Theron Nett, a human, fought for the Alliance to Restore the Republic as a rebel pilot. He was a member of Red Squadron during the Galactic Civil War, battling the forces of the Galactic Empire. Based at the Great Temple on the moon of Yavin 4, he and fellow pilot Ralo Surrel frequently flew as wingmates alongside Red Leader Garven Dreis. In the year 0 BBY, Nett observed the pilot Puck Naeco teasing Col Takbright, another member of their squadron, in their ready room following a briefing about the impending arrival of the Death Star superweapon. Subsequently, Dreis informed the squadron of the pilots selected to engage the Death Star, designating Nett and his astromech droid R2-X2 with the callsign Red Ten.
During the resulting battle, Nett and Naeco served as wingmen for Dreis in first flight. Early in the conflict, TIE/ln space superiority starfighters targeted Nett and fellow pilot John D. Branon, ultimately killing Branon. Following a failed attempt by the rebel Gold Squadron to strike the Death Star's critical thermal exhaust port, Nett, Dreis, and Naeco initiated their own attack run, entering the battle station's [meridian trench](/article/meridian_trench]. It was during this trench run that Nett was shot down by "Backstabber," a wingman of the Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Theron Nett was a human pilot who fought for the Alliance to Restore the Republic throughout the Galactic Civil War. He was a member of Red Squadron, a T-65B X-wing starfighter squadron that was part of the Massassi Group of rebels, which had its base of operations in the Great Temple, the Alliance's headquarters located on the moon of Yavin 4. Nett and Ralo Surrel, another member of the squadron, often flew as wingmates for Red Leader Garven Dreis.
In 0 BBY, the Galactic Empire's Death Star superweapon entered the Yavin system with the intention of destroying the rebel base. As the Death Star approached, a briefing took place in the temple to inform the Alliance's pilots about a weakness in the Death Star: a thermal exhaust port only two meters wide. If a proton torpedo could hit this port, the entire battle station would be destroyed. R2-X2, Nett's R2 series astromech droid, was present at the meeting. Afterwards, Nett joined Kelemah, the Mon Calamari engineer, along with fellow pilots Col Takbright, Puck Naeco, and John D. Branon in Red Squadron's ready room.
When Naeco began to make fun of Takbright's nickname, "Fake Wedge," Nett and Branon exchanged an amused look before Takbright persuaded Naeco to stop. The group then talked about comments made by Luke Skywalker, the squad's newest pilot, during the briefing, before Wedge Antilles himself and other pilots came into the room.
When Dreis entered, the pilots all sat down as he announced the duty roster of pilots who would be flying against the Death Star as part of Red Squadron. Nett was assigned the callsign Red Ten and placed in first flight as Dreis's right wingman, with Naeco taking Surrel's place as left wingman, designated Red Twelve. Following a brief speech by Dreis, Nett and the other pilots left the room and proceeded to their X-wing starfighters located in the hangar.
After taking off, Dreis requested a check-in as the squadron neared the Death Star, with Nett responding first. The squadron then locked their s-foils in attack position, and after passing through the magnetic field, set their deflector shields to double front and accelerated to attack speed. To divert fire from the BTL-A4 Y-wing assault starfighter/bombers of Gold Squadron, Red Squadron crossed the battle station's axis, drawing fire from turrets on the station's surface. After TIE/ln space superiority starfighters were launched from the station, a group targeted Nett and Branon early in the attack, resulting in Branon's death. Subsequently, three of the Y-wings made the first attempt to reach the exhaust port by flying through the Death Star's meridian trench, but all were destroyed by the Sith Lord Darth Vader, who piloted a TIE Advanced x1 alongside two wingmen in TIE/ln fighters.
With the first run having failed, Dreis called for the surviving members of Red Squadron to meet at point 8-6-1 before beginning his own run on the trench with Nett and Naeco. As the trench's turrets began firing on them, Nett commented that they should be able to see the exhaust port by now. Dreis then ordered them to watch out for the fighters that had stopped Gold Squadron's trench run, but Nett reported too much interference and asked Skywalker, flying as Red Five outside the trench, if he had a visual. Skywalker spotted Vader and his wingmen and pointed them out to Nett, who also saw the Imperials.
Upon entering firing range, Dreis instructed Nett and Naeco to hold off the Imperials for a few more seconds. However, with no way to return fire on the pursuing TIEs, they could only strengthen their rear deflector shields and maneuver to prevent Dreis from being hit. Despite this, Vader quickly shot down Naeco. Nett then urged Dreis to fire, as the Imperials were right behind him, but "Backstabber," the Sith's wingmate, opened fire and destroyed Red Ten's starfighter, resulting in the death of both Nett and R2-X2.
Dreis then fired, but the shot impacted the station's surface instead of the exhaust port. Vader then killed Dreis, but Skywalker ultimately succeeded in making the shot during a third trench run, destroying the Death Star. In 1 ABY, Nett and the other members of Red Squadron who died in the battle were remembered during a toast given by Skywalker in Mess Hall IV at the Mako-Ta Space Docks.
During the Battle of Yavin, Nett wore an orange flight suit along with a white flak vest. His K-22995 light flight helmet was painted with black and white colors and featured a yellow circle above each brow with a tapering diameter of dots. He piloted a T-65B X-wing starfighter.
Theron Nett's first appearance was in the 1977 film from the original trilogy, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, where he was only identified as Red Ten. Robert O'Mahoney played the character, though he was uncredited, and his scenes were filmed on Stage 8 at Elstree Studios between June 17 and June 28, 1976. In the film, footage of a different pilot, played by Chris Matthews, is shown when Nett's X-wing is destroyed. This pilot was later identified as Puck Naeco, whose starfighter is shot down before Nett's, making the shot a continuity error.
Within the new Star Wars canon, Nett's name was first used in 2015 on a card released in the Star Wars: Card Trader app. The name originated on cards in the 1998 Special Edition Limited set of the Star Wars Legends continuity's Star Wars Customizable Card Game produced by Decipher. A New Hope - The Film Novel, a 2015 adaptation of A New Hope written by Lucile Galliot and Thierry Arson, mistakenly identifies Vader as Nett's killer instead of Backstabber.
Theron Nett is featured as an unlockable character in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, a video game from 2022 that is not considered canon. In the game, he gives players the quest called "Theron Lies the Problem." Players will find him flying an X-wing in Endor Space, where he asks them to do him a favor by urgently delivering a crate of supplies back to the rebel base on Yavin 4. He explains that he had forgotten he already had a mission when he agreed to make the delivery. He says that the supplies are needed to save some rebels in danger and warns the player that they might encounter Imperial forces patrolling the route to Yavin.
If the player accepts, Nett transfers the supplies to them. The player then pulls the supplies behind their starship as they make the hyperspace jump to Yavin. During the journey, the player is pulled out of hyperspace twice, each time being forced to destroy a group of TIE fighters in an asteroid field. Upon reaching the Yavin system, the player encounters three rebel pilots who take the supplies. The pilots are disappointed in Nett for passing the delivery duty onto someone else. They wait for him to arrive and apologize, but when he still hasn't arrived after several moments, they thank the player and reveal that the supplies are additional medals, as the base has run out after the last ceremony. The mission then ends, and Nett becomes available for purchase as a playable character.