Team Fireball

"You can work on my team. But when it comes to your mission as a spy, I don't want anything to do with it."

- Jarek Yeager, to Kazuda Xiono

Team Fireball was a racing team put together by Jarek Yeager to help run his repair shop on the Colossus, a refueling platform located on the Outer Rim planet Castilon. Neeku Vozo, Tam Ryvora, Kazuda Xiono, and R1-J5 "Bucket" were members of Yeager's crew during the era of the New Republic. They were in the process of restoring a decrepit racing ship, the Fireball, by the time Xiono joined the team.

Early days
Jarek Yeager, a former Rebel pilot, came to make his home on the Colossus refuelling station on Castilon at some point after the Galactic Civil War. He acquired a reputation as one of the station's best racers, often winning whenever he competed. It was rumored that part of Yeager's success was due to using hyperfuel as a boost. However, by 34 ABY, he had stopped racing, preferring to focus on his repair shop. Team Fireball, the team of racers and mechanics he founded, by that year consisted of Yeager, Tamara Ryvora, Neeku Vozo and the astromech droid R1-J5 "Bucket". It was named after a decrepit racing ship, the Fireball, that Yeager had acquired. Yeager had promised Ryvora the ship if she could fix it up.

A new member
In 34 ABY, late in the cold war, Yeager's friend Poe Dameron, a member of the Resistance, brought recently recruited spy Kazuda Xiono to the Colossus. Dameron persuaded Yeager to hire Xiono as a mechanic as a cover for his spying work. Yeager was uncertain, due to a misunderstanding that had led Xiono to quickly acquire an inflated reputation as the alleged "greatest pilot in the galaxy," which caused other Colossus residents to target him, but acquiesced. The team was forced to work quickly to make the Fireball flight-capable, as Xiono had unwillingly been signed up for a solo race the next day by Vozo, who thought he was helping him become the best pilot. Ryvora and Xiono got off on bad terms, as she was resentful that Yeager was loaning him the ship, and felt that he had insulted her mechanical skills by pointing out the Fireball's state of disrepair.

In the race, against the youngest member of Ace Squadron, Torra Doza, Xiono performed well, but pushed the Fireball too hard and crashed, putting the ship out of action again and necessitating a rescue. Yeager warned Xiono afterwards that, although he could work with the team, he didn't want any involvement in Xiono's mission.

Xiono's lack of mechanical training caused difficulties with the rest of Team Fireball, arousing Ryvora's suspicions. When the team was hired to repair the ship of a Neimoidian named Hallion Nark, Xiono's errors made their client unimpressed. However, Xiono overheard Nark conducting a covert comlink conversation, which made him later realize that Nark was a spy for Kragan Gorr and his pirate gang. While the rest of Team Fireball made it to a shelter during the ensuing attack, Xiono and Dameron's astromech droid, BB-8, who was keeping an eye on him, helped covertly drive the attack off. The rest of the team was skeptical when Xiono later claimed he had been working on the Fireball for the entire attack, and Yeager didn't believe Xiono when he was told what he did.

Xiono's status as the newest member of the team led to him being targeted by Jace Rucklin and his team, Lin Gaava and Gorrak Wiles, who saw him as an opportunity to steal Yeager's valuable hyperfuel. Rucklin successfully manipulated Xiono into sneaking him into Yeager's office, where he swiped the fuel behind Xiono's back. The manipulation was made easier by Xiono's frustrations with his heavy workload, which he felt was interfering with his mission for the Resistance, and his poor mechanical skills. After Bucket discovered the theft, Xiono put himself in danger to save Rucklin, who had turned his ship into a bomb by adding too much hyperfuel. Afterwards, Xiono apologized to Yeager, stating he understood if he was fired, but Yeager let him stay on.

Behind the scenes
"Team Fireball, they're our core Star Wars group. They're not caught up in the bigger things going on in the galaxy... And what unifies this team is that they need each other."

- Dave Filoni

Team Fireball was created and developed for the animated series Star Wars Resistance. The first footage of the squad was released on August 17, 2018. Further details regarding the members of Team Fireball were released on August 29, 2018.