Sixty-First Mobile Infantry

"Twilight Company is fighting a battle for the heart of the galaxy. For the spirit of every ordinary man and woman and Imperial stormtrooper. Stealing food won't help us win. Killing enemies won't, either. Against might on the scale of the Empire, conventional victory is impossible&mdash;when our objectives become purely military, we've already lost the larger fight."

- Micha Evon, in the aftermath of the Battle on Vir Aphshire

The Sixty-First Mobile Infantry also referred to as the Sixty-First or Twilight Company was a military unit that served the Alliance to Restore the Republic under the command of Captain Micha Evon during the Galactic Civil War. The unit's patch read "Twilight survives" along the top and "Mobile Infantry" at the bottom. Their headquarters was the CR90 corvette Thunderstrike with its escort, the Braha'tok-class gunship Apailana's Promise, which carried the company's two X-wings. The battle group also had a number of dropships to carry a squad of troops down to battles. The soldiers of Twilight Company fought against the forces of the Galactic Empire before and during the Galactic Civil War.

Early Campaigns
Twilight Company was founded by Captain Micha Evon, nicknamed Howl, some time before the Battle of Scarif. One of it's earliest battles was at Ferrok Pax where the company had barely two hundred soldiers and faced the harsh flora and fauna of the planet. The clash killed all but thirty-seven of the Twilight soldiers, the Besalisk Gadren was among them. During an open recruitment on Veron, a bounty hunter named Brand enlisted and smuggled her kit onboard the Thunderstrike. Brand had taken a bounty on Howl following her departure from Tangenine. At another point, the company went on a mission to Allst Prime. During the battle, Howl and Brand stormed into the Governor's office and Brand stunned Governor Magé. Brand then attempted to kill Howl for his bounty but he already knew her intentions and convinced her to stay with Twilight Company.

Twilight Company fought on various planets and always had open recruits for any willing civilians. One time on Demiloch, an Imperial Spy disguised as an enlisting civilian shot Howl and his second in command, Lieutenant Sairgon, stopped the recruitment early. Howl woke three days after the incident. Another time on Magnus Horn, Twilight Company took such heavy losses that the Alliance High Command attempted to reassign it's troops to other battle groups. Howl fought to keep the company together and saved it from obliteration. They destroyed the transmitter tower on Crucival where the imperial forces used the civilians as cannon fodder. There they recruited one of the civilian militants named Hazram Namir.

Galactic Civil War
During the Battle of Scarif and the Destruction of Alderaan, Twilight Company were a part of Operation Mad Rush and were fighting in the honey fields of Vir Aphshire. There they soon got news of the destruction of the Death Star. The events at Scarif and Yavin kicked off the Galactic Civil War and Twilight Company assisted the Alliance in the advancement into the Mid Rim. Twilight Company battled on planets such as Phorsa Gedd and Bamayar. During a battle on Blacktar Cyst, Twilight Soldier Charmer was injured by shrapnel, developing a stutter as a result.

Sometime later, the advancement into the Mid Rim ground to a halt due to the Alliance Fleet being overstretch. Soon after the Mid Rim Retreat began and rebel forces began evacuating their bases. Twilight Company helped evacuate bases they had helped set up and rescue generals and rebel heroes. Towards the end of the Mid Rim Retreat, Twilight Company fought the Imperial forces on Haidoral Prime. During the campaign Twilight Company received a message from the Governor's mansion via a Mouse Droid. The message was from an Imperial willing to defect to the Alliance First Sergeant Hazram Namir, Gadren, Charmer and Brand were sent infiltrate the mansion where they extracted the defector, Governor Everi Chalis. Chalis offered the Alliance information on the supply lines and weaknesses of the "Imperial War Machine" in exchange for asylum in the rebellion. She supplied valuable intel on the Coyerti bio-weapons during the Coyerti campaign and Namir's squad destroyed the distillery. Chalis claimed the destruction of the distillery would set back Coyerti's operations by years.

Following the Coyerti Campaign, the Thunderstrike was attacked by an Imperial Star Destroyer. The Thunderstrike escaped with the help of the Apailana's Promise but where then attacked again in the Enrivi system by a Light cruiser with a squadron of Tie Fighters of which they obliterated with ease. When jumping to the Chonsetta system, they were attacked a third time by a squadron of TIE Interceptors which ravaged the starboard side of the troop transport. The company's engineers discovered they were being tracked through a particle leak which gave the Empire their trail.

The Thunderstrike desperately needed to be repaired so Chalis opted to plan a Raid on an Imperial heavy freighter. Twilight Company carried out this raid on a heavy Freighter in the Redhurne system where they sent squads in on Boarding pods. Sergeant Fektrin and his squad led a trio of engineers to help them and lost Cappandar to a dozen shots during a fire fight. At the same time, Sergeant Zab and Carver led heavy fire teams through doors to keep the Imperial forces occupied. Meanwhile outside, the Thunderstrike and Apailana's Promise were keeping the freighter in a weak position until an Imperial Gozanti Cruiser joined the fight.

Howl ordered the squads to return to the Thunderstrike as soon as possible. Sergeant Maximian Ajax, a Thirty-Second Infantry veteren, and his squad found themselves pinned. Namir managed to release his squad but Ajax was killed. Fektrin was also killed in the chaos and one of his soldiers Mzun took control of the squad. Once all the squads were back onto the Thunderstrike, they fled the system. Twilight Company got the materials they needed to repair the Thunderstrike with the loss of eight soldiers.

Loss of Leadership
The Thunderstrike and the Apailana's Promise then traveled to the Elochar Sector where a flotilla of a dozen ships, including the Sixmoon, carrying three battle companies. During their time there, the Thunderstrike was being gradually repaired whilst the soldiers visited the other ships. Whilst they were stationed there, Captain Evon, Chalis, Namir and two other soldiers went to Echo Base on Hoth and met with General Philap Bygar for a strategy conference with the rest of the Alliance High Command. Meanwhile, Namir and the two soldiers, Roja and Beak, were doing jobs around the base. Namir got into a fight with an Alliance Special Forcess soldier named Kryndal over their views of the war and Namir was punished for it.

Echo Base discovered by the Empire and Darth Vader's forces attacked. Namir, Roja, and Beak defended Perimeter Outpost Delta until it's main defences fell. They then went back to the main base to find Howl unconscious with Chalis. Beak was bisected by Darth Vader as he and his troops entered the base and Roja and Howl died in the meantime. General Bygar was killed during or after the fight and Namir and Chalis then escaped using Chalis's clearance codes.

Meanwhile, the Imperial spies captured a Light freighter called the Trumpet's Call and killed the rebel crew as it tried to reach the flotilla. The spies then took the Trumpet's Call to the flotilla but the life support failed along the way and Twilight Company had to take them onto the Thunderstrike. The spies then stormed the bridge and killed Lieutenant Sairgon and Commander Paonu but not before Sairgon warned the rest of the flotilla and the ships scattered. Brand and other Twilight soldiers then killed the infiltrators and took back control and quickly evade the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Herald. Twilight Company then went to Ankhural where they camped in an abandoned podracing track and rejoined with Namir and Chalis. They then continued repairing the Thunderstrike and had a funeral for Howl and the officers they lost. Namir took over as acting Captain and Commander Tohna of the Apailana's Promise was transferred to take charge of the Thunderstrike.

Operation Ringbreaker
As the Thunderstrike finshed with repairs, Chalis proposed Operation Ringbreaker, which would target Kuat Drive Yards. With the local gangs attacking Twilight soldiers such as Maediyu and Jinsol as a threat, they needed to leave soon. Twilight Company started this operation with the warehouse world of Mardona III where they lost Charmer and two of his men to an armoured worm vehicle. Namir, Twitch, Carver and a few others sought to destroy the thing and caught it off-guard as the crew were disembarking. They then decimated the Imperial garrison on Obumubo. After that they wrecked the Dockyards of Najan-Rovi and then took out the Plastic factory on Nakadia.

After two more attacks on Naator and Xagobah it was just Sullust and Malastare left before Kuat. But when they took the factory Inyusu Tor on Sullust, the Thunderstrike was amushed and shot down by the TIE Fighters of Vixus Squadron and the Apailana's Promise fled the system with it's X-wings. Twilight Company was stranded with only a matter of time before the Herald would arrive.

Stranded on Sullust
With few other options. Namir went down to the nearby capital of Pinyumb to find the Sullustan resistance. He and his soldiers were attacked and they lost Twitch's soldiers. Twitch deserted them and Namir was rescued by Nien Nunb, the leader of the resistance. He took him back to the Sullustan resistance safe house where he met the very small group of freedom fighters. They helped him back to the rest of the Sixty-First back at Inyusu Tor. The Herald arrived and the local imperial forces engaged Twilight Company at the factory. Luckily, the Apailana's Promise returned to keep the Herald from bombarding Twilight Company from above.

Everi Chalis abandoned Twilight Company, stole a shuttle and let herself get captured by the Herald, not knowing she had an Ion bomb inside the shuttle which set off and forced the Herald to flee. After Twilight Company fended off the rest of the ground forces using the lava flow from Inyusu Tor, the Sullustan resistance teamed with the once passive Cobalt Laborers' Reformation Front to take Pinyumb and revolutions broke out all over Sullust, liberating it for the Sixty-First. The Apailana's Promise had barely survived and the soldiers began scavenging the Thunderstrike. The Sixty-First planned to leave Sullust within time as the empire would return eventually.

Military structure
The Sixty-First was one of the many battle groups within the rebellion. The alliance had lots of battle groups like the Twenty-First, Thirty-Second and Sixty-Eighth and they wouldn't usually have any high ranking officers like Colonels or Generals, usually being led by Captains like So-Hem who was in charge of one of the other three battle groups in the Flotilla in the Elochar sector. In the Sixty-First, the rank structure, from the top, went Captain, Lieutenant, Commander First Officer, Chief Medic and before getting to the non commissioned ranks such as First Sergeant and Sergeant. Therfore, the Sixty-First's command structure before the Battle of Hoth went Captain Micha Evon, Lieutenant Sairgon, Commander Paonu, Commander Tohna, First Officer Sharn and Chief Medic Von Geiz. The Sixty-First's non-commissioned officers had First Sergeant at the top and other ranks below it such as Sergeant, Quartermaster and Forward Air Control Officer.

After Hoth the chain of command had lost Evon, Sairgon and Paonu but stayed the same with former First Sergeant Hazram Namir replacing Evon at the top as captain and the others moving up the chain slightly such as Tohna and Von Geiz. Namir also included notable soldiers and squad leaders in his meetings such as Carver, Mzun and Gadren as they had lots of experience in battles and leadership.

Behind the scenes
Twilight Company first appeared as the focus of the Battlefront: Twilight Company novel, released in 2015 and written by Alexander Freed. It has since appeared in the short story 'Inbrief' written for Star Wars Insider issue 161 and has also been mentioned in the Rogue One Novelization, which was also written by Alexander Freed.

Appearances

 * Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization
 * Battlefront: Twilight Company
 * Battlefront: Twilight Company