The Battle of Foerost took place in 20.1 BBY, the second year of the Clone Wars. Since the war's outset, the Galactic Republic had blockaded the Techno Union's Foerost Shipyards, hoping to prevent them from supplying starships to the Confederacy of Independent Systems. That changed when the beleaguered Techno Union engineers completed work on a new warship: the Bulwark Mark I. Commanded by Admiral Dua Ningo, an entire armada of Bulwark-class battleships, designated as the Bulwark Fleet, breached Republic Captain Jan Dodonna's blockade of Foerost. The Bulwark Fleet's ensuing campaign against the Core Worlds forced the Republic to press into service a fleet of its own prototype cruiser, the Victory I-class Star Destroyer, to hunt down Ningo's Bulwarks.
Centuries prior to the Clone Wars, the Techno Union purchased the Foerost Shipyards, a starship construction facility orbiting the Core World of Foerost. Techno Union starship engineers soon developed a new design: the Bulwark Mark I, a kilometer-long battlecruiser bristling with weaponry and heavy armor. Following the outbreak of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY, the Republic Navy blockaded Foerost, hoping to cut off the Techno Union shipyards from Separatist supply lines and consequently send the facility into atrophy. The standoff, known as the Foerost Siege, continued for nearly two full years until the Techno Union designers decided to unveil their new creation.
In 20.1 BBY (15:4), twenty-three months into the war, the Techno Union engineers completed their work on the Bulwark Fleet, an armada of Bulwark Mark Is. Admiral Dua Ningo of the Confederate Navy assumed command of the Bulwark Fleet, then blasted out of the Foerost Shipyards and broke through the Republic blockade, which was being overseen by Captain Jan Dodonna. Witnesses were left appalled by the Confederacy's unthinkable new warships.
The Victory I-class Star Destroyer
With the Bulwarks liberated from Foerost, Ningo received orders to capture the planet Coruscant, and his fleet crippled Republic outposts throughout Sector Zero en route to the galactic capital. To counter the Bulwarks, the Republic deployed its newest creation: the Victory I-class Star Destroyer, designed by Republic engineer Walex Blissex. The product of the Kuat/Rendili Victor Initiative Project, the Victory I-class Star Destroyer was launched almost six months ahead of schedule, with multiple Victory I-class cruisers forming the so-called Victory Fleet under the command of Republic Navy Captains Dodonna and Terrinald Screed. The two Republic officers took their battle group of Star Destroyers on what proved to be a memorable shakedown cruise, clashing with the Bulwark Fleet at the Core Worlds of Ixtlar, Alsakan, and Basilisk. Following the conclusion of the crisis at the Battle of Anaxes, the Republic eventually recaptured Foerost from the Techno Union.
The historic Battle of Foerost was among the events that prominent Galactic Alliance historian Voren Na'al documented in his chronicle of galactic history in 36 ABY.
The Battle of Foerost was created by author Daniel Wallace for his 2005 compendium The New Essential Chronology, which itself was framed as an in-universe narrative authored by Voren Na'al. Wallace's setup of the battle, as well as the ensuing campaign between the Victory and Bulwark Fleets, took inspiration from material developed for earlier Star Wars works, including the 1998 video game Star Wars: Rebellion and a 2002 news bulletin on the HoloNet News website. The battle was first identified as the Battle of Foerost in 2009's The Essential Atlas, which provided an official name for the battle,
- The New Essential Chronology
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Atlas
- The Essential Guide to Warfare