T/D Technology
T/D Technology was a campaign undertaken by the Galactic Empire during the Galactic Civil War to recover advanced TIE/D Defender technology from rogue Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin, in the Zaarin insurrection. It took place in the Parmel system. In it, ace TIE pilot Maarek Stele succeeded in recovering the technology after several battles, including three Defenders, two of which were prototypes at Research.
The Campaign
Capture Platform
With the loss of the Empire's ability to manufacture TIE Avengers thanks to Zaarin destroying the Seinar Fleet Systems factories located in the Omar system. Zaarin focused his efforts onto his Research platform to steal the prototypes and technology of the TIE Defenders. Fearing that the Rebel Alliance could gain a reprieve, which in turn Zaarin could take advantage of, Loyalist forces sent 3 TIE Defenders to stop Zaarin's raiders from stealing the technology. When they arrived four Cargo ferries Sakin were in the process of docking with containers that likely contained TIE Defender prototypes. One managed to escape, while the Defenders were engaging TIE Bombers while also disabling multiple Lambda-class T-4a shuttles carrying officers and technicians that were needed to be interrogated. By the time the Bombers were destroyed, one of the ferries escaped, but the other three were destroyed before they could make of with the containers. Soon reinforcements arrived with a Ton-Falk-class escort carrier Jitte arrived with a contingency of TIE Fighters that were heavily modified to carry shields and warhead launchers. However the fighters and the Jitte were all destroyed and the platform was disabled and captured by assault transports. When the facility was captured, Imperial-class Star Destroyer Adarga arrived to reinforce the station. Soon a small Rebel starfighter force arrived but was eliminated by the TIE Defenders.
Hold Platform
The Imperials knew that Zaarin wasn't going to give them a reprieve as Assault Transports escorted by TIE Defenders attacked the Adarga. The Adarga was badly damaged and had to withdraw. With the Star Destroyer neutralised the strike force turned its attention to the Research platform. The only TIE Defender the Empire had managed to muster managed to destroy the transports and disable the rogue TIE Defenders, while Escort shuttles Red Knight arrived as reinforcements. Tugs were dispatched to pick up the Defenders. Not long afterwards two Corellian corvettes Uhu arrived and attempted to deploy probes Keyhole to monitor the area. They were both destroyed before they could finish deploying the probes.
Protect Evacuation
With the Adarga no longer in use Imperial command decided to evacuate the base. They transferred the two remaining prototypes, Proto 11 and Proto 12 onto a BFF-1 bulk freighter Mharsup and the remaining personnel, one of which was the chief Scientist of the project, onto a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle G'nabgib. When the freighter arrived with two escort shuttles Dragonfly, rogue Assault Gunboats arrived to engage the remaining defenses. Soon into the dogfighting Grand Admiral Zaarin arrived in his flagship the Star Destroyer Glory. The Glory launched stormtrooper transports, TIE Defenders, TIE Avengers, modified TIE Bombers and tugs. Despite his forces outnumbering the Loyalist forces, the station was successfully evacuated and both the freighter and the shuttle jumped to Hyperspace, leaving only the facility to destroy.
Escort to Rendezvous
The Mharsup then arrived to rendezvous near bouy B-0F9 to transfer the prototypes to Modified corvette Hashim to transfer the prototypes, then the corvettes would travel to Admiral Thrawn where they would be safe. But the rendezvous area was the site of a recent Rebel attack, and despite the Alliance, not usually known for attacking the same place twice, decided to send fighters to the transfer area. Firstly by sending A-wings, one at a time. Soon B-wings arrived, followed by 3 X-wings along with 3 Stormtrooper transports, Storm, which contained Commandos, indicating a capture operation. The attempt to capture the freighter was a failure thanks to the Single TIE Defender and destroyed the Rebel forces.
Soon Hashim arrived with Assault Gunboat Nu Squadron as escort. Just as they arrived 6 Y-wings arrived to make torpedo runs on the corvettes. Gunboats Nu, with the help of the TIE Defender destroyed the Y-wings. However a Nebulon-B frigate Hunu arrived and started launching Z-95 Headhunters. Both Imperial squadrons managed to resist long enough for both the freighter and the corvettes to transfer all the TIE Defender prototypes and entered hyperspace. By the time the frigate was on its last leg, Zaarin sent his own forces of TIE Avengers but were also defeated.
Trapped by Pirates
However, the corvettes soon came out of hyperspace near bouy CRM-114, to find themselves in a Ion mine field laid by Rneekii pirates, and were unable to escape on their own, as they were they were outnumbered by multiple R-41 Starchasers and a Strike-class medium cruiser Intombe. They called for reinforcements but feared that they may not arrive in time, so they sent the TIE Defender that was still combat worthy to fight the pirates. By the time the Defender was launched shuttle G'nabgib was already boarded by Ibutho 1 and the chief scientist and the data was stolen and the transport jumped to hyperspace. The Defender destroyed all the other transports from Ibutho flight group and fought of the R-41 Starchasers while the corvettes soon became disable with no means of moving to their meeting with Thrawn. Assault Gunboats soon arrived and the Pirate threat was neutralised. Sparing the threat of the prototypes being captured, for the moment.
Transfer Prototypes
3 Cargo Ferries Mssan were brought in to repair the corvettes and transfer the TIE Defenders to each one, with the space combat worthy one to dock with Mssan 3. However two of them arrived 24 Klicks away and a Rebel starfighter strike force, consisting of 2 A-wings, Azul Squadron, 2 B-wings, Blue Squadron and 4 X-wings, Red Squadron had just arrived, at a relatively long distance of about 20 Klicks but were still a danger to the ships. The TIE Defender once again had to be deployed to fight the Rebels. However, while the lone Defender helped Gunboat escorts deal with the Rebel raid force, another pirate group of Y-wings, T-wings and a YT-1300 transport Dhoora, belonging to the Nami, arrived very close to the corvettes and disabled them so that the Dhoora could board and capture one of the corvettes. By the time the Imperials arrived, they were too late as the party escaped to Hyperspace with the TIE Defender prototype, Proto 11. To make matters worse Zaarin sent his own TIE Defenders to battle, although effective against the Gunboats, they were also defeated by the lone TIE Defender. Soon the Cargo ferries reached the stranded ships and were about to pick up the other prototype and repair the two corvettes when a light Mon Calamari Cruiser Sumpntodo belonging to the Rneekii arrived to launch Z-95 Headhunters, they were driven of again by the Imperial fighters and the combat worthy TIE Defender docked with Mssan 3 and both ships managed to reach Thrawn.
Aftermath
Although the TIE Defender technology and prototypes reached Thrawn safely, the loss of the main research facility and the potential manufacturing facilities meant that the TIE Defender would see little action afterwards in the Empire's service. Combine this with the danger of two renegade pirate factions, the Rneekii possessing the data and chief scientist of the project, and the Nami possessing a prototype meant that it was possible for TIE Defenders to be manufactured outside the Empire's control. Knowing the serious consequences of such sophisticated technology in enemy hands, a "Crash program" was needed to counter this problem as soon as possible. Thrawn would soon collaborate with Cygnus Spaceworks to develop a new starfighter.
Behind the scenes
The T/D Technology is Battle nine in Star Wars: TIE Fighter.
Appearances
- Star Wars: TIE Fighter: Defender of the Empire (First appearance)