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| Who’s Who Tan Maarek Stele |
Tan Maarek Stele was a Naval Aviator in the service of the Imperial State who came to be the Empire’s greatest ace of aces, having spent his entire career in
the Imperial Navy as an extremely active Naval Aviator; like the former General Tan Anakin Skywalker and Grand Admiral Nial Declann — celebrated fighter
pilots in their own right — Tan Stele was sensitive to the Force, and it is very likely that this preternatural sensitivity contributed to his phenomenal success as
a fighter pilot. He was first introduced by TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles as the main character of TIE Fighter (and of its subsequent expansions, TIE
Fighter: Defender of the Empire and TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire), and his story was continued in TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide, most of
which is composed of notional after-action reports (AARs) filed by Tan Stele himself. His name was originally given in both TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles
and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide — the primary sources on his life, which provide a large amount of detail of his activities — as “Maarek Stele,” but
the back cover of TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide refers to him as “Tan Stele,” an irregularity rationalized seven years later with the publication of
“The Emperor’s Pawns.” Stele holds the distinction of being the only pilot known to have flown with both Darth Vader and Colonel Soontir, Baron Fel of the
Empire, and is also the only pilot known to have served under the command of both Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
He was apparently about average in height, and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide indicates that Zaarin was “almost a head taller.” He is known to have
been a naturally gifted mechanic, and “The Emperor’s Pawns” indicates that he was also proficient at dealing in fisticuffs, and basic first aid. Most of his known
skills deal with his phenomenal ability as a fighter pilot. “The Emperor’s Pawns” shows that he had dark skin and short, dark hair, and the telltale tattoo of the
Secret Order of the Emperor on his left forearm. Members of the Secret Order are first given this tattoo as a First Initiate, and it is then augmented as the
member rises in rank through the Second, Third, Fourth, and Inner Circles, before rising to the ranks of Emperor’s Hand, Emperor’s Eyes, Emperor’s Voice,
Emperor’s Reach, and the theoretical ranks of Emperor’s Sentinel and Emperor’s Guardian; in “The Emperor’s Pawns,” Tan Stele’s tattoo is visually
recognizable as that of Emperor’s Reach. His last known rank was that of post captain, although he is usually referred to as “colonel” instead (colonel and post
captain are identical in rank).
Maarek Stele was born on Kuan, a planet in the Taroon system in the Rim ravaged by a decades-long war against neighboring Bordal; his parents were Kerek
and Marina Stele, and his father Kerek — “the famous scientist” — was kidnapped by Bordali agents, prompting his wife and son to lay low so as to prevent
the Bordali from capturing them and using them as hostages to compel Kerek Stele’s cooperation with the Bordali regime. According to TIE Fighter: The Stele
Chronicles, “few people bother to recite the original causes of the war,” as it had simply come to exist as an end unto itself after “nearly twenty years of
interplanetary warfare.” He spent much of his youth racing for cash prizes in illegal swoop races and modifying his swoop with his winnings (in his last race,
for example, he was testing a “modified gyro-servo sensor array” on his swoop’s nose), as well as generally carousing with his friend Pargo. He did not live with
his mother, “a beautiful woman nearing forty” (an implicit clue as to Stele’s age). After a military police raid on one of Maarek’s illegal swoop races, Pargo was
followed by agents of the People of Bordal, who proceeded to kidnap Pargo, Maarek, and Marina Stele, but before they could be transported to Bordal, the
shuttle was captured by the Imperial Star Destroyer HIMS Vengeance, and all passengers detained aboard for three months.
After three months’ detention on board the Vengeance, Stele was informed that the Imperial State had declared martial law in the Taroon system, initiating
peacekeeping operations to put an end to the twenty years war between Kuan and Bordal. Based on his background as a swoop pilot and mechanic with some
education in general sciences and astrophysics, he was one of about 150 Kuani and Bordali selected to attend an orientation briefing given by Admiral Mordon
— Vengeance was his flagship, and he is implied to have been a squadron commander — in which he “invited” the two planets to voluntarily join the Empire,
although a detailed description of an Imperial Star Destroyer’s warmaking capabilities made it unambiguous that the “invitation” should not be declined, lest
there be an empirical demonstration. After viewing a prerecorded holomessage from the Galactic Emperor — whose charisma even as a holographic proxy
ensnared Stele and left him “ready to do anything, go anywhere, to serve him” — , he signed on as a civilian defense contractor, working as a mechanic in the
Vengeance’s spacecraft intermediate maintenance department (TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide both refer to
SIMD as simply “Repairs”). Three months later, while the Star Destroyer was in orbit over Farboon, Stele took a TIE interceptor he’d been repairing — the
signalman of the watch identified it as “TIE/In Four Oh Vee Niner” — on a shakedown flight when he received an emergency distress signal and flew
interference against a pair of BTL-A4 Y-wings and a pair of T-65C A2 X-wings attacking a shuttle Admiral Mordon himself (although Stele did not learn that
the shuttle was the admiral’s barge until after the fact); Stele managed to delay the attackers long enough for reinforcements to arrive from the Vengeance.
An Officer and a Gentleman
Stele’s escapade drew a great deal of attention — aside from the fact that he had rescued one of the Imperial Navy’s flag officers from capture, there was also
the fact that this civilian who had never received flight training had successfully evaded four rebel fighter pilots and survived space combat maneuvering without
even knowing how to properly interpret verbal space traffic control instructions. He was invited to join the Imperial Navy and attended officer candidate school
(OCS) at an undisclosed location, where his two-month indoctrination was overseen by one Senior Master Sergeant Jona T. Stark (his rank should probably be
gunnery sergeant rather than senior master sergeant); the notional Imperial Navy — Orientation scandoc (excerpted from the Class 070536 Indoc Guide W5-
754F-C2.15) notionally forms part of the instructional manual for TIE Fighter. Upon completing OCS, Stele was assigned to the Vengeance to undergo flight
training, which is an indicator of Stele’s overall performance; the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition states that only “officers who graduate in the top five
percent of their class qualify for flight training”; while still on board Vengeance, he bumped into his old friend Pargo, who had enlisted in the Navy earlier and
had recently been selected to make a lateral transfer to the Imperial Marines. The next day, Stele began pilot training, and spent about a week in simulated flights
before making a practice flight in a trainer TIE bomber with his flight instructor, Captain Trox (judging by his rank and his position, Captain Trox should
probably be understood to be a Marine aviator equivalent in rank to a Naval lieutenant rather than a Naval Aviator equivalent in rank to a Marine colonel;
alternatively, judging by the incorrect rank scheme cited in Imperial Navy — Orientation, one might simply correct his rank to that of lieutenant commander or
squadron leader). During this time he was given a copy of The Imperial Pilot’s Handbook: Basic Pilot’s Manual (this notional document corresponds to the
introductory tutorial chapter of TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide); his training was interrupted when Mordon requested a personal meeting. The admiral
took a liking to Stele and took him on as a protégé, and gave him “a small ring — a simple band with an oval-shaped disk of metal on the top” that protected him
from the aggressive plants grown in Mordon’s private cabin. Mordon and Stele met often, to talk of their pasts, and Mordon often offered advice on dogfighting
and piloting, which Stele wrote down as a set of 23 rules of thumb which he called “Some General Combat Tactics.”
During one of their friendly meetings in Mordon’s cabin, the admiral suggested that Stele begin speaking to the Secret Order of the Emperor — Mordon called
them “men dressed in robes,” whereas Stele and other prospective Naval Aviators referred to them as “the acolytes.” “The Emperor’s Pawns” identifies the
Secret Order as “a shadowy cabal of darksiders known to some as the Prophets of the Dark Side” (the quasi-Sith cult rather than the official State religion
established by Grand Vizier Sate Pestage in 39 rS). Mordon believed that the Secret Order “can be helpful, and will offer you opportunities”; during the same
conversation, Mordon mentioned that he’d been hearing some scuttlebutt that “some high ranking officers in the Imperial Navy” “may have some plans of their
own,” and that “there’s treachery in the air,” thus prompting his belief that “the greatest immediate danger to the Empire may not be the Rebel Alliance.”
Shortly after this conversation, “several cycles” passed without any meetings between the two; shortly after Stele had completed his simulation training and
was waiting final confirmation of his qualification as a Naval Aviator, it was announced that Mordon had died of “natural causes,” his command assumed by
“(Acting) Admiral Coross.” In the official investigation that followed, Stele was questioned about his relationship with the late admiral, and he told the
investigators everything he knew, before being forced to drink “a caustic liquid” — probably a so-called “truth drug” — and undergoing an interrogation that he
did not later remember. Several days later he received a message that falsely claimed to be from his mother, but was actually a posthumous warning from
Mordon, who had ordered him transferred off Vengeance to “a remote outpost” in order to keep him safe from “the enemies of the Empire” whom he suspected
of treachery. During this time, Stele developed a habit of flying training missions in the flight simulators when agitated, as “he always felt better when he was in
the cockpit of a starfighter.”
According to TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles, Stele’s “first mission after becoming a bonafide starfighter pilot” was a temporary assignment to a corvette on
picket duty; during his first flight in this duty he discovered a freighter illegally carrying weapons, and the situation turned hostile with the arrival of rebel
fighters, but the rebel forces were routed by the Imperials. This particular duty station — which cannot have been very long, as Mordon’s last orders to Stele
soon saw him stationed aboard a minor outpost in the Javin Sector, where TIE Fighter and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide begin — is significant to
Stele’s career for two reasons; first, it was a mission flown under combat conditions, which according to the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition was required
to be a combat-rated pilot in the Imperial Navy, so that Stele obtained the combat rating “square,” and second, it saw Stele record three confirmed enemy kills,
which would prove to be the first of many. Not long after flying this mission, Stele was transferred to Platform D-34 in the Javin Sector, guarding “a major trade
route.”
While embarked aboard D-34, Stele flew a modified TIE/ln space superiority starfighter designated Alpha 1 every day, “flying patrol and inspecting cargo craft
that were detained by the Imperial customs agents.” Shortly after the Battle of Hoth in 38 rS, it was Stele that identified the freighter SS Onece 3 as carrying ten
fugitive rebels, probably fleeing from Hoth VI; two groups of rebel shuttles, Roe and Escro, attempted to intervene, but Stele destroyed all six shuttles and
facilitated the boarding of Onece 3. Shortly after that, Stele was approached by the Cloaked Figure, a representative of the Secret Order, and then scrambled to
repel a punitive rebel attack on the outpost, destroying four Y-wings, two Z-95 Headhunters, and contributed to the capture of a shuttle Scutz, carrying a group
of rebel officers. After only having spent “weeks” aboard D-34, Stele was reassigned to escort frigate HIMS Fogger (at this stage, TIE Fighter: The Official
Strategy Guide still has Stele at the rank of “Cadet,” despite being having completed OCS and having qualified as a Naval Aviator — in fact, with 15 confirmed
kills, Stele was an ace thrice over — ; it is possible that Stele’s rank at this time was that of a passed midshipman, although he ought to be an ensign or pilot
officer).
Aboard the Fogger, Stele met Flight Officer “Grommet” Carith, Flight Officer Alimet, and Flight Officer Ketcher — by flight officer, one should probably
understand sub-lieutenant or lieutenant junior grade, as Carith mentions his eligibility for promotion to flight lieutenant, which is equal to a naval lieutenant — ,
who showed him around the ship; Carith and Alimet were Stele’s wingmen on the next mission he flew, in which he piloted a TIE bomber coincidentally
belonging to Fogger’s Alpha Squadron in an attack on rebel shipping passing through a Mugaari depot (this was Stele’s first combat mission piloting a T/B);
Stele personally destroyed the cargo ferries SS Gallon and SS Romold as well as the transport Dawn (carrying rebel military advisors), and at least two more Y-
wings; immediately upon the frigate’s return to D-34, a second mission was launched, as rebel forces had seized the platform during the frigate’s absence. Stele
— this time piloting one of Alpha Squadron’s TIE interceptors — led the attack, destroying at least two X-wings, two B-wings, and one Delta-class JV-7
escort shuttle. Having by now recorded at least 25 confirmed kills, it was becoming increasingly clear that Stele was a phenomenal pilot, and he was ordered to
pilot a Alpha-class Xg-1 StarWing assault gunboat as part of an attack on the rebel light cruiser Lulsla in the Bruanii Sector, which intelligence had indicated to
have been the launching point for the attacks on D-34. Stele’s performance in this raid was especially remarkable; in addition to having identified one of the
containers being taken on by the Lulsla as having contained a shipment of Imperial probes — suggesting an Imperial supplier — , but, as Stele himself wrote in
his after-action report (AAR), “at the debriefing I found out that I had 13 new kills to my name: 3 X-wings, 3 A-wings, 4 B-wings and 3 Transports.” Stele was
debriefed by another Cloaked Figure, and then returned to the cockpit of a StarWing gunboat, leading Tau Flight in an attack on the Lulsla herself; during the
dogfight he shot down a Y-wing and an X-wing, as well as destroying two transports launched from the light cruiser — bringing Stele’s confirmed kills to at
least 42 — and capturing a shuttle that turned out to be the captain’s gig, with the Lulsla’s Commanding Officer aboard. The light cruiser was destroyed, and
according to TIE Fighter Stele was awarded the Medal of Redemption for his part in the affair.
Admiral Harkov and the Sepan Civil War
Only a few days after the destruction of the Lulsla, Stele received new orders to detach from duty aboard Fogger and report for duty to the Victory Star
Destroyer HIMS Protector, Admiral Harkov’s flagship (although it was not known at the time, Harkov had been in secret negotiations with the President of the
Alliance to Restore the Republic, Mon Mothma herself, to arrange for his fleet’s desertion en masse from the Empire and defection to the rebel Alliance, not out
of ideological conviction or moral compulsion, but rather out of simple greed and venality). Harkov’s forces were ordered to the Sepan Sector to put an end to
the longstanding Sepan Civil War between the Ripoblus and Dimok peoples (in his briefing, Harkov prudently omitted the fact that he was supplying Imperial
munitions to both sides). While flying a mission in support of a Ripoblus convoy, Stele scored kills on three Dimok Y-wings, but also surreptitiously collected
intelligence on the Ripoblus convoy, his scans revealing that at least one of them was carrying Imperial munitions, which the Ripoblus were not supposed to
have had (in fact, he was informally counseled after the mission’s completion that he was expected not to display such initiative in the future). He was then
assigned to fly a T/B mission with Protector’s Beta Squadron to rebuff a Ripoblus attack on the Dimok science station Youst, in order to show that the Imperial
State was not taking sides in the Civil War (the Secret Order gave him the additional task of scanning the research station for any potential indications of what
precisely was being researched). Stele began this particular mission by destroying a ATR assault transport, and his heavy rockets somehow delivered the coup
de grâce to a Nebulon-B2 frigate, Dromon, scoring a kill of such stature that it bordered on the ridiculous. He was again informally counseled after this mission
about exceeding his orders, as he had inspected a number of container modules and identified a shipment of weapons, as well as aiding in the capture of a high-
ranking enemy officer.
Throughout Stele’s brief career, he had kept up a brisk operational tempo, and the Sepan Civil War was no exception. He was assigned to fly one of Gamma
Squadron’s TIE interceptors escorting a group of Ripoblus scientists attempting to defect to the Empire, and he and his wingmen destroyed an unknown
number of Ripoblus loyalist Y-wings and armed Lambda-classT-4a shuttles; after the successful completion of this mission, Stele — who by now had recorded
over 50 confirmed kills, including an escort frigate — was promoted to lieutenant, and was soon approached by a senior pilot, Captain Trace (probably a
lieutenant commander or squadron leader), who asked him if he were an agent of the Secret Order. The very next day, Stele was assigned to pilot a StarWing in
Mu Flight in a raid on a secret meeting of the Dimok and Ripoblus leaders in deep space near Sepan VIII; he was also tasked by the Secret Order with keeping
an eye out for any larger cargo vessels, as “someone is selling arms to both Ripoblus and Dimok,” and “the Emperor wants to know who it is.” Stele destroyed
an unknown number of Z-95 Headhunters and Delta-class JV-7 escort shuttles, and inspected the cargo ferries Godendag and Glaive, discovering illegal
shipments of Imperial munitions and supplies, as well as identifying the Calamarian light cruiser Falaricae as a Dimok ship. After this mission, Stele was
meritoriously promoted to “captain” (i.e., lieutenant commander or squadron leader), a fact made extraordinary by the fact that he had only been promoted to
lieutenant a few days before. He was contacted by a Cloaked Figure and told that he would soon be assigned to fly escort to “a valuable shipment” and that the
Secret Order required him to “investigate any unknown shuttles.”
Stele was indeed assigned to a TIE/ln fighter from Alpha Squadron and was ordered to fly patrol during the transfer of escort carrier HIMS Tropsobor’s TIE
Avengers, and shot down a number of enemy Y-wings — at this point, the unknown tallies of the past few missions had almost assuredly increased his total kill
count past 60, and possibly even into the 70s — and happened to identify the presence of a rebel leader aboard the Imperial shuttle Omlaut, a fact that the
Secret Order found quite interesting; the rebel leader was immediately taken to Harkov’s private ready room aboard Protector, where he met alone with the
admiral. The Cloaked Figure dismissed suggestion that the admiral was interrogating the rebel, as this was obviously not standard procedure, to say nothing of
Protector’s constant supply shortages, which the Secret Order believed were the result of falsified reports covering his black market activities, including his
illegal arms trade with both the Ripoblus and the Dimok. In gratitude for Stele’s work on the Secret Order’s behalf, he was “invited” to receive a “special
award,” the tattoo that marked him as a First Initiate of the Secret Order of the Emperor. Both Stele and the Cloaked Figure noticed Trace eavesdropping on
their conversation, and the Cloaked Figure ambiguously promised that the Secret Order would “take care of him” (Stele never saw him aboard Protector again).
That same day, Harkov announced to the Ripoblus and the Dimok that the Imperial State was imposing a ceasefire and “would not tolerate any breach of the
peace,” and TIE Fighter indicates that Stele received the Medal of Unity for his part in the operation. At the same time, an agent of the Secret Order reported its
suspicions of Harkov to Darth Vader, “the Emperor’s chief vassal,” who began to take a personal interest in the matter.
Vice Admiral Thrawn and the Pakuuni Pirates
In order to keep Stele away from Harkov — who surely could not have failed to notice that Stele consistently exceeded his orders in defiance of the unwritten
rules among Harkov’s forces about overachieving, and that Stele’s curiosity had an unfortunate tendency to expose segments of his illegal activities — , the
Secret Order arranged for his transfer to the escort frigate HIMS Ludwick, part of Vice Admiral Thrawn’s fleet recently assigned to eradicate pirates preying on
interstellar trade. There, he was reunited with Grommet Carith — now a flight lieutenant — , Alimet, and Ketcher, also assigned to Ludwick. Not long after his
arrival, Stele was ordered on temporary duty to Thrawn’s flagship, the Victory Star Destroyer HIMS Stalwart, and sent in T/B Alpha 1 to inspect cargo
containers near the abandoned manufacturing plant at Argoon. There, he faced a rebel ambush, which resulted in two Y-wings, a rebel corvette (Dragon), and a
Lambda shuttle being added to Stele’s kills, before returning to the Stalwart once heavy lifters had retrieved those containers his inspection had revealed to
contain station parts. He returned to the Ludwick and spent the next few days catching up with his friends, and on Carith’s suggestion they snuck into a hangar
to take some starfighters on ‘training maneuvers,’ and thus happened to be present when Vice Admiral Thrawn came aboard for a brief meeting with the Ludwick
’s CO, Commander Buckeye (who had served with Thrawn on some previous occasion). Thrawn ordered Buckeye to the Pakuuni system in the Outer Rim to
establish a naval outpost in order to bring the smugglers’ and pirates’ haven under control. Stele piloted a T/B belonging to Alpha Flight, and flew in an attack
on a pirate outpost in the Pakuuni system; early in the engagement Stele delivered a killing blow to pirate corvette Clavier — his second corvette and third
starship — , shot down a Z-95 and a Y-wing, and discovered a group of rebel Alliance agents hiding in cargo containers near the main pirates’ outpost. Although
he and his three friends had performed well during the battle, Buckeye quickly discovered that they had snuck into the hangar when Thrawn had come aboard;
as extra military instruction (EMI), he ordered the four to clean-up duty on the outpost, during which Ketcher discovered a strange glowing crystal, which he
ingested in order to avoid having to turn it over to the masters at arms for cataloguing.
After completing clean-up duty, Stele was ordered back to Ludwick to suit up and launch in one of Alpha Flight’s modified T/Fs — they were armed with
concussion missiles — for combat space patrol (CSP), guarding against possible counterattack by pirate or rebel forces. Less than a minute after leaving the
flight deck — TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide specifies it was precisely 55 seconds afterward — the rebel frigate Huntress hyperjumped into the
system and began launching Z-95s, X-wings, and B-wings. Stele shot down three B-wings, as well as an unknown number of Y-wings and X-wings that arrived
after the engagement had already begun; actually intercepted proton torpedoes fired by the X-wings, destroying three torpedoes via laserfire, and also
intercepted a heavy rocket launched by a Z-95, but three rockets struck the Ludwick, heavily damaging her just as an Imperial resupply convoy — with
Stalwart in the lead, escorting a modified corvette squadron — arrived at 9:30 into the engagement. The Huntress hyperjumped out of the system exactly 10
minutes after the engagement had begun, during which time Stele had shot down at least seven enemy fighters, bringing his confirmed kill count into the 70s at
the very least, including one frigate and two corvettes. Using supplies brought by the Stalwart’s convoy, a space station designated Platform XQ3 NL-1 was
constructed in the Pakuuni system to serve as a forward base for Thrawn’s forces; Stele periodically flew CSP during XQ3 NL-1’s construction. During one
such mission, Stele was piloting one of Tau Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats when a number of A-wings entered the system, soon followed by other rebel
forces, including Y-wings and a pair of modified corvettes. As Stele’s StarWing was loaded with concussion missiles rather than torpedoes, he ordered his
wingmen to attack the corvettes, eventually resulting in their destruction; a number of rebel officers abandoned ship in the shuttle Shakker, and Stele
immobilized the shuttle using his StarWing’s ion cannon — the fifth time he had captured important enemy leaders. In recognition of Stele’s extraordinary
accomplishments, he was meritoriously promoted to commander; he had been commissioned for less than a standard year by that time.
Thrawn decided that he wanted to conduct an inspection tour of XQ3 NL-1, despite the fact that most of Ludwick’s T/Fs and T/Is were undergoing repair or
refurbishment and the only CSP that could be fielded would be T/Bs, not well-suited for patrol or interception duty. Returning to Alpha Flight in a T/B, Stele
was tapped for CSP, and the Stalwart arrived within 45 seconds of his launching — Stele’s unusual talent of being in the right place of the right time may well
be a function of his sensitivity to the Force, as “Gambler’s World” indicates that a person very strong in the Force may have extraordinarily good luck — and as
Stele moved to escort Thrawn’s admiral’s barge, rebel craft arrived in-system. Engaging the A-wings proved difficult, and Stele accidentally shot his wingman —
“I noted to myself that I must be a little less trigger happy,” he wrote afterward, “but he shouldn’t have jumped in front of me and tried to get my target” — ,
but the Imperial pilots successfully destroyed the enemy craft (Stele himself shot down at least three A-wings), and Thrawn was safely escorted to the
platform and back to his flagship; in addition to the rebel forces, a small contingent of pirates had also launched an attack on the admiral’s barge, and Stele
destroyed at least two of their shuttles, as well. Shortly after Thrawn’s inspection, a number of Sienar Fleet Systems IPV-1 system patrol craft (SPCs) were
delivered to reinforce the station, and Stalwart set sail to join a relief convoy and escort it back to the Pakuuni system. Stele resumed flying CSP around the
station, this time returning to one of Tau Flight’s StarWings. His serendipitous timing again manifested itself, and a pair of rebel ATR assault transports
hyperjumped into the system 45 seconds after he launched. For the sixth time in his career, Stele identified and captured a shuttle carrying important
passengers, this time the shuttle Electra carrying rebel military advisors; he destroyed three enemy transports, at least three A-wings, and an X-wing. TIE
Fighter indicates that Stele was awarded the Medal of Progress, and he was transferred at the Secret Order’s behest to the modified escort frigate HIMS
Shamus, flagship of one of the Galactic Emperor’s own, Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin.
Grand Admiral Zaarin and Habeen/Nharwaak Affair
By the time Stele reported aboard Shamus, his reputation had preceded him. Stele’s habit of exceeding his orders, breaking formation, and flying off “seemingly
on a mission of his own design” — this all done at the Secret Order’s bidding, of course — had given him a reputation as something of a black sheep, to say
nothing of his extremely rapid promotions. He was becoming more and more ostracized in the officer’s mess, and as a result was surprised when a fellow pilot,
Xeal, approached him and asked him “to teach me how to survive.” Reminded of his own mentoring relationship with Mordon — a relationship that had both
begun and ended less than a year before — Stele agreed to pass on whatever insight he might have, although he warned his new protégé that he didn’t really
know very much (a claim that was quite strange coming from a commander who’d been in the Navy less than a year and nevertheless had recorded more than 80
confirmed kills by this time and who had received three decorations for valor in combat).
Zaarin — a passionate technophile — had arranged for the purchase of experimental miniature hyperdrives from the Habeen, but the Nharwaak — allies of the
Habeen — did not want the Empire to obtain the technology. Anticipating hostile action from the Nharwaak, Zaarin took his flagship to rendezvous with the
Habeen convoy transporting the test hyperdrives, and ordered a screen of Imperial fighters to escort the convoy; Stele was assigned to Alpha Flight, piloting a
modified T/F for the escort mission. Zaarin’s suspicions proved correct, and Nharwaak forces attacked the convoy, and Stele led the way attacking Red, Yellow,
Striker, and Scarlet Squadrons (all equipped with Y-wings), and strafed the Nharwaak corvettes with concussion missiles, holding off the hostile forces long
enough for the cargo to be transferred to the Shamus. After the delivery of the parts, Habeen leaders notified Zaarin that the Nharwaak had threatened to sell the
technology to the rebel Alliance if the sale to the Empire continued. To that end, Zaarin ordered a raid on one of the Nharwaak main bases, and Stele deployed in
a T/B — by now he had come to regard the bomber as “one of my favorites” — to lead the attack on the two Nharwaak corvettes, Petor and Shotgun. After
firing his torpedoes at the Shotgun, Stele helped his wingmen to destroy the Petor, and then the T/Bs destroyed a group of shuttles, Y-wings, and cargo
containers. Stele himself attests to the swiftness of the raid, writing “before I knew it, we had wiped out the entire base.” The Nharwaak soon retaliated by
attacking the Habeen research facility, and Stele and his protégé scrambled immediately, Stele again taking a T/B, destroying two Nharwaak torpedoes via
gunfire as well as at least six of the Nharwaak Y-wings (it is implied by Stele’s AAR that he shot down considerably more, the raid being a classical example of a
target-rich environment). The raid was beaten back, although Xeal’s T/B was lost (he was not however included on the casualty list, and Stele was unable to
ascertain whether he’d been killed or injured). In response to the raid, Zaarin finalized an agreement to rendezvous with Habeen leaders at Mylok IV to finish
the technology deal and to grant the Habeen “full Imperial citizenship.”
Stele was ordered to fly escort in one of Alpha Flight’s TIE interceptors for the rendezvous at Mylok IV, and received instructions from the Secret Order to
scan the Habeen transports in order to ensure that “their contents match our expectations.” Stele disliked flying escort, but dutifully climbed into his T/I — it
was modified to carry concussion missiles — and launched. At 1:15 into the mission, Nharwaak raiders entered the system, and Stele led the attack on the
enemy, scoring at least two Y-wings and two Z-95s, as well as destroying the guns of two Nharwaak corvettes. After the engagement, he was approached by
the Cloaked Figure, who told him that the data he’d collected by scanning the Habeen transports showed that “some of the technology the Habeen had was of a
new type,” different from the hyperdrives that Zaarin had contracted them with developing; the Secret Order was suspicious and decided to investigate further,
leaving Stele with the knowledge that the Nharwaak were still dealing with rebel forces, and he was soon ordered to fly one of Tau Flight’s StarWings to break
up a planned technology transfer between the Nharwaak and the rebel Alliance, discovered by Imperial Intelligence. Upon arriving at the rendezvous, Stele had
only to wait 20 seconds for the arrival of the rebel frigate Xerxes; he made repeated strafing runs on the rebel frigate, destroying many of its weapons and leaving
her vulnerable to the Shamus’s guns at long range. As the Xerxes withered under Shamus’s fire, Stele intercepted and destroyed a fleeing transport Tela, as well
as at least one A-wing. Shortly after the destruction of the Xerxes and the breaking up of the rebel/Nharwaak technology exchange, Stele was decorated with his
fourth “battle medal,” receiving the Medal of Order at a small ceremony; even he was conscious of his “short, but intense career,” and thought of his time aboard
the Vengeance with Mordon, and thought wistfully of his mother on Kuan. Soon after this awards ceremony, he was approached by the Cloaked Figure, who
told him he was being transferred back to the Protector, Harkov’s flagship, as part of the Secret Order’s plan to ‘close the net’ around Harkov, having long since
realized that his activities were not entirely above board. Although Stele protested that he did not want to see Harkov again, he was assured that the matter
would be brought to a close soon and went about the business of transferring.
The Hunt for Harkov
On his third day aboard the Protector, Stele happened to bump into his old comrade in arms Alimet, the bearer of bad news. Ketcher, who had become
increasingly listless ever since he’d ingested the crystal at the Pakuuni pirate base, had been killed, and Grommet Carith had deserted; apparently he had gone
UA after meeting a woman while on liberty, and subsequently met again with Alimet, telling him of his intention to join the Rebellion. Unbeknownst to Stele,
his arrival had already been filtered up to Harkov himself, with Harkov’s staff officer Vondruln having pointed out that Stele might be an Imperial spy, and
arranging for Stele to have an ‘accident’ on his next flight. He received warning from the Cloaked Figure to “be on guard during your next mission.” It
subsequently turned out that Stele was being ordered to clear a minefield while two rookie pilots “observed his technique,” much to Stele’s annoyance: “First,
he hated minefields. Second, despite himself, he was reminded once again of Xeal.” Stele immediately recognized that the ‘rookie’ pilots were nothing of the
sort, and he was being set up for Maneuver 717 — described in “Walking the Path That’s Given” as “what you do when you find a spy or an enemy agent in
your flight group, only they don’t now you’re on to them. You lure him out on a routine recon run, tell him you’re scouting for mines or intercepting an
incoming bogey. You make sure he’s leading the formation, so you’re flying in his blind spot. Then, when he can’t see you... you blast him out of the sky!” —
but he nevertheless climbed into one of Gamma Flight’s T/Is and began flying the mission. Soon after he had begun firing on the mines, his ‘observers’ began
targeting him, and Stele called for reinforcements as per the Cloaked Figure’s instructions, leading to the abrupt arrival of HIMS Osprey, a modified Nebulon-B2
escort frigate. Stele continued to evade Harkov’s pursuers — three TIE Advanceds and two T/Is — when a rebel Calamarian cruiser arrived (Harkov planned to
defect to the Alliance, and apparently planned to finalize his plans with the rebels at the same time that he killed Stele, which proved to be remarkably bad
timing as Stele obtained proof that Harkov was consorting with rebels, confirming that an Imperial officer was attempting to board the Calamarian cruiser. Stele
landed in the Osprey’s flight deck, and angrily told the Cloaked Figure that he was through doing the Secret Order’s dirty work; the Cloaked Figure riposted
easily by telling Stele the truth: “Harkov murdered Mordon.” The Secret Order had obtained “incontrovertible evidence” of Harkov’s treachery, and Vader
himself would lead the Imperial task force to neutralize his fleet. The hunt for Harkov was on.
Stele’s first assignment during the hunt for the rogue Harkov was to fly one of Mu Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats on a reconnaissance mission to inspect
containers and ships at a rebel support depot DS 5 for evidence of Harkov’s activities. Stele shot down a rebel B-wing and then left his wingmen to engage the
remainder of the enemy fighters while he inspected containers in the region. Having completed his inspections, Stele and his wingmen decided to destroy the
cargo containers, seeing that they contained stores of grain, ground vehicles, liquid gas, and water for use by rebel elements. Harkov’s Victory Star Destroyer,
the Protector, arrived at the station to drive off the raiders, but was too late to prevent the destruction of the supplies; Stele wisely ordered a withdrawal, having
confirmed DS 5 as the location of Harkov’s supply base. Upon his return to ship, he insisted that he be allowed to fly on the next mission, despite not being on
the duty roster (“he wasn’t going to miss any opportunity to get Harkov”), and as a result was “back in the cockpit within the hour,” again leading elements of
Mu Flight, this time to prevent Harkov’s Protector from completing a resupply operation. Armed with heavy rockets, the StarWings arrived and immediately
intercepted the scheduled replenishment convoy, destroying a number of the cargo ships as well as both of their escorting corvettes (Stele personally destroyed
a Karflo freighter and two “Sorosuub” (sic) modular conveyors, and one munitions container transport). By then, Harkov’s own TIE Advanced starfighters
arrived to chase off the raiders, and again Stele ordered a withdrawal, denying Harkov the opportunity to bring his superior firepower to bear — ironically, the
traditional roles of the Empire and the Alliance were reversed, with the irregular rebel guerrilleros having their superior firepower frustrated by the persistent
hit-and-run tactics of the professional Imperial regulars.
As had come to be common in Stele’s career, he maintained a very high operational tempo, and soon he was back in combat again, this time piloting one of Mu
Flight’s new TIE Advanced starfighters, sent to engage Harkov’s own CSP. Even as Harkov was laying a vast minefield around DS 5 in order to protect it, Stele
shot down seven of the defectors, losing one wingman in return, and identified Harkov’s gig Toten docking with the station while the Protector hyperjumped out
of the system. Stele ordered a withdrawal, but not before he strafed a pair of modified corvettes; in his after-action report, Stele commented rather drolly that
“it’s stupid to take on a modified corvette in a single starfighter, but nobody ever accused me of being smart.” In the event, he successfully single-handedly
destroyed the modified corvette Wurger and then fled into hyperspace, bringing his kill count into the high 90s at the very least, including one frigate and now
three corvettes. While the attack on the supply depot was planned, Imperial probots “kept watch to be sure Harkov did not escape.” In the meantime, Stele
wandered onto the flight deck to examine his T/A more closely, regarding its as “a wonderful craft — fast, maneuverable, and powerful,” and hoping to be able
to pilot it again soon. While he was in the hangar, “Captain” Trace — late of the Protector, the pilot who earlier had asked if Stele were an agent of the Secret
Order — approached the ship in a T/I, claiming to be “looking for a way out of this mess.” When Stele spoke to the space traffic controller on watch and
mentioned that he knew Trace, the man insolently told him “It’s not my concern, boy. And it’s not yours. Just go on about your business” (it is quite
remarkable that Commander Stele did not place this man on report for insubordination and disrespect to a commissioned officer, and perhaps says a great deal
about Stele’s personality; being not-quite-a-mustang officer himself, was he wont to tolerate a great deal of rudeness from enlisted men?). Concerned by the
sight of stormtroopers removing Trace from the flight deck under armed escort, Stele hurried to contact the Cloaked Figure, suggesting that the Secret Order
could perhaps make use of Trace, who had recently been aboard Harkov’s flagship; he was surprised to learn that Trace was in fact also an agent of the Secret
Order.
Stele was ordered to pilot another of Mu Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats in the first wave of the Imperial attack on DS 5, tasked primarily to ensure that
Harkov did not attempt to escape from the supply depot in a shuttle or transport in the early stages of the attack, although he was also assigned to eliminate
whatever of the station’s defenses he could, including starfighters flying CSP and Type 3 space mines. Stele was disappointed to fly a StarWing again, as they
were not as maneuverable as the so-called TIE “Avenger” he had just flown, but nevertheless he joined the battle with gusto, destroying a number of mines
before breaking off to chase the Corellian light freighter Geddawai, aboard which Harkov was making a run for it. Combining his gunboat’s laser cannon and ion
cannon, Stele immobilized it, then destroyed the captain’s gig Toten (which was trying to act as a decoy for Harkov’s actual getaway aboard the Geddawai), and
captured the transport Kolermigon, loaded with certain rebel passengers also attempting to escape. Stele returned to minesweeping, and soon thereafter the
supply depot was captured by Imperial assault transports, prompting the arrival of HIMS Garret, completing the takeover of the depot. The rebel frigate
Olinor, some modified corvettes, and a large number of enemy starfighters arrived in-system in a last-ditch attempt to rescue Harkov, but only succeeded in
providing a target-rich environment for Stele and his fellow pilots (in his AAR, Stele mentions having shot down “some Z-95s,” “some B-wings,” “some of the
T/As,” and “wave after wave of TIE Advanced,” which implies at least ten kills in this phase of the battle alone). For the seventh time, Stele had identified and
captured an important enemy, and Harkov was taken aboard Garret for interrogation by Darth Vader himself; both TIE Fighter and TIE Fighter: The Official
Strategy Guide portray his death at Vader’s hands, joining the ranks of the numerous traitors and incompetents to be strangled to death by the Sith Lord’s
invisible hand. For his part, Stele never learned what specifically happened to Harkov; the Secret Order told him only that “he would be punished, and that his
crimes were of the most serious sort.” According to TIE Fighter, Stele received the Medal of Loyalty for his part in Harkov’s capture.
The Mag Pulse Affair
After Harkov’s capture, Stele was transferred again to Grand Admiral Zaarin’s command at the Imperial Naval Weapons Research Station, where he was
welcomed aboard by Zaarin himself, who took the time to show him some of the starfighters being developed and chatted with him casually for a few minutes,
even going so far as to ask permission to call Stele by his given name of “Maarek” (hitherto he had addressed Stele by surname alone, omitting his rank entirely).
When Zaarin opined that “pilots of [Stele’s] caliber are the foundation of the Empire’s strength,” Stele answered that “the commanders, the ones who decide on
policy and plan the tactics, are the backbone of the Empire,” and then added that “it’s the Emperor who’s the real foundation of the Empire.” On leaving Zaarin’
s office, Stele had the feeling that “some very significant conversation had just taken place in the closing moments of the meeting,” but did not know what it
could possibly have meant.
Stele was soon assigned to pilot a T/A as an escort to cargo ships transporting the prototypes of Zaarin’s newest starfighters, the TIE Defenders. About 35
seconds after he and his flight hyperjumped to the rendezvous with the cargo ships, a group of rebel starfighters appeared to make a half-hearted attack on the
cargo ships; a quick dogfight ensued and the T/A escort drove off the enemy snubfighters, Stele adding two B-wings and two A-wings to his already-impressive
kill count. Shortly thereafter he was invited to dinner with Zaarin, and was amazed at the what the Grand Admiral called his “meager fare” — Stele’s immediate
reaction was that “in all his life” he had “never seen such a spread.” Although he could be justifiably proud of his record — a backwater provincial who had
gone from civilian contractor to full commander in less than a standard year, now decorated with five medals for valor and nearly 100 confirmed kills, including
four capital ships — Stele was suspicious of Zaarin’s friendliness, and perplexed by his curious questions about whether or not he believed in the Galactic
Emperor’s infallibility and about the effectiveness of certain policies of the Imperial State. He had not yet digested his dinner when he was approached by the
Cloaked Figure, who told him that the Secret Order was “concerned that all is not as it seems at this research facility”; Stele was too embarrassed to voice his
concerns over Zaarin to the Cloaked Figure.
Shortly after this ‘friendly’ dinner with Zaarin, Stele was assigned to pilot one of Alpha Squadron’s T/As to escort the cargo ferry IFA Sela to Vinzen Neela V,
to deliver the prototype TIE Defenders to the escort carrier HIMS Hininbirg; the Secret Order communicated to Stele that there had been a security breach at
NWRS and that this was very unusual as Zaarin was reputed to be “an exceedingly careful commander,” and that Darth Vader himself was displeased with the
failure in security. On arrival at the rendezvous point, Stele discovered a pair of rebel corvettes lurking in ambush. In the eight-minute dogfight that followed,
Stele shot down four Y-wings and single-handedly destroyed both corvettes, the Vop Hui and the Mar Duun, an extraordinary feat unprecedented even in Stele’
s own phenomenal career. Unsurprisingly, this spectacular success prompted another meeting with Zaarin, who offered to appoint Stele to command of “a
special squadron under my command,” which would be equipped with “the most advanced starfighters in the galaxy” (despite his rank of commander, Stele had
been constantly transferred from squadron to squadron throughout his brief career and thus had never actually had opportunity to accept any type of command
in the Imperial Navy). Excited at this opportunity, Stele assured Zaarin that he was loyal and would be happy to serve under him — blissfully unaware of the
subtext of Zaarin’s offer. Shortly thereafter, he was ordered to fly one of Tau Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats to escort to a small supply convoy to Zaarin’s
research platform, and — as was often the case — little time passed after he rendezvoused with the convoy before a group of rebel starfighters arrived and
created a diversion for assault transports intending a lightning raid on NWRS itself; Stele destroyed at least two B-wings and two assault transports, and
possibly two X-wings (Stele’s AAR is unclear about that), and one of the rebel B-wings was captured for study after it became evident that there was
something unusual about their weapons. After returning to berthing following this mission, Stele received a visit from now-“Major” Trace (i.e., commander or
wing commander), who probed him with questions about loyalty, and then revealed that he was in fact a rebel officer named Hamo Blastwell, an infiltrator.
Blastwell attempted to persuade Stele of the wrongness of the Imperial cause, but Stele angrily kicked him out of his berthing space, saying that he was tired of
everyone trying to recruit him for their causes. He did not, however, turn Blastwell over to the authorities.
The captured B-wing revealed that the rebel Alliance was using an experimental weapons system called ‘mag pulse’ technology, and Zaarin received orders
directly from Imperial High Command on Imperial Center to conduct a punitive raid on the main facility of the weapons system’s designer, Galactic Electronics.
To that end, Stele piloted one of Tau Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats in the attack, with orders to intercept and destroy enemy fighters and to interdict all
outbound traffic; Stele ended up shooting down at least six Z-95 Headhunters and disabling at least one transport, the shuttle Kalree, the Corellian freighter SS
Lucky Day, and a pair of mag pulse-equipped Y-wings, all of which were captured when Zaarin’s task force took hundreds of Galactic Electronics employees
prisoner and destroyed the platform after stripping it of all useful technology and data. After the raid, Stele received a visit from a stormtrooper who escorted
him to a little-used area of the Glory converted for use as a temporary brig, and was at last reunited with his father, Kerek Stele (interestingly, Stele estimates
that he has not seen his father in “months” or “a year,” establishing an upper limit on how long Stele had been an officer, since he hadn’t seen his father since
before he was first brought aboard the Vengeance over Kuan (Stele had been detained aboard her for three months before becoming a civilian defense contractor,
it should be remembered, shortening his career as a fighter pilot to rather less than three-quarters of a year). At the same time, he was also reunited with his old
Kuani friend Pargo, who turned out to be the stormtrooper who had escorted him to meet with his father. Stele’s pleasure in this reunion was quickly spoilt by
his father, who criticized him for serving the Imperial State; Kerek Stele called the Empire “this gang of thieves and bullies,” and waved aside Stele’s claim that
the Empire had ended the Kuan/Bordali war and reunited Taroon, saying that in the civil war’s place the Empire had “brought servitude and discrimination,
brutality,” and saying that he had not returned to Kuan after his capture by the Bordali because of the changes wrought by the Empire, and that he had been
“made to serve” the Empire. Pargo interrupted this discussion by telling Stele that he had to return his father to the brig — this meeting was not an authorized
visit — and immediately after they left Stele sought out the Cloaked Figure and begged him to arrange for his father’s return to Kuan. The Cloaked Figure
evaded giving him a firm answer, and told him instead that he was being transferred at the Secret Order’s behest from the Glory to Darth Vader’s flagship, the
Garret. At some time prior to his transfer, Stele was awarded the Medal of Destiny (very likely in recognition of his extraordinary performance above and
beyond the call of duty at Vinzen Neela V), as seen in TIE Fighter.
The Battle of Ottega: “H” and “Z”
Immediately after his transfer to the Garret, Stele was assigned to “an elite squadron of pilots,” some of whom were “familiar faces encountered before on one
ship or another,” but mostly pilots he’d never met; by now, Stele felt largely alienated from his colleagues and did not spend time around them, keeping to
himself as much as possible. This elite squadron was detailed to begin training on the new TIE Defender, the product of Zaarin’s R&D efforts, and Stele was so
impressed with the T/Ds that he regarded them as “almost enough to rekindle Maarek’s martial spirit” (“almost, but not quite”); this fact provides implicit
detail on the pilots in this squadron, as The New Essential Guide to Vehicles & Vessels indicates that it was Imperial High Command’s policy that T/D pilots
“only be selected from TIE interceptor pilots who had flown at least twenty combat missions and survived” (Stele is himself a bit of an exception, having flown
at least 27 known missions under combat conditions, but usually not in a T/I). Although he enjoyed piloting the T/D, Stele had by this time come to want only
to return to Kuan and leave the wars behind him. A few days after his arrival, word was passed that the remains of the traitor Harkov’s fleet had been located at
Ottega, and that the Garret would be spearheading the attack. Stele climbed into the cockpit of one of Alpha Flight’s TIE Advanceds, and joined the Interdictor
cruiser HIMS Harpax in a raid on the Protector’s resupply lines; in the event, Stele easily destroyed the containers destined for the Victory Star Destroyer’s
replenishment, and engaged a number of “H” T/Bs and at least two “H” T/As before the rebel Calamarian light cruiser Warhawk hyperjumped into the system
to trap the Harpax, joined at 5:20 into the mission by the Nebulon-B frigate Akaga. Stele returned to the Harpax for replenishment and refueling at 14 minutes
— this is the first mission Stele had flown in which his AAR is not clear whether or not he had scored any kills, but this is probably because he almost certainly
wrote this particular AAR some time later, after having flown several other combat missions — , and immediately scrambled again to defend the Interdictor,
launching with a pair of other pilots from the Garret, Saaryu and Prakrii, whose banter reminded Stele of himself only a few months before.
The ordnance of Stele’s T/A had been changed from concussion missiles to a pair of heavy space bombs, monstrous warheads designed to penetrate capital ship
armor and inflict severe damage on the vulnerable compartments beneath the weatherdecks. Stele and his element leader launched their bombs at point blank
range, knocking down the Akaga’s shields, and then replenished and made a second run, crippling the ship; Stele switched to laserfire, and very quickly recorded
his second frigate (he had earlier destroyed the Nebulon-B2 Dromon during the Sepan Civil War). Immediately Stele turned to provide relief to the Harpax,
suffering under attack from the Protector’s “H” Beta Squadron of T/Bs and the Z-95s of the rebel Blue Squadron; although Stele’s T/A took a missile from Blue
1, he nevertheless destroyed two of the attacking T/Bs, and charged headlong into an oncoming wave of T/Bs from the Protector. By then help had arrived from
the Garret, and the attacking starfighters were driven off. Stele returned to the Garret, where he was warned by the Cloaked Figure to “be careful,” for “the
danger mounts with every moment” (Stele had long since become accustomed to the Secret Order’s flair for the melodramatic, to the point that he was no longer
surprised by such vague prognostication). Moments later he bumped into his old protégé Xeal, whom he’d thought killed — but who had not only not been
killed, but also had been promoted to lieutenant. Stele was happy to see him still alive — he was one of the only friends Stele had left in the Empire, after
Ketcher’s death and Carith’s defection. Although Stele had never been convinced that he had been a particularly good mentor, Xeal was extremely grateful for
his help, and mentioned that Stele’s reputation had grown; apparently Stele’s feats were well-known outside of his immediate command (“well-known” is
probably something of an understatement, considering all of the promotions, decorations, and accomplishments Stele had accumulated in the course of his very
short career). By that time, his T/A had finished changing its ordnance again — this time to torpedoes — and Stele was launched once more into space, rejoining
the battle.
By now the Warhawk’s shields were heavily taxed by long-range turbolaserfire from the Garret, and Stele led his wingmen in a strafing run, firing all his
torpedoes and replenishing immediately via the ordnance transport CUV 18f1, and then returning to attack the cruiser again; the Warhawk had suffered heavy
damage, and Stele’s second strafing run proved to be the coup de grâce, destroying her and adding the silhouette of a Calamarian light cruiser to the side of Stele’
s starfighter, the seventh capital ship to fall to Commander Maarek Stele. At 4:12 after his second relaunch, Stele replenished his ordnance again, and attacked
the Protector’s close-in weapons system (CIWS) and point-defense lasers with torpedoes, and then twice replenished and fired all his torpedoes into the
Victory Star Destroyer, by then suffering badly from torpedo volleys and the Garret’s long-range turbolaserfire; Stele’s AAR indicates that by that time she
was so badly damaged that Stele was able to destroy her, adding an eighth capital ship kill to his record, one of such outrageous proportions that it bordered
upon the ridiculous. Apparently possessed of a death wish, Stele charged after a pair of rebel corvettes that had joined the battle and were attacking the Harpax,
and in his AAR rather blithely wrote that “I took out the CRVs with torpedoes and cannons, quickly disabling their guns and then finishing them off.” (It is
interesting to note that this is not the first time that Stele’s tone indicates that he himself does not think his spectacular feats are impressive; he never gives any
indication that he truly realizes the lopsidedness of his combat record.) By then Stele was wondering about the promised reinforcements from Grand Admiral
Zaarin, and not long thereafter they arrived — and to Stele’s great surprise, they immediately attacked the Imperial forces. Stele immediately charged headlong
into the traitors, destroying the modified “Z” corvettes HIMS Arditi I, Arditi II, and Arditi III, and helping Garret’s T/Bs to destroy the other “Z” corvettes of
Falcon and Bakaar groups; although Stele’s leadership in this 25-minute dogfight helped assure the victory of the Imperial loyalists, the Harpax had sustained
too much damage and was destroyed (Stele blamed himself, writing in his AAR, “I might have saved the Harpax if I had paid more attention to B-wing group
Blue when they appeared. I had been too busy with the CRVs”).
The Zaarin Coup d’Etat
Immediately after Stele returned to the Garret for debriefing, he was escorted to the bridge by four stormtroopers, where he was confronted by Darth Vader
himself, who addressed him as “Colonel Stele” (signifying, in his own uniquely brief fashion, that he was exercising his prerogative as Supreme Commander and
awarding Stele a field promotion to post captain). The Dark Lord of the Sith commanded Stele to tell him everything he knew about Zaarin, and Stele’s answer
confirmed what Vader and his spies had already suspected: Zaarin was plotting to overthrow the Galactic Emperor and seize power in his place. With Zaarin’s
forces blocking communications, Vader decided that he would simply break through his lines and rush to Imperial Center to warn his Master of Zaarin’s
treachery, and ordered Stele to fly with him, as much for Stele’s previous experience training on the T/D as for Stele’s ridiculous accomplishments as a fighter
pilot — Stele was quite possibly one of the only pilots in the galaxy whose skill rivaled the Dark Lord’s own. In moments, six of Delta Flight’s T/Ds launched,
and Stele led the attack on Zaarin’s Interdictor cruiser HIMS Harpago, in the process destroying at least four StarWing assault gunboats; although three of the
T/Ds were destroyed in the attack on the Harpago, Stele, Vader, and Delta 5 successfully destroyed the Interdictor — unsurprisingly, Stele delivered the coup
de grâce, making it his fourteenth capital ship kill — and they docked with the Secret Order’s Nebulon-B2 Osprey (the same frigate that had rescued Stele from
Harkov earlier), and hyperjumped for Imperial Center, determined to warn the Galactic Emperor of Zaarin’s betrayal. By the time they arrived, Zaarin’s Glory
had already intercepted the Galactic Emperor’s personal flagship, HIMS Majestic, and his agents had abducted him and were in the process of transferring him
back to the Glory. Vader and Stele launched in their T/Ds — now redesignated Alpha rather than Delta — and immediately moved to intercept the “Z” escort
shuttle groups Hellcat and Haven, scanning each to check for the Galactic Emperor; having identified him aboard Haven 3, Stele and his wingmen destroyed the
other escort shuttles with ease, and Stele used his T/D’s ion cannon to disable Haven 3, allowing the modified corvette HIMS Mescue to recover him, while
Stele and the other T/D pilots provided cover from the Glory’s fighter complement (Stele shot down five “Z” T/As during this part of the dogfighting). Stele’s
efforts bought enough time for the Mescue to complete its recovery operation, and by then Vice Admiral Thrawn’s flagship, the Victory Star Destroyer HIMS
Vanguard, arrived to drive off Zaarin (the Majestic had escaped into hyperspace, badly damaged by Zaarin’s surprise attack). By then all of his wingmen had
been lost (except for Vader himself), and Stele recklessly attacked the Glory alone. Foiled in his attempt to kidnap the Galactic Emperor, Zaarin retreated into
hyperspace.
Stele was visited soon after by the Cloaked Figure, who told him that in recognition of his superlative service to the Imperial State and to the Galactic Emperor,
his father had been released and allowed to return to Kuan, although he reminded Stele that he was obligated to continue to service the Empire until the Galactic
Emperor or one of his representatives released him, and Stele acknowledged this, saying “I will serve the Emperor, as I always have.” Not long after that, Stele
was recognized in an award ceremony presided over by the Galactic Emperor himself on Imperial Center — attended by “the cream of Coruscant society” and
all of the Galactic Emperor’s splendid court — , where he received the Emperor’s Will, the highest decoration awarded by the Imperial State. This is the final
part of Stele’s tale chronicled in TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide (coinciding with the end of TIE Fighter itself), and consequently his subsequent
exploits are not known in nearly so much detail. It is known from “The Emperor’s Pawns” that the Galactic Emperor “took great interest in Stele,” and once his
sensitivity to the Force was discovered, he was given to the Prophets of the Dark Side for training, so that his “talent quickly blossomed,” to the extent that a
starfighter under his control became “an extension equivalent to a lightsaber,” and that he “learned to probe starfighter enemies for weaknesses and anticipate
their moves” (presumably this refers to low-level mentalic influence and precognition). Impressed with his ability, the Galactic Emperor adopted Stele as one of
his Emperor’s Hands, and “bestowed his newest Hand with the title-rank Ta,” finally explaining the reference to him as “Tan Stele” on the back cover of TIE
Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide, albeit seven years after the fact (notably, Vader himself was also a recipient of this same treatment; in “The Constancia
Affair,” Vader’s true name was given as “Tan Skywalker,” to be explained 26 years later in “Vader Tech” as a result of his participation in the Battle of
Virujansi during the Clone War, “in which he fought alongside pilot Garven ‘Dave’ Dreis of the Rarefied Air Cavalry and earned the starfighter ace title of Tan”).
The Hunt for Zaarin
In TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire, Zaarin atttempted to halt the Empire’s production of T/As by attacking the main production facilities in the Omar
Sector, and Tan Stele led Alpha Flight’s T/Ds in an effort to provide cover for the facility’s evacuation. Although the evacuation was completed and the “Z”
frigate HIMS Raptor was destroyed, the main facility was also destroyed, and the Empire was forced to mount a massive defensive campaign throughout the
Sector, hoping to neutralize Zaarin’s familiarity with starfighter production; this was in large part unsuccessful, as the “Z” forces raided and looted numerous
T/A production centers, and Tan Stele was involved in the Empire’s recapture of hyperdrive production facility ZA-13, which was to be upgraded to replace
the destroyed T/A main production facility, and subsequently defended it from rebel raiders using Galactic Electronics’ mag pulse technology, causing Thrawn
to divert his attention to capturing the main mag pulse manufacturing plant. While Thrawn and Tan Stele were thus engaged, Zaarin again attacked ZA-13 (this
time destroying it), and attacked Thrawn himself, trapping him in place with the “Z” Interdictor cruiser HIMS Grappler. In the ensuing battle, it appears that
the Grappler and the mag pulse manufacturing plant were both destroyed, and Thrawn’s flagship, the Victory Star Destroyer HIMS Sceltor was severely
damaged. The “Z” forces succeeded in destroying the T/A manufacturing plants, and Zaarin retreated to the Outer Rim, while the Galactic Emperor appointed
Thrawn commander of the counter-“Z” task force. For his efforts, Tan Stele was awarded the Medal of Dignity, his eighth decoration for valor (although,
already having received the Emperor’s Will, this decoration was not his highest in degree of precedence).
Zaarin continued his technological scavenger hunt, and raided the R&D facility where he had originally created the T/D, hoping to eliminate the Empire’s
advanced starfighter production. Thrawn was on to Zaarin’s game, however, and sent Tan Stele and others to eliminate the “Z” forces attacking the research
facility, and then stationed the Imperial Star Destroyer HIMS Adarga to defend it. A second raid resulted in the Adarga’s destruction before being driven off by
Tan Stele and his comrades, and in frustration Zaarin decided to simply destroy the station rather than leave it in Loyalist hands; having anticipated this,
Thrawn had ordered the stripping and evacuation of the facility, shipping the last three prototype T/Ds separately to prevent the loss of all three in one fell
swoop. En route to Thrawn, however, the prototypes were ambushed by Rneeki pirates, and Stele was forced to pilot one of the prototypes against the raiders,
driving them off. Ultimately the T/D prototypes were stored securely on Imperial Center, but the Galactic Emperor was concerned that Zaarin very likely had
the technical data necessary to manufacture his own T/Ds, and ordered Thrawn to develop a starfighter to counter it. Thrawn’s analysis of Zaarin’s character
led him to believe that Zaarin’s greatest weakness was his technophilia, and his obsession with maintaining a technological advantage, to the point that he would
invest extraordinary time, effort, and resources in obtaining high-tech tools where the baseline tools would suffice. In the mean time, while Thrawn was thus
planning his campaign against the traitor, Tan Stele was awarded his ninth decoration for valor, the Medal of Futility (presumably for his foiling of the Rneeki
attempt to steal the T/D prototypes, but this is not clear).
In the final tour of duty in TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire, the Rneeki pirates — who had managed to obtain one of the T/D prototypes stolen after it was
transferred to Imperial Center, and had earlier captured many of the members of the T/D design team while Tan Stele prevented their theft of the prototypes
themselves — auctioned off the prototype, in the end selling it back to the Empire. Once this transaction was completed, the Interdictor cruiser HIMS Red
Claw arrived and interdicted the system, allowing Tan Stele and his comrades in Alpha Squadron to destroy the Rneeki pirates in retaliation for having attacked
the Empire; in the course of the fighting, Ali Tarrak’s Nami pirates disabled the Red Claw’s hyperdrive, and in the subsequent engagements between the
Loyalists and the Nami, it was discovered that the Nami had been negotiating with Zaarin for supplies. In a bid to obtain the T/D prototype and design team
members, Zaarin sent one of his own corvettes to impersonate the scheduled pickup, and successfully absconded with the design team before the real pickup
arrived. To make matters worse, it was learned that Tarrak had somehow managed to produce a limited production run of T/Ds, and that she intended to sell
them to the rebel Alliance. To that end, Thrawn brought out his new starfighter, the Missile Boat, and sent Tan Stele and Alpha Squadron to break up the sale,
ending in the capture of the ersatz T/Ds, and then an engagement with the rebels, who discovered to their dismay that Thrawn’s Missile Boat was an extremely
formidable craft in the hands of the experienced pilots of Alpha Squadron. Thrawn then took his fleet to destroy Tarrak’s T/D manufacturing plant, and
captured Tarrak, whom he took with him to celebrate his triumph on Imperial Center; Thrawn offered Tarrak the opportunity to serve the Imperial State
instead of facing prosecution for piracy, and she accepted. In recognition of his accomplishments, the Galactic Emperor formally appointed Thrawn to the rank
of grand admiral, filling the vacancy created by Zaarin’s betrayal (Thrawn had already been a supernumerary grand admiral in petto for some time); for his part,
Tan Stele was awarded the Medal of Horror.
TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire returns to the hunt for Zaarin. Tan Stele transferred with Alpha Squadron to the Imperial Star Destroyer HIMS
Courageous, Captain Kuuztin commanding, and led a raid on one of Zaarin’s supply convoys (led by the “Z” Dreadnaught cruiser HIMS Rahmat). Prisoners
from this raid provided intelligence about a supply platform near Gwar, and the over-ambitious Kuuztin carried on immediately with an attack on the platform,
walking directly into an ambush; a “Z” Interdictor cruiser, HIMS Bomb, and a pair of “Z” Star Destroyers, HIMS Imperator and HIMS Thunderer, closed the
trap, and the Courageous was destroyed, although Tan Stele and others escaped. In response, Thrawn attempted a trap of his own, using a Missile Boat as a
lure, but for once Zaarin was able to resist his temptation; consequently Thrawn sweetened the bait by offering an entire shipment. This time Zaarin sent a large
task force after the Missile Boats, and another one of his Interdictor cruisers to keep Thrawn’s flagship, the Imperial Star Destroyer HIMS Grey Wolf, pinned
down. Although in the event Thrawn’s trap did work and Zaarin did not obtain any of the Missile Boats, the wily traitor grand admiral had outwitted his
replacement and taken significantly fewer losses than Thrawn had intended. Seizing the initiative once again, Zaarin launched an attack on his ex-colleague Grand
Admiral Martio Batch’s Vorknkx Project, where the so-called ‘Invisible Grand Admiral’ was developing a functional cloaking device; Tan Stele transferred again,
this time to the Grey Wolf, and was deployed to cover the evacuation of the Vorknkx research team, successfully fighting off Zaarin’s fighters. In recognition of
this service in defense of an extremely sensitive research project, Tan Stele was awarded the Medal of Liberty.
When the Galactic Emperor allowed intelligence on the new, larger Death Star to fall into rebel hands (as seen in Shadows of the Empire), it was decided that in
order to convince the rebellion of the value of this intelligence, an effort would have to be made to recover it. To that end, Tan Stele was detached from Thrawn’
s counter-“Z” task force and sent on a mission to capture a number of Bothan ships, in an effort to ‘recover’ the stolen intelligence, and then ordered to lead an
attack on Kothlis, where the intelligence had been taken. Evidently Tan Stele’s performance during this mission was sufficiently distinguished to merit the
Medal of Guile, and “The Emperor’s Pawns” states that he was reassigned to the “revered Emperor’s Sword fighter wing escort” (first mentioned in the Death
Star II Expansion Set, where it was described as “elite pilots sworn to defend the Emperor to the death,” who were “assigned older TIEs due to their years of
experience with them,” and were “stationed at Coruscant but always travel with the Emperor” ). Consequently, Tan Stele was on hand to defend the Galactic
Emperor’s C-3 passenger liner HIMY Excalibur when Zaarin’s forces attacked her en route to a rendezvous with Vader’s flagship, the Super Star Destroyer
HIMS Executor, scheduled to carry the Galactic Emperor to the Endor system, where he would personally oversee the construction of the second Death Star
(TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire does not mention the rendezvous with the Executor, but when the Galactic Emperor arrived at the Death Star construction
site in the novelization of Return of the Jedi, he was aboard a Super Star Destroyer, said to be the same one present during the Battle of Endor — and that Star
Dreadnought is known unambiguously to have been the Executor). Thrawn’s forces arrived in time to drive off the last of Zaarin’s attackers, and Tan Stele was
transferred back to the Chiss grand admiral’s command.
Intelligence received word that one of Zaarin’s subordinates, Commander Din, planned to defect to the rebel Alliance, and as a show of bona fide he intended to
reveal that the Death Star was in fact operational, and to provide a Missile Boat he had somehow obtained. Although Thrawn’s forces made every effort to
prevent this turnover, they arrived too late; fortuitously, however, the commander of the Calamarian cruiser which had rendezvoused with Din had been
unwilling to broadcast the intelligence regarding the Death Star to the rebel fleet via long-range communications — for one thing, this would very likely be traced
by nearby Imperial forces — and had blown out his engines trying to rush back to the main body of the rebel fleet. Tan Stele led the attack that destroyed the
cruiser, but Zaarin arrived at the last minute and stole the Missile Boat, prompting Thrawn to track it down and send Tan Stele to destroy it before Zaarin had a
chance to examine it in detail. In retaliation, Zaarin began attacking the Empire’s Missile Boat manufacturing plants, and the few remaining Missile Boats were
placed in protective storage. Fresh from this triumph, Zaarin then launched another attack on the relocated Vorknkx Project, stealing the testbed corvette PCU
Vorknkx, unaware that Thrawn had anticipated this latest expression of Zaarin’s technophilic obsession. Tan Stele was sent to put up a fight to prevent Zaarin
from becoming suspicious, and the rogue grand admiral escaped with the Vorknkx, unaware that he was being traced back to his main base of operations.
Thrawn and Tan Stele followed, and in the ensuing battle destroyed Zaarin’s forces, prompting Zaarin to try to escape aboard the Vorknkx, unaware that
Thrawn had deleted all references to a dangerous instability in the cloaking suite, which caused a catastrophic explosion when the hyperdrive was engaged while
the cloaking device was activated, killing all on board. Although Zaarin had stayed one step ahead of his replacement throughout the rebellion, he was in the end
destroyed by his own obsession with technology. For his part in this final phase of the “Z” affair, Tan Stele was awarded the Medal of Victory.
Aftermath, and Beyond
The final defeat of Zaarin in TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire took place just before the Battle of Endor in early 39 rS, about one full year after the Battle of
Hoth (it may be recalled that Tan Stele flew his first combat missions as a passed midshipman at Platform D-34 in Javin Sector immediately after the Battle of
Hoth). “The Emperor’s Pawns” mentions that Tan Stele remained in Imperial service even after the Galactic Emperor’s death, although he “questioned the
Empire’s validity more than ever.” Depressed and demoralized, Tan Stele happened to meet fellow fighter ace “Colonel” (i.e., Captain) Soontir, Baron Fel of the
Empire, in whom he “recognized the dignified honor that had disappeared from the Empire”; the Lord Fel was double-hatted as Commander 181st Imperial
Fighter Group and Commanding Officer, Saber Squadron, and had flown at the Battle of Endor. At his request, Tan Stele was transferred to the 181st under the
Lord Fel’s command, but it is not known how long he remained with that unit. In “In the Empire’s Service,” the Lord Fel’s second in command is “Major” (i.e.,
Lieutenant Commander) Turr Phennir, Commanding Officer, Alpha Squadron, which seems unlikely if Captain Tan Maarek Stele were still in the unit by that
time, only six months after the Battle of Endor. Furthermore, when “Colonel” the Lord Fel — as noted, a post captain, Tan Stele’s equal in rank, two full pay
grades above “Major” Phennir, a lieutenant commander — was captured in “In the Empire’s Service,” it was Phennir who was appointed to replace him as
Commander 181st Imperial Fighter Group, according to Solo Command (Starfighters of Adumar indicates that he would remain in that capacity as a “general”
— i.e., admiral — in Gilad Pellaeon’s neo-Imperial regime as late as the Adumar Affair of 48 rS, three years after the final collapse of the Galactic Empire in
Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood). Tan Stele probably left the 181st before the Battle of Brentaal (his unique and extraordinary feats of starfighter piloting
are conspicuous by their absence in that battle), and probably remained in Imperial service throughout the Cold War of Isard’s regency (39 - 41 rS), the long
decline of the collective regency of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle (41 - 45 rS), including the brief but intense Thrawn’s War in 44 rS (during which his previous
commander Thrawn returned to become Supreme Commander of the remaining Imperial forces), and the revivified Imperial offensive in Operation Shadow
Hand (45 rS), but there is no direct evidence for this. In fact, following his joining of the 181st in early 39 rS, there is a 21-year-gap during which there is no
evidence whatever about Tan Stele’s activities. Nevertheless, it is known from “The Emperor’s Pawns” that he remained a fighter pilot in the service of
Pellaeon’s Imperial remnants as late as the beginning of the extragalactic Vong invasion of the galaxy in 60 rS; he is known to have operated with a TIE fighter
squadron and an Interdictor cruiser, and is known to have stopped at least one flight escort mission near the so-called borderlands region, ordering them to
“power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded.” No further details are known of this incident or of his activities during the war, or if he were ever
reunited with Pargo or his parents on Kuan.
Conclusions
Toward the end of his known missions Tan Stele was often piloting a top-of-the-line starfighter, such as the TIE Advanced, the TIE Defender, or the Missile
Boat; the advantages of this superior technology surely contributed a great deal to his successes as a fighter pilot. Likewise, some of his success can doubtlessly
also be attributed to the fact that the majority of rebel pilots and sailors would be non-professionals working without formal education and training (although
many rebels were trained at Imperial academies and service schools or else in the military and naval forces of disloyal Imperial member states, it is highly
unlikely that these defectors formed any statistically significant proportion of the rebel Alliance’s overall forces). Even so, the combinations of technology and
subpar opponents only goes so far to explain Tan Stele’s brilliant career; during the campaigns against Harkov and Zaarin, his opponents were not irregular
guerrilleros but professional regulars, qualified Naval Aviators — all of whom must have flown under combat conditions in order to receive their combat-rating
“square,” according to the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition — and rated gunner’s mates. Furthermore, T/D pilots were only selected from pilots who had
successfully flown 20 or more combat missions, according to The New Essential Guide to Vehicles & Vessels, meaning that the “Z” Defenders that Tan Stele
flew against and shot down were flown by experienced pilots who were not only professionally trained and qualified, but were actually hardened veterans of
space combat maneuvering selected from the top ranks of the Naval Aviator community. It is very likely that many of these pilots were themselves aces many
times over. TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles mentions that he was a natural pilot, and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide also mentions that he was in the
habit of flying flight simulators in his spare time to relax. Perhaps most significantly, however, “The Emperor’s Pawns” points to “his strength in the Force,”
and even mentions that he possessed mentalic powers (perhaps he unconsciously used the Force to cloud enemy pilots’ minds while dogfighting); after some
tutelage from the Prophets of the Dark Side, his “talent quickly blossomed,” and his starfighter was said to become his “most effective tool, an extension
equivalent to a lightsaber.” As noted earlier, there exists some evidence in the Expanded Universe that those who are sensitive to the Force also have unusually
good luck, and perhaps this too contributed to Tan Stele’s success. In any case, his career is unique and phenomenal; in less than two years he rose from being a
swooper on a backwater world outside the main body of galactic society to being one of the most highly-decorated commissioned officers in the Imperial Navy,
a post captain who had received extraordinary honors from the Galactic Emperor himself.
Comparisons between Tan Stele and other famous Imperial pilots are inevitable. In some cases, these comparisons are impossible to judge; although Grand
Admiral Nial Declann, for example, was said to have had “uncanny success” as a Naval Aviator in the early years of the Empire, specific details of his feats are
not known, thereby making a comparison of the two an exercise in futility (notably, both Tan Stele and Declann are said to have been sensitive to the Force, and
to have undergone training by the Prophets of the Dark Side at the Galactic Emperor’s behest). Of the various pilots put forward as the Empire’s supreme ace,
only the Lord Fel’s career is known with anything approaching comparable specificity to Tan Stele’s exploits; a cursory comparison of the two reveals that
although the Lord Fel was certainly an accomplished fighter pilot with more experience than Tan Stele, not even he has been seen to accomplish something so
outrageous as Tan Stele’s feat of single-handedly shooting down four enemy fighters and two enemy corvettes in eight minutes at Vinzen Neela V, or his even
more outrageous feat of shooting down five corvettes, an escort frigate, an Interdictor cruiser, and a Victory Star Destroyer at Ottega (impressive even after one
considers the presence of capital ship support); indeed, only Tan Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and his son Luke Skywalker — Jedi Knights both — can
claim more lopsided triumphs. Although his barony was in fact a reward for valorous conduct in battle, the Lord Fel is not known to have received as many
decorations for valor as Tan Stele; in fact, Tan Stele is the only canonically known recipient of the Emperor’s Will, the highest decoration given by the Imperial
State. Despite the Lord Fel’s better known reputation, and Tan Stele’s own admiration for the man, the evidence weighs heavily in favor of Captain Tan
Maarek Stele’s claim to be the Galactic Empire’s ace of aces.
References:
the Imperial Navy as an extremely active Naval Aviator; like the former General Tan Anakin Skywalker and Grand Admiral Nial Declann — celebrated fighter
pilots in their own right — Tan Stele was sensitive to the Force, and it is very likely that this preternatural sensitivity contributed to his phenomenal success as
a fighter pilot. He was first introduced by TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles as the main character of TIE Fighter (and of its subsequent expansions, TIE
Fighter: Defender of the Empire and TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire), and his story was continued in TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide, most of
which is composed of notional after-action reports (AARs) filed by Tan Stele himself. His name was originally given in both TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles
and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide — the primary sources on his life, which provide a large amount of detail of his activities — as “Maarek Stele,” but
the back cover of TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide refers to him as “Tan Stele,” an irregularity rationalized seven years later with the publication of
“The Emperor’s Pawns.” Stele holds the distinction of being the only pilot known to have flown with both Darth Vader and Colonel Soontir, Baron Fel of the
Empire, and is also the only pilot known to have served under the command of both Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
He was apparently about average in height, and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide indicates that Zaarin was “almost a head taller.” He is known to have
been a naturally gifted mechanic, and “The Emperor’s Pawns” indicates that he was also proficient at dealing in fisticuffs, and basic first aid. Most of his known
skills deal with his phenomenal ability as a fighter pilot. “The Emperor’s Pawns” shows that he had dark skin and short, dark hair, and the telltale tattoo of the
Secret Order of the Emperor on his left forearm. Members of the Secret Order are first given this tattoo as a First Initiate, and it is then augmented as the
member rises in rank through the Second, Third, Fourth, and Inner Circles, before rising to the ranks of Emperor’s Hand, Emperor’s Eyes, Emperor’s Voice,
Emperor’s Reach, and the theoretical ranks of Emperor’s Sentinel and Emperor’s Guardian; in “The Emperor’s Pawns,” Tan Stele’s tattoo is visually
recognizable as that of Emperor’s Reach. His last known rank was that of post captain, although he is usually referred to as “colonel” instead (colonel and post
captain are identical in rank).
Maarek Stele was born on Kuan, a planet in the Taroon system in the Rim ravaged by a decades-long war against neighboring Bordal; his parents were Kerek
and Marina Stele, and his father Kerek — “the famous scientist” — was kidnapped by Bordali agents, prompting his wife and son to lay low so as to prevent
the Bordali from capturing them and using them as hostages to compel Kerek Stele’s cooperation with the Bordali regime. According to TIE Fighter: The Stele
Chronicles, “few people bother to recite the original causes of the war,” as it had simply come to exist as an end unto itself after “nearly twenty years of
interplanetary warfare.” He spent much of his youth racing for cash prizes in illegal swoop races and modifying his swoop with his winnings (in his last race,
for example, he was testing a “modified gyro-servo sensor array” on his swoop’s nose), as well as generally carousing with his friend Pargo. He did not live with
his mother, “a beautiful woman nearing forty” (an implicit clue as to Stele’s age). After a military police raid on one of Maarek’s illegal swoop races, Pargo was
followed by agents of the People of Bordal, who proceeded to kidnap Pargo, Maarek, and Marina Stele, but before they could be transported to Bordal, the
shuttle was captured by the Imperial Star Destroyer HIMS Vengeance, and all passengers detained aboard for three months.
After three months’ detention on board the Vengeance, Stele was informed that the Imperial State had declared martial law in the Taroon system, initiating
peacekeeping operations to put an end to the twenty years war between Kuan and Bordal. Based on his background as a swoop pilot and mechanic with some
education in general sciences and astrophysics, he was one of about 150 Kuani and Bordali selected to attend an orientation briefing given by Admiral Mordon
— Vengeance was his flagship, and he is implied to have been a squadron commander — in which he “invited” the two planets to voluntarily join the Empire,
although a detailed description of an Imperial Star Destroyer’s warmaking capabilities made it unambiguous that the “invitation” should not be declined, lest
there be an empirical demonstration. After viewing a prerecorded holomessage from the Galactic Emperor — whose charisma even as a holographic proxy
ensnared Stele and left him “ready to do anything, go anywhere, to serve him” — , he signed on as a civilian defense contractor, working as a mechanic in the
Vengeance’s spacecraft intermediate maintenance department (TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide both refer to
SIMD as simply “Repairs”). Three months later, while the Star Destroyer was in orbit over Farboon, Stele took a TIE interceptor he’d been repairing — the
signalman of the watch identified it as “TIE/In Four Oh Vee Niner” — on a shakedown flight when he received an emergency distress signal and flew
interference against a pair of BTL-A4 Y-wings and a pair of T-65C A2 X-wings attacking a shuttle Admiral Mordon himself (although Stele did not learn that
the shuttle was the admiral’s barge until after the fact); Stele managed to delay the attackers long enough for reinforcements to arrive from the Vengeance.
An Officer and a Gentleman
Stele’s escapade drew a great deal of attention — aside from the fact that he had rescued one of the Imperial Navy’s flag officers from capture, there was also
the fact that this civilian who had never received flight training had successfully evaded four rebel fighter pilots and survived space combat maneuvering without
even knowing how to properly interpret verbal space traffic control instructions. He was invited to join the Imperial Navy and attended officer candidate school
(OCS) at an undisclosed location, where his two-month indoctrination was overseen by one Senior Master Sergeant Jona T. Stark (his rank should probably be
gunnery sergeant rather than senior master sergeant); the notional Imperial Navy — Orientation scandoc (excerpted from the Class 070536 Indoc Guide W5-
754F-C2.15) notionally forms part of the instructional manual for TIE Fighter. Upon completing OCS, Stele was assigned to the Vengeance to undergo flight
training, which is an indicator of Stele’s overall performance; the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition states that only “officers who graduate in the top five
percent of their class qualify for flight training”; while still on board Vengeance, he bumped into his old friend Pargo, who had enlisted in the Navy earlier and
had recently been selected to make a lateral transfer to the Imperial Marines. The next day, Stele began pilot training, and spent about a week in simulated flights
before making a practice flight in a trainer TIE bomber with his flight instructor, Captain Trox (judging by his rank and his position, Captain Trox should
probably be understood to be a Marine aviator equivalent in rank to a Naval lieutenant rather than a Naval Aviator equivalent in rank to a Marine colonel;
alternatively, judging by the incorrect rank scheme cited in Imperial Navy — Orientation, one might simply correct his rank to that of lieutenant commander or
squadron leader). During this time he was given a copy of The Imperial Pilot’s Handbook: Basic Pilot’s Manual (this notional document corresponds to the
introductory tutorial chapter of TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide); his training was interrupted when Mordon requested a personal meeting. The admiral
took a liking to Stele and took him on as a protégé, and gave him “a small ring — a simple band with an oval-shaped disk of metal on the top” that protected him
from the aggressive plants grown in Mordon’s private cabin. Mordon and Stele met often, to talk of their pasts, and Mordon often offered advice on dogfighting
and piloting, which Stele wrote down as a set of 23 rules of thumb which he called “Some General Combat Tactics.”
During one of their friendly meetings in Mordon’s cabin, the admiral suggested that Stele begin speaking to the Secret Order of the Emperor — Mordon called
them “men dressed in robes,” whereas Stele and other prospective Naval Aviators referred to them as “the acolytes.” “The Emperor’s Pawns” identifies the
Secret Order as “a shadowy cabal of darksiders known to some as the Prophets of the Dark Side” (the quasi-Sith cult rather than the official State religion
established by Grand Vizier Sate Pestage in 39 rS). Mordon believed that the Secret Order “can be helpful, and will offer you opportunities”; during the same
conversation, Mordon mentioned that he’d been hearing some scuttlebutt that “some high ranking officers in the Imperial Navy” “may have some plans of their
own,” and that “there’s treachery in the air,” thus prompting his belief that “the greatest immediate danger to the Empire may not be the Rebel Alliance.”
Shortly after this conversation, “several cycles” passed without any meetings between the two; shortly after Stele had completed his simulation training and
was waiting final confirmation of his qualification as a Naval Aviator, it was announced that Mordon had died of “natural causes,” his command assumed by
“(Acting) Admiral Coross.” In the official investigation that followed, Stele was questioned about his relationship with the late admiral, and he told the
investigators everything he knew, before being forced to drink “a caustic liquid” — probably a so-called “truth drug” — and undergoing an interrogation that he
did not later remember. Several days later he received a message that falsely claimed to be from his mother, but was actually a posthumous warning from
Mordon, who had ordered him transferred off Vengeance to “a remote outpost” in order to keep him safe from “the enemies of the Empire” whom he suspected
of treachery. During this time, Stele developed a habit of flying training missions in the flight simulators when agitated, as “he always felt better when he was in
the cockpit of a starfighter.”
According to TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles, Stele’s “first mission after becoming a bonafide starfighter pilot” was a temporary assignment to a corvette on
picket duty; during his first flight in this duty he discovered a freighter illegally carrying weapons, and the situation turned hostile with the arrival of rebel
fighters, but the rebel forces were routed by the Imperials. This particular duty station — which cannot have been very long, as Mordon’s last orders to Stele
soon saw him stationed aboard a minor outpost in the Javin Sector, where TIE Fighter and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide begin — is significant to
Stele’s career for two reasons; first, it was a mission flown under combat conditions, which according to the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition was required
to be a combat-rated pilot in the Imperial Navy, so that Stele obtained the combat rating “square,” and second, it saw Stele record three confirmed enemy kills,
which would prove to be the first of many. Not long after flying this mission, Stele was transferred to Platform D-34 in the Javin Sector, guarding “a major trade
route.”
While embarked aboard D-34, Stele flew a modified TIE/ln space superiority starfighter designated Alpha 1 every day, “flying patrol and inspecting cargo craft
that were detained by the Imperial customs agents.” Shortly after the Battle of Hoth in 38 rS, it was Stele that identified the freighter SS Onece 3 as carrying ten
fugitive rebels, probably fleeing from Hoth VI; two groups of rebel shuttles, Roe and Escro, attempted to intervene, but Stele destroyed all six shuttles and
facilitated the boarding of Onece 3. Shortly after that, Stele was approached by the Cloaked Figure, a representative of the Secret Order, and then scrambled to
repel a punitive rebel attack on the outpost, destroying four Y-wings, two Z-95 Headhunters, and contributed to the capture of a shuttle Scutz, carrying a group
of rebel officers. After only having spent “weeks” aboard D-34, Stele was reassigned to escort frigate HIMS Fogger (at this stage, TIE Fighter: The Official
Strategy Guide still has Stele at the rank of “Cadet,” despite being having completed OCS and having qualified as a Naval Aviator — in fact, with 15 confirmed
kills, Stele was an ace thrice over — ; it is possible that Stele’s rank at this time was that of a passed midshipman, although he ought to be an ensign or pilot
officer).
Aboard the Fogger, Stele met Flight Officer “Grommet” Carith, Flight Officer Alimet, and Flight Officer Ketcher — by flight officer, one should probably
understand sub-lieutenant or lieutenant junior grade, as Carith mentions his eligibility for promotion to flight lieutenant, which is equal to a naval lieutenant — ,
who showed him around the ship; Carith and Alimet were Stele’s wingmen on the next mission he flew, in which he piloted a TIE bomber coincidentally
belonging to Fogger’s Alpha Squadron in an attack on rebel shipping passing through a Mugaari depot (this was Stele’s first combat mission piloting a T/B);
Stele personally destroyed the cargo ferries SS Gallon and SS Romold as well as the transport Dawn (carrying rebel military advisors), and at least two more Y-
wings; immediately upon the frigate’s return to D-34, a second mission was launched, as rebel forces had seized the platform during the frigate’s absence. Stele
— this time piloting one of Alpha Squadron’s TIE interceptors — led the attack, destroying at least two X-wings, two B-wings, and one Delta-class JV-7
escort shuttle. Having by now recorded at least 25 confirmed kills, it was becoming increasingly clear that Stele was a phenomenal pilot, and he was ordered to
pilot a Alpha-class Xg-1 StarWing assault gunboat as part of an attack on the rebel light cruiser Lulsla in the Bruanii Sector, which intelligence had indicated to
have been the launching point for the attacks on D-34. Stele’s performance in this raid was especially remarkable; in addition to having identified one of the
containers being taken on by the Lulsla as having contained a shipment of Imperial probes — suggesting an Imperial supplier — , but, as Stele himself wrote in
his after-action report (AAR), “at the debriefing I found out that I had 13 new kills to my name: 3 X-wings, 3 A-wings, 4 B-wings and 3 Transports.” Stele was
debriefed by another Cloaked Figure, and then returned to the cockpit of a StarWing gunboat, leading Tau Flight in an attack on the Lulsla herself; during the
dogfight he shot down a Y-wing and an X-wing, as well as destroying two transports launched from the light cruiser — bringing Stele’s confirmed kills to at
least 42 — and capturing a shuttle that turned out to be the captain’s gig, with the Lulsla’s Commanding Officer aboard. The light cruiser was destroyed, and
according to TIE Fighter Stele was awarded the Medal of Redemption for his part in the affair.
Admiral Harkov and the Sepan Civil War
Only a few days after the destruction of the Lulsla, Stele received new orders to detach from duty aboard Fogger and report for duty to the Victory Star
Destroyer HIMS Protector, Admiral Harkov’s flagship (although it was not known at the time, Harkov had been in secret negotiations with the President of the
Alliance to Restore the Republic, Mon Mothma herself, to arrange for his fleet’s desertion en masse from the Empire and defection to the rebel Alliance, not out
of ideological conviction or moral compulsion, but rather out of simple greed and venality). Harkov’s forces were ordered to the Sepan Sector to put an end to
the longstanding Sepan Civil War between the Ripoblus and Dimok peoples (in his briefing, Harkov prudently omitted the fact that he was supplying Imperial
munitions to both sides). While flying a mission in support of a Ripoblus convoy, Stele scored kills on three Dimok Y-wings, but also surreptitiously collected
intelligence on the Ripoblus convoy, his scans revealing that at least one of them was carrying Imperial munitions, which the Ripoblus were not supposed to
have had (in fact, he was informally counseled after the mission’s completion that he was expected not to display such initiative in the future). He was then
assigned to fly a T/B mission with Protector’s Beta Squadron to rebuff a Ripoblus attack on the Dimok science station Youst, in order to show that the Imperial
State was not taking sides in the Civil War (the Secret Order gave him the additional task of scanning the research station for any potential indications of what
precisely was being researched). Stele began this particular mission by destroying a ATR assault transport, and his heavy rockets somehow delivered the coup
de grâce to a Nebulon-B2 frigate, Dromon, scoring a kill of such stature that it bordered on the ridiculous. He was again informally counseled after this mission
about exceeding his orders, as he had inspected a number of container modules and identified a shipment of weapons, as well as aiding in the capture of a high-
ranking enemy officer.
Throughout Stele’s brief career, he had kept up a brisk operational tempo, and the Sepan Civil War was no exception. He was assigned to fly one of Gamma
Squadron’s TIE interceptors escorting a group of Ripoblus scientists attempting to defect to the Empire, and he and his wingmen destroyed an unknown
number of Ripoblus loyalist Y-wings and armed Lambda-classT-4a shuttles; after the successful completion of this mission, Stele — who by now had recorded
over 50 confirmed kills, including an escort frigate — was promoted to lieutenant, and was soon approached by a senior pilot, Captain Trace (probably a
lieutenant commander or squadron leader), who asked him if he were an agent of the Secret Order. The very next day, Stele was assigned to pilot a StarWing in
Mu Flight in a raid on a secret meeting of the Dimok and Ripoblus leaders in deep space near Sepan VIII; he was also tasked by the Secret Order with keeping
an eye out for any larger cargo vessels, as “someone is selling arms to both Ripoblus and Dimok,” and “the Emperor wants to know who it is.” Stele destroyed
an unknown number of Z-95 Headhunters and Delta-class JV-7 escort shuttles, and inspected the cargo ferries Godendag and Glaive, discovering illegal
shipments of Imperial munitions and supplies, as well as identifying the Calamarian light cruiser Falaricae as a Dimok ship. After this mission, Stele was
meritoriously promoted to “captain” (i.e., lieutenant commander or squadron leader), a fact made extraordinary by the fact that he had only been promoted to
lieutenant a few days before. He was contacted by a Cloaked Figure and told that he would soon be assigned to fly escort to “a valuable shipment” and that the
Secret Order required him to “investigate any unknown shuttles.”
Stele was indeed assigned to a TIE/ln fighter from Alpha Squadron and was ordered to fly patrol during the transfer of escort carrier HIMS Tropsobor’s TIE
Avengers, and shot down a number of enemy Y-wings — at this point, the unknown tallies of the past few missions had almost assuredly increased his total kill
count past 60, and possibly even into the 70s — and happened to identify the presence of a rebel leader aboard the Imperial shuttle Omlaut, a fact that the
Secret Order found quite interesting; the rebel leader was immediately taken to Harkov’s private ready room aboard Protector, where he met alone with the
admiral. The Cloaked Figure dismissed suggestion that the admiral was interrogating the rebel, as this was obviously not standard procedure, to say nothing of
Protector’s constant supply shortages, which the Secret Order believed were the result of falsified reports covering his black market activities, including his
illegal arms trade with both the Ripoblus and the Dimok. In gratitude for Stele’s work on the Secret Order’s behalf, he was “invited” to receive a “special
award,” the tattoo that marked him as a First Initiate of the Secret Order of the Emperor. Both Stele and the Cloaked Figure noticed Trace eavesdropping on
their conversation, and the Cloaked Figure ambiguously promised that the Secret Order would “take care of him” (Stele never saw him aboard Protector again).
That same day, Harkov announced to the Ripoblus and the Dimok that the Imperial State was imposing a ceasefire and “would not tolerate any breach of the
peace,” and TIE Fighter indicates that Stele received the Medal of Unity for his part in the operation. At the same time, an agent of the Secret Order reported its
suspicions of Harkov to Darth Vader, “the Emperor’s chief vassal,” who began to take a personal interest in the matter.
Vice Admiral Thrawn and the Pakuuni Pirates
In order to keep Stele away from Harkov — who surely could not have failed to notice that Stele consistently exceeded his orders in defiance of the unwritten
rules among Harkov’s forces about overachieving, and that Stele’s curiosity had an unfortunate tendency to expose segments of his illegal activities — , the
Secret Order arranged for his transfer to the escort frigate HIMS Ludwick, part of Vice Admiral Thrawn’s fleet recently assigned to eradicate pirates preying on
interstellar trade. There, he was reunited with Grommet Carith — now a flight lieutenant — , Alimet, and Ketcher, also assigned to Ludwick. Not long after his
arrival, Stele was ordered on temporary duty to Thrawn’s flagship, the Victory Star Destroyer HIMS Stalwart, and sent in T/B Alpha 1 to inspect cargo
containers near the abandoned manufacturing plant at Argoon. There, he faced a rebel ambush, which resulted in two Y-wings, a rebel corvette (Dragon), and a
Lambda shuttle being added to Stele’s kills, before returning to the Stalwart once heavy lifters had retrieved those containers his inspection had revealed to
contain station parts. He returned to the Ludwick and spent the next few days catching up with his friends, and on Carith’s suggestion they snuck into a hangar
to take some starfighters on ‘training maneuvers,’ and thus happened to be present when Vice Admiral Thrawn came aboard for a brief meeting with the Ludwick
’s CO, Commander Buckeye (who had served with Thrawn on some previous occasion). Thrawn ordered Buckeye to the Pakuuni system in the Outer Rim to
establish a naval outpost in order to bring the smugglers’ and pirates’ haven under control. Stele piloted a T/B belonging to Alpha Flight, and flew in an attack
on a pirate outpost in the Pakuuni system; early in the engagement Stele delivered a killing blow to pirate corvette Clavier — his second corvette and third
starship — , shot down a Z-95 and a Y-wing, and discovered a group of rebel Alliance agents hiding in cargo containers near the main pirates’ outpost. Although
he and his three friends had performed well during the battle, Buckeye quickly discovered that they had snuck into the hangar when Thrawn had come aboard;
as extra military instruction (EMI), he ordered the four to clean-up duty on the outpost, during which Ketcher discovered a strange glowing crystal, which he
ingested in order to avoid having to turn it over to the masters at arms for cataloguing.
After completing clean-up duty, Stele was ordered back to Ludwick to suit up and launch in one of Alpha Flight’s modified T/Fs — they were armed with
concussion missiles — for combat space patrol (CSP), guarding against possible counterattack by pirate or rebel forces. Less than a minute after leaving the
flight deck — TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide specifies it was precisely 55 seconds afterward — the rebel frigate Huntress hyperjumped into the
system and began launching Z-95s, X-wings, and B-wings. Stele shot down three B-wings, as well as an unknown number of Y-wings and X-wings that arrived
after the engagement had already begun; actually intercepted proton torpedoes fired by the X-wings, destroying three torpedoes via laserfire, and also
intercepted a heavy rocket launched by a Z-95, but three rockets struck the Ludwick, heavily damaging her just as an Imperial resupply convoy — with
Stalwart in the lead, escorting a modified corvette squadron — arrived at 9:30 into the engagement. The Huntress hyperjumped out of the system exactly 10
minutes after the engagement had begun, during which time Stele had shot down at least seven enemy fighters, bringing his confirmed kill count into the 70s at
the very least, including one frigate and two corvettes. Using supplies brought by the Stalwart’s convoy, a space station designated Platform XQ3 NL-1 was
constructed in the Pakuuni system to serve as a forward base for Thrawn’s forces; Stele periodically flew CSP during XQ3 NL-1’s construction. During one
such mission, Stele was piloting one of Tau Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats when a number of A-wings entered the system, soon followed by other rebel
forces, including Y-wings and a pair of modified corvettes. As Stele’s StarWing was loaded with concussion missiles rather than torpedoes, he ordered his
wingmen to attack the corvettes, eventually resulting in their destruction; a number of rebel officers abandoned ship in the shuttle Shakker, and Stele
immobilized the shuttle using his StarWing’s ion cannon — the fifth time he had captured important enemy leaders. In recognition of Stele’s extraordinary
accomplishments, he was meritoriously promoted to commander; he had been commissioned for less than a standard year by that time.
Thrawn decided that he wanted to conduct an inspection tour of XQ3 NL-1, despite the fact that most of Ludwick’s T/Fs and T/Is were undergoing repair or
refurbishment and the only CSP that could be fielded would be T/Bs, not well-suited for patrol or interception duty. Returning to Alpha Flight in a T/B, Stele
was tapped for CSP, and the Stalwart arrived within 45 seconds of his launching — Stele’s unusual talent of being in the right place of the right time may well
be a function of his sensitivity to the Force, as “Gambler’s World” indicates that a person very strong in the Force may have extraordinarily good luck — and as
Stele moved to escort Thrawn’s admiral’s barge, rebel craft arrived in-system. Engaging the A-wings proved difficult, and Stele accidentally shot his wingman —
“I noted to myself that I must be a little less trigger happy,” he wrote afterward, “but he shouldn’t have jumped in front of me and tried to get my target” — ,
but the Imperial pilots successfully destroyed the enemy craft (Stele himself shot down at least three A-wings), and Thrawn was safely escorted to the
platform and back to his flagship; in addition to the rebel forces, a small contingent of pirates had also launched an attack on the admiral’s barge, and Stele
destroyed at least two of their shuttles, as well. Shortly after Thrawn’s inspection, a number of Sienar Fleet Systems IPV-1 system patrol craft (SPCs) were
delivered to reinforce the station, and Stalwart set sail to join a relief convoy and escort it back to the Pakuuni system. Stele resumed flying CSP around the
station, this time returning to one of Tau Flight’s StarWings. His serendipitous timing again manifested itself, and a pair of rebel ATR assault transports
hyperjumped into the system 45 seconds after he launched. For the sixth time in his career, Stele identified and captured a shuttle carrying important
passengers, this time the shuttle Electra carrying rebel military advisors; he destroyed three enemy transports, at least three A-wings, and an X-wing. TIE
Fighter indicates that Stele was awarded the Medal of Progress, and he was transferred at the Secret Order’s behest to the modified escort frigate HIMS
Shamus, flagship of one of the Galactic Emperor’s own, Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin.
Grand Admiral Zaarin and Habeen/Nharwaak Affair
By the time Stele reported aboard Shamus, his reputation had preceded him. Stele’s habit of exceeding his orders, breaking formation, and flying off “seemingly
on a mission of his own design” — this all done at the Secret Order’s bidding, of course — had given him a reputation as something of a black sheep, to say
nothing of his extremely rapid promotions. He was becoming more and more ostracized in the officer’s mess, and as a result was surprised when a fellow pilot,
Xeal, approached him and asked him “to teach me how to survive.” Reminded of his own mentoring relationship with Mordon — a relationship that had both
begun and ended less than a year before — Stele agreed to pass on whatever insight he might have, although he warned his new protégé that he didn’t really
know very much (a claim that was quite strange coming from a commander who’d been in the Navy less than a year and nevertheless had recorded more than 80
confirmed kills by this time and who had received three decorations for valor in combat).
Zaarin — a passionate technophile — had arranged for the purchase of experimental miniature hyperdrives from the Habeen, but the Nharwaak — allies of the
Habeen — did not want the Empire to obtain the technology. Anticipating hostile action from the Nharwaak, Zaarin took his flagship to rendezvous with the
Habeen convoy transporting the test hyperdrives, and ordered a screen of Imperial fighters to escort the convoy; Stele was assigned to Alpha Flight, piloting a
modified T/F for the escort mission. Zaarin’s suspicions proved correct, and Nharwaak forces attacked the convoy, and Stele led the way attacking Red, Yellow,
Striker, and Scarlet Squadrons (all equipped with Y-wings), and strafed the Nharwaak corvettes with concussion missiles, holding off the hostile forces long
enough for the cargo to be transferred to the Shamus. After the delivery of the parts, Habeen leaders notified Zaarin that the Nharwaak had threatened to sell the
technology to the rebel Alliance if the sale to the Empire continued. To that end, Zaarin ordered a raid on one of the Nharwaak main bases, and Stele deployed in
a T/B — by now he had come to regard the bomber as “one of my favorites” — to lead the attack on the two Nharwaak corvettes, Petor and Shotgun. After
firing his torpedoes at the Shotgun, Stele helped his wingmen to destroy the Petor, and then the T/Bs destroyed a group of shuttles, Y-wings, and cargo
containers. Stele himself attests to the swiftness of the raid, writing “before I knew it, we had wiped out the entire base.” The Nharwaak soon retaliated by
attacking the Habeen research facility, and Stele and his protégé scrambled immediately, Stele again taking a T/B, destroying two Nharwaak torpedoes via
gunfire as well as at least six of the Nharwaak Y-wings (it is implied by Stele’s AAR that he shot down considerably more, the raid being a classical example of a
target-rich environment). The raid was beaten back, although Xeal’s T/B was lost (he was not however included on the casualty list, and Stele was unable to
ascertain whether he’d been killed or injured). In response to the raid, Zaarin finalized an agreement to rendezvous with Habeen leaders at Mylok IV to finish
the technology deal and to grant the Habeen “full Imperial citizenship.”
Stele was ordered to fly escort in one of Alpha Flight’s TIE interceptors for the rendezvous at Mylok IV, and received instructions from the Secret Order to
scan the Habeen transports in order to ensure that “their contents match our expectations.” Stele disliked flying escort, but dutifully climbed into his T/I — it
was modified to carry concussion missiles — and launched. At 1:15 into the mission, Nharwaak raiders entered the system, and Stele led the attack on the
enemy, scoring at least two Y-wings and two Z-95s, as well as destroying the guns of two Nharwaak corvettes. After the engagement, he was approached by
the Cloaked Figure, who told him that the data he’d collected by scanning the Habeen transports showed that “some of the technology the Habeen had was of a
new type,” different from the hyperdrives that Zaarin had contracted them with developing; the Secret Order was suspicious and decided to investigate further,
leaving Stele with the knowledge that the Nharwaak were still dealing with rebel forces, and he was soon ordered to fly one of Tau Flight’s StarWings to break
up a planned technology transfer between the Nharwaak and the rebel Alliance, discovered by Imperial Intelligence. Upon arriving at the rendezvous, Stele had
only to wait 20 seconds for the arrival of the rebel frigate Xerxes; he made repeated strafing runs on the rebel frigate, destroying many of its weapons and leaving
her vulnerable to the Shamus’s guns at long range. As the Xerxes withered under Shamus’s fire, Stele intercepted and destroyed a fleeing transport Tela, as well
as at least one A-wing. Shortly after the destruction of the Xerxes and the breaking up of the rebel/Nharwaak technology exchange, Stele was decorated with his
fourth “battle medal,” receiving the Medal of Order at a small ceremony; even he was conscious of his “short, but intense career,” and thought of his time aboard
the Vengeance with Mordon, and thought wistfully of his mother on Kuan. Soon after this awards ceremony, he was approached by the Cloaked Figure, who
told him he was being transferred back to the Protector, Harkov’s flagship, as part of the Secret Order’s plan to ‘close the net’ around Harkov, having long since
realized that his activities were not entirely above board. Although Stele protested that he did not want to see Harkov again, he was assured that the matter
would be brought to a close soon and went about the business of transferring.
The Hunt for Harkov
On his third day aboard the Protector, Stele happened to bump into his old comrade in arms Alimet, the bearer of bad news. Ketcher, who had become
increasingly listless ever since he’d ingested the crystal at the Pakuuni pirate base, had been killed, and Grommet Carith had deserted; apparently he had gone
UA after meeting a woman while on liberty, and subsequently met again with Alimet, telling him of his intention to join the Rebellion. Unbeknownst to Stele,
his arrival had already been filtered up to Harkov himself, with Harkov’s staff officer Vondruln having pointed out that Stele might be an Imperial spy, and
arranging for Stele to have an ‘accident’ on his next flight. He received warning from the Cloaked Figure to “be on guard during your next mission.” It
subsequently turned out that Stele was being ordered to clear a minefield while two rookie pilots “observed his technique,” much to Stele’s annoyance: “First,
he hated minefields. Second, despite himself, he was reminded once again of Xeal.” Stele immediately recognized that the ‘rookie’ pilots were nothing of the
sort, and he was being set up for Maneuver 717 — described in “Walking the Path That’s Given” as “what you do when you find a spy or an enemy agent in
your flight group, only they don’t now you’re on to them. You lure him out on a routine recon run, tell him you’re scouting for mines or intercepting an
incoming bogey. You make sure he’s leading the formation, so you’re flying in his blind spot. Then, when he can’t see you... you blast him out of the sky!” —
but he nevertheless climbed into one of Gamma Flight’s T/Is and began flying the mission. Soon after he had begun firing on the mines, his ‘observers’ began
targeting him, and Stele called for reinforcements as per the Cloaked Figure’s instructions, leading to the abrupt arrival of HIMS Osprey, a modified Nebulon-B2
escort frigate. Stele continued to evade Harkov’s pursuers — three TIE Advanceds and two T/Is — when a rebel Calamarian cruiser arrived (Harkov planned to
defect to the Alliance, and apparently planned to finalize his plans with the rebels at the same time that he killed Stele, which proved to be remarkably bad
timing as Stele obtained proof that Harkov was consorting with rebels, confirming that an Imperial officer was attempting to board the Calamarian cruiser. Stele
landed in the Osprey’s flight deck, and angrily told the Cloaked Figure that he was through doing the Secret Order’s dirty work; the Cloaked Figure riposted
easily by telling Stele the truth: “Harkov murdered Mordon.” The Secret Order had obtained “incontrovertible evidence” of Harkov’s treachery, and Vader
himself would lead the Imperial task force to neutralize his fleet. The hunt for Harkov was on.
Stele’s first assignment during the hunt for the rogue Harkov was to fly one of Mu Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats on a reconnaissance mission to inspect
containers and ships at a rebel support depot DS 5 for evidence of Harkov’s activities. Stele shot down a rebel B-wing and then left his wingmen to engage the
remainder of the enemy fighters while he inspected containers in the region. Having completed his inspections, Stele and his wingmen decided to destroy the
cargo containers, seeing that they contained stores of grain, ground vehicles, liquid gas, and water for use by rebel elements. Harkov’s Victory Star Destroyer,
the Protector, arrived at the station to drive off the raiders, but was too late to prevent the destruction of the supplies; Stele wisely ordered a withdrawal, having
confirmed DS 5 as the location of Harkov’s supply base. Upon his return to ship, he insisted that he be allowed to fly on the next mission, despite not being on
the duty roster (“he wasn’t going to miss any opportunity to get Harkov”), and as a result was “back in the cockpit within the hour,” again leading elements of
Mu Flight, this time to prevent Harkov’s Protector from completing a resupply operation. Armed with heavy rockets, the StarWings arrived and immediately
intercepted the scheduled replenishment convoy, destroying a number of the cargo ships as well as both of their escorting corvettes (Stele personally destroyed
a Karflo freighter and two “Sorosuub” (sic) modular conveyors, and one munitions container transport). By then, Harkov’s own TIE Advanced starfighters
arrived to chase off the raiders, and again Stele ordered a withdrawal, denying Harkov the opportunity to bring his superior firepower to bear — ironically, the
traditional roles of the Empire and the Alliance were reversed, with the irregular rebel guerrilleros having their superior firepower frustrated by the persistent
hit-and-run tactics of the professional Imperial regulars.
As had come to be common in Stele’s career, he maintained a very high operational tempo, and soon he was back in combat again, this time piloting one of Mu
Flight’s new TIE Advanced starfighters, sent to engage Harkov’s own CSP. Even as Harkov was laying a vast minefield around DS 5 in order to protect it, Stele
shot down seven of the defectors, losing one wingman in return, and identified Harkov’s gig Toten docking with the station while the Protector hyperjumped out
of the system. Stele ordered a withdrawal, but not before he strafed a pair of modified corvettes; in his after-action report, Stele commented rather drolly that
“it’s stupid to take on a modified corvette in a single starfighter, but nobody ever accused me of being smart.” In the event, he successfully single-handedly
destroyed the modified corvette Wurger and then fled into hyperspace, bringing his kill count into the high 90s at the very least, including one frigate and now
three corvettes. While the attack on the supply depot was planned, Imperial probots “kept watch to be sure Harkov did not escape.” In the meantime, Stele
wandered onto the flight deck to examine his T/A more closely, regarding its as “a wonderful craft — fast, maneuverable, and powerful,” and hoping to be able
to pilot it again soon. While he was in the hangar, “Captain” Trace — late of the Protector, the pilot who earlier had asked if Stele were an agent of the Secret
Order — approached the ship in a T/I, claiming to be “looking for a way out of this mess.” When Stele spoke to the space traffic controller on watch and
mentioned that he knew Trace, the man insolently told him “It’s not my concern, boy. And it’s not yours. Just go on about your business” (it is quite
remarkable that Commander Stele did not place this man on report for insubordination and disrespect to a commissioned officer, and perhaps says a great deal
about Stele’s personality; being not-quite-a-mustang officer himself, was he wont to tolerate a great deal of rudeness from enlisted men?). Concerned by the
sight of stormtroopers removing Trace from the flight deck under armed escort, Stele hurried to contact the Cloaked Figure, suggesting that the Secret Order
could perhaps make use of Trace, who had recently been aboard Harkov’s flagship; he was surprised to learn that Trace was in fact also an agent of the Secret
Order.
Stele was ordered to pilot another of Mu Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats in the first wave of the Imperial attack on DS 5, tasked primarily to ensure that
Harkov did not attempt to escape from the supply depot in a shuttle or transport in the early stages of the attack, although he was also assigned to eliminate
whatever of the station’s defenses he could, including starfighters flying CSP and Type 3 space mines. Stele was disappointed to fly a StarWing again, as they
were not as maneuverable as the so-called TIE “Avenger” he had just flown, but nevertheless he joined the battle with gusto, destroying a number of mines
before breaking off to chase the Corellian light freighter Geddawai, aboard which Harkov was making a run for it. Combining his gunboat’s laser cannon and ion
cannon, Stele immobilized it, then destroyed the captain’s gig Toten (which was trying to act as a decoy for Harkov’s actual getaway aboard the Geddawai), and
captured the transport Kolermigon, loaded with certain rebel passengers also attempting to escape. Stele returned to minesweeping, and soon thereafter the
supply depot was captured by Imperial assault transports, prompting the arrival of HIMS Garret, completing the takeover of the depot. The rebel frigate
Olinor, some modified corvettes, and a large number of enemy starfighters arrived in-system in a last-ditch attempt to rescue Harkov, but only succeeded in
providing a target-rich environment for Stele and his fellow pilots (in his AAR, Stele mentions having shot down “some Z-95s,” “some B-wings,” “some of the
T/As,” and “wave after wave of TIE Advanced,” which implies at least ten kills in this phase of the battle alone). For the seventh time, Stele had identified and
captured an important enemy, and Harkov was taken aboard Garret for interrogation by Darth Vader himself; both TIE Fighter and TIE Fighter: The Official
Strategy Guide portray his death at Vader’s hands, joining the ranks of the numerous traitors and incompetents to be strangled to death by the Sith Lord’s
invisible hand. For his part, Stele never learned what specifically happened to Harkov; the Secret Order told him only that “he would be punished, and that his
crimes were of the most serious sort.” According to TIE Fighter, Stele received the Medal of Loyalty for his part in Harkov’s capture.
The Mag Pulse Affair
After Harkov’s capture, Stele was transferred again to Grand Admiral Zaarin’s command at the Imperial Naval Weapons Research Station, where he was
welcomed aboard by Zaarin himself, who took the time to show him some of the starfighters being developed and chatted with him casually for a few minutes,
even going so far as to ask permission to call Stele by his given name of “Maarek” (hitherto he had addressed Stele by surname alone, omitting his rank entirely).
When Zaarin opined that “pilots of [Stele’s] caliber are the foundation of the Empire’s strength,” Stele answered that “the commanders, the ones who decide on
policy and plan the tactics, are the backbone of the Empire,” and then added that “it’s the Emperor who’s the real foundation of the Empire.” On leaving Zaarin’
s office, Stele had the feeling that “some very significant conversation had just taken place in the closing moments of the meeting,” but did not know what it
could possibly have meant.
Stele was soon assigned to pilot a T/A as an escort to cargo ships transporting the prototypes of Zaarin’s newest starfighters, the TIE Defenders. About 35
seconds after he and his flight hyperjumped to the rendezvous with the cargo ships, a group of rebel starfighters appeared to make a half-hearted attack on the
cargo ships; a quick dogfight ensued and the T/A escort drove off the enemy snubfighters, Stele adding two B-wings and two A-wings to his already-impressive
kill count. Shortly thereafter he was invited to dinner with Zaarin, and was amazed at the what the Grand Admiral called his “meager fare” — Stele’s immediate
reaction was that “in all his life” he had “never seen such a spread.” Although he could be justifiably proud of his record — a backwater provincial who had
gone from civilian contractor to full commander in less than a standard year, now decorated with five medals for valor and nearly 100 confirmed kills, including
four capital ships — Stele was suspicious of Zaarin’s friendliness, and perplexed by his curious questions about whether or not he believed in the Galactic
Emperor’s infallibility and about the effectiveness of certain policies of the Imperial State. He had not yet digested his dinner when he was approached by the
Cloaked Figure, who told him that the Secret Order was “concerned that all is not as it seems at this research facility”; Stele was too embarrassed to voice his
concerns over Zaarin to the Cloaked Figure.
Shortly after this ‘friendly’ dinner with Zaarin, Stele was assigned to pilot one of Alpha Squadron’s T/As to escort the cargo ferry IFA Sela to Vinzen Neela V,
to deliver the prototype TIE Defenders to the escort carrier HIMS Hininbirg; the Secret Order communicated to Stele that there had been a security breach at
NWRS and that this was very unusual as Zaarin was reputed to be “an exceedingly careful commander,” and that Darth Vader himself was displeased with the
failure in security. On arrival at the rendezvous point, Stele discovered a pair of rebel corvettes lurking in ambush. In the eight-minute dogfight that followed,
Stele shot down four Y-wings and single-handedly destroyed both corvettes, the Vop Hui and the Mar Duun, an extraordinary feat unprecedented even in Stele’
s own phenomenal career. Unsurprisingly, this spectacular success prompted another meeting with Zaarin, who offered to appoint Stele to command of “a
special squadron under my command,” which would be equipped with “the most advanced starfighters in the galaxy” (despite his rank of commander, Stele had
been constantly transferred from squadron to squadron throughout his brief career and thus had never actually had opportunity to accept any type of command
in the Imperial Navy). Excited at this opportunity, Stele assured Zaarin that he was loyal and would be happy to serve under him — blissfully unaware of the
subtext of Zaarin’s offer. Shortly thereafter, he was ordered to fly one of Tau Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats to escort to a small supply convoy to Zaarin’s
research platform, and — as was often the case — little time passed after he rendezvoused with the convoy before a group of rebel starfighters arrived and
created a diversion for assault transports intending a lightning raid on NWRS itself; Stele destroyed at least two B-wings and two assault transports, and
possibly two X-wings (Stele’s AAR is unclear about that), and one of the rebel B-wings was captured for study after it became evident that there was
something unusual about their weapons. After returning to berthing following this mission, Stele received a visit from now-“Major” Trace (i.e., commander or
wing commander), who probed him with questions about loyalty, and then revealed that he was in fact a rebel officer named Hamo Blastwell, an infiltrator.
Blastwell attempted to persuade Stele of the wrongness of the Imperial cause, but Stele angrily kicked him out of his berthing space, saying that he was tired of
everyone trying to recruit him for their causes. He did not, however, turn Blastwell over to the authorities.
The captured B-wing revealed that the rebel Alliance was using an experimental weapons system called ‘mag pulse’ technology, and Zaarin received orders
directly from Imperial High Command on Imperial Center to conduct a punitive raid on the main facility of the weapons system’s designer, Galactic Electronics.
To that end, Stele piloted one of Tau Flight’s StarWing assault gunboats in the attack, with orders to intercept and destroy enemy fighters and to interdict all
outbound traffic; Stele ended up shooting down at least six Z-95 Headhunters and disabling at least one transport, the shuttle Kalree, the Corellian freighter SS
Lucky Day, and a pair of mag pulse-equipped Y-wings, all of which were captured when Zaarin’s task force took hundreds of Galactic Electronics employees
prisoner and destroyed the platform after stripping it of all useful technology and data. After the raid, Stele received a visit from a stormtrooper who escorted
him to a little-used area of the Glory converted for use as a temporary brig, and was at last reunited with his father, Kerek Stele (interestingly, Stele estimates
that he has not seen his father in “months” or “a year,” establishing an upper limit on how long Stele had been an officer, since he hadn’t seen his father since
before he was first brought aboard the Vengeance over Kuan (Stele had been detained aboard her for three months before becoming a civilian defense contractor,
it should be remembered, shortening his career as a fighter pilot to rather less than three-quarters of a year). At the same time, he was also reunited with his old
Kuani friend Pargo, who turned out to be the stormtrooper who had escorted him to meet with his father. Stele’s pleasure in this reunion was quickly spoilt by
his father, who criticized him for serving the Imperial State; Kerek Stele called the Empire “this gang of thieves and bullies,” and waved aside Stele’s claim that
the Empire had ended the Kuan/Bordali war and reunited Taroon, saying that in the civil war’s place the Empire had “brought servitude and discrimination,
brutality,” and saying that he had not returned to Kuan after his capture by the Bordali because of the changes wrought by the Empire, and that he had been
“made to serve” the Empire. Pargo interrupted this discussion by telling Stele that he had to return his father to the brig — this meeting was not an authorized
visit — and immediately after they left Stele sought out the Cloaked Figure and begged him to arrange for his father’s return to Kuan. The Cloaked Figure
evaded giving him a firm answer, and told him instead that he was being transferred at the Secret Order’s behest from the Glory to Darth Vader’s flagship, the
Garret. At some time prior to his transfer, Stele was awarded the Medal of Destiny (very likely in recognition of his extraordinary performance above and
beyond the call of duty at Vinzen Neela V), as seen in TIE Fighter.
The Battle of Ottega: “H” and “Z”
Immediately after his transfer to the Garret, Stele was assigned to “an elite squadron of pilots,” some of whom were “familiar faces encountered before on one
ship or another,” but mostly pilots he’d never met; by now, Stele felt largely alienated from his colleagues and did not spend time around them, keeping to
himself as much as possible. This elite squadron was detailed to begin training on the new TIE Defender, the product of Zaarin’s R&D efforts, and Stele was so
impressed with the T/Ds that he regarded them as “almost enough to rekindle Maarek’s martial spirit” (“almost, but not quite”); this fact provides implicit
detail on the pilots in this squadron, as The New Essential Guide to Vehicles & Vessels indicates that it was Imperial High Command’s policy that T/D pilots
“only be selected from TIE interceptor pilots who had flown at least twenty combat missions and survived” (Stele is himself a bit of an exception, having flown
at least 27 known missions under combat conditions, but usually not in a T/I). Although he enjoyed piloting the T/D, Stele had by this time come to want only
to return to Kuan and leave the wars behind him. A few days after his arrival, word was passed that the remains of the traitor Harkov’s fleet had been located at
Ottega, and that the Garret would be spearheading the attack. Stele climbed into the cockpit of one of Alpha Flight’s TIE Advanceds, and joined the Interdictor
cruiser HIMS Harpax in a raid on the Protector’s resupply lines; in the event, Stele easily destroyed the containers destined for the Victory Star Destroyer’s
replenishment, and engaged a number of “H” T/Bs and at least two “H” T/As before the rebel Calamarian light cruiser Warhawk hyperjumped into the system
to trap the Harpax, joined at 5:20 into the mission by the Nebulon-B frigate Akaga. Stele returned to the Harpax for replenishment and refueling at 14 minutes
— this is the first mission Stele had flown in which his AAR is not clear whether or not he had scored any kills, but this is probably because he almost certainly
wrote this particular AAR some time later, after having flown several other combat missions — , and immediately scrambled again to defend the Interdictor,
launching with a pair of other pilots from the Garret, Saaryu and Prakrii, whose banter reminded Stele of himself only a few months before.
The ordnance of Stele’s T/A had been changed from concussion missiles to a pair of heavy space bombs, monstrous warheads designed to penetrate capital ship
armor and inflict severe damage on the vulnerable compartments beneath the weatherdecks. Stele and his element leader launched their bombs at point blank
range, knocking down the Akaga’s shields, and then replenished and made a second run, crippling the ship; Stele switched to laserfire, and very quickly recorded
his second frigate (he had earlier destroyed the Nebulon-B2 Dromon during the Sepan Civil War). Immediately Stele turned to provide relief to the Harpax,
suffering under attack from the Protector’s “H” Beta Squadron of T/Bs and the Z-95s of the rebel Blue Squadron; although Stele’s T/A took a missile from Blue
1, he nevertheless destroyed two of the attacking T/Bs, and charged headlong into an oncoming wave of T/Bs from the Protector. By then help had arrived from
the Garret, and the attacking starfighters were driven off. Stele returned to the Garret, where he was warned by the Cloaked Figure to “be careful,” for “the
danger mounts with every moment” (Stele had long since become accustomed to the Secret Order’s flair for the melodramatic, to the point that he was no longer
surprised by such vague prognostication). Moments later he bumped into his old protégé Xeal, whom he’d thought killed — but who had not only not been
killed, but also had been promoted to lieutenant. Stele was happy to see him still alive — he was one of the only friends Stele had left in the Empire, after
Ketcher’s death and Carith’s defection. Although Stele had never been convinced that he had been a particularly good mentor, Xeal was extremely grateful for
his help, and mentioned that Stele’s reputation had grown; apparently Stele’s feats were well-known outside of his immediate command (“well-known” is
probably something of an understatement, considering all of the promotions, decorations, and accomplishments Stele had accumulated in the course of his very
short career). By that time, his T/A had finished changing its ordnance again — this time to torpedoes — and Stele was launched once more into space, rejoining
the battle.
By now the Warhawk’s shields were heavily taxed by long-range turbolaserfire from the Garret, and Stele led his wingmen in a strafing run, firing all his
torpedoes and replenishing immediately via the ordnance transport CUV 18f1, and then returning to attack the cruiser again; the Warhawk had suffered heavy
damage, and Stele’s second strafing run proved to be the coup de grâce, destroying her and adding the silhouette of a Calamarian light cruiser to the side of Stele’
s starfighter, the seventh capital ship to fall to Commander Maarek Stele. At 4:12 after his second relaunch, Stele replenished his ordnance again, and attacked
the Protector’s close-in weapons system (CIWS) and point-defense lasers with torpedoes, and then twice replenished and fired all his torpedoes into the
Victory Star Destroyer, by then suffering badly from torpedo volleys and the Garret’s long-range turbolaserfire; Stele’s AAR indicates that by that time she
was so badly damaged that Stele was able to destroy her, adding an eighth capital ship kill to his record, one of such outrageous proportions that it bordered
upon the ridiculous. Apparently possessed of a death wish, Stele charged after a pair of rebel corvettes that had joined the battle and were attacking the Harpax,
and in his AAR rather blithely wrote that “I took out the CRVs with torpedoes and cannons, quickly disabling their guns and then finishing them off.” (It is
interesting to note that this is not the first time that Stele’s tone indicates that he himself does not think his spectacular feats are impressive; he never gives any
indication that he truly realizes the lopsidedness of his combat record.) By then Stele was wondering about the promised reinforcements from Grand Admiral
Zaarin, and not long thereafter they arrived — and to Stele’s great surprise, they immediately attacked the Imperial forces. Stele immediately charged headlong
into the traitors, destroying the modified “Z” corvettes HIMS Arditi I, Arditi II, and Arditi III, and helping Garret’s T/Bs to destroy the other “Z” corvettes of
Falcon and Bakaar groups; although Stele’s leadership in this 25-minute dogfight helped assure the victory of the Imperial loyalists, the Harpax had sustained
too much damage and was destroyed (Stele blamed himself, writing in his AAR, “I might have saved the Harpax if I had paid more attention to B-wing group
Blue when they appeared. I had been too busy with the CRVs”).
The Zaarin Coup d’Etat
Immediately after Stele returned to the Garret for debriefing, he was escorted to the bridge by four stormtroopers, where he was confronted by Darth Vader
himself, who addressed him as “Colonel Stele” (signifying, in his own uniquely brief fashion, that he was exercising his prerogative as Supreme Commander and
awarding Stele a field promotion to post captain). The Dark Lord of the Sith commanded Stele to tell him everything he knew about Zaarin, and Stele’s answer
confirmed what Vader and his spies had already suspected: Zaarin was plotting to overthrow the Galactic Emperor and seize power in his place. With Zaarin’s
forces blocking communications, Vader decided that he would simply break through his lines and rush to Imperial Center to warn his Master of Zaarin’s
treachery, and ordered Stele to fly with him, as much for Stele’s previous experience training on the T/D as for Stele’s ridiculous accomplishments as a fighter
pilot — Stele was quite possibly one of the only pilots in the galaxy whose skill rivaled the Dark Lord’s own. In moments, six of Delta Flight’s T/Ds launched,
and Stele led the attack on Zaarin’s Interdictor cruiser HIMS Harpago, in the process destroying at least four StarWing assault gunboats; although three of the
T/Ds were destroyed in the attack on the Harpago, Stele, Vader, and Delta 5 successfully destroyed the Interdictor — unsurprisingly, Stele delivered the coup
de grâce, making it his fourteenth capital ship kill — and they docked with the Secret Order’s Nebulon-B2 Osprey (the same frigate that had rescued Stele from
Harkov earlier), and hyperjumped for Imperial Center, determined to warn the Galactic Emperor of Zaarin’s betrayal. By the time they arrived, Zaarin’s Glory
had already intercepted the Galactic Emperor’s personal flagship, HIMS Majestic, and his agents had abducted him and were in the process of transferring him
back to the Glory. Vader and Stele launched in their T/Ds — now redesignated Alpha rather than Delta — and immediately moved to intercept the “Z” escort
shuttle groups Hellcat and Haven, scanning each to check for the Galactic Emperor; having identified him aboard Haven 3, Stele and his wingmen destroyed the
other escort shuttles with ease, and Stele used his T/D’s ion cannon to disable Haven 3, allowing the modified corvette HIMS Mescue to recover him, while
Stele and the other T/D pilots provided cover from the Glory’s fighter complement (Stele shot down five “Z” T/As during this part of the dogfighting). Stele’s
efforts bought enough time for the Mescue to complete its recovery operation, and by then Vice Admiral Thrawn’s flagship, the Victory Star Destroyer HIMS
Vanguard, arrived to drive off Zaarin (the Majestic had escaped into hyperspace, badly damaged by Zaarin’s surprise attack). By then all of his wingmen had
been lost (except for Vader himself), and Stele recklessly attacked the Glory alone. Foiled in his attempt to kidnap the Galactic Emperor, Zaarin retreated into
hyperspace.
Stele was visited soon after by the Cloaked Figure, who told him that in recognition of his superlative service to the Imperial State and to the Galactic Emperor,
his father had been released and allowed to return to Kuan, although he reminded Stele that he was obligated to continue to service the Empire until the Galactic
Emperor or one of his representatives released him, and Stele acknowledged this, saying “I will serve the Emperor, as I always have.” Not long after that, Stele
was recognized in an award ceremony presided over by the Galactic Emperor himself on Imperial Center — attended by “the cream of Coruscant society” and
all of the Galactic Emperor’s splendid court — , where he received the Emperor’s Will, the highest decoration awarded by the Imperial State. This is the final
part of Stele’s tale chronicled in TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide (coinciding with the end of TIE Fighter itself), and consequently his subsequent
exploits are not known in nearly so much detail. It is known from “The Emperor’s Pawns” that the Galactic Emperor “took great interest in Stele,” and once his
sensitivity to the Force was discovered, he was given to the Prophets of the Dark Side for training, so that his “talent quickly blossomed,” to the extent that a
starfighter under his control became “an extension equivalent to a lightsaber,” and that he “learned to probe starfighter enemies for weaknesses and anticipate
their moves” (presumably this refers to low-level mentalic influence and precognition). Impressed with his ability, the Galactic Emperor adopted Stele as one of
his Emperor’s Hands, and “bestowed his newest Hand with the title-rank Ta,” finally explaining the reference to him as “Tan Stele” on the back cover of TIE
Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide, albeit seven years after the fact (notably, Vader himself was also a recipient of this same treatment; in “The Constancia
Affair,” Vader’s true name was given as “Tan Skywalker,” to be explained 26 years later in “Vader Tech” as a result of his participation in the Battle of
Virujansi during the Clone War, “in which he fought alongside pilot Garven ‘Dave’ Dreis of the Rarefied Air Cavalry and earned the starfighter ace title of Tan”).
The Hunt for Zaarin
In TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire, Zaarin atttempted to halt the Empire’s production of T/As by attacking the main production facilities in the Omar
Sector, and Tan Stele led Alpha Flight’s T/Ds in an effort to provide cover for the facility’s evacuation. Although the evacuation was completed and the “Z”
frigate HIMS Raptor was destroyed, the main facility was also destroyed, and the Empire was forced to mount a massive defensive campaign throughout the
Sector, hoping to neutralize Zaarin’s familiarity with starfighter production; this was in large part unsuccessful, as the “Z” forces raided and looted numerous
T/A production centers, and Tan Stele was involved in the Empire’s recapture of hyperdrive production facility ZA-13, which was to be upgraded to replace
the destroyed T/A main production facility, and subsequently defended it from rebel raiders using Galactic Electronics’ mag pulse technology, causing Thrawn
to divert his attention to capturing the main mag pulse manufacturing plant. While Thrawn and Tan Stele were thus engaged, Zaarin again attacked ZA-13 (this
time destroying it), and attacked Thrawn himself, trapping him in place with the “Z” Interdictor cruiser HIMS Grappler. In the ensuing battle, it appears that
the Grappler and the mag pulse manufacturing plant were both destroyed, and Thrawn’s flagship, the Victory Star Destroyer HIMS Sceltor was severely
damaged. The “Z” forces succeeded in destroying the T/A manufacturing plants, and Zaarin retreated to the Outer Rim, while the Galactic Emperor appointed
Thrawn commander of the counter-“Z” task force. For his efforts, Tan Stele was awarded the Medal of Dignity, his eighth decoration for valor (although,
already having received the Emperor’s Will, this decoration was not his highest in degree of precedence).
Zaarin continued his technological scavenger hunt, and raided the R&D facility where he had originally created the T/D, hoping to eliminate the Empire’s
advanced starfighter production. Thrawn was on to Zaarin’s game, however, and sent Tan Stele and others to eliminate the “Z” forces attacking the research
facility, and then stationed the Imperial Star Destroyer HIMS Adarga to defend it. A second raid resulted in the Adarga’s destruction before being driven off by
Tan Stele and his comrades, and in frustration Zaarin decided to simply destroy the station rather than leave it in Loyalist hands; having anticipated this,
Thrawn had ordered the stripping and evacuation of the facility, shipping the last three prototype T/Ds separately to prevent the loss of all three in one fell
swoop. En route to Thrawn, however, the prototypes were ambushed by Rneeki pirates, and Stele was forced to pilot one of the prototypes against the raiders,
driving them off. Ultimately the T/D prototypes were stored securely on Imperial Center, but the Galactic Emperor was concerned that Zaarin very likely had
the technical data necessary to manufacture his own T/Ds, and ordered Thrawn to develop a starfighter to counter it. Thrawn’s analysis of Zaarin’s character
led him to believe that Zaarin’s greatest weakness was his technophilia, and his obsession with maintaining a technological advantage, to the point that he would
invest extraordinary time, effort, and resources in obtaining high-tech tools where the baseline tools would suffice. In the mean time, while Thrawn was thus
planning his campaign against the traitor, Tan Stele was awarded his ninth decoration for valor, the Medal of Futility (presumably for his foiling of the Rneeki
attempt to steal the T/D prototypes, but this is not clear).
In the final tour of duty in TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire, the Rneeki pirates — who had managed to obtain one of the T/D prototypes stolen after it was
transferred to Imperial Center, and had earlier captured many of the members of the T/D design team while Tan Stele prevented their theft of the prototypes
themselves — auctioned off the prototype, in the end selling it back to the Empire. Once this transaction was completed, the Interdictor cruiser HIMS Red
Claw arrived and interdicted the system, allowing Tan Stele and his comrades in Alpha Squadron to destroy the Rneeki pirates in retaliation for having attacked
the Empire; in the course of the fighting, Ali Tarrak’s Nami pirates disabled the Red Claw’s hyperdrive, and in the subsequent engagements between the
Loyalists and the Nami, it was discovered that the Nami had been negotiating with Zaarin for supplies. In a bid to obtain the T/D prototype and design team
members, Zaarin sent one of his own corvettes to impersonate the scheduled pickup, and successfully absconded with the design team before the real pickup
arrived. To make matters worse, it was learned that Tarrak had somehow managed to produce a limited production run of T/Ds, and that she intended to sell
them to the rebel Alliance. To that end, Thrawn brought out his new starfighter, the Missile Boat, and sent Tan Stele and Alpha Squadron to break up the sale,
ending in the capture of the ersatz T/Ds, and then an engagement with the rebels, who discovered to their dismay that Thrawn’s Missile Boat was an extremely
formidable craft in the hands of the experienced pilots of Alpha Squadron. Thrawn then took his fleet to destroy Tarrak’s T/D manufacturing plant, and
captured Tarrak, whom he took with him to celebrate his triumph on Imperial Center; Thrawn offered Tarrak the opportunity to serve the Imperial State
instead of facing prosecution for piracy, and she accepted. In recognition of his accomplishments, the Galactic Emperor formally appointed Thrawn to the rank
of grand admiral, filling the vacancy created by Zaarin’s betrayal (Thrawn had already been a supernumerary grand admiral in petto for some time); for his part,
Tan Stele was awarded the Medal of Horror.
TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire returns to the hunt for Zaarin. Tan Stele transferred with Alpha Squadron to the Imperial Star Destroyer HIMS
Courageous, Captain Kuuztin commanding, and led a raid on one of Zaarin’s supply convoys (led by the “Z” Dreadnaught cruiser HIMS Rahmat). Prisoners
from this raid provided intelligence about a supply platform near Gwar, and the over-ambitious Kuuztin carried on immediately with an attack on the platform,
walking directly into an ambush; a “Z” Interdictor cruiser, HIMS Bomb, and a pair of “Z” Star Destroyers, HIMS Imperator and HIMS Thunderer, closed the
trap, and the Courageous was destroyed, although Tan Stele and others escaped. In response, Thrawn attempted a trap of his own, using a Missile Boat as a
lure, but for once Zaarin was able to resist his temptation; consequently Thrawn sweetened the bait by offering an entire shipment. This time Zaarin sent a large
task force after the Missile Boats, and another one of his Interdictor cruisers to keep Thrawn’s flagship, the Imperial Star Destroyer HIMS Grey Wolf, pinned
down. Although in the event Thrawn’s trap did work and Zaarin did not obtain any of the Missile Boats, the wily traitor grand admiral had outwitted his
replacement and taken significantly fewer losses than Thrawn had intended. Seizing the initiative once again, Zaarin launched an attack on his ex-colleague Grand
Admiral Martio Batch’s Vorknkx Project, where the so-called ‘Invisible Grand Admiral’ was developing a functional cloaking device; Tan Stele transferred again,
this time to the Grey Wolf, and was deployed to cover the evacuation of the Vorknkx research team, successfully fighting off Zaarin’s fighters. In recognition of
this service in defense of an extremely sensitive research project, Tan Stele was awarded the Medal of Liberty.
When the Galactic Emperor allowed intelligence on the new, larger Death Star to fall into rebel hands (as seen in Shadows of the Empire), it was decided that in
order to convince the rebellion of the value of this intelligence, an effort would have to be made to recover it. To that end, Tan Stele was detached from Thrawn’
s counter-“Z” task force and sent on a mission to capture a number of Bothan ships, in an effort to ‘recover’ the stolen intelligence, and then ordered to lead an
attack on Kothlis, where the intelligence had been taken. Evidently Tan Stele’s performance during this mission was sufficiently distinguished to merit the
Medal of Guile, and “The Emperor’s Pawns” states that he was reassigned to the “revered Emperor’s Sword fighter wing escort” (first mentioned in the Death
Star II Expansion Set, where it was described as “elite pilots sworn to defend the Emperor to the death,” who were “assigned older TIEs due to their years of
experience with them,” and were “stationed at Coruscant but always travel with the Emperor” ). Consequently, Tan Stele was on hand to defend the Galactic
Emperor’s C-3 passenger liner HIMY Excalibur when Zaarin’s forces attacked her en route to a rendezvous with Vader’s flagship, the Super Star Destroyer
HIMS Executor, scheduled to carry the Galactic Emperor to the Endor system, where he would personally oversee the construction of the second Death Star
(TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire does not mention the rendezvous with the Executor, but when the Galactic Emperor arrived at the Death Star construction
site in the novelization of Return of the Jedi, he was aboard a Super Star Destroyer, said to be the same one present during the Battle of Endor — and that Star
Dreadnought is known unambiguously to have been the Executor). Thrawn’s forces arrived in time to drive off the last of Zaarin’s attackers, and Tan Stele was
transferred back to the Chiss grand admiral’s command.
Intelligence received word that one of Zaarin’s subordinates, Commander Din, planned to defect to the rebel Alliance, and as a show of bona fide he intended to
reveal that the Death Star was in fact operational, and to provide a Missile Boat he had somehow obtained. Although Thrawn’s forces made every effort to
prevent this turnover, they arrived too late; fortuitously, however, the commander of the Calamarian cruiser which had rendezvoused with Din had been
unwilling to broadcast the intelligence regarding the Death Star to the rebel fleet via long-range communications — for one thing, this would very likely be traced
by nearby Imperial forces — and had blown out his engines trying to rush back to the main body of the rebel fleet. Tan Stele led the attack that destroyed the
cruiser, but Zaarin arrived at the last minute and stole the Missile Boat, prompting Thrawn to track it down and send Tan Stele to destroy it before Zaarin had a
chance to examine it in detail. In retaliation, Zaarin began attacking the Empire’s Missile Boat manufacturing plants, and the few remaining Missile Boats were
placed in protective storage. Fresh from this triumph, Zaarin then launched another attack on the relocated Vorknkx Project, stealing the testbed corvette PCU
Vorknkx, unaware that Thrawn had anticipated this latest expression of Zaarin’s technophilic obsession. Tan Stele was sent to put up a fight to prevent Zaarin
from becoming suspicious, and the rogue grand admiral escaped with the Vorknkx, unaware that he was being traced back to his main base of operations.
Thrawn and Tan Stele followed, and in the ensuing battle destroyed Zaarin’s forces, prompting Zaarin to try to escape aboard the Vorknkx, unaware that
Thrawn had deleted all references to a dangerous instability in the cloaking suite, which caused a catastrophic explosion when the hyperdrive was engaged while
the cloaking device was activated, killing all on board. Although Zaarin had stayed one step ahead of his replacement throughout the rebellion, he was in the end
destroyed by his own obsession with technology. For his part in this final phase of the “Z” affair, Tan Stele was awarded the Medal of Victory.
Aftermath, and Beyond
The final defeat of Zaarin in TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire took place just before the Battle of Endor in early 39 rS, about one full year after the Battle of
Hoth (it may be recalled that Tan Stele flew his first combat missions as a passed midshipman at Platform D-34 in Javin Sector immediately after the Battle of
Hoth). “The Emperor’s Pawns” mentions that Tan Stele remained in Imperial service even after the Galactic Emperor’s death, although he “questioned the
Empire’s validity more than ever.” Depressed and demoralized, Tan Stele happened to meet fellow fighter ace “Colonel” (i.e., Captain) Soontir, Baron Fel of the
Empire, in whom he “recognized the dignified honor that had disappeared from the Empire”; the Lord Fel was double-hatted as Commander 181st Imperial
Fighter Group and Commanding Officer, Saber Squadron, and had flown at the Battle of Endor. At his request, Tan Stele was transferred to the 181st under the
Lord Fel’s command, but it is not known how long he remained with that unit. In “In the Empire’s Service,” the Lord Fel’s second in command is “Major” (i.e.,
Lieutenant Commander) Turr Phennir, Commanding Officer, Alpha Squadron, which seems unlikely if Captain Tan Maarek Stele were still in the unit by that
time, only six months after the Battle of Endor. Furthermore, when “Colonel” the Lord Fel — as noted, a post captain, Tan Stele’s equal in rank, two full pay
grades above “Major” Phennir, a lieutenant commander — was captured in “In the Empire’s Service,” it was Phennir who was appointed to replace him as
Commander 181st Imperial Fighter Group, according to Solo Command (Starfighters of Adumar indicates that he would remain in that capacity as a “general”
— i.e., admiral — in Gilad Pellaeon’s neo-Imperial regime as late as the Adumar Affair of 48 rS, three years after the final collapse of the Galactic Empire in
Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood). Tan Stele probably left the 181st before the Battle of Brentaal (his unique and extraordinary feats of starfighter piloting
are conspicuous by their absence in that battle), and probably remained in Imperial service throughout the Cold War of Isard’s regency (39 - 41 rS), the long
decline of the collective regency of the Emperor’s Ruling Circle (41 - 45 rS), including the brief but intense Thrawn’s War in 44 rS (during which his previous
commander Thrawn returned to become Supreme Commander of the remaining Imperial forces), and the revivified Imperial offensive in Operation Shadow
Hand (45 rS), but there is no direct evidence for this. In fact, following his joining of the 181st in early 39 rS, there is a 21-year-gap during which there is no
evidence whatever about Tan Stele’s activities. Nevertheless, it is known from “The Emperor’s Pawns” that he remained a fighter pilot in the service of
Pellaeon’s Imperial remnants as late as the beginning of the extragalactic Vong invasion of the galaxy in 60 rS; he is known to have operated with a TIE fighter
squadron and an Interdictor cruiser, and is known to have stopped at least one flight escort mission near the so-called borderlands region, ordering them to
“power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded.” No further details are known of this incident or of his activities during the war, or if he were ever
reunited with Pargo or his parents on Kuan.
Conclusions
Toward the end of his known missions Tan Stele was often piloting a top-of-the-line starfighter, such as the TIE Advanced, the TIE Defender, or the Missile
Boat; the advantages of this superior technology surely contributed a great deal to his successes as a fighter pilot. Likewise, some of his success can doubtlessly
also be attributed to the fact that the majority of rebel pilots and sailors would be non-professionals working without formal education and training (although
many rebels were trained at Imperial academies and service schools or else in the military and naval forces of disloyal Imperial member states, it is highly
unlikely that these defectors formed any statistically significant proportion of the rebel Alliance’s overall forces). Even so, the combinations of technology and
subpar opponents only goes so far to explain Tan Stele’s brilliant career; during the campaigns against Harkov and Zaarin, his opponents were not irregular
guerrilleros but professional regulars, qualified Naval Aviators — all of whom must have flown under combat conditions in order to receive their combat-rating
“square,” according to the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition — and rated gunner’s mates. Furthermore, T/D pilots were only selected from pilots who had
successfully flown 20 or more combat missions, according to The New Essential Guide to Vehicles & Vessels, meaning that the “Z” Defenders that Tan Stele
flew against and shot down were flown by experienced pilots who were not only professionally trained and qualified, but were actually hardened veterans of
space combat maneuvering selected from the top ranks of the Naval Aviator community. It is very likely that many of these pilots were themselves aces many
times over. TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles mentions that he was a natural pilot, and TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide also mentions that he was in the
habit of flying flight simulators in his spare time to relax. Perhaps most significantly, however, “The Emperor’s Pawns” points to “his strength in the Force,”
and even mentions that he possessed mentalic powers (perhaps he unconsciously used the Force to cloud enemy pilots’ minds while dogfighting); after some
tutelage from the Prophets of the Dark Side, his “talent quickly blossomed,” and his starfighter was said to become his “most effective tool, an extension
equivalent to a lightsaber.” As noted earlier, there exists some evidence in the Expanded Universe that those who are sensitive to the Force also have unusually
good luck, and perhaps this too contributed to Tan Stele’s success. In any case, his career is unique and phenomenal; in less than two years he rose from being a
swooper on a backwater world outside the main body of galactic society to being one of the most highly-decorated commissioned officers in the Imperial Navy,
a post captain who had received extraordinary honors from the Galactic Emperor himself.
Comparisons between Tan Stele and other famous Imperial pilots are inevitable. In some cases, these comparisons are impossible to judge; although Grand
Admiral Nial Declann, for example, was said to have had “uncanny success” as a Naval Aviator in the early years of the Empire, specific details of his feats are
not known, thereby making a comparison of the two an exercise in futility (notably, both Tan Stele and Declann are said to have been sensitive to the Force, and
to have undergone training by the Prophets of the Dark Side at the Galactic Emperor’s behest). Of the various pilots put forward as the Empire’s supreme ace,
only the Lord Fel’s career is known with anything approaching comparable specificity to Tan Stele’s exploits; a cursory comparison of the two reveals that
although the Lord Fel was certainly an accomplished fighter pilot with more experience than Tan Stele, not even he has been seen to accomplish something so
outrageous as Tan Stele’s feat of single-handedly shooting down four enemy fighters and two enemy corvettes in eight minutes at Vinzen Neela V, or his even
more outrageous feat of shooting down five corvettes, an escort frigate, an Interdictor cruiser, and a Victory Star Destroyer at Ottega (impressive even after one
considers the presence of capital ship support); indeed, only Tan Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and his son Luke Skywalker — Jedi Knights both — can
claim more lopsided triumphs. Although his barony was in fact a reward for valorous conduct in battle, the Lord Fel is not known to have received as many
decorations for valor as Tan Stele; in fact, Tan Stele is the only canonically known recipient of the Emperor’s Will, the highest decoration given by the Imperial
State. Despite the Lord Fel’s better known reputation, and Tan Stele’s own admiration for the man, the evidence weighs heavily in favor of Captain Tan
Maarek Stele’s claim to be the Galactic Empire’s ace of aces.
References:
- Allston, Aaron. X-Wing: Solo Command. Bantam Books, 1998.
- Allston, Aaron. X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar. Bantam Books, 1999.
- DeMaria, Rusel. TIE Fighter: The Stele Chronicles. LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, 1994.
- DeMaria, Rusel, David Maxwell and David Wessman. TIE Fighter: The Official Strategy Guide. Prima Publishing, Inc., 1994.
- Kahn, James. Return of the Jedi. Ballantine Books, 1983.
- Manning, Russ. “The Constancia Affair.” Star Wars. LA Times Syndicate, 1979.
- Manning, Russ. “Gambler’s World.” Star Wars. LA Times Syndicate, 1979.
- McCarthy, Shane. “Walking the Path That’s Given.” Star Wars Tales No. 21. Dark Horse Comics, Inc., 2004.
- Peña, Abel G. and Juan Schwartz, with Pablo Hidalgo. “The Emperor’s Pawns.” Star Wars Gamer No. 5. Wizards of the Coast, Inc., 2001.
- Perry, Steve. Shadows of the Empire. Bantam Books, 1996.
- Richardson, Mike and Randy Stradley. Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood. Dark Horse Comics, Inc., 1999.
- “*The Emperor’s Sword.” Death Star II Expansion Set. Star Wars Customizable Card Game. Decipher, Inc., 2000.
- TIE Fighter. LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, 1994.
- TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire. LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, 1994.
- TIE Fighter: Enemies of the Empire. LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC, 1995.
| This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement of any kind is intended. Star Wars and related materials are © Lucasfilm Ltd., which reserves all rights thereto. All original material is © Julius Sykes. Please do not use without permission. |
| This biography was originally posted in four parts, the first in August 2005, the second in October 2005, and the third and fourth in December 2005. It was republished on 24 April 2007. The illustrations were added on 20 March 2008; they are pencil drawings colored in Adobe Photoshop. |
| Artist’s impression of Captain Stele in full dress, wearing the Emperor’s Will and the Medals of Victory, Guile, Liberty, Horror, Futility, Dignity, Destiny, Loyalty, Order, Progress, Unity, and Redemption, ca 39 rS (Based on TIE Fighter and “The Emperor’s Pawns”) |
| Tan Maarek Stele, date unknown (“The Emperor’s Pawns”) |
