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The Battle for the Katana fleet, also known as the Battle of the Katana Fleet, was a significant event in the Thrawn campaign.Arriving at the location of the fleet with Rogue Squadron | Rogue SquadronOrganizationRebel Alliance Navy |
and a small team of technicians | Rebel Alliance EngineerOrganizationRebel Alliance |
, Luke Skywalker | Luke Skywalker(Human)CharacterMajor Characters |
, Han Solo | Han Solo(Human)CharacterMajor Characters |
, Chewbacca | Chewbacca(Wookiee)CharacterMajor Characters |
and Lando Calrissian | Lando Calrissian(Human)CharacterMajor Characters |
boarded one of the Dreadnaughts | Dreadnaught-class Heavy CruiserStarshipStarship Models |
and attempted to begin the work of bringing the fleet back to New Republic space. The Dreadnaught they chose, based on Luke's Force-attuned hunch, turned out to be the Katana | Katana(Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruiser)StarshipNamed Starships |
herself, the flagship and source for the fleet's fully-rigged slave circuitry rigging. However, their efforts were stalled by the arrival of Borsk Fey'lya onboard the Nebulon-B Escort Frigate | EF-76 Nebulon-B FrigateStarshipStarship Models |
Quenfis, who immediately demanded that Han and the others turn themselves over to them. The situation was further disrupted by the arrival of the Star Destroyer | Imperial-class Star DestroyerStarshipStarship Models |
Judicator, whose TIE fighter | TIE FighterStarshipStarfighter Models |
squadrons moved to attack Rogue Squadron. A dozen dropships were also dispatched from the Judicator to board the Katana. The team aboard the Katana managed to restore power to the ship's turbolaser batteries, destroying five of the dropships with their opening salvo along with a few TIE fighters while damaging most of the other dropships. Unfortunately for them, the Katana's first salvo was also its last, as the turbolaser capacitor was destroyed by a system overload.Instead of assisting, however, Fey'lya demanded that Captain Sarin Virgilio take the ship and retreat. Appalled by Fey'lya's lack of concern for their comrades' well being, Talon Karrde | Talon Karrde(Human)CharacterMajor Characters |
and Leia Organa | Leia Organa Solo(Human)CharacterMajor Characters |
tricked Fey'lya into admitting this over an open communications frequency. Fey'lya's forces immediately went to Rogue Squadron's assistance and Fey'lya himself was placed under arrest. Two X-wing squadrons from the Quenfis joined up with Rogue Squadron, and they began to take the upper hand over the Imperial TIEs. They managed to destroy the opening wave, as well as six of the seven dropships which survived the Katana's turbolaser attack.Receiving word of the unexpected level of resistance, Thrawn | Thrawn(Chiss)CharacterMajor Characters |
decided to personally intervene with his flagship Chimaera.jpg) | Chimaera(Imperial-class Star Destroyer)StarshipNamed Starships |
. However, this plan was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Joruus C'baoth, in a hijacked Lancer-class frigate | Lancer-class FrigateStarshipStarship Models |
. Realizing that delaying his ship's departure to take on Master C'baoth might cause him to arrive too late to affect the battle, Thrawn instead dispatched the Peremptory in his place. Aboard the Judicator, Captain Brandei | Brandei(Human)CharacterMinor Characters |
launched one of his reserve squadrons to reinforce the remaining two TIE formations and brought his Star Destroyer forward to engage the New Republic forces directly.At that moment, eighteen freighters and starfighters from Karrde's smuggling fleet emerged from hyperspace behind the Judicator and began attacking. Mara Jade | Mara Jade Skywalker(Human)CharacterMajor Characters |
, taking advantage of her extensive knowledge of Imperial Star Destroyer design specifications, attacked a little-known weak spot in the lower-aft sensor grid with her Z-95 Headhunter | Z-95 HeadhunterStarshipStarfighter Models |
, effectively blinding the Judicator to attacks from below. Brandei responded by launching his TIE bomber | TIE BomberStarshipStarfighter Models |
squadron to attack the smugglers, but then Garm Bel Iblis | Garm Bel Iblis(Human)CharacterSupporting Characters |
arrived with his fleet of six Katana Dreadnaughts, having been provided the location of the Katana fleet by Han Solo. Bel Iblis's Dreadnaughts began a heavy ion cannon bombardment of the Judicator, but the battle quickly turned in favor of the Empire with the arrival of the Peremptory. Three of Bel Iblis's cruisers broke off to engage the undamaged Star Destroyer, while Karrde's ships desperately scrambled to escape. Mara Jade's Headhunter was crippled by a stray laser shot, and she managed to set it on a collision course with the Judicator's hangar bay before ejecting. Unfortunately, this put her directly in the path of the Dreadnaughts' ion cannon barrage, which disabled the locater beacon in her ejection seat.Meanwhile, aboard the Katana, Luke, Han, Chewbacca and Lando attempted to deal with the Imperial forces that had boarded the ship, at one point making use of a damaged AT-PT | AT-PTGround VehicleVehicles |
walker that had been forced into one of the cruiser's corridors decades earlier by a crewer afflicted by the Hive virus that had doomed the fleet in the first place. Finding themselves backed into a corner and outnumbered on the bridge, Luke threw his lightsaber to cause a decompression in the corridor leading to the bridge which caused the remaining troops to be killed by lack of air. Han then used the ships' slave circuit systems to maneuver one of the other Dreadnaughts which, unlike the Katana herself, still had functional sublight engines, into the path of the Peremptory. The Star Destroyer was unable to avoid the collision, which destroyed both warships instantly. One of Bel Iblis's Dreadnaughts was damaged in the blast, but the other two quickly joined the rest of his fleet in bombarding the Judicator. Realizing that he was now outnumbered and outgunned, Brandei quickly ordered his ship to recover its remaining TIEs and retreat, bringing an end to the battle.Read more... |
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