{"data":{"id":14618,"title":"Portfolio: 78th Squadron","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/comm-link\/spectrum-dispatch\/14618-Portfolio-78th-Squadron","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-links\/14618","api_public_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/comm-links\/14618","channel":"Undefined","category":"Undefined","series":"Portfolio","images":[{"id":3313,"name":"GG1.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/robertsspaceindustries.com\/media\/5a2bx8b7tz794r\/source\/GG1.jpg","alt":"","size":611925,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2015-04-28T15:22:04+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/3313","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/3313\/similar"},{"id":26463,"name":"source.jpg","rsi_url":"https:\/\/media.robertsspaceindustries.com\/weozjmuuh3hwh\/source.jpg","alt":"","size":843046,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","last_modified":"2019-09-19T15:49:32+00:00","api_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26463","similar_url":"https:\/\/api.star-citizen.wiki\/api\/comm-link-images\/26463\/similar"}],"images_count":7,"translations":{"en_EN":"While Squadron 78\u2019s recent victories have captured the public\u2019s imagination, the unit has a long and storied past that reaches back to the final days of the Messer era. Established on 2604-02-22, Squadron 78 was created as part of the Empire\u2019s response to the initial battles of what would come to be known as the Second Tevarin War. Strike squadrons were seen by many as the ultimate symbol of Messer\u2019s power. Afterwards, while many squadrons were being retired or restructured, Squadron 78 managed to survive intact due to their distinguished actions in the post-war years. The result has been a bomber squadron still flying the modern version of the hardware they were assigned over three centuries ago, still active despite living through a series of complex political transitions that even at one point lead to the entire unit being arrested.\n\nAn Unusual Name\nThe unit was first assigned to a now-defunct space forces training facility at Ankorum on Terra\u2019s northern hemisphere. It was here that the unit\u2019s crews and ground personnel underwent six months of Retaliator-A familiarity and transition training before deployment against the Tevarin, and it was here that they acquired their unusual moniker, the \u201cThundering Thorshu.\u201d\n\nAt the time, the bomber field at Ankorum was as close to the middle of nowhere as was possible in civilized space, an unpopular assignment for a generation of military personnel eager to save the galaxy by battling aliens on the front line. Squadron 78\u2019s first commanding officer, Captain Jaso Iger, realized that he could use the brand new spacecraft he had been entrusted with to ingratiate his team to the weary base personnel. For the first three months of training, he would commission one of his pilots to covertly fly luxury foodstuffs and other items from the planet\u2019s southern regions back to the base. Hailed by all for providing these creature comforts, the phrase \u201chaving a 78\u201d briefly came to use amongst navy starmen as an expression for having a lavish meal. This all came to a halt when the Retaliator transporting contraband suffered a flame-out during a landing approach. The tower quickly ordered the crew to dump their fuel and dummy munitions in preparation for a crash landing. The order was followed, sending the illicit goods stored in the bomb bay falling around the airbase: two tons of fresh Thorshu crab legs. With that, the squadron\u2019s name was established and a three hundred year legacy of seafood-oriented intra-service jokes was born.\n\nWrapped in Glory\nAs would be expected, Squadron 78\u2019s first combat came in the Second Tevarin War, where they earned multiple combat awards while racking up capital ship and space-to-space kills during the lengthy conflict. In the years following, the squadron continued to see service in a range of capacities, including heavy anti-piracy interdiction and as part of the Messers\u2019 political intimidation machine.\n\nSquadron 78 assured their survival during a seemingly insignificant mission in early 2791. As Messer XI\u2019s hold on the population began to falter, bomber squadrons found themselves tasked with increasingly dubious missions. Units that had spent their careers flying against pirate bases and external threats found themselves reassigned to core worlds and assigned the eliminating political dissidents or subduing rioting populations. In one such instance, the Thundering Thorshu were ordered to equip double-loads of antimatter torpedoes and destroy an inhabited moon in the Ferron System believed to be the hiding place of a cadre of radicalized rebels.\n\nAs a matter of official record, the squadron was tasked with a kill-order strike on a suspected insurrectionist training facility. After a four-hour run from the jump point, the Retaliators entered scan range of Ferron\u2019s moon. What they discovered was hardly the haven of cutthroats and anarchists that had been presented in their briefing, but rather an agro center on a small moon that had no weapons and no ships, but plenty of inhabitants.\n\nCommanding officer Lisa Cahillier was contacted by her superiors who requested a progress report. None of her pilots could find any evidence to mark the base as a threat. Cahillier defied mission protocol and contacted the base directly and ordered them to surrender their weapons. They responded with pleas; the base was settled as a home for ex-patriots hoping to escape the ongoing chaos, not as a base for militant revolutionaries. They numbered in the tens of thousands, all marked for death.\n\nCahillier commed back to report her findings and recommend a mission abort citing a lack of a legitimate target. Her superiors were incensed and repeated their order for the 78th to open fire on the target. The squadron held their ground, refusing to fire without a clear or confirmed tactical or military target.\n\nThe commander of the battle group, Admiral Lorna Gestala, intervened on the comms, giving a final declaration for the 78th to annihilate the target.\n\nCahillier ordered her group to fire, but targeted an asteroid beyond the agro center. The moon\u2019s inhabitants watched the torpedoes sail harmlessly overhead and obliterate the distant target.\n\nThe bombers made the long, silent flight home to face certain court martial and inevitable execution. On landing, officers were taken away in restraints and enlisted men were confined to quarters on base. All indications are that Messer XI intended to make an example of this group of traitors when doing so would be politically expedient. Luckily, this never came: the squadron spent roughly 18 months in the stockade and then were freed as heroes by the incoming government. Squadron 78 was re-established, presented as a symbol of enduring humanity in the face of the most tyrannical orders from the fallen Imperator.\n\nBehind the Scenes\nSquadron 78 is best known to the public today for their part in Operation Unilateral Force, a 2940 effort aimed at inciting Vanduul infighting by targeting a single clan\u2019s line of battle. Through these surgical strikes, the hope was that the weakened clan would then become a target for other Vanduul; diverting attention and resources from UEE space while inflicting further ongoing losses on the various clans involved. While the operation failed to generate the internecine conflict that xenopsychological operations predicted, the 78th took part in a major strike that resulted in the crippling of an enemy Kingship.\n\nAn embedded reporter, Felix Terwyn, followed the squadron during their training operations at MacArthur and then through the three-week deployment at forward operating base Cernan that ended in the epic final attack. Felix saw to it that the squadron\u2019s torpedoes were all equipped with cameras that provided a unique perspective, not only into the nature of war, but a seldom seen up-close view of the Vanduul threat itself. The resulting news stories made brief celebrities of the pilots involved, identifying them as the cream of the crop of the UEE\u2019s bomber corps.","de_DE":"W\u00e4hrend die j\u00fcngsten Siege der Staffel 78 die Fantasie der \u00d6ffentlichkeit befl\u00fcgelt haben, hat die Einheit eine lange und geschichtstr\u00e4chtige Vergangenheit, die bis in die letzten Tage der Messer-\u00c4ra zur\u00fcckreicht. Die am 22.02.2604 gegr\u00fcndete Staffel 78 wurde als Teil der Reaktion des Reiches auf die ersten Schlachten des so genannten Zweiten Tevarin-Krieges geschaffen. Schlaggeschwader wurden von vielen als das ultimative Symbol f\u00fcr die Macht von Messer angesehen. Danach, w\u00e4hrend viele Geschwader in den Ruhestand verabschiedet oder umstrukturiert wurden, gelang es der Staffel 78, aufgrund ihrer bemerkenswerten Aktionen in den Nachkriegsjahren intakt zu \u00fcberleben. Das Ergebnis war ein Bombergeschwader, das immer noch die moderne Version der Hardware fliegt, die ihnen vor mehr als drei Jahrhunderten zugewiesen wurde, und das trotz einer Reihe komplexer politischer \u00dcberg\u00e4nge, die sogar zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt zur Verhaftung der gesamten Einheit f\u00fchrten.\n\nEin ungew\u00f6hnlicher Name\nDie Einheit wurde zun\u00e4chst einem inzwischen stillgelegten Trainingszentrum der Weltraumkr\u00e4fte in Ankorum auf der Nordhalbkugel von Terra zugewiesen. Hier absolvierten die Besatzungen und das Bodenpersonal der Einheit sechs Monate lang ein Vertrautheits- und \u00dcbergangs-Training, bevor sie gegen die Tevarin eingesetzt wurden, und hier erwarben sie ihren ungew\u00f6hnlichen Namen, den \"Thundering Thorshu\".\n\nDamals befand sich das Bomberfeld in Ankorum so nah wie m\u00f6glich an der Mitte des Nirgendwo im zivilisierten Raum, ein unbeliebter Einsatz f\u00fcr eine Generation von Milit\u00e4rangeh\u00f6rigen, die die Galaxie retten wollten, indem sie Au\u00dferirdische an der Front bek\u00e4mpften. Der erste kommandierende Offizier der Staffel 78, Captain Jaso Iger, erkannte, dass er das brandneue Raumschiff, mit dem er betraut worden war, benutzen konnte, um sein Team an das m\u00fcde Basispersonal weiterzugeben. F\u00fcr die ersten drei Monate der Ausbildung beauftragte er einen seiner Piloten, Luxusg\u00fcter und andere Gegenst\u00e4nde aus den s\u00fcdlichen Regionen des Planeten heimlich zur\u00fcck zur Basis zu fliegen. Von allen begr\u00fc\u00dft, dass sie diesen Komfort f\u00fcr diese Kreatur geboten hatten, kam der Ausdruck \"mit einer 78\" kurzzeitig unter den Marinestars als Ausdruck f\u00fcr ein \u00fcppiges Essen zur Anwendung. Dies alles kam zum Stillstand, als der Vergelter, der Schmuggelware transportiert, bei einem Landeanflug einen Ausbruch erlitt. Der Turm befahl der Besatzung schnell, ihren Treibstoff und ihre Blindg\u00e4nger abzulassen, um sich auf eine Bruchlandung vorzubereiten. Der Befehl wurde befolgt und schickte die im Bombenschacht gelagerten illegalen Waren um den Flugplatz herum: zwei Tonnen frische Thorshu-Krabbenbeine. Damit wurde der Name der Staffel festgelegt und ein dreihundertj\u00e4hriges Verm\u00e4chtnis an maritimen Intra-Service Witzen geboren.\n\nIn Ruhm geh\u00fcllt\nWie zu erwarten war, kam der erste Kampf der Staffel 78 im Zweiten Tevarin-Krieg, wo sie mehrere Kampfpr\u00e4mien erhielten, w\u00e4hrend sie w\u00e4hrend des langen Konflikts Kapitalschiffe und Raumfahrt-Todesf\u00e4lle aufbauten. In den folgenden Jahren wurde die Staffel weiterhin in einer Reihe von Funktionen eingesetzt, darunter ein schweres Anti-Piraterie-Verbot und als Teil der politischen Einsch\u00fcchterungsmaschine der Messers.\n\nDie Staffel 78 sicherte ihr \u00dcberleben w\u00e4hrend einer scheinbar unbedeutenden Mission Anfang 2791. Als der Einfluss von Messer XI. auf die Bev\u00f6lkerung zu schwanken begann, sahen sich die Bomberstaffeln mit immer zweifelhafteren Missionen konfrontiert. Einheiten, die ihre Karriere damit verbracht hatten, gegen Piratenst\u00fctzpunkte und externe Bedrohungen zu fliegen, wurden in Kernwelten versetzt und mit der Beseitigung politischer Dissidenten oder der Unterdr\u00fcckung von Unruhen beauftragt. In einem solchen Fall wurden die donnernden Thorshu angewiesen, Doppelladungen von Antimaterietorpedos auszur\u00fcsten und einen bewohnten Mond im Ferronensystem zu zerst\u00f6ren, der als das Versteck eines Kaders radikalisierter Rebellen angesehen wird.\n\nOffiziell wurde die Staffel mit einem Mordbefehlsschlag gegen eine mutma\u00dfliche Ausbildungseinrichtung f\u00fcr Aufst\u00e4ndische beauftragt. Nach einem vierst\u00fcndigen Lauf vom Sprungpunkt aus betraten die Vergelter den Scanbereich von Ferrons Mond. Was sie entdeckten, war kaum der Hafen der M\u00f6rder und Anarchisten, der in ihrem Briefing vorgestellt worden war, sondern ein Agrozentrum auf einem kleinen Mond, das keine Waffen und keine Schiffe, sondern viele Bewohner hatte.\n\nDie Kommandantin Lisa Cahillier wurde von ihren Vorgesetzten kontaktiert, die einen Fortschrittsbericht anforderten. Keiner ihrer Piloten konnte Beweise finden, um die Basis als Bedrohung zu markieren. Cahillier widersetzte sich dem Missionsprotokoll und kontaktierte die Basis direkt und befahl ihnen, ihre Waffen abzugeben. Sie antworteten mit Bitten; die Basis wurde als Heim f\u00fcr Ex-Patrioten eingerichtet, die dem anhaltenden Chaos entfliehen wollten, nicht als Basis f\u00fcr militante Revolution\u00e4re. Sie z\u00e4hlte Zehntausende, die alle f\u00fcr den Tod markiert waren.\n\nCahillier kam zur\u00fcck, um \u00fcber ihre Ergebnisse zu berichten und empfahl einen Missionsabbruch unter Berufung auf das Fehlen eines legitimen Ziels. Ihre Vorgesetzten waren erz\u00fcrnt und wiederholten ihren Befehl an den 78., das Feuer auf das Ziel zu er\u00f6ffnen. Die Staffel hielt ihren Platz und weigerte sich, ohne ein klares oder best\u00e4tigtes taktisches oder milit\u00e4risches Ziel zu feuern.\n\nDer Kommandant der Kampfgruppe, Admiral Lorna Gestala, intervenierte in die Kommunikation und gab eine Abschlusserkl\u00e4rung f\u00fcr den 78. ab, um das Ziel zu vernichten.\n\nCahillier befahl ihrer Gruppe zu feuern, zielte aber auf einen Asteroiden jenseits des Agrozentrums. Die Bewohner des Mondes beobachteten, wie die Torpedos harmlos \u00fcber uns segelten und das entfernte Ziel ausl\u00f6schten.\n\nDie Bomber machten den langen, stillen Flug nach Hause, um sich einem bestimmten Kriegsgericht und einer unvermeidlichen Hinrichtung zu stellen. Bei der Landung wurden die Offiziere in Fesseln weggebracht und die Soldaten in Quartiere auf der Basis eingesperrt. Alles deutet darauf hin, dass Messer XI beabsichtigte, ein Beispiel f\u00fcr diese Gruppe von Verr\u00e4tern zu geben, wenn dies politisch sinnvoll w\u00e4re. Gl\u00fccklicherweise kam das nie: Die Staffel verbrachte etwa 18 Monate in der Palisade und wurde dann von der neuen Regierung als Helden befreit. Die Staffel 78 wurde wiederhergestellt und als Symbol f\u00fcr eine dauerhafte Menschheit angesichts der tyrannischsten Befehle des gefallenen Imperators dargestellt.\n\nHinter den Kulissen\nDie Staffel 78 ist heute der \u00d6ffentlichkeit am besten bekannt f\u00fcr ihre Rolle in der Operation Unilateral Force, einer 2940er Aktion, die darauf abzielt, Vanduul-Kampfhandlungen anzuregen, indem sie auf die Kampflinie eines einzelnen Clans abzielt. Durch diese chirurgischen Angriffe war die Hoffnung, dass der geschw\u00e4chte Clan dann ein Ziel f\u00fcr andere Vanduul werden w\u00fcrde; er lenkte die Aufmerksamkeit und Ressourcen aus dem UEE-Raum ab und verursachte weitere laufende Verluste f\u00fcr die verschiedenen beteiligten Clans. W\u00e4hrend die Operation es vers\u00e4umte, den Internecine-Konflikt zu erzeugen, den xenopsychologische Operationen vorausgesagt hatten, nahm die 78. an einem Gro\u00dfangriff teil, der zum L\u00e4hmen eines gegnerischen K\u00f6nigtums f\u00fchrte.\n\nEin eingebetteter Reporter, Felix Terwyn, verfolgte die Staffel w\u00e4hrend ihrer Trainingseins\u00e4tze in MacArthur und dann durch den dreiw\u00f6chigen Einsatz in der vorgeschobenen Basis Cernan, der mit dem epischen Endangriff endete. Felix sorgte daf\u00fcr, dass die Torpedos der Staffel alle mit Kameras ausgestattet waren, die eine einzigartige Perspektive boten, nicht nur in die Natur des Krieges, sondern auch in eine seltene Nahaufnahme der Vanduul-Bedrohung selbst. Die daraus resultierenden Nachrichtengeschichten machten kurze Prominente der beteiligten Piloten zu kurzen Prominenten und identifizierten sie als die Creme der Ernte des Bomberkorps der UEE.","zh_CN":"While Squadron 78\u2019s recent victories have captured the public\u2019s imagination, the unit has a long and storied past that reaches back to the final days of the Messer era. Established on 2604-02-22, Squadron 78 was created as part of the Empire\u2019s response to the initial battles of what would come to be known as the Second Tevarin War. Strike squadrons were seen by many as the ultimate symbol of Messer\u2019s power. Afterwards, while many squadrons were being retired or restructured, Squadron 78 managed to survive intact due to their distinguished actions in the post-war years. The result has been a bomber squadron still flying the modern version of the hardware they were assigned over three centuries ago, still active despite living through a series of complex political transitions that even at one point lead to the entire unit being arrested.\n\nAn Unusual Name\nThe unit was first assigned to a now-defunct space forces training facility at Ankorum on Terra\u2019s northern hemisphere. It was here that the unit\u2019s crews and ground personnel underwent six months of Retaliator-A familiarity and transition training before deployment against the Tevarin, and it was here that they acquired their unusual moniker, the \u201cThundering Thorshu.\u201d\n\nAt the time, the bomber field at Ankorum was as close to the middle of nowhere as was possible in civilized space, an unpopular assignment for a generation of military personnel eager to save the galaxy by battling aliens on the front line. Squadron 78\u2019s first commanding officer, Captain Jaso Iger, realized that he could use the brand new spacecraft he had been entrusted with to ingratiate his team to the weary base personnel. For the first three months of training, he would commission one of his pilots to covertly fly luxury foodstuffs and other items from the planet\u2019s southern regions back to the base. Hailed by all for providing these creature comforts, the phrase \u201chaving a 78\u201d briefly came to use amongst navy starmen as an expression for having a lavish meal. This all came to a halt when the Retaliator transporting contraband suffered a flame-out during a landing approach. The tower quickly ordered the crew to dump their fuel and dummy munitions in preparation for a crash landing. The order was followed, sending the illicit goods stored in the bomb bay falling around the airbase: two tons of fresh Thorshu crab legs. With that, the squadron\u2019s name was established and a three hundred year legacy of seafood-oriented intra-service jokes was born.\n\nWrapped in Glory\nAs would be expected, Squadron 78\u2019s first combat came in the Second Tevarin War, where they earned multiple combat awards while racking up capital ship and space-to-space kills during the lengthy conflict. In the years following, the squadron continued to see service in a range of capacities, including heavy anti-piracy interdiction and as part of the Messers\u2019 political intimidation machine.\n\nSquadron 78 assured their survival during a seemingly insignificant mission in early 2791. As Messer XI\u2019s hold on the population began to falter, bomber squadrons found themselves tasked with increasingly dubious missions. Units that had spent their careers flying against pirate bases and external threats found themselves reassigned to core worlds and assigned the eliminating political dissidents or subduing rioting populations. In one such instance, the Thundering Thorshu were ordered to equip double-loads of antimatter torpedoes and destroy an inhabited moon in the Ferron System believed to be the hiding place of a cadre of radicalized rebels.\n\nAs a matter of official record, the squadron was tasked with a kill-order strike on a suspected insurrectionist training facility. After a four-hour run from the jump point, the Retaliators entered scan range of Ferron\u2019s moon. What they discovered was hardly the haven of cutthroats and anarchists that had been presented in their briefing, but rather an agro center on a small moon that had no weapons and no ships, but plenty of inhabitants.\n\nCommanding officer Lisa Cahillier was contacted by her superiors who requested a progress report. None of her pilots could find any evidence to mark the base as a threat. Cahillier defied mission protocol and contacted the base directly and ordered them to surrender their weapons. They responded with pleas; the base was settled as a home for ex-patriots hoping to escape the ongoing chaos, not as a base for militant revolutionaries. They numbered in the tens of thousands, all marked for death.\n\nCahillier commed back to report her findings and recommend a mission abort citing a lack of a legitimate target. Her superiors were incensed and repeated their order for the 78th to open fire on the target. The squadron held their ground, refusing to fire without a clear or confirmed tactical or military target.\n\nThe commander of the battle group, Admiral Lorna Gestala, intervened on the comms, giving a final declaration for the 78th to annihilate the target.\n\nCahillier ordered her group to fire, but targeted an asteroid beyond the agro center. The moon\u2019s inhabitants watched the torpedoes sail harmlessly overhead and obliterate the distant target.\n\nThe bombers made the long, silent flight home to face certain court martial and inevitable execution. On landing, officers were taken away in restraints and enlisted men were confined to quarters on base. All indications are that Messer XI intended to make an example of this group of traitors when doing so would be politically expedient. Luckily, this never came: the squadron spent roughly 18 months in the stockade and then were freed as heroes by the incoming government. Squadron 78 was re-established, presented as a symbol of enduring humanity in the face of the most tyrannical orders from the fallen Imperator.\n\nBehind the Scenes\nSquadron 78 is best known to the public today for their part in Operation Unilateral Force, a 2940 effort aimed at inciting Vanduul infighting by targeting a single clan\u2019s line of battle. Through these surgical strikes, the hope was that the weakened clan would then become a target for other Vanduul; diverting attention and resources from UEE space while inflicting further ongoing losses on the various clans involved. While the operation failed to generate the internecine conflict that xenopsychological operations predicted, the 78th took part in a major strike that resulted in the crippling of an enemy Kingship.\n\nAn embedded reporter, Felix Terwyn, followed the squadron during their training operations at MacArthur and then through the three-week deployment at forward operating base Cernan that ended in the epic final attack. Felix saw to it that the squadron\u2019s torpedoes were all equipped with cameras that provided a unique perspective, not only into the nature of war, but a seldom seen up-close view of the Vanduul threat itself. The resulting news stories made brief celebrities of the pilots involved, identifying them as the cream of the crop of the UEE\u2019s bomber corps."},"links_count":0,"comment_count":51,"created_at":"2015-04-08T00:00:00+00:00","created_at_human":"11 years ago"},"meta":{"processed_at":"2026-05-08 02:38:53","valid_relations":["images","links"],"prev_id":14617,"next_id":14619}}