Battle of Rathalay
The battle of Rathalay was fought between a Yuuzhan Vong invasion force and fleet elements of the New Republic and the Dornean Navy in 27 ABY.[1]
Background
During the Yuuzhan Vong War, many displaced sentients sought refuge on the rich resort planet of Rathalay but met with opposition from the local government. The New Republic sent a delegation from the Senate Select Committe for Refugees to the planet to negotiate, accompanied by Jedi Master Yuhlan Sarn and her apprentice Eryl Besa. Jedi apprentices Anakin Solo and Tahiri Veila were also sent to Rathalay, to assist Besa in identifying Yuuzhan Vong spies among the refugees.
In the villa in the Rathalay countryside, the retired smuggler Kaerobani and the former Grand Admiral Grant used the severed head of the droid 8t88 to slice into New Republic fleet transmissions and keep current on the war.
The Yuuzhan Vong launched a diversionary attack on nearby Charros, destroying two capital ships of the New Republic Fifth Fleet's Task Force Cloverleaf that was sent there to intercept an assumed Yuuzhan Vong push Rimwards.[1]
The battle
The Yuuzhan Vong, under the command of Warral Chark, arrived in the Rathalay system with more than twenty ships. They immediately began sending landers to Rathalay's major cities to gather up slaves. When the remaining ships of Task Force Cloverleaf appeared in the system, the Yuuzhan Vong activated an interdictor analog, trapping the ships in the system. Another task force called for help by Cloverleaf's commander Commodore Snunb, Task Force Apex, was pulled out of hyperspace by a Yuuzhan Vong interdictor elsewhere.
Task Force Cloverleaf clustered in orbit above Rathalay's most populous continent, with the fleet carriers Intrepid and Ballarat taking on refugees while the other ships defended them. When Captain Morano of Intrepid realized the situation was hopeless, he called his old commander and friend Etahn A'baht for help. Ballarat was destroyed and Intrepid damaged in a grutchin attack, and shortly after the bridge of the task force's flagship Resolve was destroyed, presumably killing Commodore Snunb. Command fell to Captain Morano, who passed it on to Captain Vatrim on the cruiser Sunbeam shortly before being killed by a grutchin.
The former grand admiral Grant had escaped from the planet together with the three Jedi apprentices Eryl Besa, Anakin Solo and Tahiri Veila, while Kaerobani had been killed trying to flee and Master Sarn had sacrificed herself to enable the apprentices' escape. They landed on Intrepid, where Grant subverted the authority of the acting captain Floran Welby and took effective control of the New Republic forces. By ordering an attack on the Yuuzhan Vong war coordinator while presenting himself as a diversion, Grant managed to buy Task Force Cloverleaf a momentary reprieve. During that time, Grant conferred with Anakin Solo and devised a plan to take out the enemy interdictor.
Transferring to the gunship Farlight, Grant challenged the Yuuzhan Vong commander Warral Chark to a ship-to-ship duel. Chark accepted and met Grant in the middle between the two fleets in a gunship analog. After the first exchange of fire, however, Grant charged the Yuuzhan Vong lines, drawing out some of the picket ships that had been guarding the interdictor. That allowed Besa, Solo and Veila to get close to the interdictor in starfighters and destroy it. Immediately afterwards, Grant's Farlight was rammed by Chark's gunship analog, destroying both ships and killing Grant.
By the time of the interdictor's destruction, General A'baht had arrived in the system with a Dornean complement of six ships. Grant had left orders for them to plot a microjump deeper into the system, which they executed as soon as the interdiction field dropped. That allowed them to hold back the Yuuzhan Vong while the remnants of Task Force Cloverleaf escaped. The Dornean gunship Zahkaran was destroyed in the action; the rest escaped with the New Republic forces and eventually returned to Dornea.[1]