Col Serra

"I see Col Serra. He's one of Han Solo's buddies. Get ready for a tough fight."

- Storm commando captain Sarkli

Col Serra was a Human smuggler who was an old friend of Han Solo. After the Battle of Yavin he would join the Rebel Alliance and become the commander of their new fighting force called Renegade Squadron.

From smuggler to Rebel
"Smugglers, pirates, gunfighters&mdash;it didn't matter what they had been before. All that mattered was that they were willing to fight&mdash;and maybe die&mdash;for the Alliance. I tracked them down and offered them whatever it took. In the end, I found enough of what I was looking for."

- Col Serra, on the Renegade Squadron members

Col Serra was a Human male smuggler active during the Galactic Civil War, who was friends with fellow smuggler Han Solo. In 0 ABY, Solo&mdash;now allied with the Rebel Alliance&mdash;asked Serra to recruit soldiers that did not need any additional training in order to strengthen the defenses of the Alliance base on Yavin 4, which was soon going to be attacked by the Galactic Empire in retaliation for the destruction of the Death Star by the Rebels. At the time, the Alliance was mostly made up of farmboys and dreamers, and the Rebellion needed a force of formidable fighters who knew military tactics and could follow orders without questions. Serra accepted the mission and began searching the galaxy for the right mix of pirates, bounty hunters and other renegades who would agree to fight for the Alliance. It turned out to be somewhat easy work, due to the abundance of individuals in the galaxy who hated the Empire. Unexpectedly for Serra, many of the recruits even brought their own stolen starfighters for the cause.

Soon enough, Serra's task was complete and he found the right amount of soldiers. Most of them were wanted men who had been on the run from bounty hunters and were used to keeping a low profile, so they made sure that there were no records of them in the Alliance archives. Serra then became the commander of Renegade Squadron&mdash;as the newly formed unit had been christened&mdash;and together with Solo, started to prepare them to fight against the Empire. Soon after the formation of the squadron, the Yavin base was invaded, forcing the Alliance to begin a full-scale evacuation. Renegade Squadron acted as a cover for the retreating forces and pushed the invading enemy back from the Alliance's main base temple, but one Imperial scout trooper infiltrated the temple and stole the Alliance communication codes. Renegade Squadron hunted down the trooper and returned the logs back to the temple. After destroying all databanks with sensitive information there to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, the Renegades and Serra boarded their X-wing starfighters and joined the battle in space, where they engaged an Imperial-class Star Destroyer.

The squadron could not handle the Star Destroyer by themselves, though, so Serra called in X2, a Force-sensitive clone trooper and the leader of Grey Squadron, and asked him for assistance. X2, who was at the time still on the ground, soon joined the space battle in his X-wing. Serra told him to help Renegade Squadron take down the Star Destroyer's communications array, to prevent the ship from calling reinforcements. Once the array was destroyed, X2 and Serra landed their X-wings inside the Star Destroyer's hangar and fought their way to the ship's reactor core. X2 destroyed the core, and the two returned to their starfighters, successfully evacuating just as the Star Destroyer exploded, thus buying the necessary time for the Alliance to complete the evacuation.

On the run
"Solo might not shoot first when it comes to bounty hunters&hellip;me and the rest of the squadron, though, we had our own views on that."

- Serra

After the retreat from the Yavin base, the Alliance was faced with a difficult challenge of finding a new central base to operate from. It was soon discovered, however, that before the planet Alderaan had been destroyed by the Death Star, the Rebel leader Bail Organa had encrypted a list of possible locations for a base into a holocron encased in phrik, a material strong enough to have survived the planet's destruction. To this end, an operation was organized to recover the holocron, with Solo given command of a Rebel fleet consisting of a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, two EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigates, a Corellian Corvette, and Renegade Squadron pilots. When Solo's fleet had reached the remains of Alderaan, however, they discovered an Imperial force there. Despite the presence of the Imperials and the sudden intervention of the bounty hunter Boba Fett, the Renegades were able to retrieve the holocron, and Serra transmitted its contents to the Rebel Commander Ackbar, who was tasked with finding a new base. Serra was then ordered to go to Ord Mantell to rendezvous with Solo, where the latter was in the middle of the repairs to his starship, the Millennium Falcon, after the damage it had sustained during the battle at Alderaan's remains. Ord Mantell was a backwater world with only a small Imperial garrison, so Serra and Renegade Squadron believed that they would be safe there and decided to have some rest. When Serra, Solo and the Renegades were relaxing in a local cantina, however, the bounty hunter IG-88 burst in, intent on collecting the bounty on them. A firefight ensued, and soon enough the entire garrison was after Serra and Renegade Squadron; they needed to get off-planet quickly before Imperial reinforcements arrived. However, the Falcon still needed some repairs, so the Renegades, along with Solo's copilot Chewbacca, had to scour the nearby junkyard for spare parts. After finishing the repairs, defeating IG-88, and destroying an anti-aircraft turret, the Renegades evacuated on the Falcon, just as Imperial Star Destroyers appeared above the planet.

Still shaken after their disastrous vacation, Serra and Solo received more bad news from the Alliance Command. While checking the sites listed in the holocron, Commander Ackbar had been captured by the Empire and was being transported to the prison world of Kessel. Many of Serra's friends from the smuggling days had been sent there, never to return again, so he was determined not to let the same happen to Ackbar, the Alliance's greatest tactician. A rescue operation was quickly set in motion, and the Rebel fleet attacked the Star Destroyer that was transporting Ackbar over Kessel. During the battle, Renegade Squadron used an LAAT to land in the Star Destroyer's hangar. They located Ackbar inside, escorted him to the LAAT, and flew back to the Rebel Mon Calamari cruiser. Once in safety, Ackbar told his rescuers the story of his capture. He had been investigating the world of Boz Pity and had found it to be an ideal place for a new base. Deciding to visit other worlds on Organa's list, he took a group of scouts and droids to the planet of Saleucami. They never reached their destination, however, as their transport was attacked by Boba Fett, and those aboard were captured by the bounty hunter. Fett sold Ackbar to the Imperials and took the rest of Ackbar's crew to Tatooine to sell them to the Hutts.

Not willing to abandon the scout team, Serra and Renegade Squadron set off to Tatooine to rescue them. After landing, the Renegades, on Serra's advice, cleared a local cantina from the Imperials. Inside, they found a Rodian, who told them that the prisoners were being held in the nearby shipyard and promised to show the way. Serra was initially distrustful as to the Rodian's information, but he had to agree to follow him, as the Rodian was Renegade Squadron's only hope to find the prisoners. The squadron soon reached the shipyard, but found it sealed by a force field. After destroying force field generators and clearing the shipyard of enemy troops, the Renegades found the prisoners kept in a small sealed cell inside the shipyard. Solo used his fusioncutter to break them out, and, after destroying two AT-STs, Renegade Squadron and the rescued prisoners evacuated on the Falcon. Rejoining with the rest of the Alliance forces, Serra and Renegade Squadron traveled to Boz Pity, where the Alliance established a new base. Only a few hours after that, however, an Imperial assault force attacked the new base. It turned out that Fett had placed a tracking beacon onto an R5 droid that Renegade Squadron had rescued from Tatooine. The Rebels had to fight against a sizable Imperial force, complete with AT-ATs, but managed to stall the enemy thanks to a clever usage of particle cannon turrets and booby traps. While Renegade Squadron held their line, Solo and Chewbacca prepared the evacuation craft for takeoff. In the end, the Alliance was able to safely evacuate from Boz Pity. Eventually, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker discovered a remote ice planet of Hoth, which became the site of the new Rebel base for the next few years. Renegade Squadron used Hoth as their base of operations, continuously undertaking missions against the Empire, and forcing Emperor Palpatine to assign his elite storm commandos to hunt down the Renegades.

Later missions
"It was Skywalker that discovered Hoth, an ice world so remote it didn't appear on any of the regular charts. For a few cold years it was our home, a place to strike back against the Empire. If the Imperials hadn't heard of Renegade Squadron before, they knew it now. We hit them hard and fast wherever we found them, vanishing before they barely knew we'd been there. It felt good to know that we didn't have to run anymore."

- Serra

In 1 ABY, a shipment of ryll headed for a Rebel medical facility went missing, and the Rebels dispatched several agents to find it. Some time later, Solo was assigned to go to Corellia to meet with one of the agents, Major Coret Bhan. Serra and a group of Rebels accompanied Solo to Corellia. While Serra and Solo were waiting for Bhan in a local cantina, the rest of the Rebels took position outside. Instead of Bhan, however, a mysterious smuggler soon appeared in the cantina. Offering Solo a drink, he started questioning him about the ryll shipment. Somehow, Serra discovered that the smuggler was in fact an agent of the Imperial Security Bureau who was also tracking the shipment and who had subdued Bhan on Tatooine. Serra approached Solo and warned his friend about the agent, while at the same time the remaining Rebels entered the cantina, their blasters drawn. A shootout broke out, and the Imperial agent emerged victorious, but let Solo and the rest go. Unbeknownst for Solo, however, the agent had planted a homing beacon on him during the cantina fight, so when the shipment was finally located in the asteroid field Smuggler's Run, and Solo set off to retrieve it, the agent followed him and ambushed him while Solo, Chewbacca and Solo's friend Lando Calrissian were loading the cargo into the Millennium Falcon. Solo managed to get away with only a few crates of ryll, while the rest of the cargo was claimed by the agent in favor of the Empire. Some time later, Serra led Renegade Squadron in an attack on an Imperial starship repair facility on Rori. Landing in an assault shuttle, the Renegades assaulted the facility, expecting to easily overwhelm the garrisoned troops. Serra and his men, however, were surprised to find a unit of storm commandos there, who were repairing their own starship at the time. The storm commandos put up a fierce resistance, forcing Serra and Renegade Squadron to fall back to their assault shuttle and retreat from the planet. Fortunately for Serra, the storm commandos' ship had not been repaired yet, so they could not pursue Renegade Squadron. However, with the Renegades off-planet, a secret Rebel outpost on Rori was left virtually defenseless. The storm commandos attacked it and found some valuable intel there concerning Rebel sympathizers among the Royal Naboo Security Forces.

Renegade Squadron's next mission was to take out an Imperial weapons depot on Naboo. Before that, Serra personally contacted and recruited into his squadron a Rebel who had already managed to gain some reputation in the fight against the Empire. Once he joined the team, Renegade Squadron embarked on the mission. Reaching position near the depot, Serra and the new Renegade took a look around with electrobinoculars, only to find the place guarded by storm commandos led by Captain Sarkli, coincidently the same commandos that Renegade Squadron had fought on Rori. Fully realizing the threat the storm commandos posed, Serra still decided to attack the depot. The Renegades managed to make it halfway to the depot building before the storm commandos spotted them, sounded an alarm, and started firing from the roof of the building. Serra and his men took cover and engaged Sarkli's troops, ultimately forcing them to escape into the wilderness.

Inside the depot, the Renegades found a number of crates with weapons and ammunition and one crate filled with datafiles, which they decided to check. One of the datafiles showed an image of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Serra found nothing special with that, but the new recruit noticed a strange weapon at the Star Destroyer's bow. Serra then decided to collect all the files from the depot and let Rebel slicers take a look at them. Analyzing the data from the depot, the slicers soon found out that the Star Destroyer was equipped with a powerful superlaser, much like the one on the Death Star. The files also showed that the superlaser had been developed in a research facility on Naboo, and Serra picked it as the Renegades' next target, hoping to learn more about the Star Destroyer. Infiltrating the facility, Renegade Squadron proceeded to look for the main control room, but were soon confronted by Sith Acolyte Namman Cha, who was determined to keep the facility's secrets safe and attacked the Renegades. Cha fought ferociously, but Serra's men managed to overwhelm him with their superior numbers, and Cha retreated. Renegade Squadron then returned to their objective and soon found the main control room. The slicers downloaded all the data kept there, which revealed the Star Destroyer's name, the Conqueror, as well as its location&mdash;the Mustafar system.

One less superweapon
"Admiral Strang? Victor Strang? He's the captain? He used to lead a team of Storm Commandos. Stay sharp, men. This will be no ordinary boarding action."

- Serra to Renegade Squadron, prior to boarding the Conqueror

The data also showcased the Conqueror firing at an uninhabited planetoid in the Mustafar system as a test for the superlaser, obliterating the planet completely. Serra was shocked by the starship's firepower, and Renegade Squadron set off to Mustafar to destroy the vessel. There, the Renegades met with a Rebel intelligence officer, who told them that supply shuttles from the Conqueror landed on Mustafar once a day. With this information, Serra and Renegade Squadron decided to use a shuttle to infiltrate the Conqueror. They went to the shuttles' landing site and lay in wait. They soon witnessed the Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard arriving at the site with a group of Blackguard Dark Jedi. Serra realized that the fact that the Imperial Intelligence and the Blackguard were working together meant that the Conqueror project was very important to the Empire. Deciding to take Isard down before the shuttle arrived, Renegade Squadron attacked her. After a brief shootout, Isard retreated along with the Blackguard. Serra and Renegade Squadron then returned back to their cover. When the shuttle arrived, the Renegades easily subdued its crew and put on their uniforms. Aboard the shuttle, Serra discovered that the Conqueror was captained by Victor Strang, a former storm commando. Having heard about Strang, Serra advised his men to prepare for heavy resistance. The shuttle soon landed in the Conqueror landing bay. Renegade Squadron's Imperial uniforms provided the necessary distraction, and Serra's men were able to quickly dispatch the landing bay's guard. Shedding the stolen uniforms, Serra and Renegade Squadron proceeded to the ship's reactor core, but were stopped just before it by a set of blast doors. On Serra's command, his troopers planted some explosives on the doors, blowing them open, only to find Strang and a team of storm commandos waiting for them on the other side, already warned of Renegade Squadron's mission by Isard. The ensuing battle was fierce, but swift. Renegade Squadron used overlapping support fire, gaining an advantage and forcing Strang to retreat.

Before the Renegades could pursue him, another blast door slammed shut behind Strang's back, and Serra commanded his troops to proceed with their original mission. Once inside the rector core room, Renegade Squadron's demolition experts set explosive charges on the reactor core, and the squadron made their way back to the landing bay. As they prepared to enter the shuttle that had brought them aboard, they were surprised to see the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader emerging from it, escorted by a squad of elite stormtrooopers. Vader was determined to ensure that the Conqueror would be delivered safely to the Emperor. Another battle began, and when Vader's men took cover behind one of the Lambda-class shuttle that were stored in the landing bay, the Renegades fired missiles at it. The shuttle was destroyed, and Vader and his stormtroopers were temporarily stalled by the explosion. Serra and the Renegades were quick to use this pause to their advantage, boarding the supply shuttle and blasting off from the Conqueror. Explosions started to tear the Star Destroyer apart, but a TIE Advanced and an Incom gunship also managed to evacuate before there was nothing left of the Conqueror. Serra believed that Vader had been killed in the explosion, but the new Renegade correctly guessed that the TIE Advanced had been piloted by the Sith Lord. The man also believed that Strang might have escaped on the gunboat. Still, the Renegades' mission was a success, and the Conqueror was no longer a threat to the Alliance.

A bitter winter
"Everybody has heard of the Empire's victory at Hoth that day. What no one knows, though, is that without Renegade Squadron, nobody would have made it off Hoth alive."

- Col Serra, on Renegade Squadron's role in the Battle of Hoth

In 3 ABY, the Empire discovered the Rebels' Echo Base on Hoth and launched a full-scale invasion. Renegade Squadron was once again chosen to act as a cover for the retreating Rebel troops. Having destroyed the base's shield generator, the Imperial forces entered the base. Receiving orders from General Carlist Rieekan, Serra directed his unit to the base's control room to destroy databanks with sensitive information to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. Meanwhile, Serra himself planted explosive charges throughout Echo Base. After Renegade Squadron destroyed the databanks, they set off timers on the explosives planted by Serra. The Renegades were then ordered to protect the crew of the Rebel ion cannon, which was used to clear the way for the retreating Rebel transports. Once the ion cannon crew evacuated, Serra and the Renegades proceeded to the extraction point as well, being the last squadron to evacuate from Hoth as the explosives detonated, destroying Echo Base and leaving the Empire with nothing but dust.

While the ground battle came to a close, the fight in space above Hoth still continued, where the Rebel fleet consisting of a Mon Calamari cruiser and Nebulon-B frigates protected the last transport that had not evacuated yet. The Renegades escorted the transport, helping it to safely make a jump to hyperspace. Serra's squadron engaged the Empire's experimental TIE Defender as the rest of the fleet were preparing to make a hyperspace jump. Serra then ordered the Renegades to commandeer one of the TIE Defenders to study it. The Renegades completed their mission, and, after defeating Darth Vader himself in his TIE Advanced, fled from Hoth and regrouped with the rest of the Alliance forces. The defeat at Hoth, combined with the loss of Solo, who had been encased in carbonite and claimed by Fett, badly influenced the Rebels' moral. Nevertheless, the Renegades continued their service, participating in numerous battles and trying to show with their actions that there was still some hope for the Rebellion.

A year after the Battle of Hoth, Solo was finally rescued by Skywalker and his friends. Additionally, it was discovered that the Empire was building a new Death Star in the orbit of the Forest moon of Endor. The Death Star, however, was protected by a defensive energy shield projected from the surface of the planet. Solo, now promoted to General, decided to lead a strike team to the surface of the planet by using the stolen Imperial shuttle Tydirium and take down the shield, allowing Rebel fleet to destroy the Death Star. Before proceeding with the mission, though, the Rebels needed to learn more about the Imperial positions on Endor. When it was discovered that the Emperor was going to make a pilgrimage to the Sith tomb world of Korriban, a mission was organized to learn more about Endor's defenses from his personal shuttle. Every member of Renegade Squadron volunteered for the mission, which was described by Serra as "crazy" and "foolhardy."

The Renegades arrived on Korriban before Palpatine did and captured the Sith Academy and a Sith tomb. Serra then placed explosive charges on all three exits from the tomb, hoping to collapse them and trap Palpatine inside once he entered it. To lure the Emperor inside, the Renegades destroyed some Sith artifacts in the tomb. Enraged, Palpatine entered the tomb and was trapped there when the exits collapsed, allowing the Renegades to retrieve the data from his shuttle. The data showed that Palpatine would soon visit the Death Star with an inspection. The Alliance decided to take their chances and destroy both the second Death Star and the Emperor with one single blow. To lure away at least some of the Imperials away from Endor, a diversionary assault on the Imperial-controlled planet of Sullust was organized, and Renegade Squadron was assigned to carry out the mission.

The Renegades were disappointed that they would not be present on Endor, but agreed to participate in the Sullust raid, realizing its importance. Arriving on the planet, Renegade Squadron captured the Imperial garrison building without any resistance, leading Serra to believe that something was not right. He then decided to contact the Alliance Command to tell them about his thoughts. Serra's suspicions proved true,&mdash;the Renegades had walked into a trap on Sullust, realizing that as IG-88 appeared, which, as Serra suspected, had been hired by Vader because of the problems Renegade Squadron had caused to the latter on Hoth. Moreover, the Empire was using gravity well projectors to keep the Renegades stranded on Sullust. Renegade Squadron was able to defeat IG-88 once again and destroy the generators, eventually securing Sullust.

The last battle
"This is one victory that'll go down in history for sure."

- Serra during the Battle of Endor

Serra's men then immediately traveled to Endor, arriving just in time to slip past the shield through an opening created for Solo's strike team. Renegade Squadron landed some way from Solo, and soon discovered that Solo had been ambushed near the shield generator bunker by the Imperial troops. To make matters worse, the entire Death Star affair was revealed to be a trap set by Palpatine, as the Death Star turned out to be operational and the entire Imperial fleet emerged at Endor to battle the Rebels. As the full-scale battle began, Renegade Squadron fought their way through Imperial troops on the surface, hoping to reach Solo's team and help him destroy the bunker. Serra himself opted to fly his X-wing to give his men air support. Serra then contacted X2, who also participated in the battle and was at the time defending Admiral Ackbar's flagship, Home One from invading enemy forces. Serra requested that X2 assist Renegade Squadron on the surface. After securing Home One, X2 used an escape pod to reach Endor's surface.

Serra then contacted X2 once again, telling him that several of the native Ewoks who had been helping Solo's team and Renegade Squadron had been captured by the Empire. After X2 rescued them, Serra decided to join him on the ground. When he began his landing run, however, his X-wing was shot down by a turbolaser battery, and Serra crashed the starfighter into a tree. He survived the crash and rendezvoused with X2, and together they made their way to the bunker. They sabotaged the Imperial communications network, leaving Solo to destroy the bunker itself. Soon enough, Solo's strike team and Renegade Squadron destroyed the bunker, lowering the Death Star's shield. This created an opportunity for Lando Calrissian, now also a Rebel General, to fly the Millennium Falcon into the Death Star's inner structure and destroy its reactor core, causing a chain reaction that destroyed the superweapon. Prior to the Death Star's destruction, Skywalker had turned Darth Vader to the light, and Vader had killed Palpatine, though he had sacrificed his life in the process.

Nevertheless, both the battle in space and on the ground continued. While Renegade Squadron mopped up the remnants of the Imperial Army, Serra and X2 made their way to an Imperial ion cannon, using it to disable the shields of two Star Destroyers in orbit, leaving them open for Ackbar's fleet to destroy. Meanwhile, two AT-ATs attacked the nearby Ewok village, and Serra told X2 to destroy them. X2 used a rocket launcher, targeting the AT-ATs' cranial section, ultimately taking down the vehicles. Renegade Squadron managed to deal with the rest of the enemy troops, and the battle was won by the Rebels. Following the Battle of Endor, Renegade Squadron decided to disband themselves, believing that the upstart New Republic needed heroes like Skywalker, Solo, and Calrissian, and not the ragtag bunch that was the Renegades. After disbanding the unit, its members, including Serra, returned to a life of crime.

Many years later, Serra was contacted by the archivist of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Jedi Knight Tionne, via hololink. She had found old, encrypted data about Renegade Squadron, but it did not tell much. With much effort, she located Serra and asked him about Renegade Squadron. Believing that enough time had passed since the end of the Rebellion and that people deserved to know about Renegade Squadron, he went on to tell her about the squadron's exploits.

Personality and traits
"I must say, commander. You are a most difficult man to track down.''" "''I've found I generally live longer that way."

- Tionne and Serra upon meeting for the first time.

Behind the scenes
During the planning stages for Renegade Squadron, the first designs of Serra depicted him as a burly Zabrak smuggler. The design was dropped because the producers thought people would relate better to a human, rather than a Zabrak.

Col was at first intended to be questioned by a brand new Jedi named Hes Jor-Sharu, not Tionne Solusar.

Renegade Squadron was originally going to be called Phantom Squadron, but the name was dropped for an unknown reason.

If the player does not pick a username, the name "Col Serra" will be assigned. This alludes that Col is the player character in the story mode of Star Wars: Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.

Col Serra is played by Gideon Emery in Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron. and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron

Col Serra's card in the Agents of Deception set mistakingly claims that he commanded Rogue Squadron instead of Renegade Squadron.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron
 * Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron