Syal Antilles

Syal Antilles was the eldest daughter of Wedge Antilles and Iella Wessiri Antilles. She was named after her aunt Syal Antilles Fel who was better known as Wynssa Starflare, the famous holodrama actress. She was born some time before 20 ABY, and though her father was often away due to his New Republic Defense Force obligations, she inherited his love of piloting. During the Yuuzhan Vong War, Syal, her mother, and her younger sister Myri were forced to flee their home on Coruscant when it fell to the Yuuzhan Vong. While Iella Wessiri Antilles returned to active service, Syal and Myri were sent to a Jedi sanctuary in the Maw Cluster for their safety.

Years after the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Syal and the rest of her family moved to the elder Antilles' homeworld of Corellia. She completed school there and eventually joined the Galactic Alliance Navy under an alias as a starfighter pilot, training under her father's old wingman Tycho Celchu. In the Second Galactic Civil War, Syal was part of the Galactic Alliance Blockade of Corellia, and the resulting clashes between Corellian forces and the Galactic Alliance fleet saw her engage in combat, which on two occasions brought her into conflict with her father, who was flying for the Corellians. After her identity was revealed, Syal was forced to change squadrons and served in the Battle of Tralus. She continued to serve in the Galactic Alliance military throughout the war. Towards its latter stages, after her father broke with the Corellians and joined up with the renegade Jedi Coalition, Syal was attached as an aide to General Celchu, and was then sent with him on a covert diplomatic mission to the Jedi Order. Following Celchu's negotiations, Syal and Celchu briefly flew in Rakehell Squadron as part of the Jedi plan for the Battle of Centerpoint Station. While Celchu returned to the Galactic Alliance fleet during the battle, he ordered Syal to remain with the Jedi and her father, and she took orders from Wedge throughout the battle, which led her to shoot down at least one member of Rogue Squadron. She remained with Wedge after the battle was complete and Centerpoint Station was destroyed on an extended assignment.

Early life and childhood
Syal Antilles was born as the eldest child of General Wedge Antilles and New Republic Intelligence agent Iella Wessiri Antilles. At some point early in her childhood, Syal and her young sister Myri attended the Wedding of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade, as both of their parents were invited. Along with the other children, including the Solo children, they were placed under the watch of Booster Terrik for much of the ceremony.

Yuuzhan Vong War
"Except for Wedge's kids, who'll probably just subvert the administrators here to get whatever they want."

- Leia Organa Solo to her husband on Wedge Antilles' children

In 27 ABY, Syal and Myri, along with their mother Iella Wessiri Antilles were on Coruscant when it fell to the Yuuzhan Vong, a few days after they had seen their father, who visited them briefly during his New Republic Defense Force assignment to aid in the defense of Coruscant. Syal and Myri, along with their mother Iella Wessiri Antilles, escaped the fallen galactic capital and made their way to the New Republic garrison on Borleias, where their father Wedge Antilles was in command. After a happy reunion with their father, they were sent to The Maw on the Millennium Falcon, along with several Jedi children. Syal, ten years old at the time, was reluctant to leave, but Wedge insisted that it was for her own safety, as well as his peace of mind. Han Solo, the pilot of the Millennium Falcon was able to cheer her up though, by having the protocol droid C-3PO give her a piggyback ride to the ship, while Solo in turn carried Myri in the same fashion. Han and his wife, Leia Organa Solo, delivered the children to the Maw installation safely without incident, where they remained.

She eventually returned to her father's home world of Corellia where she attended school. She took a job flying a freight speeder to help pay for her education; her father agreed to match every credit she placed in her education fund with four of his own, but only if she earned some of her own money. He also taught her how to fly and his lessons would stick with her years later. Later, Syal would go to an academy and graduate as a starfighter pilot under the watchful eye of Tycho Celchu.

Operation Roundabout


"What's more important, Ten? A frigate silhouette on your fighter, or knowing that you're responsible for keeping units on your own side alive?"

- Syal Antilles

Following the Swarm War, she became an ensign in the Galactic Alliance Defense Force's Vibrosword Squadron. She legally changed her name in a Ralltiir courtroom to Lysa Dunter (an anagram of "Syal turned") to escape the fame of her surname and the fame of her father, Wedge Antilles. Under her new name—being watched carefully by General Tycho Celchu—Syal chose to pilot swift Eta-5 Interceptors and was assigned to Vibrosword "V-Swords" squadron as Vibrosword Seven. However, as junior officer, she had several nervous tendencies, including a constantly twitching right leg, and her squadron commander harassed her about it. She had yet to see combat yet when Vibrosword Squadron was deployed on the Galactic Alliance carrier Dodonna to the Corellian system as part of Operation Roundabout, her first combat assignment.

Not long after Vibrosword Squadron was launched, a Corellian fleet reverted from hyperspace and took up positions between the Galactic Alliance ships and Corellia. The two fleets continued to jockey for position. At one point, a squadron of Corellian Attack Fighters began to fly straight through the Vibrosword Squadron formation. Syal and a Corellian Attack Fighter flew right past each other, but when the squadron leader announced hostile action on the part of the Corellians, Syal maneuvered her fighter so her engines' backblast hit the Attack Fighter less than three meters away from her, which unintentionally destroyed it. The Corellians and Vibrosword Squadron then faced off in a dogfight.

During the skirmish, Syal and the Vibroswords broke though the Corellian unit, but Syal's wingman sustained damage and had to return to Dodonna. Syal then noticed a lone Corellian X-wing starfighter and decided to intercept it. To her surprise, she found that despite her own skill in a starfighter, she was unable to get a target lock on the other craft, which eluded her. When the other pilot broadcast a low-powered signal to her congratulating her on a maneuver, she recognized his voice as that of her father. For a brief moment, she and the elder Antilles ceased firing, vectoring their respective fighters so they could look at each other through their cockpits. They had a brief conversation, with both pilots expressing concern for each other, and then they separated, with Wedge Antilles returning to Corellia and Syal rejoining her squadron.

Flying with a temporary wingman, Vibrosword Ten, Syal and the rest of her unit were ordered back to Dodonna as the fleet prepared to withdraw to the nearby world of Tralus. However, seeing an opportunity to engage a Nebulon-B frigate, Syal stalled for time so she could attack the larger vessel. Syal ordered Eight to engage the shield generators with their missiles, and they did so, although Syal's choice of target allowed Vibrosword Leader to destroy the weakened frigate. The squadron then linked up with Dodonna again and transited to Tralus, which the commander of the Galactic Alliance Fleet, Admiral Matric Klauskin, had ordered occupied.

Tralus
As the Galactic Alliance set up a base on Tralus, Syal was kept busy flying patrols around the system. Little did she know that not only had Tycho Celchu put her up for selection into a test squadron, but that Corellian politician Thrackan Sal-Solo had been trying to arrange for her forced involvement in sabotage missions against the Galactic Alliance. On Dodonna, the chief mechanic approached her and asked to discuss some things in private, saying he had messages from home. The man then tried to compel her to aid the Corellians discreetly. He further implied that her family would be harmed if she didn't cooperate. Syal refused to be suborned and drew her blaster pistol in an attempt to take him into custody. When the mechanic lunged for her pistol, she shot him and was later brought into a hearing with an Intelligence officer and her squadron leader.

When asked about why she specifically was singled out for subversion, Syal admitted her real name. Her squadron leader was outraged and told her that she would soon be discharged from the Galactic Alliance military. The Intelligence officer dismissed him and then told Syal that she could remain in Galactic Alliance service, but would have to change squadrons to a test unit flying Aleph-class fighters or serve as a sensor officer on a larger ship. Syal accepted the squadron transfer, but asked the Intelligence officer why she had so much faith in her. The Intelligence officer replied that she had once flown with her father, but advised Syal to change her name back from Lysa Dunton, as her secret was out.

Flying in the larger, heavier Aleph as part of her new squadron, Syal was paired with a Sullustan copilot named Zueb Zan. Syal was glad to see that Zan didn't have a problem with her identity, but was displeased with the lack of agility inherent in the Aleph. Now stationed aboard the Mon Calamari heavy carrier Blue Diver, Syal quickly tried to make the best she could out of her new job as a test pilot, flying missions in both space and in atmosphere to test the handling of the starfighter.

When Corellian craft were detected en route to the Galactic Alliance base on Tralus, Syal's squadron was launched to intercept. She and her new unit, Gray Squadron, were ordered down into the skies over the city of Rellidir, and quickly defeated a Corellian squadron sent to engage them. They briefly fired on a pair of YT-5100 Shriek bombers inbound towards the Galactic Alliance base, which returned fire. Syal managed to get on the tail of the two bombers, which unbeknownst to her were each flown by Han Solo and Wedge Antilles. Pursuing Solo's bomber, Syal fired upon his craft, while Solo, keyed into her identity by his wife aboard the Galactic Alliance flagship, tried to avoid inflicting lethal damage on her Aleph. As Syal took up a firing position from where Solo couldn't return fire, she noticed the bomber beginning to release some of its payload. To her surprise, Solo had jettisoned a pair of spotter droids, which collided with her fighter. Damaged, she managed to regain control of her fighter and realized that the bombers were going to fly through an underground hangar and have a clean run at the Galactic Alliance base. She continued pursuit and, after advising Galactic Alliance forces of her realization, ordered Zan to destroy the building to keep its hangar from being used a transport route by the Galactic Alliance. Solo also saw her craft and determined her course of action. In response, he fired a concussion missile right under her low-flying craft, which threw her off-course and into a ballistic arc back towards the ground. Syal managed to regain control of her badly damaged fighter, but it was too late to prevent dozens of missiles from streaking through the underground hangar and plummeting into the Galactic Alliance base. Somewhat disheartened, she and Zan nursed her craft back to Blue Diver.

Later, she visited the resort ship Errant Venture for recreation purposes, gambling in the Maw Casino and accompanied by a pilot about her age. She continued to serve on Blue Diver, but was estranged from her parents and family, who were allied first with the Corellians and then later with the breakaway Jedi Coalition after the Jedi Order broke with the Galactic Alliance over the seizure of power by Jedi Knight-turned-Sith Lord Darth Caedus.

Later in the war Lt. Antilles flew an Aleph-class starfighter off of Blue Diver, callsign Dancer One. During the battle preceeding the attempted Centerpoint-assassination of Darth Caedus, Syal gave the Sith Lord cover from his Jedi pursuers. When those Jedi including Luke Skywalker withdrew (unwilling to kill Allana to get to Caedus), Syal was given credit and promoted to Captain. Shortly thereafter Centerpoint Station fired, destroying the Second Fleet, including Blue Diver and Syal's entire command. Among the dead was Tiom Rordan, Syal's fiancé, a fellow fighter pilot off the Mawrunner.

Syal later joined the Jedi led resistance against Jacen Solo as a member of Rakehell Squadron, which was under the command of her father. She took the call sign of Rakehell 4 and went on to participate in the Battle of Centerpoint Station

Behind the scenes
In Betrayal, Syal's alias, Lysa Dunter, is misspelt four times as Lysa Dunton. Strangely, the misspellings appear exclusively in chapter twenty-four.

Syal is also listed twice in the Dramatis Personae of Betrayal, as herself and as Lysa Dunter.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Union
 * Dark Tide II: Ruin
 * Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream
 * The Unifying Force
 * Betrayal
 * Tempest
 * Exile
 * Fury