Carrine Velos

Carrine Velos
Biographical information
Homeworld	Kuat
Born	34 BBY
Physical description
Species	Rutian Twi'lek
Gender	Female
Eye color	Blue
Skin color	Blue
Chronological and political information
Era(s)	Fall of the Republic Imperial Era
Affiliation(s)	Crew of the Ralibor Rebel Alliance

I never even wanted to be a Rebel, you know. I just wanted to make enough at a job to eat, make rent in some only half-poodoo apartment. But that's the problem with the Empire. If you're an alien, you don't get to just live life as you please.
—Lieutenant Velos to a squadron-mate.

Carrine Velos was a Rutian Twi'lek astronavigator, smuggler, and eventual starfighter pilot for the Alliance to Restore the Republic, serving in Aqua Squadron for most of the Galactic Civil War. Born on Kuat to a single mother, Carrine came of age in the early years of the Galactic Empire. Taking advantage of new Imperial programs expecting to better herself, Carrine was disheartened find a resistance to non-humans in the new Imperial culture. Pushed to the fringes the more she pushed back, Carrine turned to smuggling and was caught up in a rebel operation, left in the aftermath with little choice but to join the rebellion.

After training dozens of new pilots in the Tierfon Yellow Aces, Carrine was eventually needed to fly combat missions for the Alliance. In time, her contributions led to her selection as part of a new squadron, one of the first to fly T-65B X-wing starfighters . As one of Aqua Squadron's founding members, Carrine participated in all of its most important operations, helping secure the resources and facilities necessary to continue and expand the X-wing's production. Through her squadron's actions, far from the front lines of the war, Carrine played a small part in building the logistical network needed for a rebellion on a galactic scale.

Biography

Early Life

Carrine's mother, Shyrene Velos, had been fortunate to escape a brush with sentient trafficking after a Republic patrol ship boarded a smuggler craft who'd lured her in with promises of a glamorous life in the Core worlds. Rather than return to her dusty homeworld of Ryloth, however, Shyrene followed through on her hopes and asked to accompany the Republic crew to their posting on Kuat. There, she was sponsored through the Republic immigration process by Lieutenant Orris Kazden, captain of the Gozanti-class cruiser which had saved her. Using her gift for singing and the universal appeal of her Twi'lek looks to her advantage, Shyrene soon found work as an entertainer. Kazden remained a frequent patron and, as he advanced in rank, invited Shyrene to experience the high society she'd dreamed of by performing for the superior officers and Kuat shipbuilding barons he rubbed elbows with. Though she had to defend herself on multiple occasions from the advances of her clients, eventually including Kazden, she became well connected enough to support an independent living.

In time, Shyrene desired to have and raise a child, but found the potential mates within her acceptable social circles abhorrent. Instead, Shyrene opted to undergo artificial conception, selecting a genetically stable donor to ensure her future daughter's health. This daughter—whom she named Carrine—was born to and raised by Shyrene alone, receiving all her mother's love and attention in the luxurious apartment they shared. This life remained mostly unchanged through most of Carrine's childhood, even the onset of the Clone Wars bringing only an increase in revenue to Kuat as Separatist forces never reached the world. Carrine did, however, begin to idolize the heroes of the Republic war effort, such as Jedi Knight and starfighter ace Anakin Skywalker, and first conceived the idea of one day becoming a pilot herself. At its end, even the reformation of the Republic into the Galactic Empire had little immediate effect on Kuat, though Carrine did lament missing the chance to take part in it herself.

Within a year, however, contracts for an entirely new fleet of Imperial capital ships brought even further wealth to Kuat, and with them came recruitment campaigns for officers to crew them. An Imperial Academy was soon established, touted as superior to the numerous existing universities and flight schools in the system, and Carrine set her sights on it immediately. With the constant reinforcement and supervision of her mother, Carrine had excelled in her primary schooling, and upon applying on her sixteenth birthday was accepted into one of Kuat Academy's first classes. Life within the academy, however, was not as she expected. More time, she noticed, was dedicated to Imperial expectations of conduct than the profession of manning a starship, and glorified retellings of recent events like Palpatine's elevation to Emperor than military history. When her instructors' lessons did focus on military history, it began to concern Carrine that they highlighted exclusively the achievements of human leaders and tacticians, actively downplaying contributions of non-human commanders during the Clone Wars. Most troublingly, as time went on, Carrine began to feel unwanted at the academy, despite outscoring many of her peers. Among hundreds of trainees, she found herself one of only a handful of individuals not of the human species, and found resistance many times she tried forming connections with her classmates.

Nonetheless, Carrine refocused much of what would have been her leisure time on learning beyond what the academy's meager studies offered, coming to specialize in astronavigation. Upon graduation four years later, Carrine had received top marks in everything from advanced mathematics to hyperspace theory, making her a top choice for Imperial captains selecting new crew. And yet, of the offers the newly-minted ensign received, none were from military ships-of-the-line, while many of the human cadets she'd outperformed were pulled for duty on Imperial-class Star Destroyers. Confused and angry at being skipped over for positions she felt she deserved, Carrine was forced to accept a posting on a lowly patrol cruiser in the obscure Aszerbak system. Far from the Imperial core worlds, Carrine found herself surrounded by crewmates either too disgraced or outright unfit for more prestigious duties. Enduring the humiliation of suggestive or outright racist japes from her disorderly crewmates without help from uncaring superiors for a year, Carrine chose to leave the service when her first tour of duty ended⁠—exactly as her Template:Sw:New Order-adherent instructors in the Imperial academy had hoped.

Though disheartened, Carrine did not give up her career as a spacer, and found her luck vastly improved upon turning to the private sector. Her exemplary school record led to her recruitment by a shipping corporation as navigator on a Class-IV Cargo Hauler. Though the work paid well, Carrine found calculating a handful of long routes for the large transports hardly challenging or satisfying work.

Smuggling Career

The unceasing flow of raw materials bound for Kuat's shipyards meant Carrine easily found steady work riding the space lanes around her homeworld, allowing her to keep in regular contact with her mother. The essential nature of these shipyards to the Empire meant these routes were extremely secure, requiring ships be delayed often by checkpoint stops and unscheduled inspections, but in eight years of work aboard bulk freighters, Carrine never encountered trouble with pirate or rebel vessels. At first, she lamented this as another part of the boredom involved in the career she'd chosen, but in time came to appreciate the security the Empire afforded its favored sectors. Eventually taking and passing the necessary exams, Carrine's company promoted her to their list of captains authorized to command freight liners on their routes, paying her well enough to begin considering early retirement. Shortly after her promotion, however, Carrine noticed a sharp upturn in how frequently her vessels were stopped by Imperial patrols. Frustrated by the delays these inspections routinely inflicted on her record, Carrine began to suspect the change had more to do with her command than a tightening of Imperial security.

Quietly taking record of such inspections across several shipping firms, Carrine was incensed to find alien captains were above five times more likely to be stopped than vessels commanded by humans, and with no higher rate of discovered crimes. Despite her mother's warnings against making a fuss, Carrine took her evidence to her company superiors and system news networks, vocally dedicating herself to seeing the imbalances righted. Being so outspoken, however, caused a wave of negative press for Imperial policy, which the Imperial Security Bureau would not allow. Representatives of ISB contacted her company's board to explain the consequences of continuing to employ an individual speaking out against the Empire. Forced to choose between losing the Imperial contracts forming the basis for all business in the Kuat system or disavowing a single captain, the company made the obvious choice. Within weeks, Carrine was let go with little explanation, while official Imperial news sources declared her suspect. Carrine's life rapidly fell apart as her credibility was undermined and other shipping companies, subtly threatened by ISB, declined to hire her. Powerless to fight back, Carrine nearly gave in to despair until she was approached by Kreegr Fen, the Duros captain of an independent freighter. Fen offered the seasoned navigator a considerable sum to help move illicit cargo through the Imperial channels she was so familiar with. Out of options and seeing a chance to finally put her skills to the test by striking back against the authorities who'd shunned and silenced her, Carrine accepted at once.

Aboard Fen's ship, the Ralibor, Carrine found herself filling shoes the other crew members weren't ready to have filled yet. The ship's previous navigator had been killed in a skirmish with Imperial security, and her well-off upbringing made her distaste for the filthy vessel obvious. Yet, despite their cold welcome, Carrine was determined to do the job for her own satisfaction, and performed admirably when the time came. Using the holes in shipping lane security her own ignored reports had pointed out, Carrine plotted a course safely through several Imperial sectors without sighting a single ship in the breaks between hyperspace jumps, and ended with a seamless transition into Kuat's civilian traffic. The resounding success of their run—as well as the profit it entailed—improved her relations with Fen's crew immensely, and Carrine felt rewarded to have earned their friendship on her own merits. Having enjoyed the challenge of evading Imperial surveillance, Carrine signed on as the Ralibor’s permanent navigator. Before long, she'd been acquainted with contacts Fen had made across the Kuat sector, and become an avid sabacc player thanks to the crew's tutelage.

Launching an ambush from the cover of a nebula, the Profundity’s attack marked the first instance of open capital ship warfare in the Rebellion.

Carrine remained with the Ralibor and its crew for three years, until Captain Fen accepted a surprisingly lucrative contract for seemingly legal work carrying a human named Dabri Keljyi in 5 BBY. Though Carrine had felt secure using major hyperspace lanes for the journey, the ship was set upon shorty after completing its first jump by an Imperial-class Star Destroyer and its TIE complement, killing Fen and half the crew. As the disabled ship was tractored in, Carrine learned their passenger was actually a Rebel courier, the reason behind the Imperials’ attack, and upon being taken aboard turned the spy in. But her cooperation and insistence on innocence earned her no mercy, as the destroyer's captain declared them collaborators to cover up the breach in Imperial security, sentencing them to life imprisonment on a mining colony. The information Keljyi carried, however, proved vital enough to the nascent Rebellion for an unprecedented rescue mission; a direct attack on an Imperial Star Destroyer led by Admiral Raddus’ flagship Profundity. Though Carrine had turned her in, Keljyi understood the smugglers hadn't willingly involved themselves in resisting the Empire, and freed the remaining Ralibor crew to join in her escape.

The attack proved costly both for the Mon Cala rebel cell in lives and material such as valuable starfighters, and Carrine personally, who by its end was the freighter crew's sole survivor. Worse for her, Carrine was branded a traitor to the Empire, preventing her from returning home or living a life inside Imperial law ever again. Recognizing she had nowhere else to go, Keljyi encouraged Carrine to join the rebellion, making use of her skills as a spacer to replace the starfighter pilots who'd helped free her. Despite a lingering resentment toward them for involving her in their rebellion, Carrine accepted she could do worse than join an organization mobilizing themselves against the Empire's injustices and enlisted with the rebels.

Joining the Rebellion

You should've been there in the early days. You weren't promised a wage; you pitched in and you'd get a room and whatever food the supply ships managed to smuggle in through Imp blockades. If they made it.
—Carrine, explaining the early Rebellion to a new recruit.

To her surprise, rather than remain with the Mon Cala cell on the Profundity, Carrine was added last-minute to the manifest of a supply ship bound for Tierfon. There, she—along with a handful of other recruits—was inducted into the Tierfon Yellow Aces, a training squadron flying BTL Y-wing starfighters from their remote base in Tierfon's mountain reaches. Without advanced flight simulators available, the cadets would be tested on actual craft flying through the surrounding passes and valleys. As the only cadet with practical spacing experience under her belt, Carrine swiftly outpaced the eager farmboys and political refugees making up the rest of her class, and even contributed to lessons on astronavigation and lightspeed travel. As the Y-wings they trained on were mixed-role fighters and strike bombers, the cadets were trained in everything from dogfighting to precision bombing. After completing flight training, the cadets awaited orders to replace pilots in rebel cells across the galaxy, but thanks to her navigational expertise, Carrine was asked to remain on Tierfon as an instructor. Though her time as a cadet had been spent psyching herself up to fly in combat, Carrine realized her fellow pilots would stand a better chance of surviving with her help and agreed.

Yellow Seven drops its payload of proton torpedoes.

For just under a year, Carrine taught new cadets hyperspace and sub-light navigation, teaching them to plot time and fuel-efficient routes and judge when to make jumps that emphasized speed over efficiency. As an instructor, she also enjoyed a newfound position of authority. When the occasional unwise cadet made passes at their beautiful teacher, Carrine delighted in instilling courtesy by assigning them extra duties. Her abilities would be in increasing demand as the rebellion grew, a consequence of the Empire further cracking down on rebel activities. As other cells began calling on the Tierfon outpost for help, the call was made at last to activate the Aces for combat in addition to training details. Carrine would be among the first slated for these missions, flying on Jek Tono Porkins’ wing as Yellow Seven. In her first mission, Carrine's work plotting hyperspace jumps cut twenty percent from the squadron's expected fuel use, and her flight landed proton torpedo strikes on Imperial AT-AT walkers, holding off their advance on a rebel outpost long enough for the occupants to evacuate.

In the months and years to follow, the Aces carried out strike bombings, escort flights, and convoy raids to aid cells throughout Tierfon's surrounding sectors. During one such mission, Carrine helped steal a shipment of astromech droids and was allowed to claim one as her own, a fussy little unit nicknamed Whiner which helped her calculate hyperspace jumps mid-flight and operate Yellow Seven's turret while she focused on flying. Though the squadron would lose many Y-wings to the superior speed and agility of Imperial TIE fighters, the Aces regularly succeeded in missions set before them thanks in part to Corrine. After two years, however, Corrine was dismissed from the squadron in 2 BBY and ordered to lead a small flight of Y-wings in escorting a recently-arrived hammerhead corvette. Studying the jump trajectories in-flight, Corrine correctly guessed their destination to be Dantooine, but could not have anticipated the sizeable gathering of rebel ships already awaiting them. With one final arrival, the Chandrilan senator Mon Mothma addressed the flotilla, announcing the foundation of an Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Founding of the Alliance

The first gathering of the Alliance Fleet over Dantooine.

With the founding of the Alliance came the founding of the Alliance Fleet, which would now have to assemble the disparate forces of dozens of rebel cells into a cohesive naval force. The process would entail numerous challenges, establishing chains of command between longstanding independents and drafting qualified personnel from multiple sources into new forces, one of which would include Carrine. Reporting aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One with a dozen other pilots, the group was informed by General Antoc Merrick they were to form a unit designated Aqua Squadron, which would be among the first handful of squadrons including Blue and Red to fly the Alliance's new superiority starfighter: the T-65B X-wing. Having obtained the schematics when Incom Corporation's staff defected, the Alliance had produced a small number of the fighters and intended to field them as soon as their pilots had checked out on the fighters, for which Aqua Squadron began training immediately.

With Home One and the Dantooine base as starborne and planetside garrisons, Aqua Squadron ran endless flight drills to familiarize themselves with the new craft, from target practice and mock dogfights to orbital descents and emergency landing procedures. The endless regimen and frequent maintenance delays for the hastily-built fighters quickly grated on the motley assortment of pilots, and Carrine was particularly wary of the human chosen as their commander. Though a former pirate, Jarvik Procon proved to weather the tedium better than most, and though it took longer than Red or Blue, his leadership style managed to band the unit together and get Aqua Squadron checked out for activation. Carrine, flying as Aqua Three, would bear responsibility as navigator for plotting and distributing hyperspace coordinates and sublight routes to every member of the squadron, a task she never neglected, and in years to come would save the rebellion time and resources through her shrewd planning.

In its first engagement, Aqua Squadron more than proved the potential of its pilots and its fighter craft.

Hesitant to risk every X-wing squadron in combat operations before they were proven in smaller engagements, Aqua's first flight mission would be to escort the CR90 corvette Lamenter as it undertook salvage operations in an uninhabited sector of space, considered a blue milk run by any pilot's measure. Arriving in an empty system, the rebels found the remains of a Lucrehulk-class battleship drifting in the orbit of one of the planets, left behind in the wake of the Clone Wars years earlier. While their charge began removing turbolasers, armor plating, and whatever else could be scavenged from the wreck, Procon kept Aqua Squadron busy by establishing patrol patterns around the vessel. As the Lamenter was engaged in its salvage, a pair of Imperial Arquitens-class light cruisers cleared the horizon of a nearby moon and moved to attack, releasing several flights of TIE/IN interceptors. With the Lamenter’s captain unwilling to disengage until his crew had all returned aboard, Aqua mobilized to engage and delay the Imperials to give the corvette time to escape. The following battle was desperate and hectic, but at its end Aqua came out of its first engagement against the most advanced Imperial fighter in mass production at the time with minimal casualties and more than a dozen total confirmed kills, two of which were attributed to Carrine. The Lamenter also escaped safely, and had retrieved the surprise bounty of the Lucrehulk’s powerful deflector shield generators with the time Aqua had bought it.

Supporting a Resistance

Given proof of the X-wing's capabilities, the Alliance High Command approved the retooling of its resources to start mass production of the new fighters. This would be no small task, requiring the careful dissemination of the craft's plans, acquiring steady supplies of the necessary materials, and keeping production facilities hidden from Imperial intelligence organizations. Aqua Squadron would be called upon to assist in many facets of this new initiative. While Commander Procon, as a former pirate used to hit-and-run raids, chafed at the tedium involved in timing smuggling runs and escorting courier ships, Carrine couldn't have been happier away from the front line and putting her logistics skill to use. Their first success was helping broker an arrangement in late 2 BBY with some of Procon's former underworld partners, the Junkers of Lotho Minor, to set up a factory on their galactic garbage dump of a planet in exchange for a steady supply of new cybernetic attachments. The abundance of scrap metal there provided the Alliance with a convenient source of recycled raw material and a production site remote enough to be overlooked by the Empire.

It's not enough they always have the bigger armies, the credits to replace anything you take down, but the kriffers have to come at you sideways? Where does it end?
—Carrine expresses her helpless frustration.

The more intricate components of the craft, such as targeting computers and other electronics, would require greater risks to acquire. Soon, members of the squadron were accompanying Alliance negotiators and logistics officers embedded with the squadron on plainclothes ops to meet contacts in secret, first as shuttle pilots and bodyguards, then as dealmakers themselves as the Alliance's personnel were stretched thinner and thinner. Unfortunately, the squadron's activities quickly grew significant enough to warrant the attention of Imperial intelligence resources, including the ISB. Many times, their illicit meetings on Imperial worlds led to blasterfights with stormtroopers and undercover Imperial agents, during one of which Carrine was identified thanks to the file ISB had compiled on her when she'd been blacklisted. In reviewing her known associate, ISB found only one link to leverage against her: her mother, Shyrene. Going through personal accounts, a message reached her threatening her mother's imprisonment or worse if Carrine did not cooperate in bringing down her squadron, and with no other family or much attachment to the Alliance, Carrine prepared to comply with her blackmailers. One of her squadronmates, however, a Zabrak named Hoan Amni, discovered her gathering the information she planned to send.

Carrine's flight drops into Lotho Minor's atmosphere to engage unsuspecting TIE fighters.

Rather than turn her in, however, Hoan sympathized after hearing her position and would have allowed her to continue. Her comrade's willingness to sacrifice his own safety for her loved one's, however, convinced Carrine she couldn't betray those fighting to remove from power the Imperials threatening her only family. Instead of transmitting the intelligence, Carrine and Hoan took the news of her attempted blackmail to Procon who, knowing the squadron's activities were compromised, began preparations to scuttle their most recent endeavors. Carrine received no further word from her Imperial contacts nor news of her mother, and taking it to mean they had gone through with their threats, mourned for her with Hoan's consolation. She would not have long, however, as the Empire launched consecutive raids on the facilities Aqua had managed to set up. Scrambling as quickly as they could, Aqua jumped to their production facility on Lotho Minor to help with the evacuation and wound up defending the effort from attacks by an Imperial light cruiser and its complement of TIE fighters, Carrine scoring the final kill she needed to earn the title of fighter ace during the skirmish.

With her mother presumed dead or lost in the Imperial prison system, Carrine was left with nothing to lose and every reason to oppose the Empire, and devoted herself entirely to the Rebellion. She volunteered her leisure time to further assist in analyzing Aqua's performance after missions and serve as liaison between the squadron and the Alliance Navy, ensuring the needs of their pilots and craft were met. While Procon was grateful for the administrative help in a transitional period for the unit, the rest of the squadron quickly became concerned as she altogether abandoned the sabacc games and other recreational activities she'd previously been a fixture of. Carrine was desperate to make up for the time she believed she had wasted not contributing more to the Alliance's cause, and it was Hoan who first came to the conclusion she was overworking herself out of a misplaced sense of guilt. Intervening in Carrine's work despite her wrath for doing so, Hoan convinced her the stress she was placing on herself would quickly lead to burnout, a realization which led her to break down in tears. Touched by Hoan's efforts to comfort her, the pair began a romantic relationship which their superiors, thanks to the informal nature of the Alliance's military, permitted.

Galactic Civil War

Once again headquartered aboard the carrier vessels of the starborne Alliance Navy, Aqua Squadron was present in 0 BBY when elements of the fleet gathered over Yavin 4, bringing members of the Alliance High Command to hear the findings of Operation Fracture. Though the High Command voted against taking military action to prevent the Death Star's final completion, after receiving a transmission indicating Rogue One had already engaged, Admiral Raddus issued an unlawful order for all available Rebel ships to join the Profundity in an attack on Scarif. Despite being tasked with escorting Senator Nower Jebel's transport on its return trip to Uyter, Commander Procon followed the order, as did Carrine, though she had reservations abandoning the Alliance's finance minister and representative of a planet providing them with much-needed food supplies. Joining up with the responding corvette Consonance, Carrine requested and received their hyperspace jump calculations, distributed them to the squadron, and followed the vessel into what would mark the beginning of open war between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.

As the Rebel fleet encircled their target, Aqua was responsible for guarding the smaller trailing ships.

Jumping into the Abrion sector over Scarif minutes behind Admiral Raddus' main fleet, Aqua aided Green Squadron in establishing a defensive fighter screen as Red and Gold attacked an orbital gate in Scarif's planetary shield, forming a rearguard for the Alliance's capital ships. They wouldn't have long to wait, as the gate complex launched its entire complement of TIE fighters to counterattack. Breaking into dozens of individual dogfights, Aqua successfully defended several GR-75 transports dividing the turbolaser fire of the Star Destroyers Intimidator and Persecutor and provided the Consonance time to decrypt Imperial communications signals, but were unable to save the CR90 corvette Kalifa's Accolade from destruction. While keeping Aqua apprised of the capital ships' movements and firing arcs, Carrine still managed to score one kill and assist in a further two, one of which was Hoan's. Yet, their success came at a cost for the squadron, losing a full third of the unit to the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Imperial fighters by the time Admiral Raddus, having received Rogue One's vital transmission, called a retreat.

Only after the battle would they learn the full extent of their losses. Seconds after jumping away to one of the many rendezvous points the fleet planned to scatter to with the Consonance, the arrival of Darth Vader's personal Star Destroyer Devastator cut off a portion of the squadron's jump corridor, leaving them disorganized and without viable hyperspace calculations. They, along with the Profundity, several smaller ships, and a few dozen fighters, were cut off from escape and slaughtered by the Devastator and its complement. All told, just over half the squadron had been lost at Scarif, and Aqua's casualties weren't even steepest among them. With the disappearance of the Death Star plans with Tantive IV soon after, even the most devout believers in the Alliance questioned the possibility of any meaningful rebellion when so little had been gained for so much sacrifice. Carrine herself regretted being unable to calculate hyperspace trajectories faster, as mere seconds had made the difference for so many of her wingmates. But hope was quickly restored; word came from Yavin 4 soon after of the Death Star's destruction by a last-ditch effort by Red, Gold, and Blue Squadrons, thanks to a miraculous shot performed by one rookie pilot.

Personality and Traits

This isn't fun for me. Truth be told, I'd rather spend an afternoon eating eggs and peppers, watching a holo-soap. I'm here trying to keep our handful of war machines running so one day I can do just that again.
—Carrine scorns a young pilot's bravado.

Characteristics

Growing up with the full love and attention of her mother, Carrine was kind at heart and more interested in fair play than seizing advantages for herself, which caused her significant grief as she came to realize not all the galaxy was of a like mind. Most trying in this way were her experiences in the Imperial Academy, dealing with exclusion by working harder at her studies in hopes of earning a more favorable career, only to see her efforts go unrewarded. Still, though she accepted any office holder within it could be unscrupulous, Carrine maintained an appreciation for the Empire as a body able to keep order on such a large scale and protect those who abided the law. Even as she discovered its unfair treatment of non-humans, Carrine believed the Empire could be changed with its own processes, and wouldn't have believed they were intentional results of plans by the Emperor himself to secure human dominance in the galaxy. Her blacklisting by an Imperial institution changed that, after which aiding smugglers in breaking Imperial law became a means for Carrine to exact her own justice. She had never considered open rebellion, however, until she was left with little alternative.

Though she had the severe discipline of an Academy-trained pilot in the air, on the ground Carrine was far more warm and inviting towards her fellow pilots and other comrades. She had badly wanted for friends in the Academy, and while she'd developed rapports with some of her coworkers as a spacer, it wasn't until joining the Ralibor crew she found stable relationships. She was deeply affected by their loss, but her time spent in the small, secluded rebel outpost on Tierfon helped her to heal. Thus, she deeply valued and was eager to make connections with her squadron-mates, so much so it, in connection with a Twi'lek's ubiquitous attractiveness, led to rumors of her promiscuity which Carrine was delighted to take advantage of. She had learned games of chance from masters practicing in cantinas and cargo bays, and often challenged those who thought to belittle her to games of strip-sabacc, seldom losing so much as a single hand. Most often among those, however, were humans, and after her experiences with the human-centric goals of the Empire, she was slower to trust them than other species, but made some of her longest-lasting friendships with the human pilots in Aqua Squadron.

Physical Description

Among the lighter tones for a Rutian Twi'lek, Carrine possessed aquamarine skin and matching eyes, and was considered attractive in most circles. She had a medium build for a humanoid, standing just under two meters, with a pair of lekku which she often tied over her shoulders with a leather headband to secure them while on duty.

Talents and Abilities

Trained first on TIEs in the Imperial Academy, then Y-wings in the Tierfon Aces, Carrine was a skilled fighter pilot, but by no means exceptional. Though she had carried out numerous bombing runs on Imperial targets and earned the title of fighter ace by the end of the Galactic Civil War, she only escaped being shot down thanks to the cover of her wingmates, many of whom would meet their ends on those same missions. Carrine's true contribution to her squadron was her ability as an astronavigator, crucial for long-range, hyperdrive-equipped craft like the Alliance Y-wings and X-wings which could end up stranded far from their home fleets. Providing orbital trajectories at sub-light also enabled Aqua Squadron to perfectly time coordinated assaults, hitting Imperial defenses just as other teams had drawn fire to create openings.

Carrine could also play very well at deception, picking up much from working aboard a smuggling craft which regularly had to slip past Imperial customs authorities. This came in handy when Aqua Squadron was forced to act on its own, securing civilian docking bays under false pretenses to hide their craft and enact repairs. Her ability to bluff also made her a superb sabacc player, which won her a few credits on many occasions.

Weapons and Equipment

• Pilot's fatigues
  While little more than a civilian spacer's jumpsuit with additions tacked on, the standard-issue Alliance flight suit was the most critical piece of equipment for any pilot in the rebellion. Vacuum-sealed and heavily insulated, pilots relied on the suit not only to keep them alive in the cold void of space in the case of an ejection, but to constrict and prevent blood from pooling in one part of the body during intense zero-G maneuvers. Its pockets also contained minimal survival gear in case of crashes or ejections on hostile planets, such as flares and concentrated rations. Carrine wore the basic orange suit used by most humanoids, though her helmet was specially-fitted to allow for her lekku and was emblazoned with the symbol of the Tierfon Yellow Aces.
• BlasTech E-11 Blaster Rifle
  Though Alliance regulations heavily suggested a pilot carry no more than a pistol or other sidearm in combat missions, Carrine had become familiar with the E-11 Blaster Rifle in her time at the Imperial Academy, and the weapon's compactness enabled it to be stowed aboard a fighter without much difficulty. Though notoriously inaccurate, Carrine defended the E-11 for its versatility as a semi-automatic, scope-equipped weapon effective at short to mid range. Perhaps more useful, however, was how common the weapon was among Imperial forces, making them easy to acquire and stock ammunition in the field.

Vessels

Name	Description	Flown
Yellow Seven	A Koensayr Manufacturing BTL-A4 model Y-wing fighter/bomber, Yellow Seven was initially one of a dozen unnamed ships on the Tierfon Yellow Aces' training roster. Its secondary gunner's seat had been rotated forward, allowing a flight instructor to take over in the event of cadet emergencies. Carrine made her first test flight on the craft, and considered it the best of the lot, taking it when the Aces were activated for combat in 4 BBY. The instructor's seat was reconverted to a gunnery position, though the defensive ion turret was most often operated by R2-W9.	5 BBY-2 BBY
Aqua Three	Among the first consignment of Incom-designed T-65B X-wing starfighters produced by underground Alliance factories, Aqua Three was assigned to Carrine upon Aqua Squadron's formation over Dantooine in 2 BBY. Carrine took an initial dislike to the craft, as her experience flying slower freighters and Y-wings made the fighter a poor fit for her flying style, and its resource-strapped constructors had made do with substituting some materials, making maintenance by a ground crew just as new to the craft aggravating. In time, however, the X-wing's accessible controls and high responsiveness won her over, admitting its many strengths made it a self-sufficient craft perfect for the Alliance's needs.	2 BBY-5 ABY

Behind the Scenes

Carrine's concept sprang originally from a desire to see pilots be given more refined concepts than being the "most skilled" of their era or squadron, instead performing specific tasks which contribute to the success of their allies. In Legends, Dex Tiree was stated to have been desired in Red Squadron for his abilities as a navigator, and the author of Carrine ran with it as a concept, pulling additional ideas such as being conceived by a single parent and going from smuggler to rebel unwillingly from old notebooks where such things were saved. The choice of making her a Twi'lek came from seeing the customization options in EA's Star Wars: Battlefront, having never found any images online of a Twi'lek rebel pilot. Grinding ranks in the game to eventually acquire screenshots for the article, however, was a chore.