Yanibar Guard Sourcebook/Fleet

This treatise seeks to detail the organization, accomplishments, and ships of the Yanibar Guard Fleet. The Fleet started off as a nascent, barely existent force, but eventually grew to become the largest and most prestigious arm of the Yanibar Guard. It was colloquially known as the “Sword of Yanibar” due to its size and capability, proving its worth in numerous battles. The members of the fleet were all volunteers, all dedicated to the cause of the Yanibar refuge. They spent years of their lives maintaining a vigilant watch over Yanibar, ready to courageously defend it from any threat. Some of them gave their lives in the course of that mission. This is their story.

Formation and first year
To say that the YGF was tiny at its inception is a gross understatement. The fleet was officially founded in 14 BBY, with the arrival of a half-dozen Jedi Y-wing starfighters which had joined the Yanibar Guard. The Yanibar Guard had precious few assets at the time, and while the freighter Hawk-bat and some other private vessels had flown daily patrols over the colony, they were never considered a part of the fleet proper. Still, aerospace defense was seen as a major priority for the Yanibar Guard, and a group of technicians, mechanics, and flight controllers were allocated to maintain and support the Y-wings. The pilots were all Jedi Knights or Padawans rescued from Ord Cestus by Supreme Commander Kraen, Intelligence Director Tayrce, and YGA Captain Spectre. From that point on, daily flights of two Y-wings were flown, and though the cost in fuel was considerable, the patrols were sufficiently vital to the colony’s defense that they were maintained. The only facilities available to them were a hangar carved out of a cave, a prefabricated shelter equipped with sensor relay posts and communications equipment that served as a command post, and another prefabricated shelter for use as a storage warehouse.

Strength as of 14 BBY:
 * 20 individuals in all
 * 6 mechanics/armorers.
 * 6 Jedi pilots
 * 3 flight controllers
 * 4 sensor officers
 * General Selusda Kraen

Ex-Separatist additions
13 BBY saw the fledging Yanibar-based defense company Kraechar Arms recover and begin modifying significant amounts of materiel from an abandoned Separatist shipyard whose location had been divulged to General Selusda Kraen by a pirate leader named Sulan’bask two years earlier. Kraechar Arms technicians were able to retrofit Variable Geometry Self-Propelled Battle Droids, commonly referred to as Vulture droids, for use by the YGF. However, while hundreds of droids, along blueprints and limited manufacturing facilities, were available, the computer cores that controlled them required extensive repair and modification for use, limiting the number of droids available. Also, the solid-fuel slugs that were used by the droids were expensive and in fairly short supply, so the droids were usually kept grounded due to fuel requirements.

Also in late 13 BBY, Kraechar Arms was able to successfully salvage and retrofit an old Separatist C-9979 landing craft. The craft was heavily modified from its original configuration to serve as an interstellar transport and carrier. The ion engines were upgraded and a hyperdrive and navicomputer were installed. The ship’s control bridge and crew quarters were expanded. Additional armament was added, in the form of a pair of ball-mounted laser cannon turrets on each side of the ventral unloading area of the ship. The rear two “wings” of the landing craft were also renovated to serve as docking ports for starfighters and crew quarters, while the front two wings were still usable for ferrying cargo and/or troops. Kraechar Arms dubbed this ship the Wan-Shen-class transport and the YGF named the ungainly vessel Grysloth after a Matukai leader who had perished while defending his comrades from Imperial attack. The ship required a sizable amount of crew, even with automating some of the systems, and so the YGF saw a period of rapid growth during these years; crewers, droid controllers, and mechanics could not be trained fast enough. Thankfully, a trickling influx of old Republic veterans relocated to Yanibar by Yanibar Guard Intelligence (YGI) to protect them from the Empire helped supply experienced personnel. Soon, the fleet had grown in size to surpass the YGA (Yanibar Guard Army) in numbers.

12 BBY saw the addition of more Vulture droids to the ranks of the YGF as more computer cores and better communication equipment was employed. New and existing droids were also retrofitted with new engines that did not require solid fuel slugs, meaning that the droids could stay aloft for a full hour instead of thirty-five minutes and were far easier and cheaper to refuel. A second Wan-Shen transport was also launched, and was christened the Mendor Typhoons after a Matukai leader of years past. Each Wan-Shen was commanded by a captain, who along with a third captain in charge of planetary fleet forces, answered directly to Supreme Commander Selusda Kraen.

Strength as of mid-12 BBY
 * Ships
 * 2 Wan-Shen-class transports
 * 6 Y-wing starfighters (ground-based)
 * Droids
 * 60 Vulture droid starfighters, 12 per Wan-Shen, the rest based on Yanibar
 * Personnel
 * 300 overall
 * 120 crewmen per Wan-Shen
 * 7 Jedi pilots
 * 40 mechanics/armorers
 * 20 droid controllers
 * 10 sensor officers
 * 10 flight controllers
 * Planetary defense commander, Captain Te-Lelm, and his executive officer
 * 10 additional support personnel
 * Supreme Commander Selusda Kraen

Conflict on Yanibar and Utapau
"In comparison, we’ve got four Y-wings and three dozen Vulture droids."

- YGA Colonel Lyneb

In 12 BBY, a group of Blue Star pirates landed on Yanibar with over a dozen and a half ships. Though they did not spot the Yanibar refuge thanks to a Force illusion generated by Supreme Commander Kraen at the inception of the refuge, they were uncomfortably close. Yanibar Fleet Command had detected the pirates’ landing, but had chosen not to launch defensive forces to intercept. The reason for this was that the pirates’ arrival could possibly not have come at a worse time.

Supreme Commander Kraen, along with two out of the YGA’s three companies, General Spectre Kraen, and both the Grysloth and the Mendor Typhoons, as well as their complements of Vulture droids, were offworld at the time the pirates landed. The Yanibar refuge was left with four Y-wing starfighters and three dozen Vulture droids, as two of the Y-wings were undergoing maintenance at the time. Captain Te-Lelm, the planetary defense commander, decided not to launch a direct assault, as he feared that doing so would only result in the loss of the Vulture droids and the discovery of the Yanibar refuge. Instead, he worked with YGI Director Milya Tayrce and YGA Colonel Lyneb to develop a battle plan that would take the pirates by surprise. The pirates had landed their craft less than a day’s march from the outskirts of the Yanibar refuge, so a single squad of YGA infantry made a covert approach and marked targets for an early-morning airstrike.

The squad, Cresh Squad from YGA’s 3 Company, successfully breached the pirates’ perimeter and marked the landed ships as targets. Thirty droid starfighters, accompanied by four Y-wing starfighters took off and were guided in for a low approach over the edge of the Tusloni Basin to make a precision strike on the pirate encampment. Surprise was achieved and numerous pirate ships were knocked out and disabled in the initial run. The return of Supreme Commander Kraen and his force only hastened the utter defeat of the pirates. The YGF suffered no casualties other than minor damage to a pair of Vulture droids, but the YGA suffered a single casualty.

For their part, Supreme Commander Kraen and his force had gone to Utapau to meet with Zozridor Slayke, the leader of a sizable pro-Republic paramilitary organization known as the Freedom’s Sons, which had fought honorably for the Republic in the Clone Wars. After the rise of the Empire, Freedom’s Sons had moved to the Outer Rim, striking against pirates and Imperial-sponsored slavers. They had intercepted a slaving convoy belonging to the Karazak Slavers Cooperative on Utapau and had defeated them, freeing the slaves, when the Yanibar Guard force arrived. Supreme Commander and Jedi Master Selu Kraen (hereafter referred to as Master Kraen) met with Slayke, but during the meeting, an Imperial Star Destroyer reverted from hyperspace and began approaching Utapau, intent on destroying Freedom’s Sons for their interference with Imperial matters. In response, Master Kraen generated a Force illusion over the entire Freedom’s Sons encampment, as well as the Yanibar Guard vessels, which had landed on Utapau. However, the Empire launched an investigative party comprised of a pair of shuttles escorted by TIE fighters. Slayke’s forces shot down the craft once the Imperials entered the bubble of the Force illusion, though one of the shuttles made a crash-landing. YGA infantry squads dealt with the survivors, but the Star Destroyer was still in orbit. In response, Master Kraen had all personnel except himself, General Spectre, and his brother, Sarth Kraen, along with several astromech and piloting droids, evacuate from the Grysloth. While Sarth and General Spectre flew the Wan-Shen-class transport into orbit, Master Kraen concealed the Grysloth inside a Force illusion. The three then accelerated the transport to maximum speed before ramming it into the hangar bay of the Star Destroyer, where it exploded violently and severely damaged the Imperial craft. For their part, Master Kraen, Sarth, and General Spectre escaped aboard Master Kraen’s personal ship, the Hawk-bat, which had been docked with the Grysloth. They returned to Yanibar to complete negotiations with Slayke while the Star Destroyer withdrew to seek reinforcements and repairs. After seeing the Force powers and heroics of the Yanibar Guardsmen, Slayke agreed to join with the Yanibar Guard, and most of the Freedom’s sons accompanied him, transporting the former crew and supplies from the Grysloth back to Yanibar, where they arrived in time to assist with the last stages of the assault on the Blue Star pirates that had landed near the refuge.