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'''Solo Command''' }}
 
These novels, written by Allston, concern a second squadron founded by Wedge, and are informally called the Wraith Squadron series. Starting just after the end of ''The Bacta War'', this series keeps Wedge and X-Wings but takes on [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|an entirely new squadron]]. Literally -- Wedge forms it in the first book, looking back on the most successful Rogue rosters and realizing that they were fundamentally composed of pilots with commando skills, then mixing that idea with the odd [[Career -Building Blunder]] and amping it up as part of a gambit to avoid being promoted to General and becoming a [[Desk Jockey|Desk Officer]]. The Wraiths are a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]], commandos with flying skills, formed exclusively of pilots who are on the [[Last Second Chance|verge of being kicked out of service]] due to their [[Dysfunction Junction|various dysfunctions]]; their long-term opponent is the [[Large Ham]] Warlord Zsinj, who uses a [[Harmless Villain]] facade as [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]. This series is known for being much more focused on characters and humor than Stackpole's novels, but isn't without deeper themes. The end of ''Solo Command'' leads right up into the earlier-written ''[[The Courtship of Princess Leia]]''.
 
Two more novels were released, one each by Stackpole and Allston. '''Isard's Revenge''' takes place directly after [[The Thrawn Trilogy]] and concerns the efforts of Rogue Squadron to bring justice to Stackpole's [[Big Bad]], who escaped -- twice -- despite her defeat in the Bacta War, and ties a few loose ends left after the end of the comics. '''Starfighters Of Adumar''', though marketed as a Rogue Squadron novel, is really about Wedge himself; this is essentially his [[A Day in The Limelight|Day In The Limelight]], focusing on his life, career, friends and love life (or lack thereof) during a diplomatic mission in which he attempts to bring the planet Adumar into the New Republic by winning a flying-duel-based popularity contest.
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Half mention also goes to '''[[Jedi Academy Trilogy|I, Jedi]]''', written by Stackpole and starring Corran Horn.
 
Unlike later multiple-authored series, the X-Wing novels are somewhat [[Low Fantasy|smaller in scope]] and [[Interquel|fit into events established by other books and comics]], often retconning little things to make events more sensible. There are some references between the games, the comics, and the novels; ties are most obvious between later comics and Stackpole's novels. Stackpole is known for getting along well with [[Timothy Zahn]], and the two trade [[Shout -Out|Shout Outs]] with some frequency. Aaron Allston also incorporates characters and events from the series into his mainstream entries of the saga, such as Wedge and the Wraiths in the ''Enemy Lines'' duology, or Wedge's family in his ''Legacy of the Force'' volumes.
 
Has a [[X Wing Series (Comic Book)/Characters|character sheet]].
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* [[Coincidence Magnet]]: Wraith Squadron's members include not one, but ''two'' pilots who are the only member of their species in the New Republic military (and have to pretend to have a third later on), as well as [[The Mole]].
* [[Cold Sniper]]: Myn Donos.
* [[Come Back to Bed, Honey]]: In ''The Bacta War'', Corran gets called back to bed by Mirax while he's up late at night, worrying over what he's gotten them all into.
* [[Come to Gawk]]
* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: Hallis Saper mentions that the reason she uses a modified protocol droid head mounted on her shoulder to record footage instead of an actual camera is because she read a study that people generally found protocol droids to be nonthreatening. Wedge is tempted to point out the potential of a two headed woman walking around. One who also wears opaque black goggles (which are connected to the droid head camera and make it look where she looks).<ref> It's eventually revealed that the ''real'' reason for that rather ridiculous setup is that everyone looks at and remembers the droid, not ''her'' face.</ref>
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* [[Did Not Do the Research]]- In ''Iron Fist'', Castin comes across a group of imperial scientists experimenting on a [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Talz Talz] The Talz is described to open its mouth and roar during the experiment. Just how wide can those little things open? It could be possible this is because [[Unreliable Narrator|Castin is a racist prick, and therefore unable to tell a Talz from something else]]...except that Melvar, in his report, ''also'' called it a Talz.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Isard responds to the repeated Rogue Squadron pirate attacks on her bacta convoys by sending a ''Victory''-class star destroyer to wipe a defenseless colony off the face of the galaxy. That colony's "crime" had been to accept the stolen bacta from the Rogues since, like a lot of people, they couldn't afford the ridiculously high prices set by Isard and her allies.
* [[Dog FightingDogfighting Furballs]]: Half of the action in the books are of this type, the other half being espionage.
* [[Don't You Dare Pity Me!]]: Falynn suffers from a [[Always Second Best|serious inferiority complex]] and hates the idea of being coddled.
* [[Downer Ending]]: The comics. Along with having Isard ahead (for the moment), quite a few of the comics characters are never seen again.
* [[Dramatis Personae]]: This series started the trend of including these in ''Star Wars'' novels.
* [[Dying Alone]]: When {{spoiler|Kirtan Loor}} is dying, he remembers that Corran once stated that there's nothing worse than dying alone, and realizes that he was right.
* [[Early -Bird Cameo]]: These are particularly common in "Rogue Squadron", which includes both [[Call Forward|Call Forwards]] to events from books written earlier but set chronologically later (Thrawn, Zsinj, the Hapans) as well as featuring things that will come up in later X-wing books such as the planet Toprawa.
* [[Elite Mook]]: Zsinj's Raptors, which were mentioned in the backstory for "The Courtship of Princess Leia" but get a fuller treatment in Allston's books.
* [[Ejection Seat]]: Used frequently.
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** Castin Donn is mentioned to have been in one of the few anti-Imperial groups which were equally anti-alien. This leads to... friction.
** In one novel, the Wraiths play a prank that convinces a cantina-full of people that [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Falynn_Sandskimmer Falynn] was married to [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Voort_saBinring Piggy]. Piggy [[What the Hell, Hero?|asks]] an ''extremely'' pissed-off Falynn if she would have been so upset if it were, say, her and [[Good Looking Privates|Kell]]? Surprisingly for this trope, she realizes she's being kind of an unwitting dick to Piggy, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|apologizes, and they agree to go back to the bar for a drink and a dance, no hard feelings.]]
* [[Five -Token Band]]: In "Rogue Squadron" Wedge complains that the New Republic is trying to turn Rogue Squadron into one to act as a propaganda symbol, meaning he's having to accept pilots based on political considerations rather than absolute skill. The most absurd case is that the New Republic wants Thyferra on side because it produces bacta, but Thyferra is ruled by a corporate cartel duopoly of two big companies who hate each other, so Wedge has to take on ''two'' Thyferran pilots, one from each side.
* [[Fix Fic]]: The Allston books to ''[[The Courtship of Princess Leia]]'' (see [[Historical Villain Upgrade]] below.)
** Allston also fixes (with [[Lampshade Hanging]]) a slight continuity error on Stackpole's part, where Corran Horn meets Han Solo for the first time in ''[[I Jedi]]'', despite having served on his ship during the Zsinj campaign several years earlier. Allston has the pilots have an [[In Universe]] [[Running Gag]] that Horn and Solo are the same person because they are never seen in the same room.
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** Zsinj and [[The Dragon|Melvar]]. Possibly a case of Obfuscating Ham-osity.
* [[Last Starfighter]]: From time to time the Rogues or the Wraiths find themselves severely, insanely outnumbered.
** In ''Starfighters of Adumar'' and ''The Bacta War'', their opponents are all basically rookies (in some cases, flying their first mission ever) and/or in undergunned and underdefended ships. Numbers are the ''only'' thing the enemy have going for them during those engagements... and, [[Truth in Television|as we know from history]] (such as the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Lebanon_War:1982 Lebanon War|1982 Lebanon War]]), superior training and equipment can be the equal of sheer numbers.
** That's a common ''Star Wars'' trope, as TIE Fighters are [[Zerg Rush|cheap-but-fragile craft]] in comparison to the Rebels' more durable, but hard-to-obtain, fighters. Which is why the ''[[TIE Fighter]]'' video game was such a change - as an Imperial pilot, your character was ''drastically'' outgunned (on an individual basis) most of the time, but had a lot of friends.
** Finally averted in ''Isard's Revenge'' and ''Starfighters of Adumar'' when they face enormous odds (six-to-one in the former case) and lose. In the first case, several Rogues are killed and the rest only survive due to being rescued by Imperials, while in the second Wedge's flight is forced down to the ground, although they do ''really'' well against the Adumari -- four against thirty, and they kill the thirty -- before the odds finally get them.
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* [[Mildly Military]]: Both Rogue and Wraith squadrons are noted to be far less rulebound than most squadrons, though the Rogues at least follow military discipline in-cockpit and during formal brief/debrief sessions. The Wraiths... [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|Not so much]].
* [[Military Maverick]]: Wedge is one of these, while in book four the Rogues go, well, ''rogue.'' The Wraiths, however, surpass them by several orders of magnitude.
{{quote| '''Wedge''': They're just... different. Hand them an ordinary set of instructions and they'll carry them out in an ordinary fashion. Hand them an objective without instructions and they accomplish it some strange way. Like [[False -Flag Operation|that whole fake]] ''[[False -Flag Operation|Millennium Falcon]]'' [[False -Flag Operation|ploy]], and what [[The Spock|Piggy]] was doing, and the [[Magical Computer|data they got off Commenor's planetary computer net]]. I'm having a hard time anticipating them.}}
** He really has no one but himself to blame, since this was why he put together the unit in the first place.
* [[The Mole]]: {{spoiler|Erisi Dlarit}} in the first four, Lara Notsil in the next three. Lara starts out the series as a bad guy [[Mook]], is portrayed sympathetically, has ethical dilemmas about her role, and eventually makes a [[Heel Face Turn]]. The other is a perfect mole whose secret is kept from the characters and the reader until [[The Reveal|the end of the third book]].
* [[Mook MobileMookmobile]]: TIE Fighters. Wedge absolutely ''loathes'' them because of this:
{{quote| No [[Deflector Shields|shields]]. No [[Ejection Seat]]. TIE Fighters were disposable attack vehicles for [[Red Shirt|disposable pilots]], and Wedge never cared to feel disposable.}}
* [[Moral Dissonance]]: The New Republic picking a fight with the neutral (if admittedly pro-Imperial) Ciutric Hegemony in ''Isard's Revenge''. Prince-Admiral Krennel is obviously not a nice man, but the best pretext the New Republic can come up with for starting the war is Krennel's execution of a defecting Imperial several years previously, during the comics, before Krennel himself left the Empire, a cynical justification which even the Rogues admit is "pretty thin". Even the generally saintly Admiral Ackbar more or less confesses that going after Krennel is as much about New Republic sabre-rattling to frighten bigger warlords like Teradoc as it about "liberating" the people under his rule.
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* [[Never Tell Me the Odds]]: Apparently Corellia's [[Planet of Hats|hat]].
** Quietly subverted with Wedge. He jokes about it, but he actually ''does'' care about the odds.
* [[No -Holds -Barred Beatdown]]: Janson challenges an Adumari to a blastsword duel, quickly discards his weapon, and proceeds to treat the royal court to a display of down-and-dirty knuckle-brawling, ending with [[Cherry Tapping|a humiliating bitch-slap]]. Janson being Janson, he also works a [[Crowning Moment of Funny|CMOF]] into this [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|CMOA]] by drawing stick-figures in the air with his weapon beforehand.
{{quote| "Your orders are simple. I punch, you suffer. Got it?"}}
* [[Noodle Implements]]: The notorious [http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/7309/swrsmr413.jpg lanvarok]. All the books mention is that it's a weapon, it's built by the [[Complete Monster|Sith]], and it's a distinct advantage to be left-handed when using it. [[Squick|Draw your own conclusions]]. [[Don't Explain the Joke|Sadly, other sources ruined it by explaining exactly what it is.]]
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** Wedge also does it in ''Rogue Squadron'' when an Imperial Lancer-class frigate, [[The Dreaded|a ship specifically designed to take on starfighters and with a fearful reputation]], appears.
* [[Old School Dogfighting]]: Both averted and played straight. Alliance pilots tend to initiate fights with their missiles and proton torpedoes to soften up the often numerically superior Imperials (it also helps that most TIE fighters are only armed with lasers). However, there are still many opportunities and situations for fighters to mix it up old school style.
* [[Once forFor Yes, Twice For No]]: During ''Wraith Squadron'', Piggy's translator breaks, and his grunts aren't understandable, so when asking if he's okay, his squadronmates resort to this.
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted. Bail Antilles, the Alderaanian captain killed by Lord Vader in ''[[A New Hope]]'', happened to be the superior officer of the Wraith's quartermaster. He's pleased to be serving another of the same name, though they aren't related. It's implied that "Antilles" in ''[[Star Wars]]'' is like "Smith", a rather popular last name. For example, there's a Jedi named Jon Antilles (his real name is unknown, with the alias being chosen apparently to be as generic as possible).
** And a xenoarchaeologist named [[Indiana Jones (Franchise)|Henrietya "Corellia" Antilles]].
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** [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Krennel Krennel] literally has an obvious prosthetic right hand which glows red. An old nemesis of Corran's is half-human and has [[Hellish Pupils]].
** Loka Hask, the man who [[You Killed My Father|caused the deaths of Wedge's parents]], has a Corellian limpet covering half of his head, including an ear and an eye, with tentacles reaching into his nose and mouth.
** Captain Semtin has obvious, creepy prosthetic eyeballs and mechanical thingies in his ears. He abandons some of his soldiers on Ryloth, which has local rules that offworlders with no influence or transportation get sold into slavery. The soldiers promptly [[Mistreatment -Induced Betrayal|switch sides]].
** Allston's books tend to subvert this. Several good guys have stereotypically villainous-looking appearances, such as Ton Phanan and General Crespin, while Zsinj's General Melvar does have razor-sharp metal fingernails, but this is a deliberate act to make enemies underestimate him as a cardboard cutout villain.
* [[Red Shirt]]: In the Michael Stackpole books. Generally a bunch of characters are introduced and get maybe 1 or 2 lines at best, and then are barely mentioned until they die later on. In Book 1 (Rogue Squadron):
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** Another example is from ''Iron Fist'', where Allston managed to come up with a plausible explanation for how the titular vessel had been blown up... twice... in a later-set, but earlier-written, novel.
** Also in ''Iron Fist'', Allston had to modify Warlord Zsinj's personality in ''[[The Courtship of Princess Leia]]'' of being a generic frothing-at-the-mouth-when-things-go-bad Imperial into a character with actual panache that could pull of victory after victory against the New Republic for novels at a time. He does this by making Zsinj into a skilled actor who pretends to be overly evil and angry on occasion either to impress and mislead his viewers or for his own amusement. The only disadvantage to this otherwise very successful reinvention is that it makes Zsinj's final defeat in the chronologically later ''Courtship'' seem very dissappointing in retrospect, considering he is barely even a character in that novel.
* [[Rummage Sale Reject]]: Some [[Hawaiian -Shirted Tourist|truly hideous tourist clothes]] worn by the Wraiths during an infiltration, as well as Hobbie's outfit on Adumar:
{{quote| "There are three types of dress clothing. The kind that offends the wearer, the kind that offends the viewers, and the kind that offends everybody. I'm going for the third type. Fair is fair."}}
* [[Running Gag]]: Lieutenant Kettch, the fake Ewok pilot. This becomes something of an [[Ascended Meme]] or [[Defictionalization]] [[In Universe]]: after their enemies/employers overhear the Wraiths' comm chatter, in which Wedge's voice was modified to sound like an Ewok, some ad-libbing and improvisation culminated in [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Wedge having to fight a battle with a stuffed Ewok in his lap]] to keep up the illusion that Kettch was real. To say nothing of Kolot...
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* [[Scrappy Level]]: A non-video game in-universe example, based on a videogame example! The ''Redemption'' (A.K.A. Requiem) scenario, a mission from the ''[[X-Wing]]'' computer game, turned into a simulator mission that gives pilots a hard time. Not to mention ''[[Rogue Squadron|Rogue Squadon's]]'' [[Escort Mission|escort missions]] involving the ''Redemption''...
* [[Screaming Warrior]]: Runt was like this when he first joined the squad due to his warrior personality taking over. He finally stops when his wingman, Kell Tainer, gets his attention by locking a torpedo on his ass.
* [[Self -Made Orphan]]: Loka Hask, the Imperial [[Psycho for Hire]] who murdered Wedge's parents, comments that Wedge should thank him for it. He then remarks that he wishes someone had done the same for him when he was that age, but ''no'', he had to do it himself.
* [[Sherlock Scan]]: Garik "Face" Loran was an actor and spent some years on Lorrd, whose [[Planet of Hats|hat]] is body language and the reading of such. As a result, he's enough of an expert that he can identify your planet of origin (unless you've managed to train it out through, say, military service. And then he can tell you ''which planet you trained on'') and the condition of your legs by seeing you walk a few paces. Not 100% reliable, no, but he's very good. This skill is a [[Chekhov's Gun]] from time to time - it saves the Wraiths from an ambush and {{spoiler|leads to Lara's identity being outed.}}
* [[Shoot Your Mate]]: In ''Iron Fist''.
* [[Shout -Out]]: There are quite a few to other ''Star Wars'' works and authors. Besides the Zahn references, there is also the ''Requiem'' scenario, which is based off an actual level in the ''[[X-Wing]]'' game.
** Elassar Targon's name references two ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' characters... Elessar is, of course, Aragorn's other name (Elessar being the Wraiths' new medic, Aragorn being a ranger and king with healing skills and powers), and Targon is the [[Genius Bonus|blink-and-you'll-miss-him armorer]] in ''The Return of the King''.
** Possible in Iron Fist. A stormtrooper begins to ask Castin "What's your-- (operating number, presumably)" but Castin just starts blasting his way out straight away.
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* [[Suicide By Cop]]: In ''Solo Command'', a brainwashed {{spoiler|Tal'dira}} intentionally lowers his shields just before being able to complete his mission of killing Wedge Antilles. This enables Corran Horn ([[Fridge Brilliance|who used to be a cop]]) to place a killing blow, thus saving Wedge.
* [[Suicide Mission]]: This is Rogue Squadron's bread and butter, and because they're elite, they always manage to make it out alive (minus the [[Red Shirts]] and [[Mauve Shirt|Mauve Shirts]] in the squadron). Lampshaded by Xarcce Huwla; she was given the honor of being assigned to Rogue Squadron, and immediately asked for a transfer. When Wedge asked her why, she stated that the death toll of the squadron was far too high for her liking.
* [[Super -Persistent Predator]]: The Storini Crystal Deceiver. A notable subversion in that {{spoiler|it's not real}}.
* [[Sure Why Not]]: An in-universe version of this is used in ''Starfighters of Adumar''.
{{quote| '''Wedge''' "I still have to figure out what sort of reason to give them for simulated duels. Something they'll accept within the parameters of their [[Proud Warrior Race|honor code]]."<br />
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* [[We Can Rebuild Him]]: Ton Phanan is "allergic to bacta" and has to get cybernetic replacements for any and all damaged parts. He has a ''lot'' of damaged parts. A huge plot point for him, since he deeply resents this side of himself, leading to much very uncomedic angst.
* [[We Have Reserves]]: Admiral Trigit. [[Even Evil Has Standards|Revulsion over this]] is what drives Gara Petothel's [[Heel Face Turn|defection to the Republic]] in ''Wraith Squadron'', after Trigit decides to sacrifice the tens of thousands of crew members to keep his Star Destroyer out of Republic hands. Trigit's boss Zsinj, though, is a little more canny -- in ''Iron Fist'' he decides to hire a fleet full of mercenaries and pirates to get shot at in lieu of his troops during a major attack.
* [[We Will Not Use Stage Make -Up in The Future]]: Averted, as happens a lot in the Star Wars EU, such as Face's itchy scab makeup.
* [[The World Is Just Awesome]]: Done a few times in the Stackpole books with Coruscant -- although, as Coruscant is a city world, the wonders are artificial in nature.
* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Imperial Admiral Teren Rogriss, although most of the time we see him he's actually cooperating with the Rebels against their mutual enemy Zsinj.
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