Vult Skerris

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**Vult Skerris** was a ruthless Human who stood as one of the Empire's most gifted pilots, with a TIE Interceptor that had featured red marking that symbolized his combat prowess. He was an instructor stationed at the Skystrike Academy, demanding the best from the cadets and a strict adherence to orders. Skerris wore a standard pilot jumpsuit with yellow stripes on the helmet and arms. When two cadets tried to defect with Sabine Wren to the rebellion, Skerris personally engaged them, following in his TIE Interceptor. Thanks to Sabine’s efforts, he failed to destroy the traitors. Later, he would pilot the experimental TIE Defender in a battle with the *Ghost* and the Gold Squadron in the Archeon Nebula.

## Biography

### Imperial Service

#### Elite Imperial Pilot

During the Age of the Empire, **Vult Skerris** was assigned as a flight instructor and stationed at the Imperial Academy on the planet Montross, where cadets were trained to become the elite of the Galactic Empire's naval fighters force. Years before the Battle of Yavin, Skerris and two Interceptors took part in an assault on a rebel convoy near Teralov. Skerris as well as his fellow pilots wiped out the A-Wing escort before strafing the rebel transport. The captain of the rebellion ship pleaded for mercy and stressed that they were an unarmed transport. But Skerris was unmoved and fired a final salvo, which had hit and destroyed the transport command bridge.

#### Skirmish at Skystrike Academy

Later, he took part in a simulated combat exercise at Skystrike Academy. The exercise involved him and two Imperial cadets Wedge Antilles and Ria Talla flying in simulator pods. During the exercise, Skerris operated a simulated copy of the rebel freighter *Ghost* which destroyed Wedge and Ria's simulated TIE Fighters. Following the exercise, he took the opportunity to lecture Wedge and Ria on the merits of obeying orders. He personally addressed the cadets and made sure that they understood his orders. Unknown to Skerris and Instructor Goran, Ria was actually a rebel agent Sabine Wren, a rebel who had been sent to extract Wedge and two other defectors from the Academy. When Sabine along with Wedge, Hobbie, and Rake Gahree attempted to escape in their stolen fighters and board a waiting rebel CR90 Corvette ship, the Governor Arihnda Pryce deactivated the starfighters' solar collector panels which left them stranded in space.

She then sent Captain Skerris and two other TIE Interceptors to attack the rebels. Under Pryce's orders, Skerris fired on one of the cadets' TIE Fighters, which killed Rake. The Imperial attack also damaged the rebel corvette, forcing the ship to jump into hyperspace. After Sabine Wren, Wedge Antilles, and Hobbie escaped the Academy in a stolen TIE Bomber, Vult Skerris pursued the fugitives in his TIE Interceptor. During the pursuit, the TIE pilot Vult Skerris derided the Imperial cadet defectors as young fools. While flying through Montross' atmosphere, Skerris managed to inflict damage on the TIE Bomber. However, Sabine and her friends were able to escape when her colleagues returned in their rebel ship. He took off his own helmet, and could only watch as the defecting cadets and their allies fled into hyperspace with the new recruit pilots of the rebellion. After this event, the elite pilot Vult Skerris became a candidate to fly a Defender prototype.

#### Testing Prototype TIE Defender

Because of his stature as an ace Imperial pilot, he became assigned by Grand Admiral Thrawn to fly the prototype TIE Defender into the Archeon pass with TIE Interceptors in pursuit of a rebel convoy that was carrying fugitive Senator of the Imperial Senate, Mon Mothma, who was wanted by the Empire. Vult's Defender was equipped its own shield. After Vult caught up with the rebel ship *Ghost* and its Y-Wing fighter escorts, Vult then issued an ultimatum that they turn over the fugitive Senator Mon Mothma. The rebels refused and sent the Y-Wing fighters Gold Three and Gold Four to engage the Imperial fighters. Skerris quickly destroyed them. Vult had then followed the *Ghost*, carrying the fugitive Mon, and of the few rebel escorts remaining into the nebula, where Vult had locked on the *Ghost*. However, a Y-Wing pilot sacrificed her life to protect the ship by flying her Y-Wing into his crosshairs. After that, the rebels diverted all power to their ship shields and flew close to a forming star. Because the TIE Intereceptors had lacked shields, they were destroyed, leaving only Vult. *Ghost* sustained damage but managed to escape. Vult broke off after the radiation damaged his shields.

After recovering, Skerris pursued Ezra Bridger and Gold Leader Jon Vander's Y-Wings. After again finding the Y-Wings, he attacked Bridger's ship. However, he again failed to destroy it and was hit with an ion blast from Vander's starfighter. Disabled, Skerris' TIE Defender spun out of control in the nebula. However, Vander warned that they had to leave since Skerris would return once he had regained control of his fighter. Having survived the events of the Archeon Nebula, Vult Skerris would be assigned to Lothal, where the TIE Defenders were being produced. After a duration of time passed, a new variant of the fighter was produced, the TIE/D Defender Elite, which possessed superior speed, weapons and also shielding to the original. Skerris was given the honour of test-flying this new ship, which he did, bringing the prototype Elite to a remote airfield in Lothal's wilderness. Here, he was met by Grand Admiral Thrawn and Governor Pryce, both were present to witness a flight demonstration meant to be performed by the elite pilot Vult Skerris. As he was escorting them to the fighter, he was startled to spot Ezra Bridger battling some troopers, expressing disbelief at a Jedi presence.

#### Pilot of Lothal Imperial Defense

Skerris was further surprised when the prototype lifted off and began to blast the surrounding area, having been stolen by Wren, who had been attempting to steal the prototype's flight data recorder. The fighter picked up Bridger, then laid waste to the depot and destroyed most of the TIE Fighter vessels that were parked at the depot before blasting landing strip the place where Vult, Skerris, and Thrawn all stood. Though he attempted to persuade the Grand Admiral Thrawn to seek a form of cover, the Chiss calmly faced the oncoming fighter down with his blaster and watched it streak over the head of, narrowly missing the command tower. Seeing a chance to test the fighter's combat prowess, Thrawn then ordered Vult to deploy three TIE Interceptors in pursuit. Inside the tower, Skerris joined Thrawn and Pryce in observing the Elite vessel's progress. After two TIEs were quickly destroyed, Skerris surmised it to be the work of Hera Syndulla.

Thrawn dismissed this, since if Syndulla had been at the controls, all three fighters would have been eliminated quicker, instead guessing correctly that Bridger was the pilot. After the third Interceptor was shot down, Thrawn was convinced that Bridger's modest skills meant that the Elite would be a rousing success. After the prototype's homing beacon was shut off in record time, leading Thrawn to deduce that Wren was the other rebel onboard, he then had Pryce activate the ship's kill switch, causing it to crash. Some time afterward, rebels launched a long-awaited attack on Lothal, seeking to destroy the Imperial Armory Complex in Capital City. Though severely outnumbered by the Imperial blockade, the rebel fighters put up a good fight and destroyed many TIE fighters. On Thrawn's orders, Skerris joined the fight himself in his TIE Defender Elite, shooting down Phoenix Four and Five in rapid succession before turning his attention towards Hera.

Unable to evade him, Syndulla formulated a plan and made straight for Thrawn's flagship, *Chimaera*. Seeing that Skerris was in the line of fire, Thrawn ordered him to break off pursuit, but Skerris refused, citing that he almost had Syndulla in his sights. Mildly annoyed, Thrawn nonetheless ordered his gunners to open fire and, sure enough, Vult had been hit as well. Though the Elite's shields were able to withstand the barrage, they were disabled as a result, leaving his ship just as vulnerable as Syndulla's. She then fired on the scanning array of the *Chimaera*, damaging it and sending up a cloud of smoke, before closing her S-foils and flying through the narrow gap. Due to the Elite's larger profile, Vult flew around the structure, and realised too late that he had played right into the Twi'lek's hands as she fired on his now unprotected ship, blowing off two of its wings. Helpless, he could only scream as his disabled fighter spun out of control and then crash into an *Arquitens*-Class command cruiser, killing him instantly. The disabled cruiser then in turn crashed into a nearby Empire Star Destroyer, shearing off its bridge superstructure and giving the rebels an opening to the planet.