Salikk

During both the Clone Wars and the Imperial Era, Salikk worked as a Gotal starship pilot. The Confederacy of Independent Systems took control of the Gotal planet Antar 4 during the Clone Wars, bringing in many pro-Separatist settlers, including Koorivar and Gossam. Salikk joined a resistance group led by Republic Intelligence agent Berch Teller, which included Gotal and Koorivar loyalists. Until the Clone Wars ended in 19 BBY, the Antar 4 resistance fought the Separatists with guerrilla tactics.

When the Galactic Republic became the Galactic Empire, Moff [Wilhuff Tarkin]'s (/article/wilhuff_tarkin) Imperial forces started a violent purge known as the Antar Atrocity, which involved indiscriminate arrests, executions, and massacres. Many Gotal and Koorivar loyalists died. Teller, who hated the Empire and Tarkin for killing loyalists during the Antar Atrocity, smuggled Salikk and Cala, a Koorivar munitions and surveillance expert, offworld.

Berch Teller's rebel cell welcomed Salikk and Cala, as well as other survivors and witnesses of the Antar Atrocity. Anora Fair, a former journalist, Hask Taff, a Zygerrian filmmaker, Dr. Artoz, a Mon Calamari starship engineer, and Knotts, an information broker, were also important members. The group was against the Galactic Empire and especially hated Tarkin, who planned the Antar Atrocity.

Teller's insurgents gathered a large collection of droid starfighters, warships, and communications equipment from the Clone Wars era over the next four years. Dodd Rancit, an Imperial Vice Admiral and Director of the Naval Intelligence Agency, helped them by using his intelligence and underworld connections to give them equipment and weapons. Rancit was a rival of Tarkin who wanted to improve his position in the Imperial Ruling Council. Salikk and the other insurgents did not know who Teller's informant really was.

After an attack on Sentinel Base failed, Teller's insurgents planned to steal Moff Tarkin's stealth corvette, the Carrion Spike. They wanted to use the powerful corvette to attack Imperial targets across the galaxy and broadcast them as holovids to inspire a rebellion. Vice-Admiral Rancit helped the insurgents by using the discovery of a communications cache on Murkhana, a former Separatist world, to attract Tarkin and Darth Vader there. While the Imperials were looking into the cache, Salikk, along with Teller, Cala, Anora, Hask, and Dr. Artoz, took the Carrion Spike and escaped offworld with it.

Salikk was assigned to pilot the Carrion Spike because of his piloting abilities. Salikk said that the ship seemed to fly itself as they traveled through the edge of the Murkhana system. When Teller talked about Tarkin's actions against pirates in the Seswenna sector, Salikk wondered if the pirates knew about ion cannons. Teller explained that Tarkin had designed ray-shield ships and a narrow ship with swivel cannons.

When Cala told them that a ship was following them, Salikk checked the sensor suit and recognized the ship as the Parsec Predator, which belonged to Faazah, a Sugi crime lord. Tarkin and Lord Vader had taken the Parsec Predator and were chasing them, but the rebels did not know this. Vader used his Sith meditation sphere to find the rebels. After the insurgents realized that the Parsec Predator was matching their every move, they knew that their Imperial pursuers had left a tracking device aboard. During the chase, Salikk asked if they should contact their "ally," but Teller advised against it because they would be updated soon. Salikk brought the Carrion Spike into hyperspace on Teller's orders.

The Carrion Spike reappeared in the Fial system. While Salikk was getting ready to jump again to Galidraan, Cala saw the Parsec Predator chasing them. Teller ordered Salikk to speed up their jump to Galidraan when he realized that the Imperials had a tracking device.

The insurgents used the Carrion Spike's stealth technology to launch a surprise attack on Galidraan Station, causing a lot of damage and casualties. The Carrion Spike also destroyed many V-wing and ARC-170 starfighters. Tarkin and Vader soon arrived in the Parsec Predator and started a dogfight. The rebels used the Carrion Spike's pintle cannons to disable the Imperial ship.

Even though their raid was successful, the Carrion Spike was damaged, and Salikk worked hard to get the stunned systems working again. While the other rebels worked on the ship's damaged systems, Salikk reported that Galidraan Station had launched another squadron of starfighters. When Teller asked if they still had working sublight engines, Salikk was worried that the Imperial starfighters would find their ion signatures. When Salikk suggested taking out Vader and Tarkin, Teller said that the Imperials could be replaced and that they needed to make the most of the ship while they still had it.

While Teller and Artoz removed Vader's Sith meditation sphere, which they identified as a tracking device, Salikk followed Teller's orders to move the ship to the jump-point. Salikk also destroyed the system's hyperspace buoy to harry their Imperial pursuers before leaving the Galidraan system. The insurgents then raided the TaggeCo mining facilities on Lucazec and broadcast footage of their attacks on HoloNet. This caught the attention of the Emperor and the Imperial Ruling Council.

After Vice-Admiral Rancit warned them to avoid Gromas, Teller took the Carrion Spike to Phindar in the Mandalore sector to refuel. Teller disguised himself as an Imperial Commander named Abel LaSal for the operation. This made Salikk joke about hearing good news from a human dressed as an Imperial. When Teller warned that they would have to leave at the first sign of trouble, Salikk asked where they would go. Teller told the rebels to follow the plan and not get ahead of themselves.

Despite Teller's efforts, the Phindian administrator of the Phindar tanker facility saw through the insurgent leader's disguise and informed Tarkin. Tarkin told the Phindians to refuel the Carrion Spike as usual to avoid making the insurgents suspicious. Tarkin and Vader arrived aboard the Imperial escort carrier Goliath with the V-wing squadron Yellow Squadron before the rebels could finish refueling. When Salikk suggested leaving Phindar and its primary moon, Teller told Salikk to fly around the tanker to protect the hyperdrive generator.

Salikk followed Teller's orders, even though he knew that Vader and Tarkin would still fire at them. The rebels flew around the tanker for the next fifteen minutes while waiting for the hyperdrive generator to load. They also fought Vader's Yellow Squadron and the tanker's ARC-170 starfighters. The insurgents managed to cloak their ship and jump into hyperspace when the hyperdrive was ready. They also used a hidden explosive in a fuel cell to blow up the Phindian tanker before leaving.

Salikk and his comrades recovered from their injuries in the Expansion Region system known as LCC-4-4-7, which was located between the planets Aquaris and Thustra. Cala regretted that their hidden explosive had not destroyed Darth Vader's black Eta-2 Actis-class interceptor and the V-wings, but Salikk said that they were lucky to have escaped. They then listened as Teller talked about Tarkin's ruthless career in the Outland Regions Security Force. Teller believed that the Emperor and his disciples Vader and Tarkin were in the process of taking over the galaxy and explained his plan to turn Tarkin's starship Carrion Spike from an Imperial symbol into an icon of resistance against the Empire.

Salikk reported a discrepancy in the fuel capacity while doing a pre-flight check of the instruments and systems, since their trip to Phindar to obtain new fuel cells. Salikk acknowledged that they had left even though they had not finished refueling, but he said that the discrepancy still did not make sense. After some discussion, Teller sent Cala into the fuel bay to test the fuel cells they had obtained on Phindar. Cala then discovered that one of the fuel cells contained a paralight tracker, which is a type of Imperial homing beacon.

Salikk and his comrades predicted that the Empire had sent forces to calculate the possible locations of their next jumps based on this discovery. Teller came up with a plan to send decoys to Obroa-skai in their place because they could not transmit false coordinates. The rebels hired a Koorivar captain and his Sy Myrthian to crew the freighter Reticent, which traveled to Obroa-skai in their place, with the help of the information broker Knotts.

Teller's plan worked, and Tarkin sent Imperial ships, including three interdictor vessels, to the Obroa-skai system to trap the Carrion Spike. However, the Immobilizer 418 cruiser's gravity well projector malfunctioned, causing a massive hyperspace accident that killed 1,100 people. Despite the disaster, Vader and Tarkin captured and questioned the crew of the Reticent, who revealed that Knotts had hired them to travel to Obroa-skai. Tarkin used this information to look through Republic and Imperial HoloNet records and find information about Teller's rebel cell, including Salikk's escape from Antar.

Teller's insurgents attacked the Imperial facility in the Nouane system under Dodd Rancit's guidance. Salikk decanted the Carrion Spike on the edge of the system on Teller's instructions to avoid Imperial capital ships. Rancit, however, had moved Imperial forces to strengthen the Nouane Imperial facility. The insurgents managed to escape, but the Carrion Spike suffered significant damage to its systems. Salikk was injured during the attack, which caused him to shed fur throughout the cockpit.

While Dr. Artoz treated Salikk's wounds, the other insurgents realized that Teller's source, Vice-Admiral Rancit, had betrayed them. They decided to abandon the Carrion Spike, but not before setting the abandoned ship on autopilot to Carida. Teller rightly suspected that Rancit was trying to lure them into a trap, even though Rancit had given Teller the go-ahead to attack Carida's Imperial Academy. Rancit tried to destroy the Carrion Spike to hide his collaboration with Teller's insurgents. However, Lord Vader, who had discovered his treachery with Tarkin's help, stopped Rancit and had him executed.

Salikk and his fellow insurgents regrouped in a remote star system near the Gulf of Tatooine after leaving the Carrion Spike. Teller planned to raid an Imperial convoy that was transporting supplies to the mysterious Death Star project because the Carrion Spike's raids had kept much of the Imperial fleet busy. The insurgents had gathered a Providence-class carrier-destroyer, an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate, many droid fighters, and several starfighters for that raid.

The insurgents jammed the Imperial convoy's communications and HoloNet transceivers when it exited hyperspace before attacking the convoy escorts and transports with organic and droid starfighters. The escorts formed a defensive perimeter around the transports, but they were attacked fiercely by Teller's insurgents. However, when Moff Tarkin arrived aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer Executrix, the battle turned against the insurgents. Tarkin dispatched starfighters, destroyed the insurgents' Nebulon-B frigate, and then attacked Teller's warship, crippling it.

Salikk told Teller that they were already committed and that he had a better chance of escaping, even though Teller, who was in a Z-95 Headhunter, advised them to retreat. Salikk also supported Anora when she urged Teller to flee and fight another day. Salikk also thanked Teller for saving his life during the Antar Atrocity before sending hyperspace jump coordinates to Teller's starfighter. Salikk and Anora told Teller that they were ready to die as martyrs before parting ways with him.

Imperial forces under Tarkin then boarded the ship and captured the remaining rebels. Thirteen organic crew members died during the battle, while twice as many were captured by Imperial forces. Salikk's comrades Anora, Hask, Knotts, and Dr. Artoz were among those captured. Tarkin, Lord Vader, and the Imperial Security Bureau interrogated the captured insurgents and their collaborators before executing them. It is unknown whether Salikk died during the bombardment or was captured and then executed.

Salikk was a male Gotal with scarlet eyes, clawed digits, and two twin horns on his head. As a Gotal, he was short and dark-skinned with light hair on his cheeks and chin. Salikk also had a sweaty scent, which is a trait of the Gotal species. He disliked working with droids, so the other rebels did not include droids in their crew.

Salikk was loyal to Berch Teller because he had saved his life during the Antar Atrocity. He saw Teller as a leader and supported his rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Salikk used his piloting skills to fly the Carrion Spike after the insurgents stole Tarkin's corvette. Salikk's deep respect for Teller led him to help Teller escape into hyperspace during the Battle near the Gulf of Tatooine. Salikk was willing to die as a martyr fighting against the Empire.

Salikk wore an old-fashioned flight suit that left the clawed digits of his hands uncovered.

Salikk first appeared in James Luceno's 2014 canon novel Tarkin, which tells the story of the character's origins.