Battle of Ord Mantell

The First Battle of Ord Mantell was a battle fought during the first year of the Yuuzhan Vong War. It marked the first use of the terrifying dread weapon.

Ord Mantell had been turned into a refugee relief world by this point in the war, with thousands of misplaced citizens crowding on the planet and in the Jubilee Wheel space station in orbit. The Yuuzhan Vong launched a terror attack against Ord Mantell, hoping that the projected deaths of countless refugees would do much to destabilize the already floundering New Republic.

However, the allied forces were lying in wait for the Yuuzhan Vong. A fleet commanded by General Yald Sutel engaged the enemy warships as they emerged from hyperspace. Both fleets were roughly evenly matched in terms of numbers and firepower – at least, until the Yuuzhan Vong revealed their dread weapon. Following the destruction of the fleet's flagship battlecruiser, a lone Miid Ro'ik warship launched a Dread Weapon beast at the Jubilee Wheel, causing major damage to the station. The Dread Weapon used its maw-like mouth to devour victims, to be held within the belly of the beast until recovered and used as slaves by the invaders.

Han Solo was one of the few to escape the beast's clutches, piloting a stolen shuttle away from the Wheel to a fateful rendezvous with Reck Desh and the Peace Brigade. By this time, Ord Mantell had fallen to the Yuuzhan Vong.