X-wing: Wraith Squadron

In this novel, the character Tyria Sarkin, a member of Wraith Squadron, is the sole survivor the Antarian Rangers' Toprawa community.

In the words of Aaron Allston:

Tyria Sarkin is one of our intrusion experts; she is a member of the Antarian Rangers from Toprawa, and particularly proficient in silent movement in difficult terrain (p.67)

Kell (…) never heard of the Antarian Rangers (p.67)

(…) Her family had died when her world of Toprawa had fallen, that she had survived by her ranger skills for years until a New Republic Intelligence reconnaissance mission had brought her and a few other rescuees offworld (p.87)

Runt asked “What is a Wraith?” “Something I heard about in my childhood”, Tyria said. “Dark things that come in the night for you. That’s what I think we are. For the Empire, for the warlords we’re the phantoms under the bed, the monsters in the storage cubicles (p.95)

"I got into the New Republic Academy pretty much for one reason: because I demonstrated I had a little control over the Force” (…) “They were hoping you’d train up to be a new Luke Skywalker” (p.183)

And immediately the offer to try out for this squadron came in – and I later learned that it was just because of my Ranger experience (p.184)

“Tell me about these Rangers” (…) “It’s an old order, the Antarian Rangers. Founded centuries ago to aid Jedi Knights. A few of them anyway; most of the Jedi tended to be pretty solitary. But some of them appreciated having loyal, reliable warriors to help them. Freedom’s sons were one such order, and the Rangers were another. To be a Ranger meant knowing how to move in any environment. To blend in with the forest or grassland, to sail, to swim, to dive, to pilot. To be masters of our surroundings. We were good spies, good warriors, very adept at intrusion and escape. In the old days, there were communities of the Rangers on several worlds, including Toprawa. There was some inter-marrying between the Jedi and the Rangers, which may be where I inherited my own nearly useless talent with the Force. Gradually, there were fewer and fewer Rangers around. The Clone Wars killed off whole clans, and then most of the rest were purged with the Jedi. The rest went underground. My family stayed hidden for decades, and then before we could emerge, Toprawa was bombed into barbarism by the Empire. That’s when the last of the Antarian Rangers on Toprawa died (p.185)

I failed to learn the ways of the Force and uphold my family traditions (p.186)

Wedge, trailing Tyria at a distance of eight or ten meters, marveled at the way she moved. Hers was not a steady progress. She stopped to listen to animal noises, stray cracking of twigs or other unexplained sounds, and when there was no noise at all. But when the wind stirred the trees, she glided forward at a steady pace, the wind completely blanketing whatever noise she might have made. Wedge tried to follow her example. After so many ground missions in the last few years, his own intrusion skills were not inconsiderable. On the other hand, he hadn’t needed them to survive day after day for years as she had; it was hardly embarrassing to discover she was better at them (p.194)

“What’s it like when you do concentrate?” (…) “It’s like putting my toe into a nice warm river back on Toprawa, and starting to slide in, and then looking over my shoulder and seeing that my ancestors for twenty generations back have all lined up behind me with stern expressions to make sure I’m doing it right, and I suddenly realize that I can’t swim well enough to make them proud of me. If I go into the water, I’ll drown. That’s what the Force is like to me” (p.241)