Yelkin Yelkin was a male Devaronian who worked as a Thorilide miner and pilot on the moon of Cynda during the early years of the Galactic Empire ' s rule . Employed by Moonglow Polychemical , he served as part of the human Okadiah Garson ' s work team , drilling holes for explosives . The Jedi Purge survivor Kanan Jarrus saved Yelkin during a cave in on Cynda , but the miner later died in an explosion on the moon . Biography . Yelkin was a Devaronian miner and pilot who lived in the Gorse system during the Age of the Empire . In 11 BBY , Yelkin was a piloting personnel transport carrying miners to the mining moon of Cynda . However , he entered the landing bay too quickly and his freighter clipped the side of the doorway . The disabled mining vessel was left stranded outside the landing bay . Shortly later , a Moonglow Polychemical – owned freighter hauler called " Expedient " drove through the entrance to the landing bay ; narrowly scraping Yelkin ' s transport . Yelkin and the other miners were shaken and outraged by the freighter pilot Kanan Jarrus ' reckless action . Angered by Kanan ' s recklessness , Yelkin confronted the young human pilot after he had landed . When Kanan ignored him , Yelkin grabbed Kanan ' s shoulder . Using his Force - enhanced reflexes , the Jedi Purge survivor spun around and twisted Yelkin ' s arm . When Kanan told him that ship was in the way , Yelkin responded that everyone had deadlines especially after the Galactic Empire had shot down the laggard freighter " Cynda Dreaming " . Kanan then told him to go faster but not to be stupid . Several miners then sprung to Yelkin ' s defense and criticizes Kanan ' s reckless piloting . Kanan ' s friend Okadiah Garson , who operated a cantina called The Asteroid Field on the planet Gorse , managed to end the tensions by inviting the miners including Yelkin for drinks at his cantina after their work shift . While Yelkin was initially angry with Okadiah for taking in " some real pieces of work " , he was mollified by Okadiah ' s offer and went to work without any further incident with Kanan . Yelkin and his fellow miners including Kanan went to Zone Forty - Two where they began preparations for a blasting operation . At that point , one of the miners discovered that the dissident miner Skelly had planted some explosives in the site . Unable to stop Skelly ' s bomb , Yelkin and Kanan were forced to flee . While fleeing the explosion , Yelkin twisted his ankle . Despite their initial animosity , Kanan managed to rescue the Devaronian by hoisting him onto his hovercart . The two miners then fled the explosion by riding on Kanan ' s hovercart , which was laden with Baradium - 357 explosives . After fleeing through a tunnel , Kanan used the Force to cushion their landing . Yelkin and Kanan were the only members of the blasting team to survive the illegal explosion . After escaping Zone Forty - Two , Kanan left the wounded Yelkin with Okadiah and the rest of the mining team . Skelly ' s illegal explosion coincided with a visit by the Imperial efficiency expert Count Denetrius Vidian , who had come to increase production in the Gorse system . Two days later , Yelkin and Okadiah were among the miners killed when Count Vidian conducted a test bombing on Cynda ' s Zone Sixty - Six . Vidian had decided to detonate Cynda under the pretext of increasing thorilide mining productivity in the Gorse system . To allay his Imperial superiors ' fears that detonating Cynda would damage the thorilide crystals , Vidian had staged a test bombing and falsified the results to support his plan . Yelkin ' s body was crushed by the explosion and embedded in the new strata of the moon . His remains were discovered by Kanan and his new rebel friend Hera Syndulla , who had come to the moon to rescue Okadiah after learning of the test bombing . Personality and traits . As a Devaronian , Yelkin had horns on his head . Yelkin was also known to have a fierce temper and accosted Kanan Jarrus , after the latter performed a dangerous stunt of driving his freighter past Yelkin ' s damaged freighter . While Yelkin could pilot a starship , he was not a very careful pilot and crashed his freighter into the doorway , causing a traffic jam . While Yelkin was muscular , he was unable to match the Force - enhanced reflexes of Kanan , a secret Jedi Purge survivor . As a miner , Yelkin was knowledgeable about handling explosives and knew how to measure the length of a borehole . Despite their acrimonious encounter , Kanan respected Yelkin ' s life enough to safe him from being killed by an explosion . Behind the scenes . Yelkin first appeared as a minor supporting character in John Jackson Miller ' s 2014 novel " A New Dawn " , the first in a new line of Canon novels produced in conjunction with the Lucasfilm Story Group . Most of his lines are told through the point - of - view of Kanan Jarrus , one of the novel ' s main protagonists who would later feature in the Disney XD television series " Star Wars Rebels " .