Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/January 11, 2011

Air Marshal Von Asch was a renowned male Human Imperial starfighter tactician and consultant for the TIE/In interceptor project during the Galactic Civil War. Asch trained many of the young pilots that eventually formed the nucleus of the Empire's TIE interceptor force, but the Air Marshal was taken into custody by the fledgling New Republic shortly after the Battle of Endor. General Lando Calrissian later recruited Asch into his new commando unit, Lando's Commandos, for his experience with TIE interceptors when a pirate group consisting of former TIE interceptor pilots began attacking New Republic convoys. During a tense briefing regarding a mission to combat the threat, the Air Marshal was able to extrapolate that the TIE interceptor pirates were most likely based in the Abraxas system by comparing the locales of the attacks with the fuel requirements of the TIE interceptors.

The commandos traveled to the planet Radix located within the system and were soon ambushed by pirate forces when their local pilot, Kine, betrayed them. Lieutenant Harme Kiela, leader of the pirates and one of Asch's former students, admitted that their whole operation was orchestrated to bring Asch over to their side as their new leader. The Air Marshal promptly refused, stating that Kiela and the pirates no longer possessed any honor and had disgraced him by resorting to criminal methods. After the fighting erupted once more, Kine attempted to kill Asch's fellow commando, Isolde Siro, with a lightsaber, but the Air Marshal took the blow instead, saving Siro's life. Asch later recovered from his severe injury and the mission ended as a success when New Republic reinforcements arrived.