105th Expeditionary Force

105th Expeditionary Force

Unit Information
Unit Type	Infantry
Affiliation	Ternion Corps
Dates Active	Y-25 to Y-23; reformed Y21
Part of	Reformed Grand Army of the Republic
Commanding Officer	Jedi Commander Con Semper
Garrison	Austan
Battles or Conflicts	First Galactic Civil War Second Galactic Civil War
Awards	Meritorious Service Ribbon (Republic)

Origin of the "Forgotten Sons"

The clone soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic were the face of the Republic during the First Galactic Civil War, but they were not the force defending the Republic. When the war first broke out, before the galaxy knew about the clone army's development, the Republic was defended by strong but slim ranks of official peacekeepers, the Republic Judiciaries, as well as a collection of volunteer planetary and system militias and defense forces. After the brutal Separatist attack on Centrality in Year 25 BGCT, these defense forces and veteran Judiciaries were organized into official armies at the command of the Republic. The 105th was one of those units. At the beginning of the war, the 105th was comprised mostly of mercenaries and prisoners from the mysterious Hapes Cluster. They had been conscripted by the Hapes Consortium and essentially exiled, ordered to assist the Republic and keep the war far from Hapan borders. The soldiers did not relate well to their Judiciary commanders from the Core Worlds but developed a close kinship with the clone forces that gradually were integrated into the unit as reinforcements and then as commanders. Initially, the clones and the birth-born soldiers were kept separate by Republic command, but they discovered one another in the chaos of battle and a more compassionate Jedi commander bent the Republic's draconian rules. Eventually the unit adopted the moniker "the Forgotten Sons" to recognize both the strained relationship between the conscripts and their homeworld, but also way the clones felt they were perceived by most of the Republic.

Service Record

The Battle of Geonosis

Landing with Jedi Master Klunda Disaik, the 105th Division served as line infantry, holding off waves of separatists while special operations groups rescued the Jedi hostages and sabotaged droid factories. While the Jedi commanded the clones to match separatists line tactics, the birth born companies took to cover the high ground. When it became apparent that the clones were suffering heavy losses, the mercenaries, gunslingers, and private sector contractors agreed amongst themselves that something had to be done. Breaking from their directed companies and splitting themselves up amongst the suffering clones, they reformed republic tactics mid-action. Though many died in this effort, birth born recruits like Corporal Semper were able to rally their clones long enough until Republic withdrawal. Following the battle, many of the units clones began painting small horn-shaped designs on their helmets and body armor in honor of the Nikto commander. Other units misinterpreted these markings and began to call those units "Tusk Legion", and the name stuck.

The Battle of Ryloth

The 105th next saw action at Ryloth, after an attack on a Separatist delegation to the planet resulted in a full-scale invasion. The 739th Armored Regiment of the 105th saw extensive use by the Jedi command during their attempt to liberate the planet. Attempting to learn from Geonosis, vehicles were given the greater tactical value and used extensively during liberation missions to friendly Twi'lek cities. This proved effective in unseating Separatist occupation forces, but the lack of regard for civilian structures led to a loss of faith with the local populace. This also prompted some contention within the unit when the Hapan conscripts became unsettled at the clones willingness to obey orders even when the orders included destruction of civilian life and infrastructure. During the push on the city of Nabat, so many civilian lives were lost that 739th vehicles were briefly re-tasked to help with the excavation of mass graves. This sobering experience united the unit in their disgust for the loss of civilian life, and in the careless or naive orders that led to it. While Ryloth would eventually be freed and declared a Republic victory, members of the 739th would forever be shamed by the orders they were forced to execute on civilian populations.

The Af'El Campaign

Elements of the 105th would find themselves assigned to the 5th fleet during the disastrous campaign on Af'el. Jedi General Patwal Enos in command of the 5th fleet would on Day 321 order an assault on the planet of Af'el even after arriving to find his Republic reinforcements absent. Already suffering from their liberation of Boonta, the 5th fleet entered the battle at a significant disadvantage. Tusk Legion of the 105th were assigned to Republic LAATs for an assault on the capital city of Qua'Tahc but were diverted to boarding actions as the space battle grew ever poorer. Suffering severe losses to buy time for other units to land, the 105th performed a final rearguard action in boarding the separatist Lucrehulk flagship Nocturne. Succeeding in destroying the engines of the ship, the 105th were able to "ride" the ship to the surface as it was pulled down by the planet's gravity. The remnants of Tusk Legion, now below battalion strength, eventually connected with the remnants of the 5th fleet, beginning the long and gruesome march across the planet. Forced to use the infrared filters in their helmets, Tusk Legion adapted to the adverse conditions of the planet, relying on jetpacks to not only outmaneuver but to manipulate the vision of separatist droids and the fierce native Defel warriors.

While there were many costly victories during the Af'el campaign, none were more so than the Siege of Qua'Tahc, where the infantry was commanded to storm the heavily fortified capital city. Clones were forced by Jedi Master Enos to march headlong into turbo laser fire to scale the capital's subterranean walls. Tusk Legion was forced into vanguard actions, utilizing their jetpacks to directly assault heavy weapons emplacements behind enemy fortifications. The battle plan was a failure, reminding the unit of their slaughter at Geonosis. By the time the remnants of the 5th fleet had been forced to fire on approaching allies by Master Enos, Tusk Legion was barely operating as a company. Though, their unique experience and newly developed expertise had earned them a new role in the war. Evolving from line infantry as they had been at the battle of Geonosis, Tusk Legion was renamed and re-tasked into the 62nd Airborne Legion, their armor painted black in remembrance of Af'el in the Republic's new low-grade stealth tech. The 62nd would serve as a special operations stopgap for the thinning ranks of ARC troopers. Tired of the hit and run tactics of the Confederacy, the Republic established a need for alternative forms of warfare, decreeing that Airborne units such as the 62nd would serve in vanguard operations. Their directive being to harass and pin down CIS troop movements until larger clone forces could arrive to engage

The Battle of Coruscant

The Battle of Coruscant was perhaps the first time in the war since Geonosis that the entirety of the 105th was in one place. Scattered across dozens of ships from numerous fleets, the 105th fought valiantly from the numerous battlefields across and above the planet. The 739th Regiment took up defensive positions in the senate district holding key bridges against waves of landing droid legions. Tank crews were noted as fighting on even when their walkers were disabled, resorting to personal weapons and firing from the cover of their vehicles. Cleft squadron earned posthumous meritorious service ribbons for their sacrifice at checkpoint Xesh. The 62nd Airborne Legion performed HALO drops on the low orbiting CIS Providence-class dreadnaughts Dictator, Ascendant Profit, and Belligerent preventing them from fully launching their droid contingents to the surface and buying much needed relief for surface defenders.

Imperial Service

The 105th, like the rest of the Grand Army of the Republic, would be absorbed into the newly established Empire after murdering their embedded Jedi commanders during the war's tumultuous conclusion. Brutal and efficient, the 105th was deployed for a final time at Binquaros, where the Empire's fiercest shock troopers descended to break the Separatist's final stronghold and bring an end to a war that had devastated the galaxy. There was little regard for the conventions of battle or possible consequences for civilian life. Bereft of the Jedi's compassionate impulses and suffering the fatigue of battle, the clone commanders followed the orders of Emperor Drayson and regarded all life in their path as aiding the Separatist cause. After the battle, the 105th was dismantled and reformed into new stormtrooper battalions and regiments, with many of the alien birth born veterans like Sergeant Semper opting to leave the newly human centric Empire.

The Reformed 105th

In Year 21, forty-three years after the end of the Clone Wars, the Ternion Corps began its shift from a veterans support group to an active military outfit. With the assistance of Con Semper and Vir Calder and other researchers and investors, the Corps acquired state of the art cloning equipment and began producing clone soldiers with the intention of rebuilding the Grand Army of the Republic and restore the best values of the Republic they once served. Semper, a birth-born veteran of the 105th, set out on a mission to the Hapes Cluster to locate surviving members of his old unit and their descendants. He recruited all those who were willing to serve alongside freshly produced clone soldiers in a reconstituted 105th Division. Under Semper's experienced command and training from Aliit Vhetin, the 105th quickly became one of the Corps premier units.

Recognizing the unit's potential, General Rex Republica of the Republic Protectorate of Quantxi designated the unit the Corps main Expeditionary Force, and gave it primary responsibility for all engagements outside of the Protectorate's home systems. Other units have become attached to the 105th in the time since, benefiting from the 105th's training and expertise and preparing to take the fight to the oppressive forces that have shrouded the galaxy in darkness and besmirched the name of the Republic.

Those attached units consist of but are not limited to: