Black Eight Squadron The Black Eight Squadron was an Imperial military unit composed of pilots who were highly trained in flying TIE / LN starfighter s and TIE / sa bombers for the Imperial Navy . The Sith Lord Darth Vader maintained the squadron under his direct command , and personally supervised the selection of its lead pilot . Captain Juno Eclipse and other ace pilots with exceptional flight records were assigned to Vader ' s personal squadron . After the Battle of Yavin , Darth Vader reorganized the Black Eight Squadron into a group of convicted pilots led by Nas Ghent , a former ace pilot of the Confederacy of Independent Systems . By 1 ABY , the squadron was headquartered on the " Imperial " - class Star Destroyer " Crucible " as a result of the Rebel Alliance ' s victories in minor space battles . History . Origin . In the aftermath of the Clone Wars , the Sith Lord Darth Vader emerged as the Supreme Commander of the military forces of the newly formed Galactic Empire . In addition to the 501st Legion , the Black Eight Squadron was also under the personal command of the Dark Lord of the Sith . Under Darth Vader ' s leadership , the Black Eight developed into an elite unit in the Imperial Navy and was especially noted for their obedience and brutality . Vader carefully maintained the unit ' s composition by personally handling the selection of its leaders and TIE pilot s , mainly to ensure that the squadron continued to live up to its reputation . As such , service within the Black Eight was brief for all members , a fact obscured by the mystique surrounding their highly classified assignments . Its members never revealed the identities of their wingmates or the details of their missions ; outsiders never speculated about the squadron either . The core objective for any Black Eight pilot was to give Vader success in every mission , no matter the circumstance . Bombing of Callos . By the year 3 BBY , the Black Eight Squadron ' s commander was Juno Eclipse , a Human female officer who joined the Imperial Navy after graduating as the youngest cadet in the history of the Corulag Academy . Impressed by the young woman ' s record for fidelity and competence , Darth Vader appointed Captain Eclipse as squadron leader . The wingmates under her command included " Chaser " Cartha , Youngster and Redline . Eclipse regarded the Black Eight Squadron as an elite unit and was immensely proud to serve as its commanding officer . Eclipse ' s pride in the Black Eight Squadron was brief , however . Shortly after her promotion , the Black Eight was deployed on a mission to invade the planet Callos . Although she followed her initial orders to the letter , conducting a bomb ing raid over enemy targets , her reaction to Darth Vader ' s next order was one of shock and apprehension . The Callosian s ' ability to offer further resistance was effectively broken , but the Sith Lord instructed the Black Eight Squadron to proceed with a full bombardment on the planet ' s defenseless inhabitants . Sensing her disapproval , Vader instead ordered Eclipse ' s squadron to destroy Callos ' s planetary reactor , and only then would he consider the mission a success . Eclipse complied with the new order , believing that she had averted genocide . The Black Eight fulfilled its mission objective with a surgical precision attack on the reactor ; each strike found its target well before the defenses could be activated . However , the reactor ' s destruction unleashed pollutants into the planet ' s atmosphere , contaminating all of Callos and rendering it uninhabitable . Post - Callos . Following the destruction of Callos , Vader rotated Eclipse out of the Black Eight Squadron and selected her as the eighth pilot of his secret apprentice ' s starship , the " Rogue Shadow " . Chaser was personally recommended by Eclipse as the next squadron leader , but was passed over in favor of Redline , a callous man whom Eclipse described as " psychopathic . " Youngster , a pilot noted for his optimism , had followed Eclipse into the Black Eight and left to fly transport ships soon after her reassignment . In addition to Redline and Chaser , who remained in fourth place on the squadron ' s roster , only a third of Eclipse ' s teammates were still part of the Black Eight in 2 BBY ; another third was listed as deceased while the remainder advanced via promotion in the military hierarchy . The new Black Eight Squadron . The Black Eight Squadron was reorganized in 1 ABY by Darth Vader during the Galactic Civil War . In response to the Rebel Alliance ' s unorthodox tactics , the Sith Lord chose to reform the Black Eight ' s composition by replacing its pilots with non - military personnel . Unattached to the Empire ' s cumbersome bureaucracy , Vader believed that the new Black Eight would be more effective as an unconventional unit , unhindered by the normal chain of command . The task of overseeing the squadron ' s development was entrusted to Commander Dorin Millavec , the fighter operations officer of the Imperial Star Destroyer " Crucible " . In addition to the conscription of Nas Ghent , a smuggler who previously served as a Separatist pilot during the Clone Wars , the rest of the squadron was composed of independent - minded pilots who could operate outside of the command structure . Those recruited into the squadron ' s ranks were chosen by Millavec , who had been told by Vader to search through the Imperial penitentiary system for ideal candidates . Although Millavec complied with Vader ' s orders , he harbored much resentment toward the pilots of Black Eight due to their renegade backgrounds . He especially hated Ghent because of the former Separatist ' s disdain for military discipline . Millavec , convinced that the Black Eight Squadron was a threat to his promotion prospects , secretly tried to sabotage Ghent ' s progress . While conducting a test flight , Millavec ordered the squadron ' s other pilots to kill their leader during Ghent ' s familiarization with the TIE / In starfighter . Ghent instead destroyed his wingmates , however and soon became reinvigorated as a pilot due to Millavec ' s duplicity . After Millavec excused his actions by claiming that the attack had been staged as a test by Vader , Ghent promised to establish the Black Eight Squadron as the best aerial unit in the Imperial Navy . As the rivalry grew between the two , Millavec released some of the most unstable psychopaths from incarceration and recruited them as Ghent ' s new wingmates in a new plot to assassinate the wayward TIE pilot . Organization . The Black Eight Squadron possessed a high turnover rate for its leaders and pilots alike . Juno Eclipse served as head of squadron for less than a year before her reassignment following the Battle of Callos . Her predecessor lasted only a little longer than Eclipse did . His own predecessor commanded the Black Eight for a single month before his rotation to another unit . Although the three former squadron leaders were listed as deceased by 2 BBY , Eclipse remained alive as a member of the Rebel Alliance . Qualification to be a member of the squadron included loyalty and ruthlessness , the two defining traits of the most feared TIE fighter squadron in the Empire . Though pilots such as Eclipse , Chaser and Youngster were obedient to the chain of command , their apprehension to Vader ' s brutal tactics led to Eclipse ' s and Youngster ' s removal from the Black Eight ; Chaser remained with the squadron , but was effectively barred from rising beyond fourth place . Those who possessed no ethical concerns for the use of excess force were rewarded with advancement , such as Redline who succeeded Eclipse as squadron leader . The new structure of the Black Eight Squadron under Nas Ghent ' s leadership reflected the unit ' s detachment from the chain of command . In accordance with Darth Vader ' s wishes , the squadron comprised rogue pilots whose disregard for authority was seen as an unconventional asset by the Dark Lord of the Sith . The Black Eight Squadron ' s primary complement was TIE / LN starfighters and TIE / sa bombers , although they have used at least one TIE / IT Interdictor starfighter during their missions . Behind the scenes . Jeremy Barlow hinted that a future " " arc could feature Ghent recruiting BoShek into the squadron . However , " Rebellion " was later cancelled in favor of " " . There is a discrepancy regarding which squadron Juno Eclipse served with prior to her reassignment to the " Rogue Shadow " . In the version of " " , both PROXY and Eclipse ' s Databank profile state that she was the leader of the " Black Five Squadron , " a fact also mentioned in the game ' s . Yet the first and second novelizations state that her unit was the Black Eight Squadron . Because novelizations supersede video games in " Star Wars " Legends , this article refers to Eclipse as the leader of the Black Eight rather than the Black Five .