So this is it, eh? All crab-boys dead, planet liberated, battle won?
—Ayden Stone
Ayden Stone was a Mandalorian commando, a former bolo-ball champion, active in the early years of the Galactic Alliance.
Biography[]
Stone grew up in one of the center neighborhoods in Keldabe, Mandalore. He soon picked a hobby that dominated more than the first two decades of his life. Ayden spent most of his free time playing bolo-ball on the street, when he wasn't training with his father or accompanying him to hunting on other planets—Raglon Stone was a passionate big game hunter and adventurer. By the age of seven, Ayden became so skilled in the ball sport, he managed to beat kids twice his age. He grew arrogant and belligerent, and often during or after a game, it came to a brawl where he mostly dominated as well. He eventually left the streets to join a proper bolo-ball team, where they tried to teach him discipline. It took a lot of time and patience from the side of his trainers, but in the end, Stone realized that with his talent in the sport, he couldn't afford unsocial behavior if he wanted to pursue the hobby as a career. His parents knew of his exertions, after all, and they had even threatened to delay the verd'goten, his coming of age.
At the age of 15, he lead the junior team of Keldabe to a series of victories as their captain, but although he trained hard, Ayden never became popular outside the Mandalore sector. But that wasn't entirely his fault, as the Mandalorians played a more brutal, non-standard variant of bolo-ball and their relations to other worlds in general wasn't the best, either. Over the time, he earned the nickname 'Rockfall', a pun on his surname and the massive force he put behind his volleys.
Even in his early twenties, while bolo-ball truly marked the focus of his interests, he still accompanied his father from time to time, filling their house with numerous trophies from creatures. But the profession of a still low-profile sportsman didn't make Stone a rich man, something he had always longed for. He tried his luck on a few solitary big game hunts, but when this didn't suffice for him, either, he turned to another kind of hunt: bounty hunting. Whereas this side job didn't pay out well, either, especially with the urge from his trainers to watch his reputation, it attracted the attention of Goran Beviin, a mercenary in good contact with the Mandalore, Boba Fett.
Stone in his full suit of Mandalorian armor
Stone was 22 when he joined the ranks of Fett's commandos, totally abandoning his sports career. After more than ten years of professionally playing the sport, he lost the fun and interest in it. He had chosen a bad timing, as the Yuuzhan Vong had only recently emerged in 25 ABY. Unlike most of his comrades, Ayden didn't bother that officially, they were now allied to the Vong, but still he went along to Raxus Prime to complete his Supercommando training. He completed earlier than most, partially thanks to his intense bolo-ball training, which was practiced far more hard and reckless by Mandalorians. He wanted to fight in the frontline, and that he did, battling alongside fellow supercommandos and Yuuzhan Vong warriors, while achieving covert goals like gathering intelligence for the New Republic. Later, Stone found out the reason why most of the others had preferred to stay on Raxus Prime, or rather experienced it himself. Most hadn't wanted to play Fett's game, they despised the idea of being allied with the Vong. Ayden only kept going because it brought money, what the training didn't.
Thus, Stone was indeed glad when his people changed sides and started to fight off the invaders. He participated in the Defense of Mandalore, but he wasn't really an exceptional soldier. A supercommando he was, but he didn't excel in this line of work as he had in his sport or the street brawls. But that didn't matter to him, he was glad that for once, he could be "normal", not having to live up to any expectations.
Physical appearance and personality traits[]
Ayden Stone was of average height, but of very athletic build and with very broad shoulders. His years of tough bolo-ball playing and training payed out in that regard, as did his street fighting experience. He had the posterboy face of a sports star, but still with a slightly roguish air, thanks to his unkempt red hair. The only real mark of fighting experience was on his left ear, which had a long and thick scar telling of a pair of brass knuckles he hadn't managed to stop from tearing a gash to his earlobe.
By the time of his mid-twenties, a buoyant, wisecracking attitude had mostly replaced his former arrogance. And as long as he was sober, he also managed to keep his bellicosity at bay. Thus, for everyone not knowing his other self, the one he developed with a good supply of alcohol, Ayden was a charming and sportive young man, who hadn't completely managed to leave behind his adolescence.
Equipment and gear[]
Stone's weapon of choice was an old-fashioned, double-barreled slugthrower. It actually was his father's gun, but when Ayden had left for the supercommando training, Raglon had handed the rifle to him, in memory of all the hunts it had served him on. The only problem about it was its age, and even thorough maintenance couldn't prevent it from constant jamming. While Stone knew several gunsmiths who could modify the weapon with new parts, he didn't want to touch his father's heirloom, so to say. Instead, he eventually went to Siege Takomir, an expert with weapons, to construct a slugthrower of equal firepower, but with shorter barrel length and the ability to add attachments like scopes and projectile-launchers. In some battles, though, he still used his father's rifle, simply of the symbolic and sentimental value. Stone generally preferred slugthrowers to normal blasters, because although the energy weapons were cleaner, a single well-aimed shot from a slugthrower was almost always certain to put out a target for good. That had worked with big game, and it did with the Vong.
Apart from that, Ayden toted a sidearm blaster pistol and a vibrodagger, as well as the weapon system his shock trooper armor presented. Flamethrower, dartcaster, whipcord launcher and extendable gauntlet vibroblades were his favorite gadgets, as well as a powerful jetpack.