The Essential Guide to Force Exile/Derek Klivian

Derek "Hobbie" Klivian was one of the most famed pilots of the Galactic Civil War. An X-wing ace and a longtime member of Rogue Squadron, he served in battle against the Empire over Hoth, Endor, and numerous other campaigns. Known for his dour pessimism and allergy to bacta, along with surviving being shot down several times, Klivian's service against the Empire was long and storied.

He flew as part of Rogue Squadron in the campaign leading up to Endor and was stationed at Tierfon at one point, where he and some of the other Rogues met a B-wing pilot named Seirla Trasani, who was actually an undercover Yanibar Guard agent infiltrating the Rebel Alliance. Klivian participated at Endor and was part of the strike force that destroyed the second Death Star. When Seirla was presumed killed in an ambush after Endor, Klivian helped his friend Wes Janson, who was in love with Seirla, mourn her loss.

Following Endor, Klivian continued to fly with the Rogues, though he took a break from the squadron to train new pilots. He fought against Isard and Thrawn, among many other threats faced by the Rebel Alliance as it transitioned to the New Republic. When the Galactic Civil War concluded in 19 ABY, he retired after attending the wedding of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade.

However, when the Yuuzhan Vong invaded several years later and began conquering worlds, Klivian could not just sit by. At the same time, the New Republic Defense Force was plagued with incompetence up to the highest level. He formed a volunteer unit and began leading them into action against the alien invaders starting in 27 ABY. Klivian's lieutenant was a young woman named Anja Gallandro, a tough, capable subordinate who helped lead his troops.

Klivian's unit launched a daring raid on the occupied world of Chalacta in 28 ABY, freeing thousands of Chalactans from Yuuzhan Vong slavery. Their escape was not clean, though, and they were pursued, tracking through the maze of Hutt Space in search of refuge before finally finding shelter on the world of Rishi.

When the Yuuzhan Vong followed them to Rishi, Klivian helped defend the world from their attacks. The Yanibar Guard, a military force created to defend a distant world of Force exiles, also sent help to Rishi in the form of military aid. During the battle, Anja was wounded in action. Klivian met with the leader of the Yanibar Guard, Selu Kraen, and arranged for the casualties from his volunteers to be treated at a field medcenter staffed by medical volunteers from Yanibar. He was also surprised and angered to find "Seirla" alive and well, serving Selu. He was outraged, though Selu told him to put it behind him&mdash;the incident where she had been extracted as part of a deception had been twenty years ago on his orders. Klivian begrudgingly complied and contacted his old friend and commander Wedge Antilles, who was still in the military, and arranged to obtain tactical data on the Yuuzhan Vong from Antilles, sending to Selu and the Yanibar Guard.

Klivian and his fighters continued to help defend Rishi alongside the Yanibar Guard, the remnants of the Chalactan military, and the local Rishi defense force. They helped with an evacuation of a nearby town, Junro, after it was menaced by the Yuuzhan Vong. The fighting was fierce, with heavy casualties inflicted on both sides. Klivian sided with the Yanibar Guard in a dispute with the Rishi government after the governor wanted to make an ill-advised defense.

After the Yanibar Guard negotiated a mutual withdrawal from Rishi, Klivian and his volunteers departed, continuing to fight against the Yuuzhan Vong until the war was ended. After its conclusion, Klivian managed a shipping company, with Anja serving under him as a freighter pilot. Eight years after the war ended, they helped evacuate Yanibar, as the world's condition had deteriorated significantly following a Yuuzhan Vong attack years earlier and also attended a memorial service for some of their leaders who had fallen in battle against a Dark Jedi.

Behind the scenes
Derek Klivian is a canonical character that Atarumaster88 decided to use in multiple works in the Force Exile Series, primarily as a tie-in to the Rebel Alliance and New Republic. He had brief appearances in Force Exile IV: Guardian, just enough to establish a platonic relationship between him and Hasla Almani. He would later appear in Force Exile V: Warrior as a driving force behind the Chalactans journeying to Rishi, which had been canonically established. Atarumaster88 needed a means for them to relocate and Klivian was used because out of the four most prominent Rogue Squadron pilots, he was the only one whose canonical whereabouts at the time were not known. Including Klivian over another New Republic character allowed Atarumaster88 to resolve some of the tension between Hasla's disappearance, though she had previously interacted with Wedge Antilles following her extraction. When writing Klivian, Atarumaster88 sought to preserve much of the character's well-known pessimism. Klivian later had a cameo appearance in Force Exile VI: Prodigal, along with Anja, though his role was extremely minor and he had no dialogue in the novel. Atarumaster88 decided to bring him back as an homage to the most prominent Rebel Alliance/New Republic/Galactic Alliance character in his series.

Appearances

 * Force Exile IV: Guardian
 * Force Exile V: Warrior
 * Force Exile VI: Prodigal