Wyl Tarson

"&hellip;I wanted to remind you of something. That when the moment of truth comes&hellip; you are at the mercy of greater powers&hellip;  you cannot save yourself.  You are not a hero, Wyl Tarson."

- Raze to Wyl Tarson.

Wyl Tarson was an undercover agent for the Alliance to Restore the Republic who infiltrated the organization of the crimelord Raze. During the course of his employ in Raze's organization, Tarson became one of Raze's top lieutenants and used his trusted position to transmit useful information to the Alliance&mdash;without Raze's knowledge.

When Raze finally caught Tarson stealing his hard-earned information, Raze had a bomb and transmitter planted in Tarson's skull. As further punishment Tarson was sent on what Raze considered to be a suicide mission to the planet Ahakista.

Early life
"We have to stop them, Wyl. Me and you. Are you ready?"

- Ved Tarson to Wyl Tarson, regarding the Imperial Juggernauts that they were fighting at the time.



Little is known about Wyl Tarson's early life, other than that he and his brother Ved Tarson were resistance fighters against the Galactic Empire, operating as zone runners on an unidentified planet in the Outer Rim Territories. Wyl was considerably less confident than his older brother who he looked up to.

For reasons unknown, one particular incident during Wyl's time as a zone runner would come back to haunt him. While he, Ved and an unidentified companion of theirs were attacking a group of Juggernauts, the unidentified man's explosives exploded and threw Wyl in the path of one of the advancing Juggernauts. Ved had survived the explosion and rescued Wyl by throwing one of his satchels into the path of the Juggernaut and shielding Wyl from the explosion.

Ved had been knocked off of his feet. Not knowing whether Ved was alive or not, Wyl dragged his brother out of the fray. After recovering, Ved told Wyl that the two of them would have to stop the still-advancing Juggernauts and asked Wyl if he was ready to do so. Ved told Wyl that they could succeed only if they did it together. Advising his little brother to stay alive, Ved took off toward the nearest advancing Juggernaut. Wyl, however, was too afraid to follow. When he realized that his little brother was not with him, Ved stopped his run to look for him. In that instant, he was gunned down by the stormtroopers while Wyl wept behind his cover and apologized to Ved.

Rebel agent
"You want to talk about loyalty? We've worked together for five years and all that time you were spying for the Rebellion. You're a very good liar, Wyl."

- Laynara to Wyl Tarson.

Much later in his life, Wyl became a spy for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. In approximately 6 BBY, Tarson infiltrated Raze's organization and eventually became one of the crime lord's top lieutenants. During the next few years, Wyl became friends with Laynara, another of Raze's lieutenants. Despite their friendship, he did not tell her that he felt something more for her. Tarson also did not tell her that he was using his position in the organization to undermine it and help the Alliance.

Raze's business primarily involved the acquisition and selling (or in some cases exploitation) of information and Wyl was one of the people who had the job of sorting the data that poured in from Raze's agents across the galaxy. When he came across information regarding vulnerable Imperial convoys, Wyl would covertly transmit it to the Alliance. Raze was furious when this sort of thing happened, since he had designs of his own on the cargo that such convoys were carrying and could not make a profit if someone else captured the cargo.

Shortly after one particular instance of this, Wyl learned of (or rather had it pointed it out to him by Raze himself) a coded message that had been sent by an Imperial officer named Janek Sunber to Rebel hero Luke Skywalker. Wyl informed Tungo Li, his spymaster, of this development and Tungo Li told him to transmit the message to the Alliance Fleet. Wyl managed to fulfill his task without causing Raze's computer systems to find the destination of his transmission. However, the same could not be said for the prospect of him keeping his true allegiance secret from Raze.

Prisoner of Raze
"Time to pay for what you've done."

- Raze to Wyl Tarson.



After discovering that Wyl was an Alliance spy, Raze had him rendered unconscious and had a bomb implanted inside his skull. In addition to this, a comlink had been planted inside Wyl's ear, allowing Raze and him to communicate with each other. More importantly, the comlink gave Raze the ability to detonate the bomb if the need (or whim) arose.

Shortly after the surgery, Raze woke Wyl and informed him that he had discovered that Wyl was a spy. When Wyl had told him to get it over with and kill him, Raze answered cryptically that "it" had already been done. Later, Wyl woke up in his own bed and put down the earlier experience as a bad dream, but he noticed a new, unexplained, circular scar on the left-hand side of his forehead.

Wyl decided that it was time to leave Per Lupelo. On his way to the spaceport, Drybal and a group of Raze's enforcers tried to stop him from leaving, but Wyl stunned them and hurried to the ship. But he never made it. In addition to the bomb, an unidentified device that allowed Raze to render him unconscious (and cause him a lot of pain in the process) had also been implanted inside his skull. Raze taunted Wyl as Laynara rushed to his side and everything faded to black.

After Wyl woke up, Raze informed him about what had been done to him and the "new... relationship" that accompanied the bomb. Raze warned Wyl that any insubordination would result in the detonation of the bomb. He was also forbidden from telling anyone else about this new arrangement.

Mission to Ahakista
"I'm watching you, Tarson. And if I think for a second that you're selling us out&hellip; I'll take your head."

- Darca Nyl to Wyl Tarson

A short time later, Raze sent Wyl on a mission to Ahakista. Raze let on very little about the nature of the mission, except for the fact that Tarson was to meet with an associate of his named Sardoth, who would in turn brief him further. Laynara was also to accompany Wyl to Ahakista and return to Per Lupelo after giving a package to Sardoth.

Raze told Wyl that he would need to build a team of people who were "accustomed to infiltrating... precarious places". He allowed Wyl a certain degree of freedom with regard to the formation of this team, since he knew that Wyl was connected to the Alliance. He ominously added that he did not expect any of them to survive.

Tarson did not want to expose any agents who were actively working for the Alliance since he felt that this was a problem of his own making, so he chose only to recruit those agents who "the Rebellion doesn't want anymore". Their first stop was the house of Baco Par, who was reputed to be "one of the galaxy's best lockbreakers". When they entered the house, they found Baco passed out and drunk amid bottles and other junk that had accumulated on the floor.

Instead of waking Baco up and convincing him to accompany him, Wyl simply kidnapped Baco. He only woke up after they were on their way to their next destination. In two days, they reached it: a defunct Action series transport on a rain-soaked world.

After landing, the three of them entered the transport and were greeted by the sight of many wooden carvings and statuettes of a woman and a boy. Even though Wyl knew the identity of the person who had made the transport his home, he appeared to be mystified by the strange sight.

Shortly thereafter, the trio was attacked by their unwilling host, who wielded a red lightsaber. As their assailant held the lightsaber to Baco's throat, Wyl attempted to disarm him and was almost killed himself, if not for Laynara, who intervened by breaking a statuette of the woman and threatened to break more, unless he was willing to let Tarson talk to him. Wyl then took the opportunity to introduce Laynara and Par to the man, who he identified as Darca Nyl.

After an hour of talking and admitting that it would likely be a suicide mission, Tarson failed to convince Nyl to come along. Nyl believed that the Alliance would never have allowed Tarson to lead such a mission. More personally, Nyl did not trust Tarson with his life. Shortly before the three of them left, however, Nyl changed his mind and boarded Tarson's freighter and then they were off to Ahakista. However, Nyl saw fit to remind Wyl that he still did not trust him. He planned to kill Tarson if he even had the slightest suspicion that Wyl was betraying him or the others.

At the moment that he reverted the freighter from hyperspace, Wyl discovered that Raze had lied to him when he had described Ahakista as "a sleepy little backwater". In fact, the planet was in the middle of a civil war and the Empire had decided to intervene in the conflict in order to protect the government that it had installed there.

As Imperial TIE fighters threatened to turn the freighter into dust, Raze used this opportunity to torment Wyl. He waited until the last second to give Wyl the landing code that would keep the fighters from destroying the freighter. Upon landing at the Daystar Casino Wyl and his group were greeted by Sardoth, the business's proprietor. Tarson tried to fish for more details regarding the mission but Sardoth told them that he would apprise them of the details in the morning.

After Laynara delivered Raze's suitcase, Wyl allowed his suspicions to get the best of him and all but insulted Laynara for her loyalty to Raze. The argument did not end well. Laynara threatened to leave for Raze's headquarters the next morning and Raze taunted him about it. Instead of leaving for Per Lupelo, Laynara accompanied Wyl and the rest of his team to the briefing the next morning. Wyl thanked Laynara for not leaving and tried to apologize, but Laynara's manner toward him remained cold.

When they arrived at the meeting place, Wyl met Rasha Bex, an Imperial officer who was assisting them because she had asked Raze for information regarding the location of an imprisoned smuggler. He also met Dunlan, the leader of the local resistance movement. He then learned that his team's target was The Hub, a super computer that was responsible for coordinating the Imperial Fleet.

Tarson's team was to infiltrate the pyramid which housed the Hub by making their way though the tunnels beneath the it and then cracking a blast door that was guarded by a force field. The force field could only be deactivated if the pyramid's power grid was destroyed. According to Sardoth's plan this last part was to be handled by Dunlan and his people, who had the weaponry to destroy the power control station from outside the pyramid. Dunlan refused to do this and stormed out of the meeting. Hoping that he could somehow convince Dunlan to change his mind, Wyl followed him.

When he finally caught up to Dunlan, Tarson found the other man being threatened by Fenic, one of his followers. Fenic planned to collect the Imperial bounty that had been placed upon Dunlan's head and Dunlan encouraged him to do so. In spite of this, Fenic found he could not do this and Wyl ensured that he didn't have a change of heart at the last second by disarming and incapacitating him. Though Wyl had just saved Dunlan's life, Dunlan made clear to him that he was not going to change his mind. Wyl appeared to have decided that any further attempts to convince Dunlan would be fruitless and instead asked him how he would be willing to sacrifice his own life. Dunlan said that he was able to do so because he believed in the cause that he was fighting for.

When he returned to the hovel that served as their meeting place, Wyl came in just as Bex said that she was bailing out on his team. Wyl took exception to this and told Bex in no uncertain terms that she would never see BoShek again if she left. He then announced that they would begin their attack on The Hub immediately.

Wyl led Laynara, Baco, Nyl, and Sardoth into the tunnels that led to the Hub. After dispatching of the stormtrooper guards, Sardoth led them through the tunnels, eventually reaching the energy barrier that blocked the path to the door they needed to break through. As they waited for Bex to knock out the shield, Wyl began to despair realizing that whether he faced the Imperials or Raze after the mission, he was in a no-win scenario. Raze, still listening in, decided to give Wyl a painful reminder of his control over him using the implant. As Wyl lay writhing in agony, Laynara tried to reassure him about the mission and admitted that she had implanted the bomb into his head. She promised him that they would find a way out of their mutual debts to Raze together and kissed him, though Raze cut this short, giving Wyl another painful jolt.

After Dunlan managed to knock out the energy shield, Wyl, Laynara, and Baco proceeded on to the door leading to the Hub. At this point, Baco drew his blaster on Wyl, the stress of everything he had gone through after Wyl had kidnapped him finally getting to him. Laynara, however, managed to talk Baco down and the lock breaker soon had the doors open. Baco was shot a moment later by arriving Imperial stormtroopers. After Boca made him promise to get the Hub's information to the Rebellion, Wyl and Laynara entered the compound and Baco stayed behind, sealing the doors behind them.

Wyl and Laynara reached the Hub and Laynara prepped a device that would extract and transmit the data in the computer. At this point, Wyl tried to do the right thing and fulfill his promise to Baco by sending the transmission to the Rebel fleet. Raze, however, had other plans, again using the implant to inflict pain on Wyl. When Laynara threatened not to carry out the mission, Raze ceased the torture. The delay, however, gave the Imperials time to get through the blast door, incapacitating Laynara and surrounding her and Wyl. In spite of Raze's urgings, Wyl refused to activate the device that would transmit Raze his precious information, so Raze activated the bomb in Wyl's brain. Surprisingly, Wyl woke moments later to see Darth Vader standing over him, having temporarily deactivated the bomb. When Vader threatened to kill Laynara, Wyl surrendered all information he had about Raze as well as all information he had on the Rebellion's spy network. Appeased, Vader destroyed Raze's bomb and took Wyl into custody.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Rebellion 0: Crossroads
 * Star Wars Rebellion 2: My Brother, My Enemy, Part 2
 * Star Wars Rebellion 3: My Brother, My Enemy, Part 3
 * Star Wars Rebellion: The Ahakista Gambit

Notes and references
Wyl Tarson