Cantrell is a highschool dropout.

He never really fit in with the other kids at the Young Warriors Foundation. Disallusioned by years of wedgies and bullies, he decided that the path of higher learning just wasn't the way of his future. Finally, after one swirly too many, Cantrell shoved his books in the trash and left forever. He spent the next ten years of his life loafing around his mom's hauler, experimenting with psychadelics until she was fed up with his antics and marooned him in a jetcan on a barren moon.
Cantrell hitched a lift to a nearby system and found employment servicing cap boosters at a Quafe Co. fuel depot. That's where he discovered his talent for all things mechanical. His boss encouraged his growth and enrolled him in Pator Tech School, where he learned to make bolt stretchers and chain benders. He used his skills to create an empire of widget-manufacture and now he spends his time leisurly floating around New Eden pretending to be a pirate.

Arr!