The Battle for the Annihilator

The Battle for the Annihilator occured in 0 BBY, and was fought over the Annihilator, an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer. The battle began when the Annihilator was ambushed by two MC-80 Mon Calamari Liberty-class cruisers. The rebel ships fired their ion cannons, disabling the star destroyer and her shields. Her fighter craft dueled with X-wings and Y-wings but were quickly defeated. Two Gallofree transports then boarded the star destroyer, landing nearly a thousand rebel soldiers.

Sporadic skirmishes took place across the ship, as a third Gallofree landed five hundred reinforcements. The rebels sweeped the ship, killing any stormtroopers they found and taking valuable staff prisoner. However, the task of facing off an estimated 15,000 Imperial troopers was a daunting thought.

One heavily armoured Lamda-class shuttle tried to make a break for it through the hangar, ripping through the hull of one of the Gallofree transports, causing it to explode and destroy the other two transports with massive damage to the hangar. The shuttle was intercepted and destroyed but not before a distress call went out.

In seconds, three Imperial star destroyers, two Victory models and one Imperial model jumped in. The MC80 cruisers went in, all guns blazing. Fighters shot each other down between the two fleets, as the first platoon of rebel troopers finally reached the command deck of the Annihilator. An astromech that had accompanied these soldiers hacked into the star destroyer's mainframe and ordered all batteries to fire in the approaching Imperials.

The firepower of the star destroyer, coupled with the two MC80 cruisers, was too great, and all three major Imperial ships were destroyed. The Annihilator, still being fought over, jumped in orbit of a rebel planet along with her escorts.

Seeing their situation, the surviving Imperials surrendered. A few hundred would later join the rebellion, but the rest would either die in camps or die when the planet was destroyed by the first Death Star just weeks later.

The battle, despite the loss of 3 transports and five hundred soldiers and crew, was a massive victory for the rebellion, as another large capital ship to their name would be a vital tool in the battle against the Empire. The newness of the model was also another bonus, as the ship was packed full of ammo, the fact that it was an Imperial-II class star destroyer meant that design flaws and bugs could be investigated to be used against the rest of the Imperial fleet.