Flying Bantha Squadron

The four-person unit known as Flying Bantha Squadron was formed by the Rebel Alliance in 3 ABY, at the height of the Galactic Civil War, in response to reports that the Galactic Empire had formed a massive secret armada in order to transport an immensely powerful organic hyperspace communications amplifier known as the teezl to the Imperial capital. Fearing that the teezl's installation at the heart of the Imperial war machine would spell certain doom for the Rebels, and with the armada's size making a full-on attack inadvisable, the Alliance instead put together a plot—dubbed Operation Earplug—to infiltrate the Imperial force through subterfuge. As such, Flying Bantha Squadron consisted of four reconstructed and modified Imperial TIE fighters acquired through a deal with black market arms dealer Orion Ferret.

The four starfighters were returned to the Alliance's main base at Arbra and extensively refitted under the oversight of Captain Hanc Thorben. To fly the fighters, the Alliance pulled four members of the elite Rogue Squadron—Commander Luke Skywalker, Lieutenant Shira Brie, Alph, and Captain Thorben. The newly formed Flying Bantha Squadron's first sortie came at the isolated Imperial outpost of Spindrift, and served two purposes: not only was it a proof of concept that the disguised TIEs could pass muster, but it also acquired the route coordinates for the teezl's convoy.

From there, the stage was set for the Flying Banthas to strike directly at the teezl itself. The Flying Banthas acquired the passcodes to enter the armada's formation after trapping, capturing and interrogating a scout pilot named Milnn, and once in position they surprised the armada from within with a sudden attack. Completely confused by the sight of TIE fighters attacking other Imperial ships, a Star Destroyer commander named Major Voss ordered his men to fire indiscriminately, plunging the arena into pure chaos. Admiral Mils Giel attempted to counter the Rebels' tactics by ordering the teezl to jam all frequencies except for the Imperial war band, which removed the Rebels' ability to communicate and tell friend from foe. Alph was killed during the run on Giel's flagship, where the teezl's transport cage was located, while Thorben was forced to disengage after his fighter took damage. With Brie also unaccounted for, that left Skywalker alone to make a run on Giel's ship—relying on his connection to the Force, Skywalker reached his target and destroyed the teezl with his final full-power laser blast, taking much of Giel's ship with it.

Although Flying Bantha Squadron's mission was successful, only Skywalker and Thorben made it back to Arbra. Skywalker found himself disgraced upon his return, after an investigation into the records from the battle found that he had inadvertently destroyed Brie's TIE fighter immediately before striking at Giel's flagship. However, the Rebels ultimately discovered that Brie was in fact an Imperial double agent, and cleared Skywalker's name.

Directed by flight commander Luke Skywalker, Flying Bantha Squadron was pulled from the elite Rogue Squadron, forming a crack team that the Rebel Alliance hoped would be up to the challenge of defusing what it saw to be an existential threat to the war effort. In Skywalker, the squadron was under the command of one of the Rebels' most auspicious heroes and an acclaimed flight commander, while his close friend Shira Brie held high acclaim for her own flying skills and fighting prowess. Captain Hanc Thorben, also a pilot in the squadron, oversaw the technical aspects of the fighter group—his modifications to the Rebels' TIE fighters allowed the four-person squadron to successfully take on the largest armada in Imperial history based solely off misdirection and subterfuge. As the Empire did not expect Rebels to be flying their distinctive TIE starfighters, Flying Bantha Squadron had the element of surprise in every sortie it flew, and used it to productive ends.

Flying Bantha Squadron used four refitted TIE fighters originally reconstructed from parts salvaged from battlefields by weapons dealer Orion Ferret. Once in Rebel hands, the fighters received significant refits from a team of tech specialists led by Captain Thorben. This included the addition of a hyperdrive, navicomputer and extra shielding, none of which were standard features of a typical TIE fighter. In lieu of the torpedo launcher module Thorben originally considered, the Rebels instead rewired the fighters' laser cannons to fire only six much higher-power shots than usual, which proved to be more than enough to obliterate the teezl's holding chamber. The fighters' cockpits were also modified to have ejector seating, as part of the process of reshaping the area to interface with Rebel flight gear, while installed transceivers allowed them to tell friendly and enemy TIEs apart.

The flight commander for Flying Bantha Squadron, Luke Skywalker had already won renown as one of the Rebels' most talented pilots and greatest heroes, as the man responsible for the destruction of the Death Star superweapon at the tide-turning Battle of Yavin three years before. Skywalker had the admiration and respect of the rest of his group, and was the unquestioned leader of Flying Bantha Squadron throughout the entirety of Operation Earplug. His efforts ended in success and the destruction of the teezl—much as he had at Yavin, Skywalker leaned on his affinity for the Force to guide his senses and deliver the winning blow.

Regarded as a major rising star in the Rebel Alliance and one of its most promising young soldiers, Shira Brie purported to come from the planet Shalyvane, a survivor of Imperial atrocities in her youth. Brie rose in the ranks quickly, reaching the rank of Lieutenant and eventually Captain after the successful sortie on Spindrift, while becoming personally close with Commander Skywalker. Brie was believed dead after her starfighter was destroyed by an unwitting Skywalker during the run on Admiral Giel's flagship—Skywalker fired on Brie after the Force indicated to him that the pilot of her TIE was an enemy. He was ultimately vindicated after a mission to Krake Data Vault revealed her as an Imperial agent, and Brie survived to later re-emerge as Lumiya, the "Dark Lady of the Sith."

A skilled technician, Captain Hanc Thorben played an indispensable part in the outfitting and formation of Flying Bantha Squadron, as the man who oversaw the refit and installation of their recovered TIE fighters. It was Thorben who conceived of the technical modifications that allowed the modified TIEs to successfully infiltrate the secret armada, and he put the starfighters to the test by flying one himself as a member of Flying Bantha Squadron. Although Thorben sustained serious damage during the battle that forced him to withdraw from the fighting, Thorben was one of only two Flying Banthas that managed to return to Arbra at mission's end.

The final member of Flying Bantha Squadron, Alph was a Human male who was chosen to fly one of the group's TIE fighters during the raid on the secret armada. Alph ultimately became the only member of the squadron to die during the battle, after his TIE was struck by laser fire during the Empire's wild counterattack.

Flying Bantha Squadron appeared in two issues of the original Marvel Comics Star Wars comic book series in 1982, written by David Michelinie and illustrated Walter Simonson.

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