Raid on Cato Neimoidia

In 1 BBY, forces of the Alliance to Restore the Republic raided the planet Cato Neimoidia. Though composed of loyal members who were committed to the cause of restoring the former Galactic Republic, the fledgling Alliance was hardly considered as a threat against the well-organized and better-armed military forces of the Galactic Empire. As a result, the Alliance was forced to rely on guerrilla warfare—launching surprise attacks on unsuspecting Imperials and then retreating before enemy reinforcements could arrive.

Shortly after the Salvation was commissioned as the flagship of the Rebel fleet, former Imperial Captain Juno Eclipse was commissioned as its commanding officer. In order to test the battle readiness of the new starship and its crew, Captain Eclipse directed her vessel to Cato Neimoidia, a former Separatist world that became occupied by an Imperial garrison at the end of the Clone Wars. Unknown to all except Eclipse, Jedi General Rahm Kota and his squad secretly followed the flagship by utilizing the Rogue Shadow, Marek's old vessel that had been outfitted with a unique cloaking device for stealth purposes.

However, the raid not only failed to go as planned; it was a tactical disaster for the Rebellion. Alliance Intelligence severely underestimated the Imperial naval strength of Cato Neimoidia's garrison. Kota, unconcerned with the anomaly, proceeded to pilot the Rogue Shadow until he was planetside. Frustrated with the Alliance leadership's slow and overly cautious approach to war, Kota took it upon himself to assassinate Cato Neimoidia's oppressive governor, Baron Merillion Tarko, in order to undermine the Empire's reputation as an "invincible" state. After Kota bluntly ignored Eclipse's recommendation for a tactical withdrawal, a major explosion near Tarko-se caused the Rogue Shadow to disappear from the Salvation's sensors. Believing that Kota and his squad perished with Marek's starship, Eclipse ordered her ship to flee from the doomed fight via hyperspace and to rendezvous with the Rebel fleet near the Itani Nebula.

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