July 17, 2007 was the date in which Stewart and Nancy Hawkins received Ryker into this world. The couple, owners of a Bookshop in Aerilon, had been trying to conceive a baby for the past 7 years, and almost gave up but soon found that Nancy was pregnant.
His early years signaled that Ryker wasn't that attached to books, at least Academic ones because he did enjoy reading SciFi, Fantasy and the like. He got an interestin in Chess however, and often played with his father. Sketching is something that he started doing at an early age as well, and these gave his parents the idea of possibly careers or paths.
When the opportunity came for the family to leave Aerilon, they did. When he was 7, his parents had saved enough money to make a bold move, they took everything they had, and selected Caprica as their new destination. They reopened the shop there and did everything they could to nurture Ryker's hobbies. However, the wide window of opportunities that Caprica presented, created new interests in Ryker. He started to go outside a bit more, instead of being inside all the time. He started to make friends, started to play sports, started to define himself as a potential athlete. He never gave up on playing Chess or Drawing, but other things clearly took a primary role in his life.
Close to his 18th birthday, Ryker informed his parents that he wanted to join the local Police Force. This was certainly a surprise for the couple but, they accepted it, and supported their son. So Ryker did, he joined the Caprica Police Force, and after a year and a few months after he did, his superiors considered him worthy of joining what they called, the Caprica Special OPS team, pretty much the local S.W.A.T squadron.
Training was harsh, heavy, and energy consuming, but Ryker passed everything with outstanding marks. During these first years, he was heavily trained in Melee combat, using a specific Martial Arts mix that would allow the Special OPS officers to deal with threats, in a quick, clean way. He received training in Firearms as well, ranging from the familiar sidearms up to High Power Sniper Rifles. Stealth techniques, Advance Driving, Gunnery, you name it…they were trained to be the best of the best.
Years of outstanding work granted him a promotion when he was 27, he was made Squadron Captain. With the regular duties of a Captain, he was also assigned with the task to train the newcomers, and he did that diligently. This year was eventful for him, because he also got married to a woman named Clara, they discovered that she was pregnant and marriage was an obvious move since they loved eachother. One year later, a babygirl was born, the couple called her Vanessa.
Close to his 30th year old birthday and after a series of foul plays done by…well…politicians. Ryker's Squadron was shut down, leaving everyone with two choices, finding a new spot within another Squadron (regardless the type) or finind a new job. These events angered Ryker to no ends, and during his last meeting as a Captain, he almost punches a Politician, after a long, heated argument between the two. He was dismissed from the corps after this.
Not knowing what to do, Ryker jumped to the first job opportunity he received, he was to become a Stunt Man. This wasn't something he would have selected, but he had a family to maintain and it was good money. So for the next year, he participated in the making of different action movies, doing the dangerous things that all the pretty actors couldn't do.
Almost a year later and already tired of doing that, he started considering something else. So finally, he Enlisted in the Military. Given his extensive background as Special OPS Officer, people saw him feet for MP duties, and he was shipped to the Battlestar Valkyrie.
Some say that you can't teach new tricks to an old dog, that's not always right. But it is possible that an old dog won't accept orders as easily as a young one would, and that caused a few problems for him during his first year. Eventually, he learned to behave.
In the early days of February, 2041, he was sent to Leonis to perform a group of task. One of them was to provide lectures to young (an not so young) men and women, interested in joining the fleet. Go figure, it's not like he was the best one to do that, but his background as trainer marked him as a good option.
When the attack started, he managed to get inside an Anti-Nuclear bombing bunker, along with other people. At this moment, he doesn't know what the hell happened, and is trying to survive long enough to kick the sh** out of the ones that did this.