Catch Catch , originally known as Jawaswag , was an R2 - series astromech droid produced by Industrial Automaton and used by Rogue Squadron pilot Gavin Darklighter to aid in the use of his X - wing starfighter . During the Bacta War in 7 ABY , Jawaswag and Darklighter escaped from an assault by the Imperial " Victory II " - class Star Destroyer " Corrupter " , before briefly going up against Imperial forces on the planet Halanit when the colony they were refueling at was attacked . Darklighter later renamed Jawaswag to Toughcatch after the droid held off a group of Jawas trying to steal him , although the name was later shortened to Catch for ease of use . In 25 ABY , during the Yuuzhan Vong War , Catch was still serving as Darklighter ' s astromech , and the droid participated in Rogue Squadron action in the Outer Rim Territories , facing off against pirates and later the forces of the invading Yuuzhan Vong species as Rogue Squadron searched for intelligence on the invaders . Catch also flew alongside Darklighter during a battle at the planet Dantooine , where they engaged enemy fighters that were covering a ground troop advance , and later saw action at the planet Ithor , with Catch and Darklighter downing Yuuzhan Vong landing craft in Ithor ' s atmosphere . Biography . Incident at Halanit . By the year 7 ABY , an R2 - series astromech droid produced by Industrial Automaton served Rogue Squadron pilot Gavin Darklighter during the squadron ' s independent campaign against the forces of de facto Imperial leader Ysanne Isard in the Bacta War . Darklighter called the droid Jawaswag , as he figured that any member of the Jawa species would love to own the droid . That year , Jawaswag accompanied Darklighter in his T - 65 X - wing starfighter on an ambush of Imperial - affiliated tanker s containing the valuable medical substance bacta after a trio of tankers were diverted to a star system away from their escort once their navicomputers were sliced . There , Rogue Squadron convinced the three tankers to accompany them as they left the system , but the delay it took for Darklighter and his wingmate , Riv Shiel , to intimidate the tanker " Xucphra Alazhi " into joining them allowed the tankers ' escort , the " Victory II " - class Star Destroyer " Corrupter " , to arrive on the scene . Although momentarily shielded from the capital ship ' s barrage of fire by the bulk of the " Xucphra Alazhi " as the " Corrupter " destroyed the tanker , Jawaswag and Darklighter survived only after the latter took them on a blind hyperspace jump away from the battle , yet Shiel was caught in the " Corrupter " fire and perished . After fifteen seconds , they exited hyperspace , and Jawaswag plotted the first of seven short jumps that led them away from the battle zone . With Darklighter hoping to return to the Rogue Squadron base in the Yag ' Dhul system , the pair stopped at the planet Halanit to refuel at a Rogue Squadron - friendly colony . As the colonists needed to synthesize the fuel , the refueling process was to take two days , so Darklighter left Jawaswag in the starfighter . However , the " Corrupter " soon arrived at Halanit to make an example of the colonists for siding with Rogue Squadron , and the Imperials assaulted the colony . Away from his fighter , Darklighter ordered Jawaswag to start the X - wing ' s systems while he returned , even if the R2 unit had to suck the fuel synthesizer dry to do so . As stormtroopers killed colonists in the settlement ' s corridors and TIE Series fighters executed runs on the colony , Jawaswag and Darklighter departed the hangar in which the X - wing had been refueling to combat the attackers , but due to the fighter ' s fuel levels , the pair could only stay and fight for ten minutes before leaving the system . In the air over the colony , Jawaswag alerted Darklighter to the presence of a trio of TIE / IN interceptors , and the R2 droid acquired target locks upon the fighters before it started to record everything that happened at Darklighter ' s request . Jawaswag ' s pilot dispatched two of the enemy with proton torpedos , but the third TIE , which was out of control , managed to survive by flying into the chasm that housed the breached colony . After Darklighter followed the fighter into the colony and shot it down , Jawaswag and his pilot departed Halanit , as there was nothing more they could do for the colonists . Service after the Bacta War . Skirmishes in the Outer Rim . Jawaswag continued to serve with Darklighter following the conclusion of the Bacta War , in which Rogue Squadron defeated Isard . Sometime after the Thrawn campaign in 9 ABY , Jawaswag was accosted by a group of Jawas who tried to steal the droid . However , the R2 unit fended them off , hurting one in the process , thereby convincing Darklighter to rename the droid to Toughcatch , although that was later shortened to just Catch for ease of use in combat . Over the years , the droid underwent many memory wipes and upgrades , including the R2 - Delta upgrade in 24 ABY , which allowed Catch to process navigational computations faster . Nevertheless , Catch still greeted Darklighter each time with a short summary of the weather on Coruscant and Tatooine , both planets that Darklighter considered home , which was the reason why he never traded in Catch for a newer model . In 25 ABY , as the extra - galactic Yuuzhan Vong species was beginning its invasion of the galaxy , Catch and Darklighter — now Rogue Leader — took part in a holosimulator that pitted the pair against a Yuuzhan Vong coralskipper fighter in their T - 65A3 X - wing starfighter . Although Catch and his pilot survived only twenty - five seconds in combat against the coralskipper before being virtually destroyed , they beat the time of Bothan Admiral Traest Kre ' fey . While in the Outer Rim Territories searching for intelligence on the new attackers , Catch and the rest of Rogue Squadron deployed from Kre ' fey ' s Bothan Assault Cruiser " Ralroost " after pirates were reported in an Outer Rim system . At Darklighter ' s orders , Catch scanned for the pirates ' base , but Rogue Squadron was quickly engaged in an asteroid belt by damaged ugly fighters . While Rogue Leader disabled one of the enemy fighters , Catch worked on getting the tactical frequency of the attackers . Disabling the ugly led Darklighter and Catch to discover the mangled pirate EF76 Nebulon - B escort frigate " Free Lance " . Although the frigate briefly fired upon them , Catch was able to get the frequency of the pirate capital ship , and Darklighter convinced the crippled forces of the pirate leader Urias Xhaxin to stand down . Rogue Squadron learned from Xhaxin that the pirate had been attacked by coralskippers before fleeing to the system in which the " Ralroost " had found him , and Catch and the Rogues were dispatched to the location of the attack to guard a reconnaissance X - wing starfighter as it gathered intelligence . However , when the squadron emerged from hyperspace , it was set upon by coralskippers , and Darklighter engaged one of the enemy fighters . After firing a proton torpedo resulted in the coralskipper ' s shields swallowing the projectile as expected , Darklighter ordered the Rogues to use their new combat programming designed to help fight coralskippers , and Catch ' s allocation of power allowed his pilot to switch their fighter to quad - linked cannon fire . With a barrage of frequent low - powered laser fire , Darklighter overwhelmed the coralskipper ' s shields and finished off the enemy with a full - powered quad burst . During the dogfight , Catch and Darklighter learned how to prevent coralskippers from depriving the X - wings of shields by expanding the area of effect of their inertial compensator s over those of the shields . In chasing one of the coralskippers that had latched onto Lieutenant Ligg Panat ' s fighter , Catch and Darklighter found themselves going for a head - to - head pass with the enemy fighter before the coralskipper ' s shields spawned a miniature black hole that threatened to destroy Catch and his pilot as it sucked them in . However , after Darklighter emptied his torpedo magazine into the black hole and managed to gain a little extra velocity , the pair escaped the edge of the black hole , while the coralskipper that created it was destroyed by other Rogues . With the reconnaissance starfighter having finished its mission , Catch and the rest of the squadron departed the area . Dantooine and Ithor . Shortly after the skirmish in the Outer Rim , Catch , Darklighter , and the rest of Rogue Squadron guarded a refugee encampment against Yuuzhan Vong ground forces on the planet Dantooine . When the ground troops began their attack during the night , Catch and Darklighter launched with the squadron from the camp , and Catch ' s pilot tasked it with monitoring the base tactical frequency for emergencies . Despite the threat of the ground troops , Rogue Squadron was unable to attack them , as enemy fighters occupied their attention . Later in the battle , Catch alerted Darklighter to the presence of the New Republic shuttle " Impervious " , whose occupant , Jedi Master Luke Skywalker , requested that a missile spread be fired at the largest enemy ground vehicle using telemetry supplied by Skywalker ' s droid , R2 - D2 . With their wingmates covering them , Darklighter and Catch — along with Rogue Eleven Jaina Solo — fired a quartet of proton torpedoes at the vehicle . R2 - D2 changed the trajectory of the missiles to aim at the vehicle ' s spine instead of side , but the vehicle spawned a gravity anomaly that Catch reported and tried to reposition itself between the missiles and the spine . However , Skywalker , through the use of the Force , pushed the black hole into the vehicle ' s spine , destroying it while the missiles hit the ground and killed a multitude of ground troops . Although the Yuuzhan Vong completed their conquest of Dantooine , the New Republic forces successfully withdrew from the planet . Later in 25 ABY , Catch and Rogue Squadron aided in the defense of the jungle planet Ithor . During the battle , the Rogues targeted four Yuuzhan Vong landing craft — dubbed crate s — in Ithor ' s atmosphere that were headed for the Ithorian Herdship " Tafanda Bay " . Upon his pilot ' s command , Catch programmed two proton torpedoes for detonation at two kilometers or for when they detected a Yuuzhan Vong shield void . Darklighter fired the pair at the two rearmost crates , and the resulting detonation when the proton torpedoes detected the crates ' shields tossed the two ships about due to the atmospheric shock wave . The crates lost control and crashed into the jungles below , although the other two crates escaped the Rogues . The New Republic ultimately emerged victorious , but the Yuuzhan Vong destroyed much of the life on Ithor with a bioweapon . Characteristics . Colored gold and white , Catch was an R2 - series astromech from the R - series droid line who spoke the droid language of binary . In its service to Rogue Squadron pilot Gavin Darklighter over the years , the droid fulfilled a variety of jobs . Catch programmed hyperspace jumps , with the R2 - Delta upgrade aiding in the droid ' s calculation time after its installation , and performed many of the computer - related tasks on Darklighter ' s X - wing , such as running simulators and managing sensors . When in combat , Catch painted new targets for Darklighter on his secondary monitor and would whistle and shriek when the starfighter was in danger . Despite having multiple memory wipes over the years , Catch always greeted Darklighter with a short summary of the weather on Coruscant and Tatooine , the planets Darklighter thought of as home . Behind the scenes . Catch first appeared as Jawaswag in the novel " " , released in 1997 and written by Michael A . Stackpole . As Catch , the droid later appeared in two more of Stackpole ' s books , " " and " " , both 2000 installments of " " series . In 2008 , Catch received an entry in " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " .