Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/May 28, 2011

Nera Dantels was a Human female smuggler and captain of the freighter Starduster who joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Galactic Civil War. In 0 BBY, the Alliance had a critical shortage of astromech droids, and Dantels arranged to rendezvous with members of Red Squadron on Commenor to deliver a dozen R2 and R5-series astromech droids to the Rebels. The group came under attack from Imperial TIE fighters as they attempted to leave the Commenor system, but Dantels managed to take the Starduster to hyperspace and followed Red Squadron to the Rebel base on Yavin 4. While there, Dantels helped Red Squadron pilot Biggs Darklighter to find a rare plant in the jungle, an extract from which was used to treat pilot Derek Klivian, who was suffering from an unknown infection. Dantels and Darklighter began a brief relationship, but Darklighter was killed in combat against the Empire's Death Star battlestation soon after.

Seven months later, Dantels was part of a diplomatic team sent to Jabiim to negotiate an alliance with the Jabiimi Loyalists. When the Jabiimi realized that Rebel pilot Luke Skywalker was the son of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, who had abandoned them during the Second Battle of Jabiim in the Clone Wars, Dantels and the other Rebels were taken into custody. Escaping during a subsequent Imperial attack on the Loyalist base, Dantels and Princess Leia Organa reached the Starduster and returned to rescue Skywalker. Unable to help the Loyalists as the Imperials began an orbital bombardment of the planet, Dantels and the other Rebels were forced to flee. Two months after the Jabiim mission, Dantels joined Dagger Squadron in a raid to rescue a Rebel team that had been stranded on the Imperial refueling and supply depot Bannistar Station.