Qorl Qorl was a TIE Fighter pilot stationed on the first Death Star , who was shot down during the Battle of Yavin . Crashing on Yavin 4 , he managed to repair his fighter and participated in a small skirmish the next day . He encountered Luke Skywalker above Yavin and tried to shoot him down , but Luke cut into his ship , forcing Qorl to crash . After the brief brawl with the Rebel on the surface , Qorl lost consciousness but was left alive . He eked out an existence in the jungle , until encountering the Solo children and other Jedi trainees 23 years later . After successfully escaping the moon , he linked up with the Second Imperium splinter movement , training their pilots and leading an assault on the jungle moon . Shot down a second time , Qorl returned to the jungle where he would live undisturbed until the Yuuzhan Vong War once again brought him into contact with a Solo , this time Anakin . Together they escaped the moon . Biography . Imperial service . Qorl was a TIE Fighter pilot serving in the Imperial forces assigned to the first Death Star , with the designation CE3K - 1977 . During the Battle of Yavin , Qorl flew with his squadron against the Rebel forces . According to the account Qorl gave to Jacen and Jaina Solo in 23 ABY , " all " TIE squadrons on the Death Star were launched during the battle . This statement is at odds with evidence presented by Wedge Antilles and others , indicating that only Darth Vader ' s elite escort unit Black Squadron saw action during the battle . Taking all the evidence into account , it seems most likely that Qorl was a pilot from Black Squadron . One of the solar panels of Qorl ' s TIE Fighter was badly damaged by X - wing defensive fire , sending his fighter spinning out of control . Qorl found his fighter ' s orbit was decaying , sending the fighter spinning towards the fourth moon of Yavin . His controllers instructed him to make an emergency landing on Yavin and await rescue . Qorl managed a controlled crash that threw him from his fighter , left him with broken bones in his left arm . Shortly after his crash - landing , Qorl witnessed the Death Star explode in the sky . It would be the last he would see of the Imperial forces for over twenty years . Qorl , however managed to repair his fighter and the day after the Battle of Yavin he flew out of the jungle . There he saw a Rebel X - wing and attacked it . After the brief firefight both Qorl ' s TIE fighter and the X - wing were badly damaged after the X - wing pilot cut into Qorl ' s ship . Both ships soon crashed into the swamp , but their pilots survived . Qorl attacked the Rebel with a blaster , but was soon defeated in a brawl and lost his weapon . Not willing to surrender , Qorl pushed his enemy into a swamp and the fight continued there . Since Qorl was wearing his flight suit that allowed him to breath underwater , he soon gained the upper hand in a fight . But when the Rebel ripped out his air hose , Qorl started to drown in his own helmet and soon lost consciousness . However , the Rebel rescued him and left him alive . Little did Qorl know that the Rebel was Luke Skywalker , the man who destroyed the Death Star . Despite his injuries , Qorl managed to survive in the moon ' s jungles , obeying his last orders to remain near the crash and await rescue . Second Imperium . In 23 ABY , Qorl ' s downed TIE Fighter was discovered by the Jedi trainees Lowbacca , Tenel Ka , Jacen Solo and Jaina Solo . Jaina eagerly seized the opportunity to dabble in mechanics , and with her friends ' help , she set out to repair the damaged starfighter and fit it with an old hyperdrive . The hyperdrive unit was originally not in working condition , a present from Han Solo off an old Imperial " Delta " - class shuttle being dismantled on Coruscant . The young Jedi had no idea that the TIE ' s pilot had survived , but when Qorl discovered the Solo twins working on his craft , he saw an opportunity to escape . He decided to bide his time and wait for them to complete the repairs while he kept an eye on their progress . The repairs to the fighter were almost complete when Jacen , scavenging for wreckage in the jungle around the crash - site , stumbled upon the hollowed - out tree that had been Qorl ' s home for the past 20 years . The old pilot responded by kidnapping Jacen and Jaina at blaster - point , and trying to kill Lowbacca and Tenel Ka as they fled . Qorl forced his prisoners to finish the repairs to his fighter , and in the meantime , he learned from them of the events of the last twenty - three years , including the downfall of the Empire at Endor and the fact that in the wake of the peace between the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire , there were still a few loyal holdouts left in the Deep Core . When the repairs were complete , Qorl attempted to destroy the Great Temple , but he was unsuccessful because while the laser cannons were physically fine , Jaina hadn ' t hooked them up , but she " did " jury - rig the readouts so that the weapons systems looked normal . Completely defenseless , he managed to escape the weapons fire and break out from the tractor beam of the " Millennium Falcon " , earning Han ' s reluctant admiration for his piloting skills . Engaging the hyperdrive moments after leaving the atmosphere , he left the Yavin system for the Deep Core and found the Shadow Academy , run by the Dark Jedi Brakiss . Qorl gave his report , noting his encounter with the Solo twins . Brakiss extrapolated from this that Luke Skywalker was now training a new generation of Jedi , who could be more easily indoctrinated into following the dark side of the Force than the adults who he had trained with during his brief stay at the Jedi Praxeum . After joining the cause of the Second Imperium , Qorl ' s injured left arm was removed and he was fitted with a bulky droid arm from the shoulder down . He liked the new arm since it gave him more strength . He later embarked on his first mission for the Second Imperium , piloting the assault shuttle that was the key to the success of the raid on GemDiver Station . Qorl had profound misgivings about the fact that Brakiss and his assistant instructor Tamith Kai used lethal means to determine which trainees were worth training . However , from his point of view , he was just a pilot and no one listened to him . Serving his Empire was what he viewed to be right . However , these doubts led him to help the Solo twins and Lowbacca escape from the Shadow Academy . In the end , he reasoned that the new students were far more trouble than they were worth . If Brakiss and Tamith Kai knew of his role in the escape of the young Jedi , they did not let it be known . During the short period of time during which the Shadow Academy was conducting operations in the Coruscant system Qorl would be put in command of a raid on the New Republic bulk cruiser " Adamant " . Save for the minimal casualties that were inflicted upon the stormtrooper squad that Qorl had commanded , the operation was flawless . During the raid , Qorl would grapple with Admiral Gial Ackbar , whom he knocked unconscious thanks to his prosthetic arm . Though he was victorious , Qorl could not stomach the idea of killing unconscious enemies , so he had the bridge crew of the " Adamant " put into an escape pod . The " Adamant " would jump into hyperspace and then later dock with the Shadow Academy , where the weapons and equipment would be unloaded and used to build the Second Imperium ' s fleet . Qorl ' s tenure with the Second Imperium ended dramatically when , during a battle over Yavin 4 , he was once again shot down to the moon below . During the battle , he opened his eyes to see the ramshackle state that the Second Imperium ' s stolen and incomplete ships were , pitiful shadows of the beloved Empire that he had proudly served in his youth ; this was by far not the Empire he had hoped to return to . From the moon he witnessed the Shadow Academy blow up behind him . Once again presumed dead by the Second Imperium and his damaged droid arm practically useless , he made a few moments for self - reflection . To his surprise , he now realized that he had actually " liked " his years of simple , solitary existence , and was now content to live out the rest of his life in solitary quiet . The Solo twins and Luke Skywalker found out about the harmless hermit ' s whereabouts . Nevertheless , they let him live peacefully in the forests of Yavin . From time to time , the pilot Peckhum would provide Qorl with the most necessary supplies , though in 24 ABY Qorl thanked Peckhum for his services and asked him not to come back . The Yuuzhan Vong War . And yet , it seemed that Qorl ' s path was inexorably intertwined with those of the Solo children . In 26 ABY , in the midst of the Yuuzhan Vong War , the Peace Brigade learned of the location of Skywalker ' s Jedi Praxeum and ( desiring to collect on the galaxy - wide bounty on Jedi called for by Tsavong Lah ) attacked the Jedi training site . After the initial attack by the Peace Brigadiers , Anakin Solo managed to escape the training grounds in a stolen freighter along with Valin Horn , Sannah , and the hostage Brigadier pilot Remis Vehn . The freighter , however , crashed deeper into the jungle , and Anakin began to lead a salvage mission to repair the ship so they could flee the planet . The next morning Anakin was jarred awake by a bedraggled old man who introduced himself to the youngest Solo as Qorl . Anakin instantly recognized the old Imperial pilot from stories his elder siblings had told him . Anakin took to Qorl immediately and put him in charge of watching Vehn , as well as coordinating the repair of the freighter , while Anakin set out to rescue Tahiri Veila from her captivity by the Yuuzhan Vong on the moon . Qorl and Remis quickly became friends . After Anakin had rescued Tahiri , the two were evacuated from the Shapers ' base by Qorl in the repaired Peace Brigade frigate . Though the flight away from Yavin was perilous , the group managed to flee from the grasp of the Yuuzhan Vong forces on the moon . Behind the scenes . Qorl was created by Kevin J . Anderson and Rebecca Moesta . It has been later retconned in " The Official Star Wars Fact File " that he was the Imperial pilot who had appeared much earlier in " The Day after the Death Star ! " .