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"Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls, who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it." - Matthew 13:45-46
Jack Dyartes
Jack Dyartes
Captain of the Empire.... Jack Dyartes. Oooo, I like the sound of that. For the next several moments I am going to have your complete attention, savvy? That's right, you get to hear my entire life story; don't worry though, I'm not a geezer that likes to ramble on about myself as if I was anybody important. Instead, I'll tell you about myself and you can decide what to make of me. So pull up a chair, sit on your bum, grab some rum....heh, I rhymed...oh, and enjoy the tale.
I was born on Dantooine thirty-two years before the onset of Second Hutt War, and my family was anything but the ordinary farmer. They were quite the odd bunch, come to think of it. My father, Port Dyartes, was a smuggler in the employ of the notorious Black Sun pirates and would regularly run spice from Republic territories to the Outer Rim. My dear mum, Jacqueline Dyartes, from whom's name my own name is derived, stayed on homestead and raised me. Or should I say, attempted to raise me?
You see I had too much of my father in me, as criminal as he was. Oh sure, he broke the law, but he did so to put food on our table so he was alright in my eye. As a child I was almost always getting into trouble. Now that I think about it, if I wasn't in trouble, that in itself was usually a sign of trouble around our home. Despite mum's protests, my father took me along with him on many of his spice runs, and I got to experience the thrill of space.
My father even taught me how to fly a ship during these runs. Ultimate freedom; that is what space and flying a ship meant to me. It wasn't long before I was getting into more trouble than usual when I was home. Dantooine was a prison to me. One I had to escape. On my fifteenth birthday, I resolved that I would no longer accept bondage. I stowed away on a transport bound for the Republic, and finally escaped the shackles of Dantooine, and the shackles of my parents...
Before I continue my story, I must make it known to you that if I had ever known that the ship I'd stowed away on would take me to Coruscant, the very center of the Republic, I would've never picked that ship. I had no credits and Coruscant is a very expensive place to...uh, pick up residency. So I started doing jobs for the local swoop gangs. They payed well enough, and soon, I had my own apartment in the Lower City of the Galactic City, the sprawling planet-wide city that encompassed Coruscant.
I hated Coruscant more than Dantooine. Still do. For a boy who had been raised on a farm in the vast plains of Dantooine, the city life was at the very least, irritable. I picked up a habit of drinking there. Probably the only good thing that came out of my stay there too. Rum was the name of the beverage, and a heavenly beverage it is. I would drink to forget my troubles, like any other drunk in the cantinas at night. Sometimes I would drink it just to drink. Unfortunately, all the drinking I did drained my "funds" towards getting a ride off world.
At the age of seventeen, after two long and awful years on Coruscant, my business with the swoop gangs got me arrested. Contrary to what you're probably thinking, that was the best thing to happen to me. Because of my adolescence, they shipped me off-world to Anaxes to endure military boot camp. Eight long months I was on Anaxes, but I picked up some handy tricks in the process. Such as the ability to shoot a blaster, use a vibroblade, and I even learned more about piloting.
After my boot camp and subsequent release, I was able to catch ferry to Corulag to find work. It would take me until I was almost nineteen to find steady work. I found it in the form of the Corulag Trade Company (CTC), a merchant company that imported spices mined in the Mid and Outer Rims in exchange for Republic food, weapons, and other such goods. I found myself as a "first mate" of sorts to the captain aboard the CTC Good Will; a large cargo freighter on which I spent most of my time.
The Alsakan Crisis broke out not long after that. During one such conflict, the Good Will was attacked and boarded during an Alsakan raid. The captain was killed in the melee, but I managed to rally the crew and kill off the rest of the Alsakan invaders. I now had command of the Good Will, and so I brought it to nearby Grizmallt for repairs and such. It was there that I realized that I had a grand opportunity set before me, and luckily, I am an opportunistic individual. After repairs were done, I renamed the Good Will the Pearl of Freedom and fled into the Outer Rim; never again to serve the Republic. Instead, like my father before me, I chose the pirates life. A life a freedom..
The Outer Rim was a harsh place. Much of it hadn't yet been charted by the Republic. Diplomacy with the newly discovered Hutt Empire was failing, but it is within this Empire that I found my chance. Ryloth, a planet of the Empire and home to many Twi'lek. That is where I first found a job in piracy. Much of my life after that consisted of targeting Republic merchant vessels on the edge of the Empire's territory. This did not make my crew all that happy. You see, during one such venture, I found myself near Tatooine, when there was a terrible mutiny.
My most trusted men attacked me in my sleep, bound me in cuffs, stuffed me in an escape pod and jettisoned it, taking my beloved ship with them. They thought that'd be the last they'd see of me, but you don't get rid of Captain Jack Dyartes that easily, savvy?
The pod landed in the Dune Sea of Tatooine. Not the most pleasant of places to find yourself after a mutiny, I might add. Nothing but sand for miles around, perhaps a bantha or two would show up every now and then, but the worst part was the heat....and the Tuskens. I wandered aimlessly for what must've been a week. Some will tell you the heat is what caused me to go a bit bonkers, but I think I was bonkers long before this incident.
Eventually, dehydration got to me and I had run out of what stores of water I already had on my person from the pod. Luckily, though, I stumbled across a Jawa sandcrawler. I had no knowledge of their language, but they gave me food and water. Wait, did I say food? Please.... They might as well have given me bantha fodder. In fact...that very well may be what it was... Ick... Anyways, back on track! My peaceful moments with the Jawas didn't even last one standard day. Not. one. kriffin'. day.
The Sand People raided the sandcrawler and, with my luck, I managed to get myself knocked out and captured. You're probably sitting there wondering to yourself how I escaped the Sand People, eh? Well be bloody patient! I'm gettin' to it! The kriffin' Tuskens locked up in their compound and the next day I was brought before the chief. I was surprised when, instead of torturing me, they sat me in the chief's seat. I would later go on to find out that they thought me as some sort of deity after a story told by their clan scholar made them think I was the deity from that story, and they began to worship me.
Most people would like that. I didn't. Oh sure, it was marvelous at first. I got all the finest food, first picks from the hunts, and I was treated as a king among their people. They even began teaching me their language. That's when I learned that they were planning to "oust" me because their clan scholar had made a mistake in his story, something that got him "ousted" I might add. Now, being me, I don't particularly like the idea of being ousted, so I made plans to make my escape.
I'll spare you the details, but let's just say I thought I had given them the slip once I'd escaped the compound, but the tribe discovered my escape attempt and chased me into the desert. Screaming the whole why, I ran aimlessly amongst the dunes, the Tuskens in hot pursuit. Luck shined on me again when I saw a group of farmers on a small skiff had stopped to see what the commotion was about. Without waiting for their approval, I leaped on the skiff and bellowed at them to "Go!" and we took off, leaving the Sand People in our dust, literally.
They dropped me off in Anchorhead, the nearest spaceport, and I managed to barter my way off the planet. The Hutt HoloNet had several stories out on my ship, the Pearl of Freedom. Apparently my old treacherous crew had made quite a name for themselves. That's when I resolved to get my ship back. The Freedom was my ship, and I would not have it be making a name for itself without me at its captain. The First Hutt War was coming to an end around this time, which would make it easier for me to get around. I "commandeered" a ship on Nar Shaadda and set out to find my ship.
