#wraith backstories

In the Star Wars Legends novel X-Wing: Wraith Squadron, Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson put together a new kind of group for the New Republic Navy – a combination commando unit and starfighter squadron. To conserve resources, Wedge and Wes recruited the initial members of the squadron largely from pilots who had promising skills, but had been identified as misfits or at risk of washing out of the New Republic navy.

Wedge, Wes, and ten other pilots with a variety of skills and backstories made up the original roster of Wraith Squadron (initially known as Gray Squadron).

Of these five original Wraiths to join Wedge and Wes, whose backstory was your favorite? (We covered the other half of the original Wraith Squadron roster in last week’s poll.)

Eurrsk “Grinder” Thri’ag, a Bothan slicer who had a talent for angering his squadmates in various ways, and later turned out to have an extreme love of playing pranks but little sense of the right audience or timing.

Hohass “Runt” Ekwesh, a Thakwaash pilot who, like most of his species, had multiple personalities and regularly switched among them. He had difficulty with flight training while in his “pilot mind” personality as it was focused on finding and shooting enemies rather than on following orders, and upon first joining the Wraiths had a tendency to switch wildly among his various minds.

Tyria Sarkin, a Toprawan pilot with mild Force-sensitivity who was recruited to the squad for her previous experience in the Antarian Rangers, an elite anti-Imperial guerrilla force from her planet; she had nearly washed out due to an abusive training officer who had tampered with her flight scores and blackmailed her about it, destroying much of her self-confidence.

Ton Phanan, a doctor who was seriously injured in the Battle of Endor when the medship he was on was attacked, and chose to become a pilot so he could prevent others from being shot by Imperials instead of merely dealing with the after effects; because of his allergy to bacta, he had to rely on cybernetic implants to deal with his injuries.

Garik “Face” Loran, a former holovid actor who was famous in his youth for his good looks (thus the nickname) and his starring roles in a series of thinly-veiled Imperial propaganda holos that had been wildly successful. He later learned the truth about the Empire from an extremist anti-Imperial group who had kidnapped him, sustained severe injuries to his face, and eventually defected to the Alliance and attempted to atone for his previous work for the Empire.

In the Star Wars Legends novel X-Wing: Wraith Squadron, Wedge Antilles and Wes Janson put together a new kind of group for the New Republic Navy – a combination commando unit and starfighter squadron. To conserve resources, Wedge and Wes recruited the initial members of the squadron largely from pilots who had promising skills, but had been identified as misfits or at risk of washing out of the New Republic navy.

Wedge, Wes, and ten other pilots with a variety of skills and backstories made up the original roster of Wraith Squadron (initially known as Gray Squadron).

Of these five original Wraiths to join Wedge and Wes, whose backstory is your favorite? (We’ll ask about the other half of the roster in part 2.)

Falynn Sandskimmer, an ace Y-wing pilot from Tatooine who was extremely sick of being compared to a certain X-wing pilot from Tatooine, and often got charged with insubordination for voicing her low opinion of Luke Skywalker and other famous Rebels.

Voort “Piggy” saBinring, a Gamorrean who had been genetically engineered for high intelligence and mathematical abilities, so skilled that he could do navigation calculations without an astromech and was an expert in pattern recognition; he had been charged with insubordination because other officers kept attempting to start fights with him, and merely blocking their punches was enough to get charged.

Myn Donos, a Corellian sniper and pilot who was the lone survivor when his former squadron, Talon Squadron, was ambushed; Talon Squadron was lured into the ambush thanks to false intelligence planted by Imperial agent Gara Petothel, and Donos was so troubled by the incident that he no longer would wear the Corellian bloodstripes he had earned previously.

Kell Tainer, an ace pilot and demolitions expert from Alderaan whose father, also a pilot, panicked during an early mission for the Rebellion and tried to flee, forcing Wes Janson to shoot him down and prompting Kell’s family to change their name due to his father’s reputation for cowardice; he constantly sought to be the best and to somehow make up for his father’s failings.

Jesmin Ackbar, a Mon Calamari and the niece of Admiral Gial Ackbar; Jesmin was a gifted pilot and communications expert but kept getting assignments way beneath her abilities, because nobody wanted to be the commanding officer who got Admiral Ackbar’s niece killed.