Alfonso Luiz Obota

Biography

Alfonso Luiz Obota, a male Human often called "Al," hailed from the Adega system. He was an alumnus of the Merchant Academy, where he ranked fourth in his graduating class. By the year 4 ABY, he had qualified as a third officer on a freighter, but he soon resigned to join the ranks of the Rebel Alliance.

Mutiny and incarceration

Obota received a commission as a second lieutenant and took on the role of Second Officer aboard the Pride of Aridus, an Alliance Special Operations transport under the command of Captain Nord. Approximately six months into Obota's commission, the Pride of Aridus participated in a Special Ops operation on a planet controlled by the Empire. Under the pretense of delivering legitimate cargo, the ship deployed a twelve-member team of commandos, who were scheduled to return in precisely six hours, according to the mission plan.

However, the team was delayed by two minutes. Nord was on the verge of abandoning them when the commandos finally emerged, racing towards the ship while under heavy fire from Imperial forces. As the Pride of Aridus also came under attack, Nord issued an order to take off, intending to leave the SpecOps team behind. Refusing to abandon his fellow Rebels, Obota struck Nord, confining him to his quarters. Obota then assumed control of the ship and waited for the commandos, three of whom managed to reach the ship and were successfully extracted due to Obota's actions. However, as the Pride of Aridus ascended and entered the planet's atmosphere, it was ambushed by several TIE Fighters. In the ensuing conflict, five crew members were killed, and the ship sustained significant damage, narrowly escaping by jumping to hyperspace.

Obota was court-martialed for his mutiny—Nord asserted that Obota had been insubordinate from the start—and sentenced to confinement. Obota was assigned the designation "Prisoner 272-20-136" and spent the next six months working and reflecting on his past actions. In 5 ABY, he was serving his sentence at Military Correction Facility 63 on the planet Milagro, which was part of a recently established New Republic base. His duties involved digging in the ruins of a city devastated by the Empire, under the watchful eye of detainment droids. He was in the process of drilling a hole in the slag, aiming to reach three meters into the planet's crust.

His work was interrupted when he was ordered to report to headquarters. Despite being told to hurry, he was made to wait for ten minutes in an office before being visited by two Rebel agents—Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors—who requested to speak with him. They questioned him about the SpecOps operation and asked if, knowing the consequences, he would make the same decision again. Without hesitation, Obota affirmed that he would, which satisfied Ors. She then offered Obota a pardon and reinstatement as a lieutenant in exchange for his service as a deck officer during a clandestine Rebel mission: the infiltration of the planet Ruusan, which was under the control of the Imperial Inquisitor Jerec. The Inquisitor sought to exploit the power of the planet's Force nexus located in the Valley of the Jedi, and Katarn aimed to prevent him from doing so. Believing that the mission could not be worse than his imprisonment on Milagro, Obota accepted the offer.

Deception

Jerec's forces had established a blockade around Ruusan, prohibiting anyone from approaching the planet without the necessary recognition codes, which were unknown to Katarn and Ors. However, they devised a plan to infiltrate Ruusan as part of the crew of the Imperial transport High Hauler, which would be carrying a shipment of proton torpedoes. Katarn and Ors hoped that Jerec's troops would seize the opportunity to acquire additional ordnance and allow the transport to reach Ruusan without the recognition codes. To justify the absence of these codes and the transport's presence near the planet, a fabricated story was created, claiming that the High Hauler had been transporting the torpedoes to the planet Byss but had been caught in a battle with the Rebels, sustained heavy damage, and escaped to Ruusan. During the "battle," the ship's commanding officer, Captain Drax, and most of the bridge crew had been killed, and the engineering officer, Lieutenant Hortu Agar—whom Obota was to impersonate—had assumed command. Since recognition codes were issued on a need-to-know basis and engineering officers were not cleared to receive them, this would explain their absence to the Imperials.

To support this narrative, the entire ship was given a battle-worn appearance, complete with makeshift repairs, dangling cables, and fire-damaged control panels. Reflecting "heavy casualties," the transport was manned by only twelve crew members out of the intended twenty-five. The crew, including Obota, wore blood-stained bandages and carefully applied makeup. After conducting more than twenty simulations, the transport embarked on the actual mission. Upon reaching Ruusan, the crew of the High Hauler observed a large battle group orbiting the planet. The battle group consisted of three frigates, approximately two dozen picket ships, and Jerec's personal flagship, the Super Star Destroyer Vengeance. Although he had anticipated seeing something of this magnitude, Obota was still intimidated by the size of the enemy force. Nevertheless, when the Vengeance hailed the High Hauler, Obota answered the call and played his part, recounting the fabricated story to the Imperials.

Although the Imperials initially intended to destroy the High Hauler, the mention of the proton torpedoes changed their minds. They dispatched a boarding party to inspect the ship's condition and secure the torpedoes, which were, in fact, defective and would explode in the launch tube if used. After the boarding party, led by an Imperial lieutenant, completed its cursory inspection and departed, a lighter arrived and took all the torpedoes. Following this, Obota signaled to Jerec's troops that he would be making necessary repairs to his vessel and dispatched Katarn and Ors aboard their ship—the Moldy Crow—on a series of errands to the surface of Ruusan. These errands included the delivery of spare parts, the securing of food rations, and a fictional training "mission" that allowed the two agents to pass through Ruusan's heavily guarded northern hemisphere.

In reality, the purpose of these missions was to help Katarn and Ors familiarize themselves with the Imperial operation and integrate the Moldy Crow into the pattern of the battle group's movements. Sixteen hours later, the High Hauler was ready to depart and received all necessary clearances to do so. While preparing for a jump to hyperspace, Obota steered the ship towards a restricted Class I security zone in Ruusan's atmosphere, where the Moldy Crow, with Katarn and Ors on board, left the transport's hangar and headed for the planet's surface. Although Obota's maneuver was noticed by the fleet operations officer, he did not report it, attributing it to the commanding officer's lack of experience. Eventually, Katarn was able to reach the Valley of the Jedi, where he confronted and killed Jerec.

Personality and characteristics

Obota was a seasoned deck officer who cared deeply for his fellow Rebels. His unwillingness to abandon the Special Ops team led him to initiate a mutiny, although Captain Nord suggested that Obota had displayed a significant amount of disobedience since the beginning of his service aboard the Pride of Aridus. Obota fully understood the consequences of his decision and spent countless days and nights on Milagro contemplating it. He remembered the faces of the five crew members who had died and wished that he had died in their place. Overall, however, he did not regret his actions and believed that he would have done the same thing even if he had known the outcome. Even on Milagro, Obota demonstrated defiance by taking an unauthorized break from his work. When a detainment droid noticed this and issued a warning, Obota responded sarcastically. He also disliked being addressed as "Prisoner 272-20-136" and unsuccessfully tried to get the droid to call him by his real name.

After running numerous simulations of the Ruusan operation, Obota expected to find an Imperial battle group above the planet but was nonetheless frightened by the sight of it. During the inspection, he couldn't help but like the lieutenant in charge of the boarding party, who was very friendly and talkative. Still, Obota listened carefully to everything he said, realizing that every piece of information could be valuable. He was cautious and did not allow the pilots of the lighter to board the High Hauler. He did so by leaving the hangar open to space, forcing the Empire to rely on droids during the loading of the torpedoes. Obota possessed some acting talent, which allowed him to convincingly portray Hortu Agar. He had dark brown hair and a tattoo on his right shoulder. After the Imperials finished loading the torpedoes from the High Hauler, Obota wanted to remain near Ruusan long enough to witness the damage the defective ordnance would cause, but he complied with Ors' order to leave the planet as soon as he received all clearances.

Behind the scenes

Alfonso Luiz Obota's first appearance was in Dark Forces: Jedi Knight, a 1998 novella penned by William C. Dietz. He later featured in the audio adaptation of the novel, with Emil Herrera providing his voice.