Battle of Borosk

"You may win the occasional battle against us, Vorrik, but the Empire will always strike back."

- Gilad Pellaeon

The Battle of Borosk was a major battle fought in 28 ABY during the Yuuzhan Vong War. After the disastrous Imperial rout at the Battle of Bastion, the Imperial Starfleet regrouped at Yaga Minor, where Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon managed to convince the Council of Moffs to accept an alliance between the Imperial Remnant and the Galactic Alliance.

Prelude to the battle
The Imperial fleet having retreated from Bastion regrouped at the Yaga Minor shipyards, offloading their wounded and docking with the slipways to make what repairs they could. Initially with the chain of command somewhat in breakdown, there was small but growing danger of the Empire starting to break appart into each individual sector controlled by each Moff, with powerplays starting even as the Vong prepared for their next attack. The revival and sudden appearance of Pellaeon however, who had been presumed KIA at Bastion, firmed up the morale of the fleet and their chain of command. The Imperial Fleet fell back from Yaga Minor to the planet of Borosk, a much more heavily defended world and the Vong fleet under B'shith Vorrik followed. Their mission in the aftermath of the disaster at Ebaq 9 had been to launch a quick strike on the Empire with what forces the Vong could spare, take them out of the strategic picture quickly. They had succeeded spectacularly at Bastion, but now faced a prepared Imperial Navy, with help of several Galactic Alliance Jedi. Jacen Solo using YVH modified Mouse Droids took down a network of spies inside the Imperial fleet&mdash;as well as several Yuuzhan Vong infiltrators&mdash;denying to the enemy a vital source of information on the true status of the defenses. With no choice other than admitting defeat to the Supreme Overlord, the Vong task force set its course for Borosk.

The battle
Pellaeon's strategy was elegantly simple. A half dozen task forces made up of numerous capital ships and support craft would orbit the planet, protected by ample minefields and surface to space turbolaser systems. The fleet would fight a defensive battle, forcing the time constrained B'shith Vorrik to either break off the attack or attempt an overwhelming frontal attack against the heavy defenses.

Both sides probed each other during the opening battle, the Imperials following hard earned tactical advice from the New Republics many battles, helped by Luke Skywalker, who in his XJ-3 X-Wing fought alongside the Imperial Fighter squadrons for much of this initial battle. The Imperial task groups steadily withdrew into their defensive orbits after stinging the Vong fleets during their hyperspace emergence, settling in for what was expected to be a long wait.

The battle took an unexpected twist when a massive Yuuzhan Vong slaveship arrived at the rear of the Vong formation. Saba Sebatyne came up with a daring plan to attack the ship, full of captives from the Battle of Bastion, and rescue the prisoners. Pellaeon agreed, having the perfect ship to use. An automated Katana fleet dreadnaught Braxant Bonecrusher (formerly Braxant Brave but renamed in honor of Saba's plan) designed to 'fake' a death and look like a harmless drifting wreck would jump out of hyperspace near the Slave ship and 'attack' it, then be 'destroyed' by the Vong, at which point the Slave Ship would be expected to harvest any live prisoners from the ship.

Sabba, Danni Quee, Mara Jade Skywalker and Jacen led the mission, their ship 'dying' quite believably and the Slave ship sucked both Saba and Danni aboard. Incapacitating the crew, the two Jedi cut the ships hull open and the 'cargo' of prisoners exploded out in the decompression into the Dreadnaughts hangar bay, at which point it jumped to hyperspace.

At the same time as this raid on the Vong's rear areas, a Gravitic Generator had been 'flown in' from a nearby Imperial system and installed on an Imperial Star Destroyer, calibrated to the specifications of the Yammosk jammer technology developed by Jedi in the final days of the New Republic. This battle group then broke orbit and dove into the leading parts of the Vong fleet with the jammer activated, reaping large casualties on the suddenly uncoordinated enemy fleet, destroying the lead Yammosk carrying vessel as well as many other ships before falling back into their defensive orbit. Combined with the loss of the slaveship and with the Vong fleet already far too weak thanks to their losses to at Ebaq-9, B'shith Vorrik had no choice but to withdraw in humiliation, having been beaten by a critically injured Grand Admiral within a bacta tank on the Widowmaker.

Aftermath
The Empire's ruling council of Moffs was shaken by both the attack on the Empire by the Vong and the devastation of their capital world. Pellaeon argued forcefully that the Empire had to go on the offensive against the Vong, to help the Galactic Alliance win the war, that if they simply waited for the Vong to return, they would not stand a chance.

Several of the Moffs, most notably Kurlen Flennic were aghast at the idea of allying with the same organization that had defeated the Empire, which at its height would have easily destroyed the Vong. Although the rest of the Council came around to Pellaeon's logic relatively quickly, Kurlen Flennic, unable to control himself, pulled a blaster pistol and pointed it at Pellaeon, which was destroyed by Mara Jade Skywalker. And although Pellaeon promised not to take any retribution against him for this action, he let him know that if he ever stepped out of line again, he would not be so forgiving.

Ultimately, this battle marked the second entrance of the Empire into the Yuuzhan Vong War, ending with the Grand Admiral fighting in the final battle at Coruscant.

Appearances

 * Force Heretic I: Remnant