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- "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—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 soldiers of Twilight Company fought against the forces of the Galactic Empire before and during the Galactic Civil War.
History
Early Campaigns
Ferrok Pax
Twilight Company was founded by Captain Micha Evon, nicknamed Howl, some time before the Battle of Scarif. One of its earliest battles was at Ferrok Pax where the company had barely two hundred soldiers. They intended to ambush the enemy and many died of starvation or were killed by the harsh flora and fauna of the planet. When they finally defeated their foe, only thirty-seven of the Twilight soldiers remained, including the Corellian Besalisk Gadren.[1]
Bounty on Howl
Twilight Company during the Battle of Allst Prime
During an open recruitment on Veron, a bounty hunter named Brand enlisted and smuggled her kit onboard the Thundestrike. Brand had taken a bounty on Howl following her departure from Tangenine.[1] When the company went on a mission to Allst Prime, Brand decided to make her move. 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.[2]
Further engagements
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. Howl woke three days after the incident releaved to know his second, Lieutenant Sairgon had stopped the recruitment immediately after. Another time on Magnus Horn, Twilight Company took such heavy losses that the Alliance High Command attempted to reassign its troops to other battle groups. Howl fought to keep the company together and saved it from obliteration. A similar loss was taken at Asyrphus where Twilight Company suffered an Imperial bombardment that massacred many Twilight soldiers including their comm tech and her droid.[1]
In 0 BBY, Twilight Company fought on Crucival where the Imperial forces armed the civilians and used them as cannon fodder. Most of the civilians died on the first day and the Imperial forces hid under their shield. However, the Thunderstrike's firepower eventually breached the shield and Twilight Company successfully destroyed the transmitter tower the Imperial forces intended to defend. After the battle, Twilight Company recruited numerous civilian militants such as Hazram Namir, who wanted revenge on the Empire for the death of his friend Pira Ten.[1]
Galactic Civil War
Vir Aphshire
During the Battle of Scarif and The Disaster, 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. Following the battle, Private Hazram Namir was given the battle report, to give to Howl, by Sergeant Fektrin. The young man took it to Howl where he was told of the military doctrine Howl used to plan their attacks.[1]
The Mid Rim campaign
The events at Scarif and Yavin kicked off the Galactic Civil War and Twilight Company assisted the Alliance in an advancement into the Mid Rim. Twilight Company battled on planets such as Phorsa Gedd and Bamayar. During a battle on Blacktar Cyst, Twilight Soldier Pol Andrissus—nicknamed 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 overstretched. 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.[1]
Enter Everi Chalis
- "Thanks to the rebellion, my days in the Empire are numbered. I understand you're recruiting. I want to join your company in return for asylum."
- ―Everi Chalis offers to join Twilight Company
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 found the defector, Governor Everi Chalis, among the other senior officers. They killed the other officers and took Chalis back to Howl.[1]
Chalis offered the Alliance information on the supply lines and weaknesses of the "Imperial War Machine" in exchange for asylum in the rebellion. None of the Twilight soldiers were happy of Chalis's presence, with a Haidoral recruit named Corbo going to her holding area with a knife. Soon later, the Thunderstrike stumbled upon an Imperial patrol by coincidence and immediately fell under attack. Chalis's holding area was damaged, injuring the guard, Maediyu. Namir managed to rescue both and Maediyu was put in a bacta tank.[1]
Coyerti Campaign
Twilight Company's next campaign was on Coyerti, where the Empire tested bio-weapons. On the first day, Namir and Sergeant Zab's squads stormed an Imperial camp and destroyed it. At the same time, another dozen squads were sent to take out the Imperial garrison. On the third day, Namir's squad submerged an AT-ST in a swamp after a day of luring it through the marshy forests. Chalis supplied valuable intel on the Coyerti bio-weapons and on the fifth day, Namir's squad were sent to destroy the distillery. Chalis claimed the destruction of the distillery would set back Coyerti's operations by years. During the final actions of the campaign, Sergeant Maximian Ajax's squad was pinned down by an AT-ST and the X-wings could get a shot on it. They were saved by the Coyerti people who stormed and destroyed the Imperial garrison.[1]
Pursuit in the Metatessu Sector
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 were then attacked again in the Enrivi system by an Arquitens-class 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.[1]
Raid on an Imperial heavy freighter
- "I propose we locate an Imperial cargo transport, I can get us within range, and your soldiers—can board it."
- ―Everi Chalis proposes raiding an Imperial freighter
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.[1]
Howl ordered the squads to return to the Thunderstrike as soon as possible. However, Sergeant Ajax and his squad found themselves pinned into a corner. Namir jumped in and managed to release the squad but Ajax was killed with a grenade in his hand, shouting obscenities. Sergeant Fektrin was also killed in the chaos and one of his soldiers Mzun took control of the squad as they made for their pod. 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.[1]
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 Forces soldier named Kryndal over their views of the war and Namir was punished for it.[1]
Echo Base was discovered by the Empire and Darth Vader's forces attacked. Namir, Roja, and Beak defended Perimeter Outpost Delta until its main defenses fell. They then made it back to the main base on a hijacked Imperial Juggernaut and found Howl unconscious with Chalis at the command area. They attempted to make it to a hanger in time but Vader and his men cut them off. They shot at the Sith Lord and Beak was bisected by Vader. Roja then threw a grenade and it was deflected and knocked out Namir. Chalis, thinking Vader came for her, surrendered but was swept aside. Namir woke to find Roja and Howl dead in the meantime. General Bygar was killed during or after the fight and Namir and Chalis then escaped using Chalis's clearance codes.[1]
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 of the Thunderstrike as the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Herald arrived, the Thunderstrike took damage as it, and the Apailana's Promise, escaped.[1]
Regrouping on Ankhural
Twilight Company fled to Ankhural where they camped in an abandoned podracing track and rejoined with Namir and Chalis. The Apailana's Promise was repaired in orbit by a skeleton crew. The engineers continued repairing the Thunderstrike and Namir and Chalis made it back to them using a datachip Brand had given Namir in case of an emergency. Roach they funeral for Howl and the officers they lost. Namir took charge of Twilight Company as acting Captain and Commander Tohna of the Apailana's Promise was transferred to take charge of the Thunderstrike.[1]
Operation Ringbreaker
Once the Thunderstrike repaired, 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.[1]
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 its X-wings. Twilight Company was stranded with only a matter of time before the Herald would arrive.[1]
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.[1]
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.[1]
Equipment and vehicles
- "Get me the plex"
- ―Hazram Namir, during the Siege of Inyusu Tor
Twilight Company possessed a variety of weapons and equipment to assist them in battle. Their soldiers were always carried into ground battles by a number of dropships. When boarding another ship, Twilight Company typically used their boarding pods, which they had at least six of. Soldiers were usually limited to DLT-20A blaster rifles and had little to no armor on them. More specialized troopers usually bore sniper rifles, heavy guns or ordinance equipment like the PLX-1 portable missile launcher, nicknamed the Plex. Twilight Company had various plex armed artillery weapons for defense as well but they were rarely used as their tactics were typically offensive.[1]
Twilight Company was carried by the CR90 corvette Thunderstrike. The ship was old and heavily modified on the inside but bore a reasonable armament for battle. The Thunderstrike had its own escort, a Braha'tok-class gunship called the Apailana's Promise. The gunship was smaller but had a reasonable armament and carried two X-wing starfighters on its underbelly.[1]
Military organization
Chain of command
- "Technically command falls to me, after Howl and Sairgon and Paonu and—well. Sharn…"
- ―Chief Medic Von Geiz
The Sixty-First was one of the many battle groups within the rebellion. The alliance had many 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. Therefore, 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.[1]
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 much experience in battles and leadership.[1]
Infantry organization
The rebel troopers of Twilight Company were sorted into squads of usually four soldiers. There were at least thirteen squads, and they nearly always worked separately. One occasion where many squads worked in unison was in the Coyerti campaign when a dozen squads worked together to attack the Imperial garrison there. Some squads could be specialized, like Sergeant Zab and Carver's squads, who doubled as heavy-fire teams for a raid on an Imperial heavy freighter. Sergeant Zab's squad also doubled as a sniper team during the Siege of Inyusu Tor. During a battle, each squad would be given a separate task, like in the raid on the Imperial heavy freighter. During that raid, Sergeant Maximian Ajax's squad created a choke point on a main passage way, Pol Andrissus's squad attacked guard posts, Carver and Zab's heavy-fire teams were at the vanguard, smashing through doors and Fektrin's squad took care of the engineering and slicing.[1]
Operations
Under the philosophy of Captain Evon, Twilight Company's missions were made to be in favor of the citizens. Howl believed that winning the hearts of the people would give the Alliance a better advantage. Most missions Twilight Company endured during the Mid Rim Retreat were ones meant to distract Imperial forces, allowing the Alliance fleet to gradually withdraw from the Mid Rim. When Everi Chalis came into play, she aided Twilight Company with more tactical missions intended to help cripple the Imperial war machine. Chalis's aim for Operation Ringbreaker was to take out the main source of the Empire's Imperial Star Destroyers, which would've crippled the Empire had the operation gone to plan. Chalis's tactics however contradicted many of Evon's ideas including helping the citizens. Acting-Captain Hazram Namir went against her when wanting to help the people of Sullust and overrode her plan to continue Operation Ringbreaker.[1]
Skills and training
- "Out here, when someone above you give you an order, you follow it. When someone tries to teach you something, you pay attention. When someone shoots at you, you shoot back. Don't smuggle alcohol or spice aboard, don't be stupid, and if you have a problem with another soldier, come to Lieutenant Sairgon or me."
- ―Hazram Namir, to the recruits from Haidoral Prime
The majority of Twilight Company's soldiers joined off the planets the company fought on. Most of these recruits will have little to no experience with weapons at all. The new recruits were given a textbook, known only as the White Book, written by Alliance High Command and were taught to shoot with a DLT-20A blaster rifle by more experienced Twilight members[1] like Brand[2] and Hazram Namir. When troopers became more experienced, they may be put given more specialized roles like a sniper or a heavy fire soldier. But soldiers had to show their specialty first before being assigned to it.[1]
Behind the scenes
Twilight Company first appeared as the focus of the Battlefront: Twilight Company novel that was released on November 3, 2015 and written by Alexander Freed.[4] It has since appeared in the short story 'Inbrief' written for Star Wars Insider issue 161[5] and has also been mentioned in the Rogue One Novelization, which was also written by Alexander Freed.[6]
Appearances
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization (Mentioned only)
"Inbrief" — Star Wars Insider 161- Battlefront: Twilight Company (First appearance)
Sources
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.38 1.39 1.40 1.41 1.42 1.43 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.47 1.48 1.49 1.50 1.51 1.52 1.53 1.54 1.55 1.56 1.57 1.58 1.59 1.60 1.61 1.62 1.63 1.64 1.65 1.66 1.67 1.68 1.69 1.70 1.71 1.72 1.73 1.74 1.75 1.76 1.77 1.78 1.79 1.80 1.81 1.82 1.83 1.84 1.85 1.86 1.87 1.88 1.89 1.90 1.91 Battlefront: Twilight Company
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4
"Inbrief" — Star Wars Insider 161
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Star Wars: On the Front Lines
- ↑
Mobile Infantry 61st Mobile Infantry on Penguin Random House's official website (Mobile Infantry backup link (61st Mobile Infantry) not verified!)
- ↑ Star Wars Insider Issue #161 @ Titan Magazines
- ↑ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story novelization