This battle took place at around 3 ABY on and in orbit of the planet Geonosis. The battle occurred in the wake of the abduction of a number of Rebel Alliance scientists from a prison over Bakura. General Crix Madine of the Alliance tracked the unidentified captor to Geonosis, where Rogue Squadron was deployed to secure the hostages.
As soon as the battle began, it was already a disaster for the Alliance. An ambush, led by Imperial spy Sarkli, took place against the Rebel fleet, forcing the surviving rescue transports to retreat into hyperspace. After Commander Wedge Antilles of Rogue Squadron confronted Sarkli, who was in command of an Imperial escort carrier, both Sarkli and Antilles crash landed in the canyons on the planet. They fought their way through Separatist holdouts. Eventually, Antilles was able to escape back to the Rebel Fleet using an old Jedi Starfighter.
After its disastrous defeat at Hoth in 3 ABY, the Rebellion was in need of victories. The ace fliers of Rogue Squadron were sent to recover scientists from an Imperial prison facility. After recovering them, one of their transports was stopped and boarded by Imperial Storm commandos, who subsequently took the scientists to Geonosis. A Rebel listening post intercepted transmissions, and they suspected it came from the ship from Bakura, which had destroyed a rebel transport.
General Crix Madine sent three of Rogue Squadron's T-65B X-wing starfighters were assigned the mission to rescue the scientists, and led four GR-75 medium transports, including Rescue 1, to Geonosis. The Rogues also had additional support craft on their way. Upon arrival in the Geonosis asteroid field, three escort carriers performed a surprise ambush. Antilles ordered the rescue transports to abort their mission, but the lead escort carrier took out a transport while the other two carriers retreated. The abductor revealed himself to be Sarkli, former member of Rogue Squadron and the Rebel Alliance. Antilles managed to destroy his escort carrier, but Sarkli and a few garrisons of stormtroopers managed to survive the blast by using the ship's escape pods, taking casualties in the process due to collisions with asteroids. Antilles's X-wing was caught in the explosion which destroyed his starboard stabilizer and sent him crashing in a canyon near a derelict Lucrehulk-class Core Ship.
Numerous B1-Series battle droids on Geonosis had been cut off from the deactivation beacon at the end of the Clone Wars. When the survivors of the carrier crash-landed on the planet, several stormtroopers were killed by "native" droids settled in the area, and suffered system malfunctions. As Antilles crashed, they turned their blasters on him. In an attempt to flee the droids, Sarkli used a crashed, but working LAAT/i to escape the area. Antilles now had to deal with waves of battle droids, as well as the survivors from the carrier. Antilles' R5 unit spotted something and started rolling down the canyon. Antilles protected the droid as it rolled forward.
While trying to navigate through the quagmire of the battle, Antilles threw several thermal detonator charges at the battle droids and stormtroopers, wiping out several of them. Just before getting out of the chaos, Antilles investigated one of the escape pods from the downed escort carrier and discovered some advanced homing proton torpedoes inside, procuring them for future use.
When Antilles finally came out of the chaos, Sarkli's gunship attacked him. Sarkli then taunted Antilles by telling him that, like Skywalker, he is a coward who is nothing without his forces. Using a dead stormtrooper's E-Web heavy repeating blaster, Antilles shot him down, although not before Sarkli vowed revenge. Antilles then found an old Jedi starfighter from the original Battle on Geonosis with good hull condition, but lacking power. Arfive transferred electricity and power from its circuits into the engine, reactivating it. Antilles and his R5 unit then escaped the planet.
Crix Madine's EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate came out of hyperspace and met up with Antilles. The remaining two escort carriers attacked and launched several TIEs, but Antilles found out the starfighter had a payload of seismic charges and repelled them. He also took out TIE bombers which were threatening the frigate. With assistance from the frigate and his wingmates, he dispatched the last two carriers, and jumped into hyperspace with an old, but still working, hyperspace ring floating nearby.
At the end of the battle the Rebels returned to the fleet. Shortly afterward, Antilles was assigned to lead a strike at Destrillion.
Sarkli survived his gunship being shot down by Antilles, and would resurface at the Battle of Endor.
This article was created based on a mission in the video game Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike. Seismic charges are not standard equipment for Delta-7 starfighters, so it is not known if their presence in the mission is a personal upgrade or apocryphal.
During the mission, the player can pick up the upgrade to complete the bonus objective. In addition, the strategy guide suggests using thermal detonators to destroy enemies in order to get a gold medal for the mission.
- Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike: The Official Nintendo Player's Guide