Battle of Geonosis ( Galactic Civil War ) This battle took place at around 3 ABY on and in orbit of the planet Geonosis . The battle occurred in the wake of the abduction of a number of Rebel Alliance scientists from a prison over Bakura . General Crix Madine of the Alliance tracked the unidentified captor to Geonosis , where Rogue Squadron was deployed to secure the hostages . As soon as the battle began , it was already a disaster for the Alliance . An ambush , led by Imperial spy Sarkli , took place against the Rebel fleet , forcing the surviving rescue transports to retreat into hyperspace . After Commander Wedge Antilles of Rogue Squadron confronted Sarkli , who was in command of an Imperial escort carrier , both Sarkli and Antilles crash landed in the canyons on the planet . They fought their way through Separatist holdouts . Eventually , Antilles was able to escape back to the Rebel Fleet using an old Jedi Starfighter . Prelude . After its disastrous defeat at Hoth in 3 ABY , the Rebellion was in need of victories . The ace fliers of Rogue Squadron were sent to recover scientists from an Imperial prison facility . After recovering them , one of their transports was stopped and boarded by Imperial Storm commando s , who subsequently took the scientists to Geonosis . A Rebel listening post intercepted transmissions , and they suspected it came from the ship from Bakura . The battle . Arrival of Rogue Squadron . General Crix Madine sent three of Rogue Squadron ' s T - 65B X - wing starfighters were assigned the mission to rescue the scientists , and led four GR - 75 medium transports , including Rescue 1 , to Geonosis . The Rogues also had additional support craft on their way . Upon arrival in the Geonosis asteroid field , three escort carriers performed a surprise ambush . Antilles ordered the rescue transports to abort their mission , but the lead escort carrier took out a transport while the other two carriers retreated . The abductor revealed himself to be Sarkli , former member of Rogue Squadron and the Rebel Alliance . Antilles managed to destroy his escort carrier , but Sarkli and a few garrisons of stormtroopers managed to survive the blast by using the ship ' s escape pods , taking casualties in the process due to collisions with asteroids . Antilles ' s X - wing was caught in the explosion which destroyed his starboard stabilizer and sent him crashing in a canyon near a derelict " Lucrehulk " - class Core Ship . Ground operations . Numerous B1 battle droids on Geonosis had been cut off from the deactivation beacon at the end of the Clone Wars . When the survivors of the carrier crash - landed on the planet , several stormtroopers were killed by " native " droids settled in the area , and suffered system malfunctions . As Antilles crashed , they turned their blasters on him . In an attempt to flee the droids , Sarkli used a crashed , but working LAAT / i to escape the area . Antilles now had to deal with waves of battle droids , as well as the survivors from the carrier . Antilles ' R5 unit spotted something and started rolling down the canyon . Antilles protected the droid as it rolled forward . While trying to navigate through the quagmire of the battle , Antilles threw several thermal detonator charges at the battle droids and stormtroopers , wiping out several of them . Just before getting out of the chaos , Antilles investigated one of the escape pods from the downed escort carrier and discovered some advanced homing proton torpedo es inside , procuring them for future use . When Antilles finally came out of the chaos , Sarkli ' s gunship attacked him . Sarkli then taunted Antilles by telling him that , like Skywalker , he is a coward who is nothing without his forces . Using a dead stormtrooper ' s E - Web heavy repeating blaster , Antilles shot him down , although not before Sarkli vowed revenge . Antilles then found an old Jedi starfighter from the original Battle on Geonosis with good hull condition , but lacking power . Arfive transferred electricity and power from its circuits into the engine , reactivating it . Antilles and his R5 unit then escaped the planet . Retreat . Crix Madine ' s EF76 Nebulon - B escort frigate came out of hyperspace and met up with Antilles . The remaining two escort carriers attacked and launched several TIEs , but Antiles found out the starfighter had a payload of seismic charges and repelled them . He also took out TIE bombers which were threatening the frigate . With assistance from the frigate and his wingmates , he dispatched the last two carriers , and jumped into hyperspace with an old , but still working , hyperspace ring floating nearby . Aftermath . At the end of the battle the Rebels returned to the fleet . Shortly afterward , Antilles was assigned to lead a strike at Destrillion . Sarkli survived his gunship being shot down by Antilles , and would resurface at the Battle of Endor . Behind the scenes . This article was created based on a mission in the video game " . " Seismic charges are not standard equipment for " Delta " - 7 starfighters , so it is not known if their presence in the mission is a personal upgrade or apocryphal . During the mission , the player can pick up the upgrade to complete the bonus objective . In addition , the suggests using thermal detonators to destroy enemies in order to get a gold medal for the mission .