User:Master Jonathan/Wedge Antilles/5

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In 25 ABY, the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy after traveling across empty space from their own abandoned galaxy. Users of biologically engineered creatures in place of technology and beholden to a religion that declared the galaxy rightfully theirs and all within it infidels to be eliminated or enslaved, they made their first probe in a remote region of the Outer Rim. Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Anakin Solo were caught in their first large-scale attack at the planet Sernpidal, and Chewbacca sacrificed himself to save Anakin. Chewbacca's family and friends, Antilles among them, were devastated. As part of a memorial effort, C-3PO and R2-D2 began recording tributes to the Wookiee and approached Antilles about offering a story from his Rebel days. Antilles shared the tale of his flight with Chewbacca at Thila, though he thought it less entertaining now that Chewbacca had died.

Two months after the first attacks, Antilles's contacts advised him that the initial assault had only been the advance force of a larger invasion that had now begun, with Darklighter's Rogue Squadron in the forefront of the clashes. With the military gearing up to face the assault, Antilles and Celchu visited Darklighter's office to offer him their full assistance in the new war. They had their commissions reactivated and went to work advising Darklighter and Admiral Traest Kre'fey, under whom the Rogues served. With the squadron's membership devastated by clashes with the Yuuzhan Vong and their unusual coralskipper fighters, Antilles and Celchu helped Darklighter review candidates for membership in the squadron and flew simulations against the pilots. Antilles's assessments agreed with the Force-guided ones of young new Rogue Jaina Solo, and they quickly rebuilt Rogue Squadron to full strength. With Kre'fey, Antilles helped plan a defense of New Republic space. Based at Agamar, Kre'fey's fleet fortified likely target worlds and staged forces where they could patrol and respond to attacks. Antilles also prepared a report for the Senate and Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya highlighting the fact that the New Republic did not understand the motivations or thought processes of its new foe and expressing his belief that there must have been a greater purpose to the destruction of Sernpidal, as the cost of directing its moon Dobido into a collision course with the planet was out of all proportion to the perceptible benefit.

To remedy this problem, the fleet began a series of information-gathering missions. They inserted a team on the planet Garqi led by Corran Horn, now a full-time Jedi Knight, but to prevent the enemy realizing it, Kre'fey disguised the operation as a mission gone wrong. Antilles flew a reconnaissance X-wing escorted by the Rogues, collecting data on the enemy-held system, while Horn's ship exploded in the course of the skirmish, allowing the true insertion ship within to make planetfall masked as a piece of debris. Once it landed, the task force pulled out. Kre'fey's Bothan Assault Cruiser Ralroost then proceeded to the Sernpidal system, where a reconnaissance run showed the Yuuzhan Vong to be developing a massive living starship from the planet's ruins.

The task force returned to Garqi to extract Horn's team, but there found a fleet of unexpected strength opposing them. Antilles watched from Ralroost bridge as Kre'fey held off the enemy. They received surprise assistance from Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, who had observed the situation and offered Imperial aid in the war against the Yuuzhan Vong. They recovered Horn's team and retreated, moving to Ithor when Horn revealed that his encounter with the Yuuzhan Vong at a botanical garden had revealed that their vonduun crab armor was allergic to the pollen of the Ithorian bafforr tree, a significant vulnerability that he had attempted to hide from the attackers. The New Republic, Imperial Remnant, and Jedi united to defend Ithor, knowing the Yuuzhan Vong would soon realize the truth. Kre'fey gave Pellaeon command of the effort, but both New Republic and Imperial politicians were to arrive at Ithor, complicating the military men's planning.

In the two weeks before the politicians arrived, Antilles assisted in the planning and flew in simulations against the Imperial pilots, as well as the force of Chiss from the Empire of the Hand flying with them, who kept to themselves aboard Pellaeon's Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera. Antilles and Celchu proved the only pilots able to down the Chiss leader, each doing so only once. It was only shortly before the reception for the political arrivals that Antilles met the leader of the Chiss group, and he was delighted to learn that it was his eighteen-year-old nephew, Colonel Jagged Fel. The son of Soontir and Syal Fel, Jagged had grown up within the Empire of the Hand and commanded his own squadron since the age of sixteen, flying against the threats of the Unknown Regions. Antilles was overjoyed to hear of his long-missing sister and her family, but disappointed to learn that his nephew Davin and niece Cherith had died in combat without his ever meeting them. Jagged, his older brother Chak, and younger sister Wynssa yet lived. At the reception, Fel provoked a diplomatic incident by declining to greet any of the politicians, instead exchanging greetings only with his Ithorian host and the warriors&mdash;and accepting Antilles's enthusiastic hug. Antilles asked him to greet those he had skipped, informing him that the New Republic politicians believed that they had been shunned because of their alien status and accused Fel of Imperialist speciesism. Fel denounced that sentiment, rebuking the New Republic Chief of State and explaining that this sort of political posturing was exactly the reason he had bypassed them.

As the New Republic evacuated the Ithorians from the planet in preparation for a showdown, a Yuuzhan Vong ship arrived and launched a shuttle belonging to Caamasi Senator Elegos A'Kla&mdash;a friend to Horn who had gone to live among the Yuuzhan Vong in hopes of creating an understanding between the two sides&mdash;bearing a message for Horn. The Chimaera recovered the seemingly deserted ship, overgrown with Yuuzhan Vong life-forms, and Antilles insisted on entering it with his friend. After some initial trepidation about the strange growths, they boarded the shuttle and were horrified to find A'Kla's skeleton, gilded and set with jewels, bearing a message from Yuuzhan Vong Commander Shedao Shai that demanded the return of the remains of one of his ancestors, which Horn had recovered on an earlier mission. Shai's fleet showed up soon after, but stood off, not blocking the continued evacuation. To extend the period for the evacuation before the fleet closed on the planet, Horn proposed a duel with Shai, imposing a truce before he staked the remains against the freedom of Ithor. As they were unable to communicate directly with the Yuuzhan Vong, the commanders let the battle go forward, inflicting heavy losses on the Yuuzhan Vong before Horn commandeered a villip communication biot and made his offer to Shai, who accepted a truce of one week before the face-off. Though Horn won the duel, killing Shai, Shai's second-in-command reneged on the deal, releasing a defoliant that swiftly destroyed all life on Ithor.

Though the Council of Moffs recalled Pellaeon to the Remnant in the wake of the fiasco of Ithor's loss, Fel kept two squadrons in the New Republic to work alongside Rogue Squadron and his uncle. During this period, Antilles gained access to captured Yuuzhan Vong craft, with which he allowed some Rogue pilots to familiarize themselves. In early 26 ABY, Fel returned to report to his father in the Unknown Regions. Antilles continued to work with Rogue Squadron and also received a wide range of information about the military, with his old friends in Wraith Squadron keeping him informed of their efforts.

When Skywalker learned that his Jedi Praxeum was under Yuuzhan Vong attack in the midst of a supposed cease-fire, and his nephew Anakin Solo was trapped there with other students, Antilles was one of the New Republic officers Skywalker approached about the possibility of aid from the New Republic. Antilles could take no action himself and directed his friend up the ranks. Skywalker had to turn to Fey'lya, who denied him assistance. It was left to Talon Karrde and Booster Terrik to extract the students safely.

A few months later, Jaina Solo and Gavin Darklighter approached Antilles with a recording from Kyp Durron showing the enormous ship Rogue Squadron had scouted at Sernpidal appearing to provoke a solar flare. When finished, the ship would be planet-sized and apparently capable of massive destruction. They met with Durron at a ranch belonging to Darklighter's in-laws on Chandrila, though Antilles learned that Durron would be there only after arriving. He still despised the Jedi due to his wipe of Qwi Xux's mind and genocide of Carida, and Durron's recent agitation against Skywalker's leadership of the Jedi had not helped, but after viewing the recording he agreed that the threat must be dealt with. As it was not a confirmed threat, though, he felt that the Senate would be unwilling to break the current truce to take action, and the unauthorized action they would take could end their careers.

Antilles took the matter to Kre'fey, who had long defied Fey'lya and railed against political control of the war. Kre'fey agreed to a strike at the heavily defended shipyard, proposing that a derelict interdictor cruiser be towed into the system and its mass shadow generators powered up to disrupt the asteroid field and create a new point for safe entry, clear of the Yuuzhan Vong defenses. Antilles added the suggestion that the ship's reactor be rigged to go supercritical when the shields were reduced sufficiently, and Kre'fey approved it.

The insertion went off smoothly, and Kre'fey's fleet pressed into the debris field toward the giant ship. Watching as Rogue Squadron lost five fighters, Antilles decided to return to the cockpit himself, launching in a spare X-wing. Darklighter reformed Rogues Seven, Eleven, and Twelve into Two Flight and assigned them to Antilles. When coralskippers began hurling themselves suicidally against the attacking forces, Antilles lost Rogue Seven. He accepted the remnants of Kyp Durron's Dozen squadron under his command and worked to screen the capital ships, which were able to destroy the target and escape from the system. During the battle, however, Jaina Solo discovered that Durron had misled them. What had seemed to be a massive gravitic effect on the part of the ship had in fact been the result of a long chain of standard gravity-manipulating dovin basals procuring elements for the construction. Antilles was outraged that they had been manipulated into risking their lives to attack not a superweapon, but a worldship that would have replaced the dying worldships on which many Yuuzhan Vong lived. The Yuuzhan Vong would now have to divert military resources to evacuating the populations of the old worldships or let their civilians and children die.

The defense of Coruscant
"I think that we're right at the edge of annihilation. Not just the government. Our entire culture, our history. If the Yuuzhan Vong win, they won't necessarily wipe us out&hellip;but they'll ingest us. Digest us. We'll become the Yuuzhan Vong, and everything we stood for, everything we aspired to, will vanish. It would be as if we were a hologram and the power was suddenly cut off. Gone without a trace. I'm not going to let that happen to my daughters, or to your children."

- Wedge Antilles, to the Insiders

In early 27 ABY, while the Rogues were stationed on Coruscant, Han Solo contacted Antilles to advise him that the refugee ship Sweet Surprise would be arriving over Coruscant, crewed by smugglers with links to the Yuuzhan Vong collaborationists known as the Peace Brigade. Though Antilles agreed with Solo's suspicions, he insisted that, as the accusers, the Solos be present before he would order a search, a concession to the Jedi-hostile political atmosphere. They arrived shortly after the Sweet Surprise, while Antilles was present at Orbital Control. Antilles dispatched Rogue Squadron to inspect the large transport, which refused to stop. The Coruscant Planetary Defense Force interrogated Antilles and Solo about their suspicions of the ship, and PDF commander General Carlist Rieekan decided to deny Sweet Surprise access within the mine shell protecting the capital. Attempting to flee, the smugglers aboard Sweet Surprise fell victim to the mines and the Sweet Surprise was disabled. A quick evacuation effort saved the refugees aboard, while Han and Leia Solo discovered that the purpose of the ship's arrival had been to spread voxyn, Yuuzhan Vong creatures bred to hunt and kill Jedi, on Coruscant.

After that crisis, Antilles and General Bel Iblis accompanied Chief of State Fey'lya, who had begun to take a pro-Jedi stance, and the Solos to a demonstration of Lando Calrissian's new YVH-series battle droids, designed to counter the Yuuzhan Vong. Calrissian personally put YVH 1-1A through its paces. They were impressed by the performance of the state-of-the-art war droid, and as they approached a firing range, the droid detected that the squad of guards there was in fact a group of Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators in ooglith masquer disguises. Antilles fired on them alongside the others, and as the droid engaged the Yuuzhan Vong, he ordered the Solos to evacuate Fey'lya while he and Bel Iblis held their ground. Antilles was struck in the shoulder and wounded by a thud bug, but the attackers were killed.

Earlier, the Yuuzhan Vong had imposed a blockade around the planet Talfaglio, threatening to eradicate a trapped refugee convoy if the Jedi did not reveal the location of their secret base, code-named Eclipse Station. Notorious Yuuzhan Vong agent Nom Anor was called to the Senate to discuss the issue; his first appearance before the Senate had allowed Fey'lya to browbeat Anor and throw his support behind the Jedi. For the second meeting, Fey'lya requested the presence of Antilles and Bel Iblis to testify about the assassination attempt that had occurred after Anor's arrival. Before the Senate, Anor extended the deadline for the Jedi's surrender, revealing that seventeen young Jedi had been turned over to the Yuuzhan Vong. Antilles was horrified to learn that the three Solo children were among them. As outrage mounted, Fey'lya revealed the attack on him and attempted to have Anor arrested, but the Yuuzhan Vong emissary released a stun gas that knocked out the occupants of the Senate Chamber and escaped.

Luke Skywalker kept it secret that the "captured" Jedi were actually in the middle of a planned insertion behind enemy lines to destroy the voxyn. As a result, the Wraiths were sent to investigate the capture. They nearly identified the fact that Calrissian had been the one to turn the Jedi over, but Skywalker trusted Antilles enough to ask him to hold the Wraiths back and maintain the secret.

As the Yuuzhan Vong pushed toward the Core, Antilles returned to fleet operations as the commander of the Mon Mothma, a brand-new variant model of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer with hidden gravity well generators. Fey'lya assigned Antilles and Bel Iblis, commanding the Mon Mothma sister ship Elegos A'Kla, to take a small fleet and assist the covert Jedi effort to break the Yuuzhan Vong blockade. Tipped off as to the timing, battle plan, and route by Talon Karrde, they entered the Talfaglio system just as the attack was beginning, with the official excuse that they had only been on a shakedown cruise and happened upon the battle. The two generals gladly offered their assistance to the Jedi, and Antilles dispatched Rogue Squadron to assist the Jedi Wild Knights squadron in its mission to capture a yammosk, a Yuuzhan Vong war coordination beast. The combined assault force devastated the enemy fleet, and as the enemy turned to make a microjump away from the planet, Antilles and Bel Iblis activated their interdiction fields. Catching the fleet off guard, they disabled the vulnerable Yuuzhan Vong ships, defeating them and allowing the Jedi to capture a yammosk.

They returned to Coruscant, where Antilles was among a group of friends who gathered in the Solos' apartment to watch Skywalker address the Senate at the Chief of State's invitation. Though reaction to the Jedi rescue was generally positive, Senator Viqi Shesh persisted in attacking the Jedi's standing, demanding that they cease operations. Fey'lya made use of a ploy, displaying file holograms of Antilles and several other high-ranking officers and implying they had contacted him to express support for the Jedi. He used the bluff to issue an order directing the military to cooperate fully with the Jedi Order, an outcome of which Antilles approved, though he did not care for his use in Fey'lya's political maneuverings.

At the same time, the Yuuzhan Vong took Borleias, marking the beginning of the dreaded push for Coruscant. There was also a secret attack on the planetReecee, which was taken before a message could be sent to Coruscant. On learning of the attack, the Solos investigated and found a hidden Yuuzhan Vong fleet gathering in the nearby Black Bantha Nebula, where it had a clear route toward Coruscant. They contacted their Noghri bodyguards on Coruscant, who relayed the information to Antilles and Bel Iblis. Antilles was part of the fleet sent out under Supreme Commander Sien Sovv that engaged the massive assault fleet as it was reprovisioning. They caught the enemy in a pincer, and though the New Republic took heavy losses, the thousand-ship invasion fleet was destroyed.

With an attack still imminent from the Borleias fleet, three fleet groups were organized out of half the entire New Republic Navy. Antilles commanded Fleet Group Three from the Mon Mothma, with Kre'fey in charge of Fleet Group One and Bel Iblis commanding Fleet Group Two. Antilles was charged with patrolling the hyperspace lanes between the Core and Yuuzhan Vong territory. When the Jedi reported a sensation that told them an attack was imminent, Sovv recalled all nearby fleets to Coruscant. The attack soon came when a massive Yuuzhan Vong fleet emerged from the OboRin Comet Cluster and slowly proceeded toward the capital planet. While the Jedi wing, staging from the Mon Mothma, made a series of penetrating strikes targeting the enemy's yammosks, Antilles was assigned to sweep from behind the fleet, taking it in a pincer movement while Bel Iblis and Kre'fey checked its advance.

The battle plan ran into difficulty when the New Republic learned that a shield of refugee ships, loaded with captives, preceded the Yuuzhan Vong fleet. Bel Iblis attempted to shoot through the refugee screen, but Sovv ordered a cease-fire while Kre'fey tried to maneuver to a clear angle. Antilles was left the only one with a clear line of fire, but without the others pinning the invasion force in place, he could mount no more than a running attack as Warmaster Tsavong Lah's fleet advanced. The Jedi continued to mount raids within the enemy fleet, killing yammosks, but could not eliminate the entire complement of war coordinators. The battle raged for over a day, Bel Iblis continuing to fire and gaining defectors from Kre'fey's fleet even after Sovv relieved him of command, until Fey'lya finally ordered Sovv to authorize attacks through the refugee screen.

As the battle finally reached Coruscant, the Yuuzhan Vong swept around Bel Iblis's defense, penetrating the mine shell. Antilles was able to join with Fleet Groups One and Two, but refugee ships were already crashing against Coruscant's planetary shields. Combined with suicide attacks from Yuuzhan Vong warships, the shields soon collapsed. The Yuuzhan Vong began landing, and the New Republic was powerless to prevent the loss of its capital. With Chief of State Fey'lya dead on the surface and senators fleeing the planet in disarray, Antilles rallied his fleet&mdash;the Jedi, Errant Venture, and Lando Calrissian joining him&mdash;and retreated, not knowing if his own family had made it off Coruscant alive.

The siege of Borleias
"Our people have just taken a tremendous kick in the teeth&mdash;the loss of Coruscant. We're going to kick in return. If you run from neks, or Vong, they won't respect you. They'll chase you, drag you down, and kill you. Only if you stand your ground do you have a chance of survival. If we dig in our heels here and slap the Yuuzhan Vong across the face, it may do some harm to their morale. It may do some good for ours."

- Wedge Antilles

Antilles sent most of his fleet group out on assignments, lacking orders from Sovv. A few days after Coruscant's fall, Antilles led a segment of Fleet Group Three to Borleias, determined to retake it from the Yuuzhan Vong and hold it as a secure channel for refugee traffic fleeing Coruscant. When the Yuuzhan Vong counterattacked, he hoped to make a stand that would restore New Republic morale. His fleet swiftly dispatched Borleias's light space defenses and landed ground forces that took the planet's military base, eliminating the enemy presence. As the base had been ruined by the Yuuzhan Vong, Antilles established his headquarters in the Alderaan Biotics building.

On the day after the conquest, Antilles called a meeting of his senior officers and advisers, asking them for ideas to use against the Yuuzhan Vong counterattack. He also set up his defense scheme and appointed Luke Skywalker as head of special operations, Mara Jade Skywalker as Intelligence chief, Calrissian to serve as quartermaster for the base, Booster Terrik as communications officer, Jedi scientist Danni Quee to research the captured Yuuzhan Vong equipment and attempt to help the surge coral–controlled former captives of the Yuuzhan Vong, Corran Horn as head of base security, and Ninora Birt to take charge of the injured.

That night, he was awoken by the arrival of New Republic Advisory Council members Pwoe, Fyor Rodan, Niuk Niuv, and Chelch Dravvad. Antilles and his officers met with the senators, none of whom Antilles held in high regard, and were surprised to learn that the group had declared Pwoe the new Chief of State in what was an illegal usurpation of power. Pwoe issued him orders to hold Borleias at all costs, which Antilles perceived as a suicide assignment intended to remove him as an uncooperative element while buying the group time to secure their hold over the New Republic. Despising the group of politicians and rejecting their claim to authority as unlawful, he declined their orders and instead demanded control over all forces he could gather, the assignment of the Lusankya to him, and three months of supplies. If Pwoe declined, he would abandon the planet. Though Pwoe accused the general of treason, he accepted. Pwoe's surrender of the powerful Lusankya to a suicide assignment confirmed to Antilles that Pwoe had given up on the New Republic, only deepening his contempt for the Quarren politician. Antilles himself did not believe that he could hold Borleias indefinitely without the reinforcements that he knew Pwoe would not send, but he hoped to deliver a crushing blow to enemy morale by holding out as long as possible before evacuating.

As Pwoe left, Antilles recalled Fleet Group Three to Borleias and met with a group of his most trusted lieutenants: Celchu, Darklighter, the Skywalkers, Calrissian, Terrik, Horn, and Quee. As they were now limited to Borleias for the foreseeable future, Antilles requested suggestions for how to fight the Yuuzhan Vong and save the New Republic politically. Luke Skywalker advised that they return to the tactics of the Rebel Alliance, advocating the creation of an independent group, operating outside the New Republic hierarchy, that would organize a resistance force against the Yuuzhan Vong. Antilles agreed, despite the risk that he would be labeled a traitor should his unauthorized operations become known, and dubbed the group the Inner Circle; it soon came to be known as the Insiders.

Antilles began planning ways to deceive the Yuuzhan Vong commander who would be sent against him, intending to set low expectations before revealing his full capacities. He and the other Insiders also began devising a strategy of inserting trusted subordinates to as many worlds as possible, to set up a resistance network structured in cell form. Six days into the occupation, he was surprised by the arrival of Garik Loran, who had escaped Coruscant with the Wraiths. Loran dropped off Iella, Syal, and Myri Antilles, relieving the general of a great burden of worry. Antilles made Iella his new head of Intelligence, freeing Jade Skywalker for her husband's special operations duties. She and the senior Wraiths joined the Insiders, adding their own expertise.

Antilles arranged his defenses to give the impression that there was something important at his ground base and planned to lose a sensor station on a moon of the planet Pyria VI. When a Yuuzhan Vong fleet arrived over the planet in the middle of the night a few days later, he put the plan into action. It was proceeding perfectly until the Lusankya arrived with the Millennium Falcon, pulled out of hyperspace in the middle of the enemy reserve fleet. Antilles had to divert his forces to escort the new arrivals in, thoroughly defeating the fleet in the process. Despite the victory, Antilles was disappointed, having lost the chance to lead along an average opponent for as long as possible.

Han and Leia Solo joined the Insiders and began looking into places to set up cells for the resistance movement. Meanwhile, Iella informed Antilles that she had found a listening device clumsily placed in the Skywalkers' quarters, with a receiver planted in Celchu's quarters. Confused by what appeared to be an inept frame job, she decided to feed false information to the device and see what happened, satisfying Antilles that the matter was well in hand. When Talon Karrde reported that the Yuuzhan Vong were suddenly improving their targeting of refugee traffic, Antilles directed the Insiders to address the issue. Calrissian volunteered to head the effort to plan a surprise vessel for the Yuuzhan Vong. He worked with Antilles and Celchu to bait the Yuuzhan Vong with a refugee ship, staging an ambush that destroyed the attackers and confirmed that the enemy was not using tracking devices or plants among the crew. It appeared that refugees were simply selling each other out.

With remnants of the enemy fleet still harassing the defenders of Borleias, Antilles began a new plan to deceive the next Yuuzhan Vong commander: the Starlancer Project. A false effort to create a supposed superweapon&mdash;a superlaser fired through hyperspace by four fighter-sized craft and focused by a giant Yuuzhan Vong lambent crystal&mdash;it was to serve as bait that would allow Antilles to dictate his enemy's responses, provoking a ground attack he could crush with an unexpected orbital bombardment from the Lusankya. To that end, he made sure that the enemy was able to observe the project, sending the so-called pipefighters on test flights.

A month into the occupation of Borleias, Jagged Fel arrived from the planet Hapes with Jaina Solo and Kyp Durron. Fel had returned to the known galaxy and joined the pair of Jedi to turn back an attack on Hapes, and they now joined the holdouts on Borleias. Jaina Solo requested the opportunity to build her own squadron to experiment with techniques for Force-based coordination, but Luke Skywalker volunteered his Twin Suns Squadron to her, as he was soon to leave on a mission to Coruscant. She also wanted to use the Yuuzhan Vong's identification of her with their goddess of deception, Yun-Harla, for psychological warfare. Antilles approved and agreed to arrange for her treatment as a goddess. Fel and Durron joined Twin Suns, leaving Fel's own Vanguard Squadron under the command of his lieutenant Shawnkyr Nuruodo.

A week later, a new Yuuzhan Vong fleet arrived. It announced its presence by launching a stream of captives at Borleias, but Fel, Solo, and Durron were able to save most of them. Afterward, Antilles added the young Solo to the Insiders and had the Wraiths tutor her in psychological warfare and squadron tactics. With the new fleet in place, Antilles evacuated the Jedi children, as well as his daughters, to the Jedi safe house in the Maw, Shelter. The Millennium Falcon, carrying the children, launched at the same time as a Starlancer test firing. The four ships fired a beam aimed toward the command worldship in Coruscant orbit, and a laser struck the worldship from long range, but it was a ruse. A warship in the outer reaches of the Coruscant system had fired the second beam, giving the impression that the original shot had traveled through hyperspace.

During the firing, the pipefighters and their escort squadrons were attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong in a capture attempt directed at Jaina Solo. Antilles was caught off-guard by the enemy's unexpected objective and had to get a task force into place to attempt a rescue. Before the force could arrive, Fel managed to lead Twins Suns Squadron out of the ambush, but at the last moment his clawcraft was grazed by one of the singularities the Yuuzhan Vong used as shields. Out of control and unshielded, he spiraled back into the enemy formation. Aghast, Antilles watched as Solo and Durron began to mount a rescue, but believed there to be no way the pair could save him. He had to give up on his own nephew, ordering the pair back so they would not be killed or captured themselves. Solo ignored the order, and only a desperation tactic by Durron, using the Force to turn a singularity from the frigate leading the task force back against the ship, allowed all three to escape.

When they landed, Antilles had Solo and Fel brought to his office. Though he asked for Solo to come in first, it was Fel who entered, explaining that he felt it would be a mistake to punish her for disobeying a direct order. Though he did not want to explain, he insisted it was a one-time incident. Antilles was unhappy, but deferred to Fel's advice based on the fact that Solo, in her goddess persona, was already designated for special treatment. He soon noticed that Fel and Solo, though they kept it quiet, had become a couple.

Seven weeks into the occupation, the Yuuzhan Vong began landing on Borleias in several zones away from Antilles's base and slowly converged on the base over the next two days. When Antilles was out for a recreational flight in Skywalker's borrowed X-wing, they finally made the first strike. During the attack, Antilles had the Coruscant strike team, consisting of the Skywalkers, Jedi Tahiri Veila, Danni Quee, and most of the Wraiths, depart under cover of the confusion with Calrissian piloting their insertion craft. The Yuuzhan Vong space forces made a corresponding attack, which Antilles's fleet held off. Antilles withdrew his defending squadrons on the surface slowly and uniformly, allowing the enemy forces to approach the base. As they concentrated near the facility, Antilles pulled all his forces back and implemented Operation Emperor's Hammer. The Lusankya gunners annihilated the enemy troops, winning Antilles a surprise victory.

During the battle, Tam Elgrin, a holocam operator for respected documentarian Wolam Tser, who was recording events at the base, admitted that he had been previously captured by the Yuuzhan Vong and conditioned as a spy. The spy at the base whom Iella had been seeking, Elgrin resisted his compulsion to obey his handlers and refused to carry out his mission. As doctors and the Jedi healer Cilghal were able to undo Elgrin's conditioning and the man held no actual loyalty to the Yuuzhan Vong, Antilles declined to prosecute him under military law, instead approving of the fact that Elgrin had finally found the strength for defiance.

A few days after the battle, Antilles received reinforcements when Wes Janson arrived with a shipment of supplies and the volunteer Taanab Yellow Aces squadron; he was elated to work with his old friend once more. From interrogation of captured Chazrach, slave soldiers of the Yuuzhan Vong, Antilles learned that the new enemy commander was Czulkang Lah, a legendary tactician and former warmaster, father of current warmaster Tsavong Lah. As time went on, Czulkang Lah mounted a relentless series of raids on the New Republic base and space forces, slowly wearing down Antilles's defenses and depleting his supplies. Lah also placed a series of mines and patrols that effectively blockaded Borleias, cutting Antilles off from resupply. As the Lusankya gradually accumulated heavy damage, Antilles decided he would be unable to keep the ship running; instead, he decided to sacrifice it for the garrison's escape. He had the ship's central transportation corridor, the Beltway, filled with a reinforced metal spar packed with explosives, allowing a final suicide run. He had functioning equipment quietly transferred off the massive ship and to others that could use it, such as the perennially underarmed Errant Venture.

Han and Leia Solo departed on a mission to set up several resistance cells, and on their return discovered that Lah had placed dovin basal mines in the system that displayed a new characteristic: pursuing the Millennium Falcon. Antilles deduced that the mines were tracking the gravitic profiles of the New Republic ships they encountered and aggressively attempting to capture or destroy those recognized as belonging to New Republic notables. With Cilghal, Jaina Solo, and her Wraith advisers, he immediately began working on ways to use this characteristic against the Yuuzhan Vong.

By the time the Skywalkers and Wraiths returned from Coruscant, a few weeks after the defeat of the ground invasion, the base was under constant attack and Antilles had surreptitiously moved all nonessential personnel and medical patients to ships in orbit. With the Coruscant group's safe return, Antilles placed Luke Skywalker in command of Blackmoon Squadron and moved into the final stage of his plan: the defeat of Lah and evacuation of Borleias. He briefed his top officers, then sent up the pipefighters with the false lambent installed, forcing Lah to respond with a full assault. Once Lah's fighters engaged the elite squadrons defending the pipefighters, Antilles ordered the evacuation and initiated Operation Emperor's Spear. Commander Eldo Davip, captain of the Lusankya and sole remaining crewmember aboard the ship, piloted the Star Dreadnought at Lah's command worldship, intending to ram the enormous enemy flagship and destroy it before escaping in a cached Y-wing.

While the rest of the base's personnel evacuated, Antilles remained behind, coordinating the battle and keeping Lah from recognizing that the New Republic forces were preparing to flee. The Lusankya microjumped near the worldship, followed by the elite fighter squadrons as an escort. Meanwhile, the Millennium Falcon launched missiles manipulated to present its own gravitic signature, distracting the dovin basal mines. With the base itself under heavy attack, Antilles finally abandoned the command center, leaving Celchu in command of the operation from aboard the Mon Mothma, and fled for his personal escape shuttle. He arrived to find it destroyed; the only transport left to him was the X-wing assigned to Blackmoon Eleven. It had no astromech and unrepaired damage to the comm system preventing it from transmitting. He launched and found the evacuation freighter Ammuud Swooper in the jungle, having put down for repairs. He eliminated the ground force that had downed the freighter, tricking the coralskipper following him into crashing into the rakamat ground assault creature that posed the main threat by flying through the creature's legs.

He then escorted Ammuud Swooper into space, but before they could leave the planet's mass shadow, a squadron of coralskippers approached. Antilles engaged them, making use of the fact that the squadron commander wanted to kill him himself in a starfighter duel. He shot down one, then destroyed five more and disabled two with a well-placed proton torpedo. Antilles's destruction of two more craft persuaded the two remaining damaged coralskippers to flee. Though he had defeated an entire squadron, Antilles saw another squadron arriving from Borleias in pursuit of the freighter. With his shields disabled in his final exchange, Antilles knew he would not survive engaging another squadron, and with his comm disabled no one would know what had happened to him. However, he could not let the freighter be destroyed. He fired on the second squadron, but was soon disabled and sent into a spin. He believed he would die, but Blackmoon and Rogue Squadrons, seeing the dogfight, had returned from where the Mon Mothma pinned the worldship in place as the Lusankya rammed it, killing Lah and those aboard the gigantic enemy flagship. The reinforcements destroyed the coralskippers, and Darklighter, not knowing who was in the fighter that had taken on two full squadrons alone, told Antilles, "Son, if you develop piloting skills in proportion to your nerve, someday they'll call you the greatest pilot of all time." Antilles broke down in laughter before he was recovered by a shuttle and departed the system with the rest of the fleet.

Though the Yuuzhan Vong had reclaimed Borleias, Antilles had delivered a devastating defeat to their morale with the loss of much of their force and his outwitting of the legendary tactician Czulkang Lah. Meanwhile, he rallied New Republic fighting spirit, with Wolam Tser's holodocumentary Battle of Borleias showing Antilles and his forces in a heroic light and renewing belief that the New Republic Defense Force could defeat the invasion.

March to victory
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for the simple life again. The Alliance will just have to make do with guys like Darklighter, Page, and Cracken.''" "''Pity the Alliance."

- Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu

After the victory, the Senate was able to reconvene on Mon Calamari, rejecting Pwoe's claim to authority. While the New Republic considered elections for a new Chief of State, Antilles took his forces to Kuat, where he strengthened the defenses and prepared resistance cells in the area. Meanwhile, Cal Omas, senator from Alderaan, former fighter pilot, and ally of the Jedi and military, was elected Chief of State. With order restored, the Insiders faded into the background, though the conspirators kept the resistance resources active and secret. Ackbar exited retirement, coordinating a grand strategy that defeated a large Yuuzhan Vong fleet and killed Warmaster Tsavong Lah in the Battle of Ebaq 9, a moon of the planet Ebaq. After the victory, which heralded a shift of momentum in the war back into the New Republic's favor, Omas reorganized the New Republic as the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a new government intended to more effectively prosecute the war and to bring other allies such as the Imperial Remnant and Chiss Ascendancy within its membership.

The Galactic Alliance continued to weaken the Yuuzhan Vong, and in late 28 ABY, Antilles led a fleet to the planet Duro in an attack intended to draw reinforcements from throughout the area so that Bel Iblis could recapture Fondor. He spent a day in battle, nearly defeating the system's defenses, before reinforcements arrived and left his force hard-pressed. Once he was convinced all the Yuuzhan Vong forces he could draw away were committed, he began interdiction to trap them in the system, then let Bel Iblis know to launch his attack as he settled in to hold the Yuuzhan Vong off for long enough to let Bel Iblis complete his mission. Commander Yurf Col, leading the volunteer Duro Squadron, was under Antilles's command for the operation and demanded an explanation when Antilles gave up the direct assault on Duro, accusing him of mismanaging the battle when Antilles, unable to offer Col the full plan, refused to explain himself. Col disobeyed the general's orders, making an attack with his forces in hopes of forcing Antilles to support him. Antilles did not, and Duro Squadron was destroyed. Several hours later, Antilles received authorization to leave the system and departed.

Antilles then met with the other senior naval commanders: Bel Iblis, Kre'fey, and Supreme Commander Sovv. Though he regretted being unable to tell Col the truth, the others agreed that he was not to blame and the decision had been sound. Sovv outlined the next operation of the war: the recapture of Bilbringi as a staging point for the reconquest of Coruscant. Antilles and Kre'fey would be aided by Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, the Imperial Remnant having joined the Galactic Alliance.

Antilles, aboard the Mon Mothma, led a task force from Fondor to Bilbringi, where he was to assess the situation before calling in Kre'fey and Pellaeon to join forces. On arrival, however, he found that the HoloNet had failed; communication outside the Bilbringi system was impossible. He was left facing a fleet more than three times his own strength without reinforcements, trapped by Yuuzhan Vong Vua'spar interdictors. Convinced that this was another feint, a large portion of the defending fleet left to guard another target, leaving Antilles with nearly even odds.

With one interdictor on each side of him, Antilles drove his fleet toward the less-defended inner-system interdictor. The defenders released a large amount of grutchins, creatures that ate through ship hulls. When the usual tactic of electrifying the hull did not work on the adapted grutchins, Antilles had his best pilots fly their fighters close over the capital ships' hulls, burning the insects off with their exhaust. Attempting to avoid a straight fight, Antilles moved only slowly toward the enemy fleet, keeping the battle a long-range one fought mostly by fighters. He had his aide, Lieutenant Cel, search for any of the Golan stations that had once defended the system; when she found one on the edge of the system, Antilles sent Twin Suns Squadron to determine if it could be used and to send one flight to Kre'fey's position to let the Bothan admiral know that the group was fighting and needed assistance.

Meanwhile, Antilles entered the enemy formation, using maneuvering and tractor beams to take on flank ships one at a time, drawing Yuuzhan Vong ships into each other's line of fire. Once he had destroyed four ships, the Yuuzhan Vong who had originally departed returned, putting numbers back in their favor. In the ensuing clash, he lost the interdictor Memory of Ithor, commanded by his old friend Pash Cracken. Suddenly, the Golan station appeared next to the interdictor in the second, outer-system fleet group, destroying it. Antilles sent his fleet to escape that way while the Mon Mothma held off the first Yuuzhan Vong interdictor and its escorts, allowing the rest of his force to outdistance its mass shadow. Noticing the Yuuzhan Vong's hesitancy and suspicion of a trap, he reduced the efficiency of the Mon Mothma reactor shielding, convincing the enemy he was overloading his reactor for a suicide run. They backed away, and Antilles was able to make the jump out of the system after Han and Leia Solo contacted him from the Golan and assured him they could escape.

He rendezvoused with the station at the location of Pellaeon's fleet, where he learned that a gang of salvagers had taken control of the cloaked Golan earlier and captured Jaina Solo when she landed. Having rigged a hyperdrive to the station, they tried to escape, but Solo mind-tricked them into jumping toward the interdictor. Her parents arrived in the Millennium Falcon&mdash;having been tasked by Sovv with restoring communications as couriers&mdash;rescued her, and took control of the Golan. He also learned that Cracken and Judder Page were counted among the missing in action from the battle; the loss of his longtime friends was a hard blow.

In early 29 ABY, Antilles and Jedi Master Kenth Hamner&mdash;a retired Starfighter Command colonel and Jedi liaison to the military, serving as the head of the Jedi Order while Luke Skywalker led an expedition into the Unknown Regions&mdash;met Han and Leia Solo at the Galactic Alliance base on a moon of Contruum. The Solos had just returned from the planet Selvaris, where Page and Cracken were held. They had rescued a prisoner who was able to inform the Galactic Alliance of a major prisoner shipment headed to Coruscant. Antilles and General Airen Cracken, returned from retirement, analyzed the information, and Antilles prepared a raid on the prisoner convoy. It went off successfully, rescuing most of the prisoners, including Page and Cracken.

Antilles traveled to Mon Calamari, where he joined in council with the Galactic Alliance Defense Force's leading officers. They had learned that the Yuuzhan Vong leader, Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane, intended to send a fleet against Mon Calamari. With so many ships committed to the attack, the Yuuzhan Vong would be vulnerable to a strike against Coruscant; the military leaders hoped to retake the galactic capital with a surprise attack while protecting Mon Calamari. One of the operational commanders overseeing the defense of Mon Calamari, Antilles had a swarm of probe droids released when the Yuuzhan Vong fleet arrived, gathering data for the starfighters that made the first assault against the enemy formation. They were soon followed by fire from the great array of capital ships present in the system. Even after a large portion of the attack fleet departed the system, the Yuuzhan Vong maintained the advantage, but suddenly the entire attacking force disengaged and left. With the situation uncertain, the attack on Coruscant was called off.

The Galactic Alliance soon learned that Warmaster Nas Choka had responded to the arrival in the Coruscant system of Zonama Sekot, the sentient and mobile planet that the Skywalkers and a team of Jedi had journeyed into the Unknown Regions to find and recruit for the war effort. The Skywalkers traveled from Zonama Sekot to a conference with the command council over the planet Contruum 6, where Antilles was among the officers and government leaders planning an invasion of Coruscant. Luke Skywalker explained that the Yuuzhan Vong feared Zonama Sekot as a portent of doom, while the heretical Jedi-worshiping Shamed Ones opposing the Supreme Overlord saw it as a symbol of salvation, and counseled that they wait for the internal dissension between Shimrra Jamaane and his opponents to topple the enemy leadership. Sovv and Kre'fey, the two top leaders of the Galactic Alliance military, did not agree, and insisted the attack go forward. The meeting was interrupted by sad news when Celchu, who had been promoted to general since Borleias, reported that Ackbar had died at his home. Antilles was deeply affected by the loss of his old mentor and friend.

Antilles commanded the operation to retake the planet Corulag as a staging area for the attack on Coruscant. With Generals Celchu and Keyan Farlander serving under him, and Bel Iblis arriving to reinforce him, Antilles smashed the Yuuzhan Vong defenses while the citizens of Corulag revolted against their Yuuzhan Vong-supported puppet government. Once Corulag was secure, Antilles took his forces into the Coruscant system itself, commanding the Second Fleet near the gas giant Muscave, one orbit outside Coruscant. Aware that command was dismissing Zonama Sekot, positioned just beyond Muscave's orbit, as the Jedi's matter, Antilles contacted Calrissian and Booster Terrik aboard the Errant Venture, requesting that they stand by the planet in case the Jedi on it should need evacuation.

Warmaster Choka's fleet departed Coruscant to engage Antilles, clearing the way for the rest of the Galactic Alliance attack force to emerge from hyperspace over Coruscant and begin battering down its defenses in preparation for landing troops. Choka's force had Antilles's fleet hard-pressed, allowing the enemy commander to slip a group of vessels past his lines toward Zonama Sekot. Choka began withdrawing his armada as Kre'fey's First Fleet arrived to reinforce Antilles. With yet more Yuuzhan Vong moving toward Zonama Sekot, Antilles and Farlander led a flotilla to join the Hapan, Smugglers' Alliance, and Jedi forces defending the planet.

As the battle raged, Antilles learned that Luke Skywalker had killed the Supreme Overlord on Coruscant, but the Yuuzhan Vong did not surrender. Instead, Calrissian warned him that a Yuuzhan Vong ship poisoned with Alpha Red, a virulent plague designed by Galactic Alliance scientists to attack the Yuuzhan Vong but shelved after it showed an effect on galactic life-forms as well, was attempting to make landfall on Zonama Sekot and kill the planet. Deciding to take a direct hand, Antilles took an X-wing out personally, attempting to shoot down the infected craft. He joined with Calrissian's Lady Luck, but was unable to catch the craft. Sekotan ships, controlled by the planet's intelligence, drew all craft down to the surface, except the infected ship, which they expelled. On the ground, Antilles witnessed the landing of the Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers. The enemy biots turned peaceful and joined the planet's wildlife, while the warriors were compelled to surrender, embraced by a planet that was in fact a seed of the original Yuuzhan Vong homeworld, Yuuzhan'tar.

Finally presented with proof of the Supreme Overlord's death, Choka gathered his forces and ceased fighting, allowing the Galactic Alliance to take Coruscant. Once communications were established, Choka agreed to surrender. Antilles was among the elaborate assemblage of government, military, Jedi, and converted or captured Yuuzhan Vong leaders who accepted Choka's formal surrender aboard the Ralroost and delivered the Yuuzhan Vong to the custody of Zonama Sekot, which would take their population to seclusion in the Unknown Regions and there attempt to pacify their culture.

The government began the slow process of rebuilding Coruscant, remade by Yuuzhan Vong worldshaping and battered in its recapture, and held a memorial for Ackbar. Meanwhile, Yuuzhan Vong holdouts were hunted down as the galaxy began to recover from four years of war. Finding themselves with free time during the transition, Antilles and Celchu sought out the Smugglers' Alliance leadership on Zonama Sekot. In the settlement of Middle Distance, they enjoyed drinks and discussion on the state of the galaxy with Han Solo, Calrissian, Terrik, Talon Karrde, and Crev Bombaasa.

Family man
"Captain, the Galactic Alliance is teeming with officers who were compelled to retire after the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, for the simple reason that a peacetime military doesn't need as many of them. Some of these folks are quite brilliant, and, unlike me, they're anxious to get back into uniform. Me, I'm anxious to sit around in comfortable clothes all day, give my wife all the time my military career wouldn't allow me to give her, and complete my memoirs. You're looking for the wrong man."

- Wedge Antilles, to Elsen Barthis

Tired by the long war and prevailed upon by Iella to return to private life as soon as possible, Antilles retired shortly after the war's close. He settled with his family on Corellia, which had been relatively untouched by the war, in a Coronet City building dedicated to military and security veterans. Antilles was a local hero, second only to Han Solo in popularity; he even had a Coronet street named after him. Though their influential backgrounds meant that the government continued to call upon their expertise occasionally, he and Iella focused on raising Syal and Myri. Antilles taught them the skills of combat piloting, taking his daughters up in a training X-wing before they even began piloting airspeeders, while Iella trained them in intelligence techniques. Determined to instill values of hard work in his children, Antilles required them to work toward their own educations; he paid four credits into their education account for each one they earned, but there were no handouts. When they were old enough to date, the protective Antilles insisted his daughters carry two blasters for protection. Each girl took an interest in one parent's field: Myri attended an intelligence training institute, while Syal joined the Galactic Alliance Starfighter Corps. Not wishing to rely on or be protected because of her father's name, Syal had her name legally changed to Lysa Dunter in a Ralltiiri court known for its interminably slow reporting of paperwork and became an interceptor pilot. Celchu, who remained an active-duty officer, was her training instructor and continued to keep an eye on her for his old friend, quietly reporting her progress to Antilles.

By 40 ABY, tensions were rising between Corellia and the Galactic Alliance due to Corellia's refusal to provide its complement of ships to the galactic military. Feeling it was being unfairly put upon by a bloated and authoritarian central government, the Five Worlds government of the Corellian system increasingly talked of withdrawing from its obligations, though it still desired the benefits of Galactic Alliance membership. The Antilles family stayed out of the matter even as tensions escalated, not wishing to take sides, despite recruitment efforts by the Corellian government aimed at both Wedge and Iella Antilles.

One night, Antilles was awoken by the arrival of a pair of Galactic Alliance Intelligence Service agents who insisted that he was urgently needed on Coruscant for matters related to Rogue Squadron's role in conquering Coruscant decades before. Accepting that the matter was pressing, though he remained suspicious of the situation, Antilles agreed to leave with them. The agents, Elsen Barthis and Titch, took him to an undistinguished government building on Coruscant, where he found that there was no assignment; he was being interned for an indefinite duration because he was considered a security risk as the Galactic Alliance took action against the Five Worlds government. Already furious that he had been separated from his family just as danger loomed for suspicion of loyalty to a cause he did not support, Antilles was enraged when Titch castigated him and the rest of the Rebel and New Republic leadership as self-important fools who should have left the Empire in power, reasoning that it would have defeated the Yuuzhan Vong.

Refusing to be separated from his family and disgusted at the Galactic Alliance's actions, Antilles immediately resolved to escape. As the door was equipped with sensors that closed it should he come near, with further security precautions outside, Antilles began the practice of standing up abruptly, launching his rolling desk chair toward a mark on the floor. He disguised it as a game to relieve his boredom, but was in fact training to place the chair directly under the door. Before his meal one day, he covertly poured a glass of water on the floor and the desktop, then pulled out a power cable from the desk's computer. When Titch entered and set the meal down, Antilles used the cable and water to shock him, then pushed the chair under the door. Barthis powered down the wing to save Titch and the door closed on the chair, which maintained a gap. In the dark, Antilles slid under the door, stunned Barthis with Titch's pistol, and trapped the security detail inside the room when they arrived, allowing him to steal an X-wing and escape.

Antilles returned to Corellia, but on arriving found an engagement ongoing between Corellian forces and elements of the Galactic Alliance Second Fleet, sent as a show of force and in support of a mission to abduct the Corellian leadership and disable the Centerpoint Station superweapon, which the Five Worlds government was secretly attempting to rearm. He tried to sneak back through open space but was pursued by a lone Eta-5 interceptor. The interceptor fired on him, but he managed to get behind it. When it pulled an evasive maneuver distinctive to Celchu, Antilles ceased pursuit and opened communications on his personal comlink, confirming his sudden suspicion that it was his daughter he faced. Syal let him go, and he landed on the planet without further incident. Meanwhile, Galactic Alliance Admiral Matric Klauskin withdrew his forces and instead occupied Tralus, an unauthorized act of tremendous provocation that left all observers baffled.

Fighting for Corellia
"I can't believe that we're sitting here wearing different uniforms.''" "''Me, either."

- Tycho Celchu and Wedge Antilles

Determined to oppose the government that he believed had stepped beyond its bounds and mistreated him, Antilles accepted a general's commission with the Corellian Defense Force. Antilles was assigned as a liaison between Five World Prime Minister Aidel Saxan and new Minister of War Thrackan Sal-Solo, Chief of State of the planet of Corellia. Antilles despised Sal-Solo, a Humanocentrist who had long made trouble for the New Republic and maintained a political power base on Corellia despite having been convicted of treason, and hoped to check the man's ambitions and violent temperament. Though he planned to stand up to the Galactic Alliance, Antilles wanted to prevent further bloodshed and thought he could best do so from within the administration; Saxan, who also wanted to restrain Sal-Solo and achieve peace, agreed.

To smooth out matters, Saxan met with Galactic Alliance Supreme Commander Gilad Pellaeon in a summit at Toryaz Station over Kuat. As part of Saxan's detail, Antilles arrived early for the conference setup, but as he was without a specific assignment, he took to sitting in a garden inside Narsacc Habitat, the wing rented for the summit. There, after four days of preparation, he happened across Celchu, who informed him that an outraged Pellaeon had demoted everyone responsible for Antilles's kidnapping. The two best friends mourned together over the unaccustomed development of being on opposite sides, and Celchu informed Antilles that Syal was eligible for a prestigious transfer to a test squadron of Aleph-class fighters. That day, the delegates arrived, and the evening was given over to a reception. Initially there was little mingling between groups, but Antilles and Celchu traveled around the floor as a pair, ignoring the political tensions to make conversation with individuals from both sides, as well as members of the neutral Jedi delegation overseeing and guarding the proceedings. Celchu began the dancing with Saxan, while Antilles followed him onto the floor with Leia Organa Solo. They broke the ice, and the rest of the evening went smoothly until the delegates moved to a conference room to begin the negotiations. Though both sides showed a desire for peace, the talks stalled and both groups retired for the night without an agreement. After talking with Celchu, Antilles suggested that Saxan sleep in a room other than the one she was designated and use a double to protect herself, but her security chief, Harval Tommick, shot down the suggestion.

Overnight, a detachment of assassins struck. Antilles awoke and fired on the attackers, but they managed to kill Saxan and her guards before Han and Jacen Solo arrived and finished off the assassins. Pellaeon was also targeted, but survived due to his use of a double. Antilles, Celchu, Pellaeon, Han and Leia Solo, and Luke and Mara Skywalker gathered to discuss the attack with Toryaz Station security officers, and Antilles and Celchu immediately took charge of the situation, forcing the security officers to back down and placing the investigation in the hands of Luke Skywalker. Skywalker assigned the two generals, along with the Jedi, to comb for evidence.

The pair began searching for Siron Tawaler, the missing chief of security for Narsacc Habitat, and found that an airlock had been activated at the time of the attack in a manner suggesting that a shuttle had docked and something had been spaced afterward. They investigated the airlock with Jedi Knights Jaina Solo and Zekk, where Antilles found an odd set of tassels. He agreed to trade the strange lead to the Jedi in exchange for Zekk's discovery that Tawaler's comlink was returning a signal from outside the space station. The pilots and Skywalker obtained a shuttle and searched space, finding Tawaler's body where it had been ejected from the airlock. They also confirmed that a shuttle had left from the other side of the station at the same time as the attack, allowing them to build a theory that a shuttle had dropped off the assassins with Tawaler's cooperation, Tawaler had been killed, and the mastermind of the attack had left the habitat and traveled to a shuttle across the station to flee. The assassins appeared to be of Corellian descent, throwing suspicion on Sal-Solo and his pro-war agenda. As morning broke, though, Antilles was obligated to report to the Corellian government, ending his authorization to participate in the impromptu investigation.

He was recalled to Corellia, where Denjax Teppler became the interim Five World Prime Minister. Antilles was part of a planning session dealing with ousting the Galactic Alliance from Tralus. He had already drawn up his own plan, which would have a pair of prototype YT-5100 Shriek-class bombers penetrate within the outer shields of the Galactic Alliance base in the city of Rellidir by blowing an entrance into the underground parking hangar of a housing complex on the edge of the shields, then flying through and emerging within the shields. There they would release a payload of targeting droids that would direct a barrage of missiles following the Shrieks toward the summit of the inner shields, collapsing them and destroying the Galactic Alliance base with minimal chances of errant missiles striking civilian targets. At the meeting, though, Admiral Vara Karathas, chief of staff of the Corellian Defense Force, unenthusiastically presented Operation Noble Savage, in which Shrieks would attack the Galactic Alliance headquarters pursued by Corellian pilots in Galactic Alliance-marked fighters; the intent was to lay blame for Tralusian civilian deaths on the Galactic Alliance. Antilles was disgusted at a plan that made no attempt to minimize civilian casualties and instead benefited from them, detecting Sal-Solo's hand in the plan. Sal-Solo, watching the meeting from a private box, objected to Antilles's characterization of his plan; Antilles responded by dismissing it as inefficient and proposing his own operation. Sal-Solo approved.

After the presentation was over, Sal-Solo revealed that he knew Syal to be serving with the forces on Tralus and ordered Antilles to write her a note endorsing a message Sal-Solo planned to send her, though he refused to explain what his message was. Unconcerned with defying an order from the man and unwilling to encourage his daughter to betray the military in which she served, Antilles told Sal-Solo to "go to hell." When Sal-Solo threatened to have him executed for refusing orders, Antilles explained that if Sal-Solo did so, he would lose the best military mind available to Corellia, as well as Antilles's massive network of military contacts across the galaxy. The Minister of War backed down, but Antilles knew that he had just made an enemy of a very vengeful man.

Han Solo, who had been covertly supporting the Corellian cause while avoiding alerting Sal-Solo to his presence, approached Antilles to volunteer as the second Shriek pilot; Antilles was the first. He accepted Solo's offer, knowing he would find no better pilot. They ran simulations for some time, perfecting their high-speed flight along the treacherous path, under fire from Galactic Alliance pursuit. There was one close call when Sal-Solo dropped in on them after a simulation, but Solo kept his flight helmet on and bluffed his way through it.

Once they were ready for the operation, Antilles launched as Panther One and made the hyperspace jump to Tralus. A first wave of Corellian attackers drew defenders away from the occupation headquarters, allowing Panther Flight to make its run, pursued by an Aleph-class fighter and two E-wings. Antilles shot down one of the E-wings, while Solo dealt with the others. Antilles leading, they made it through the parking hangar and dropped the targeting droids. The missile bombardment brought down the shields and destroyed the base. Antilles and Solo left the area, and it was only after returning to base that Solo explained that a transmission from Leia Solo, aboard the Galactic Alliance flagship Dodonna, had informed him that the Aleph pursuing the two, which had nearly foiled the attack, had been piloted by Syal. The mission was a success, and the Galactic Alliance withdrew from the Corellian system.

Sal-Solo soon ousted Teppler, becoming leader of the Five Worlds government himself. He did not last long before he was assassinated, and Dur Gejjen ascended to lead the government. Corellia was placed under blockade by the Galactic Alliance and finally subjected to a declaration of war. The day after Sal-Solo's death, Antilles was made an admiral and the Supreme Commander of the Corellian Defense Force. Nine days later, Corellia's secret assault fleet, built covertly by Sal-Solo in the Kiris Asteroid Cluster on the outer edge of the Corellian system, was nearly ready for action, and Admiral Antilles asked Solo if he would be willing to accept a commission and help lead the Corellian Home Fleet in breaking the blockade. Gejjen, Minister of War Rorf Willems, and Minister of Intelligence Gavele Lemora then arrived in the Kiris Cluster and implemented a new plan: asking the Solos to help negotiate a coalition with the Hapes Consortium. When the Solos came to the Kiris Cluster to discuss Antilles's offer with him, he asked them, but was deeply unhappy with the assignment, suspecting some subterfuge. They accepted, and the mission turned out to be a cover for an assassination attempt on staunch Galactic Alliance supporter Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo, allowing her to be replaced with a compliant faction. The Solos foiled the plot, which was supported by the assault fleet, and found themselves wanted by both the Galactic Alliance and Five Worlds government. Antilles was never informed of the plan's genesis, and was disgusted at the attempted assassination of a head of state, as well as the fleet's diversion from breaking the blockade.

Days later, Antilles was sent to negotiate with Colonel Jacen Solo, who had accepted a commission as the head of the Galactic Alliance Guard, at the Colonel's request. Antilles admitted that he personally desired peace, but the coalition government in place was not yet in shape to negotiate a peace treaty. He counseled that Jacen Solo should wait the situation out, showing patience, and that a peaceful, no-fault reintegration of Corellia into the Galactic Alliance could be achieved, though Corellia would not accept a punitive surrender. Antilles was concerned that the son of his good friends had recently developed a reputation as a ruthless officer, killing a suspect during interrogation, and after the formal discussion he opined, as a friend, that Solo had lost his sense of humor and perspective, becoming a fanatic. He asked Solo to think about the change he was displaying, hoping that the young man would mend his ways.

Returning to Corellia, Antilles reported on his meeting and advised the Five Worlds leaders that a peaceful settlement and return to the Galactic Alliance was possible, though he emphasized that it required negotiations in good faith, objecting once more to the plan to assassinate Djo and the use of the fleet in the defeat at the Hapes Cluster rather than against the blockade. When pressed by the annoyed politicians, Antilles admitted that he did not think the Corellian system could win its war against the galactic government without the addition of powerful allies. Stating his belief that Antilles's personal ethics were an impediment to their agenda, Gejjen relieved him of command, replacing him with up-and-coming Admiral Genna Delpin, who had led the assault fleet at Hapes. Devastated, Antilles was asked to stay on as one of Delpin's advisers, but instead resigned his commission, unwilling to serve in a government he no longer found morally acceptable. Gejjen was unhappy, but accepted his resignation on the condition he make a public appearance handing over command to Delpin and reassuring the populace.

In the Jedi Coalition
"Wedge, it's good to have you here.''" "Speaking of which&hellip;" "No, you're not being paid." "Just like the Rebellion days. No, I was going to say, you've brought me in for military advice, you're acquiring personnel and materiel, you have a base of operations and an agenda that involves interacting with two major galactic powers&mdash;has it occurred to you that you're setting up a third government here?" "No." "''Well, you are. The Jedi are now a cross-planetary, self-governing body, and you're their Chief of State. You might need to start thinking along those lines."

- Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles

Based on the Corellian leadership's previous behavior and the danger he posed as a prominent figure who disagreed with the administration, Antilles expected that he would be assassinated shortly after the public transfer of command. He had Iella and Myri, who had recently graduated and turned down offers both from Corellian Intelligence and Galactic Alliance Intelligence, prepare to leave the planet. Iella stored a change of clothes and a blaster in a refresher at the hall where he gave his final speech, and Antilles departed incognito after the address, shadowed by his wife. He was fired on almost immediately by two men disguised as Jedi; he killed one, and the second was killed by Corran Horn, who had arrived with Myri. Myri took her father and Horn to a hangar at the Elmas private spaceport, where they met with Iella and Mirax Terrik Horn. They spent a day working on the Pulsar Skate and Antilles's and Horn's X-wings in preparation for sneaking off-planet.

That evening, they witnessed Leia Organa Solo entering a nearby hangar; she was soon followed by a Corellian Security assault force that raided all the hangars in the area. The Antilles and Horn families launched their evacuation, Antilles and Horn covering the escape of the Pulsar Skate and the Love Commander, the ship being used by the Solos and Lando Calrissian. The X-wings shot down a corvette that had scrambled to block them, allowing them to leave the atmosphere. A passcode that the crew of the Love Commander had obtained allowed them to pass the Galactic Alliance blockade, and the group jumped to the Errant Venture in the Kuat system.

They met with Booster Terrik, who was running odds on the emerging Second Galactic Civil War. They began analysis of the war, attempting to discover the nature of what seemed to be odd manipulations, such as the assassination of a great many Bothans on Coruscant, and Admiral Matric Klauskin's occupation of Tralus and subsequent psychosis, reporting visions of his dead wife. To gain information, the Errant Venture obtained a license to operate in the Corellian system as a recreational facility for the blockade forces. While many of the others spent time at the gambling tables, Antilles, Organa Solo, and Corran Horn stayed in their private rooms analyzing the data the others brought in. Their assembled portrait suggested that the war had not been caused by a mysterious puppetmaster, but someone was acting to manipulate and inflame the situation. Meanwhile, Antilles was annoyed when he found that Syal was aboard the ship; not only could he not see her himself, but she was with a young male pilot.

They were joined by Luke and Mara Skywalker when the pair of Jedi arrived with the intention of talking with Jacen Solo, who was currently with the blockade. Shortly after the pair arrived, Commenorian and Bothan fleets arrived and attacked the blockade forces, announcing those governments' defection to the emerging Corellian Confederation. Antilles and Horn rushed to their fighters, launching to protect the Errant Venture, accompanied by the Skywalkers in their StealthX fighters. Antilles dubbed the group Ganner Squadron, after the Jedi Ganner Rhysode, famous for his defensive stand on Coruscant during the Yuuzhan Vong War. As a Corellian frigate approached to attack, Antilles and Horn engaged its starfighter screen, shooting down seven of twelve fighters and allowing the Jedi's stealth fighters to cripple the frigate with a surprise attack. While the others joined the battle on the side of the Galactic Alliance, Antilles returned to the Errant Venture, which fled to the Coruscant system.

There, a team dedicated to tracking down the rogue Dark Jedi Alema Rar came aboard. Jaina Solo and Zekk were the Jedi members of the team, led by Antilles's nephew, Jagged Fel. Fel had just resurfaced after spending much of the last decade in the Unknown Regions serving in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force and then stranded on the dangerous planet Tenupe. Antilles, along with the Solos and Horns, was part of the combined group that analyzed the issue and tracked Rar's presence aboard the Errant Venture. While the Jedi and Fel staged a capture attempt, Antilles and Han Solo monitored security holocams, helping coordinate the effort. Rar, however, managed to escape the Star Destroyer.

Antilles remained in hiding, Iella continued analyzing information, and Myri collected information and credits at the Errant Venture gambling tables. Antilles was able to get much less news of Syal than he liked, though he kept abreast of her situation. He got a great deal of information from other sources, though; he had an old subordinate in the staff of Confederation Supreme Commander Turr Phennir and a wide network of contacts and colleagues throughout the galactic military on all sides. Jacen Solo and Galactic Alliance Supreme Commander Cha Niathal seized power late in the year, ousting Chief of State Cal Omas. As the new Joint Chief of State, Solo showed greater dark side tendencies, causing Luke Skywalker, who had recently lost his wife to an unknown assailant, to withdraw the Jedi Order from the Galactic Alliance. Solo declared the Jedi, who were supported by the Hapes Consortium and the Wookiees of Kashyyyk, traitors and began warring against them. Skywalker contacted Antilles, requesting that he come to the aid of the emergent Jedi Coalition. Antilles responded by gathering six pilots from his broad group of friends and contacts, Wes Janson chief among them, and reporting to Endor, where Skywalker had sited the secret Jedi base.

Antilles informed Skywalker of the information he had been picking up on the course of the war, especially a notice that the Corellians were planning a secret meeting with Jacen Solo. The Jedi used the opportunity to stage a capture-or-kill attempt against Solo, but it was not successful, and the meeting turned out to be a Corellian trap in which Centerpoint, finally reactivated, was fired at the gathering. The Jedi Coalition team, Solo, and Syal&mdash;present among the Galactic Alliance forces&mdash;were among the few survivors.

Both Celchu and Syal reached out to Antilles afterward, seeking to set up a meeting with the Jedi. Antilles was able to arrange it, and when they arrived on Endor, Antilles was delighted to be reunited with his daughter. Syal had been promoted to captain, but had lost Tiom Rordan, a pilot whom she had been expecting to marry, in the Centerpoint ambush. Celchu bore a message from Niathal, who had herself grown wary of Jacen Solo, asking that the Jedi rejoin the Galactic Alliance. Skywalker declined, but explained that the Jedi's quarrel was only with Solo and stated that the Jedi would be mounting a simultaneous mission to disable Centerpoint Station and rescue Tenel Ka Djo's daughter Allana, kidnapped by Solo as leverage. Skywalker commandeered Celchu's shuttle to use in infiltrating the strike team and assigned Antilles to build a squadron to chase the shuttle aboard Solo's flagship, the Anakin Solo. Celchu volunteered to serve in the squadron, so long as he was released after the battle, and informed the group that Syal had been assigned to serve as the Galactic Alliance's official, if secret, envoy to the Jedi, allowing her to remain with her father.

Antilles worked with Skywalker to complete their battle plan and assembled Rakehell Squadron, which included himself, Celchu, Syal, and the young Jedi Sanola Ti&mdash;flying as Antilles's wingman due to her inexperience&mdash;in One Flight. Two Flight was led by Corran Horn and included Tyria Sarkin Tainer, who had become a Jedi after leaving the Wraiths, and Cheriss ke Hanadi, whom Antilles had brought with him into the Jedi fold. Jaina Solo led Three Flight, which included Janson and Antilles's recruit Volu Nyth, a Rogue during the Yuuzhan Vong War. Iella, meanwhile, joined the mission to infiltrate the Anakin Solo and rescue Allana, placing her aboard the shuttle Reveille. Rakehell Squadron launched from the Errant Venture once Jacen Solo's attack force emerged in the Corellian system to mount its own attempt to capture Centerpoint. They chased Reveille into the Anakin Solo hangar. To Antilles's surprise, Celchu followed it in, broadcasting a warning he felt obligated to give.

Antilles led the squadron off to perform a second harassing action as cover, this time of a troop transport shuttle that carried a Jedi sabotage team disguised as Galactic Alliance Guard commandos and bound for Centerpoint Station. They were engaged by Rogue Squadron, forcing Antilles to battle the unit he had defined. He engaged and killed Rogue Leader&mdash;Lensi, a veteran of the Yuuzhan Vong War who had personally flown with Antilles during the raid on the Sernpidal shipwomb. The Rogues took their own toll, killing the Jedi Twool and destroying ke Hanadi's fighter. Antilles sent Ti, whose X-wing was badly damaged, back to the Errant Venture and flew the rest of the battle with Syal as his wingmate. When Fel, piloting the Millennium Falcon for the extraction of the Anakin Solo team due to the fact that he was still recovering from serious injuries sustained in killing Alema Rar, began his flight toward the Star Destroyer to pick the successful squad up, Antilles directed the Rakes to cover him, then escorted the freighter out of the battle. Kyp Durron's sabotage team succeeded in destroying Centerpoint Station, concluding the mission.

The Jedi Coalition went on to defeat and kill Jacen Solo, who was revealed as the Sith Lord Darth Caedus and the killer of Mara Jade Skywalker. A peace settlement ended the war, placing Natasi Daala, who had emerged from retirement to fight against Caedus, in the position of Galactic Alliance Chief of State. Antilles's own nephew, Jagged Fel, was appointed the new head of state of the Imperial Remnant by Luke Skywalker, replacing the assassinated Pellaeon. Antilles avoided consequence for his own role in the war, returning to a peaceful retirement.

Retirement
"This isn't the armed forces, Wedge. It's more like a heavily armed bachelor party."

- Inyri Forge, to Wedge Antilles

Two years after the end of the war, in 43 ABY, Daala, pursuing an increasingly anti-Jedi agenda, brought charges against Luke Skywalker for negligence in allowing Jacen Solo to fall to the dark side. Skywalker, wishing to avoid a confrontation between the Jedi and Galactic Alliance, accepted ten years' exile from Coruscant and resigned as head of the Jedi Order in a plea bargain, able to be cut short upon his presentation of evidence as to what had caused Solo's fall. Antilles was among many friends and well-wishers who saw Skywalker and his son Ben off Coruscant.

Shortly afterward, Lando Calrissian contacted Antilles for help. Kessel, where Calrissian owned the valuable glitterstim mines, had recently become subject to dangerous groundquakes. Investigation by Calrissian, his organization, and Han and Leia Solo revealed that the groundquakes were caused by hidden chambers within the planet's cave system collapsing when the mysterious ancient technology within them initiated a self-destruct pattern. The pattern was increasing in intensity and would soon destabilize the Great Kessel Fault and destroy the planet itself. Only a controlled detonation of the self-destruct equipment in the remaining chambers would allow the planet to survive, and to place the explosives in time required the use of a fleet of starfighters with pilots skilled enough to navigate the cave network and avoid the electronics-disrupting bogeys that frequented the caves. Antilles agreed to help his old friend, bringing his personal X-wing and astromech, Roll-On, to Kessel.

On Kessel, Antilles and a band of his retired pilot friends&mdash;Derek Klivian, Inyri Forge, Nrin Vakil, Rhysati Ynr, Kell Tainer, Cheriss ke Hanadi, Han Solo, Calrissian, and the Kessel mines' manager Nien Nunb&mdash;as well as Imperial retiree Maarek Stele, began their flights the day after arriving. With Vakil's wife Koyi Komad acting as mission control, they flew an involved series of sorties starting early in the morning. Antilles followed his appointed route through the caves, paying out explosive packages. At a rearming stop, he spoke with Forge, who offered to swap fighters with him, letting him fly her Eta-5 interceptor, a model he had never personally flown before, for the rest of the mission. Excited at the prospect of trying out the new fighter, Antilles agreed.

The rest of the mission went smoothly, and Antilles was one of the last pilots out. He followed the Millennium Falcon, which was picking up rearmament technician Drathan Forge&mdash;Inyri Forge's great-nephew&mdash;after his speeder was disabled by a bogey and attacked by a dangerous energy spider. Antilles spotted the spider atop the Millennium Falcon. He carefully fired on it, but the energy-consuming spider simply absorbed the blasts. As the two ships emerged from the mines, Solo noticed that the spider was unable to penetrate the ship's hull and waved Antilles off. He shook the spider off by braking sharply; Antilles offered to finish it off with a missile, but Solo advised him to let the creature, no longer a threat, go. That concluded the last excitement of the mission, which managed to save the planet without major incident. The pilots and Calrissian's staff enjoyed a hearty celebration afterward.