Vincit Danyeko

Vincit "Yeeks" Danyeko was a Marine pilot of Otravisi heritage. He was an apt "fighter jock", with a penchancy for being a smart-ass and an acrobat &mdash; two things that led to a lot of pranks and hijinks amongst his fellow fliers. After stints in three other squadrons, one of them being the 68th, he landed in the infamous 17th Nighthawks under the command of then-Captain Doron Rtufo.

He frequently took the role of the third position in the squadron's favored "tactical trident" formation, and was in that exact role when in 10 ABY he was trailing Captain Rtufo and Lieutenant Ven Ocher on a recon pass through Dreven space, following a lead on the whereabouts of the third Death Star. Their presence alerted several pickets and a horde of interceptors, and after Rtufo and Ocher took scans, the threesome turned tail and ran. Unfortuneately, Danyeko's normally reliable engine faltered on him, and he fell behind. Rather than fight the pursuers and possibly incite a war, he shut his craft down, went adrift, and hoped the Imperials wouldn't find him.

They did. He was interred, interrogated, and used as political bait, dangled towards the Caspian Democratic Union, who remained adamant that he was part of a routine cartographical survey effort. The Imperial officials didn't buy it, and Danyeko's whereabouts became part of a classified file as he was shuffled from one Imperial prison facility to another. Unlike political detainees or common criminals, he was afforded a degree of respect befitting a starfighter officer, and he was kept amongst similar officers under Imperial Navy watch. His life was only in jeopardy once, when an ISB officer demanded a meeting with him and nearly beat him to death, saved only by his Imperial Navy captor dressing down the ISB officer. It turned out that the third Death Star had been destroyed in an overwhelming attack by the New Republic, and at the time, the Empire was searching for answers as to who could have tipped off the NR on its location. He remained in custody for nearly a year until he was released in a quiet exchange, officer for officer.

He returned to Caspia, but chose not to return to active duty status, instead taking up a job with a private contractor and keeping his name on the Reserve boards.