Name: Ewan Pontec
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Force-Sensitivity: Minor
Height: 6'0"
Hair: Black, Short, remains of a braid that was clumsily sheared off
Skin: Caucasian skin, lightly tanned
Clothes: At story onset, a pair 'Appropriated' coveralls from the repair yard, and under that standard jedi garb of tan tunic and pants
Bio:
Brought to the academy as a child, Ewan lived life as an average jedi youngling. He took his lessons, and learned of the universe, and all the many splendors that could be found. He learned of lightsabers, and combat, and learned of the mystical force, and how to use it to achieve great feats. He was taught history, and learned how currents events both resemble those in the past, and how they could affect the future. And eventually, he was granted the honor of being chosen as a padawan by the Jedi Knight Grintak Hosul. A human, he was often sent as a diplomat, serving to help conflicted groups, organizations, even worlds find a peaceful resolution. And so Ewan continued to learn.
Ewan was by no means a yoda, or an Anakin, in that his powers within the force were average, at best, among his peers. And while he had enough Oomph to manage mind tricks and force pushes, he was never going to be known for his connection to the force. Instead, he found great comfort in his skills with technology. From his Light saber, to droids, to even starfighter construction, he was enthralled by the way all the components worked together to produce an effect. So much so that, when he'd have any spare time, he'd spend them in the maintenance and repair bays, watching as workers would strip and repair everything from turbolift mechanisms, to the various starfighters used by the Jedi. When he was seventeen, his master Grintak was requested to resolve a major dispute over salvage claims by some rather large shipping corporations in the Mid-rim, and would be leaving to help settle the dispute.
On the way to the designated forum where the dispute would be discussed and hopefully put to rest, Grintak confided in Ewan that a fair portion of the dispute concerned the nature of the salvage in particular. One group claimed that another had, in fact, blown apart the ship or ships that produced the salvage. Another claim was about it being potentially important to the cultural history of a species in a nearby system. Both were challenging the holders of the original salvage claim, and the dispute had raised tempers all around since it was clear that at least some salvage had been removed, though by whom no one could say for sure. After their arrival, things did not get any better. Days of arguing back and forth over sector jurisdiction, galactic laws and regulations, and even other disputes over how a company may have snubbed the other, before the two jedi even got to see the disputed salvage.
Up in one of the system's asteroid belts, the remains of a light cargo freighter and several small starfighters lay smashed together upon a slowly rotating asteroid. However, Ewan noticed something odd about the arrangement of debris; only the freighter seemed to have sustained damage from an impact, and it seemed reasonably intact. The rest of the ships were scorched and falling apart, as if someone had pulled them straight from a junkyard. The only reason he could think of as to why someone would do that, would be to try and distract someone from whats truly valuable in the salvage. Sharing this thought with his master after another long day of disagreements, Grishnak agreed, and postulated that these groups were far to interested in such a relatively small salvage for their supposed identities. He had already made their excuses, and they would be leaving in the morning.
Morning came far earlier than expected when Ewan was roused from sleep by Grishnak, "Hurry, we must leave now, I've found out what they were looking for in the salvage, and they know i know. We haven't much time. With nothing to pack, having taken nothing but clothes off their transport, they quickly made their way to the space port, only to find a number of ruthless looking individuals waiting for them. Fighting quickly broke out, and the pair were forced to fight their way to the boarding ramp. As it seemed as though they had managed to safely make it on board, a thermal detonator thrown at the last minute exploded mid-air, catching Grishnak as the jedi ran up the ramp. Grievously wounded, Grishnak struggled to cling to life as Ewan piloted the ship, taking off from the planet, and setting a route to coruscant. Fortunately, all the disputing organizations had their ships watching the others, so none were able to intercept or pursue the fleeing vessel. Days later, Grishnak would die on that ship, as the onboard medical supplies were insufficient to heal the inflicted wounds. In the time leading up to that, Grishnak imparted several words of wisdom to his padawan, and the actuality of the situation they had narrowly escaped. The three organizations were fronts for some rather nasty mercenary groups. When they said 'shipping', they were referring to slaves, drugs, and other illegal or questionably obtained items. The holder of the original claim HAD shot down the cargo freighter, and had done so having heard rumors that it was shipping the mysterious Jebble Box. The pilot of the cargo ship tried hiding in the asteroids, and had crashed, but it achieved the primary goal of hiding from the mercenaries turned pirates long enough to launch a specially made, extra large escape capsule, taking the Jebble box with. Mercenary group A, the first group, tried to cover up the missing cargo and escape pod with the extra starfighters, and was trying to sell the claim to one of the other two groups, who had also heard the rumor of the jebble box's presence. However, none wanted to pay the exorbitant fee that Mercenary group A were charging.
After returning to the temple, and a short meeting with other Jedi Knights to confirm what Grishnak had sent ahead in his report, Ewan found himself slightly out of touch in the temple. As a Jedi, the passing of a fellow was not to be dwelled upon, but after a short service for the fallen Jedi, he found that no one seemed to enjoy speaking with him. He was far too old to find enjoyable company in the younglings, and his peers were often off with their masters on various missions and expeditions, and even when they were at the temple, the rancor in the room seemed to make all conversations uncomfortable, as he had yet to be assigned a new master to finish his training. He had asked what would happen to him now, a few days after the service for his old master, and had been placated at the time with flimsy reasons he was given. "No one is available" "Those who would, already have an apprentice" and so on.
Months had passed, when he finally gave up. He had even asked if he could be allowed to attempt the trials, to become a Jedi Knight on his own, but was denied. He was too young, and not yet ready to face the trials, much less the responsibility of being a Jedi Knight yet. Moping in a most un-jedi like manner, he made his way to one of his favorite places in the temple, the repair bays. Once there, he was noticed by the foreman, a friendly, older fellow, who upon seeing him, asked why he hadn't been down to see the gift his master had prepared for him before they left. The foreman was a little speechless when he realized that Grishnak may not have had a chance to inform his student about the aforementioned gift. "Follow me," he said, and led Ewan to a far corner of the bays, and presented... A 10-mete long heap of metal. "That", the foreman said, "my friend is a wrecked Delta-7. Your master was going to be going part of some diplomatic missions you might not have been allowed to go along on, so he wanted to make sure you had something to focus on when you were done with the days training."
And so the months passed by, with Ewan training during the day, and working on his starfighter in the evening, repairing it where it needed to be fixed, and modifying it to better fit his purposes. Longer now, there was enough room for a co-pilot behind the pilot, he would say to those who asked, 'Or more supplies and fuel,' he would think. Pulling its guts out and revamping its fuel and propulsion systems, 'I just want to see if I can make it work, he would say, when he'd think, 'Its how I'm going to escape'. And eventually, he did. Fitted with a salvaged class 2 hyperdrive motivator in the expanded hull, it would take him wherever he wanted, or just... away. Away from the Jedi, away from the Temple, away from the pitying looks, away from those who left him to rot in limbo, unable to progress with no one lead him forward. Now he would make progress in a different direction, HIS direction. Late at night, with a bundle of supplies disguised as a package of parts for the hyperdrive he had installed last month, he made his way into the hangar. Having moved the starfighter there the previous day, he was cleared to for a short 'Test flight'. Climbing into the cockpit, he keyed on the engines, and after confirming his 'flightpath' with the hangar computer, he took off. Up, out of atmosphere, and into hyperspace.
