Character Kendan Martano

[Ken Martano]

NAME: Kendan Luke Martano

FACTION: Independent

RANK: None

SPECIES: Human

AGE: 27

SEX: Male

HEIGHT: 5'11"

WEIGHT: 165 lbs

EYES: Blue

HAIR: Brown

SKIN: Pale

FORCE SENSITIVE: No

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES:

• Tech Expertise: Ken has substantial experience with the inner workings of starships, droids, weapons, and computers. He's very, very good at keeping them running even under the worst circumstances, and even with very limited tools and supplies for maintaining them. As a veteran supply and operations officer, he's good at making effective use of all available resources, and at finding new ways to secure and utilize whatever is needed to keep his charges from breaking down.
• Tactical Experience: Ken has been in quite a few fights in his time, far more than most people his age. He's participated in both space and ground battles, and as both a footsoldier and a command adjutant. He has a keen mind for getting himself out of trouble, and can outfox many an opponent he would stand no chance against in open combat. He is familiar with a reasonably wide range of weaponry, and substantial practice has made him an excellent shot with a blaster.
• Traumatic Past: Ken knows all too well what it feels like to fight a losing war. He has watched more than his fair share of friends get blown away before his eyes, and survivor's guilt haunts him every day. His own failings, real or imagined, constantly threaten to drag his mind down into a dark place from which there is no escape. His coping mechanisms are less than healthy, tending to involve heavy drinking and overworking himself on whatever projects he can invent to keep busy.
• Wanted Terrorist: Ken was a longtime member of the League of Voss, a guerrilla force resisting the Sith Empire's expansion across the Outer Rim. The League was utterly defeated, and most of its members captured or killed. Those few who slipped through the cracks live lives of constant fear and paranoia, eternally hunted by the Saaraishash so that they can be captured and brought to Sith "justice". Ken never stays in one place too long, or tells anyone his story.

APPEARANCE: Of average height and build for a human male, Ken doesn't stand out much in a crowd - and he doesn't try to. Modestly handsome, with a wiry strength that surprises those who underestimate him, he moves with caution and alertness, drawing no attention to himself. He dresses in nondescript garb common to drifting spacers, and always travels armed. His scruffy beard and unruly hair frame a long face with few hard angles. His slate blue eyes have a haunted look to them, but an openness as well.

 

[Ken Martano]

Part One - Right and Wrong

Kendan Martano was born on the backwater agriworld of Folende. His parents, local veterinarians, were warm and supportive, and he excelled in school as a child. He grew up with a strong sense of justice and responsibility, values that he intended to use in a career in politics when he was old enough. After leaving high school, he attended a prestigious university on Centares, making the important connections that could easily have led him into a government job. He also became heavily involved in activism, and those connections would deeply shape his life.

As Ken graduated with honors, he found that his timing didn't favor a man of peace. The Sith Empire was devouring large chunks of the Outer Rim at a terrifying pace, making its ravenous way toward his homeworld. For a while, Ken worked in Silver Jedi space as a refugee aid coordinator, doing his best to help with the horrific humanitarian impacts of the Sith conquests. When the Silver Jedi retreated after the fall of Mirial, however, he felt that he couldn't give up on his home sector. He soon found himself involved with freedom fighters who stayed behind.

They were the League of Voss, an extremist guerrilla army determined to stop the Empire by any means necessary. Ken, with his experience organizing and managing supplies, was made the Operations Officer of the Liberation-class vessel Sanguine Heart. He served aboard the Heart during the League's initial raids to slow Imperial expansion, getting his first taste of combat during the disastrous raid on the shipyards at Ciutric IV. The Heart was one of the only ships to escape, but it persisted, raiding Imperial shipping throughout the sector.

After considerable acts of privateering and sabotage, the Heart attempted to intervene during the Sith invasion of Rhen Var. The Sith's newly-minted Conqueror-class ships, however, destroyed most of the League's relief fleet, forcing the Heart and the other surviving vessels to fall back and abandon the planet. By now haunted by the terrible sacrifices he had witnessed, Ken sustained himself through a newfound relationship with Nomi Davout, an old friend who had helped recruit him into the League. They soon relied heavily on each other.

The Heart continued to make small but daring raids on Sith supply lines, and even participated in the attempted defense of Ord Cestus, though her crew was forced into a fighting retreat when the planetary regent was captured and local defense forces surrendered. Soon after, in the wake of their continued prodding of the terrible beast that was the Imperial military, the League's forward staging post on Raxus Secundus was discovered and besieged. Interdictors prevented any League vessels from escaping the bloodbath.

Ken was lucky. The Sanguine Heart was destroyed above Raxus Secundus, but he was one of the few who made it to the escape pods. He landed near the city of Tamwith Bay, which had been all but levelled by the invading Blackblade Guard. He managed to hide in the ruins for weeks, finally smuggling himself out on a Sith supply ship and managing to rejoin the League. Reassigned to the Star Destroyer Prophetess, a ship that was already storied for its constant daring escapes from the Sith, he did his best to keep his heart in the fight.

As the Sith drew close to Voss itself, where the Prophetess was acting as part of the defense fleet, rumors circulated that the Emperor himself would be vulnerable in orbit over Kruskan. Ken's lover, Nomi, volunteered to lead a strike force to eliminate him and hopefully end the war. Ken begged her not to go, certain that it was a trap, but she couldn't pass up the chance. Unfortunately, he was right. The ambush force was itself ambushed, and Nomi and all who had followed her were captured or killed. Ken spiraled into a deep depression.

Soon after, the Sith attacked Voss itself. The battle was bloody and brutal, but the ramshackle League fleet could not stand against the might of the Sith, and few of the defenders escaped. The Prophetess was among them, falling back to defend Mon Cala. But despite the power of that shipyard planet's fleets, the same scene was soon repeated there. By the end, all of the League's founding leaders were dead, and most of their forces were scattered. Out of sheer stubbornness, the Prophetess and her crew managed to escape, and continued to fight.

The League made one last stand on the planet of Munto Codru, and it was there that the Prophetess finally met her match. She was ambushed and destroyed by mercenaries of the Golden Company. Ken had been on-planet at the time, securing supplies to repair the ship after she was damaged in recent battles, and escaped the carnage. Most of the other League survivors were killed when their fortress on the planet was surrounded and wiped out by the Imperial 7th Army, but again Ken managed to escape, laying low in the planet's wide wilderness.

It was all over, but Ken was still alive. With no fight left in him, he drifted across the Outer Rim, trying to find purpose.​