Kairos

Kairos stated that she was born on a distant world, far from the [Core](/article/core_worlds], where she lived a simple existence. With the arrival of the Galactic Empire on her [homeworld](/article/homeworld], her societal standing led to her being chosen as an envoy to them. Mistaking her for a tribal leader, the Imperials took her prisoner, possibly to control her people. Perplexed by her species, the Empire subjected her to numerous experiments. This experience was deeply traumatic for Kairos, particularly the forced transfusion of another species' blood by IT-O. Overwhelmed by shame at losing her "purity," Kairos decided to wear a suit to prevent any further "contamination".

During the Imperial Era, Kairos encountered Caern Adan, a journalist imprisoned by the Empire, to whom she felt indebted. They were incarcerated together and, along with Ver Iflan and the reprogrammed torture droid IT-O, devised an escape plan. However, Iflan was left behind during their escape. Kairos eventually joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic, fighting to end the Empire's reign. She also became skilled at piloting UT-60D U-wing starfighter/support craft. Following the Rebel Alliance's victory at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY and the death of Emperor Palpatine, Kairos became an integral part of the emerging New Republic.

In the months that followed the Battle of Endor, Kairos was enlisted into a working group within New Republic Intelligence, led by Officer Adan. Their objective was to dismantle the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing, a persistent Imperial fighter wing known as "Shadow Wing," which had survived the Empire's defeat at Endor and established a stronghold on the planet of Pandem Nai. Piloting a U-wing transport, she traveled to Traitor's Remorse, a settlement for Imperial defectors, to retrieve Yrica Quell, a former member of Shadow Wing who had also been recruited by Adan.

Next, they journeyed to the asteroid trading outpost Entropian Hive to enlist Nath Tensent, an ex-Rebel Alliance pilot whose previous squadron had been destroyed by Shadow Wing. Adan tasked Quell with speaking to Tensent, while Kairos remained in the U-wing. Despite initially declining, Tensent changed his mind after Kairos showed him a recording from Adan promising a monetary reward for uncovering Quell's true Imperial background. The combination of seeking revenge on Shadow Wing and the lure of money persuaded Tensent to join, following them in his Y-wing.

Aboard the bulk freighter Buried Treasure, en route to support the Barma Battle Group in the Barma sector, Quell briefed Adan, Kairos, and Tensent on the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing. Once the briefing concluded, Adan assigned investigative duties to Kairos and Tensent, while Quell was tasked with data analysis.

Later, Kairos discovered Quell attempting to steal an X-wing from the Buried Treasure's airless cargo bay. Using a metal rod, she disarmed Quell, knocking away her [oxygen mask](/article/breath_mask]. Quell, who intended to independently investigate potential Shadow Wing locations, tried to persuade Kairos to give her a chance. Kairos returned Quell's mask, allowing her to live and continue her mission.

A day later, Quell presented evidence that Shadow Wing had attacked the New Republic frigate Hellion's Dare above the planet Jiruus and pursued it into the Oridol Cluster. To locate and rescue the frigate, Adan and his team planned to seize Harrikos-Fifteen Research Station, an Imperial space station studying the star cluster. Kairos piloted her U-wing, transporting a New Republic security team led by Corporal Shroi. They successfully captured the station and deployed probe droids to search for the Hellion's Dare.

Eventually, A-wing pilot Wyl Lark and B-wing pilot Chass na Chadic, survivors of the Hellion's Dare's destruction, arrived in the Harrikos system. Adan, intending to recruit them, arranged a meeting with his current team. When the Buried Treasure joined the Barma Battle Group aboard the cruiser Lodestar, Adan spoke with General Hera Syndulla, who appointed Quell as the leader of the newly formed squadron.

Quell evaluated her squadron through training exercises, such as navigating the Gobreton minefield, a field of smart mines. The variety of starfighter types and the pilots' lack of familiarity created challenges for Quell. The resulting confusion led to damage to Lark's A-wing starfighter, leaving Quell uncertain if Kairos had provided any assistance. Quell also attempted a simulation of the Battle of Endor, which Tensent managed to disrupt.

After a period of simulations and tactical analyses of potential encounters with Shadow Wing, General Syndulla assigned them a mission to the planet Abednedo, which had been unsuccessfully attacked during the Empire's Operation: Cinder shortly after the Battle of Endor. The New Republic had intercepted coded transmissions suggesting an Imperial presence on Abednedo, and Quell's squadron was tasked with verifying these claims.

Upon arriving above Abednedo, Quell directed Kairos and Chadic to accompany her to the surface, while Lark and Tensent remained in orbit. They landed in the city of Neshorino, where Kairos stayed with her U-wing while Quell and Chadic met with the contact. They discovered that their contact held a number of Imperial prisoners, which Quell inspected while Chadic escorted one, a stormtrooper [sergeant](/article/sergeant], back to the U-wing. Before Chadic could return, she was ambushed by Imperial forces. Kairos intervened, eliminating several Imperials with both her bowcaster and hand-to-hand combat. With Kairos's help, Chadic returned the prisoner to the U-wing and signaled Quell.

Escorting their contact's freighter, which contained the Imperial prisoners, the squadron returned to space, where they were pursued by TIE bombers. The bombers targeted Kairos's U-wing, and the squadron managed to destroy two of them. The surviving bomber then collided with the freighter, destroying it and killing the prisoners. Largely unsuccessful, the squadron returned to the Lodestar, where Quell engaged in a heated argument with Adan.

As Quell's squadron, which had been nicknamed "Alphabet Squadron" by other New Republic pilots, was consuming resources that Syndulla wanted to allocate elsewhere, the general tasked them with retrieving an old Rebel Alliance supply cache on the moon of Harkrova I. The squadron entered the Harkrova system and landed on a mountain on the moon's surface. During their hike to the supply cache, Chadic thanked Kairos for her assistance on Neshorino, which Kairos acknowledged silently.

As night approached, the squadron camped in a forest, several kilometers from the supply cache. The pilots shared stories, with Tensent recounting tales of his former squadron and Lark describing his homeworld, while Kairos simply listened. At sunrise, they continued to the rebel base, discovering it within a temple that Tensent believed was built by the Jedi. They began removing the supplies, but as the day ended before they could finish, they set up camp outside the temple. As the pilots conversed, Kairos stood and depicted her life story through a series of drawings in dust and dirt.

During the night, they were awakened by a passing starship. Quell returned to the squadron's ships in case of hostiles, leaving the others to continue collecting the supplies. There were no further sightings, but on the following night, they were disturbed by a ringing sound that echoed through the forest. Kairos began to enter the temple, waiting for her fellow pilots before stepping inside and witnessing a galactic map created from a display of light, which they also attributed to the Jedi.

The squadron finished packing the supply cache and returned to their ships. Loading the collected gear aboard Kairos's U-wing took two hours. As the squadron prepared to depart, Lark checked on the U-wing and found Kairos outside, gazing back at the temple. When Lark approached, Kairos turned and spoke cryptically to him for the first time, before returning to their ships.

Following the mission to the moon of Harkrova I, the squadron returned to the Lodestar in the Borleias system, where General Syndulla assigned them to assist in the New Republic's battle against Imperial forces on Argai Minor. Their task was to patrol near the Treinhaus Citadel and allow a New Republic salvage team to collect data from the ruins.

The duration of their patrol was unexpectedly extended when time estimates from the salvage team and predictions from Vanguard Squadron proved inaccurate. For the initial hours, there were no major threats, but nightfall brought repeated attacks from both Imperial ground forces and TIE bombers. Kairos successfully destroyed two TIE bombers over the next five hours, after which the attacks ceased.

The squadron's subsequent mission took them to Rentaxius VIII, the location of an Imperial cargo freighter believed to have been resupplied at Pandem Nai. The vessel initially surrendered to the New Republic forces, but the captain was murdered and replaced by a new commander who opened fire instead. While attempting to disable the ship, a stray shot struck an oxygen generator, forcing the squadron to evacuate the survivors in escape pods.

After Rentaxius VIII, the squadron was dispatched to assist Hail Squadron, which had been targeting a wrecked Star Destroyer in the Haldeen sector when they were decimated by an Imperial cruiser-carrier. Working together, the two squadrons destroyed the capital ship.

Shortly after a mission to raid an Imperial outpost that had been relaying messages to Pandem Nai, Quell summoned the squadron to their hangar. In an effort to improve her relationship with her squadron, Quell embraced the "Alphabet Squadron" nickname and had the mechanic Ragnell paint a crest on their respective ships. Kairos was captivated by the emblem on her U-wing, stepping over to the ship and gently touching the paint.

Alphabet Squadron continued their preparations for an assault on Shadow Wing's forces. General Syndulla's battle group secured enough star systems to control the Skangravi-Mestun Regional Hyperlane, providing close proximity to Pandem Nai. Quell devised a starfighter attack plan for Pandem Nai, which was reviewed and approved by New Republic High Command. Despite Syndulla's reservations about the plan's inherent risks, Kairos and the other pilots of Alphabet Squadron were committed to the mission. Quell briefed the squadron on the attack's details, collaborating with them on the plan. Following the briefing, General Syndulla offered the squadron drinks before the mission, but Kairos declined, preferring to remain alone.

The Lodestar emerged from hyperspace within the Skangravi-Mestun's desolate star system, the designated disembarkation point for Alphabet Squadron. The squadron's pilots detached from the Lodestar, executing a hyperspace jump to the periphery of the Pandem Nai system. Upon their immediate arrival, Kairos initiated a jamming signal from her U-wing, simultaneously disrupting squadron communications and concealing their presence from the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing. Navigating through an asteroid field, the squadron encountered Shadow Wing's deployed smart mines, skillfully evading each one. Kairos trailed Quell's X-wing as they exited the asteroid field, advancing towards Pandem Nai itself.

Upon entering the planet's atmosphere, Kairos deactivated the jamming signal, enabling squadron communication as they engaged Imperial TIE fighters. Kairos separated from her squadron, descending into Pandem Nai's atmosphere to minimize detection, before ascending to the Orbital One station, Shadow Wing's base of operations. She landed in a docking bay, allowing a New Republic Special Forces team to disembark and infiltrate the station, strategically placing detonators within the station's reactor. To protect the U-wing, ensuring the team's escape, Kairos deployed a turret, prepared for any intrusion into the docking bay.

Despite the arrival of several stormtroopers in the docking bay, Kairos remained largely undisturbed by Imperial forces. The strike team communicated with Kairos, confirming the successful placement of the detonators. Kairos relayed the message to Quell, who commanded Kairos to detonate the explosives. The station survived the initial blast, but began to list and plummet towards the planet. However, flames originating from ruptured gas containment pods spread rapidly, igniting the remaining pods and setting the tibanna-rich atmosphere of Pandem Nai ablaze.

As the conflagration engulfed the atmosphere and Orbital One disintegrated, Kairos assisted Lark in averting a larger disaster by targeting the gas containment pods of an Imperial tanker, severing their moorings before they could ignite. Kairos and Lark repeated this process for other tankers surrounding Orbital One, aided by the Imperial TIE fighter pilots of Shadow Wing, who prioritized containing the fire over continuing their attack. Tensent and Chadic joined the effort, and together they successfully prevented any of the pods from exacerbating the inferno.

While the surviving elements of Shadow Wing fled Pandem Nai, having lost their commander, Colonel Shakara Nuress, the New Republic declared the operation a success, eliminating Pandem Nai as an Imperial stronghold. The pilots of Alphabet Squadron, excluding Quell, who had crash-landed on Pandem Nai while trying to shield the city of Induchron from falling debris, returned to the Lodestar, where they were greeted with celebrations in the Lodestar's improvised cantina, Ranjiy's Krayt Hut.

Chadic approached Kairos, inviting her to a game of sabacc. Kairos accepted, winning multiple rounds. Eventually, Kairos joined the celebration, even briefly dancing with Chadic after recognizing Chadic's deva pop music. As the Alphabet Squadron pilots grew weary of the festivities, Tensent offered drinks to both them and General Syndulla. As the celebrations continued late into the night, Kairos was the first pilot to retire.

The Lodestar and its accompanying battle group were subsequently deployed to the Cerberon system campaign. The conflict endured for several weeks. During one instance of fighting on Troithe, Kairos maintained a position a mere 10 meters above Twilight Company troopers, providing close air support.

During the battle for the capital city, she piloted her U-wing directly into the fray to ensure victory. Suffering a wound, she did not respond to bacta treatment. She was then medically evacuated. Later, after the battle concluded, she rejoined the squadron, bearing a scar. Upon her return, she greeted Tensent.

Kairos remained with Alphabet Squadron as they pursued the 204th from the New Republic Star Destroyer Deliverance. During one of the engagements while pursuing the Yadeez, the bulk freighter utilized by the 204th as a carrier, Yrica Quell announced her presence within the 204th via a comm channel. Driven by a sense of justice, and knowing Quell was the last to see Caern Adan alive, Kairos dedicated herself to hunting Quell down. During a battle above Chadawa, where the 204th was preparing to advance Operation: Cinder, New Republic forces spotted a stealth ship departing the area. Suspecting Quell was aboard, Kairos and Chass na Chadic made a blind jump in pursuit.

For several days, they attempted to determine Quell's destination, analyzing records of Imperial outposts along their trajectory. Ultimately, they arrived at Netalych and located both Quell and the Imperial team from the 204th accompanying her. Kairos and Chass stormed their apartment, but Quell escaped through a window during the initial assault. Chass eventually apprehended her and brought her back to Kairos's U-wing while under fire from Quell's team. The conflict attracted the attention of local defense forces, who pursued the ship, firing ion weaponry. Kairos cut all power to simulate a hit and secretly landed on the surface. Unfortunately, the ship sustained damage; the hyperdrive and navicomputer were inoperable. Despite her distrust of Quell, Kairos allowed her to repair the hyperdrive, but the navicomputer was beyond repair. Despite this, by studying the night sky on Netalych, Kairos managed to "eyeball" a hyperspace jump, returning the U-wing to her homeworld.

Ignoring her crewmates' disbelief, Kairos guided them to an area near an old Imperial outpost, active during the early Empire, and explained the facility's potential for providing replacement parts. She led her comrades on foot through the jungle, passing a cave filled with outfits similar to her own, arranged on poles. She only told Quell and Chass that they were people who no longer existed. Quell and Chass thought it was a burial ground.

She warned them of the jungle's dangers and once had to assist in killing a worm-like creature large enough to eat them whole before they reached the Imperial facility. Once there they began gathering materials. After the first night, Quell revealed her knowledge of Kairos's past in an Imperial prison. Kairos explained to Quell that as the last person to be with Caern Adan and IT-O, the debt she owed to them would pass to her, however her recent betrayal left her status in question, and she would "judge" Quell. She didn't explain what criteria she was using. However, she refused to allow Quell to come to harm while her judgement was pending, even refusing to allow her to take watch at night.

Eventually members of her species began surrounding the settlement, fearing the Imperials had returned. When Quell and Chass asked her to speak to them, Kairos said she could not, because she "was not the same person" as when she had left, and she was now ashamed of who she was. She explained that her people considered anything not of their world "tainted and impure." Kairos had been so influenced by the galaxy at large she was sure her people would see her as impure and kill her. Instead, she convinced her comrades to rig the facility to explode. Doing so scared off the other members of her species, and she led them back to the U-Wing.

Upon Quell's return to the Deliverance, she revealed the reason for her separate mission from the 204th. She and Soran Keize had reverse-engineered a Sentinel (Contingency) Messenger Droid, discovering its link to a database on Coruscant containing incriminating information on everyone who had served the Empire. He intended to destroy it, but doing so would cause damage to a large portion of the cityscape on the planet, likely killing thousands of people as well as eliminating the data. Quell asked Alphabet squadron to go with her.

Though Kairos never declared it publicly, she eventually went with Quell when the latter was given permission to pursue Keize; her debt to Adan was not discharged yet, and she still had not finished her judgement of Quell. She followed Quell's T-70 X-wing starfighter to Coruscant where they slipped through the blockade of the planet. However, they attracted the attention of a number of TIE strikers. Kairos volunteered to play rear-guard and hamper the pursuers with her U-wing while Quell pursued Keize's TIE/LN starfighter.

Kairos was significantly outnumbered in the fight and had to resort to using the U-wing's door guns while the ship was on autopilot several times, then eventually just personally shooting ties with her bowcaster. As she accumulated damage, she listened to the ongoing conversation between Quell and Keize on an open channel. When Quell finally admitted her unworthiness to determine her own guilt or what punishment was appropriate for her and suggested she was willing to accept the judgement of others, Kairos decided Quell was worthy. As the duel between Quell and Keize came to a head, Kairos led the swarm of TIEs to their location and then self-destructed her U-wing, destroying most of the TIE strikers and damaging Keize's TIE enough to bring it down.

Following the destruction of her ship, she found Quell mildly wounded, but alive. At that point, because of her judgement of Quell and the discharge of her debt to Caern Adan, her body began metamorphosing. She didn't explain all the details to Quell, but said that her new form would be a chance at a new life, and even though she still couldn't go home, she wanted her new life to be untouched by the violence and war she'd known since she left. Leaving Quell to return to the New Republic on her own, Kairos disappeared into the Coruscant cityscape.

Kairos, a tall humanoid figure, concealed her face, keeping her species and physical characteristics a mystery. She rarely spoke—among the Alphabet Squadron pilots, she only addressed Wyl Lark once, while Yrica Quell thought she heard Kairos speak when facing her in the cargo bay of the Buried Treasure. In flight, Kairos used computerized tones for communication, which her squadron members learned to interpret without an astromech droid. As the Alphabet Squadron pilots developed stronger bonds, Kairos began to reveal aspects of her past through intricate drawings in the dirt.

Kairos seldom expressed emotion, often simply acknowledging others when spoken to. When first meeting with Yrica Quell, who asked if she could help pilot the U-wing, Kairos silently refused to allow her to do so, dispassionately disabling the copilot's station. Despite this, Kairos occasionally displayed moments of emotion. When Quell attempted to disobey orders and escape the Buried Treasure to do her own investigation, Kairos at first did not hesitate to kill the apparent traitor, but let Quell live, giving her a chance to prove herself. During the squadron's mission to the Harkrova system, Kairos seemingly showed amusement to a comment made by squadron mate Nath Tensent. The notion of a trap made Kairos uncomfortable, having had a previous experience that she wished not to relive.

Driven by a violent desire for vengeance against the Galactic Empire for the destruction of worlds like Alderaan, Nacronis, and Hetnagaro, Kairos was aware of her murderous nature, recognizing her craving for death and impatience to kill those serving the Empire. However, she maintained control and understood that the Emperor would have approved of her violence had she fought for the Empire. Nevertheless, Kairos followed orders while operating for Alphabet Squadron, partly because their objectives aligned with her own, but also because she was pained by the memory of Caern Adan's suffering and felt indebted to him. Kairos wished she could become a better individual, and be freed of the atrocities of her life, but accepted herself for who she was.

After being wounded on Troithe, her body was revealed; made up of multiple chitinous plates. Through various conversations with different members of Alphabet Squadron and Hera Syndulla, it was revealed that her species goes through molting processes where their outer skin is shed and reforms. Her species considers that process a rebirth and a chance to choose a new path for ones life. She was midway through the process when she was wounded, and the medics removing her coverings tainted that phase of her growth. She didn't begin another new phase until after the Battle of Jakku on Coruscant, where Yrica Quell was the only person to witness the start of it before Kairos explained she didn't want her new form to be tained by war and left.

Kairos possessed considerable physical strength, enabling her to engage in both ranged and unarmed. Chass na Chadic, witnessing Kairos's hand-to-hand combat, noted the savage and violent nature of her attacks, which inflicted severe damage on her victims' bodies. During Alphabet Squadron's mission to the moon of Harkrova I, Kairos carried what Nath Tensent presumed was her own weight in gear. Kairos was able to move inhumanly fast, unaffected even in a cold, nearly airless environment.

Kairos was a skilled U-wing pilot, capable of flying without a copilot. During training exercises, Yrica Quell observed that Kairos flew efficiently, avoiding unnecessary movements and wasted shots.

Kairos concealed her face with a riveted metal helmet featuring a glowing visor. She wore strips of graying fabric beneath a cloak. Kairos carried an ornate weapon similar to a Bowcaster or a Lightbow that was slung around her torso, though she sometimes chose not to use it when fighting in hand-to-hand combat. In addition to taking out infantry, it was powerful enough to take down TIE/sk x1 experimental air superiority fighters. While serving in Alphabet Squadron, Kairos utilized a UT-60D U-wing starfighter/support craft, which eventually had the squadron's crest painted onto it by the mechanic Ragnell. She abandoned the helmet after her recovery following the Troithe operation.

Kairos debuted in the 2019 novel Alphabet Squadron, authored by Alexander Freed. Prior to the novel's release, Del Rey revealed Kairos and the rest of Alphabet Squadron via a Twitter post, featuring art by Jeff Langevin.

Freed stated in an interview on StarWars.com that, despite Kairos's lack of expressions and minimal dialogue, integrating her into the story was straightforward, as her tendency to remain in the background highlighted her involvement when something important occurred.