Operation Lothal Freedom

Operation Lothal Freedom was a joint military operation carried out in 2018 by various governments to defend the planet Lothal from invasion by the First Order. The operation was led by Remnant Admiral Firmus Piett and Remnant General Tevin Felth with combined forces from the Remnant, United States, United Kingdom, and Israel along with the Spectres and members of both the Jedi Order of Earth and the New Jedi Order as well as a New Republic Defense Fleet commanded by General Wedge Antilles inflicted severe losses on the First Order Fleet as well as capturing its military leader General Armitage Hux.
== Lead-up ==
Prior to 2018, a number of rogue loyalists to the ideals of the old Empire lead by Hux would declare themselves as the First Order eventually catching the attention of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and his apprentice Darth Caedus. The two Sith Lords would eventually obtain funding and other materials for the growing order. During this time, the First Order Intelligence Network would place sleeper agents on Earth to recruit others to its cause in preparation for an invasion that would never come. The First Order would also receive an Interdictor Cruiser and a Star Destroyer (the Finalizer) from a Remnant officer named Titus who was a descendant of Imperial Commander Brom Titus and would later claim that the ships were taken by pirates.
In 2018, one of the sleeper agents decided to begin dealing drugs at his high school to raise funds for his unit which caught the attention of the New York City Police Department who eventually sent in an undercover officer named Jamal Wilkins to stop the flow of drugs. Wilkins, who was undercover as a student was later joined by two more undercover agents sent in by Tevin Felth as a substitute teacher and teaching assistant in the forms of Jedi Knight Ezra Bridger and his astromech droid Chopper. Sidious finding out about Bridger's arrival on Earth and his joining the Jedi Order of Earth which contained a number of Sidious' enemies including Caedus' grandfather Anakin Skywalker and Michael Myers ordered Caedus and Hux to prepare the fleet for deployment to Lothal in an attempt to lure Bridger out. Meanwhile, Chopper had intercepted a drawing being passed around one of Bridger's classes which depicted a student's bigoted views as well as a symbol that Bridger had not seen before. Bridger and Wilkins later discussed the drawing and Wilkins decided to have the student's locker searched by detectives from the NYPD which uncovered both the drugs Wilkins had been looking for and recruitment materials from the First Order. During this, Felth also handed ownership of the Ghost to Bridger who later told Chopper that he thought they had just found a new crew for the ship in Wilkins, Landon McKnight, Bridger's soon to be Jedi Padawan Josh Myers, and Felth's daughter Lucy. Sidious eventually gave the order for the fleet to depart for Lothal as he sensed that Bridger had put one of their agents in jeopardy.
During an interrogation conducted by Wilkins, the student who had been arrested made comments suggesting that he should have shot Bridger and Wilkins, but would settle for the joy of knowing Bridger could do nothing as his home planet was invaded by the First Order. Bridger in a state of panic, immediately made plans to depart for Lothal with Felth telling Bridger that he would talk to Wanda Houston and that Lucy could go to Lothal since Bridger had already planned to take her friends and Wilkins with him and that she would simply stowaway on the Ghost. Felth also informed the New Republic of the possible invasion and the Republic sent Jedi Masters Corran Horn and Kyle Katarn to investigate.
== The Battle ==
Bridger and the Ghost arrived in the Lothal System to find a First Order fleet in orbit along with Horn's ship the Pulsar Skate. Soon after, the two ships were attacked by First Order TIE Fighters. The Ghost would return fire with its guns manned by McKnight and Wilkins. Bridger then led the fighters into the stream of First Order landing craft with Landon scoring hits on various First Order ships. As Bridger was informed that the Ghost was losing its shields, the first ships arrived from Earth in the form of X-Wings piloted by Landon's cousins and commanded by Remnant Colonel Marten Rawlkins. They were later joined by a much larger fleet commanded by Piett and containing numerous American, British, and Israeli ships as well as the Felth's Pride and the Astro Megaship. In addition, a number of Remnant personnel were involved serving a crewmembers and pilots including Colonel Typher Marlion.
Piett then decided to employ tactics that he had seen and heard of being used with success by Rebel Alliance commanders. His first move was to engage the First Order fleet at point blank range, his second move was to remove the Interdictor Cruiser from play by inflicting severe damage on the Star Destroyer next to it which had exchanged fire with an Israeli Corvette and having the Corvette ram the Star Destroyer into the Interdictor. This move generated the only loss of a capital ship on the Earth/Remnant side.
Unaware that a team of Jedi containing Skywalker, Jaina Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Myers were aboard with intentions on confronting Caedus, Hux ordered the Finalizer to move into a position to commence orbital bombardment of Lothal. This move was noticed and countered by Tevin Felth and U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Steven Laramie and his Black Knight Squadron which made an attack run on the Finalizer which had already sustained damage from the Megaship's docking. Felth, Galen Marek, and R2-D2 fired concussion missiles at the Finalizer's turbolaser batteries after the Knights had disabled the Star Destroyer's shields. During this, the reinforcements summoned by Horn and Katarn arrived in the form of a New Republic Defense Fleet commanded by General Wedge Antilles which appeared at the flanks of the First Order fleet.
After the Megaship had cleared the Finalizer with Jacen Solo who had been talked down by Kenobi, his sister, and his grandfather aboard. Piett and Felth allowed the destruction of the Finalizer with Hux deciding to abandon his ship and being picked up by an Israeli Corvette much to his dismay as the crew took pleasure in avenging their fallen comrades by beating Hux and then turning him over to agents of Mossad for further interrogation.
On the surface, Bridger and Halo Flight made quick work of the ground forces with Bridger noting that any Stormtroopers hiding in the fields would probably become Loth-wolf lunch. The United States Marines soon landed their ground forces and began urban combat with First Order Stormtroopers who the locals were quick to reveal the hiding places of as many residents had not forgotten what Governor Pryce and the Old Empire had done to their home.
== Aftermath ==
Following the destruction of the Finalizer, Captain Moden Canady ordered the remaining ships of the First Order fleet to make a blind jump to hyperspace. Canady would later regroup the remaining forces for a planned attack on Earth to rescue Hux from the prison he was placed in by Israeli forces. However, he would encounter the Astro Megaship which had the younger members of the Spectres aboard along with Jacen Syndulla. While Canady would attempt to capture the Megaship in an attempt to secure hostages for a possible trade with the Remnant for Hux, his plan was thwarted when Darius Carpenter transmitted a distress signal on Frequency Zero which summoned a fleet from the Chiss Ascendancy led by Thrawn which inflicted severe damage on Canady's ship as well as destroying a ship that had been fitted for use as an Interdictor. Canady's ship would later crash on the planet Gratha where he was also captured by Israeli forces after attacking the planet Vica and encountering the Varox following a blind jump to hyperspace to escape Thrawn's fleet.
Lothal would be placed under the protection of a combined task force from both the Earth and the New Republic. This would come into play when agents of Black Sun attempted a hijacking of an American Spaceways flight from Lothal to Earth which was stopped by traveling Israeli soldiers. Due to his history with the planet and its Governor Jai Kell, the New Republic would assign Mart Mattin to oversee the Lothal Defense Fleet.
The pirate Hondo Ohnaka would later claim ownership of the computer cores recovered from the wrecked First Order Star Destroyers including the Finalizer and attempt to sell them for profit. The United States military however decided it was within its rights to seize the cores and jail Ohnaka for looting the shipwrecks.
Jai Kell would also return Ezra's Lightsaber to him and order a painting of the New Spectres from Sabine Wren who would later move to New York herself after finding out that Ezra was happy with his life there. Ezra's teaching position became permanent and he was soon joined by Sabine who was hired as a substitute for Ezra, but was kept as the school's art teacher. Ezra later began a relationship with Landon which everyone thought was going to happen. Jamal Wilkins was promoted to the rank of Detective within the NYPD and reassigned to the late Jedi Master Bryan Khayman's old precinct where he would work with Khayman's old partner Nick Franklin under the supervision of Myers' old partner and friend Tommy Doyle. Landon eventually enlisted with the Remnant and graduated from their Academy with the rank of Captain. The Spectres would eventually gain two more members, a second astromech droid called R9-D2 who belongs to Lucy and Darius Carpenter, who was one of Ezra's students and in need of both some friends and positive influences in his life. He and Lucy later began dating. The crew would also be joined by Hera Syndulla, Jacen Syndulla, AP-5, Noah Rodgers whose parents were killed in an attack on their shuttle that is suspected by Thrawn to have been carried out by Canady's ship somewhere between his attack on Vica and his encounter with the Varox, and another astromech called BB-8 that is owned by Josh and Noah.
Category:Events
Category:Spectres