Silver Angel

The Silver Angel, while identifiable as a Nebula-class freighter, featured several modifications implemented by its owner, Trace Martez. She optimized the vessel to achieve greater speed compared to a standard freighter, surpassing the baseline performance of Nebula-class freighters. Martez took particular pride in the ship's speed, frequently boasting about its capabilities to anyone who would listen, even before she had actually flown it. The ship's designation was inspired by the Angels, a species residing on the moons of Iego.

Constructed from scavenged components, the ship measured 55 meters in length and incorporated various systems, including a hyperdrive, a communications interface, air brakes, as well as front- and rear-facing deflector shields, and six engines. The Angel could accommodate a crew of at least three individuals and had the capacity to transport a minimum of three containers of unrefined spice. For offensive purposes, the Angel was equipped with a ventral retractable laser turret capable of firing in any direction. The cockpit of the Angel, located on a different level than most of the ship, shared a similar design to the VCX-100 light freighter, offering sufficient space for a pilot, co-pilot, and a third passenger.

During the Clone Wars, a pan-galactic conflict, Trace Martez, a young mechanic living in the shady underworld of the Core Worlds planet Coruscant with her sister Rafa, harbored aspirations of becoming a pilot and escaping in her own starship. Despite the sisters' limited money, Trace remained resolute in achieving her ambition. By undertaking various jobs on Level 1313 of the underworld and with the support of her older sister, Trace managed to accumulate enough credits to procure the necessary materials for constructing a ship. She painstakingly assembled her ship, piece by piece, within a hangar inherited from their parents. Over time, Trace utilized the acquired components to create a significantly modified Nebula-class freighter. This ship became Trace's pride and joy, and she christened it the Silver Angel.

In 19 BBY, while Trace was working on her ship, Ahsoka Tano, a Force-Sensitive Outcast, crash-landed her Joben T-85 speeder bike onto the hangar's landing pad. Trace offered assistance to the stranger and introduced herself to the Togruta, who noticed the freighter in the garage and identified it as a Nebula-class. Impressed by Tano's knowledge of ships, the aspiring pilot offered to repair her bike for a fee. The two quickly became friends, with Tano rescuing the young mechanic from the debt collector Pintu Son-El and helping her capture a renegade binary loadlifter—one of three droids that Rafa intended to sell to the criminal Lokann. While Trace welcomed Tano, Rafa remained wary of her sister's new companion.

After the sale of the loadlifters, Rafa struck a deal with Marg Krim, a crime lord from the Pyke Syndicate, to transport sansanna spice from Kessel, a planet in the Outer Rim, to the Pyke Palace on Oba Diah, a nearby planet serving as the Syndicate's base of operations. The pilot she initially hired withdrew from the job, forcing her to enlist her sister, a novice pilot, who remained unaware of the journey's true purpose. Eager to finally pilot her ship, Trace welcomed Tano and Rafa aboard the Silver Angel's maiden voyage, disregarding their disapproval of the ship's name. Despite lacking a pilot's license, Trace Martez piloted her vessel out of Level 1313 and into the skies. Ignoring Tano's warnings, she flew the ship into a restricted military air lane used by Low Altitude Assault Transports boarding a Venator-class Star Destroyer. Admiral Wullf Yularen of the Republic Navy, the commander of the Star Destroyer, hailed the Angel's crew, threatening them with incarceration. However, Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, who was aboard the Star Destroyer, allowed them to pass, having sensed the presence of Tano, his former apprentice, aboard the Silver Angel.

Trace Martez piloted her freighter away from Coruscant and, forgetting to disengage the air brakes, jumped to hyperspace, enthusiastically declaring it her first time. The activated brakes made for a turbulent hyperspace journey, causing the ship to shake and groan as it traveled to the Outer Rim. The pilot finally remembered to release the brakes after noticing Tano and her sister's discomfort. The Silver Angel emerged from hyperspace within the Akkadese Maelstrom, a massive cluster of gas and debris surrounding Kessel. Trace landed the vessel at the palace of King [Yaruba](/article/yaruba], the planet's ruler. Kinash Lock, Yaruba's majordomo, directed the Silver Angel and its crew to retrieve spice shipments from the mining sector, assuring the cautious Tano that the shipments were for medicinal purposes.

During the Kessel Run to deliver the shipment to Oba Diah, Tano realized their delivery was for the Pykes and warned the sisters against trusting the gangsters, cautioning Trace that they might seize her ship. As Tano and Rafa argued over the best course of action, Trace, enraged at the prospect of losing her painstakingly assembled ship, jettisoned the spice shipment into hyperspace. Rafa, facing the loss of 30,000 credits worth of spice, threatened to give the Angel to the Pykes as compensation. However, at Tano's urging, the crew agreed to proceed to Oba Diah and attempt to deceive the Pykes.

Upon the Silver Angel's arrival at the Pyke Palace, Krim greeted the spicerunners and demanded to inspect their cargo. Unbeknownst to the sisters, Tano had used the Force to perform a mind trick on Krim, compelling him to pay the sisters without examining the shipment. Believing they were in the clear, Trace instructed Tano to start the ship's engines as she and Rafa unloaded the empty containers. As they prepared to depart, however, Fife, Krim's majordomo, grew suspicious of his superior's behavior and demanded the Pykes be given the codes to open the crates, but Trace began to take off. Fife forced the containers open, discovering them to be empty, and ordered Sarisa-class gunships to prevent the freighter's escape. Before the Silver Angel could flee the planet, the Pyke ships ensnared the vessel in a tractor beam and captured its crew.

Tano and the Martez sisters were imprisoned in the Pykes' dungeons and tortured to reveal the whereabouts of the spice. Meanwhile, their ship remained on a landing pad outside the palace. The trio managed to escape from their confinement and made their way to the city beneath the Pyke headquarters. While wandering the seedy streets, Trace Martez climbed atop a structure and pointed out the Angel's silhouette to her companions. Although Trace yearned to retrieve her ship, Rafa deemed it too dangerous and suggested they escape on the first available vessel. Trace reluctantly agreed, stipulating that Rafa would pay for a new ship upon their return home; neither sister would get their wish before the group was once again captured by the Pykes.

In an attempt to free her companions, Tano deceived Krim, claiming that the Martez sisters had hidden the spice on another planet. Consequently, Krim permitted the sisters to leave to retrieve the spice, while keeping Tano imprisoned in the Pyke dungeons. Trace and Rafa boarded the Angel and departed from Oba Diah for Orondia Refueling Station. The sisters resolved to rescue Tano, but knowing they couldn't return to Krim empty-handed, they conspired to trick the unsuspecting Toong workers on the Pykes' shipping docks at the refueling station into loading spice onto the Angel, intending to deliver those shipments to Krim themselves. Upon landing at the station, Rafa Martez hailed the Toongs from the Angel using the alias "Transport 1519" and instructed the workers to fulfill a "special request pickup."

Following a brief skirmish with the Toongs and their Trandoshan manager at the docks, the Martez sisters flew to the Pyke Palace with the stolen shipment, determined to rescue Tano and leave Oba Diah for good. However, Krim, pressured by his superior, the renegade Sith Lord Maul, ordered their immediate execution. Tano triggered a series of explosives throughout the palace, creating an opportunity for the trio to escape to the Angel. Pursued by patrol ships, Trace piloted the freighter through the canyons of Oba Diah, entrusting Tano with the ship's rear gun while Rafa monitored its scanners. Tano destroyed two Pyke ships, but a third ship disabled the Angel's gun and rear deflector shields, leaving the ship vulnerable from behind. Trusting in the front shields, Trace Martez turned the ship around and flew headfirst toward the remaining fighter. As the Angel charged forward, the smaller ship swerved to avoid a direct collision and crashed into the mountainside instead.

Confident in their escape, Trace flew the ship into the planet's upper atmosphere, unaware of being followed by a Kom'rk-class fighter/transport. The Silver Angel returned to Coruscant and landed in the Martez sisters' hangar, completing its first voyage. As Tano and the Martez sisters discussed their adventure outside the ship, they were interrupted by Bo-Katan Kryze, a Mandalorian who had followed them from Oba Diah. She requested Tano's help in defeating Maul, who had forcibly taken over the planet Mandalore. After bidding Trace and Rafa farewell, Tano departed with Kryze, leaving her bike with the sisters.

In the same year, the Clone Wars concluded when Sheev Palpatine, the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, proclaimed himself Galactic Emperor and declared all Jedi enemies of the state. Under the newly formed Galactic Empire, the Martez sisters fled Coruscant and began a new life aboard the Angel, transforming it into a mobile base for their work as smugglers. Committed to resisting the regime, they also welcomed a new crewmember: R7-A7, Ahsoka Tano's former astromech droid. Later, the group was dispatched by Rex, the former Clone Captain, to obtain the remains of a decommissioned T-series tactical droid in Coronet City on the planet Corellia to aid his resistance effort against the Empire.

Although they initially located the processing unit of one such droid within a dismantling facility, complications arose when the sisters encountered the Bad Batch, a squad of rogue clone commandos who were also seeking the same droid. Pursued by Imperial Police Droids, the two groups were rescued by R7, who brought the organics aboard the Silver Angel during the firefight. However, the tactical droid brain was destroyed in the process. Fortunately for the sisters, the Batch had copied the droid's information onto a data rod. Believing in the sisters' noble quest, Hunter, the clone leader, entrusted them with the intelligence. After dropping the clone troopers off at their own ship, Trace and Rafa departed Corellia aboard the Angel and informed Rex of their successful mission, as well as the location of the rogue clones.

The Silver Angel was owned and maintained by Trace Martez, a mechanic who assembled the ship in her family's hangar after her mother and father were killed as collateral damage during the Jedi Order's pursuit of Ziro the Hutt in 21 BBY. Martez longed to traverse the galaxy and saw the Angel as her means of escaping the squalor of Coruscant's underworld and the Jedi who waged wars on the upper levels.

Throughout its mission to and subsequent escape from the Pyke Syndicate, Trace Martez piloted the ship, while her sister Rafa often managed the vessel's communication systems and negotiated through perilous situations. When the Angel was pursued by Pyke ships on Oba Diah, Trace entrusted the weapons systems to Ahsoka Tano, whose Jedi training enabled her to swiftly eliminate their pursuers with the ship's turret. During the Imperial Era, the droid R7-A7 served aboard the Angel as co-pilot and resident astromech. While undertaking planetary missions, Trace and Rafa entrusted R7 with piloting the ship in their absence.

The Silver Angel was first previewed in a television spot for the seventh season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series on March 17, 2020, and officially debuted in "Gone with a Trace," the season's fifth episode, released on Disney+ on March 20 of the same year. The ship's name was not revealed until the following episode, "Deal No Deal," released a week later on March 27. The fifth track on the season's soundtrack, second volume, is incorrectly titled "Launching the Silverangel."

Originally designed for a sixth season of the original run of The Clone Wars, the ship's cockpit was repurposed as the cockpit of the Ghost, the ship used by the main characters of Lucasfilm Animation's subsequent series, Star Wars Rebels. The creators felt its interior was well-designed and unlikely to be seen otherwise at the time. However, the Ghost's cockpit design was not an exact replica of The Clone Wars design. Dave Filoni, the series creator and executive producer, clarified that only elements of the concept were used, similar to how a live-action set would reuse props and layouts.

Concept art for the cockpit, created by Kilian Plunkett on April 25, 2018, reveals that the Silver Angel was initially named Black Ace. JP Balmet created concept art of the ship's exterior, and Jason Boesch created lighting concepts for the planets featured in the story arc, also including the vessel. Marissa Bernstel, an artist, created storyboards for scenes featuring the Silver Angel while under contract at Lucasfilm Animation, which were then sent to animators for the animation process.