Rikel, often called Vibro, was a male member of the Centerpoint Station crew and served as the chief technician in 40 ABY during the Second Galactic Civil War. Following the death of his wife on Coruscant, Rikel leveraged the space station's destructive power against the Galactic Alliance. He initiated this action when Corellians attempted to assassinate Jacen Solo, one of the joint Chiefs of State of the Galactic Alliance, during a battle with the Galactic Alliance in space between Coruscant and Corellia. During the Battle of Centerpoint Station, Rikel had another opportunity to fire the station; however, sabotage by scientist Toval Seyah caused the station's destruction, resulting in Rikel's demise.
Rikel was a male who had secretly married a woman due to disapproval from both families. Early in the Second Galactic Civil War, which began in 40 ABY between the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances and the Confederation—a regime that formed to support the planet of Corellia and its Five Worlds government in their rebellion against the Galactic Alliance—Rikel's wife was apprehended during a security sweep on Coruscant, the capital of the Galactic Alliance. The Galactic Alliance Guard had initiated raids on Corellian neighborhoods in Coruscant following the bombing of The Elite, a hotel in Galactic City, by the Corellians. Rikel's wife was later discovered dead, which instilled a deep-seated hatred for Coruscanti and the Galactic Alliance within him.
Later in the conflict, Rikel managed to secure a position on Centerpoint Station as the leading technician in the fire-control chamber, embracing the moniker "Vibro" over his given name. Centerpoint Station, an ancient space station, possessed the capability to relocate entire planets using its tractor beams and generate gravitational disturbances capable of shattering stars, planets, and fleets. During a battle in space between Coruscant and Corellia, the station targeted the Anakin Solo and the Galactic Alliance Second Fleet. The Anakin Solo served as the flagship of Jacen Solo, a joint Chiefs of State of the Galactic Alliance, who was the intended target. However, the station experienced an overload due to attempts to override security locks imprinted on the young Jedi Anakin Solo during the First Corellian Insurrection, when he used the Force to seize control of the station. Despite this, the Anakin Solo survived, Jacen Solo remained unharmed, and the Galactic Alliance discovered the station's reactivation. Following inquiries from Sadras Koyan, the Prime Minister of the Five Worlds, Rikel simplified the explanation of the events, likening it to a body struggling under the control of two minds.
Learning of Centerpoint Station's renewed operational status, Colonel Solo devised a retaliatory strategy: the Galactic Alliance would capture the station to compel Confederation worlds to surrender, thus ending the war. Given the station's destructive potential, the Jedi could not permit Solo to control Centerpoint, particularly after he had taken students from the Jedi Academy on Ossus as hostage. They also aimed to prevent anyone else from controlling the station, planning its destruction concurrently with Solo's capture attempt. To this end, Jedi Master Kyp Durron escorted Toval Seyah, a scientist with extensive knowledge of the station's systems, throughout Centerpoint.
As the battle intensified, Prime Minister Koyan attempted to contact Cha Niathal, Solo's fellow co-Chief of State, to force her surrender. When she did not respond, Rikel, driven by vengeance for his wife's death, proposed the destruction of Coruscant. He suggested that the Confederation's reconnaissance ships could record the event. Koyan was horrified by this suggestion but received a holocomm transmission from Denjax Teppler, the Five Worlds' Minister of Information, advising him to evacuate the station before the Galactic Alliance could bring him to trial for war crimes. Following their private discussion, Koyan instructed Rikel to follow orders from Teppler and Admiral Delpin, the Supreme Commander of the Corellian Defense Force, until further notice, suggesting they might grant him the opportunity to target Coruscant.
Rikel, unaware of Koyan and Teppler's conversation, monitored Koyan via the station's security cams until Koyan reached airlock Epsilon 34G and boarded an Alliance shuttle, believing it to be his escape vessel. With no one having overheard Koyan's instructions, Rikel seized the opportunity to activate Centerpoint Station. Once the power source was ready, he alerted a fellow technician and initiated the firing sequence. However, Seyah had reprogrammed the star data in Centerpoint's systems, resetting all coordinates to the center of Hollowtown, an open sphere at the station's core. Consequently, the station targeted itself upon firing, leading to its internal destruction and the death of everyone aboard.
Rikel was a male with yellow skin, long hair tied into a braid, and a beard. The secret marriage to his wife, followed by her arrest and death on Coruscant, fueled his hatred for Coruscanti and the Galactic Alliance. He attempted to destroy their capital planet with Centerpoint Station in retribution, rendering all off-world Coruscanti homeless, but this action resulted in his own death. Rikel also enjoyed caf, transforming into his "Vibro" persona after his eighth cup.
Aaron Allston created Rikel for the novel Legacy of the Force: Fury, released on November 27, 2007 as the seventh installment in the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series.