Mission to Akiva

During the Galactic Civil War in 4 ABY, the New Republic pilot Captain Wedge Antilles undertook a mission to the planet Akiva in the Outer Rim Territories to spy on the Galactic Empire that had gathered for an Emergency summit on Akiva where they intended to regroup and launch an attack against the New Republic, the successor to the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
==Prelude==
Following the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance established a new government called the New Republic. The Galactic Empire was in disarray following the death of the Sith Lords Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. Despite this cataclysmic defeat, the remnants of the Empire continued to challenge the New Republic. Several months after the events on Endor, the starfighter pilot Captain Wedge Antilles undertook a mission to scan several Outer Rim worlds for Imperial activity.
Piloting an HH-87 Starhopper called the Rover, Wedge assumed the identity of the Devaronian pilot and businessman Gev Hessan. Antilles visited five worlds, Florrum, Ryloth, Hinari, Abafar, and Raydonia but encountered no Imperial forces. He then decided to visit the sixth world on the list: Akiva, a hot, wet, jungle world. Upon exiting hyperspace, Wedge found two Imperial Star Destroyers orbiting the planet. Before Wedge could leave the system, he was contacted by Admiral Rae Sloane, who commanded the Star Destroyer Vigilance. Sloane had arrived ahead of an upcoming Imperial emergency summit on Akiva.
==Hide and seek==
When Admiral Sloane demanded that Wedge identify himself, the New Republic pilot claimed to be Gev Hessan and transmitted his credentials. He also claimed that he was transporting dehumidifier parts. After consulting the Imperial records, Sloane discovered that Hessan had died in Imperial custody. Wedge tried to jump into hyperspace but the Rover was caught in the tractor beams of the two Star Destroyers. With his cover blown, Wedge toyed with activating the Starhopper's twin torpedoes but instead decided to blow up his ship once it had entered the Vigilance hangar bay in an attempt to mislead the Imperials into believing he made a suicide attack.
The resulting explosion killed six stormtroopers but Admiral Sloane and Lieutenant Nils Tothwin survived the blast. While Tothwin believed that the enemy pilot had been killed in the suicide attack, Sloane quickly determined that Antilles had survived the attack and had infiltrated the Vigilance. Since the Imperial summit was imminent, Sloane gave orders for her men to find the rebel infiltrator. As Sloane had predicted, Wedge survived the blast. Despite sustaining a broken leg, he managed to make his way into the Star Destroyer's communications room.
There, he stunned three comm officers with his blaster. Antilles attempted to send a subspace frequency to the New Republic but found that it had been blocked. Instead, he decided to send a message through the local channel traffic on Akiva. Wedge managed to identify himself as a New Republic Captain and state his location before he was hit in the shoulder by a blaster bolt fired by Admiral Sloane. While respecting Antilles for his actions, Sloane was unwilling to allow him to undermine the future of the Empire. After rebuffing Wedge's attempts to reason with her, she ordered her stormtroopers to shackled him and take Wedge to her shuttle. Sloane also gave orders for a medical droid to attend to the rebel pilot's wounds.
==Aftermath==
After capturing Antilles, Admiral Sloane was able to proceed with her plans to occupy Akiva's capital Myrra in preparation for the Imperial emergency summit at Satrap Isstra Dirus's palace. The summit was attended by several Imperial Military officers and officials including Admiral Sloane, Grand Moff Valco Pandion, the financier and slaver Arsin Crassus, General Jylia Shale, and the Emperor's adviser Yupe Tashu. Collectively, this group was known as the Imperial Future Council who had come to discuss how to deal with the growing threat of the New Republic.
Despite Sloane's best precautions, the New Republic pilot Norra Wexley, who was visiting her son Temmin Wexley, received Antilles' transmission. The bounty hunter Jas Emari, who was planning to collect a New Republic bounty on Crassus, and her reluctant ally, the former Imperial loyalty officer Sinjir Rath Velus, also learned about Wedge's plight and agreed to help Norra, her son, and Temmin's B1-series battle droid "Mister Bones" rescue Antilles. Working together, the group engineered an uprising on Akiva against the Satrapy and their Imperial backers. They managed to free Wedge, and capture and kill several members of the Imperial Future Council except Admiral Sloane, who managed to flee into hyperspace. The New Republic also sent a strike team led by Sergeant major Jom Barell and a fleet to liberate Akiva, making Akiva the first Outer Rim world to join the Republic.
==Behind the scenes==
The Mission to Akiva first appeared in Chuck Wendig's 2015 novel Aftermath, which was produced as part of Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The events of that mission are told from the point of view of Wedge Antilles and the main antagonist Admiral Rae Sloane, who had previously debuted in John Jackson Miller's 2014 novel A New Dawn.
==Appearances==
*Aftermath 
*Aftermath: Life Debt 
*Resistance Reborn 
==Sources==
*
* 
*Star Wars: Timelines
* 
==Notes and references==
Category:Battles of Akiva
Category:Missions of the Galactic Civil War