Tyria Sarkin Tainer

Tyria Sarkin Tainer was a female Human from Toprawa and an Antarian Ranger. She was also somewhat Force-sensitive, a fact which helped her gain entrance to the New Republic Starfighter Command, but she initially showed little aptitude for either Jedi or pilot training. Her start in Starfighter Command was discolored by a corrupt training instructor, Atton Repness, who tarnished her record after she threatened to expose his fraudulent activities. After graduating at the bottom of her class, she became one of the founding members of Gray Squadron, and supplied the unit's permanent name: Wraith Squadron. Despite not being one of the more skilled pilots in the squadron, she participated in a number of missions and distinguished herself with her stealth abilities. Tyria eventually told her new friends in the squadron about what Repness had done to her and Garik Loran and Ton Phanan were able to find a way to expose Repness. They also helped her after she was forced to kill a brainwashed New Republic pilot trying to assassinate Han Solo. Sarkin's record in the Wraiths included a number of piloting and commando missions as the Wraiths engaged and defeated Apwar Trigit and later Warlord Zsinj. Tyria also developed an attraction for fellow Wraith Kell Tainer, whom she would later marry.

Although Luke Skywalker had told her that she was not a likely candidate for Jedi Knighthood, she left the military eventually to learn the ways of the Jedi Order on her own, and eventually she was confirmed as a Jedi Knight by Skywalker in her own right. She and Kell had a son, named Doran, who also inherited Tyria's Force sensitivity and became her apprentice.

Early life
"The Force is weak in this one."

- Tyria Sarkin

A native of Toprawa, Tyria was trained in her youth as an Antarian Ranger, a centuries-old militia that assisted the Jedi on especially perilous missions. Her training allowed her to Tyria believed that it was possibly intermarriage of Jedi and Antarian Rangers that had given birth to her own Force sensitivity. Tyria’s family was one of the Ranger clans that survived both the Clone Wars and the Jedi purge by going underground for decades. They survived until the bombardment of Toprawa, an event that left Tyria Sarkin the last of the Antarian Rangers.

Tyria dreamed of training to use her Force powers, and at some point she met Luke Skywalker. The Jedi Master put her through several Force training exercises, but did not believe that the young Antarian Ranger would progress very far in her control of the Force.

Pilot training
"They were hoping you'd train up to be a new Luke Skywalker.''" "''That's right. But in my early simulator work I flew more like a drunken dinko."

- Kell Tainer and Tyria Sarkin

Tyria joined the New Republic to become a starfighter pilot. She knew that it was her Force potential, and certainly not her piloting aptitude that got her into the Academy. Her skills were insufficient in the cockpit and she was placed in remedial pilot training under then-Major Atton Repness. In the training squadron, her scores began to rise and Tyria believed that she was improving as a pilot.

After a short time, Repness approached her with an offer: he wanted her to help him steal an X-wing starfighter by reporting equipment failure, ejecting over the ocean, and reporting the starfighter to have sunk thousands of meters below and to be unrecoverable. Repness, however, planned to meet the young pilot trainee at the ditch site and make off with the fighter to sell it on the black market. Tyria refused, saying that she was going to turn in her crooked commanding officer to the authorities. When the seemingly-shocked Repness begged for time to set his affairs in order, Tyria naively acquiesced and unwittingly gave the major time to cover his tracks and put her up on charges of gross insubordination. Challenging the corrupt officer again, Tyria was confronted with the truth of her piloting scores: Repness had been recording them inaccurately high. Tyria would have washed out of even the remedial program weeks before if her true scores had been reported. In exchange for a chance to graduate at the bottom of her class with her falsely-recorded passing marks, the young woman kept silent about Repness's crooked side business.

Training begins
"...you ten were good enough and the other thirty-three weren't."

- Wedge Antilles discusses the formation of Gray Squadron

Not having much chance in Starfighter Command with her low scores and even lower real abilities in the cockpit, Tyria jumped at the chance to join Wedge Antilles's new squadron, but was disappointed to learn that it was her Antarian Ranger skills that had caught the veteran pilot's attention. She transferred to Folor Base as one of the candidates anyway, and passed through Antilles' and Wes Janson's screening interviews.

Tyria flew her first training exercise as a squadron candidate as Gold Four in a simulated ambush of the base. She came out of the exercise with two kills and a score of thirteen hundred fifty out of two thousand, and after the simulation was over, she was introduced to her partners in the exercise, Kell Tainer, Hohass "Runt" Ekwesh, and Voort "Piggy" saBinring. As they discussed the mission at DownTime, Tyria was the first to recognize Runt's possession of multiple minds, and passed on the story of Squeaky and the Runaway Droid Ride to her future squadmates. She also soon met future Wraiths Garik "the Face" Loran and Ton Phanan, the latter of whom revealed Tyria's Force-sensitivity to the other pilots. As the fellow candidates learned more about each other, they began to realize that almost all of them were very close to washing out of Starfighter Command for one reason or another. Tyria did not initially reveal her own story, but acknowledged to Face, Phanan, Kell and Runt that she fit the mold.

Gray Squadron


When the remaining candidates were notified that they had been accepted into the squadron, Tyria became Gray Ten, wingman for Lieutenant Myn Donos in Three Flight. Though she had made it into the squadron, she was the last pilot named at their introductory briefing, indicating that she had the lowest training scores of the surviving pilots. Though Kell Tainer tried to comfort her, she still felt like she was the worst.

Tainer continued to try to attract Tyria's attention, eventually professing his love to her over breakfast one morning. Though she reciprocated his feelings, Tyria believed that Kell did not truly know her and was instead in love with a "fantasy Tyria." She told him as much, but did not reveal her own feelings. She left him at the table to contemplate her rejection, but it was not the only memorable event of the day. At their mission briefing that afternoon, the group was informed that Tyria's suggestion for a name had been chosen as the official one for the unit: Wraith Squadron.

Soon after, the Wraiths were part of the Battle of Folor, where Tyria earned a combat kill. The squadron escaped the system on a heading for Doldrums. Unfortunately for the Wraiths, they were pulled out of hyperspace early in the Xobome system and left stranded with their ships' and astromechs' memories wiped due to an automated attack by Warlord Zsinj's Empion mines. Tyria was one of the Wraiths who landed in the frigid winds of Xobome 6 to effect repairs while Kell, Piggy, Eurrsk "Grinder" Thri'ag and Cubber Daine constructed the Lunatic and Piggy single-handedly captured Zsinj's support, the Night Caller.

The truth comes out
"I wasn't capable of thinking. I just wanted to smash his face in. To smash Colonel Repness's face in."

- Tyria Sarkin comes clean about her past and the brawl with Grinder

The Wraiths continued their own operations by posing as the captain and crew of the Night Caller. After successful operations in at Viamarr 4 and a resupply stop at Doldrums, the Wraiths were declared an active unit, no longer a training squad. But even with the squadron's successes, Tyria’s personal self-pity had become enough of a concern to her squadmates that they approached her in the mess hall. During the conversation, in which Kell Tainer, Ton Phanan and Grinder Thri'ag attempted to convince her to relax, Grinder suggested a way to increase her performance as a pilot. The Bothan offered to slice into her records and improve her scores. Tyria, thinking only of her history with Atton Repness and not realizing that Grinder's offer was made in jest, attacked the other pilot. Phanan and Tainer managed to pull her away from the bloodied Bothan just before Commander Wedge Antilles with Lieutenant Wes Janson arrived and called the entire mess to attention, before taking Tyria and Grinder to Wedge’s office.

As a result of Tyria’s inability to explain her loss of control to her commander, she was put on report with her X-Wing and astromech temporarily reassigned to Ton Phanan. But her relentless squadmates would not drop the matter as easily as Antilles and Janson, and Kell and Phanan approached Tyria one last time, this time in the privacy of her quarters on the ‘’Night Caller’’.

Tyria came clean about her history, explaining to the pilots why she was so filled with self-pity in contrasting her piloting abilities to the other Wraiths, and also why her anger had so consumed her after Grinder’s comments, so reminiscent of what Atton Repness had done. Though she did not know it, it would be this conversation that ultimately led Ton Phanan and Garik Loran to conspire to bring down Atton Repness and his entire black market operation with the help of Lara Notsil.

Crewing the Night Caller


The next mission following the Night Caller's schedule took them to Xartun to for reconnaissance. Tyria was able to finally show her squadmates the set of skills that set her apart from the other pilots. Moving silently whenever the wind blew, she led a very impressed Wedge Antilles to the bunker to cover the approach of the other Wraiths. Once they had successfully infiltrated the bunker, however, Tyria, Runt, and Phanan were attacked by Imperial Probe Droid A2. Tyria's tactics of taking cover behind a phototropically shielded TIE fighter viewport and then pinning the droid with a repulsorlift cart allowed Kell Tainer to destroy the enemy probot with his demolitions equipment. Given the Omega Signal, she and Runt also used their blasters to cover the squadron's exit as the other Wraiths piled into a skiff to escape.

Determined to continue proving herself, especially as she was still on report, Tyria spent every chance she could in the simulators aboard the Night Caller, particularly trying to improve in the X-Wing simulator with Chunky. This seemed to pay off for the young woman when Wedge temporarily restored her to her snubfighter and regular duty for the mission to M2398. Much more emboldened than she had been in her previous engagements, Tyria even led most of the squadron in a challenging launch from the bow hold of the Night Caller even as the corvette maneuvered away from incoming pirate snubfighters.

In the ensuing battle, Tyria became Kell Tainer's temporary wingman. As she and Kell chased down a pair of Uglies, Tyria recognized that they were being led into an ambush. She could not identify how she knew, but Kell trusted the Force-sensitive woman enough to realize himself that the pirates were trying to use a Pig Trough-style tactic and lead them to three treaded ground vehicles hidden in a crater on the moon's surface. Tyria managed to hit one of the vehicles with a proton torpedo. The resulting explosion, combined with that of Kell's weapon, destroyed the ground vehicles just after they launched their own missles and lasers, which struck the fighters of temporary wingmen Jesmin Ackbar and Myn Donos.

Tyria broke off from Kell as he attempted to rescue Jesmin, and took her own fighter into position behind Donos. Although the Lieutenant would barely answer her communications, she knew how to make Donos responsive. She recognized the similarity of the mission to the one that ended in Talon Squadron's destruction, and knew that Donos was distraught over the loss of his astromech. She used Talon Squadron callsigns to get his attention, and led him safely back to the Night Caller.

In the aftermath of the mission, Tyria was able to help some of her squadmates deal with the repercussions. She helped Kell and Phanan cover for Donos's continuing mental breakdown, and comforted Kell in what he saw as his own personal failure to save Jesmin. She also showed the first signs of her hidden affection for the pilot from Sluis Van, giving him a kiss on the cheek after their conversation about the Force.

Friends and lovers
Soon after their departure from M2398, Tyria played an integral part in the simulation that finally convinced Donos that he needed to live. Tyria intuitively recognized that what set off Donos was the loss of his droid, who he considered to be the last Talon. Telling him that the Wraiths were his friends and needed him, Tyria got Myn to open up about his feelings and his condition so that Kell and Falynn could join the conversation and help him begin to recover.

Once Donos, Falynn and Face had left her alone with Kell, the other pilot stated his theory that Tyria had been nudged along by the Force the entire time, but only when she wasn't trying so desperately to use it. He also confessed his love for her a second time. While Tyria was initially skeptical, she realized how much he had changed since his first attempt to win her heart, and kissed him passionately, acknowledging her own feelings for him now that he was no longer in love with a "fantasy Tyria."

Moving in on Trigit
When Zsinj ordered "Captain Darillian" and his crew to meet up with the supply ship Hawkbat, the Wraiths had to find a way to protect their identities. To this end, they were forced to come up with a way to obtain at least two TIE Fighters, as well as keeping the Hawkbat's Captain Bock Nabyl from coming aboard to meet Darillian, prompting a mission to Storinal. Tyira participated in the mission by posing as the wife of an out-of-luck test pilot, played by Ton Phanan. Once they had been admitted to Storinal under these disguises, they joined Kell Tainer, and later Grinder Thr'ag, to form Plague Group. The foursome was tasked with stealing a disease from the Scohar Xenohealth Institute that would later be unleashed on the crew of the Hawkbat

Once they had decided to obtain a sample of Bunkurd Sewer Disorder, Tyria was assigned to do the initial scouting, walking around the Scohar Xenohealth Institute with a camera in her cap and which was monitored remotely by Grinder. Her efforts allowed the slicer to pinpoint the only entrance without a viewer or a lock permitting exterior entry: the waste vent. The group used this vent to gained entrance to the Institute, with Tyria thinking ahead to spatter perfume on the inside of the group's breath masks during their preparations for the unpleasant trip up the waste flue. The former Antarian Ranger took point in their exploration of the building, putting her intrusion skills to use once more. She stopped only when she reached a change in flooring or a portal, and only to let Grinder check for sensors, and the group returned successfully from the Xenohealth Institute with a sample of BSD.

In the second half of Plague Group's assignment, Tyria participated in helping to deliver the BSD into the air intake scoop of the Hawkbat's Perch. This time, she posed as part of a work crew for the shuttle, and actually had to help Kell service it and the Hawkbat's Vigil as part of their cover. Though that cover was almost blown by the arrival of the real shuttle work crew, Tyria helped Kell bluff and fight his way past them, and then covered Donos's arrival as he joined Plague Group for their departure in the Narra.

With every X-Wing cockpit filled, Tyria was unable to participate in the Wraiths' raid on Todirium. She was still on report with her X-Wing assigned to Phanan. But later, with Wedge Antilles, Wes Janson and Falynn Sandskimmer in TIE fighters along with Atril Tabanne, enough snubfighters were freed up for Tyria to participate as an X-Wing pilot in the Battle of Talasea, helping to take down the shields of Provocateur with her set of proton torpedoes. Added to those of four other Wraiths, the torpedoes were enough to allow fire from Donos and Phanan to destroy the enemy Nebulon-B.

After the battle, two new X-Wing fighters were delivered to Wraith Squadron. Because of Tyria's behavior, described by Wedge Antilles as having been "exemplary," Tyria was restored to full operations and her own snubfighter and astromech. At the same small ceremony, Kell Tainer was awarded the Kalidor Crescent and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Tyria, like the rest of their squadmates, could see that Kell was not as pleased by this turn of events as he should have been. She followed him back to his room and opened the locked door with a code she obtained from Grinder, confronting Kell about his behavior and his fears about being his father's son. Although she could not seem to truly change his mind at the time, she talked him out of resigning his commission.

Back in her cockpit for the Wraiths' final engagement with Admiral Trigit and the Implacable, Tyria took part in another Loran Spitball, followed by a pass on the Implacable ' s bridge and dogfighting with enemy TIEs, all alongside her wingman Myn Donos. Though she did not know it at the time, and did not communicate with him during his private mental crisis, it would be the thought of Tyria which would also bring Kell Tainer back into the skirmish to help the other Wraiths. Both of them survived the engagement and celebrated with their squadmates on Borleias.

The Hawk-bats
Back on Coruscant, Tyria was present for the bar brawl that effectively cancelled the Wraiths' leave. She joined Kell and Shalla as part of Runt's team to try to determine Zsinj's plans and strategies. On their first mission to begin acting on their conclusions, Tyira helped infiltrate the Imperial base on Halmad by posing as a stormtrooper. She and Donos vandalized the inside of a hanger to make their operation look more like the work of pirates, and escaped in a skimmer with most of the squadron as three Wraiths flew back to Hawk-bat Base in stolen TIE Interceptors. Tyria would also soon help Kell repaint one of those Interceptors with a red spiderweb pattern for its service with the ersatz pirate group the Hawk-bat Independent Space Force.

Eight of the Wraiths, including Wedge and Tyria, put in an appearance aboard the Mon Remonda to give more credence to the story that they were serving with the rest of the anti-Zsinj taskforce. It was during this time that Lara Notsil brought about the downfall of Colonel Repness, and Tyria met the other woman and heard her story. She approached her commander, believing that her status as a pilot and an officer would be at stake as part of the fallout from the incident. She divulged her history with Repness to Wedge, expecting him to prepare for her to be pulled from the squadron. Wedge, however, recognized her value as a pilot and vowed to keep her as a part of the squadron unless and until she died or chose to transer. He ordered Tyria not to speak of the situation to anyone else unless they had talked to him first.

Both on the Mon Remonda and back at Hawk-bat Base, Tyria shared a room with Lara Notsil. It was Tyria who brough Lara her "mail from home," in actuality a secret message from Warlord Zsinj sent through the real Lara Notsil's brother Tavin. Though Tyria did not understand the full extent of it's meaning to her roommate, she compassionately offered to help Lara through the situation if she needed to talk.

Soon after this, Tyria participated in the capture of the tanker Bastion. In TIE Fighters, she and Piggy accompanied the ship toward Halmad until Kell Tainer ordered them to break off rather than face the guns and starfighters of the Iron Fist.

Tyria survived the mission and as a reward for the successes that Wraith Squadron had enjoyed, was able to take leave on Coruscant with Wedge, Piggy, Shalla Nelprin and Runt. Upon their return, Tyria was also present for Runt's formal dance at Hawk-bat base, joining Kell Tainer to be the first couple on the dance floor.

Finally, after the many missions and the much-needed rest and relaxation, the Wraiths were set to participate in an ambush of Zsinj and his Iron Fist. Tyria was part of the Hawk-bat unit that would be flying various TIEs as part of Zsinj's attack on the Kuat shipyards. Flying with her usual wingmate Piggy again, Tyria helped the Gamorrean pilot cover his crash-landing on the surface of the Iron Fist.. She ended their series of successful encounters with Zsinj's forces by helping present Face with the Award of the Mechanic's Nightmare.

Growing Force abilities
"I've been working so hard, to learn to relax into it, not to push at it... not to force the Force, as it were."

- Tyria Sarkin

Tyria participated in the Battle of Levian Two and the strategy session in the Mon Remonda pilots' lounge that followed, but it was the planning and execution of Mission to Saffalore where Tyria's Force abilities began to manifest themselves more prominently. Tyria continued to practice her Jedi exercises and learned to relax into what she called a "flow-state," rather than forcing her powers. She had achieved one of these flow-states as the Wraiths did their surveillance on the Binring Biomedical building, and was able to sense the pain and suffering of the test subjects within, helping Face to identify their target.

During the mission, Tyria was also able to sense the deliberate nature of a hole in Binring's security. Knowing that an seemingly unsecured area was actually being watched, she warned Shalla and the other Wraiths and allowed them to slip through the outer security perimeter that had been set up specifically for the squadron by Doctor Edda Gast.

Inside the building, most of the Wraiths were caught in another trap, dropped into an incineration chamber from the floor above. While Tyria did not land on her feet and was not one of the first Wraiths back up, she did not suffer any serious injuries from the fall, and managed to be the only Wraith present to evade any burns when the heat and flames in the chamber were activated. In fact, although all of her squadmates piloted their own fighters away from the engagement, Tyria would be the only Wraith that Face actually described as fit to fly.

Later, as the starfighter units from Mon Remonda prepared to jump to Jussafet, Tyria sensed an impending attack and acted on it before she could even consciously recognize what she was doing. Jolted back to attentiveness after being told she was out of position, Tyria realized that Nuro Tualin, an A-Wing pilot in Polearm Squadron, was faking a failure in his sublight drive to set up an attack run on Mon Remonda's bridge. She warned the cruiser just before the Twi'lek fired, and looped around to target the brainwashed pilot. Though she could not find him with her X-Wing's sensors, Tyria closed her eyes to sense his mission and knew that Tualin was headed for the bridge. When she was again within visual range of the bridge, she could see Tualin lining up for another shot. Tyria fired a proton torpedo and destroyed the fighter and its pilot.

Jedi Knight
Some time after Wraith Squadron made the transition from the New Republic Starfighter Corps to New Republic Intelligence, Tyria chose to further her understanding of the Force and train herself to be a true Jedi. Though Luke Skywalker had not thought she would ever progress very far, he later ammended his opinion as Tyria found the discipline she needed.

Although she never studied at the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 or trained directly under Luke Skywalker, she was nonetheless always receptive of his teachings. Luke sent her communiqués and advice, and she travelled and explored, progressing in her training at her own rate. Eventually, Master Skywalker confirmed her as a Jedi Knight, something that would thrill her for years. At some point she and Kell Tainer were married, and they had a son, Doran Sarkin-Tainer, whom Tyria began to train as a Jedi as well. Both Tyria and her son were present for the Conclave on Zonama Sekot.

Second Corellian Crisis
In 40 ABY, Tyria was a Knight assigned to Red Sword Flight, a half-squadron of StealthX fighters sent to attack Jacen Solo during a meeting with Corellian forces. She would also fly as Rakehell Seven during the operation to destroy Centerpoint Station.

Personality and traits
Tyria Sarkin was a particularly determined and dedicated woman. Despite being told that she would not progress far as a Jedi, she continued to try to learn how to control her Force sensativity, first in conjunction with her squadron duties, and later for the sole sake of becomming a Jedi Knight. . She also constantly pushed herself to improve as a pilot, spending her spare time in X-Wing simulators and getting better and better with practice. .

Although she initially hid her past from her squadmates, Wedge Antilles also considered her one of the more honest members of the Wraiths. She told Wedge about her history with Atton Repness as she heard that it might effect the squadron. Her commander believed her to be an honest spirit, and knew simply by her personality that she had not been in on Ton Phanan's plan to bring down Repness.

Powers and abilities
With no formal Jedi training, Tyria was able to actively achieve a flow-state that allowed her to sense both the pain and the awareness of beings within the Binring Biomedical facilities. Although she continued to practice, Tyria also still had not done any Force training or been actively pursuing the Jedi way when she sensed Nuro Tualin's attack on Han Solo and the Mon Remonda.

Aside from her Force talents, Tyria was exceptionally skilled at silent movement and intrusion. She was better at moving stealthily than even Wedge Antilles, with all of his ground missions for the Rebel Alliance and New Republic. She was able to move with the wind, letting it cover any small sounds that she might make.

Behind the scenes
The character of Tyria Sarkin was originally created by Aaron Allston for his novels within the X-wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist and Solo Command. She also appeared briefly in narration in Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream, also by Allston, and made an appearances in The Unifying Force by James Luceno and Fury, again by Allston. Her likeness was based on a friend of Star Wars artist Joe Corroney. He first drew the character for an article on Wraith Squadron in an issue of Star Wars Gamer magazine.

Appearances

 * X-wing: Wraith Squadron
 * X-wing: Iron Fist
 * X-wing: Solo Command
 * X-wing: Isard's Revenge
 * Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
 * The Unifying Force
 * Fury

Notes and references
Tyria Sarkin