Orion began his life as a member of Clan Ordo, a bit of irony which is not lost on the boy. Sure rather spartan training tactics are par for the course when it comes to nearly any Mandalorian clan, but the training regimen of Clan Ordo make most others look quite mild in comaprisson. As such, Orion (whose physical strength has never been particularly impressive) did not fare well for the first several years of his life.
Granted, Orion actually came out of most physical altercations (quite common among Ordo children) relatively unscathed – largely by simply not being there when a punch lands. Ordo culture, however, did not look kindly upon Orion’s particular fighting style (which consisted largly of dodge, dodge, dodge, run like hell,) and he never really demonstrated any meaningful apptitude for heavy weapons.
Not all of his training was wasted, however. Orion learned how to do two things very, very well. Firstly, he learned to shoot – anything he shoots between the eyes, after all, is something which can not bother him further. Secondly, he learned to hide – anyone who can not find him also can not, say, throw him into a pit fight with his peers.
None the less, the training officers of Clan Ordo did not appreciate Orion’s apptitude for these things quite as much as he might have hoped they would. Nor, really, were they overly impressed with his exceptional ability to repair and/or fly, well, most anything which can be repaired and/or flown. But, at very least, those skills made him in some way useful to the Ordo military complex (which is, for all intents and purposes, the entirity of Ordo society.)
It was in the course of this function that Orion first encoutnered the Sage clan. One particular attempt to gather the necessary parts to repair a Mandalorian starfighter proved rather difficult amongst the stockpiles of clan Ordo – which primarily concerned themselves with storing up weapons, weapons, and more weapons. He had heard, though, of the newly-established Sage Clan ship production facilities, and tried his luck there. Short-staffed and over-taxed as they were (with copious numbers of orders for Yvette-class cruisers rolling in from Mandalorian and outside sources alike) Orion’s requests for starfighter parts were… promptly ignored, and he found himself temporarily pressed into service assembling a navigation array.
Eventually, he acquired (well, technically speaking, stole) the necessary parts from the Sages, and completed repairs to the starfighter. And the people rejoiced and the Ewoks danced… well, no, technically none of that actually occurred. In fact, as per usual, none of the Ordo really seemed to particularly care that he had performed neigh-impossible repairs on a burned out husk of a starfighter, and well before most boys would have known what a spot-weld was, let alone been able to use one effectively.
This, he felt, was the last straw. Orion, frustrated with his life, did what any honorable young warrior of Clan Ordo would do… he ran away from home. Of course, this did not turn out to be quite the self-fulfilling, victorious experience he had anticipated (of course, so few things really are when you’re 9.) After a couple of weeks of living on the streets and surviving by doing one of the few things even Jedi find too dangerous to attempt – stealing from Mandalorians – Orion finally decided to try his luck at the Sage shipyard once again. Orion set out for the Sage clan, avoiding the occasional Ordo who might recognize him and finally making his way to the shipyards, in hopes of invoking some archaic Mandalorian rite of clan defection. His request to perform the rite was… promptly ignored, and he was pressed into service assembling navigation arrays.
Except this time, it just sort of stuck.
(Orion in Mandalorian Battle Armor)
