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The Far Orbit was an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate in the Imperial Navy. It suffered a mutiny in 0 ABY, and the ship became one of the first privateers for the Rebel Alliance.

Description
The Far Orbit was a EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate, produced by Kuat Drive Yards and measuring 300 meters in length. As a Nebulon-B, the ship's main section was at the fore of the ship, with a boom module connecting the fore to the aft propulsion section. At full capacity, the Far Orbit crew was 854 crew members and sixty-six gunners, though the escort frigate-class ship could run on a skeleton crew of 307 hands and ten gunners if need be. However, running on a less than full crew resulted decreased combat efficiency, and certain unused sections of the ship would be closed off to conserve the ship's energy. In addition to crew, the Far Orbit could house seventy-five passengers, and its storage compartments could old up to 6,000 metric tons worth of cargo, and up to four months worth of consumables.

The Nebulon-B was externally armored all over her hull, and the amount of armoring varied from place to place. In addition, the ships was defended by the capabilities of a Delphus JC-671 deflector shield projector, which could prevent damage from the majority of space debris, and made the Far Orbit tough enough to engage in combat. Armament wise, the frigate had twelve turbolaser cannons, twelve smaller laser cannons, and a pair of tractor beam projectors that were suited to combat purposes. Half of the turbolaser batteries were at the front of the Far Orbit, with three on each side as well. The laser cannons were positioned with six to the front, two on each side, and a pair at the aft of the frigate. Crewed by a dozen hands, the two combat tractor beam projectors were at the front of the ship. Both the laser cannons and the turbolasers ran off the same power system and blaster gas canisters, though they did run off spate gas tanks and power cells in combat situations, in order to dampen the impact of destroying one of the weapons emplacements. The turbolasers were the main fighting guns of the ship, and despite being not overly powerful, they were quite damaging when used together. The laser cannons on the other hand were not powerful, and only using them together proved to make them efficient. Both the laser cannons and the turbolasers had a minimum range of between two to six meters, a medium range of twenty-four meters, and a maximum range of fifty meters in a planet's atmosphere.

The main tractor beams ran off the main powergrid of the frigate, and had no expendable ammunition. They were used for securing an enemy ship and reeling it in so the Far Orbit guns had more control, or to help with boarding. These tractor beams had a minimum range of two to ten meters, a medium range of thirty meters, and a maximum range of sixty meters. In addition to the two combat tractorbeams, the Far Orbit had several non-combat tractor beams, positioned in the ship's TIE/LN starfighter flight deck, in each docking bay, and in the Far Orbit boarding bay. These non-combat tractor beams, each crewed by three men, served the purpose of stabilizing docking ships, bringing in both TIE starfighters and shuttles, and helping with boarding actions by securing the enemy ship to the Far Orbit.

Decks of the ship
Deck 1 of the Far Orbit housed Primary Communications, and it fell under the Aft First Section, which was located at the top part of the forward module of the Nebulon-B. The Primary Communications deck, nicknamed PrimeComm of P-Com, was the home of the ship's long range subspace transceiver, which had a range of over a hundred light years. Due to the fact that the Far Orbit was meant to serve as a capital ship on missions, the frigate possessed a pair of communication arrays, one for contacting local frequencies, and the other for use in long range transmissions. The communications computer that processed all of the signals was a powerful, and highly advanced, TerexComm processor unit that was located in a room at the aft of the deck, to the port side. The processor has multi-channel sorting and high speed channel switching, as well as full programming in encryption and decryption. From here, comm techs could tap into secure transmission and listen for information.

At the front of the Primary Communications section was pair of rooms for encryption and coding uses, and a secure comm room with a Holoprojector and a viewscreen, as well as a couple of seats. This room was used for secure and critical communications. The P-Com itself was held in the middle of the deck, where it also has a holoprojector, with the room where the channel switches were housed directly behind it. Aft of the secure transmissions room and starboard of the P-Com existed a quartet of offices, with the forward most one being the head office. Antennae equipment and other communications structure filled up the majority of the foreword port section of the deck.

Deck 2 was the location of Short Range Communications, also referred to as ShortComm or S-Com, and it operated independently of Deck 1, as it used its own antennae. S-Com was located further aft of P-Com, and was also located in the Aft First Section. The S-Com handled all local light speed transmissions, as well as intercom traffic and maintenance. It was housed in the middle of deck 2, with a head office aft of it, and to the port resided a trio of offices. The starboard side of S-Com housed a pair of offices, and the channel switches for short ranged communications. Antennae equipment and ship structure was located just fore of S-Com.

Deck 4 of the Far Orbit housed the frigate's main crew galley, which was located in the Foreward First Section of the ship. Here, enlisted crew members, not officers, ate their meals, though the galley was not large enough for all average crewers to fight in, so they ate in shifts, or whenever crewmembers were off their shift. The galley was run and organized by a few hands, and it possessed some cooking droids and serving droids. With the kitchen and serving area located at the front of the crew galley, hands would come in through the front and after receiving their meal, proceed to the tables in the dining room aft of the kitchen and serving area. To each side of the kitchen were pantries and autochefs, the latter of which were connected to the main kitchen via underdeck feeds. Just behind the kitchen resided a recycler, and a staging area was present in the back of the dining room.

The Command part of Deck 5 was situated in both the Forward First Section and the Foreward Aft Section, and was located in the forward module of the Far Orbit. Almost half of that part of Deck 5 was taken up by a set of TIE fighter racks, which were located to the front of Deck 5. The TIE racks could hold up to two squadrons of TIE fighters, and was directly over the TIE flight deck located on the deck below. Near the TIE racks was a repair rack for damaged fighters, and repeating blaster cannon hard points were located near the TIE racks. Forward of the TIE racks was a quartet of triple bunk crew quarters, which were cramped and lacked much entertainment, and a pair of basic refreshers. Parts of the Far Orbit ship systems were located past those crew quarters, at the farthest part forward of Deck 5.

Aft of the TIE racks were more crew quarters with triple bunks in each, as well as storage units that stored a variety of goods, but did not include weapons, parts, and specialized tools. Just aft of these crew quarters was the boom module, and the machinery that operated the docking tube located in the middle of it. Additionally, Deck 5 had Tractor Beam machinery, a control room, and a machine shop on the port side. A pair of airlocks and a security station was on the starboard side.

Deck 6 housed the TIE flight deck, which was directly under the TIE fighter racks, for ease of deployment. The hangar had repair bays, and a short range catapult/cushion tractor beam to aid in the launching and recovering of the Far Orbit TIEs. The flight deck also had a control center. Deck 6 was also the location of the Forward Docking Tube, which was located on the boom module. The forward docking tube possessed a control station, status panels, and a waiting area, as well as the docking tube itself, operated by machinery aft of it. The docking tube was one of two, the other located aft of it, and both were located on the access corridor, which was a one deck deep walkway from the foreword module to the propulsion module. The access corridor is very heavily armored to prevent breaches of the hull there.

Docking Bay 2 was located on Deck 7, near the propulsion module. It was classified as being part of the boom module however. Used to unload supplies for the propulsion module, Docking Bay 2 also served as a repair bay. It was quite similar to Docking Bay 1, located also in the boom module, near the command module. Docking Bay 1 housed a launch/land tractor beam setup, to help pilots maneuver into and out of the bay. Docking Bay 2 had a pair of turbolifts aft of it, and four cargo bays located toward the back side of it. A control room with emergency supplies was also to the port side of the bay. A pair of power conduits were behind the turbolifts.

The Far Orbit was a standard frigate with no special modification. This changed with the mutiny and the service as a Rebel privateer since the new mission profiles called for special weapons, like Ion cannons. Another tactic was to link the main reactor directly to the turbolasers to drastically increase the firepower.

Since the frigate's complement of shuttles, escape pods and starfighters was greatly reduced after the mutiny, captured freighters and other craft were added over time.

(Useful info: Far Orbit condensed ship info - pg 12; expanded info on ship sections and such - pg 21 to 32; deck plans for the EF76 - pg 35 - 46)

Imperial Service
Originally, the Far Orbit was stationed in the Outer Rim and tasked with piracy suppression. Its commander was Vocis Kenit, who ruled the ship with an iron fist. A strict and heavy-handed martinet, Kenit began alienating his crew through a series of misjudgments.

After a hunting a pirate band called the Silent Blades for several weeks in 0 BBY, the Far Orbit had finally cornered them in an asteroid field. Kenit refused to call for backup as he ordered his TIE/In complement to attack the pirates. The pirates were destroyed, but so, too, were the ship’s starfighters, and its TIE pilots all killed.

Mutiny
One of the pilots was Elon Vedij, younger brother of Commander Dhas Fenoep Vedij, second-in-command of the Far Orbit. After the suspicious death of his parents several months ago, Vedij had long harbored the thought of mutiny. He lined up a number of key personnel to support him.

Later in the same year, following the Destruction of Alderaan, an Alderaanian deckhand was arrested on Kenit's orders. This sparked considerable resentment amongst the rank and file, and Vedij's opportunity materialized. In 0 ABY, a few weeks following the Battle of Yavin, he led a mutiny. No less than 2/3rds of the crew followed him. The remaining crew and the stormtrooper complement were forced to surrender, and Kenit and his loyalists were marooned in escape pods. Another third left the ship soon after that, not wanting to pursue a career in the fringe.

Rebel Privateer
The Far Orbit was in no condition to take on Imperial targets as yet, so Vedij set course for the StarForge Nebula. Realizing that he would hardly escape punishment unless he aligned with opposition to the Galactic Empire, Vedij contacted the Alliance. Soon, he had a letter of marque and reprisal issued by Ral'Rai Muvunc and an Observer in the person of Alliance Major Cet Willak. He set about finalizing the deal with the Alliance, composing Ship's Articles and recruiting replacement crew.

Under Imperial Flag
Vedij then ordered the Far Orbit to enter the Ringali Shell, in the Galactic Core. He reasoned that the Empire would be caught off guard. He had managed to conceal the facts of the mutiny and hoped to maintain the illusion that it was still a part of the Imperial Navy, granting a major benefit of surprise.

After a shakedown the Far Orbit entered the Nopces system and pretended to be on patrol. While traffic around the jumpzone was low, it didn't take long to find the first target, the Bulk freighter A-175.

A-175 was en route to Brentaal to join Shipment 1037, a huge convoy escorted by the frigate New Star. The convoy was infiltrated and diverted to an Alliance ambush site, where it was captured. The resources were split up between the Rebels and the Far Orbit.

After a few raids that followed, the Far Orbit intercepted a message that included the schedule for Imperial Advisor Coh Veshiv's visit on Esseles. Vedij approached Veshiv's ship, the Empire Forever, inside Esseles' space defense zone and convinced the Advisor that they were present to take him his next destination. Veshiv agreed and changed ships, was captured and eventually turned over to the Rebels.

Nearly simultaneously, Kenit and the other marooned crew were found, and the true story of the Far Orbit became known. After unsuccessfully hunting the ship in the Outer Rim, Kenit was informed about the whereabouts two days after Veshiv's capture. Sate Pestage himself tasked him with recapturing the ship.

The Hunt
Kenit devised a plan. He suborned a captured pirate named Venslas Beeli and placed him and his supposedly Rebel-allied pirate armada in direct competition with the Far Orbit in the Ringali Shell. The crimes committed by Beeli reached Imperial HoloVision and eventually the crew of the Far Orbit.

Captain Vedij had raided the Shell for weeks and this new competitor was of great concern for him and the Alliance Observer. After searching for Beeli's fleet for a while, the Far Orbit eventually tracked the pirate down and destroyed the pirates.

The failure of this trap resulted in the creation of a second one, involving the freighter SPF 14897, registered with Santhe Passenger and Freight. While seemingly a legitimate and easy prize, the ship was in fact filled with veteran Stormtroopers, SpecNav troops, and Storm Commandos. A small Imperial fleet jumped in as the Far Orbit boarding action turned into a rout, including an Interdictor cruiser.

Somehow escaping near-certain destruction or capture, the Far Orbit was heavily damaged. For weeks, the ship hid in the Outer Rim, undergoing refits and repairs and several smaller adventures.

The Last Raid
Captain Vedij soon headed back into the Core, this time attacking Brentaal. After a run-in with the ISB, Hunter-Killer probots and TIE Fighters, the landing party recovered a datadisc containing the route of the Emperor's Will, a Star Galleon filled with treasure gathered by the Imperial Taxation Bureau in Arkanis sector.

With only three days left, the frigate wanted to collect several asteroids in the Ringali Nebula to intercept the Star Galleon. However the Empire had anticipated pirate actions and patrolled several ambush points. After skirmishing with the Interdictor in the nebula, the Far Orbit was able to escape.

After the skirmish and only twelve hours left before the arrival of the Emperor's Will, the frigate set up an ambush at another point along the route. It was being escorted by the Zaff Jendinpurg, another escort frigate. After a knock-down brawl, the Star Galleon was boarded and looted, making the crew of the privateer vessel extremely wealthy.

Legacy
As a result of the quick attacks and the resulting panic among the local governments, a joint committee was formed by the Imperial Navy, ISB and the Commerce Branch to hunt down the frigate. A year later, this committee was still working, due to the high increase in Rebel privateering that followed.

The depredations of the Far Orbit wasted, according to Alliance Intelligence, a year's equivalent of an entire standard sector's production, only to track down and recapture the vessel. The Alliance thus mainly benefited by the strain this caused on the Imperial budget, not by the 120,000 tons of material which was diverted to their hands.

Although the final fate of the Far Orbit remains unknown, the actions of this ship inspired many others to join the Rebellion.