Salient Campaign

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The Salient Campaign,^[3] also known as the Battle of Salient^[4] or as the campaign at Salient, was a multi-week battle that took place in the Salient system^[1] in 17 BBY.^[2] Moff Wilhuff Tarkin led the Galactic Empire's military while Saw Gerrera's Partisans were led by a number of commanders, including Captain Has Obitt, led the rebeling factions on Salient's worlds, Salient I and Salient II.^[1]

Prelude

In order to collect resources for the growing Imperial war machine and for the construction of the Death Star battle station, Orson Krennic had been using the smuggler Has Obitt to claim resource-rich worlds for the Empire. Like he had done on Samovar and Wadi Raffa, Legacy worlds that once had strict environmental protections, Obitt and a crew of smugglers were tasked with sneaking large quantities of weaponry onto the planet. The Empire was then to “discover” them later and accuse the planet of preparing for a rebellion, which would give Imperial forces justification to take control of the planets and their resources.^[1]

After having a change of heart following his operations on Samovar and Wadi Raffa, Obitt and his assembled group of over a dozen smugglers and rogues, including Onderonian freedom fighter Saw Gerrera, double-crossed the Empire and warned Salient Strategic Command of the impending Imperial threat. Just as Obitt foretold, an Imperial military force arrived soon after. Under the guise of catching a group of “insurgents” led by Obitt, Moff Tarkin departed his Star Destroyer Executrix and met with a representative of Zerpen Industries at the company’s headquarters on the planet Epiphany’s moon in the Salient system. Greeted by a Zerpen representative and a security force several hundred-strong, the representative saw through Tarkin’s ruse of using the smugglers as a pretext for a hidden agenda, possibly having been forewarned by Obitt. Before their conversation was over, Tarkin received word from an adjutant that Obitt’s ship had been located heading deeper into the system toward Salient II and returned to his shuttle to head back to the Executrix.^[1]

The Executrix was soon contacted by Salient Two Strategic Command, to whom Tarkin demanded they relinquish the situation to the Empire. Salient II’s Hiitian officer reaffirmed the sovereignty and autonomy of the Salient system, assuring Tarkin that they would handle the situation on their own and ordered the Imperials to leave the star system. Tarkin’s forces refused to withdraw as Obitt predicted, and the Hiitian welcomed Obitt’s group of smugglers and mercenaries to provide evidence against the Empire’s schemes. The Hiitian affirmed to Obitt and Captain Gerrera that Salient would do everything it could to keep its resources out of the Imperial war machine, and would prefer seeing their worlds reduced to ash than become swallowed by the Empire.^[1]

The battle

Salient II was armed with massive shield generators alongside ion cannons from the Clone Wars. Tarkin’s XO also reported to him that not only were several newer Zerpen turbolasers capable of threatening the Star Destroyer’s shields, but also that the smuggler’s original payload of pulse weapons and fission devices may have been acquired by the defenders. Salient I was not as well-defended but stationed the system’s defense fleet, a flotilla of mostly older-generation warships retrofitted with Separatist weaponry. Three of its ships were dispatched by the flotilla, which the XO theorized to be for reinforcing Salient II.^[1]

While Tarkin was expecting Admiral Utu to send two Star Destroyers as reinforcements from Telos, the Hiitian contacted Tarkin with news that an ambassador from Salient II wished to speak with the Moff. The ambassador was given permission to come aboard, however the consular vessel he was expected to arrive on was revealed to be a drone laden with explosives. After the drone ship was destroyed, the three Salient warships believed to be heading for Salient II instead engaged the Executrix. What Tarkin had expected to be a basic incursion had become a full-fledged conflict. The battle between the warships and Star Destroyer raged for several hours before the three cruisers re-positioned closer to Salient II.^[1]

Fall of Epiphany's moon

Several weeks later, Epiphany’s moon and Zerpen Industries were taken by the Empire. Despite this, the local militias of Salient II and the system’s fleet of twenty capital ships with powerful Zerpen-developed shields had stood their ground against Tarkin, giving the Moff some of his fiercest fighting since the Clone Wars and more casualties than some of his campaigns in the Western Reaches to snuff out Separatist remnants. By this time the two long-awaited Venator-class Star Destroyers from Telos had arrived with ARC-170 starfighters. The Imperial capital ships overwhelmed the planet’s shields and destroyed its generators and planetary turbolasers, resulting in Salient II pursuing a ceasefire to forestall more civilian deaths. Despite this, many locals fled deeper into the sector while those who stayed behind sabotaged much of the planet’s industrial, agricultural, and commercial assets, destroying what Tarkin had been sent to secure in the first place.^[1]

Despite Imperial successes, Tarkin theorized that it could be months of fighting guerilla forces before an occupying garrison of stormtroopers could be established. A similar situation had already occurred on Epiphany’s moon where Tarkin had been ill-equipped to install an occupation force, nor could he spare one of his capital ships to watch over the moon. Salient I was the innermost of the system’s inhabited worlds and had few significant population centres, but its local militias were already preparing for their own extensive ground war.^[1]

With the Senate angry over the Moff’s “adventurism” in the Salient system, Mas Amedda was updated by Tarkin about his current situation. With the Chagrian initially refusing to deliver TIE fighters or new stormtroopers, Tarkin went as far to suggest sending Stormtrooper cadets still in their academies as reinforcements. While Tarkin deployed starfighters in an attempt to stop smugglers from delivering supplies and volunteers from neighbouring star systems, his forces attempted to move closer to Salient I multiple times but were forced to backtrack in order to deal with attacks from the resupplied militias. Screening blockades and patrols were deployed to further harass the smugglers, but Salient Strategic Command was supplying the latter with hyperspace exit points that were unknown to the Empire.^[1]

The smugglers of Salient

On Salient I, the volunteer band of smugglers and mercenaries had set up a base of operations to which volunteers from as far as the Tingel Arm had brought materiel, medical supplies, and foodstuffs. The smugglers also brought brave freedom fighters from a variety of species who wished to fight the Empire, including Hiitians, Tynnans, Koboks, and Trianii.^[1]

Their base was set in a hollowed out indentation in the escarpment of a valley, with expansive caves that extended for kilometres. Concealed by the natural environment from ARC-170 patrols, their encampment was further protected by hastily-installed laser cannons alongside blaster rifle and rocket launcher-equipped lookout towers. The volunteers and local Salient defenders continued to try to make the system as unlivable as possible for the Empire through diversionary attacks, while arrangements were being made for the Salient I fighters to communicate with militias on Salient II and the Epiphany moon.^[1]

Utu's assault on Salient I

By the time the true assault on Salient I began, Salient II was in ruins. Most of its infrastructure was destroyed and residents took to smashing everything in their homes in response to a call by their government for a “frenzy of annihilation.” These people fled deeper into the sector, a move that Tarkin allowed as he believed that a smaller population would require fewer garrison soldiers. On the Epiphany moon, the surface was pocked with craters from Imperial bombardments while life support domes were cracked open and buildings destroyed by capital ships and starfighters. Militia sappers had managed to infiltrate and destroy the Zerpen complex on the moon, while the consortium itself was said to have been seeking legal action against the Empire.^[1]

After Imperial scout ships discovered the smugglers’ base on Salient I, Tarkin ordered Utu’s Venator to bring down the cliff face on top of the rebels with its turbolasers. With the smugglers’ base destroyed, Has Obitt captured by Tarkin, and Imperial forces having advanced further, the system was finally taken over by the Empire.

End of the campaign

While the Empire eventually conquered the system and Tarkin had maintained earlier to Mas Amedda that it was more important to send a message to other systems in the sector that their autonomy was at the whim of the Empire, the Salient sector’s defenders ultimately succeeded in destroying much of the mines and industries that Tarkin has been dispatched to secure for the Death Star’s construction. Tarkin noted to the captured Obitt that Salient would serve as a jumping-off point for more strikes into the sector.^[1]

Early into the battle, Tarkin realized that the Salient Campaign had been heavily influenced by Krennic and considered him to be the conflict's chief architect. Krennic, suspecting that Obitt had come to a crisis of conscience, knew the Dressellian would come to the aid and defense of the Salient system against the Empire. Tarkin, incapable of retreating or showing weakness, would waste precious time while Krennic continued to work on the Death Star project and rise through the ranks of Empire unimpeded by Tarkin. Krennic also believed that his rival's relationship with the Emperor could suffer from this simple incursion-turned full-fledged battle.^[1]

Behind the scenes

The 2019 novel Alphabet Squadron includes a mention of a "Separatist mop up operation" at Salient.^[5] As it had been so long since he had written the novel^[6] and he did not normally keep notes about something so minor,^[7] author Alexander Freed could not recall if he intended for the line to be a reference to the Salient Campaign seen in Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel^[6] but speculated^[7] that was a reasonable assumption.^[6]

Appearances

• Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel (and audiobook) (First appearance)
• Rebel Rising (and audiobook) (Mentioned only)

Sources

• Star Wars: The Rebel Files
• Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition
• "Scarif and Other Planets in the Outer Rim" — Star Wars Encyclopedia (First identified as Battle of Salient)
• Star Wars: Timelines
• Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire

Notes and references