Aggressor (Executor-class)

The Aggressor was an Executor-class Star Dreadnought in the service of the Galactic Empire. Commanded by Admiral Roek, the Aggressor and a force of five Imperial-class Star Destroyers were part of the fleet that patrolled the Inner Rim. Six months after the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, the Aggressor and its escorts were recalled to the Imperial shipyards at Corellia, where they defended the Imperial withdrawal from the system as the New Republic—formerly the Rebel Alliance—began conquering planets in the Core Worlds.
By 5 ABY, the Aggressor was in the hands of Grand Admiral Josef Grunger, one of the first Imperial warlords and a man loyal only to himself. Grunger bullied Imperial officers into turning over their ships to his command, gathering a sizable armada of Star Destroyers and smaller cruisers. The Grand Admiral led this flotilla from the Aggressor and plotted to use his fleet to seize the Imperial capital world of Coruscant, utilizing the Corellian sector as a launch point. However, the sector had already been taken by fellow Grand Admiral Danetta Pitta; when Grunger's forces arrived in the Corellian system, Pitta took command of a Torpedo Sphere siege platform and began decimating his rival's fleet. Grunger, faced with the likelihood of defeat, rammed his flagship into the Torpedo Sphere, an act that killed both Grand Admirals and destroyed both vessels.
==Description==
The Aggressor was the third Executor-class Star Dreadnought manufactured for the Galactic Empire, and the second warship of that class built at Kuat Drive Yards. The Aggressor was one of many such capital ships serving the fragmenting Empire in the years following the death of Emperor Palpatine at the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY. The warship served as a flagship and command vessel.
==History==
The third Executor-class warship to be manufactured, the Aggressor was the flagship of Admiral Roek, a cunning Imperial commander. Assigned an escort of five Imperial-class Star Destroyers, the Aggressor patrolled the Inner Rim. Approximately six months following the Battle of Endor, the Aggressor and its escorts were recalled to guard the Imperial-held shipyards at Corellia. Information on this reassignment, sent from the Imperial capital of Coruscant, was intercepted by the New Republic and utilized in preparations for an eventual New Republic assault on the capital planet. The Aggressor defended the Imperial withdrawal from the Corellian system as the New Republic began its conquest of the Core Worlds.
Grand Admiral Josef Grunger, having become one of many warlords in the power vacuum resulting from Palpatine's death, had his own plans for the Aggressor. Using his high rank, he bullied Imperial officers in the Outer Rim Territories into surrendering their vessels to his fleet. Grunger amassed an armada of thirty Imperial-class and Victory-class Star Destroyers, one hundred Carrack-class light cruisers, and sixty Strike-class medium cruisers, among other ships. To lead this flotilla, Grunger secured the Aggressor and made it his own command ship.
Following the same goal as the New Republic, the ambitious Grunger planned to attack Coruscant with his fleet in 5 ABY, using the Corellian sector as a launching point. However, the sector had already been claimed by Grand Admiral Danetta Pitta after bribing the Corellian Diktat. Upon Grunger's arrival in the Corellian system, near the planet Tralus, Pitta took control of a Torpedo Sphere siege platform and began to annihilate Grunger's armada. Refusing to let Pitta win, Grunger rammed the Aggressor into Pitta's Torpedo Sphere, an act that destroyed both vessels. Both Grand Admirals, still aboard their flagships, perished in the collision.
==Commanders and crew==
The Super Star Destroyer was originally commanded by Roek, a cunning admiral who used the Aggressor as his flagship. The warship was later commandeered by Grand Admiral Josef Grunger, one of the earliest breakaway Imperial warlords following the Battle of Endor. Ambitious and loyal to no one but himself, Grunger took the Aggressor as his own command ship, leading a sizable force of Star Destroyers and other vessels from it. The Grand Admiral sought to conquer Imperial Center with his armada, using the Corellian system as a staging point. It was in that system, at the Battle of Tralus, where a losing Grunger took the Super Star Destroyer and rammed it into fellow Grand Admiral Pitta's Torpedo Sphere, destroying both combatant commanders and their flagships.
==Behind the scenes==
The Aggressor was first mentioned in the article "Recon & Report: The Journey to Coruscant," published in the second issue of the Star Wars Adventure Journal in 1994.
==Sources==
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*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
*The Essential Guide to Warfare
==Notes and references==
Category:Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts
Category:Flagships
Category:Starships of the Galactic Empire
Category:Starships of the Imperial splinter factions