Harbinger (Mon Calamari Star Cruiser)

Harbinger was a heavily armed Mon Calamari Star Cruiser that served as General Garm Bel Iblis' flagship in the later part of the Yuuzhan Vong War. Initially guarding the planet Tallaan from Yuuzhan Vong attack, Harbinger participated in the New Republic rout of Yuuzhan Vong forces in the Treskov system in 28 ABY. The Star Cruiser later aided the New Republic's successor state, the Galactic Alliance, in defending the planet Mon Calamari from a Yuuzhan Vong armada in 29 ABY. Harbinger and the Galactic Alliance forces met the armada at the edge of the Mon Calamari system, where the Star Cruiser made good use of its heavy weaponry. Following the battle, Bel Iblis and Harbinger joined Galactic Alliance fleet elements in liberating the planet Corulag from the Yuuzhan Vong.
==Description==
A Mon Calamari Star Cruiser, Harbinger was heavily armed with long-range weapons. It possessed a command bridge, engines, a hyperdrive system, and life support.
==History==
In the year 28 ABY,The Essential Reader's Companion during the Yuuzhan Vong War, in which the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy, Harbinger served as the flagship of fleet elements used by New Republic–allied General Garm Bel Iblis to guard the planet Tallaan against the invaders. Harbinger traveled alongside half of the fleet from Talaan as Bel Iblis answered Jedi Master Luke Skywalker's call to aid the New Republic in creating a trap for the Yuuzhan Vong in the Deep Core's Treskov system, near the moon Ebaq 9. Once the Yuuzhan Vong fleet was lured into the system, Skywalker, from Harbinger bridge, led the ships from Bel Iblis' force as well as a group from the Smugglers' Alliance coalition in engaging the Yuuzhan Vong's Battle Group of Yun-Q'aah in one facet of the Battle of Ebaq. The battle ended in a victory for the New Republic forces, with Yuuzhan Vong Warmaster Tsavong Lah being killed during the fighting. At the end of the battle, New Republic Supreme Commander Sien Sovv made his report from the Harbinger.
Harbinger was later one of the multitude of warships that gathered near the planet Mon Calamari to aid the Galactic Alliance, the New Republic's successor state, in defending the ocean world from a massing Yuuzhan Vong armada in 29 ABY. At the edge of the Mon Calamari system, Harbinger and the Galactic Alliance forces encountered the enemy armada, which shaped itself like a yammosk, a tentacled creature with telepathic capabilities. After Galactic Alliance starfighters opened up holes in the arms of the armada that were formed by lighter Yuuzhan Vong vessels, Harbinger and the Super Star Destroyer Guardian pummeled the Yuuzhan Vong capital ships in the heart of the armada with their long-range weaponry through the opened firing lanes. As the fighting progressed, the Yuuzhan Vong armada deployed the shielding effects of its dovin basals between itself and Harbinger, Guardian, and the Viscount-class Star DefenderThe New Jedi Order: Vector Prime Viscount, sparing the armada from the weapons of the trio of battleships.
In an effort to change the focus of the dovin basals, Galactic Alliance bombers infiltrated the armada, which forced the Yuuzhan Vong to defend themselves on a different front. Because of the resulting shift in defenses, Harbinger and Guardian were able to freely target the poorly defended arms of the armada with their weapons, destroying multiple coralskippers and picket ships. Not long after, the Yuuzhan Vong armada withdrew from the combat zone. Following the action in the Mon Calamari system, Bel Iblis and Harbinger accompanied a battle group that included the Imperial-class Star DestroyersDark Nest II: The Unseen Queen Mon Mothma and Elegos A'Kla, as well as the MC80B Star Cruiser Mon Adapyne, to the Yuuzhan Vong–held world of Corulag to liberate it in a surprise attack. Traveling with the rest of the battle group from the planet Contruum, Harbinger decanted from hyperspace close to Corulag after the other three Galactic Alliance warships and rendezvoused with Elegos A'Kla.
With the help of the other capital ships, Harbinger boxed in the Yuuzhan Vong vessels, and the resulting crossfire destroyed many of the enemy coralskippers. During the fighting, Yuuzhan Vong–allied Peace Brigade TIE fighters launched from Corulag, and General Tycho Celchu, who was commanding Elegos A'kla, was assigned to deal with them, with Harbinger to aid Celchu if needed. In the end, Corulag was liberated from the Yuuzhan Vong, with Harbinger playing an important role in the fighting.
==Commanders and crew==
Harbinger commander was the CorellianThe Essential Guide to Characters General Garm Bel Iblis, who used the Star Cruiser as his flagship as he fought against the Yuuzhan Vong during the later part of the war.
==Behind the scenes==
Harbinger first appeared in Walter Jon Williams' Destiny's Way, a 2002 installment of The New Jedi Order series of novels.
==Appearances==
*The New Jedi Order: Destiny's Way 
*The New Jedi Order: The Unifying Force
==Sources==
*The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
==Notes and references==
Category:Flagships
Category:Mon Calamari cruisers
Category:Starships of the Galactic Alliance
Category:Starships of the New Republic