Salikk

Salikk was a Gotal starship pilot who lived during the Clone Wars and the Imperial Era. During the Clone Wars, the Gotal homeworld of Antar 4 was occupied by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which settled numerous Koorivar, Gossam, and other pro-Separatist settlers. Salikk joined a resistance movement headed by the Republic Intelligence operative Berch Teller, which included both Gotal and Koorivar loyalists. The Antar 4 resistance waged guerrilla warfare against the Separatists until the end of the Clone Wars in 19 BBY.

Following the transformation of the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, Imperial forces led by Moff Wilhuff Tarkin initiated a violent purge known as the Antar Atrocity, which saw indiscriminate arrests, executions, and massacres. Many Gotal and Koorivar loyalists were killed. Salikk along with the Koorivar munitions and surveillance expert Cala were among the survivors of the Antar Atrocity who were spirited offworld by Teller, who despised the Empire and Tarkin for the killing of loyalists during the Antar Atrocity.

Salikk and Cala joined Berch Teller's rebel cell, which included other survivors and witnesses of the Antar Atrocity. Other key members included the former journalist Anora Fair, the Zygerrian film maker Hask Taff, the Mon Calamari starship engineer Dr. Artoz, and the information broker Knotts. The group opposed the Galactic Empire and harbored a special animosity for Tarkin, the architect of the Antar Atrocity.

For the next four years, Teller's insurgents accumulated a substantial arsenal of droid starfighters, warships, and communications equipment dating back to the Clone Wars era. They were aided by the Imperial Vice Admiral and Naval Intelligence Agency Director Dodd Rancit, who used his intelligence and underworld connections to supply the insurgents with equipment and weapons. Rancit was a rival of Tarkin who wanted to improve his standing in the Imperial Ruling Council. Salikk and his fellow insurgents remained unaware of the true identity of Teller's informant.

After a failed attack on Sentinel Base, Teller's insurgents embarked on a plot to steal Moff Tarkin's stealth corvette Carrion Spike. They intended to used the powerful corvette to attack Imperial targets across the galaxy and broadcast them as holovids in order to inspire a rebellion. Vice-Admiral Rancit helped the insurgents by using the discovery of a communications cache on the former Separatist world of Murkhana to lure Tarkin and Darth Vader there. While the Imperials were investigating the cache, Salikk along with Teller, Cala, Anora, Hask, and Dr. Artoz seized the Carrion Spike and escaped offworld with the ship.

Due to his piloting skills, Salikk was put in charge of piloting the Carrion Spike. While traveling through the edge of the Murkhana system, Salikk remarked that the ship flew herself. When Teller recounted Tarkin's exploits against pirates in the Seswenna sector, Salikk asked if the pirates were not acquainted with ion cannons. Teller explained that Tarkin had designed ray-shield ships and a narrow ship with swivel cannons.

When Cala reported that a ship was trailing them, Salikk consulted the sensor suit and recognized the ship as the Sugi crime lord Faazah's ship Parsec Predator. Unknown to the rebels, Tarkin and Lord Vader had seized the Parsec Predator and were in hot pursuit. Vader was able to use his Sith meditation sphere to track down the rebels. After the insurgents realized that the Parsec Predator was matching their every move, they realized that their Imperial pursuers had left a tracking device aboard. During the chase, Salikk asked if they should contact their "ally" but Teller advised against it since they would be updated soon. Under Teller's instruction, Salikk brought the Carrion Spike into hyperspace.

The Carrion Spike resurface in the Fial system. While Salikk was preparing to do a second jump to Galidraan, Cala spotted the Parsec Predator in pursuit. Realizing that the Imperials has a tracking device, Teller ordered Salikk to hasten their jump to Galidraan.

Using the Carrion Spikes stealth mechanism, the insurgents launched a surprise attack on the Galidraan Station, causing extensive damage and casualties. The Carrion Spike also destroyed several V-wing and ARC-170 starfighters. Tarkin and Vader soon followed with the Parsec Predator and engaged in a dogfight. The rebels used the Carrion Spikes pintle cannons to disable the Imperial ship.

Despite their successful raid, the Carrion Spike sustained some damage and Salikk worked hard to bring the stunned systems back to life. While the other rebels attended to the ship's damaged systems, Salikk reported that Galidraan Station had launched another squadron of starfighters. When Teller asked if they still had working sublight engines, Salikk expressed concern that the Imperial starfighters would sniff out their ion signatures. When Salikk suggested taking out Vader and Tarkin, Teller responded that the Imperials were replaceable and added that they needed to make the most out of the ship while they still had her.

While Teller and Artoz removed Vader's Sith meditation sphere, which they identified as a tracking device, Salikk complied with Teller's orders to move the ship to the jump-point. Before leaving the Galidraan system, Salikk also destroyed the system's hyperspace buoy to harry their Imperial pursuers. The insurgents then raided the TaggeCo mining facilities on Lucazec and broadcast footage of their attacks on HoloNet. This drew the attention of the Emperor and the Imperial Ruling Council.

After being warned by Vice-Admiral Rancit to avoid Gromas, Teller brought the Carrion Spike to Phindar in the Mandalore sector to refuel. For the operation, Teller disguised himself as an Imperial Commander named Abel LaSal. This led Salikk to joke about hearing good news from a human dressed as an Imperial. When Teller warned that they would have to flee at the first sign of trouble, Salikk asked where they would travel to. Teller told the rebels not to get ahead of themselves but to follow a plan.

Despite Teller's efforts, the Phindian administrator of the Phindar tanker facility saw through the insurgent leader's disguise and alerted Tarkin. Tarkin instructed the Phindians to refuel the Carrion Spike as usual to avoid arousing the insurgents' suspicion. Before the rebels could finish refueling, Tarkin and Vader arrived aboard the Imperial escort carrier Goliath with the V-wing squadron Yellow Squadron. When Salikk suggested fleeing Phindar and its primary moon, Teller instructed Salikk to fly around the tanker in order to protect the hyperdrive generator.

Though Salikk knew this would not dissuade Vader and Tarkin from firing, he complied with Teller's orders. While waiting for the hyperdrive generator to load, the rebels flew rings around the tanker for the next fifteen minutes. They also engaged Vader's Yellow Squadron and the tanker's ARC-170 starfighters. When the hyperdrive was ready, the insurgents managed to cloak their ship and jump into hyperspace. Before leaving, they also used a concealed explosive within a fuel cell to detonate the Phindian tanker.

Following their escape from Phindar, Salikk and his comrades nursed their wounds in the Expansion Region system designated as LCC-4-4-7, which lay between the planets Aquaris and Thustra. When Cala expressed regret that their concealed explosive had not destroyed Darth Vader's black Eta-2 Actis-class interceptor and the V-wings, Salikk countered that they were lucky to escape. They then listened as Teller recounted Tarkin's ruthless career in the Outland Regions Security Force. Teller believed that the Emperor and his disciples Vader and Tarkin were in the process of subjugating the galaxy and outlined his plan to turn Tarkin's starship Carrion Spike from an Imperial symbol into an icon of resistance against the Empire.

While doing a pre-flight check of the instruments and systems, Salikk reported that there was a discrepancy in the fuel capacity since their trip to Phindar to obtain new fuel cells. While acknowledging that they had separated even though they had not finished refueling, Salikk said that the discrepancy still did not make sense. After some discussion, Teller sent Cala into the fuel bay to test the fuel cells they had obtained on Phindar. Cala subsequently discovered that one of the fuel cells contained a paralight tracker, a type of Imperial homing beacon.

Based on this discovery, Salikk and his comrades predicted that the Empire had deployed forces to calculate the possible locations of their next jumps. Since they were unable to transmit false coordinates, Teller came up with a plan to send decoys to Obroa-skai in their place. With the help of the information broker Knotts, the rebels managed to hire a Koorivar captain and his Sy Myrthian to crew the freighter Reticent, which traveled to Obroa-skai in their place.

Teller's ploy worked and Tarkin deployed Imperial ships including three interdictor vessels in the Obroa-skai system to trap the Carrion Spike. However, the Immobilizer 418 cruiser's gravity well projector malfunctioned, causing a massive hyperspace accident which killed 1,100 people. Despite the debacle, Vader and Tarkin managed to capture and question the crew of the Reticent, who revealed that they had been hired by Knotts to travel to Obroa-skai. Acting on this knowledge, Tarkin consulted Republic and Imperial HoloNet records and discovered information on Teller's rebel cell including Salikk's escape from Antar.

Under Dodd Rancit's guidance, Teller's insurgents attacked the Imperial facility in the Nouane system. On Teller's instructions, Salikk decanted the Carrion Spike on the edge of the system to avoid Imperial capital ships. However, Rancit had redeployed Imperial forces to fortify the Nouane Imperial facility. The insurgents managed to escape but the Carrion Spike sustained considerable damage to its systems. Salikk was wounded during the attack, causing him to shed fur throughout the cockpit.

While Dr. Artoz attended to Salikk's wounds, the other insurgents deduced that Teller's source Vice-Admiral Rancit had betrayed them. They decided to abandon the Carrion Spike but not before setting the abandoned ship on autopilot to Carida. Though Rancit had given Teller the green light to attack Carida's Imperial Academy, Teller rightfully suspected that Rancit was trying to lure them into a trap. In an attempt to cover his collaboration with Teller's insurgents, Rancit tried to destroy the Carrion Spike. However, Lord Vader, who had discovered his treachery with the help of Tarkin, stopped Rancit and had him executed.

After evacuating the Carrion Spike, Salikk and his fellow insurgents regrouped in a remote star system near the Gulf of Tatooine. With much of the Imperial fleet preoccupied with the Carrion Spikes raids, Teller planned to raid an Imperial convoy ferrying supplies to the mysterious Death Star project. For that raid, the insurgents had mustered a Providence-class carrier-destroyer, an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate, numerous droid fighters, and several starfighters.

When the Imperial convoy exited hyperspace, the insurgents jammed their communications and HoloNet transceivers before proceeding to harry the convoy escorts and transports with organic and droid starfighters. Though the escorts formed a defensive perimeter around the transports, they came under a withering attack from Teller's insurgents. However, the tide of the battle turned against the insurgents when Moff Tarkin arrived aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Executrix. After dispatching starfighters and destroying the insurgents' Nebulon-B frigate, Tarkin attacked Teller's warship, crippling it.

Though Teller, who was in a Z-95 Headhunter, counselled them to retreat, Salikk told his leader that they were already committed and that he had a better chance of escaping. Salikk also supported Anora when she urged Teller to flee to fight another day. Salikk also thanked Teller for saving his life during the Antar Atrocity before transmitting hyperspace jump coordinates to Teller's starfighter. Before parting company with Teller, Salikk and Anora told their leader they were ready to embrace martyrdom.

Imperial forces under Tarkin subsequently boarded the ship and captured the surviving rebels. Though thirteen organic crew members perished during the battle, twice that number were captured by Imperial forces. Among the captives were Salikk's comrades Anora, Hask, Knotts, and Dr Artoz. The captured insurgents and their collaborators were interrogated by Tarkin, Lord Vader, and the Imperial Security Bureau before being executed. It is unknown whether Salikk was killed during the bombardment or captured and subsequently executed.

Salikk was a male Gotal with two twin horns on his head, scarlet eyes, and clawed digits. As a Gotal, he was short and dark-skinned with tufts of light hair on his cheeks and chin. Salikk also excreted a sweaty scent, a trait of the Gotal species. He disliked working with droids, which led his fellow rebels not to include droids among their crew.

Salikk was loyal to Berch Teller for saving his life during the Antar Atrocity. He regarded Teller as a leader and supported his rebellion against the Galactic Empire. After the insurgents stole Tarkin's corvette, Salikk put his piloting skills to good us by flying the Carrion Spike. Salikk's deep respect for Teller led him to help Teller escape into hyperspace during the Battle near the Gulf of Tatooine. Salikk was willing to die a martyr fighting against the Empire.

Salikk wore an old-fashioned flight suit that left the clawed digits of his hands exposed.

Salikk first appeared in James Luceno's 2014 canon novel Tarkin, an origins story of the eponymous character.