The Battle of the Katana Fleet, alternatively referred to as the Battle for the Katana fleet, marked a pivotal confrontation during the Thrawn campaign.
The New Republic and Thrawn's confederation both suffered significant losses during the Thrawn campaigns, creating an urgent need for replacement warships on both sides. Imperial forces' failed attempt to seize New Republic vessels from the Sluis Van shipyards, which left over forty New Republic warships crippled, further intensified this need.
The location of the Katana fleet, a group of two hundred Dreadnaughts dating back to before the Clone Wars, was a secret known to only a select few. Revealing this location to either side could drastically shift the balance of power during this period of the Galactic Civil War. Among those with this knowledge was Talon Karrde, a smuggler kingpin and information broker who found himself drawn into the conflict despite his desire to remain neutral.
Mara Jade seized an opportunity to meet with Grand Admiral Thrawn, agreeing to extract the Katana fleet's location from Karrde in exchange for the cancellation of the death warrants issued for him and his associates. Unfortunately, Thrawn followed Mara back to Karrde's new base and apprehended him. However, before Thrawn could extract the fleet's location, Mara and Luke Skywalker infiltrated the Grand Admiral's flagship, the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera, and rescued him. Deeply grateful, Karrde agreed to provide the New Republic with the Dreadnaught fleet's coordinates, urging them to initiate a salvage operation immediately.
Despite the setback of losing Karrde, Thrawn remained determined and took the Chimaera to Pantolomin, where he attacked the luxurious Coral Vanda casino in an attempt to abduct Captain Hoffner, another individual who knew the fleet's location and for whom Karrde had once served as a crew member.
Luke, accompanied by Rogue Squadron and a small team of technicians, arrived at the fleet's location with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian. They boarded one of the Dreadnaughts and began working to bring the fleet back to New Republic space. Guided by Luke's Force-attuned intuition, they chose the Katana herself, the flagship and central hub for the fleet's fully-rigged slave circuitry. However, their efforts were interrupted by the arrival of Borsk Fey'lya aboard the Nebulon-B Escort Frigate Quenfis, who immediately demanded that Han and the others surrender. The situation was further complicated by the arrival of the Star Destroyer Judicator, whose TIE fighter squadrons launched an attack on Rogue Squadron. Furthermore, a dozen dropships were launched from the Judicator to board the Katana. The team aboard the Katana managed to restore power to the ship's turbolaser batteries, destroying five of the dropships with their opening salvo along with a few TIE fighters while damaging most of the other dropships. Unfortunately for them, the Katana's first salvo was also its last, as the turbolaser capacitor was destroyed by a system overload.
Instead of providing assistance, Fey'lya ordered Captain Sarin Virgilio to take the ship and retreat. Appalled by Fey'lya's disregard for their comrades' safety, Karrde and Leia manipulated Fey'lya into admitting his intentions over an open communications channel. Fey'lya's forces immediately joined Rogue Squadron's defense, and Fey'lya himself was placed under arrest. Two X-wing squadrons from the Quenfis reinforced Rogue Squadron, and they began to gain an advantage over the Imperial TIEs. They successfully destroyed the initial wave, as well as six of the seven dropships that had survived the Katana's turbolaser attack.
Upon receiving reports of the unexpected resistance, Thrawn decided to personally intervene with his flagship Chimaera. However, this plan was disrupted by the sudden arrival of Joruus C'baoth in a hijacked Lancer-class frigate. Recognizing that delaying his ship's departure to confront Master C'baoth could cause him to arrive too late to influence the battle, Thrawn instead dispatched the Peremptory in his place. Aboard the Judicator, Captain Brandei launched one of his reserve squadrons to bolster the remaining two TIE formations and advanced his Star Destroyer to directly engage the New Republic forces.
At that moment, eighteen freighters and starfighters from Karrde's smuggling fleet emerged from hyperspace behind the Judicator and initiated an attack. Mara Jade, leveraging her extensive knowledge of Imperial Star Destroyer design specifications, targeted a little-known vulnerability in the lower-aft sensor grid with her Z-95 Headhunter, effectively blinding the Judicator to attacks from below. Brandei responded by deploying his TIE/sa bomber squadron to attack the smugglers, but then Garm Bel Iblis arrived with his fleet of six Katana Dreadnaughts, having received the fleet's location from Han Solo. Bel Iblis's Dreadnaughts began a heavy ion cannon bombardment of the Judicator, but the battle quickly shifted in favor of the Empire with the arrival of the Peremptory. Three of Bel Iblis's cruisers broke away to engage the undamaged Star Destroyer, while Karrde's ships desperately attempted to escape. Mara Jade's Headhunter was crippled by a stray laser blast, and she managed to set it on a collision course with the Judicator's hangar bay before ejecting. Unfortunately, this placed her directly in the path of the Dreadnaughts' ion cannon barrage, which disabled the locator beacon in her ejection seat.
Meanwhile, aboard the Katana, Luke, Han, Chewbacca, and Lando fought against the Imperial forces that had boarded the ship, at one point utilizing a damaged All Terrain Personal Transport walker that had been forced into one of the cruiser's corridors decades earlier by a crewmember infected with the Hive virus that had led to the fleet's demise. Finding themselves cornered and outnumbered on the bridge, Luke used his lightsaber to cause a decompression in the corridor leading to the bridge, eliminating the remaining troops due to lack of air. Han then used the ships' slave circuit systems to maneuver one of the other Dreadnaughts which, unlike the Katana herself, still had functional sublight engines, into the path of the Peremptory. The Star Destroyer was unable to avoid the collision, resulting in the destruction of both warships. One of Bel Iblis's Dreadnaughts sustained damage in the explosion, but the other two quickly joined the rest of his fleet in bombarding the Judicator. Realizing that he was now outnumbered and outgunned, Brandei swiftly ordered his ship to recover its remaining TIEs and retreat, bringing the battle to a close.
The New Republic's victory proved to be bittersweet. It was discovered during the battle that only fifteen of the Katana fleet's original two hundred Dreadnaughts remained. Even more concerning was the revelation that the stormtroopers comprising the boarding party were actually clones, raising fears of a renewed Clone Wars and the possibility of Coruscant being on the losing side this time. Locating Thrawn's cloning facility became a high priority for New Republic Intelligence.
Once the Katana's hull breach was repaired and a ship was available, Luke Skywalker departed the Dreadnaught and used his Jedi senses to locate Mara Jade's disabled ejection seat, ultimately saving her life.
Thrawn's acquisition of the Katana Dreadnaughts enabled his augmented fleet to launch attacks on more than twenty additional New Republic systems in the immediate aftermath.