Ven Rakker

Backstory

You are the son of the owner one of of the planet's biggest junkyards. You spent many hours in your youth, playing with Plasma welders, Fusion Cutters and all sorts of other tools. As a side hustle your father also had an Equipment Repair service where you learned to fix refrigerators, repulsorlift devices and the occasional droid. You are a rough-and-tumble youth shooting (and dodging from) stun blaster bolts, getting into fights and overall rough housing.

Growing up also found you living with your grandfather who is retired but worked at one of the larger droid manufacturing companies. He would help you out when some of the more complicated droids needed repair. He had his own living area separate from the main family but would join in every night for dinner as well as parties, holidays and other celebrations. Upon graduating from school, your grandfather takes you into a storage area and explains that he has been hanging onto something for a very long time.

He tells you that HIS father was an Imperial Engineer specifically a Walker Engineer. In 4 ABY, after the second deathstar was destroyed, the Empire was in chaos. It was every man for himself. You great-grandfather kept a copy of a bunch of Imperial design, construction, repair and training books on various walkers and stored them in this droid. You grandfather pulls a protective sheet off of an inactive IN-4 Information Droid, plugs it in and activates the droid. As it boots up he says "It's probably safe to share this stuff with you now. Here on the Outer Rim so many years after the Empire has fallen I don't think anyone would come looking for this stuff." In the droid's mastery directory are VERY long, VERY detailed, VERY complete manuals on generic subject matter followed by Imperial specific subject matter.

You DEVOUR the contents of the maunals. Between the junkyard, the tools, your grandfather and the manuals you become proficient in a wide variety of repair skills. Walker Repair was harder but taking more time you see your goals achieved. The droid also contained copies of operating manuals which proved useful when copying Imperial vehicles. Once they were created you knew how to drive them!

You did not have the materials to make any heavy weaponry but the walkers themselves were sturdy and worked well. You take your designs and demonstrations of your walkers to zZip Motor Concepts where you land a job as a walker designer. In fact you were the lead design engineer on the zZip Motor Concepts Gladiator Walker (Galladiniums Fantastic Technology page 49). You learned much about weapon design, control and alignment on this project. You were the one who insisted on the vehicle's fail-safe feature. Management held the opinion that it was a 'waste of time' and made you a 'difficult person to manage'. In spite of this you work continue to work extensively with this line of walkers doing various modifications and enhancements for 'high-end' customers making the zZip LOTS of money. This only fueled management's dislike for your 'style and lack of cooperation with corporate ideals'.

After a year or two of bad performance appraisals depsite doing stellar work, you decide there are greener pastures in other parts of the galaxy. You take a copy of 'your' walker designs along with the IN-4 Information Droid your grandfather gave you and decide to get some peace and quiet on the Outer Rim. Jadaarn sounded like a quiet planet ... agrarian but also high tech it sounds like a good place to start over. Walking onto base and asking about working, they quickly realize your strong walker repair and design skills is something the base sorely lacks. You are hired on the spot to perform 'Walker design and repair along with other suitable repairs'.