Battle of the Sixela system

A battle in 0 ABY took place in the Sixela system as a result of the machinations of Imperial Commander Rezi Soresh. Soresh had fled the Empire and searched for 27 days for a safe haven. Arriving in the Sixela system, he used his data to regain his power. Eventually, he established a outpost on a moon and captured starships to use as bodyguards and hostages. Then he contacted the Rebel Alliance pilot Luke Skywalker, threatening the crew of the colony vessel Endeavor, and as an added measure, killed the messenger in front of Skywalker. Skywalker would not allow the death of the hostages and set off to the Sixela system with his companions. Arriving on Soresh's barren moon, Han Solo met with a man identifying himself as Soresh. Solo distracted the man while Skywalker and Organa strafed the compound in T-65 X-wing starfighters. The man drew his blaster but Solo had better aim and killed the man. The other two landed, but a series of underground mines went off among the hostages and they rushed off to assist. A colonist grabbed Skywalker, but in reality it was Soresh, hidden among the hostages, and Soresh used a Force pike to stun the Rebel. The other Rebels were subdued by Soresh's bodyguards.
Over the next two weeks, Soresh tortued Skywalker to break down his will and turn him into his personal assassin. Ove time, Skywalker's will wore down, but images of his friends kept him sane; he pretended to go along with Soresh. When Soresh presented him to his friends, Skywalker appeared mindless and was ordered to shoot the other Rebels. The droids belonging to the Rebels, hidden away from Soresh, staged a distraction, allowing the Rebels to escape. Skywalker saved Solo from execution, but told him he needed to stay with Soresh. Solo shot him in the shoulder, and Soresh later picked up Skywalker. While the Heroes of Yavin were on the moon, the Rebels on Yavin 4 had taken the bait Soresh offered them and planned an offensive against the supposed meeting of the Imperial High Command in the Sixela system. The former Jedi and now Alliance operative Ferus Olin expressed his concern over the intelligence to General Jan Dodonna but was overruled. Olin later received a visitation from the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi who told him to trust his instincts. He then went with his partner, the mercenary Div to the moon to search for the missing Heroes of Yavin.
Olin and Div beat the Alliance Fleet to the system. After two weeks of simulations, the fleet was ready to attack. Olin and Div met wtih Solo and Organa while Soresh drew Darth Vader to the system via a hologram message. Soresh then revealed his masterpiece, prototype resonance torpedos to set off a chain reaction in the system's star and destroy both fleets. Soresh offered Skywalker his lightsaber in return for pressing the button; Skywalker revealed his true allegiance, lashing out at Soresh. The Imperial Commander escaped but not before launching the torpedoes just as the Rebel and Imperial Fleet arrived in the system and Skywalker's companions arrived to assist him.
Organa contacted both sides to warn them of the impending supernova while Skywalker and the others joined the battle waging in space. The two fleets engaged in a massive battle while their starfighter complements wore each other down, with Div being one of the causalties. When the torpedoes hit and started the chain reaction, both fleets broke off action and fled into hyperspace. Skywalker returned to the surface to finish rescuing the hostages; unbeknownst to him, Vader landed to hunt down Soresh. Olin detected Vader's presence and lied to Organa, choosing to sacrifice himself to save the Rebel leader. As the minutes ticked closer to destruction, Organa and her companions recovered Olin's body and left the planet, but not before Solo killed Soresh. After the supernova and in the safety of empty space, the Heroes of Yavin shared a toast.
==Prelude==
Twenty-seven days after his exile from the Galactic Empire in 0 ABY, Commander Rezi Soresh fled to the Outer Rim Territories, eventually ending up in the Sixela system, landing on a moon around the third planet of the system. Once there, he set about rebuilding his power base with his stored data, in many cases resorting to bribes and blackmail. Eventually, Soresh captured a colony vessel with 100 civilians on it to lure the Rebel hero Luke Skywalker to him. Along with some Arkanians, Soresh took other people and drugged them, turning them into uniformly mindless bodyguards.
In other parts of the galaxy, Skywalker and his Rebel companions went on a mission to the planet Nyemari. Their attempts to steal access codes to an important Imperial Installation succeeded, but they were forced to escape the capital city and returned to where they had hid their starship, the Millennium Falcon and were told they were being followed. The Rebels confronted the mysterious messenger, who gave Skywalker a hologram from Soresh. In the message, Soresh "invited" Skywalker to the Sixela system in return for the hostages, giving a deadline of twelve hours. As a warning, Soresh demonstrated his power when the messenger died in front of Skywalker as a result of a delay-activated poison. Skywalker knew he had to go to Soresh, but his companions did not let him go alone.
==Battle==
===Skywalker captured===
Before the deadline passed, the Millennium Falcon arrived at Soresh's barren moon. Han Solo disembarked and met a hooded man. The man claimed to be Soresh and demanded Skywalker. Solo stated Skywalker may or may not be onboard, but two X-wings flew down and attacked Soresh's outpost, destroying the laser cannons aimed at the hostages. Angered, the hooded man raised his triple blaster, but Solo gunned him down first. The X-wings landed, and Skywalker and Leia Organa disembarked to join Solo and his copilot, the Wookiee Chewbacca. The Rebels were then surprised by exploding mines in the compound, and they raced to assist the hostages. Skywalker was grabbed by a hostage, who revealed himself as Soresh. Soresh used a force pike to subdue the young pilot. Soresh's bodyguards then captured the other Rebels, even though Chewbacca took out six or seven of the drugged guards; the Rebel droids C-3PO and R2-D2 remained hidden.
Back on the Rebel's main base on Yavin 4, the Alliance command had received a secret Imperial transmission saying Emperor Palpatine would be arriving in the Sixela system with a minimal guard for a meeting of the Imperial High Command. It was a chance the fledgling Rebellion did not refuse. The message was forwarded from a Rebel scout, who Soresh, unbeknownst to the Rebel leaders, had captured and drugged as part of his plot. Rebel janitor Jono Moroni was talking to Div, a mercenary, and Ferus Olin, former Jedi and now Rebel operative. Olin used a mind trick on Moroni to force him to reveal the message to them. Div was disgusted with the unnecessary use of the Force, but didn't say anything. Olin then told Moroni to go back to his quarters.
Alone in his cell and chained to the wall by his wrists, Skywalker was visited by Soresh, who told Skywalker his friends had been killed, before disappearing. Skywalker later tried to escape but was stopped by the electrically-charged durasteel bars; he was prevented from using the Force by a physical pressure. Soresh, who had been watching, applauded Skywalkers' attempt, and informed him he had been injected with a ferromagnetic solution, and an electromagnet in the floor could be activated to prevent escape. After deactivating the electromagnet, Soresh presented Skywalker with a tray of food, as he would need his strength. He then told Skywalker he would replace his last assassin, X-7.
Around that time, General Jan Dodonna was briefing the Alliance pilots about the planned attack against the Imperial High Command. Nearly half the fleet would ambush the two Star Destroyers from five ambush strike points, and they had two weeks to train. After the briefing, Olin talked to General Dodonna and voiced his concerns about the validity of the information. Dodonna would not trust him with classified information, though. Olin then asked about the whereabouts of Princess Leia and her companions. Dodonna at first said she was out of contact on a covert mission. Olin replied her mission should have ended three days prior and she should be on a diplomatic mission to the Winagrew system. Dodonna then revealed Organa had been out of contact since Nyemari.
Solo and Organa later tried to stage an escape, with Solo acting sick. When the guards opened the celldoor, the Rebels got ahold of their guards, but more guards with blasters arrived. Solo grabbed a blaster and took one of the guards hostage. Another guard shot the weapon out of Solo's hands, then executed the guard Solo was holding. The Rebels surrendered and were placed back in the cell by the emotionless guards. Soresh arrived and warned them not to do that again. When asked about Skywalker, he told them not to worry, because they would be dead soon.
Over the next two weeks, Skywalker was tortured and Soresh occasionally visited and gave him a temporary reprieve. Eventually, Skywalker grew to hope for his appearance. One day, Soresh told him his friends had been killed. Going back to his office, Soresh then used his holoplayer to contact Darth Vader. Soresh prepared his trump card: resonance torpedoes, which would cause the sun to go supernova and vaporize everything in the system. Soresh next gave Skywalker a chemical serum, of his own design used to break down a man's spirit by targeting memories. Visions of his friends helped Skywalker through the procedure, and he vowed to himself to hold on.
A spectral Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared to Ferus Olin back on Yavin 4. By that point, the Heroes of Yavin had been missing for a week. Kenobi encouraged Olin to use his instincts to go out and help them, as Skywalker's connection to the Force was growing weaker. Kenobi then told Olin to trust in himself.
Afterward, Soresh gave him back his lightsaber, and Skywalker pretended to be mindless, obeying all of Soresh's commands. Afterwards, the guards took the other three Rebels out into the open air. There they met Skywalker and Soresh. Skywalker stared blankly ahead. When he asked who they were, Soresh called them miscreants and handed Skywalker a blaster, telling him it was their time to die. Soresh told Skywalker to fire, so Skywalker did. The shot missed, slamming into the wall above Solo's head. Then Aridinian folk music started blaring. When the guards were distracted, Solo and Chewbacca attacked them and grabbed a blaster. A speeder truck appeared, piloted by the Rebels' droids. Solo rescued Organa from two guards, and C-3PO was firing a blaster in the air as a further distraction, while taking return fire from the guards. Solo then found a hiding spot, 50 meters from the others. He found a blaster shoved into the back of his head, and the guard behind him said to get on his knees. Then there was a blast behind him, and the guard was dead. Skywalker had saved him, acting normal. Skywalker informed him about the ruse, and told him he had to stay with Soresh to find out what the Imperial was planning. Solo promised the others would be waiting for him, and asked for a favor. Solo needed to shoot him to make it seem the Rebels had escaped.
Soresh later found him with a wound in his left shoulder. Soresh said he had proved his loyalty, but needed to be punished for his failure. To Skywalker, all that mattered was that his friends were safe.
The now-escaped Rebels were met on the surface by Div and Olin. Olin had been suspicious of the information from the start, and went down to the surface to rescue the others in Div's Firespray-31-class patrol and attack craft. Rebel Command had disallowed reconnaissance to avoid tipping off the Imperials, but Div and Olin went anyway and did not find any sign of the Imperials when they arrived. After scanning the moon, they found that all lifesigns were concentrated in a 10-kilometer radius of duracrete buldings. They then picked up a distress signal on a Rebel frequency. They saw the Millennium Falcon, but the distress signal was originating elsewhere. Landing by the signal, the two immediately found Solo and his companions, who explained the situation to the new arrivals.
In his command center, Soresh contacted Darth Vader again, to draw him towards the system. Vader threatened his doom, but Soresh laughed when Vader ceased to transmit, and bragged to Skywalker about his grand plan. Shortly, after two weeks of training in which the five attack points and need for precision were continually rehashed, the Rebel Alliance Fleet reverted from hyperspace into the Sixela system. Then Soresh told Skywalker about the resonance torpedoes he had, and would give Skywalker his lightsaber back, if Skywalker would press the button to launch the torpedoes at the sun. Instead, Skywalker kicked Soresh's knees out from under him. He Force grabbed the lightsaber ands started reflecting the blaster bolts Soresh's guards were sending at him after Soresh ordered them to Kill Skywalker; the guards forced Skywalker to give ground. Skywalker used a mind trick to subdue the guards, forcing them to flee. In the distraction Soresh made it to the computer terminal and launched the torpedoes before fleeing. Skywalker's companions then arrived to rescue him.
Darth Vader's Imperial fleet arrived next—six Imperial-class Star Destroyers and an Interdictor-class Star Destroyer to prevent escape. The two fleets started a massive engagement.
===Initial maneuvers===
Skywalker, Solo, and Chewbacca then took off to join the battle. Twelve of Soresh's guards had been placed around the Falcon; Skywalker dispatched them with the Force, explaining it as "Jedi hokum" as the guards laid down their weapons.
When they reached orbit, Skywalker joined the fight in his X-wing, outmanuevering attacking TIE fighters. Organa contacted the Rebel fleet, and then attempted to contact the Imperial Fleet and reached an Imperial on Vader's flagship to warn him of the impending supernova, but she was met with an angry and determined response. Both sides were taking casaulties, so Div came up with a plan. He ordered the Rebel Mon Calamari Star Cruisers to launch plasma bombs at an area of space, creating a red cloud of ionized gas 1000 meters across. Skywalker, Solo, and Div, and other X-wings led a squadron of TIE fighters through the cloud; as the cloud interfered with electronic sensors, the starfighters were blind. At the other end of the cloud, the Rebels dived downward at Div's signal, but the TIES hit a Star Destroyer hidden by the cloud and causing serious damage.
In the middle of a skirmish with remaining TIES, Div was hit by TIE-launched proton torpedoes. He was forced to take his Firespray down to the surface.
===Withdrawal===
The resonance torpedoes hit the star, causing a chain reaction which was calculated to explode in 40 minutes. With the threat of an impending supernova, the Imperial fleet left the system and the Rebel fleet soon followed.
Skywalker and Solo rejoined Organa on the surface of the moon to finish evacuating the hostages. Darth Vader had also landed on the surface in his shuttle to hunt Soresh. Olin sensed Vader's presence, and urged Organa to continue the evacuation, deliberately not telling her he would be confronting Vader. Olin and Vader traded lightsaber blows and taunts. The aged Jedi was no match for the Sith Lord and was cut down, and saw a vision of his old friend, Roan Lands. Organa came back and found his body, pausing long enough to say goodbye before they had to escape, taking his body with them. Skywalker spotted Vader and wanted to pursue, but was convinced there was no time. Soresh met the Rebels at the Millennium Falcon and attempted to blast Skywalker. In response, Solo gunned him down, ending his machinations and allowing the Rebel operatives to escape. Vader also escaped the system.
The sun went supernova minutes later, but did not destroy the fleets as Soresh had intended. With the supernova, his compound and body were destroyed.
==Aftermath==
The Millennium Falcon reverted to realspace after the supernova. In a moment of catharsis aboard the Millennium Falcon, Solo led a toast to past and present friends. Although the battle had ended in a draw, the Galactic Civil War was still ongoing. The two factions would continue to fight for another four years. Skywalker would bear no permanent scars from Soresh's indoctrination, and in fact would continue to grow in power.
==Behind the scenes==
This battle takes place during the final installment of Alex Wheeler's Star Wars: Rebel Force series. It is the first chronological use of resonance torpedoes in canon. The battle saw the end of the series and the deaths of several characters: Soresh, Divinian, and Olin, the latter two who played prominent roles in Star Wars: The Last of the Jedi series. The book contains a number of errors relating to the identity of the hostages, the placement of Soresh's moon, and the final disposition of Olin's body. The TIE fighters in the battle are erroneously equipped with proton torpedoes.
==Appearances==
*Rebel Force: Uprising 
==Sources==
*The Essential Reader's Companion
==Notes and references==
Category:Artificial disasters
Category:Battles in the Thuris sector
Category:Battles of the Galactic Civil War