User:Master Jonathan/Wedge Antilles/1

Boyhood
"When I was your age, I borrowed a Headhunter, that's a type of starfighter, from a friend, and used it to kill the men who were responsible for my parents' deaths. A deliberate act of revenge. The whole universe changed. All the things that had surprised or shocked or offended me just the day before became nothing, instantly."

- Wedge Antilles, to Cheriss ke Hanadi

A Human male Corellian, Wedge Antilles was born in 21 BBY, the son of Jagged Antilles and his wife Zena, who owned a fueling depot in the Gus Treta Inner-System Market Station over the planet Corellia. He had a sister, Syal, who was ten years older. She left Corellia while Antilles was only seven and lived estranged from her family. The Antilleses never had any word of her and spoke very little about her, but Wedge Antilles remained fond of the sister he never really knew. He lived untouched by the Galactic Empire and the dissent rising against it. Simpler concerns occupied his mind, such as his dream of living in Coronet City, the glittering capital of Corellia. He had maps of the city projected onto the walls of his bedroom, and he longed to contribute to those maps himself by becoming an architect and building great structures. At the same time, he was fascinated by space, and daydreamed of naval adventures.

Antilles split his time between a farm school located in Corellia's northern hemisphere and his parents' fueling depot on the Gus Treta station. At farm school, he received training in rural tasks along with his education. He learned to ride thaks and slopewings, and from them herded nerfs and naugas. The other half of the year, Antilles traded pastoral pursuits for immersion in the world of spacegoing technology. Even as a child, he flew tugs and shuttles in busy Corellian space. He worked as a mechanic as well and developed a great proficiency in repair as well as piloting.

His family was friendly with Booster Terrik, a noted Corellian smuggler. Terrik's daughter, Mirax Terrik, was about Antilles's age, and she frequently stayed with the Antilles family when her father was on dangerous smuggling missions. She and Antilles were close friends throughout their youth, calling each other by the respective childhood nicknames "Myra" and "Veggies." Antilles often put his talents to work assisting the smuggler in the upkeep of his ship, the Pulsar Skate, and sometimes even accompanied the Terriks on smuggling trips. In return, Antilles learned many of Terrik's underworld tricks.

Just before his eighteenth birthday, a time when Antilles was in his last days of upper division school, the Bonestar Pirates' ship Buzzzer under Loka Hask docked with the fueling station. Antilles was aboard Booster Terrik's Pulsar Skate just off Gus Treta when the Corellian Security Force arrived. The Buzzzer fled the station without unhooking its fuel lines, starting a fire that threatened to destroy the station. Terrik established communications with Antilles's parents, and Antilles listened in horror as Jagged and Zena decided to sacrifice themselves in order to reach the lancing charge that would separate the fueling module from the station, keeping the rest of Gus Treta from destruction. Antilles could do nothing but watch the destruction of the module and listen to his parents tell him goodbye.

As Antilles grieved, Terrik's information sources revealed that the pirates had destroyed the station on purpose to cover their escape. Antilles asked Terrik for Hask's name, the location of the ship, and the use of a Z-95 Headhunter fighter. The two were able to track the Buzzzer to the Jumus system. Though Terrik, aboard the Pulsar Skate, urged Antilles to merely disable them and let the authorities deal with them, Antilles fired on the pirates from the Headhunter, destroying the ship and avenging his parents. The act immediately changed his outlook on life, forcing him into a hardened maturity.

On his own
"Wedge&hellip;when you come back, will you think about helping Dad? The Rebellion could really use you and your ship.''" "I admire what your father is doing. I do. But&hellip;" "''You just don't see what it has to do with you&hellip;"

- Mala Tinero and Wedge Antilles

Antilles was orphaned but wealthy, left with the insurance payout on his parents and their depot as well as the bounty for killing the pirates. Though he had some surviving relatives, he did not stay with them. With guidance from Terrik, he used the credits to buy a tiny Corellian-made freighter, which he modified heavily and put to use as a legitimate pilot. Electing to live the life of a simple trader, Antilles struggled economically and had a hard time finding work, despite Terrik's aid in finding contacts. He was unwilling to smuggle but unable to compete in a market where only smuggling paid enough to keep his small freighter in business. In his difficulties, he caught the eye of Car'das syndicate lieutenant Talon Karrde, who once approached him with an offer to transport a cargo for him. Having heard no negative gossip about Karrde and therefore believing the man to be too unknown a quantity, Antilles declined.

In 2 BBY, Antilles was operating from the Corellian moon Gus Talon. There, he enjoyed the hospitality and services of Rallo, an older man and mechanic who ran a garage, and fell in love with Rallo's daughter, Mala Tinero. Though Rallo was active in the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Antilles was uninterested in revolt against the Galactic Empire. Though he casually disliked the Empire and admired the Rebellion, he did not desire to get involved himself and did not find living under the Empire so objectionable.

When Tinero asked Antilles once more to join the Rebellion and announced her own plans to join her father in resistance activity, Antilles grudgingly said he would consider it but put off further talk until he completed a delivery of machine parts, his first contract in weeks. He would not get the chance to conclude the conversation, as he returned to find Gus Talon space in lockdown. Rallo's workshop had been raided and he and his workers had killed the Imperial stormtroopers who threatened Tinero. In retaliation, the Empire had leveled the town. A pair of Imperial TIE/ln starfighters engaged Antilles as he attempted to land; outraged at the loss of Tinero, he instinctively unleashed his anger against the fighters, shooting them down. As more TIEs arrived, Antilles was forced to flee.

Determined to find Tinero, he spent nine days waiting for the Imperial vigil over Gus Talon to end and hearing stories that the Empire had bombed the town and taken all survivors prisoner. Once Imperial forces withdrew, Antilles landed and investigated the town &mdash;although Tinero had been killed, he was never able to determine her fate. Tinero's statement that he had been "lucky" when he got the contract wore on him, as he thought it tragic that he had not been there with Tinero. In the future, despite frequent accolades to his luck, Antilles never felt comfortable with the label "lucky," though he kept his private tragedy to himself and maintained that he had joined the Rebellion due to his inability to make a life as a legitimate freighter pilot.

Rebel hotshot
"If I may answer a question with a question, how old were you before you first disagreed with a commanding officer&mdash;and later found out you were right?''" "''Twenty. Which is when I first had a commanding officer."

- Jagged Fel and Wedge Antilles

Fired to battle the Empire, Antilles decided to join the nascent Rebel Alliance. With his experience as a freighter pilot and mechanic, he served as a gunrunner and proved an asset to the Alliance. His Alliance contacts hinted his skills could be even more valuable in the cockpit of a combat ship, and when the Alliance Starfighter Corps put out an open call for pilots, Antilles enthusiastically joined the branch where he could strike directly against the Empire, as the Alliance was increasingly doing.

While on one patrol, Antilles happened across a secret Imperial research facility where prototype TIE models were tested. He reported his discovery to Alliance command, and a lone Y-wing was sent to obliterate a shipment of prototypes as they were being unloaded in a major coup for the young Rebellion.

In 1 BBY, Antilles flew in a Y-wing squadron when he participated in both an orbital and ground assault on Imperial cloning facilities on the planet Kamino led by the Rebel general and Jedi Master Rahm Kota, together with Commodore Yat-De Viedas. The planet's shield proved stronger than expected, and the attack force suffered heavy losses attempting to breach it. After his squadron was torn apart by a concentrated blast of turbolaser fire, Antilles called for a retreat to be ordered. However, Kota commanded Antilles to hold his position and for all ships to keep pressing the attack. Starkiller, a clone of Force-sensitive Rebel leader Galen Marek, whom Kota was mentoring, piloted the Salvation into the planet's shield generator. Antilles piloted his Y-wing to the planet's surface, covering the ground assault on the cloning facility. Starkiller leaped onto Antilles's fighter during the operation, asking the pilot to carry him to the cloning towers where the Sith Lord Darth Vader, Starkiller's former Master, was holding Rebel Captain Juno Eclipse. Heavy fire kept Antilles from reaching it through the dogfight, so at Starkiller's urging he dove underneath the platform on which the facility was built, then shot his way through the platform near the spires. He emerged near the target and Starkiller jumped into the building. There, Starkiller rescued Eclipse and managed to capture Vader, though Vader did not remain in Rebel custody long.

Antilles was serving in Red Squadron, flying as Red Two, by 0 BBY. The unit's commander was Garven Dreis, Red Leader. Among the pilots in the unit whom Antilles befriended were Jek "Piggy" Porkins, the butt of many good-natured fat jokes, Cesi "Doc" Eirriss, nicknamed for her political science doctorate, and Jal Te Gniev, Red Five. He quickly began flying in raids on Imperial convoys. Though considered a show-off, Antilles was a standout pilot and emergent leader in the squadron, and so was quickly put in a position of responsibility. He trained some junior pilots such as Bren Quersey, was responsible for assigning starfighters to the unit's pilots, and was given command of some missions on which Dreis was not present.

In 0 BBY, Red Squadron, stationed at the secret Rebel base in the Great Temple on Yavin 4, a moon of the planet Yavin, was joined by a squad of defectors from the Imperial ship Rand Ecliptic, led by Biggs Darklighter and Derek "Hobbie" Klivian. Antilles's first mission with Darklighter was a convoy raid in which Darklighter acquitted himself extremely well. Antilles greatly admired the defector's skills in the cockpit, and quickly became good friends with him. Antilles, Darklighter, and Porkins all came to room together on Yavin 4 and shared a strong camaraderie.

Late in 0 BBY, Antilles, along with most of the other pilots stationed on Yavin 4, was part of a mission to strike an Incom Corporation facility and acquire several T-65 X-wing starfighters for the budding Rebellion. In a battle plan devised by General Jan Dodonna, Darklighter led his squad of TIE fighters to draw off the enemy fighter complement. Antilles and the other pilots landed at the facility on a transport, quickly seized the advanced new fighters, and flew them back to the base on Yavin 4.

Shortly thereafter, Antilles commanded an undercover mission to the planet Commenor for the purpose of acquiring smuggled R2- and R5-series astromech droids for the new complement of fighters. The group of Red Squadron pilots&mdash;Antilles, Darklighter, Eirriss, and Porkins&mdash;sneaked onto Commenor in the new X-wings, where they were supposed to play a game of sabacc in a particular cantina until receiving instructions to meet their contact. They played for some time, listening with great interest to news reports of the dissolution of the Imperial Senate, until one of Antilles's cards, during sabacc's usual flux, altered to display a message to meet the smuggler at Hangar Bay 31. Outside the cantina, they encountered a group of thugs who attempted to shake them down for a protection fee on their rented landspeeder. Taking exception to their fat jokes, the hefty Porkins started a fight with the toughs. Antilles and the others became involved in the brawl, and despite being heavily outnumbered, the Rebels came out the victors.

At the hangar bay, Antilles met Nera Dantels, the smuggler captain, and arranged to escort her to the Alliance with the shipment. On the way off Commenor, the Rebels were ambushed by fighters from a secret base on Folor, Commenor's moon. The defeated thugs had spied upon their meeting and alerted the Empire. Antilles ordered Darklighter to engage the enemy fighters with him while Eirriss and Porkins covered Dantels's starship, the Starduster. Antilles destroyed three fighters in the battle, and when Eirriss suffered damage to her fighter's hyperdrive, he ordered her to transfer to the Starduster. Eirriss insisted it would take too much time for her to transfer and the Rebels would be stopped. As Eirriss headed to engage another incoming wave of TIEs, Antilles reluctantly accepted the situation, and Eirriss instead plunged her damaged fighter into the formation of TIEs, taking most of the opposition with her.

Victory at Yavin
"I remember the days before Yavin when we were all young, armored with the invincibility of youth and fired by the belief that the Emperor's evil Empire could not win. It didn't, but the cost was more horrible than any of us could have imagined."

- Wedge Antilles

Soon after the pilots returned to Yavin, the Empire's planet-destroying Death Star superweapon advanced on Yavin 4. The base's pilots were quickly mustered for a briefing by General Dodonna. Antilles sat next to the newest Red Squadron pilot, Luke Skywalker&mdash;a friend of Darklighter who had, with the assistance of the legendary Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, rescued Princess Leia Organa from the Empire. Skywalker took the place of Jal Te Gniev as Red Five, as Gniev was down with the measles. Organa, a Rebel leader from the world of Alderaan which had just been destroyed by the Death Star's superlaser, had obtained the Death Star plans, and from them Dodonna found a critical weakness. He told the assembled fliers that a proton torpedo fired down a thermal exhaust port that lacked particle shielding would cause a chain reaction that would destroy the enormous battle station. Antilles voiced his skepticism that the two-meter target could be reliably struck while flying at full speed, under fire, down a trench in the station's surface, only to be reassured by Skywalker that the newcomer had hit targets of that size many times while bush piloting on his homeworld of Tatooine. Antilles remained skeptical, considering the station's powerful defenses a difficult obstacle to overcome.

With only fifteen minutes until the Death Star rounded the gas giant Yavin and could fire on the moon Yavin 4, the Rebel fighter force was dispatched to battle the Empire's greatest weapon. Antilles, astounded at the space station's size, flew with the Reds as they engaged the station's surface defenses. He destroyed several defense turrets in the initial strafing runs, but Porkins was quickly killed, and when enemy TIEs emerged to dogfight, John Branon, who was flying as Red Four, was shot down immediately. When Skywalker was having difficulty evading a TIE tight on his tail, Antilles swooped in to destroy it in a bold head-to-head attack, adding to his high kill count of six enemy fighters over the course of the battle.

After Gold Leader Jon Vander's trench run was foiled by Darth Vader piloting his TIE Advanced x1, Dreis held Antilles, Darklighter, and Skywalker in reserve as he and two wingmen made their own attempt. Dreis's wingmen were killed by Vader and his shot barely missed. Hotly pursued by Vader, he ordered the young pilots to make their own run on the exhaust port and was quickly killed by the Dark Lord of the Sith. Antilles and Darklighter hung back to cover the crack shot Skywalker as Vader and his wingmen again dropped on the trench runners from behind. Antilles took Vader's initial fire, which destroyed his micro-maneuvering controls. As Antilles's fighter was damaged to the point where he could no longer safely remain near the other fighters in the trench, Skywalker ordered him out. Antilles was left observing as Vader killed Darklighter but was disabled by the timely arrival of Skywalker's companions in the rescue of Organa, smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca. With cover from their ship, the Millennium Falcon, Skywalker made the shot that destroyed the Death Star and saved the Rebel base.

In the wake of the Rebellion's crucial victory in the Battle of Yavin, the base's complement turned out to honor Skywalker, Solo, and Chewbacca for their heroism. The victory was tinged with sadness, however, as Skywalker and Antilles were the only Red Squadron survivors from the battle. Antilles emerged with a reputation as a hot young pilot, however, and received medals himself as well. Antilles soon became fast friends with the budding Jedi Skywalker and Solo, a fellow Corellian smuggler. Antilles also shared a camaraderie with less famous figures such as Finn Darktrin, a Rebel agent who later was discovered to be an Imperial spy, and Voren Na'al, a Rebel historian, journalist, and propagandist.

The day after their victory at Yavin, the Rebels were alarmed to find a Carrack cruiser entering the system. Dodonna called a briefing including Antilles and Skywalker, with whom Antilles was already very friendly, to inform the pilot complement of this and forbid them from engaging it in the hopes that the Imperial ship would pass through the system without noticing the Rebel base. Solo, who disagreed with the orders, left the briefing and forced the ship down on Yavin 4. The Rebels dispatched its crew after a battle in which the captain, Skeezer, was captured, keeping the base secure for a brief time more. Nonetheless, the Empire soon learned of the battle and placed the system under blockade.

Soon after the Death Star's destruction, Antilles was on patrol when a force under crime lord Tyber Zann entered the system, intent on retrieving data from the Death Star's wreckage. Antilles challenged him, but his patrol could not stop the Zann Consortium's superior force. He called for the Rebel picket to regroup, but before they could drive Zann from the system, an Imperial force emerged from hyperspace in hopes of enforcing the blockade. The Rebels had to fight off this greater threat, and Zann was able to steal the data he sought and escape.

Forming Rogue Squadron
"My brother is a hero of the Rebellion."

- Syal Antilles, to Soontir Fel

In Yavin's aftermath, Commander Arhul Narra of Renegade Flight was put in command of Red Squadron. With an increasing core group of pilots flying independent missions with Antilles and Skywalker&mdash;Derek Klivian, a Red Squadron pilot who had been bedridden during the Battle of Yavin; Tierfon Yellow Aces pilot and expert gunner Wes Janson; veteran Zev Senesca; Sarkli; and Dack Ralter, a new recruit&mdash;Skywalker and Antilles developed a new unit under Narra's guidance. The pair co-founded Rogue Group, also known as Rogue Squadron or Rogue Flight, as a subunit of Narra's squadron, with Skywalker serving as Rogue Leader. Primarily an X-wing squadron, they were known for an ability and willingness to use a variety of fighters as suited their mission profiles. Both Rogue and Renegade Flights eventually developed into full-strength squadrons, with Narra remaining the commander of both forces. The unit served as a highly independent elite squadron, having no permanent assignment so that it could be dispatched to whichever hotspot in which it was most needed. Antilles made fast friends with his fellow pilots, especially Janson, with whom he shared interests in drinking and gambling, and whose skills as a pilot and gunner provoked Antilles's admiration. During his time as a Rogue, Antilles developed into a noted pilot, considered among the best in the Alliance. He devised the Antilles Maneuver to counteract legendary Clone Wars starfighter tactician Admiral Adar Tallon's Tallon Roll.

Narra dispatched Antilles, Skywalker, Senesca, Solo, and Chewbacca to investigate a secret Imperial research facility on the planet Kamino that recently had been abandoned. On their arrival over Kamino, they were ambushed by a group of mercenary fighter pilots. The mercenaries chased Skywalker, Solo, and Chewbacca toward the planet, where the three were tractored by a surface installation, along with the mercenaries. Antilles and Senesca were able to avoid being tractored, and when they detected no signs of life coming from the surface of the planet, they returned to Yavin 4 and reported the situation. Leia Organa led a rescue mission that found the three missing Rebels and Lune Divinian, leader of the mercenaries, already escaping the planet.

When the Rebellion ceased receiving shipments of metal from the planet Vactooine, the Rebels feared there had been trouble with their allies at the mining colony. Skywalker, Solo, Organa, and Chewbacca, as well as their droids C-3PO and R2-D2 and the ancient mining droid Q-7N, set out to investigate in the Millennium Falcon, while Antilles and three fellow Rogues escorted them. There they found that an army of rebellious droids, led by 12-4C-41 under the influence of criminal mastermind Olag Greck, had seized the outpost. The Rebels convinced the droids to turn against Greck, foiling the plot.

Two months after the Battle of Yavin, Antilles's friend Jal Te Gniev was still devastated at having missed out on it, his place taken by the inexperienced farmboy who had become the Rebellion's greatest hero overnight. He became given to drink, muttering of how he should have been in Skywalker's place and deserved the youth's glory. Antilles found the older man drunk and belligerent in the halls of the Great Temple, and attempted to counsel him, only to be cut short by an alarm. Antilles and Te Gniev rushed to the hangar, where Skywalker's protocol droid C-3PO explained that he had accidentally triggered the alarm. Te Gniev, still intoxicated, insensibly attempted to launch anyway. Antilles, shouting at him to stop, had to scramble out of the way as the bitter veteran clipped the side of the exit and plowed the expensive fighter into a tree outside. Te Gniev faced a military council, led by General Dodonna, that moved to transfer him to a recruiting position on Dubrava, a backwater planet. Te Gniev, who denounced the council directly, emerged angry at his treatment, feeling he had been cast aside in favor of the "golden boy." Antilles, waiting outside for word, explained that Skywalker had personally asked the council for leniency. Te Gniev sarcastically thanked Skywalker before storming off. He soon had a change of heart, however, sacrificing himself to save Skywalker after he accidentally endangered a mission Skywalker undertook to Jazbina.

Eventually, the blockade of Yavin gave way to invasion as the Imperial forces struck unexpectedly at the base. Under bombardment, the Rebels undertook an evacuation of the base they had previously saved. Antilles, Skywalker, and Sarkli flew together, shooting down enemy landing craft as the command staff attempted to evacuate. When the commanders were trapped inside the Great Temple by invading Imperial troops, Antilles and Skywalker put down and rushed into the temple to save them. They shot their way through the stormtroopers and rescued Dodonna and his staff before making their way to the hangar. There, Sarkli saved them from a pair of All Terrain Scout Transports, allowing the Rebels to make their escape.

After the evacuation, the Rogues were assigned to pick up Tycho Celchu, an Imperial defector, on the planet Dantooine. Skywalker and Sarkli rescued him from storm commandos who had captured him just as he attempted to defect. On his next mission with Skywalker, Sarkli defected to the Empire. Celchu, a skilled TIE pilot, soon replaced him. Antilles was initially distant from Celchu, as he was from many new pilots, fearing to get too close to them lest they die early. In time, however, the pair became inseparable friends. It was not long before the Rebels were once more established on Yavin 4, sneaking back to reoccupy their old base. There, they were again found out and encircled with an Imperial blockade.

Rogue Squadron was dispatched to Kwenn Space Station, in orbit around the planet Kwenn, to search for tips on poorly-traveled hyperlanes that might provide suitable locations for another hidden Rebel base. There, Antilles learned that the Empire had been interfering with many of the formerly safe trade routes to stifle the Rebellion's mobility in the Outer Rim. When he observed the Empire seizing the Action VI transport Stellar Manx without explanation, it aroused his suspicion. He dispatched a message drone to Organa, who was herself scouting Malagarr, reporting the oddity and requesting her aid as he, Janson, and Celchu investigated. The trio puzzled over what the Imperials were doing with the Stellar Manx, Antilles surmising that they simply wanted to seize it to replace their losses in cargo capacity at Yavin. They were surprised by a trio of stormtroopers, whom they outfought. The Rogues were able to rescue Kar Lamoran, the Stellar Manx captain, and recapture the freighter after the Imperials tried to escape in it. They discovered and reported that the operation had been carried out at Darth Vader's orders, and the ship had been destined for the planet Bonadan. Solo and Organa followed up on the tip, taking over the effort of foiling Vader's plot.

Plague on Gobindi
"Test cases. They're using the city to see how effective the blobs are, I'd guess. We're all lab rats."

- Wedge Antilles, to Tash Arranda

Dispatched to the world Gobindi with three other Rebels, Antilles intended to spend only a few days there investigating the Mah Dala Infirmary, which was suspected of being a front for the Imperial Biological Weapons Division. He was trapped for three weeks when the Empire began blockading the planet on the pretense of heavy pirate activity in the area, and labeled the four Rebel operatives as wanted pirates. Around the same time, several strange blob creatures began emerging from the forest. The Rebels suspected a connection.

Antilles was outside the Mah Dala Infirmary in the planet's sole city Mah Dala&mdash;consisting entirely of buildings perched atop massive ziggurats projecting from the world's fierce jungle&mdash;when one of the blob creatures attacked a droid that was with a young girl. He rushed to peel the blob off the droid, but it began creeping up his arms. With the droid's aid, he was able to drop it over the railing of the ziggurat. Antilles then introduced himself to the girl, Tash Arranda, and the droid, DV-9. He offered them a tour of the city, and in conversation found that Arranda seemed to have anti-Imperial sympathies, though she had arrived during the blockade&mdash;an action accomplished only by Imperials. When Arranda mentioned that her brother, Zak Arranda, was in the hospital due to an illness, Antilles felt he could trust her, and revealed that no one had left the Mah Dala Infirmary alive recently. At that moment, a squad of stormtroopers rushed to the plaza in which they were speaking and arrested one of the other Rebels, a Rodian, on grounds of piracy. Antilles slipped away to avoid capture himself.

He gathered his remaining compatriots and entered Arranda's ship, the Shroud, after trailing her there. He asked for her help in getting offworld with whatever clearance codes had gotten them past the blockade originally. Arranda proved to be friendly to the Rebellion, but before she made a decision one of the other Rebels was attacked by another blob. They pulled it away, but the man fell ill immediately, leading them to deduce that the creatures were carriers of the bioengineered malady the Imperial scientists were developing. Antilles took the man back to their safehouse with a last request for Arranda to help them escape.

After giving their companion aid, Antilles and the last Rebel, a Bothan, returned to staking out the Shroud. When Zak Arranda and DV-9 arrived, saw the slime trail, and followed it down the ziggurat and into the jungle thinking Tash Arranda had been abducted by a blob, the Rebels hurried to follow them. The boy and the droid were cut off from ascending the ziggurat by a swarm of blobs, causing them to flee. Antilles and the Bothan gave chase, and shot the blobs off the unarmed pair when they were cornered. DV-9 found a door into the nearby ziggurat, which warned in Gobindi script that a virus was locked within. From it, they were surprised to see Tash Arranda, her and Zak's "uncle" Mammon Hoole, and Doctor Kavafi&mdash;the head of the infirmary who had been replaced by the bioweapon designers&mdash;emerge. Hoole, a Shi'ido shapeshifter, transformed himself into a mammoth frog and leaped the beleaguered individuals to safety atop the ziggurat. With information from the ziggurat inscriptions, Kavafi was able to manufacture a cure, defeating the virus project. Antilles piloted the Shroud past the Imperial blockade and returned to the Rebel base.

Escape from Yavin
When Darth Vader brought his mammoth Star Dreadnought Executor to Yavin for a final strike at the Rebellion six months after the Battle of Yavin, the Rebels were forced to evacuate the base for good. Skywalker and Vrad Dodonna, the son of General Dodonna, departed on a mission to breach the Executor shields with a power gem before it could reach the Yavin system. With backup from Han Solo, they were able to cripple the ship's control systems, buying the Rebellion more time to evacuate. Antilles oversaw the fighter escort for the evacuation transports, which came under attack sooner than expected when Vader ordered blockade commander Admiral Amise Griff to proceed with the assault without the Executor. As the transports left, Dodonna, distraught at the death of his son in the attack, stayed behind to detonate concussion charges that decimated the attacking fighters. He was assumed killed in action.

The Rebel fleet rendezvoused out of the immediate grasp of Griff's forces, but still within the blockade. A Mon Calamari fleet under Admiral Ackbar provided a surprise attack on the blockade forces at multiple points, hoping to draw Griff out of position, but the canny admiral found the Rebels' hoped escape route and cut it off. Solo scouted another, which was blocked by unpredictable stellar flares. Skywalker had to call on his knowledge of the Force to guide the fleet through a safe route, narrowly missing an ambush by the Executor.

Escorting the convoy, destined for the new safeworld Hoth, through the Ison Corridor, they came out of hyperspace in the debris of a previous convoy. The Rebel ships had to pick their way through the debris field and a nearby nebula before they could reenter hyperspace, but before they could do so they were set upon by the Imperial force that had destroyed the first squadron of transports. Unable to keep up with the enemy TIEs as they tore into the convoy, Antilles suggested he and Skywalker transfer to the new A-wing interceptors. They docked with the Nebulon-B frigate Redemption and transferred. In the new, speedy interceptors, they were able to ward off the TIE attackers. In the nebula, they held off TIE Interceptors, allowing the transports to proceed safely to Hoth.

The Hoth base would not be ready for occupancy for another two years, however, and the Rogues operated elsewhere. They trained briefly on the planet Tatooine, during which period Skywalker and Antilles, out for a morning flight, noticed the Empire bombing Mos Eisley in retaliation for the smuggling activity based out of the starport. They struck against the Imperial TIE/sa bombers, saving the city from annihilation. The Rogues moved on to further missions, escorting a supply convoy that came under attack on Barkhesh and finding and rescuing the crashed Rebel ship Nonnah on the planet Chorax, holding off Imperial forces that attempted to seize the freighter's personnel and captured supplies.

Betrayal in the Poln system
"That's Antilles for you&mdash;flies as crazy as Solo does."

- Colonel Airen Cracken, on Antilles's flying

Later, the Rebels were approached through Alderaanian Vestin Axlon by Governor Bidor Ferrouz of Candoras sector with an offer. Ferrouz, who claimed to harbor Rebel sympathies, proposed that the Alliance use abandoned mines and caverns on the planet of Poln Minor as a base in return for protection against the mysterious alien warlord Nuso Esva. While Axlon, Solo, Chewbacca, and Skywalker headed for the sector's capital planet Poln Major, located in the same system, to meet Ferrouz and discuss terms with him, an advance scouting team, including Antilles, Rogue Squadron, Colonel Airen Cracken, and Organa, was sent to Poln Minor to evaluate the area and check things out. While exploring a system of caverns, Antilles was surprised to run into Solo and Chewbacca, who had been ordered to remain on Poln Major. Antilles called Cracken over to report their presence.

The offer was not as it seemed, though; Ferrouz was in fact a loyal Imperial whose family had been kidnapped by agents of Esva, who in turn had given the governor a list of demands that included the "deal" with the Rebels. Furthermore, Axlon planned to kill Ferrouz in an act of revenge for the destruction of Alderaan, but the renegade stormtrooper unit known as the Hand of Judgment stopped and killed him before he could carry out the murder. Solo and Organa were talked into helping mount missiles on attack ships, though they didn't know it was for Esva's people; eventually they were forced to flee through unfamiliar tunnels in a speeder bus. Cracken established contact with them and told them to turn into a side tunnel; Antilles and two other pilots in X-wings flew the other way down the side tunnel and past the bus to look for Solo and Organa's pursuers, but were unable to find any sign of them or the cavern where the missiles were being installed.

At a meeting aboard Cracken's transport, Antilles reported his failure, though after reviewing what she had observed, Organa was able to locate the main cavern through deductive reasoning, so Cracken began planning an attack on it. Since X-wings were too large for the tunnel they would have to use, Antilles proposed using the new T-47 airspeeders that the Rebels had obtained on Poln Minor earlier in the mission. Cracken objected on the basis that the T-47s weren't armed as well as the X-wings, but Antilles dismissed that, pointing out that firepower was a secondary concern to getting there in the first place and that the Rebels would have the element of surprise. After a moment, the Colonel agreed to the plan.

As they prepared for the attack, Antilles told Organa she didn't have to go with them, but she insisted on riding with him anyway. With Organa in the gunner's seat of Antilles's T-47, the Rogues took off. Upon arriving at the cavern and beginning attack runs, Antilles and the other Rebels were surprised to find the missile ships operational, ready to fly, and firing back. Outnumbered fifty to ten and outgunned as well, Antilles began attack runs anyway. As he flew and Organa fired on the ships, they realized that the T-47s' firepower wasn't enough to get through the missile ships' armor and shields.

Suddenly, Cracken came over the comm and ordered the Rogues to break off the attack and return to the staging point. Antilles requested confirmation, and when that was provided, recommended against that, but Cracken told them that Solo had other plans. On their way out, at Organa's request, Antilles ordered Rogue Three to pull alongside him. Organa attached a harpoon cable to Rogue Three, and Antilles maneuvered so that the cable took off a sensor bulb on one of the missile ships. Antilles ordered the Rogues to leave, and the other pilots and gunners repeated the trick on the way out. Antilles and the Rogues got out of the cavern just before Esva's people blew the roof of the cavern to allow the ships to take off. Solo, who had bluffed his way onto the Golan I defense platform orbiting Poln Major, had the platform's commander, Barcelle, order his men to fire all of their proton torpedoes in the direction of the ships, which destroyed them all.

The Imperials, with the help of the seven ships of Death Squadron, won the ensuing battle against Esva's Eastern Fleet, while the Rebels escaped with plenty of war materiel, including the T-47s. Later, back at base, Antilles was seen with Skywalker and Organa as the latter was talking to the two men.

Scattered battles
Soon after the evacuation, Antilles was stationed on the planet Thila. When the Rebel base there was discovered by the Empire, the Rogues scrambled to cover while an evacuation was prepared. Antilles quickly launched in his T-47 airspeeder, on which Chewbacca had been working. Though Antilles was friends with Chewbacca, he did not understand Shyriiwook and did not understand Chewbacca's warning that the Wookiee was still repairing the ship. He took off with Chewbacca dangling from the airspeeder's belly, his hands in an access hatch. After a TIE pilot displayed confusion upon seeing the Wookiee, Antilles had Wes Janson perform a visual check and was horrified to learn that Chewbacca was precariously caught in a high-altitude dogfight. Han Solo, who had been informed by the other mechanics, contacted him by comm and insisted that Antilles match velocity over another airspeeder and let Chewbacca climb down, but Antilles did not think he could spare the time for another Rogue to exit the battle. He slipped over a TIE, allowing Chewbacca to commandeer the fighter and return to base. Once the battle was over, Antilles spent some time hiding atop a suspended cargo crate, avoiding the Wookiee's wrath. Despite Antilles's misadventure, the Rogues' performance at the evacuation of Thila proved that they were a highly effective team of pilots, gaining them greater respect within the Alliance hierarchy.

Seven months after the Battle of Yavin, Antilles, Skywalker, Arhul Narra, and Zev Senesca were sent to escort a unit of Alliance Intelligence agents tasked to set up a listening post on an obscure jungle world. While the Intelligence personnel set up their equipment, Skywalker explored the jungle, only to rush back with news that he had discovered graves and a crashed Clone Wars–era LAAT/i transport. As he reported this, an Imperial landing force arrived and attacked. Antilles and Senesca were able to launch their X-wings, but Skywalker and Narra were trapped on the ground. Antilles and Senesca handled the TIEs, with Antilles shooting one down just as it was about to strafe Narra and Skywalker. Increased TIE reinforcements, however, drove the pilots to orbit; unable to take on that many starfighters, they retreated to the other side of the planet from the Imperial capital ship launching the fighters. With the aide of a clone trooper who had been stranded on the planet since the Clone Wars, BL-1707, nicknamed "Able," those left on the ground were able to escape, and the Rebels slipped away.

Soon after, the Jabiimi Loyalist leader Nolan Gillmunn requested Alliance aid to his cause as he battled the Empire's control of Jabiim, exercised through the Jabiimi Nationalist party. The Rebels sent a diplomatic party consisting of Leia Organa, Skywalker, and statistician Jorin Sol, transported by Nera Dantels aboard the Starduster. Antilles and Derek Klivian escorted them and remained in orbit as backup while the others landed on the planet Jabiim. Once the Loyalists heard that the Alliance had sent Luke Skywalker, the son of Anakin Skywalker, as a representative, they were furious and ordered Antilles and Klivian to depart Jabiim planetary space. Anakin Skywalker had been ordered off the planet over two decades ago by the Galactic Republic, when it had been supporting the Loyalists against the Separatist Nationalists, and as the symbol of their deprivation of aid in their hour of greatest need the Loyalists hated him virulently. As Klivian and Antilles debated what to do next, they were attacked by TIEs aligned with the Nationalist government. The pair of Rogue pilots fled, unsure if killing more Jabiimi would inflame the diplomatic situation with the others on the ground. They ran into an Imperial fleet arriving to capture the Rebels&mdash;sold out by disillusioned Loyalist Tal Hesz&mdash;and enslave the Jabiimi, and decided they had no choice but to rescue their compatriots. The pair outran their pursuers and arrived on the surface in time to save Organa and Dantels from a TIE attack. The group then rescued Skywalker and Gillmunn from the Imperials. Gillmunn insisted on staying behind, but conceded that the Rebels could not save the planet and should flee. Sol was already captured and aboard Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, forcing them to leave without him. Antilles and Klivian drew the fleet's fire, allowing the others to escape aboard the Starduster before they jumped to hyperspace themselves.

Around two months after the abandonment of Yavin, with the Rebel leadership centered aboard roving fleets and in need of supplies, as well as compromised should Jorin Sol give away the escape algorithm used to plot hyperspace jumps when the fleet came under sudden attack, Antilles was part of a group that undertook a supply raid on the planet Kalist VI. Antilles led elements of Red Squadron in destroying the escort frigate accompanying the Imperial fuel tanker Nuna's Twins, allowing the Rebels to hijack the tanker. Skywalker and Captain Harran led a prize crew that took over the ship and continued on to Kalist VI, where they planned to steal supplies from the Imperial base and rescue Sol, held captive within. The half-dozen Red Squadron pilots continued on as well, harrying the ship as it emerged over Kalist VI until they allowed themselves to be driven off by the base's TIE complement, reinforcing the undercover Rebels' cover story. At a prearranged time, Antilles led his pilots and a Y-wing bomber group back to cover the mission's escape. Skywalker led the rescue not only of Sol, but of a mass of Jabiimi slaves they had not known to be at the base, and with cover from Antilles the entire group escaped.

In the next month, Antilles was part of a shipping raid over the planet Per Lupelo. The Rebels easily picked off the light enemy fighter cover until Skywalker's fighter lost power in the middle of the battle. With a TIE on Skywalker's tail, Antilles had to rush to defeat his own opponent before saving his friend. They successfully hijacked the four-ship convoy, bringing much-needed supplies to the fleet. After returning to the flagship Rebel One, Antilles fetched Skywalker so Rebel spymaster Tungo Li could inform him of a message sent by Skywalker's childhood friend Janek Sunber, whom Skywalker had encountered as an Imperial officer on Kalist VI. The message stated that Sunber wished to defect. Li considered it a trap, but Skywalker left to rescue him against orders. Meanwhile, Sol left his bacta tank and attacked Deena Shan, a supply officer. He did not kill her, instead revealing that he had been "reprogrammed" during his Imperial captivity but was fighting his conditioning. Antilles was chosen to interview him under Li's supervision, and Sol was told to rest and return to his duties later in the belief that he had overridden his Imperial brainwashing.

As soon as Sol was cleared to return to duty, however, he called in the Imperial fleet and attacked Organa and a portion of the ship's command staff. The fighter complement scrambled to defend the fleet, which could not flee together as Sol had given their escape algorithm to the Empire. The ships scattered, except Rebel One, the bridge of which was in chaos. Antilles remained, defending the headquarters ship and frantically comming the bridge. Finally the injured Sol overcame his conditioning one last time and launched Rebel One into hyperspace, letting Antilles leave the battle. Antilles was able to link up with the fleet element under Admiral Ackbar, and when the remaining crew of Rebel One returned to the fleet with information about an upcoming attack on the planet Ansion, Ackbar sent Antilles and Skywalker to warn the planet, though the Alliance did not have the strength to tackle the attack force head-on.

Defectors and captors
"How was the hovertrain?''" "''Food was good, but the service was lousy."

- Kasan Moor and Wedge Antilles

When elite Imperial storm commando General Crix Madine was willing to defect to the Rebel Alliance, Rogue Squadron screened his pickup from a safehouse in Coronet City, Corellia. Antilles detected odd readings near the meeting site and scouted the location of the anomaly with Skywalker, only to find Imperial probe droids spying. They destroyed the droids, but as they did so Imperial ground and air forces moved against the Rogues' superior officer, General Carlist Rieekan, who was meeting with city officials in the Capitol Tower. Antilles rushed back to help secure the area, and kept protecting it while Skywalker sped to the Tech Center, where Madine was besieged. Antilles held bombers off long enough that Han Solo and Chewbacca, nearby, were able to help evacuate the beleaguered Capitol Tower just before it was destroyed.

The Rogues soon found themselves cooperating with Madine. When the inhabitants of the planet Gerrard V revolted against the Empire, the Imperial governor, Kohl Seerdon, began looting the world as he prepared to flee. The Rogues were dispatched to escort General Madine's Y-wings as they used their ion cannons to disable the yachts into which the plundered goods were being loaded. Antilles led half of the unit to one city, where they were attacked by the 128th TIE Interceptor Squadron, an elite unit under Lieutenant Kasan Moor. He had to call in Skywalker's forces to reinforce him, allowing the Rogues to defeat the 128th and capture Moor. Moor, an Alderaanian, expressed a desire to defect, and she was admitted to the squadron after some consideration.

Though Antilles remained distrustful of her, Moor began giving the locations of Imperial bases to the Rebellion, leading to strikes by Rogue Squadron. An Imperial supply depot on the planet Loronar's Jade Moon fell to Crix Madine's commandos while the Rogues provided air cover and disabled the depot's shield. In a swift raid, Antilles and several more Rogues then struck a factory on the planet Balmorra that produced walker and TIEs. They subsequently took Y-wings to bomb the Imperial Enclave on the planet Kile II. As that mission was completed, Antilles was ambushed by TIE Interceptors. Unable to avoid them in the sluggish Y-wing and subjected to heavy fire, he put down rather than be shot out of the sky, and was captured by Imperial forces before the Rogues could intervene.

His captors transferred Antilles to the penal facilities of the planet Kessel. Aboard a Kesselian hovertrain taking him from his initial holding facility to prison, Antilles was suddenly rescued by his fellow Rogues as they disabled the train. Brought his own X-wing, Antilles was relieved to escape and shared what he had learned aboard the hovertrain: other Rebels were being held in Kessel's prisons. Madine and his commandos were called in to perform a rescue. Antilles helped provide cover as Madine's men raided several penitentiaries based on Antilles's information. After this series of raids and her participation in his rescue, Moor had earned Antilles's trust.

Rogue Squadron then turned its attention to the emerging threat of ambitious and oppressive Moff Kohl Seerdon, formerly Moor's patron. Seerdon was planning to move against Thyferra, the vital world that produced bacta, and shut off Rebel access to the immeasurably important healing agent. The Rogues began striking at Seerdon's holdings, hoping to retard his battle preparations and cripple his supply chain. They began with a hit-and-run A-wing strike at planet Taloraan, where the Empire mined the tibanna gas that powered its weapons. With support from a CR90 corvette, they destroyed much of Seerdon's accumulated gas stockpile. At the same time, a commando unit attempted to steal several All Terrain Personal Transports from a research facility on the planet Fest. Their escape was compromised, and the Rogues sped to Fest to cover the AT-PTs as they made their way to an Alliance transport under heavy Imperial attack. After shepherding the walkers to safety, they destroyed the research facility.

Seerdon then turned to blockading Chandrila, the peaceful, anti-Imperial homeworld of Rebel Alliance leader Mon Mothma, in retaliation for his recent losses. He isolated one of its major cities and began bombarding it, prompting Rieekan to send the Rogues to escort a relief hovertrain filled with supplies to the besieged city and eliminate Seerdon's forces. Antilles helped guard the hovertrain as Imperial fighters and bombers assaulted it, and once it reached the city safely he began shooting down Seerdon's bombers. Once that threat was eliminated, Rieekan sent several shuttles to evacuate the population, which the Rogues protected. They then settled in to defend Chandrila until Seerdon's threat was eliminated, letting Seerdon escape the planet. In retaliation for the attack on Chandrila, the Rogues struck at one of Seerdon's bases on the planet Sullust. Flying into a volcano, they destroyed the important shielded station within, exacting their revenge for Chandrila. However, as they finished the mission, they learned that Seerdon had decoyed them into the attack and then used it as a diversion, striking at Thyferra while Rogue Squadron was otherwise occupied. The Rogues rushed to Thyferra, and in a hard-fought battle they protected Rebel bacta supplies and destroyed Seerdon's invasion force. Skywalker personally killed Seerdon when he shot down the Moff's Sentinel-class landing craft, ending the crisis.

In 1 ABY, Antilles was stationed at the Rebel outpost near the city of Kor Vella on his homeworld of Corellia. While assigned to that hidden base, Antilles got into a dogfight with several TIE Interceptors, and his fighter was damaged. While it was being repaired, he worked to recruit new allies for the Rebels. He entered into negotiations with a group of Corellian Engineering Corporation workers' union leaders, who were interested in joining the Alliance, but wanted to hear Antilles&mdash;by now considered a hero of the Rebel movement&mdash;speak about the Battle of Yavin. He had a Rebel agent referred to him by Alliance Major Qual'do Herm carry a letter confirming their meeting to the prospective allies' spokesman Devlin. Devlin agreed to the time and place, and Antilles gave a speech that convinced them to throw their support behind the Rebel Alliance. Only one union leader, Iris, dissented. Antilles had to send the same Rebel agent to reason with her, as he knew she was likely to turn the other union leaders in to the Empire. When she insisted on selling them out and drew a blaster on the agent, the agent killed her, an outcome Antilles regretted but accepted as the only way to protect the Alliance.

On hearing intelligence reports of Imperials bringing power generators from the abandoned Rebel base on Dantooine to Corellia, Antilles called on the same agent to capture the officer in charge of the mysterious project, General Graise, and bring him to Kor Vella for interrogation. The agent did so, and Graise confessed that the generators were being rebuilt and shipped off-planet for use in another project. Antilles sent the agent to assassinate the man in charge of that endeavor, General Boize, allowing the Rebels to recover the valuable generators and stymie the Imperial plot. Further information from documents on Graise's person revealed that he had been running storehouse of impounded starships and parts. Antilles again ordered the agent to undertake a mission, this time to seize the code cylinder allowing access to the building from Emil, the quartermaster for the storehouse. Once Antilles gained the code cylinder, the Rebels were able to raid the facility for an important boost to their starfleet. With no more tasks for the agent, Antilles forwarded the being to Leia Organa for further assignments.

Antilles later used another agent to eavesdrop on two Imperial officers in the city of Bela Vistal on Corellia in the hopes of finding the location of a hidden base in which several confiscated Rebel X-wings were stored. The agent found and infiltrated the base, killed the guards, and disabled the security systems, allowing the Rebellion to retake the fighters. During the Rebel holiday Remembrance Day, 1 ABY, Antilles attended a celebration in Coronet. There, he tasked a Rebel to rescue several Alliance pilots who had been captured and imprisoned in a prison bunker near an Imperial base erected on Yavin 4. The agent completed the mission and returned to confirm the success with Antilles&mdash;and to ask the famous pilot for an autograph. While traveling with several other Rogues to inspect a Corellian Engineering Corporation yard after the Battle of Talus, Antilles was ambushed by 4-LOM and another bounty hunter. After a firefight that wounded most of his companions, he was captured and turned over to the Empire, having been put on the Emperor's Most Wanted list. A Rebel strike force freed him and several other inmates from imprisonment near Bestine on Tatooine, returning them to the Rebel cause.

When Lando Calrissian, Baron Administrator of Cloud City and sympathetic to the Rebels, contacted the Alliance with information that a missing medical shipment of ryll they had been seeking was located on the asteroid Skip 52 of the notorious asteroid field hideout, Smuggler's Run, Antilles was sent to meet a Rebel ally who had been working for Calrissian at the planet Wrea. He flew the agent through the treacherous asteroid field to Skip 52 in a modified two-seat Headhunter. When they arrived they found that Imperial Intelligence agents under the notorious and secretive Blackhole had already taken control of the spice. Antilles and his ally battled Blackhole's shadow stormtroopers, overcoming them after a drawn-out gunfight. The pair contacted Calrissian, who arranged to ship the ryll to the medical facility for which it had originally been destined.

Antilles was at the planet Xyquine II when it was struck by an Imperial attack. There, to cover the retreat, Rebel pilot Pash Cracken invented the Cracken Twist, a trick in which modified jump coordinates were transmitted to recipients who knew to subtract from the second digit in the coordinates for the actual course, allowing them to fool eavesdropping enemy ships. The Cracken Twist proved popular, prompting Antilles to design a maneuver that could be used when a Cracken Twist was called for, letting any eavesdroppers think the motion was the twist. Antilles's invention, the screen formation, worked both as a distraction and as a way for a handful of skilled pilots to provide comprehensive protection, forming a sphere of starfighters, rapidly switching position, around an escorted ship.

Freedom's winter
"If the Death Star didn't stop you an' me&hellip;what can these things do?"

- Wedge Antilles, to Luke Skywalker

By 3 ABY, the Alliance's Echo Base had been established on Hoth. Antilles and the other Rogues were assigned there. As an expert pilot and experienced officer, Antilles was put in charge of training new pilots at the base. While escorting a vital supply convoy, Renegade Flight was ambushed near the planet Derra IV; the convoy was lost with no survivors. In the wake of the battle, Rieekan promoted Skywalker to fill Narra's position. When Skywalker went missing during a ground patrol of Hoth not long afterward, the Rogues were sent out to rescue him and Solo, who had gone out in search of him upon tauntaun, as soon as the base's T-47 airspeeders were properly adapted to Hoth's cold. Senesca found them after they had managed to survive the bitterly cold night.

Later in the day, an Imperial probe droid was discovered spying on the base. The Rebels immediately prepared to evacuate their new base. When Vader's Death Squadron arrived in the Hoth system, Rogue Group was assigned to hold off the Imperial landing force and defend the theater shield that protected the base from orbital bombardment and direct landings. With Wes Janson as his gunner, Antilles piloted his T-47 against the Empire's powerful All Terrain Armored Transports as Rogue Three. They first protected Outpost Beta, site of the ion cannon covering the evacuation, then moved on to defend the shield generator against the main force. When the AT-ATs' armor proved too strong for the speeders' blasters, Skywalker ordered a shift to using the T-47s' industrial tow cables to trip up the walkers. Skywalker made the first pass, but his gunner, Dack Ralter, was killed in the attempt. Skywalker, as Rogue Leader, ordered Antilles and Janson to make the first trip. Janson made the harpoon shot, and Antilles looped his speeder around the AT-AT Blizzard 2 until the machine's legs were entangled and it tumbled to Hoth's icy surface. With the machine's vulnerable neck better exposed, Antilles scored a shot that destroyed the downed walker. When Skywalker was shot down, he contacted Antilles and turned command of the Rogues over to him. Rieekan simultaneously commed Antilles with the same decision, asking for an update on the situation. Antilles helped cover the downed Skywalker as he made his way back to base.

The Rebels were unable to hold off the Imperial ground assault, and Leia Organa called the retreat after Imperials entered the base. Imperial General Maximilian Veers destroyed the shield generator in the next minute. With their airspeeder damaged and Antilles's right arm injured, he and Janson had to bail from the crippled craft and march to the rear of the base, where they transferred to starfighters and prepared to escort the remaining evacuation transports as they ran the gauntlet of the Imperial fleet. Taking off in his X-wing, Antilles defended the loading transports from fighter and bomber attack. Along with a Y-wing crewed by Klivian and Janson, Antilles escorted the transport Thon's Orchard. When a Star Destroyer obstructed escape, Antilles hastily pulled off an expert Tallon Split with Klivian, confusing the Star Destroyer's tracking arrays long enough for him to destroy one of the ship's sensors, giving Thon's Orchard an avenue of escape.

Antilles returned to Hoth and waited for Skywalker to arrive safely before making his final departure. While on the ground, he took command of an infantry unit struggling to defend against the Imperial advance. There, he learned that General Crix Madine had been captured by Imperial forces in the course of the evacuation and, grabbing another soldier, rushed to rescue Madine in a T-47. Antilles found Imperial officer Jeffren Brek and several snowtroopers marching Madine and two of the general's aides to a shuttle and attacked the Imperials. Brek escaped in the shuttle with Madine, but Antilles managed to save the two subordinates, who informed him that Brek was taking Madine to the Star Destroyer Tyrant for transfer to prison. Antilles dispatched the soldier whom he had brought with him to arrange a raid on the Tyrant, which successfully recovered Madine.

Back at Echo Base, Antilles was joined by Skywalker, who joined him in escorting the transport Dutyfree to safety. Skywalker and Antilles saw the ship out, with Skywalker ordering the transport and Antilles ahead. With navigator Areta Bell plotting a course that kept them out of the reach of Imperial Star Destroyers, Antilles and the Dutyfree jumped to hyperspace, but Skywalker hung behind, jumping to Dagobah to continue his Jedi training instead of escaping to the fleet rendezvous above the galactic plane.

Antilles boarded the cruiser Champion, which was to proceed to the rendezvous point. It came under attack from the Tyrant, however, and fighters had to scramble to defend the ship until it could jump to hyperspace. The same soldier Antilles had earlier sent to free Madine flew in the battle despite having little fighter experience and impressed Antilles, who later congratulated him with Madine in the officers' lounge. Intercepted signals revealed that the Tyrant had been ordered to support an Imperial ambush at the gas giant Bespin, and Antilles sent the same soldier to make contact with Rebel informer Yoxgit on Cloud City and determine what was happening. He learned that the Empire had captured Han Solo and frozen him in carbonite. A bounty hunter named Boba Fett had taken possession of Solo to deliver him to the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, to whom Solo owed a debt. Antilles rushed to Bespin and led a raid on Fett as he transported Solo, but the bounty hunter escaped with Antilles's friend. Antilles was alarmed and frustrated, but began preparing for another rescue effort.