The Apailana's Promise, often shortened to just the Promise, was a gunship of the Braha'tok-class. This vessel fought for the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Notably, it carried two X-wings secured to its underside and had a crew of twelve seasoned naval personnel. Among these crew members were Commander Tohna, his second-in-command Sharn, and rebel pilot Nemenov. By the year 3 ABY, the Promise was acting as an escort for the CR90 corvette Thunderstrike, which served as the mobile headquarters for the Alliance's 61st Mobile Infantry, more famously known as Twilight Company.
During 3 ABY, the Promise accompanied the Thunderstrike on its campaigns across Haidoral Prime and Coyerti. However, after the attack on Haidoral Prime left the Thunderstrike with damage, both ships were repeatedly caught in ambushes by Imperial forces. To obtain the necessary supplies for repairing the corvette, the Promise participated in a raid targeting an Imperial heavy freighter. Following this, the Thunderstrike and the Promise continued making repairs within the Elochar sector. Unfortunately, Imperial spies infiltrated the Thunderstrike, resulting in the deaths of key officers. The Promise then bravely defended the corvette against the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Herald until both ships managed to escape the conflict.
Subsequently, the Promise underwent repairs with a minimal crew while stationed above Ankhural, after which it and the Thunderstrike set off on their next assignment. Together, the two vessels executed a series of attacks with the ultimate goal of striking at Kuat Drive Yards. However, an ambush prevented them from departing Sullust. Although the Promise initially fled the planet, it returned to shield Twilight Company from the Herald when they came under attack from Sullust's Imperial garrison. The Promise survived its confrontation with the Star Destroyer, which was eventually forced to retreat due to internal sabotage.
Ultimately, the Apailana's Promise served the Alliance's successor, the New Republic, and played a role in the Battle of Jakku, the concluding engagement of the Galactic Civil War. During this battle, the Promise reported to the refitted New Republic Star Destroyer Deliverance that it had not detected the Empire's 204th Imperial Fighter Wing.
The Apailana's Promise, also known as the Promise, was described as a "mean, compact dagger of a ship". Despite not being designed for it, the vessel carried two X-wings attached to its undercarriage. The pilots of these X-wings were notorious for never stepping onto the Thunderstrike. Like all Braha'tok-class gunships, the Promise had a standard crew capacity of 75 and could accommodate up to 15 passengers. However, the Promise was operated by a few dozen navy veterans, who collectively owed Twilight Company nearly 50,000 credits, a debt tracked on the door of the Thunderstrike's starboard barracks.
Constructed by the Dornean Braha'ket Fleetworks Conglomerate, the Promise measured 90 meters in length and featured a silver-plated hull to reflect solar radiation. Its arsenal included 8 double turbolaser cannons and 8 concussion missile launchers. The ship was also equipped with flare launchers. It could reach speeds of up to 800 kilometers per hour and had a class 1 hyperdrive located at its rear. The ship's command bridge was positioned at the bow, between its two sublight engines.
As a Braha'tok-class gunship, the Promise was engineered for rapid assaults, bombardments, and anti-starfighter operations. It served in the Rebel Alliance's fleet as an escort for the CR90 corvette Thunderstrike and later in the New Republic's fleet. The Apailana's Promise was named after Queen Apailana of Naboo, who reigned until the end of the Clone Wars, and the frigate Promise, which served the Alliance Fleet shortly after the Battle of Yavin.
During the Galactic Civil War, the Promise served the 61st Mobile Infantry, also known as Twilight Company, as an escort for their CR90 corvette, the Thunderstrike, and transported the company's two X-wing starfighters. The gunship's crew, comprised of a few dozen navy veterans, collectively owed Twilight Company nearly 50,000 credits, and the X-wing pilots were infamous for never setting foot on the Thunderstrike.
In 3 ABY, the Promise accompanied Twilight Company to Haidoral Prime, where the company defeated the defending Imperial forces. During this campaign, Twilight soldiers extracted the planet's governor, Everi Chalis, who wanted to defect to the company to avoid punishment for failing to defend against the rebels. Three days later, the two ships encountered an Imperial reconnaissance squadron, leading to a brief battle. Although both ships survived, they sustained minor damage, and the Promise lost three crew members. Days later, Twilight Company engaged in another campaign on Coyerti, where the Promise's X-wings supported ground troops.
However, three days after departing Coyerti, the Thunderstrike and Promise were attacked by an Imperial destroyer. The Promise and its X-wings swiftly defended the Thunderstrike, allowing them to escape, but one X-wing sustained a glancing hit and went offline. Thirty hours later, the two ships were ambushed in the Enrivi system by a light cruiser and a squadron of TIE fighters. The Thunderstrike and Promise easily destroyed their attackers. Nineteen hours later, the pair entered the Chonsetta system only to be attacked again by a squadron of TIE interceptors hidden in a comet trail. The fighters heavily damaged the starboard side of the Thunderstrike before the corvette and Promise escaped.
On the Thunderstrike, the chief engineer, M2-M5, discovered that a leak in the hyperdrive was causing them to be tracked. Consequently, Micha Evon, the captain of Twilight Company, convened a meeting with the bridge crews of both the Thunderstrike and Apailana's Promise, as well as high-ranking members of Twilight Company, to discuss a solution. Two individuals from the Promise suggested entering Baskron Pirates territory to bargain for repair materials. Commander Paonu, the Thunderstrike's naval captain, proposed that Chalis and select personnel escape on the Promise while the rest of Twilight Company faced destruction. Chalis, however, suggested locating and boarding an Imperial cargo transport. With some alterations from First Sergeant Hazram Namir, the plan was approved, and half the officers remained to plan the raid.
The Promise accompanied the Thunderstrike to the Redhurne system, a star system devastated centuries earlier when its star went supernova. The two ships concealed themselves separately, the Thunderstrike in the crescent of a shattered moon and the Promise behind an asteroid that was once part of a planet. They waited for an Imperial freighter to attack, hoping Imperial forces would not arrive first. An Imperial heavy freighter arrived after just two hours, and Chalis used her clearance codes to make the vessel change course. Once it did, both the Promise and the Thunderstrike ambushed it from opposite sides. The freighter, flanked, veered away from the Promise to avoid its firepower and moved toward the Thunderstrike.
As the Imperial heavy freighter approached and fired on the Thunderstrike, the corvette returned fire and launched at least six boarding pods, carrying squads of rebel troopers to board the enemy vessel. The Promise was tasked with dealing with the defending TIE fighters. The Thunderstrike continued firing on the freighter, trying to disable critical systems and keep its crew occupied. However, an Imperial Gozanti-class cruiser soon arrived in the Redhurne system and set a course for the battle. Captain Evon gave the squads five minutes to return to their boarding pods and get back to the Thunderstrike. Once all squads returned, the two ships jumped out of the system under heavy fire, sustaining damage. The Promise lost its deflector shield generator while blocking fire for the corvette. The mission was successful, with the needed supplies obtained and only eight casualties from the boarding party.
With the supplies secured to repair the Thunderstrike, Captain Evon arranged for the corvette and the Promise to rendezvous with three other battle groups in the Elochar sector, allocating a month for repairs. Meanwhile, he and Chalis were invited to a strategy conference with the Alliance High Command at their secret base on Hoth. As Evon, Chalis, Namir, and two other soldiers traveled to Hoth, the Thunderstrike and Promise proceeded to the Elochar Sector and joined a flotilla of a dozen rebel ships.
Ten days after their arrival, a light freighter named the Trumpet's Call jumped out of hyperspace near the flotilla after a battle and without functioning life support. The Thunderstrike quickly took the surviving crew aboard. However, the rebels did not know that the survivors were actually Imperial spies who had killed the real crew. The spies attacked the Thunderstrike's bridge and killed its leading officers, including Commander Paonu and Evon's second, Lieutenant Sairgon. Before dying, Sairgon managed to send a message to the rest of the flotilla, causing all ships except the Promise to flee.
Prelate Verge arrived in the Elochar Sector aboard his Imperial II-class Star Destroyer the Herald and demanded Chalis. Aboard the Thunderstrike, the Imperial spies were killed by Twilight soldier Brand, who retook the bridge. Meanwhile, the Promise, unaware of the situation, positioned itself between the Thunderstrike and the Herald to protect the former from turbolaser fire. Back on the Thunderstrike's bridge, Brand entered coordinates into the navigation computer and sent them to the Promise. The remaining bridge crew piloted the Thunderstrike and the gunship out of the system, sustaining some damage.
The Thunderstrike and Promise retreated to Ankhural. While the Thunderstrike landed in an abandoned podracing track for ground repairs, the Promise underwent repairs in orbit with a skeleton crew. Namir and Chalis soon arrived with news that Howl and the rest of their group had been killed during an attack on Hoth by Imperial forces led by Darth Vader. A funeral was held for the late captain, with one of the Promise's X-wing pilots, Nemenov, making a rare appearance among the soldiers of Twilight Company.
After the funeral, Chalis proposed her new plan for Twilight Company during a meeting with the high-ranking members of the battle group. Named Operation Ringbreaker, it targeted Kuat Drive Yards and several other worlds to draw away Imperial forces. Sharn, the second-in-command of the Promise, represented the gunship and pledged its support to Twilight Company and their final decision. A vote was then held, which favored Operation Ringbreaker.
The Thunderstrike and Promise soon departed Ankhural and began Operation Ringbreaker. Commander Tohna, an officer aboard the Promise, transferred to the Thunderstrike to lead its bridge crew, leaving the gunship with high praise from his peers. The two ships soon arrived at their first target, Mardona III. Tohna and the crew of the Promise planned the insertion of Twilight Company onto the planet, involving the Thunderstrike and Promise flying through the atmosphere at close proximity, pursued by hundreds of TIE fighters. Any enemy starfighters attempting to weave between them were destroyed by the clashing shields. The Promise pulled its X-wings out of the fight to prevent their destruction. After the dropships deployed the troops from the Thunderstrike, the corvette and Promise left the system.
Namir signaled for the Thunderstrike and Promise to return on the evening of their fifth day on Mardona III. Under the cover of a storm, Twilight Company escaped with the two vessels. After Mardona III, Twilight Company wrecked the dockyards of the gas giant Najan-Rovi, claimed victorious over the Imperial garrison on the planet Obumubo, and defeated the plastoid factories on agricultural planet Nakadia. After two more victories on Naator and Xagobah, they stopped on the junk world of Heap Nine. Twilight Company then sabotaged machinery in the Kuliquo belt. After this, only Sullust and Malastare remained as targets before the Kuat driveyards.
The Thunderstrike and Promise jumped out of hyperspace so close to Sullust that the sudden gravitational pull nearly tore them apart. Twilight Company was deployed to capture the Inyusu Tor mineral processing facility. A day later, the ships returned to pick them up from the Inyusu Tor facility. However, upon entering orbit, they encountered heavy TIE fighter resistance, and Tohna decided the Thunderstrike would fly low to cover the returning dropships while the Promise covered its flank.
The crew of the Apailana's Promise realized the gunship had been ambushed by a squadron of TIEs, which had been hiding behind Sullust's moon until the Thunderstrike entered orbit. A female officer aboard the Promise reported this to Namir on the ground, who ordered the ships to pull up. However, it was too late for the Thunderstrike, and only the Promise and its X-wings escaped Sullust as the corvette was shot down and crashed.
Stranded on Sullust, Twilight Company began setting up defenses at the Inyusu Tor facility. A team attempted to contact the Promise to determine its location, but they could only maintain a channel for a minute, and the gunship could not carry the entire company off Sullust. After Namir disappeared on a mission into the nearby city Pinyumb, Chalis took charge and planned to hijack ships in the Pinyumb spaceport and escape under the cover of the Promise. However, Namir returned with his own plan to defend the facility and work with the local rebel cell at Pinyumb to liberate the city.
After the Herald arrived at Sullust, Twilight Company faced an assault at Inyusu Tor from Imperial ground reinforcements. As the Herald began bombarding the company's positions, the Promise returned with its X-wings and distracted the Star Destroyer. Late in the battle, Chalis stole a shuttle and allowed herself to be captured by the Herald, where she set off about twenty Ion bombs, crippling the Star Destroyer's power. The Herald retreated into orbit, and the battle soon ended. The Promise emerged with drained laser batteries and overheated deflector shields, but its hull remained intact, although at least one of the gunship's X-wings was destroyed.
In 5 ABY, the New Republic, the reorganized Alliance, launched an attack on the Empire's main forces at Jakku. The Apailana's Promise was among the New Republic fleet, assisting the refitted New Republic Star Destroyer Deliverance in searching for the Empire's 204th Imperial Fighter Wing, known as Shadow Wing. The Promise reported no sightings to the Deliverance, and General Hera Syndulla was informed. The New Republic won the battle, marking the end of the Galactic Civil War.
The Apailana's Promise debuted in Battlefront: Twilight Company, a novel by Alexander Freed published in 2015. The gunship was first depicted in the Huge Ship Conversion Kit, an expansion for Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition, released on November 8, 2019.