Battle over Umbara

This article is about the battle during the Imperial Era. You may be looking for the Battle of Umbara during the Clone Wars.

Concurrent

Imperial espionage operation^[1]

Battle over Umbara

Outcome

Imperial victory^[1]
Umbara surrenders^[3] its remaining autonomy^[4]

Combatants
Galactic Empire^[1]	Ore smugglers^[1]

Commanders
Admiral Carlou Gendling^[1] Commander Alfren Cheno^[1] Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo^[1]	Nightswan^[1]

Strength
Carlou Gendling's task force^[1] 1 Imperial-class Star Destroyer^[1] Foremost^[1] 2 Raider-class corvettes^[1] 1 Arquitens-class light cruiser^[1] Thunder Wasp^[1]	At least 400 Vulture droid starfighters†^[1] Ground-based transmitter on Umbara's outermost moon†^[1]

Casualties
1 Raider-class corvette destroyed^[1] 1 Raider-class corvette seriously damaged, with half of crew dead or wounded^[1]	All starfighters^[1] Ground-based transmitter^[1]

"It would seem we have found the reason for the attack. The purpose for a clearly futile assault upon an Imperial force. Nightswan wished for the Empire to take control of Umbara's mines."
"Because its easier for him and his smugglers to cheat material past Imperial inspectors than past the Umbarans. I'll grant that it sounds like Nightswan's brand of deviousness. But we don't even know for sure that he was involved."
"He was. He is. Who else would invite me here to demonstrate his handiwork?"

―Thrawn and Eli Vanto discussing Nightswan's role in mastermind the Umbaran uprising^[1]

During Nightswan's campaign, a battle over Umbara erupted above the planet Umbara between the naval forces of the Galactic Empire and forces controlled by the mysterious individual known as Nightswan. Also known as the mission to Umbara, the battle ended in the Empire's favor when Captain Thrawn relayed orders to the other vessels of Admiral Carlou Gendling's task force to target Nightswan's Vulture droids while they were within the transmission shadow of the individual ships.

Prelude

During the Clone Wars, the Umbarans of the planet Umbara seceded from the Galactic Republic to the Confederacy of Independent Systems after the death of Senator Mee Deechi^[5] at the hands of Lolo Purs,^[6] leading to an invasion by clone troopers to get the planet back on the side of the Republic.^[7] Despite resisting for a time during the early Imperial Era,^[8] Umbara would become a part of the Galactic Empire, albeit with a degree of autonomy. The world would come to owe a major debt to the Empire.^[4]

Umbara was a major producer and exporter of doonium. Doonium was a metal used in the construction of starships with vast quantities of it being requisitioned for the Imperial Navy's fleet and the secret Death Star project. The pirate–turned–insurgent leader Nevil Cygni, who was known as "Nightswan," engaged in smuggling doonium, tibanna, and iridium in order to raise funds for his insurgency against the Galactic Empire.^[1]

After finding it difficult to bribe the Umbaran authorities, Nightswan decided to instigate an uprising on Umbara in order to facilitate the Imperial takeover of the planet's mining and refining sector. Nightswan reasoned that it would be easier to bribe the Empire than the Umbaran authorities. As part of the uprising, Nightswan's operatives installed a ground-based transmitter on Umbara's outermost moon. Using his underworld contacts, Nightswan also obtained 400 former Separatist vulture droids to take part in the uprising.^[1]

An Imperial task force led by Admiral Carlou Gendling was dispatched to suppress the uprising. Gendling's forces included the Imperial Star Destroyer Foremost, two Raider-class corvettes, and the Imperial light cruiser Thunder Wasp, which was commanded by Commander Alfren Cheno. One of Cheno's subordinates was the Chiss Captain Thrawn, who had joined the Imperial Navy in order to cultivate an ally for the Chiss Ascendancy. Admiral Gendling hoped to use military force to intimidate the Umbarans but was instead met by vulture droids.^[1]

The battle

The Vulture droids swarmed the Imperial task force. Commander Cheno ordered the Thunder Wasp's gunners to intercept and destroy enemy fighters targeting the Foremosts's dorsal surfaces. Thrawn's friend Ensign Eli Vanto analyzed the attack patterns and traced the Vulture droids back to Umbara's outermost moon. Thrawn deduced that the Vulture droids had not been sent by the Umbarans, who were waiting to engage the Imperial forces in a weakened position. With the Thunder Wasp and other ships overwhelmed by the nimble Vulture droids, Thrawn and Vanto, with the approval of Commander Cheno, took control of the chief sensor officer's Hammerly's station.^[1]

After scrutinizing the Vulture droid's attack patterns, Thrawn and Vanto deduced that the Vulture droids were being controlled by a ground-based transmitter on the planets surface. Having isolated the location of the ground-based transmitter, Thrawn convinced Commander Cheno to inform Admiral Gendling of their discovery. However, Admiral Gendling was unwilling to take risks and ignored Commander Cheno and Thrawn. Thrawn then ordered the comm officer to contact all ships and tell them to target the transmission shadows where the vulture droids relied on their own programming. This tactic destroyed all the Vulture droids, turning the tide of the battle in favor of the Empire.^[1]

Aftermath

Battle's end

Following the destruction of the vulture droids, the Umbarans surrendered unconditionally. The Foremost dispatched stormtrooper squads to supervise the surrender of the insurgents. The Imperials lost one Raider-class corvette while the other ships including the Thunder Wasp and Foremost sustained considerable damage. Despite the Imperial victory, Admiral Gendling was furious that Commander Cheno had apparently usurped his authority. Before Gendling could question Thrawn, Commander Cheno took the fall to protect Thrawn.^[1]

While Thrawn did not want Cheno to protect him, Cheno told Thrawn that he saw potential in him and added he was willing to sacrifice his own career to protect his crew. Following the battle, Vanto investigated the ground transmitter station on Umbara and found that the station had been operated by humans. Vanto discussed his findings with Thrawn and the two concluded that Nightswan had instigated the Umbaran uprising in order to facilitate the Imperial takeover of Umbara's mining industry. Eli surmised that Nightswan believed it would be easier to bribe the Imperial inspectors than the Umbarans. Thrawn believed that the Umbara incident was a step in Nightswan's campaign against the Empire.^[1]

Umbara under the Empire

Following the unconditional surrender^[1] and with the engagement a victory for the Empire, the Umbaran people would ultimately respond to the battle by fully surrendering their homeworld to the Imperial regime,^[3] giving up what remained of their independence. By surrendering Umbara, the Umbarans also managed to settle their debt to the Empire in the process; in truth, however, there had been no way for the Umbarans to settle that score without giving over the last of their autonomy.^[4] Umbara thus fell under direct Imperial rule.^[3]

Behind the scenes

The battle over Umbara first appeared in Timothy Zahn's 2017 novel Thrawn, a Canonical origins story of the titular character.^[1] The idea that Umbara had possessed a degree of independence under the Empire that it was forced to give away was mentioned in the later 2017 novel Leia, Princess of Alderaan,^[4] but that surrender was not linked to the battle seen in Thrawn until the 2019 reference book Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition.^[5]