For the novel by Michael A. Stackpole, see The Bacta War.

The Bacta War (7 ABY) is a small, albeit important, fictional conflict in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, described in Michael Stackpole's X-wing (series) series of Star Wars novels, most notably The Bacta War. The Bacta War resulted in the capture of the bacta-producing planet of Thyferra, and its subsequent liberation by elements of the former Rogue Squadron, including Wedge Antilles and Corran Horn.

The Bacta War began after Coruscant's fall to the Rebel Alliance, and the flight of the Empire's leader, Ysanne Isard, from the planet in her Super Star Destroyer Lusankya. Isard had intentionally released a crippling virus, the Krytos virus, that only attacked non-human species. She knew that conquering Thyferra would allow her to control the galaxy's supply of life-saving bacta. She took a fleet, with the Lusankya as the flagship, to Thyferra, where she helped a major Bacta corporation seize power. Naturally, they turned control of the planet over to her.

Rogue Squadron saw the necessity of freeing Thyferra from Isard's clutches. Corran Horn also had a more personal mission: while imprisoned on the Lusankya, he had promised a fellow prisoner, the famous Rebel general Jan Dodonna, that he would free Jan and the other prisoners. Seeing as how the Lusankya now orbited Thyferra, it seemed only natural to kill two birds with one stone: free the prisoners and Thyferra from the Empire.

Unfortunately, the New Republic refused to authorize such a mission, believing Warlord Zsinj to be a greater threat. As a result Corran Horn resigned his commission. The rest of the squadron, including the leader, Wedge Antilles, followed suit. The only exception was Pash Cracken, who returned to his old A-wing unit as a captain. While Cracken wanted to join the Rogues, Wedge asked Cracken to remain where he was. (Cracken's father was the head of New Republic Intelligence, and Wedge wished to have no affiliation with the New Republic so as to avoid implicating it, should his mission fail.) Although Corran had led the resignations, he allowed Wedge to retain control of the squadron. However, since everyone had volunteered for the mission (and they were no longer an official military unit), Wedge allowed the squadron to be somewhat more democratic.

After resigning from the New Republic, the Rogues were required to leave their headquarters facilities. A number of private citizens offered them offices and places to live, but the Rogues began searching for their own base for security reasons. Meanwhile, Captain Cracken had been ordered to destroy a space station orbiting Yag'Dhul, which was once controlled by Warlord Zsinj. Ironically, the Rogues had attacked the station in an earlier mission in order to steal badly needed bacta from Zsinj. Cracken offered the station to the Rogues, and then made up reports indicating the station had been destroyed. The Rogues took possession of the station as their base of operations.

Since the New Republic relied on Rogue Squadron as a symbol of their military might, it quickly formed a new, official, Rogue Squadron of their own. This new squadron was outfitted with new equipment, and all of the Rogue's X-wings and other equipment were declared broken surplus and offered for sale to the Rogues. (The X-wings were listed as "broken" because they were all missing PL-1's, the New Republic military designation for pilots). The technical staff resigned from the Alliance and joined the Rogues. While this was going on, Wedge Antilles, Corran Horn, Mirax Terrik, and Ooryl Qrygg located several caches of X-wing parts and weapons across the galaxy. As a result, the squadron had all their fighters and plenty of parts as well. For funds, Tycho Celchu donated his ample bank accounts to the efforts, which had been used in an attempt to frame him as an Imperial spy. They also had several Z-95 Headhunters, and were able to get additional funds by selling them off to various parties. Through Mirax Terrik's father, the infamous smuggler Booster Terrik, and Talon Karrde, the squadron was able to purchase the rest of the equipment needed to attack Thyferra.

With the help of Elscol Loro and Sixtus Quin, Rogue Squadron managed to form an alliance with the Ashern, a Vratix resistance group, and the remanants of the Zaltin corporation. These groups performed many terrorist and insurgent attacks, including sneaking into Erisi Dlarit's estate and stripping her father's clothes off in front of a camera.

Meanwhile, in space, Rogue squadron performed numerous hit and run attacks against Thyferran bacta convoys and refineries. They used the bacta they stole from such attacks to finance their war, as well as donating much of it to the New Republic to help fight the Krytos virus. Isard, meanwhile struck back by attempting to ambush Rogue Squadron twice and completely annihilating the space colony on Halanit, which had accepted stolen bacta from Rogue Squadron.

This eventually culminated in a huge space battle in which Ysanne Isard was apparently killed, along with the Imperial mole Erisi Dlarit. The Lusankya was surrendered to Wedge, who, in becoming the captain of the ship (at least temporarily), was legally allowed to marry Corran and Mirax. Unfortunately, the prisoners had already been shipped to other facilities, and Corran was unable to free them at this time.

After the battle, the Rogues discovered that their resignations had been "accidentally" misfiled, making this an official New Republic fait accompli mission. The Rogues were then given the option to rejoin the New Republic as an official unit again, an offer they all accepted.

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