Liak

"His people are tree-dwellers; he can find his way through any strange maze of branches with never a wrong turn. For some reason it works on space stations as well. We don't understand it, but we don't argue with it."

- Melenna Seltrayne, on Liak and Wookiees

A male Wookiee from Kashyyyk, Liak joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic when his friend Zherriak was killed during an Imperial slave raid. Small for his species, he was a member of Koris Haslam's commando team that participated in several missions for the Alliance. Because of his intricate knowledge of jungles, space stations, and other compounds, he was selected to participate in the rescue of Gebnerret Vibrion from an Imperial prison on Selnesh, during which time he acted as a prisoner accused of smuggling and Rebel sympathies.

Biography
"We infiltrate the center incognito&mdash;Melenna, Liak, you’re the prisoners; standard-smugglers-suspected-of-rebel-sympathies scenario."

- Koris Haslam

The male Wookiee Liak grew up on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, where he lived in the jungle's upper levels. He became good friends with the Wookiee Zherriak, with whom he swore an honor bond, and the two frequently hunted together.

When Liak was about middle-aged by his species's standards, the Galactic Empire, the dominant galactic government, came to Kashyyyk on a slave raid. Zherriak was killed, and Liak and several other Wookiees were taken captive. However, before they could be forced into slavery, the surviving Wookiees managed to overpower the Imperials and capture their starship. Most of the survivors returned to Kashyyyk to resume their lives, but Liak, determined to take revenge on those who had killed his friend, turned to the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

After becoming a commando in a team commanded by the Human Lieutenant Koris Haslam, Liak was selected along with the commandos Melenna Seltrayne, Barsoulentinial Enkhet, Gowan Ch'lessan, and Doctor Aurin Leith to take part in a mission to rescue Rebel leader Gebnerret Vibrion from Imperial custody on the planet Selnesh. To infiltrate the Selnesh Imperial Detention Center, in which Vibrion was being held, Ch'lessan and Enkhet disguised themselves as Imperial stormtroopers, while Liak and Seltrayne played the part of captured smugglers with suspected ties to the Rebellion. Doctor Leith was to assume the role of an ignorant passenger taking transit to the planet Sestooine with the two smugglers. Liak's sense of direction was called upon for the mission, as his instinctive ability to navigate through the jungles of his homeworld also mysteriously applied to the complex corridors space stations and other structures.

After four days in hyperspace, the group reached Selnesh, and Liak, Seltrayne, and Leith were put in binder cuffs before the ship landed in a docking bay in the Imperial prison. Once the group was inside the prison's central computer bank, Halsam, impersonating an Imperial officer, ushered out the Imperials on duty under the pretense that he needed to interrogate the smugglers. When the Imperials left, the binders were removed, and the team located Vibrion's cell. Liak, prepared to help in any way necessary, stayed at Leith's side while she gave Vibrion several doses of revitalizing drugs. However, when Haslam grew worried that the Imperials were beginning to suspect that something was amiss, he ordered Liak to open the door to the access tunnel through which the group planned to make their escape. Once the door was open and Vibrion was able to walk, Liak, unable to stand fully upright in the short and narrow tunnel, led the team toward the docking bay. Once they reached the end of the tunnel, Liak gave the others a signal to stay silent while he prepared to toss a concussion grenade into the bay. However, several Imperial stormtroopers had followed the group into the tunnel, and a firefight broke out. While the others defended against the Imperials behind them, Liak threw the grenade into the bay, and the team ran to the ship and subsequently escaped the planet with no casualties.

Behind the scenes
Liak's only appearance to date is in the short story "Do No Harm", written by Erin Endom and illustrated by Christopher Trevas. "Do No Harm" was originally published in May of 1996 in Star Wars Adventure Journal 10, which included statistics on several characters, including Liak, for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. The story was later reprinted in the short story anthology Tales from the Empire in 1997 and archived online in Star Wars Hyperspace in 2006.