Following the Battle of Jakku, the New Republic and the remnants of the Galactic Empire signed the Galactic Concordance which ended the Galactic Civil War. It also limited the Imperial remnants' ability to wage war and to acquire advanced military weapons and starships. Eventually, these Imperial remnants re-established themselves as the First Order in the Unknown Regions before later remerging to take shape as the ruling authority for a number of star systems previously aligned with the Centrists that had seceded from the New Republic to join the Empire's successor. Sometime after the Battle of Endor, the First Order began to test the resolve of the Republic by making isolated strikes into Republic space. On one such incident, the First Order commandeered the freighter Yissira Zyde and fought with the T-85 X-wing squadron, Rapier Squadron. During the dogfight, the pilot Muran was killed when his starfighter was shattered by the hijacked freighter's jump into hyperspace.
Poe Dameron, the commander of Rapier Squadron, advocated investigating what the freighter was hauling and tracking its trajectory. However, he was overruled by his superior Major Lonno Deso, who stressed that Republic Command viewed these skirmishes as isolated incidents and did not regard the a First Order as a serious threat to the New Republic. Defying Major Deso's orders, Poe conferred with his fellow pilots Karé Kun and Iolo Arana and outlined his plan to track down the Yissira Zyde. To avoid getting his colleagues into trouble, Poe stressed that he was going alone. With the help of his astromech droid BB-8, Poe discovered that the freighter was carrying 46 high-capacity charging arrays which could be converted for military use.
After Poe's fellow pilots had their astromech droids upload all telemetry from the Suraz engagement into BB-8, Poe departed alone on his T-85 X-wing into hyperspace. Using the combined data, Poe decided to randomly visit one of the five possible places that the Yissira Zyde had traveled to. At random, BB-8 picked the remote OR-Kappa-2722 system. Upon exiting hyperspace, Poe's starfighter encountered a fleet of First Order warships including three Star Destroyers, four frigates, two Maxima-A-class heavy cruisers, and one Dissident-class light cruiser. Before BB-8 could pick out the location of the Yissira Zyde, they were attacked by twelve TIE/fo space superiority fighters.
While BB-8 tracked the location of the freighter, Poe used his starfighter to lead the TIEs on a wild pursuit. Using several starfighter maneuvers, Poe managed to outrun his Imperial pursuers. Two of the TIEs were clipped by friendly fire, causing them to spiral into out of control arcs. About four TIE fighters collided with each other and exploded with Poe narrowly escaping destruction himself. While flying circles around the First Order fleet, BB-8 managed to track down the Yissira Zydes transponder signal to the second of the three Star Destroyers. Having completed their mission, Poe did a L'ulo Stand maneuver before making a jump into hyperspace.
Despite learning the contents of the Yissira Zydes cargo and finding the freighter's location, Poe Dameron's actions got him into trouble with the New Republic authorities on Mirrin Prime. Upon returning, he was ordered by Mirrin Control to land at Landing Bay 22. There, he was detained by Major Caluan Ematt and two shore police who summoned him for a private meeting with General Leia Organa, the leader of the Resistance, a splinter group of the New Republic Defense Force that monitored the activities of the First Order and believed that the Republic was ignoring the threat posed by the Imperial loyalists.
After learning about Poe's actions and the Yissira Zyde, Leia offered Poe the opportunity to join the Resistance. She pointed out that his unsanctioned mission was a violation of Republic military protocol that amounted to the theft of a Republic X-wing. While she had the power to whitewash Poe's unauthorized trip to OR-Kappa-2722, she conceded that he would have to operate within a military hierarchy that was reluctant to take action against the First Order. Due to Poe's idealism and strong desire to fight the First Order, Leia counseled Poe to leave the Republic Starfleet and join the Resistance. Poe accepted Leia's offer and was accompanied by his comrades Kare and Iolo.
The Skirmish in OR-Kappa-2722 first appeared in Greg Rucka's three-arc junior novel Before the Awakening. It served as a conflict that helped develop Poe Dameron's character and to explain his role in the 2015 movie Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. It also explored the relationship between the First Order, the New Republic, and the Resistance.
In official artwork, Poe's T-85 X-wing is mistakenly portrayed by his T-70 X-Wing Black One from the films; this is because the canonical design of the T-85 was not finalized nor shown in fiction until the 2018 animated series Star Wars Resistance. The same mistake is present in artistic depictions of the Suraz engagement.
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