Mission statement

The Antarian Rangers is a paramilitary organization whose mission is to “actively assist” and “serve alongside” the Jedi – exactly what is being understood by “Jedi” is a matter of appreciation among the various authors. According to Allston, the Antarian Rangers’ mission is “to aid Jedi Knights” which is more restrictive than “Jedi” as a whole. This interpretation lays the basis of the cooperation between Marus Timpel and Kaskutal:

“Jedi Knight (...) Timpel expressed his frustrations with the limitations his Jedi lifestyle put on his travels and available resources. Kaskutal (...) offered to help and raised funds and resources from donors and investors to create an organization to help alleviate those problems.”

This restrictive approach to the mission statement acts also as a justification of the ambiguous relationship that characterizes the Antarian Rangers, the Jedi Knights, the Jedi Council and the Jedi Order. Regardless of the mission statement, there is a consensus among the various authors to look beyond it and have, in practice, the Antarian Rangers help Jedi and other Force-users indiscriminately.

Sources: Hero’s Guide, Star Wars Miniatures, X-wing: Wraith Squadron (p.185)

Mission statement: Similar organizations

The Antarian Rangers are not the only organization to help the Jedi, in the words of Allston: “Freedom’s sons were one such order, and the Rangers were another”. According to Wookieepedia, the Antarian Rangers are “similar in name and function to the Aquillian Rangers” (this apparently interprets The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film) and “fill a similar role to the Freedom Warriors”:

“The Freedom Warriors were highly trained troops supporting the Jedi Order in resource-heavy operations. Although the unit’s ranks were only open to those who could not feel the Force as Jedi do, the Freedom Warriors were able to effectively battle Sith-tainted soldiers and Sith-spawned monstrosities.”

Another such group, "that fought with the Jedi Knights and the armies of the Old Republic during the Clone Wars" are the Pandarran Warriors, led by Gendal Delan. Although, no licensed work confirms that the Antarian Rangers were inspired by either organizations, the Wookieepedia team makes a strong case on the permanence of systematic organized help for the benefit of the Jedi Order in the Star Wars narrative.

Sources: X-wing: Wraith squadron (p.185), Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForce Handbook (p.4) – Freedom Warriors also appear in Tales of the Jedi Companion (p.173), Wanted by Cracken (pp.62-64)

Mission types

The various missions conducted by the Antarian Rangers are best summed up in The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide which states that: “The Antarian Rangers (…) specialize in providing support for the Jedi (…) provide nonviolent support (…) and intelligence”. Thus, three types of missions are identified: combat, non-violent support and intelligence.

Source: The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide (p.66)

Mission types: Nonviolent support

Historically, the Antarian Rangers’ primary mission is to provide for “nonviolent support”; in Kaskutal’s vision, “alleviate” the problems Jedi Knights encountered in relation with “travels” and “available resources”. Nonviolent support – along with combat and intelligence support – is provided for free to the Jedi Knights. With the execution of Order 66 and the subsequent Purge, the Antarian Rangers have enlarged the scope of material support offered to the Jedi in order to safeguard what was left of the Jedi Order and anticipate in its eventual reconstruction.

Source: The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide (p.66)

Mission types: Nonviolent support: Resources and support

Detailed material support is not well documented in the existing corpus covering the Antarian Rangers. Therefore, the following elements may not be exhaustive:

- Hero’s Guide mentions “travels” and The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide elaborates on the idea with “transport services”;
- “Supplies” seem to have fallen into the Antarian Rangers’ purview, though no other information enables to characterize said supplies;
- Setting up depots or storehouses on behalf of allied groups (such as Jedi or the Republic Group); these could be equipped with beacons;
- Similarly, “other physical resources” are provided by the organization without additional details. However, the term “resources” is also used in conjunction with the resources available to the Jedi Knights for the accomplishment of their missions. Hero’s Guide stressed the “limitations (…) put on available resources”, while The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide mentions that the Antarian Rangers provided resources “when the Jedi need resources beyond those provided by the Order”. While it is difficult to ascertain the type of resources, it seems safe to assume that they are issued as a complement to those issued by the Jedi Order.

Source: Hero’s Guide, The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide (p.66), Millennium Falcon (pp.342, 355)

Mission types: Nonviolent support: Safeguarding the Order and Rebuilding

The near-extinction of the Jedi Order at the time of the Purge creates a new imperative for the Antarian Rangers heralding a shift in the finality of the support previously provided. The resources available are used to preserve the remains of the Jedi Order and not to help Jedi conduct missions. With the Purge, “the few Jedi who remain following Order 66 fall under the Ranger’s protection”.

Two different types of nonviolent missions can thus be identified:

- To “[establish] a secret base or safe house for Jedi on the run”, and
- To prepare “for the day when the Jedi Order is rebuilt”.

Source: The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide (pp.66, 67)

Mission types: Nonviolent support: Safeguarding the Order: Safe Houses

(There seems to be some disagreement on the correct way to spell “safe house” or “safehouse” among the various authors)

Karen Traviss provides useful insights on the way Antarian Rangers and escaped Jedi organized, “with varying degrees of success”, some “refugee network”, “escape routes”, “secret base or safe house” during the Purge. The routes so devised could be used to evacuate from a single individual to a small group (for instance, “several Padawans” or “many soldiers”).

Those may be run by Jedi Masters and information on how to proceed is stored, at least once, on a datachip containing some sort of “complete guide to how to hide escaped Jedi”. This complete guide covers as many aspects as: safehouses, sympathizers ready to give aid, ships, locations, comm. codes and arms caches and can be construed as “the whole shebang”.

As far as precise modus operandi to “ferry Jedi to safety” are concerned, Traviss mentions house-renting, the implementation of some “crude code” transmitted – possibly in clear – via “comm. equipment” in various “bursts” with “frequency changes every few seconds”, “ship movements” “from planet to planet” and establishing “at least a couple of escape routes” to reach a “Jedi safehouse”.
In organizing the escape routes, the Antarian Rangers and escaped Jedi do not stop at requisitioning resources and personnel without the consent of the owners and said personnel, thus implying that “everyone and everything is a resource for them. Take a ship, take a pilot, take an army”.

Safehouses, gathering survivors, such as Plett’s Well – involving Masters Altis, Camas and possibly Vamilad – would welcome a varied population of Jedi, Padawans otherwise referred to as “kids” or “youngsters” in crude code, other Force adepts, Sector Rangers including Antarian Rangers, Ffib Nonconformists, non-Force sensitives, renegade spies and would be organized in a rather free but communal way.

Despite the sense of security derived from strength in numbers, such a gathering would also constitute a certain threat to its occupants “[huddled] in one place” and therefore be “a single target”; to “scatter” could have recommended.

Setting up escape routes and safe houses is a skill that remains in the Antarian Rangers know-how, at least from 19 BBY (where events depicted in Imperial Commando 501st take place) to 25 ABY, with the involvement of the Antarian Rangers in the “Great River” during the Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

Incidentally, the “Great River” is yet another escape route ran by a Jedi Master, specifically, Luke Skywalker (“The orders come from Master Skywalker, ultimately. He's been organizing a network to move Jedi out of danger for months").

Sources: The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide (p.66, 78), Imperial Commando 501st (p.68, 82, 238, 280, 301, 304, 379), Hero’s Guide, Star Wars Insider 64 “Emissary of the Void”