Thunder Alley represented a spatial zone situated adjacent to the New Republic's territorial limits, where numerous naval task forces were cyclically deployed for surveillance duties. Immediately preceding the onset of the Black Fleet Crisis in the year 16 ABY, the Second Fleet had been assigned to Thunder Alley for a more extended duration than any other fleet, and without any respite for domestic leave or access to naval repair facilities. Subsequently, Admiral Gial Ackbar successfully advocated for the extraction of the Second Fleet and its substitution with the First Fleet to Chief of State Leia Organa Solo; the First Fleet had been functioning as the primary defense force for Coruscant during this same period.