Nera Dantels

The early years of Nera Dantels, a Human female, remain a mystery. However, by the early stages of the Galactic Civil War, she had become a seasoned smuggler and the captain of the freighter Starduster. She possessed contacts on most major galactic trade worlds and was known for her ability to acquire almost anything. Around this time, the Alliance to Restore the Republic faced a critical need for weapons and ships to combat the Galactic Empire. Dantels chose to abandon her neutral stance and support the Rebellion by assisting in the acquisition of necessary supplies.

Shortly before the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY, the Alliance obtained several T-65 X-wing starfighters from an Incom Corporation assembly plant. However, a severe shortage of astromech droids, essential for hyperspace navigation and systems management, prevented their effective use of the new starfighters. Recognizing the Alliance's supply issues, the Galactic Empire imposed strict controls on astromech droids to prevent them from reaching Rebel forces. The Alliance contacted Dantels and enlisted her to obtain and deliver a shipment of astromech droids. Dantels acquired some droids and attempted to deliver them to the Rebels, but she was nearly captured when Imperial Intelligence dismantled the Rebel underground on Averam while she was present. Although she ensured the safety of her people, her cargo was lost in the process.

By leveraging favors from her contacts and bribing others, Dantels managed to acquire a dozen more R2- and R5-series astromech droids, and she once again attempted to smuggle them to the Alliance. She arranged a meeting with Rebel operatives on Commenor, a world under Imperial control. A Rebel team, including Red Squadron pilots Wedge Antilles, Biggs Darklighter, Cesi Eirriss, and Jek Porkins, traveled to Commenor. They were instructed to play sabacc at a local cantina until Dantels established contact. Shortly after their arrival, Dantels initiated an override tap into the flux field of one of Antilles's cards, altering the image to direct the Rebels to Hangar Bay 31, where she awaited them with the Starduster. Following their meeting, Dantels agreed to rendezvous in orbit and follow them to their destination. However, upon exiting the planet's atmosphere, Dantels detected TIE fighters approaching from a concealed Imperial base on Folor, Commenor's moon.

Antilles and Darklighter intercepted the approaching TIEs in their X-wings, leaving Eirriss and Porkins to defend the Starduster. With Dantels's assistance, who used the laser cannons on her vessel to destroy two Imperial fighters that evaded her escort, Red Squadron quickly eliminated the initial wave. However, Eirriss's fighter sustained damage during the dogfight. Antilles instructed Eirriss to eject so that Dantels could retrieve her in the Starduster, but Eirriss instead set a collision course with the second wave of Imperial fighters, urging the other Rebels to leave without her. Dantels and the others jumped to hyperspace just moments after Eirriss's starfighter collided with the Imperials and proceeded to the Rebel base on Yavin 4.

After personally delivering the astromech droids to General Jan Dodonna, the leader of the Alliance's Starfighter Command, Dantels decided to remain on Yavin 4. She accepted a date with Darklighter, spending the evening walking along the ancient parapets of the Massassi Temple, which served as the Alliance base. Sensing that Darklighter seemed preoccupied, Dantels inquired about his concerns. He explained that his friend and fellow pilot, Derek Klivian, was dying from an unknown illness that resisted bacta therapy. A few days later, she offered to accompany Darklighter and Doctor Shae Polikex into the Yavin 4 jungle in search of a plant extract that had previously cured members of the original survey team who had contracted a similar infection.

As the three Rebels ventured through the jungle, Darklighter was attacked by a swarm of viper wasps, but Dantels repelled the insects with a smoke grenade. Shortly afterward, a large mamien attacked the group, surprising Darklighter and knocking him to the ground. As the mamien prepared to strike, Dantels opened fire with her blaster pistol. Although the creature survived her initial attack, it turned its attention toward her. Darklighter then seized his vibroblade and used it to kill the predator. Continuing their search, the group eventually located the plant they sought and retrieved an extract. They were still in the jungle when Darklighter received a call on his comlink, ordering him back to base because the Empire's Death Star battle station had entered the Yavin system and was moving to destroy the Rebel base.

Upon returning to base, Darklighter prepared to participate in the Rebel attack on the approaching battlestation. Dantels promised that, should anything happen to him, she would look after Luke Skywalker, his longtime friend from Tatooine who had recently joined the Alliance. Before his departure, she approached Darklighter in the base's hangar, urging him to return safely, kissing him, and leaving without waiting for a response. The Rebels suffered significant casualties in the Battle of Yavin, and Darklighter was among those killed before Skywalker destroyed the Death Star. Following the battle, Dantels visited a holographic memorial to Darklighter with Klivian, who had recovered from his infection after receiving treatment with the plant extract.

Dantels continued her collaboration with the Alliance in the subsequent months, offering her piloting skills and earning the respect of her fellow pilots, including Vin Nothos, whom she rescued during an ambush on a supply run through the Momansi Belt. Seven months after the Battle of Yavin, Nolan Gillmunn, the leader of the Jabiimi Loyalist, invited Alliance representatives to the war-torn planet of Jabiim to request assistance in his struggle against the Imperial occupation and the Jabiimi Nationalist party. Dantels was chosen to join the diplomatic party, which included Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, statistician Jorin Sol, and Rogue Squadron pilots Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, and Darek Klivian. Dantels transported Organa and Sol aboard the Starduster, and the Rebels arrived on Jabiim to find Gillmunn's Loyalists under attack by TIE bombers and Imperial stormtroopers. Despite repelling the attacking Imperials, Dantels and the other Rebels were met with suspicion by the Jabiimi, who harbored distrust for off-worlders due to their abandonment by forces under the command of Galactic Republic General Anakin Skywalker during the Battle of Jabiim in the Clone Wars. However, Gillmunn welcomed the group. While Antilles and Klivian maintained patrol in orbit, Dantels and the other Rebels accompanied Gillmunn to the Loyalist base.

The negotiations were short-lived. When the Jabiimi realized that Luke Skywalker was the son of the man who had betrayed them twenty years earlier, they attempted to attack the Rebel party. Although Gillmunn prevented the situation from escalating into violence, Dantels, Organa, and Sol were taken into custody and separated from Skywalker. Locked up and guarded, Dantels and Organa discussed potential escape strategies but decided to observe how the situation unfolded. Soon after, the Loyalist base was attacked by Imperial and Jabiimi Nationalist forces. Determining that they could no longer wait, the Rebels escaped their cell, accompanied by their guard, Luscen. As they exited the base, they were attacked by two stormtroopers, who shot Luscen and ordered the others to surrender. Reacting quickly, Dantels seized the fallen guard's blaster pistol and killed both stormtroopers. At that moment, the Rebels were approached by Tal Hesz, a Jabiimi Loyalist, who informed them that Skywalker was with Gillmunn and that they should rendezvous in the nearby hills.

Following Hesz to a pair of speeder bikes, the Rebels set off for the rendezvous point. Dantels and Organa rode on one bike, while Hesz and Sol took the lead on the other. Hesz soon stopped at the edge of a minefield that ran through a narrow canyon. As the Imperials approached from behind, Organa decided to proceed, hoping that her speeder bike could outrun the exploding mines. However, Hesz had betrayed the Rebels, allowing himself and Sol to be captured by the Imperials. With their speeder damaged by the mines, the two remaining Rebels were unable to help Sol and continued toward the Starduster. They arrived to find Organa's droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, pinned down near the ship by an All Terrain Scout Transport and several stormtroopers. Using the droids as a distraction, Dantels and Organa snuck aboard the Starduster, and Dantels used its laser cannons to eliminate the Imperials.

After recovering the droids, the pair were joined by Antilles and Klivian, who had broken through an Imperial armada that had arrived in orbit. Organa hoped to save the Jabiimi, but Dantels and Antilles convinced her that it was impossible and that their only hope was to escape and send reinforcements. As the Imperial forces began an orbital bombardment of the planet, Dantels and the other Rebels returned to the Loyalist base in search of Skywalker and Gillmunn. After Antilles and Klivian cleared the area of Imperials, Dantels took the Starduster down to retrieve their allies. Gillmunn refused to leave, insisting that the Rebels could not save the planet and should flee. As Gillmunn led the surviving Loyalists to the relative safety of the planet's underground mines, Skywalker boarded the Starduster, and Dantels piloted the ship to the safety of hyperspace.

Two months later, the Alliance Fleet was attacked by elements of the Imperial Navy under the command of Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith, and was forced to retreat into hyperspace. The Providence-class carrier/destroyer Rebel One failed to rendezvous with the rest of the Fleet, and Dantels was among several officers on the bridge of Admiral Gial Ackbar's flagship, Home One, when a message arrived from Tungo Li, the Alliance spymaster aboard Rebel One. Li informed them that the ship was stranded at Bannistar Station, a major Imperial refueling and supply hub in the Mid Rim. Li also reported that Rebel One's crew, including Organa and Skywalker, planned to infiltrate and destroy the station and did not expect to survive.

When Ackbar refused to risk Fleet elements to rescue them, arguing that they were unprepared to venture into enemy territory, Dantels and Lieutenant Netrem Pollard of Dagger Squadron decided to devise an alternative solution. The Rebels soon intercepted a transmission revealing that Organa and Skywalker had been captured. Despite Ackbar's reservations, Pollard planned to use Dagger Squadron's B-wing starfighters to rescue them. Dantels volunteered to accompany them in the Starduster, but Pollard believed that the Starduster was not agile enough and would compromise the mission. However, when Dantels persisted, he reluctantly agreed to let her fly one of Dagger Squadron's B-wings, joining Pollard, Vin Nothos, and Callen Troyt in place of the Verpine pilot Suskafoo.

By the time Dagger Squadron arrived in the system, Lieutenant Deena Shan, who had evaded capture with the other Rebels on Bannistar Station, had destroyed a significant portion of the station using a thermal detonator. This provided a distraction that allowed her comrades to escape. Shan rendezvoused with Organa, Skywalker, and the other surviving Rebel operatives, Basso and Able, and the group attempted to escape in a stolen Lambda-class shuttle. Dagger Squadron intercepted the shuttle as it lifted off from the station and assumed escort positions as TIE fighters launched to intercept the fleeing Rebels. While Nothos and Troyt cleared a path through the nearby Imperial capital ships, Dantels, serving as Pollard's wingmate, helped protect the shuttle from the approaching TIEs. Once they were clear, all five Rebel ships jumped to hyperspace and returned to Home One. Dantels remained a member of Dagger Squadron after their return, while also continuing to pilot the Starduster.

Nera Dantels, already a seasoned smuggler renowned for her unparalleled access to a vast galactic network, decided to join the Rebellion. Her smuggling expertise proved invaluable to the burgeoning Rebel Alliance, leading her to forsake her previous professional impartiality. Characterized by passion and stubbornness, Dantels expressed her unique identity through the distinctive, curved blue tattoos that adorned the area around her eyes, defying conformity and refusing to be constrained by rules or individuals. Captured by the Jabiimi, she eschewed the idea of waiting for rescue. Similarly, when her comrades faced peril on Bannistar Station, she openly defied Admiral Ackbar's orders and launched a rescue mission. Despite accusations of recklessness, her piloting prowess and extensive experience garnered the respect of her fellow pilots. Initially, Netrem Pollard questioned whether her solo flying skills would translate to squadron combat, but she successfully integrated into Dagger Squadron, becoming one of the first Rebel pilots to operate the B-wing starfighter. She also had significant skill with blaster pistols.

With her striking appearance, marked by her tall, slender frame, dark hair, pale complexion, and distinctive facial tattoos, Dantels was described as exotic by Biggs Darklighter. Upon their initial meeting on Commenor, Darklighter was instantly captivated and, fearing competition, immediately asked her out. Dantels accepted a date, strolling along the ramparts of the Massassi Temple on Yavin 4, and soon found herself violating her own professional code by falling in love with the young pilot. Following Darklighter's attack by a mamien in the Yavin 4 jungles, Dantels worried for his well-being. Before he departed for the Battle of Yavin, she visited him in the hangar, urging him to return safely to her. Darklighter's death during the battle deeply affected Dantels, who, alongside Darklighter's friend Derek Klivian, paid her respects at his holographic memorial in the Rebel base. Following his death, Dantels became determined to fulfill her pledge to Darklighter: to look after Luke Skywalker, should anything happen to him.

Michael A. Stackpole conceived Nera Dantels for the Dark Horse Comics special, X-Wing Rogue Squadron ½, which was released on February 1, 1997. The events of Rogue Squadron ½ were later recounted from Biggs Darklighter's point of view in the third issue of the Star Wars: Empire comic series' Darklighter storyline, which was penned by Paul Chadwick and published in 2003. Darklighter, Part 4 offered more details about Dantels' time on Yavin 4 and her relationship with Darklighter. She later reappeared in Empire's In the Shadows of Their Fathers arc, authored by Jeremy Barlow under the alias "Thomas Andrews" and made available in 2005. Her most recent appearance occurred in Star Wars: Rebellion's Small Victories storyline, which was written by Barlow and published in 2008. Dantels was also featured in entries in The Official Star Wars Fact File 126, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia from 2008, and the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide from 2009. A pilot card featuring Dantels was included in the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack for the Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game, which was initially released in 2014.