Tik (Rogue Squadron)

Tik was a male starfighter pilot who flew as Rogue Twelve in New Republic Starfighter Command's Rogue Squadron in 25.2 ABY. The elite twelve-person squadron of X-wing fighters was led by Colonel Gavin Darklighter, and Tik flew within Three Flight, a flight group of four commanded by Major Alinn Varth. When the New Republic's Chief of State, Borsk Fey'lya, ignored reports of a mysterious alien threat called the Yuuzhan Vong that was lurking in the Outer Rim, Admiral Traest Kre'fey recruited Rogue Squadron to clandestinely investigate, under the guise of simulating pirate attacks. After capturing the privateer Urias Xhaxin, who had already tangled with the Yuuzhan Vong's coralskipper fighters, the Rogues spent their time aboard Kre'fey's Ralroost running simulations against the coralskippers. They later returned to the location of Xhaxin's earlier skirmish and engaged a group of the alien fighters, and Tik was killed when his fighter flew into a miniature black hole created by a coralskipper's gravity-manipulating dovin basals. His place in the squadron was filled by a new pilot, Anni Capstan.
==Biography==
Tik was a male starfighter pilot who served New Republic Starfighter CommandThe New Jedi Order: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream confirms that Rogue Squadron operates within New Republic Starfighter Command. in the year 25 ABY as a member of Rogue Squadron. Led by Colonel Gavin Darklighter, the Rogues were a twelve-person fighter squadron who piloted T-65A3 X-wing starfighters. Tik flew as Rogue Twelve in Three Flight, a flight group commanded by Rogue Nine, Major Alinn Varth. It also included Rogue Eleven, Dinger, and Rogue Ten. In 25 ABY, Admiral Traest Kre'fey recruited Rogue Squadron to simulate pirate attacks in the Outer Rim so that his forces could pursue them. New Republic Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya was ignoring warnings of the Yuuzhan Vong, a deadly alien threat lurking in the Outer Rim, but Kre'fey was independently investigating, pretending to prepare for piracy so as not to openly defy the Chief of State. The Rogues were given complete freedom of movement.
Rogue Squadron was transported to the Rim aboard the admiral's Bothan Assault Cruiser, the Ralroost. When they received reports of a scavenger freighter encountering unknown fighters in an asteroid belt, they ceased their pirate activity and went with Kre'fey to the asteroid belt's system. Darklighter led Tik and the rest of the Rogues into the asteroids, where they were attacked by a group of salvaged ugly fighters whose shields, hulls, and lasers were severely underpowered. Darklighter convinced the group's leader, the privateer Urias Xhaxin, to surrender, and aboard the Ralroost, Xhaxin reported that his forces had been attacked by mysterious fighters before blindly jumping to lightspeed and ending up at their current location. The fighters had used gravitic anomalies to absorb laser blasts and had fired plasma that ate into their enemies' suddenly unshielded hulls. The information was consistent with data that Kre'fey already had on the Yuuzhan Vong fighters: They possessed living creatures called dovin basals that created miniature black holes, which could absorb laser blasts and bring down opponents' shields.
While a probe droid was sent to the deep space location where Xhaxin had been attacked, the Rogues spent their time aboard the Ralroost running simulated battles with the Yuuzhan Vong fighters, nicknamed coralskippers. The droid's collected data proved inconclusive, so Rogue Squadron escorted a T-65BR X-wing reconnaissance starfighter, designated "Snoop," back to the location so that data could be collected by a sentient. After emerging from hyperspace, the squadron flew cover for Snoop, with Three Flight positioned off its port bow. When a group of coralskippers attacked, the Rogues tried experimental countermeasures: expanding their inertial compensators to protect their shields and firing successive cycles of short, low-powered shots that would hit too quickly to all be caught by the coralskippers' dovin basals. Although the techniques worked, one coralskipper created a large black hole on its tail that destroyed the X-wings of both Tik and Dinger. Tik managed to eject from his craft and go extravehicular, but he died nonetheless. Footage of both his and Dinger's deaths were captured by Snoop, and the surviving Rogues finished off the coralskippers before recovering Tik's body. His place in the squadron was later taken by a new pilot, Anni Capstan.
==Personality and traits==
Tik was a member of Rogue Squadron, an elite group that served as the New Republic's symbol of starfighter superiority and that included the best pilots in the New Republic Defense Force.The New Jedi Order Sourcebook Colonel Darklighter was proud of Tik and all of the other pilots under his command, feeling that they were a superior fighting team who could have given previous Rogue Squadron rosters a run for their money in simulated starfighter combat. Tik, however, was killed by the unfamiliar tactics of the Yuuzhan Vong during his first battle with their coralskippers.
==Behind the scenes==
Tik briefly appeared in The New Jedi Order: Dark Tide I: Onslaught, the first novel of Michael A. Stackpole's 2000 Dark Tide Duology and the second volume of The New Jedi Order novel series.
==Appearances==
*The New Jedi Order: Dark Tide I: Onslaught 
==Notes and references==
Category:Individuals of unspecified species
Category:Males
Category:Pilots
Category:Rogue Squadron personnel