Battle of Rhigar The Battle of Rhigar occurred in 19 ABY . It was a surprise attack on Syndic Mitth ' raw ' nuruodo training academy in the Rata Nebula following the destruction of the Hand of Thrawn . Prelude . Following Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade mission to Nirauan , the Hand of Thrawn was destroyed by a pirate raid . Shortly after , Commander Kres ' ten ' tarthi , the commander of Syndic Mitth ' raw ' nuruodo ' s Household Phalanx — an important Chiss unit of the Empire of the Hand — arrived at the secret military training academy on Rhigar to announce the fall of the Hand of Thrawn to pirate forces . Fearing that the pirates could have obtained the location of the secret academy , Lieutenant Jagged Fel and the other cadets rushed to the hangar to defend the base . But a damaged pirate freighter crashed through the transparisteel dome hiding the base , killing several students and the academy ' s commandant , Gimald Nuruodo , destroying their clawcrafts , and revealing the academy . By examining the ship ' s cargo , Fel deduced that they were pirates , and not New Republic forces as Stent had suspected . The Battle . Stent was now the senior officer present , and issued orders to First Lieutenant Shawnkyr Nuruodo to collect weapons in order to repel an attack ; she took Fel and several other cadets with her . Fel returned to the hangar weighted down with charric s just in time to see Stent vanish in a blast of laser fire . With Stent assumed dead , Nuruodo was in command . She ordered the cadets to assemble in the central indoor forest , where they would make a stand against the pirates . Fel was uneasy with the plan , and when the pirates began bombarding the base , he dove for cover with Nuruodo in the mechanic ' s bay . This caused him to realize the cause of his misgiving : the pirates would not attack on the ground until after a heavy aerial assault to soften up the base , rendering a ground defense ineffective . He explained to the cadet commander that he would take up " Blue Flame " — which had survived by being in the mechanic ' s bay after yet another crash , instead of in the hangar with the rest of the craft — perform poorly , and so lower the enemy ' s expectations in hopes that they would break off the bombardment and begin a ground assault . Fel fired up his silver - blue ship and blasted through the hole which had been opened in the dome . He quickly found that his single ship was up against a corvette and several X - wings . He made an erratic attack , missing with most of his laser blasts . That fire covered the launch of two proton torpedoes , though , which destroyed two enemy fighters . Fel flew through the rubble , taking damage to his hyperdrive but losing his pursuit . He fed power into the hyperdrive , overloading it and then using the clawcraft ' s emergency detach function to launch the unit into the path of an oncoming fighter , where it exploded . This reduced the opposing force to two fighters and the corvette . Satisfied he had done as much as he could and that it was time to fake defeat , he rode the edge of the explosion away , then plummeted toward the dome , pretending to be out of control . He switched his repulsors on at the last moment , crashing through the dome and striking the hangar floor with significant force . The " Blue Flame " was wrecked and Fel himself sustained a nasty cut running from his right eyebrow back along his scalp as well as a possible concussion . He stumbled out of the craft and placed a fellow student ' s body within it to convince the pirates he had perished , then limped to the forest . He collapsed upon finding Shawnkyr , who examined him and declared him unfit for combat , but insisted he help her plan tactics . The two fighter pilots had set down and begun scouting , but the Chiss were able to ambush them . Only seven students remained capable of fighting , however ; not enough to repel the numbers likely present within the corvette . A sudden idea struck Fel , who had one of the panels of mirrored transparisteel that had fallen from the dome dragged onto the forest path , where dead Chiss bodies were placed upon it . The other students suspended themselves from the trees over the path using ropes . Mirrored in the transparisteel , they too seemed to be bodies lying on the floor . When the pirate force advanced , the Chiss ambushed them , cutting them down from above as they looked for a threat on the ground . The battle was messy and brief . The pirates were entirely defeated . Aftermath . After the battle , Fel and the Chiss were able to use the pirates ' equipment to contact their superiors for assistance . In recognition of Fel ' s key role in tactical planning and the leadership he had provided , Shawnkyr Nuruodo turned her position as cadet commander over to Fel . Jag Fel gained command of a Clawcraft squadron shortly before the Yuuzhan Vong War and Shawnkyr became his wingmate for all the conflict . Behind the scenes . The Cavrilhu Pirates aren ' t specifically identified in " Red Sky , Blue Flame " but they are described as " " Carrion birds who follow warriors and pick the battlefields clean " " . This must refer to the Cavrilhu Pirates who fought Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade , the " " warriors " " , during their search for the Hand of Thrawn in " Vision of the Future " . " The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia " resolved the timeline problem , stating that Stent survived the attack .