Ghost

"This is my ship you're wrecking!"

- Hera Syndulla

The Ghost was a starship owned by the Twi'lek Hera Syndulla that was used by a group of rebels during the Age of the Empire. The Ghost saw actions on numerous missions and skirmishes against the forces of the Galactic Empire. The Ghost also had an auxiliary vessel called the Phantom that could double as both a shuttle and a starfighter.

Description
The Ghost was a modified VCX-100 light freighter originally made by the Corellian Engineering Corporation. It was named for her ability to evade Imperial sensors. Although an old vessel with a few dogfight battle scars from the Empire, she still performed reliably. The ship had a nose turret gunner station underneath the cockpit section, with a dedicated gunner seat, and a 360-degree dorsal laser cannon turret midships. The vessel had a crew section at the front half, with two of the four main cargo holds making up the forward corners of the ship.

The Ghost was equipped with both port and starboard docking rings, like a majority of Corellian light freighter designs. If there was no nose gunner available, the pilot could operate the nose turret from the cockpit. Behind the cockpit was the crew's quarters, consisting of four private rooms. By the engine arrays were the two rear-facing main cargo holds which made up the rear corners of the ship. The Ghost also had two forward-racing cargo holds that constituted its front corners.

The Ghost had engines which were baffled, energy dampeners, and static jammers to make it hard to detect. These functions allowed the freighter to mimic solar fluctuations or cosmic radiation on many sensors. The Ghost had enough forward firepower to destroy a Gozanti-class cruiser. On the roof of the ship, in the back, rested a small attack shuttle called the Phantom; which doubled as both a starfighter and shuttle.

The Lothal Rebels
The Ghost was owned and captained by the Twi'lek pilot Hera Syndulla. Her crew included the former Jedi Kanan Jarrus, former Lasan Honor Guard Zeb Orrelios, astromech droid Chopper, and Mandalorian weapons expert/artist Sabine Wren. At one point, Jarrus and Syndulla decided to raid an Imperial supply convoy. They were chased by several TIE/LN starfighters, and in the midst of the battle the shields went out. Chopper was ordered to fix them, but then the communications were knocked out. Chopper was then ordered to fix it, but Jarrus countermanded that and told the droid to focus on the shields. Jarrus shot one TIE fighter with the dorsal turret, and Syndulla piloted the Ghost behind another one, and destroyed it using the forward cannons. Chopper then went to the Phantom and used its cannons to destroy the last one.

At another time, the Ghost needed to escape from the Imperials on Lothal. Wren infiltrated an airbase with the call-sign Spectre Five. She was able to deploy a paint bomb, allowing the Ghost to slip away undetected. The Force-sensitive Lothal orphan Ezra Bridger later joined the crew and after he helped them rescue several Wookiees from the spice mines of Kessel. The Ghost then traveled to the planet Garel where the Lothal rebels stole a shipment of T-7 ion disruptor rifles from the Empire to sell to the crime lord and black marketeer Cikatro Vizago. The Ghost then rendezvoused with the Tantive IV to return R2-D2 and C-3PO to their owner.

Waging a Guerrilla War
While living aboard the Ghost, Ezra shared a room with Zeb and the two frequently quarreled with each other. Following a fight, Hera sent Ezra and Zeb to buy some Meiloorun fruit in the Lothalian town of Kothal. After running into Imperial entanglements, the two stole a TIE starfighter and embarked on a little adventure. After supposedly destroying the fighter, Ezra and Zeb returned to the Ghost as friends.

Later, Kanan gave Ezra his first Jedi lesson while the Ghost was hovering over the skies of Lothal. Since Ezra was not concentrating, he almost plummeted to his death. Following that lesson, the Ghost traveled to the planet Stygeon Prime where the Jedi Master Luminara Unduli was supposedly imprisoned in a fortified prison called the Spire. While Hera and Chopper waited aboard the Ghost, Kanan and the other rebels flew down to the planet in the auxiliary vessel, Phantom. However, this turned out to be a trap set by the Grand Inquisitor and the rebels narrowly escaped with their lives.

Following their adventure on Stygeon Prime, Hera and Kanan flew the Ghost on a raid against a convoy of Gozanti-class cruisers transporting a large kyber crystal. While Hera flew the Ghost and attacked the cruiser carrying the crystal, Kanan flew the Phantom and distracted the TIE fighter escorts. Hera and Kanan were aided by Ezra, who had infiltrated the Academy for Young Imperials at Lothal's Capital City. Later, the Ghost rendezvoused with the rest of the team outside Capital City where they were joined by a Force-sensitive cadet named Jai Kell. Hera arranged for Kell and his mother to be moved to into hiding.

Later, the Ghost took part in a rescue mission on the asteroid PM-1203 after Hera and Sabine were stranded there and surrounded by fyrnocks. The Phantom had sustained a fuel leak during a skirmish with TIE fighters. After evacuating Hera, Sabine, and the Phantom, the rebels fled into space. On Empire Day, the Ghost was used by its rebel crew to flee Lothal's Capital City after they disrupted the Empire Day celebrations and rescued the fugitive Tseebo, a Rodian wearing a cybernetic implant containing vital information on Imperial operations in Lothal.



The Ghost was then pursued by TIE fighters led by the Inquisitor. After sustaining some damage, the ship managed to jump into hyperspace due to Tseebo transmitting the coordinates. However, the Inquisitor had succeed in planting a tracking device on the Phantom, which was still engaged to the Ghost. In order to protect Tseebo, Kanan and Ezra departed on the Phantom and lured the Inquisitor to PM-1203. Meanwhile, Hera rendezvoused the Ghost with a mysterious rebel leader named Fulcrum, who arranged for Tseebo to be moved into hiding.

Growing Challenges
While Ezra underwent his Jedi trials at a hidden Jedi temple on Lothal, the other crew of the Ghost waited on Lothal. Following Ezra's Jedi trials, the crew of the Ghost participated on a job for the "galactic entrepreneur" Lando Calrissian, who with the reluctant help of Ezra, stole a puffer pig from the crime lord Azmorigan. After escaping Azmorigan, the Ghost had to navigate through the Imperial blockade around Lothal. During the journey, the puffer pig broke free and wrecked havoc on the ship. The Ghost was also pursued by several TIE fighters but Kanan managed to lose them. After landing near Calrissian's farm, the rebels defeated Azmorigan and his henchmen, who had come back for revenge.

Following the capture of Kanan Jarrus by the Empire, Hera was aboard the Ghost when she received instructions from Fulcrum not to endanger the rest of the rebel cell by rescuing Kanan. Against Hera's orders, Ezra along with Chopper, Sabine, and Zeb embarked on a mission to discover Kanan's whereabouts. While Chopper distracted Hera, the other three rebels escaped on the Phantom. Meeting Vizago, the rebels learnt that Kanan was imprisoned aboard Grand Moff Tarkin's Star Destroyer Sovereign, which was traveling to the Mustafar system. Since the Ghost was familiar to Imperial authorities, the rebels instead used a stolen Gozanti freighter to travel to Mustafar.

The rescue mission was successful and the Lothal rebels succeeded in killing the Grand Inquisitor and destroying the Sovereign; forcing Tarkin to evacuate the ship. Later, the Ghost reappeared in the Mustafar system with two Rebel network blockade runners. The Ghost was piloted by Fulcrum, who was actually the former Padawan Ahsoka Tano. After picking up Kanan and his rebel comrades, Ahsoka revealed her identity to the rest of the Ghost crew and confirmed that they were indeed part of a larger Rebellion.



A Larger Rebellion
Following the events in the Mustafar system, the crew of the Ghost joined the Phoenix rebel cell, which operated a fleet of starships. When the rebels agreed to rescue a defecting Imperial Minister named Maketh Tua, her crew left her with the Phoenix fleet since their ship was a familiar sight to the Imperial authorities on Lothal. Their mission to rescue Tua was a failure since Agent Kallus had arranged her assassination and framed the Lothal rebels. After escaping Darth Vader, the crew of the Ghost resolved never to return to Lothal to avoid endangering its people.

When Darth Vader caught up with them and attack the Phoenix fleet, the Ghost participated in the defense of the Phoenix fleet. Vader's TIE Advanced starfighter destroyed the rebel flagship Phoenix Home and several A-wing starfighters; forcing the rebels to retreat into hyperspace. During the fighting, Ahsoka was aboard the Ghost when she realized that Vader was her former mentor Anakin Skywalker. Vader was followed by two Star Destroyers which almost trapped the Ghost in their tractor beam projector. However, the freighter managed to jump into hyperspace in the nick of time.

In the wake of the near-destruction of the Phoenix rebel cell, the Rebel network faced a shortage of bases and facilities. Ahsoka sent the crew of the Ghost to the desert world of Seelos to contact her old friend, the former Clone Captain Rex. While Kanan along with Ezra, Sabine, and Zeb traveled down to Seelos, Hera and Chopper stayed aboard the Ghost to repair the ship. The rebels managed to make contact with Rex and his companions Wolffe and Gregor. Kanan managed to win the trust of Rex and Gregor but Wolffe distrusted the rebels and secretly alerted Agent Kallus and Admiral Kassius Konstantine.

Hera and Chopper were aboard the Ghost when Admiral Konstantine and Kallus' Star Destroyer Relentless exited hyperspace above Seelos. To avoid detection, Hera turned off all of the ship's systems. This enabled the Ghost to escape capture. The Relentless was compelled to withdraw from the Seelos system after Vader ordered the ship to rendezvous with a shuttle carrying an Inquisitor. This withdrawal enable the rebels and the clones to defeat Agent Kallus' force of AT-AT walkers and escape offworld aboard the Ghost. Thus, the rebel network not only found new bases but won new allies.

During one of Ezra's Jedi Jedi training lessons aboard the Ghost, Sabine and Chopper played a prank on Ezra by locking Chopper's feet to the ship's metallic floor. Despite Ezra's best efforts, he was unable to use the Force to levitate the astromech droid. When the Phoenix rebel cell departed on a mission to Rinn, Ezra and Chopper were ordered to stay behind and to clean the Ghost. However, the two rebels departed on an unauthorized mission aboard the Phantom after receiving a distress call from the Devaronian crime lord Cikatro Vizago above Garel.

The Conflict heats up
The Ghost later participated in a failed attempt by the Phoenix rebel fleet to break an Imperial blockade around Ibaar. The Phoenix rebels had wanted to deliver relief supplies to the Ibaarians, who were suffering after the Empire confiscated their rations and doubled their work quota. The Phoenix rebels sustained the loss of their commander and a transport ship. Later, the crew of the Ghost took part in a mission to contact Quarrie, a reclusive Mon Calamari engineer living on Shantipole, who had developed a new prototype heavy starfighter known as the Blade wing. Due to Shantipole's dangerous atmospheric conditions, the Ghost stayed in space while Hera, Zeb, and Sabine traveled down to Ibaar in the Phantom.

Later, Kanan, Ezra, and Chopper took the Ghost to rendezvous with a transport ship and collected supplies for a second attempt to break the Imperial blockade around Ibaar. Due to its smaller size and maneuverability, the Ghost was designated as the new transport ship that would attempt to break the blockade. Since the plight of the Ibaarians was dire, Kanan was unable to wait for Hera and departed to rejoin the fleet. As the Ghost prepared for its blockade run, Kanan and his crew received a transmission from Hera telling them to stay in their position. Shortly later, the Phantom emerged from hyperspace dragging the Blade Wing in two. Piloting the Blade Wing, Hera destroyed an Imperial Arguitens-class light cruiser. This cleared a path for the Ghost to deliver its relief supplies by airdrop to the Ibaarians. Following the mission to Shantipole, Hera was promoted to Phoenix Leader.

Prior to the Imperial attack on Garel, Ezra was sleeping in his bunk when he received a Force vision of his parents Ephraim and Mira Bridger. He then convinced Hera and Kanan to make preparations to depart for Lothal to find his parents. Shortly later, Sabine Wren was monitoring the Ghost systems when its computers picked up an Imperial fleet departing from Lothal for an unknown expedition. Shortly later, the Phoenix rebel cell was attacked by Imperial forces, which included ground forces, Star Destroyers, and TIE fighters. After being rejoined by Zeb and Chopper, the Ghost departed into the skies above Garel.

Under the orders of Phoenix Leader Hera, the other rebel ships followed the Ghost. During the fighting, Ezra, Kanan, and Chopper departed aboard the Phantom to continue their quest to find Ezra's parents. After Commander Jun Sato's CR90 corvette was trapped by the tractor beam projector of a Star Destroyer, Hera used the Ghost to undertake a dangerous maneuvre to knock out the Star Destroyer's tractor beam. Despite having its frontal laser cannons disabled by an Imperial blast, Hera still managed to ram the projector. Zeb, who was manning the rear turret, narrowly escaped being crushed against the projector. After freeing Sato's corvette, Hera and the other rebel ships fled into hyperspace.

Behind the scenes
The Ghost was first unveiled on July 27, 2013 at Celebration Europe II, as part of some concept art for the series. When it was unveiled, it received a great deal of applause. In addition, several Rebel pins also contained hidden hints to locating schematics of the ship online, which was eventually discovered to be the StarWars.com Blog's article, "Seen a ghost?."

According to Star Wars author Paul Urquhart, the Ghost cockpit was inspired by the real-life Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.

Non-canon appearances

 * Angry Birds Star Wars II
 * LEGO Star Wars Movie Short
 * LEGO Star Wars Movie Short
 * Club Penguin Star Wars Rebels Takeover