John Mathurin

Biography
Jonathan Mathurin Jr. is a former Imperial pilot turned freelancer. Despite being born in the Empire (thus making him an Imperial citizen) and serving in the Imperial Navy, he rarely spends time in the Empire itself, preferring to keep to Federation or Independent space.

He was born on May 6th, 3272 to John "Jack" Mathurin and Quinn Evans while his parents were living on Tombaugh Station in the Orcus system. At the time, his mother, also a former Imperial Navy pilot, worked flying escort duty for merchant vessels, while his father worked as a ship mechanic and kept an eye on young John.

At the age of six, Quinn was killed during one such escort mission, which prompted his father to move the family to the Reorte system in Alliance space one year later. Jack never quite recovered from his love's death, and began to fall back on many of his earlier, less scrupulous ways in order to support himself and his son.

John's relationship with his father became more distant as he grew older, but he managed to inherit an interest in flying and knack for technology from his father, choosing to throw himself into learning about various technical manuals and schematics that his father kept.

Eventually, at the age of 15, he began working for his father on jobs sent to them by Justus, an old friend of his father's. The experience taught John a great deal about life in space, but the relationship with his father continued to sour, the two often coming to blows over minor disagreements. Everything came to a head four years later, when Jack "fired" his son after a job had gone poorly, and it was revealed that Justus had betrayed the two.

Following his father's parting piece of advice, John traveled to the Achenar system to join the Imperial Navy and enlist into 4 year program. Despite his initial misgivings, the added structure of military life allowed him to thrive and hone the skills his father had taught him, which allowed him to earn a spot in one of the Empire's many fighter wings. His next 6 years of military service were largely unremarkable, coming to an end shortly after the Empire launched Operation Davy Jones, also known as the Pegasi Pirate War. He was expected to re-enlist, but it came as a surprise to many when he did not - and in the Empire, willingly leaving the military during a conflict was seen as somewhat of a dishonorable act, though the Imperial Navy granted him an honorable discharge all the same.

Upon separation, he used of his savings from the Imperial Navy to buy a Cobra Mk III, and began working for himself, eventually moving into an Asp Explorer and finding himself in the Sol System for Christmas of 3302. It was here, while exploring an icefield of Titania, he came across a small, unmanned station. Upon tapping into the station's network, he found an odd encoded message that he decided to download and take with him. The search for who this data belonged to (an adventure he jokingly calls "The Christmas Mystery") eventually took him to the Camazotz system, where he met Stanton, who helped him sell the data. The two became friends, and the older Stanton also became sort of a mentor figure.

With the proceeds from the data sale, John was able to buy a Python, which he used to ferry two-hundred tons of cheap scotch from Erlich City, Mercury to the famous (or infamous) Hutton Orbital station in the Alpha Centauri system. The trip was not without incident, however, as a stowaway dog and a pirate attack complicated the delivery. The safe return of the dog to Erlich City led to John obtaining a puppy of his own, which he would later name Jack. He would also sell his Python shortly thereafter, claiming it "cost too much to run" and bought a Diamondback Scout instead.

He would use this Scout to begin running missions for the Sirius Corporation in the Avik system, where he would meet Banjo, one of Sirius' representatives. Banjo would later introduce John to Takamura, a representative of the Apex Unlimited Corporation, who contracted John to help him find a lost T9 in the Mitschigua System of Empire space. During the search, he was introduced to two members of Takamura's team, Sidra and Tucker. Upon finding the T9, John learned that Takamura was only interested in one escape pod, which the team recovered, but the thought of leaving the other pods didn't sit well with John - and when he declared he was going to drop a distress beacon, Takamura turned on him. The conflict resulted in Takamura being ejected out an airlock. When the pod was opened, the girl inside was revealed to be Cassandra Akon, an unwilling test subject. Cassandra was returned home to the Hoji system, and Tucker and Sidra remained behind to help undo the damage Apex Unlimited had done to her.

John eventually returned to the Camazotz system to check on Stanton, who sent him on a quick job to a nearby system. On the way back, he was ambushed by a bounty hunter, revealed to be Jack Mathurin, his father. The two fought, and while John won, Jack was killed when his disabled Imperial Courier fell into a star. The death of his father, even though the two were estranged, affected him deeply, and he took possession of and began using his father's extra Imperial Courier to honor his memory.

Several months later, Banjo contacted John and forwarded a video, one which showed Takamura, evidently still alive, re-abducting Cassandra and his murder of her entire family - including Sidra, who had grown quite close to Cassandra in the months following their ordeal. John quickly set out for Tucker's apartment on Siegel Station in the Hoji system, though he arrived too late - someone had found Tucker first and had thrown him out a window. While searching Tucker's apartment, John met Talia Ashton, who was also searching for information regarding her sister's disappearance, and the two agreed to work together.

They attended an Apex Unlimited press conference, at which Tucker was revealed to not only be alive, but also to be Maxwell Browning, the CEO of Apex Unlimited, and that they had fallen right into a trap. While Talia managed to escape, John was captured, taken aboard the company's Anaconda, and tortured. A timely intervention by Talia flying John's Imperial Courier allowed him to escape, destroy the Anaconda and kill both Takamura and Maxwell in the process, but at a cost - Cassandra, driven mad by continued genetic experimentation, died as well. John escaped by pod, and floated near the Anaconda's wreckage for two months before eventually being rescued by Talia. Unfortunately, John's Imperial Courier had been damaged beyond repair during the attack on the Anaconda, and his two month absence caused the insurance to lapse, forcing him to spend what little money he had left to buy another Cobra Mk III. He and Talia parted ways as friends, with John telling her he owed her for saving his life.

Personality
John is largely a pessimist (though he prefers the term realist) and relies on his cynicism to see him through life. As a result, John is neutral toward others - and others probably interpret this as him possessing a cold demeanor. That being said, he tends to treat others as they treat him - if they're friendly toward him, he will do so as well. Recent events haven't helped much, though, both driving him further into his shell and also souring his outlook on life even further.

He has an aversion to flying larger ships - not because he feels he can't pilot them, but because being alone on a ship intended for a larger crew makes him deeply uncomfortable.

The combination of Cassandra's death, his torture, and the cocktail of drugs used in escape pods has recently caused nightmares, so he avoids sleeping whenever possible, and drinks far more heavily than he used to, leaving some to label him as a borderline alcoholic.

Current Ships

 * Cobra Mk. III - Steamrunner

Previous Ships

 * Unnamed Cobra - (Sold)
 * Asp Explorer - Broken Helix (Sold)
 * Python - Helix (Sold)
 * Diamondback Scout - Pyrrha (Sold)
 * Imperial Courier - Illaria (Destroyed)

Notes and Trivia

 * Most of his ship names are references to pop culture - Illaria comes from the defunct Facebook game Legacy of a Thousand Suns, while Pyrrha is a reference to a character from Rooster Teeth's animated series RWBY. Other ships, like the Steamrunner, is a reference to a class of starship from Star Trek.
 * John used to use the name Xeknos as a callsign, but this has since been changed to help separate the author and character.