Attack on Fondor

During 4 ABY of the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Empire faced a major defeat near the moon of Endor at the hands of the Alliance to Restore the Republic. This loss included the destruction of the second Death Star superweapon and the death of the Emperor, Darth Sidious. Vice Admiral Rae Sloane ordered the remaining Imperial forces to withdraw from the Endor system. Admiral Garrick Versio then communicated these orders to Inferno Squad, a special commando unit present on Endor when the Death Star was destroyed. Led by his daughter, Commander Iden Versio, Inferno Squad fought their way through rebel forces and escaped the moon using TIE fighters.

Garrick personally instructed Iden to meet him on his Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the Eviscerator, which journeyed to their homeworld, the planet Vardos. He informed her about the Emperor's demise and revealed a message from a sentinel droid detailing Operation: Cinder, a plan involving the use of experimental satellites to devastate several worlds by inducing extreme weather conditions. Iden and Inferno Squad were tasked with retrieving these satellites for the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Dauntless, which had been stockpiled for years at the shipyards above the Imperial world of Fondor. Iden then relayed the mission to her Inferno Squad colleagues, Gideon Hask and Del Meeko, aboard the team's Raider II-class corvette, the Corvus. Hask and Iden were to ensure the security of Moff Derrek Raythe, the Dauntless' commander, and collect the satellites for the Star Destroyer, while Meeko remained on the Corvus. Inferno Squad traveled to Fondor Station, where the Dauntless was docked, and successfully secured the satellites, allowing Operation: Cinder to proceed as planned.

Before the Dauntless could depart from the Imperial dockyard, a fleet of Rebel Alliance forces emerged from hyperspace and commenced an attack on Fondor Station. This fleet consisted of an MC80 Star Cruiser along with an escort of multiple CR90 corvettes, X-wing starfighters, A-wing starfighters, and U-wing transports. The Star Cruiser targeted the Dauntless, still docked at the station, with its ion cannons, disabling it. To prevent the rebels from discovering Operation: Cinder, Hask, Versio, and other pilots boarded their TIE fighters on the Star Destroyer and left the vessel to engage the rebel forces, supported by TIE/IN interceptors. Versio and Hask immediately attacked and destroyed one of the corvettes, while Meeko engaged other rebel ships from aboard the Corvus. With the Dauntless disabled, the rebels attempted to board the vessel using the U-wings, but Inferno Squad successfully shot down all of these transports, thwarting the attempt.

As the battle intensified, Versio suggested to Raythe that the Dauntless should flee the area with the satellites once its systems were back online. However, the Moff refused, considering it an act of cowardice. Two X-wings and one A-wing began pursuing Hask's TIE fighter, but Versio destroyed them using her own TIE fighter after chasing them through the station. She then entered the MC80 Star Cruiser's hangar, while Hask defended the Dauntless under the commander's orders. Inside the rebel ship, Versio opened fire in the hangar, destroying several ships and killing numerous rebel soldiers. After clearing the hangar, Versio landed her TIE and began infiltrating the Star Cruiser to sabotage it, as the rebels tried to defend their ship. With the Star Cruiser continuing to bombard the Dauntless with ion cannon fire, Hask entered the enemy ship on Versio's orders, and they regrouped in its weapons bay. When Versio's ID10 seeker droid sliced into the ship's systems, rebel soldiers attempted to eliminate the two commandos but were unsuccessful.

The droid's slicing revealed the ship's ion cannon's cooling cells. Versio destroyed the first two cells before planting an explosive on the final cell. The resulting explosion launched it into space, where it collided with a nearby CR90 corvette, causing it to crash into the Star Cruiser. This collision knocked Versio and Hask off-balance. The droid quickly activated the ship's shields before Versio could be sucked into space. With the ship's ion cannons successfully disabled, the two commandos returned to their TIE fighters and exited the Star Cruiser.

Moff Raythe then ordered Versio to destroy the power sources of the docking clamps on the station to free the trapped Star Destroyer. Versio pointed out that her orders were to protect the satellites and not attack an Imperial station, but Raythe responded by issuing new orders to both protect them and attack the station. Consequently, she destroyed Fondor Station's control tower and the docking arm holding the Dauntless in place, before multiple rebel X-wings attempted to attack the Dauntless. Versio suggested that the Empire could gain valuable information about the rebels by disabling the Star Cruiser, but Hask argued that adopting the rebels' weakness would only lead to failure. After the rebel fighters were shot down, Versio destroyed the clamps and freed the ship. The Dauntless then moved into an attack position and fired its heavy turbolasers at the Star Cruiser, severely damaging the rebel ship.

With the attack on Fondor repelled, the Dauntless left Fondor Station carrying the satellites and traveled to Vardos, where they would eventually be deployed. However, the assault on the shipyard led to Arquitens-class command cruisers becoming less common, a point later made by Imperial defector Ralsius Paldora upon seeing one of the cruisers during his extraction from Takodana in 5 ABY. After Hask and Versio returned to the Corvus from battle, the commander briefed Inferno Squad on the status of the satellites and their next mission: Meeko was tasked with destroying the Emperor's Observatory on Pillio to prevent the Rebel Alliance from using the artifacts stored there against the Empire.

Following Meeko's mission, the Corvus journeyed to Vardos, where Versio learned the satellites' true purpose after observing the Dauntless and the satellites positioned above the planet. Aboard the Eviscerator, she confronted her father about the decision to attack their home world, but was forced to witness the activation of the satellites over the planet. Inferno Squad was then ordered to extract an Imperial, Protectorate Gleb, from Kestro, the planet's capital city. During this mission, Meeko and Versio deserted the Empire and escaped Vardos on the Corvus, where they were eventually found by the Rebel Alliance and recruited into their ranks.

Around 5 ABY, the New Republic, which succeeded the Rebel Alliance, attacked the Fondor Shipyards with the goal of destroying the Interdictor-class heavy cruiser Spectral. The ship deployed its complement of TIE fighters before escaping the shipyards via hyperspace jump.

The attack on Fondor was the central event of the third level, titled "The Dauntless," in the DICE video game Star Wars Battlefront II, which was released on November 17, 2017. Prior to the game's launch, footage of the battle was initially showcased in a gameplay trailer released on June 10, 2017. The name of the conflict appeared in "Emperor Palpatine," an issue of the Star Wars Encyclopedia series published by De Agostini on May 25, 2021.

In the seventh level of Battlefront II, titled "General Distress," Ralsius Paldora mentions a shipyard assault that occurred "a year back." Writer Mitch Dyer clarified that Paldora was referring to the battle depicted in "The Dauntless."

The mission's initial objective involves destroying a CR90 corvette, but this ship can be bypassed entirely and will eventually be destroyed by friendly AI. The subsequent objective requires destroying three U-wing transports, which in-game dialogue suggests would board the Dauntless if not destroyed quickly. However, there is no time constraint for this objective, as the U-wings never attempt to board the ship. Later in the mission, if the player fails to destroy the two X-wing starfighters pursuing Gideon Hask, the enemy ships will crash into the station instead, and the A-wing starfighter will immediately join the pursuit. If the A-wing is not destroyed by the player within a certain timeframe, it will abandon chasing Hask and target the player instead.

The mission also includes two collectibles, both located aboard the rebel cruiser. These are stored in containers that require ID10 to slice in order to unlock them. Finding both collectibles completes a milestone, rewarding the player with twenty-five crafting parts.