Jelok

Serving Imperial warlord Moff Kentor Sarne in 8 ABY was Jelok, a Human male from the Kathol sector, who held the position of scientist within Sarne's forces. He was a member of the MS-133 research team, which was headed by Doctor Lancer Brunou. The team's assignment was an archaeological expedition to the extensive ruins on the planet Aaris III, with the objective of uncovering the reason behind the extinction of the sentient species of that world, the Aaris. Jelok, along with Brunou and the rest of the team, spent several months exploring the metal ruins.

On the forty-ninth day of the mission, Grigor Tansad, another scientist on Jelok's team, discovered a chamber inside one of the ruined structures. Jelok, along with two technicians and five troopers, was assigned by Brunou to help Tansad explore this chamber. Because the structure was located far from MS-133's main camp, the group established a secondary base camp close to the chamber. The team found that the chamber's walls were covered in bas-relief pictographs that emitted sounds when touched. Jelok believed the sounds were the key to the Aaris' language, while Tansad thought they represented a pictorial dating system and the civilization's aural history. Each scientist began working on their own theories, attempting to translate the pictographs.

After several days, Tansad's theory about the pictographs proved correct, leading Jelok to abandon his own research and assist his colleague. On the sixtieth day of the expedition, while clearing rubble from the chamber's floor, Jelok discovered a concealed panel containing a metal ingot. Brunou took the artifact to the main base camp for analysis and found that it was made of material unknown to Imperial science and emitted a faint energy reading. He decided to send it back to Moff Sarne's laboratories on his [capital](/article/capital-legends] planet, Kal'Shebbol, for further testing. Unbeknownst to the team, the ingot contained a sentient lifeform that fed off the life-force of living beings. Although inanimate, it sought to destroy those around it by manipulating their emotions, amplifying their suspicions, and inciting violence. The Aaris referred to the artifact as the "Plaque of Victory," and it had caused the civil war that destroyed their civilization thousands of years ago.

Jelok continued to clear rubble and debris from the chamber while Tansad worked to translate the pictographs, recording his findings on his personal datapad. On the expedition's sixty-first day, team members began reporting feelings of being watched from the surrounding jungle, despite no evidence of other living beings on the planet. As a precaution, the Lieutenant in command of the security detachment led five troopers into the jungle to investigate. An hour later, blaster fire was heard in the distance. When none of the team returned, weapons were issued to the rest of the team. Despite the incident, Jelok and Tansad continued to work in the chamber. That night, the main base camp was attacked by the primitive descendants of the Aaris, resulting in injuries to a technician and Doctor Theda. Jelok later reported that Tansad was missing from the secondary camp, and that two more technicians had been killed by sniper fire from the jungle. Given these setbacks, Brunou ordered Jelok to return to the main camp. Jelok refused, stating that he was close to translating the alien language and had discovered that the chamber's name was the "Place of Kastays." Jelok felt that it was vital his work continue, but Brunou disagreed, ordering the remaining troopers to escort Jelok back to the team's shuttle, while he and the rest of the staff packed up the base camp in readiness to leave the planet.

That night, the Aaris attacked again, destroying the team's shuttle and leaving MS-133 with only a few survivors—Doctors Brunou and Theda, Solla Deremot, two troopers, and a technician. Stranded on the planet, they fortified the base camp as best they could and sent a distress signal to Kal'Shebbol. The New Republic CR90 corvette FarStar intercepted the message. In the months since MS-133's departure from Kal'Shebbol, the New Republic had liberated the planet. By the time the corvette arrived, only Brunou and Deremot were alive to evacuate. Captain Kaiya Adrimetrum, commanding officer of the FarStar, authorized an investigation into the events on the planet. Crew members searched the Place of Kastays, finding Tansad's body hidden in the rubble, with evidence that he had been killed by a blow to the head with a heavy rock. The rock was found nearby, along with Tansad's datapad, which noted that he felt Jelok was jealous of his work.

Jelok was a scientist skilled in translating alien languages, capable of making intuitive leaps and reasoned hypotheses when faced with alien imagery. During the Aaris III expedition, when his theory about the alien pictographs was disproven, he willingly put aside his own work to assist his colleague, Grigor Tansad. Despite this, Tansad believed that Jelok was jealous of his success. Dedicated to his work, Jelok was angered when Doctor Brunou ordered him to abandon his studies during the attack on the expedition.

Jelok was first seen in the RPG adventure Artifact of Aaris, published in The DarkStryder Campaign by West End Games in 1995. The character was later mentioned in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. The adventure suggests that, under the influence of the Plaque of Victory, the members of MS-133 turned against each other, leading to multiple deaths and the destruction of the team's shuttle. However, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, published in 2008, confirmed that the team was attacked by the remnants of the Aaris civilization.

Regardless, the adventure implies that Jelok was responsible for the murder of Grigor Tansad. Tansad's notes indicate that he felt Jelok was jealous of his work, and Tansad's body was found under rubble in the chamber where he and Jelok were working. Tansad had been killed by a blow to the head, and the bloody murder weapon was nearby. However, as neither source directly confirms these implications, this article presents the information without assumptions.