Fought in the closing days of 2BBY, the Battle of Atollon was one of the most strategically
significant engagements of the early rebellion, and represented a serious escalation in what
would become the Galactic Civil War.
Having gathered intelligence to indicate a coordinated alliance attack on the vital shipyard
world of Lothal, Grand Admiral Thrawn of the Imperial Seventh Fleet put forward a plan
to his superiors, which attempted to take advantage of this situation by ambushing the
two rebel cells participating in the attack, as they prepared to depart their staging ground.
Using the trajectory of a mobile alliance fleet, as well as an intercepted transmission
from a captured rebel spy, Thrawn was able to locate the rebel’s staging ground above
the planet Atollon, and assembled his forces to attack the planet.
Arriving over the planet, Thrawn’s force, consisting of six Imperial Class Star-Destroyers,
two Arquitens Class Light Cruisers and 2 Interdictor Vessels assumed a battle line in low-orbit
of Atollon.
The Alliance forces present at the time, comprised the entirety of the rebel Phoenix Fleet under
the flag of Commander Sato’s Phoenix Home, as well as a large portion of General Jan
Doddona’s Massassi Group, commanded from the bridge of the Nebulon-B Frigate Vanguard.
Upon realising the size and composition of the Imperial fleet, the Alliance commanders
present quickly decided to begin a full-scale evacuation of the system, in the hopes of
preserving as many of their vessels as possible, but their attempts to flee were thwarted by
Thrawn’s use of interdictor vessels, and it became clear that rebel forces would need
to disable or destroy both imperial interdictors before any escape would be possible.
Having cut off the Rebels primary avenue of escape, Imperial forces began to quickly tighten
their grip around the alliance defence fleet, swiftly destroying a Nebulon-B Frigate that
had been caught out of position attempting to escape.
On the surface of Atollon, Captain Hera Syndulla of the Phoenix Cell quickly devised a plan
to summon reinforcements from the Alliance Command Centre on Yavin IV, she led the entirety
of her surface-based fighter wing into orbit, accompanied by the Gauntlet Class Attack Ship
‘Nightbrother’, the Nightbrother, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Ezra Bridger, was
tasked with escaping the system to contact alliance command, and both the Phoenix and
Massassi Fleets positioned their forces to create an opening for Bridger’s vessel.
Leading the Rebel forces in orbit, commander Jun Sato of the Phoenix Home began to employ
a complex defensive tactic native to the Danaan system, this tactic involved surgical bomber
attacks directed at the flanks of enemy warships, and intended to goad those vessels into breaking
formation, while small groups of frigates and corvettes provided close fire support
for mission-critical vessels, in this case the ‘Nightbrother’.
Having been naturally aware of this tactic, Grand Admiral Thrawn gave explicit orders
to his subordinate, Admiral Kassius Konstantine, to maintain the battle line at all costs,
refusing to allow his ships to be drawn out of formation by Sato’s tactics.
Personally leading the elite A-Wing pilots of Phoenix Squadron from the cockpit of her
vessel the Ghost, Captain Syndulla began to escort the Nightbrother toward the edge of
the engagement zone.
Simultaneously, the Y-Wings of Green Squadron departed the Phoenix Home to begin the various
bombing runs demanded by Sato’s defensive tactics, these attacks resulted in heavy losses
for Green Squadron, and prompted a counterattack by Imperial Bombers, which succeeded in destroying
two CR90’s as well as a Hammerhead Corvette, and the Braha’tok Class Gunship Orion.
Thrawn then executed an envelopment maneuver using his two light cruisers, these vessels
succeeded in blocking the escape of the Nightbrother and its escorts, forcing those vessels to
abandon their mission, and begin shielding the larger rebel warships from starfighter
attack.
By the time the two light cruisers reached their new positions, they had inflicted even
further damage on green squadron, eliminated yet another Corellian Corvette, and destroyed
a second Nebulon-B Frigate.
As the alliance’s situation became increasingly hopeless, Commander Sato of the Phoenix Cell
elected to sacrifice himself and his vessel, in a final attempt to allow to the Nightbrother
to escape.
Evacuating the majority of the Phoenix Home’s crew, Sato pushed his vessel to full speed,
in what appeared to be an attempted retreat.
As Sato had predicted, Admiral Konstantine broke from formation, in the hopes of intercepting
the command ship before it could escape, but as Konstantine’s interdictor beared down
on the fleeing rebel ship, Sato made his final move, bringing the Phoenix Home into a sharp
about-turn, and ramming the Imperial warship as it attempted to change course.
With Sato’s sacrifice having created a brief opportunity to escape, Captain Syndulla ordered
the Nightbrother to make the jump to hyperspace and the vessel began its journey to summon
reinforcements, but the destruction of the Phoenix Home had broken the back of the rebels
defensive formation, Thrawn’s fleet surged forward, bringing down the frigate Vanguard
beneath heavy fire, and forcing general Dodonna and his staff to flee to the escape pods.
With the battered remnants of the rebel flotilla spread across the region, Captain Syndulla
was left with no choice but to order a full retreat to the surface of Atollon, leaving
the Imperial Fleet to establish a full blockade over the planet.
Having forced what remained of the rebel fleet to ground, Thrawn began to bombard the planetary
shields of the Alliance Base from orbit, before deploying ground forces to the surface of
Atollon, in the hopes of capturing high-profile members of the alliance leadership.
A fierce ground and aerial battle was fought around the rebel base for some time, until
eventually the rebels received word that Lieutenant Commander Bridger had returned.
With Alliance Command having been unable to divert forces from other rebel systems, commander
Bridger had instead contacted the alliance’s Mandalorian allies from House Wren, who had
donated a squadron a fang-class starfighters to the operation, as well as a team a Mandalorian
commandoes to be carried aboard the Nightbrother.
Recognizing their only chance of escape, the alliance forces on the surface boarded their
ships, and began to return to low orbit, suffering serious losses to ground fire as they fled
the burning facility.
Though also suffering some losses, the Mandalorian fighter squadron, led by Fenn Rau, the legendary
protector of concord dawn, succeeded in holding off an Imperial fighter attack long enough
for the Nightbrother to deploy its commandoes unto the surface of the last remaining Imperial
Interdictor.
Fighting on the dorsal hull of the Imperial Warship, the Mandalorians of House Wren succeeded
in overloading the gravity well generators of the final Interdictor, and ultimately destroying
the vessel.
Meanwhile, what remained of Phoenix Squadron, accompanied by the few surviving alliance
warships, rendezvoused with their Mandalorian allies and began a fighting retreat through
the Imperial blockade.
By the time they had fled the engagement zone, the rebels had suffered even greater losses,
and though the alliance ultimately escaped the system, their fleet had been utterly decimated.
Though it failed to completely neutralise the local rebel presence, the Battle of Atollon
was undoubtedly a decisive victory for the Galactic Empire.
In one swift stroke, Thrawn had delivered a mortal blow to the Rebellion, eliminating
the entirety of General Doddona’s fleet, and inflicting such serious losses among the
Phoenix Cell, that the fleet was disbanded as an alliance military unit.
In the final accounting, only five rebel starships escaped the battle, the Nightbrother, Ghost,
Lightmaker and Liberator, as well as a second hammerhead class corvette, and though approximately
2700 Rebels had been present at the start of the battle, roughly 400 escaped the system
alive.