Anax Kaanen

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Biography of Anax Kaanen

Age: 22
Sex: Male
Height: 5'11"
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Brown
Complexion: Olive/Tanned
Born: Ralltiir, pre-subjugation
Preferred craft: X-wing
Preferred mission type: Dogfight/Attack
Favourite Combat Situation: “TIE Swatting” (i.e. Dogfighting TIE Fighters)
Previous Occupation/s: Ship Mechanic, Smuggler/Merchant, Hired pilot.
Reasons for joining the Alliance: Revenge, father's legacy.

Anax felt the chill of anticipation run down his spine as he watched the hyperspace countdown click over. 3…2…1….  With a moment of hesitancy he eased back the hyperspace lever, holding his breath as the colours of hyperspace receded into the all-too-familiar star lines and back into real space.  He hit the shields, setting the recharge rates to full.  He had waited all too long for this moment, since he was but a child helping his parents in their shop on Ralltiir….

His days on Ralltiir had been happy ones, and he often dreamt of how simple life was then.  Well, at least from his prospective.  He was too young to realise the reality of the situation at the time.  Ralltiir was one of the first planets to show support for the Empire, and his father, Bildarin Kaanen, was a key spokesperson for the planet.  He spoke out against the Empire, organising huge rallies and meeting with top Imperial officials.  Members of the rebel alliance would often stay at their house in the hidden basement, and Anax would often stay up late, listening to stories of the battles being fought in what he thought were systems far away from his home planet. 

Unfortunately his father rocked too many ships and things began to get tight.  “Anonymous” threats were often made against his life but he did not heed the warnings.  Fewer rebels stayed at their home, for risk of occasional raids.  Imperial troops would often appear at their door and harass his parents.  Soon after the planet pledged full allegiance to the Alliance, Imperial Starships appeared in orbit and proceded to deploy troops everywhere.  Within a matter of days, the planet was subjugated and hundreds of civilians were killed in the uprisings that followed.

One night, two men came to visit.  One was a tall, strong, scruffy looking man who had been with the rebel alliance for many years and simply called himself Handraa.  The second was an alien from a race Anax had never seen before, and has never seen since, and kept very much to himself, not even revealing his first name.  They were involved in the Rebel underground, and specialised in getting people in and out of systems under the cover of a merchant ship, often transporting pieces of machinery and ship parts.  Anax and his motherhad said goodbye to his father for the last time that night.  He was to stay to help the people of Ralliir.  No matter what his mother and the two men said, there was nothing that could convince him to leave his people.  Anax had often since asked what happened to his father after they left, but she would simply fall into a sad silence, often welling tears in her eyes.


Anax increased his battered X-wing’s laser recharge to maximum, just in case.  He didn’t really know what to expect.  Upon entering realspace, he had seen nothing.  His sensors showed nothing but the lone navbouy he would most likely use to leave, if nobody showed up.  He had exited in the middle of deep space.  He set his throttle to zero, put his head back, and did the only thing there was to do.  Wait.

He peered out at the scorched port s-foil and wondered what it had been through to be in such bad condition.  He supposed he couldn’t complain.  After all, the old fighter was a bargain.  He had bought it off the black market for a few thousand credits so he had not expected much.  In fact, the X-wing was in better condition he had thought it would be.  Admittedly, he had needed to do a little work to it before he took it out into space, but she ran fine and got him quickly and safely from planet to planet for his ship maintenance contracts, infrequent tug pilot work, and very rarely hired escort duty.  He figured he wouldn’t see her again once he joined the Alliance.


After their escape from Ralliir, he and his mother travelled as far away as they could to Pantolomin, where his mother did house cleaning and washing in one of the lessor resorts of the system.  During his teenaged years, he got an apprenticeship as a ship mechanic to help support his mother and himself.  Once he was 16, he said goodbye to his mother and left Pantolomin on a smuggler’s ship who’s captain he had befriended whilst repairing his ship, “The Golden Lance”, after a rather “imperial” encounter.  It was the captain, Devuan Kapenshaur, who finally taught him to fly, and not only to fly, but to fly in combat situations.

For four years he and Devuan were together in partnership, until they accidentally ran into a small Imperial fleet, Interdictor cruiser and all, which ended in a crash landing in the thick forests of Tangrene.  Devuan did not survive the landing, and Anax barely survived the ensuing weeks in the wilderness until he was found by a group of smugglers who were using the planet for emergency repairs.  Anax took all the credits from the scrapping of the Lance that he could and bought himself the X-wing he was now sitting in.  During a run through the Geedon system, the partners had come across a basic training simulator in an abandoned pirate base.  In his spare time, Anax used this to become familiar with X-wing, A-wing, Y-wing and Headhunter, as well as the Imperial TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, and TIE Interceptor.

After the destruction of the second Death Star and the rumoured death of the Emperor, Anax had begun to strongly consider joining the Alliance.  Since the crash on Tangrene, life seemed to lose direction for him.  He had eventually resolved to return to his mother, after not seeing her for five years.  However upon his return to Pantolomin, he learnt of her capture, a year after his departure.  She had been cleaning the quarters of an officer on leave when he returned and immediately recognised her as the wife of Bildarin Kaanen and overpowered her.  She was then taken away to a prison colony for political prisoners.

Anax spent a year searching for his mother before he found her.  After spreading quite a few credits around the right people, he was eventually smuggled into an Imperial Prison Record Archive.  That day, he sat in front of the holo-projector and watched the execution of his mother.  That day also, he vowed to take vengeance the best way he knew how – join the Alliance as a fighter pilot.

A few months later, he was working at a repair bay on a deep space platform when a pair of A-wings and an Alliance shuttle exited hyperspace.  He watched from the hanger bay as a rebel shuttle landed at a nearby platform, presumably to meet with the owners of the platform to inquire about Imperial activity.  He knew they would not be staying long, as they would not want to invite an Imperial presence.  His R2 droid was busy welding a support bar to the underside of a ship’s ramp.  He was on his way to see if he could meet with one of the rebels when he heard a whisper off to the side of the corridor.
“Yes.  Rebels, here…I told you, Platform P3Z86.  Hurry.  They probably won’t stick around.”
Anax wasted no time.  Running towards the hanger where the shuttle had landed, he picked up the comlink, buzzing his R2 droid.
“Get to the X-wing!  Imperials are coming!”
He heard the affirmative chirps of his astromech droid as re rounded the corner and saw the rebels.  Their hands quickly dropped to their holsters as they saw Anax bolt around the corner.
“Get outta here.  You’ve got company.”
Just then, one of the rebel’s comlinks buzzed.  “Umm, sir?  I think we got company.  3 gunboats just hypered in.”
“Alright, we’re leaving now.”  replied the leader.
“Wait!” Anax blurted as they turned to go.  “I want to join the Alliance.”  He was almost sick when he thought of how immature it sounded, like a farmboy dreaming of being a starfighter pilot.
“That’s nice…umm”
“Anax.  Anax Kaanen.”
“Anax, yeah, now isn’t really a great time. Okay?”
“Yeah, sure, just get out of here.”
Anax raced back to his hanger.  “If I know Imperials, there’ll be more.  They almost always fly three to one.  And those Guns won’t last long against a pair of A-wings.”
He ran into the hanger to find his R2 already in its saddle behind the cockpit.  He grabbed his helmet as he ran past his bench and jumped up the ladder into the pilots seat.  “Alright, let’s go.”

Anax powered up the repulsor-lifts and fired the engines as he spun the X-wing around.  Then, without taking a breath, slammed the fighter into full thrust, rocketing out of the hanger and sending a few of his tools flying across the bay.
“Check those scanners Shorty.  What have we got?  Hmm just the one Gun left.  Well they certainly made quick work of them.  But ouch, one of the A-wings is down to half shields.  Must have caught a missle.  What do you think, Short Stuff?”
His R2 droid gave an affirmative beep, before suddenly wailing as a Modified Corvette screamed out of hyperspace.
            “Uh oh.  Ok, maxing lasers and shields.  What's it launching?”
            Within a matter of seconds, a flight of three TIE Interceptors and three TIE Fighters had launched.  The Interceptors headed straight for the A-wings, while the Fighters broke off towards the shuttle.
“Well, those fighters will be going after the shuttle.  Where is that shuttle?”  His R2 droid targeted the shuttle.  “What? It’s only just exiting the hanger? Great.”
Anax broke off from heading towards the corvette and banked his X-wing into a sharp turn and headed off on an interception course to save the shuttle.  He maxed his shields into his engines for extra speed and redirected energy from his lasers into the shields to keep them up.  He swung in behind the flight of fighters, who were obviously too anxious to destroy the shuttle, as they didn’t notice him in their rear sensors until the rear left TIE exploded in flames.  Keeping his finger on the trigger, he swung around to catch the forward TIE once on a solar panel before it pulled up sharply, narrowly avoiding a second lethal bolt.  The third TIE swung around the opposite way to avoid becoming a target at all.
“Damn!  Now I’ve split them up.”
He cut his throttles to a third and pulled up sharply, bringing the forward TIE into his reticle.  Leading a little he let off a small volley that totally missed their mark as the TIE pulled away sharply.  He was just about to let off the finishing volley when in the corner of his eye he caught the light of green laser fire, and an instant later the sound of the third fighter cutting his shields away.  He swore and puled up into a barrel roll and out into the path of the forward TIE.  He was able to snap off a bolt to destroy the TIE, but was unable to avoid the exploding wreckage that slammed through his port s-foil, sending him spinning through space.  As he struggled to regain control, he realised he was a sitting duck.  A moment later a few green bolts streaked past his cabin, which was shortly followed by a few bolts of red fire and an explosion.  A very scorched A-wing pulled up next to Anax as he regained control.
“We’ve cleared the Interceptors.  Thanks for catchin’ those fighters before they got to the shuttle.  The corvette left soon after it launched the fighters,” said the pilot.  “We heard you wanted to join.  We’ll put you through to a secure channel to hear the rendezvous details.  You will meet up with a frigate that will then take you to recruitment.”
Anax locked the co-ordinates into his nav-computer and checked his damage status.  “Geez!  I just fixed that port cannon!”


Anax heard his R2 move his head in its socket.  “I really should fix that,” he thought.  He was just about to pull up into another lap when his R2 gave a warning and his sensors flashed green.  A Nebulon-B Frigate streaked out of hyperspace a few kilometres in front of him, a pair of A-wings to its starboard.
“Civilian X-wing, this is the Alliance Frigate Ottomah.  Identify yourself.”
“This is Anax Kaanen, wishing to join the Rebel Alliance.”
“Very well.  Prepared to be escorted into the hanger.”
The A-wings pulled up either side of his X-wing.  He immediately recognised the lead pilot as the one who had caught the fighter attacking him at the platform.  He gave a nod, which was returned with a smile.
“Well Shorty, get ready....”