During the closing years of the extensive conflict known as the Great Galactic War, fought between the forces of the Galactic Republic and the re-established Sith Empire, a specialized team of soldiers belonging to the Republic Military assaulted an Imperial base with the goal of liberating captives held as prisoners of war. Unfortunately, the team's information regarding the size of the opposing force was inaccurate, leading Sergeant Fideltin Rusk to guide his unit into a battle against a significantly larger enemy contingent. In spite of the unfavorable conditions, the team successfully freed the prisoners and managed to escape without any losses.
The Chagrian individual named Fideltin Rusk enlisted in the Republic Military sometime after the year 3667 BBY, amidst the ongoing Great Galactic War that pitted the Galactic Republic against the Sith Empire. Upon attaining the rank of sergeant prior to the war's conclusion in 3653 BBY, Rusk was granted command of his own military division. This team, which consisted of soldiers such as Karsim, Naja, and Eckerd, subsequently received their initial mission. The unit obtained intelligence concerning the defensive capabilities of the Imperial base that they were tasked with attacking to liberate Republic prisoners of war. The reports indicated that the POW camp had minimal security and would not receive reinforcements for another day.
However, upon commencing their assault on the base, the team discovered that the intelligence they had received was flawed – reinforcements had arrived a day earlier than anticipated, resulting in the unit being outnumbered by the Imperials by a factor of ten to one. Undeterred by this disadvantage, Sergeant Rusk commanded his team, fighting through over 130 enemy combatants and successfully rescuing the prisoners before making their escape from the base unharmed. Rusk's team experienced a 97.4% casualty rate, although there were no lasting injuries or deaths, and all of the prisoners were successfully extracted.
Following the successful completion of the mission, Rusk was reassigned to lead another unit, and General Elin Garza recruited the remaining members of the team into the covert operations program of the Republic Special Forces Division. As a covert operations unit, the team was renamed "the Surgeons" and given the task of disrupting the Empire's command structure by eliminating key enemy leaders. However, the Surgeons soon began targeting the families of their assigned targets, leading to their conviction for war crimes and subsequent sentencing to life imprisonment in a detention center located on the planet of Berrun. Reflecting on the mission at a later time, Rusk was compelled to investigate the fates of his former team, and he was disheartened to learn of their imprisonment.
The attack on the Imperial base was first referenced in Star Wars: The Old Republic, a video game developed by BioWare and LucasArts and released in 2011, during the "Bad Intel" conversation with the Jedi Knight class character Sergeant Rusk. This conversation prompts Rusk to investigate his original team before the subsequent conversation "Vanished," where he discovers their imprisonment on Berrun prior to the conversation "The Surgeons."