The Abregado system was a star system located in the Core Worlds. The system was the setting for the Battle of Abregado, an early battle of the Clone Wars, which saw a Republic fleet under the command of Jedi Master Plo Koon destroyed by a new Separatist weapon, the Subjugator-class heavy cruiser Malevolence.
The system contained the star Anza, the orbiting planet Abregado-rae and, following the Battle of Abregado, a debris field.
In 22 BBY, early in the Clone Wars, the Jedi Council, concerned by growing rumors of a mystery Separatist weapon sowing chaos across the galaxy, sent Jedi Master Plo Koon to investigate.
The Malevolence fires one of its ion cannons
Koon tracked the weapon, revealed to be the Subjugator-class heavy cruiser Malevolence commanded by Count Dooku and General Grievous, to the Abregado system. Before his fleet, consisting of Koon's flagship the Triumphant and two accompanying Venator-class Star Destroyers, engaged the ship, Koon contacted Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who were stationed in the nearby Bith system.
Told that they were unable to reinforce his position, and with their communications disrupted by the Malevolence, the Kel Dor Jedi moved to engage. Before Koon's fleet was in firing range, however, the Malevolence fired one of its ion cannons, sending out a massive shockwave of ion energy that left the three Republic cruisers without power and defenseless. The two accompanying cruisers were quickly torn apart by the Separatist ship's turbolasers, and Koon ordered his crew onboard the Triumphant to evacuate.
A pod hunter latches onto Plo Koon's escape pod
Four escape pods managed to escape the ship before it was destroyed, with one pod striking a passing piece of debris and detonating immediately. Koon, Clone Commander Wolffe, and clone troopers Boost and Clone Sergeant Sinker manned one of the three remaining pods.
Eager to keep the position of the Malevolence a secret, Dooku sent a pod hunter to the newly created debris field, with the aim of hunting down any survivors. The pod hunters mercilessly hunted down two of the pods, killing those within. Soon after, Koon's pod was spotted, and Koon decided to take the fight to the droids, heading outside the pod with Sinker and Boost, while Wolffe tried to keep the pod's distress signal active.
Despite sustaining damage to their pod, Koon, Boost and Sinker managed to wipe out the pod hunters and destroy their vessel – though this alerted the Malevolence that not only were there survivors, but that they were fighting back.
The Twilight flees a shockwave sent from an ion cannon of the Malevolence
Soon after, the group were rescued by Skywalker and Tano in the Twilight, who had defied orders from both the Jedi Council and Chancellor Palpatine to look for survivors. With the clones being tended to in the cargo bay by a medical droid, Koon, Skywalker and Tano were alarmed to see the Malevolence sweeping the debris field. Despite frantically shutting down the systems of both the Twilight and the accompanying R2-D2, their position was given away by the presence of the medical droid.
The Malevolence once more fired its ion cannon in an attempt to strand the Twilight, but the freighter was able to escape the debris field and flee to hyperspace ahead of the onrushing ion shockwave. Dooku and Grievous were furious, knowing that their secret weapon would now be revealed to the Republic. Upon their return to Skywalker's fleet in the Bith system, Koon, Skywalker and Tano reported the news from their engagement with the Malevolence to the Jedi Council.
The Abregado system first appeared in Heir to the Empire, a 1991 Star Wars Legends novel written by Timothy Zahn as the first entry in The Thrawn Trilogy. It became canon when it appeared in the opening flashbacks of "Ambush," the first episode of the canon animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars first season, which originally aired on October 3, 2008. It was first identified as the Abregado system in "Rising Malevolence," the second episode of The Clone Wars first season, which also aired on October 3, 2008.
The name "Abregado" may be derived from the Spanish word "Abrigado," meaning "warm" or "snug."
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