Battle of Adjani

Type: Space battle Opposing forces: 145th Squadron / The Glitterati, Independent Smugglers Commanders: Vladis, Kreyn Tash / Aster, Slee Yarrow, Shin-Wan Corr Combatant vessels: Persecutor, Lictor, Jaeger, Conservator / Problem Child, Saucy Mare, Prime Mover, Exit Clause Result: Smugglers Pyrrhic Victory Location: Adjani, Shadowport

The Battle of Adjani was a conflict between a flotilla of Imperial Navy vessels led by Captain Vladis and a group of smugglers based at the Adjani shadowport.

After patrolling the system for several weeks, Vladis' forces were alerted to the exact location of the shadowport by the defection of independent smuggler Bola Hans. Hans and several allies had attempted to take control of the Shadowport, presumably with the intent of turning it over to the Imperials, but were thwarted in their attempt to do so. While most of Hans' allies were captured or killed by the other smugglers, Hans himself was able to escape onboard his YT-1300 freighter, the Cargo Cult. Onboard the Persecutor, Hans presumably informed Vladis of the location and defenses of the Shadowport. As Vladis redeployed his ships and prepared a ground assault, the smugglers tried to rally themselves.

Concerned by the prospect of fighting off an Imperial assault, the smugglers quickly voted for a leader. Although Shin-Wan Corr, the leader of the Glitterati, was the obvious choice, many of the independent smugglers were unhappy with the idea of following the Glitterati, who they perceived as unjustly dominating the port. Since the Glitterati would not follow someone who was not a member of their organisation, a compromise candidate was found in Aster, a Glitterati pilot who was known for clashing with Shin-Wan. All of the independent pilots supported Aster, as did a handful of Glitterati. Aster immediately appointed Slee Yarrow as her second-in-command, and told the smugglers that their only chance was a fighting escape. They would make a break for hyperspace, fighting all the way, and rendezvous at the out-of-the-way planet of Windwhistle.

The smugglers had one asset that the Imperials did not know about - a salvaged TIE fighter, acquired by the crew of the Saucy Mare in lieu of payment for an earlier smuggling job. The TIE quickly became a critical part of the smugglers' strategy. Aster had smuggler mechanics assemble a crude but effective bomb and stowed it in the TIE's hull.

The smugglers sortied just as the Persecutor began to deploy its drop ships. Even as several thousand Stormtroopers and Imperial Army troopers began the descent towards the planetoid's surface, nearly a hundred smuggler ships exploded into the atmosphere. The smugglers were a motley force, with most of their ships consisting of up-armoured freighters or downgraded military surplus vessels. Several of the smuggler ships were not even armed. The Imperial forces were split, as several TIE fighters and bombers were accompanying the drop ships, but they still outgunned the smugglers, with four corvettes and two frigates accompanying the Star Destroyer.

As soon as they came within range of the  Persecutor' s main turbolaser batteries the smugglers began to take casualties, struggling to fend off the heavy weapons of the larger Imperial ships while simultaneously avoiding the TIE fighters. TIE pilot Lieutenant Tash was extremely successful, shooting down three smuggler vessels and earning her ace's star. The smugglers had been instructed to ignore the larger ships and concentrate on gunning down the relatively fragile TIE Fighters, but poor fire discipline on the part of the motley smuggler fleet meant several ships wasted their firepower ineffectually trying to damage the Persecutor. The Star Destroyer suffered its worst damage, not from the smugglers' guns, but from the medium freighter Nuisance Value which crashed into the ship's ion engines, exposing their fuel feed. Despite this significant damage, Vladis felt confident that his men would be able to eliminate or capture most of the smuggler fleet.

Vladis' confidence was misplaced. Not expecting to see an enemy TIE Fighter, Imperial flight commanders ignored Aster's ship, which was able to dock aboard the Persecutor by faking battle damage. Using the TIE's cannons to clear hostiles from the flight deck, Aster was unable to free her fighter from the repair clamps deployed by Imperial technicians. Abandoning the TIE, she set the explosives and attempted to flee in a Lambda class shuttle. The shuttle's security doors proved extremely challenging, and Aster was not able to escape before a squadron of Stormtroopers arrived to repel boarders. Luckily, the Lambda's security systems yielded just as the Stormtroopers opened fire, and she was able to escape, detonating the bomb as she exited the shuttle bay.

The detonation of the bomb severely damaged the Persecutor, causing its engines to fire and shut out uncontrollably. As the ship's firepower cut off, the smugglers were able to use the opportunity to begin jumping to hyperspace. Aster's shuttle came under attack by a squadron of TIEs, sustaining heavy damage before she managed to follow her companions to hyperspace. Vladis was disappointed that many smugglers had escaped, but he still felt that the battle had been successful, as the drop ships were reporting no resistance at the shadowport. Unfortunately, just as the troopers broke through the Shadowport's access tunnel, his chief engineer informed him that the Persecutor was unavoidably caught in the planetoid's gravity well. Vladis knew that the Star Destroyer was incapable of entering an atmosphere without fatal damage. Shocked into inaction by the ship's dire situation, it was left to his first officer to begin ordering the evacuation of all hands from the ship.

Most of the crew of the Persecutor were evacuated onto the Lictor and Jaeger, although several hundred hands were lost when the ship burned up in the atmosphere. Several TIE fighters also had to be abandoned in orbit, as the frigates did not have the capacity to take them onboard. Vladis was forced to order the TIEs shot down to prevent them falling into smugglers' hands. The troopers aboard the drop ships reported that the Shadowport had been stripped of everything of any value by the departing smugglers.

Although the smugglers had escaped, their losses were heavy - almost half of the ships that departed the Shadowport did not make it to hyperspace, and several that did were severely damaged. After briefly rallying at Windwhistle, the smugglers went their separate ways, counting themselves lucky that they and their cargo had escaped the Imperial Navy, even if they had all lost friends and comrades to the Imperial Navy's guns.