Cracken's Rebel Field Guide (Page 9)
General Airen Cracken
Airen Cracken was born on the world of Contruum 51 years ago. As a boy he worked on his parent's farm. His parents noticed that he had a natural affinity for machinery and allowed him to tinker with the farm's equipment.
Eventually, nearby farmers often asked him to fix their machinery for them. He was happy to learn more and went to help people willingly. His reputation as a master mechanic grew, and soon people paid him for his efforts.
The payments made him uncomfortable at first. His mother always remembered the day he said, "When you get paid for doing something you love to do, it's like stealing." But his love of tinkering with machines woo out: he took the money because he wanted his skills to become his trade. That way he could play with machines all day.
By the time he was a young man, Cracken opened his own mechanic's shop. He handled all manner of machinery - landspeeders, water purifiers, holo-vids. He hired men and women who loved to work with machinery as much as he did. The shop took on an almost magical quality. There seemed nothing that Cracken's crew couldn't fix. His customers viewed him as a master wizard, and his employees apprentices.
Cracken married Josta, a woman from the Corellian Sector who ended up on Contruum by accident (another story all by itself. Josta gave birth to two children and the family lived in contentment for many years.
But as all narratives of this time change with the actions of the Empire, so the arrival of Palpatine's forces on Contruum irrevocably altered Cracken's life.
Imperial Command wanted the world's borium supply. It was thought that the farming world would offer little resistance. Imperial Command underestimated the planet's rugged Identity. Contruum's history is full of invasions, and each one ended with the inhabitants of Contruum throwing the invaders back into space.
Cracken organized his employees into a guerrilla force specializing in mechanical sabotage; Josta established safe bases in the mountain ranges where children and the elderly hid.
Cracken and his people set about to make the Imperial stay more trouble than it was worth. They crippled docked starships, ruined the Empire's borium mining operations, destroyed landing bays, and blew up troop supplies. At the scene of each act of sabotage they left a hydrospanner with a simple message carved into it "Cracken's Crew Says Hello."
The Crew soon acquired a reputation among the Imperial forces. It became the Imperial commander's obsession to track down the saboteurs. The Contruum natives used this time to build up their own militia. Soon Contruum's forces and the Imperials were engaged in a full-scale war. After years of fighting, the sector's Moff decided that he had already invested too many men and credits into the operation and pulled out.
Although a great celebration took place across Contruum, troubling thoughts raced through Cracken's mind. He knew that his world had thrown off Imperial influence because it was insignificant. But across the galaxy, many other people ~were less lucky. The Empire would kill and destroy until it was satisfied.
After talking the matter over with Josta, he decided that he would leave Contruum and join the Rebellion. Most of his Crew decided to go with him. They boarded a freighter and set off for the stars, posing as merchants plying the star lanes.
Hydrospanners with Cracken's greeting began showing up all over the galaxy. Cracken's reputation eventually landed him a commission in the Alliance. He organized many campaigns, usually on desolate and difficult worlds where his ingenuity was invaluable. He worked his way up through the ranks of the Rebellion. For his efforts he has twice received the Nebula for bravery.
Info Boxes
General Airen Cracken
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DEXTERITY: 3D
KNOWLEDGE: 3D
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MECHANICAL: 3D
PERCEPTION: 3D
STRENGTH: 2D
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TECHNICAL: 4D
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