Astal Hyperlane Skirmish

The Astal Hyperlane Skirmish was a brief conflict between the Galactic Empire and a small fleet of pirates. It was a field test for the combat capabilities of the Unyielding Judge.

The Judge used its gravity well projectors to pull the surprised pirates out of hyperspace and promptly opened fire. With help from its fighter complement, it was able to destroy the pirates within minutes.

This successful combat test proved that Interdictor-class Star Destroyers were not significantly compromised in combat by the high demands of the gravity well projectors on the reactor.

The Unyielding Judge was reassigned to the defense fleet of Mulgard Sector shortly thereafter, where it guarded the infamous prison planet of Striga 5.

Testing the Gravity Well Projectors
Due to concerns amongst officers of the Imperial Navy that the Interdictor-class Star Destroyer sacrificed too much combat capability in order to allow enough power to operate its gravity well projectors, Kuat Drive Yards requested that one of their earliest vessels of the type, the Unyielding Judge, receive a field test in the hopes of proving them to be wrong.

The Judge was crewed with experienced members of the Navy and dispatched to Astal Sector, an area of the Outer Rim that was notorious for being a dangerous haunt of pirates and other criminals. The ship then approached the most common hyperlane between the Bahalian and Y'Dar systems and activated its gravity well projectors.

The projectors proved effective, pulling several merchant vessels from the hyperlane; these vessels were then boarded and searched for contraband before being permitted to resume their journeys. Imperial observers, watching from some distance away, were satisfied thus far. They then gave the order to begin the combat test.

The Skirmish
The sector defense fleet had, as ordered, attacked a small fleet of pirates that had been massing in the Bahalian system. The pirates, not prepared to face an entire fleet, fell back along the hyperlane to Y'Dar, just as planned. They entered the interdiction field and, to their surprise, were pulled out of hyperspace. The Judge then engaged them, immediately opening fire.

The pirates, rumored to be the leftovers of a deposed Tapani noble's personal defense fleet, began to fire back when they discovered they could not escape, but by this time one of the assault frigates was already crippled. The TIE Fighter complement from the Judge destroyed many of the pirates' starfighters while the craft were still trying to launch.

Despite the strain on the reactor caused by keeping the gravity well projectors active while the shields took a pummeling from the surviving assault frigate, the Judge received no hull damage, and blew apart the other assault frigate without incident. The explosion destroyed many of the pirate fighters, and the rest were mopped up by the TIE squadrons, which suffered only minor losses.

The pirate vessels were all destroyed; no prisoners were taken.

The Aftermath
Impressed by the now-proven combat prowess of the Interdictor-class, the Empire awarded Kuat Drive Yards an official commendation and commissioned many more of this newest line of starships to be put to use across the galaxy. Only their tremendous expense prevented the Interdictors from completely replacing the Immobilizer 418 cruiser, which was vastly inferior in combat.

The Unyielding Judge was transferred to the Mulgard sector defense fleet at the personal request of the sector Moff, Kozalimn Vrakthuli. Vrakthuli believed that hyperspace interdiction would be a vital part of the new defenses of the prison planet Striga 5, which he was assigned to safeguard.