Maya Pei Brigade

"So, who's really in charge here?"

―Cassian Andor^[3]

The Maya Pei Brigade, referred to by Saw Gerrera as a "Neo-Republican collective,"^[4] was a rebel cell led by Neo-Republican Maya Pei^[5] that operated as early as 5 BBY.^[6] They formed a large contingent of the incipient rebellion, and focused on smaller missions and thefts.^[4]

History

In 4 BBY,^[2] the group was attacked, with Pei's fate unknown to the survivors that found themselves stranded on Yavin 4. They found Porko's Breon HOY-39 Dayvan and attacked them in desperation, driving them off into the wilderness. Two members of the group, Bardi and Gerdis, vied for leadership when Cassian Andor landed in a stolen TIE Avenger prototype looking for Porko, and the group began warring amongst themselves not long afterwards, in the light of one member of the Maya Pei Brigade known as Crab shooting Rika, who attempted to figure out how to fly the TIE Avenger.^[3]

Later, after a short time of fighting with each other on opposite sides of the clearing, Bardi and Gerdis played a game of Five Hands with Roski rules to decide who would depart and who would stay on Yavin 4. After a few rounds, the two rivals stopped playing the game when they heard a low rumbling growl, which they confused with thunder. They were ambushed a moment later by a Yavinian doodar, which devoured both factious leaders of the brigade. In response, their comrades fired their blasters in the creature's direction. Andor used the chaos to his advantage and fled to his stolen TIE Avenger and escaped Yavin 4, leaving the members of the brigade behind in the jungles nearby the Great Temple.^[7] A microcosm of where the larger rebellion was at that time in galactic history, the experience with the Maya Pei Brigade had shown Andor how far the rebellion was from being any kind of organized, capable organization.^[8]

This article is a stub about an in-universe company, corporation, or organization. You can help Wookieepedia by expanding it.

Behind the scenes

The Maya Pei Brigade was first mentioned with the Andor Season 1 episode "Nobody's Listening!"^[9] before making its debut in the season two episodes "One Year Later," which first identified the group,^[3] and "Sagrona Teema."^[7] According to star^[8] and executive producer^[10] Diego Luna, the scenes with the Maya Pei Brigade were intended to showcase where the larger rebellion was at in that point in time, demonstrating that it was not yet an organized team capable of making an effective stand against the Empire.^[8]