Originally, Tau Squadron was a part of the Imperial Navy, and not the Hammer specifically. Its pilots were incorporated into the Emperor’s Hammer (Newsletter 2), and Tau was disbanded as a separate fighter squadron.

It was later resurrected (Newsletter 15) and deployed on the SSD Avenger. GN Murtha (DK LRD VDR) was appointed as its first Commander. General Exar (Vader 96) was its first flight member.

By Newsletter 16, GN Murtha had been replaced as Squadron Commander by General Paladin (Mstr Jdi). Trainee Stone (Q tip 22), later to be recognized as General, also joined the squadron at this time. However, due to the small member of recruits assigned to Tau, it has remained officially inactive.

With Newsletter 20, BG Havok (Gen Havok) assumed command. The squadron's new home was aboard the INT Harpax II.

A sweeping restructuring of the Emperor’s Hammer Fleet on 25 July, 1995 necessitated, once again, the relocation of Tau. The squadron was placed aboard the ISD Colossus, where it currently resides. GN Melan Pyr (formerly FLT LDR of Pi-2) succeeded the recently promoted Brigadier General Havok, as the new and present commander of Tau Squadron.

A close association between Tau Squadron and the Dark Brotherhood of the Jedi, has been rumored for some time. Tau is to be the first squadron to get the proposed A-9 Vigilance Interceptor. Only the high command (and the future), shall determine what will be in store for the anxious men and women of Tau. 

Image composed and painted by RBKugel and Matt Kugel

Banner Name: 'The Tau Hammer Jack'

A commentary by GN Melan Pyr

Painting by RBKugel 

The struggle between the dark side and light side of the Force is a struggle known to almost everyone in the Galaxy. Who has not heard of the Jedi? Who does not remember the infamous Lord Vader. What child, by now, has not been told the tale, in one version or another, of the young Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker? As a result of these events and the legends that are emerging from them, we are left with the notion that there is a Force, and that one must make a choice between either its dark or its light aspects.

Perhaps some do need to make a choice. There are some who are drawn to one side or the other. Distinguished members of our own elite body have made such choices. They draw much from the dark side of this Force, empowering them beyond the capabilities of others.

As the sun of a world rises in the sky, bathing it in light, and then sets, enveloping it darkness, there is a twilight time betwixt black and white: This is that time when the elements of both meet. This should be our tide.. this must be our side of the Force. In this crepuscular gloom, we light the lamp or extinguish its flame!

The Jedi had failed. The Emperor and Vader were undone. Those who live only in the light, and those who dwell only in the darkness, are purblind in the element of the other. But those who stay in the twilight, may see better in both the brilliance and the blackness.

The proponents of the extremes have led our Galaxy into chaos. They must turn the very nature of the firmament of life into either a glaring day or a moldering night, for only then may they themselves thrive while watching the other wither. The old Jedi wrongly stood in the way of an efficient consolidation of an Empire. His late Majesty Palpatine, relying on his Force, unwisely risked the unity of the entire Galaxy, and lost. The last of the Jedi, in the name of the Light, plunged us into chaos and war.

We warriors of the twilight have been conscripted into their futile struggles. We have been made pawns of one side or the other. Do we not have our own destiny? Do we not stand for honor? Are we not champions of order? Do we not exemplify duty and obedience, valor and achievement?

Are these of the Dark? ... The Light? No. They are the aspects that are derived from the Twilight Side of the Force. What brilliance or shroud exists, we ourselves conjure. We are those beings beyond both good and evil. Darkness and Light parse into mere words before us. We have no need of such things. We are courage, service, and glory!

We warriors must not serve the Force. The Force must serve us. It must be at our disposal. For we are greater than the Force. It is in our eyes that the suns set on the past, and the stars rise upon the future. We and the virtues we represent, are the final and inevitable salvation of this Galaxy.

-----CMDR/GN Melan Pyr/Tau-1/ISD Col