To-phalion Base

"We are all expendable even the base!"

- Imperial Debreifing Officer

To-phalion Base was a hidden Imperial Research facility in the Iast system. The Vorknkx Project was the last known objective of the base. The goal of the project was to create a working cloaking device for starfighters. The Base was destroyed by traitorous Imperial forces under the command of Rogue Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin.

Layout
The interior of the asteroid base consisted of a number of research stations and a hangar bay which was large enough to house a Starfighter squadron, some Lambda shuttles and a CR90 corvette. On the outside layer it consisted of 12 laser batteries and an Anti-warhead launcher. It also had 8 asteroid static defences, 4 of which were Asteroid Laser Batteries and the other 4 were Asteroid Warhead Launchers.

Early History
To-phalion Base was formaly an Asteroid mining facility established by the Galactic Empire. When the mineral deposits became exhausted the asteroid's hollowed out interior was reformatted to make room for research facilities.

Vorknkx Project
To-phalion Base become the new home for the Vorknkx Project and its testbed a CR90 corvette when its original research station was attacked by Zaarin's forces and had to be evacuated to continue research. Grand Admiral Thrawn witnessed a demonstration to see the results of the progress of the project. He learned that the cloaking device was unstable when used in conjunction with hyperdrive engines.

Zaarin's attack on To-phalion Base
Zaarin, however managed to slip in some of his spies into the base and revealed the location to his forces. Still wanting his hands on the cloaking device, he then sent an attack consisting of three waves. The first wave consisted of TIE Defenders and Muurian transports. Thrawn anticipated this and was planning a trap for Zaarin but he needed time.

He then sent a squadron of TIE Avengers one of which had Thrawns best pilot Tan Maarek Stele who had protected the Vorknk project before and had experience in fighting Zaarin's forces. While the fighting was going, one of Zaarin's spies took control of a shuttle called Lambda 3 and made an unauthorised launch attempted to escape with data of the project sabotaging the targeting systems to prevent himself from being fired at by the station. However Maarek got close enough to inspect the shuttle and was then ordered to destroy it. The rest of Zaarins forces were then destroyed as well.

However a second attack was made and it was also revealed that the spy also sabotaged the defences, resulting in all the asteroid static defences suffering shield failures. The next attack consisted of Assassin-class corvettes called Z-Rok, Assault Gunboats and Assault transports. Both the corvettes and the transports contained troops indicating Zaarin's intentions to steal the cloaking technology. The attack was also thwarted by Maarek Stele. Thrawn also arrived in the Nebulon-B frigate Maru Ki to secure the area.

Destruction


Zaarin, adament on acquiring the technology, took control of the operation himself. Bringing his flagship the Glory into the Iast system, he began attacking the Maru Ki until it was badly damaged prompting the ship to reach hyperspace Thrawn to leave the ship in a shuttle. Zaarin attempted to kill Thrawn by ordering some of his forces to attack the two shuttles but thanks to Stele he escaped alive to his ship, the Grey Wolf, which came with two Strike-class medium cruisers, Daring and Ebolo. It was also supposed to be with Interdictor Corvus but was delayed, and as a result they were unable to trap the Glory. What was worse was that To-phalion Base's shields had failed against the assault and the Vorknkx launched from the hangar, only to be hijacked by Zaarin's spies and the corvette entered the hangar bay of the Glory. To-phalion base was then destroyed in the process and the Glory jumped into hyperspace. What Zaarin didn't know until too late was that Thrawn had planted a tracking device on the corvette allowing him to pursue Zaarin's forces and ultimately destroy them by allowing him to try to escape with the Vorknkx with its cloaking device activated and its hyperdrive engines engaged causing Zaarin to perish in a horrific explosion.

Appearances

 * TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire