User:Master Jonathan/Wedge Antilles/2

Running the Rogues
"Wedge is in command of Rogue Squadron now, and he told me if I ever needed them they'd come running."

- Luke Skywalker, to Chewbacca

Skywalker eventually joined Antilles at the rendezvous, missing a hand after a confrontation with Darth Vader in Bespin's Cloud City. There, Skywalker had escaped with Organa and Chewbacca, freed from Imperial custody by Han Solo's old friend, Lando Calrissian, but had also been unsuccessful in attempting to free Solo. Skywalker, Organa, Calrissian, and Chewbacca decided to devote their efforts to tracking down Fett in an attempt to rescue Solo, pulling Rogue Leader Skywalker away from his duties. Antilles swiftly struck up a friendship with Calrissian, new to the Rebellion. With Skywalker committed to another task, and Antilles already having frequently assumed command duties while Skywalker attended to other obligations, the decision was made at the rendezvous point to put Antilles fully in command of Rogue Squadron. He was promoted from the rank of captain to commander, though rank meant little to Antilles, and he never bothered to correct frequent references to him as a captain. He made a point to acknowledge that if Skywalker ever needed the Rogues, he would not hesitate to assist, and when Skywalker accompanied the Rogues on missions, Antilles deferred to Commander Skywalker, granting him command and the Rogue Leader designation while Antilles flew as Rogue One.

He was put to work rebuilding the survivors of Hoth and new pilots into a working unit, officially stationed aboard Ackbar's flagship Home One and able to quickly lift for any hotspot. Will Scotian was among the pilots he recruited after seeing Scotian's excellent record at the Alliance's Oracle Base. Though offered the chance to upgrade to the newer A-wing or B-wing starfighters, Antilles insisted that the workhorse X-wing was good enough to remain the Rogues' primary starfighter, preferring that more advanced fighters be given to less talented pilots who needed the edge. Under Antilles's leadership, the refurbished squadron's position as the most elite starfighter unit in the Rebellion was confirmed. Also, as a commander, Antilles's expertise was put to use for the wider Alliance. He recorded the training hologram "Alliance Strategy and Tactics Lecture 137: Combat Starfighters" for distribution throughout the Rebellion, in which he outlined the workings and objectives of Alliance Starfighter Command and presented tactics and strategy for starfighter combat.

Following the evacuation of Echo Base, Antilles returned to Hoth, where a group of Rebels had been stranded during the battle. There he encountered Arns Grimraker, a notorious pirate, arms dealer, and scavenger. Grimraker was attempting to salvage equipment left behind by the Alliance, and was preparing to attack the Rebel remnants. Antilles killed him, allowing the remaining Rebels to escape. The story of the events became a favorite of Antilles's, and he took to embellishing it wildly, generally stating that he had himself been stranded on Hoth with Janson for months, only to finally escape in Grimraker's ship and be rescued by Skywalker. Frequently, Antilles claimed Janson had died, usually as a prank on rookies who would then be shocked to meet Janson alive and well.

Antilles was sent to scout the Maw, a black hole cluster suspected of hiding an Imperial prison. Flying a Y-wing for the mission, Antilles entered the Maw's asteroid field with Rogues Three and Four. There they came under attack from TIEs and, after fighting their way through Imperial forces, disabled a force field to gain access to the prison facility. They received a transmission from Karie Neth, the leader of the Rebel prisoners, who was engaged in a prison break. Coming to her aid, Antilles destroyed the prison's defenses, allowing Neth and her contingent of prisoners to escape. Neth would later join the squadron, replacing a Bothan lost during a covert mission. Antilles also rescued Keir Santage, who similarly became a Rogue.

When Imperial Admiral Wooyou Senn's Task Force Vengeance attacked the Rebel hospital station Hormuuz in the Gelgelar system, the Rogues defended the evacuation, working with Gold Squadron. After their flight, while the injured were being transferred to the medical frigate Redemption, the Rebels came under attack from the Star Destroyer Nemesis. The Rogues and Golds, forced to fly Headhunters, covered the fleet's escape. When a supply convoy headed for the Airam sector was ambushed in the Halbara system, the Rogues fought off the attack. The Rogues and Green Squadron then made a raid of their own, retaking supplies from the captured Hormuuz with capital ship aid.

In order to gauge the strength of Task Force Vengeance, the Rogues were dispatched to a fleet rendezvous point in speedy A-wings. There they scanned the task force's ships as they arrived and destroyed cargo ships bearing munitions as they found them. On identifying Senn's flagship, the Star Dreadnought Vengeance, Antilles departed to report to his commanders. The MC80 Star Cruiser Liberty drew elements of Task Force Vengeance to the Goff system, where the Rogues served as part of a trap that destroyed two Star Destroyers. The Rogues then participated in the capture of the Immobilizer 418 cruiser Compellor in the Battle of Swellen, holding off an Imperial counterattack. They then guarded the Compellor arrival at Mobetta and, after the first attack was defeated, held off a second Imperial assault fleet. Continuing to work with Green Squadron's B-wings, the Rogues participated in an ambush of an Imperial fleet sent to reinforce Task Force Vengeance. Afterward, they received a distress call from the X7 factory Gallofree at Mobetta and returned there to defend it against an Imperial attack. Though they could not save Compellor, they covered the evacuation of the Airam Rebels from the factory at great risk before withdrawing.

Airam leader Tamaron agreed to supply the Alliance with warheads in gratitude. Antilles's Rogues guarded the transfer against Imperial interference. When the Imperials did attack, the Rogues quickly beat off the interlopers. When the Airam clan leader Ilay attempted to negotiate a treaty with Senn, the Rogues were part of the forces that disrupted the meeting, capturing Ilay before retreating. With intelligence on a rendezvous Ilay had set up to supply the Imperials, the Rogues, equipped with B-wings, struck the convoy at Dega, destroying all the supply freighters in a prolonged raid. Senn, with his forces reduced and strained for supplies, pressed forward with an attack on the Rebel shipyards in the Nocto system. The Rebels were able to destroy the Rage and the Vengeance in the battle, killing Senn and putting an end to Task Force Vengeance menace of the Airam sector.

On hearing a tip that several Rebel scientists captured on Hoth were being held in a detention facility over the planet Bakura, the Rogues were sent to free them. Taking a B-wing, Antilles arrived to find a transport departing the station. He rushed to disable it with the B-wing's ion cannons, allowing a Rebel evacuation transport to dock and transfer the prisoners over for rescue. As a succession of transport ships departed, Antilles disabled each one. When Klivian's fighter was crippled in the dogfight, plummeting to Bakura's surface, Antilles quickly docked with the station and stole a TIE bomber to provide a two-seat craft. Flying to the surface and through a heavily defended ice crevasse, he picked up Klivian and returned to the Rebel forces in orbit. However, when he returned, an storm commando escort carrier recaptured the scientists and fled to the planet Geonosis. Under Madine's direction, Antilles, back in his X-wing, led two Rogues and the transports to Geonosis in pursuit. When Imperial capital ships arrived, it was plain that they had flown into a trap. Antilles covered for the transports as they escaped, destroying a storm commando escort carrier and losing his own stabilizer in the explosion. Antilles plummeted to the surface, where he abandoned his X-wing and evaded stormtroopers who had themselves landed in escape pods from the destroyed ship. Antilles also encountered B1 battle droids, manufactured on Geonosis for the Clone Wars. He then came under attack from Sarkli, the former Rogue who had turned traitor and now served with the storm commandos, after Sarkli commandeered a LAAT/i gunship left on the planet. Taking over a turret on the ground, Antilles shot down the gunship, then found an abandoned Delta-7 Aethersprite starfighter, another Clone Wars relic. After his R5 unit repaired the fighter, he returned to orbit, where Madine had just arrived in a Nebulon-B, and flew the Aethersprite against the remaining Imperial forces.

When reports that a platform over the planet Destrillion was being used for Imperial research arrived, Antilles was sent to scout the facility in an A-wing and note vulnerable points for attack by his squadron in Y-wings. Piloting through a series of energy-shielded tunnels in open space, he made his way to an open area, where he found a swarm of TIE Hunters. Trapped inside by force fields, he had to take on the TIE Hunters alone. After eliminating them, a further tunnel opened, allowing him to continue toward the base. Exiting, he found only an Imperial convoy. He returned to the fleet, which came under fire from the surface of Destrillion's sister planet, Dubrillion. The Rebels had been lured into a trap so that a superlaser based on Dubrillion could be used against them. Antilles led a Y-wing bombing run to Dubrillion, targeting the focusing dishes for the superlaser. Unable to reach the full facility with a bomber, Antilles put down and commandeered an AT-ST, penetrating the superlaser construct. Within an internal rail system, he then transferred to an idle AT-AT and destroyed the reactor turbines. With the superlaser destroyed, he escaped in his Y-wing.

For a strike at the vital Imperial shipyards of the planet Fondor and a cloaking device-equipped Executor-class Star Dreadnought under construction there, Antilles and two other Rogues flew captured TIE Hunters and presented themselves as escorting a captured Rebel transport; the transport was in fact a droid ship programmed to ram the shipyards' control center. They were detected by spaceport control, however, and had to battle to defend the transport as it made its suicide run. Once the control center was destroyed, the Rebel fleet arrived. Antilles brought down the shields and then led the Rogues in a run to eliminate the Star Dreadnought. He destroyed its cloaking generators, and the fleet eliminated the ship.

While the Rogues were traveling with elements of the Rebel fleet, an Imperial Strike Cruiser came across the convoy. Madine scrambled the Rogues to defend the convoy. Antilles sent Dix Rivan wide while he swept the other Rogues toward the Strike Cruiser as it disgorged TIEs. Under Antilles, the squadron cut through the TIEs, while the running Strike Cruiser, its shields focused to the rear, succumbed to fire from Rivan, who had looped in front of it unnoticed.

When Calrissian's informants located Fett in the Cadavine Sector Fleet Imperial Enclave on Gall, a moon of the planet Zhar, Skywalker called on Antilles to help him raid the Imperial installation. The Rogues quickly traveled to the system and set up a prefabricated base on Kile, a moon opposite Gall. Calrissian's agent Dash Rendar, a smuggler who had flown alongside the Rogues at Hoth, docked his freighter, the Outrider, in the simple hangar and quarters the Rogues maintained. Along with Rendar, the Rogues scouted the Imperial Enclave as they waited for Rendar to confirm Fett's presence, learning that two Star Destroyers guarded the base, with a TIE complement that outnumbered the Rogues by twelve to one.

When Rendar had ensured the bounty hunter was there, he sent a message to Calrissian that brought the searchers to Kile. Antilles was pleased to catch up with his friends, but they had to act before Fett left. Skywalker came up with a plan to tie up the entire Enclave's defenses with an attack by Rogue Squadron while Rendar led Calrissian, Chewbacca, and Organa, in the Millennium Falcon, to Fett. Antilles was happy to yield command to Skywalker for the mission. Skywalker led the Rogues against the Star Destroyer orbiting the day side of the planet, stirring up a fierce dogfight. Scotian was sent back to base and Rivan was killed in the battle, and as the second Star Destroyer approached, Antilles suggested withdrawing. Skywalker insisted they give Calrissian one more minute before making a final strafing run against the Star Destroyer and returning to Kile. When they retreated, Janson's R2 unit took control of his fighter and began firing on Skywalker. The Jedi was able to disable the craft's engines and targeting sensors, allowing Antilles to attach a grapple to Janson's ship and tow him back to base.

As they landed, Antilles was relieved both his friends had survived. Analysis of Janson's astromech showed it had been programmed to fire on Skywalker, but the investigation got no farther as both Antilles and Skywalker departed to meet Rendar when he returned from guiding the Millennium Falcon. Antilles had to calm down his commander as Rendar revealed he had abandoned the others once they found Fett's Slave I, having been paid only to guide, not fight. As they waited for the Millennium Falcon, detected approaching but with its comm disabled, to land, they returned to Janson's astromech only to find it destroyed. Viera Cheran, the Rogue crew chief, had shot it and now held a blaster on Skywalker. Antilles quickly drew his pistol and shot her. He went to check her history on the base computer, and was aided by Calrissian when he arrived, empty-handed, as Fett had escaped. They found that Cheran had recently received payments that Calrissian tracked through several dummy corporations to a known front for Imperial Intelligence operations.

A second Death Star
"I'm proud to say this is truly the first day of a New Republic, freed from the tyranny of the Empire forever. We're all gathered on the planet's surface. I can hear music and laughter drifting through the trees. I can't help but pause and take a long look at my friends: Luke, Han, the Princess, Lando, and all the other Rebels who fought long and hard in the trenches. Guys like me, guys just doing their job. And I can't help feeling&hellip;we're all heroes now."

- Wedge Antilles

The team searching for Solo dispersed to other assignments, while the Rogues moved on from Kile with that mission's failure. When the CR90 corvette Razor was to rendezvous with the frigate Redemption over the planet Kothlis and relay vital information, the Rogues were assigned to cover the meeting. They arrived with the Redemption only to find the Razor being captured by the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Motivator. Antilles, in a B-wing, defended the Redemption, then used the powerful fighter, designed to tackle capital ships, to disable the Motivator. Out of control, the Star Destroyer plummeted to Kothlis's surface, necessitating a landing to recover the data from the Razor, which was within the crashed ship. He transferred to an X-wing to escort Madine's commandos to the surface, then defended them from the Motivator complement of AT-AT and AT-PT walkers, which were emerging from the ship's hulk. The commandos successfully recovered the data, which turned out to be the revelation that the Death Star II was being constructed over the Forest moon of the gas giant Endor. Emperor Palpatine had resurrected his weapon of terror in a greater and more powerful form.

While the Rogues were with the main Alliance Fleet, a message drone from Rendar arrived, requesting that they travel to the Imperial capital world Coruscant and await his signal to provide assistance. Skywalker and Calrissian had already traveled there in an attempt to rescue Organa from the clutches of Prince Xizor, the head of crime syndicate Black Sun, and had connected with Rendar and Chewbacca. Knowing his comrades were on Coruscant, Antilles agreed to provide reinforcements, and took the Rogues to the center of the Emperor's power, where they waited, hidden among droid-controlled barge traffic in the far reaches of the system.

The Rebel group was able to rescue Organa and escape into orbit, but the forces of the galaxy's most powerful criminal syndicate remained arrayed against them. Rendar sent his signal, and Antilles rushed to find his allies. Locating the battle, Antilles quickly began shooting Black Sun's fighters off the Millennium Falcon and the Outrider. Badly outnumbered, neither Skywalker, Rendar, nor Antilles thought they would be able to escape. They feared the odds were even worse when Imperial fighters arrived, but the TIEs shocked Antilles by firing on Xizor's craft. Darth Vader was putting an end to his long-running feud with Xizor, and the Rebels were a secondary concern. When the Executor destroyed Xizor's skyhook, the Rebels rushed through its debris field to freedom, though Rendar was presumed lost in the process.

When Rebel pilot Ace Azzameen and a commando team captured the Lambda-class shuttle Tydirium from Outpost 327 in the Zhar system and came under attack before they could escape, the Rogues were summoned to cover the shuttle's retreat to the Liberty, which they did successfully. Though the Rebels seized Imperial passcodes from the ship, it eventually fell back into Imperial hands. As Madine's plan to strike at the Death Star required infiltrating Endor with an Imperial shuttle so a unit of commandos could disable the Death Star's shield generator, they needed to steal the shuttle back. Antilles was tasked with acquiring Tydirium from the Imperial Naval Academy on the planet Prefsbelt IV. Sneaking past the academy's sensor network, he subdued its defenses before taking off in Tydirium, covered by his fellow Rogues. After that mission, when vital supplies of tibanna gas for the fleet came under threat at Bespin, the Rogues came to their defense. Antilles saved the tibanna gas platforms, then eliminated Imperial defenses on Cloud City to protect further platforms.

Antilles returned to the Rebel fleet massing over Sullust in preparation for the mission to destroy the Death Star II. He worked with Ackbar and Calrissian, who had received a general's commission, to plan the starfighter assault on the superweapon. As the gargantuan station was not yet completed, starfighters would be able to fly into its reactor core and directly deliver the crippling strike. Antilles was present at Ackbar and Madine's briefing on the mission, as were Organa, Calrissian, Chewbacca, Solo&mdash;newly freed from carbonite&mdash;and the late-arriving Skywalker. There Madine outlined his plan to sneak a team under Solo, now commissioned as a general, onto Endor to disable the shield generator there that protected the Death Star in advance of the Rebellion's naval attack. Rebel leader Mon Mothma informed the crowd that Palpatine himself would be aboard the station when they struck; a victory at Endor would mean a crippling blow against the Empire.

Calrissian would command the fighters from the Millennium Falcon as Gold Leader. Antilles was placed in charge of Red Wing&mdash;named by Antilles in honor of the squadron that had vanquished the Death Star at Yavin 4&mdash;and would fly as Calrissian's wingman in the very same X-wing in which he had fought the first Death Star, tasked to make another Death Star run. Afterward, Antilles gave his own, more specific briefing to his pilots. He faced the traditional skepticism of Klivian but attempted to boost their confidence as they prepared to take on the enormous superweapon.

Once they were prepared and believed Solo had brought the shields down, the fleet jumped to Endor. As they approached the space station, Calrissian and his co-pilot Nien Nunb realized that they were being jammed, and the space station's shields were still up; they had flown into Palpatine's trap. Antilles broke off on Calrissian's orders and with the rest of the fleet engaged the Imperial force, led by the Executor, emerging from the other side of the Sanctuary Moon of Endor. When a wave of TIEs engaged, Antilles attempted to pull them away from the Rebel capital ships. He fiercely defended the medical frigate Redemption as it came under heavy attack, preserving the ship. The reason the enemy capital ships did not engage was revealed when the Death Star opened fire on the Rebel cruisers, destroying the Liberty. Only Calrissian's insistence on engaging the Imperial fleet point-blank, to keep the Death Star from firing, convinced Ackbar not to order a retreat. Antilles first made crippling runs against the bridges of a pair of Star Destroyers in the fore of the Imperial formation, protecting Home One. Then, he, Calrissian, Blue Leader Merrick Simms, and Green Wing attacked the main communications ship of the Imperial fleet. As Green Wing's sacrifice cleared the path, they were able to target the ship's reactors by flying within its cargo bay. The ship was destroyed, catching Simms in the blast. Antilles led Red Group well, preserving most of his pilots while they racked up a significant kill count.

When at last Solo's team destroyed the shield generator, Calrissian and Antilles led a squad of fighters across the Death Star's surface and then into an opening that gave them access to a series of narrow, deadly passages in the battle station's superstructure. Antilles was the first in, flying at high velocity through the constricted spaces as TIEs pursued the Rebel craft. Travel was further complicated when, moving at breakneck speed, the ships suddenly lost their instruments due to interference from the heavy-duty power sources nearby. Antilles had to fly dependent on his eyes and instincts, nearly blind at his speed. After Red Seven Keir Santage was killed by the TIE pursuit, Calrissian sent the others off to draw away the pursuit, leaving only Antilles and Calrissian to make the run with Imperial pursuers remaining on their tails. They emerged into the vast open chamber housing the reactor core, where the Millennium Falcon fired on the core itself, while Antilles targeted the power regulator with a pair of proton torpedoes. As the core collapsed, the pair flew the same treacherous route to safety with Antilles once more in the lead, escaping in his X-wing just before the second Death Star was consumed by a massive explosion.

The battle did not end there, as the Imperial fleet fought on for just under four hours. With the Death Star, the Executor, and the main communications ship destroyed, Imperial coordination was thrown into chaos, undermining the integrity of their defensive action. Only after long hours of fighting did the fleet retreat, giving the Rebels control of the battlefield. The Rebels began salvage and repair operations, their own fleet having sustained high casualties and heavy damage in the brutal fighting.

New threats and the New Republic
"It's just that, after every major victory, I hope the fighting is over. But it'll never be over&hellip;Even after we defeat the Imperials, there will be someone&hellip;another threat to peace&hellip;''" "Sounds like you're handing me your resignation." "''Actually, I'm trying to find a way to tell you I've never been more committed. We have to keep fighting so that others don't have to."

- Wedge Antilles and Luke Skywalker

After the battle had concluded, the Rebels held a victory celebration in Bright Tree Village on the forest moon of Endor, the home of the native Ewoks who had aided Solo's commando unit. Antilles was present, where he was overjoyed to see Skywalker had survived confronting Vader and Palpatine, who were both now dead, aboard the Death Star, and his friends on Solo's team alive as well. With the Empire dealt its greatest blow yet, the festivities went on well into the night as Antilles partied with his friends.

The next day, Antilles returned to the fleet on the first shuttle and immediately began patrol duty. Outer-system patrols guarded against the threat of Imperial counterattack while near the fleet salvage action continued and fighters stood ready to counter attacks by Imperial survivors within the battle area. When an Imperial intrusion by the patrol craft Daggerblade disrupted the sensor net, the Rogues were dispatched to secure the area and perform picket duty.

While patrolling, Antilles intercepted an Imperial message drone sent to Palpatine. Attempting to access its message, he accidentally triggered the drone's self-destruct mechanism. Antilles quickly clambered from his starfighter in vacuum gear and thrust his hand between the electrite crystal leads of the self-destruct, knowing he had to stop them from making contact or the drone would explode, taking him and the nearby Alliance ships with it. As the mechanism crushed his hand and the fleet evacuated, Antilles remained in vacuum in tremendous pain. Skywalker rushed to the drone in his X-wing and, ejecting his lightsaber from the fighter, used telekinesis and a Force link with Antilles to slice away the crystals with the lightsaber just after Antilles leaped away. The Corellian passed out, but was quickly picked up by a med runner and, with all his fingers saved, put in a bacta tank to heal. Afterward, he was left with a lingering wariness of zero-gravity situations, tending to flash back to the event when in null gravity.

While Antilles spent a day healing, Rebel technicians were able to decode the message. It was from remote Bakura and told of an invasion by strange attackers from the Unknown Regions. After persuasion from Organa and Solo, the Rebel leadership decided to send a fleet to counter the invasion and possibly gain Bakura's allegiance. With Organa as the negotiator and Solo escorting her, Madine thought to put Antilles in charge of the battle group, but when the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi told Skywalker he had to travel to Bakura and avert a dire threat, Skywalker was put in command.

The next day, recovered, Antilles and the Rogues departed as part of the strike force, stationed aboard the carrier Flurry. They arrived at Bakura to find its Imperial defense fleet engaged against the invaders&mdash;the Ssi-ruuk. The ranking Imperial officer, Commander Pter Thanas, accepted Skywalker's offer of assistance. The Alliance fleet struck the center of the Ssi-ruuvi formation, destroying a cruiser and driving the Ssi-ruuk into retreat. While Skywalker, Solo, Organa, Chewbacca, and their droids landed to negotiate with Wilek Nereus, the Imperial governor, the Rebel ships entered the Imperial defensive pattern, ready for a strike should the Ssi-ruuk return from the outer reaches of the system. They soon did so, setting up a blockade of the planet outside the range of the defense net.

When the Rebels and Imperials had prepared a coordinated attack, Skywalker apprised Antilles of it, but warned him to be on alert for treachery from Nereus. The Ssi-ruuk launched their own attack unexpectedly, which the combined forces were able to repel with the aid of Skywalker. Skywalker had been captured by the Ssi-ruuk with aid from Nereus and terrified the Ssi-ruuk into abandoning their flagship once he got free. Once the invaders retreated, though, Thanas opened fire on the Rebels under the treacherous governor's orders. Trapped, seemingly with no way out, the Rebels were suddenly able to escape when Skywalker used the captured Shriwirr to draw Thanas's Carrack light crusier, Dominant, out of position. Antilles led his fighters to protect Shriwirr while the Millennium Falcon recovered Skywalker, who convinced Thanas to surrender as a Bakuran revolt swept Nereus from power. The Bakurans elected to join the Alliance, and Thanas supervised the disarmament and withdrawal of Imperial forces before defecting. Victorious, the fleet returned to Endor.

Antilles remained stationed on Endor's forest moon, where the Alliance had set up a base, Endor Station. He volunteered for salvage duty, as efforts to recover both Rebel and Imperial wreckage and bodies continued. As Skywalker returned to active duty with the squadron and resumed command, Antilles was bumped to Rogue Two. He began to hope that the Rebellion had earned victory and that he could soon retire from military service. When Mothma and Ackbar declared a major meeting, Antilles rounded up Solo, Calrissian, and Chewbacca. At the meeting, many Alliance figures were dispatched to diplomatic missions recruiting representatives as the Alliance sought to legitimize itself by holding a deliberative congress free to all worlds and species. Heartened by the crucial defeat of the Empire at Endor, many worlds flocked to the Rebel banner. Approximately a week after the destruction of the second Death Star, the Alliance to Restore the Republic re-formed as the Alliance of Free Planets, an interim government put in place to ease the transition to the New Republic.

At that time, Antilles was summoned from flying a salvaging Y-wing for a scouting mission commanded by Skywalker. With the Empire reeling, Rebel forces were being dispatched to reconnoiter major Imperial locations. Celchu, Janson, and new Blue Leader Ten Numb were also along for the assignment, which was to assess the disposition of Antilles's home system. They spent a week searching the system for signs of the Empire, but it seemed that the Empire had withdrawn from control of Corellia. At the end of that week, they were in Coronet City and hoped to relax. They were at a cantina, beginning a night on the town, when Imperial forces suddenly struck in an attempt to terrorize the city. Under the command of storm commando General Weir, a light assault force attempted to reassert Imperial dominance. The Rogue detachment held their attackers at bay, and Antilles managed to capture Weir's aide while Numb attempted to track the withdrawing Weir. Antilles, Skywalker, and Janson followed while Celchu went to retrieve their fighters. They were too late to catch Weir, who captured Numb and rushed into orbit.

Celchu arrived with their astromech-piloted starfighters, allowing them to continue the pursuit. As they tracked Weir's craft through heavy civilian traffic, they were attacked by droid-piloted TIE fighters packed with explosives. The Rogues defeated the suicide drones, which attempted to menace civilians when they proved unable to slow the Rogues sufficiently. Weir escaped, but R2-D2 was able to track him and Numb to the planet Tralus, where they learned that stormtroopers had been using the Selonian tunnel network as a base. Familiar with the natives of his own system, Antilles led negotiations with the Selonian leader Leyli, who agreed to provide scouts who could lead the quartet to the hidden Imperial base. They stormed Weir's stronghold, where the panicky general ordered an evacuation. Antilles commandeered a TIE fighter to follow Weir, who was fleeing in an interceptor. Celchu shot down their pursuers while Antilles shot down Weir, landed, and beat the storm commando into submission as he crawled from his wrecked fighter. Though Numb had died after Weir's torture, the general was brought to justice in Alliance custody.

Antilles returned to Endor, where he pondered the situation once more. He realized that victory would not come soon, and he could not shirk his commitment to the war against the Empire. Skywalker admitted to him that he was considering resigning soon to devote his efforts to restoring the Jedi Order and left it to Antilles to begin selecting replacement pilots for Rogue Squadron, which had found itself badly understaffed in the wake of Endor and Bakura.

At that time, another unexpected invasion plagued the Alliance of Free Planets: the strange and brutal Nagai, emigres from the satellite galaxy Companion Besh, began a campaign against the main galaxy in alliance with rogue Imperials. With their homeworld attacked by the Nagai, the Mandalorian Protectors under Mandalore Fenn Shysa arrived on Endor to lend their strength to the war against the Nagai. During that time, Antilles was part of a fleet sent to the planet Godo on a mercy mission to alleviate the effects of a mysterious illness under which the Godoans suffered. Han Solo, with the aid of R2-D2 and C-3PO, determined that their House of the Goddess was in fact a techno-organic machine designed to sustain life on Godo. It was missing two components&mdash;the statues known as the Dancing Goddess and the Minstrel, both formerly in Lando Calrissian's possession&mdash;and for that reason had ceased to function. They rushed to recover the statuary and replaced them, saving Godo. In his haste to reach Godo, however, Calrissian had not been inoculated against the Godoan disease, and on leaving the planet began to suffer its effects. The Godoans refused to allow Calrissian to return to their temple for treatment, insisting the Rebels could no longer trespass on sacred ground. Solo, furious at what he regarded as betrayal, threatened to assault the Godoan capital if Calrissian were not permitted healing. Ackbar strenuously objected, but Solo called for support among the fleet. Antilles pledged his commitment to disobey his superior officer, as did several more pilots, and the Godoans caved. Calrissian was saved, and Ackbar declined to impose consequences for Solo's bluff.

After that mission, the Alliance instituted a program to establish standards in its piloting corps at Calrissian's suggestion, forcing pilots to pass a simulated scenario in order to retain flight privileges. Antilles passed, but Skywalker and Solo were grounded, as their unconventional flight styles fell outside the testing computer's parameters. When an armada presumed to be Nagai appeared over Endor, Antilles was sent up under Calrissian's command, but Solo and Skywalker remained on the ground as the Alliance prepared to evacuate the forest moon of Endor. They had been betrayed, however, by Bey&mdash;a friend of Solo and secret half-Nagai&mdash;and the enemy had copies of their new formations and maneuvers. To counter this, Calrissian ordered complex, unorthodox flight patterns borrowed from the grounded Solo's repertoire that allowed Antilles and his fellow pilots to defeat the Nagai attack and cover the evacuation.

In the wake of the evacuation of the forest moon of Endor, the Tofs, mortal enemies of the Nagai, emerged as an even greater threat. Having hounded the Nagai from Companion Besh, they now invaded the main galaxy. The Alliance was forced to unite with the Nagai to defeat the Tofs, and launched a months-long campaign to root out the invaders. A month after the Alliance of Free Planets was formed, the Provisional Council declared the New Republic and completed the transition from revolutionary insurgency to full interplanetary government. Around the same time, Antilles was involved in a mission in which his fighter was badly damaged by clipping a TIE fighter in the utter darkness of a cloudy night sky. With his engines and instruments disabled, he plummeted with no way to tell where he was or what was in his way. Suddenly, the clouds parted, and moonlight shone on a lake filled with phosphorescent algae below. Able to see, Antilles put his fighter down safely and was rescued.

When Grand Moff Nivers took control of the planet Tandankin, the Rogues struck. Though Skywalker was with the group, Antilles flew as the squadron leader, scattering Nivers's forces. When he learned of a landing field filled with TIEs, Antilles shot down a pillar towering over the stretch of fighters. The tower eliminated the TIEs, allowing the safe capture of Nivers. When Antilles put down, he found that the citizens, previously jubilant at their liberation, were now outraged at the destruction of what had been a revered monument. Skywalker sent Antilles aside as he delivered a passionate speech in the veteran pilot's defense that convinced the civilians to put aside their anger and embrace Antilles as their savior.

After the Tandankin mission, Skywalker resigned from Rogue Squadron for the final time, leaving Antilles back in command. Antilles promoted Captain Tycho Celchu to the position of executive officer and his second-in-command. Soon after his appointment, Antilles's superiors tried to move him into naval command, seeing great potential. Unwilling to leave the cockpit, he masterminded his own demotion back to the rank of captain, allowing him to remain Rogue Leader. Antilles maintained the same attitude throughout his many chances at promotion, repeatedly declining advancement in order to remain on the front lines, leading a squadron, where he felt most comfortable and meaningful.

By this point, Antilles was a major figure in the military even if his rank remained low, one of its most decorated and respected squadron leaders. Among his medals was the Kalidor Crescent, earned by displaying bravery and piloting skill. A popular officer, he was admired by his superiors, the military at large, and the civilian population. Attached directly to high command, he took his orders from Supreme Commander Ackbar himself, who considered Antilles a close friend, or General Calrissian, also a personal friend. His piloting was established as a textbook and simulator standard for X-wing pilots, while those in the Empire feared and respected his talent in the cockpit.

Antilles was called on for more than just piloting duties due to his status as a hero of the Rebellion, friendship with the Heroes of Yavin, and the Rogues' general handiness outside the cockpit. He was often placed in a diplomatic role, and with the Rogues was often sent on intelligence-related missions or escort assignments for important figures. He was considered one of the New Republic's foremost heroes, but remained humble and approachable, which only endeared him more to his admirers, especially those in the working classes. His notoriety was such that Antilles received many messages from admirers, including not only marriage proposals but exhortations from supporters who wished him to make a bid for the New Republic presidency.

Encounter on Mrlsst
"Come on, Wedge! There's nothing left there!''" "''Yes&mdash;but this time I just wanted to be sure!"

- Isplourrdacartha Estillo and Wedge Antilles

Dispatched to the planet Cilpar to meet with an agent code-named "Targeter" and escort a food convoy bound for the planet Mrlsst, Antilles had to wait two weeks in a cave base without hearing from Targeter and with no sign of the convoy. When the squadron launched two weeks into their mission to meet a convoy that did not show, they instead came under attack by TIEs from the planet's Imperial base. The Rogues shot down the interlopers, but Janson's fighter was downed in the battle. Celchu put down to check on him while Antilles led the understrength squadron back to base. Celchu checked in as evening approached to say that Janson was safe but injured, and that they were sheltering in a cave overnight; they would attempt to return to base the next morning.

As he reported that information to his pilots, Antilles found himself captured by Elscol Loro, the leader of the local insurgent group. Having infiltrated the base with a detachment of troops, she explained that she believed the Empire and New Republic were working together, at least on Cilpar. She took the captives to the town of Tamarack, where she explained to the Rogue commander that the Cilpari Resistance had been betrayed to Moff Boren Tascl and ambushed, and she was convinced that only their New Republic contact could have done so. She did not know the contact's identity, as only her husband Throm Loro had liaised with the New Republic. He had been killed, and the life debt he had earned from the Wookiee Groznik had passed to her. While Antilles helped Loro salvage personal effects from the ruin of her parents' house and attempted to convince her he was not in league with the Empire, the Empire began to move in forces. Only the keen ears of Sullustan Rogue Dllr Nep alerted them before Tascl's forces were on them. The Rogues fled into the forests with the resistance fighters, where they took shelter in an ancient temple. Antilles had to insist that Loro give them back their weapons, and the distrustful woman finally gave in. Antilles had Klivian and fellow Rogue Plourr Ilo set up a distraction to let his pilots get into the forest, where they summoned their fighters by remote. Antilles shot up the attacking Imperial force and provided cover from his X-wing as they returned to their convoy and fled to Rogue Squadron's base.

There, Loro agreed to provide the Rogues with arms and supplies if they would depose Tascl. Antilles agreed, and Loro led him to a supply cache. While they were loading their speeders, Celchu's X-wing buzzed the temple in which the cache was housed. The Corellian interpreted it as a warning and departed in a speeder with Loro. As TIEs began pursuing them, she refused to let him fly. Between her piloting and ground support, they were able to destroy or shake the fighters, impressing Antilles. On their return to the cave base, Targeter contacted Antilles. After consulting with Loro and being unable to find who the spy in her organization was, he sent one of her lieutenants, Vance Rego, to rendezvous with Targeter while he tried to make time with Loro, to whom he was attracted.

When Rego returned saying that the Imperials had captured Janson and Leia Organa, Antilles immediately suspected him of being the traitor but kept his insight to himself. He ordered a rescue mission, with the Rogues striking from the air while Loro's troops raided the Imperial base in the city of Kiidan on the ground. As he attacked, Celchu contacted him from one of the TIE fighters and explained that he had infiltrated the Imperial base. They shot down the TIEs and Loro's men captured Tascl. Antilles put down to find that "Targeter" was Winter, Organa's aide and double, with whom he was familiar. With fresh orders from the New Republic to leave the planet, Antilles assigned Celchu to fly Tascl's shuttle out with the squadron, allowing Winter and the still-injured Janson to ride along. With a spare X-wing and impressed by her skills, he invited Loro, who confirmed that Rego had been the traitor and was now dead, to join the squadron. Having no desire to stay on her newly-freed world, she agreed.

When the convoy to Mrlsst was finally arranged, the Rogues escorted it there, where Antilles was under instructions to represent the New Republic in negotiations for the purchase of the "Phantom Ship" low-energy cloaking technology from the Mrlsst Academy. He was the only member of the party aware of the fact that the Phantom Project was a hoax, created by Mrlsst faculty to bilk the Empire. His role was to convince the Empire the project was real, but allow them to buy the plans&mdash;costing them money and forcing them to make large-scale durindfire gem purchases that would allow the New Republic to trace the location of their research facilities. As they arrived over the planet, they came under attack from TIEs based on an interdictor. Antilles led Loro in an attack on the ship, synchronizing their proton torpedo fire to overwhelm the shields and destroy the ship's gravity well generator. It withdrew, allowing the convoy to land.

Antilles held preliminary discussions with Academy President Gyr Keela, and after emerging from the talks, found his longtime friend Mirax Terrik outside. They excitedly caught up for the first time in six years. They agreed to meet at the Soundmound entertainment venue with the rest of the squadron after Antilles went to his Academy-provided quarters to change from his flight suit. Passing Loro's room, he heard her crying and checked on her, finding the widow viewing holograms of her late husband with Groznik. He let them be after expressing his sympathies and journeyed to the Soundmound. While they were watching a concert, Celchu arrived, having left the group to argue with the Ante-Endor Association, a group denying the reality of Palpatine's death and the Rebel triumph at Endor. Its members had attacked him after he left them, but he had defeated them with the assistance of a Jedi apparition. The group's server, a student named Koyi Komad, told them of the legend of a Jedi's ghost haunting the campus.

The next morning, Komad gave the group a tour of the campus, pointing out where Taj Junak, the Jedi, had been killed by the Empire. Gade Yedan, Keela's aide, summoned Antilles from the tour for a meeting with the Academy's Council. There, he found that the Imperial negotiator had arrived&mdash;Captain Loka Hask, returned to Imperial service. He had barely survived the destruction of the Buzzzer by evacuating in a spacesuit, but the suit had contained a Corellian limpet that had attacked him, grafting itself onto his face and leaving him permanently disfigured. Antilles controlled his rage at seeing the man who had killed his family, promising he would not cause an incident. He entered negotiations, arguing for the New Republic, but before the Council's sales decision was announced, a messenger stated that the Phantom Project records had just been stolen. A holographic recording showed Tycho Celchu as one of the thieves, and Antilles was arrested as Hask offered stormtroopers to round up the rest of the Rogues.

Hask taunted Antilles in his cell, but when Yedan, a member of the Ante-Endor Association, reported to the Imperial, Antilles surmised that the Ante-Endor Association had stolen the datacards and framed the New Republic for Hask. Hask and Yedan left, after which Antilles found himself rescued by the Ghost Jedi, who announced he had destroyed the datacards and ordered Antilles to leave the planet and take his war with him before disappearing. The Rogue captain left only to find Celchu, Klivian, and Ilo outside, about to attempt a rescue of their own. They announced that Terrik and Nep had departed for the asteroid laboratory of Professor Rorax Falken, who they believed had masterminded a counterattack on the Ante-Endor Association.

They set off for the spaceport as Antilles explained the true plan on Mrlsst. There they found that Loro had been knocked out by Groznik on the orders of the Ghost Jedi, which had taken on the appearance of Throm Loro. The Ghost Jedi was a Mrlssi Laser Phantom created by Professor Falken, and he controlled the apparition. At that moment, Imperial bombers began attacking the city. The Rogues scrambled and shot down the attackers, then moved to orbit, where they covered the Pulsar Skate escape from Falken's asteroid. Terrik, Nep, and a pair of students they had taken from the lab explained that Terrik had stolen the plans and control codes to a genuine weapon Falken had devised, a gravitic polarization beam. Hotly pursued by Hask's interdictor, Antilles authorized the activation of the weapon, which destroyed the capital ship and Falken's asteroid, where Groznik kept Hask from escaping. Himself wounded, Groznik sacrificed himself and ensured the killer of Antilles's parents was finally killed. Antilles made certain that the New Republic would retain the weapon's plans, knowing it would be the only way to guarantee the highly dangerous weapon would not be used again.

While Antilles traveled to Cilpar and Mrlsst, the New Republic had been continuing its campaign against the Tofs. He returned and rejoined the war effort with the Rogues. Antilles participated in the climactic strike at the planet Saijo, the forward base of the Tof effort and current home of their commander, Sereno, Crown Prince of Tof. While a ground force attempted to capture Sereno, Antilles and the rest of Calrissian's fighter force were held in reserve. As Skywalker's commando team struck, the captured Star Destroyer from which the fighters were based jumped into the system and the Rogues deployed, defeating the Tof starfighter squadrons. The Tof capital ship Merriweather surrendered, closely followed by Sereno's forced surrender of the entire Tof expeditionary force.

Foiling Olan
"I guess you know why I wanted to talk to you privately, then.''" "I figured it was to fire me from Rogue Squadron for disobeying orders. That seems to be a privilege reserved for officers." "Point taken, but I didn't leave my teammates in the lurch. Plourr could've used your help." "I know this isn't what I ought to be doing, not with so many places still under the Emperor's thumb. Maybe one of the outer worlds needs a troublemaker." "What they need is an army of liberation&hellip;and a leader. I negotiated with the Tatooine government to allocate some of the Eidolon weaponry for just such a purpose." "I don't believe it! You're a prince'', Wedge Antilles!"

- Wedge Antilles and Elscol Loro

Six months after the death of Palpatine, Ackbar personally assigned Antilles to travel to Tatooine with Rogue Squadron and protect a New Republic Intelligence Service agent as she investigated sales of Imperial arms and supplies centered on the planet, connected with a dead hustler named Lirin Banolt. Antilles, Celchu, and Loro were to attend a reception in memory of Biggs Darklighter's death, held by his father Huff Darklighter. With Loro as Antilles's date, they would meet the intelligence agent just before the event and get her into the memorial as Celchu's date. The agent proved to be Winter, with whom Celchu was quite taken. While they were there, the party came under attack from a gang of ruffians. A pair of them escaped with the data from Darklighter's safe that Winter had been hoping to seize, prompting Antilles and Loro to chase after them in a commandeered speeder. As they pursued, they were shot down by reinforcements from the gang, as were Celchu and Winter in another speeder.

They returned to the Darklighter estate after meeting up with the other Rogues and Kapp Dendo, a New Republic commando working with Winter. Confronted, Darklighter admitted that he had been selling equipment he found in an arms cache he had located from the datacard, which he had seized from Banolt's home once Banolt had conned him. He turned over a copy he had made of the disk and identified Firith Olan as the Twi'lek gangster who had stolen the original. Winter was able to access more information on the datacard showing the existence of additional arms caches, as well as the Eidolon, a lost prototype Strike Cruiser. Winter and Antilles pressured Darklighter into giving them access to his weather satellite, which let them track Olan to another arms cache.

Antilles scrambled the Rogues to the cave cache, where Olan was able to send several TIE Interceptors against them. Against Antilles's warnings, Loro flew into the base once the TIEs were destroyed. She managed to blast her way back out again, but Antilles was furious that Loro had ignored his orders and risked herself. He saved his censure for later as they pursued Olan's freighter into space. There, they were faced by a squadron of TIEs. When the TIEs attacked Olan's escorts, Antilles decided to accept the occurrence and take his outnumbered fighters back to base.

Winter arranged a freighter to take Antilles, Celchu, and Loro to Ryloth, where she predicted Olan would be taking shelter. She also identified the Imperial ship that had attempted to capture him as the destroyer Harrow. They traveled to Kala'uun on Ryloth, where they found that the Harrow, under Captain Marl Semtin, had already arrived. Both sides bid to Cazne'olan, head of the Olan Clan, for Firith Olan, whom he had captured. To determine who would receive the captive, the Twi'leks arranged a contest. Antilles and Winter were pitted against a pair of Special Intelligence troopers and instructed to collect a symbolic globe. As they crossed harsh terrain, Winter was attacked by a lylek. Antilles killed it to save her, though it allowed one of the Imperials, Sixtus Quin, to reach the globe first. It was only after "dying" in a heat storm that they realized the contest had been simulated. Though the Imperials had won the contest, Semtin had not trusted to the competition, instead seizing Olan and fleeing during it, leaving Quin and Septaas, the other Special Intelligence operative, behind, as well as a dozen more troopers. Infuriated at the betrayal, the pair decided to throw their lot in with Antilles for a chance at revenge against their dishonorable captain; with them came their fellow soldiers.

They returned to Tatooine with the commandos, who joined Dendo and Winter to provide ground support while the Rogues attacked Eidolon Base, a secret facility that the current Imperial regent, Grand Vizier Sate Pestage, had built with the funds for the dummy Eidolon project. It launched a swarm of TIEs when they approached it, hidden behind a holographic curtain. Loro asked to engage the destroyer overhead, which still posed a threat, but Antilles insisted she stay with the rest of the squadron. She left anyway, crippling the ship from within its docking bay, before returning. Quin's men secured the base, killing Semtin, but Olan disappeared in the chaos.

Antilles had to inform Winter that Celchu had not died after being shot down in the battle&mdash;he had ejected after using a squadron code phrase saying he was "going out with a bang." He found himself slapped when she was upset they had not told her earlier, as she finally admitted her attraction to Celchu. He faced an equally unpleasant duty in ejecting Loro from the squadron for disobeying orders, as her increasing instability placed the rest of the squadron in danger. First, though, he arranged for a portion of the Eidolon weapons cache to go to her, allowing Loro to set up her own resistance force capable of freeing Outer Rim worlds. She was overjoyed at his generosity, and they parted on good terms.

Royal surprise
"Count Laabann, that will never happen. The Alliance cannot and will not take sides in this matter. We&mdash;''" "Captain, should you not inform your superiors of my offer? I am sure the leaders of the Alliance realize that the situation on Eiattu is a fluid one. One must be prepared to bend&hellip;as the river changes course through the land. And who knows, perhaps our newly found princess may just decide to disappear once again." "''Plourr is a big girl, she can take care of herself. I think you'll find her to be more than enough to handle. But if you want to try me as well? You're making wagers that Your Nobility can't honor."

- Wedge Antilles and Arian Laabann

When Antilles was looking for new recruits to fill Rogue Squadron's half-strength ranks, Ackbar's aide Firstpilot Rekush recommended Feylis Ardele. Hopeful that Ardele's experience with TIEs in the Commenor Militia would allow her to educate the squadron members and improve their ability to counter Imperial fighters, Antilles accepted her into the squadron. He also accepted the Mon Calamari Ibtisam and the Quarren Nrin Vakil into the squadron, but had to order them to keep their species' rivalry in check. Bith Herian I'ngre joined the squadron as well, despite her species's pacifistic tendencies. A month after the Tatooine mission, following simulator training working to improve the squadron and help it absorb the four new members, Antilles and Celchu were summoned to meet with Grand Duke Gror Pernon of the planet Eiattu 6. Pernon explained that his homeworld was riven by civil war between the aristocratic Priamsta and the populist People's Liberation Battalion, led by Prince Harrandatha Estillo, who had been thought dead until recently. In addition, they warred against Imperial control of the world. Antilles was assigned to escort to Eiattu its princess, also newly discovered to have survived the purge of the royal family by a faction of the Priamsta. To Antilles's shock, his pilot Plourr Ilo was Isplourrdacartha Estillo, the lost princess of Eiattu 6. Estillo took convincing, as she despised the Priamsta and wished to leave her tragic past behind her, but she agreed to return to the planet and seek peace.

The squadron landed on Eiattu 6, where Estillo was received in a royal gala. In the receiving line, Antilles met Count Rial Pernon, Estillo's second cousin and arranged fiancé. The next morning, Pernon gave Estillo, Antilles, and Celchu a tour of the site of the latest People's Liberation Battalion attack, but it was interrupted when Janson called for help after the rest of the Rogues, on a thuvasaur-hunting expedition, had encountered a group of Imperials in the swamps. They rushed back to the hangar, where all four took to fighters and provided air support for the other Rogue Squadron pilots. They shot down the Imperial air cover, while an attack by PLB partisans led the Imperials to withdraw. The grounded Rogues were invited back to the PLB's camp, an invitation they accepted. The commanding and executive officers of the squadron accepted their own invitation to a dinner with Estillo and the Priamsta leadership. While eating, Estillo issued a defiant challenge to Gror Pernon and Count Arian Laabann, that faction's leaders, insisting she would reform Eiattu, not restore feudal rule.

The next morning, Janson, Klivian, and Nep reported on their experience and on Harrandatha. After confirming both the Imperial fighters and troops had retreated deeper into the swamps, Antilles assigned Janson to lead another expedition in search of the Imperial base while he and Celchu met with Laabann. In that discussion, Laabann indirectly suggested a coup effort against Estillo to maintain Priamsta control in exchange for loyalty to the New Republic. Antilles deflected the offer and warned the count not to act against Estillo and especially not against Rogue Squadron. Laabann did nonetheless, sending kidnappers against Estillo as she walked in the woods. She and Pernon defeated them just before the Rogue officers arrived to warn her. This reinforced Estillo's determination not to ally with the Priamsta, but in discussion of the PLB, she admitted that she had killed Harrandatha on the night of her escape. She explained that he had been an Imperial collaborator, brainwashed by Darth Vader, and had attempted to restrain her and have her killed. This Harrandatha was an impostor, likely working with the local Imperial Moff, Leonia Tavira.

When they detected the PLB striking the Imperial citadel, Antilles moved to intervene. He led a strike against the Imperial defenses that allowed the impostor to take the city. Estillo then landed and confronted her putative brother, exposing him as a fake. Janson sent Antilles a message explaining that his group had been captured by Tavira, but had been freed by Nrin Vakil after Vakil had been left for dead. He was also able to confirm that Tavira was in league with the false prince. Tavira fled with only a portion of the treasury, rather than the entire sum she had attempted to steal with the aid of the PLB. The pilots were given honorary Eiattuan citizenship but quickly left on another mission: to track down the spaceliner Starfaring, a New Republic ship crewed by Bothans which had gone missing in the Malrev system. Estillo remained to establish a fair government on Eiattu 6, though Antilles left her X-wing to her and insisted she would be welcome back in the squadron as soon as she was ready.

With the knowledge that the Starfaring may have suffered a navigation computer bug transposing coordinates, Antilles led the Rogues to the Malrev system. They investigated the habitable fourth planet, where Nep's keen hearing detected an odd musical sound. Following it, they were ambushed by TIEs that immediately shot Antilles down. His fighter plunged to a fiery crash, from which the native Irrukiine pulled him. They took him to the Sith Temple that had once housed an Imperial base, where the Force-sensitive former technician Cartariun had tapped the temple's dark energies to make himself master of the Irrukiine. Cartariun used Sith powers to heal Antilles, and the pilot watched as Cartariun used his mind control of the natives to orchestrate a night attack on the encampment of the Rogues and the crew and passengers of the Starfaring, which was repulsed. That morning, the others set off in search of the temple. When they reached it, Cartariun was absorbed in coordinating the defense, giving Antilles an opportunity to escape. He fled the building&mdash;killing a serpent creature within by throwing a power pack into its mouth&mdash;recovered a pair of blasters from slain Irrukiine, and suddenly appeared to cover the Rogues and Bothans as they retreated.

It was only after they had fled that they realized Nep had been left behind. Before they mounted a rescue, Antilles led Celchu and Janson on a supposed scouting flight, using the opportunity to discuss the Bothans. It appeared that they were a covert force under the control of Bothan Martial Academy graduate Girov Dza'tey, who seemed to have designs on the temple. The pilots approached the temple, only to be attacked by more Irrukiine-piloted TIEs. Antilles summoned reinforcements as the badly outnumbered trio fought back. The reinforcements arrived, but it was only when Nep attacked Cartariun and disrupted his concentration that they were able to defeat the TIEs. Antilles led the fighters back to the grounded Starfaring, where Dza'tey's lieutenant revealed his belief that the Bothan leader had betrayed them in order to seize the temple's power. Before meeting with him, Antilles checked in with injured Rogue Herian I'ngre, who revealed that Nep had used the temple's Force power to establish a mental connection to her and proclaimed that, having been shot by Dza'tey, Nep was dying and insisted they destroy the temple, control of which Dza'tey had seized. Taking Celchu and Feylis Ardele as backup, Antilles then checked in with Dza'tey's second, confirming that the Bothan would oppose Dza'tey.

With the Bothans providing a ground assault, Antilles drew Dza'tey's attention with an aerial assault. Dza'tey's tactical training made him a superior opponent, but Estillo arrived with an Eiattuan squadron just in time to provide cover as I'ngre left her sickbed, took a damaged fighter and, when proton torpedoes proved insufficient to the task, flew it into the temple, destroying the focal point of Sith power and releasing the Irrukiine to harmlessness. Antilles was sorrowful at the loss of the new I'ngre and veteran Nep, but knew by then to accept the casualties of warfare. The losses were eased by Estillo's return to the squadron as an active pilot.

Push into the Core
"You look surprised to see me, Captain Antilles.''" "Not to see you, sir, but to have had you send for me. I know you're from Corellia, like me, but I don't know you, do I?" "No, no you do not. It was just that I promised my wife that if I ever had the chance, I would remember her to you." "Your wife? Do I know her?" "I hope so. She's quite fond of you; but then you'd expect that of your sister'', wouldn't you?"

- Soontir Fel and Wedge Antilles

When Han Solo and Chewbacca were summoned to Kashyyyk to defend it against Trandoshan slaver attacks and Imperial occupation, they realized they needed New Republic assistance and broadcast a call for the fleet's aid in liberating the planet. Calrissian picked up the call and summoned the Rogues, as well as Skywalker, to Kashyyyk. They arrived and found the Millennium Falcon abandoned on Kashyyyk's surface, so Calrissian commandeered the ship. The group rushed to the Avatar Orbital Platform, where the Imperial Moff Darcc and the slaver Pekt were attempting to escape with a cargo of Wookiee slaves, among them Attichitcuk, Chewbacca's father. Solo and Chewbacca had followed the fleeing slavers to the platform, and led a Wookiee assault within the station as the Rogues and Calrissian provided cover. They were able to free the slaves and Kashyyyk, prompting a lengthy Wookiee celebration.

In the ninth month after Endor, Rogue Squadron was assigned to scout the Brentaal system, a crucial hyperspace crossroads in the Core. During the sweep of the system, with Vakil piloting a Recon-X starfighter, they were attacked by a handful of TIEs from the moon base guarding the planet Brentaal IV. Antilles led the Rogues in picking off the interlopers before Vakil completed his pass and they retreated into hyperspace. They returned to Base Delta-Nine, where Antilles and Celchu interviewed four candidates for the squadron. They accepted Avan Beruss, Dar Keyis, Standro Jcir, and Xarcce Huwla into the squadron, bringing it to full strength for the first time in months. Huwla, however, privately asked the commanding and executive officers for a transfer from the unit, citing its unusually high death toll as the result of its arduous missions. Antilles accepted her request, keeping the Tunroth in the squadron only until her transfer to another unit went through. After that meeting, Ackbar introduced Antilles to Colonel Horton Salm, the commander of Aggressor Wing. Antilles would be working with Salm's Y-wings in an assault on Brentaal IV.

They spent two weeks training for the mission, half what Ackbar thought they should have, but the Supreme Commander felt that swift action was necessary to take the planet from the poorly-regarded commander of its defenses, Admiral Lon Isoto, before Grand Vizier Pestage could reinforce the planet he had just vowed to hold. When they struck in concert with the navy, they first strove to take the defensive moon base. Antilles shot down the last interceptor as they cleared the space over the base, and the troopers inside seized the garrison. They returned to Base Delta-Nine, where New Republic Intelligence informed Antilles that the TIEs they had faced at the base had been elements of the 181st Imperial Fighter Group, the renowned unit under the command of Colonel Baron Soontir Fel, the Empire's most noted fighter ace.

The Rogues were transferred to Brentaal when the moon base was ready for habitation. There, Koyi Komad, their former student guide on Mrlsst, became the chief technician for the squadron's support staff after seeking to get more involved in the rebellion against the Empire. Antilles was glad to have her, but displeased by news that the full 181st had been stationed on Brentaal IV's surface. As Ackbar moved to capture Brentaal IV itself, he assigned Rogue Squadron to attack Isoto's capital at Vuultin and pin down Fel's 181st, believed to be based there, while Aggressor Wing covered the landing of troops at the superior spaceport located in the city of Oradin. They struck at Vuultin and encountered only light resistance from one squadron of the 181st, but the 181st's excellent pilots managed to shoot down Janson and Ibtisam. When Fel, actually in Oradin, led the rest of his unit back to Vuultin on Isoto's orders, Antilles was pulled out by his commanders in the belief Fel would strike at the New Republic fleet in orbit. Kapp Dendo's Commando Team One team was assigned to extract the two downed pilots, while the forces at Oradin managed to take the city when Isoto effectively gave it up.

The Rogues were again moved to Oradin. There, Antilles was roused one morning when a convoy of ships arrived to evacuate Brentaal IV's wealthy and influential Imperial citizens. To keep the world from being stripped of its wealth in the exodus, the New Republic fighters rose to deny the evacuation. Rogue Squadron fought a furious battle over Vuultin, covering the Y-wings as they disabled the evacuation craft. Standro Jcir was killed before Fel's fighters even arrived, and hard fighting ensued after they did. As the remaining escapees headed for orbit, the dogfight moved into space. There, they lost Dar Keyis. As Fel disabled Salm's Y-wing, Antilles shot down his wingman and fired on him from behind. The Republic's most noted ace battled the Empire's in Brentaal space, with Fel quickly gaining the upper hand. Antilles led Fel into Salm's field of fire, then juked out of Fel's sights in the opposite direction he had been tending to break, allowing Salm's crippled fighter to disable Fel's TIE Interceptor with a surprise ion blast.

With the victory, Huwla put aside thoughts of a transfer and agreed to remain with the squadron. Fel was detained aboard Home One and debriefed. Antilles was surprised when Fel asked for him, and even more surprised when Fel revealed that he bore greetings from Antilles's long-lost sister, whom he had married. She had become an actress under the screen name Wynssa Starflare after running away from home and starred in Imperial holodramas. She met and married Fel, and after his capture had gone into hiding, fearing reprisal from Ysanne Isard, the Director of Imperial Intelligence and a political enemy of Fel's. Fel offered to defect and serve the New Republic, having lost his belief in the Empire, so long as it would help him find his wife.

Fel was accepted into the New Republic. Antilles, believing that Fel was a man of character, agreed to accept him into Rogue Squadron. After a funeral service for those lost at Brentaal, Antilles introduced him to the squadron as its newest member. Though some pilots objected&mdash;Vakil and Estillo most strongly&mdash;Antilles insisted that they would not ostracize Fel, who joined a long list of Imperial deserters that had served in Rogue Squadron. He dismissed the others in order to speak with Klivian, Janson, and Estillo after the meeting. He assigned them to travel covertly to Corellia and there attempt to extract Fel's family, including Syal. They returned with Fel's brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, but Syal had already fled, and the Fels did not know where she was hiding. The Empire, however, was hunting her, despite Fel's defection being kept from public knowledge. Antilles encouraged New Republic Intelligence leader General Airen Cracken's efforts to seek her out, but results were not quickly forthcoming.

Cutting a deal
"Such confidence in the face of overwhelming odds&hellip;if the Emperor had any idea of his foes' dedication&hellip;''" "''We'd just have killed that many more Death Stars is all. There's no stopping freedom."

- Sate Pestage and Wedge Antilles

During a training run eleven months after the victory at Endor, Rogue Squadron came across the pirate group Kavil's Corsairs raiding a civilian ship and successfully drove off the pirate cruiser and its TYE-wing Ugly fighters. On their return, Ackbar assigned Celchu and Fel to escort a diplomatic mission to Eiattu 6, which Estillo would be hosting. The mission would feature Winter posing as Leia Organa, establishing her cover while the real Organa met with Sate Pestage in order to negotiate his defection. The remaining Rogues would provide support on that venture. Pestage, fearing for his life as Imperial courtiers turned against him in a power grab orchestrated by Ysanne Isard, had agreed to a covert conference with the New Republic on the planet Axxila. Antilles and Minister of State Organa trekked through Axxila's sewers to reach the hidden rendezvous. There, Pestage surprised even Organa by offering to strip Coruscant of its defenses in exchange for asylum in the New Republic and a handful of worlds to rule. Organa agreed in principle to the deal, though the details of the arrangement would have to be worked out.

When the pair returned to base on Axxila, Janson and Klivian reported that they had encountered Kavil's Corsairs on the planet. When Antilles and Organa met Pestage again, they were interrupted by the report of Kavil himself that his subordinates had captured Organa&mdash;truly Winter&mdash;on Eiattu. While the pair hid behind a curtain, Pestage bargained for Kavil to deliver Winter. Afterward, Organa and Pestage hammered out a compromise regarding how many worlds he and his closest supporters would receive. Antilles returned to the Rogues only to hear a distress call from Celchu: he and Winter had escaped on Axxila, and were now pursued by the Corsairs. Antilles led the Rogues into a rescue and was suddenly joined by Fel, Han Solo, and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon, who had tracked Celchu and Winter from Eiattu 6. They shot down the Corsair Uglies, then returned to base.

They were trapped on the planet when Admiral Delak Krennel arrived over Axxila aboard the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Reckoning and demanded that Rogue Squadron be turned over. Fel contrived a plan to order Krennel to leave, using the Y-wing in which Celchu escaped and the Millennium Falcon tractor beam to capture a TIE fighter, while Antilles manned one of the freighter's gun turrets. Fel then used the Imperial comlink to order Krennel, who did not know Fel had defected, to allow his group to escape. Pestage, who had boarded the Reckoning, ordered Krennel to comply with Fel's secret AT3 Directive. The Republic group was able to escape.

A year after the Endor victory, at Celchu's insistence, Antilles began dating. Celchu set him up with Lieutenant Reina Faleur, a supply officer who was quite interested in the hero of Endor. They got along excellently during a double date with Celchu and Winter, but the evening was interrupted during dinner and dancing when the Rogues were called in for a rescue mission. Pestage had been declared a traitor by Isard and a Tribunal that had set itself in power, and Pestage fled Coruscant. He was captive on the planet Ciutric IV, and Ackbar assigned Rogue Squadron, Aggressor Wing, and Commando Team One to recover him before the Empire did. They were all deeply uneasy about the hastily constructed plan, which had a restricted exit window and could fall apart if the New Republic faced unexpected force or the Empire got reinforcements there quickly.

They made the hyperspace jump to Ciutric, where Antilles led the Rogues against the defending TIEs, then provided air cover while Dendo's troops landed. The commandos secured Pestage, but as they were preparing to jump to hyperspace, Krennel's Reckoning appeared with the interdictor Binder. The Aggressors were able to flee past the ship, but Antilles and the ground forces had to put down on the opposite side of Ciutric and hope Salm could bring help. Antilles hoped to thin Krennel's fighter cover by defeating them in detail as squadrons came across the Rogues' position, then eliminate the interdictor and let Pestage escape. He had Dendo seize a holocomm, which he used to broadcast a request for assistance to Mirax Terrik. When the TIEs arrived, the Rogues shot down the squadron, but in the battle Ibtisam was killed. Furious at the loss of the being he had come to love, Vakil attacked Pestage when they returned to camp. Antilles and Fel pulled the Quarren off the Grand Vizier.

Antilles then ordered the Rogues to launch and take on Krennel's TIEs in orbit, covering Terrik as she arrived. With her came Aggressor Wing, which had remained in the outer reaches of the system rather than fleeing. The Aggressors helped drive off the TIEs, allowing the Rogues to put down and refuel. Antilles outlined a plan to take the Pulsar Skate and run Krennel's blockade with Rogue Squadron, convincing him Pestage had fled. Dendo's commandos and Terrik would then be free to leave after Krennel pulled out without facing any danger. When Terrik refused to relinquish her ship, Antilles reluctantly agreed to let his friend pilot it through the dangerous engagement. Antilles prepared to leave, but when Pestage refused to take a shuttle with Ibtisam's body due to his Humanocentrism, Antilles was outraged. He reassigned Pestage to another commando shuttle only because he thought the Imperial unworthy of sharing a craft with the remains of the pilot who had died for him.

The pilots launched a coordinated barrage of torpedoes against the Reckoning bridge, bringing down its shields. Antilles then disabled a tractor beam that had seized the Pulsar Skate. Rogue Squadron and Aggressor Wing brought down Binder shields and crippled its gravity generators. Binder withdrew, as did the damaged Reckoning. Dendo pulled out from the surface and escaped with the others, not realizing Pestage had slipped away to meet Krennel after promising to join forces as warlords. Krennel instead killed Pestage and declared himself the independent master of the Ciutric Hegemony. In his eulogy for Ibtisam, Antilles insisted that Pestage's death did not mean that her life had been wasted, but that she had helped to save the Rogues and given Pestage a chance to change his ways in a testament to New Republic ideals.

Early in 5 ABY, Fel finally found his wife and Syal rejoined her brother in the New Republic. Not long afterward, though, Soontir Fel was captured by Isard's agents. Within two months, Syal had vanished as well. With no sign of Fel afterward, the New Republic thought it likely he had been executed, but was never able to turn up records of his capture. Investigation of Syal Antilles Fel's disappearance raised doubts that it had been the Empire that captured her; there were signs she had vanished back into hiding on her own. Antilles was left deeply worried about his sister's fate. He kept their connection a secret, known to very few, as he prodded New Republic Intelligence to search out the Fels and eagerly awaited word of her that never came.

Surviving Mindor
"Don't make jokes, Wedge. Just get there. A lot of lives are depending on you.''" "We're used to it, sir." "''That's why I wouldn't give the job to anybody else."

- Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles

By 5 ABY, forces under the Imperial warlord known as Lord Shadowspawn had begun a campaign of piracy, striking fear in the New Republic. To stop him, Antilles&mdash;who had been promoted back to the rank of commander and at this point reported to New Republic Special Operations commander General Calrissian&mdash;developed a plan to create a replica of the elite luxury liner Corellian Queen packed with starfighters led by the New Republic's most prestigious squadron: the Rogues. Information on its route was leaked to Shadowspawn's pirates, who arranged an ambush on the Corellian Run. Antilles turned it into a counter-ambush, using new flechette torpedoes designed specifically for this mission to counter Shadowspawn's advanced TIE Defenders and plant tracking devices on those that survived. The Rogues were able to destroy many of the attackers and traced the survivors back to the Taspan system, placed well within Imperial territory. The task of assaulting Shadowspawn's base, on the planet Mindor in the midst of an extremely treacherous debris field, was given to General Luke Skywalker's Rapid Response Task Force, disappointing Antilles, who had hoped to have a hand in the defeat of Shadowspawn.

When negotiations between Organa and a Mandalorian mercenary commander in a minor Inner Rim system failed to induce the Imperial-paid mercenaries to withdraw from the system, Calrissian was tasked with shuttling Mandalore Fenn Shysa to the system to personally insist on the Mandalorians' surrender. The Rogues traveled with Calrissian to the asteroid on which the negotiations were held, and in the hangar Antilles and Celchu encountered Organa. When Organa told him that she had sensed through the Force that Skywalker was in mortal danger at Mindor, Antilles quickly agreed to rush the Rogues to the Taspan system without orders from Calrissian.

They arrived in the system, Organa in Celchu's B-wing, shortly after Solo and Chewbacca had in the Millennium Falcon. They found the remnants of Skywalker's task force battling Shadowspawn's fighters in the debris field, trapped by a vast array of gravity projectors that had rendered the debris unstable and began a process of infall toward the system's star, Taspan, that would cause it to emit enough radiation to sterilize the system. They had to destroy many gravitic projectors in order to allow the task force to jump&mdash;but first they had to rescue Skywalker from Mindor's surface. After transferring Organa to Solo's ship, they forced their way through Shadowspawn's swarming defenses with the Millennium Falcon, making heavy use of the Solo Slide tactic to redirect asteroids with their repulsors, and covered the Millennium Falcon landing. They then returned to the battle in the asteroids, attempting to clear an exit route.

Captain Tirossk, the senior officer remaining in the Rapid Response Task Force, developed a strategy to create an escape vector by using the task force's CC-7700/E interdiction cruisers to manipulate the asteroid formations. As the cruisers repositioned, Antilles led the fighter complement in screening them from Shadowspawn's hundreds of TIEs. With precision high-speed flight and tactical use of the gravity patterns, Antilles kept Rogue Squadron on the point and the interdictors from harm. As they were pressed, Calrissian arrived in the Star Cruiser Remember Alderaan and, with the aid of the Mandalorian commandos&mdash;he had solved the standoff by hiring them&mdash;cleared local space of threats for the moment. Calrissian summoned Rogue Leader to the cruiser, where Antilles explained the situation, including the gravity bombs being launched from Shadowspawn's Mindor base.

The New Republic forces pressed toward the planet, where Calrissian planned to take shelter in Mindor's atmosphere, which was sufficient to block the stellar radiation. The Rogues covered a decoy launch of escape pods as the stellar flares began to build, then slipped into the atmosphere from the planet's night side and worked their way through the atmosphere to Shadowspawn's base. There, they assaulted the base, despite the fact that Mindor's dust-laden air interfered with laser collimation, and faced the warlord's formidable defenses. They needed to destroy the base's anti-orbit weaponry, especially the gravity gun firing the gravity bombs, before the planet rotated the base into line with Calrissian's ships in the umbra. New Republic Marines and the Mandalorian mercenaries landed to seize control of the armored installations when a firestorm's smoke gave them cover. Antilles lost three pilots in the clash as the ground forces failed to secure the weapons before Calrissian's ships were about to enter their range. Calrissian put his ships down on the surface, avoiding Shadowspawn's fire, while Rogue Squadron engaged the gravity gun.

Antilles was shocked when Shadowspawn's gravity technology allowed him to launch the enormous volcano in which his base was housed out of Mindor's crust and into space. Suddenly, as it seemed that the New Republic had no chance of escaping the engagement, Skywalker broadcast an order to the New Republic ships to disengage and the Imperials to surrender and shut down the gravity projectors and jamming. The Imperials, trained to believe Skywalker their rightful Emperor as part of a scheme by Cronal&mdash;the Prophet of the Dark Side and Sorcerer of Rhand behind the Shadowspawn persona, as well as the Blackhole persona with whom Antilles had earlier clashed&mdash;to seize control of Skywalker's body and rule the galaxy, complied. The frigate Lancer began to transfer the warlord's captives aboard as the volcano started to break up under the stress of its own gravity bombs, earlier redirected by Calrissian's stratagem. Before they could escape the system, however, Cronal used the malleable meltmassif crystal with which he had coated his troops' armor, and his Force-assisted control thereof, to seize his soldiers, have them repower the gravity generators, and drive them to mindless rage. The TIE pilots launched themselves into suicide ramming attacks on the capital ships that Antilles desperately attempted to screen. They were saved only when Skywalker used his own developed control of the meltmassif to withdraw the crystal from the soldiers, killing them all in the process, and destroy the mass projectors. Antilles escaped with the rest of the fleet, joined shortly by the Millennium Falcon and Skywalker.