Colt Bolton

"*Excuse you! I can fly. In fact, I'd call myself one of the best pilots I know!*"
—Colt Bolton
**Colt Bolton**, nicknamed **Monkey** by Baglo the Hutt, is a Human male smuggler, active throughout the galaxy. He pilots the HWK-290 light freighter, the Cardinal. He commonly works with numerous high profile clients, such as the Hutt crime lord Baglo, Jacen Drask or the Black Sun syndicate. Born on Serenno in 42 BBY to a poor background, Colt lacked many authority figures and role models in his life - which led him to a life of crime.

Starting as a child, he had joined a pirate crew, assigned odd jobs to clean the ship and transport cargo. In time, he began to impress the captain of the crew and soon became able to go on runs with them. On one raid however, the crew was wiped out by a rival gang and Colt fled with fellow crewmate Skippy in a beat-up freighter - one which they kept and later named the Cardinal.

In journeys across the galaxy, Colt would eventually find a Twi'lek named Rubi, whom he quickly fell in love with. The couple completed smuggling runs together across the Outer Rim, tying the knot not long after they first met. Love never served as a way for Colt to grow, however, and he kept to his hedonistic, risk-taking lifestyle. On one particular job, Rubi and Colt got into a vicious gunfight with the Torike Family. In the aftermath, Rubi was dead and Colt had no choice but to flee - grief-stricken and wounded.

In the aftermath of his wife's death Colt has resorted to sex, drugs and rock'n'roll to keep himself sane and keep the memories of Rubi and her death out of his mind. He's a misogynist, an addict, and grossly immature for his age. His most recent endeavors include assisting crime lord Jacen Drask and his cartel, the Nexu Capital, and as a gun-for-hire for the vicious Black Sun syndicate.

## Biography

### Early years

Born to a whore and an absent pig of a father on Serenno in 42 BBY, anyone would be able to tell Colt didn’t have the best childhood. Never knowing his father and being beaten senseless by a drunken mother every night led him to dark places in his youth, resorting to swindling Serennian nobles for cash and stealing food from markets. Though he didn't know it, Colt was actually a highborn bastard, as his father was a Serennian count and notable Separatist.

### A Pirate's Life

#### Deck Monkey

One day, Colt took his swindling a little too far however, and ended up robbing a notorious pirate. A dire mistake. The eleven year-old would have faced death - were it not for the pirate’s surprise at how he had been duped by a child. He saw Colt’s potential. Taking the kid with them on their next quest, they made Colt into their errand boy, performing odd jobs around and keeping watch of the ship when they were off doing the more important jobs like gambling, stealing and killing. His time in the crew strengthened him up and he quickly became a decently skilled gunslinger by his mid-teens.

#### Fall

Alas, it would be just Colt’s luck that a raid gone awry would cause the downfall of his crew. Ambushed by a rival gang on Socorro, Colt’s pirate allies - bar the amphibian alien Skippy - were all slain. The two survivors only managed to flee in a run-down and beat-up HWK-290 light freighter (which later became Colt’s personal ship - the Cardinal).

### Smuggling Career

#### With Skippy

Alone in the galaxy with little direction, the dynamic duo of Colt and Skippy moved to offering their services smuggling for syndicates to secure more credits. From Black Sun to the Pyke Syndicate, people wanted Colt and Skippy’s services more and more as they descended further into the Shadow Collective’s spiral of crime. Between 23 BBY and 12 BBY, the two worked on-and-off with each other, as well as a rotating roster of criminals - though they always stayed the best of friends.

#### With Rubi

One of Colt’s crewmates would mean more to him than the rest, however. Rubi was a Twi’lek dancer he met in a seedy cantina on Coruscant during the Clone Wars. Obsessed with the allure of adventure and romance in the stars, she pursued Colt to join him on his journeys across the galaxy. Colt, of course, couldn’t get enough of it. The two made love more than they made money on their travels and it wouldn’t be long before they tied the knot. The two devoted their lives to each other

The love story would be a tragedy though. In 16 BBY a dispute on a transport vessel owned by the notorious Torike Family came down to Rubi and Colt at gunpoint with crime lord Thor Torike. Engaging in a shootout they could never win, Rubi handed herself over in an attempt to end the bloodshed. And indeed, the shootout halted - only for Thor to end Rubi’s life right before her husband’s eyes. Colt would have kept fighting, were it not for Rubi’s last words being a whispered ‘keep running’. Colt took his wife’s dying words with him for the rest of his life. And he ran.

Now hiding from the Torikes because of his actions and without the love of his life, Colt was a mess. He’d lost all the attributes that made him a star in his prime. A husk of what he used to be, he created a character for himself to play. A narcissistic, misogynistic, cynical scoundrel. In his depression, he even neglected to think about his dead wife, falling in love and sleeping with whoever he could find in the galaxy. He tried to forget it all. Death sticks, drink and sex drive kept him sane.

#### Return of Skippy

As they remained close friends, he and Skippy re-formed a smuggling crew with the frog as his co-pilot in the aftermath of Rubi's death. This partnership lasted for a couple years until Colt sold Skippy out after losing a bet in a gambling disaster on Corellia. Colt now, truly, had nothing. No friends, no money - but a whole heap of enemies. In search of some kind of buzz or thrill to make him feel alive, Colt boarded the Cardinal once again.

### Child of a Hutt

#### Meeting Komla

In 15 BBY, Colt had a chance meeting with a mysterious lost Huttlet known as Komla on the planet of Nar Shaddaa. He took a liking to the little Hutt and the two began traveling the stars as Colt looked for Komla’s father. After several adventures - including hunting a bounty on Balmorra and performing an impromptu song and dance to Baglo the Hutt - Colt felt a strange, almost fatherly connection to the Huttlet.

#### Enter Drask

On a fateful day on Nar Shaddaa, Colt would suddenly find himself at the mercy of bounty hunter Jacen Drask. Holding Colt hostage, Jacen dragged him into an ongoing feud between the hunter and the intergalactic pirate gang, the Canton Dragons. They formed an uneasy and unlikely partnership. Their crusade to find information on the Dragons led them to the Imperial Senate Building on Coruscant, where the two disguised themselves as senators in order to splice data on the pirates from the Imperial archives.

Drask's final confrontation with the Canton Dragons was unsuccessful however, as Captain Fao Seng managed to evade capture, even with assistance from Baglo the Hutt's fleet. Drask's dissatisfaction with the outcome led to him dragging Colt on a galaxy-wide search for the pirates, only to turn no stones. Feeling cheated, Drask looked for another way to galactic infamy - and he found it in Colt and Komla. The three tracked down Komla's father, Kosvo the Hutt, to his palace on Kintan. They brought Komla home, though Drask's motives were sinister. After returning the Huttlet to their father, Drask double-crossed the crime lord and murdered him in front of his child and Colt. A firefight ensued, where Drask and Colt only emerged victorious due to Drask's persuasive talking. Drask re-organized Kosvo's cartel into Nexu Capital and invited Colt to join him - but Colt declined, guilt-ridden over the heinous act they had committed. The smuggler left Drask behind on Kintan and resumed his smuggling career.

#### Later exploits

After leaving Drask, Colt went back to his old ways. In Emcee's on Corellia, he engaged the Dowutin criminal Muntz, demanding where his old companion Skippy was. Muntz only taunted Colt, so in revenge, he planned to take the Dowutin's bounty. Colt shot the Dowutin in the crotch, causing the beast to become enraged, giving chase to him through the cantina. In the end, Colt failed to cash in on Muntz, as he was apprehended by Corellian policeman Zek Zorra.

### Rise of the Nexu Capital

#### Raid on Nar Shaddaa

Three years after Colt had gave up on Jacen Drask, he was taken hostage once again by two criminals - Red-top and Short-face. They kidnapped the smuggler in order to bring him to Drask's Palace on Kintan, where he was thrown at the Nexu crime lord, Jacen Drask. Drask recruited Colt, as well as a crack team of Hutt Cartel members that included the Gigoran enforcer Tovan, to perform a raid on a rival spice refinery on Nar Shaddaa. The mission was a success and the refinery was sabotaged, thanks to Colt's expertise with a blaster and the duo of Red-top and Short-face's quick thinking.

#### Duel with Foreddy

Colt was returned to Kintan by Red-top and Short-face, though his ticket off the planet - the Cardinal - was still in an impound on Corellia. Stranded on the wasteland planet, Colt headed to find a ship willing to give him a lift. On his way however, Colt met an old foe - the Gungan Foreddy-Gettin-Meesa-Not. Where he thought the Gungan was killed in the past, the truth was that Foreddy had survived, though he had lost an eye. Colt reasoned with Foreddy, who held him at gunpoint, but the Gungan gunslinger wouldn't budge. The smuggler attempted one last time to dissuade his enemy, but again - it was futile. As Foreddy pulled on the trigger of his makeshift blaster, the gun exploded in his face, taking out his other eye and finally killing him. Although both of them hadn't realized it was Drask himself who "killed" Foreddy in the first place.

## Personality

"*You are a Monkey. You stink, you look awful and you probably even play around with your own feces. But like the Monkey, you are intelligent. And considering you came here so unhesitantly, and considering the fact you're still poor as a Tusken - I know you benefited nothing from the the Usurper's betrayal.*"
—Baglo the Hutt to Colt Bolton
Colt is a suave, silver-tongued rogue. Or that’s how he’d describe himself, at least. In reality, he’s perhaps more of a narcissist, as he’s more rude than charming, more impulsive than strategic, and more likely to swear than smooth-talk. He’s also a serial flirt and a womanizer - who wouldn’t want to sleep with a galaxy of babes on their travels?

On the other hand however, Colt also grapples with depression, survivor’s guilt and a fear of loss. His numerous partners in crime have literally taken a bullet for him many times in his career as a criminal. He’s probably lost more friends than he can count. Though he doesn’t let it on, he’s deeply affected by each of them - especially the one he held closest: his wife.

In tense situations, Colt will often try and crack jokes to lighten the mood, or talk his way out of them with his slippy, charismatic persona. Colt is often over-confident in his abilities and will run headfirst into danger. Additionally, he’s easily won over by gold, so waving a touch of treasure before his eyes will distract him duly. He can - and will - be bribed. Similarly, his love for women works this way too.

## Skills and abilities

### Blaster skills

Colt is skilled in the use of blaster pistols, trained by space pirates from a young age. He's a dab hand with heavy blaster pistols, most commonly seen dual-wielding a pair of DL-44 heavy blaster pistols - though he is also known to use a DG-29 sideloader pistol, particularly at longer range as it holds the advantage of having a macroscope.

Likewise, Colt is also a good shot with ship blaster cannons. While he's seen less action with the Ax-108 cannon on the Cardinal, he is very experienced with using the AG-2G quad laser cannons fixed to the underside of each wing.

### Piloting

Having been flying ships for over half his life, Colt has developed a skill in piloting. He is most familiar with his nimble HWK-290, the Cardinal, having primarily flown said ship his entire career. He's capable of pulling off complicated and advanced manoeuvres and often boasts about his skill. Excellent with multitasking in the cockpit, Colt can often perform these moves whilst controlling the Cardinal's blaster cannons or even whilst smoking the odd cigarette or huffing the odd bump of spice.