Lepira was a human who served as a member of the Alliance to Restore the Republic's Gold Squadron during the Galactic Civil War. In 0 BBY, the pilot was based in the Great Temple on the moon Yavin 4 and attended a briefing on the weakness of the Death Star there when the superweapon arrived to destroy the base. Lepira then flew a BTL-A4 Y-wing assault starfighter/bomber during the Battle of Yavin and perished during the fighting.
Lepira attended a briefing in the Great Temple before the Battle of Yavin.
Lepira was a human who served as a rebel pilot in the Starfighter Corps of the Alliance to Restore the Republic's navy during the Galactic Civil War. The pilot flew as a member of Gold Squadron, a BTL-A4 Y-wing assault starfighter/bomber squadron led by Gold Leader Jon Vander as part of the Massassi Group based in the rebels' Great Temple headquarters on the moon Yavin 4.
In 0 BBY, the Galactic Empire's Death Star superweapon arrived in the Yavin system in order to destroy the rebel base. Lepira sat next to pilot Elyhek Rue during a meeting in the temple, in which General Jan Dodonna briefed the assembled rebel pilots on a weakness in the Death Star's thermal exhaust port that they would need to use to destroy it. Once the briefing was complete, Lepira and the rest of Gold Squadron took off alongside the X-wing starfighters of Red Squadron and Green Squadron.
Lepira flew at the Battle of Yavin.
Once the Alliance began its initial attack on the Death Star, Vander split Gold Squadron, ordering pilots Dex Tiree and Davish Krail to accompany him in heading for the battle station's meridian trench while Lepira and the four other pilots split off from the trio and held back. Gazdo Woolcob then became the first member of the squadron to be killed, after which Vander commanded Lepira and the other three remaining pilots to engage the Empire's TIE fighters as he, Tiree, and Krail entered the trench.
Vander and both his wingmen perished in the trench, with Lepira and two other members of the squadron also dying at some point prior to Red Leader Garven Dreis starting his own trench run. Dreis's trench run also failed, but Red Squadron pilot Luke Skywalker then successfully destroyed the Death Star, leaving Lieutenant Evaan Verlaine as the only member of Gold Squadron to survive the battle.
Lepira wore an orange flight suit with a white flak vest.
Lepira first appeared in the 1977 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, portrayed by an uncredited actor. The Death Star briefing scene was filmed on H Stage at Shepperton Studios between May 13 and May 18, 1976. In the new Star Wars canon, Lepira was identified in The Odyssey of Star Wars: An Epic Poem, a 2021 adaptation of the original trilogy by Jack Mitchell. The name originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity, where it was first used on a card in the 1998 Special Edition Limited expansion to the Star Wars Customizable Card Game.
- Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, New Edition