And that's why you're the captain!
—Rurim Fiminich at the Battle of Sonovislia
Riels Omtar was born in 26 BBY on the planet of Alderaan during the Clone Wars. Growing up, he didn't really care either way in the war, but once Order 66 was given, he despised the Empire. He thought the Jedi to be "cool".
Later in life, around 1 BBY, he heard rumors about a large group of rebels called the "Rebel Alliance" while in a cantina. He was very intrigued, and wanted to join. The person who told him about the Rebels said he was one, and took Riels to Yavin base later that week.
Life as a Rebel[]
Riels joined the Rebellion in 0.5 BBY. He was eager to join the one of the Rebels' squadrons, and was placed in the famous Red Squadron as "Red 13", since they already had members going up to twelve. He piloted an X-Wing, though he thought it was too confusing to control.
Riels's droid, R4-C6.
He eventually got more accustomed to it. Once he did, he was given an R4 droid for his empty slot in his X-Wing. Like how he got accustomed to his X-Wing, he got accustomed to his droid. He bonded with it, and understood its beeps and whistles.
Battle of Yavin[]
At the time when the Death Star was preparing to blow Yavin IV to bits, Riels was prepared and ready to take off. He was the third pilot to leave the hangar out of all of the pilots.
During the Battle of Yavin and the attack on the Death Star, Riels scored one kill on an Imperial TIE Fighter. He never entered the trench, or even went close to it. During his pursuit of the TIE, he had went about a few miles away from the rest of Red Squadron, without anyone noticing. After receiving a radio transmission saying that the Death Star was going to blow, he immediately fled before the station blowing. He soon after regrouped with the remnants of Red Squadron.
After the battle, Riels was given a field commission to lieutenant, and was told he was going to fly his own squadron.
White Squadron[]
After the Battle of Yavin, and after his field promotion, Lieutenant Omtar was given the opportunity to be the leader of White Squadron, a brand-new unit of, what would be, around 12 fighters. By 0.5 ABY, five months into the recruitment, Riels had a ready squadron to command, all new recruits with no prior combat experiences, and most with less-than-hoped-for flight experience.
Third Battle of Yavin IV[]
Riels first engaged in action with his new squadron when the Imperials launched another attack the Rebels in their base on Yavin IV in the third battle of Yavin IV. Though Riels wanted to fly and take down TIEs, the group was ordered to escorted a few Blockade Runners into space so they could enter hyperspace.
Riels only fired one burst from his V-Wing to a flight of TIEs that were flying towards the Blockade Runner he and White Squadron were escorting. After seeing that the V-Wing was firing at them, the TIEs turned around and headed elsewhere.
Battle over Elestice[]
About a year and-a-half later after the first battle that White Squadron fought together, they re-entered the fray in the Battle over Elestice in 2 ABY. At the time, White Squadron was stationed on a Calamari cruiser heading to Elestice, a planet not too far from Hoth, but very different from Hoth.
Hoth was a snowy planet with no sentient life, and Elestice was a very sentient-filled planet with an average temperature of 60°F.
The plan was to land on Elestice and try to recruit any willing citizens into the Rebellion's army, and head to the next planet.
It was cut short at the sight of a Star Destroyer in orbit of Elestice. The Imperial ship soon opened fire on the Calamari cruiser, which sent out the order to scramble fighters.
Riels and his squadron were sent out to hold off any TIEs that may have scrambled until the Calamari cruiser, which had no bombers on deck nor any cannons, could make it into hyperspace. Riels and the rest of White Squadron held off the TIEs, which that particular Star Destroyer only had six of, for five minutes until entering hyperspace with the Calamari cruiser.
Afterward, Riels painted one TIE Interceptor into his V-Wing fuselage to celebrate the victory in the skirmish.
Battle over Jorim I[]
In about 2.8 ABY, White Squadron entered combat once again. There was in Imperial Star Destroyer that had been in orbit of Jorim I for two weeks, and the Rebel Alliance needed to get to that planet so they buy weapons from a manufacturing company there. That Star Destroyer needed to be removed.
Lieutenant Omtar and his squadron were transported on a Calamari cruiser to the Jorim system.
They went to battle against the Star Destroyer with the fellow Y-Wing Yellow Squadron. Yellow Squadron took out the systems of the Star Destroyer[1] while White Squadron took out the enemy TIEs.
Riels took out two TIE Fighters and two TIE Interceptors.
After the skirmish, one Y-Wing from Yellow Squadron was shot down, and Saurwim Polasta, an A-Wing pilot under Riels's command, was killed an enemy TIE, which marked the first casualty under Riels's command. The Imperial TIE casualty list scored up at 11 destroyed TIEs.
Battle of Endor[]
During the Battle of Endor, Riels led White Squadron in the battle. During the battle, five out of the eleven of his pilots were killed-in-action. Though the squadron took close to half of their force as casualties, they together shot down at least 14 TIE Fighters.
After the battle, Riels resigned as a normal pilot and the leader of White Squadron, and was transferred to being a reserve pilot because of the guilt he had of losing so many of his friends and fellow pilots. He didn't want to be responsible for any future losses.
Peace-Time Career[]
After his resign of being a standard pilot, Lieutenant Omtar would be teaching flight instructions at flight training schools. He tried not to get attached to his students. He knew that if he did, he would be saddened to learn that one, two, or however many, were killed.
From 6 ABY to 8 ABY, Riels trained three squadrons of recruits to be able to be good pilots. After training pilots for two years, he was promoted to Instructor Captain, and oversaw six other instructors at the pilot school.
Re-Admission to White Squadron[]
In late 10 ABY, just before the new year, having taught pilots for four years, Captain Omtar rejoined the White Squadron. Because of technicalities, Yuri Antilles, who was one rank lower at Lieutenant, was still the designated commander of the squadron. Nonetheless, Riels still decided to rejoin with his old friends.
Battle over Hoji VI[]
Two weeks after rejoining with White Squadron, the Battle of Hoji VI broke out. Whiter Squadron and multiple other squadrons were all assigned together to help in the battle. During the battle, Riels downed one enemy fighter, and damaged another.
Battle of Sonovislia[]
At the time that White Squadron arrived at the Battle of Sonovislia in 11 ABY, it had already been raging for a week, and was at a dead stalemate at the time. The Empire had little defenses around the planet, and this made it easy for Riels and his team to enter the atmosphere.
Upon entering the atmosphere, White Squadron broke off into two three-man formations, and one two-man formation. Riels led his three-man formation and did many strafing runs on ground targets, giving cover so ground units could advance and attack.
Half an hour into the strafing runs, a special IFT-T armed with an anti-air missile launcher on the top rolled onto the battlefield. Rurim Fiminich alerted all aircraft about the anti-aircraft tank. Riels ordered everyone to regroup at the cruiser they came in on.
Whites Four and Five respectively, Qur Eyce'tok and Opoli Rastin were in the two-man formation. They could not locate the anti-aircraft IFT-T, so they tried to regroup with the others and followed them into the sky. After turning towards the others, they flew over the IFT-T that was hiding in heavy forestry to Qur and Opoli's ships, blocking view. The IFT-T locked on and fired twice. Opoli Rastin was killed, and Qur Eyce'tok was hit, and barely made it back to the ship cruiser in orbit.
Qur was later diagnosed with paralysis.
Retirement from Command[]
In 15 ABY, Riels, now 41, retired from being a combat pilot. He took life as a civilian for the next 14 years, until 29 ABY.
Yuuzhan Vong War[]
Knowing that good pilots like himself were needed, Riels re-enlisted as an active combat pilot in 29 ABY at the age of 55, despite his preference to stay out of the currently-going war.
At the Second Battle of Coruscant of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Riels was shot down and killed by an enemy pilot before making any kills.
After his death, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal[2] for all of his combat experience, and re-enlisting when any normal person would be wanting nothing to do with war after all he was through.
References and notes[]
- ↑ A Star Wars: Battlefront II-styled space battle.
- ↑ Might not even exist in the Star Wars universe.
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