- "You know that I did everything I could to prevent that massacre."
- ―Brenn Tantor to Tyr Taskeen
The Massacre on Abridon took place in 3 ABY when the Galactic Empire attempted to take back Abridon from the Abridon Nationalists, who were supported by the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
Imperial general Brenn Tantor won great victories in the battle, destroying the Alliance presence and capturing Luke Skywalker. However, he also lost his command as a result of his refusal of orders to destroy a refugee camp.
The battle[]
Taking back the capital[]
- "Several days ago, we lost contact with our base here. We need to ascertain the situation."
- ―Grand General Malcor Brashin to General Brenn Tantor
Around the time of the Battle of Hoth, the Abridon Nationalists revolted against the Galactic Empire. With the help of the Rebel Alliance, they won the uprising on Abridon, seizing the capital and destroying the Imperial presence on Abridon.
Grand General Malcor Brashin and General Brenn Tantor were sent to investigate the situation. Swiftly realizing that the planet was in the hands of Rebels, Tantor landed his troops on the outskirts of the capital city and proceeded to retake the Imperial base on the south end of the city, which had been occupied by Rebels. Tantor used the base as a rallying point to call down more reinforcements, weathering repeated assaults from Rebel armor, until he burst out of his fortified position to crush the Rebel base that had been set up near the Government Mound.
Tantor's forces capture the Abridon Government Center.
Tantor then proceeded across the river, where he seized the Abridon Government Center. In the course of the fighting, he completely cleansed the city of Rebels. With the Government Center taken, his troopers reported the capture of Hamman Flatt, the lieutenant governor of Abridon and a senior Nationalist. Terrified of an Imperial execution, Flatt attempted to trade information for his life. Tantor simply told him, "I don't negotiate with terrorists." Despairing, Flatt simply blurted out his information: the Rebels had sent five high-ranking dignitaries to negotiate with the Abridon Government Council for the planet's entry into the Alliance. Brashin dispatched probe droids to confirm Flatt's story. If true, he promised Flatt a swift, rather than prolonged, execution. Meanwhile, Flatt was simply imprisoned.
The capture of Luke Skywalker[]
- "Skywalker's here?"
- ―Brenn Tantor
Tantor set up a forward base in the gardens at the foot of the Government Mound. With the setting of the sun came numerous Rebel assaults. Tantor was forced to build a strongly fortified base before he was able to send out patrols into the northern outskirts of the city looking for the five dignitaries, whose presence had been confirmed by Brashin's probots.
Tantor was forced to face a still-strong Rebel presence in this area, but his forces eventually tracked down four of the five diplomats, who were brought back to a landing platform to await transfer to a prison ship. The fifth dignitary, however, proved by far the most valuable. When finally captured, earlier half-fantastical reports by befuddled stormtroopers were proved true: Luke Skywalker, the galaxy's most wanted man, was one of the dignitaries. Tantor raced to capture him. Surrounded by Imperial armor and stormtroopers, Skywalker was forced to surrender. Tantor received the exhilarating honor of capturing the man most desired by Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.
The test of loyalties[]
- "Sir, Tulon taught me long ago to always act like a soldier, not a murderer. You're ordering the deaths of defenseless civilians."
"You would listen to a traitor over the words of your commanding officer? Destroy the camp!"
"I refuse."
"Say again. I didn't copy that."
"I refuse." - ―General Brenn Tantor and Grand General Malcor Brashin
Tantor was sent to destroy the final Rebel position: a strong base to the southwest of the capital. For this mission, he commanded from the Tracked Mobile Base, or TR-MB, a miniature command center inside an armored crawler. Tantor's forces were to meet up with a task force under the command of Colonel Beri Tulon, Tantor's old mentor.
However, before Tantor's forces could rendezvous, Tulon's walker, Annihilator 1, turned on his detachment, killing them all and heading for the Rebel base. Tantor, fearing that his mentor had been killed or captured by traitors, pursued and brought the walker down. He was shocked and distressed to discover that Tulon himself was the traitor, attempting to defect to the Alliance after years of dissatisfaction with the Empire. Tantor, despite his own private doubts about the Empire, dutifully arrested Tulon, who was sent to Tarkin Detention Facility on Ruul.
Tantor proceeded onwards, destroying the base even without Tulon's forces. However, that was not enough of a statement to the people of Abridon for Brashin. The grand general demanded that Tantor destroy a refugee camp to the east of the base in order to demonstrate the consequences for anyone who allowed traitors to operate freely.
Tantor had finally had enough. Citing the words of the mentor he had just imprisoned, Tantor refused to murder civilians. Infuriated, Brashin locked Brenn out of communications with the army and issued the order to destroy the camp himself, claiming it was filled with Rebels. Helpless, Tantor watched as his soldiers massacred civilians. It was at that moment that Rebel general Tyr Taskeen contacted him. Taskeen, the man whom Tantor had defeated, offered him a frequency on which to contact him if he ever wanted to defect.
Aftermath[]
- "The fighting has lasted for several months now, and doesn't show any signs of subsiding."
- ―Tyr Taskeen to Brenn Tantor
For his disloyalty, Tantor was sent to Kalaan, where he was to be court-martialed. En route, he contacted Taskeen to arrange his defection. From Kalaan, Tantor rescued Skywalker and joined the Alliance.
With Tantor and Brashin gone, the Empire was unable to maintain complete control of Abridon. Despite the total defeat of the Alliance, the Empire still had to contend with the Abridon Nationalists, who turned the industrial city of Sayan into an urban war zone. Street fighting with Imperial troops lasted for months, until artillery platforms were stationed in the city and ordered to level it completely. The fighting would go on, until the Rebels initiated a counter-offensive in the liberation of Abridon, under Taskeen and a newly Rebel Tantor.
Behind the scenes[]
The Second Battle of Abridon first appeared in Star Wars: Force Commander, a 2000 video game from Ronin Entertainment. It was later mentioned in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, published in 2008.
Appearances[]
Sources[]
- The New Essential Guide to Characters
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. I ("Abridon")
- The Essential Atlas (Indirect mention only)
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Star Wars: Force Commander
- ↑ The New Essential Guide to Characters (p. 159) places Luke Skywalker's mission to Abridon between the end of Shadows of the Empire and the beginning of Return of the Jedi. Those events are respectively set in 3.5 ABY and 4 ABY according to The New Essential Chronology.
- ↑ The Essential Atlas, p. 159