Character Profile:

Wedge Antilles

With more lives than a recycled droid, and more adventures than a Holocron could tell, as ferocious as a rancor in battle and as loyal as a befriended Wookiee, Wedge Antilles became the pilot ace of the Rebellion and now the New Republic.

Born and raised on outer Gus Treta, a spaceport in the Corellian system, Wedge Antilles was orphaned as a teenager when his parents were killed by fleeing pirates. With money from an insurance settlement, at the age of sixteen he bought a stock light freighter, which he named the Zena's Pride, and tried to start a legitimate shipping business but was soon smuggling weapons for the Rebel Alliance. It didn't take long for Antilles to get behind the controls of an X-Wing fighter and become a crack pilot.

During the battle to destroy the first Death Star, Antilles teamed up with Luke Skywalker as a fellow member of Red Squadron; Wedge was Red Two to Luke's Red Five. Skywalker still kids his flying buddy about his first reaction to the Death Star: "Look at the size of that thing!" Antilles to out numerous gun towers and pulverized a TIE fighter that was on Luke's tail before his X-Wing was hit and he had to pull away.

Antilles found a home with the renamed Rogue Squadron because it attracted sine if the best hot-shot pilots in the galaxy. During the Battle of Hoth, Antilles and other group members piloted snowspeeders against the huge AT-AT walkers. He and his gunner took out the first walker by tripping it with a strong cable. With Skywalker away on other missions, Antilles was promoted to commander and assumed control of Rogue Squadron. He worked closely with Lando Calrissian under the guidance of Admiral Ackbar to plan the attack on the second Death Star. In the Battle of Endor, Antilles and his squadron took out an Imperial Star Destroyer that was being used as communications headquarters. Once the Death Star's shields were down, Antilles in his X-Wing and Calrissian in the Millennium Falcon made a bee-line for the reactor core, launching missiles and torpedoes that started a chain reaction explosion that destroyed the super weapon.

Just a day later, Skywalker had to rescue Antilles as the squadron leader attempted to defuse an explosive device on an Imperial drone ship. That encounter lead to a mission to distant Bakur, where the Alliance helped defeat an invasion by the reptilian Ssi-ruuk. One of the greatest feats of Antilles and the squadron was the undercover work they did on Coruscant to bring down the planetary shields for a succesful Alliance invasion. Five years after the battle of Endor, the return of the long-absent Grand Admiral Thrawn led to battles that engaged Rogue Squadron at the Sluis Van shipyards, in the fight over the long-lost Katana Dreadnaught fleet, and finally in the decisive battle at the Bilbringi shipyards.

After that, Antilles finally agreed to accept the rank of general, with the proviso that he could still lead Rogue Squadron. After some tough battlefield losses, Antilles acquitted himself at the second Battle of Coruscant. He then became bodyguard and escort for the beautiful and brilliant scientist Qwi Xux, who was determined to destroy a new super weapon she had helped create for Imperial Forces. The two grew closer, and as they spent time on the beautiful planets of Vortex and Ithor, they began to fall in love. But joy turned to pain when one of Skywalker's Jedi trainees, drawn to the dark side of the Force, visited Xux during the night, and performed a mindwipe, removing nearly all her memory.

In battle after battle, Antilles has proven to be all-action when needed. He is also capable of coming up with off-the-wall strategy if necessary, such as at the Battle of Almania when his flagship, the Yavin, fired on its own forces to trick droid-piloted enemy ships. A few years later, the New Republic erupted in political turmoil, he was asked to go on an undercover mission with Corran Horn to Bothawui, when renegade Imperials were starting riots all over the New Republic territory. When he finished the mission, he got back into the cockpit, and was a key player in bringing down the fake Grand Admiral Thrawn. When he was done with that, he and Tycho Celchu retired from Rogue Squadron, handing command over to Colonel Gavin Darklighter. When Rogue Squadron was in their time of greatest need, during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, he and Tycho Celchu came out of retirement and rejoined the squadron.

Antilles remains self-effacing and downplays his heroics, but he remains proud of his accomplishments and those of his squadron.

Profile Provided by: Edor Crespin