Iron Squadron

"Iron Squadron" is the forty-fifth episode of the Disney XD animated series, Star Wars Rebels. It premiered on November 19, 2016, and is the eighth episode in the third season.
==Plot==
The Rebels arrive at Mykapo on a mission to assist Rebel sympathizers in evacuating the planet before the Empire invades. Upon arrival, the Rebels notice an orbiting Imperial transport and a squadron of TIEs are occupied with a freighter, possibly smugglers. Wondering why they are not jumping to lightspeed, the Ghost crew decide to go in and assist them while the rest of their forces proceed with the mission. As the transport ship heads down to the surface of Mykapo, the Ghost, accompanied by Phoenix two and three, moves in to assist the freighter. Just then the freighter turns about and attacks the Empire head on. Hera contacts the freighter to convince them to retreat, but the commander of the freighter, calling themselves Iron Squadron, refuses. The freighter continues to head straight for the Imperial transport, and as soon as it got close enough the ship releases some of its cargo crates. The crates collide into the transport and explode, disabling the Imperial vessel. After the crippled vessel retreats, Hera congratulates Iron Squadron on their victory and in return is invited to meet them. As the rest of Phoenix Squadron head down to the surface with Kanan and Zeb, Hera first reports in to Commander Sato before paying Iron Squadron a visit. Sato is familiar with Iron Squadron because it was his brother's detachment, who was killed at some point on Mykapo. He also reveals that he has a nephew known as Mart Mattin. Up till now he believed Mart was dead, but was never so sure since he never received a reply to any of his transmissions. He described his nephew to be somewhat rebellious, and judging by what Hera saw deduces that the commander of Iron Squadron is Mart. Sato then asks for Hera to make sure that Mart and his comrades escape safely with the other evacuees.
Later, the Ghost docks with Iron Squadron's ship. Hera, accompanied by Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper board the freighter and are first greeted by Gooti Terez and Jonner Jin. Following Gooti and Jonner to meet their captain, they find the ship to be in pretty bad shape. They even have a hyperdrive that does not work, to which Jonner claims they do not need one. Soon the Rebels meet Gooti and Jonner's captain, Mart Mattin, along with their droid, R3-A3. After everyone gets acquainted, Hera moves onto explaining their plan of evacuating their fellow dissidence. Unfortunately, Mart, Gooti, and Jonner have no intention of leaving Mykapo. They would rather stay and fight rather than runaway and allow the Empire to claim their world. Despite the Rebel's best efforts, they are unable to convince the stubborn crew members of Iron Squadron to leave the system. Meanwhile, orbiting Lothal, Grand Admiral Thrawn is being briefed on the Imperial blockade over Mykapo. He is informed by an Imperial officer that the blockade is proceeding as planned but admits they are having troubles with resisting forces, which brings up the Iron Squadron's recent attack on their patrols with the aid of the Ghost. Thrawn is most curious about the Iron Squadron. He then turns to Admiral Konstantine and orders him to accompany a squadron of light cruisers to lock down the Mykapo system.
Back over Mykapo, the evacuation is complete with everyone, except Iron Squadron, leaving the system. Before the Ghost crew get on their way as well, Ezra convinces Hera to let him, Sabine, and Chopper stay behind and try again to persuade Iron Squadron to leave, and at the same time try to fix their hyperdrive. Despite her concerns, Hera grants them permission to go back as long as they escape before the Empire arrives, wherever they succeed in convincing Iron Squadron to leave or not. The Ghost departs from the system, leaving Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper with the Phantom. They re-dock with Iron Squadron, and Sabine and Chopper start affecting repairs on the hyperdrive. Mart, Gooti and Jonner still remain reluctant to leave their home. Ezra can understand how they feel since he too did not wish to leave his home. When he chose to fight the Empire it came with a cost to give up everything he treasured. Despite his loses, Ezra stands by what he and the Rebellion are fighting for. Just then Sabine and Chopper have completed their repairs on the hyperdrive, only for Mart to divert power to the weapons and shields. Mart then instructs his crew members to report to their battle stations because an Imperial light cruiser, accompanied by two transports, have arrived in orbit with Admiral Konstantine in command. As the Empire deploys their fighters, Mart prepares his ship for battle, despite Ezra and Sabine's plea to have him retreat. Even Gooti and Jonner finally agree with them, but Mart does not listen and moves in to attack. Everyone continues to plea for Mart to abandon ship, but after a couple of hits that causes minor damage to the ship Mart reluctantly agrees too. They make their way to the phantom, and pretty soon everyone, except Mart, is aboard. Mart chooses to stay behind and detaches the Phantom form his ship. Then he proceeds to engage the Imperials. Mart heads straight for the leading ship and like before releases some of his cargo crates. However, his plan is foiled when the cruiser destroys the incoming crates before making contact. Mart tries to escape but the TIEs disable his engines, leaving him dead in space. Despite Gooti and Jonner's plea to go back for him, Sabine and Ezra are unable too. They are forced to retreat back to the fleet but promise to come back for Mart.
Mart remains a drift in space and is trying to get his running again to no success. He notices a TIE Bomber passing over him, which attaches a mine to the haul of his ship. Knowing that he does need help, Mart sends out a distress call to the Rebel fleet. He manages to transmit the state of his situation before being cut off by the Empire. The Ghost crew, accompanied by Gooti and Jonner, board the Ghost and head back to Mykapo to rescue Mart. They soon arrive, and prepare to hoist Mart's ship. To remove the mine attached to his ship, the Rebels send out Chopper and R3. After being dropped into space, the droids find the mine and remove it. Then they attach it to one of Mart's remaining crates. After Mart gets the droids aboard his ship, the Ghost comes about again and moves in to hoist Mart's ship. Admiral Konstantine sees his chance to destroy them both and gives the order to detonate the mine. However, his crew are unable too. With a bit of a struggle, the Rebels manage to attach themselves with Mart's ship just as Commander Sato arrives to aid them. The two conjoined ships then charge towards Admiral Konstantine's ship, and on Hera's signal releases the armed crate. It collides into the Admiral's ship and explodes, leaving them crippled. Then suddenly, Grand Admiral Thrawn's Star Destroyer emerges from hyperspace. The Rebels make a hasty retreat, but not before Commander Sato has a brief conversation with Grand Admiral Thrawn. The Rebels and Iron Squadron return safely to Chopper Base, where Mart is happily reunited with his uncle and friends.
==Cast==
*Taylor Gray as Ezra Bridger
*Vanessa Marshall as Hera Syndulla
*Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Kanan Jarrus
*Tiya Sircar as Sabine Wren
*Steve Blum as Garazeb Orrelios, Imperial Officer
*Lars Mikkelsen as Thrawn
*Dee Bradley Baker as Kassius Konstantine, Rex
*Zachary Gordon as Mart Mattin
*Keone Young as Jun Sato
*Meredith Anne Bull as Gooti Terez
*Eric Lopez as Jonner Jin
*Dave Filoni as Phoenix Two
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*The episode's new characters and their homeworld are tributes to the staff of Lucasfilm's online team who spread the word of Star Wars Rebels via Rebels Recon.
**Mart was named after Matt Martin, Lucasfilm's manager of digital content and community relations.
**Gooti Terez was named and designed to resemble Andi Gutierrez, a digital communications manager at Lucasfilm, the host of Rebels Recon, and the co-host of The Star Wars Show. Her character design is based on the Theelin species first seen as one of the background singers in the Special Edition release of Return of the Jedi.
**Jonner was named after John Harper, a cameraman, editor, and producer on The Star Wars Show.
**The planet Mykapo is named after Mickey Capoferri, Executive producer of Rebels Recon and The Star Wars Show.
*The Iron Squadron's ship, the Sato's Hammer, is a YT-2400 light freighter. Its first appearance in Star Wars canon was in the 1997 re-release of Star Wars: A New Hope, where it was seen in the background taking off from Mos Eisley. The design was made popular with the Star Wars Legends multimedia project Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.
==International Premieres==
*January 14, 2017 (Brazil)
Category:Star Wars Rebels episodes