Battle in Brentaal space

In the year 0 ABY, the Alliance to Restore the Republic privateering frigate Far Orbit attempted to apprehend the Imperial freighter SPF 14897. However, the freighter was the lure of a trap set by Imperial Captain Vocis Kenit, and as the troopers hidden inside SPF 14897 attempted a counterboarding, Kenit's task force arrived. Though the Imperial forces tried to capture the Far Orbit in the resulting battle, the privateering vessel managed to escape after it damaged the gravity wells of the Interdictor keeping the Far Orbit from running.

Prelude
In 0 ABY, amidst the events of the Galactic Civil War, fought between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic, second-officer Dhas Fenoep Vedij of the Imperial Navy's EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate Far Orbit led some of its crew to mutiny. Seizing the frigate from Captain Vocis Kenit, Vedij took the helm of the Far Orbit as its captain as it became a privateering ship for the Alliance. Meanwhile, Kenit was set in charge of the Imperials who sought to capture the rogue vessel; Kenit's life depended on the outcome of his mission, as Emperor Palpatine himself had learned of Kenit's loss in control of the Far Orbit, and the Emperor did not tolerate failure. Kenit's first attempt at revenge against the Far Orbit came when the Imperial captain pitted the Far Orbit against the pirate group known as the Solar Terrors through manipulation, though the Far Orbit prevailed.

Sometime after that event, in the space near the planet Brentaal IV, the Far Orbit encountered an Imperial Mark III bulk transport, SPF 14897. Posing as Imperials, the crew of the privateering frigate were given sent a cargo manifest by the captain of the ship, Mils Lolinc, before they docked with the Mark III and carried out a raid on the ship.

The Battle
However, as the privateers opened the cargo bay doors in SPF 14897, a hypertransceiver signal was activated, which sent a signal to an Imperial task force, led by Kenit, waiting mere minutes by lightspeed away. Additionally, it turned out that SPF 14897 was actually part of an Imperial trap, with the crew all expendable CompForce Observers, while the cargo hold that the privateers had just opened was filled with twenty-four stormtroopers, ten SpecNav Force troopers, and eight Storm commandos. The stormtroopers were all experienced in counterboarding operations, while the commandos' specialties ranged from technology, to assault, to sabotage. Under the command of a trio of Imperial officers and Imperial Security Bureau agent Bannish Kolow, the Imperial troopers started their counterboarding attempt against the privateers.

In resulting fight, the officers of the Far Orbit sent in reinforcements to cover the retreat of their privateer boarders, who had lost ground rapidly to the Imperials and their tactics. Despite the reinforcements, the stormtroopers managed to get some of their troops on the Far Orbit in a counterboarding. Just then, the Imperials' fleet arrived. Composed of Kenit's Nebulon-B Stalwart, the Strike-class medium cruiser Hammer, two GAT-12 Skipray Blastboats designated SB-109 and SB-32, as well as the Immobilizier 418 Interdictor Claw, the fleet was aiming on capturing the Far Orbit if possible.

The Imperial ships closed in on the privateers, with the Interdictor's gravity wells focusing on the Far Orbit to prevent the frigate from jumping to lightspeed to escape. Kenit hailed the Far Orbit, demanding that the crew turn over Vedij to the Imperials in exchange for lenience in the privateers trial, though this prompted Vedij to order the Far Orbit crew to prepare for battle and to repel boarders. With no way to take the rogue frigate without force, the Hammer and the Stalwart launched their complements of TIE/LN starfighters until their combined force of thirty six had been achieved, while the two Skiprays flanked the Far Orbit. The entire taskforce began pummeling the Far Orbit with ion cannon fire, save for the TIEs and the Stalwart, which lacked ion cannons but instead held on to the Far Orbit with its tractor beams to keep it still; despite using its tractor beams on the Far Orbit, the Stalwart and its commander, Kenit, hung back while the other ship dealt with the privateers.

With the stormtroopers from SPF 14897 in its corridors and faced by an overwhelming force of ships, the Far Orbit tried to break for the Claw to disable it so the Far Orbit could flee. The Far Orbit used its own tractor beams to grab a few of the TIEs, and used them as shields to protect itself from the Skiprays. This forced the Imperials to switch from ion cannons to turbolasers, and they started to target the rogue Nebulon-B's shield module and engines, while the TIEs were sent it as well. The Far Orbit managed to get close enough to the Interdictor to engage, and after surviving the Claw armamanet, succeeded in destroying one of the gravity wells. This allowed the Far Orbit to quickly jump to hyperspace, and escape from the trap.

Aftermath
Though the Far Orbit escaped, it was heavily damaged, and Vedij ordered the privateers to a nearby shadowport for repairs and restorations. The ship later came back to Brentaal space when it was fully repaired, and dispatched a landing party of privateers to receive a valuable datacard from an Alliance contact.

Behind the scenes
The battle first appeared in The Trap, an adventure scenario in 1998's The Far Orbit Project, by Timothy S. O'Brien. The book was a supplement to West End Games's Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game and had the same theme of the previous publication Pirates & Privateers, as it followed the privateering vessel Far Orbit. It is never mentioned how the crew of the Far Orbit deals with the stormtrooper boarders during the battle with Kenit's fleet.

In the initial confrontation with the troopers from SPF 14897, the officers of the Far Orbit, controlled by the players, can choose to retract the docking tubes used to board the Mark III and leave all the privateer boarders there. However, though this saves the ship from Imperial troops, it kills the moral of the crew members. The other option, and the one this article goes with, is that the officers send in reinforcements to get the privateering boarders out, which is good for the moral of the crew members, though it leaves the ship open to counterboarding attempts. In the battle with the fleet, there are multiple paths that can be taken. One such one is Vedij surrendering himself to Kenit in exchange for letting his privateering crew go, though Kenit plans to betray Vedij and kill them if this happens. However, in this case, this does not occur, as the Far Orbit attacks again as Vedij is shuttled over, and manage escape the trap. The privateers then vow to rescue their captain.

An other possibility is that the privateers battle to the end, and manage to destroy or drive off all the opposing ships. This however, is unlikely, and damages the Far Orbit majorly, though the privateers can scrounge for spare parts from the destroyed Imperial vessels. This course of action draws significant Imperial attention, and a whole fleet, including some Star Destroyers, are sent after the Far Orbit. This causes the relief and supply station they use, StarForge Station, to forbid them from coming there in order to prevent the Imperials from finding it. In an other one, the Alliance sends a task force to rescue the Far Orbit, composed of twenty-four X-wing starfighters and ten CR90 corvettes. They buy the Far Orbit time to escape, though the cost of the rescue means that the Alliance will not be rescuing them again.

The last possible path, and the one that this article goes with, is the option where the Far Orbit damages Interdictor so it can escape. This is because this option does not harm the Far Orbit later adventures in certain ways, such as having Vedij captured by the Imperials or StarForge Station rendered off limits for them. This path involving the disabling of the Claw can go further, as it is possible for the Far Orbit to take out all the Claw weaponry by slamming the fighters that the privateers have in their tractor beams into the Claw armaments. The Far Orbit can then use the crippled Interdictor for cover. However, this part of the option is avoided because it would seriously damage or destroy the Claw, which appears later in canon in the 1999 video game Star Wars: X-wing Alliance.