Pellaeon, Gilad

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Homeworld:
  Corellia

• Species:
  Human

• Gender:
  Male

• Size:
  1.7 meters

• Weapon:
  Blaster pistol

• Vehicle:
  Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera

• Affiliation:
  Galactic Empire

• 

From the Expanded Universe

When the Empire splintered after the death of Emperor Palpatine, boundless avarice among the competing warlords hastened the decay of the New Order. Infighting fragmented the once powerful regime, allowing the New Republic to take control of its dwindling territories. Gilad Pellaeon, a veteran Imperial fleet officer with over five decades of experience, stood as a rare example of integrity during those chaotic times.

As a young man, Pellaeon lied about his age to gain admittance into Raithal Academy, one of the most prestigious military learning centers in the galaxy. Graduating as an ensign, Pellaeon served with distinction, earning commendations for outwitting pirates over the planet Gavryn.

By the time of the Empire, Pellaeon was transferred to the Star Destroyer Chimaera, where he worked his way up the command chain, eventually serving as second-in-command. The Star Destroyer Chimaera was part of the Imperial fleet amassed at the Battle of Endor. When a concentrated assault by Rebel forces killed the ship's captain, Pellaeon seized command of the vessel as the Imperial Fleet was routed. All throughout the battle, Imperial officers were committing tactical blunders, choosing to go out in a blaze of glory than call for a prudent retreat. It was Pellaeon who issued the final order to withdraw, commanding the remnants of the fleet to regroup at Annaj.

A dedicated fleet officer, Pellaeon was not fueled by ambition or dreams of power. He was a soldier, not a politician, now serving an Empire without an Emperor. He struggled to maintain order, but many warship commanders refused to follow his leadership. The Empire splintered into scattered fiefdoms ruled by power-hungry warlords, with Pellaeon's small fleet retreating from the growing New Republic territories.

It was a far cry from the remembered glories of the Empire. With the prestigious Academies of the Core now under the control of the New Republic, the Imperial territories had to rely on conscription to fill out their ranks. Pellaeon's bridge was a shameful assembly of untrained novices bristling under his stern command.

Five years after the Battle of Endor, the Empire was a quarter of its former size. They had been pushed far from the Core Worlds. It was during this bleak time that Pellaeon received a surprising communiqu? from Thrawn, the last surviving Imperial Grand Admiral. The alien mastermind tactician chose Pellaeon's Star Destroyer to be his flagship during his campaign to retake the Core.

Pellaeon served loyally at Thrawn's side as his trusted confidant. The captain overcame his initial reservations over serving an alien superior, since Thrawn proved his worth time and again by crafting intricate strategies that repeatedly confounded the New Republic. Under Thrawn's leadership, the Empire struck back, and reclaimed much of its lost territories. Thrawn's undoing, however, was trusting his Noghri underlings. When Thrawn was killed by a treacherous bodyguard, the Imperial momentum sputtered. It was like Endor all over again; Pellaeon taking command of the leaderless task force, trying to rein in the chaos after the death of a mastermind.

Once again, opportunistic Imperial warlords pounced. Rallied by Thrawn's impressive push to the Core, they attacked Coruscant. They lacked the refinement of Thrawn's tactical mind, and rather than take the capital intact, they destroyed much of it. The Empire again fragmented, and a wasteful Imperial Civil War broke out. It was then that a cloned Emperor Palpatine returned to take control of the Empire, and Pellaeon continued to serve loyally, despite crushing losses.

The New Republic defeated the Emperor's clone, and the remaining warships retreated to the Deep Core of the galaxy. There, High Admiral Teradoc created yet another fiefdom with a mighty fleet at his disposal, commanded by the newly promoted Vice Admiral Pellaeon.

Admiral Daala was next in the lengthy series of Imperial successors. She gathered together the 13 ruling Imperial warlords at a conference, and executed them in cold blood. Daala appointed Pellaeon as her second-in-command, and then ordered an ill-planned attack on Luke Skywalker's Jedi academy. Pellaeon led the fleet of Victory Star Destroyers that pressed the assault, but the entire fleet was scattered aside by an incredibly powerful display of the Force. Daala was defeated, and Pellaeon stepped in to fill the power vacuum.

As supreme commander of the remaining Imperial forces, Pellaeon gathered his assets from the Deep Core and expanded the Imperial presence in the Mid Rim. But it was clear that continued hostilities with the New Republic would only bring about the demise of the Empire. Fifteen years after the Battle of Endor, Pellaeon convinced the eight remaining moffs that the only way to survive was to reach a peace accord with the New Republic.

During these tenuous times, a last ditch effort by Imperial loyalists employed an imposter as Grand Admiral Thrawn. With the aid of intelligence gathered by smuggler baron Talon Karrde, Pellaeon was able to expose the deception. He signed the historic armistice between the Imperial and New Republic forces, finally bringing the Galactic Civil War to an end.

While the Imperial Remnant maintained many of the trappings of Palpatine's regime -- a strong military and limited venues of public expression -- it was far more progressive and devoid of the rampant injustices found during the height of the Empire's power. Slavery was abolished as were the extremes of anti-alien sentiment. The Imperial Remnant unobtrusively continued adhering to the strict tenets of the New Order, growing increasingly irrelevant to galactic affairs.

During the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Pellaeon recognized the threat the alien menace posed, even though their incursion had skirted past Imperial space. Despite some protests from the Moff Council, Pellaeon committed his forces to a joint Imperial-New Republic offensive at the Battles of Garqi and Ithor. Despite the best efforts of Pellaeon and New Republic Admiral Traest Kre'fey, the Yuuzhan Vong destroyed the ecology of Ithor. Shocked by the power of the attack, the Imperial Remnant recalled their assistance of the New Republic, and chose instead to sit out the invasion on the sidelines.

It was a move the Moff Council would come to regret. They falsely believed the Imperial Remnant safe from attack, since it had been ignored for much of the invasion. The Yuuzhan Vong proved that assumption wrong, when it brutally attacked the Imperial worlds. Pellaeon was critically wounded in the attack, but the sudden arrival of a Jedi mission exploring the Unknown Regions saved his life. Jedi healers stabilized Pellaeon's condition, and Luke Skywalker and Jacen Solo helped Pellaeon expose infiltrators in the Imperial ranks and refocus Imperial efforts to assist the newly founded Galactic Federation of Free Alliances.

Fully healed, Pellaeon once again took command of the Imperial Navy, and threatened to secede from the Empire if the Moffs didn't accept Jacen Solo's offer to join the Galactic Alliance. Once the Moffs agreed to an alliance, Pellaeon took the Imperial fleet and began to harass the retreating Yuuzhan Vong forces, hoping to defend the Imperial Remnant by joining the war effort. As the battle neared its conclusion, Pellaeon was appointed the commander of the Galactic Alliance's Fourth Fleet, and was instrumental in the final battle against the Yuuzhan Vong near Coruscant.

In the wake of the Yuuzhan Vong surrender, following the death of Admiral Sien Sovv, Pellaeon agreed to serve as the Supreme Commander of the Galactic Alliance's military, until a more permanent replacement could be named. Thus, he was in command of the naval forces when the Swarm War rose to a head, and remained in the position for many years, as the Imperial Remnant became more and more integrated into the Galactic Alliance. With the rising call for independence in the Corellian system, Pellaeon found himself in an unusual position. He was chosen as a peer to the Five World Prime Minister, Aidel Saxan, during a series of negotiations between the Galactic Alliance and the leaders of the Corellian system.

The negotiations were held at Toryaz Station, near Kuat, and were meant to allow both sides a chance to argue their positions and come to a common agreement on Corellia's standing in the GA. However, the negotiations had only barely begun when Prime Minister Saxan was assassinated. Pellaeon himself escaped, but only because the killers murdered his double instead. As the relationship between Corellia and the Galactic Alliance deteriorated, Pellaeon found himself fighting against the government's desire to bring war to Corellia in order to prevent the system's secession. When Chief of State Cal Omas made an executive decision to form the Galactic Alliance Guard, without the advice or support of the Senate, Pellaeon could no longer stand for the Alliance's posturing. He resigned his commission as Supreme Commander, leaving the role to one of his senior aides, Admiral Cha Niathal.

Pellaeon retired to an estate on the planet Bastion, where he hoped to avoid politics as much as possible. In his 90s, Pellaeon was still considered a valuable resource by the Moff Council, which often refused to act until he had provided input. Thus, Pellaeon was not surprised when an emissary from the Galactic Alliance arrived at his estate with an offer from Jacen Solo, requesting that the Imperial Remnant rejoin the Alliance. Pellaeon had come to despise Jacen Solo, and sent the emissary home without acknowledgement. He then waited for Solo to make contact with the Moff Council, to see how badly he wanted the Imperials to be working with the Alliance.

Ultimately, Solo's offer proved to be sufficient for Pellaeon and the Moffs to agree to the deal, and Pellaeon took the Star Destroyer Bloodfin and a small fleet to Fondor. Pellaeon wasn't about to take any chances, however, with either Solo or the Moff Council, so he called in a favor from Admiral Daala, who agreed to watch his back during the fighting. He was forced to allow Solo's apprentice, Tahiri Veila, to stand with him on the bridge. The role of the Imperial forces in the Second Battle of Fondor was to support the mission of the Galactic Alliance forces, and Pellaeon was forced to join the battle when the Fondorians tried to catch Solo in a trap.

Solo's command grew increasingly brutal during this campaign, and when he set on his own mission to bombard Fondor's cities into rubble, Admiral Cha Niathal tried to relieve him of his command. Solo refused, and Pellaeon ordered the Imperial forces to break off their attacks on Fondor and stand down. Solo pressed the attack, forcing Pellaeon to order his ships to defend Fondor. This caused a division in the ranks of the Moff Council, and prompted Tahiri to confront Pellaeon about his actions. When Pellaeon refused to follow Jacen Solo's orders, and ordered the rest of the Imperial fleet to acknowledge commands only from Niathal, Tahiri shot him in the chest, killing him almost instantly. As he died, Pellaeon opened his comlink to Admiral Daala, speaking the names of the members of the Moff Council who stood by and did nothing as he died. In the wake of the fighting, Vitor Reige recovered Pellaeon's body and, with the help of Admiral Daala, made arrangements for him to be buried on his homeworld of Corellia.