Crix Madine

"We have stolen a small Imperial shuttle. Disguised as a cargo ship, and using a secret Imperial code, a strike team will land on the moon and deactivate the shield generator."

- General Madine

Crix Madine was a human male who led a commando unit of the Galactic Empire's military until he defected to the Rebel Alliance, where he served as a general. As the officer responsible for covert actions, he devised the attack on the Endor shield generator and trained the soldiers who accompanied Han Solo to the forest moon. At the end of the Galactic Civil War, Madine went on to serve in the New Republic, a democratic government founded by the Rebels.

Early life
A human male native to Corellia, Crix Madine initially served in the military of the Galactic Empire, an authoritarian regime founded at the end of the Clone Wars, in which he led a commando unit. However, he ended up defecting to the Rebel Alliance, a resistance group that opposed the tyranny of the Empire during the Galactic Civil War. Holding the rank of general, he was specialized in covert actions that involved theft of equipment from the Empire and infiltration of strike teams onto occupied worlds.

Operation: Yellow Moon
Several months after the battle of Hoth, Madine and other high-ranking rebel officers secretly met on Zastiga, where Chancellor Mon Mothma revealed that the Alliance had discovered the Empire was building a new planet-killing battle station, the second Death Star, over the Forest Moon of Endor. The Alliance decided to destroy the battle station before it was completed, but needed time to gather the Alliance Fleet near Sullust. Princess Leia Organa proposed leading a mission, dubbed Operation Yellow Moon, to distract the Empire's attention to the Corva sector on the opposite side of the galaxy from Sullust.

Madine and the other rebel commanders agreed with her plan, and Madine volunteered to serve on the mission as a commando. Mon Mothma rejected him, noting that he was needed to plan the assault on the second Death Star. Instead, Madine assigned one of his best commandos, Major Lokmarcha, to the mission. Leia succeeded in completing the operation, although Lokmarcha and another rebel operative died. Leia also managed to steal the Tydirium, an Imperial Lambda-class T-4a shuttle, which Madine intended to use on the mission to Endor.

Battle of Endor
"General Solo, is your strike team assembled?"

- General Madine, to his colleague Han Solo

With the Alliance Fleet in place, Madine, Mon Mothma, and Admiral Gial Ackbar briefed Alliance forces on the plan to destroy the second Death Star. Thanks to Leia's theft of the Tydirium, the general planned on sneaking a strike team onto the Forest Moon of Endor, where the Empire had built a shield generator to protect the battle station. From the moon's surface, the Rebels could take down the shield generator, leaving the Death Star vulnerable to the Alliance Fleet's firepower. In order to accomplish that mission, Madine asked his fellow general Han Solo to assemble and lead the strike team.

Prior to the Battle of Endor, General Madine gave a hologram briefing to the various starfighter squadrons in the Alliance Fleet including Corona Squadron, which was based aboard the Mon Calamari cruiser Liberty. When Kendy Idele asked who would take care of the deflector shield generator on Endor, Madine reassured her that Solo's team would handle that matter. When several Corona pilots including Yendor chatted about Han, Madine interjected that Solo was one of their best assets. He then assigned Corona Squadron to escort General Lando Calrissian in the Millennium Falcon and the Gold, Red, Green, and Gray Squadrons as they penetrated the second Death Star. Madine's plan ultimately succeeded, which led to the Alliance's most crucial victory over the Empire.

Following the destruction of the second Death Star, Madine kept the fleet on alert over the moon of Endor as he was concerned about a possible Imperial counterattack. The next day, Madine conferred with General Solo about a Imperial outpost still operating on the other side of the moon from the shield generator. Both agreed that they could not allow the Imperials to remain and threaten the Ewoks, and Solo led his strike team in a assault on the outpost.

War against the Imperial Remnants
"...as much as Admiral Ackbar and I wish we could tell you the end is at hand, we see no respite from hostilities at this time..."

- General Madine, briefing rebel pilots and soldiers about Operation: Cinder

A few months after Endor, Madine and other elements of the Rebel Fleet Command were aboard a MC80 Star Cruiser at Muster Point: Stalwart. He and Admiral Gial Ackbar briefed rebel soldiers and pilots on the Empire's ongoing planetary assaults, including Operation: Cinder. Madine thanked the rebels for their efforts against the Empire and for the thousands of lives they saved countering Operation: Cinder, but sadly noted that the war was far from over.

Commander of the New Republic Special Forces
"...This is a fragile peace. And we must be wary of any ruse set before us. General Madine, do you think you could put together a strike team? Small Five to seven Republic soldiers." "I think that's doable. You want them on the ground?"

- Ackbar and Madine discussing the events on Akiva

Soon after the battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance was reorganized into the New Republic and Madine was placed in command of the New Republic Special Forces. After Admiral Ackbar received vital intelligence on Imperial fleet movements from a mysterious informant called the Operator, General Madine was part of a hologram conference that included Commander Kyrsta Agate, Captain Saff Melor, and Chancellor Mon Mothma. When Madine questioned the trustworthiness of this informant, Agate responded that the Operator had been reliable so far. However, Ackbar cautioned that the Empire was playing a long game. At the advice of Ackbar, Madine agreed to divert a small team of Special Forces soldiers led by Sergeant Jom Barell to investigate the Imperial presence on Akiva. While most of the unit was killed, Barell played a role in the successful rebellion on Akiva.

A year later, General Madine attended the Liberation Day celebrations held at Chandrila's Old Gather-House. Chancellor Mothma had organized Liberation Day to celebrate the liberation of a hundred former rebel prisoners from Ashmead's Lock on the planet Kashyyyk. However, the prisoners had been fitted with inorganic biochip implants which allowed Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, the true leader of the Imperial remnants, to transmit signals which turned the prisoners into unwilling assassins. Madine was rumored to have died during the attack on Chandrila.

Personality and traits
Crix Madine was a blue-eyed man of average height, standing 1.7 meters. He had reddish blond hair and, at the time of the Battle of Endor, he sported a full beard. As an officer, he was very respectful of the troopers under his command. He always made sure that his men were properly equipped and prepared for the dangerous missions he assigned to them. While writing letters of notification to the loved ones of rebels who died in the line of duty, Madine used a protocol droid to assist him.

Behind the scenes
General Crix Madine first appeared in the 1983 movie Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, the third installement in the original trilogy of Star Wars, in which he was played by the Irish actor Dermot Crowley. When Crowley first walked onto the set of Return of the Jedi, he was smooth-faced, and the crew presented him with a false beard, insisting that he had to wear it. In fact, the Kenner Products toy company had already begun pre-production on Madine's action figure, and, since that toy sported a beard, Crowley had to match.

Given the uncertainty inherent in giving key expository dialog to the Mon Calamari Admiral Gial Ackbar&mdash;portrayed by a fishfaced puppet&mdash;the filmmakers of Return of the Jedi shot a number of "backup" shots of General Madine standing in for his colleague. However, those shots ultimately went unused in the movie's final cut.

Appearances

 * Lost Stars
 * Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure
 * Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi
 * Shattered Empire, Part I
 * Shattered Empire, Part II
 * Aftermath
 * Shattered Empire, Part IV
 * Aftermath: Life Debt