Tomer Darpen/Legends

"Let's just say he's cleaned up better than I expected."

―Wes Janson about Tomer Darpen's career

Tomer Darpen, sometimes known as Ejector Darpen, was a Human male from Commenor who was a career diplomat serving with the New Republic Diplomatic Corps and later New Republic Intelligence. He initially served as a rebel pilot, during the early years of the Galactic Civil War as a member of the Tierfon Yellow Aces, a starfighter squadron which was equipped with Y-wings, prior to the Battle of Yavin.

Dispatched to the newly-rediscovered planet of Adumar in 13 ABY as part of a diplomatic mission and head of the local New Republic Intelligence office, he was tasked with assisting the delegation, led by General Wedge Antilles, in swaying the government into allying itself with the New Republic.

Darpen encountered many problems in his mission; the most glaring was that Adumar did not have an established world government for him to negotiate with. Another problem was the fact that the Galactic Empire also sent their own delegation to the planet, which put a strain on Darpen's time table of winning the planet over. Compounding his woes was Antilles and his pilots, who refused to conform to the Adumari custom of death duels, and were beginning to spread their contrary ideology to the natives.

Realizing the Imperials, who had readily adapted to the lethal tradition of the Adumari, would eventually be more popular and admired than the New Republic pilots, Darpen decided to put his plan into action. He convinced Perator Pekaelic ke Teldan, ruler of the powerful nation of Cartann, to declare a world government with himself in command. The perator also extended an invitation to the pilots from both sides to lead the Cartann forces against the other nations that rejected his rule. The Imperials accepted but Antilles refused to assist a war of conquest, wrecking Darpen's plan. He began covering his tracks by lying to the perator about Antilles's reason for refusing, and having the New Republic pilots declared as exiles.

Antilles and his pilots managed to survive the multitude of assassins that barred their escape from Cartann. They made their way to the Yedagon Confederacy, one of the nations opposing Cartann, and successfully led the united forces of the other nations in the brief civil war. After Cartann's surrender and subsequent joining of the newly formed Adumari Union, Antilles had Darpen arrested as a war criminal.

Biography

Early life

"I was once a pilot. Briefly. Tierfon Yellow Aces."

―Tomer Darpen

Wes Janson, Darpen's squadron mate in the Tierfon Yellow Aces

The Human male Tomer Darpen was a native of Commenor. While serving a brief stint as a rebel pilot with the Tierfon Yellow Aces, he earned the nickname "Ejector Darpen" after an involuntary exit from a damaged BTL Y-wing starfighter that he had managed to crash-land on the low-gravity moon that his unit was using as a base at the time. Wes Janson, who served alongside Darpen in the Yellow Aces, recalled that he was always one step above being an outright black marketeer, and figured that he had "gone smuggler" after mustering out of the unit. Darpen transferred to the New Republic Diplomatic Corps soon after, where his talents for persuasion and manipulation could be put to more productive use.

Diplomatic career

"Tomer Darpen. New Republic Diplomatic Corps. I'm your liaison to the people of Adumar."

―Darpen, to Wedge Antilles

Eventually, his career path brought him into New Republic Intelligence, where he would meet Janson, now a major, again on Adumar in 13 ABY, where he was part of a four-man team of renowned pilots called Red Flight, led by General Wedge Antilles and including Colonel Tycho Celchu and Major Derek "Hobbie" Klivian. The team had been sent to negotiate the newly-rediscovered planet's entry into the New Republic through aerial duels with the pilot-obsessed Adumari. Unknown to Red Flight, however, Darpen was misleading the pilots about circumstances on Adumar that bordered on and even crossed into outright lying.

Wedge Antilles, who often clashed with Tomer Darpen on diplomatic matters

Adumar, it turned out, did not have a world government that Darpen could start negotiations with. Instead, they were splintered into several nations with Cartann being the largest, controlling over half of the planet's landmass. Darpen began to work on persuading the nations to form a world government but having discovered that the Galactic Empire also sent their own diplomats, led by Turr Phennir and his elite pilots from the 181st Imperial Fighter Wing, Darpen's schedule was drastically hastened.

At the same time Darpen was also secretly serving as the regional head of Intelligence on Adumar. He frequently clashed with Antilles on how the negotiations, which turned out to be little more than public demonstrations of skill and "honor", should take place. Antilles deplored the immoral pandering to the Adumari version of heroism or of how they purchased "honor coupons" with other peoples' blood. He and Red Flight refused to kill Cartannese flightknives, a local variant of a starfighter squadron, by using powered-down lasers and simulated "paint" missiles to conduct practice duels. The tactic which, while at first ineffective, soon drew the attention of a number of Adumari pilots. However Darpen would insist, frequently and vehemently, that Red Flight adopt the tactics of the Imperial pilots and kill their opponents.

Adumari Civil War

"Is what I think is happening actually taking place here? You know what they call it when one ruler declares a world government and the rest don't agree? We get a war of conquest. Lasers and missiles fired on civilian populations."
"Shut up."

―Wedge Antilles and Tomer Darpen

To fast track the formation of an Adumari world government, Darpen persuaded the Perator of Cartann, Pekaelic ke Teldan, to declare himself as ruler of a new unified government, which was to be organized as an extension of the existing Cartann government. The perator invited both New Republic and Imperial delegations to lend their expertise and lead the Cartan forces against the Yedagon Confederacy and Halbegardia, nations opposed to Cartann's self proclaimed rule. Phennir accepted the offer in behalf of the Imperials, but to Darpen's disappointment, Antilles declined to participate in a war of conquest.

Red Flight during the the Adumari Civil War

Realizing that his plan was ruined after Antilles's refusal, Darpen tricked the perator into believing that Red Flight wanted an honorable death in combat to avoid the shame of having to refuse. The perator declared Antilles and his pilots as exiles from Cartann, and to leave by gauntlet to Giltella Air Base. Darpen explained to Red Flight that they need to make their way to the air base, where four space worthy Blades would be available for them, by any means necessary, but it meant that anyone from Cartann could legally kill them.

To ensure that Red Flight would die in Cartann, Darpen used his position as head of Intelligence and issued a communications blackout to the Allegiance, a New Republic Star Destroyer orbiting Adumar as support for the diplomatic mission. When Antilles tried contacting the Allegiance asking for evacuation from the planet, he received no response and Red Flight was forced to undergo their gauntlet.

Despite having to go through hundreds of armed would-be assassins and the pursuit of thirty Cartannese Blade-32s, Red Flight managed to escape and made their way to NRI agent Iella Wessiri's apartment, who was next on Darpen's list of people to kill in order to cover his tracks. With the help of former sludgenews journalist Hallis Saper, who had found out about Darpen's many deceptions while performing her duty as mission documentarian, Antilles was able to convince Wessiri to abandon her post and turn against Darpen, who had been her superior.

Red Flight and their allies were smuggled into the Yedagon Confederacy and persuaded to help the combined nations opposed to Cartann by leading their united forces. After the brief civil war, which saw Cartann losing to the nations, now named the Adumari Coalition, Darpen was among the witnesses of the Cartann perator abdicating in favor of his son, Balass ke Teldan, in order to end the war. Balass immediately negotiated the entry of Cartann into the newly formed Adumari Union, the planet's first world government. Afterwards, Antilles and Celchu drew their blasters towards Darpen and had him arrested as a war criminal. Antilles gave him a choice between facing New Republic or Adumari justice, and Darpen chose the former.

Personality and traits

"Well, in the Tierfon Yellow Aces, he always had something going, Floating sabacc games, trade in the newest holodramas and comedies, a locker that always seemed to have some liquor in it no matter how much he sold. I never had the impression that he was a black marketeer, but he was only one notch above that. When he mustered out and no one ever heard from him again, we figured he'd gone smuggler. But the diplomatic corps seems ideal for him. He can persuade and convince and scam and manipulate, and yet remain a patriot."

―Wes Janson, on Tomer Darpen

Tomer Darpen had black hair and a close-cut black beard, and stood about 1.7 meters. He was described by Antilles as someone having intelligent eyes.

During his time with the early Rebel Alliance, Darpen was known to be a gambler and profiteer. Considered barely above being a smuggler and outright con man, Darpen was always running a floating sabacc game, was known to always have liquor, as well as any number of "rare" items, available for sale in addition to any number of other schemes. A barely adequate pilot, it was not known if Darpen ever had any kills to his credit before he transferred out of the Yellow Aces.

Deceitful and manipulative by nature, Darpen was a natural candidate for New Republic Intelligence, which he became a part of in concurrence with his Diplomatic Corps service. Darpen was a skilled liar who possessed few scruples; he was not afraid to sacrifice the lives of men who were perhaps the greatest starfighter pilots in the galaxy just to save his own career. Darpen was also something of a coward, preferring to mask his deceptions within deceptions and playing his cards very close to his chest.

Behind the scenes

Tomer Darpen was created by Aaron Allston for the novel X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar, the ninth volume in the Star Wars: X-Wing series published in 1999.

Appearances

• X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar (First appearance)
• X-Wing: Starfighters of Adumar audiobook

Sources

• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Essential Reader's Companion

Notes and references

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