Skirmish on the New Umboo Lightstation

The skirmish on the New Umboo Lightstation was a minor conflict between Tawntoom and the Galactic Empire against Mungo Baobab and his allies. Baobab and his droids C-3PO and R2-D2 were in search aboard the Caravel for the planet Roon when a tractor beam from the New Umboo Lightstation directed them inside. The three were mistaken for Imperial emissaries but were later caught out and apprehended when Admiral Terrinald Screed and his stormtroopers arrived.
R2-D2 managed to liberate both Baobab and the prisoner Noop Yeldarb before saving C-3PO. The four managed to flee the station aboard a cloudcraft after their escape triggered Nergon-14 reserves that fell on the engines. This caused a cascade of failures that resulted in the station colliding with an asteroid belt.
Baobab and his allies managed to flee the station after Bisad Koong and Gaff fled with Screed aboard Baobab's Caravel. This development also enabled for Yeldarb to reassume control of the Umboo lightstation which Koong had shut down and for him to direct Baobab to Roon.
==Background==
In 15 BBY, not long following his struggles on Biitu, Mungo Baobab resumed his quest to locate Roonstones and blaze a trade route to Roon from Manda for the Baobab Merchant Fleet, a dream that his family long held. To that end, Baobab, with his droid companions C-3PO and R2-D2 in tow, organized to meet his contact Krox in a local cantina to secure from him a map to the Roon system. However, their meeting was disrupted by three Imperial stormtroopers who were seeking to arrest Baobab. R2 managed to amplify the stormtrooper's audio sensors in order to distract them, securing Baobab and the droids enough time to flee on their speeder to the Baobab Archives to decode the information.
R2 managed to translate and record the information that Krox had given Baobab; C-3PO translated that the Roon system was located within a dust cloud referred to as the The Cloak of the Sith. Baobab and the droids departed Manda aboard the Caravel and followed the Rainbow Comets in the direction of the Roon system, precisely according to the information that R2 had recorded. However, emerging from the dust cloud, the Caravel was locked in a tractor beam and guided inside the New Umboo Lightstation.
==The skirmish==
The Caravel was guided inside and Baobab and the droids encountered Bisad Koong - the governor for Tawntoom province on Roon - and Gaff. Both were under the impression that Baobab and the droids were Imperial emissaries that Koong wished to conduct business with. The trio kept up the pretence (being shown Koong's operations) until Admiral Terrinald Screed and two stormtroopers arrived for the meeting with Koong; this revealed Baobab and the droids and imposters with them fleeting and Screed's stormtroopers taking flight after them. The stormtroopers managed to deactivate the droids while Gaff incapacitated Baobab when the latter was cornered.
Screed decided that Koong could keep the astromech droid while he wanted Baobab thrown into a force cage containing mupples and to have C-3PO prepared for a memory wipe since he had use for a protocol droid. Gaff went to oversee the memory wipe while R2 was immediately put to work moving cargo. Baobab, meanwhile, met fellow prisoner Noop Yeldarb, whom he learnt originally oversaw the former Umboo lightstation before Koong closed it and imprisoned him. R2 managed in the moments after to distract the stormtroopers with smoke so that he could see to Baobab's release, narrowly dodging a blaster bolt that disabled both force cages. This enabled for them to distract Gaff long enough to free 3PO from his restraints and preventing the memory wipe from successfully taking place.
The four managed to flee their captors but in the ensuing commotion Gaff ordered the stormtroopers to keep the crates of Nergon-14 from hitting the engines. However, the troopers were unable to do this, and the explosives hit the engines, thereby causing a cascade of failures that put the ship on course for a collision with a nearby asteroid belt. This forced Koong and Gaff to flee with Screed aboard Baobab's Caravel, and forcing Baobab and his allies to flee on Koong's cloudcraft just before the station collided with the asteroid belt in an explosion that severely impacted Koong's piracy operations.
==Aftermath==
Screed was unimpressed with Koong's performances, having already been disappointed with Koong's operations, and ordered that he and Gaff be locked in the brig, which was a temporary measure. Meanwhile, Yeldarb was able to reassume control of the Umboo Lightstation, and he managed to direct Baobab and the droids to Roon. The mupples were also safely aboard the cloudcraft, much to 3PO's dismay as the mupples had taken a particular liking to him.
==Appearances==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Battles of the early Imperial campaigns