More of Episode I to come soon. I'm trying not to let it all too quickly because I'm still unclear about the course of Episode II: The Dark Times Begin. This happens to me a lot, though. The middle part is generally the one I find to be the most difficult to write. What I do know, though, is that the linchpins of Episode II are the debut of the Empire and the turning of Anakin Skywalker. Its closest counterpart in the Lucas PT is Revenge of the Sith.
But strangely enough, I know Episode III: War of the Skywalkers like the back of my hand. It is the farthest removed from the Lucas prequels of all three of my films. If anything, III's closest narrative cousin is A New Hope.
Before I post more of Episode I, though, I might as well get out some of Ben's backstory...
Ben Cortel was born on the harsh steppe world of Ambria in 55 BBY. He never knew his Human mother, who died in childbirth because of the poor medical care on the world. Ben's father was a former Chiss noble who was exiled because of the part he played in a feud between competing siblings in the Chiss royal family.
In his early years, Ben was faced with little opportunity in life except for working as mineral prospector on Ambria, the work his father had to take up as a necessity. Ben's restless spirit was dissatisfied with this notion. To escape his trappings, Ben enlisted as a marine in the Republic Navy in 38 BBY.
Ben spent the next few years serving with distinction, holding the rank of sergeant by the time he was assigned to the troopship Anarkilion. On the cusp of being considered for officer training, Ben's life would be changed forever. In 33 BBY, Ben refused to obey an order to open fire on anti-Human, anti-Republic protesters (all unarmed civilians) at Elom. His commanding officer had him incapacitated and interned on the Anarkilion's brig.
Ben was sentenced by court-martial to six years of confinement on the prison world of Despayre. One year into his sentence, 32 BBY, Ben and thirty other prisoners formed a complex escape plan. However, only Ben and four others made it out due to the group's detection by security forces.
The five escapees stole a transport and set a course for Nar Shaddaa, the nearest world with any substantial commercial opportunity. While the ship was in hyperspace, one of the crew members staged a mutiny to change the ship's course to Ord Mantell because a Nar Shaddaan crime syndicate had put a price on his head. The mutineer murdered one of the ex-cons before being killed by Ben and the other two escapees.
Upon landing at Nar Shaddaa, the three men collected the bounty on the mutineer's head and split it evenly. Then the three went their separate ways.*
Ben decided he could best get by as a spice smuggler. He was already handy with a gun and had learned a lot about small unit leadership from his time as a marine sergeant. He started out as a second-in-command and first mate for a few freighters before graduating to become the captain of his own ship.
In 30 BBY, Ben found an engineering droid, "Zero", in salvage on the planet Kelada. He paid an engineer there to reprogram the machine to serve as his assistant. Ben won the Belisarion in a sabacc game in the year 29 BBY, finally getting a vessel under his captainship. He had a brief relationship with his navigator Jeni in the year 28 BBY, after which they were mostly platonic.
Ben had carved out a living as smuggler for seven years before the Force came to him in 25 BBY. He did not know it at the time, but he had become another conduit for the energy field.
One day he noticed that he had the ability to see very slightly into the future. Another day he realized that nearby objects would occasionally move a few millimeters for no discernible reason. At first, Ben believed that he was either going insane or that his mind had been permanently addled by spice. But it wasn't until his sabacc game in the bar at the start of Episode I did Ben realize that he could use these new powers to his advantage.
Over the course of this trilogy, Ben's powers will propel him into the galactic arena in ways he could never have imagined before.
*One of these men was Hal Dagman, who would have a few run-ins with Ben in the ensuing years. Yes, this is the same Hal Dagman who was mentioned up there at the start of Episode I, where he is cheated against in a sabacc game. That's not the last we see of him.