Ton Phanan

Born on Rudrig within the Tion Hegemony before 21 BBY, Ton Phanan was the only child of affluent parents who raised him later in their lives. Growing up, Phanan cultivated a keen sense of humor and, during his school years, developed a fascination with insects, finding amusement in their ability to unsettle girls. Eventually, Phanan earned his credentials as a licensed doctor. Before his graduation, both of his parents passed away, leaving him without any close living relatives but with a substantial inheritance. He practiced medicine for several years before joining the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the early stages of the Galactic Civil War.

As a member of the Rebellion, Phanan served as a medical officer on an Alliance Fleet frigate. He was present at the Battle of Endor, where his frigate sustained heavy fire, resulting in severe injuries to Phanan, including the loss of a leg and significant trauma to his head and other parts of his body. Due to his allergy to bacta, his injuries necessitated cybernetic replacements; by 7 ABY, approximately twenty percent of his body was cybernetic. Phanan began to feel as though his future was irrevocably altered and ultimately concluded that the healing profession was no longer fulfilling. Finding no joy in it, he sought a path where he could actively fight against the Galactic Empire instead of treating those he held little regard for. He applied for and was accepted into the New Republic Starfighter Corps.

Upon joining the Starfighter Corps, Phanan participated in five combat missions, being shot down in two of them. Combined with his inability to receive bacta treatment, he was deemed a liability to his unit, diminishing his career prospects. In 7 ABY, Commander Wedge Antilles of Rogue Squadron determined that the New Republic required a new kind of fighter unit—a commando team trained both as fighters and ground troops. He believed this would create a more versatile unit capable of handling a wider range of missions independently. He secured Admiral Gial Ackbar's approval for the plan and, to avoid the need to train new pilots, requested pilots who were failing, causing trouble, or otherwise on the verge of being discharged, offering them a final chance to prove their worth. Hearing of this opportunity, Phanan requested a transfer to this new unit and reported to Folor Base, where Antilles assessed the candidates. Phanan quickly befriended Garik Loran, who shared his unique sense of humor. They flew together in training exercises, and following one simulation, they visited the DownTime cantina, where they encountered fellow candidates Kell Tainer, Tyria Sarkin, Voort "Piggy" saBinring, and Hohass "Runt" Ekwesh. Tainer revealed that Loran was actually Garik "Face" Loran, a former Imperial propaganda holodrama child star, a revelation that greatly amused Phanan. Phanan playfully flirted with Sarkin, who eventually took offense and left when Loran joked about the Force, for which she had a minor affinity. However, the pair became friends with the other pilot candidates, and all of them, including Sarkin, made the final roster. Phanan achieved the fourth-highest score in the group, behind Tainer, Loran, and Falynn Sandskimmer. Phanan served as the squadron medic—temporarily named Gray Squadron—and was given the callsign Gray Seven, with Loran as his wingman and Tainer leading the flight. Ekwesh completed Two Flight as Tainer's wingman.

The following morning, Two Flight departed in the unit's four new T-65 X-wing starfighters for a live-fire exercise, launching proton torpedos at a target towed behind the Narra, the squadron's support shuttle. They operated in wing pairs. When Phanan and Loran opened their strike foils, Phanan lost control of his weapons systems, and Loran's targeting sensors malfunctioned. Phanan immediately improvised, feeding Loran his own targeting data, enabling the pair to successfully hit the target. They continued with the training, Phanan receiving his R2-series astromech droid, Gadget, until Antilles deemed the unit, now known as Wraith Squadron, ready for a navigational exercise to Doldrums. As the squadron prepared to leave Folor, Jesmin Ackbar, the squadron's comm specialist, detected Imperial comm activity. Determining that Admiral Apwar Trigit, a subordinate of Warlord Zsinj, was about to attack the base, the Wraiths returned to defend the facility. Alongside Blue Squadron, flying RZ-1 A-wing interceptors, the Wraiths positioned themselves in the Pig Trough canyon, ready to ambush the approaching Imperial forces. They succeeded in eliminating numerous enemy starfighters as the base was safely evacuated. Once the last transport had departed, they too evacuated to Doldrums. Phanan sustained a minor injury from shrapnel during the battle, which he treated himself. En route to Doldrums, they were prematurely pulled from hyperspace and struck by an exceptionally powerful ion blast in the Xobome system. Phanan's fighter was rendered completely inoperable, and the ion charge severely damaged his cybernetics. He was evacuated to the Narra, and his fighter was stripped to create the Lunatic, a makeshift armed compartment. This device was designed to allow squadron member Voort saBinring to infiltrate the ship they believed would investigate the mine that had disabled them. The plan worked, and saBinring forced the crew of the CR90 corvette Night Caller to surrender by taking control of its bridge. Phanan, along with the rest of the squadron, transferred to the ship to fully recover and restore his prosthetics to full functionality.

Because the crew of the Night Caller had not had time to send out a distress signal, Trigit remained unaware that the ship under his command had been captured. Antilles stationed Wraith Squadron aboard the ship and brought in a New Republic crew to maintain its scheduled routes, continuing the subterfuge that the ship was still serving Zsinj. While aboard the ship, Phanan and Tainer attempted to encourage Sarkin to relax from her rigorous training. When Eurrsk Thri'ag, the unit's slicer, jokingly offered to boost her scores by slicing them, Sarkin suddenly lashed out and attacked him. Shocked, Phanan and Tainer visited her after the incident, where she confessed that she had been on the verge of failing out of the training academy when her trainer, Colonel Atton Repness, offered to raise her grades in exchange for her cooperation in a plan to eject from an X-wing following a supposed equipment failure; he would then sell the fighter on the black market for profit. She said she wanted to report him, but he revealed that her grades had long been failing and that reporting him would cause her to be dismissed. Faced with this, she reluctantly agreed to remain silent but felt lingering shame over her compliance. The two agreed to keep her secret.

The ship continued its rounds, with Wraith Squadron targeting Zsinj's covert assets after the Night Caller visited and identified them. Antilles hoped to entice Zsinj into setting a trap for the Wraiths, who appeared to be following the Night Caller, and then turn the tables on the warlord. On Xartun, the Wraiths targeted a transparisteel factory supplying Zsinj, sneaking in at night to sabotage it. Phanan was guarding with Sarkin and Ekwesh when they were ambushed by a probe droid. Ekwesh was knocked unconscious, while Phanan and Sarkin fired on the droid, but its heavy armor proved too resilient. Phanan fired to cover Sarkin as she backed a repulsorlift cart into it to pin it. Ekwesh awoke and added two more carts, trapping it long enough for them to escape before Tainer detonated his explosives to destroy the factory.

At M2398, the Night Caller was ambushed by a pirate gang who had declined Zsinj's offer of alliance. Phanan launched with the rest of the pilots. His X-wing had not yet been replaced, so he used Sandskimmer's, as she was piloting one of the Night Caller's TIE/LN starfighters. In the battle, Jesmin Ackbar was killed. Tainer had tried to save her by pushing her disabled fighter off course with his own, but her trailing power cables disabled his fighter, and her ship crashed. Tainer suffered an anxiety attack and reported to Phanan in sick bay. Phanan had already treated Myn Donos for what he claimed was a concussion. In reality, Donos had frozen up after the loss of his astromech, Shiner, the only survivor of Donos's previous command, Talon Squadron, and had not fully regained his senses. Realizing that reporting this would ruin Donos's career, Phanan kept it from Antilles and second-in-command Wes Janson for several days until Loran, Tainer, Sarkin, and Sandskimmer staged an intervention, helping Donos overcome his guilt over the loss of his former squadron. When Sarkin started dating Tainer, Phanan was somewhat annoyed, having found her highly attractive.

When Zsinj assigned the Night Caller to rendezvous with another of his ships, the Hawkbat, to resupply before attacking New Republic forces at Talasea, the Wraiths had to quickly devise a plan to prevent their deception from being exposed. Phanan collaborated with Antilles to create a plan to infect the Hawkbat's crew with a contagious disease, hoping to limit face-to-face contact. They decided to acquire the infectious agent on Storinal, where the Hawkbat's crew would have shore leave. They landed at Revos, disguised, and Phanan went to the capital city, Scohar, with Sarkin and Tainer to obtain the disease from the Scohar Xenohealth Institute, which housed numerous disease samples for study. Phanan searched for potential agents and chose Bunkurd Sewer Disorder, a stomach ailment. Adding Thri'ag to their group, the four infiltrated the Xenohealth Institute through its waste-disposal chute and retrieved two samples of BSD. Inside, they passed through an area containing various small creatures, and Phanan stole a Storini glass prowler to keep as a pet. They then planted the BSD in the air intakes of the two shuttles that would transport the Hawkbat crew back to orbit, before stealing two TIEs from the local spaceport to supplement the Night Caller's TIE complement and escaping.

When setting up a pair of spy satellites to record the unit supposedly following them, Phanan and Loran provided cover for the vacuum-suited workers. Before taking off, Loran found a small insect in his cockpit. Thinking it was Phanan's glass prowler, he called Phanan over to deal with it, but it was not. Realizing someone had tried to prank them, Phanan and Loran planned an elaborate revenge on Thri'ag, who they suspected was the culprit. With Kell Tainer's help, they placed a small speaker in Thri'ag's room to play the sound of the glass prowler and sliced Thri'ag's room terminal to show an entry on the Storini Crystal Deceiver, a fictitious creature similar to the glass prowler, known for its relentless pursuit and deadly nature. They played the noise softly on the first night, before returning to strike against the world, recorded by the spy satellites while impersonating Rogue Squadron. The next night, they played the noise more frequently until Thri'ag went to Phanan, in the next cabin, to ask for spray sealant Phanan had used on Storinal. The Bothan slicer spent the night sealing every crack in his room to keep the creature from escaping the walls, where it seemed to be, then returned to bed. Phanan and Loran waited until he was asleep, then cut power to his cabin and played the sound directly beneath the bed. The terrified Bothan leaped up and ran to the door, which he had to force open before an insect-like assembly swung into his face, and he passed out. Thri'ag was taken to the medical bay, where Phanan examined him. When Thri'ag insisted he had been attacked by a Crystal Deceiver in front of several others, Phanan showed there was no such thing in the ship's computers, making Thri'ag look foolish. Once the others left, Phanan and Loran admitted to the prank and forced Thri'ag to promise to end his own pranks, which he agreed to do when the pair threatened to tell everyone he had fainted.

At Talasea, Trigit deduced that the New Republic would ambush his fleet during its hyperspace jump. When the other two ships realized this, they turned to flee before the New Republic forces entered the system. The Night Caller was forced to fire on them, with Phanan participating in the "Loran Spitball" when, at Loran's suggestion, all the X-wings in the bow hold fired their proton torpedoes at the Provocateur before launching. Phanan was the first to notice that the Night Caller's bridge took a direct hit while its shields were down to launch the fighters. The Wraiths destroyed Provocateur and captured Constrictor, allowing them to maintain the illusion that the Night Caller had barely escaped the ambush. Zsinj had the Night Caller and Trigit set up an ambush for Rogue Squadron, supposedly following them, at Ession. The New Republic prepared a trap of its own, ambushing Trigit's Imperial-class Star Destroyer, Implacable, with another Loran Spitball before launching. The Wraiths harassed the now unshielded Implacable, crippling it. When the Implacable's fighters returned, the Wraiths engaged them with the help of other New Republic squadrons, but Phanan was pursued by a TIE interceptor, and his fighter was heavily damaged, forcing him to eject. Phanan was rescued and survived, while his squadronmates destroyed the Implacable and killed Trigit, but Phanan's spleen was punctured by shrapnel during ejection. Sandskimmer and Thri'ag were lost in the final battle.

The squadron went to Borleias after the incident, where Phanan recovered from the loss of his spleen in hospital. There, he met Lara Notsil, a young woman who had been a prisoner aboard Implacable before being rescued when it was destroyed. Once they recovered, they returned to headquarters at Coruscant. One evening, while on leave at a cantina, Ekwesh was attacked by a cyborg, whom Tainer fought off while Phanan examined Ekwesh. Military police quickly arrived to hustle the Wraiths out of the fight, but Loran found their quick arrival and odd mannerisms suspicious, causing the Wraiths to resist. Phanan used a laser scalpel to cut the throat of the man nearest him and took his blaster rifle, forcing the others to surrender. The Wraiths decided Zsinj was likely behind the retaliatory attack and tightened security. In the aftermath, Colonel Atton Repness questioned them. Phanan remembered that name as Sarkin's corrupt trainer and devised a plan to have Notsil enter Repness's training program and lure him into repeating his previous offer, catching him in the act and bringing him to justice.

Meanwhile, the Wraiths were tasked with brainstorming Zsinj's tactics, attempting to think like him. Phanan was assigned to a planning group with Loran, Wes Janson, and new Wraith Dia Passik. During brainstorming, Phanan brought Loran in on the scheme to bring down Repness, and the two asked Notsil to cooperate. For her to agree, Loran had to promise to ask Antilles to give her a place in one of his squadrons after she graduated, as no one else would trust her. Antilles agreed to consider her, which was enough to begin the plot. The Wraiths continued brainstorming, and it was decided that saBinring's theory that Zsinj was hiring pirates as a second navy was valid. The Wraiths were assigned to assume the identity of a pirate group and attempt to gain Zsinj's employment, earning his confidence before betraying him.

The Wraiths, using the alias of a pirate gang called the Hawk-bat Independent Space Force, transferred to Halmad, basing themselves out of an abandoned asteroid facility. Phanan, still without his own X-wing, spent time in the TIE simulators, as the "Hawk-bats" would use TIE craft for their deception. At Halmad, they had to steal more TIEs. In a play on the earlier attack on them, Phanan started a fight with Tainer in a Halmad cantina that spilled over to involve a squadron of TIE pilots. The other Wraiths, dressed as military police, arrested the TIE pilots, allowing them to infiltrate the base. Phanan, now in stormtrooper armor, replaced one of the guards of the TIE hangar after the guards were stunned, guarding the Wraiths as they took possession of six of the TIE interceptors within. During that period, a skimmer full of stormtroopers arrived for a scheduled shift change. Phanan and Loran were forced to fire on them, driving them off. Phanan piloted one of the stolen Interceptors out, having never flown such a fighter before. He had difficulty controlling it but successfully departed.

With their new fighters, the Hawk-bats began raiding local shipping, killing no one but seizing a great deal of cargo. Phanan participated in these raids as both a fighter pilot and a member of the boarding parties. Meanwhile, Notsil successfully brought down Repness on her own and performed well enough for Antilles to bring her into the squadron. While the other Wraiths went to perform a strike with the Solo Fleet to maintain the illusion that the Wraiths were with that unit, Phanan remained behind with Tainer, Ekwesh, and the new slicer, Castin Donn. Exploiting a gap in Halmad's sensor coverage, they robbed a bank. When the others returned, Phanan had dinner with Notsil, but he could see that she was not interested in him; none of the women he had attempted to flirt with recently were. Deeply depressed by his lack of success with women, Phanan returned to his room and began drinking. Loran realized something was wrong and went to speak with Phanan, who confessed that he had lost a part of himself when he was wounded at Endor. He was convinced he had no future and that women were no longer interested in him. Loran tried to comfort him, but Phanan maintained that he could not see a bright future for himself. Loran confiscated his alcohol and left.

The Wraiths embarked on their mission the following day, with the Hawk-bats seizing the fuel tanker Bastion above Halmad. Their next objective was a clandestine Imperial installation situated to the south of Fellon, a city on Halmad. However, they were met with an ambush at the base: three fighter squadrons lay in wait for what amounted to less than a complete Hawk-bat squadron. During the ensuing dogfight, Phanan managed to down multiple enemy fighters, but his engines sustained damage, resulting in a crash landing in the nearby forest. The impact was severe, causing significant internal injuries, yet he managed to extract himself from the wreckage and crawl away before Zsinj's ground forces could reach him. He reached a river and continued crawling until the terrain shifted to stony ground, where he would leave fewer traces. He then doubled back to the river and began moving downstream. Knowing that defending Phanan's downed fighter would only lead to the Wraiths' demise, Antilles ordered a retreat. Loran, however, lingered, evading his pursuers in the dense forests and landing his ship discreetly to search for Phanan on foot.

Loran, having commandeered a speeder bike from Zsinj's troops, discerned Phanan's strategy, succeeding where Zsinj's men had failed, and managed to locate him. He placed Phanan on the speeder bike, which had lost power and was simply floating, and began towing the injured man while Phanan employed a sensor unit to monitor their pursuit. As Phanan's condition worsened, Loran suggested surrendering to obtain immediate medical attention for Phanan. Phanan, however, refused, explaining that their identities were too well-known and their capture would compromise the Hawk-bats' operation. He prioritized stopping Zsinj over his own life, extracting a promise from Loran to incinerate his body should he die to prevent identification. Realizing his impending death, Phanan spent his remaining time drafting his will on his datapad. Upon handing it to Loran, he urged his friend to cease self-punishment for his past actions in service to the Empire. He also sent a message to Loran's account detailing his injuries, acknowledging his imminent death, and forbidding Loran from blaming himself. He bequeathed all his wealth to Loran, expressing gratitude for their close friendship. Later, Phanan spotted Iron Fist, Zsinj's flagship, in orbit and pointed it out to Loran, before passing away almost immediately, while simply appreciating the starry vista.

Loran, devastated by Phanan's death, returned to his fighter the following morning and managed to escape after using its lasers to cremate Phanan's remains. He also received Phanan's final message. Adhering to the stipulations of Phanan's will, he underwent a surgical procedure to remove his distinctive scar, his self-imposed physical penance. Had he refused, the inheritance would have gone to Tetran Cowall, Loran's childhood rival and object of his animosity. Phanan's death deeply affected Loran, but Phanan's words, encouraging him to abandon self-punishment, motivated him to continue fighting in a battle where he would have otherwise given up. Ultimately, Phanan freed Loran from his compulsion to atone for his past deeds.

Following the conclusion of the Zsinj campaign, Loran was promoted to captain and assumed command of Wraith Squadron upon its transfer to New Republic Intelligence. The Wraiths continued their service to the New Republic and its successor, the Galactic Alliance, until Chief of State Natasi Daala disbanded the unit around 41 ABY. In 44 ABY, General Borath Maddeus of Galactic Alliance Security approached Loran to discreetly reform Wraith Squadron and investigate Chief of Army Operations General Stavin Thaal's involvement in the Lecersen Conspiracy. This conspiracy was a recently uncovered plot by several high-ranking politicians and officers to seize control of the Alliance and merge it with the Imperial Remnant. To safeguard the identities of the new Wraiths during their investigation, Loran provided Maddeus with reports of a fabricated group composed of fictional Wraiths led by Phanan. When Thaal attempted to assassinate Loran and began searching for Phanan, Loran realized that Maddeus and Thaal were colluding. Wraith Squadron lured Thaal to the planet Kuratooine, where Turman Durra, disguised as Phanan, exposed the general to Colonel Kadana Sorrel of Galactic Alliance Starfighter Command, resulting in the arrest of both Thaal and Maddeus.

Ton Phanan started as a relatively average person, albeit with a mischievous sense of humor. However, after being injured over Endor, he became depressed, feeling that his future had been taken away from him. As he accumulated more injuries and cybernetic enhancements, he felt like he was losing his identity. His earlier optimism was replaced by cynicism, bitterness, and despair over his situation. He was no longer successful with women, which he attributed to his perceived lack of a future. This was a particularly painful loss for Phanan, who was something of a ladies' man. Phanan masked his depression by adopting an exaggerated sense of humor, constantly making witty, sarcastic, or sly remarks, puns, and jokes. Phanan harbored a deep hatred for the Empire and sought to punish it directly for his injuries. While he could be flippant and informal with his superiors, he always maintained professionalism in his role as a squadron member. He found solace in friends like Loran, but still felt haunted by the emptiness within and was unable to find enough joy in life to fight for it on Halmad. Instead, he used his last acts to give Loran the peace of mind and psychological strength to overcome his own personal demons, something Phanan was never able to achieve. A Human male with blue eyes, brown hair and fair skin, Phanan sported a thin, well-trimmed mustache and beard during his time with Wraith Squadron.

During his time with Wraith Squadron, Phanan typically piloted a T-65 X-wing starfighter, assisted by his R2-series astromech droid, Gadget. When engaged in piloting operations, Phanan wore a dark green flight suit equipped with a personal magcon field capable of protecting the pilot during extravehicular activity. When the Wraiths impersonated the Hawk-bat pirate gang, Phanan had the opportunity to pilot Imperial TIE fighters and TIE interceptors and wore an all-gray version of the standard TIE pilot flight suit.

Phanan typically carried a blaster pistol and, in his capacity as Wraith Squadron's medic, was equipped with bandages, bacta treatments, disinfectant spray, tranquilizers, and a laser scalpel that could be used as a concealed weapon in emergencies. Phanan's allergy to bacta necessitated prosthetic implants as a result of injuries sustained during his dangerous career. By the time he served with Wraith Squadron, Phanan had a prosthetic plate covering the left side of his face, which included a built-in comm unit, a red mechanical left eye, a cybernetic left leg, and a prosthetic right hand that resembled an organic Human hand.

The character of Ton Phanan was conceived by author Aaron Allston for X-Wing: Wraith Squadron, the fifth installment in the X-Wing series, published in 1998. Phanan and Loran were designed to be witty protagonists in the vein of Nick and Nora Charles and various characters from Howard Hawks films. Allston has stated that the Phanan-Loran duo are his preferred characters for comedic material. The characters gained popularity among fans and were compared by some to Hawkeye Pierce and B.J. Hunnicutt from the television series MAS*H.

Phanan was initially intended to perish in the battle at M2398, but Allston decided that Phanan had more to contribute to the story before his death and replaced him with Jesmin Ackbar. Allston ultimately determined that Phanan's death should provide Loran with the motivation to overcome his own issues and wrote his death in the subsequent novel, X-Wing: Iron Fist, to achieve this purpose.

Phanan's death was included in the "20 Most Memorable Moments of the Expanded Universe" list in Star Wars Insider 83. The article incorrectly stated that his death occurred in X-Wing: Solo Command, rather than X-Wing: Iron Fist.