User:Thefourdotelipsis/Workbench

Carlist Rieekan wants a goddamn Waldorf Salad! Now go in there, and bust his ass!

Early career
Carlist Rieekan grew up on the peaceful world of Alderaan, and left at the age of seventeen to join the Galactic Republic's Judicial Forces. Demonstrating strong leadership skills, Rieekan quickly rose through the ranks, and joined the Officer Candidate School. There, he befriended other idealists such as Jan Dodonna, Adar Tallon, and Crix Madine. When Supreme Chancellor Palpatine declared himself Emperor in 19 BBY, and transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire, Rieekan chose to stick to his beliefs, and refused to serve the new regime. He instead served the Royal House of Alderaan as a civilian tactician, and then helped found the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and organization dedicated to throwing off Palpatine's hold on the galaxy. In his new role, Rieekan found himself once again amongst like-minded individuals, many of them hailing from Alderaan.

The destruction of Alderaan
Rieekan found himself surprised that the Royal House of Organa, rulers of his home planet and vocal pacifists, were themselves allied with the Alliance. He was pleased to find out that Viceroy Bail Organa and his daughter, Princess Leia Organa, were actually members of the Rebellion. Rieekan felt the need to keep his connection to the Alliance secret,, but was subsequently placed in charge of covert operations in the Alderaan system. In 0 BBY, he found himself personally inspecting a new satellite transmission station that was in orbit over Delaya, a sister planet of Alderaan. During his inspection tour, the Empire's new superweapon, the Death Star, entered the system, causing mass panic on Rieekan's homeworld. He was hard-pressed to keep up with the flood of incoming calls, requesting evacuation and aid, but there was no weapon capable of disabling or halting the superweapon.

Furthermore, Rieekan felt that a mass evacuation would show the Empire that the people of Alderaan were aware of the Death Star's ability to destroy planets, which was also its purpose. With that in mind Rieekan decided to sit tight, and hope that the Death Star's presence was just a bluff. Within minutes however, the Death Star's superlaser was activated and fired at Alderaan, completely obliterating the planet. Thrown into a state of despair and guilt, Rieekan resolved to never underestimate the just how far the Galactic Empire would go again. Since there was little he physically could do, Rieekan blamed himself for the catastrophe. Some time after the incident, Rieekan was promoted to the rank of General.

General
Following the Fifth Battle of Yavin IV, General Jan Dodonna was believed dead. As a result, Rieekan was appointed as his successor in the role of Alliance operations commander. When Rieekan's former colleague Crix Madine defected from the Empire, the general vouched for his old ally's credibility. It was Rieekan's input that convinced Mon Mothma that Madine was not a security risk. At some stage, Rieekan took on the role of a mentor, briefly instructing Risiev Credal in the art of tactics. This instruction was augmented by prior teachings from other Alliance officers such as Beryl Chiffonage, Pashna Starkiller, and Vanden Willard. Together with Chiffonage, Credal had develloped Attack Pattern Delta, which the general believed would be effective against Imperial walkers.

Trouble in Shelsha
By 0 ABY, Rieekan had a variety of secret bases set up throughout the Empire, one of which served as a key Alliance military base following the evacuation of the Yavin 4 base. The general commanded the base, which eventually played host to Mothma herself. At the time, the Alliance was having trouble gaining a foothold in the Shelsha sector due to infighting amongst its member groups and other cultural issues. As a result, they had been forced to evacuate a listening post on Teardrop. Meanwhile, Mothma and Rieekan had been contacted by Yeeru Chivkyrie, leader of the Shelsha-based Alliance member group Republic Redux. Chivkyrie had a proposal that he believed would serve as a great benefit to the Alliance, although he would not clarify what it, not through the HoloNet or encrypted transmissions.

What Mothma and Rieekan did know was that Ydor Vokkoli, leader of Freedonna Kaisu and Thillis Slanni, leader of Shining Hope, both centralized in the Shelsha sector, were strongly opposed to Chivkyrie's idea. So strong was their dissatisfaction that they threatened to pull out of the Alliance, should Mothma agree to Chivkyrie's mystery plan. In addition, Republic Redux was the smallest of the three groups, preventing the Alliance from effectively complying with the Adarian Chivkyrie. He himself would not be allowed to convince the other leaders of his plan, as he was from the second-tier of Adarian society. The only way the other leaders could be convinced, Rieekan deduced, was if someone from a higher tier was sent to negotiate with them. The selected location was Chivkyrie's home, Makrin City, Shelkonwa, but the diplomats sent would meet with him in an uninhabited system.

Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan was chosen to meet with the Adarian leaders, and Rieekan requested that Captain Han Solo of the Millennium Falcon and Luke Skywalker join her&mdash;since the mission was to be low-profile, the general ruled out the use of Alliance ships and what he deemed "obvious Alliance personnel." While Skywalker was eager, Solo bristled at what he perceived to be Rieekan labeling him as someone not totally committed to the Alliance's cause. Nevertheless, he agreed to accompany the princess, after Mothma and Rieekan had sorted out the final details with the Adarian leaders.

At some stage afterwards, Rieekan was met with odd news: a shipment of Alliance weapons that was travelling, disguised, along a supply line through Drunost had been attacked by the BloodScar swoop gang, who were in turn fought off by a group of stormtroopers. In the aftermath, the stormtroopers had not searched the shipment, which had been disguised as farming equipment, nor had they questioned Porter, the Alliance agent supervising the shipment. Organa suspected that the Imperials might have tracked Porter afterwards to find out where his destination was, but Rieekan had received a report from Casement, another agent working on Drunost, stating that no one had tracked the supplies. Agent Targeter also confirmed that no one had been tracking Porter. Nevertheless, Organa suggested shutting down the supply line, but due to the increased amounts of piratical activity in the Shelsha sector, Rieekan thought that opening a new line would be impossible.

Since the BloodScar group alone could not be responsible for the widespread criminal activity in Shelsha, Rieekan sought to investigate just what was going on amongst the fringe groups in the sector. Pulling Captain Solo from the Shelkonwa mission, he chose the Corellian to do the reconnaisance, and Organa suggested that Skywalker accompany him. While the Tatooinian baulked at the prospect of not going with the princess of the Shelkonwa mission, he agreed to the plan. With that, the general set about retrieving names and places for the pair to investigate, before sending them to meet with Porter on Drunost. As it turned out, the two missions were interconnected: the pirates had been working for Governor Barshnis Choard, who had been planning, for two years, to have the Shelsha sector secede from the Empire. The pirates were to take over key Imperial installations across the sector when the opportunity arose.

Meanwhile, through his chief administrator, Vilim Disra, Choard had contacted Chivkyrie, claiming that Shelsha would join the Alliance if the Alliance would defend the sector against the inevitable Imperial reprisal after the secession. The plan did not come to fruition, though, as Disra reported Choard's treachery to Lord Darth Vader. As a result, Rieekan no longer had to deal with Chivkyrie's "proposal," although the Alliance's position in Shelsha had not improved. Organa was briefly captured by the Empire, but was saved thanks to the efforts of Solo, Skywalker, and Chewbacca, as well as the Hand of Judgement&mdash;a group of rogue stormtroopers who had been the ones defending Porter's shipment from the BloodScars.

Continued conflicts
When an Alliance refugee stopover point on Nentan was discovered by the Empire, Rieekan was called in to oversee the evacuation. By this time, the Nentan bunkers were at full capacity, and there were not enough transports to evacuate both the military personnel and the refugees. Several soldiers volunteered to stay behind as the Imperials closed on the base, but Rieekan found that solution to be unacceptable. Bren Derlin, a Human who had been serving with the general for some time, offered Rieekan an alternative solution. Derlin, along with a group of "expendable" soldiers, hid amongst some of Nentan's ruins as the Imperials landed and advanced towards the now-abandoned Alliance bunkers. As they did so, they left their landing craft relatively undefended, leaving them free to be hijacked by Derlin and his men. As a result, Nentan was successfully evacuated, and Rieekan, pleased, promoted Derlin to the rank of major. Afterwards, Rieekan saw action on a variety of disparate worlds.

In the aftermath of Nentan, Rieekan became the theater commander of the Alliance High Command base. When an Alliance Intelligence cell on Brosi came under threat of detection due to the blatant actions of the Brosin Underground against the Corporate Sector Authority, Rieekan voiced his concerns. The Alliance agents, who were working in Brosi's zinsian processing facilities, had attempted to make contact with the Underground, to little or no avail. Since there was still the risk of CSA discovering the Alliance cell, Rieekan requested that agent Abil Filorin make more attempts to contact the Brosan Underground. Further concerns came in the form of Risiev Credal, who had apparently turned traitor. Rieekan worried that Credal, if he had indeed defected to the Empire, would reveal the location of the High Command base, as well as any planned tactics to be used in the event of an attack.

Rieekan oversaw the retreat from Dankayo base, and the subsequent destruction of the Imperial transport Elusive&mdash;a ship that carried intelligence that would have threatened and jeopardized Alliance activities in three sectors. In addition to the destruction of the Elusive, Rieekan oversaw many operations that crippled Imperial Intelligence, and defended evacuation convoys at the Battle of Tiems.

Echo Base
When the Alliance relocated its main base to Hoth, Rieekan served as theater commander in charge of all land and naval forces in the Hoth system. As soon as he was given command, the general devised an evacuation plan that could be put into effect as soon as possible. While overseeing the construction of Echo Base, Rieekan assigned historian Voren Na'al menial tasks. Na'al was there chiefly to chronicle events as they happened, but he was more than willing to oblige Rieekan and aid in the building of the Alliance's new home. The general placed Major Derlin in charge of the base's security and operations; the major's assignment proved to be a wise choice for Rieekan, and the decision was a popular one. Hoping to prevent another incident like Alderaan, the general made sure that Echo Base's defenses were as good as they possibly could be. He culled traffic to and from the system down to just long-range fighter patrols and necessary shipments, and in doing so made sure that the existence of the base remained a closely-guarded secret.

While at Echo Base, Rieekan began amassing a comprehensive collection of data on the area that the Rebels were using for refuge. Recovered by Alliance Survey Team Theta was a personal recording by smuggler Jonox Forb, who had initially scouted the location and had intended to call it "Snowflake Base." Forb's recording was one of the many items that Rieekan kept in his personal collection. He also collected a report by Corporal Vyn Rolado on the taming of the Tauntauns.

Due to sheer luck and the insight of Lord Darth Vader, Echo Base was eventually discovered by the Death Squadron. A Viper probe droid had managed to detect the base, and as soon as evidence of that droid's presence was reported to Rieekan, he realized that the Imperials would soon attack Echo Base, and so he put his evacuation plan into motion. As the impending and inevitable battle between his forces and those of General Maximillian Veers loomed on the horizon, Rieekan devised the delaying defense tactic that would allow the majority of the Alliance personnel to escape the base, but knew that in doing so, he was effectively sending many of his men to their deaths. It was a difficult decision for the Alderaanian, but as he had resigned himself to the fact that the base would not be evacuated before the Imperials arrived, it was one that he was able to make nonetheless. Most of the Echo Base staff were able to escape, ensuring the perpetuation of the Alliance.

On the run
Following the disaster at Hoth, the Alliance set up a new base on Arbra, which also became Rieekan's new center of operations. There, the Alliance Fleet held station, but Organa felt that there was a need to hide the ships from potential Imperial sensor sweeps. As per standard Alliance procedure, she suggested hiding the fleet in the chromosphere of Arbra's sun, Arbran. To protect the fleet from the extreme heat, five Kerts-Bhrg generators were brought in. When properly aligned, the generators would create a durable shield in the shape of a pyramid, within which the fleet would be held. Once under Arbran's corona, the fleet would be in constant orbit. To keep the pyramid in orbit, the top-mounted control generator would be outfitted with a thruster.

Rieekan accompanied Organa on the control generator as the plan was enacted. Entry into the chromosphere went as planned, but shortly afterwards sensors indicated that several small Imperial ships were approaching the system. Leaving command of the generators to Captain Kavel Mesa, Organa, Rieekan, and all non-critical personnel on the generator departed for Arbra on a special shuttle designed for traveling through the sun's corona. As the ship made it through the corona, they were contacted by C-3PO, who was supposed to have been on the shuttle itself. The protocol droid reported a malfunction in the generator's systems, and that the crew had all been rendered unconscious. He went on to state that the malfunction was of a severity that would potentially cause the generator to stop working, which would result in the subsequent loss of the Alliance fleet. In addition, the command generator's top-mounted thruster was beginning to lose power.

To make matters worse for the Rebels, the Imperial scout craft&mdash;four TIE Fighters, entered the system at that moment. Rieekan gave the order for the shuttle to hide behind the nearest moon, allowing the general to observe proceedings unnoticed. With apparently nothing to find, the Imperial fighters began to leave the system, allowing Organa and the general to devote their attention to the situation in Arbran. Although C-3PO and his counterpart, R2-D2 were attempting to resolve the issue themselves, Organa gave the order for the shuttle to re-enter the chromosphere, in the hopes of being able to save the fleet in time. One of the crewmembers, however, reported that they were too late, and that according to estimates, the fleet would have already entered the chromosphere unprotected. To Rieekan's and Organa's surprise, though, C-3PO reported that they had been able to save the fleet by draining power from a EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate directly into the control generator.

The New Republic
When the New Republic was formed, Rieekan sat on the New Republic High Command. Republic historians, hoping to dispel the Imperial propaganda surrounding the Battle of Hoth, turned to Rieekan's collection of information on the events that had taken place there. Several parts of the general's collection, dubbed the Rieekan Historical Collection, were reprinted by the historians.

When Mon Mothma stepped down from the role of Chief of State in 11 ABY, Leia Organa Solo stepped into the role, and in turn, Rieekan took Solo's former role of Minister of State. Two years later, in 13 ABY, Rieekan was incapacitated by poison. Senator Q-Varx was identified as one of the culprits, and the Mon Calamarian was subsequently tried for treason. The fact that the Minister had recovered was the only thing that prevented Q-Varx from being given the death sentence, but Rieekan did not return to his post, and was succeeded by Mokka Falanthas after two years of service.

He became the Director of New Republic Intelligence during the Black Fleet Crisis, and retired afterwards. With the advent of the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion however, he returned to service, and headed the Coruscant Planetary Defense Force. When Warmaster Tsavong Lah moved against Coruscant however, there was no stopping the Yuuzhan Vong advance. Rieekan, working alongside Garm Bel Iblis and Lando Calrissian, was able to delay the invasion long enough to allow many evacuation transports to depart the capital in safety.

Personality and traits
Rieekan was perceived by his men to be a grim and stern man, who was in a constant state of worry and concern. The general was in fact, a quiet and unassuming man. Initially, he had been an optimist, but after blaming himself for the Destruction of Yavin, he became morose and grim. He fought because he felt it was his duty to avert and potential disasters or tragedies that might occur in the future, even though he did not particularly want to. Rieekan tried to make sure that he never risked the lives of those under his command, and decided to act with aggressive caution following the Alderaan incident, when he once would have acted with confident subtlety.

He stuck by his ideals, and lived by them, which led him to gravitate towards fellow soldiers with similar mindsets. Rieekan possessed natural leadership skills, which allowed him to rapidly rise through the ranks of the Judicial Forces.

Rieekan was a strong and able tactician, and his vast knowledge in that area made him a highly effective base commander.

While he did not always agree with men like Captain Han Solo, he could still acknowledge that they were genuinely good people. In return, he was percieved as a good soldier.

Battle-hardened and serious, Rieekan remained detatched from his work; although he lost his homeworld to the Empire, he never had his emotions on display, and instead retained his determined demeanor.

Appearances

 * Allegiance
 * Star Wars 58: Sundown