Bini

Bini was an alien officer in the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War who served as a senior crewmember aboard the Lucrehulk Prime, a rebel flight school, under the command of General Hera Syndulla. When a mercenary crew led by the rogue archaeologist Chelli Aphra visited the starship around 1 ABY, Bini thought they were volunteers and gave them a tour of the flight school. The officer and Syndulla soon discovered that the visitors were mercenaries looking to make an offer, the latter having them held in their brig.
Syndulla, accompanied by Bini and some soldiers, later allowed the group to make their pitch, only for one of the mercenaries to stun the rebels so the group could get away with the general as a captive. Left in charge, the alien sought to save their superior and followed the mercenaries to the Galactic Empire base Hivebase-1, where the Lucrehulk Prime fell under attack by local scaraphyte creatures. Bini scrambled to combat the situation, only to be incapacitated by the Imperial infiltrator Magna Tolvan.
Bini later regained consciousness and found the Lucrehulk Prime being remotely controlled to steal the datacore of Hivebase-1. Once Aphra and Syndulla returned to the flight school, the officer wanted to kill the kidnapper, but the general instead let her go, impressed by the theft of the core. However, Aphra had also encrypted the data inside the core, prompting the rebels to go hunting for her again later. Bini informed Syndulla when a detonation was logged aboard the ship of their operative, the smuggler Sana Starros.
==Biography==
===New visitors===
During the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, the alien BiniDoctor Aphra (2016) 19 served as an officer in the Alliance Military and a senior member aboardDoctor Aphra (2016) 18 the Lucrehulk Prime,Doctor Aphra (2016) 21 a Lucrehulk-class Battleship used as a flight school for the Alliance, serving under rotation generals. Around 1 ABY, while the Twi'lek Hera Syndulla was the rotation general, a group of visitors found the Lucrehulk Prime and were searched and cleared for weapons by the rebels. While Bini thought they were recruits, the visitors were a mercenary crew led by the rogue archaeologist Chelli Aphra. The crew, wishing to recover data from the Empire's Tarkin Initiative research and development complex Hivebase-1, were there to capture Syndulla, although one of them, the vigilante Tam Posla, was oblivious to that plan and thought that they were recruiting the help of the Alliance.
While Syndulla was helping trainee rebel pilots from the Lucrehulk Prime control core, Bini contacted the general, questioning how many training X-wing starfighters she was controlling and informing her that a new batch of recruits had arrived. The officer concluded they would tell the visitors Syndulla was busy and went to the "recruits," asking how they had found the flight school. Posla, asserting himselfDoctor Aphra (2016) 25 as the speaker of the group, explained that they had wanted to see the school for themselves, his associates specifying that they had used records from the late Wat Tambor of the Techno Union.Doctor Aphra (2016) 15 Bini recognized Posla's past as a former lawman of the Milvayne Authority and told the vigilante he was just what the rebels needed as the alien rebel shook his hand.
===The kidnapping===
Bini began showing the visitors around the Lucrehulk Prime ahead of their planned recruitment assessment. The officer showed the group to the control core, where Aphra's pet tooka Flufto ran into the room without authorization. The rebel tried to stop Aphra from chasing after, but the cyborg mercenary Caysin Bog began inspecting their cybernetic arm, questioning its maker. Bio explosives in Flufto triggered the weapons alarm, much to the confusion of Bini as the visitors had been searched. Syndulla then intervened and shot Flufto, and Bini subsequently introduced the "volunteers" to her. Posla finally told them that the group were not volunteering, but had a proposal of mutual benefit. The general immediately realized that they were actually mercenaries and had them sent to the vessel's brig at sector two.
During their time in the brig, the mercenaries were accidentally freed from their cells; one rebel on the bridge reported a blown coupling in sector two to Bini, doubting it would amount to more than a power surge, but alarms were raised when the prisoners were able to step out of their cells. The mercenaries ultimately stayed put, earning some trust from Syndulla. The general, backed by Bini and a complement of rebel troopers, gathered the visitors by their LAAT/le patrol gunship and gave them ten seconds to plea for a reason not to be used as target practice. Aphra revealed the group's intention of infiltrating Hivebase-1, her associates claiming they had a foolproof plan to do so but needed the rebels' help. Syndulla gave the group a chance to tell their plan, but as Posla got to explaining, Bog launched a number of blasters from his own cybernetic compartment. Bini realized that it was a trap as the Xexto mercenary Sister Six caught the blasters and stunned all of the rebels in her vicinity, the officer and Syndulla included, in quick succession.
===The real controllers===
The mercenaries proceeded to flee with the unconscious Syndulla, although Posla was angry about not having known the real plan. With the general captured, Bini was left in charge of the Lucrehulk Prime, and had the vessel follow the tracking beacon hidden inside Syndulla's rank plaque, not knowing that Aphra had intentionally activated it. The flight school exited hyperspace behind Aphra's gunship near Hivebase-1. Bini ordered the ship to attack Aphra's ship when the Lucrehulk Prime was suddenly swarmed by scaraphytes, acidic space-borne creatures. With the scaraphytes corroding the flight school's hull and Hivebase-1 deploying TIE fighters, Bini ordered for the deflector shields as well as the ion cannons to be staffed and the rookie pilots to be taken to the control core. They were continuously interrupted by the whistling of Aphra over the comms, whom the alien demanded to stop.
Aphra herself used the chaos to secretly fly her crew and Syndulla into the Empire's research complex. Bini started using the Lucrehulk Prime control core to direct X-wings, but was unable to use the control codes, as Aphra had used her slicing abilities to change them. The alien asked about the codes to their soldiers, only to turn around and find them incapacitated by the Imperial Lieutenant-Inspector Magna Tolvan. The Imperial infiltrator swiftly knocked Bini out and announced the commandeering of the flight school to Hivebase-1.
The commandeering was short-lived, as Aphra had bugged the control core during the incident with the tooka, and began using the Lucrehulk Prime to ram Hivebase-1 and rip the datacore out with its tractor beam, the remaining mercenaries and Syndulla residing within. Bini regained consciousness and was confused as to who was controlling the flight school, Tolvan having hidden in the vents as rebel reinforcements arrived at the core to assist the alien officer and their troops. As that happened, the flight school escaped with the datacore as Hivebase-1 was destroyed as part of Aphra's plan.
===The core problem===
Syndulla and the remaining mercenaries made it off of the datacore and onto Lucrehulk Prime, where Bini demanded that Aphra was seized. The general told her officer to hold it, denying their request to have the rogue archaeologist shot. Acknowledging Aphra's success in stealing the Hivebase-1 datacore, Syndulla ordered for her former kidnapper to be given a ship and taken out of her sight. Later on, the general and Bini began work to access the core themselves. As the officer began reading the data inside, they quickly found a ransomed encryption for an untraceable bank account for Aphra.
Syndulla therefore began a hunt for Aphra, hiring the smuggler Sana Starros to retrieve the rogue archaeologist after discovering the target had since been imprisoned in the Imperial wreckage-prison Accresker Jail. After Starros' ship, the Volt Cobra, was shot down during herDoctor Aphra (2016) 23 mission, Bini approached Syndulla with news of a logged detonation on the smuggler's ship, prompting the general to ask for the comms from them and attempt to make contact with her operative. Syndulla was unable to reach Starros initially, but the pair later liaised again when the smuggler helped evacuate the rebel forces from the planet Tiferep Major before Accresker Jail was forcibly crashed into the world by the Empire.
==Personality and traits==
A humanoid alien, Bini had mud-green-colored skin, red eyes, and black hair in a mustache. The officer was deceived by Chelli Aphra's mercenary crew, believing that they were volunteering to join the Rebel Alliance and attributing Tam Posla going rogue from the Galactic Empire–backedDoctor Aphra (2016) 26 Milvayne Authority as a good quality for a new rebel recruit. The alien even held their arm around the ex-lawman as they showed the visitors around the Lucrehulk Prime. Bini was shocked by the revelation that they were not volunteering, arguing that all "good guys" like Posla would want to join the Rebellion. The rebel bought into Aphra's joke that they did not say "please" by stating the word straight after.
Bini was intimidated by Hera Syndulla, stressing when she was interrupted by the mercenaries as they knew she did not like to be disturbed. After the general was kidnapped, the officer was determined to rescue her, following Aphra's ship to Hivebase-1. They were confused at Aphra's manipulations with the flight school and its comm, questioning who the real controller was. When confronted with Aphra again, Bini wished for the rogue archaeologist to be killed.
==Equipment==
Bini wore a pale shirt and brown jacket with gray pants and a black belt and boots. The officer also possessed a cybernetic left arm.
==Behind the scenes==
Bini first appeared in the seventeenth issue of the Star Wars: Doctor Aphra comic-book series, written by Si Spurrier, illustrated by Emilio Laiso, and published by Marvel Comics on February 21, 2018. They were identified by name in the nineteenth issue, also written by Spurrier and illustrated by Laiso, and published on April 25 of that year.
==Appearances==
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 17 
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 18
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 19 
*Doctor Aphra (2016) 22
==Notes and references==
Category:Alliance Military officers
Category:Cyborgs
Category:Humanoids
Category:Individuals of unidentified species
Category:Individuals of unspecified gender
Category:Individuals with unspecified pronouns