View source for Comm-Link:Galactic Guide - 78th Squadron

While [[Squadron 78]]’s recent victories have captured the public’s imagination, the unit has a long and storied past that reaches back to the final days of the [[Messer era]]. Established on 2604-02-22, Squadron 78 was created as part of the Empire’s response to the initial battles of what would come to be known as the [[Second Tevarin War]]. Strike squadrons were seen by many as the ultimate symbol of Messer’s power. Afterwards, while many squadrons were being retired or restructured, Squadron 78 managed to survive intact due to their distinguished actions in the post-war years. The result has been a bomber squadron still flying the modern version of the hardware they were assigned over three centuries ago, still active despite living through a series of complex political transitions that even at one point lead to the entire unit being arrested.

The unit was first assigned to a now-defunct space forces training facility at [[Ankorum]] on [[Terra]]’s northern hemisphere. It was here that the unit’s crews and ground personnel underwent six months of Retaliator-A familiarity and transition training before deployment against the [[Tevarin]], and it was here that they acquired their unusual moniker, the “Thundering Thorshu.”

At the time, the bomber field at Ankorum was as close to the middle of nowhere as was possible in civilized space, an unpopular assignment for a generation of military personnel eager to save the galaxy by battling aliens on the front line. Squadron 78’s first commanding officer, Captain [[Jaso Iger]], realized that he could use the brand new spacecraft he had been entrusted with to ingratiate his team to the weary base personnel. For the first three months of training, he would commission one of his pilots to covertly fly luxury foodstuffs and other items from the planet’s southern regions back to the base. Hailed by all for providing these creature comforts, the phrase “having a 78” briefly came to use amongst navy starmen as an expression for having a lavish meal. This all came to a halt when the [[Retaliator]] transporting contraband suffered a flame-out during a landing approach. The tower quickly ordered the crew to dump their fuel and dummy munitions in preparation for a crash landing. The order was followed, sending the illicit goods stored in the bomb bay falling around the airbase: two tons of fresh Thorshu crab legs. With that, the squadron’s name was established and a three hundred year legacy of seafood-oriented intra-service jokes was born.

As would be expected, Squadron 78’s first combat came in the Second Tevarin War, where they earned multiple combat awards while racking up capital ship and spaceto-space kills during the lengthy conflict. In the years following, the squadron continued to see service in a range of capacities, including heavy anti-piracy interdiction and as part of the Messers’ political intimidation machine.

Squadron 78 assured their survival during a seemingly insignificant mission in early 2791. As [[Messer XI]]’s hold on the population began to falter, bomber squadrons found themselves tasked with increasingly dubious missions. Units that had spent their careers flying against pirate bases and external threats found themselves reassigned to core worlds and assigned the eliminating political dissidents or subduing rioting populations. In one such instance, the Thundering Thorshu were ordered to equip double-loads of antimatter torpedoes and destroy an inhabited moon in the [[Ferron System]] believed to be the hiding place of a cadre of radicalized rebels.

As a matter of official record, the squadron was tasked with a kill-order strike on a suspected insurrectionist training facility. After a four-hour run from the jump point, the Retaliators entered scan range of Ferron’s moon. What they discovered was hardly the haven of cutthroats and anarchists that had been presented in their briefing, but rather an agro center on a small moon that had no weapons and no ships, but plenty of inhabitants.

Commanding officer [[Lisa Cahillier]] was contacted by her superiors who requested a progress report. None of her pilots could find any evidence to mark the base as a threat. Cahillier defied mission protocol and contacted the base directly and ordered them to surrender their weapons. They responded with pleas; the base was settled as a home for ex-patriots hoping to escape the ongoing chaos, not as a base for militant revolutionaries. They numbered in the tens of thousands, all marked for death.

Cahillier commed back to report her findings and recommend a mission abort citing a lack of a legitimate target. Her superiors were incensed and repeated their order for the 78th to open fire on the target. The squadron held their ground, refusing to fire without a clear or confirmed tactical or military target.