Squadron Leader

Of the 8 Career Skills, choose 4 to get a free rank. Of the 4 Specialization Skills, choose 2 to get a free rank.

Commander Career Skills: Coercion, Cool, Discipline, Knowledge (Warfare), Leadership, Perception, Ranged (Light) and Vigilance

Squadron Leader Specialization Skills: Gunnery, Mechanics, Piloting (Planetary) and Piloting (Space)

Though perhaps the most important engagements involve capital ships, the daily struggle for survival and victory happens at a much smaller scale. Snubfighters, small gunships, combat airspeeders, and hovertanks go hammer-and-tongs against the massive Imperial war machine, and it's only the tactical genius and daring of those who lead these units keeping them alive. The best Squadron Leaders even manage to pull out more than their fair share of victories. Squadron Leaders tend to know their machines very well, and of course they need to be able to operate the same types of vehicles they are commanding.

Squadron Leaders rarely lead from the rear. More often than not, theirs are the first ships or vehicles to engage the enemy, and they're the last ones out of a combat zone (if they get out at all). Leading by example is a way of life for a Squadron Leader, and he won't ask anyone to do what he's not ready to do himself. He rides his team to keep their machines in top shape, and he trains them constantly. He wants both crew and machines back in the hangar when the mission is over, and he does whatever it takes to make it happen.

Alliance High Command knows every single battle is important, and most of them are won at the front line, by mechanized detachments and starhghter squadrons under the command of Squadron Leaders. The upper echelons are constantly on the lookout for anyone with the right qualities to inspire and lead pilots and vehicle crews into the worst kinds of hell and back again.

Potential Backgrounds

  • Defector: To survive more than a handful of missions, TIE pilots have to be the best they can be. Many Squadron Leaders developed a taste for adrenaline at the controls of an Imperial fighter, battling pirates in the Outer Rim or chasing smugglers closer to the Core. For whatever reason, they’ve taken their skills over to the other side, trading in the Empire’s flimsy TIEs for durable X-wings and maneuverable A-wings.
  • Citizen Soldier: Not all Squadron Leaders are trained for military action. Some act as test pilots for corporate or planetary ship manufacturers, while the majority ply their trade as couriers, escorts, or transport captains. Hoping to make a difference in securing the galaxy for freedom, they have offered their skills and reflexes to the Rebel Alliance and found themselves no worse off for their lack of academy training. Those who can lead oftentimes find themselves placed in command of a fighter element, a squadron, or an entire attack wing. If only their parents could see them now!
  • The Failed Leader: Losing a starfighter to enemy fire is bad enough, especially given the difficulty of acquiring new ships to replace those that have been lost. Losing pilots, however, is all the more serious, as talented fighter pilots don’t grow on trees. Each one lost is irreplaceable, and failed Squadron Leaders have lost most, if not all, of their pilots and starfighters in combat. The guilt and shame surrounding this loss haunts them at every moment, and replacing their pilots and ships is likely a top priority.