Ferrix Riot

Prelude

Ferrix takeover

In the year 5 BBY, Ferrix inhabitant Cassian Jeron Andor journeyed to Morlana One with the objective of locating his missing Kenari sister. During this pursuit, Andor committed the act of killing two Preox-Morlana law enforcement personnel, which drew the scrutiny of Pre-Mor Enforcement. Subsequently, a Pre-Mor team under the leadership of Deputy Inspector Syril Karn and Sergeant Linus Mosk arrived on Ferrix to apprehend Andor, who was at that time engaged in an attempt to sell stolen Imperial equipment to Luthen Rael, an individual who served as a key figure within a rebel network. The Pre-Mor mission was unsuccessful, and both Andor and Rael managed to evade capture.

As a consequence of this event, the Galactic Empire made the decision to seize control of the Morlani system, with ISB Supervisor Blevin overseeing the occupation of Ferrix by deploying a garrison of Imperial [soldiers](/article/soldier]. Concurrently, Luthen assigned Andor to a rebel team on Aldhani that was preparing to execute a heist on the vault of the Aldhani dam. The rebel mission proved to be a success; the surviving rebels, including Andor, made off with eighty million credits.

Occupation period

The Empire intensified its dominance over its subjects by enacting the Public Order Resentencing Directive and the Imperial Emergency Act. Responsibility for Ferrix was transferred from Blevin's jurisdiction to that of Supervisor Dedra Meero, as Major Partagaz believed that Meero was more diligently pursuing connections between offenses against the Empire. Cassian Andor, in an attempt to steer clear of further rebel activities, which was in opposition to his mother Maarva's desire to resist the Empire, was wrongly arrested on Niamos on charges of anti-Imperial behavior and subsequently incarcerated in the Narkina 5 Imperial Prison Complex. The Imperial Security Bureau initiated a searched for Cassian; Meero conducted an interview with Karn, while the Ferrix garrison detained Salman Paak and Bix Caleen, two of Cassian's associates, within the hotel. Concurrently, Vel Sartha and Cinta Kaz, two of Cassian's fellow participants on Aldhani, were stationed in his hometown with the mission of assassinating him upon his return to prevent any potential exposure of information regarding the rebel network.

Supervisor Meero later came to the conclusion that there was a connection between Cassian's altercation with Pre-Mor and the rebel assault on Aldhani, and the Empire maintained continuous surveillance on Maarva, using her as bait to lure Cassian. Karn, deeply immersed in the Imperial pursuit of Cassian, secretly met with Meero outside the ISB Central Office. During Cassian's imprisonment, Maarva's health declined. Cassian eventually played a role in instigating an uprising within the prison, which led to his escape from detention. Before he could return to Ferrix, Maarva passed away, an event he learned of upon his return to Niamos. Given Maarva's position as a president of the Daughters of Ferrix, the townspeople arranged a grand funeral in her honor. Karn also learned from Mosk about Maarva's death and the possibility of Cassian attending her funeral.

Following the death of his father Salman at the hands of the Empire, Wilmon Paak constructed an improvised explosive device, which he would later employ to target Imperial troops. Meero arrived on Ferrix on the eve of the funeral; on the subsequent day, she coordinated the Imperial strategy to capture Cassian alive during the funeral procession, which was scheduled to proceed along Rix Road. Sartha and Kaz, along with the ISB, continued to monitor the Andor household. On that evening, Cassian arrived in the town and engaged in conversation with his friend Pegla, and Rael himself was present on the planet before joining his operatives during the day. On the day of the funeral, Cassian had a clandestine reunion with his friend Brasso, during which he expressed his desire to rescue Caleen from the hotel, before concealing himself beneath the roof of one of the buildings along Rix Road, although Nurchi was observing him for the Empire. Aboard a transport en route to the town, Karn and Mosk traveled together with the hope of intercepting Cassian.

Maarva Andor's funeral procession

March begins

At the summit of the bell tower, the "Time Grappler" commenced striking his beskar anvil, capturing the attention of Sartha, Rael, and the Imperials, while local residents began to gather at the tower's base. The marching band participating in the funeral procession warmed up by playing their instruments, with one group of musicians practicing on their horns and another group on their woodwind instruments, causing confusion for Meero and Captain Vanis Tigo. The Daughters of Ferrix, including Jezzi, assembled outside the Andor residence, as Rael proceeded down Rix Road towards the hotel, and Karn and Mosk navigated the streets. A drummer then led the brass section into parade formation. Accompanied by mourners on both sides and followed by honor guards, they marched and performed "Forming Up".

The citizens followed behind the band, augmenting the parade as it moved through the merchant streets' bazaars. Simultaneously, Jezzi guided the Daughters of Ferrix from the vicinity of the Andor home. Paak emerged from Repaak Salyard carrying a satchel containing his concealed bomb and joined the procession. The undercover ISB Attendant Corv marched with the parade as part of the woodwind section, but Kaz, aware of his true allegiance, trailed him. Monitoring the audible commotion from the hotel, Tigo communicated with Lieutenant Keysax, instructing him to deploy his troops outside immediately as a show of force. Keysax returned to the hotel lobby and ordered his Imperial Army troopers to expedite the preparation of their riot control equipment. The brass section, performing "Unto Stone We Are," marched past the wall where Grapplers hung their work gloves.

Caleen observed the gathering from her cell window, and Cassian used a telescope to observe the Imperial troops. After Keysax issued orders marshaling team one, team two, and team three to his soldiers, the two processions converged at the intersection between the two diagonal branches that encircled the bell tower building. Captain Tigo oversaw his troopers transporting tactical equipment into the street. From his elevated vantage point, Cassian recognized the cloaked Rael by his face, while Karn and Mosk watched as local residents hurried to join the procession. Upon locating Corv, Nurchi revealed that he knew Cassian's location and, after instructing the ISB attendant to feign his arrest, he was forcibly taken by the attendant to the hotel lobby as Kaz observed.

Stone and Sky

Upon receiving information from Nurchi regarding Andor's potential whereabouts, Meero promptly mobilized her death trooper escort and, disregarding Tigo's recommendations to assemble a full squad and surround the location, she exited the hotel, leaving the secure perimeter and entering the crowd. Karn noticed her and attempted to approach her, but Mosk intervened. Upon reaching the building where Andor was believed to be hiding, a death trooper and Corv entered to conduct a search, but they were unsuccessful, as Andor had already departed through the tunnel after observing their approach through openings in the roof where he had been concealed. Meanwhile, the two segments of the procession had merged into one and were marching onto Rix Road, led by the honor guard band and the Daughters of Ferrix.

Concurrently with the entire parade converging onto the street, the somber musical piece being performed by the band concluded, and the procession came to a halt. Observing their cessation caused panic among the officers watching from the hotel, who hastily assembled additional riot troopers as well as stormtroopers from inside the hotel to form a defensive perimeter at the end of Rix Road near Fountain Square. Abruptly, the band initiated the performance of "To The Sky," and the procession advanced towards the assembled blockade of troopers, following the tempo of the music. Ignoring the trooper line, they entered and gathered around the Square, at which point they paused once more and made way for Brasso, who carried Maarva's funerary stone, followed by Maarva's B2 groundmech salvage assist unit B2EMO. As the crowd chanted "Stone and Sky," B2EMO activated his holoprojector and initiated the playback of Maarva Andor's farewell address.

In her speech, Maarva addressed her fellow Ferrixians, expressing her affection for the planet and her pride in belonging to its people. She expressed her gratitude for being granted the honor of being "lifted" by the words of those who had been "bricked" in the past and for the opportunity to lift them with her own message as well. She then openly accused the citizens of Ferrix, including herself, of being "asleep," failing to observe the insidious spread of the Empire's malevolence throughout the galaxy. The speech evoked tears from those who listened, including Paak and Xanwan, while Rael displayed a visible reaction. Tigo, however, was incensed by the overtly anti-Imperial sentiment expressed in the speech. Just as Maarva was urging her fellow Ferrixians to "fight the Empire!", he intruded into the procession, covered B2EMO's projector with his cape, and forcefully kicked the droid to the ground. This action incited the crowd into a state of frenzy.

The uprising

Fight the Empire

Brasso immediately responded by delivering a kick to Tigo's stomach, causing him to stumble backward, and shattering Maarva's stone against an Army trooper's head while grappling with another on the ground. Surrounding him, fellow residents began to punch and kick the troopers who had attempted to rescue their Captain, while Keysax futilely screamed for them to maintain their position. Petrified, Tigo retreated to the safety of the hotel, crawling beneath the feet of the battling crowd. At this juncture, the funeral had escalated into a full-blown riot. The troopers formed a protective barrier with their shields, which protestors futilely charged, occasionally being seized through deliberate openings in the wall by snatch squads waiting on the other side to arrest and detain them. The troopers employed zap rods in addition to batons to inflict injuries on the protestors, who retaliated by striking the troopers' shields and hurling rocks at them. Recognizing the increasingly dire situation, Paak retrieved the bomb from his satchel.

With Keysax powerless to intervene, he launched it towards the hotel. The massive explosion overturned an armored vehicle and ignited a crate of baradium-core thermal detonators that was situated on the patio. This resulted in a series of successive explosions that shattered the glass on the hotel windows, immediately killing Nurchi and the two troopers guarding him, as well as damaging two speeders and collapsing a support column on the hotel's patio. Alerted by the commotion, Cinta rushed towards the hotel, while both protesters and troopers cautiously began to regain their footing. As the smoke cleared, Rael gradually began to retreat from the square as a shaken Tigo ordered the stormtroopers to unleash indiscriminate fire upon the protestors, and Ferrixians fled from the Square towards the smaller streets surrounding it.

Massacre of the Ferrixians

Immediately upon receiving the order, the stormtrooper squads that had been standing by during the ceremony opened fire on the civilians from the rooftops and balconies surrounding the square. Some climbed onto the remaining speeders and discharged their onboard cannons, instantly killing numerous civilians as they attempted to seek cover. Nonetheless, some persisted in fighting, injuring two stormtroopers and several Army troopers. Xanwan was killed by a stormtrooper while attempting to prevent another from executing an injured Daughter of Ferrix whom the trooper had previously shot. Keysax spotted Paak among the crowd still present at the scene and ordered two troopers to apprehend him. As they were forcing him to the ground, Brasso attacked them with a severed droid's arm, seized Paak, and dragged him away while Keysax continued to issue commands to the remaining troopers. B2EMO was also dragged away by Pegla, as it was too damaged to move independently.

Amidst the chaos, Cassian stealthily exited the unguarded hotel with Caleen, whom he had liberated from her holding cell, killing a trooper and one of Supervisor Meero's death trooper escorts in the process. Outside, the uprising persisted even as injured Ferrixians filled the streets in an attempt to escape the chaos; among them was Corv, who was cornered and killed by Cinta Kaz as he noticed her following him. Meero, separated from her escort by the blast, attempted to combat the crowd with her Power 5 blaster but was assaulted by Ferrixians who recognized her Imperial officer's uniform and was thrown to the ground. Desperately struggling to escape, she was aided by a man who seized her weapon and led her to an abandoned warehouse; as he closed the door, she grabbed a tool to defend herself, only to realize that it was actually Syril Karn, who had rushed to her rescue as Paak was launching the bomb and had managed to save her. Shaken, she acknowledged that she should have expressed her gratitude to him.

Aftermath

The riot and subsequent explosions left the Ferrix garrison in a significantly weakened state; their primary base of operations in the Rix Road hotel sustained severe damage, most of the support speeders were destroyed, and numerous officers and troopers were either dead or severely injured. Furthermore, their primary target, Cassian Andor, and his Rebel contact Axis had escaped the scene, and the plan to apprehend them had failed.

Many Ferrixians were killed by the Imperial forces in the protest. Ferrixians Brasso, Jezzi and Bix Caleen were forced to abandon the planet along with Maarva's B2 groundmech salvage assist unit B2EMO. Cassian, driven by the recent struggles and events he had experienced, formally joined Luthen Rael's spy network following the riot, which motivated Rael not to kill him and later played a critical role in transmitting the data plans of the DS-1 Death Star Mobile Battle Station to the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Largely due to Cassian's actions, for which he sacrificed his life, the Alliance was able to destroy that superweapon and continue its war with the Empire until overthrowing the regime.

Behind the scenes

The uprising on Ferrix was initially depicted in "Rix Road."