Dak Oolron

Dak Oolron was a pilot and commander of Arrow Squadron, who fought for the Rebel Alliance and New Republic. Dak was a cheerful man who could befriend anyone. He was known as a confident, fair leader and was fiercely loyal to his squadron, family, and friends.

Early life
Dak was born in 21 BBY on Coromon Besh, Fresia. His parents, Sturd and Eva, were engineers with Incom, so he was educated at the company school and was fascinated by spaceflight from an early age. As a teenager he spent his spare time helping Incom test experimental equipment on an old Z-95 Headhunter testbed. He wasn’t paid for his efforts, but the tests he was assigned were relatively safe and he gained valuable experience logging hours in the [[starwars:snubfighter|snubfighter]. Upon graduation from secondary school, Dak’s parents convinced Incom to give Dak the Z-95 in thanks for his earlier volunteer work. Since Dak was set to begin AstroNav School soon, his parents bought a hyperdrive system to make his ship worthy for interstellar travel.

AstroNav School passed fairly quickly for Dak, who had always loved Stellar Geography. He still had time between semesters to spend some time at home and talk with the company engineers he’d grown up around. In 1 BBY, Dak finished school and returned home, planning on becoming a professional test pilot for Incom. Soon after his return, however, Incom was nationalized by the Galactic Empire, prompting much of its design and engineering staff to defect.

The Battle of Kuat
Dak, along with his parents, worked with the group of defectors to plan a course of action to bring personnel and plans for a new fighter to the Rebel Alliance. Along with Captain Raymus Antilles, Dak was part of the group assigned to lure the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Tyranny away from his homeworld of Fresia, where four prototype X-wing starfighters were being stored. During the battle, five CR90 corvettes raided the Imperial shipyards orbiting Kuat, destroying multiple unfinished ships while the Imperials scrambled to rally reinforcements. In addition to causing panic among the Imperials, the battle had a secondary mission.

Corellian Engineering Corporation (CEC) had tipped off the Rebellion to the presence of a pocket carrier prototype that had been seized by the Empire and impounded at the Kuat shipyards. While the Imperials were distracted by Antilles’ assault on the shipyard, Dak flew cover for a stolen TIE boarding craft that deposited a small crew of Rebels onto the modified Corvette. Thinking they had succeeded in staying unobserved, Oolron landed his Z-95 inside the pocket carrier and helped the crew begin the start-up sequence.

Unfortunately, they had not gone unnoticed. A Kuat Drive Yards Law-class patrol craft approached the ship, and demanded that the crew power down. It was still going to be minutes before the laser cannons would be on line, since they had been powered down for months, so the Rebels’ only option was to run. Fortunately, the prototype had been fitted with a Class 1.0 hyperdrive and a sophisticated computer used for precise micro-jumps. After a micro-jump to clear Kuat, they headed for the Corellian Run, hoping to shake their follower by landing at Ryloth. Less than a day after arriving, though, they were alerted to the patrol craft's presence through a spy sympathetic to the Alliance. Backtracking towards the Core again, the Rebels made it to the Hydian Way, but veered off to Ord Mantell to finally lose the pursuer.

Formation of Arrow Squadron
Due to its status as a smuggler's den, the Rebels were hidden from further investigation on Ord Mantell. It was then that Dak began his quest to form a starfighter squadron that would be based out of the stolen pocket carrier. While Ord Mantell boasted many great pilots, he was determined not to take any old smuggler that could fly a ship; it was important that each of his pilots would be of good character and get along with the others.

Once his squadron was formed, it needed a name. Arrow Squadron was chosen due to their hope of striking fear into the hearts of Imperials besieged by them, as well as being a symbol of the precision attacks carried out by the group.

Galactic Civil War
Dak Oolron led Arrow Squadron in several Northern Mid Rim missions throughout the course of the Galactic Civil War. One of the squadron’s roles was to neutralize Interdictor cruisers to allow Alliance craft to freely jump to lightspeed, usually using hit-and-fade tactics.

New Republic
Once the New Republic gained the upper hand in the galaxy, Arrow Squadron was relocated to Dac, eventually taking part in the First Battle of Mon Calamari in 10 ABY. Oolron continued to serve the New Republic until open conflict between the New Republic and Imperial Remnant were brought to an end by the signing of the Pellaeon–Gavrisom Treaty (19 ABY). Dak’s participation in the Yuuzhan Vong War and Dark Nest Crisis is unknown.

Stealth
Though he was never shy as a child, Dak discovered as a teenager that he had a knack for staying quiet through breath control and walking silently. Though he never used his talent for mischief, he did enjoy seeing the surprised looks on the faces of people he snuck up on. For many years, Oolron believed his abilities came about merely due to his roll-step technique and the fact that his unusually large feet distributed his weight across a longer surface. While these did help, his mastery of stealth was actually due to his Jedi lineage.

Jedi Heritage
With the threat of the Sith seemingly extinguished after the Battle of Endor, Dak’s parents finally felt they were able to tell him about his Jedi heritage. Eva’s great-great-grandfather, Cornelius Howrii, was a Jedi Master during the time of the old Republic. Eva was 15 when Cornelius peacefully became one with the Force; his passing in 32 BBY came just months before the Invasion of Naboo. Despite Howrii’s strong connection to the Force, none of Howrii’s decendents were force-sensitive, something that deeply perplexed him. This turned out to be good thing for the Oolrons, as their family tree was completely ignored by Palpatine and Vader in their purge of the Jedi in 19 BBY.

Force Powers
Dak was the first in his family, since his great-great-great grandfather, to show any signs of Force sensitivity. Though he was too old and committed to train as a Jedi, Luke Skywalker predicted he would one day have a grandchild who would become a notable Jedi. With his limited knowledge of the Force, Dak was still able to don a Force cloak at will, and in later years was able to extend the range of his cloak to his entire starfighter, after studying a Jedi holocron received from Skywalker.

Lightsaber
One of the few relics that Dak possessed of his Jedi ancestry was Cornelius’ lightsaber. Before passing, Cornelius gave his lightsaber to Eva, as he believed she was the family’s best hope for future Jedi. In turn, she gave the lightsaber to Dak when she told Dak about his Jedi roots. It was an elegant two-phase weapon, and was in near-perfect condition once Dak replaced the ancient power pack with a new one.

Little did Oolron know, the lightsaber contained special crystals. In his meeting with Dak, Luke Skywalker inspected the lightsaber and helped identify the crystals with the help of the literature he had obtained from Ben Kenobi’s residence. One enhanced a light-side user’s connection to the Force, while another augmented his already potent cloaking abilities. Oolron found that by storing the lightsaber in his starfighter he was able to not only cloak his own ship with the Force, but also others in his Squadron, assuming they were flying close enough, without the double-blind effect typical of traditional cloaking devices.

Blaster
Ultimately, though, Dak agreed with Han Solo’s philosophy: “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side.” In his free time Oolron enjoyed target shooting with blaster pistols, which was one of the pastimes of his father’s homeworld, Corulag. He was known to have owned a Drearian Defender for target shooting, a BlasTech DL-44 as his primary sidearm, and a Czerka 411 as his backup weapon.

Vehicles
Dak flew the Headhunter he had received from Incom for many years, gradually upgrading it with more modern avionics and more lethal weapons with the help of the Alliance.