Hey Austin. I've been reading through the books to answer some questions my play group has. So far, I've not found the answers anywhere so I'm checking if I didn't miss anything.
Is there a way to reduce the goal clock of NPC squads that's formally written into the rules? The freeform recommendation I've made to the GM is to just reduce goal clocks after a mission targeting them or knock out the goal entirely based on the severity of the mission.
There is no hard rule on how to reduce squad goal clocks aside from doing what matches the fiction. Those are both good suggestions, and you could also do a Long Term Project to similar effect, but you must remember that Beam Saber is a game about how The War grinds people down. Very rarely can you fully stop systemically supported evil deeds.