Black Squadron (Galactic Empire)/Legends

"You're to find a group of independent thinkers who can operate outside of the Empire's bureaucracy. Pull them from the Imperial prison system if you have to."

- Darth Vader, to Dorin Millavec

Black Squadron was an elite unit of eight TIE Fighter pilots serving under Darth Vader's direct command.

Bombing of Callos
Sometime prior to the Galactic Civil War, Juno Eclipse, through quick promotions, eventually gained control of the earliest recorded incarnation of Black Squadron&mdash;the Black Eight&mdash;before being further promoted by Darth Vader. At the Bombing of Callos, Black Eight received orders to carpet bomb the surface of the planet to make an example of those who would stand against the Empire. Eclipse considered this a completely unnecessary waste of life and an act of genocide. She tactfully voiced her opinion and Lord Vader suggested an alternative course of action&mdash;he ordered her to strike the planetary reactor instead. Once they finished with that, he would consider their mission complete. After completing the mission she ordered her unit to withdraw, an order which three of her pilots (including a pilot with the call sign Redline) would complain about.

After Juno was reassigned to the Rogue Shadow, she had recommended a pilot with the call sign "Chaser" to take over as squadron leader. At the time Chaser was fourth in line. Instead, Redline was promoted to head of the squadron. He was described by Juno as “psychopathic” in her logs; in her experience, he was the coldest, cruelest, and least considerate being she had ever flown with.

A pilot with the call sign "Youngster" was expected to rise in the ranks of the Black Eight, yet left the squadron after the departure of Captain Eclipse.

Battle of Yavin
Stationed aboard the first Death Star during the Battle of Yavin, Black Squadron was the TIE unit which Vader led into battle against the attacking Rebel snubfighters - the only TIE unit to deploy against the Rebels during the battle. As Moff Tarkin and most of the rest of the Death Star's chain of command refused to take the threat the Rebellion posed seriously, only the squadron that Vader personally commanded launched&mdash;fortunately for the Alliance, as the giant station carried several thousand TIEs that would have easily overwhelmed the few dozen snubfighters the Rebels managed to throw against it. An element of six TIEs attacked the X-wings providing top cover, while Vader himself and two wing guards engaged the ships making the trench run. It is not often appreciated that the Imperials were significantly outnumbered in the air during the battle, but the pilots of Black Squadron were among the finest the Empire had to offer: they fought hard, and were responsible for many of the Alliance casualties.



The Squadron Under Nas Ghent
One year after the squadron's annihilation at the Battle of Yavin, Vader recruited former Separatist ace Nas Ghent to train and command a new squadron of eight elite pilots who could operate outside the normal chain of command. Nicknamed the Black Eight by Ghent, this unit should probably be considered the successors to Black Squadron.

To accomplish this, Ghent was posted to the Star Destroyer Crucible, working under the Star Destroyer's fighter operations officer, Commander Dorin Millavec. Ghent arrived aboard as a civilian, and even in uniform remained a tired cynic with little respect for military discipline, rapidly arousing Millavec's paranoia and hatred. However, he found himself reinvigorated when Millavec ordered Ghent's wingmen to destroy him on his first familiarization flight in a TIE fighter; Ghent instead wiped them out and Millavec covered his actions by claiming that the attack had been staged on Vader's orders as a test. Ghent swore to mold the squadron into the best fighting force the Empire had ever seen, harboring a strong grudge against Millavec. Millavec then filled the squadron's roster with the worst psychopaths he could find in the Imperial prison system and planned for them to destroy Ghent for him.

The subsequent fate of the unit is unknown.

Organization
With only eight pilots, Black Squadron was obviously organized differently from a standard TIE squadron, and Vader later told Ghent and Millavec that he viewed original thinking and an ability to ignore rules and regulations as assets for the pilots of the new unit they were to create; unfortunately, such attitudes mean that evidence is sparse as to the formation's exact position in the chain of command. The squadron also seemed to have a high turnover rate for its commanding officers. Juno Eclipse was only squadron commander for a short period of time while her predecessor commanded barely longer than she did, and that pilot's predecessor held the position for only one standard month.



During the Battle of Yavin, the pilots of Black Squadron bore DS-61 designations, but this does not mean that they were specifically created or regularly assigned as part of the Death Star's TIE force&mdash;rather, their designations indicated the fact that they were assigned to the Death Star at that time, just as the pilots of the 181st Imperial Fighter Group bore DS-181 designations during the Battle of Endor. More clearly, the DS-61 designation does suggest that the squadron was associated with a numerical designation as the 61st, though it is unclear whether this denoted Black Squadron itself, or a wing or group that they were part of.

It is sometimes assumed that Darth Vader held the position of Black Leader, but there is no direct evidence for this. His two wing guards were "Mauler" Mithel, flying as "Black 2" and DS-61-3, nicknamed "Backstabber" as "Black 3".

The composition of the rest of the squadron is less clear, but it is known that they included DS-61-4 "Dark Curse" (the pilot who scored a hit on Luke Skywalker's X-wing) and DS-61-8. Lieutenant Tanbris was the unit's non-flying executive officer.

As Black Squadron were the only fighters actually deployed in the battle, it seems almost certain that Qorl was also a member of the unit, although he may in fact have been one of the pilots already mentioned. Additionally, Qorl's operating number was CE3K-1977, giving further evidence that the DS-61 designations were not static assignments, but were given in addition to the pilots' individual Imperial identifications.

Behind the scenes
Jeremy Barlow has hinted that a future Rebellion arc could feature Ghent recruiting BoShek into the squadron.

The Star Wars PocketModel TCG includes both Black Squadron and Black Eight Squadron in the game.

Appearances

 * The Force Unleashed novel
 * Star Wars: The Force Unleashed comic
 * Death Star
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * ''Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Walking the Path That's Given