Chiss during the final stages of the Yuuzhan vong invasion

I've been trying to find the answer to this by looking through the NJO books and wookiepedia, but I am still confused as to the size of the chiss force fighting during the liberation of coruscant. It said on wookiepedia that vanguard squadron merges into twin suns? If anyone could clarify would be much appreciated.

 

The first thing to bear in mind is that the Chiss squadron is often under-strength, due to combat losses and pilots on detached duties: in Force Heretic: Refguee, the main force of the squadron is reduced to six fighters, led by Eprill: Jag and two pilots are serving with Jaina, Shawnkyr is in the Unknown Regions, and two other fighters are unaccounted for - probably either escorting Shawnkyr or destroyed. There's a mention here of reinforcements from the "training program" to increase Eprill's numbers, although whether this means Chiss or Alliance fighters isn't clear: subsequently, Shawnkyr is back in TUF (ch. 34 and 38 pages 341, 345, 398), and the squadron may be up to full strength again early in TUF.

At the end of the first phase in the battle of Mon Cal, "Vanguard was down to six clawcraft" (ch. 25, page 258). Subsequently, Traest tells Wedge that the Chiss squadron and Jaina's unit have been "folded into a single squadron, commanded by Group Commander Fel" (ch. 33, page 330), probably due to losses.

When the combined unit launches at Coruscant, we're told that "[t]he group was split evenly between Chiss and Alliance pilots" (ch. 34, page 340), with Shawnkyr and Eprill being named. Implicitly, this is half-a-dozen Clawcraft, half-a-dozen X-wings, although it's never actually stated that the squadron is a round dozen, and it's also possible that some Chiss pilots are flying X-wings if their own fighters are out of action.

Within the opening phase of the battle (ch. 34, pages 340-346), five of the combined unit's fighters are lost, including Eight and Eleven - no mention of which type of fighters they are. Jag also loses his own Clawcraft, and borrows a Corellian X-wing.

In the late stages of the attack, Jag then finds two Clawcraft in a group of twenty fighters, which seems to be what's left of the fighter cover for the initial assault - they're led by Gavin Darklighter as Rogue Leader and also include at least one pilot from the Yellow Aces (ch. 38, p. 398 - it's probably Wes Janson); one of these is Shanwkyr, and her callsign is given as Four. It's possible that other Clawcraft and pilots are still active elsewhere on the battlefield, detached from the main group, but this isn't clear.

By the time of the epilogue (ch. 45, p. 521), Jag hass been in renewed conact with the Chiss again, as he's been appointed as their military liason to the Alliance, so more reinforcements could have shown up - and he's apparently flying a Clawcraft again (p. 519), which could mean a replacement fighter. On the other hand, a reference a few lines later to a "solitary X-wing" seems to show a glaring inconsistency about what Jag's flying - and he certainly sems to have remained in command of Jaina's squadron rather than a pure Chiss unit (pp. 518, 519). If he is in a Clawcraft, he could have also repaired his crashed fighter, as he told Jaina in Ylesia that Alliance ships could supply the TIE components for a Clawcraft cockpit and make replacements for the Chiss ones in the strike foils.

It's also possible that other Chiss units were serving in Alliance space during TUF, although Jag's squadron was apparently the only one assigned to the attack on Coruscant (ch. 33, p. 330).

Hope that helps!

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I see, and when the two squadrons were merged they dropped the name vanguard and stuck to twin suns?

because on page 343, it refers to the chiss pilots again as a "group of vanguard starfighters"

 

It seems so. That's certainly the callsign they're using, both during the battle and the epilogue. But, although Traest describes them as a "single squadron" to Wedge, they're always described a a "group" during the battle, and it's possible that they're officially a two-squadron unit - compare the "Red" and "Green" callsigns at Endor, which are probably for more than just Rogue Squadron and Green Squadron.

It's also possible that "Vanguard Squadron" was never the Chiss unit's real name. While Jag and Shawnkyr callsign as "Vanguard One" and "Vanguard Two" on their scouting mission in Dark Journey, the first use of "Vanguard Squadron" is for the force of bush-pilots they then recruit on Hapes. Apart from one dialogue line in Refugee, the name is never used for the Chiss unit until TUF itself.

I think that just means that they're in the forefront of the attack. It's not capitalized, so it probably doesn't refer to Vanguard Squadron. If you insist, it could just mean a Clawcraft flight within the larger unit.

I made a few edits in my original post, and I just spotted one more very significant detail: once Jag's through the outer Yuuzhan Vong defenses above Coruscant "[t]he dozen remaining members of his group followed in formation" (ch. 34, p. 344), after the five losses in the initial assault. That means an initial strength of around seventeen pilots, and we know that half of them are Chiss.

So, that means that the number of Chiss pilots is higher than the six intact Clawcraft seen earlier - there are two or three extra Chiss pilots. Either they were previously separated and now rejoined, or else they're new reinforcements, or they're pilots who lost Clawcraft at Mon Cal but survived, probably now flying X-wings.

And on the Alliance side, there's a maximum of four pilots left from the squadron that started the novel, as we know that five of Jaina's pilots were lost in the convoy raid (ch. 11, p. 123 - in the battle itself, in ch. 8-9, six X-wings are described being vaped - Two, Three, Six, Seven, Eleven and Twelve - Ten may also have been vaped or damaged, as that plane was absent from Alema Rar's flight); and the three Jedi have also been pulled out of the squadron (Jaina, Lowie and Alema Rar, Lead, Five and Nine).

There were probably some reinforcement before the battle of Mon Cal, as a partial list of callsigns includes more pilots than would still be in the squadron after five losses and two reassignments (ch. 25, p. 257 - Jaina senses Four, Five, Six, Nine, and Ten through the Force); the other pilots may simply be too far away for Jaina to identify, but it's obvious the squadron is understrength, as the "survivors" then form up as part of Rogue Squadron (ch. 25, p. 258).

Given that there need to be at least eight Alliance pilots to balance the Chiss, there must be at least four pilots who're reinforcements, or else assigned from other squadrons - whether they were added before or after Mon Cal.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

I understand. Thank you for the clarification.