Gara Petothel

"I tried so hard just to be Lara. But they wouldn't let me. The whole universe wouldn't let me."

- Gara Petothel

Gara Petothel, also known as Lara Notsil and Kirney Slane, was an Imperial Intelligence spy who defected to the New Republic during a covert mission as a pilot of Wraith Squadron. She served as a Imperial Intelligence agent for nearly 15 years, during which time she assumed several different names and identities. While undercover in 7.5 ABY, she provided Imperial Admiral Apwar Trigit with information that led to the destruction of Talon Squadron, a New Republic starfighter squadron. She then worked as an analyst for Trigit aboard Implacable, his Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Petothel secretly provided information to the New Republic that led to Trigit's death after the admiral decided to sacrifice his ship and over 35,000 crew members rather than surrender during the Battle of Ession.

To avoid arrest following the battle, she posed as an innocent farmgirl from Aldivy named Lara Notsil. She intended to return to service under Warlord Zsinj, but was first approached by Wraith Squadron pilots Garik "Face" Loran and Ton Phanan, who promised her a spot in one of Commander Wedge Antilles' squadrons if she helped them expose the black-market ring of New Republic Colonel Atton Repness. After exposing Repness, Notsil joined the ranks Wraith Squadron, which she planned to betray to Zsinj. However, after flying with the squadron and bonding with the fellow pilots, Notsil found that she wanted to remain with the squadron and the New Republic.

She attempted to feed false information to Zsinj and keep her true secret identity, and even developed a romantic relationship with Myn Donos, the sole Talon Squadron survivor. Her identity was eventually exposed, however, forced her to flee from Wraith Squadron. Along with her R2 droid, Tonin, Petothel returned to service with Zsinj and was given a post on Iron Fist, his Executor-class Star Dreadnaught flagship. She developed a plan to destroy Iron Fist and Zsinj by having Tonin capture and reprogram hundreds of MSE-6 mouse droids to sabotage the ship. The New Republic triumphed over the Iron Fist during the Battle of Selaggis thanks to her assistance. She faked her death during that battle and presumably started a shuttle company with Myn Donos called Donoslane Excursions.

Upbringing on Coruscant
Gara Petothel was born on Coruscant to parents Dalls Petothel and Edallia Monotheer, two Imperial Intelligence agents during the first years of the New Order. She was close with her mother and father, and with them shared a deep feeling of trust and belonging that would be lacking in her developing and adult years. As a youth, Petothel enjoyed some carefree moments, learning such dances as the Alderaanian waltz and watching many holovids starring child star Garik "Face" Loran, developing a childhood crush on the young actor. As a member of the higher Coruscanti social class, she learned Coruscant Charm Signing, a method of body language that conveyed signs and intent.

Petothel dreamed of becoming a starfighter pilot since her early childhood, but her parents and their Imperial superiors recognized her talents for intelligence work even from an early age. In addition to her tremendous intelligence, Pethothel possessed a trick memory that allowed her to permanently remember facts, trivia and statistical information, although her ability to recall faces was less efficient. She also demonstrated a powerful ability to read people and an usual control over her own emotions; her ability to cry and stop crying on command particularly delighted Imperial officials. Almost immediately, she was being groomed to follow in her parents' career path as an officer in the Bureau of Imperial Intelligence.

She was also raised learning long-standing Imperial doctrines and traditions, including Humanocentric speciesism; although she allowed affection for certain members of another species, like household servants or lowly merchants, Petothel otherwise believed strongly in the basic superiority of humans. In addition, she was taught to distrust the Rebel Alliance; teachers described Rebel soldiers and pilots as little more than undisciplined, unrestrained mad dogs with little regard for law and order. She was also taught to believe the Rebel convictions of individual freedoms were little more than simplistic and unrealistic propaganda.

During Petothel's early teen years around 8 BBY, Dalls Petothel and Edallia Monotheer were arrested for unspecified charges of treason and executed. Imperials records indicated the pair funneled Imperial Intelligence information to anti-Imperial factions on Chandrila; years later, however, New Republic Intelligence Service officials would conclude Petothel and Monotheer had nothing to do with the Rebel Alliance and the chargers were fabricated to provide an excuse persecuting Petothel and Monotheer for a less significant offense.

The now-orphaned Gara Petothel experienced mixed emotions at the sudden, disgraceful arrest and death of her parents, switching repeatedly between hating and missing them. The lack of information and explanation about their execution further denied her any sense of closure. It was during this time Petothel was officially indoctrinated into the Imperial Intelligence Agency, which also removed any official documentation of her connection to Dalls Petothel and Edallia Monotheer from their records. Petothel threw herself into her Intelligence training, learning eagerly and demonstrating great loyalty so as to keep her mind off the deaths of her parents and avoid any such fate for herself.

Imperial Intelligence training
Gara Petothel underwent an intense and ultimately traumatizing education at the hands of anonymous Imperial instructors. She was taught only to retain practical information or information significant toward her missions and Imperial service, and to push from her mind anything with personal or sentimental attraction, such as memorials or emotional attachments. As such, she failed to remember the names, personalities or physical appearances of her teachers; in later years, she would only recall them as shadows silhouetted by lights behind them.

Petothel was taught how to develop and live various identities in order to fulfill assignments as a spy. She was trained to plant triggers deep in her mind in order to activate a new identity, then to bury that same identity once her objections were accomplished. Once the identity was abandoned, she was also expected to shed any personal connections or memories she may have developed while living that life. Petothel was taught to scrape away everything that did not pertain to her current mission; she was forced to abandon the concepts of friendship and trust, and forbidden even from talking with anyone who did not fall within her mission parameters.

She was also taught to abandon any negative connotations of the concept of treachery, and instead focus on efficiency. Petothel learned to abandon her scruples and personal honor in order to do whatever is necessary to complete her mission. She was also taught that Rebels would do the same in order to defeat the Empire, furthering the propagandistic lessons she had learned about the Rebel Alliance from an early age. These lessons, combined with the impersonal and overwhelming teaching style, afforded Petothel no sense of personal attention or belonging to a group; with no basis of comparison, however, she felt no longing for these things, and would not realize the extent to which the training damaged her until years later.

She proved to become an Imperial Intelligence prodigy. Her trick memory made her ideal for covert assignments, and her ability to read and understand others also gave her the ability to manipulate and control them. Her control over her own emotions were honed during her training; she learned not only to conceal her own mannerisms and reactions, but how to display fake ones when needed. She learned not only how to master accents, but how to use only the barest traces of accent, such as when she portrayed the identity of a woman trying to distance herself from her native planet. Her ability to start and stop crying at will proved to become a tremendous asset.

Petothel excelled in several different fields, including communications, astronautics, electronics, computer slicing and especially piloting. Her youthful wish to become a starfighter pilot became reignited during basic pilot training, and she requested a permanent transfer to the Imperial Naval Academy. Although her instructors believed piloting was a valuable side skills, they rejected the transfer, believing her intelligence-related skills were greater and more valuable. Her primary training focused on infiltrating the enemy, getting their secrets back to their superiors and sabotaging data the enemy possessed.

Upon completion of her training, Gara Petothel was assigned her first practice role under the identity of Kirney Slane, a Coruscanti student of economics and the daughter of a fictional hotelier. She was given no significant mission or task as Slane, but simply ordered to pose as a member of Coruscant's middle society in order to test and hone her skills as a spy under an assumed name and identity. Under the guise of her first new identity, Petothel flirted with Imperial officer candidates and chatted with the spouses of the married men. She attended dances, pretending her ultimate motive was to find and marry a promising officer. She mastered the small talk of the social class and lost herself in Slane's carefree personality. But once the usefulness of Kirney Slane as a training tool ended, Petothel was pulled from the assignment and, as her training mandated, was forbidden to assume the name, manner or mentality again. Her training now complete, Imperial Intelligence officials began giving Petothel assignments of far greater importance.

Destruction of Talon Squadron
Gara Petothel assumed many different names and identities over the next several years in her service to the Galactic Empire. Following the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor, she continued to serve in the Empire under Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard. Under her command, she infiltrated New Republic Fleet Command and posed as a New Republic Intelligence Service operative and code slicer under the name Chyan Mezzine. Mezzine was eventually assigned a post as a communications officer and mission coordinator aboard the New Republic Frigate Mother Sea. She was serving on that ship in 7 ABY when Isard was supposedly killed during the Battle of Thyferra (Bacta War), the final conflict of the Bacta War; her controller, the only contact between Petothel and the Empire, also died along with the rest of Isard's support staff during that battle.

Realizing Isard's death would lead to further fracturing among the Empire, Petothel decided to switch her allegiances to Warlord Zsinj, a former Imperial officer who had gone rogue and was fighting for control of the remnants of the Empire. She offered her services Admiral Apwar Trigit, who also defected to Zsinj after Isard's death. He eagerly accepted, and Petothel transmitted a significant amount of New Republic data to Trigit, including information about Talon Squadron, one of several New Republic X-wing starfighter squadrons created to help relieve pressure from the elite Rogue Squadron. Under Trigit's direction, Petothel set into motion a plan to destroy to the newly created squadron.

Petothel falsely marked the uninhabited Gravan system as having been recently secured by New Republic Intelligence. This allowed Trigit to lure Talon Squadron into the system using what appeared to be a lone TIE interceptor with no hyperspace-capable starships in its vicinity. The squadron followed the lone starfighter into Gravan Seven, where an ambush claimed the lives of 11 of the squadron's 12 pilots; only Brevet Captain Myn Donos, the squadron leader, escaped the trap alive, although he was severely traumatized by the assault. The attack resulted in the decommission of the squadron.

Aware that the destruction of Talon Squadron would lead to an investigation into the intelligence leak, Trigit arranged for Petothel to abandon the Chyan Mezzine identity and rendezvous with him aboard Implacable, his Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Petothel covered her tracks sufficiently that her true identity was not discovered until after she left Mother Sea. New Republic Intelligence officials did eventually discover, however, that Chyan Mezzine was in fact Imperial Intelligence agent Gara Petothel. An arrest warrant was issued for Petothel and a bulletin was circulated among the New Republic military branches.

Service under Admiral Trigit
In 7.5 ABY, Petothel was assigned a commission as a data analyst on the crew pit of the Implacable's bridge, working directly under Trigit. She soon because one of Trigit's favorite officers based on her intelligence and performance, and the admiral even developed a physical attraction for Petothel and considered eventually proposing a sexual affair. Petothel took notice of his affections but made no attempt to return them. Nevertheless, she held a feeling of respect for Trigit, knowing that Isard, known for her impulsive ruthlessness, might have preferred to let Petothel die rather than risk bringing her back form Mother Sea as Trigit had.

However, Petothel decided to design a contingency plan in case her service under Trigit failed to work out. In researching the admiral, she discovered Aldivy, an agriworld in the Outer Rim Territories. Trigit bombarded New Oldtown, an Aldivy farming community, after it failed to provide him with supplies, and in doing so he killed nearly all of its residents. Among the dead were Lara Notsil, a farmgirl, of whom very little official records existed. Petothel replaced pictures, fingerprints, cellular coding and other record data for Notsil with that of her own, essentially taking the identity for herself. She studied the planet on Imperial surveys and other publicly available data, and studied the Aldivy accents, teaching herself to speak only bare traces of it in order to keep up the guise of a farmgirl who always longed to leave her home planet.

After conducting her own secret research on Implacable, Petothel illegally gained access to Trigit's personal headquarters and discovered his and discovered his secret personal escape pod. She devised a plan in which, in the event of Implacable's downfall, she would pose as Notsil and claim to have been kidnapped by the admiral after the New Oldtown bombardment and forced to serve as his unwilling mistress, kept in a state of submission by glitterstim and other drugs. She memorized HoloNet addressed that would allow her to reestablish communication with Zsinj, and stashed away a stolen pair of expensive lingerie, several datacards with other alternate identities and make-up in order to change her appearance if needed. Although she had no intention of using the Lara Notsil identity except in the case of an emergency, she resolved to make as little contact with Implacable crew as possible so they could not identify her in the event of a New Republic capture.

Petothel quickly proved herself a valuable asset to Trigit, who immediately tasked her with analyzing information gathered by Morrt-class parasite-droids, small, box-shaped droids that attached themselves to the hulls of New Republic starships and tracked their movements as part of Trigit's Project Morrt. The data led Trigit to attack a New Republic starfighter training base on Folor, but just as the battle began, it was Petothel who analyzed the planetary data and determined the location of mining facilities most suitable for New Republic occupation were on the exact opposite side of the moon from where the base reportedly stood. From this analysis, Trigit was able to determine that beacons and other electronics were activated remotely by Wraith Squadron, the New Republic's newest starfighter squadron, in a deliberate attempt to draw the Imperials away from the base. Although the successful Wraith tactic prevented Trigit from inflicting as much damage as possible, it was Petothel's intelligence work that allowed him to turn his attention and resources back to the actual base.

A few weeks later, Petothel made a similar discovery in her analysis that arguably saved Implacable and its crew from capture or destruction at the Battle of Talasea. As Trigit's fleet was in hyperspace en route to Talasea, a planet in the Morobe system where Project Moort information indicated surviviors from Folor Base had congregated, Petothel analyzed the data and discovered almost all of it was coming from the same Morrt droid units had been compromised and their information deliberately falsified. Petothel notified Trigit that the fleet was heading for a trap, allowing the admiral to drop his flagship from hyperspace prematurely. The quick action furthered Petothel's standing with Trigit, even though the discovery came too late to save other ships in the fleet, including the escort frigate Provocateur and corvette Constrictor, from the ambush orchestrated by Wraith Squadron.

Betraying Admiral Trigit
Petothel last served under Trigit at the Battle of Ession, an attempt to use the Pakkerd Light Transport on ession as bait to destroy New Republic starfighter forces, including Rogue and Wraith Squadrons. Implacable was quickly placed on the defense, however, when the battle proved to be a trap designed by Wraith Squadorn to eliminate the Star Destroyed. Petothel demonstrated her usual skill and usefulness during the initial stages of the battle, such as when she accurately determined and reported to Trigit that Red Feathers, an old container ship, was actually a disguised delivery mechanism for sending three starfighter squadrons and Katarn Commandos to the planet's surface.

Implacable's shield generator domes and bridge transparisteel viewport were destroyed during the battle due to fire from Atril Tabanne, a former Imperial TIE pilot leading Wraith Squadron's TIE contingent. While most of the bridge deck crew were sucked into space, Petothel was among the minority, including Trigit, who crawled their way through into the safety of the ship's security foyer. As the crew struggled to continue operating the ship, Petothel was forced to assume some of the duties of her fallen crew members, including coordinating the fleet's TIE squadrons for the battle. As she performed these tasks, Petothel discovered that something had infiltrated the Implacable power cell and was methodically destroying each cell. Although she did not realize the source of this destruction was Wraith pilot Falynn Sandskimmer, she correctly deduced that the action would ultimately lead to the ship's destruction.

Petothel reported this information to Trigit and advised surrendering in order to save the 35,000 crew members. But the admiral refused to allow the New Republic to capture and use his flagship, and instead opted to sacrifice both the ship and its crew. Trigit himself, however, planned to escape via his personal, hyperspace-capable TIE interceptor, and offered Petothel one of its two escort interceptors so she could save herself. Inwardly, Petothel was furious that Trigit would allow thousands of loyal soldiers to die, and disgusted at the lack of personal honor in secretly acting to save himself while his crew sacrificed themselves. This line of thinking contradicted her earlier Imperial Intelligence training to disregard negative connotations of treachery, and showed one of Petothel's earliest breaks from her Imperial upbringing; although taught to disregard personal honor, Petothel consciously decided to orchestrate Trigit's death due to his lack of such honor.

She pretended to be unable to pilot a starfighter and told Trigit she would rather die with the rest of the crew than risk New Republic capture. The admiral felt a genuine sense of loss for Petothel, but nevertheless activated the ship's self-destruct. Once Trigit fled, however, Petothel secretly transmitted a message to the New Republic informing them of the admiral's escape attempt. Thanks ultimately to Petothel's information, Trigit and his escorts were killed by Myn Donos, now serving as a Wraith pilot, and General Edor Crespin, former Folor Base commander.

Petothel also transmitted a message to the Implacable crew informing them the ship's power and ordering them to abandon ship, saving thousands of lives. Finally, she retrieved her Lara Notsil disguise and identity and went to Trigit's now-unguarded personal chambers. After putting on the lingerie and disguising herself as the admiral's unwilling mistress, she injected herself with enough drugs to give the appearance of a prisoner, but a small enough amount to keep her clear-headed enough to fulfill her deception. She then used Trigit's private escape pod to flee Implacable just before it's destruction.

Approach by Wraith Squadron
Gara Petothel was presumed dead and officially declared among those killed aboard Implacable in New Republic records. In fact, Petothel, now under the identity of Lara Notsil, ended up in a military hospital on Borleias, a planet in the Pyria system where the New Republic established a fighter training base. During previous missions as an Imperial Intelligence spy, Petothel distanced herself from any Rebel staff members, but her days in the hospital was the first time she spent actually interacting with New Republic personnel. She found they were different from the undisciplined, unrestrained people she was taught they were during her training, but she believed this was due to recuperating from serious injuries and thought little of it. One of the people Notsil met during her hospitalization was Ton Phanan, a doctor and pilot of Wraith Squadron who lost his spleen during the Battle of Ession. The two spoke for some time talking, and Phanan became smitten with Lara Notsil.

Notsil was soon transferred to Coruscant for further debriefing. She provided a significant amount of information about Apwar Trigit, including scandalous, fictional details of her captivity and Trigit's horrible mistreatment of her. She pretended to be severly damaged and traumatized by Trigit, and used her lingering anger with him for sacrificing his crew to feed her performance. The New Republic interrogators believed everything she told them and, whereas most Implacable survivors became military prisoners after their escape, Notsil was released without being charged with any crimes.

Upon her release, Petothel had every intention of shedding the Lara Notsil identity and reentering service under Warlord Zsinj as soon as possible. She rented an inexpensive and inconspicuous warren in the fortieth floor of a Coruscanti building and took a job as an information processor for a shipping company. During her brief time in the job, she was able to accumulate a great deal of information about different worlds, companies and planetary officials, but the main purpose of her employment was to gain Holonet access. She programed both Imperial and Rebel holos to provide incorrect information about Gara Petothel, then designed a code program that would allow her to send New Republic data to Zsinj without leaving any trace that it came from her.

Before establishing contact with Zsinj, however, she was visited at her Coruscant dwelling by Phanan and fellow Wraith pilot Garik "Face" Loran, the child star she had been infatuated with in her youth. The two Wraiths were seeking to disrupt the illegal activities of Colonel Atton Repness, a New Republic training officer who manipulated test scores of struggling pilots, then blackmailed them into helping him steal starfighters and equipment, which he then sold on the black market. Since Repness specifically targeted attractive female pilots, Phanan recalled Notsil from his time in the hospital and felt she would be perfect for the job; Phanan also knew she still harbored aggression toward Trigit, and felt it could be channeled against the corrupt clonel. Loran and Phanan asked to sponsor Notsil for pilot training, purposely do poorly and help them catch Repness in the act.

Notsil immediately saw an opportunity to infiltrate one of Wedge Antilles' pilot squadrons, thus giving her the chance to either provide sensitive information to Zsinj or to kill the famed commander, either of which would increase her standing in the warlord's eyes. Notsil initially refused Phanan and Loran's request, insisting that she had dreamed of becoming a pilot ever since operating farm skimmers on Aldivy, and that taking this job would brand her a traitor and ruin her chances of becoming a New Republic pilot. In response, the two Wraith pilots promised her the chance to join one of Antilles' squadrons, just as she hoped. She agreed to the task, and Loran began the process to enter her into pilot training.

Phanan and Loran later explained the scheme to Antilles, who disliked the idea but agreed to allow it, under the condition that he would not accept Notsil into one of his squadrons unless she passed his own evaluation and lived up to his standards, both for pilot skills and character. Simultaneously, Notsil contacted Warlord Zsinj and offered her covert services to him, informing him she expected to soon gain access to one Antilles as one of his pilots. Zsinj, vaguely familiar with Gara Petothel through her work with Trigit, expressed interest in her services, but did not discount the possibility that she had been captured and was being used by the New Republic to flush him out and capture him. He ordered Melvar, his top General, to research Petothel, independently verify her information and learn her real loyalties before committing any resources to her.

Exposing Atton Repness
Lara Notsil trained under Captain Sormic, who nicknamed her "Deadstick Notsil" due to her poor abilities and test scores. She deliberately performed far below her actual abilities, and she was surprised to realize she was secretly bothered by the fact that she wasn't able to do as well as she could. Although she could fly better than most of her classmates, Notsil would fall into traps she knew were coming and make mistakes that she would never make as a real pilot. Sormic suggested she switch her concentration to astronautics or communications, where she earned excellent scores, but Notsil insisted she wanted to be a pilot. Unbeknownst to the captain, Notsil reprogrammed one of the simulation machines not to record her performance, and would fly her missions again to great success when nobody was watching.

It was during this New Republic training that her good and infallible perception of the Galactic Empire began to crack. Although she was trained to consider her classmates enemies, Notsil found herself becoming charmed by their kindness and enthusiasm. Some of the students, like her group leader Lowan, insulted her to the point that she imagined vaping them in a dogfight. But others, like her Sullustan wingmate Lussatte were so kind that she dreaded the thought of one day fighting them. Lussatte in particular challenged her prior teachings, which taught her that aliens were inferior to humans. Notsil nevertheless tried to shake these lingering doubts and concentrate on her mission for Zsinj.

As expected, Atton Repness had been monitoring Notsil's performance and determined she was perfect for his operation. She was subsequently transferred to his Screaming Wookiee Squadron, a remedial Y-wing training squad considered by most pilots as a "last resort" for pilots on the verge of washing out. She trained aboard the Nebulon-B Frigate Tedevium, where her scores began to improve, although she knew this was owed to Repness manipulating her simulation results. Notsil also continued involuntarily bonding with such fellow students as Bickey, an eager and boyish young pilot far unlike any TIE pilot candidates she had ever known.

Shortly after her arrival, Notsil broke into Repness's private office and discovered his cylindrical comlink-like device, which he used to detect and block any nearby listening devices or eavesdropping equipment. She altered the device so it would instead record conversations and send them to an account in the Tedevium main computer, which she could later access herself. Two days later, Petothel was summoned by Repness, who used the device and unwittingly recorded their conversation. Repness revealed that he had been altering her scores and revealed to Notsil his black market operation, to which she feigned great shock. He then offered to continue improving her scores if she agreed to take an A-wing on a simple training mission at an uninhabited planet and fake the starfighter's destruction. Repness would then sell the intact A-wing on the black market.

Notsil agreed to consider the request, then returned to her headquarters to make sure the conversation had been properly recorded. In fact, the rigged recorded picked up far more evidence against Repness than she expected, including conversations with subordinates like training Captain Teprimal about how to hide and sell the stolen A-wing. The paranoid colonel even used the device when working alone at his computer terminal and, due to his tendency to speak aloud, the recordings included passwords and secret account names that gave Notsil access to evidence about all his stolen Tedevium goods and meetings with fellow conspirators.

Among the evidence was a complete list of all the pilot candidates Repness confronted with his scheme. The list included pilots who refused to participate and were blackmailed into silence (like Wraith Squadron pilot Tyria Sarkin) as well pilots who agreed to join the team, although the notes did not indicate which ones did so reluctantly. Notsil thought of the candidates hse had bonded with like Bickey and Lussatte, as well as her own childhood wish to become a pilot, and decided she did not want to expose the pilots and ruined their careers. She destroyed the evidence specifically about the pilots even though she knew doing it would have inflicted damage to the New Republic, her sworn enemy, thus demonstrating another early break from her Imperial training and loyalties.

Rather than contact Loran and Phanan and reveal that they had set up Repness, she instead decided to submit an anonymous message to Director of New Republic Intelligence Airen Cracken, along with all the recordings, accounts and passwords she discovered. Since her computer skills were unknown to her New Republic trainers, she pretended the message was from a mysterious (and fictional) code slicer named White Lancer in order to distance herself from the message; Notsil added random spelling and grammatical errors to the message in order to further distance herself.

Once the message was sent, Notsil confronted and insulted Repness, refusing to participate in his plan and threatening to expose him. Although Repness threatened to end her flying career, Notsil said she would rather suffer that fate than live without honor, and she was surprised to realize she truly believe it, despite her Imperial Intelligence training to forget such notions as honor. But Repness surprised Notsil by punching her in the face and knocking her unconscious. He then drugged her out of commission, made her a prisoner in the Tedevium infirmary and planned to modify her records to give her the pattern of a compulsive liar, so that her claims about his black market scheme would appear to be a lie she concocted after failing out of pilot training.

Notsil's message reached Cracken, however, and the New Republic Intelligence Service placed Repness under arrest before he could inflict any more harm upon Notsil. When she regained consciousness, she told her superior officers that Repness attacked her after she refused to participate in his black market operation, although she did not reveal that she sent the message to Cracken in the first place. Once again, New Republic Intelligence believed her story and filed no charges against her. Notsil further claimed that confronting Repenss helped her work through some of the psychological issues she continued to suffer since the destruction of her Aldivy farm colony and asked for a second chance in her pilot training.

Assignment to Wraith Squadron
Her trainers agreed to put Notsil through an advanced training regiment, for which Notsil no longer held back her true piloting abilities. She did so well that even averaging her old scores with her new scores, she not only qualified as a pilot but was eligible for one of Wedge Antilles elite starfighter squadrons, even without any meddling from Loran and Phanan. She put in for a transfer to Rogue or Wraith Squadron and, although both were at full capacity, Antilles accepted her to the latter squad to boost their compliment of snubfighters aboard the Calamari Cruiser Mon Remonda. Edor Crespin, the new commander of the Tedevium, gave Repness's personal X-wing to Notsil as an act of partial revenge against the disgraced colonel. He also gave her Tonin, Repness's R2-series astromech droid, a top of the line model brand new from the factory.

Notsil immediately notified Zsinj of her assignment, and the warlord ordered her to deliver the Remonda course and schedule. He planned to use Notsil to kill Han Solo, the famed New Republic general who was using Remonda as the flagship of his task force hunting down Zsinj. The fleet included both Rogue and Wraith Squadrons, so Notsil would be particularly close to Zsinj's greatest enemies. If she was successful in this task, Zsinj planned to give her any position she wanted, including command of his own flagship, the Executor-class Super Star Destroyer Iron Fist.

Notsil was transferred to the Remonda as a temporary third member of an existing X-wing pair with Antilles and Loran. She was assigned the call sign Wraith Thirteen and shared a pilots quarters with Tyria Sarkin. Notsil did her best to appear friendly and makes jokes in order to fit in with the fellow pilots, although she planned to resist bonding with them, as she had in all her previous missions. Antilles revealed Notsil's part in exposing Repness to Rogue and Wraith Squadrons, the pilots of whom were very impressed with what seemed a promising start to a young career; Sarkin, in particular, was moved by Notsil's example to reveal to Antilles her own associations with Repness, although the commander ultimately chose not to reveal them to his superior officers.

Switching allegiances
Lara Notsil's first mission with Wraith Squadron was the Battle of Lavisar. Zsinj had been leaking what New Republic Intelligence believed was false information that the warlord controlled the neutral planet of Lavisar in an attempt to draw the New Republic to attack it, allowing Zsinj to come to the planet's defense and be viewed by Lavisar as a hero. The Wraiths were to stage a failed assault on the planet and retreat without killing anybody, with the exception of self-defense against any Zsinj forces. Notsil was familiar with Lavisar from her job as an information processor on coruscant. She informed Antilles that Carmal, governor of Lavisar, enjoyed sunfruit liqueur and suggested presenting it to him as a gift, impressing tthe squadrons with her Notsil's trick memory and making the first of many intelligence- and planning-related contributions to Wraith missions.

Almost immediately upon meeting the Rogue and Wraith Squadron pilots, Notsil found her Imperial instilled notions of New Republic staff to be challenged. Although she had been taught that New Republic pilots were wild and unrestrained, but these pilots showed no disappointment at being forbidden from killing enemies during the mission, a restriction that would have infuriated TIE pilots. Instead, the Rogues and Wraiths seemed to truly care about Notsil and each other, and Antilles paid a personal attention to her that she seldom experienced among her previous instructors and superior officers. She felt for the first time that she was trusted among her peers, and found herself craving more of that feeling; she also noticed with some alarm that in her mind, she was now referring to them as members of the "New Republic," not "Rebels." She began to suspect that Imperial evaluations of the New Republic and its staff were either wrong or purposefully propagandized, but she nevertheless tried to ban such treasonous thoughts from her mind.

The mission proved to provide many internal conflicts for Notsil. First, Notsil considered gunning down both Loran and Antilles, the latter of which she knew would do tremendous damage to New Republic morale. Although her Imperial Intelligence training would have encouraged her to take the shot, Notsil decided shooting them in cold blood would be too dishonorable, especially given the fact that Antilles and his pilots had already demonstrated respect and trust for her in their short time together. As the Wraiths approached Laviar, Notsil had Tonin scan normal Imperial frequencies, and overheard chatter among TIE pilots about an Imperial garrison moving from a lunar station to intercept the Wraiths. Notsil considered allowing the Imperials to ambush the Wraiths, but instead informed Antilles about the impending attack, allowing the squadron to better prepare for the ambush.

Notsil particularly dreaded the idea of facing her fellow Imperials in battle, and wondered whether destroying some of the TIEs would hurt her standing with Zsinj. However, upon confirmation that Lavisar was indeed independent and Zsinj was trying to trying the New Republic into attacking it, Notsil realized Zsinj was equally dishonorable and treacherous as Apwar Trigit when he opted to sacrifice his crew. When the time came to engage against the TIEs, Notsil ultimately decided she could no longer serve Zsinj and shot one of the Imperial pilots down; her internal conflict over the action was further perpetuated by the fact that Tonin had not stopped monitoring the Imperial frequencies and she actually heard the slain Imperial scream.

After the successful mission, Notsil returned to the Mon Remonda and was embraced and congratulated by her fellow pilots. Among them, she felt a sense of belonging that she had not previously felt since before the deaths of her parents, and realized in that moment that she could no longer serve Warlord Zsinj and wished to remain with Wraith Squadron. She decided to try to remain within the identity of Lara Notsil and forget her previously life as Gara Petothel. Over the course of the next few days, Notsil became further addicted to the feeling of trust she got from her squadmates and, although she still felt tense and out of place herself, the Wraiths found her quick-witted and good company. Ton Phanan even developed a physical attraction to her, although his advances went mostly unnoticed by Notsil.

New Republic
After the death of Castin Donn, she served as the Wraith's replacement code slicer. Lara's constant changing of identities came to haunt her. She began to accept the Wraiths and truly appreciate their inclusion of her as a "member of the family." However, Zsinj discovered her and sent a message using the real Lara Notsil's brother. During her visit to Aldivy, the home planet of the real Lara Notsil, she caused the death of the brother and one of Zsinj's agents in order to maintain her identity.

Later, Wraith Squadron pilot Myn Donos expressed his attraction to her. Lara, after initially attempting to dissuade him, found herself drawn to him. However, she was haunted by the fact that she had arranged the destruction of Talon Squadron, formerly Myn Donos's command. Eventually the two became romantically involved. However, Garik Loran noticed Coruscant upbringing in her actions and put in a request to New Republic Intelligence for further information.

Warlord Zsinj
During a mission at Kidriff 5, Loran found out about Lara's identity and attempted to keep her out of the fight. He told her that he knew she was Gara Petothel, forgetting that he was speaking over the squadron frequency. Myn Donos, already prone to post-traumatic stress disorder following the destruction of Talon Squadron, suffered a relapse and flew after her. Loran moved in between but Donos fired, hitting Loran's X-wing. He survived due to Donos's premature explosion of the torpedo. Lara, however, after realizing that as she could no longer assume the guise of Lara Notsil nor truly return to her true identity as Gara Petothel, decided that she would turn back to her old identity of Kirney Slane.

Kirney made her way to Zsinj and was given a position aboard the Super Star Destroyer Iron Fist. Along with her astromech droid Tonin, she began to sabotage the ship. After a New Republic ambush, Kirney was able to sabotage Iron Fist's hyperdrive and drop it out of hyperspace prematurely. She was able to send word to General Han Solo about Zsinj's location. During her escape, she freed some alien test subjects, including an Ewok named Kolot who could pilot starships. She sent them on a landing shuttle while she took her X-wing to join up with the Wraiths in pursuit of Zsinj's fake 181st Imperial Fighter Group. She saved Wedge Antilles's life, but her fighter was shot down. After faking her death, she sent a message to Myn Donos a few days later from Kirney Slane, telling him that she had teamed up with an unusual co-pilot&mdash;almost certainly Kolot&mdash;and started a shuttle service on Corellia, and she was hoping that Myn would see her. Decades later, at the outbreak of the Corellian War, a company known as Donoslane Excursions was operating out of the Coronet area; it can be assumed that this was the result of "Kirney" and Myn's eventual pairing, as business partners at least, although there are indications that Kolot rather than Myn remained the co-pilot of Kirney's personal shuttle.

Behind the scenes
X-wing: Solo Command author Aaron Allston has stated on his website and in chats that, following the conclusion of the Zsinj campaign, Myn and "Kirney" most likely did get together on Corellia, as Betrayal seems to indicate.

The name Notsil happens to be Liston spelled backwards, the last name of Wes Janson actor Ian Liston. However, Liston said that according to Aaron Allston, it was just a coincidence.

Appearances

 * X-wing: Wraith Squadron
 * X-wing: Iron Fist
 * X-wing: Solo Command
 * Betrayal