[ Stories ]

During the battle of Nest in sector 9 -4, the Union intelligence had located a unique opportunity to strike at the Mandalorian Fleets. A small isolated group is located in sector 9 -4. And they were settling in an asteroid belt to mine for materials. After a Motion of Special Enforcement an effort to capture them was authorized, and a strike team was sent in before the Mandalorians could call in for reinforcements.

A small fleet, assembled from forces from the First Shebi Fleet (of the Veolian Commonwealth), Praetorian Empire, Sundarian Federation and the Kingdom of Komès was sent to support the jedi Shebi Ajava, Darones Rei and T'sal.

During the travel to the area, the Jedi took inventory of the available forces and formulated a plan of attack. The Jedi travelled on the Ready in Eight Directions of the First Shebi Fleet. Shebi Avaja took command. In preparation of the strike, T'sal improved the long range weapons systems of the Titan Centurion Diamond and Darones familiarized himself with controlling a Komès fighter.

Upon arrival, the three Jedi found the situation roughly as expected, with three Mandalorian cruisers in the asteroid belt and a mining/communications vessel on one of the asteroids. The Union forces immediately launched fighters and commenced the attack. Two Mandalorian cruisers interposed themselves between the Union forces and the mining vessel, and one of the Mandalorian cruisers tried to make a run for it.

Despite several small setbacks, the Jedi succeeded in deploying boarding squads to the two battling cruisers. Next to that, they themselves boarded the other Mandalorian vessels. Darones Rei and T'Sal boarded the mining vessel, and Shebi Ajava boarded the run-away cruiser. T'sal had to take some quick piloting lessons but she safely manages to get across in a shuttle.

Darones and T'Sal discovered that the hyperdrive of the mining vessel was powering up while still inside the asteroid field. They also discovered that the Mandalorian kept 550 slaves aboard the vessel for manual labour. The two Jedi came up with a plan: Darones was to disable the hyperdrive while T'sal ent to disable the power generation. In both places a group of Mandalorian warriors held the slaves hostages, ready to kill. Darones fought his way to the engine room while T'sal sneaked past the group. The power was cut during the shutdown procedure of the hyperdrive, destabilizing the drive. Fortunately, he succeeded in erecting some shielding and activating the venting system in time to prevent the destruction of the whole ship.

At the same time, Shebi Ajava boarded the run-away cruiser, encountering a charging hyperdrive as well. She made her way through the ship without much problems, killing Mandalorian soldiers and crew without thought. After disabling the hyperdrive, she moved on to the bridge. Here, she found the captain was willing to surrender the vessel.

With control of both vessels in Jedi hands, the Union troops had little problem taking care of the last cells of resistance inside the vessels. During the aftermath of the battle, it became clear that most Mandalorians preferred to die a warrior's death. With only 500 KIA, 1500 wounded and 5 destroyed fighter wings on the Union side, the strike can be counted as a significant success as all four Mandalorian vessels were captured with only minor damage.