Skelly, residing on the planet of Gorse, was a male human proficient in explosives. Having served in the Clone Wars, Skelly found work in the thorilide mines of Cynda as an explosives specialist during the Galactic Empire's era. While employed as a miner, Skelly's research revealed that Cynda's structural integrity was being compromised by the mining operations. He attempted to alert the mining companies to cease their activities on Cynda. Ignoring his warnings, the companies prompted Skelly to conduct an unsanctioned test bombing in Zone Forty-Two of Cynda, aiming to demonstrate the imminent danger.
Skelly's imperial criticism attracted the attention of the Empire's authorities. Skelly, however, successfully avoided capture and executed his test bombing in Zone Forty-Two. This test led Skelly to the conclusion that continued mining would inevitably result in Cynda's destruction. Shortly thereafter, he was apprehended by Kanan Jarrus, a freighter pilot and survivor of the Great Jedi Purge, who was angered by Skelly's endangerment of his recovery team. Kanan turned him over to Moonglow Polychemical, the mining company, with plans to deliver him to the Empire.
However, Hera Syndulla, a rebel operative, rescued Skelly, intending to enlist him in the rebellion. Skelly's sole concern, however, was the preservation of Cynda, not the broader fight against the Empire. Learning that Count Denetrius Vidian, a prominent Imperial industrialist, was inspecting Moonglow, Skelly infiltrated the refinery. He tried to persuade Vidian to halt all mining on Cynda. Vidian retaliated with an attack, leading Skelly to attempt to assassinate the Count twice by bombing two of his shuttles. Hera and Kanan aided Skelly's escape.
After eluding Count Vidian and the Empire, Skelly became part of Hera's informal rebel group, which also included Kanan and Zaluna Myder, a discontented surveillance operator. The rebels soon discovered Vidian's plot to destroy Cynda, utilizing Skelly's research. Together, Skelly and the rebels infiltrated Vidian's headquarters in the Calcoraan system and learned that Vidian intended to exploit Cynda's destruction for his own political advancement. The rebels leveraged this information to convince the Empire to withdraw its support for Vidian's scheme. Skelly and his rebel allies then returned to the Gorse system, where Skelly met his end during a final showdown that also resulted in Vidian's death, ending his conspiracy against Cynda.
Skelly, born in 51 BBY, was a man of Corellian human descent who had served as a demolitions expert in the Clone Wars. Toward the end of the war, specifically after the Battle of Slag's Pit, Skelly's right hand was lost and replaced with a prosthetic. Due to supply shortages, he received a Klatooinian prosthetic, which, due to incompatibility, did not function correctly. These experiences led Skelly to believe that powerful corporations and political figures had manipulated the Clone Wars to create the Galactic Empire. Following the Clone Wars, Skelly eventually settled in Crispus Commons, a dilapidated housing project established by the Galactic Republic on the planet Gorse for homeless Clone Wars veterans. Under the Empire, Crispus Commons deteriorated.
Following the Clone Wars, Cynda, the moon of Gorse, was opened for thorilide mining by the Empire, based on a report by mining consultant Lemuel Tharsa claiming Gorse had exhausted its thorilide reserves. In the five years preceding the Gorse Conflict, Skelly worked for various mining firms as a demolitions expert, but was frequently dismissed due to his contentious nature. Shortly before the Gorse conflict, Skelly was employed by Dalborg Mining. He used his position to research the impact of blasting on Cynda's surface and structure.
In 11 BBY, Count Denetrius Vidian, an Imperial efficiency expert, visited the Gorse system to accelerate thorilide production. Meanwhile, on Cynda, Skelly attempted to persuade Lal Grallik, Moonglow Polychemical's chief operations officer, to temporarily halt blasting operations beyond Zone Forty-Two for testing. Lal dismissed Skelly's concerns. Shortly thereafter, Kanan Jarrus, secretly a survivor of the Great Jedi Purge working as a freighter pilot, arrived with a shipment of baradium bisulfate for Moonglow. Skelly objected to the use of baradium bisulfate, but Kanan disregarded his concerns, focused on meeting his deadline.
While riding in a turbolift with Kanan, Skelly cautioned that prolonged use of baradium bisulfate would compromise Cynda's crystalline structure, with potentially catastrophic consequences for Gorse. He presented Kanan with a holodisk containing his research, but the freighter pilot refused to listen. Frustrated, Skelly warned that the Empire should be wary of a potential disaster, prompting Kanan to punch Skelly before exiting the elevator.
Unfortunately, Skelly's statements were recorded by a Myder's Mynocks operator, a surveillance division of Transcept Media Solutions. The operator informed her supervisor, Zaluna Myder, who contacted the local Imperial authorities. Skelly then proceeded to his workplace at Dalborg Mining's claim in Zone Thirty-Nine. Dalborg's foreman, Tarlor Choh, was expediting preparations for an upcoming inspection by Count Vidian. As Skelly attached baradium charges to a large thorilide diamond column, four stormtroopers arrived to arrest him for "speaking to the detriment of the Empire."
Tarlor saw this as an opportunity to dismiss Skelly, whom he deemed a troublesome employee. Before the stormtroopers could apprehend him, Skelly detonated the charges with a remote control. The resulting explosion crushed the stormtroopers and caused debris to fill the cave, allowing Skelly to escape through a service shaft connected to ventilation tunnels leading to Cynda's Zone Forty-Two. Despite his troubles with the Empire, Skelly remained determined to conduct his test bombing, detonating a time bomb in Zone Forty-Two.
Skelly's unauthorized test bombing caused the ceiling of Zone Forty-Two to collapse, creating tremors and dangerous seams in higher floors. Count Vidian ordered Skelly's arrest for endangering mining operations on Cynda. Meanwhile, Kanan, who had assaulted Skelly earlier, and another miner named Yelkin, were caught in the test bombing but survived due to Kanan's Force powers. Skelly survived the cave-in by hiding aboard Kanan's freight hauler, Expedient.
Kanan, shaken by the explosion and his use of the Force, returned to his ship and was surprised by Skelly while flying back to Gorse. Unwilling to risk trouble with the Empire as a Jedi fugitive, Kanan decided to hand Skelly over to Moonglow security. Skelly pleaded that he had saved Kanan's life, but Kanan remained unmoved. Skelly argued that he had conducted the test bombing because Moonglow was not scheduled to work in Zone Forty-Two until the next day, but Kanan countered that the Empire had doubled their quota, forcing a schedule change.
Skelly attempted to alert the Empire to his research by hailing the Imperial Star Destroyer Ultimatum. Skelly believed Count Vidian would suspend mining operations on Cynda and launch an investigation. Kanan, however, did not share this optimism and secured Skelly in his seat with a blaster. Kanan informed Skelly that he was returning the Expedient to Moonglow's shipyard on Gorse, where he would hand Skelly over to Moonglow's security chief Gord Grallik, Lal's husband.
Upon arriving at Moonglow's shipyard, Kanan handed a gagged and bound Skelly over to Gord. Lal and Gord contacted Count Vidian via hologram to report the capture. Vidian, pleased, informed the Gralliks that he would inspect Moonglow Polychemical as part of his tour of Gorse. After the hologram conversation, Skelly asked why he had been prevented from speaking to Vidian, warning that he would inform Vidian about the mining firms' use of baradium bisulfate on Cynda. Gord dismissed Skelly's threats.
Before the Empire could retrieve Skelly, Hera Syndulla, a rebel operative, hired a local criminal gang called the Sarlaccs to attack the Moonglow refinery and harass the company's security forces. While the Gralliks were distracted, Hera infiltrated the courtyard and freed Skelly. Skelly was initially disappointed, hoping Vidian would heed his concerns. Hera instructed him to flee, promising to find him, and secretly placed a tracking device in his utility pocket.
Despite his misgivings, Skelly returned to Crispus Commons. His apartment had been ransacked by Imperial stormtroopers, but Skelly had a hidden bomb shelter accessible through a sewer grate behind the apartment complex's garbage bin. After a meager meal, Skelly prepared to sleep on a floor mat when Hera arrived to recruit him into the rebellion. Skelly, however, was solely focused on saving Cynda from destruction, claiming that prolonged mining would destroy it due to its fragile structure. He alleged a conspiracy involving mining companies, shipwrights, and the Galactic Empire, driven by profit. Skelly also claimed that corporate interests had initiated the Clone Wars.
Despite her opposition to the Empire, Hera dismissed Skelly as a conspiracy theorist and met with her contact Hetto at The Asteroid Belt cantina in Gorse City. Instead, she met Kanan and Zaluna, who informed her that Hetto had been arrested. However, she possessed a datacube with information Hetto had gathered about the Empire. Later, Skelly went to The Asteroid Belt, where he had been banned by Okadiah Garson, attempting to convince Kanan to lend him his Moonglow ID. Believing he could relate to Count Vidian because he was a cyborg, Skelly wanted to persuade Vidian to halt all thorilide operations on Cynda.
Kanan and Hera refused to support Skelly's plan, deeming it naïve and reckless. Despite their differences, they hid Skelly from a stormtrooper patrol. Skelly misled the stormtroopers by pretending to be an inebriated Wookiee locked in a closet after drinking Trandoshan ale. Unable to secure Kanan's ID, Skelly remained determined to see Count Vidian, infiltrating the Moonglow refinery through the sewers with the help of a disgruntled restaurateur named Drakka.
After infiltrating the Moonglow refinery, Skelly confronted Count Vidian, who was waiting outside a heavy-duty bulk-loader transport while Lal showed Captain Sloane the vehicle's interior. Vidian sensed Skelly due to his advanced sensors. Skelly gave Vidian the holodisk containing his research, showing that Cynda would be torn apart by Gorse's gravity if mining continued. Vidian dismissed it and used his mechanical strength to injure Skelly severely.
Despite his injuries, Skelly escaped into the refinery's conveyor belt system before Sloane and her stormtroopers could catch him. He returned to the sewer. Realizing that Vidian's reputation as a rational expert was false, Skelly resolved to kill Vidian after treating his wounds with a medpac. Before Vidian could leave the refinery, Skelly bombed his Imperial shuttle Truncheon, parked outside. While several stormtroopers died, Vidian survived due to his cybernetic body.
After failing to kill Vidian, Skelly fled on a stolen Imperial speeder bike to an Imperial spaceport at Highground, where Vidian had arranged for a second shuttle, Cudgel, to pick him up. Vidian, Sloane, and the remaining stormtroopers arrived on a speeder bus, as did Kanan and Hera, who were tailing the Count. Despite his injuries, Skelly hurled a bomb at the Cudgel, destroying the shuttle. However, Vidian, Sloane, and their men escaped before the shuttle exploded. Skelly lost control of his bike and crashed into the hoverbus.
Before Vidian could finish off Skelly, Hera, and Kanan, Gord Grallik confronted the Count. Vidian had murdered Lal after she informed him that Moonglow could not meet the Emperor's tripled quota. Gord attempted to arrest Vidian, but the Count ordered his stormtroopers to kill the security chief. Gord killed several stormtroopers with his blasters and sonic grenade before being killed by the Count. With Vidian preoccupied, Skelly and his companions fled the spaceport in the hoverbus.
With Hera driving, the rebels fled the spaceport. Despite being pursued by Imperial Troop Transports and TIE fighters, the rebels reached a quarry on the outskirts of Gorse City. Upon disembarking, they found Zaluna, who had accidentally stowed away, locked in the hoverbus' toilet. Zaluna recognized Skelly as the bomber, having processed the surveillance that led to his arrest. Fearing retribution, Zaluna pulled out a blaster, but Kanan assured her that Skelly was harmless due to his injuries.
Following their escape from Count Vidian, Skelly and his rebel companions sought refuge in the attic above Okadiah's cantina, The Asteroid Belt. While Skelly tended to his wounds, Hera established an informal cell consisting of herself, Kanan, and Skelly. They were joined by Zaluna, distraught over her suspension due to her friendship with Hetto. After downloading the recording device's contents from the hoverbus, the rebels discovered Vidian's plan to destroy Cynda so his comet-chasers could harvest the thorilide in space.
Skelly was horrified that Vidian had stolen his research and intended to use it to destroy Cynda. While Kanan and Hera were skeptical, Zaluna supported Skelly, recalling her mother's warnings about the moon's fragility. Despite his poor condition, Skelly was determined to stop the Empire and considered blowing up the baradium explosives plant near the spaceport. Hera advised against this, pointing out that the Empire had other explosives sources besides Gorse. While watching the Gorse skyline, they witnessed an explosion on Cynda, followed by a ground quake.
The rebels realized the Empire was responsible and departed on Kanan's ship Expedient for Cynda. The explosion originated at the thorilide mining facility. Kanan's friend Okadiah had been part of a shift that had traveled to Cynda shortly before the explosion. Upon landing, the rebels found a dying Okadiah, who informed them that the Empire had planted explosives in Zone Sixty-Six. Meanwhile, Count Vidian and Captain Sloane deemed the test a success. Vidian's consultant Lemuel Tharsa had produced a report claiming the planet's thorilide crystals would not be damaged by the detonation. Unknown to Sloane, Tharsa was Vidian, who had fabricated the results to discredit his rival Baron Danthe and curry the Emperor's favor.
Based on these fake results, Captain Sloane supported Vidian's plans. Vidian ordered all empty mining cargo ships in the Gorse system to follow Sloane's Star Destroyer Ultimatum to the Calcoraan system, where Vidian owned a depot full of baradium-357 explosives. To cover up Vidian's planned detonation, the Empire claimed the Count was leading the Mining Guild in a "heroic" effort to stabilize Cynda. The explosion was blamed on Moonglow's incompetence, giving the Empire the pretext to nationalize the company and its assets. After hearing Vidian's orders, the rebels decided to take the Expedient to Vidian's depot to foil his plot.
After infiltrating the space station, the group sought Vidian's quarters. Hera and Kanan confronted Vidian while Zaluna and Skelly waited. Kanan and Hera fought the cyborg, but lost. However, Skelly and Zaluna used one of the Count's interrogator droids to inject him with a sleeping serum. After he passed out, the rebels bound him to a table, downloading his memory onto a terminal and holoprojector. They discovered Vidian's deception and double life. The group proceeded to trick and capture Captain Sloane. Posing as an agent of the Emperor, Kanan told Sloane about Vidian's deception and convinced her to send the original test results to the Emperor.
Racing back to the Gorse system aboard the Expedient, the rebels decided to disrupt Vidian's ships by harrying the mining ships delivering the baradium-357 to Cynda's surface. After Kanan engaged TIE fighters in a dogfight, he landed the Expedient in the rear hangar of Vidian's ship Forager. The Forager was a comet-chaser mining vessel Vidian had brought to Cynda to harvest the moon's thorilide after the detonation. He knew the thorilide crystals would deteriorate and wanted the comet-chaser industry, which he controlled, to capitalize on this temporary boom. Vidian hoped to blame the ensuing fallout on Baron Danthe and Captain Sloane to boost his political career.
After their forced landing, Skelly and his companions fought through the factory floor of the ship and began to climb a ladder. The badly wounded Skelly began to slow down. When stormtroopers below opened fire, he lost his grip and fell towards the factory floor, out of sight. The rest of the group thought that their comrade was dead and continued on their mission. They battled Vidian until Captain Sloane ordered her men to sever the detonation link and arrest Vidian for crimes against the Empire. With the help of Baron Danthe, Sloane had managed to forward the results to the Emperor; who withdrew his approval for Vidian's project. When Vidian defied her and ordered his crew to go ahead with the detonation, Sloane ordered the Imperial fleet to bombard the Forager; effectively leaving Vidian's plans in tatters. In the midst of the chaos, Skelly's companions Kanan, Hera, and Zaluna managed to flee in an escape pod.
Meanwhile, Skelly survived his fall and the subsequent bombardment that engulfed the Forager. On board the Expedient, Skelly encountered a weakened and battered Vidian crawling up the freighter's ramp. Despite his setback, Vidian was still determined to proceed with his plan to destroy Cynda by using the Expedient's load of baradium-357. Despite his serious injuries, Skelly managed to grab onto Vidian's leg with his prosthetic hand. After looking out the magnetic seal to see Cynda, he hit the button on a detonator that ran via wire to the explosives in the ship. Skelly, along with Vidian, were killed in the ensuing explosion that destroyed the Forager. Through the Force, Kanan immediately knew that Skelly had detonated the explosives on the Expedient, destroying it and the Forager, and perished during the explosion.
Skelly was a human male with red hair, light skin, and a scarred, pockmarked face. At the end of the Clone Wars, he lost his right hand and had it replaced with a prosthetic intended for Klatooinians. Nerve damage from the botched operation prevented the replacement of a human-compatible prosthetic. Since the hand was intended for a very different species, it did not work properly, having a tendency to not loosen its grip when latched on to something. Skelly was also known to have two missing teeth. Following the Clone Wars, Skelly worked as a demolitions expert for several mining companies in the Gorse system. Due to his work, he frequently traveled between his home on Gorse and the Cynda mines. Skelly also had an argumentative personality that created tensions with his employers and caused him to move between several jobs.
In his free time, Skelly used his knowledge of explosives to undertake research on the effects of blasting operations on Cynda. Based on these results, he concluded that mining endangered Cynda's existence and had to stop. After the mining companies ignored his warnings, Skelly came to believe that there was a "thorilide triangle" consisting of the mining companies, shipwrights, and the Imperial Navy, who placed profits above the environment. Skelly compiled his research in a holodisk and a series of notes that festooned the walls of his hideout in Crispus Commons' old bomb shelter. In addition, Skelly claimed that the corporations had engineered the Clone Wars in order to sell off surplus stock. He also naively believed that the Imperial Count Vidian would be willing to listen to his research about Cynda due to the latter's exaggerated reputation as a fixer and rational thinker. As a cyborg, he believed that he could relate to the cyborg Count.
While trying to reason with Count Vidian, Skelly sustained serious damage to his face and chest. In addition, Skelly also lost several more teeth, dislocated his jaw, and sustained several broken ribs. Despite his battered and bruised conditions, Skelly was still determined to fight Vidian and made three attempts to kill the Imperial industrialist. On the third occasion, he managed to kill Vidian with a bomb that destroyed the Forager. Skelly himself was killed during the explosion, but died knowing that he had saved Cynda and many lives on Gorse from destruction.
Skelly was a demolitions expert who was skilled with handling explosives. Due to his line of work, he was aware of the destructive effects of explosives like baradium bisulfate and baradium-357. In addition, Skelly could ride a speeder bike despite suffering serious injuries at the hands of Count Vidian. Skelly also knew how to treat his own wounds with a medpac and also used injections to increase his adrenaline. Despite his lack of formal education, Skelly accurately identified the damaging effects of mining on the moon Cynda.
Skelly was first introduced in A New Dawn, a novel written by John Jackson Miller; the novel, released on September 2, 2014, was the first novel of the Star Wars canon first announced on April 25, 2014. Skelly was a member of the Republic military service during the Clone Wars but was not a clone trooper, instead written as a character who functioned as a combat engineer who supported clone troopers. He was originally conceived as a Klatooinian. Despite this, Miller felt that he had an appearance that was somewhat Klatooinian. Miller compared the character to a "sapper or miner" who performed a "dangerous, messy job."