Galen Wentlas

Galen Wentlas was an officer in the Alderaanian resistance against the Empire in the beginning years of the Empire. A member of the Judicial Fleet before the beginning of the Separatist Crisis, Galen served the Republic up until the Declaration of a New Order. Finding his chance to defect months later, he made his way into the Alderaanian cell operated by Bail Organa, where he participated in the latter events of the destruction of the Sarlaac Project.

=Biography=

Early Life
Galen Wentlas was born on Coruscant in 49 BBY to Andur and Lura Wentlas. His father, Andur was a lieutenant in the Judicial Fleet. When Galen was five, his father was killed during the Stark Hyperspace War, dying when his ship exploded over Qotile.

Two years after his father's death, Lura married Captain Marcus Lekine, a man who had once served with her first husband in the fleet. Galen didn't take well to his new stepfather, finding him too emotionally distant. He was, however, somewhat inspired by both his father and stepfather's service and decided to enlist in the Republic Naval Academy when he was 15.

Pre-Separatist Crisis Career
Days after graduating from secondary school at the age of 18, Galen received the recommendation of his sector's senator and enrolled in the naval academy. As a student, he was somewhat above average, finishing as the #14 student out of a graduating class of 93. Upon his graduation in 27 BBY, Galen was assigned as an ensign on a Corellian-made gunship the Anaxes. He spent three years on the ship before being promoted to a Carrack-class cruiser as a pilot along with a warrant officer rank.

The Clone Wars
When the Clone Wars began, Galen had been promoted to First Lieutenant and placed as the primary pilot of a 'Carrack'-class cruiser, a position he held for the majority of the war. While a pilot, he participated in numerous battles, including fighting in a short skirmish above Qotile, where his father had died nearly two decades previously. Galen went on to fight in battles around Bothawui, Rhen Var, and Ord Lorrens, always participating in the space theater.

Selvernos and the End of the Clone Wars
Three months before the end of the Clone Wars, Galen was transferred to his stepfather's--now an admiral--fleet. Initially disliking the move due to the proximity to the man he never really could get along with as well as the fear of his new crewmates citing nepotism as the sole reason for the promotion. During the Battle of Coruscant, Galen was piloting a Dreadnought against the sudden Separatist attack, but was unable to do much.

After the battle of Coruscant, Lekine's fleet and Galen with it were assigned to Jedi master Merrick Fionst's task force to liberate the planet of Selvernos, home to a very rare mineral vital to the war effort. Galen fought in the space battle above the planet until the majority of the droid fleet above the planet was destroyed. It was after this that Lekine transferred Galen to piloting LAATs, knowing that his stepson was good flying medium-sized craft and needing another pilot after a clone died from his injuries earlier in the battle. Galen didn't object.

After spending a day ferrying technicians to and from the Tarsus Valorum, Galen received his first combat mission on what would become the final day of the battle and the Clone Wars period: drop off a small platoon deep into enemy lines in the forests of Selvernos while the majority of the army landed several kilometers closer to the line. Galen accepted the mission despite knowing the dangers and piloted the unit led by Lieutenant Trem to its destination. The enemy fortifications proved to be more numerous than intelligence had predicted and an anti-aircraft emplacement managed to shoot down the LAAT. Galen came to 20 minutes later, moderately injured but nothing serious. He was quickly briefed by Mead, the clone medic of the platoon, that half of the troops had survived the crash and that a large number of battle droids had converged upon their position. Galen was handed a blaster rifle and began fighting with the rest of the survivors.

Rescue came five minutes later, when a LAAT carrying General Fionst and his Padawan Jorec Merridon along with a squad of clones managed to rescue them. Galen spent the rest of the day in the medical bay of the Valorum, and learned of the supposed betrayal of the Jedi while in his quarters afterwards. He disbelieved it instantly, having served with numerous Jedi in the past three years. When the news broke a couple of hours later about the attack on Chancellor Palpatine and the Declarating of a New Order, Galen decided it would be best to keep his fears secret, although he did speak with his father about the shift from a republic to an empire with his stepfather. Lekine's apathy of the entire situation quickly enforced Galen's bad feelings about the man and drove him even further apart from the admiral.

The New Order and the Dawn of Defiance
The Valorum returned to Coruscant days later and Lekine's influence got Galen into a meeting with Palpatine's new enforcer, Darth Vader. One of several in the room, Galen kept quiet as Palpatine spoke and Captain Dallin voiced the objections both he and Wentlas privately shared about the Jedi rebellion story. He also watched in fear as Vader, upon Palpatine's order, strangled the man with the Force. Upon hearing that no resignations would be accepted, Galen knew he had to get out of the Empire as soon as possible. He debated with himself in his quarters that night, thinking about whether to stay and be so below the radar that he'd be able to resign peacefully when he was finally allowed to. Another thought, fueled by the actions of Vader, the Emperor, and his stepfather was also heavily considered; he could get out while he still could. He decided to get out, abandon the Empire at the first reasonable chance he had.

His chance came three months later when the new Imperial-class Star Destroyer he was serving on docked at Kwenn Space Station. Galen took advantage of his temporary shore leave and snuck out of the station and the Empire on a medium-sized transport. The deserter spent the next month hiding on numerous planets until he heard about a resistance cell against the Empire on Alderaan. Hoping to join a fight against the Empire, Galen traveled to Alderaan, arriving as a group of agents left for Bespin. He was presented to Bail Organa, the head of the cell, as an Imperial defector and was transferred to the Resurgance, a Nebulon-B frigate under the command of Captain Verana and the advisement of another Imperial defector: Admiral Gilder Varth. Despite his initial Imperial rank as a First Lieutenant, Wentlas was assigned to the hanger crew as a warrant officer, where he worked out launch schedules for the outgoing vessels on the ship.

While on duty, Galen met Anya Reiher, an Alderaanian woman who was one of the crew members who had come aboard the Resurgance right after it had been captured by the Empire. The two began a relationship soon after.

Galen spent the next few months working in the hanger bay of the Resurgance until after one of the ship's special forces teams returned after a disastrous mission to Almas. Finding himself assigned to the team, Galen was quickly placed out of his element: participating in ground battles.

The Liberation of Nizon
After a brief stopover at the home planet of one of his new teammates--a wealthy member of the planet's nobility--to acquire foodstuffs to use as a distraction to get into Nizon, the team went to Nizon, where the native population had been enslaved to work on parts of the Sarlacc Project. Galen met severe opposition during the mission by Raik Muun, a dark Jedi captured by the group during their previous mission to Almas and current lover of the noble Lucien Devereaux, a member of the team. Knowing of her violent history as well as the actions of the two on Lucien's home planet--which Galen believed may have put the entire mission in jeopardy--Galen and Raik didn't get along at all during the mission. The team was led to a Nazren resistance cell, where Galen and the rest formulated an uprising which saw the team doing various missions before finally converging on Martyr's Square. It was during the mission that Galen officially revealed his allegiance to the rebellion, by attempting to call off an airstrike using his old Imperial number. The ruse was rejected, however, and a squad was sent to the location only to find Galen and his teammate gone. The entire group converged on Martyr's Plaze where the Imperials were finally beaten back and Nizon was liberated.

After liberating the planet, the team began to head back to their ship, only to be attacked by Zabrak bounty hunter Vril Vrakth, who had stolen a datachip containing information about the Sarlacc Project. Vrakth sent out his crab droids and engaged the party. Vrakth was eventually defeated, but Raik, who had been pregnant with Lucien's child, lost the child during the fight. Enraged with grief, she attacked the party in one of their ships, hijacking it with Galen and another team mate aboard. With a blaster to her head, those on the ship were able to get Raik to surrender while Galen threatened to target the ship with the guns of the Firespray he was on.

Unwanted Homecoming
A day after returning to the Resurgance from Nizon, Galen and the team received orders to head to Coruscant, searching for more clues about the Sarlacc Project in the very heart of the Empire. Nervous about the enhanced possibility of discovery, Galen double checked his credentials and took extra care to conceal his identity during the early parts of the mission, earning a few jokes about paranoia from his fellow teammates.

The team met with their contact in Monument Square minus their Jedi and sole surviving member of the group that had met on Sel Zonn station months previously; leaving to pursue what he felt the Force was leading him too. Upon reaching Monument Square, Galen was able to see just how much Coruscant had changed just in the few months that he had been gone. The statuary of famed Jedi heroes of the past had been all torn down and replaced with heroes more befitting the "New Order." While waiting for their contact at a small cafe, his Arkanian companion was nearly refused service before Galen interceded on her behalf. Their contact arrived a few minutes later and gave them information regarding a large tower with a lot of pro-Imperial people being assigned to it. After another member of the group formulated a plan to get into the building by posing as workers, Galen and the others managed to reach a floor of the building still under construction.

Reaching a fully constructed floor without arousing much attention, they were ambushed by veteran guards. During the ensuing battle, Galen and several others were knocked out by a toxic gas, but not before killing their enemies. The Mandalorian member of the group, protected from the poison by his helmet, managed to drag Galen and the rest of the party to a nearby medical room, where they were brought back to consciousness. Moving through the facility, the group discovered a small computer core that could have resulted in significant intelligence back on the Resurgance as well as tortured Duros Gelnar Tol, who had been locked in a holding cell in the tower.

While beginning to leave the tower, the group encountered a squad of Inquisitors and Coruscant Guards led by Inquisitor Nolor. Knowing he was defeated after the group managed to kill the majority of his squad, Nolor initiated the tower's self-destruct mechanism before dying. The group raced to find safety. Some stayed behind in a fortified room that was likely to survive the collapse of the tower while Galen and another raced back to the hanger bay to find their ride sabotaged. Frightened, the two found a fortified room of their own.

Everyone managed to survive the collapse of the tower and managed to sneak themselves and the unconcious Gelnar back to the safehouse. Gelnar was placed in the medical bay still unconscious and the group was assigned to find a designer of the Sarlacc Project who had survived the destruction of the tower. Knowing only the hotel room where the asylum-seeking designer was, the group immediately left the safety of their safehouse and headed to a part extremely dangerous even by undercity standards. They entered the hotel room to find it trashed and the name "Invisible Hand" scrawled on a piece of flimsi. The trip to the bar named after Greivous' flagship resulted in a brief firefight as the heroes were mistaken for Imperial bounty hunters. The fleeing designer stunned, the group returned to their safehouse, only to find it devastated by Imperial commandos, killing everyone inside. While venturing in the building to look for survivors, the group was attacked by the ISB tactical team that had committed the atrocities, including murdering the unconscious Gelnar. The group battled the tactical team, killing all but one member, who had been severely wounded. Al'verde, the Mandalorian member of the team, summarily executed the man despite Galen's wishes, him thinking that such an act was essentially murder.

The safehouse demolished by the team to prevent any more intelligence falling into Imperial hands, the group silently made their way back to the ship, where they were met by a squad of stormtroopers and an AT-AT. The group managed to distract the giant walker and kill a good number of the stormtroopers while they made their way to the ship and off of the planet.

On the way back to the Resurgance, Galen confronted the Mandalorian in his quarters about the incident. The arguement turned ugly, with the Al'verde accusing Galen of committing atrocities under the Imperial banner as well as being cowardly for not leaving the Empire as soon as the Republic died. Galen and Al'verde then engaged in a very short fistfight that ended up the Mandalorian beating Galen up until the former Imperial got the breath knocked out of him.

The return to the Resurgance brought no relief at all to the mood, as the ship reverted out of hyperspace to find their home besieged by two Star Destroyers and several support craft. Worried for his lover and friends aboard the craft, Galen felt somewhat relieved when the ship began to head towards the Resurgance on a rescue mission. Docking with the ship, Galen was horrified by the condition of the ship already. Galen, much more familiar with the layout of the ship than the others, led them towards the bridge where Captain Verana and his crew had been pinned down by Imperial troopers. The group rescued Verana and the rest of the crew and were told that Master Denia, a Jedi Master that had been rescued by the original team, had been captured by the Imperials, as had Raik Muun, who had been detained after her actions on Nizon. The group raced to the main hanger bay to try and stop the Imperials from leaving with their prisoners, with Galen hoping that Anya had managed to get out of the ship alive already.

His fears were somewhat realized when the group encountered some Inquisitors escorting prisoners to the hanger bay. Hearing them approaching, an Inquisitor executed a single rebel in an attempt to make them show their faces. The group sprung into action, primarily targeting the Inquisitors who were leading the line of prisoners. When the Inquisitors were taken out, the remaining Stormtroopers attempted to execute the remaining prisoners before they could be rescued. Five out of the ten prisoners were killed before the group was able to kill the remaining troops. Among the few survivors was Anya, whom Galen saw only after the firefight had ended. Noticing she was alive, Galen raced up to her and embraced her, happy and relieved that she was still alive. As the prisoners, Anya included, picked up the weapons off of their dead captors, Galen told them where they were heading and told them to keep low and remain hidden in the ensuing firefight.

As he and the rest of the group entered the hangar, they were all surprised to see a still-living Valin Draco leading Denia into his shuttle. Draco looked at the party and then left on his shuttle, leaving a Force-sensitive Imperial lieutenant to take care of the group. The fight was short with the rebel team winning, but the final Imperial shuttle managing to escape before it could be taken by the group. Also in the hanger was a barely-alive Raik, who had been pinned to the wall by her lightsaber and a durasteel beam. Despite his previous history with her, Galen searched the hanger for something to act as a stretcher as the Jedi worked on unpinning the former pupil of Draco. With as many people as they could rescue, the team raced back to the Mandalorian's Firespray craft, where sixteen people--including the team--were crammed into wherever there was space. Sitting on the floor with Anya by his side, Galen waited for the ship to reach its rendevouz point, exhausted both physically and mentally from the events of the day.

=Behind the Scenes=

Galen Wentlas began life as a one-shot character in a fan fiction challenge thread in 2007. Fighting in the Battle of Selvernos, a frequent occurence in the author's works, he was expanded on slightly later in the year during a work featuring the actual battle itself. He is currently being used as a Star Wars Saga Edition character in the Dawn of Defiance campaign. He joined the group at the beginning of the fifth module in the campaign, replacing the author's previous character, who had fallen to the dark side as a result of the fourth module.