Inferno Squad

Inferno Squad consisted of four highly trained special operations soldiers from the Imperial Special Forces troopers. They specialized in covert operations, such as infiltration, sabotage, and assassination. As members of the Imperial Special Forces, a branch of the Imperial Navy, they reported directly to Admiral Garrick Versio. However, they possessed the authority to operate outside the normal Imperial chain of command and often spent extended periods without contacting him or other superiors. Squad members frequently undertook solo missions, like infiltrating Rebel cruisers or conducting boarding actions with minimal support, often relegated to extraction roles. Consequently, Inferno Squad became a unit of ruthless enforcers carrying out the will of the Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine.

They were also capable of acting as long-term undercover agents within Rebel cells, such as the Dreamers, with the objective of identifying and exposing their members. During these missions, they minimized contact with each other to prevent the entire team from being captured by the rebel forces, who were aware of the Squad's existence and actively searching for its members. By the time of the Battle of Endor, the squad had evolved into an elite operative force, frequently fighting alongside standard Imperial forces and stormtroopers. Their extensive training enabled each agent to perform in battle as effectively as a standard Imperial fighting unit, a "microcosm of four," as Admiral Versio described them. Despite their extensive and perilous operational history, they suffered only one casualty: Agent Seyn Marana, who took her own life to protect Iden's cover during the infiltration of the Dreamers.

The remaining agents ultimately pursued vastly different paths. Their unwavering loyalty proved insufficient to keep Versio and Meeko with the team after the horrors of Operation: Cinder, leading them to defect to the Alliance. Agent Hask, however, was promoted to Versio’s rank and followed the reborn Empire to Jakku and eventually joined the First Order, continuing to serve the Emperor until his death at the hands of his old teammates.

The formation of Inferno Squad, also referred to as Inferno Squadron, occurred after the Alliance to Restore the Republic achieved its first significant victory by stealing the plans for the Death Star during the Battle of Scarif, and subsequently destroying the battle station during the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY to prevent similar incidents. Inferno Squad, comprising Captain Iden Versio and Agents Gideon Hask, Seyn Marana, and Del Meeko, received the mission to infiltrate and ultimately eliminate the remaining members of the Partisans, a rebel cell led by resistance fighter Commander Saw Gerrera before his death.

Following Gerrera's death on Jedha during the destruction of Jedha City, the surviving Partisans dispersed. While some surrendered or were killed, others formed a group that lived off Gerrera's dream, calling themselves the "Dreamers." With access to certain knowledge, they managed to inflict significant damage on the Galactic Empire. Admiral Garrick Versio, Inferno’s leader and Iden’s father, devised a plan to facilitate the infiltration of each of the four members into the Dreamer base. Meeko and Hask would pose as brothers within the Nebula cell, infiltrating a pirate ship and aligning with the Dreamers. Marana would act as a slave to be rescued by them, and Iden would portray herself as an Empire traitor by feigning sympathy for the rebels, getting detained by the Empire, and then rescued by the Dreamers.

Marana, Meeko, and Hask reached the Dreamer base, located on the dark side of the planet Jeosyn, within a few weeks. Iden, accompanied by Azen Novaren, who had rescued her from homeworld of Vardos, arrived over a month after her staged "act of treason." Aware of Iden's true identity, "The Mentor," a high-ranking Dreamer figure with inside knowledge, intended to use Iden as a "voice" for the Dreamers to strike at the Empire. Initially, the squad avoided direct communication to conceal their identities, blending in with other Dreamers and assisting on missions and tasks throughout the base, utilizing their skills. While Iden became the voice of the Dreamers, Marana eavesdropped on conversations across the base. Despite pretending to know only Basic and Huttese, she was fluent in many languages. Hask, unable to fly ships, assisted with supply runs and repaired a damaged TIE fighter, while Meeko aided Piikow in investigating mysterious crystals found in strange statues.

As the weeks passed, Inferno Squad, while still committed to their mission, began to recognize the human side of the Dreamers. Iden was slowly becoming good friends with the Mentor, Hask, whilst it was his task, was spending a lot of his time with the other high authority of the Dreamers Staven to see what he knew, Meeko's friendship was growing with Piikow, and Marana was helping to blossom a romantic relationship with another Dreamer member, Sadori Vushan, though she stated to have no actual romantic feelings for him.

Despite this, the squad had begun to see irregularities within the Dreamers. The Mentor and Staven had a somewhat rivalry, and after hearing about Novaren's background the squad realized he could become a liability. Communication between the squad was still an issue, however Meeko had engineered a droid that, when the time was right, would visit each squad member, who would then place their single-button communications device inside it. Their device would then receive a second button only for the members of Inferno Squad to talk on. Once all four members were in communication, they discussed on whether Novaren might be working as a double agent, so hatched a plan so that, should the situation arise, would dispatch of him.

The Mentor soon had a way to strike another blow at the Empire. With Iden now trained to speak publicly, the Dreamers infiltrated Ephor Emoch Akagarti's family home on Affadar, where Iden, Staven, Nadrine and Kaev took him and his family hostage. Iden, Staven, Nadrine and Akagarti traveled to the water purification plant, where they staged a recording showing how the plant wasn't purifying the water it sold to many consumers. Whilst Akagarti refuted the claims and stated he would happily drink it to prove it was drinkable, Iden played against him by claiming that whilst the water was not deadly to a grown adult, unless vast quantities were drank at once, to a child the water was considered lethal. She told Kaev, back at the Akagarti family home with his wife and children, to give one of the children a bottle to drink, where Akagarti admitted the claims were true. Akagarti was thrown in the water, Nadrine stayed for a little longer to get some shots of the plant. Stormtroopers however had been led to the plant, and in the escape Nadrine perished.

Back on Jeosyn, looking for someone to blame on how they were found out, Staven was told about information found in his ships databanks, making claims that Novaren was actually working as a double agent, claims which Marana had planted. Knowing his death was imminent, Novaren made idle threats to the Dreamers, where, after seven hours of torture, he died.

As tensions escalated within the Dreamers, Inferno Squad's mission began to align more effectively. Hask's growing closeness to Staven proved invaluable for Iden's efforts to influence him. Meeko started to see Piikow as a potential recruit for the Empire, given their shared ideals. Marana's relationship with Sadori, coupled with her budding friendship with his parents, Ru and Halia Vushan, would also prove beneficial for the Dreamers' next mission.

The upcoming mission involved infiltrating a munitions factory on Anukara, with Marana and Sadori posing as schoolchildren. They would join a school tour of the factory, tasked with planting bombs to eliminate Moff Rys Deksha and General Ivel Toshan. Still grieving Nadrine's death, Staven saw this as an opportunity to kill the four hundred schoolchildren under the Empire's eye. Despite objections, including from Inferno Squad, Staven had the final say.

As the mission commenced, Marana and Sadori, disguised as a couple (Sadori wore makeup to conceal his alien appearance), successfully infiltrated the factory with the school. Marana claimed a disability requiring Iden's ID10 seeker droid, which carried bomb components, while she concealed the rest on her chest. Meeko played Marana's father, receiving relayed information as a regular conversation. The plan was to detonate the bombs in five minutes after activation. However, Marana opposed killing the children and set her bomb to detonate after fifteen minutes, enough time for the children to evacuate while still eliminating the Moff and General. After five minutes, Sadori realized the bombs hadn't detonated. Marana tried to hint at her actions, but Sadori realized the mission required immediate detonation. He kissed Marana and re-entered the factory to fix the issue. Realizing he would discover the truth, Marana activated the bomb, killing him, the Moff, and the General, but sparing the children.

Marana met with Iden soon after, where Marana consoled her on how she would never forget Sadori running back into the factory. With Ru and Halia seeing her as a friend of the family, they invited Marana to share in the shun-rai, a somewhat funeral meal for Sadori.

A week later, Marana was listening in to conversations from all manners of languages. She listened into a conversation between Piikow and Dahna, who were questioning Ru and Halia's parenting. Marana exclaimed back at them, only to remember that the pair were speaking in Chadra-Fan. Dahna picked up on this, as she recalled that Marana said she could only speak and understand Basic and Huttese. Believing Marana to be a traitor, Dahna dragged her to Staven. Things became heated as Staven began accusing Marana of being an Imperial agent. Marana struggled to talk her way out of the situation, and the Dreamers questioned what to do with her. Some Dreamers demanded her death, so Staven, who had not trusted Iden since day one, handed her the vibroblade and demanded she question Marana. In the heat of the moment, and upon seeing several Dreamers rush Marana, Iden turned to face Marana, and with immense shock, quickly found her blade thrusted into the young soldier's chest, resulting in her death soon after, the body later being dumped in the wilds.

Staven then demanded Iden follow him, where in private, he gave her a chance to prove she was not also a traitor. With her feelings towards her father, she managed to convince him. With this, it was time for Inferno Squad to actually get what they came for and find out where the Mentor got his information from. A plan was created that whilst Staven and some Dreamers would go out to get some more Dahna fruit, Meeko and Piikow would show the statues to the Mentor, hoping he might be able to help figure out what the crystals were for. Iden's plan was, while everyone was distracted, to infiltrate the Mentor's quarters to find out where he might be obtaining the information, whilst Hask kept a look out. When she entered his quarters, she found a datapad, which turned out to be the Mentor's journal, that she was easily able to access. Whilst reading, Iden made it look like somebody had been searching his room, and then portrayed the facade of going for a run.

When the Mentor returned to his quarters, he had noticed his room had been searched and his journal read. He instantly blamed Staven. After fighting, the Mentor stormed off. Staven demanded Hask to go with him as well, where they spoke in private. Staven then asked Hask to kill the Mentor, which Hask agreed was for the best. Meanwhile, Hask let Iden know of this, who had followed the Mentor to the amphitheater where they had trained on Iden's public speaking. With a gun trained on him, the Mentor revealed exactly how he was obtaining the information for strikes against the Empire. The Mentor revealed himself to be Lux Bonteri and also revealed he was in fact given the information by his stepdaughter, who changed her name. Loyal to the Empire, she gave him eleven potential chances for Bonteri to hand himself in. Instead, he used this to strike blows against the Empire. After obtaining the information she needed, Iden fired at Bonteri and obtained the datachip he held with the information provided to him.

Hask then communicated with Iden, telling her that he had a surprise for her. Upon returning to the encampment, she found that Hask and Meeko had succeeding in killing all the Dreamers. This made Iden furious due to Bonteri's words. Tensions rose between Iden and Hask, but were interrupted when the statues Meeko and Piikow had researched came to life and took the bodies of the Dreamers to take care of and handle with care.

Iden, Hask, and Meeko returned to the Empire, where they were debriefed by Garrick. While stating things could have gone better, he commended their work. Whilst Iden was away, her mother, Zeehay Versio, passed away. Not believing Iden was the traitor she thought she was after Garrick, showing compassion, revealed the details of Iden's mission to her before she died. Inferno Squad's next mission was to neutralize individuals who were blackmailing a Moff. They all arrived on the Corvus where they remembered Marana, who would always be known as a war hero to the Empire.

Following the defection of Crix Madine to the Rebellion, Inferno Squad secured all data Madine had accessed prior to his departure, aiming to assess the Imperial secrets now in Rebel hands.

Inferno Squad was deployed as one of Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine's responses to the Crimson Dawn agents infiltrating the Empire. On one occasion, the three members of the squad gunned down two Agents who were undercover as Imperial officers.

In the wake of Darth Vader and Lieutenant Jyala Haydenn's mission on Bestine IV, Vader tasked Inferno Squad with a mission to locate the rogue bounty hunter Beilert Valance and erase his memory of classified information he might have observed.

Shortly before the Battle of Endor, the rebels intercepted a transmission sent by Moff Derrek Raythe to Imperial forces that would give away the trap if the rebels decoded it. To prevent this, Iden got captured to get aboard the Invincible Faith where the message. She declined a Captain’s offer to join the Rebellion and escaped. She kept it quiet until she reached the communications center where she deleted the message which triggered the alarm leading tons of troopers to try and prevent her escape. She stole a A280C rifle and ordered Hask, who was commanding the Corvus, to begin to move in for extraction. Meanwhile she fought her way to the airlock, meeting resistance on the way. Eventually, she reached the airlock and ejected herself into space as Hask counted down. Seconds after the Corvus came out of hyperspace and she landed in the hangar bay. It jumped away just as the rebel cruiser opened fire. On the bridge Iden congratulated them on their success.

With their success, the rebels fell into the trap at Endor, In 4 ABY, Iden, Hask, and Meeko participated in the Battle of Endor. They were on the forest moon when the Rebels destroyed the second Death Star. After this, they sought to avenge Emperor Palpatine who perished along with the station. Inferno Squad then made their way to platform four, eliminating any rebels they encountered. After acquiring several TIE Fighters, Iden, Meeko, and Hask then made their way through the debris field formed from the ruins of the Death Star and aided the Corvus in retreating to Vardos.

Admiral Versio then assigned Inferno Squad several missions crucial to Palpatine’s last command Operation: Cinder. The first mission was to go to Fondor's shipyards where they would assist the Dauntless in retrieving several satellites crucial to the Operation. However, the shipyards came under attack by several rebel ships. Iden and Hask flew TIEs while Del commanded the Corvus. The rebels sent X-wings, A-wings, and U-wings. As the tie fighters fought to defend the Dauntless Iden and Hask targeted the U-wings and destroyed them so they couldn't board the Dauntless. Iden informed her squad and Moff Raythe, who was commanding the battle, that she was going to board the enemy ship to take out their ion cannons and ordered Hask to join her when she gave the order.

Upon arriving in the enemy hangar in her TIE fighter, Iden destroyed many ships and killed many personnel. The rebels panicked as she moved through the hallways taking out several rebel soldiers with the TL-50 Heavy Repeater. She ordered Hask to group with her in the weapons bay. She and Hask fought off waves of rebels as Iden's ID-10 seeker droid exposed the cooling cells which Iden destroyed. Following this they returned to the space battle where they learned the Dauntless had regained power but the docking clamps were locking it in place. On Raythe's orders Iden destroyed them, allowing the Dauntless to break free. The Dauntless then crippled the rebel warship with barrages of turbolaser fire.

Afterwards, they were sent down to rescue Protectorate Gleb. Iden and Meeko then went rogue after disobeying orders to extract Gleb, leaving Hask as the remaining member of Inferno Squad. When Iden, Meeko, and Dio joined the New Republic, they served in a new version of Inferno Squad with Danger Leader Shriv Suurgav. Years later, Zay Versio, the daughter of Iden and Meeko, was part of the Squad and fought for the Resistance.

To meet their specialized operational needs, Inferno Squad utilized both standard Imperial-issue equipment and highly customized gear. Commander Versio wielded a TL-50 Heavy Repeater blaster rifle that had been altered with an extra power cell, granting it the capability to unleash a secondary concussive blast. In contrast, agents Hask and Meeko were equipped with standard E-11 medium blaster rifle rifles as their standard-issue sidearms. Meeko, who specialized as a sniper, also carried a DLT-19x sniper rifle. Their armor was custom-made, featuring a modified Imperial Starfighter Pilot helmet that was realspace-rated and adorned with red lenses and the Inferno Squad insignia engraved on the forehead. Furthermore, the Inferno Squad Helmets incorporated a compact CGT device, enabling the detection of gravity field fluctuations from cloaked entities. They also utilized a chest-mounted life support unit and wore black scout trooper body armor over a pressurized body glove. This distinct combination of components sourced from various Imperial Army inventories allowed the agents to function effectively in nearly any setting, ranging from the vacuum of space to the interiors of enemy vessels.

In addition to their individual equipment, the squad had access to a modified ID10 seeker droid, which Versio typically carried on her back. This droid provided assistance in scouting enemy territories and offered close-quarters support via its electro-shock prod, along with an array of technical tools such as electrobinoculars, all of which were stored aboard the Corvus. The ship itself underwent several modifications, including enhancements that allowed it to be flown by a single pilot and upgraded computer systems.

The initial reveal of Inferno Squad occurred on the official Star Wars website on February 17, 2017, coinciding with the announcement of their feature book. Subsequently, on April 14, 2017, EA Star Wars shared a video on Twitter, teasing the announcement trailer for Star Wars Battlefront II at Celebration Orlando the next day. This video also included Aurebesh text, which, upon translation, spells out "Inferno Squad." During the Celebration Orlando livestream, it was revealed that the group would be featured in the game and would serve as the focal point of the single-player campaign.