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- "If you don't see me or my troops, chances are that we're right behind you."
- ―Judder Page
Judder Page was a Human male from Corulag who throughout his life served as a commando in the Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, New Republic, and Galactic Alliance. He was a nondescript-looking man who could easily blend into any crowd, traits that served him well on many missions that required stealth. Page was born to a wealthy Imperial senator and spent his youth training himself in various combat techniques before being sent to the Imperial Academy. After graduating with honors, Page briefly served in the Imperial Army, but had no love for the Empire and quickly defected to the Rebellion after hearing a passionate speech given by the Rebel leader Leia Organa to the Council of Galactic Rights. In his first years as a Rebel, Page served on the ground at the Battles of Hoth and Endor. Following the latter battle, he was given command of the Katarn Commandos, and he trained them to be an irregular and independent unit that was given a great deal of freedom in completing its mission objectives.
Page led his commandos on many successful sabotage and retrieval missions throughout the early years of the New Republic, and in 8 ABY, struck at Kal'Shebbol, the fortress world of the Imperial warlord Moff Kentor Sarne. After he and his commandos took down the world's planetary shields, a New Republic task force was able to gain control of the planet. Sarne escaped with a potent new form of weapons technology, and Page organized an operation to pursue the rogue Imperial throughout the Kathol sector before he could become a serious threat to the galaxy. Although Page did not join the strike force, Sarne was defeated and his threat neutralized. The Katarn Commandos continued to serve the New Republic as an elite commando team, executing missions on planets such as Hettsk and Sarahwiee and at the Imperial Maw Installation.
When the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy in 25 ABY, Page accepted a naval posting within the New Republic's successor state, the Galactic Alliance. He served aboard the Memory of Ithor, but the cruiser was destroyed by the enemy and its crew taken prisoner on Selvaris. Page and Commander Pash Cracken received vital intelligence while incarcerated at the prison compound and arranged for four inmates to escape and bring it to Galactic Alliance High Command. The information helped the Alliance rescue Page, Cracken, and a score of other prisoners, and Page was soon sent on a mission to Caluula to destroy a Yuuzhan Vong war coordinator. Shortly afterward, he led the Katarn Commandos onto enemy-held Coruscant, the former New Republic capital world, and joined a team of Jedi in storming the Citadel of the Yuuzhan Vong's Supreme Overlord Shimrra. They secured the fortress and the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker killed Shimrra, bringing the war to an end.
Biography[]
Fighting the Empire[]
Imperial service and defection[]
The Human male[1] Judder[4] Page was born in 23 BBY on the planet Corulag.[1] When he was four years old, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic reorganized the galaxy's ruling body into a Galactic Empire and ordered the execution of the many members of the Jedi Order, a group of Force-using peacekeepers[6] who had been protecting the Republic for over a thousand generations.[7] Page's father became a wealthy senator in Palpatine's New Order, giving his son a pampered childhood. Page grew up hearing tales of the Jedi Knights and began idolizing the legendary group, despising his father for not possessing any of the traits that the Jedi had embodied. Although he was not Force-sensitive, Page committed himself to following in his heroes' footsteps and took advantage of his father's wealth to train himself in various combat techniques. While the children of other senators in the Empire's Core Worlds grew fat and lazy, Page honed his skills, unsure of what advantages they would bring him but content that he was staying active. His efforts were supported by his father, who supposed that Page's youthful idealism would eventually fade away.[1]
Young and idealistic, Judder Page defected from the Empire and became a Rebel commando.
Years later, Page's father sent his son to the Imperial Academy in order to put his combat training to use. Although Page had no desire to serve the Empire, he quickly discovered the vast avenues of study afforded to the son of a prominent Imperial senator and set himself to learning the theories of planetfall combat from the Empire's best teachers. He despised his instructors, but accepted their teachings and was groomed to be an officer. He graduated from the Academy with honors and was assigned to the Imperial Army, serving under General Veers[1] in a ground assault unit.[8] Around the same time, he was on leave and at the galactic capital of Coruscant when he heard a speech given by Senator Leia Organa of Alderaan. He found the younger woman beautiful and passionate, and he listened to a speech she gave to the Council of Galactic Rights. It was unlike any speech he had heard Imperial senators give before, most of which he had found sweet-coated and rambling. Organa spoke out against the Empire's positions on slavery and humanocentrism, and made several implicit references to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, a rebel movement that had recently begun stirring across the galaxy. Page, understanding the speech's hidden meaning, realized that the Alliance was the dream he had been following his entire life.[1]
Page deserted his post at the first opportunity and joined the Rebel Alliance. Relatively new and still somewhat rag-tag, the Alliance had no special forces or commando brigades until General Crix Madine, himself another defector from the Empire, convinced his fellow members of Alliance High Command that elite commando units would improve the Alliance's chances in their war against the Empire. Madine had led one such commando unit during his Imperial service, and he went about organizing several similar units within the Alliance. Page joined a unit of the new Alliance Special Forces, led by Major Bren Derlin, that was charged with protecting the Alliance's Echo Base on the ice planet of Hoth.[1] In 3 ABY, Derlin was appointed the base's chief of security and operations by General Carlist Rieekan, who commanded all Rebel forces in the Hoth system.[9] Rieekan hoped to keep the base's existence a secret from the Empire, but when an Imperial probe droid arrived onworld and caught wind of the Alliance's operations, the base was attacked by Page's former commanding officer, General Veers, who led a ground assault composed of several AT-AT and AT-ST walkers. Commander Luke Skywalker led the Alliance's Rogue Squadron in snowspeeders against the walkers[10] while Derlin commanded a battalion of soldiers.[11] Page fought in the battle,[12] and the Rebel resistance bought enough time for many Alliance forces to flee the planet,[10] Page among them.[1]
Solo's strike team[]
- "Lieutenant Page, how did you manage to fight your way to the bridge? This is not meant to denigrate the abilities of you and your men… I realize that you and your men are exceptionally capable soldiers, and that ground combat is not my area of expertise… but those kind of odds sound overwhelming."
"Well, actually, we didn't fire a shot." - ―Admiral Ackbar and Lieutenant Page, regarding the capture of the Accuser
Page was stationed with the Alliance Fleet over the next year,[14] and by 4 ABY, he had attained the rank of lieutenant and often worked closely with Colonel Airen Cracken as a scout. He was with the fleet[3] when it massed off of Sullust; the fleet's ranks were still doubtful and demoralized after the Alliance's defeat at Hoth. The fleet received a much-needed morale boost when Captain Han Solo, who had been frozen in carbonite and in the clutches of the crime lord Jabba the Hutt for a year, arrived in-system after being rescued by some of his closest friends. The Supreme Commander of the Alliance, Mon Mothma, soon called a meeting of all Rebel commanders[15] aboard the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Home One, and Page attended as she announced that the fleet would be striking at the Empire's unfinished battle station orbiting the moon of Endor—the second Death Star.[3][16] Solo, promoted to General, assembled a strike team to land on the forest moon, and recruited men who had served at Echo Base. He had witnessed their loyalty and dedication,[15] and was aware of their resourcefulness and ability to devise creative situations.[17] He appointed Derlin as his planet-level unit leader. Eager to serve, Page joined Derlin's commando unit.[15] Their mission was to destroy a deflector shield generator, which would allow the fleet to mount an attack on the Death Star.[16]
On Derlin's recommendation, Page also recruited into the strike team a group of Rebel operatives that had been pivotal in delivering intelligence on the Death Star's location to Alliance High Command.[18]
Prior to the Battle of Endor, Page attended a Rebel briefing aboard Home One.
The strike team traveled to the Endor system aboard the stolen Imperial Lambda-class T-4a shuttle Tydirium piloted by Solo, and bypassed the Imperial fleet when Solo transmitted a stolen Imperial code and claimed to be delivering supplies to the forest moon. After landing on Endor's surface, they began scouting the area, but Solo, Luke Skywalker, Solo's co-pilot Chewbacca, and the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 separated from the rest of the commandos in order to track down Leia Organa, who had chased after Imperial scout troopers in order to keep the team's presence a secret. The plan was to rendezvous at the shield generator bunker at 0300 hours,[16] and as Page[15] and the rest of the strike team made their way through the moon's forests, they stealthily avoided several Imperial patrols before making camp for the night in a shallow ravine. Upon the approach of a patrolling AT-ST, the strike team fanned out and took cover, but Major Derlin feared that their discovery was inevitable. Strike team members Corporal Dansra Beezer and Lieutenant Greeve jammed the walker's transmissions and destroyed its spotlights with a sniper rifle, respectively, and the entire strike team began circling it in an attempt to keep it off-balance. The pilots began firing randomly, however, until the rookiee Corporal Delevar tossed a smoke canister into the walker's cockpit.[19]
The pilots evacuated their vehicle and surrendered, and the strike team coerced them into making several apparently normal comm reports to their superiors. The next morning, the team rendezvoused with Solo,[19] who had formed an alliance with the moon's native Ewoks. The Ewok tribe of Bright Tree Village helped show the commandos a route to the shield generator's back door. A large group of Imperial stormtroopers, scout troopers, and AT-ST walkers ambushed them, but the Ewoks began attacking the Imperials in force.[16] Page led his own detachment of commandos and deployed them[20] in the ensuing confusion; the Ewoks helped turn the tide of the battle in the Rebels' favor and the commandos were able to set explosive charges and destroy the generator. With the Death Star's deflector shield down, the Rebel fleet was able to enter the station and fire at its power core, setting off a chain reaction that destroyed the battle station. Both Galactic Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial fleet, were killed, dealing the Empire a crippling blow.[16]
Despite the loss of the Death Star, the space battle continued to rage for several hours.[21] Derlin placed Page in temporary command of the entire commando force while he supervised incoming ground forces. When Page learned of the trouble in orbit, Solo and Chewbacca grew eager to take the Tydirium to the fleet and lend assistance. Unable to contact Alliance High Command due to disrupted communications, the three took Page's complement of commandos and piloted the shuttle into the battle, where Solo hatched a plan to commandeer the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Accuser. He transmitted the same Imperial code that had granted them planetfall on Endor and told the Accuser's captain that they had escaped from the Death Star prior to its destruction; the Accuser's crew subsequently used tractor beams to bring the Tydirium onboard. The commando team then donned stormtrooper armor taken from defeated Imperial infantry on Endor, while Solo dressed as an Imperial general. They stormed the warship's bridge and secured all members of its crew while Solo knocked the captain unconscious; they then activated the ship's hull-breach alarm and caused the rest of the crew to abandon ship. The Alliance was now in control of an Imperial Star Destroyer,[13] and the remaining ships of the Imperial fleet eventually fled the system.[21] Members of the Alliance celebrated the victory in Bright Tree Village that evening,[16] and Page and Solo were soon after required to give testimony to Mon Mothma and Admiral Gial Ackbar regarding their capture of the Accuser.[13]
Leader of the pack[]
- "It may be raising the shields after the base had been strafed, but I'm up for learning a little more about the world we just ran from. How about you?"
"I had friends on the Modaran. I didn't like seeing them die."
"Good, let's go. Maybe, just maybe we can find a way to go back in and make the Imps pay." - ―Corran Horn and Page kick off their planning of the Second Battle of Borleias
Following the Battle of Endor, Derlin accepted a promotion and handed his commando unit over to Page. Page accepted the unit but declined a promotion of his own, hoping to avoid playing any political games.[1] Under Derlin's command, the unit had been in charge of protecting Alliance High Command, but Page turned it into a rogue group of twelve soldiers that took on any assignment that would promote the cause of the New Republic, the Rebellion's successor state. They often disappeared into the field and operated undercover for weeks or months at a time[23] without reporting to any New Republic contacts.[24] The new commando unit was dubbed the Katarn Commandos, named after the katarn, a stealthy predator from the planet Kashyyyk,[23] but became known simply as "Page's Commandos" as its reputation grew.[24]
In its early years, New Republic High Command dispatched the Katarn Commandos to destroy a shield generator on Basilisk during the capture of the planet from Imperial forces. The commandos destroyed the generator but also went beyond their mission objective, placing an electrified net over a hangar launch chute and thereby grounding a wing of TIE fighters. They then stormed the heavily-armed flying fortress of the Imperial governor Nistola and forced his surrender. When New Republic General Garret landed onworld with an invasion force, he was able to take the capital without firing a shot. For a brief while afterward, the unit was joined by the aptly-named New Republic operative Kyle Katarn, who aided them on secret missions against Imperial warlords on Kashyyyk, Boudolayz, and Garos IV.[24]
Page helps evacuate injured commandos during the Battle of Ciutric IV.
In 5 ABY, the leadership of the Empire was in flux. Former Grand Vizier Sate Pestage had been ruling in Palpatine's wake for a year, but fled Coruscant to Ciutric IV when Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard sought to remove him from power. He had earlier met and bargained with Organa Solo, and the New Republic sent starfighter squadrons and Kapp Dendo's Commando Team One to Ciutric IV to rescue the defecting Pestage. Page joined Dendo's commandos as they infiltrated a city on the world's surface and extracted their target, but the Imperial Interdictor Star Destroyer Binder prevented them from fleeing the planet into hyperspace. The starfighter unit Rogue Squadron joined Pestage and the commandos onworld as they camped in Ciutric IV's forests for the night. New Republic reinforcements arrived the next day and disabled the Binder's gravity well projectors, and Page helped Dendo bring injured commandos onto evacuation shuttles during a firefight with stormtroopers. Although Pestage chose to remain on the planet, the New Republic forces escaped.[25]
5 ABY[26] also saw Coruscant Military Command dispatch the Katarn Commandos to Vorrnti City, a city on the planet Vorrnti, to aid Lando Calrissian, a former Alliance General who was seeking Imperial AT-ATs for use in a private enterprise. Page arrived with several of his team members and rendezvoused with Calrissian, who had already hatched a plan. A group of spice dealers were due to shortly arrive, and two thieves had taken over a nearby junkyard that housed an AT-AT with the intention of using the war machine to interrupt the spice deal and claim the contraband for themselves. As two of Page's commandos lay in wait to hijack the AT-AT, Page and Calrissian watched from behind a warehouse as the walker marched out of the junkyard and towards the deal. The thieves fired the AT-AT's weapons at the spice dealers, and when they descended to the ground to nab the spice, Page's team emerged from the shadows and stunned them before ascending the side of the vehicle and dispatching their comrades. The commandos' work was done, and after Calrissian told Page that the AT-AT was one of forty he needed for an upcoming mining project on Nkllon, the lieutenant headed over to help his men secure the AT-AT.[27]
Midway through 6 ABY, Rogue Squadron began leading a New Republic push toward the core that was intended to conclude with the capture of Coruscant. The Colonies world of Borleias was targeted as a good staging world from which to strike at the galactic capital, and General Laryn Kre'fey devised a plan to capture the Imperial base there. He hoped to bombard the base from space before landing commandos in assault shuttles. At the New Republic's base on Noquivzor, Page approached Kre'fey and suggested delaying the assault by three weeks in order to use a meteor shower as cover for his commandos to land on Borleias and disable the base's ion cannons; but Kre'fey, eager to strike as soon as possible, refused. The assault went ahead, although very few were notified which planet they were actually attacking; the target was codenamed "Blackmoon." Page and his commandos were stationed aboard the assault shuttle Devonian during the invasion. After the New Republic forces penetrated the Imperial base's shield, General Evir Derricote, the Imperial officer in charge of the base, launched several secret TIE interceptor squadrons at the fleet and suddenly brought the shields back up. The New Republic forces suffered heavy losses, and the Devonian was saved from a group of attacking interceptors by the Rogues Corran Horn and Ooryl Qrygg. The fleet then fled into hyperspace and back to Noquivzor.[22]
Page tracked down Horn at the Noquivzor base recreation center, introduced himself, and bought the pilot a mug of lum. The two discussed the failed mission, and Page offered his opinion that Kre'fey had hurried his battle plans in the hope of being given command of the forthcoming invasion of Coruscant. Rogue Squadron's quartermaster M-3PO commed Horn at that moment to inform him that Horn's astromech droid Whistler had calculated wind currents on Blackmoon; Page and Horn, eager to learn more about the world they had failed to capture, investigated the information and discovered that Blackmoon was Borleias. Further research into Borleias revealed that an Alderaan Biotics facility was housed there, and the two deduced that the facility's generator had allowed Derricote to reinforce his shields. They brought the information to Rogue Leader Commander Wedge Antilles and General Horton Salm, and the four of them worked together to plan a second strike at Borleias. Several weeks later, the New Republic fleet returned, and the Rogues destroyed a power conduit that supplied energy to the Imperial base. This allowed Page and his commandos to land onworld, slip in through the exposed tunnel left by the destroyed conduit, and gain control of the planet.[22]
With Borleias under their control, the New Republic's plans for taking Coruscant went ahead in full force. In 7 ABY, the Provisional Council authorized Rogue Squadron to land on the prison world of Kessel and free several criminals, who would then be dispatched to the Coruscant Underworld to stir chaos. The Rogues performed a flyby of an abandoned Imperial base on Kessel's Garrison Moon to neutralize any remaining defenses, which allowed Page and his commandos to land on the moon and secure the base. Afterward, the Rogues cleared a landing zone on Kessel itself, which the commandos also secured by setting up a perimeter around a hillock at the center of the landing zone. After several Rogues landed, Page noticed an incoming landspeeder, and spoke with the driver as his commandos inspected the vehicle. He then authorized the passengers, Kassar and Myda Forge, to speak with Antilles about transferring the prisoners that they were employed to educate. Several prisoners were brought to Coruscant, and Rogue Squadron was covertly inserted into the planet's underworld, where they were able to bring down the fortress world's planetary shields, allowing the New Republic to take the planet.[28]
Striking at Sarne[]
- "Can't we wait until the New Republic can spare a real warship?"
"I don't think we can afford the time. You both saw what this DarkStryder technology can do. Sarne's got it; but I don't think he quite has it under control yet. We can't let him have any more of a head start than he's already got." - ―Kaiya Adrimetrum and Page on Kal'Shebbol
One year after taking Coruscant, the New Republic received intelligence that Moff Kentor Sarne, an Imperial warlord who ruled the isolated Kathol sector, had gained access to a potent new form of weapons technology. Hoping to neutralize the threat before it emerged, the New Republic organized a quick strike against Sarne's capital world, Kal'Shebbol. An energy shield protected the planet from orbital attack, and scores of anti-assault weaponry provided a ground-level defense. Rather than take the time to gradually wear down the shield, the New Republic sent the Katarn Commandos onto the planet in order to manually lower it. The Pathfinder Lilla Dade was inserted three days prior to the assault; on the day of the attack, Page and five of his commandos entered the system in a Ghtroc Industries Class 720 freighter, masquerading as a merchant vessel. The New Republic task force followed them in, allowing Page's freighter to make its way to the Imperial Government Complex amidst the ensuing confusion. They were fired on by an Atgar defense tower, but their vessel crashed through the complex's perimeter fence, allowing them access to the compound. Syla Tors, who had been piloting the vessel, rigged it to explode when Imperials came to investigate, and the team was met by Kl'aal, a local Defel who had been recruited by Dade. Kl'aal brought them to Dade, who showed the team an entrance to an armored tunnel she had discovered during her pathfinding. Page ordered his team into the tunnel.[29]
Page and his commandos fire on Moff Sarne's cruiser, the Ambition.
Five Imperial officers sat in a control room at the end of the tunnel, but they were quickly neutralized by Page and his team. The commando Keleman Ciro accessed a control panel and discovered that the energy shield control room was halfway across the complex, but also located a hangar that housed a Carrack-class light cruiser that Sarne kept as an emergency escape vehicle. Page figured that either the hangar or the cruiser contained a cutoff for the shield, and brought Ciro, Tors, and Vandro, another commando, through the tunnel to the hangar. He sent Dade, Kl'aal, and his commandos Kaiya Adrimetrum and Gottu to the complex's detention center to free any captives. En route to the hangar, Page's team encountered Sarne and a stormtrooper guard and opened fire. Two stormtroopers fell, but Sarne opened his Mindwarper module, an advanced piece of weaponry that emitted a mist and knocked Page's team unconscious. Sarne and his surviving guard fled, and Page's team awoke after two minutes, slightly disorientated. After regaining their bearings, they continued their pursuit of Sarne, eventually reaching the hangar and engaging more stormtroopers in a firefight. Vandro launched a grenade from a Viper grenade launcher, killing the troopers, but Sarne had already escaped in his cruiser, the Ambition. Ciro accessed a control panel, and, using a handheld beamdrill, locked the planetary shields in an open position after Sarne deactivated them for his escape. The New Republic task force was thus able to take the planet.[29]
Although the planet had fallen, Page worried that Sarne had escaped with a large portion of his forces and the advanced technology that he had witnessed firsthand. He converted a small office in an apartment complex into a command room, and from there contacted the task force's admiral to request additional forces to pursue the Moff. The New Republic was thinly spread, however, and Page resigned himself to recruiting from Kal'Shebbol's civilian population. Jessa Dajus, an Imperial officer who had been incarcerated in Sarne's detention center, entered his office and told him of a project she had overheard Sarne utter: DarkStryder. Sarne had flash-cleared all information from the base's computers, and Page was thus glad for the lead the codeword provided, however slim it may have been. Dajus claimed to be a victim of Sarne's "loyalty purges" and on the side of the New Republic, and told Page of a secret dock in the planet's Sorbiss Valley where a CR90 corvette named Renegade was undergoing an extensive refit. She and Page set off to find it, but were accosted by a Twi'lek named Loh'khar on the city streets along the way. Loh'kar's ship had been damaged during the battle and he sought reparations from the New Republic. Page declined and continued on to the dock, where he and Dajus rendezvoused with several of his commandos.[29]
After learning that the ship would be flyable in a day or so, Page received authorization to assemble a crew for the vessel and dispatch it after Sarne with the intent of locating and neutralizing him. Page named Ciro as the vessel's captain, Adrimentum as its first officer, and lobbied the admiral for additional crew and an X-wing escort. He recruited heavily from the civilian population as well, including Dajus and Loh'khar.[29] Page prepared a mission briefing for Ciro, giving him several objectives: In addition to finding Sarne, Page wanted him to determine where the Moff's technology came from; perform reconnaissance and report on Imperial Forces in the Kathol sector and unknown space beyond the Kathol Rift; perform reconnaissance and report on the Kathol sector and worlds in unknown space; and to represent New Republic interests to any settlements or civilizations he encountered. Page was unable to join him on the mission, but had faith in his command ability.[30] The crew of the Renegade, renamed the FarStar, was able to find and defeat Sarne, discovering that powerful artifacts in the Kathol system were the source of his technology. To Page's dismay, Ciro lost his life in the process. Page lobbied the Provisional Council to hold an honors ceremony for the ship's crew, but Mon Mothma denied the request, believing that knowledge of the powerful artifacts Sarne had found should be kept a secret. All records of the mission were erased by New Republic Intelligence, but Mothma congratulated Page on choosing what she believed to have been a fine crew.[31]
Later missions[]
- "Halt. What are you doing with that… thing?"
"We're surrendering. We don't care what you do, just get us off this planet. We'll cooperate, just save us…" - ―Page feigns surrender to a stormtrooper on Hettsk
Following the DarkStryder campaign, the Katarn Commandos were sent on a number of retrieval missions. When New Republic forces battled the Empire on Hettsk, two X-wing pilots were shot down over an uninhabited jungle on the Borderland Regions world. The New Republic fled, but Page and five of his commandos were inserted onto the planet's surface to retrieve Wing Commander Greni and her wingmate Bross, two members of Gold Squadron. Imperial troops found the pilots in the jungle shortly before nightfall, but made camp for the night rather than take them back to base in darkness. Page watched the Imperials and their HAVr A9 Floating Fortress through a pair of macrobinoculars and decided to feign surrender in order to better commandeer the vehicle. He and his commandos Frorral and Idow approached the transport and announced their surrender to the two troopers standing guard outside of the vehicle, who in turn opened its hatch to fetch their backup. Frorral, a Wookiee, attacked the two troopers as Page lobbed a grenade at the stormtroopers emerging from the transport. Idow retrieved the blaster rifle of one of the downed troops and began firing, and Vandro rushed into the clearing with a repeating blaster and disabled the repulsorlift engines of the transport. Frorral entered the vehicle and knocked the remaining two Imperials unconscious, and the two X-wing pilots were retrieved.[5] Some time later, Page and some of his team were on a mission when Gottu and Idow were inserted into Bruzion, a city on the planet Jendorn, to rescue six New Republic pilots whose craft had been downed during a battle that the Empire won. After the two commandos rescued the pilots, Page and Tors arrived in-system, and took a shuttle planetside to pick everyone up.[32]
In 9 ABY, the New Republic found its number of available cargo ships insufficient. Commerce was suffering, and in a bid to keep cargo-ferrying at a healthy capacity, Han Solo was tasked with contacting smugglers and offering to hire their services. Page and Wedge Antilles were assigned to Solo and Chewbacca as they canvassed connections from their smuggling days. Their endeavor brought them to a cantina in the spaceport of Mos Eisley on Tatooine, where Solo met with the smuggler Dravis. Antilles posed as Solo's backup man, making little effort to hide their connection, while Page stayed out of sight and relied on his generic, inconspicuous appearance to act as Solo's actual backup man. Page noticed that Dravis brought no backup troops of his own and carried only one blaster, and he reported these facts to Solo after Dravis left. The four New Republic operatives then returned to Coruscant by way of Obroa-skai, where they investigated the site of an attack that had destroyed an entire New Republic task force. Within the following weeks, Page and all of his commandos were dispatched on new assignments.[2]
Page acted as a backup man when Han Solo met with Dravis in the opening days of the Thrawn campaign.
The task force's destruction marked the opening salvo of a campaign against the New Republic by the Empire's Grand Admiral Thrawn,[2] who, over several months, captured a large amount of territory from his foes. Listening devices planted in the Imperial Palace, which the New Republic was using as its government headquarters, allowed the Grand Admiral to glean valuable intelligence, and a cloning facility of the Emperor's that Thrawn had discovered on Wayland caused his ranks to swell. Mara Jade, a former Hand of the Emperor's who was beginning to sympathize with the New Republic, revealed the location of the facility to Leia Organa Solo. Organa Solo, now married to Han Solo, recruited Page to perform a counterintelligence sweep in her office before gathering her close friends there to discuss traveling to and destroying the facility. Their efforts were successful, and Thrawn was killed at Bilbringi, stifling his progress and halting his campaign.[33]
Several weeks after Thrawn's death, New Republic Intelligence learned that the Empire was researching new weapons technology on Sarahwiee and assigned the Katarn Commandos to infiltrate the Imperial base. Luke Skywalker joined them for the mission, and Page took his commandos in a freighter to Garos IV to make contact with Captain Tere Metallo of the Star Quest. Metallo was a free-trader offering her own freighter as a backup escape craft for the mission. Both ships were loaded with supplies before rendezvousing with an Imperial informant who provided them with hyperspace coordinates for Sarahwiee; they traveled to the planet under the guise of trading. The commandos were tasked with destroying the base's research labs, factories, and warehouse facilities, as well as uploading several viruses into the main computer network. They split into three teams, with Page's unit hiding in supply containers that were transported to the warehouse. Once inside, they set several explosives, and Page contacted Korren, a commando who was with Skywalker in the labs. The various explosions were set to coincide with one another; the commandos escaped the planet on their two freighters before detonation occurred and destroyed the target objectives.[34]
Following the infiltration, Page finally,[35] although reluctantly,[24] accepted a promotion to captain. Immediately thereafter, the commandos were covertly slipped onto Commenor along with Kapp Dendo's Commando Team One. Rogue Squadron had learned that a Xenovet facility on the planet was housing Imperial prisoners, and Organa Solo had convinced the Commenorian government to allow a New Republic raid on the facility. Under the cover of night, both commando teams made their way to the facility; Commando Team One secured a barn while the Katarn Commandos cleared the main house area. They found it empty, but Dendo found a group of malnourished prisoners in the barn. Rogue Squadron encountered minimal Imperial resistance, and after Wedge Antilles set down outside the barn, he, Page, and Dendo deduced that the Empire had abandoned the facility within the past week.[35]
Two years later, Han Solo and Chewbacca discovered the Maw Installation, an Imperial research base inside of the Kessel Maw that had been cut off from the wider galaxy for years while performing superweapon research for the late Grand Moff Tarkin. A New Republic Special Forces strike force led by Antilles was put together to take the installation and free a group of Wookiee slaves being held there, with the Katarn Commandos assigned to lead the front-line charge into the base. They were briefed by General Madine on strategy for the operation before being loaded into CR90 corvettes and traveling from Coruscant to the Maw; the commandos rode in a corvette with Chewbacca, who had spearheaded the operation, and Solo's protocol droid C-3PO. Upon arrival at their target, the fleet crippled the base's minimal defenses, losing one corvette to the Empire's experimental Metal-Crystal Phase Shifter weapon before destroying it. Elements of the strike team, including the Katarn Commandos, then landed on the base's central asteroid and followed Chewbacca through its corridors, engaging defending stormtroopers in firefights as they ran. The Wookiees had already risen up against their overseer and the strike team found them surrounding the man, who was furiously attempting to beat them back with his force whip. After a word from Page, he set the weapon down, only to be attacked and killed by his former charges.[36]
The base was secure, but its top staff members escaped on the Death Star prototype that was housed there. Admiral Daala, who had been in charge of the base before leaving it to wage a guerrilla campaign against the New Republic, arrived in her flagship, the Star Destroyer Gorgon. She was followed closely by the Jedi apprentice Kyp Durron and Luke Skywalker, now a Jedi Master, in the Sun Crusher, a stolen Imperial superweapon. Han Solo's Millennium Falcon was not far behind, and the ensuing battle saw the Gorgon severely crippled before fleeing, as well as the two superweapons consumed by the black holes of the Maw, although Skywalker and Durron both escaped.[36]
A new kind of war[]
Imprisoned at Selvaris[]
- "Captain Page. I'll live to see you on a sacrificial pyre before Yuuzhan'tar completes a quarter orbit around its star."
"On the off chance we do meet again, keep this thought tucked into that warped brain of yours: fifty of my people died because of you, and the next time I won't be nearly as charitable with you as I was here." - ―Malik Carr and Judder Page
In the year 19 ABY, a peace treaty was signed between the New Republic and the remnants of the Empire, and two decades of warfare were brought to a close.[38] After six years of peace, however, an extra-galactic species of religious zealots known as the Yuuzhan Vong began laying siege to the galaxy with their living weapons, conquering the New Republic star by star and capturing Coruscant two years into the war. By 28 ABY, the New Republic had reorganized itself into the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, and, stationed on the planet Mon Calamari, engaged in massive efforts to take the galaxy back.[39][40][41][42] Page accepted a naval posting and served[43] as a captain[37] under Commander Pash Cracken aboard the Memory of Ithor during Operation Trinity,[43] a joint campaign between the Galactic Alliance and the Imperial Remnant to attempt to retake Bilbringi. The hope was that the core world could be used as a staging point to recapture Coruscant.[4]
General Wedge Antilles led a task force that included the Memory of Ithor to Bilbringi to assess the Yuuzhan Vong's defenses before calling in Admiral Traest Kre'fey and Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon as reinforcements. Upon arrival, he discovered that the HoloNet had failed, rendering communication outside of the system impossible. The task force faced a fleet more than thrice its strength and was trapped by Yuuzhan Vong interdictors, but was given a fighting chance when a large portion of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet left, believing the task force's arrival to be a feint. The Galactic Alliance fleet battled the remnants, and destroyed several ships before the Yuuzhan Vong who had departed returned. The Memory of Ithor was heavily damaged in the clash, but most of its crew, including Page and Cracken, reached escape pods before it was destroyed. Antilles was able to take his remaining ships into hyperspace and flee the battle.[4]
The surviving crew of the Memory of Ithor were brought to a prisoner-of-war compound in the dense jungles of Yuuzhan Vong-held Selvaris. Roughly 100 prisoners were incarcerated under the watch of the Yuuzhan Vong Commander Malik Carr and Subaltern S'yito, having been captured at Bilbringi and Gyndine. Although all notions of rank were abandoned among the inmates, Page and Cracken became leaders, well-respected and able to give orders. After two months, both had learned to speak the Yuuzhan Vong, and Page sported a thick beard on his face. The two helped dig a tunnel out of the compound that had been under construction by prisoners at the camp for months. Although they completed the digging and fashioned an escape route, Yuuzhan Vong defenses stationed around the compound's perimeter prevented them from organizing a mass escape.[37]
Page and Pash Cracken arranged for Thorsh to escape Selvaris and deliver valuable information to Galactic Alliance High Command.
Resistance movements began sprouting across the planet with the intent of opposing the Yuuzhan Vong, and a Ryn member of one of the groups infiltrated the compound two months after Page's arrival. While serving gruel during a meal, he identified himself to Page and Cracken as Ryn one-one-five of the information-gathering Ryn Network and slipped a holowafer into Cracken's food. The former commander summoned a man who had been christened Coruscant into the grashal that served as their mess hall, who brought with him a sabacc deck. A mock-game was staged, complete with a rowdy circle of kibitzers who protected the viewing of the holowafer's contents from any guards that might enter the grashal. Page and Cracken watched as the message—several seconds of mathematical equations—played, before the wafer self-destructed. Thorsh, a Jenet, and three Bith committed the contents to memory just before several Yuuzhan Vong guards entered with their coufee daggers drawn, and told the prisoners to quiet down. When the guards departed, Page and Cracken immediately decided that the information needed to reach Galactic Alliance High Command.[37]
One hour before the following morning's sunrise, Page and Cracken brought Thorsh and the three Bith to the tunnel's entrance and saw them off. The four escapees made it to two swoop bikes that had been hidden outside of the compound by the Ryn, and although two of the Bith were killed by attacking Yuuzhan Vong and the third was captured, Thorsh was able to rendezvous with Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon, who had come to pick the four up on a tip from the Ryn Network. When Malik Carr was alerted by sentinel beetles of the escapees, he ordered sensislugs, creatures whose exhalations could render most humanoids unconscious, to be placed in each prisoner dormitory. Page, Cracken, and fifty other prisoners awoke in a yard with their hands tied to wooden stakes behind them. Carr brought the captured Bith before them and fitted a tkun around his neck, which would coil itself tighter when disturbed. Page and Cracken insisted that he punish the two of them, but Carr continually prodded the tkun until the choking Bith recited the mathematical codes. He then died before Carr could glean what the code meant, and the commander punished the rest of the prisoners by having them dropped into an immolation pit and left to bake in the sun for more than twenty-four hours. Page insisted on being the first in, and rejected an offer of leniency from Carr, choosing to risk death rather than betray his comrades and give more information on the codes. He then jumped into the pit.[37]
Although over fifty prisoners suffocated in the immolation pit, Page and Cracken managed to survive. They and their remaining brethren were loaded onto a prisoner carrier and stuck to its deck with immobilizing blorash jelly. The carrier joined a thirteen ship-strong convoy that was transporting prisoners held along the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion corridor to Coruscant in order to see them sacrificed at a Yuuzhan Vong religious ceremony. Galactic Alliance High Command learned of the convoy and its route from the decrypted mathematical formula that Thorsh had brought them, and sent a strike force to ambush the ships after they made their final pickup at Selvaris. The Alliance fleet's surprise attack decimated the convoy, and the carrier that held Page was boarded by Galactic Alliance strike troops, Han and Leia Organa Solo, and C-3PO. They reached the hold that contained the prisoners and freed them by using arsensalts to dissolve the jelly. Page approached a captive Malik Carr and taunted the commander, pointing out that he would arrive on Coruscant without any prisoners. Yuuzhan Vong reinforcements then came out of hyperspace, and Page and Cracken joined eighty other prisoners that loaded into the Millennium Falcon, leaving Carr to live another day.[37]
Crises on Caluula[]
- "You have won the day, Captain. I salute you."
- ―Malik Carr speaks his dying words to Page
Page and Cracken joined the Solos in the Falcon's cockpit as it flew through the resurgent space battle and was attacked by Yuuzhan Vong slayer ships. The powerful, advanced coralskipper starfighters crippled the Falcon, forcing Solo to make a desperate hyperjump to the nearby planet Caluula before his ship suffered further damage. They arrived outside of Caluula Station several hours later, but were followed through hyperspace by the slayer ships and discovered a Yuuzhan Vong battle group in the system to boot. The station had been under siege for several weeks, its peril unknown to Galactic Alliance Command due to the disabled HoloNet, but opened its shields long enough to let the Falcon dock. When the freighter docked in a hangar, Page and the other eighty rescued prisoners were taken to be fed and treated for injuries.[37]
The Yuuzhan Vong's aim was to occupy the station in order to take captives. Shortly after the Falcon's arrival, another battle group arrived, armed with an orbital city-eating ychna that devoured the station's shields and allowed Yuuzhan Vong warriors to board. Page and the rest of his comrades from Selvaris made their way back to the Falcon as starfighters launched to defend the station. When the Solos joined them, Cracken and a few others opted to remain behind in order to help the denizens of the doomed space station, but Page boarded the freighter with the aim of rallying Galactic Alliance support from his homeworld of Corulag. Solo was able to pilot his ship away from the chaos and take it to Mon Calamari.[37]
Galactic Alliance Command anticipated an enemy strike at their temporary capital, and expected the now-conquered Caluula to be used as a staging point. Solo volunteered to lead a mission to destroy the war-coordinating yammosk that the Yuuzhan Vong had installed on the planet's surface, and recruited Page into his small strike team. Caluula's governor had surrendered the world peacefully under the condition that several select scientists could visit to observe the natural phenomenon known as the Nocturne of the Winged-Stars, and as such, Page, Solo, Organa Solo, Kyp Durron, and the Bothan Intelligence officer Wraw posed as the support team of the Ho'Din scientist Meloque. Unbeknownst to any of them save for Wraw, Caluula's governor had in fact surrendered the world so that the Galactic Alliance could test out Alpha Red, an airborne pathogen designed to target the Yuuzhan Vong and all of their living weapons. Wraw was assigned to the task force to report on the pathogen's first field test. Solo suspected that the operation was in some way compromised, and enlisted the smuggler Booster Terrik to join them in-system with his personal Star Destroyer, the Errant Venture.[37]
A Yuuzhan Vong warrior, several of whom Page did battle with on Caluula
The team landed at a spaceport onworld and were given clearance to proceed. They soon rendezvoused with Sasso, a Rodian of the Caluula Resistance, and Ferfer, a Ryn of the Ryn Network, who provided Team Meloque with timbus to ride. After a day of riding, they made camp for the night, and Sasso and Ferfer provided everyone with weapons seized from a nearby supply cache. In the morning, Meloque found a large number of winged-stars that were puzzlingly inactive, and Page and Durron discovered signs of Yuuzhan Vong beasts tracking the team. They rode their timbus into a canyon, and stationed themselves on two sides of a gulch in order to catch their attackers in a crossfire. The plan worked, and after the warriors fell, Page shouted at Meloque to kill a fleeing bissop hound. The pacifist Ho'Din hesitated, but Wraw fired the shot that would prevent the beast from returning to its base. Durron and Solo were wary of the ease with which they had defeated the warriors—and of the weakened armor that the attackers were wearing—but Page opined that they should be thankful for their luck.[37]
Worried about possible surveillance, none of the team members slept that night. Further concern came in the morning when they came across a crashed coralskipper that, along with its pilot, dovin basal, and rock spitter, was dead, with no signs of blasterfire. Meloque similarly found scores of dead insects and lethargic survivors on the forest floor. They pressed on regardless, and after several hours reached a low ridge overlooking Caluula City, where the yammosk was housed. While they hatched an infiltration plan, four Yuuzhan Vong Slayers arrived and killed Sasso and Ferfer. The elite warriors then overpowered the rest of the team, resisting blaster shots and lightsaber strikes. While Page and Wraw held two off with their blasters, the amphistaff of another sank its fangs into Solo's neck and injected him with venom. The pilot slipped into a coma, and although one Slayer fell, the other three seized Team Meloque's weapons and dragged the team members into the minshal building housing the yammosk.[37]
Exhausted Yuuzhan Vong and a weak-looking minshal greeted the captives; the warriors standing guard were barely able to cross their arms in salutes to the Slayers. Malik Carr, who had been in charge of installing the war coordinator on the planet, greeted his captives and taunted Page for being captured again. The Slayers departed Caluula while the captives were stuck to the floor of the yammosk's chamber with blorash jelly. Not even the jelly was immune to Alpha Red's effects, however, and soon liquefied enough to allow its prisoners to roam free. Solo awoke, the potency of the venom having also been reduced, and a dying Carr was dragged into the chamber by two equally exhausted warriors and a priest. He asked Page why everything was dying, but the captain was just as confused as his tormentor. Carr saluted Page for defeating him in the end, and, along with the yammosk and every other Yuuzhan Vong organism in the minshal, died.[37]
As Team Meloque struggled to make sense of the situation, Lando Calrissian, Talon Karrde, and Shada D'ukal entered the room, all of them friends of the Solos who had joined Booster Terrik for the operation. They greeted the team and reported seeing dying Yuuzhan Vong at the spaceport and on the city's streets. Durron realized what had happened, having been one of few privy to the knowledge of Alpha Red, and Wraw nonchalantly explained the true nature of the mission to those gathered. He hoped for the Slayers who had departed the planet to bring the pathogen to Coruscant and end the war, but his companions recalled the dead insects and realized that Alpha Red in fact affected more than just Yuuzhan Vong. Karrde commed fellow smuggler Crev Bombaasa aboard the Errant Venture and discovered, to the team's horror, that one coralskipper had made it to hyperspace.[37]
Retaking the capital[]
- "Welcome home. To, as we like to call it, 'Necropolis.'"
- ―Page welcomes Luke Skywalker to Yuuzhan Vong-held Coruscant
While Team Meloque was on Caluula, the anticipated strike at Mon Calamari happened. Shortly into the foray, the entire Yuuzhan Vong fleet withdrew, responding to the sudden arrival of the living planet Zonama Sekot in the Coruscant system. Luke Skywalker had led a Jedi hunt into the galaxy's Unknown Regions one year prior, hoping to locate the planet that he believed could turn the tide of the war. Many Yuuzhan Vong feared the planet as a portent of doom, while their heretical Jedi-worshipping Shamed Ones interpreted its arrival as a symbol of their salvation. When the Solos dropped Page off at Mon Calamari, he learned that Galactic Alliance High Command were taking advantage of the planet's appearance and had ordered a siege of the galactic capital. Wedge Antilles commanded an operation to retake Corulag to be used as a staging point for the attack, and secured the world with aid from the planet's revolting citizens, who had been galvanized by the rescue of Page, their unofficial hero. With his homeworld secure, Page was given command of the Katarn Commandos and became a key figure in the plan to attack Coruscant. His commandos were to make planetfall in troop transports and rendezvous with resistance forces on the ecumenopolis before proceeding to the Westport spaceport.[37]
Antilles brought a task force into the Coruscant system and was immediately advanced upon by forces of the Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster Nas Choka. With Choka engaged, the rest of the Galactic Alliance attack force arrived from hyperspace and began battering away at the planet's defenses. This allowed troop transports and gunships to land; the Katarn Commandos were escorted to the surface by Rogue Squadron, Wraith Squadron, Vanguard Squadron, and the Taanab Yellow Aces. After making planetfall, Page sent a group of his commandos to make contact with Shamed Ones, and another group to search for survivors from a transport that had been shot down. The Wraiths Garik Loran and Kell Tainer, commandos in their own right, landed as well and joined Page's team as they extracted Vanguard Leader Jagged Fel from his downed Nssis-class Clawcraft and gave the pilot some water. A barrage of Yuuzhan Vong thud and razor bugs soon came their way, prompting the commandos to take refuge behind a screen of YVH-series battle droids. Several X-wings strafed the attacking Yuuzhan Vong warriors, and the ensuing calm saw four Shamed Ones approach the commandos, led by the Wraith Baljos Arnjak and Pash Cracken. Arnjak had been inserted onto the planet two years prior and had since organized the Shamed Ones into an effective resistance unit, and Cracken had been taken to Coruscant from Caluula to be sacrificed to the Yuuzhan Vong's Gods, but had been rescued by Shamed Ones. Page embraced his friend before pressing a blaster into Fel's hand and recruiting the pilot into his team.[37]
The Galactic Alliance strikes at Coruscant.
Cracken pointed to billowing fires on the horizon—the entire Sacred Precinct, Westport included, was ablaze, as the Yuuzhan Vong's Supreme Overlord Shimrra was hoping to render Coruscant uninhabitable. The company thus changed plans and rendezvoused with the landing Millennium Falcon at the nearby Glitannai Esplanade canyon. Solo dropped a team of six Jedi off: Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, Jacen and Jaina Solo, Kenth Hamner, and Tahiri Veila. Page quickly briefed them on the Shamed One's revolt and Shimrra's desire to ruin the world, and the team moved out to storm the sacred precinct and, in particular, Shimrra's Citadel. Fel and several others remained behind, however, waiting for a shuttle that would ferry them to Westport where they could board empty starfighters. En route to the Citadel, the Jedi used the Force to propel them across the rooftops and balconies of the ruined esplanade, and the commandos kept up with the use of jetpacks. Starfighters strafed overhead as the team made their way to the Bridge of Unity, which provided access to their target. As they arrived, a mon duul creature rounded the corner of a nearby building and, through special villip communication devices, relayed a message from Shimrra that told his enemies to perish. Page was wary of the beast, but was convinced by Jacen not to fire on it. Unfazed, the team crossed the bridge, and were met by a group of Shamed Ones and assorted Coruscanti resistance fighters. A member of Page's Bacta Squad was with the Shamed Ones and reported to Page that his squad had been below the bridge, fighting with the resistance against Yuuzhan Vong warriors. He asked for reinforcements, and Page sent ten of his commandos to help. Skywalker also sent Jade, Veila, and Hamner.[37]
The commando team and the remaining Jedi made their way to the base of the Citadel, where an entrance to the mountain it rested on was guarded by Chazrach slave soldiers, rakamat artillery beasts, and the Yuuzhan Vong beasts Sgauru and Tu-Scart. After using their jetpacks to rocket down from the bridge, the Katarn Commandos and their accompanying YVH droids engaged the Chazrach in a firefight; the reptoid soldiers launched firejelly and flammable sparkbee honey at Page's team. Jacen Solo managed to use the Force to communicate with Yuuzhan'tar's planet-shaping World Brain, which in turn telepathically pressed Sgauru and Tu-Scart into opening a hole in the Citadel's walls, and the rakamats into trampling the Chazrach. Page's team immediately rocketed down into the canyon below to finish off their enemies, and Skywalker and the Solo twins rushed inside the hole. While the three Jedi confronted Shimrra and a team of Slayers in the Citadel's Hall of Confluence, Page and his commandos fought their way into the building's lower levels and secured them. Page learned of the Hall's existence from several Shamed Ones.[37]
The commandos were soon joined by Jade, Hamner, Veila, and the Solos, and Page directed them to the Hall of Confluence. There, they recovered a weary Skywalker, who had dueled and killed the Supreme Overlord. Page's team joined them as they left the Citadel and made their way to the nearby Millennium Falcon; the ship was surrounded by other commando squads who were in the process of disarming defeated Yuuzhan Vong warriors. Jade Skywalker piloted the ship to Zonama Sekot, which had neutralized the Alpha Red-infected coralskipper launched from Caluula by way of several living starships. After learning of Shimrra's death, Warmaster Choka surrendered to the Galactic Alliance and delivered his species into the custody of Zonama Sekot, which was in fact a seed of the Yuuzhan Vong's original homeworld, and which would attempt to pacify their culture. The galaxy began to slowly recover from four years of war.[37]
Personality and traits[]
- "Civilians think of this war as a single sweeping affair. Generals think of the war in campaigns. For us, the war is defined in operations and missions, usually too long and too costly."
- ―Judder Page
Judder Page grew up idolizing the Jedi Knights of the Old Republic and the brave qualities that they embodied, despising both his father and his instructors in the Imperial Academy for not possessing those traits. Although he hated the Empire, Page was an idealistic youth and took advantage of their training programs to hone his skills as a commando, eventually realizing that he could use those skills against the Empire by joining the Rebel Alliance.[1] He was eager to bring the fight to the Empire,[15] and shortly after his defection, General Crix Madine expected him to go far in the Alliance Military. When Han Solo selected Page to join his Endor strike team, it was due to Page's loyalty, dedication, resourcefulness, and ability to devise creative situations, all demonstrated during the Alliance's time on Hoth.[17]
Page was a very effective commando throughout his life, owing to his nondescript physical appearance, his many talents, and his leadership ability.[1][24][45] After spending his youth training himself in various combat and defensive techniques and then going on to learn the theories of planetfall combat from the Empire's best teachers,[1] he served in the Empire and the Rebel Alliance before becoming one of the New Republic's best soldiers.[1][45] During his time with the New Republic, Page was considered a legend of Alliance Special Forces.[46] Along with everyone who served under him in his commando unit, he had a wide range of specialties, including urban combat and heavy weapons.[24] With a well-rounded background in advanced combat and survival training, he was a crack shot and was proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Page was also trained in the use of armor but could easily operate without it. He was a very versatile soldier, and was considered one of the New Republic's elite troopers.[24][47]
Such was New Republic High Command's confidence in Page that they allowed his commando unit a great deal of freedom and autonomy in completing their missions; he and his team would often disappear into the field for weeks or months at a time.[1][24] The commandos, taught by Page,[48] were noted for their intense training, cold efficiency, and utter professionalism,[36] and by 9 ABY were considered, along with Kapp Dendo's Commando Team One, to be one of the two best soldier units in the New Republic.[35] By 29 ABY, Page was considered a hero on his homeworld of Corulag, and his rescue from a Yuuzhan Vong internment camp inspired resistance forces on Corulag to help the Galactic Alliance liberate the planet. Galactic Alliance High Command believed him to be influential enough throughout the galaxy that his rescue could persuade planetary sectors on the verge of acquiescing to the invading Yuuzhan Vong to reconsider.[37]
Page had a nondescript appearance that allowed him to blend into any crowd, a trait that served him well on commando missions.
Page was of medium height and a medium build, unremarkable looking and able to blend easily into any crowd. He was nondescript to the point that one could nearly forget what he looked like a mere moment after meeting him.[1][2][37] This bland, unmemorable appearance served him well on many covert missions, and he often disguised himself as a non-Human while in the field.[2][24] Page passed his talent for stealth on to the members of his commando team, who prided themselves on staying out of sight. Over the years, his leadership inspired them to become even more independent of New Republic High Command than they initially were.[24] Shortly before the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, Page took on a leadership role at the enemy prison where he was incarcerated. He was respected by the other prisoners, and was able to give them orders. The prisoners and one of the Yuuzhan Vong guards believed that a force of ten thousand warriors like Page could win the war for the Galactic Alliance.[37]
While on missions, Page was able to think on his feet and alter plans based on new and unexpected factors, adapting to various situations very well.[5][37] He was able to learn the raspy and guttural Yuuzhan Vong language within two months.[37] Although he was usually wary of traps laid by his enemies, Page was not considered overcautious[29] and was glad to accept any luck that came his way.[37] He displayed courage in the field[1] and often relied on skill and ingenuity to accomplish missions. He was always very determined to do so;[47] when Moff Sarne escaped from Kal'Shebbol with advanced DarkStryder weaponry, Page was firm in his convictions that the Moff needed to be tracked down, and was willing to crew the pursuing Farstar with civilians, including people with suspicious gaps in their employment history.[29]
Page knew that people working under him sometimes had to die in order for a mission to be completed; such was the price of leadership and command.[49] He warned his commandos not to take the deaths of their friends personally, else they would get killed too.[29] Nevertheless, Page did not like seeing his own friends die,[22][37] and while at Selvaris would gladly have risked his life in order to see any of the other prisoners live another day. He called on Malik Carr, the prison camp's overseer, to punish him personally when Carr discovered that four prisoners had escaped, and insisted on being the first prisoner to jump into the immolation pit in which Carr had sentenced fifty of them to die. When a Galactic Alliance strike force rescued Page and captured Carr, Page allowed the Yuuzhan Vong commander to survive, but felt that he would likely kill him the next time they met.[37] Page saw many deaths throughout his career, and felt that many of his campaigns had happened at the expense of too many lives.[44] He was not only confident in and trustful of the commandos on his team,[22][30] but was fond of some of them as well.[31] He made many other friends in the military,[1][4][37] and when Wedge Antilles believed him dead after Operation: Trinity, the general took it as a hard blow.[4]
Despite his stature as one of the New Republic's best soldiers, Page was modest[1] and respectful to superior officers.[22][28] He turned down many offers of promotion from his rank of lieutenant[1][24] as a sign of humility[43] and to avoid playing the game of politics. His reluctance was also inspired by Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, both of whom he believed had no use for ranks; Page was a great admirer of Skywalker, Solo, and Leia Organa Solo,[1] known colloquially as the Heroes of Yavin.[21] In 9 ABY, Page finally accepted a promotion to captain,[35] but did so grudgingly.[24] While in the clutches of the Yuuzhan Vong, Page helped abolish all previous notions of rank among the prisoners of war and wore his filthy prison uniform proudly. He insisted that the other prisoners eat meals before him, but the respect that they had for he and Pash Cracken prompted them to serve the two first.[37]
Behind the scenes[]
- "Can you tell how you got cast as Lieutenant Page for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi?"
"Just lucky, right time, right place." - ―Star Wars Interviews talks to David Church
Lieutenant Page was created by author Timothy Zahn and appeared briefly in Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire.[2] 1992's Heir to the Empire Sourcebook expanded on the character and his commando team, giving biographical details and establishing him as having fought in the Battle of Hoth,[1] an event depicted in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back.[10] 1993's The Movie Trilogy Sourcebook placed Page at the Battle of Endor[15] from the 1983 film Return of the Jedi.[16] The character went on to play minor roles in several other novels published throughout the 1990s,[22][28][36] and took on a starring role in the short story The Saga Begins, published in the 1995 roleplaying game scenario The DarkStryder Campaign.[29] After being briefly mentioned in The New Jedi Order: The Final Prophecy, the eighteenth and penultimate novel in The New Jedi Order book series, Page played a major role in the series' conclusion, The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force. Both novels were published in 2003, and they were the first sources to christen the character "Judder," giving him a first name twelve years after his creation.[4][37]
Page's non-Human appearance in the comic adaptation of Heir to the Empire
In 1999, the Endor Limited expansion set of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game included a card of Lieutenant Page that retconned the character into being an extra glimpsed briefly aboard Home One in Return of the Jedi.[3] The extra was played by David Church, who also portrayed a stormtrooper in 1977's Star Wars.[50][51] Church discovered that his Return of the Jedi character had been given a name during a signing at a Collectormania convention.[50]
Although Page's species was established as Human in the Heir to the Empire Sourcebook,[1] he appears as a decidedly non-Human character in Heir to the Empire's comic adaptation. The series' first issue, published in 1995, depicts Page as a ridge-headed alien.[52] In the 1998 novel X-Wing: Wraith Squadron, Wedge Antilles suggests that Page's Commandos would be an asset to the New Republic's efforts in the Battle of Ession. No further mention of Page or his team is made in the novel, although the presence of New Republic commandos on Ession's surface is confirmed. It is unclear whether or not Page participated in the battle.[48]
Page was originally going to be mentioned in the article Dirty Dozen: The Imperial Grand Admirals, which was set to be published in Star Wars Gamer before that magazine's cancelation.[53] The article established that Page and Admiral Ackbar liberated Kashyyyk from Grand Admiral Peccati Syn in the early days of the New Republic, and that Page and Wedge Antilles embarked on an information-gathering mission to Boudolayz in a campaign against Grand Admiral Afsheen Makati.[54] The article was eventually published in the sixty-sixth issue of Star Wars Insider as Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals, but with less information than its original draft and none about Page.[53][55] Part 1 of The Dark Forces Saga, an article published online in 2005, canonized Page's campaigns at Kashyyyk and Boudolayz, but did not place Ackbar, Antilles, or any Grand Admirals at them.[56]
Page appeared in the roleplaying game supplement The New Republic Campaign: The Battle for Endor from the PCs' Perspective, published in the ninetieth issue of Polyhedron magazine in 1993. As the magazine was unaffiliated with LucasBooks at the time, the scenario and Page's role in it are ambiguously canonical.[18]
