Rogue Squadron/Legends



"Well, you know the Rogues. All we need is a ship and rock to land it on."

- Wedge Antilles

Rogue Squadron was an elite X-wing starfighter squadron founded by Wedge Antilles and Luke Skywalker shortly after the Battle of Yavin.

Yavin, Hoth, and Endor
The origins of Rogue Squadron could be traced back to the Battle of Yavin, where the two pilots who would ultimately establish Rogue Squadron&mdash;Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles&mdash;were the only members of the Rebel Alliance's Red Squadron to survive the Battle of Yavin.

After the battle, Red Squadron was reformed and would operate as two groups. The first was Renegade Flight under Commander Narra, the squadron leader; the second was Rogue Flight under Luke Skywalker. The core of Rogue Flight was Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, Zev Senesca, Wes Janson, and later Kasan Moor.

Renegade Flight was destroyed after the Battle of Yavin on an escort mission at Ison, coming from Derra IV with a convoy carrying supplies for the Rebel base. A little while later, Rogue Flight and some other fighters arrived in the Ison Corridor, where they discovered the wreckage of Renegade Flight and the convoy they were escorting. Then Rogue Flight and its convoy were ambushed on all sides in what became the Battle of the Ison Corridor. After this, Rogue Flight became Rogue Squadron, with Luke Skywalker as their commander, and with new pilots added to their roster, like Tycho Celchu and Red Squadron veteran Derek Klivian. As the Rogues became more autonomous, they became a group with no standing orders, ready any time or place for urgent missions that would arise. During the Battle of Hoth, the Rogues had only eight pilots (grouped into a four pairs), but they add some 'guest' members into their squadron, including the visiting smuggler Dash Rendar. The snowspeeders of the Rogues gave the Rebels enough time to evacuate Echo Base. Only six of them survived the Battle of Hoth. After the evacuation of Hoth, Antilles took command during the absence of Skywalker during his trials on Dagobah, leading a dangerous mission at the Maw.Then Wedge led important missions such as the Battle of Dubrillion, the Mission at Destrillion, the Battle of Kothlis and the Battle of Fondor. After the capture of Han Solo, Skywalker and Antilles formed a squadron of 12 units around the core group and the Rogue Squadron was formed. Antilles often commanded the squadron when Luke had important off-flight missions. One of Luke's last missions was the Battle of Gall against the Imperials, in an attempt to flush out the bounty hunter who had abducted Han Solo. Rogue squadron particapated in countless important missions during the year leading up to the battle of Endor. The Squadron particapated in the stealing of the shuttle Tydirium, the rescuing of prisoners captured on Hoth in the First Battle of Bakura, the subsequent pursuit of the Imperial Escort carrier Exploiter to Geonosis, and last but not least, the Battle of Bespin. During the Battle of Endor, Rogue Squadron was dissolved and absorbed into the general fleet, with many of its pilots distributed to other squadrons. The remaining Rogues and new pilots were grouped into a unit called Red Squadron, which Antilles named in memory of the Battle of Yavin; he himself took the role of "Red Leader". In fact, only five pilots remained in Rogue Squadron&mdash;Wedge Antilles (Red Leader, X-wing), Tycho Celchu (Red Two, A-wing), Wes Janson (Red Three, Y-wing), Derek Klivian (Red Four, A-wing), and an unidentified Human male as Red Five (X-wing). All of them (except Red Five) survived the battle.

Fighting for a New Republic
After Endor, the squadron was hastily and temporarily reformed by Antilles with the best rebel pilots in order to defend the planet Bakura. The Rogue Squadron was now a lean team of 6 units: Antilles, Janson, Klivian, Celchu, Plourr Ilo and Dllr Nep. One of the important missions during the New Republic's infancy was the failed rescue mission for Sate Pestage, which bolstered the fame of New Republic.

Since Janson and Klivian went to train new squadrons, Antilles had to reinvent Rogue Squadron, which for political reasons now with pilots from a wide variety of planets. The reconstituted Rogue Squadron fought against Imperial forces led by Ysanne Isard. They were instrumental in the capture of Coruscant for the New Republic, and were involved in the Bacta War to liberate Thyferra from Isard&mdash;a war they resigned their commissions to fight. In the war against Isard, Rogue squadron was reformed and quickly trained. It was comprised of pilots like Corran Horn, Gavin Darklighter, Erisi Dlarit, and Lujayne Forge. they were quickly thrust into the line of fire in the disatorous Battle of Borleias. Very soon after, Borleias was taken in second heated assault. From there the New Republic put itself into a position to take an offensive step toward the core, particularly the capital city of Coruscant.

Then, with two new additions of Aril Nunb and Pash Cracken, Rogue Squadron infiltrated Coruscant. They went in as teams of two but all subsequently met up, gaining an ally in Asyr Sei'lar, a bothan who was an alum of the Bothan Martial Academy. Tycho Celchu,saved a bunch of the Rogues, when he was presumed dead after a disatorous attack by Warlord Zsinj on Noquivzor. He had been brought in beforehand by Wedge as backup. Tycho had purchased five Z-95 Headhunters, which were used in the attack to bring Coruscant's orbital shields.

During the battle, Corran Horn's Headhunter was taken over by an outside force Ysanne Isard. She had been given the codes to his fighter.

Tycho Celchu was accused of being the traitor and was brought on trial, defended by Nawara Ven. Meanwhile, Corran Horn was trapped in Isard's Lusankya facility. He managed to escape, while Celchu's trial was tearing Rogue Squadron apart. Finally, when Ysaane Isard blasted out of Coruscant on the Lusankya, Erisi Dlarit, the real traitor, faked being pulled by a tractor beam, and rondevoused with the Super Star-Destroyer.

To pursue Isard, Rogue Squadron resigned their comissions and particapated in the Bacta War. They lured the Star Destroyer Avarice to the New Republic, and they heavily damaged Lusaknya, making her surrender. Thyferra was liberated, and Rogue Squadron gained a pilot in Tal'dira. however, Nawara Ven became the Squadron's XO, never to fly an X-Wing again, for he had lost his leg and wsn't able to fly well enough with a prosthetic.

During that time, Klivian led a temporary Rogue Squadron during the "true" Rogue Squadron's absence. However, a alleged filing error kept the resignations from being documented, and the Rogues were again New Republic officers. Antilles turned command over to Celchu and founded Wraith Squadron. Antilles commanded both squadrons against Warlord Zsinj and after that he returned to his command as Rogue Leader to battle against Thrawn, Krennel, Palpatine's clones and lead the team to other glorious battles.

One of the most important conflicts Rogue Squadron particapted in was the conquest of Prince Admiral Delak Krennel's hedgemony. The New Republic took on eof its outlying planets and then prepared to attack Ciutric, the capital planet of the Hedgemony. Rogue Squadron was also at the time looking for clues that would lead to the reamining Lusankya prisoners. One, Urlor Sette turned up at a party for the squadron. Once Corran Horn recognized him and said his name, a device implanted in Sette killed Urlor. The Squadron went on a mission to Commmenor, finding some of the prisoners and learning that Isard might be alive. During the attack on one of Krennel's outlying planets, Horn was shot down. He found a secret facility that showed evidence that a Pulsar Station, a bit like the Death Star. They went to attack the supposed site of it, a moon orbiting a gas giant, but were ambushed. They were saved by two squadrons of TIE Defenders, Stranger and Interloper Squadrons, under the command of Colonel Vessery. They were taken to a secret base, having lost 4 pilots, 2 dead, 2 severly injured and thought dead.

The squadron was trained to use TIE Defenders and then attacked Ciutric. The New Republic attacked at the same time, killing Krennel in the ensuing space battle. Isard tried to recapture Lusankya at Sluis Van, but was shot and killed in the attempt by Iella Wessiri. Isard had already betrayed Rogue Squadron by not supporting them in their attempt to kill the clone Isard and rescue the rest of the Lusankya prisoners at Ciutric. Rogue Squadron was successful however, and the clone of Isard was killed.

Soon after this battle, Wedge Antilles retired as the commander of Rogue Squadron and took a position as the commander of a task force with the newly rebuilt Lusankya as his flagship. A situation on the newly found planet of Adumar called for Wedge to return to the cockpit and with Tycho Celchu, Wes Janson and Hobbie Klivian he led a diplomatic envoy which succeeded in him bring the neutral world to the New Republic. Following Adumar's allegiance with the New Republic the Rogues were deployed on a number of campaigns most notable of which was against the Invids led by former Imperial Admiral Tavira. Corran Horn, now trained as a Jedi, was instrumental in this campaign as he found the Dark Side users behind the Invid's and stopped them.

The return of Emperor Palpatine meant that the Rogues were back flying mission after mission to safeguard the New Republic. The Cammassi Document incident also called for Rogue Squadron's unique talents as they were pressed into ground-based service in an attempt to find out the truth behind the document. The return of Thrawn also saw the Rogues' thrust back into the frontlines in an attempt to protect the New Republic.

The signing of the peace treaty ending the Civil War marked the time for many pilots from Rogue Squadron to retire.

Yuuzhan Vong War
"Rogue Squadron to Borleias. We're back. We kicked your butt twenty years ago. Now we're here to do it again."

- Colonel Gavin Darklighter, 27.5 ABY

Under the leadership of Colonel Gavin Darklighter, Rogue Squadron played a central role in a number of battles against the Yuuzhan Vong. The conflict saw Rogue Squadron take heavy losses, including nine pilots killed, one resignation and one transfer.

Identity
During reformed Rogue Squadron's training they were put into simulated combat against a wing of Y-wings. The base commander, General Horton Salm, agreed to the competition on the belief that the Rogues could not possibly beat 36 Y-wings even with 12 X-wings. The Y-wings of Defender Wing, led by Horton Salm, were decimated with 30 out of the 36 ships destroyed. The Rogues only lost 4 of their own. As if the 8-1 kill ratio wasn't galling enough, a number of Rogue Squadron pilots, led by Corran Horn (with the help of Horn's astromech, Whistler), hacked into the TAARS package. Upon their "death," instead of their flight information, the Defender Wing pilots would have the Rogue Squadron crest shown on their screen. Gavin Darklighter designed the unofficial crest for the prank and the unit adopted it as their own. The crest was described as "a twelve-pointed red star with the Alliance crest in blue at the center, had an X-wing at each point of the star." It was soon adopted by the squadron, painted on their X-wings, and sewn onto their flight suits.



In addition to the unit patches, all Rogue Squadron X-wings had their S-foils painted with red stripes in the far corner near the cannon. The 181st Imperial Flight Group had a similar design on their TIE Interceptors and as a result Red Stripes on the wings became a sign of supreme skill and honor in the pilot community.

Prior to the invasion of Coruscant, Rogue Squadron pilots often supplied their own flight suits or wore standard orange jumpsuits. Subsequently, to honor Corran Horn's "death", official unit uniforms were created based on his CorSec flightsuit's color scheme. The new uniforms were described as an "evergreen overall, with dark grey flank panels, black sleeves, leg stripes, and trim. On the left sleeve and breast rode the Rogue Squadron crest."

In 25 ABY, Colonel Darklighter wore a silver ring that bore the squadron crest. Its inclusion of his rank marker makes it an unlikely personal effect, but it is unknown if the use of such symbols of command were common across the Defense Force or a Rogue Squadron tradition.

Pilots

 * Wedge Antilles
 * Luke Skywalker
 * Zev Senesca
 * Derek "Hobbie" Klivian
 * Tycho Celchu
 * Samoc Farr
 * Wes Janson
 * Dak Ralter
 * Kesin Ommis
 * Kit Valent
 * Tarn Mison
 * Tarrin Datch
 * Kasan Moor
 * Tenk Lenso
 * Keir Santage
 * Ten Numb
 * Corran Horn
 * Gavin Darklighter
 * Ibtisam
 * Nrin Vakil
 * Xarcce Huwla
 * Soontir Fel
 * Plourr Ilo
 * Jaina Solo

Behind the scenes
The comic series by Michael A. Stackpole and Dark Horse Comics, X-Wing: Rogue Squadron tells of the first reformation of the squadron after the Battle of Endor.

The book series, also by Stackpole, tells of the squadron's second reformation, two years after Endor, and details the capture of Coruscant. The titles in that series are Rogue Squadron, Wedge's Gamble, The Krytos Trap and The Bacta War. Another series of books, written by Aaron Allston, follows Wraith Squadron, a squad formed by Antilles after the Bacta War which worked closely with the Rogues. These books are Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, and Solo Command.

Stackpole returned to the series with Isard's Revenge, and Allston ended it with Starfighters of Adumar, a novel about Antilles and his closest compatriots, Tycho Celchu, Wes Janson, and Derek Klivian. Corran Horn, one of Rogue Squadron's pilots, is the subject of I, Jedi, another, longer book by Stackpole.

There are also three video games developed by Factor 5 and published by LucasArts: Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, for the Nintendo 64, and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, both for the Nintendo GameCube.

Appearances

 * X-wing Rogue Squadron 1/2
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike
 * Lucky
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * X-wing: Rogue Leader
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: Apple Jacks Special Bonus Story
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: The Rebel Opposition
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: The Phantom Affair
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: Battleground: Tatooine
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: The Warrior Princess
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: Requiem for a Rogue
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: In the Empire's Service
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron 25: The Making of Baron Fel
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: Family Ties
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: Masquerade
 * X-wing Rogue Squadron: Mandatory Retirement
 * X-wing: Rogue Squadron
 * X-wing: Wedge's Gamble
 * X-wing: The Krytos Trap
 * X-wing: The Bacta War
 * X-wing: Wraith Squadron
 * X-wing: Solo Command
 * Heir to the Empire
 * The Last Command
 * X-wing: Isard's Revenge
 * I, Jedi
 * Crimson Empire
 * X-wing: Starfighters of Adumar
 * Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
 * Union
 * ''Chewbacca
 * New Jedi Order series