Alya Aldrete

Lady Alya Aldrete was an Alderaanian female Human during the Imperial Era. Heiress to the business enterprise of the wealthy Aldrete family in the early years of the Galactic Empire, Alya achieved renown and celebrity status owing to her hedonistic lifestyle. Her public persona was however just a facade; Aldrete covertly established a smuggler fleet operating in the Core Worlds and Deep Core regions, using her criminal contacts to gather information and map reliable hyperlanes.
Circa 17 BBY, Aldrete attended the launch event on the world of Alderaan for her family's new luxury hovertrain. The train fell under attack from Trandoshan mercenaries and Aldrete was briefly captured, before being rescued by agents of Bail Organa, Alderaan's delegate to the Imperial Senate. Aldrete subsequently pledged her support to Organa's Alderaanian Resistance rebel group and marshalled her smuggler armada for a raid by the rebels against a prototype Super Star Destroyer under construction by the Empire in the Beshqek system. Aldrete and her forces successfully destroyed the leviathan warship, achieving one of the first victories of an insurgent group against the Imperial regime.
==Biography==
===Celebrity heiress===
Lady Alya Aldrete was a wealthy Alderaanian female Human noblewoman of the affluent Aldrete family who lived during the early years of the Imperial Period. The heiress to her family's chain of casinos, hotels and passenger liners, Aldrete rose to prominence within galactic society as a result of her excessive pleasure-seeking and debauchery. She became a celebrity icon and her activities were widely reported in the media, including details of her romantic partners, her vacations and where she went clubbing.
In truth, Aldrete's public persona was just a carefully-cultivated cover. She formed a network of pirates and smugglers operating in the Core Worlds and Deep Core regions of the galaxy, spanning from the planet Alderaan to the world of Empress Teta, smuggling diverse goods ranging from stolen artworks to spice and other illicit luxury commodities. She kept her operation concealed from the Galactic Empire and used her network to chart dependable hyperlanes and gather information. Her infiltration of the Deep Core region exceeded that of the regarded Bothan Spynet espionage organization. She also employed the elderly Twi'lek male Notru'denn as her personal assistant.
===Launch of the Gem of Alderaan===
Circa 17 BBY,Echoes of the Jedi, the fourth installment of the Dawn of Defiance campaign, states that the Jedi Master Vhiin Thorla traveled to the Almas Academy two years after the declaration of Order 66, which is dated to 19 BBY by The New Essential Chronology. This thus indicates that Dawn of Defiance is set in circa 17 BBY. Alya's grandfather commissioned a new addition to the Aldrete family business empire, the luxury, high-speed hovertrain Gem of Alderaan, and the socialite took an active role in the train's design; at her suggestion bars were placed in every hovercar on the train. The rear car of the hovertrain was designated as Aldrete's personal hovercar and housed the nightclub, Decadence. The club's ambience embodied Aldrete's reputation for self-indulgence and vice, and she employed several bouncers to prevent those who she deemed sufficiently important or attractive from entering the venue. A personal office for Aldrete was also installed, located on the floor above the club.
An exclusive launch party was staged to mark the maiden journey of the new train, a six-hour trip departing from the Alderaan city Aldera, with Lady Aldrete attending as the guest of honor. At the end of reception gala held at an Alderaan repulsor-station, to commence the celebration Aldrete gave a welcome speech to the gathered dignitaries. Sipping on a snifter on Alderaanian brandy, she slurred her words as she spoke and invited those present to board the train. Her staff then ushered her into the Gem of Alderaan ahead of the guests and she spent the opening stages of the journey surrounded by various hangers-on. A group of agents of the Alderaanian Resistance, a rebel group directed by Alderaan's representative to the Imperial Senate Bail Organa, infiltrated the train and sought an audience with Aldrete. Having received word of Aldrete's extensive connections in the Deep Core, the rebels desired her assistance with securing them passage to the planet Prakith to rescue the captive Jedi Master Denia from the Imperial Inquisitor Valin Draco. Several hours into the journey, Notru'denn meet with the operatives on Aldrete's behalf and after he had ascertained the purpose of their mission, she agreed to speak with the agents in her office above the Decadence nightclub.
Before Aldrete and Organa's operatives could connect, the Gem of Alderaan fell under assault from a band of Trandoshan mercenaries. The Trandoshans sought to apprehend Bail Organa and incorrectly believed the senator to be a guest on the hovertrain. Aldrete was seized by the attackers; bound and gagged, she was taken to the hovertrain's cockpit and held hostage by the Trandoshans' mercenary commander. The rebel agents fought off the Trandoshans and endeavored to free the noblewoman. While using Aldrete as a Human shield, the mercenary commander dragged her to the roof of the train, attached a tow cable to her and attempted to have his prisoner airlifted out to a Citadel cruiser overhead. However, Organa's operatives defeated the Trandoshan and freed Aldrete. Caught in a fierce wind, Aldrete almost blew off the roof but was saved by one of her rescuers just in time. Moments later, shortly before the now out-of-control train careered into a mountain, Aldrete and the agents were saved by the operatives' ally Sirona Okeefe, who swooped down to the roof of the stricken hovertrain in the Baudo-class star yacht Banshee and flew the group to safety.
Okeefe transported Aldrete and the agents to Bail Organa's personal Alderaan retreat. Aldrete expressed her thanks to the operatives for rescuing her and agreed to aid their mission to free Master Denia. She offered to share with them security clearances for travel to the Deep Core and also to provide the latest astrogational data needed to reach Prakith and a pirated transceiver capable of sending encrypted communications over Imperial. Aldrete additionally proffered the latest intelligence from her network on the movements of Valin Draco, disclosing that Draco's Star Courier starship had landed at the Citadel Inquisitorius Imperial stronghold on Prakith months ago and according to intercepted messages he was holding Denia captive there. Aldrete then parted ways with her rescuers and promised to share any intelligence useful for their mission to Prakith that came available to her and to contact them regarding the supply of the rigged transceiver.
===Raid on the Super Star Destroyer prototype===
Aldrete joined the cause of the Alderaanian rebels, supporting their campaign to thwart the construction of a prototype Super Star Destroyer by the Empire and covertly used her riches to assist the rebel movement. She made good on her offer of forged credentials for transit to Prakith for the team of operatives who rescued her on the Gem of Alderaan and the agents departed for the Deep Core world to find Denia. At the same time, Aldrete summoned all of her contacts in the Deep Core to assemble in preparation for a raid against the Super Star Destroyer prototype construction site, in orbit of the Imperial throneworld Byss in the Beshqek system. Her smuggler armada mustered at a rendezvous point next to a large gas cloud within the boundaries of the restricted Deep Core Security Zone and Aldrete's agents brought to her news that the prototype Star Destroyer was only weeks away from completion.
Aldrete's fleet was joined by the surviving vessels of an Alderaanian Resistance battle group that had been crippled by an Imperial attack several months earlier. Aldrete designated a modified Corellian Gunship as her flagship and, working with Bail Organa, she devised her battle plan. Judging her armada for to be insufficiently strong to cripple both the Super Star Destroyer prototype and the Imperial fleet defending it, she propositioned to the captains of her smuggler vessels that they were to draw out the prototypes' ancillary fleet while Alderaan Resistance saboteurs boarded a Golan space platform protecting the prototype and used it to cripple the Star Destroyer. Organa also informed her of the outcome of the rescue mission to Prakith, revealing that Master Denia had fallen during the attempt to free her.
Lady Aldrete selected the rebel operatives who saved her from the Trandoshan mercenaries to conduct the infiltration of the Golan platform. She invited the agents to dock their vessel with her flagship and called them to the bridge to brief them personally on their assignment. The rebel fleet departed for the Beshqek system and Aldrete led her forces into battle and engaged the prototype's protective fleet. Her attack plan soon went awry; the under-construction Super Star Destroyer was more complete than she had anticipated and microjumped into the midst of the fight and opened fire on the smuggler forces. Her strike force overwhelmed by the prototype's firepower, Aldrete commanded her armada to assume a defensive formation.
As a final gambit to clutch victory from seeming defeat, Aldrete's tactical advisers proposed that a formation of starfighters fly into a gap in the Star Destroyer's fuselage and detonate the vessel's main reactor. Aldrete entreated the team of operatives who saved her on Alderaan to assume command of Blue Squadron, the unit chosen for this high-risk assignment. The starfighters successfully entered the Super Star Destroyer and blew up the reactor, causing the gargantuan prototype warship to explode; the smuggler fleet then withdrew into hyperspace. The success of Aldrete and her forces in destroying the Star Destroyer represented one of the first victories of a rebel group against the Galactic Empire.
==Personality and traits==
Alya Aldrete posed within society as a spoilt, fun-loving self-centered noblewoman who used her family's wealth to engage in a hedonistic and decadent life style. When playing the part of her adopted persona she acted in an erratic and attention-seeking manner, seeking to garner significant media coverage. She happily gave speeches in public while seemingly intoxicated and adopting an informal manner, and she espoused elitist views, demeaning beings outside of the wealthy elite as "riffraff". In reality, her celebrity façade was just an act to mask her criminal network; Aldrete reasoned that the Empire would not send its Imperial Intelligence agency to investigate the activities of debauched celebrity whose movements were widely reported by the press.
Resourceful and focused, Aldrete's true self was intelligent and serious. She adopting a professional tone when conducting business, jarringly in contrast with her irreverent public personality. Aldrete was grateful when Bail Organa's agents saved her from the Trandoshans that raided the Gem of Alderaan and became committed to supporting the operatives' with rescuing Master Denia. She came to consider the agents her friends and felt deep sympathy for them following the loss of Denia on Prakith.
The heiress was determined in her opposition to the Galactic Empire and considered her effort to destroy the Super Star Destroyer prototype to be for benefit of the galaxy. By the time of the battle in the Beshqek system, her campaign had left her tired and fearful, and she respected the loyalty of those who served in her armada during the raid.
Aldrete had fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. During the Gem of Alderaan launch event she wore a low-cut revealing dress of a style not typically worn by nobility.
==Behind the scenes==
Alya Aldrete featured as a character in Dawn of Defiance, a roleplaying campaign set within Star Wars Legends continuity and released on Wizards.com as a supplement to the Saga Edition of Wizards of the Coasts' Star Wars Roleplaying Game. She was first mentioned in Dawn of Defiance: Gamemaster Primer, a synopsis of the Dawn of Defiance campaign by Rodney Thompson, published on October 4, 2007, and made her first appearance in the eighth adventure of the campaign, The Gem of Alderaan by Gary M. Sarli, released on February 5 2009, Later that year, she also featured in the final instalment of the series, Jaws of the Sarlacc by Rodney Thompson. Alya shares her surname with the Star Wars Legends characters Agrippa AldreteStar Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary and Celana Aldrete,Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader though no family relationship between Alya and those individuals has been confirmed in any source.
In the Dawn of Defiance series, the players roleplay as the band of Alderaanian Resistance agents that Aldrete interacts with on Alderaan and during the battle to destroy the prototype Star Destroyer. In Gem of Alderaan, when the players attempt to rescue Aldrete from her Trandoshan captor the manner in which encounter plays out is dependent on the players' actions; the Trandoshan mercenary commander uses her as a Human shield and attempts to have her airlifted out unless stopped by the rebel operatives. It is also possible for strong winds to blow her off the roof of the hovertrain unless the player characters catch her beforehand.
In Jaws of the Sarlacc, if the player characters fail to use the tractor beam of the Golan platform defending the prototype to tear a gap in the Star Destroyer's superstructure, Aldrete sacrifices herself to create a hole to allow access to the vessel's interior. Aldrete sends a communication to the player characters to thank them and ask that they spread the word that the Empire can be defeated, then directs her Corellian Gunship to speed into the side of the prototype, resulting in her death. If the players did succeed at damaging the Super Star Destroyer with the platform's tractor beam, Aldrete does not sacrifice herself in such a manner and she requests that the player characters lead a starfighter squadron into the interior of the warship. If Aldrete falls, then it is the Alderaanian officer Captain Adrian Verana, not Aldrete, that requests the player characters lead the mission, otherwise it is the Alderaan heiress that engages the assistance of the players for the mission.
==Appearances==
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==Sources==
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*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
==Notes and references==
Category:Alderaanian Resistance members
Category:Alderaanians
Category:Females
Category:Humans
Category:Nobility
Category:Smugglers