Skirmish at Haven

"Princess, we're picking up a ship approaching rapidly. We suspect it's hostile.''" "An Imperial ship? How did they find us?" "Just chance. We make a pretty big blip on the scanners. We're diverting to intercept''."

- Alliance Fleet commander and Princess Leia Organa

The Skirmish at Haven, fought in 3 ABY, was a brief conflict between the Rebels and the Empire that occurred when the Rebel Fleet were following the path to the Rebel Rendezvous point.

Prelude
"Good luck, Luke! See you at the rendezvous."

- Wedge Antilles, to Luke Skywalker, during the evacuation of Hoth

The Battle of Hoth proved to be the Rebel Alliance's worst battlefield defeat of the Galactic Civil War. The Galactic Empire's overwhelming strength drove the Rebellion from its headquarters on the ice planet as the Dark Lord Darth Vader personally sought to capture his Rebel son, the burgeoning Jedi Luke Skywalker. Although the Hoth defeat cost the Rebellion greatly, the Alliance leadership escaped to regroup with the Alliance Fleet at a secret deep-space rendezvous point far beyond the Galactic Rim, codenamed Haven.

Meanwhile, Vader engineered the Imperial takeover of Bespin's Cloud City mining colony as well as the capture of Rebels Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa. Yet the Dark Lord's elaborately laid trap lured but failed to net his true prize, Skywalker, who escaped Bespin with Organa and newfound ally Lando Calrissian after fighting a protracted lightsaber duel with Vader, during which Skywalker lost his right hand. The Rebel heroes eventually reached the Alliance Fleet at the rendezvous point, and Calrissian soon departed aboard the starship Millennium Falcon in search of Solo, whom Vader had given to the bounty hunter Boba Fett for delivery to the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Skywalker, Organa, and Calrissian ultimately planned to rendezvous on the planet Tatooine, where they knew Fett would eventually arrive to link up with Jabba.

Spotted
While traveling to the rendezvous point, the Rebel Fleet picked up a ship approaching that might be hostile, a ship they suspected was of Imperial origin. Suspecting that the size of their fleet made a big enough blip on the scanners to have one find them by chance, the fleet diverted to intercept. Because Luke Skywalker was still recovering from his injuries at Bespin, Wedge Antilles was placed in command of Rogue Squadron. Shortly thereafter, the Rebel fleet confirmed that the ship is an Imperial Strike Cruiser, and thus Rogue Squadron was deployed to intercept and destroy the cruiser so it won't give away their position. The Strike Cruiser then deployed a squadron of nine TIE fighters to deal with Rogue Squadron so it could communicate to the Executor about spotting the Rebel fleet. However, the Rebel Fleet managed to jam the signal preventing the message from being sent. Rogue Squadron then managed to get into a dogfight with the TIE Squadron, to which Rogue Three ended up having his engine knocked out by a TIE before the latter was destroyed by Rogue Two. Eventually, the Imperial Strike Cruiser tried to make a break for it, and also diverted power to their rear shields in order to ensure that they aren't attacked from behind. However, Rogue Five exploited the fact that it had relatively little shielding on the front by firing at the front, destroying the Imperial Strike Cruiser.

Aftermath
Although the Rebel Fleet was successful in eliminating the Strike Cruiser, they ended up altering their course as a precaution in case it did successfully transfer its sighting of the Rebel Fleet to the rest of the Imperial fleet. This suspicion was confirmed when Darth Vader reported to Palpatine and told him that he received a report on a possible sighting of the Rebel Fleet, although the Emperor told Vader that it would have to wait, as he wants Vader to conclude shipping arrangements with Prince Xizor.

Appearances

 * Shadows of the Empire 1