Wraith Squadron

Plot

Wedge Antilles, fresh back from the Bacta War on Thyferra, decides to make a new fighter squadron/commando team. While pitching the idea to Admiral Ackbar, he proposes a way to build the squadron without any cost to the New Republic: he'll use screw-ups, wash-outs, and pilots who are a hair's breadth of being kicked out of Starfighter Command—the pilots that no one else will take. Whilst Rogue Squadron was compiled from elite pilots with ground fighting expertise as a secondary, this new squadron was to be consisted of expert ground combatants with piloting skills as a secondary.

Antilles, with help from Wes Janson, scrounges up a team that comes to be known as Wraith Squadron:

During a routine patrol, the squadron is ambushed by a new invention of Zsinj, EMP/ion mines that leave the whole squadron dead in space. They set a trap to ambush the Night Caller, which is so successful that they seize intact security codes and holonet communications with Warlord, and refit the ship to serve as a Trojan Horse for Zsinj.

At the end of the plot, the Wraiths are part of a force that attacks Admiral Trigit, destroying his ship. One of the escapees, Gara Petothel, the mastermind behind the destruction of Talon Squadron, assumes a cover identity of Lara Notsil, a prisoner of Trigit.

Reception

X-Wing: Wraith Squadron reached 15 on the New York Times bestseller list on February 22, 1998.