Battle of Sacorria

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Battle of Sacorria
Second Galactic Civil War
Date	Year 11 Day 350
Location	Sacorria
Result	New Republic victory
Belligerents
New Republic	CorSec Galactic Empire
Commanders and Leaders
Minister of State Taka Aioko
Strength
13 commanders, 4,500 engineers
Casualties and Losses
2,500 engineers	Sacorria lost

The Battle of Sacorria (also known as Operation Chiron by the New Republic, and Operation WOUNDED from the Galactic Empire) was the liberation of the planet Sacorria from CorSec and the Galactic Empire by New Republic forces. Sacorria was a planet located in the Corellian Sector, core area, and according to the current galactic coordinate system, it corresponds to Callos VII.

The battle took place while the Imperial Union leaders had gathered in Coruscant, just a few hours away from that star system. The IU leaders were there to recognize the ascension of Thomas Cherokee to the Imperial Throne as well as hold a summit to address Union matters, including the ratification of a revised Charter. It was the first time the Union leaders had gathered in one location since the Coronation Ball of King Alexander of Hapes, earlier that same year. It was called The Coruscant Summit and it was the first real meeting between the Union leaders since the admission of the Trade Federation to the Union on Day 295 of Year 9.

Historians managed to put their hands on declassified information sources, and the following records include views from the NR side of the events.

Preparations

During his time as Republican Minister of State, Taka Aioko noticed that a few enemy planets had fissures in their defenses. Therefore, he began researching if a possible liberation of those territories was feasible, and subsequently planned the operations. Time represented a critical factor, however, because it was short: the cities supporting the rebel cause were in danger of imminent obliteration, and the Galactic Authority on Universe Matters was discussing an overall reorganization of all the solar systems.

During the planning stage, the Sacorria operation received the key name of "Raid Core" and, in parallel, two other operations were organized:

1. "Raid UR", which would later be renamed Operation Blackbeard;
2. "Raid OR-F4" which would later take its shape as Operation Argo.

Minister Aioko recruited thirteen people for the raid, and those who accepted (including other Advisory Council members) were kept unaware of anything but general details. The enemy or the planet were never disclosed, and the day of the assault wasn't shared with the team until two days before zero hour. Many people refused to participate in the operation over the lack of information that was shared.

During an interview, Minister Aioko said: "I trusted most of the people I tried to recruit for the Operation, but when you trust someone with a secret, you can count on them to trust other people with it, and then it's only a matter of time before it reaches the wrong ear. The Empire had always agents among us, so I was even vague on my own notes during the preparations." Recruiting was not easy, thus Minister Aioko eventually included one SFC officer who was assigned to him but wasn't cleared for that operation in particular.

The main rendezvous point was set in Kashyyyk, where thousands of Wookies and Trandoshans were recruited to assist with the construction efforts. Two Modular Transport Cruisers acted as motherships, the NRS Dues and NRS Prospero. The fleet also counted nine A-Wings and several Bulk Freighters. When all assets were docked, both MTCs jumped into hyper to Corellian space.

Alpha team

Minister Ceveri

Director Solman

Beta team

Minister Aioko

Minister Archer

Wing C. Cornforth

Master Saracco

Rekka Deott

Gamma team

Secretary Nejo

SC Griffiths

Group Captain Wan

President Ortesma

Delta team

Director Maximus

Diplomat Skyff

On Year 11 Day 347, Minister Aioko briefed his raid party for the last time:

"This next day 350 at approximately 8 hours we are expected to arrive in our target's orbits, one moon and the main target, a planet. I will talk to you all individually to clear out doubts, so don't worry. In this step, coordination is going to be a key factor, we need Beta and Gamma teams to start building at the same time and finish as soon as possible, because every minute is going to count in our favor.

Beta team is going to attack our main target city at coordinates (4, 2) and Gamma team will be aiming for a hidden post at (2, 9). Alpha team will be creating a small diversion in a moon and Delta team will be leaving a decoy at the planet's atmosphere level.

I'm not going to lie to you guys, we are going to be fighting a strong and determined enemy who knows its territory like the back of its hand, so I expect to find resistance and at some point it might get hairy. But if they don't react fast or they don't make the right decisions, we can liberate the planet. We have the advantage of surprise, we are prepared.

May the Force be with you all."

Day One

Sacor System

Early on Day 350, Alpha team moved to Sacor system from the north while the other teams entered from the south. Alpha team quickly moved to the moon Corri II and the rest headed to Sacorria planet.

As usual with Minister Aioko, he wanted to be the first to set foot on the ground. He often said: "In order to inspire your men by your example, you have to be with them. And to address the situation correctly, you have to be on the field."

Within an hour most build commanders (Minister Taka Aioko, Minister Jay Ceveri, Commander Walter Griffiths, Secretary Franco Nejo, Wing Commander Evan, Master Colin Saracco) were in position and construction started. However, Jedi Master Saracco couldn't make it in time so he was replaced by Group Captain Wan.

Most of Day One was spent working hard on construction, involving hundreds of military engineers, mainly Wookiees and Trandoshans. A reserve of 2,000 builders was awaiting on Sacorria's orbit. Six hundred fortifications were needed to strengthen the rebellious troops, yet 800 were started. The goal was to be able to spread the rebellion to the whole planet on the third day.

Tension among the Republican ranks faded away with the passing hours, as no enemy activity was observed. But a problem emerged for Alpha team as they didn't have all the raw materials they needed for their construction plans, although they had enough to fullfil their primary objective.

The New Republic also relied on a friendly base in the nearby moon of Sarcophagus.

That night, Cruz Skyff was on watch around Sacorria while Rekka Deott waited at atmosphere level inside his YT-1210. No imperial forces were present during the first day.

Day Two

Day two was a pretty calm day; Minister Aioko spent most of his time answering questions through his holoprojector for his Chief of State campaign.

By the end of the day, two enemy ships were sighted. A Sleuth that made it to Sacorria's orbit and a Y-Wing Longprobe that landed at coordinates (4, 2).

Day Three

The third day started busily: many engineers were arrested while building, and more imperial forces showed up. Vizier Jacen Varos, Petty Officer Ron Mock, Imperial Admiral and CorSec 2IC Bru Michaels, Rear Admiral, CO 7th Imperial Fleet Markus Saretti, Private Tobi Beck were among them.

During the initial few hours the battle looked like a dance party, with the Imperials arresting rebels, and the Republican forces freeing them and let them return to work, while the Imperials were also chasing the ones in command. A few hours later, this dance turned into a blood bath: the Imperial forces started executing anyone on sight.

Long hours were spent trying to keep construction ongoing and rescuing the engineers that finished their work. The following afternoon would become one of the most dangerous and bloodiest hours of our current age.

By the end of Day Three, the Imperial forces started laying their own strongholds.

Day Four

Sacorria's race.

The number of casualties among the republican and rebel forces reached the thousands, and the red colour of the dawn of that early morning of Day 353 could be easily mistaken as blood. Nonetheless, eventually the upheaval was successful and CorSec lost its planetary control. The Galactic Flashnews announced "It appears today as though brute force is not quite enough to keep the citizens of Sacorria down, as they have stepped up and taken power from the old leader, long hailed as a puppet of CorSec, and forced all CorSec-aligned politicians to resign their positions, ceding power to local control."

But the day had just begun. A race between the New Republic and Imperial forces to seize lands around the planet took place, with the New Republic forces running from behind. However, they camouflaged their actual strongholds, disorienting the enemy.

After just a few but intense hours, the New Republic was able to secure 54% percent of the territory, while Imperial forces secured 44%. The remaining 2% was uninhabitable.

The following is the report of Minister Aioko's communication to his troops: "I'll be really short this time because I'm pretty sleep deprived like all of you. After 3 days of work and risking our necks, we were able to win the battle in the last hours. Out of 100% of the territory, 2% is volcanic, 54% is now ours and the enemy has only 44%, so they can't push us back.

For those of us who are staying to finish the job, the Imperials are still able to arrest in the planet until our power generators finish and we take control of the planet. We have to be extra careful and work in groups of two: at this point it doesn't make any sense to take any risks. I will leave handcuffs in orbit for when the time comes or for any inconveniences. We will attempt to secure the planet now that we have the manpower and tactical advantage.

I think I will never forget how bravely you fought the last two days, it was really impressive. And not long from now we will start planning the next place where we need to kick some butt, so I will eventually ask you guys if you're interested."

Surprisingly for the republican troops, the Imperial forces didn't give up the fight. Instead, they doubled down and dispatched even more reinforcements to stop the New Republic from establishing their government on the planet. At this point in time, the Imperial forces included also construction teams.

On the fourth day occurred what the Republicans later called the Evan Conforth incident. While assisting a group of Wookiee engineers, Wing Commander Cornforth passed out for more than 40 minutes outside his ship, risking his life. A transcript of the radio communication was published a few years later. Soon after this incident Evan's CO would ask him to leave the operation as he didn't have the proper authorization, but he would be allowed to stay after reconsideration.

By the end of the day, an Imperial Victory Star Destroyer I with 303 passengers and 60 ships, including bulks, arrived in Sacorria's orbit. On the New Republic's part, the SFC forces joined the fight providing 6 A-Wings under Alexandre Daigle's command.

Day Five

Day five was a fierce battle around the New Republic's power generators that were under construction. The Republican forces managed to read the tactics used by every Imperial officer, and communicated a change of counter-attack strategy to each engineer team involved, based on the single preference of each enemy. Consequently, the number of rebel casualties decreased significantly.

Both sides expanded their fortifications on the planet. Also, by the end of the day Jedi Master Evan Traner arrived in Sacorria to contribute to the local population's liberation, despite the fact that he had initially refused to take part of the operation because of the lack of details given to him.

Day Six

Just a handful of hours before the New Republic could gain definite control of the planet, a galaxy-wide natural phenomenon affected all activities related to construction, preventing them from progressing or finishing. Later, scientists would explain that a strong magnetic wave had temporarily inverted polarity, creating a domino effect that propagated throughout the whole charted worlds. This explanation is still debated, though; in any case, this anomaly gave the Imperial forces a second wind, while morale within New Republic ranks diminished as the hours went by.

As a matter of fact, the Imperials put more and more pressure on the attackers' power generators that were still under construction, as reinforcements were deployed. The killings continued for hours while the Republican forces could do nothing but watch.

Day Seven

On the seventh day, the magnetic anomaly persisted and the Republican forces made the best of a bad matter and spent the time to regroup and reorganize. The moon Sarcophagus was prospected and plans were laid to start mining it. Now there was the serious and actual danger that the quick raid would become an operation prolonged for months. Any day more would go against the rebellious population, for a simple reason: being Sacorria deep inside Imperial territory, it was easy for the Galactic Empire to keep pouring reinforcements and assets, whereas the Republican forces would struggle to provide a steady flow of raw materials for the operation.

Day Eight

And here came Day 357. It was Black Forest Day, which the Republicans also call Kashyyyk Massacre Remembrance.
The magnetic anomaly lasted two days but it was now gone. This, coupled with the special anniversayr infused morale among the rebels' ranks. The cry of hundreds of Wookiees yelling for freedom flooded the battlefield, and in a matter of hours Sacorria was freed. Wookiees and Trandoshan, who have a long-lasting and mutual hatred, on that occasion set their pride aside and showed an uncommon bravery in fighting together against the Empire. The remembrance of the useless and groundless massacre at their expenses might have spurred the Wookiees to do their outmost to avoid the same experience to another innocent people.

The local population quickly acknowledged the New Republic as having an important role in their independency process, and very gladly recognized the New Republic as their official government. This was announced by the Galactic Flashnews: "A new treaty was established on Sacorria today between governing officials and diplomats from New Republic; these documents formalize the transition of power to becoming a protected territory of the government, a move largely embraced by the citizenry."

In the afternoon, the Republican troops started making prisoners, who were moved to the shielded moon of Sarcophagus. The conflict was beginning to end. Arrest forces were led by Jedi Masters Traner and Saracco, but also included Walter Griffiths, Franco Nejo, Jay Ceveri, Rekka Deott, Taka Aioko, Ruben Wan and Andre Archer.

Imperial forces slowly started a strategic retreat.

Aftermath

On Year 11 Day 358, just a day after the establishment of the New Republic's government in Sacorria, the Imperial Union released a Galactic News about The Coruscant Summit, that is where a new treaty was ratified and Thomas Cherokee was recognized to the Imperial Throne.
A few weeks later CorSec ceded control of all its planets to the Galactic Empire.

On Year 12 Day 4, the Thyferran Taka Aioko was elected Chief of State of the New Republic and after securing Sacorria he would immediately continue with Operation Blackbeard in the Unknown Regions, which took place on Day 22.

Awards

The New Republic awarded the people involved as follows:

• Taka Aioko - Perlemian Star of Freedom
• Andre Archer - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Jay Ceveri - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Franco Nejo - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Walter Griffiths - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Evan Traner - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Cruz Skyff - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Tak Solman - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Biffis Maximus - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Rekka Deott - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Craulani Ortesma - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Colin Sarraco - Hydian Star of Excellence
• Ruben Wan - Republic Achievement Medal
• Evan Cornforth - Republic Achievement Medal