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Battle of Sluis Van

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following the Battle of Endor, the Imperial Navy was scattered to the distant parts of the galaxy. The New Republic regained a great deal of galactic territory, reducing the Empire to a quarter of its former size. In these small sectors of the galaxy, various Imperial factions vied to supremacy. Grand Admiral Thrawn resurfaced in the Empire about 2 years after the Battle of Endor, and quickly gained control of the Empire and its Navy. He implemented a plan which involved a series of hit-and-run attacks on various planets in remote parts of the New Republic, at the edge of the Sluis sector. He then stole 51 mole miners from Lando Calrissian's Nomad City mining operation. The New Republic, still trying to adjust to the rapid growth of its holdings, was stretched thin trying to repair the damage Thrawn had done while trying to determine his next move. He then recovered the cloaking device that Emperor Palpatine had been creating. It was at this point, with New Republic forces spread out, that Thrawn made his first stab at the Republic. He put the disguised freighter Nartissteu into port at Sluis Van Central. Inside the freighter, hiddened by a new cloaking device Thrawn's engineers had created, were squadrons of TIE Fighters. He then positioned a number of Imperial ships just outside Sluis Van's influence, and had them emerge from hyperspace at a specified time. This coincided with the launch of the TIE Fighters from the freighter's hold. The main objective of the attack was to eliminate one of the New Republic's major shipyards, while stealing as many of the Republic's warships as possible for use in the growing Imperial Navy. This was where Thrawn used the stolen mole miners. He manned them with Imperial spacetroopers, who would bore holes into the hulls of Republic capital ships. The crews would be killed when the atmosphere was sucked into the vacuum of space. The spacetroopers, fully geared for the lifeless vacuum, then could gain control of the ships. However, due to the timely arrival of Wedge Antilles's Rogue Squadron, as well as the arrival of Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker, and some other New Republic warships, the attack at Sluis Van was negated. Han and Lando used the mole miners' remote control circuits to send startup commands to the small ships, causing them to fire their plasma jets. This then fried the captured ships' command circuits, rendering the control of these ships inoperable. Neither side was able to claim complete victory. While the Imperials were able to infiltrate the shipyards, they were quickly driven off before any more damage could be done. The Republic, on the other hand, survived its first major threat from the remnants of the Empire, but lost many ships due to the frying of their circuits.