Qorl

"We’re not out of this yet. Twice I’ve been shot down on Yavin Four. My luck’s not so good when it comes to getting out of this system."

- Qorl

Qorl was a TIE Fighter pilot stationed on the Death Star, who was shot down during the Battle of Yavin. Crashing on Yavin 4, he eked out an existence in the jungle, until encountering the Solo children and other Jedi trainees 23 years later. After successfully espacing the moon, the linked up with the Second Imperium splinter movement, training their pilots and leading an assault on the jungle moon.

Shot down a second time, Qorl returned to the jungle where he would live undisturbed until the Yuuzhan Vong War once again brough him into contact with a Solo, this time Anakin, and together they escaped the moon.

Imperial service
Qorl was a TIE Fighter pilot serving in the Imperial forces assigned to the Death Star I, with the designation CE3K-1977. According to the account he gave to Jacen and Jaina Solo in 23 ABY, one of the solar panels of his TIE Fighter was badly damaged in the dogfight at the Battle of Yavin, and his controllers instructed him to make an emergency landing on Yavin 4 and await rescue: shortly after his crash-landing, however, he witnessed the Death Star explode in the sky.

This account contains a number of problems. Most notably, Qorl claimed that all of the Death Star's fighter squadrons were launched against the Rebels, when in fact, the only Imperial fighter unit deployed against the Alliance snubfighters during the battle was Darth Vader's elite escort unit, Black Squadron. Additionally, it might be questioned whether flight controllers would direct a pilot to land on Yavin 4 when it was the Death Star's target (unless they did not actually intend to rescue him), or whether the explosion of the Death Star, which took place just after the battle station had cleared the horizon of the gas-giant Yavin, would have been visible from the surface. With regards to Qorl's identity, it should also be noted that on the morning after the Battle of Yavin, Luke Skywalker's X-wing encountered a surviving TIE Fighter from the Death Star, with a battle-damaged port steering rocket. After a brief dogfight, Luke rammed the TIE's left-hand solar panel&mdash;where Qorl's ship later exhibited its worst damage&mdash;and both ships crash-landed in the jungle on Yavin 4; this may have also been the TIE crash which killed Rebel naturalist Dr'uun Unnh.

After extricating themselves from their downed craft, Luke and the pilot battled in the jungle, but in the end, the young Rebel found that he was unable to kill the Imperial, and simply left him there when he was rescued himself.

Taking all the evidence into account, it seems most likely that Qorl was a pilot from Black Squadron, whose TIE survived the battle with minor damage, only to be brought down the next day by Luke. If so, it remains uncertain why he subsequently lied about his role in the battle to the Solo twins&mdash;but it may be that after decades in the jungle, his memories had been reshaped by his mantra-like adherence to his Imperial conditioning; alternatively, he might have learned of the twins' connection to Luke and Vader through spying on the Jedi trainees, and chosen to conceal the extent of his knowledge of their family from them.

Despite his injuries&mdash;including serious damage to his left arm&mdash;Qorl managed to survive for more than two decades in the moon’s jungles, obeying his last orders to remain near the crash and await rescue.

Second Imperium
In 23 ABY, Qorl's downed TIE Fighter was discovered by the Jedi trainees Lowbacca, Tenel Ka, Jacen and Jaina Solo. Jaina eagerly seized the opportunity to dabble in mechanics, and with her friends' help, she set out to repair the damaged starfighter and fit it with a new hyperdrive. The young Jedi had no idea that the TIE's pilot had survived, but when Qorl discovered the Solo twins working on his craft, he saw an opportunity to escape. He decided to bide his time and wait for them to complete the repairs while he kept an eye on their progress.

The repairs to the fighter were almost complete when Jacen, scavenging for wreckage in the jungle around the crash-site, stumbled upon the hollowed-out tree that had been Qorl's home for the past 20 years. The old pilot responded by kidnapping Jacen and Jaina at blaster-point, and trying to kill Lowbacca and Tenel Ka as they fled.

Qorl forced his prisoners to finish the repairs to his fighter, and in the meantime, he learned from them of the events of the last twenty-three years, including the downfall of the Empire at Endor and the fact that in the wake of the peace between the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire, there were still a few loyal holdouts left in the Deep Core.

When the repairs were complete, Qorl attempted to destroy the Great Temple, but he was unsuccessful because he hadn't checked whether his weapon systems were still functional. He left Yavin 4 for the Deep Core and found the Shadow Academy, run by the Dark Jedi Brakiss. Qorl gave his report, noting his encounter with the Solo twins. Brakiss extrapolated from this that Luke Skywalker was now training a new generation of Jedi, who could be more easily indoctrinated into following the dark side of the Force than the adults who he had trained with during his brief stay at the Praxeum.

After joining the cause of the Second Imperium, Qorl's injured left arm was removed and he was fitted with a bulky mechanical prosthetic from the shoulder down. He liked the new arm since it gave him more strength. He later embarked on his first mission for the Second Imperium, piloting the assault shuttle that was the key to the success of the raid on GemDiver Station.

Qorl had profound misgivings about the fact that Brakiss and his assistant instructor Tamith Kai used lethal means to determine which trainees were worth training. However, from his point of view, he was just a pilot and no one listened to him. Serving his Empire was what he viewed to be right. However, these doubts led him to help the Solo twins and Lowbacca escape from the Shadow Academy. In the end, he reasoned that the new students were far more trouble than they were worth. If Brakiss and Tamith Kai knew of his role in the escape of the young Jedi, they did not let it be known.

Since it was inevitable that a New Republic fleet would investigate the area from which Skywalker and his students had fled, it was of extreme importance that the Shadow Academy be relocated. After the danger of detection was gone, the Shadow Academy moved near the heart of the beast&mdash;Coruscant.

During the short period of time during which the Shadow Academy was conducting operations in the Coruscant system Qorl would be put in command of a raid on the New Republic bulk cruiser Adamant. Save for the minimal casualties that were inflicted upon the stormtrooper squad that Qorl had commanded, the operation was flawless.

During the raid, Qorl would grapple with Admiral Ackbar, who he knocked unconscious thanks to his prosthetic arm. Though he was victorious, Qorl could not stomach the idea of killing unconscious enemies, so he had the bridge crew of the Adamant put into an escape pod. The Adamant would jump into hyperspace and then later dock with the Shadow Academy, where the weapons and equipment would be unloaded and used to build the Second Imperium's fleet.

Qorl’s tenure with the Second Imperium ended dramatically when, during a battle over Yavin 4, he was once again shot down to the moon below. Once again presumed dead by the Second Imperium, he was content to live out the rest of the rest of his life in solitary quiet. The Solo twins and Luke Skywalker found out about the harmless hermit's whereabouts. Nevertheless, they let him live peacefully in the forests of Yavin. From time to time, the pilot Peckhum would provide Qorl with the most necessary supplies, though in 24 ABY Qorl thanked Peckhum for his services and asked him not to come back.

The Yuuzhan Vong War
"You won't give old Qorl any trouble."

- Anakin Solo

And yet, it seemed that Qorl’s path was inexorably intertwined with those of the Solo children. In 26 ABY, in the midst of the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Peace Brigade learned of the location of Skywalker’s Jedi Praxeum and (desiring to collect on the galaxy-wide bounty on Jedi called for by Tsavong Lah) attacked the Jedi training site. After the initial attack by the Peace Brigaders, Anakin Solo managed to escape the training grounds in a stolen freighter along with Valin Horn, Sannah, and the hostage Brigader pilot Remis Vehn. The freighter, however, crashed deeper into the jungle, and Anakin began to lead a salvage mission to repair the ship so they could flee the planet.

The next morning Anakin was jarred awake by a bedraggled old man who introduced himself to the youngest Solo as Qorl. Anakin instantly recognized the old Imperial pilot from stories his old siblings had told him. Anakin took to Qorl immediately and put him in charge of watching Vehn, as well as coordinating the repair of the freighter, while Anakin set out to rescue Tahiri from her captivity by the Vong on the moon. Qorl and Remis quickly became friends.

After Anakin had rescued Tahiri, the two were evacuated from the Shapers’ base by Qorl in the repaired Peace Brigade frigate. Though the flight away from Yavin was perilous, the group managed to flee from the grasp of the Yuuzhan Vong forces on the moon.

Behind the scenes
Qorl was created by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, although he may have been meant from the outset to be identified as the Imperial pilot who had appeared much earlier in The Day After the Death Star. This comic strip by Archie Goodwin and Carmine Infantino originally appeared in January 1980 in Marvel UK's Star Wars Weekly #97-99; it was reprinted in 1981's Star Wars: Marvel Illustrated Book #1; a version is available online here.

Qorl's designation "CE3K-1977," is likely a reference to Steven Spielberg's movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. CE3K is an acronym of the title and 1977 was the year that the movie was released. The reference is, of course, appropriate to the Solo twins' "close encounter" with Qorl&mdash;who in terms of his psychology and attitudes, is utterly alien to them.

Appearances

 * "The Day after the Death Star"
 * Young Jedi Knights: The Rise of the Shadow Academy
 * Edge of Victory I: Conquest