Rookie One

"Uuuh.. which way to the hangar?"

- Rookie One

"Rookie One" is the handle of a Tatooinian Rebel pilot; it was used to refer to him during his rookie training years prior to the Battle of Yavin, but it has stuck to him as a nickname later, preferred over his actual name.

Rookie One survived the Trench Run of the Battle of Yavin and later dismantled the whole TIE Phantom project.

Biography
Rookie One was born on the arid desert world of Tatooine in the Outer Rim Territories around the time of the rise of the Galactic Empire. The young Tatooinian started work as a farm hand and began to develop a disliking for the Empire, becoming supportive of the fledgling Rebel Alliance. During this time he also developed a taste for flying, soon becoming a daring civilian pilot.

It was in Mos Eisley that Rookie One got a chance to become involved with the Rebellion when, shortly after the Battle of Toprawa, he encountered Lieutenant Turland Hack, a communications officer at the Alliance's nearby base, who was in Mos Eisley for training. Hack was impressed with the young pilot's enthusiasm for the Rebellion and desire to help defeat the Empire, and helped Rookie One to join the Alliance for training as a starfighter pilot. Hack soon became like a "big brother" to the young recruit, taking him under his wing and doing what he could to help him develop into one of best pilots in the fleet. It was during this time that he acquired the call sign Rookie One, a nickname which would remain with him throughout his career.

Rookie One's training on Tatooine culminated in trials through the nearby Beggar's Canyon and surrounding area. The first trial involved flying a T-16 skyhopper through the dangerous canyon in close formation with two members of Green Squadron. After successfully navigating the canyon, Rookie One moved onto the second part of the trial, navigating in formation through the rocky terrain while engaging in target practice against a number of target drones. Rookie One's piloting abilities saw him comfortably pass the trials and move on to R-22 Spearhead training under Commander Jake Farrell.

After launching from Tatooine, Rookie One was challenged to follow Farrell through a nearby asteroid field. Rookie One's control and discipline in navigating through the field, shooting several smaller asteroids in the process, impressed Farrell who cleared him to proceed to Kolaador for the final phase of his training. On Kolaador Rookie One met Ru Murleen, then the youngest commander in the Alliance, who would serve as his final instructor. The difficult course required him to follow her lead in his R-22 through the planet's hazardous crystalline rock formations. Again, he proved equal to the challenge, not only qualifying as a starfighter pilot but so impressing the young commander that she offered to let him buy her a drink for his "fancy flying" while he awaited assignment to a squadron.

The two Rebels would not have long to celebrate, however, as their drink was cut short by the news that Tatooine Base was under Imperial attack. Knowing that Tatooine would be unable to hold out for long, the Rebels sent three X-wings to assist. Rookie One was selected to join Commander Murleen and another rookie pilot, Thurlow Harris, for the mission. The group came out of hyperspace to find an Imperial-class Star Destroyer in orbit. Murleen knew that with the Star Destroyer coordinating the attack below, the Rebels would likely be defeated, so instructed her group to eliminate its command center before proceeding to the surface. In a series of strafing runs, the group weakened the ship's defenses while holding off the Star Destroyer's TIE fighters. When the deflector shields protecting the bridge finally fell, Murleen instructed Rookie One to arm his proton torpedoes and commence an attack run on the unprotected command tower. Rookie One scored a direct hit, crippling the vessel, though whether it was destroyed is unclear. With the threat of the Star Destroyer eliminated, the group proceeded down to the planet.

The Rebel base was already under heavy attack by the time of their arrival. As they approached the base, the group contacted Turland Hack for a status report and Rookie One was powerless to act as he heard the destruction of the base in a TIE fighter attack. Yet the young pilot had little time to mourn his friend. Acting quickly to prevent the TIEs reporting their presence back to their commanders, Rookie One gave chase through Beggar's Canyon and destroyed all three Imperial fighters. Joined by Captain Merrick Simms, the Rebels proceeded to Mos Eisley where the Empire was deploying ground forces. While Murleen left to attempt to cut off the Imperial supply lines, Rookie One joined Simms and Harris in engaging All Terrain Scout Transports and Imperial landing craft. After causing as much damage to the Imperial forces as they could, and with TIE fighters incoming, the group withdrew and moved to rendezvous with the fleet before proceeding to Gamma Base.

He fought in the Battle of Yavin, under Blue Squadron where he managed to neutralize a giant cannon on the Death Star's surface. There are indications that he also participated in the Trench Run, where Jake Farrell saved his life.  Warning:  The following section is ambiguously canon. After the battle, Rookie's whereabouts are uncertain. There is some indication that he was a staff of the Gamma Base or Echo Base and had a minor action in the Battle of Hoth flying a Snowspeeder under the Rogue Squadron. He was one of the last who fought his way in the occupied Echo Base into the hangar, in order to escape the planet in his X-wing on the nick of time.

Some time later, he and his wingleader Kirby while patrolling near Dreighton, intercepted a distress call from afreighter. Kirby was lost by Phantom TIEs, but Rookie One crashed on the planet and rescued the freighter Corellia Star; this gave the Alliance hints on a secret Imperial project on Belt of Arah. Being a part of the Rascal Group, Rookie destroyed the Imperial Arah mining facility there, but soon after they received an attack and Rookie witnessed the Phantom TIEs, being the sole survivor of the group. With this information, Rookie traveled to Imdaar and with the cooperation of his old tutor, Ru Murleen, he managed to infiltrate the Terror. The couple captured a TIE phantom, and destroyed the facility before surrendering it to the Alliance.

After the mission was over, it is known that the two Rebels were romantically involved.

Behind the scenes

 * Rookie One is the character of the games Star Wars: Rebel Assault and its sequel. In the first game, his name and face do not appear, and his gender is customizable, so that the players can identify themselves with the character. According to Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire, however, Rookie is male.


 * Rookie One is portrayed by Jamison Jones in Rebel Assault II.


 * It is no coincidence that Rookie One and Luke Skywalker have much in common, it is deliberately done this way by LucasArts to make the player feel like Luke Skywalker from the Original Trilogy.


 * "Rookie One" appears to be military slang. It also happens to be the handle which Ace Azzameen is assigned during his training missions. "Rookie's" actual name was never given, and his training nickname stuck with him ever since.

Non-canonical bio
The first game is S-canon and Rookie One does feats that don't fit in the timeline, like repelling an AT-ST assault on Mos Eisley which is frowned by fans (later sources confirm a Skirmish in Mos Eisley which can be related to it), participating in the Battle of Hoth under the Gamma Base while the game takes place before Hoth's colonization, and most of all, destroying the Death Star instead of Luke. For obvious reasons, these have been silenced from his 'biography' but some of them should partially bear some amounts of canonicity.

As for the 'Hoth' sequence, it is totally unrelated to the rest of the story which is centered about the Death Star. It just intermits itself without contributing anything to the storyline. After the Rebels and Rookie are seen leaving the base, the Death Star plot continues as if uninterrupted.

It is not thus clear if it should be 'deleted' altogether from the canon, if it should be regarded as having occurred on a similar planet other than Hoth, or, if we prefer to value it, we should consider the facts canonical, but ignore the time it is presented. Therefore we can retroactively consider it to happen later than the game's timeframe, in the time when Hoth was colonized, despite appearing in the middle of the story.

In the latter case, this is a semi-canonical indication that Rookie One was one of the staff of the actual Echo Base and participated in the Battle and this is incorporated in the biography, of course when put in the appropriate time. However, all this is only a matter of subjective interpretation.

It is possible that Rookie One shot the Death Star thermal exhaust port as shown in the game, but his proton torpedoes only impacted on the surface and didn't go in.

Another possibility is that the events portrayed in Rebel Assault were just a simulation that made up part of Rookie One's training. The flight training on Tatooine and Kolaador were actual training exercises, but the Skirmish over Tatooine, the Battle of Hoth and Battle of Yavin could have taken place in a simulator.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Rebel Assault
 * Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire