Preparing for Ahsoka: Who are the Spectres?

We are now just a couple of months away from the release of Ahsoka and I cannot wait! Ahsoka is probably my favourite character in the whole of Star Wars, while I was a huge fan of Rebels, and it very much looks like this new series will be a sequel to that show.

Of course, this means that I am very familiar with a number of key characters, many of which will be new or relatively unknown to those who have stuck to live action Star Wars, and I don’t know just how much detail this show will go into about our characters’ pasts or the events before this show. As such, I have decided to prepare a short series of articles that will give some background on the characters and their past events.

Having introduced Ahsoka and her history up to  year after the rise of the Empire last week, we now look at another group of characters, many of whom appeared in the initial Ahsoka trailer and will likely have a large role. Today we ask the question: Who are the Spectres?

This will contain spoilers for Rebels, The Bad Batch and the novel A New Dawn

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Preparing for Ahsoka

• Who is Ahsoka Tano?
• Who are the Spectres?

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The Spectres were the name given to a group of individuals who came together to work aboard a freighter called the Ghost. Working primarily in the Lothal system, the group undertook a number of missions against the Empire, before eventually joining Phoenix Squadron in the growing Rebel Alliance.

Hera Syndulla

Daughter of the Twi’lek freedom fighter Cham Syndulla, Hera Syndulla was born to fly and became one of the best pilots in the Rebel Alliance. While she shared her father’s determination to fight back in the name of freedom, she took a wider view while he focused on Ryloth. At some point, Hera became the owner and pilot of the Ghost. Having at some point come into contact with Bail Organa, she was put in contact with the mysterious agent Fulcrum (Ahsoka, not that Hera knew this), who would assign her missions while the fire of rebellion was still just a spark. By the time the Galactic Civil War ended, Hera had reached the rank of General within the Alliance. On missions with the Spectres, she used the callsign Spectre-2.

Chopper

C1-10P, given the nickname Chopper, was a C1-series astromech droid. Chopper served as a navigational droid during the Clone Wars and took part in the Ryloth campaign, during which the Y-wing he was co-piloting was shot down. Rescued from the wreckage by Hera, Chopper became loyal to her and would eventually follow her when she left her homeworld. Ill-tempered but brave and loyal to his friends, Chop would take on a number of undercover missions due to the way droids were generally overlooked by Imperials. Chopper would use the callsign Spectre-3.

Kanan Jarrus

A survivor of Order 66. At the time of the Clone Wars he was named Caleb Dume, and was a Jedi Padawan under the tutelage of Depa Billaba. When Order 66 was given while they were out in the field, Billaba gave her life holding off their unit of clones while Dume ran, assisted by the clone Hunter of Clone Force 99, whose chip had not activated. Dume would go into hiding and eventually change his name to Kanan Jarrus, taking on a number of dangerous jobs while spending his nights drinking as he got older. While working as a freighter pilot on the planet Gorse, Kanan met Hera while she was on a mission for the Rebels. Despite a rocky start, the pair would eventually work together to thwart the efforts of the Imperial tyrant Count Vidian, while Hera invited him to join her on the Ghost. Over time, Kanan and Hera would grow close, and she would learn the truth about his identity. As Hera would often remain on the Ghost to provide a quick getaway, Kanan was often the leader in the field and used the callsign Spectre-1.

Garazeb Orrelios

A Lasat who later joined the crew, Zeb had been a captain of the Lasan Honor Guard, charged with protecting the Royal family of Lasan and his people. Zeb was one of the few to survive the Imperial massacre on Lasan. Eventually he came to meet Kanan Jarrus and join the crew of the Ghost, where he became the muscle of the group. Zeb would use the callsign Spectre-4.

Sabine Wren

A young Mandalorian within Clan Wren, House Vizsla, her mother was a former member of Death Watch who rebelled alongside Bo-Katan Kryze, while her father Alrich was an artist—leading to her becoming both a brilliant fighter and a talented artist herself. Believing in the Empire in her youth, she joined the Imperial Academy and excelled, however the Empire used her loyalty and skill to have her create a weapon that could trouble Mandalorians, but when then was then used to subjugate her people, she spoke out, only to be banished by her family as they remained loyal to the Empire. For a time, she and her friend Ketsu Onyo would work as bounty hunters, but the pair eventually split on bad terms and in time she found herself meeting and joining the crew of the Ghost, taking on the callsign Spectre-5.

Ezra Bridger

The youngest member of the crew, having been born on the same day that Palpatine announced the creation of the Empire. Ezra was an orphan, born and raised on Lothal, his parents Ephraim and Mira Bridger were imprisoned for speaking out against the Empire (later dying during an attempted escape), which left Ezra to grow up alone on the streets of Lothal. A thief who would steal from anyone he could, a chance meeting with the Spectres (as they both attempted to steal the same cargo from the Imperials) led to him joining the crew, while it was also discovered that he was Force-sensitive (with a particular connection to nature and animals), leading him to train under Kanan Jarrus. He would take on the callsign Spectre-6.

The Ghost

Owned by Hera Syndulla, the Ghost was a modified VCX-100 light freighter, which acted as the home for the Spectres. The ship was well armed, with proton torpedoes and 4 gun turrets allowing a wide range of defensive fire, but it was also a useful ship for covert work as it as able to scramble its signature to disguise itself on scans. During the early days of the Spectres working together, the ship came with a modified VCX-series auxiliary starfighter called the Phantom, which docked on the dorsal side of the Ghost and could act as a separate shuttle or starfighter, while later being fitted with its own hyperdrive. The Phantom was eventually lost on a mission, but eventually replaced by a Sheathipede-class transport shuttle that had previously belonged to Separatist forces, which was modified to dock with the Ghost and became the Phantom II.

So now that we have introduced the Spectres, next time we will look at their actions during the Galactic Civil War and where Ahsoka Tano comes into things….

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