A battle at Folor was an engagement between Admiral Apwar Trigit and the still-in-training Wraith Squadron and Blue Squadron. While the base was eventually lost, the New Republic managed to evacuate the base with minimal losses thanks to unorthodox tactics.

Prelude[]

After entering Warlord Zsinj' service, Admiral Trigit designed a simple yet elegant mean to determine the possible position of enemy hidden stations and deep-space assembly points: the Morrt-class parasite-droid project. These stealthy little droids would attach themselves to ships, and broadcast point and date of departure and arrival to the Implacable. Acting on the gathered data, Gara Petothel was able to conclude that the moon Folor orbiting the planet Commenor was used as base by the New Republic.

Hoping to impress Zsinj with his brainchild's results and thus secure his eventual promotion to captaincy of the Razor's Kiss, Trigit decided to single-handedly eliminate the base on Folor, believing his Implacable would overpower the enemy. However, as Commenor was a neutral world dealing with Zsinj, Trigit contacted their authorities, arranged for an authorization to act and some camouflage for his arrival.^[1]

The battle[]

Foiling the surprise attack[]

The battle actually started long before any shots were exchanged. Wraith Squadron was preparing for an hyperspace jump exercise when Jesmin Ackbar, the unit comm specialist, detected some odd encrypted transmissions on Imperial channels. Although not alarming since Commenor was a neutral world, this warranted investigation and Wedge, still unfamiliar with his squadmate's abilities, ordered his squadron to 'make themselves useful'. Acting upon his preview commando experiences, Kell Tainer asked Grinder to slice into Commenor's central computer and look for typical documents and facts who announced the arrival of military forces. A quick scan allowed Grinder to determine that the largest berth of Commenor's shipyard had just been cleared for a 'private yacht' Implacable, and that Commenor had just authorized same 'private yacht' to conduct live-fire exercises on Folor. That second information, combined with the fact that the reserved berth could only accommodate capital ships, convinced them that that Trigit was on the way.^[1]

The first deception[]

Alerted to a Star Destroyer's arrival, General Edor Crespin wasted no time and ordered a full evacuation. Quickly loading everything they could into the base's two evacuation transport ships, the New Republic forces were set to evacuate, but an engine malfunction on the Borleias prevented them a quick escape. Realizing Implacable would be in bombardment range too soon, activated his first line of defense: the decoy base. He also deployed all three squadrons - Wraith Squadron and Blue Squadron were to engage the TIEs, while Gold Squadron was dispatched to escort the transports.

Knowing fully that an attack was always possible, the engineers of Folor base had scrounged enough decommissioned fuel tanks and prefab buildings to set up a plausible decoy base at the exact opposite position around the moon. Rigged with a few booby traps to make them blow up nicely, and a few homing beacons and comm transmitters to simulate agitation and panic, the decoy base made for a cheap yet effective mean of delaying any attack force. Overconfident in the secrecy of his tactic, and utterly unaware that he'd been detected long ago, Trigit fell into the simple trap, and lost precious minutes bombing a decoy into oblivion and maneuvering his Star Destroyer around the moon to his real objective.^[1]

The race[]

Grudgingly impressed by his opponent's resourcefulness, Trigit ordered all his starfighters deployed and his shield raised, while maneuvering Implacable close to ground around the moon, wary of any other nasty surprise. Unable to determine their opponent's position any longer, Wedge and Crespin decided to send an A-wing pair and an X-wing pair stealthily ahead as spotters, to calculate an interception point and, if possible, make a sneak attack on Implacable if the occasion presented itself. The task fell upon Kell Tainer and Runt, and on Dorset Konnair and Tetengo Noor.

As usual with pilots, the flight to the interception point became a race, here between the A-wing and X-wing pairs. While in open space the A-Wings would have outraced the much slower X-wings, the constraints of flying close to the ground and into the crevices of Folor's surface made the race much fairer, but also much more dangerous.

Initially, the A-Wings took a significant lead on the X-Wings, however, once the fighters were forced into the valleys used for bombing practice, the A-Wings were forced to slow down, and Tainer and Runt were able to eventually overtake them and reach their assigned spotting position first. After some jibing, both pairs started collecting data on their opponents and calculated a possible ambush point for the rest of their fellow pilots. The second part of their assignment looked infeasible however: since Trigit had ordered his shields up, there simply was no way for the four of them to mount any significant attack on Implacable.^[1]

The second deception[]

Thanks to their spotter's reconnaissance, the remaining starfighters boiled out of their hiding spots and fell upon their opponents swiftly, mercilessly scything trough their packed ranks before engaging them in one gigantic furball. The New Republic fighters managed at first to eliminate 20 TIES while losing only two of their own, but after that numerical superiority started to wear them down.

While the battle raged, Kell Tainer concocted a crazy, brilliant scheme: casting himself as "Rogue Two" and Dorset Konnair as "Princess Leia", he had Runt and him boost their output signals to match those of two groups of X-wings, and the two A-Wings fly together merging their shields to simulate a damaged Millennium Falcon. The two of them would then improvise a dialogue broadcasted in an expired code, in the hope of duping the Implacable in believing the Falcon was here, damaged, unable to fly with princess Leia on board; in other word an easy capture.

Upon learning of the presence of the Falcon, Trigit was at first wary of yet another trick, but since evidence suggested that the base was now abandoned, he had been wondering why the New Republic was waging such a ferocious defense for an empty base, and concluded that they were trying to buy time for the Falcon, and ordered Implacable to veer off in pursuit.

As the battle continued, the Borleias finally managed to lift off. At that point, the New Republic starfighters started disengaging and the spotters dropped their decoy while slipping away in the canyons. Furious, Trigit ordered a full bombardment of the canyons, to a least avenge himself on those who fooled him, but Runt, allowing yet another of his personalities to take control, managed to lead his comrades to safety, despite flying at full speed through a collapsing canyon.^[1]

Aftermath[]

After regrouping, the rebels quickly fled into hyperspace while a disgruntled Trigit pounded a now empty base to slag. Thanks to their unorthodox tactics, the New Republic evacuated the base successfully and suffered only 5 losses, while having destroyed or damaged over 35 TIEs. This brilliant action convince admiral Ackbar to fully commission Wraith Squadron as an active squad.

The idea of a false Millennium Falcon would be revisited later in the Millennium Falsehood ploy used against Zsinj.

Admiral Trigit would bear a grudge toward those who fooled him, which would eventually lead up to his demise.^[1]

Appearances[]

• X-Wing: Wraith Squadron (and unabridged audiobook) (First appearance in book)
• X-Wing: Wraith Squadron' abridged audiobook
• X-Wing: Isard's Revenge (Mentioned only)
• X-Wing: Isard's Revenge' abridged audiobook

Sources[]

• "Rogue Leaders" — Star Wars Galaxy Collector 4 (Picture only)
• The Essential Atlas

Notes and references[]