Battle of Birgis

"Your next task is to secure us a landing zone at Birgis. Here's the reconnaissance data we've just received, in a format you can use. We could simply destroy the surface from orbit, because the planet will be reshaped and reengineered to our requirements anyway, but we wish to take the inhabitants alive to work for us."

- Yuuzhan Vong executor Nom Anor tasks Boba Fett with his next mission

A battle at the planet Birgis occurred one week into the Yuuzhan Vong War in 25 ABY. During the battle, the Yuuzhan Vong used the Mandalorian Protector mercenaries under Boba Fett to neutralize the spaceport on Birgis while the Yuuzhan Vong dealt with the New Republic forces. New Republic ground forces were wiped out and the Yuuzhan Vong warriors occupied the planet. Fett was able to recruit a pilot to ferry intelligence to the nearest New Republic command, but the intelligence was not acted upon.

Prelude
"As long as we work for you, you leave the Mandalore sector alone."

- Boba Fett to Nom Anor

In 25 ABY, as part of an arrangement between Boba Fett's Mandalorian Protectors and the Yuuzhan Vong in return for sparing the Mandalore sector during their invasion, Yuuzhan Vong executor Nom Anor attempted to blackmail Fett into serving the invaders. To this end, Fett and the Protectors were to create a diversion at a spaceport on the world of Birgis, which the Yuuzhan Vong were planning to invade with an eye to terraforming it and taking the population as slaves. Fett agreed but the Mand'alor, mindful of the threat the Yuuzhan Vong posed to his people and, indeed, the galaxy, was already formulating plans to inform the New Republic of the Yuuzhan Vong's stratagems.

The battle
"Mandos. You're fighting for these things? You filthy&mdash;"

- A New Republic pilot calls out Fett and his comrades on Birgis

A week after the Yuuzhan Vong landing at Helska IV, Fett's forces did as they were ordered to do on Birgis, disabling the spaceport's anti-aircraft gun and causing enough disruption to allow the Yuuzhan Vong to effect a ground assault. Fett's lieutenant Goran Beviin encountered a pilot inside the facility and, along with fellow Mandalorians Briika Jeban and her daughter Dinua, managed to restrain her so that Fett could entrust her with vital intelligence to be ferried to the nearest New Republic command. Cham Detta was chosen to escort the pilot safely offplanet; while Beviin was quietly optimistic that New Holgha, a future Yuuzhan Vong target world, would be evacuated, Fett was less sure.

Detta was ordered to get the pilot to a fighter or any operable ship nearby, while the local conglomeration of New Republic fleet elements, comprised largely of forces from conquered worlds along the invasion corridor, prepared to mount a defense from behind a barrier of wrecked speeders and repulsortrucks with a motley variety of weapons. As the Yuuzhan Vong warriors closed in, Fett's team withdrew. However, Beviin was curious as to how the Republic defenders had fared, and discovered that they had been completely slaughtered.

Aftermath
"I'll find a better way to convince them. I'm not giving up on the barves yet&hellip;"

- Goran Beviin vows to prove his worth to the New Republic on New Holgha

After the conquest of Birgis, the main part of the Yuuzhan Vong fleet continued to attack the world along the Veragi Trade Route: the next was Bimmiel. However, some Yuuzhan Vong forces broke off to conquer Ord Janon. The intelligence dispatched by Fett to the New Republic was discredited, and the world of New Holgha resultantly fell to the Yuuzhan Vong with little resistance as New Republic forces were diverted elsewhere.

Behind the scenes
The Battle of Birgis first appeared in the eBook Boba Fett: A Practical Man, released in 2006 and written by Karen Traviss. The battle was later referenced in the 2009 book The Essential Atlas by Daniel Wallace and Jason Fry.

Appearances

 * Boba Fett: A Practical Man