Hunt for the Colossus

"That refueling station is a valuable resource to General Organa. You must make sure it does not fall into her grasp. [...] If you cannot secure the Colossus for the First Order, then destroy it. Fail, and I will see to your execution personally."

- Captain Phasma, to Commander Pyre

In 34 ABY, early in the First Order–Resistance war, forces of the First Order were sent to hunt down the Colossus, a mobile supertanker fuel depot allied with the Resistance that had escaped the planet Castilon after driving out a First Order occupation.

Prelude
Prior to the outbreak of the First Order–Resistance war, the First Order sought to exploit the Colossus, a refueling platform on the planet Castilon, as a military supply line for their fleet, as part of their plans to control every remaining supertanker fuel depot in the galaxy to benefit their war effort. The First Order tried to convince Captain Imanuel Doza, the ruler of the Colossus, to accept First Order "protection" from pirates. The First Order hired Kragan Gorr and his Warbird gang to raid the Colossus several times.

After a kidnapping attempt on Captain Doza's daughter Torra, Doza accepted First Order occupation of the Colossus. Around the time of the Hosnian Cataclysm, the Resistance spy Kazuda Xiono and former New Republic starfighter pilot Jarek Yeager led a successful revolt against the First Order and retook control of the Colossus. The Colossus then fled into hyperspace.

The hunt
Fearing that Resistance General Leia Organa would gain access to the Colossus, Captain Phasma ordered Commander Pyre and First Order Security Bureau Agent Tierny to deny the refueling platform to the Resistance. If they could not recover the station, she ordered them to destroy the Colossus. Agent Tierny and Commander Pyre enlisted the Colossus resident Tamara Ryvora's help in locating the platform, playing on her resentment towards her former friend Xiono and employer Yeager for their so-called "betrayal". To win Ryvora's favor, Agent Tierny secured her a place in the First Order's TIE pilot corps.

The stowaway droid
The Colossus exited hyperspace several parsecs from the Ileenium system, the home of the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar. Due to the recent battle, the Colossus had sustained significant damage to its laser cannons, deflector shields, sublight engines, and gravity systems. Xiono, Torra, the Nikto mechanic Neeku Vozo and Xiono's BB-series astromech droid CB-23 attempted to repair the ship's gravity systems but came under attack from a First Order BB-series astromech droid called MB-13A, which had remained aboard during the escape. MB-13A tried to send a signal to the First Order, but Xiono and Torra managed to flush the droid out into space.

Dogfight in the Ileenium system
Feeling guilty for concealing his identity as a spy, Xiono sent a comlink transmission to Ryvora, apologizing for not being honest with her. While Ryvora was listening to Xiono's message, she was discovered by Jace Rucklin, another former Colossus resident who had become a First Order TIE Fighter Pilot cadet. Rucklin convinced a conflicted Ryvora to report the comlink transmission to Commander Pyre and Agent Tierny. The First Order used Xiono's comlink transmission to track down the Colossus.

Meanwhile, the Colossus arrived in the Ileenium system. However, they discovered that the Resistance had already evacuated D'Qar. The platform was also unable to replenish its depleted food, water, and fuel stocks since the Resistance base had already been destroyed by First Order forces. The Colossus was unable to jump into hyperspace since its hyperdrive had been depleted of coaxium fuel.

With the approval of Captain Doza and Yeager, Xiono, Vozo, CB-23, and the Warbird pirates undertook a salvage mission to obtain coaxium from the wrecked Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix. Before they could complete their excavation mission, Commander Pyre's Resurgent-class Star Destroyer exited hyperspace and dispatched a battalion of TIE/fo space superiority fighters to attack the Colossus.

Ace Squadron, led by Ace leader Hype Fazon, led the First Order TIEs on a chase while Team Fireball and the Warbirds completed their excavation of the coaxium fuel. While returning to the Colossus, the pirates managed to shoot down a TIE fighter with one of the sail barge Galleon laser cannons. Kaz and Neeku managed to load the coaxium into the receptacle in the Colossus' hyperdrive chamber while Ace Squadron returned to their hangars. The Colossus managed to escape into hyperspace just before Commander Pyre's gunners could destroy it.

Preparing for war
Following the skirmish in the Ileenium system, Captain Doza assigned Yeager and Xiono to train the Aces, who were skilled racers but lacked combat experience. Despite Fazon's initial aversion towards teamwork, the enlarged Ace Squadron managed to build trust following an encounter with a jakoosk on the ice moon of Celsor 3. Meanwhile Ryvora, Rucklin and former Colossus resident Lin Gaava trained as First Order TIE fighter cadets. Ryvora's faith in the First Order was tested when she was reprimanded by Lieutenant Galek for valuing teamwork over following mission objectives.

The Colossus' food supplies were replenished when Xiono and Torra successfully hunted and killed the jakoosk, convincing the civilians who had been planning to leave the station to stay onboard.

The saboteur
Tierny had the idea to hire a saboteur to infiltrate the Colossus and cripple it so it would be easy prey, a plan that Pyre was skeptical of. Nenavakasa Nalor, a Nikto engineer whose past as a slave had instilled in her the belief that it was always best to be on the "winning side", was hired for the job. She tracked it for several days before faking severe damage to her ship and sending a distress signal that was picked up when the station's long-range scanners were repaired. Yeager suspected a trap, but Xiono and Vozo, pointing out there was also a chance it wasn't a trap, persuaded him and Doza to okay a rescue, although Xiono was ordered to bring along San as she was a better shot than him.

When Xiono and San docked with Nalor's ship, Xiono immediately invited her onboard the Colossus to help repair it after learning she was an engineer. Hitting it off with Vozo, Nalor used the repairs to cover for her sabotage of the station, actually fixing the platform too well by repairing and reactivating systems that the Colossus lacked the power to be able to have on constantly. After a suspicious San searched Nalor's ship with Xiono and uncovered the truth, the engineer fled, with Vozo seriously hurt by her deception.

As Tierny and Pyre's Star Destroyer closed in, Vozo and Xiono worked to undo the sabotage, with the removal of a caseline Nalor had installed being the final piece necessary to allow the Colossus to activate its thrusters and escape, Nalor having already vanished into hyperspace aboard her own vessel. Displeased at the sabotage's failure, Tierny and Pyre agreed to have Nalor executed if they should meet her again.

Supply runs
The Colossus made several stops as various supplies became depleted. First, it stopped at Drahgor III when nearly out of fuel, as the planet housed a fuel refinery owned by the flock of station resident Flix. Although Flix was on bad terms with his cousin Flanx, who ran the refinery, an encounter with Karnex dragons repaired their relationship, gaining the Colossus the fuel for free.

The station later stopped by the planet Ashas Ree, which had a single trading outpost, when supplies ran low. Captain Doza gave Freya Fenris, Torra and Xiono the last of the Colossus' credits, but the discovery that the outpost had been abandoned meant they didn't have to spend them, as Fenris ordered Torra and Xiono to gather the left-behind supplies since there was no use leaving them to waste. Xiono, however, had secretly allowed refugees Kel and Eila to stow away aboard his shuttle because they wanted some time outside, and he and the children discovered an ancient Sith temple, with archaeologist Mika Grey trapped inside. Grey had been attempting to recover an ancient Sith relic to keep it out of the First Order's hands, but eventually destroyed it to kill the squad of First Order Raiders who had been pursuing her, and had captured Xiono, Torra, Fenris, the children and their droids. Having lost her ship, Grey accepted an offer to come aboard the Colossus.

Missed reunion
While travelling through the Outer Rim, Torra's birthday came around. For six years, ever since the formation of the Resistance, the Dozas had left Castilon annually on that day to meet up with Torra's mother Venisa, who had left at that time to join the group. Captain Doza activated a signal beacon so Venisa would know where to meet, trying to keep up the tradition, but the beacon also attracted the attention of the Colossus' First Order pursuers. A skirmish ensued, during which the Aces fought to defend the station while Doza awaited his wife's arrival. However, the Colossus was eventually forced to retreat without meeting Venisa when its shields became nearly depleted. Ironically, Venisa arrived at the rendezvous point immediately after the space station's departure, and she and her droid Torch were then captured by Agent Tierny. Venisa and Torch swiftly escaped the Star Destroyer, with Venisa imparting some advice to a conflicted Ryvora before doing so. On the Colossus, Torra considered heading out on her own to see her mother, but was talked out of it by Xiono, who, along with the rest of the Aces, gave Torra a gorg birthday cake in order to make her feel better.

Underworld encounters
With the Colossus running low on money, Fazon had the idea that Captain Doza take the station to Vranki's Hotel and Casino in the Voxx Cluster, where Fazon had raced prior to coming to the fuel depot, in order to earn money. There, manipulation by casino owner Vranki the Blue nearly led to the Aces being forced to stay at the casino and race for the Hutt before Xiono and Torra managed to win the final race Vranki set them, freeing the Aces and earning the Colossus 500,000 credits.

Later, the Colossus passed through space controlled by the Guavian Death Gang. Eager to leave the area as soon as possible without being noticed, Doza had the station pass through a large asteroid field on the way out of the region. However, the Colossus was seen by a Guavian scout, who escaped after Xiono's Fireball malfunctioned and prevented him from pursuing. Subsequently, Guavian forces confronted the space station on the edge of the asteroid field, demanding a "toll" of one million credits or else the Colossus would be seized and the residents handed over to the First Order. Doza refused, and in the ensuing skirmish, the Aces managed to destroy most of the Guavian ships after Xiono hit on the idea of taking advantage of their lesser maneuverability compared to the Aces' starfighters. The Colossus subsequently escaped into hyperspace after clearing the asteroids.

Another station
The Colossus' trans-binary deflector, an important part that protected the station's residents from cosmic rays, eventually began to fail. The part was vital, as without the protection it provided, cosmic rays would kill the station's residents. To that end, Xiono, Vozo and CB-23 were sent to infiltrate the Titan, a supertanker fuel depot under the control of the First Order, and steal a replacement. Coincidentally, the Titan was hosting an important meeting attended by General Armitage Hux, as well as Commander Pyre, whose attendance led to Ryvora and Rucklin being sent onboard the Titan for a supply run. Inevitably, Xiono and Vozo were recognized as a result, but Ryvora's conflicting loyalties led her to covertly assist Xiono and Vozo when she overheard them talking about the true purpose of their mission, allowing the mission to succeed. Hux was furious with Pyre for the escape of the Resistance infiltrators, especially since the Colossus was now the only extant supertanker fuel depot the First Order did not control.

Behind the scenes
The First Order's hunt for the Colossus comprises the main plot of Star Wars Resistance Season 2, and was first mentioned in season premiere "Into the Unknown". The hunt first appeared in the following episode, "A Quick Salvage Run".