Battle of Bakura

"Bakura is under attack by an alien invasion force from outside your domain. Estimate five cruisers, several dozen ships, over 1000 small fighters. Unknown technology. We have lost half our defense force and all outersystem outposts. Holonet transmissions to Imperial Center and Death Star Two have gone unanswered. Urgent, repeat urgent, send Stormtropers."

- Transmission by Imperial governor Wilek Nereus

The Third Battle of Bakura was the culmination of tensions during the Bakura Incident, in which the Alliance to Restore the Republic and the Galactic Empire formed an unlikely truce to defend the planet Bakura from an alien invasion from the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium during the Galactic Civil War. Having defeated the Ssi-ruuvi threat, the Imperials under Governor Wilek Nereus turned on his Alliance compatriots; destroying several starships and effectively ending the truce. However, Imperial attempts to re-consolidate control over the Bakura system were thwarted by the Bakuran resistance and the defection of the Imperial commander Pter Thanas.

Following Nereus' death, the Imperial garrison on Bakura surrendered and were shipped to a neutral location under the peace terms. The Bakuran government joined the New Republic&mdash;the successor government to the Alliance. In response to the potential threat of the Ssi-ruuk, the New Republic dispatched a taskforce into the Ssi-ruuk Star Cluster to deter further incursions.

Military Cooperation
"According to my data, between us we've got two cruisers, seven midsized gunships, and about forty one-man fighters, two thirds currently deployed in the defensive web, one third down for repairs. Do your figures line up?"

- Luke Skywalker

Despite the animosity between the Rebels and Imperials, the Alliance commander Luke Skywalker and his Imperial counterpart Pter Thanas quickly managed to establish an effective defense grid. This was vital because the Ssi-ruuk soon returned and effectively blockaded the planet. Despite the loss of their human-piloted battle droids, they were supplemented by a steady flow of P'w'eck slaves.

Skywalker advised Thanas to see the Rebel forces as his own and Thanas acted accordingly: In the final plan the more powerful Rebel starfighters took over key position and would be in the center of Ssi-ruuvi fire. General Solo opposed this deployment at first, but a simulation showed higher overall casualties if key position would be evenly distributed between Imperial and Rebel squadrons. This changed Solo's mind.

Salis D'aar's spaceport and the orbital repair platform were used to repair both Imperial and Rebel ships. One Imperial repair crew was allowed access to the Alliance flagship Flurry to repair the previously damaged starboard deflector shield. Although time was short, Bakuran engineers were able to modify the DEMP weapon technology and mount it on two patrol boats. General Solo wanted a prototype of this technology for the Falcon, but Nereus and Thanas declined, stating that there was neither enough time nor parts.

Around one day after the Rebel arrival the preparation were completed: The plan was, in case of another attack, to destroy one or more cruisers and force the Ssi-ruuk to retreat. Rebel forces would spearhead every attack. However, should the Ssi-ruuk not launch another attack, Nereus ordered a counterattack at the evening of the following day. Thanas wanted attack sooner, but Nereus insisted, since he had his own plans.

Rebel crews were allowed downtime on Bakura, although this soon proved difficult for non-humans. Due to their isolation from the greater Galaxy, most Bakurans had an aversion to alien species and could not differentiate between a Ssi-ruu and a Mon Calamari. This was further compounded by a long-standing anti-droid sentiment due to a droid revolt.

Political Intrigue
"A hundred members? Ten cells?"

- Leia Organa's guess about the Bakuran resistance

Shortly after the Ssi-ruuk were driven away, Leia Organa was allowed to speak in front of the Senate. Many of the older Bakuran senators and veterans of the Imperial invasion had opposed the Empire but remained subdued for years. However, Leia's speech aroused them.

In the evening, Prime Minister Yeorg Captison invited both Rebel and Imperial leaders to his house to provide a neutral ground for further discussions. During this dinner, the Bakura Truce was signed after Nereus received verification of the Emperor's death and the absence of any reinforcements. However he warned Organa that any encouragement for rebellion would still be punished.

To increase the animosity between the Bakurans and the Rebels, Nereus encouraged a few thugs to 'look around' landing Pad 12, where a Rebel Corellian gunship was stationed, on the pretext of preventing any Ssi-ruuk from slipping through the blockade. The thugs attacked a few Mon Calamari, who then defended themselves. Only the timely arrival of Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca prevented any escalation, but two Bakurans died in the shoot out.

Skywalker later learned that the Bakurans who had been at the area had been encouraged to be there by Nereus. The next day, Leia Organa made a formal apology to the Bakuran Senate over the incident. Organa also offered the services of two Alliance droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, to assist with efforts to translate intercepted Ssi-ruuk transmissions.

During the morning of the next day Skywalker visited the elderly Eppie Belden and used his abilities to start her mental healing process. Although this act of mercy was more to assure Gaeriel Captison of the good nature of the Force and Jedi, it would prove vital for the later battle.

Despite Nereus' warnings, Organa tried to persuade the Bakurans to secede from the Empire and join the Rebellion. She went out with Captison and senator Orn Belden were out on a private airspeeder cruise. Using a Disruption Bubble Generator to prevent Imperial eavesdropping, they discussed the status of the Bakuran resistance, as well as the likelihood of Bakura revolting against Imperial rule. However, their activities were monitored by Nereus and they were arrested and imprisoned.

Organa was imprisoned at Nereus's private hut, to be handed over to the next Emperor. These arrests compounded by the death of Belden during interrogation caused great unrest among the citizens. A curfew was established, but preparations for an uprising were made.

Gaeriel was present at the Beldens' house when the Bakuran resistance sprang into action, on her way to tell Eppie about the death of her husband, who had died after being captured by the Empire on charges of sedition. Instead, she was surprised to see a recovered Belden, successfully healed by Skywalker, leading the resistance effort and already cognizant of her husband's death.

After some persuasion from Belden, Gaeriel agreed to help the resistance. Belden gave Gaeriel a computer chip that allowed her to access Imperial stormtrooper communications, which she used to send fake distress calls to Imperial forces across Salis D'aar. She then destroyed the chip and went to warn Skywalker of the impending Ssi-ruuk attack.

Meanwhile, Han Solo had received news of Organa's arrest. With the help of C-3PO he deactivated any proximity sensors around Nereus hut and disabled the two stormtroopers guarding his room. He sent off C-3PO, disguised as a Stormtrooper, to warn Skywalker of the attack before joining Chewbacca and the Falcon, before he left to save Organa with a stolen speeder. As Salis D'aar was in uproar, Solo was intercepted by an armored security speeder, but with wild maneuvers, Solo managed to lose his pursuer in the city's streets.

Ssi-ruuvi plans
"Admiral Ivpikkis is willing to move our fleet out of your system, if you'll grant us one boon." "Keep Talking."

- Dev Sibwarra and Wilek Nereus

After the initial defeat the Ssi-ruuvi fleet returned just outside the Bakura's defense grid and established a blockade.

The fact that the Human slave Dev Sibwarra and Skywalker made telepathic contact during the battle opened an interesting theory to the Entechment Master Firwirrung: Skywalker, since he was stronger than Sibwarra, might be able to entech thousands of being at the same time, even from lightyears away. To implement these plans, he constructed a special entechment rig, designed to keep the occupant alive and under control. It was tested on Sibwarra who used the Force to entech a captured human male a few meters away and a human female on another deck.

To get their hands on Skywalker, the Ssi-ruuk secretly contacted Governor Nereus with a deal. If he would handover the Jedi, the Ssi-ruuk fleet would withdraw. Nereus agreed but was wise enough not to trust the saurians. Since he suspected Skywalker would be left alive during his capture, he revived one of his old plans and infected the Jedi with three olabrian trichoid larvae. During the delivery, one of the larvae infected Senator Gaeriel Captison.

When Skywalker waited for his transport to the Flurry, Nereus dispatched a shuttle to the Shriwirr to pick up the Ssi-ruuvi delegation. This delegation consisted of Sibwarra, Bluescale, Firwirrung, two pilots and another Ssi-ruuvi soldier. While the pilots stayed with the shuttle, the rest, together with four Stormtroopers, confronted Skywalker, his astromech droid R2-D2 and Gaeriel Captison in a cantina near Pad 12.

In the ensuing skirmish Skywalker first made the stormtroopers stunning themselves by using the Force, before engaging the nun-humans. Skywalker severed Firwirrung's claws and beheaded the other soldier beheaded, but his leg was hurt by the exotic weapons. Sibwarra tried to use and Imperial rifle to attack Skywalker, but the Jedi used a massive mental push with the force to break Sibwarra's brainwashing. Captison, who had no combat experience at all tried to attack Bluescale, but missed and was stunned in return. R2-D2 pulled the helpless senator to safety and returned as soon as possible to help his master, but Skywalker, distracted by the situation, had been taken out by a tail-kick and a stun beam.

To cover the escape of the shuttle, which was now completely under Ssi-ruuvi control, the remaining expeditionary fleet attacked the grid. The shuttle could now leave the almost abandoned spaceport, as Rebel and Imperial crews hastily returned to their ships. Sibwarra, despite being free of the brainwashing, played the loyal servant he had been and hoped for a good opportunity to escape with Skywalker. If necassary, he would kill the Jedi to disrupt the galaxy-threatening plans of his former masters.

Confronting the enemy
Within minutes, Solo had reached Nereus' hut in the mountains. Solo managed to evade the ten Navy troopers and a Security droid as he infiltrated the compound. However, Leia had already worked on her own escape. As they both tried to escape in a stolen Kishh'tih airspeeder, Nereus's trap sprung and they were pursued by three Tracker-4 military airspeeder. However, two X-Wings of Rogue Squadron, led by Gayla Riemann and sent down by Skywalker, scared them away. Solo and Organa reached the city and joined Chewbacca and Threepio onboard the Falcon before heading off to space.

Admiral Ivpikkis had launched several simultaneous attacks on the defensive web to distract the defenders from the captured shuttle. One starfighter was able to launch an attack, but was quickly destroyed by a squadron of Swarm-droids before he reached the shuttle. Other starfighters tried to reach the shuttle and manged destroyed several droids, but were pushed back by rapidly approaching swarms that formed a corridor to the Shriwirr.

While the attack caught the defenders off-guard, Thanas' strategy and skills enabled the Rebels and Imperials to hold their ground. Nine Ssi-ruuvi picket ships moved into attack positions, as the Millenium Falcon, together with three TIEs moved to its designated position. Rogue Squadron engaged the enemy on the other side of the planet. During the first wave, the Ssi-ruuk launched their D'kee-class landers. However, these sluggish ships proved easy prey for the more manueverable defending starships. The battle brought the Falcon relatively close to the Shriwirr and Solo and Organa had to fight of dozens of battle droids and were able to detroy another picket ship.

Taking the Shriwirr
Once the captured shuttle had reched the Shriwirr, Dev carried the unconscious Skywalker to the modified entechment lab. He tried to warn and awake Skywalker with telepathic messages through the Force, but recieved no answer. The Ssi-ruuk, however had smelled through Sibwarra's act and when they arrived in the lab, Firwirrung offered Sibwarra the reward he had always promised: entechment. Upon being discovered, Sibwarra panicked and tried to strangle the Jedi.

In the meantime, the seemingly unconscious Skywalker had been able to take over the mind of a simple P'w'eck slave. He used it to distract his captors by taking out the lights, freed himself and called back his lightsaber with the Force. After he ordered Sibwarra to hide, he killed every P'w'eck and Ssi-ruuk in the room, except for Firwirrung and Bluescale, whom managed to escape. Skywalker pursued them, but was stopped by three security droids.

After dispatching the droids, Skywalker returned to the lab and demolished every single entechment rig, to stop any further Ssi-ruuvi plans. He and Sibwarra proceeded to the engine room on Deck 18 and had to face another group of six security droids. Skywalker used the Force to communicate with their enteched souls and freed them with his lightsaber. When he and Sibwarra sprung a stun trap on their way to the engine room, they alerted the Ssi-ruuk of their whereabouts.

Faced with a Jedi loose on their flagship, most of the Ssi-ruuk had abandoned their cruiser, taking every singe available escape pod and ship, including the Imperial shuttle. Admiral Ivpikkis was among them, he continued to command the battle from an escape boat. Only Firwirrung and Bluescale had remained onboard, still hoping to catch the two force-sensitives. Firwirrung and his P'w'eck assistants had quickly modified another rig for Skywalker while Bluescale dispatched three detachments of P'w'ecks from Deck 16 once he had located Skywalker.

Sibwarra and Skywalker worked their way through stun traps and a final ambush led by Bluescale, before they reached the engine room. In the ambush, Dev Sibwarra managed to kill the imposing Ssi-ruu and afterwards revealed their plans to Skywalker. The Jedi understood the motives behing Sibwarra's actions they proceeded to the engine room where Skywalker destroyed several consoles and freed every single trapped soul on the ship.

In the meantime, the two Olabrian trichoid larvae inside Skywalker had matured and wandered through his body, causing a deteriorating coughing fit inside him. Ignorant of the real cause, Skywalker assumed he was allergic to something in the Ssi-ruuvi ship's atmosphere.

Imperial betryal
Meanwhile, Pter Thanas had word of Skywalker's abduction. Also, he recieved orders to destroy the Shriwirr and any escape pods, because of cantagion through the olabian trichoid. At this point, the Shriwirr had only four picket ships left for its defense. Solo urged Thanas to question the orders, but nevertheless the Capatin ordered squadrons Eight through Eleven to attack the pods. Manchisco, Organa and Solo protested, but the progress in battle prevented any further actions. Chewbacca had been able to repair C-3PO, which now allowed the Alliance to understand the Ssi-ruuvi communication.

The Flurry and a patrol craft attacked a Wurrif-class cruiser and tried to force it into the range of the Dominant's tractor beams. The Dominant, however, came under attack of another squadron of battle droids, but was able to destroy two of them right away. The attackers were able to heavily damage the cruiser's engines, leaving the Dominant only with maneuvering thrusters and out of range to attack the Shriwirr. The Falcon had to face another squadron of battle droids as the Ssi-ruuvi cruisers launched more battle droids as soon as the old ones had been destroyed.

The combined forces of Imperial and Rebel ships were soon able to encircle two more cruisers. Rebel forces took over key positions and came under concentrated Ssi-ruuvi fire, while the Falcon lead four X-Wings of Red Group and five TIE fighters into battle. A patrol craft, Digit/Bakura VI, took heavy damage and used its remaining energy to ram a cruiser.

An hour later the channels were flooded with Ssi-ruuvi chatter, as a hasty retreat was ordered. All ships retreated, except for the Shriwirr and its four escorting pickets. Solo, not trusting the Imperials, ordered all Rebel ships to break away and form up around the Falcon. The Flurry, however, had been in range of the Dominant and was the first victim of the broken truce. All hands were lost.

Before Red Group was able to form up, numerous TIEs forced them into dogfight. Rogue Squadron was still trapped on the other side of the planet and had barely been able to recieve Solo's warning. The Dominant continued to destroy Rebel forces and and only a few survivors were able to gather around the Falcon. Once again Thanas proved his tactical skill and surrounded the remaining Rebel forced in a globe formation. TIE Fighter and patrol boats drove the Rebels into the Carrack's tractor beam range. In that situation, Solo came up with a desperate plan: Using the Falcon, he would ram a patrol craft which would then crash into the Dominant. With the cruiser out of the way, the Alliance fighters would be able to scatter.

Appearances

 * The Truce at Bakura