Puck Naeco/Legends

"You can't take on a Star Destroyer in a fighter. Stick to something five or ten times your own size."

- Puck Naeco to Samuel Raider

Puck Naeco was a captain in the Rebel Alliance who transferred to Red Squadron on the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Independence shortly after Operation Strike Fear. He was a good pilot, known for his accurate deflection shooting.

Biography
"My last mission, I caught a TIE with a fantastic shot. I'd slowed down to blast a TIE Bomber, and this TIE fighter comes up behind me too fast. I caught him coming on the rear sensor, and just pushed my nose down a little. Then, as he came over me, I raised the nose and squirted a laser blast. He went nova on one hit. It was a beautiful deflection."

- Puck Naeco

A native of the planet Denon in the Inner Rim, Puck Naeco joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic as a starfighter pilot during the early Galactic Civil War and, by 0 BBY, was a captain in the Alliance Starfighter Corps and a combat veteran. Shortly after the end of Operation Strike Fear, a major Imperial offensive against the fledgling Rebellion, Naeco transferred to Red Squadron aboard the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Independence. Soon after arriving, Naeco joined several of his his squadmates, including Commander Hamo Blastwell, Captains Keyan Farlander and Samuel Raider, Sunnar Jan-lo and Speedy in the pilots' ready room, where they discussed their combat experiences and preferred targets. Naeco served as a mentor to some of the younger pilots, including Farlander, Milar Travis and Fin Danglot and became known on the Independence for his practical jokes.

Shortly before Naeco joined Red Squadron, the Alliance learned of a secret Imperial military construction project. In an effort to uncover the nature of the project, Alliance High Command devised a plan to tap into the Empire's communication network, and a previous operation had captured a shipment of Imperial communications satellites. The satellites were to replace several Imperial satellites near a Rebel listening post in the Cron Drift asteroid field. Naeco was assigned as Farlander's wingmate in a pair of T-65 X-wing starfighters to protect the transfer of the stolen satellites from the BFF-1 bulk freighter Ojai to the CR90 corvette Jeffrey in the Cron Drift. Less than a minute after the Rebels arrived, they were attacked by several Imperial Assault Gunboats and four Delta-class DX-9 stormtrooper transports. The two pilots engaged the new arrivals, with Farlander leaving Naeco to fight the Assault Gunboats while he destroyed the transports, until the Rebel ships completed the transfer. The Jeffrey later deployed the captured satellites, allowing the Alliance to intercept plans to the Empire's new weapon, the Death Star battlestation.

When the other pilots became aware of Naeco's attraction to Jan-lo, several of them devised a scheme to get their revenge for his numerous practical jokes. Jan-lo indicated that she was interested in Naeco and told him to meet her in a storage area of the ship's Quarren section. Following Farlander's advice not to waste any time, Naeco walked into the dark room, straight over to who he thought was Jan-lo and kissed her, only to discover when the others turned the lights on that he was kissing a Quarren member of the kitchen staff. Though he laughed the incident off, Naeco cut down on the practical jokes afterward. Jan-lo was later injured during an attack on the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Intrepid, and Naeco was among the pilots who visited her while she underwent bacta therapy.

Some time later, Naeco, Farlander and Raider witnessed the arrival of the Mon Calamari privateer and trader Tuz aboard the Independence when he made a delivery of stolen Imperial equipment. Curious about the visitor, Naeco invited Tuz and his entourage to join the Rebels for a drink in the pilots' lounge. When Raider voiced his opinion of Tuz's business practices, one of the pirate's Gamorrean bodyguards attacked the pilot. As Naeco and Farlander moved to help their friend, Tuz brought a halt to the altercation and admonished his bodyguard's behavior before explaining that he was working for the Alliance as part of an arrangement with the Independence commanding officer, Admiral Gial Ackbar. On another occasion, Naeco suggested taking Flight Cadet Breth Gart to Lucky Lower 13, a bar aboard the Independence, in an effort to help him to integrate with his wingmates. The pilots soon attracted two female crew members, one of whom was clearly interested in Gart. When the young pilot decided to follow Farlander's lead in retiring for the night, the women stayed in the company of Naeco and Raider.

The Empire soon completed construction of the Death Star and dispatched it to destroy the Alliance's base on Yavin 4. The Independence traveled to the Yavin system to assist in the preparations for the imminent attack and Naeco was one of several pilots transferred to Yavin Base upon arrival to bolster its starfighter squadrons. The stolen Death Star plans revealed a weakness in the battlestation; a small thermal exhaust port leading to the main reactor core. With the Death Star's defenses geared towards defending the station from a large-scale attack, the Rebels believed it would be possible for their starfighters to navigate down a narrow trench on the Death Star's surface, and fire a proton torpedo into the exhaust port, triggering a chain reaction that would destroy the station. Naeco was assigned an X-wing as part of Red Squadron during the Battle of Yavin, one of two squadrons responsible for attacking the exhaust port. Flying with the call sign Red Twelve, Naeco acted as wingmate to Red Leader Garven Dreis

Following a briefing by General Jan Dodonna, the Rebel pilots intercepted the Death Star as it prepared to use its superlaser against Yavin 4. Dreis led Red Squadron in strafing runs against the battlestation's surface while three of Gold Squadron's BTL Y-wing starfighters made an unsuccessful run on the exhaust port, resulting in the deaths of all three pilots. Red Squadron had already sustained losses, but Dreis regrouped the remaining fighters for an attack on the exhaust port. On Dodonna's instructions to split his group to allow two attempts, Dreis ordered Wedge Antilles, Biggs Darklighter and Luke Skywalker to wait while he led Naeco and Theron Nett in Red Ten into the trench. The three Rebels initially came under heavy turbolaser fire, but when the firing stopped, Dreis ordered his wingmates to watch for enemy fighters. Skywalker soon warned that a pair of TIE fighters, led by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader's TIE Advanced x1, was entering the trench behind them. Closing on the exhaust port, Dreis ordered Naeco and Nett to hold off the approaching TIEs while he made his shot, but the Sith Lord soon closed the distance and destroyed Naeco's X-wing, killing the pilot.

Behind the scenes
Red Twelve is not named in dialogue in A New Hope, but is mentioned in the script. The pilot's face is never seen. The Essential Guide to Warfare later identified Red Twelve as Naeco, previously established in X-Wing: The Official Strategy Guide. Naeco's first name was never used in X-Wing: The Official Strategy Guide but was revealed in The Essential Guide to Warfare. Jason Fry revealed on the Jedi Council Forums that the name Puck was suggested by Leland Chee. Milar Travis and Fin Danglot, who are both mentioned in Naeco's biography in The Essential Guide to Warfare, were also considered as candidates to be Red Twelve before Naeco was chosen.

The unofficial fan-named character Drifter had been given the call-sign Red Twelve by fans at one point. It's been suggested that the actor is present in the award ceremony scene, and that he survived the Death Star assault, though Red Twelve clearly dies in the movie. The Essential Guide to Warfare debunked this theory.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope