61st Mobile Infantry

The 61st Mobile Infantry was a infantry company and battle group that served in the army of both the Rebel Alliance and its successor, the New Republic, against the Galactic Empire. During its service in the New Republic, the company was integrated into General Hera Syndulla's Barma Battle Group during the campaign in the Cerberon system. Captain Micha Evon established the 61st either during or before 0 BBY. Twilight Company was the 61st's well-known nickname. The company's patch featured the words "Twilight survives" in Aurebesh at the top and "Mobile Infantry" at the bottom. This patch, despite its Alliance branding, continued to be worn during the time of the New Republic. Twilight Company's rebel troopers were organized into four-soldier squads that operated as independent teams. These squads were versatile, with specialized roles including heavy fire or sniper teams.

Before the Battle of Hoth in 3 ABY, Captain Howl commanded Twilight Company, with Lieutenant Sairgon as his second-in-command. Commander Paonu, a naval captain, was next in the chain of command, followed by individuals such as Sharn and Chief Medic Von Geiz. In the span of a single day during 3 ABY, Howl, Sairgon, Paonu, and the rest of Twilight Company's officers perished. Following these significant losses, First Sergeant Hazram Namir tentatively assumed leadership, with Von Geiz and Sharn next in line. Commander Tohna replaced Paonu. Namir also included experienced soldiers and squad leaders like Carver, Mzun, and Gadren in his meetings due to their extensive combat and leadership experience.

During their time in the Cerberon system, Twilight Company was divided, with Carver assuming command of the unit on the planet Troithe, while Namir and half of the company were stranded on an asteroid.

The Thunderstrike, a heavily modified, aging CR90 corvette, served as Twilight Company's base. During the Galactic Civil War, the corvette was escorted by the Braha'tok-class gunship Apailana's Promise. The smaller gunship also carried two X-wing starfighters on its underbelly. Twilight Company also utilized several dropships to deploy troops from the Thunderstrike to their objectives and later extract them. The company also had at least six boarding pods that used drills to breach the hulls of enemy ships, allowing troops inside to board.

While stationed in the Cerberon system, Twilight Company operated from the Acclamator-class transgalactic military assault ship Lodestar. They also employed juggernauts for transporting large numbers of soldiers and hovertanks.

Twilight Company's soldiers typically carried DLT-20A blaster rifles and wore minimal armor. They also acquired equipment by recruiting from local militias. Specialized troopers often used sniper rifles, heavy guns, or ordnance equipment like the PLX-1 portable missile launcher, nicknamed the Plex. Twilight Company also possessed various Plex-armed artillery weapons for defense, but they were rarely used due to their primarily offensive tactics.

Under Howl's leadership, Twilight Company's missions aimed to win the support of the people to bolster the Alliance. Howl believed this would give the Alliance a greater advantage. During the Mid Rim Retreat, Twilight Company primarily conducted missions to divert Imperial forces, allowing the Alliance fleet to strategically withdraw from the Mid Rim. After Everi Chalis, the Imperial Governor, defected to Twilight Company, she provided tactical advice to help weaken the Imperial war machine and benefit the company. Chalis's goal for Operation Ringbreaker was to eliminate the primary source of the Empire's Imperial Star Destroyers, the Kuat Drive Yards, which would have crippled the Empire's military if completed. However, Namir ultimately decided that the operation contradicted Howl's ideals and overruled Chalis's plan, opting for a strategy that benefited the population of Sullust.

Despite Alliance security protocols, Twilight Company conducted open recruitment drives on the planets where they fought. Potential recruits lined up to enlist in the company and were assigned various roles upon recruitment. Soldiers were trained using a modified DLT-20A blaster rifle to prevent trainees from spraying fire at the Thunderstrike's range. New recruits also received a copy of the White Book, the military field guide produced by Alliance High Command. Some recruits adopted the names of rebel heroes, such as Leia Organa, but quickly earned different nicknames and often died due to their enthusiasm.

When a member of Twilight Company died, their body was typically not recovered. According to Twilight tradition, a simple funeral was held for each fallen member, where the individual leading the ceremony, usually Quartermaster [Hober](/article/hober], announced the deceased's name, followed by a one-line eulogy from their closest comrade. Afterward, a blaster power pack was drained into the Thunderstrike's vehicle-charging station. This simple ceremony was broadcast throughout the corvette.

Captain Micha Evon founded the 61st Mobile Infantry sometime before 1 BBY as a mobile infantry unit within the Rebel Alliance, an anti-Imperial military faction, after he and others were assigned by the Alliance's high command. The 61st eventually became known as Twilight Company, and Evon earned the nickname Howl, short for "howling mad."

Twilight Company traveled to Ferrok Pax, a terrestrial body, where their troops, numbering fewer than two hundred, were tasked with rescuing captured rebels from a warrior group. The company suffered losses from starvation, local wildlife, and exhaustion while attempting to flank the enemy. Despite winning the subsequent battle, only thirty-seven soldiers remained, including the Corellian Besalisk Gadren.

In the following time, Twilight Company gained members such as Sairgon, who eventually became a Lieutenant. During a recruitment drive on Veron, a terrestrial astronomical object, a woman named Brand joined. However, Howl soon discovered that she was a bounty hunter hired to assassinate him and learned about her past. After Twilight Company recruited more members from Dorvalla, Howl noticed Brand becoming attached to them.

Twilight Company initiated an attack on the Imperial outpost situated on the remote world of Allst Prime. During the conflict, Brand rescued the Mirialan soldier, Lylee Anaraku. Subsequently, she attempted to snipe Howl from a distance as he substituted for Forward Air Controller Cait, who had perished in battle. However, Brand's focus wavered when Anaraku came under attack by an Imperial. Later that same day, Brand accompanied Howl to the Imperial headquarters, where they subdued Magé, the governor of Allst Prime. Brand then made an attempt to claim the bounty on Howl. Nevertheless, Howl revealed his prior knowledge of this and shared insights into her past, thereby persuading her to subsequently join Twilight Company.

At a later point, Twilight Company engaged in battles on the planet Mygeeto, where the Alliance's Riot Squadron was also present and obtained their designation. In 1 BBY, the company launched an attack on the transmitter tower located on the Outer Rim planet Crucival. Imperial forces armed numerous local civilians and took cover beneath the particle shield surrounding the tower, while Twilight Company engaged the armed populace. The Thunderstrike, the company's troop transport vessel, directly engaged the shield, firing upon it, while TIE fighters attempted to defend it. The tower eventually fell, and a week later, Twilight Company conducted another recruitment drive. Among the new recruits was Hazram Namir, one of the armed civilians who had lost his comrades in the battle and attributed the blame to the Empire.

Within the following two months, Twilight Company saw action at Kor-Lahvan. Shortly thereafter, the Empire utilized its new superweapon, the Death Star, to destroy the planet Alderaan. Howl broadcasted this news across the Thunderstrike, which spread a wave of resentment through his company.

Several days later, Twilight Company fought on the planet Vir Aphshire as a component of Operation Mad Rush. During the battle, news emerged that Alliance forces had destroyed the Death Star, which elicited cheers throughout the trenches. The Empire was defeated soon after, and Twilight Company secured control of the hives and orchards. That evening, Sergeant Fektrin, upon returning from a reconnaissance mission to a nearby settlement, provided his report to Private Namir for delivery to Howl. Upon Namir's delivery, the captain inquired about the company's next course of action before departing the planet. Namir suggested looting the settlement, prompting Howl to educate the private on Twilight Company's doctrine of winning the hearts and minds of the populace.

Twilight Company was sent to multiple locations like Cartao, Vanzeist and Praktin. During a recruitment event on the planetoid Demiloch, an Imperial spy disguised as a recruit shot Howl. The captain regained consciousness three days later, displeased to learn that Sairgon had prematurely ended the recruitment. During a battle on the planetoid Blacktar Cyst, the soldier Pol Andrissus, known as Charmer, sustained injuries from shrapnel, resulting in a stutter. Twilight Company also engaged in combat on the planetoid Dreivus, where they celebrated with fire dancers afterward.

On another occasion, at the planetoid Magnus Horn, Twilight Company endured such heavy losses that the Alliance High Command considered reassigning its troops to other units. Howl fought to maintain the company's cohesion, preventing its disbandment. During a bombardment at Asyrphus, Twilight Company suffered further casualties, including their comm tech and her droid. At the planetoid Thession, Twilight Company recruited several individuals, including Maediyu. The grenadier Maximian Ajax also joined the company after his own unit, the Thirty-Second Infantry, was decimated.

Around 1 ABY, the Alliance initiated a campaign into the Mid Rim. Twilight Company spearheaded the offensive, fighting at the factory-deserts of Phorsa Gedd and capturing the Ducal Palace and the port Chenodra on the planetoid Bamayar. The company also established positions from which Alliance hovertanks could attack on beaches and and built makeshift bases from tarps and sheet metal. However, nine months into the campaign, the Alliance High Command ordered all forces to halt, reporting that the Alliance Fleet was overstretched. The order to retreat came soon after, and Twilight Company was among the rearguard, being deployed to worlds it had taken months before, evacuating bases extracting Alliance heroes and generals.

In 3 ABY, Twilight Company fought against Imperial forces on the Mid Rim planet Haidoral Prime. On the final day of the campaign, Namir, now a First Sergeant, led a squad that engaged stormtroopers on a city street. Later that day, Twilight Company held an open recruitment, promoted by the capital city's public address system after Sergeant Zab and his squad smuggled an astromech droid into the city's control center. The recruitment drive at hand accepted twenty-eight recruits.

Concurrently, Fektrin and his soldiers received a message from the governor's mansion via a mouse droid, indicating that rebel prisoners were being held within the mansion. Aware that all rebel soldiers had been accounted for, Howl suspected that these might be captive civilians, and Namir's squad was dispatched to infiltrate the mansion and investigate. After entering the governor's mansion, Namir and his squad eliminated numerous guards before reaching the main control room—a converted dining hall—where they encountered Governor Everi Chalis among the senior Imperial military officers. Chalis claimed to be the prisoner mentioned by the mouse droid's message and shot an Imperial colonel nearby. After Namir's squad neutralized the other officers, Chalis was stunned and transported back to the Thunderstrike.

During an interrogation by Howl, Namir, and two others, Chalis offered the Alliance information on the supply lines and weaknesses of what she termed the "Imperial War Machine," promising to map these out for the rebels. Subsequently, the governor was confined to an airlock on the Thunderstrike serving as a brig. Meanwhile, Namir introduced the combat-capable recruits from Haidoral Prime to their soldier training, providing guidance on the DLT-20A blaster rifle and the White Book, the Alliance's field manual. As Chalis's presence became increasingly unpopular, a Haidoral recruit named Corbo attempted to visit her cell, carrying a galley knife. After being dissuaded, the recruit was confronted by Namir, who listened to his reasoning and subsequently posted a guard at Chalis's cell.

Three days after departing Haidoral Prime, the Thunderstrike and its escort, the Apailana's Promise, encountered an Imperial reconnaissance force while traversing the Kontahr sector, resulting in a brief engagement. During this, Chalis's holding area sustained damage, injuring the guard, Maediyu. Namir swiftly assessed the situation and locked himself and Maediyu in Chalis's cell with the governor. After the battle concluded, Namir and Maediyu were rushed to the med bay, with the latter being placed in a bacta tank. After recovering, Namir discussed with Howl whether Chalis was attracting unwanted attention to the company.

Twilight Company's subsequent campaign took place on the jungle planet Coyerti, where the Empire posed a threat to the native species during their breeding season. On the first day, Namir and Sergeant Zab's squads stormed an Imperial scout post, eliminating the occupants before dispersing. On the second day, Namir's squad awaited an Imperial convoy but received word from Lieutenant Sairgon that its route had changed. Simultaneously, another dozen squads, led by the soldier Carver, attacked an Imperial fort, with the battle lasting into the night.

On the third day, Namir's squad made several attempts to disable an AT-ST, eventually submerging it in a swamp after altering their tactics and luring the vehicle through the marshy forests. The following day, the squad advanced toward a Distillery that produced and stockpiled bioweapons for the Empire, based on intelligence provided by Chalis. Namir's squad attacked the Distillery the next day, creating a diversion for the guarding forces before infiltrating the complex and setting it to detonate, resulting in the distillery's destruction. However, the squad suffered from the chemicals of a barrel they had detonated and called for a drop ship to rescue them.

During the final actions of the campaign, Sergeant Maximian Ajax's squad was pinned down by an AT-ST while battling the planet's Imperial garrison, as the X-wings were unable to descend low enough to target the vehicle. They were rescued by the Coyerti people, who stormed and destroyed the Imperial garrison. After Twilight Company departed the planet, news circulated of other engagements that week, leading the soldiers to deduce that the Coyerti campaign was part of a larger operation to aid the larger Alliance fleet's escape from the Mid Rim by diverting Imperial forces. Namir confronted Howl about the ambiguity of their objective, but the captain asserted that their true goal was alchemy, catalyzing change through their interactions with the Empire.

Three days after leaving Coyerti, the Thunderstrike and Apailana's Promise were attacked by an Imperial destroyer at the edge of the Metatessu sector. The Promise and its X-wings reacted swiftly, and the two vessels soon escaped, although one X-wing took a glancing hit and went offline. Twilight Company then traveled to the Enrivi system, where Howl had hoped to have repairs made, when the rebel starships were ambushed upon arrival by a light cruiser and a squadron of TIE fighters just thirty hours after the first attack. The Thunderstrike and Apailana's Promise destroyed the enemy forces with ease, with the escape pods of the cruiser being obliterated when the Imperial vessel exploded.

The Twilight soldiers celebrated and toasted their pilots and gunners, who did not attend as they feared that they may be needed again. These fears were confirmed nineteen hours later when the Thunderstrike and Apailana's Promise were attacked in the Chonsetta system by a squadron of TIE Interceptors which ravaged the starboard side of the corvette. A rumor arose that three Imperial battle groups had abandoned rebel engagements to hunt Twilight Company. M2-M5, Twilight Company's head of engineering, discovered that the Thunderstrike's hyperdrive was leaking a traceable trail of hypermatter.

An hour later, the senior staff of Twilight Company convened to address the issue of the Thunderstrike being tracked. Lieutenant Sairgon suggested abandoning Chalis, but Howl argued that she had secured the Alliance's only recent victory with the destruction of the Distillery on Coyerti. As various suggestions emerged, proposing different methods of saving at least the most senior personnel of Twilight Company. Chalis when brought her own idea, that the company could board an Imperial cargo transport to seize the supplies to repair the Thunderstrike's hyperdrive.

The Thunderstrike and Apailana's Promise traveled to the Redhurne system, where the vessels hid in the crescent of a shattered moon in wait for an Imperial cargo transport. An Imperial heavy freighter eventually arrived, and Chalis contacted the freighter to change the course of the transport. Once the heavy freighter did so, the Thunderstrike and Promise attacked from either side, with the former launching boarding pods carrying squads of rebel soldiers.

While other squads held positions and pushed into the freighter's engineering section, Sergeant Fektrin and his squad led a trio of engineers to the command station, killing the personnel there and rendezvousing with Namir and Chalis. Chalis operated at a terminal with an astromech droid. When she had finished, Fektrin's squad led the engineers to the lower decks while Namir and Chalis tailed them, setting up a choke point to quell approaching Imperial personnel. Meanwhile, outside, the Thunderstrike and Apailana's Promise were keeping the freighter in a weak position to distract the crew with repairs. Once Fektrin's engineers finished their salvaging job, the sergeant signaled the other squads to slowly withdraw from the freighter.

After a Gozanti-class cruiser entered the battle, Howl gave the squads five minutes to return to the Thunderstrike. The frustrated squads moved to flee to their boarding pods quickly, with Namir splitting from Chalis to assist other squads. The first sergeant assisted Ajax and his squad, who were pinned into a corner by stormtroopers. Ajax was killed as the squad was released from the enemy pressure. Fektrin was also killed in the withdrawal, but the remaining troops successfully returned to the Thunderstrike, which fled the system.

While the Thunderstrike and the Apailana's Promise were set to rendezvous with an Alliance flotilla in the Elochar sector to make further repairs. Meanwhile, Howl and Chalis were invited by the Alliance High Command to attend a strategy conference at their secret base on the ice planet Hoth. Taking Namir and the soldiers Roja and Beak as their escort, the pair traveled to the base on Hoth, being greeted there by General Philap Bygar. While the conference took place, Namir, Roja, and Beak were given jobs around the base. Namir eventually got into a fight with the special forces soldier Kryndal, but the other two soldiers acquainted themselves with the base's personnel.

Shortly after the strategy conference ended, the base on Hoth was attacked by Imperial forces led by the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Namir, Roja, and Beak defended Perimeter Outpost Delta until the outpost's main defenses fell. The trio then made their way back to the main base on a hijacked Imperial Juggernaut and found an injured Howl with Chalis at the command section. They attempted to make it to a hangar but Vader and his soldiers cut them off, killing Roja and Beak and incapacitating Namir. Vader briefly confronted Chalis before attending to primary mission. Namir awoke to find Howl had too died. He and Chalis then proceeded to the hangar and fled Hoth, with Chalis using her clearance codes to bypass the Imperial blockade.

Around the same time, the Thunderstrike, stationed at the flotilla, took on survivors aboard the damaged light freighter Trumpet's Call. These survivors, however, were Imperial spies, who stormed the bridge and killed numerous officers including Sairgon and Paonu, but not before Sairgon warned the rest of the flotilla, which scattered. Brand was able to reach the bridge and killed the spies. In that time, the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Herald arrived in search of Chalis, with the Apailana's Promise distracting the Star Destroyer. Brand had the Thunderstrike's remaining bridge crew take the corvette into hyperspace, with the Promise following.

Twilight Company fled to pirate backwater planet Ankhural, where the company repaired the Thunderstrike in an abandoned podracing track while the Apailana's Promise was repaired in orbit by a skeleton crew. Namir and Chalis eventually returned from Hoth, and meetings were held between the top staff with updates on the Thunderstrike's repairs as well as other agenda. Some soldiers, fearing that the Empire would find and destroy Twilight Company, considered leaving, but Namir learned of this and decided in a meeting that the potential deserters were to be split into separate teams. Twilight Company held a funeral for the late Howl, comprising a short ceremony involving personnel who were not on duty. Numerous soldiers had drinks at a cantina after.

After Namir and Brand purchased parts to repair the Thunderstrike's communications array. The first sergeant and Chief Medic Von Geiz briefly contacted another member of the Alliance, who informed them that the Alliance High Command was scattered and on the run. Some personnel from Twilight Company were then attacked by what Brand assumed to be the real powers of Ankhural sending a message. Wishing to give the company a new purpose, Chalis held a meeting with the top staff proposing Operation Ringbreaker, a campaign which sought to attack a number of Imperial installations along the Rimma Trade Route to force redeployments from the Kuat Drive Yards for a projected attack on the shipyards. Some of the meeting attendees were skeptical of Chalis's logic, but they were ultimately in favor of the plan.

Twilight Company initiated this operation with the warehouse world of Mardona III, where they lost Charmer and two of his men to an armored worm vehicle. Namir, Twitch, Carver and a few others sought to destroy the thing and caught it off-guard as the crew was 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.

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 ambushed 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.

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 61st back at Inyusu Tor. The Herald arrived, and the local Imperial forces engaged Twilight Company at the factory. However, the Apailana's Promise returned to keep the Herald from bombarding Twilight Company from above.

Everi Chalis abandoned Twilight Company, stole a shuttle and let herself get captured by the Herald, not knowing she had twenty ion bombs 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 61st. The Apailana's Promise had barely survived, and the soldiers scavenged the Thunderstrike. The 61st planned to leave Sullust within time as the Empire would return eventually.

Twilight Company subsequently departed Sullust, with Namir remaining as captain. In 4 ABY, Alliance forces secured a major victory at the Endor system, one which saw the death of the Emperor. The military movement transitioned into the New Republic shortly thereafter, with Twilight Company serving as a part of the new government's army. Around 5 ABY, Twilight Company took part in a campaign in the Cerberon system, an assortment of planets orbiting a black hole. There, the company was deployed on the planet Troithe, serving as the infantry strength of the battle group led by Twi'lek General Hera Syndulla. The company resided on Syndulla's flagship, the Acclamator-class transgalactic military assault ship Lodestar.

The 61st Mobile Infantry first appeared as the focus of the 2015 novel Battlefront: Twilight Company, penned by [Alexander Freed](/article/alexander_freed], and was referred to as the Sixty-First Mobile Infantry. The company's more numerical designation, 61st Mobile Infantry, was established in the 2017 reference book and box set Star Wars: The Rebel Files, by Daniel Wallace. In an interview with The Daily Dot, Freed characterized Twilight Company as "an oddball company," noting that Howl, whom he saw as the company's moral center, had shaped its recruits. He stated he included Roach to show the training and integration of the company's recruits, as well as providing a reminder that Twilight Company's personnel had been regular people before.

Freed expressed his eagerness to incorporate Twilight Company into a later project, the Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron trilogy, which began with Alphabet Squadron in 2019. He was initially hesitant to feature the company prominently, fearing self-indulgence or distraction from the core narrative. However, with his editor's approval, Freed ultimately included the company in Shadow Fall, the sequel to Alphabet Squadron released in 2020, striving for a more organic integration. He shared this experience in an interview with the video creator "Star Wars Explained" on YouTube.