Pianat Torbul was a short, dark-haired Corellian Human male who was Bria Tharen's commanding officer in the Corellian Resistance, and later the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Though he had concerns about Red Hand Squadron's reputation for taking no prisoners, he recognized that the team's ability made them a valuable asset.
Bria proposed an invasion of Ylesia to Torbul, in order to shut down the Besadii clan's spice processing and slavery operations. After she found solutions to his concerns, Torbul gave her permission to proceed. Shortly before the Battle of Ylesia, Alliance Intelligence discovered the existence of the Death Star and Torbul realized they would need all the resources they could get to uncover more information. He contacted Bria, and ordered her to take all the spice they could from Ylesia and not to share anything with the smugglers who had been recruited to assist in the mission.
Using the funds raised from the attack on Ylesia, Torbul sent intelligence units to infiltrate Ralltiir and discovered that the Death Star plans were being stored on Toprawa. He then asked Red Hand Squadron to lead a mission to recover those plans.