Alphabet Squadron

Alphabet Squadron was a New Republic Intelligence starfighter squadron that was tasked by Agent Caern Adan with tracking down the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing, known as Shadow Wing. Alphabet Squadron was overseen by General Hera Syndulla and directly led in the field by Lieutenant Yrica Quell. Alphabet Squadron participated in multiple engagements against the 204th and Imperial remnant forces, including the attack on Pandem Nai, the Cerberon system campaign, and the Battle of Jakku.
==Description==
In the weeks and months after the Battle of Endor, New Republic pilots were regularly unsure of what their missions would see thrown at them. To address whatever challenge may await on a mission and thereby, at least hopefully, increase a squad's rate of success, squads were often made up of a range of starships. In line with that mentality, Alphabet Squadron consisted of five pilots, who each flew a different starfighter:
*Alphabet Leader: Yrica Quell 
*Chass na Chadic 
*Kairos 
*Wyl Lark 
*Nath Tensent 
==History==
===Formation===
During the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance, following the decisive Battle of Endor which resulted in the apparent death of Emperor Palpatine and the destruction of the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station, Lieutenant Yrica Quell and four other New Republic pilots, the successor government of the Rebel Alliance, were selected by Agent Caern Adan to join the newly formed Alphabet Squadron.
Alphabet Squadron was tasked by Agent Caern Adan of New Republic Intelligence to track down and destroy the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing, a mysterious and lethal force of TIE fighters who were exacting vengeance. Quell asked General Hera Syndulla for permission to operate her new squadron from the Lodestar, Syndulla agreed but made it clear that in return for her support, Alphabet Squadron would be under her direct command and not Caern Adan's.
For the next few weeks, Quell put her team through training simulations, which failed to meet Quell's expectations as an ex-Imperial pilot who was trained at the Academy and used to discipline and procedure. Slowly, the team improved enough for Syndulla to approve space flight training sorties. Individually, the pilots were good, but they were not effective as a team, and both Quell and Syndulla knew it. The squadron still had a lot to prove and Quell had to prove to Syndulla that she could also lead them.
===Mission to Abednedo===
Syndulla sent Alphabet Squadron to Abednedo on a mission to investigate reports of Imperial holdouts that remained on the planet after Operation: Cinder, with potential links to Shadow Wing. After meeting with a Verpine smuggler, the team were ambushed and attempted to escort the smuggler's freighter with Imperial captives on board, back to base, but the freighter was destroyed when they were engaged by TIE bombers.
===Mission to the Harkrova system===
Following Alphabet Squadron's failure on the Abednedo mission, due to their lack of teamwork and trust with one another, Syndulla sent the Squadron on a non-combat mission to gather supplies from an old rebel base on a forest moon in the Harkrova system. Syndulla told Quell, the mission was an opportunity for the unit to grow as a team.
Quell was offsite investigating a possible pirate scout ship overhead, when the rest of team experienced a strange phenomena within the old Jedi temple where the cache was stored. Having spent time together, the team members relaxed and shared old stories with each other. On their return a few days later to the Lodestar, Quell reported a successful mission to Syndulla, and of the visual phenomena reported by her team, to which Syndulla was a little disappointed that Quell hadn't experienced personally, therefore missed out on bonding with her team.
===Salvage operation on Argai Minor===
Sometime after the Battle of Endor, while Alphabet Squadron were either training or on a mission, the New Republic sent several starfighter squadrons to Argai Minor, to assist ground forces battling against the Imperial forces who operated in the Treinhaus Citadel. The fighting had been brutal.
Later, when New Republic Intelligence suspected Imperial forces planetside had been receiving logistical support from elsewhere, they wanted to know if the enemy supply lines reached all the way to Pandem Nai, home to Shadow Wing. Due to their specialty in Shadow Wing and back from the Harkrova system, Syndulla sent Alphabet Squadron to assist with patrols during the citadel salvage operation.
===Battle in the Haldeen sector===
Following the New Republic's victory on Argai Minor, Alphabet Squadron supported Hail Squadron's Y-wings in a battle with a Star Destroyer that had been limping through the Haldeen sector for weeks. Both squadrons managed to destroy the Star Destroyer, providing another victory for the New Republic.
===Attack on Pandem Nai===
Sometime later, the New Republic discovered the location of the Empire's new base on Pandem Nai. Alphabet Squadron led the attack on Shadow Wing, who had seized control of the tibanna gas mining station, Orbital One, located in orbit. After intense fighting with TIEs, the squadron killed Shadow Wing's leader Colonel Shakara Nuress, and detonated the station's reactor, which caused Orbital One to break apart and fall towards the surface of the planet and light up the mining pods on the rim of the station. The battle was over, however the falling debris remained a threat to the inhabitants below. Quell and her pilots raced to vaporize all the debris they could with their weapons, saving as many lives as they could.
===Campaign in the Cerberon system===
Around 5 ABY, establishes that Shadow Fall takes place approximately half a year after the Battle of Endor, while Before the Awakening states Kes Dameron and Shara Bey moved to Yavin 4 around six months after the Battle of Endor. Given that Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dates their move to 5 ABY, the events of Shadow Fall must also take place around that time. Alphabet Squadron participated in a New Republic campaign in the Cerberon system, which saw the squadron carry out multiple missions against Imperial forces that had occupied the system.
====Bombardment of Verzan====
When Syndulla's Barma Battle Group bombarded the Galactic Empire's airless garrison world of Verzan, Alphabet Squadron used proton bombs to supplement fire from the Lodestar, to crack open the fortress world.
====Troithe operation====
The New Republic initiated an attack on enemy Imperial forces, being led by Governor Hastemoor, that were shielded within the capital of the planet Troithe. Alphabet Squadron participated in the operation, that saw them fight alongside Hail and Meteor Squadrons, the MC75 Star Cruiser Temperance, and ground forces from the 61st Mobile Infantry. Troithe's main spaceport was captured by New Republic forces within one day of fighting.
====Mission to capture Troithe guerrillas====
The New Republic tasked Alphabet Squadron on a mission to capture enemy Imperial guerrillas and gather intelligence on who their supplier was. The squadron split into two task groups, with Kairos, Lark, and Tensent aiding the ground forces in capturing the guerrillas and destroying their hideout on Troithe, which they managed to do before the Imperials could get an alert out. Quell and Chadic's target was in an asteroid field that hid a dozen TIE fighters and a cargo shuttle. They entered into a skirmish with the TIEs. The rest of Alphabet joined the skirmish in the asteroid field. Afterwards, they swept for survivors and scanned all comm frequencies to make the cargo shuttle hadn't sent a distress signal, before returning to Troithe.
====Attack on Cerberon====
When the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing, initiated a surprise attack on the New Republic forces within the Cerberon system, while Sundulla was absent with the Temperance, Alphabet Squadron scrambled their starfighters to protect the Lodestar, albeit without their commanding officer Yrica Quell, following her arrest, and Kairos, following her injuries in a previous battle. The Imperials setup a diversionary attack, which saw the Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier Aerie and a squadron of training drones led by Colonel Soran Keize, lure Alphabet and Meteor Squadrons into a fight above Catadra, leaving the Lodestar vulnerable to attack from the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Edict above Troithe. Before reaching Catadra, Lark received a warning from an enemy TIE pilot nicknamed "Blink," to return to Troithe, just as the Edict emitted system-wide jamming, preventing all communications and sensors. Lark raced back to warn the Lodestar, with Tensent, when he realized Shadow Wing was the enemy. With the New Republic starfighters above Catadra no longer a threat, including the complete destruction of Meteor Squadron, Shadow Wing launched all their TIEs, hidden within a debris field, and attacked the Lodestar, which crashed on Troithe, along with the Edict after the planetary defenses crippled it. Shadow Wing's TIEs snuck down to the city while the planetary shield was momentarily offline. The attack was an enormous loss for the Alphabet Squadron, which resulted in Chadic getting shot down over Catadra, and Lark and Tensent shot down over Troithe. Furthermore, New Republic forces had been scattered across the system and suffered many casualties.
==Behind the scenes==
Alphabet Squadron first appeared in the 2019 canon novel Alphabet Squadron, authored by Alexander Freed. An Alphabet Two appeared by voice during the Battle of Exegol in the Rae Carson 2020 novel Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition.Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition When asked if this meant that Alphabet Squadron was present at the battle during an interview with Alex Damon of the YouTube channel "Star Wars Explained," Freed claimed that at least one Alphabet squadron member was at the Battle of Exegol, coining both the ideas that it could be known characters or a legacy squadron, although his statement did not determine the author Carson's intent in including Alphabet Two.
==Appearances==
*Alphabet Squadron 
*Star Wars: Squadrons 
*Shadow Fall 
*Victory's Price 
==Sources==
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*Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy
*Star Wars: Timelines
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*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
==Notes and references==
Category:New Republic intelligence organizations