Shen - and - Gretta Pikeual - Angeles Shen - and - Gretta Pikeual - Angeles of Lorrd , or Pike Angeles for short , was a trim Lorrdian male with ash - blond hair and an innocent - looking , round face . He was generally seen to be a cheerful individual , though this changed when he worked undercover , but was tired of being ribbed about his full name , preferring to go by Pike Angeles . As with the rest of his species , Pike was extremely perceptive , as well as being very adept at reading body language , and mimicking the voices and mannerisms of others , including alien species , once he had time to study them . In addition to these qualities , he was also very good at capturing the attitudes and mannerisms of each person he was imitating from a cocky TIE pilot to a stuffy bureaucrat . Biography . Pike was once a member of the Imperial Navy , but converted to the Rebel Alliance shortly after his second tour of duty when he discovered irrefutable evidence that the Galactic Empire condoned slavery , something he had always refused to believe . As he was an Academy man with a background in engineering , he was immediately given a position as an engineer in the Rebel command center on Dantooine where he was in charge of the tech team which was modernizing the Rebels ' first fleet of Y - wings which had only recently been acquired . He spent several months there stripping down and revamping the starfighters , always restless for more action , and it was in fact he who suggested leaving the body shell off of the engines to ease repairs . During the trials for these modifications he was given an astromech droid , R2 - S4 , to help conduct tests ; the droid would later help him in the field . While he was working there he met with General Airen Cracken , who recognized that he was aching for a chance to get into the field , and would often have games of sabacc with him , among other members of the base . The base soon discovered that they should never play sabacc with a Lorrdian , as he would often win even their clothes from them as well as most of their pay vouchers . It was during one of these games that Angeles managed to win an astromech droid , R2 - D2 , from Captain Raymus Antilles , though he agreed to give the droid back in exchange for a field position ; luckily he was given exactly what he wanted , otherwise the Death Star plans may have never made it back to Yavin 4 . He was given a position stealing brand new Imperial starships for the Alliance . He managed to use sympathetic contacts within the engineering and military circles he was familiar with , as well as his own practical knowledge of Imperial vessels , to amass an impressive database of Imperial codes and starship schematics . He would later use this information to gain access to vessels , usually shuttles , within the Imperial Navy . Most often he would pose as an officer , simply walking into some backwater Imperial installations with faked " orders " that said he was to requisition the ship . He managed to use the codes he had acquired mixed in with his knowledge of navy protocols to bluff his way in and , once he was in a ship , simply flew it to a rendezvous point which had previously been arranged with the Rebel Alliance . Whenever he happened upon an unguarded ship , however , he would usually break in and override the ship ' s onboard computer , again taking the ship to a rendezvous point . Pike would tend to concentrate his efforts more on the outlying Imperial outposts , rather than the Coreward installations which had more security where his sometimes - dated access codes would be challenged . However , he lived in constant fear of running into his former classmates from the Academy who could recognize him , blowing his cover ; he worried that he may have to one day kill one of his old friends . Over the years he managed to amass quite the collection of fake identities : Com . Roget Teres , Lt . Gileas of Supply , and Lt . Com . Nim of Imperial Intelligence to name but a few . Although he usually worked with his astromech droid R2 - S4 , he was also known to have occasionally accompanied small groups on missions if obtaining a new ship seemed a likely possibility . He once wore a medium power suit and chased a pirate who was wearing heavy power armor . As his suit allowed him to move faster , he managed to close the distance between him and the pirate . While chasing , he aimed his suits repeating blaster and an ordinary blaster at the pirate and fired . This wounded the pirate , causing him to collapse in his suit . Because the suit was already on the move , it fell forward on its own momentum .