivery came off without a hitch, Tanner taking the special contents to the intended recipients himself, whilst leaving Avanni with the ship. The Echani was given his share of the spoils and congratulated on a job well done, and then Tanner said the thing that he was hoping upon hope that he would say. He offered Avanni the chance to do this again, and again, and again. Despite his earlier revelations, after this smallest of tastes, no wasn’t even an answer he would consider. He immediately resigned from the shipping job, citing that he decided to become a freelance merchantman. Which wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
And so now Avanni had himself a ship, he had himself a co-pilot, and he had himself a new vocation in life. Tanner already had a few contacts in the seedy underbelly of the Galaxy, and that got them off to a good start. Him arranging the contracts, and Avanni carrying them out. Eventually though, Avanni took over the negotiating as well, as it turned out his human counterpart wasn’t very good at it. Tanner was quick to anger and would often reject contracts straight up based on ridiculous personal feelings – like if the contact was Rodian. Avanni didn’t have those kinds of hang-ups, and after he started handling the negotiations, the jobs started to come in a little quicker. Although that didn’t mean they were always rolling in the credits. Smuggling was still a clandestine operation, after all, it wasn’t like they could have an advertisement podium in the centre of Coruscant. But they got by.
RP Sample:
Coruscant, the capital of the galaxy. It felt like everyone on the entire planet was trying to get to and leave somewhere all at the same time. Too big, too crowded, too noisy. Avanni Silas much preferred his home world, but unfortunately Eschan was not the capital of the galaxy. And really, he didn’t like Eschan that much anyway. It was better than Coruscant, though. Tatooine was better than Coruscant. But this planet right here was the necessary evil, and Avanni loathed that fact. He much preferred to do business on board a ship, or failing that a small space station. But no, for some reason a lot of his clientele insisted on meeting in crowded bars on crowded planets that were often sticky and smelt vaguely of vomit.
This night was no different, and so here he was, on this blasted metropolitan rock with quite possibly thousands of sentients milling around him. After a cursory glance, he didn’t see a single Echani in this place. He didn’t blame them, if he had any real choice in the matter, he wouldn’t be here himself. He supposed he didn’t have to take this contract, but that would be like saying he didn’t need fuel, or credits for gambling. Work, another necessary evil. And it was something that had been eluding the Echani smuggler for some time now. The last real assignment he had was a while ago now, and the credits from that were rapidly running low. And opportunities were hardly on every doorstep.
His contact was running late, and it was hardly the first time this had happened. For some reason the criminal element liked to be late, apparently they thought it made a good impression. Avanni disagreed, he was generally always early for a rendezvous, at any rate. He liked to be there first, and he liked to make a brief reconnaissance of the meeting place. He needed to secure alternate routes of exit if there was ever any issues with the first introduction. Avanni always got nervous when meeting a new client, twice they’d been burnt, and once nearly walked right into a sting operation. Avanni enjoyed his life, he enjoyed the risk that his profession carried with it. But he wasn’t going to let himself be caught out, not a chance – he liked his freedom. So he was always overly careful, maybe even paranoid. But it was better to be paranoid than dead.
The contact he was supposed to be meeting really was late, more late than was regular actually – and that really was making Avanni nervous. He moved a hand to his waist and removed his communicator, lifting the small device up and activating it.
”Miles, Avanni. This guy’s running late and I don’t like it. Notice anything out there?”
The message went through and was quickly received by Miles Tanner, his co-pilot, waiting outside in a speeder. The pair of them never both met with a new contact, Avanni preferred that he handled the negotiations. So in this instance, Tanner waited outside and would keep lookout for anything suspicious.
”All quiet out here, not seen our guy, but crowded so can’t be sure. A few Twi’lek’s have been in.”
Tanner’s voice came through gruff and clear, confirming that the contact hadn’t yet arrived. Avanni didn’t like being messed around. Whilst the promise of this contract was quite a large amount, it wasn’t worth doing the run around. He frowned slightly and fiddled with a toggle on his off green jumpsuit, before standing up and rolling his shoulders.
”Mount up Miles, we’re done here.”
With that, he walked away from his table, navigating the thick crowd with some difficulty, and heading out to meet his friend. The Twi’lek would have to find another Smuggler.
Age: 27
Race: Echani
Birth place: Eshan
Height: 6’2
Weight: 166lbs
Eye Color: Silver
Hair Color: White
Theme
Appearance: Avanni is a fairly tall and muscular Echani male. He doesn’t think he sticks out in a crowd, despite his lean, athletic frame. Although his Echani attributes do tend to make him stick out a little, the white hair of his people being uncommon in most other societies. He rarely bothers cleaning himself up, and is often found in a rather unkempt condition. Hair, whilst short enough, wild and untamed – with a scruffy unshaven chin to match. His nose is a little crooked, broken a long time ago for reasons long since forgotten.
He generally wears just a generic padded flight suit, almost all the time. His flight suit is an off green colour, with lighter green pads on the shoulders, elbows, and knees. Avanni does not quite know why the pads are there, but it’s comfortable, so he has few complaints. He doesn’t really see the need to dress up in anything fancy, believing that the utility of his flight suit suits more or less every situation. If need be, he would wash some of the stains off, but that’s about it. He often always keeps his gloves on, even when he does not need them – mostly because of his left hand.
When he was younger, he was trying to upgrade a component on a small cargo vessel, and instead caused a minor overload. This lead to a moderate burn on the back of his left hand, which caused some pain and made the hand unusable for some time. The injury has since healed, leaving a slight scar, and whilst he does prefer to disguise it, he does not feel the need to remove it via the use of cosmetic surgeries. The scar is part of who he is, and he doesn’t see any need to change that.
Personality: Avanni has always enjoyed risk, and can often be considered to be quite reckless. But he always believes that whatever he does, while it may carry risk, he is good enough to avoid any serious ramifications. That’s not to say he is, he’s just confident in his abilities, to the point of arrogance.
He prefers his own company to the extended company of others, but is not averse to surrendering to the pleasures of the flesh, on a temporary basis. He does not bother too much with his appearance, but does think he is good at talking to people, even though he only chooses too on occasion. He is very self involved, and will always put himself in front of others if the need arises, he doesn’t really understand the need to relate to the issues of others.
Avanni does not trust easy, and as such he prefers to work alone, and does not spend more time than is necessary with other people. He travels the galaxy without putting down roots, staying at any one location for no more than a few days. He often looks down on others, especially non-Echani, and will treat most with scorn. While he doesn’t trust easy, he is prone to respecting others – especially those that he has seen, or fought, in single combat. He does not think that there are many in the galaxy that can match an Echani in unarmed combat – although he will admit that some must exist, if only due to the vastness of the galaxy. But if any do exist, it’s none that he has yet met.
While not really a compassionate person, Avanni does not take perverse pleasure in the suffering of others, and does not wish to be an instrument of such. He would never accept a contract to traffic sentient creatures, although it’s pretty much his only restraint when it comes to business. He has transported illegal arms many times, and whilst he recognises the threat they pose – the way he sees it, he does not pull the trigger. Once the delivery is completed, he is distanced from the weaponry and they no longer have anything to do with him. If he transported slaves, however, he would be facilitating their suffering.
Profession: Smuggler
Equipment:
Flight suit
Worn Blaster Pistol
Skills:
Echani Martial Arts
Basic knowledge of ship mechanics
Experienced pilot
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 6
Intelligence: 5
Speed: 6
Leadership: 1
Unarmed: 7
Melee Weapons: 4
Ranged Weapons: 2
Ship Name:Redrum, Bulls-Eye Class Light Freighter.
Bio:
A healthy baby boy.
Avanni Silas was born on his people’s home world of Eshan, to a medic and a baker. He never knew his father, the baker who abandoned his pregnant mother. To be fair, he isn’t even sure if the man was a baker, the information given to him was rather lacking. But it was not really something that was entirely necessary. As he grew older, he did have some questions about his origins, as was natural. But he didn’t need to know that much, he never knew or needed his father. He had his mother.
His mother worked a lot, and as such was perhaps not around as much as she could be in Avanni’s early years. He was mostly cared for by a myriad of hired help or relatives, but his mother would spend as much time with her child as she could. She taught him to walk, she taught him to talk, and eventually – she taught him to fight.
Wax on, wax off.
As a young child, Avanni was enrolled into education and went to school to learn with other Echani children. He was never a shining student, but nor did he ever really struggle. He tried hard and did what he was told, just like he had been raised to do. After school every day, he would return home and play with his mother. At the time he had never really thought of the games they played as anything more than a bit of fun. But as he grew older, he realised that they were preparing him for the life ahead, and were the first step in his immersion into his people’s culture.
He was trained how to fight from a young age, firstly by his mother – but as he grew both in age and in skill, his teachers changed. After his mother, his uncle took over the tutelage. And Uncle Ba’ora was not as kind and forgiving as his sister. Whereas Avanni’s mother, Aeryn, was slow and careful with her only child, his uncle treated any and all failings as weakness. In his early childhood and going into his teenage years, Avanni despised his uncle, loathed the man with every fibre of his being. He was driven hard, relentlessly by the man, punished for even the slightest wrongdoing. Avanni wasn’t quite sure how to channel his hatred, so he just pushed himself harder to prove Ba’ora that he wasn’t just a snivelling failure. That he could do what he was commanded – and better than expected.
And eventually, he proved that. It took a long time, and a lot of hard working, but the training and discipline drilled into him by Ba’ora shaped the child into the young man that he would become. On the day that Avanni bested Ba’ora in a spar, the teenager was treated with something he never expected from his uncle and teacher, respect. Avanni was congratulated on his skill and technique, and the young Echani was both shocked and in awe. It was then that he realised that, whilst his uncle may be a bit of a bastard, it was not without reason. It was certainly a very different training method than his first tutor, but he would later learn that every teacher had their own style.
Good things come in three’s.
Several months after his fourteenth birthday, Avanni ‘graduated’ from Ba’ora’s tutelage. The young boy was well on his way to becoming a young man, and due to the aggressive training over the years, he had become quite adept at Echani martial training. He felt himself strong, skilled – he was confident in his own abilities. His next and last instructor would teach him the error of overconfidence.
Aeryn was careful and understanding, Ba’ora was harsh and unforgiving, Hagan brought something else to the table. A friend of his mother’s, Hagan Duresh was a former officer in the Echani military. A veteran soldier, he resigned his commission after a particular gruesome conflict. Although Avanni was never given the details of such conflict, and was never brave enough to ask. Hagan was not quite as brutal as Ba’ora, but his style wasn’t entirely different. Avanni would still be punished for the slightest of failings, but unlike with his uncle – he would actually be told where he went wrong, and instructed how to do better.
Avanni came to respect and admire the former soldier, and the young Echani thoroughly enjoyed his sessions with Hagan over the years. The majority of his life he had been trained in various forms of hand to hand combat styles, and over time he became adept at all that he learnt. It was Hagan who tested him with the higher tier, more advanced skills. And Avanni struggled much more than he had thought he would, and it was a real blow to his confidence. He thought that he was skilful, that he was something special. It turned out he was just an arrogant little child. More than a few times he just wanted to give up, he wasn’t made out to be an Echani, quite clearly he was just born on the wrong planet. But each time, Hagan convinced him otherwise. Mostly by a stern word or a whack to the head, but the message always got across.
Avanni had always been a loner, and whilst Hagan was his teacher, he became his first real friend – and Avanni looked up to the man immensely. On the day that their training together had finished, and Hagan deemed that Avanni had mastered all that he could teach him, the soldier gave his student a passing gift. It was only an old blaster pistol, but it was in good condition, and it was the one Hagan had used during his service. He taught Avanni how to use it, although the boy wasn’t really the best, he cherished the gift immensely. He carries the weapon at his hips at all times, although very rarely uses it. It was more a sentimental object, rather than a weapon.
After finishing his combat training with his various teachers, Avanni still had his academic studies to finish. He didn’t spend as much time on what he saw as the more boring aspects of his tutelage as he should have done really, but scraped through okay. The only academic subject he actually really enjoyed was when studying about the other planets of the galaxy. From everything he learnt, whilst they sounded interesting - they didn’t sound any better than Eshan. It wasn’t like he wanted to leave his home world, he did one day want to experience all the glories the galaxy had to offer. But the way he saw it, Eschan glittered brighter than any world in the universe. Not that he was bias, or anything.
When he was done with all of his education, it was time for him to decide what to do with his life. Everyone in his life, his mother, his uncle, everyone all gave him their advice. But a long time ago, Avanni had already decided what path he was to take. Inspired by his mentor Hagan, he decided to sign up with the military. Not just on Eschan though, he wanted to see more. So the next time the Republic recruiters blew through town, they had an eager recruit all ready to join up.
Fly away little bird.
He signed up and barely had time to say his goodbyes before he was whisked away to basic training. He wasn’t sure why, but mobilised infantry didn’t really appeal to him. It wasn’t that he shied away from the risk and adventure of frontline action – he just didn’t see himself as disposable infantry. So he joined the Navy. He had always found star ships interesting, but he had never really envisaged himself at the helm of one – until the opportunity presented itself.
And so he went off to flight school. He went through aptitude tests, physical fitness tests, reflex tests, lots and lots of tests where people poked him for no real reason. And he was eventually declared fit enough to be of some use, and sent off to training. As it turned out, he wasn’t that bad at piloting after all. Running through simulations to begin with, at least, and he felt he handled the basics quite well. He assumed that the reflexes he honed through his martial training played a part in this, but he quite enjoyed being good at something.
Not that he excelled or anything, consistently scored in the top half of his class, but never burnt any brighter. He never really wanted to be at the top either. He knew how good he was, he didn’t care if others were better – he was confident in his own abilities, and that was all that mattered to him. And he couldn’t wait to experience piloting his own rig himself, not just in a simulation. No matter how real they felt.
His first real taste of actual flight was in a two man trainer vessel, in tandem with an instructor. He’d already logged hundreds of hours on the simulator, and managed to complete the course without too much difficulty. Although the landing was a little bit bumpy, the Echani rookie wasn’t quite comfortable with that part. He would have preferred to have stayed in the air, but as explained to him, that kind of went against the point. But at the day, whilst he may not have completed his first flight at the optimum level, he also didn’t crash and burn both him and his instructor to a crisp.
As he had throughout the rest of his life, whilst at the Republic flight school, Avanni Silas mostly kept himself to himself. He didn’t go out of his way to make friends. He didn’t point blank ignore people, he socialised when he felt the need arise, but never to any great extent. He would talk to his bunk mates, he would eat lunch in the common areas, and discuss the day’s training with others. But he never considered any of them his friends, not really – they were just other people with similar qualities to him, in a similar situation to himself. But even Avanni made connections sometimes, and when he met Drax Kolbar, a young heavily built Zabrak, the Echani may have finally made himself a friend.
Avanni and Drax were paired together for simulated trained of a duel piloted vessel, and they sparked up a conversation when they first met. Avanni didn’t really speak a lot, but fortunately Drax made up for that by talking enough for three people, Avanni had never met anyone who enjoyed the sound of their own voice so much. But really, he didn’t mind – it was all part of his new friends charm.
Drax nicknamed his ‘little Echani buddy’ as Avi, mostly because he was too lazy to pronounce all three syllables. They interacted often, and whenever they ever had the choice too, they paired together in grouped training exercises. Not that they often had the choice, mind. Although when they were not in training or what not, the little free time they had they spent together. They enjoyed sparring with one another, quite a lot. Both had really varying techniques, and often Avanni found it difficult to read the Zabrak in close combat. Drax Kolbar was the first person that Avanni had ever met that he felt was an incredibly skilled combatant. Avanni has still never met anyone who mastered the dance of combat as well as his friend Drax.
Unfortunately, after they both graduated from flight school – Drax second of the class, the two friends were separated, given different assignments. They were both posted at different locations in the galaxy, and it was somewhat of an emotional moment for Avanni, although he felt confident that they would keep in touch. And so they did, as often as they both could, they would send vid bursts detailed as much as they were allowed to about what they were up to. But overtime, the time between communications became longer, and less frequent. Eventually they stopped altogether, Avanni being the one to fail to respond to his old friend. He kept putting it off for various reasons, and he was always too busy with his assignments, this that and the other. Eventually, he just forgot, and Drax Kolbar became nothing more than a memory.
During his time in the Republic army, Avanni was never involved in any major combat, and he never ranked higher than a private. He was licensed to fly several class of ships, the largest being a Patrol ship, although he had more experience in one man interceptors or Assault craft. He generally favoured assault craft, he was happy enough working with a small crew, and he felt the size and manoeuvrability of the ship suited him well. He was well experienced with flying personnel transports, as well, and quite often his Naval responsibilities lay with troop transportation. It was a mundane task, but he knew it was important, and carried it out every time to the best of his ability.
Although not every time was perfect. He had been part of the Navy for more than six years and had flown countless of transport missions, but one time was a little different to others. He was transporting a small squad from base to base on a small planet, and the troop transport he piloted had a malfunction in a rear component, forcing lift to completely evaporate. The craft went down quickly, and Avanni struggled to keep it level, eventually having to force a crash landing. The impact left three dead and five seriously injured, including Avanni’s co-pilot, Miles Tanner. Avanni himself was relatively unharmed, but woke up in a field hospital several hours afterwards with little recollection of the incident in question. He didn’t leave the hospital for several days, despite being physically fine. An investigation into the occurrence came up with mechanical fault as the cause, and there was nothing that anyone could have done to prevent it. That didn’t make Avanni feel any better, though. Two of the injured soldiers died on route to the hospital, although the other three eventually recovered and were honourably discharged. Avanni himself was offered that same choice, and albeit with some hesitation, he took it. The Republic Navy was not the place for him anymore.
Static.
After being discharged, Avanni was not quite sure what to do with himself. His first thought was to try and make contact with his old friend again, but decided against it. After a quick lookup, Lieutenant Drax Kolbar seemed to be faring quite well in the Navy, and Avanni felt that he shouldn’t bother his old friend. His second thought was to go home, but he struck that one off straight away. His family was informed of what happened, and he had spoken with them, but he wasn’t sure if he could face them just yet. He spoke to his mother and his uncle, at least. He didn’t even have the courage to speak to Hagan, he didn’t want his old mentor to see the failure he had become. Avanni spent a lot of times in outer rim ports, drinking all sorts of slush and just about barely existing.
Eventually, it dawned upon him that he couldn’t carry on this way. For one thing, his credits balance was dwindling at an alarming rate. He was on Corellia when he saw the job listing, and thought it suited his abilities, and it was worth a shot. It was just a transport assignment for a shipping company, pilot a ship from A to B. He sobered up for his interview, and while he hadn’t been a pilot for a short time, his record was good enough for the position. It was a no risk haulage contract, so they hardly needed a hot shot fighter pilot. So he got the position, and it seemed he had a new calling.
And the life of a merchant freighter pilot was ohhhhh so interesting and entertaining. Even after a few weeks of it, Avanni was bored out of his skull. It wasn’t even like the routes were mixed up and different each time. It was literally hauling the same cargo, to the same destination, day in day out. It was mind numbing and the Echani despised every moment of it. While his time in the Navy never afforded him with any real combat, it was still much more interesting and exciting than this was. But end of the day, there wasn’t that many options for a washed up Republic pilot.
Squeaky bum time.
The most interesting thing to happen to Avanni during his year or so as a Freighter pilot was being seized by Republic border control and searched for contraband. Avanni wasn’t aware the ship was carrying any, and in any case he was kept isolated in the cockpit during the search. In the end, the search turned up empty, and Avanni was begrudgingly sent on his way. He noted the encounter as a whimsical tale and thought nothing else of it. A few days later, however, he was on Corellia doing his daily training regime at a local gym, when he saw someone he hadn’t seen in a fair while.
Miles Tanner looked a little different from the last time Avanni saw him, for a start he had less arms than the Echani recalled. His former co-pilot approached him at the bar, and for a few moments Avanni thought the maimed human was going to take his retaliation for the crash, but it turned out he had it all wrong. Unlike Avanni himself, Tanner didn’t blame him for the accident, and seemed to be quite at ease with what had happened. Avanni wasn’t quite sure how the human had got over it so quick, he still hadn’t – and he had not suffered as great a loss as Tanner. They spent a little time reminiscing about the old times in the Navy, but not too long, because tanner got quickly to the reason why he had approached. As it turned out, Tanner also went into civilian piloting after he left the Military, but not quite in the same manner as Avanni. Tanner was a smuggler, and clearly didn’t mind talking openly about it to his old comrade. He span tales of adventure and wonderment to Avanni that had him on the edge of his seat. The risk, the reward, it thrilled the Echani and it made him realise exactly what he was missing in his life. And the thing he was missing, Miles Tanner could provide.
Tanner had heard about Avanni’s brush with the border patrols, and wrongly made the assumption that they were both in the same trade, which probably explained why he was so cavalier about his criminal activities. Despite the revelation of him being green when it came to criminality, Tanner still made the offer to Avanni, an offer that really did intrigue him. He had a ship, he had the cargo, and he had the destination. The human just needed a co-Pilot. From what he remembered from the Navy, Tanner was quite a good pilot, capable enough. Avanni knew he was better, though, and it appeared Tanner himself recognised this also. Becoming a Smuggler sounded really interesting, exciting even, but Avanni was not so sure. He’d never really done anything illegal before, he toed the line from time to time – but never actually crossed it. And smuggling illegal commodities in the republic was so far past the line, that the line would become a dot on the horizon. However, his resistance to the idea didn’t last that long, and once Tanner told with him what his share for this one job would be, all of his reservations dissipated.
And so he agreed to become Tanner’s pilot. He thought, why not, should be a bit of fun. He’d only have to do this one job, and he’d have a hell of a lot of cake to show for it. And then Tanner shown him the ship he’d be piloting. It was a stock freighter, and not even a high end one at that. The Bulls-eye class was a ship he’d always admired, though. He’d never actually flew one – he piloted larger rigs as his time as a merchantman, but he’d always wanted too. And as soon as he sat in that Pilot’s chair and activated the start-up systems, Avanni knew that he had arrived. He wasn’t made out to be a Navy Pilot, or a Freighter merchantman. This, this was where he belonged.
The delivery that Tanner needed assistance with was a one stop mission from Corellia to Iridonia, with an assortment of legal commodities stored in the hold. As well as that there were some not so legal commodities, including a fairly large quantity of spice. Tanner himself had fitted the ship, Redrum, with several hidden compartments. Really, there was no way to be a smuggler without them. And so the next day Avanni took some time off from the Haulage company, and took control of the Redrum, setting course for Iridonia. The delivery came off without a hitch, Tanner taking the special contents to the intended recipients himself, whilst leaving Avanni with the ship. The Echani was given his share of the spoils and congratulated on a job well done, and then Tanner said the thing that he was hoping upon hope that he would say. He offered Avanni the chance to do this again, and again, and again. Despite his earlier revelations, after this smallest of tastes, no wasn’t even an answer he would consider. He immediately resigned from the shipping job, citing that he decided to become a freelance merchantman. Which wasn’t entirely inaccurate.
And so now Avanni had himself a ship, he had himself a co-pilot, and he had himself a new vocation in life. Tanner already had a few contacts in the seedy underbelly of the Galaxy, and that got them off to a good start. Him arranging the contracts, and Avanni carrying them out. Eventually though, Avanni took over the negotiating as well, as it turned out his human counterpart wasn’t very good at it. Tanner was quick to anger and would often reject contracts straight up based on ridiculous personal feelings – like if the contact was Rodian. Avanni didn’t have those kinds of hang-ups, and after he started handling the negotiations, the jobs started to come in a little quicker. Although that didn’t mean they were always rolling in the credits. Smuggling was still a clandestine operation, after all, it wasn’t like they could have an advertisement podium in the centre of Coruscant. But they got by.
RP Sample:
Coruscant, the capital of the galaxy. It felt like everyone on the entire planet was trying to get to and leave somewhere all at the same time. Too big, too crowded, too noisy. Avanni Silas much preferred his home world, but unfortunately Eschan was not the capital of the galaxy. And really, he didn’t like Eschan that much anyway. It was better than Coruscant, though. Tatooine was better than Coruscant. But this planet right here was the necessary evil, and Avanni loathed that fact. He much preferred to do business on board a ship, or failing that a small space station. But no, for some reason a lot of his clientele insisted on meeting in crowded bars on crowded planets that were often sticky and smelt vaguely of vomit.
This night was no different, and so here he was, on this blasted metropolitan rock with quite possibly thousands of sentients milling around him. After a cursory glance, he didn’t see a single Echani in this place. He didn’t blame them, if he had any real choice in the matter, he wouldn’t be here himself. He supposed he didn’t have to take this contract, but that would be like saying he didn’t need fuel, or credits for gambling. Work, another necessary evil. And it was something that had been eluding the Echani smuggler for some time now. The last real assignment he had was a while ago now, and the credits from that were rapidly running low. And opportunities were hardly on every doorstep.
His contact was running late, and it was hardly the first time this had happened. For some reason the criminal element liked to be late, apparently they thought it made a good impression. Avanni disagreed, he was generally always early for a rendezvous, at any rate. He liked to be there first, and he liked to make a brief reconnaissance of the meeting place. He needed to secure alternate routes of exit if there was ever any issues with the first introduction. Avanni always got nervous when meeting a new client, twice they’d been burnt, and once nearly walked right into a sting operation. Avanni enjoyed his life, he enjoyed the risk that his profession carried with it. But he wasn’t going to let himself be caught out, not a chance – he liked his freedom. So he was always overly careful, maybe even paranoid. But it was better to be paranoid than dead.
The contact he was supposed to be meeting really was late, more late than was regular actually – and that really was making Avanni nervous. He moved a hand to his waist and removed his communicator, lifting the small device up and activating it.
”Miles, Avanni. This guy’s running late and I don’t like it. Notice anything out there?”
The message went through and was quickly received by Miles Tanner, his co-pilot, waiting outside in a speeder. The pair of them never both met with a new contact, Avanni preferred that he handled the negotiations. So in this instance, Tanner waited outside and would keep lookout for anything suspicious.
”All quiet out here, not seen our guy, but crowded so can’t be sure. A few Twi’lek’s have been in.”
Tanner’s voice came through gruff and clear, confirming that the contact hadn’t yet arrived. Avanni didn’t like being messed around. Whilst the promise of this contract was quite a large amount, it wasn’t worth doing the run around. He frowned slightly and fiddled with a toggle on his off green jumpsuit, before standing up and rolling his shoulders.
”Mount up Miles, we’re done here.”
With that, he walked away from his table, navigating the thick crowd with some difficulty, and heading out to meet his friend. The Twi’lek would have to find another Smuggler.
