Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/October 10, 2009

The First Battle of Borleias was an unsuccessful attempt by the New Republic to capture an Imperial base on Borleias, a planet in the Pyria system, during the Galactic Civil War in 6.5 ABY. Due to the planet's close proximity to the Core Worlds, the New Republic hoped to capture the base and use it to launch an eventual attack against Coruscant, the galactic capital.

Bothan General Laryn Kre'fey, based on intelligence by the Bothan Spynet, developed a plan to bombard the base's deflector shield from space, then use General Horton Salm's Defender Wing to bomb the remaining ground forces while Commander Wedge Antilles' Rogue Squadron protected the bombers. Once the attack was complete, assault transports would shuttle commandos to the planet's surface to liberate the base.

Unbeknownst to the New Republic, however, Imperial General Evir Derricote had secret defense measures installed at the base, including an extra deflector shield generator, heavy ion cannons and additional TIE interceptor squadrons. When Kre'fey's forces launched their assault, Derricote lured the New Republic forces into a false sense of security by deliberately dropping the shields to simulate their failure from bombardment. As the New Republic forces descended into the atmosphere, he then unleashed his trap, re-establishing the shields at twice their original power and launching a counterstrike that resulted in heavy New Republic losses. Kre'fey was killed in the battle and the New Republic fleet was forced to retreat after only ten minutes in battle.