Sair Yonka

Sair Yonka, a Human male of tall and slender build, was born on the planet of Commenor, originating from a family with a military background. In his formative years, Yonka developed a close friendship with a young woman named Aellyn, and their bond evolved into a romantic relationship during their adolescence. Their paths diverged, however, when Yonka received an appointment to the Imperial Naval Academy. Despite his assignments initially placing him on remote worlds within the Outer Rim Territories, Yonka proved to be a skilled and calculating strategist. In this region, he served on vessels responsible for protecting convoys against pirate attacks on planets such as Elshandruu Pica. Yonka's commendable performance in the Outer Rim led to the advancement of his career. He was soon granted the captaincy of an _Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, the Avarice renamed Freedom, and commanded a highly disciplined crew. While he occasionally undertook missions closer to Imperial Center, he spent the majority of his time in the galaxy's most remote regions.

During a routine patrol on Elshandruu Pica, the Avarice drove off a group of pirates who had established a base in the system's asteroid belt. When Yonka went to pay his respects to Moff Riit Jandi of Elshandruu Pica, he discovered that his former lover Aellyn had become the Moff's wife. Their feelings were rekindled, and the two Commenorians began an affair, which they managed to keep secret from Moff Jandi. Aellyn was also friends with Kina Margath, the owner of a local hotel and cantina complex called Margath's, and she and Yonka used it as a meeting place. Yonka provided Margath with free supplies of various alcoholic beverages that he had captured from pirates during his Imperial service, while Aellyn used her influence with the Moff to gain favorable treatment for Margath's establishment, the 27th Hour Social Club. Additionally, Sair helped spread rumors that he was going to the hotel every few weeks to sleep with Margath, not Aellyn. Their relationship was primarily physical, and they were unable to see each other for extended periods. Unbeknownst to Yonka and his lover, Kina Margath was an Intelligence agent working for the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and the droid eventually assigned to Yonka when he stayed at the hotel, Poe, had once served Rebel starfighter pilots. However, Margath never acted against the Star Destroyer captain during the several years that the relationship between Jandi and Yonka lasted.

Although Yonka recognized that the Empire was far from perfect, he convinced himself that he was on the right side of the Galactic Civil War, as the Empire was the legitimate government. He had reservations about the harsh treatment of the Rebel Alliance, but he reasoned that they were the same as the pirates he dealt with in the Outer Rim. However, he remained loyal to the Empire after the Battle of Endor, when the Emperor was killed and the Empire was thrown into disarray.

In the aftermath of the Empire's defeat at Endor, Yonka's services were highly sought after, with self-proclaimed warlords such as Zsinj requesting his allegiance. Yonka valued the lives of the crew and starfighter pilots stationed aboard his vessel and had no intention of ordering his men into death on the whim of an illegitimate commander. Despite the generous rewards offered, he declined all offers and remained loyal to whoever ruled the true Empire on Coruscant. Yonka loyally served Ysanne Isard after she took the reigns of the Empire, as he believed that her strategy of dealing with the Rebellion first and then rebuilding the Empire made sense.

Sair Yonka was outraged when Isard purposely lost Coruscant, and her use of the Krytos virus on the planet's alien population appalled him, as he opposed the harming of innocents. Although he began to question her motives, Yonka remained loyal to her, and the Avarice assisted in establishing her power base on the planet Thyferra. After Isard and her flagship, the Lusankya, fled Coruscant and supported a political coup d'etat on Thyferra, the New Republic was unable to oppose her, as she ruled a legitimate government. Backed by Yonka's Avarice, along with Ait Convarion's Corrupter and Joak Drysso's Virulence, Ysanne Isard had completely monopolized the production of bacta within the galaxy, putting her in an extremely lucrative position.

Although the New Republic had vowed to stay well clear of Isard, Rogue Squadron, which had thwarted her in the past, resigned their commissions and decided to go after her themselves. Isard thought of them as little more than pests, an opinion Yonka shared, though the Rogues' continuous raids on her bacta shipments meant that Yonka and his peers had to perform escort duty. This was a role well suited to the Commenorian, as he had experience with similar missions in the Outer Rim. With the Lusankya holed up over Thyferra to protect Isard, Yonka saw his crew as the most well drilled and trained of the four crews serving Isard, and the Rogues saw him as a considerable threat. Several months into the Bacta War, while Yonka's pilots had yet to down a single Rogue, they were coming far closer than those of any of the other Star Destroyers. Meanwhile, although he did not fear Wedge Antilles and his squadron, Sair was becoming increasingly skeptical of Isard and feared that she would task him with committing atrocities like the destruction of the colony on Halanit, which Yonka's fellow captain Ait Convarion had been assigned to carry out. Yonka decided that he would serve her until she gave him a similarly distasteful order, and continued to escort her convoys of bacta, all the while making preparations with his numerous allies in the Outer Rim for his inevitable flight.

When Rogue Squadron began to search for intelligence about the four of Isard's captains, they discovered that Kina Margath was a Rebel agent and had her send them as much information on Yonka and his mistress as she had. They deduced that they would be able to buy Yonka's allegiance and made plans to meet with him. Several months into the Bacta War, Sair traveled to Elshandruu Pica to rendezvous with Aellyn, and Wedge Antilles was there waiting for him. The New Republic commander and a team of his personnel stunned Aellyn with a blaster pistol as she and Yonka met in a cottage not far from Margath's Hotel. Yonka initially thought that the Rogues had come to assassinate him, though what Wedge Antilles offered him was far more pleasing: a substantial amount of credits to announce his defection to Isard, remain in hiding for a time, and then assist the Rogues in their bid to liberate Thyferra. Yonka accepted the bribe and had Aellyn go into hiding, fearing retribution by Isard.

The crew of the Avarice was mostly in favor of their captain's sudden defection, aside from a group of individuals loyal to Isard. These loyalists commandeered a Lambda-class shuttle and attempted to flee, though the Star Destroyer was able to destroy the shuttle, killing all of its occupants. Captain Yonka sent Ysanne Isard a holo-message conveying his defection; he also told her of his low opinion of her, listing numerous faults of hers. Isard reacted furiously and had the families of each member of his crew executed, though Aellyn survived the wave of retribution. Antilles did not require Yonka's services initially, but rather, he had the Avarice—now renamed the Freedom—continue its deception, pretending to be in the Outer Rim.

Several weeks after his defection, Yonka was called into action. He knew that the Empire was no longer the force it once had been and deduced that if he performed well during Antilles's strike at Thyferra, he would be accepted into the New Republic. He kept his men well-motivated and well-drilled, knowing that his crew would have to play a large part in the defeat of the Lusankya, a Super Star Destroyer. The Rogues purposely leaked information of the location of their base on Yag'Dhul; while Isard sent her two remaining ships there, Yonka waited on the outskirts of the Thyferra system. When the Lusankya and Virulence arrived at the Rogues' base, the squadron and their allies fled to the Freedom's location and docked with the Star Destroyer. The Freedom moved out for Thyferra.

When they arrived in the system, the Lusankya had already fallen for their feint—it had rushed back to defend Thyferra from a non-existent attack. Antilles's starfighter squadrons dealt with the enemy TIE fighters while the Freedom took on the Lusankya, attempting to go over the larger ship's centerline and fire down upon it. The Lusankya's captain, Joak Drysso, wanted to capture the Freedom intact, and so only used ion cannons against it. Although Yonka managed to get several turbolaser shots off, the Lusankya's weaponry was enough to cripple his ship. However, the Lusankya was preoccupied fighting Antilles's forces, so Yonka's ship was allowed to float aimlessly through space without being fired upon.

Yonka's crew had been hit badly, and he himself had incurred injuries from the Lusankya's incessant ion cannon blasts. Although his ship was badly damaged, Yonka's crew was able to render it operational again. Both the captain and his men knew they were likely to die; one man remarked that Antilles had not paid them to die, though Yonka told him that if the Lusankya survived Isard would hunt them down and kill them anyway. He had his ship move into an offensive position, ready to strike at the Super Star Destroyer. Just as Yonka gave the signal to fire on the Lusankya, the Super Star Destroyer itself fired, further damaging Yonka's ship. The Freedom was now completely out of the fight, though with the help of the Virulence—which Antilles's personnel had commandeered at Yag'Dhul—the Lusankya was forced to surrender and Isard was believed killed. The Freedom had done its part in the battle, though it was left drifting through space, in dire need of repair.

The Freedom was transferred to the Sluis Van shipyards, where it was refitted with weapons from the Virulence, which smuggler Booster Terrik had claimed for himself. Although he had originally been bribed to fight against the Empire, Yonka served loyally with the New Republic, becoming a commander. The Freedom was still being refitted when Grand Admiral Thrawn launched his campaign against the New Republic at Sluis Van, using stolen mole miners to severely damage New Republic warships. Yonka's Freedom remained intact and was able to assist in fending Thrawn off. When his ship was entirely restored, Yonka and his crew continued fighting against Thrawn and what remained of the Empire.

The New Republic began to take heavy losses, and Thrawn had Coruscant surrounded by cloaked asteroids, preventing traffic from moving in and out. The New Republic made plans to find a crystal gravfield trap, which would help them locate and destroy the asteroids; they set up a feint attack for Tangrene while really planning to attack and steal a crystal gravfield trap from Bilbringi. Thrawn had seen through the New Republic's deception, however, and a full Imperial fleet was waiting for Admiral Gial Ackbar's taskforce, which included Yonka's Freedom, at Bilbringi. The Freedom incurred only superficial damage initially, though one of Yonka's supply freighters was destroyed. With the Empire overwhelming the New Republic forces, Yonka felt that defeat was imminent, but the Imperial fleet suddenly withdrew from the system, leaving Bilbringi under New Republic control. Yonka later learned that Thrawn had been killed, and that the Empire had fled to the Unknown Regions.

With Thrawn's forces all but defeated, the New Republic turned its attention to the Imperial warlords; Prince-Admiral Delak Krennel of the Ciutric Hegemony was chosen as their first target. Yonka attended a briefing session for the impending attack on the Hegemony and briefly reacquainted himself with Wedge Antilles, the man who had brought him over to the New Republic in the first place. Ackbar briefed Yonka and several other fleet officers of the assault on the planet Liinade III, located in the Hegemony, which was to be the first of Krennel's worlds to be attacked. The Freedom would wait just outside the system while Moonshadow and Swift Liberty dealt with the capital ships defending the world. Yonka and his crew were to act as backup, and when Krennel's Star Destroyers had been defeated, the Freedom would deploy its ground-troop carrying assault shuttles onto Liinade Three's surface. There was added incentive in the assignment for Yonka, as it was rumored that Ysanne Isard had survived the Battle of Thyferra and was working in conjunction with Krennel.

The preliminary battle did not go well for the New Republic and by the time Yonka's Freedom entered the fray, the Swift Liberty was being pounded by a Dreadnaught-class heavy cruiser. Yonka had his ship travel directly between the Dreadnaught and another Star Destroyer, the Direption. His starboard gunners dealt tremendous damage to the Star Destroyer, while the Freedom's port side fired upon the smaller Dreadnaught. The Direption incurred heavy damage and made preparations to jump to lightspeed, while Yonka's continual barrage on the Dreadnaught destroyed the cruiser, splitting its hull in two. The Direption was forced to surrender, and Yonka moved into position to deploy his ground troops. The ground operation went smoothly enough, and Liinade III was successfully captured. The later stages of the assault on Krennel's territory proved successful; although Yonka played no further part, Krennel, Isard's clone and Isard herself were all killed.

Even the Rogues considered Sair Yonka to be an intelligent man. He frequently reflected on the past and contemplated future decisions. Mirax Terrik, an ally of the Rogues, described him as highly calculating. He was deeply concerned about unfavorable odds and made every effort to ensure that they were in his favor. He preferred to avoid battles where defeat was likely and adopted a more pessimistic outlook than some when analyzing battles. While many, such as Wedge Antilles and his squadron, maintained their belief in success despite overwhelming odds, Yonka recognized when defeat was imminent and openly expressed his thoughts, although he was not inclined to surrender.

Yonka was somewhat of a risk taker, both in his personal life and as the commander of a starship. He operated behind the back of Elshandruu Pica's moff, despite the obvious danger involved. Yonka understood that his life would be at risk if Moff Jandi discovered his affair with Aellyn, but he decided that Aellyn's pleasures were worth the risk. Under Yonka's command, the Freedom took several risks, most notably during the Bacta War and the campaign against Krennel, where he had the Star Destroyer fly between two hostile ships and engage them both simultaneously.

Yonka possessed a calm demeanor and maintained his composure and presence of mind even in the face of adversity. When Wedge Antilles shot Aellyn—which Yonka believed had killed her—the Star Destroyer captain's judgment was not clouded by anger or a desire for revenge. Instead, Yonka carefully considered the situation and sought a solution. During his defection speech to Isard, Yonka spoke with conviction and maintained his composure. He was also remarkably eloquent, delivering lengthy speeches to both Isard and his crew. His speech to Isard achieved its intended effect, infuriating her to the point where she failed to see through his deception, while his words effectively motivated his crew for the perilous battle with the Lusankya.

Yonka paid close attention to his appearance, disregarding military regulations to grow a goatee and taking great care in his attire. This was particularly evident when visiting Aellyn Jandi on Elshandruu Pica, where he aimed to appear as inconspicuous as possible. Yonka alternated between simple, drab clothing to avoid standing out and flamboyant, colorful attire that would draw attention to his clothes rather than his face.

Yonka abhorred unnecessary loss of life and believed that war should be waged between armies and navies, without causing the deaths of innocent civilians. Isard's use of the Krytos virus to massacre millions of people who had aided the Rebellion in no way whatsoever disgusted Yonka. While he detested civilian casualties, Yonka had no qualms about killing criminals or anyone who attacked his ship. He did not exhibit Humanocentric tendencies, working alongside alien commanders in the New Republic, and he did not harbor prejudice against droids, unlike many in the Empire. He cared deeply about his crew and ensured that they were in prime condition to minimize the likelihood of them dying in combat.

Yonka was created by Star Wars author Michael A. Stackpole, debuting in the fourth installment of his X-wing series, The Bacta War. In this book, Yonka played a minor yet significant role, with several passages written from his perspective. Two years later, Stackpole reused the character in X-Wing: Isard's Revenge, although Yonka's role was far less prominent, appearing in only two chapters. Since then, Yonka's sole named appearance in canon has been in the Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, by Stephen J. Sansweet, Pablo Hidalgo, Daniel Wallace and several others.