The Astral Queen, (WCF Designation: Gamma 9-7) was commissioned by the Wolatarian Colonial Navy in 79 ABY. One of the newer Mk.VII bombers, it was deployed into Task Fleet 7-Delet. It served not seeing action for thirty years before the Battle of Or'rac in the second Great War. It was later put under the command of the Junior XO of the Battlecruiser Neo'vana and left for alliance space once the Nomadic Fleet broke up.
Battle of Borosk[]
In 128ABY, the Jedi assigned Jedi Knight Romar and Corellian Major Sejon to the torpedo bomber, with orders to scout the Borosk system. The ship had been conducting routine scans of the planet when the Jedi was struck by a vision and ordered the vessel and crew to execute a rescue mission of a prisoner off the surface. During re-entry, the vessel struck something in the upper atmosphere (later speculation concludes it was a hovering mine) and lost most systems. Canopies were ejected, and the vessel came to a landing on the surface of Borosk, many kilometers from their intended target.
The crew split up and advanced on the Imperial Fortress on the surface. With the Jedi's assistance they broke through the already weakened defenses and infiltrated the facility. The prisoner was a mad Twilight Jedi, with plans of revenge on the Imperial Knights. The prisoner had already freed himself with his incredible Force proficiency, and met up with the crew. Lt. Talulla had been wounded in the course of the fighting and the Astral Queen evacuated the crew just as the Alliance Forces began their invasion.
The Astral Queen landed on the deck of a repair ship in the Alliance fleet, which was at the time in retreat from Borosk. There the mad Jedi, Simeon, convinced the crew they could end the war by following him on a mission back to Borosk. With several acts of violence already purported by Simeon, Felix Ulysses agreed. The bomber launched back to the Borosk system on Simeon's crusade.
The bomber exited hyperspace hundreds of thousands of miles off course, directly in line with the Imperious, Grand Admiral Veed's flagship in orbit above the planet. Shields down, and crew confused, perhaps by some act of Simeon's, the Astral Quuen scored five direct hits of multimegaton thermonuclear weapons on the vessel, directly into some of the weaker points, driven by Simeon. The Imperious was hurt, but not down. The Astral Queen moved in again to land on the rear quarter hanger. Turbolaser shots and the expanding radiation belts from the nuclear blast damaged the Astral Quuen which crashed into the hanger. The crew transmitted a distress signal and then followed the mad Jedi on his crusade to kill Grand Admiral Veed.
Death of the Astral Queen[]
The Resurgent Colony Authority responded to the Astral Queen's call, and deployed a small task force to cover her escape. The crew was rescued, but with more Imperial ships closing in, the other Vandar-class vessels that had come to the rescue, fled for the surface. The Astral Queen, manned by three Wolatarian Marines, Lt. Asur, Major Sejon and Sgt. Lohat, tried to make it to the surface. The bomber, loosing controls rolled over and began to break up in the atmosphere. The crew bailed and landed about 25 km from the rest of the Wolatarian vessels that were setting up a defensive position in a small town. The Astral Queen crashed violently into the surface of the planet, creating a dangerous radioactive field from the remaining nuclear warheads and her engine.
Behind the Scenes[]
The name Astral Queen is both a song title by the doom metal band Cathedral, as well as the name of a prison ship on the SciFi Channel's reimaging of Battlestar: Galatica.