Tirual’Sij’Ekil, Jek for short, was once, as he would put it, destined to have entire wings in the Chiss libraries devoted to his legend. He was a young Chiss navy captain aboard the ship
Winter Storm, and was a name of some repute. In reality, this was mostly due to his sister, Tirual'Tikal'Akil, or Kalei, and her budding political career. If someone was to tell him he was living in her shadow, he would have neither believed it, nor recognized it.
This was not to say that he wasn’t competent. He had an understanding of piracy more intimate than the average officer, and was able to predict which maneuvers most would use, and when. Always on the defensive, as per a necessity with the Chiss, Jek prided himself on never being forced into retreat.
His bravado was ultimately his undoing. Off of his patrol and back on the homeworld, Jek has uncovered a plot against his sister, to assassinate before she could continue her rise to power. Believing that he was in the right, he made the first move, attacking the man behind the plot, and the assassin.
What followed was a long few months in the Chiss courts, and an exile in disgrace. To this day, Jek knows not whether his actions permanently stained the reputation of his sister, of if he was currently exiled royalty, a fantasy that he entertains often, deciding that it has an air of romance about it.
Jek had wandered the edge of the unknown regions as some sort of a refugee, working odd jobs, cleaning odd things in odd ships for odd aliens. In his exploits hitch-hiking across the edge of known space, he had evaded Vagaari slavers, found himself caught between the Nagai and the Tofs in one of their many heated conflicts. He had spent three days locked in a defunct smugglers den on Illium, spent a week with human mapmakers learning trade words in Basic, along with the existence of a 'Galactic Republic' spanning thousands of worlds. In one harrowing experience, he had fended off the attacks of a vicious alien clad in what Jek could only describe as a coral reef, attacking him with what was, literally, a snake. Jek still has no clue what that was all about.
Eventually, Jek had made his way to the edge of Republic space on Ansion. From there, he was able to board passage offworld, deeper into the rim. It was then, on one of those odd ships while he was silently working the galley, that they were attacked by pirates under the flag of the Hutt Roaga, the frigate Red Dawn. Jek remained their prisoner for weeks, the pirates intending to sell him into slavery. Every day, he used what little basic he knew to bargain with these pirates, to insist that he was worth more to them than a few credits on the slave market. His worth was proven when said ship had come under fire from a Black Sun ship, and he was able to talk himself into the bridge and win the day for the Dawn.
Earning his place in the crew, Jek was introduced to an entire new Galaxy open to him like no other. A world united under the Galactic Republic, where the populated, civilized worlds seemed endless. Of course, it wasn't long at all until that alleged unity was shaken up. The Galaxy had been thrown into war, with white armored soldiers fighting skeletal, mechanical beings. Jek had spent the war skirting the outer rim, working as a crew member in the Dawn, under Roaga, who was apparently quite genial for a Hutt. Admittedly, that was not saying much.
After the war, he had earned his independence from Roaga, but still pulls odd jobs for them upon request. Partially for goodwill, partially because Jek didn't want any Hutt on his bad side, and that was an easy thing to slip up on. He learned basic and galactic culture mostly through holodramas.
As it is now, Jek is between ships and crews, sipping stimcaf at various space ports and looking for work. He wouldn't use the term mercenary, but he suspects that that is exactly what he had become. He is no fan of the Empire, as they make his job unnecessarily hard, and they made acquiring his favorite holos, the ones about Jedi, quite difficult.
