Snopel

The stories say that a Human male known as Snopel participated in the First Battle of Geonosis on Geonosis during the early stages of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, fighting between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, presumably on the side of the Republic.

Following the rise of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY, Snopel continued his military service, this time serving the Empire as a shock trooper during the Galactic Civil War against the Alliance to Restore the Republic. After the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY, Snopel was stationed at the Imperial Outpost on Talus, where he was involved in a major battle on that world. During this battle, a Rebel counterattack commanded by Captain Coret Bhan attempted to overwhelm the Imperial Outpost after the Empire retreated there following a failed initial assault on the Rebel's secret Talusian base. Despite their exhaustion, the Imperial Armed Forces had to defend themselves. They grabbed helmets and blaster rifles, and all available soldiers hurried to protect the outpost. Snopel ensured the proper deployment of all forces. Thanks to the efforts of Snopel and his fellow Imperial troops, the Empire gained an advantage over the Rebels, prompting Captain Bhan to order the Alliance forces to retreat. This led to a second successful Imperial offensive the following morning. With the arrival of reinforcements and TIE/LN starfighters, the assault on the Rebel's secret base was successful. However, despite the Empire's victory in the Battle of Talus, many key Alliance personnel managed to escape.

As the Galactic Civil War escalated, the Empire became concerned that abandoned residences across the galaxy could be used by Rebel insurgents as safe houses and ambush locations. To address this perceived threat, Colonel Braedic Ekirk hired Galactic Vacant Building Demolitions, a small company, to demolish countless vacant structures on the Empire's various worlds through aerial bombardment. Imperial regional commands also used the destruction of deserted houses as a training exercise for TIE bomber groups. At one such bomber command center, Snopel replaced the regular training officer who was unavailable that year. Despite being recognized as a sergeant in the Imperial Army and a respected commando trainer and non-commissioned officer, Snopel seemed ill-suited to command a TIE bomber group.

Nevertheless, the TIEs departed on schedule and in formation, heading towards their assigned houses for destruction. A subordinate of Sergeant Snopel monitored their progress using a large holoprojector in the command center. The subordinate soon noticed a problem: all the houses, not just the empty ones, were targeted for demolition. Recognizing this critical error, the subordinate urged the sergeant to abort the mission. However, Snopel remained unconcerned. He casually turned his chair to face the junior Imperial and insisted that his two weeks of orientation were sufficient for him to know how to do his job. The lower-ranked Imperial persisted, telling Snopel that he was wrong and needed to send the abort code immediately. Snopel, stubborn in his ways, refused to comply. When it became clear that hundreds of innocent citizens could be killed, the junior Imperial moved towards the comm console to send the abort code himself. Snopel blocked his path and grabbed his arm, leading to a scuffle between the two officers. After a brief struggle, the subordinate officer subdued Snopel and threw him in the brig. The abort code was sent to the bomber group, saving countless lives. When the embarrassing situation was explained to their superiors, they decided to reassign Snopel to Tansarii Point Station in the Bright Jewel system. The disgraced army officer was never allowed back into an Imperial facility.

By the time he was reassigned to the Ranged Combat Training Room of Tansarii Point Station, Snopel had retired from his career as an Imperial commando. However, he continued to wear his distinctive black-colored shock trooper armor and held the rank of sergeant. Despite his retirement, Snopel made good use of his time on the space station, teaching many trainees the basic techniques used by commandos in the field.

One such trainee was referred to him by Han Solo, the famous Rebel Alliance smuggler. Snopel agreed to teach the new recruit the fundamentals of becoming an effective commando. To test the trainee's abilities, Snopel tasked them with resolving a problem in the lower level of Tansarii Point Station. Hutt thugs had caused a disturbance by punching a hole in the station and infiltrating the lower level. Snopel said he was too old to deal with them himself and needed his trainee to handle it. Sergeant Snopel gave his trainee an arsenal of C12 fragmentation grenades. The trainee went to "Storage 02" and threw a grenade, killing three thugs loyal to the Hutts. Snopel believed this would send a strong message.

After restoring some order to the lower level, Snopel learned that a recent shipment to the station might be useful to his superiors. Snopel tasked his trainee with finding a dock worker named Terry. According to the seasoned sergeant, Terry had a record of the shipment on his datapad. Snopel instructed the trainee to retrieve the datapad using extreme violence and leave no witnesses. The commando trainee found Terry in the station's upper atrium and killed him, but the datapad did not mention the shipment. However, Snopel learned that Terry had planted a bomb in the station's upper level. Snopel urged his trainee to immediately prevent the bomb from detonating. With no time to waste, Snopel suggested via communicator that the trainee search one of the back rooms. The trainee found the explosive device and successfully defused it. The trainee returned to Snopel to inform the anxiously awaiting sergeant of the good news. Sergeant Snopel was deeply grateful to his trainee for saving him and everyone else on the station. As a token of his gratitude, Snopel gave his trainee a sum of credits, a sharpshooter's bandolier, and a package containing a commando's uniform.

For the moment, Snopel had no more assignments for his novice commando, but it wouldn't be the last time they worked together. Although Snopel remained on Tansarii Point Station, he sometimes supervised missions against various criminal elements throughout the galaxy. One such group was the sand pirates, a group of pirates operating a base on a hilltop overlooking Mos Entha, a major city on Tatooine in the Outer Rim Territories. To eliminate the pirates, Snopel sent his commando to meet with Coris Mao in Mos Entha. Mao explained that the sand pirates were interfering with his business partners by attacking any transport approaching their base. To stop this, Mao requested that Sergeant Snopel's loyal commando infiltrate their base, kill their leader, and ensure the base could not be used again. The commando completed the mission, first by killing two guards at the base's entrance and then by eliminating at least ten other pirates inside the base. In the base's lowest level, the commando encountered and killed the sand pirate boss. Snopel congratulated the commando via comm message, but there was one more task: to ensure the base could not be used in the near future, Snopel told the commando to overload the reactor and escape. Snopel didn't know how long the reactor would last once overloaded, but the commando followed instructions and quickly left the base. Snopel was impressed by the commando's clean execution of the mission. He informed the commando that he had already sent payment to Coris Mao and that the commando should return to him in Mos Entha to receive it. In addition to the credit payout, Coris Mao also gave the commando a diffusion generator.

As a final mission for the now more experienced commando, Sergeant Snopel sent attack orders to clear out an occupied bunker in the Gallo Mountains of Naboo. The bunker, located near the Zaprin Estate, was once owned by mining professionals. However, a violent group of mountain poachers had forcefully taken over the bunker with their trained narglatch creatures. The owners wanted it back and turned to Snopel and his junior commando to help the mountain poachers "see reason." Sergeant Snopel's commando traveled to Naboo and approached the captured bunker. The mission was simple: Snopel needed the commando to kill the inhabitants and reset the locks by accessing three of the bunker's computer terminals. The commando succeeded and received congratulations from Snopel via comm message. Snopel then instructed the loyal commando to travel to Theed, Naboo's capital, to meet with Galuf Cardaan for payment. With that, Snopel ended communications. Galuf Cardaan was grateful for the services provided by Snopel and his associate. With the mountain poachers gone, he and his mining partners planned to move back into the bunker soon.

During his two decades of service, Snopel had a remarkable career as a soldier in both the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War. During his time with the Galactic Empire, he rose to the rank of sergeant in the Imperial Army and proved his skill as an excellent commando trainer. On the battlefield, his leadership helped the Empire win the Battle of Talus. When weary Imperial troops were caught off guard by a relentless Rebel counterattack, Snopel ensured that the Imperial defenders were properly deployed.

However, Snopel was out of his depth when commanding a TIE bomber group of rookie pilots. Over time, he had become rigid and unwilling to listen to reason. This flaw became evident when Sergeant Snopel refused to abort a simple training mission that went horribly wrong. Because of Snopel's carelessness, stubbornness, and incompetence, one of his subordinates fought with him to prevent the bombers from carrying out a mission that could have killed hundreds of innocent people. Snopel's poor judgment led to his reassignment to a less prestigious position on Tansarii Point Station, forcing him to retire from his usual duties as an Imperial commando. Nevertheless, he retained the rank of sergeant and continued to proudly wear his black shock trooper armor.

Snopel made the most of his new position by teaching many trainees the basic combat techniques used by commandos on the battlefield. He demanded respect and discipline from his soldiers and readily used extreme violence to achieve his goals. To combat the rampant crime on the space station, he instructed a novice commando to throw a grenade in one of the lower storage rooms, killing three thugs. He believed such excessive actions were necessary to send a message. He also worked with the same commando to ruthlessly kill a dock worker named Terry. However, Terry was actually a violent terrorist who had planted an explosive device in the station's upper atrium. Under Snopel's direction, the commando trainee managed to defuse the bomb, saving the station and its inhabitants from certain destruction. Despite his extensive experience on the battlefield, the bomb scare left Snopel feeling somewhat anxious. He was grateful to the novice commando for saving his life and, in recognition, gave the commando a brand-new uniform.

By this point, Snopel felt he was too old to participate in such adventurous ordeals himself. Yet he continued to thrive in his more supervisory role from Tansarii Point Station. When sand pirates harassed Coris Mao's business partners, Snopel encouraged the same gung-ho acts of violence previously used on Tansarii. He even recommended overloading the Sand Pirate Base's main reactor, despite not knowing if the junior commando would have enough time to escape. Regardless, Snopel recognized talent and was impressed that the commando had completed the mission against the sand pirates with a "minimum of mess." He would excitedly congratulate the junior commando for completing missions like these and ensure the commando received ample compensation for a job well done.

During his service with the Galactic Empire, Sergeant Snopel wore black shock trooper armor with dark, blue-colored kamas. As for weaponry, Snopel had an arsenal of C12 fragmentation grenades, which he gave to a trainee for use against the thugs of Tansarii Point Station. Otherwise, Snopel was unarmed, at least during his time as an instructor on the space station.

Snopel was a non-player character in the 2003 video game Star Wars Galaxies, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment and published by LucasArts, before its closure on December 15, 2011. He was added to the game with the release of Publish 25's "New Game Enhancements" (NGE) on November 15, 2005, which included a New Player Tutorial featuring Tansarii Point Station. Another Imperial officer with the same name, Warrant Officer Snopell, was already present in the pre-NGE tutorial.

During the tutorial, Sergeant Snopel could be found in the station's Ranged Combat Training Room, where he would give a quest to players pursuing the commando profession. The quest required the player to kill three Hutt thugs in the station's lower level with a C12 fragmentation grenade. After completing this task, players were required to kill an NPC named Terry and defuse a bomb in the station's upper level. Completing these objectives awarded the player 500 credits, a worn sharpshooter's bandolier, and a standard issue uniform package. As they gained combat experience, players of the commando profession would receive an item called Marching Orders upon reaching Commando Fundamentals V at level 14. Using this item would activate a quest titled Focused Destruction, in which Snopel supervised a mission to kill multiple sand pirates and destroy a reactor in their base near Mos Entha on Tatooine. Completing that quest would earn the player 5000 credits and a diffusion generator. Upon reaching Commando Essentials II at level 26, players would receive another item called Attack Orders. Using this item would activate another quest titled Clearing the Trash, in which Snopel supervised a mission to clear out and hack into a bunker taken over by mountain poachers on Naboo. Completing that quest would earn the player 9500 credits and the choice of either a Special Forces D-18 or a Conscript Carbine.

Following the release of the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game expansion Squadrons Over Corellia, players could participate in the House Pack-Up promotional scenario from March 3, 2009 through March 31, 2009. Completing this scenario allowed players to win a promotional card featuring an illustration of Sergeant Snopel, with artwork by Kieran Yanner. Snopel also made a brief appearance in the storyline of the Dark Side scenario campaign for Squadrons Over Corellia, where he was described as ensuring troops were deployed correctly during the Battle of Talus.