Operation Roundabout, a military offensive against Corellia, was initiated by the Galactic Alliance. This action served as the catalyst for the Second Galactic Civil War.
The impetus behind this operation stemmed from intelligence reports indicating that the Corellian administration was secretly amassing military resources to reinforce its political aspirations for independence. This included the clandestine construction of an offensive fleet and attempts to reactivate Centerpoint Station. On a broader scale, the assault was intended as a demonstration of power, aimed at resolving the issue of Corellia's vehemently anti-Coruscant government and suppressing dissent within the Alliance.
Consequently, a substantial Fleet operation was launched, deploying a significant task force from the Second Fleet into Corellia's orbital space, under the command of Admiral Matric Klauskin. This maneuver was largely intended as a psychological tactic to intimidate opponents of the Alliance. Militarily, it was designed to serve as a diversion and support mission. The primary offensive force of Operation Roundabout consisted of several Jedi commando units, each named after aggressive creatures, tasked with dismantling the Corellian government and its military-industrial infrastructure.
Prior to its commencement, the operation was a closely guarded secret. It was seemingly considered a logical course of action by the Alliance's Senate and Defense Force leadership. However, the operation was flawed from the beginning, primarily due to its targeting of an entire member state based on the actions of a single political faction. The assault fleet was a clandestine project of a caucus within the system's government, led by Corellia's planetary Chief of State Thrackan Sal-Solo, operating without the knowledge of the Five World Prime Minister, Aidel Saxan, and the rest of the administration.
Furthermore, the show-of-force strategy risked causing adverse political consequences throughout the Galaxy and alienated Han and Leia Organa Solo even before it began. In what some might deem treason, they secretly met with Prime Minister Saxan to alert her to the impending military action against her government. However, Thrackan Sal-Solo was apparently already aware of the impending attack and had made preparations accordingly. It is plausible that he intentionally leaked information about the assault fleet to provoke the strike, with the intention of luring the Alliance and the Jedi into a trap upon their arrival at Corellia, thereby consolidating his own power.
As previously stated, the main attack element of Operation Roundabout was composed of a series of Jedi strike missions. These included a two-person team deployed against Centerpoint Station, and a coordinated series of four teams deployed against Corellia itself. Two commando extraction teams and a reconnaissance unit were covertly deployed around Coronet City, while an airborne support/extraction mission was launched from the Second Fleet during the main phase of the operation.
The most vital component of Operation Roundabout was Team Mynock, consisting of Jacen Solo and his apprentice Ben Skywalker, whose objective was the destruction of Centerpoint Station. While Jacen was ensnared in an anti-Jedi trap set by Thrackan, Ben successfully infiltrated the control room undetected. There, he discovered a droid programmed to believe it was Anakin Solo. Because Centerpoint Station was designed to respond only to commands from Anakin Solo, Thrackan had created the droid to mimic his thought patterns and biometrics, thereby deceiving the station's computers.
When the young Skywalker revealed to the droid that it was not the real Anakin, it self-destructed, permanently disabling the station's controls—but preventing its destruction. Ben and Jacen subsequently escaped Centerpoint amidst the chaos of an evacuation alert triggered by the droid.
Team Slashrat was a two-member reconnaissance unit, composed of Jedi Master Corran Horn and an unidentified Jedi. Their mission was to monitor military starfighter activity at Coronet's primary spaceport. However, Slashrat's role was rendered unnecessary because the majority of the Corellian Defense Force's starfighters were already in space, preparing to ambush the Second Fleet.
Team Purella, led by Jaina Solo and including Thann Mithric, Zekk, and Kolir Hu'lya, was assigned the task of abducting Prime Minister Aidel Saxan. However, upon attacking her motorcade, they encountered only YVH 1 combat droids, having been lured into a trap.
Team Tauntaun, led by Tahiri Veila with Tiu Zax and Doran Tainer, was tasked with eliminating planetary Chief of State Thrackan Sal-Solo. Similar to Saxan's situation, the Jedi were ambushed by CorSec troops and probots similar to those used by Thrackan on Centerpoint. However, they achieved a minor victory when Zax chose to remain hidden inside Sal-Solo's mansion to provide intelligence to the Alliance, rather than returning with the rest of the team.
Team Womp Rat, commanded by Grand Master Luke Skywalker himself, consisted of the ten XJ6 X-wing starfighters of Hardpoint Squadron and the ground-assault shuttle Chandrila Skies. Assigned directly to the Second Fleet, their mission was to extract Purella and Tauntaun from the surface. They suffered the first Alliance combat losses of the Second Galactic Civil War when a force of Corellian attack fighters maneuvered them into the range of concealed flak emplacements outside Coronet, resulting in the destruction of Chandrila Skies and its crew, as well as one X-wing with its Jedi pilot, Toile Senn.
The loss of Chandrila Skies forced Purella-Tauntaun to devise their own extraction plan, but the nine remaining XJ6s continued to provide fighter cover until their successful escape.
The deployment of a substantial naval force from the Second Fleet was intended to intimidate Corellia, and any other entities contemplating similar actions, with the Alliance's firepower and strength. The expectation was that the battlegroup would remain unchallenged in orbit, while the Jedi strike teams captured the Prime Minister and Chief of State, bringing them into Alliance custody aboard the command ship Dodonna.
In reality, the Defense Force ships found themselves confronted by a Corellian fleet, composed of every combat-ready vessel the Five Worlds government could muster, seemingly interspersed with numerous derelict and incomplete hulls to mislead the Alliance regarding their actual numbers and deployment. As skirmishes between the two sides' starfighters intensified, a Corellian escort frigate was destroyed by Alliance Eta-5 interceptors.
Admiral Matric Klauskin, apparently influenced by the manipulations of Lumiya, experienced a mental breakdown during the operation. However, the general outline of his improvised strategy was sound—more so, militarily, than many seemed to recognize. Realizing that his close-orbit deployment was untenable, he retreated to the edge of the system to seize Tralus as a forward operating base for continued operations against the Corellians.
Understandably, the Defense Force was not prepared to withdraw from Tralus, but they were unable to quickly reinforce their bridgehead. Meanwhile, negotiations to resolve the conflict between the Alliance and the Five Worlds government were conducted at Toryaz Station in the Kuat system. When these negotiations failed—due to Lumiya's interference—the Corellian military subsequently launched a counterattack before the occupation forces could be significantly strengthened. In this operation, known as Operation Noble Savage, a starfighter-led assault successfully drove off the Second Fleet and liberated Tralus.