Catch

Biography

Incident at Halanit

Around 7 ABY, an R2-series astromech droid crafted by Industrial Automaton was in service to Rogue Squadron pilot Gavin Darklighter during the squadron's independent campaign against the forces led by the de facto Imperial leader Ysanne Isard during the Bacta War. Darklighter referred to the droid as Jawaswag, explaining that he believed any member of the Jawa species would be delighted to possess the droid. During that year, Jawaswag accompanied Darklighter in his T-65 X-wing starfighter during an ambush targeting Imperial-affiliated tankers carrying the valuable medical substance bacta, after three tankers were diverted to a star system away from their escort because their navicomputers had been sliced. There, Rogue Squadron persuaded the three tankers to join them as they exited the system, but the time it took for Darklighter and his wingmate, Riv Shiel, to coerce the tanker Xucphra Alazhi into compliance allowed the tankers' escort, the Victory II-class Star Destroyer Corrupter, to arrive on the scene.

Although briefly protected from the capital ship's barrage by the bulk of the Xucphra Alazhi as the Corrupter destroyed the tanker, Jawaswag and Darklighter survived only because the latter initiated a blind hyperspace jump to escape the battle, but Shiel was caught in the Corrupter's fire and died. After fifteen seconds, they exited hyperspace, and Jawaswag calculated the first of seven short jumps that guided them away from the combat zone. As Darklighter hoped to return to the Rogue Squadron base in the Yag'Dhul system, the pair made a stop at the planet Halanit to refuel at a Rogue Squadron-sympathetic colony. Because the colonists had to synthesize the fuel, the refueling process was expected to take two days, so Darklighter left Jawaswag in the starfighter. However, the Corrupter soon arrived at Halanit to punish the colonists for supporting Rogue Squadron, and the Imperials attacked the colony.

Away from his fighter, Darklighter instructed Jawaswag to activate the X-wing's systems while he returned, even if the R2 unit had to drain the fuel synthesizer to do so. As stormtroopers murdered colonists in the settlement's corridors and TIE Series fighters made attack runs on the colony, Jawaswag and Darklighter departed the hangar where the X-wing had been refueling to fight the attackers, but because of the fighter's fuel levels, the pair could only remain and fight for ten minutes before they had to leave the system. In the air above the colony, Jawaswag alerted Darklighter to the presence of three TIE/IN interceptors, and the R2 droid acquired target locks on the fighters before it began recording everything that happened at Darklighter's request. Jawaswag's pilot eliminated two of the enemy with proton torpedos, but the third TIE, which was out of control, managed to survive by flying into the chasm that housed the breached colony. After Darklighter pursued the fighter into the colony and shot it down, Jawaswag and his pilot departed Halanit, as there was nothing more they could do for the colonists.

Service after the Bacta War

Skirmishes in the Outer Rim

Jawaswag continued to serve with Darklighter after the conclusion of the Bacta War, during which Rogue Squadron defeated Isard. Sometime after the Thrawn campaign in 9 ABY, Jawaswag was confronted by a group of Jawas who attempted to steal the droid. However, the R2 unit defended itself, injuring one in the process, which convinced Darklighter to rename the droid Toughcatch, although that was later shortened to just Catch for ease of use in combat. Over the years, the droid underwent numerous memory wipes and upgrades, including the R2-Delta upgrade in 24 ABY, which allowed Catch to process navigational computations more quickly. Nevertheless, Catch still greeted Darklighter each time with a brief summary of the weather on Coruscant and Tatooine, both planets that Darklighter considered home, which was why he never traded Catch for a newer model. In 25 ABY, as the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong species was beginning its invasion of the galaxy, Catch and Darklighter—now Rogue Leader—participated in a holosimulator that pitted the pair against a Yuuzhan Vong coralskipper fighter in their T-65A3 X-wing starfighter.

Although Catch and his pilot survived only twenty-five seconds in combat against the coralskipper before being virtually destroyed, they surpassed the time of Bothan Admiral Traest Kre'fey. While in the Outer Rim Territories searching for intelligence on the new attackers, Catch and the rest of Rogue Squadron deployed from Kre'fey's Bothan Assault Cruiser Ralroost after pirates were reported in an Outer Rim system. At Darklighter's orders, Catch scanned for the pirates' base, but Rogue Squadron was quickly engaged in an asteroid belt by damaged ugly fighters. While Rogue Leader disabled one of the enemy fighters, Catch worked on obtaining the tactical frequency of the attackers. Disabling the ugly led Darklighter and Catch to discover the mangled pirate EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate Free Lance. Although the frigate briefly fired upon them, Catch was able to get the frequency of the pirate capital ship, and Darklighter convinced the crippled forces of the pirate leader Urias Xhaxin to stand down.

Rogue Squadron learned from Xhaxin that the pirate had been attacked by coralskippers before fleeing to the system in which the Ralroost had found him, and Catch and the Rogues were dispatched to the location of the attack to guard a reconnaissance X-wing starfighter as it gathered intelligence. However, when the squadron emerged from hyperspace, it was attacked by coralskippers, and Darklighter engaged one of the enemy fighters. After firing a proton torpedo resulted in the coralskipper's shields swallowing the projectile as expected, Darklighter ordered the Rogues to use their new combat programming designed to help fight coralskippers, and Catch's allocation of power allowed his pilot to switch their fighter to quad-linked cannon fire. With a barrage of frequent low-powered laser fire, Darklighter overwhelmed the coralskipper's shields and finished off the enemy with a full-powered quad burst.

During the dogfight, Catch and Darklighter learned how to prevent coralskippers from depriving the X-wings of shields by expanding the area of effect of their inertial compensators over those of the shields. In chasing one of the coralskippers that had latched onto Lieutenant Ligg Panat's fighter, Catch and Darklighter found themselves going for a head-to-head pass with the enemy fighter before the coralskipper's shields spawned a miniature black hole that threatened to destroy Catch and his pilot as it sucked them in. However, after Darklighter emptied his torpedo magazine into the black hole and managed to gain a little extra velocity, the pair escaped the edge of the black hole, while the coralskipper that created it was destroyed by other Rogues. With the reconnaissance starfighter having finished its mission, Catch and the rest of the squadron departed the area.

Dantooine and Ithor

Shortly after the skirmish in the Outer Rim, Catch, Darklighter, and the rest of Rogue Squadron guarded a refugee encampment against Yuuzhan Vong ground forces on the planet Dantooine. When the ground troops began their attack during the night, Catch and Darklighter launched with the squadron from the camp, and Catch's pilot tasked it with monitoring the base tactical frequency for emergencies. Despite the threat of the ground troops, Rogue Squadron was unable to attack them, as enemy fighters occupied their attention. Later in the battle, Catch alerted Darklighter to the presence of the New Republic shuttle Impervious, whose occupant, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, requested that a missile spread be fired at the largest enemy ground vehicle using telemetry supplied by Skywalker's droid, R2-D2. With their wingmates covering them, Darklighter and Catch—along with Rogue Eleven Jaina Solo—fired a quartet of proton torpedoes at the vehicle.

R2-D2 changed the trajectory of the missiles to aim at the vehicle's spine instead of side, but the vehicle spawned a gravity anomaly that Catch reported and tried to reposition itself between the missiles and the spine. However, Skywalker, through the use of the Force, pushed the black hole into the vehicle's spine, destroying it while the missiles hit the ground and killed a multitude of ground troops. Although the Yuuzhan Vong completed their conquest of Dantooine, the New Republic forces successfully withdrew from the planet.

Later in 25 ABY, Catch and Rogue Squadron aided in the defense of the jungle planet Ithor. During the battle, the Rogues targeted four Yuuzhan Vong landing craft—dubbed crates—in Ithor's atmosphere that were headed for the Ithorian Herdship Tafanda Bay. Upon his pilot's command, Catch programmed two proton torpedoes for detonation at two kilometers or for when they detected a Yuuzhan Vong shield void. Darklighter fired the pair at the two rearmost crates, and the resulting detonation when the proton torpedoes detected the crates' shields tossed the two ships about due to the atmospheric shock wave. The crates lost control and crashed into the jungles below, although the other two crates escaped the Rogues. The New Republic ultimately emerged victorious, but the Yuuzhan Vong destroyed much of the life on Ithor with a bioweapon.

Characteristics

Catch, colored gold and white, was an R2-series astromech from the R-series droid line who communicated in the droid language of binary. Throughout its service to Rogue Squadron pilot Gavin Darklighter over the years, the droid performed various tasks. Catch programmed hyperspace jumps, with the R2-Delta upgrade reducing the droid's calculation time after it was installed, and performed many of the computer-related tasks on Darklighter's X-wing, such as running simulators and managing sensors. In combat, Catch highlighted new targets for Darklighter on his secondary monitor and would whistle and shriek when the starfighter was in danger. Despite undergoing multiple memory wipes over the years, Catch consistently greeted Darklighter with a brief summary of the weather on Coruscant and Tatooine, the planets Darklighter considered home.

Behind the scenes

Catch initially appeared as Jawaswag in the novel X-Wing: The Bacta War, published in 1997 and authored by Michael A. Stackpole, before being identified as "Catch" in 2000's Dark Tide I: Onslaught, the first book in The New Jedi Order novel series by Stackpole. The droid was also given the name Toughcatch in the 2008 reference book The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.