Atarik Starrider

"What was the hardest bounty I ever pursued? Well, there was that crazy Mandalorian traitor, the monster of a rancor, and that no-one-had-ever-seen-him-and-lived assassin."

 was a Mandalorian bounty hunter at the time of the Cold War. He was born on Mandalore to two famous bounty hunters. He grew up on his father's tales of hunts that took months, and his mother's tales of gunfights that lasted half a day. When he grew old enough and earned his own armor, he took his family's ship, a modified D-5 Mantis, and set out to find his own adventures. On one of these he met Kalera To'rin, a Cathar Jedi Knight. After sharing a drink in a Nar Shaddaa cantina, he agreed to help her with her quest to recover an ancient Jedi relic. After a long journey, they finally located the relic, but instead of taking her back to Coruscant, Atarik stunned her with an electro-dart and took her to Korriban to earn a substantial bounty he had been promised by one of the Sith Lords. Upon arrival, he recieved payment and turned on his paymaster, rescuing Kalera from a gruesome fate. Upon reaching Coruscant, he asked if Kalera would train as a Mandalorian and join him as a bounty hunter. She initially refused, but then, after consulting Grand Master Satele Shan, she accepted the invitation. The two hunters married on Mandalore, and son formed Clan Starrider, a prestigious clan for many years.

Early life
Atarik was born to Naras and Lioin Starrider on Mandalore. He trained in combat at an early age, becoming a skilled marksman and capable melee fighter by the time he was eighteen. Around that time, his mother and father came down with a mysterious sickness contracted while hunting on Dagobah. Now revealed to be the Heroto Virus, the disease was found to be incurable by anything but the most advanced medical treatments, thus keeping the couple from hunting until they had recovered. Since bounty hunting was their family's most important source of income, and the treatments were extremely expensive, Atarik had to hunt very difficult targets at a young age to earn enough bounties to pay for his parents medical care.

Initial Adventures
Atarik soon found that his constant training had been worth it. Targets that usually required years of experience gave him little challenge as he burned through bounty after bounty, earning thousands of credits. He began to customize his standard beskar armor, adding a revolving rapid-fire dart launcher, advanced flamethrower, and his favorite weapon, a retractable wrist blade. As he adventured, he learned how to craft his own armor out of scavenged scrap he melted down with a portable furnace. He sold this armor to gain extra money.

Meeting Kalera
After nearly a year of constant hunting, Atarik's parents had gotten significantly better, so he decided to take a break on Nar Shaddaa. While having a drink at one of the Promenade cantinas, he was approached by a hooded female figure. The woman was a Cathar Jedi Knight named Kalera To'rin. She was looking for information as to the location of an ancient Jedi Relic, the Holocron of Furious Focus. The Holocron contained teachings and information from the Jedi Order's most famous battlemasters. It had gone missing and was rumored to have been stolen. Atarik asked her why a Cathar was asking him, a Mandalorian, for help. Kalera replied that she took people for who they were, not what members of their species or organization had done in the past. This earned Kalera lasting respect in Atarik's eyes, as he himself thought the same way, despite the Mandalorians' tendency to hold a grudge. In exchange for a substantial payment, he agreed to help Kalera find the relic.

Searching for the Relic
The search for the Holoron took the two fast friends to dozens of planets all over the galaxy. However, they found more than a lost Holocron. As they learned more about each other, they discovered that they shared many views. Atarik revealed that he did not agree with his people's alliance with the Sith, or their destruction of the Cathar homeworld and their lasting grudge with the species. He said that he admired Cathar for their battle skills. Kalera told him that, although her loyalties lay with the Republic, she still believed that it could use a lot of work. The more they searched, the more the professional barrier, with Kalera a Jedi Knight, began to break down. Before their final battle to claim the Holocron, which had been captured by a rogue Sith Assassin, Atarik revealed that he had feelings for Kalera, and didn't want anything to happen to her. Kalera said that she shared the feelings, but later, when they were about to go to hyperspace back to Coruscant, she said that nothing could happen due to her status as a Jedi Knight.

Betraying and Rescuing Kalera
After recovering the Holocron, Atarik and Kalera prepared to hyper back to Coruscant. However, instead of Coruscant Atarik imput the cooridinates for Korriban. When Kalera noticed, Atarik used an electro-dart to stun her. It turned out that he had received a message saying that his parents had suddenly gone into critical condition. They needed treatment fast, and the payment he had gotten from Kalera wasn't enough. In an act of desperation Atarik contacted a Sith Lord and offered him Kalera in exchange for enough credits to save his parents. The Sith Lord agreed. A few days later, Atarik brought a bound Kalera to the Sith Academy on Korriban. However, instead of taking the payment and leaving, Atarik took the payment and killed the Lord. He told a shocked Kalera that since he had received payment, he no longer had any loyalties to the Lord. He told Kalera to put on the Sith Lord's robes so they could sneak out. Upon discovering that he had to refuel before going to Coruscant, Atarik gave Kalera his mother's old armor in order to sneak into the Mandalorian enclave on Dromund Kaas.