Battle of Taanab/Legends

"Someone must have told them about my little maneuver at the Battle of Taanab."

- Lando Calrissian

The Battle of Taanab, while a minor engagement by galactic standards, had a great effect on the career of Lando Calrissian. His utter defeat of the Norulac Pirates helped give him a heroic reputation.

Background
The Inner Rim Territories world of Taanab was a backwater agricultural planet, too insignificant for the Imperial Navy to put much effort into protecting from regular pirate raids. Five months after the Battle of Yavin, an armada of Norulac pirate ships arrived in the fringes of the system.

The battle
Taanab's small defense fleet moved out to intercept them at the Banthal Company's orbiting docks, but with little hope of stopping the raiders. Lando Calrissian happened to be in a cantina in Taanab's spaceport city of Pandath, observing the situation on a holovid. Suddenly, he declared to the other patrons that he could defeat the pirates single-handedly. One of the skeptical patrons, Gathal Anager, made a bet with Calrissian. Anager announced that the deed to a Clendoran brewery would be Calrissian's if he made good on his boast.

Calrissian's "little maneuver"
Calrissian began the battle by hiding his vessel in the ice ring of Taanab's moon, and lying in wait for the pirates. When the pirates were close enough, he intercepted them, ejecting his ship's cargo–a full load of electrified Conner nets–in the midst of the pirate fleet. While most of the pirate vessels were entangled and disabled by the drifting nets, Calrissian used his tractor beams to bash their ships with heavy chunks of ice from the moon's ring. Finally, Calrissian rallied the Taanab fleet, leading them to a decisive and swift victory. Calrissian himself was credited with nineteen kills.

Aftermath
"And if you're going to bring up Taanab again, don't. You've been squeezing that bit of history for favors for, oh, must be fifteen years now. Not going to do you any good this time."

- Reggi

Though the Taanab government offered Calrissian a permanent commission in their military, Calrissian politely refused. His new brewery sounded like a more lucrative business. However, he would later accept the general's commission that the Rebel Alliance offered him before the Battle of Endor based on these actions.

At some point later, Voren Na'al had Calrissian tell him about the Battle of Taanab and his maneuver for it, which Calrissian did despite insisting that he wait as he "told it many times before." Na'al then included it in his collection of historical records of the New Republic, titled Oral History of the New Republic.

Behind the scenes
The Battle of Taanab was first alluded to in Return of the Jedi, when he explains to Han Solo that the reason for his promotion to General in the Rebel Fleet had to do with a maneuver he pulled during that time.

According to Tag Greenley in the non-canon comic Tag & Bink Are Dead 2, Tag fought the battle in Lando's stead in order to provide him an alibi and to cover his cheating on his sister, De-hoff. Tag was victorious and Lando used "his" victory to pick up women ever since.

Appearances

 * Galaxy of Fear: The Nightmare Machine
 * Tag & Bink Are Dead
 * The Return of Tag & Bink: Special Edition
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novel
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars: Return of the Jedi 3: Mission to Endor
 * Specter of the Past
 * Vision of the Future
 * Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Under Siege
 * Young Jedi Knights: Jedi Under Siege