Biography
Rakiko was born on the moon of Pantora to a popular music singer and a club owner. He mainly grew up with his mother who doted on her only child. Even though his mother's popularity waned as he entered his teen years he still lived quite well off and started joining the club scene. Seeing that his nephew might be heading down the wrong path, Rakiko's uncle convinced his mother to enroll him in a military school to learn Pantoran values and politics. Even though Rakiko didn't excel as a military cadet he did learn discipline and his spoiled nature was softened. At the age of 16 Rakiko left the military academy that had been his home for over a year and applied to become a journalist. Over the next two years he learned the basics along with field skills like piloting a spacecraft and basic mechanical skills. After graduating he got a job with Galactic News Network that teamed him up with a more experienced reporter, Daana Kira.
Some of their first assignments included finding as much information about the Jedi. Originally Rakiko though it to be an easy assignment but the more they learned the more confused he came about what he first considered a religious cult. He was finally seeing that the Galaxy wasn't an easy place to understand. As they went on more assignment, Rakiko learned many things; how to be a exceptional reporter from Daana and the complexities along with intricacies of life from the number of people they met on their journeys.
News Assignments
Rakiko was able to report co-report on a number of items over his time as a reporter.
Personality
Generally soft-hearted, calm, fair and professional, Rakiko at times could be selfish and self-absorbed, though the negative traits diminished over the years. He also had a natural curious personality that sought to find the truth about matters at any cost. Even though he spent some time in a military academy, Rakiko only had very basic fighting skills and tended to avoid fights, though he wouldn't run away if there was a story or a secret to find out. Rakiko disliked unquestionable authority, but did work hard for those he respected, such as his boss at Galactic News and his partner Daana. Rakiko was also very loyal to those he considered his friends or family, especially with his news-partner Daana whom he stood by even in front of deadly danger.
Skills
First-most, Rakiko was quite skilled in journalism and had a talent for the art of questioning; the only thing the young reporter lacked was experience to really bring his skills to the forefront. Rakiko was also a fair pilot, learning to pilot small freighters, couriers, and scout ships during his training. He was also given basic training on the upkeep and repair of said ships along with using a navigation computer, even though he had more affinity for using, repairing and modifying recording and holovid equipment and was particularly skilled in holonet devices. For fighting skills, even though blaster use was part of his training, Rakiko was more skilled at cleaning them than shooting. However his skills with melee weapons were worse, but he could be a fair unarmed hand-to-hand combatant, though he had little chance against those that made militaristic pursuits part of their lives.
To provide himself and his ship a bit more freedom, Rakiko obtained a junior civilian captain's liscence after the required study and tests. Still short of the ten year spacer experience requirement required by most jurisdictions in the galaxy to be a full independant captain, Raki continues to have his ship liscenced with GNN, who vouches for his ability.
Equipment
Normally on him, Rakiko carried a holo-handcam, various datapads and recording devices, a holonet transceiver, his Galaxy News badge, and a pack of small precision tools. He also had a holocam droid that followed him which he was rather fond of. If the mission called for it, Rakiko would carry extra items in a pack; everything from survival gear to extra communication equipment and maybe a weapon or two.
At one time Rakiko also had access to a Galactic News Network ship modified with parts from a Lambda class shuttle which he and Daana "confiscated" from a shuttle hangar on Dromund Kaas. Later, to save costs, the imperial shuttle was sold by the Galactic News Network and the reporting pair were instead assigned a G9-Rigger, a low cost freighter whose only fame was that a similar model was used by a general in the Clone Wars. The ships main redeeming quality was its upgrade to a sophisticated communication relay, purchased on the Hutt moon of Nar Shaddaa. After receiving his civilian captain's liscence, Rakiko purchased an aging YT-1210 with a loan from Galactic News. The ship was outfitted with the communication equipment from the G-9 Rigger along with some new equipment. For now, the G9-Rigger has been returned to a GNN warehousing port, but Rakiko plans to buy it also once he's saved enough credits.
Rakiko's most prized possession was a sophisticated Sulstan made holocam, which he kept close to him at most times. This particular model had the ability to film and take still shots through a broad range of the visible and non-visible spectrum. Early on Rakiko used data-chips to store information, but with the acquisition of more modern communication equipment, Rakiko was able to stream live feeds directly to the ship and beyond. Unfortunately, Rakiko went through many of the same model holocam due to work related hazards, each one being slightly different in the pieces that had been modified.