| Previous battle: Fourth Battle of Corellia | |
| Next battle: Fourth Battle of Sullust | |
| Second Battle of Mon Calamari | |
|---|---|
| Conflict: Galactic Civil War, Imperial Blitzkrieg | |
| Date: 14 ABY | |
| Place: Dac (Mon Calamari) | |
| Outcome: Draw; Republican tactical victory – Imperial strategic victory | |
| Combatants | |
| Commanders | |
|
Military Advisor Danik Kreldin |
Captain Moralis Rodriga |
| Strength | |
| Casualties | |
|
Task Force Crimson Star, effectively ceased to exist |
Republic Assault Frigate Adamant |
In what analysts now believe to be the most audacious move of his Imperial Blitzkrieg, Admiral Danik Kreldin split his force, leaving Fleet Admiral Drayson Honos in charge of five task forces, centered around the SSD HIMS Malevolence, to resupply and re-equip at Corellia. Meanwhile, he took his vaunted Task Force Crimson Star to Mon Calamari to deal with the New Republic head-on.
While most other forces would be weary of prolonged and continuous fighting over several weeks, Kreldin's elite task force arrived at the Imperial-sympathetic system of Kubindi, fully prepared to make their most crucial fight yet. After stopping over for merely 12 hours to make sure all ships were accounted for and in combat readiness, Kreldin spurred them on to Mon Calamari, arriving in full-out assault mode.
The Imperial Admiral had done well to prepare his force, because there was an unexpected greater level of Republican defense this time. After the feint at Mikassa, and the Second Battle of Chandrila, the Republican fleet had split up, with several large ships heading to Mon Calamari to refit and resupply. New Republic officers had not let their charges relax at all, and had kept them at a heightened state of readiness. Some speculate that a spy at Kubindi had alerted the New Republic forces, but in any case, the battle that unfurled was nothing short of a maelstrom.
Casualties were heavy on both sides, with several vessels of Task Force Crimson Star finally succumbing to weeks of combat and losing out to overwhelming, fresh firepower. Kreldin's officers nonetheless executed maneuver after brilliant maneuver, keeping the battle running and trying to minimize as much incurred damage as possible. The climax of the battle was a collision between HIMS Conqueror, Kreldin's flagship, and NRAF Adamant, a Republican Assault Frigate. Adamant, already bleeding from a severe raking handed out by an Imperial Strike-cruiser's main battery, turned on HIMS Conqueror with the intent of ramming her, thus taking her out of her centerpiece position in the battle array. Conqueror instead absorbed the impact, and while losing a good portion of her portside hull, was able to extricate herself from Adamant, and make ready a route of escape. Gathering his surviving ships, Kreldin ordered an escape jump to Fwillsving, confident in knowing his forces had doled out considerable damage to the New Republic Navy and that his subordinate, Fleet Admiral Honos, was on his way to Sullust with the rest of the Imperial battlefleet.
Upon arriving at Fwillsving, Kreldin was promptly summoned back to the Core Worlds by Imperial High Command to deal with what became the Moff Sekirol Crisis. Kreldin was forced to divide his forces yet again, sending the bulk of the survivors on to Sullust to rendevous with Fleet Admiral Honos, while he took the damaged Conqueror and a Carrack-class cruiser back to Kuat. Upon arriving at Kuat, and the Kuati Drive Yards facility, he was appraised of the situation by High Command, and given command of a quickly assembled task force designated Task Force Nebula. Worth noting is that at this point, KDY set the galactic record for repair of a Star Destroyer, fixing the damage incurred on Conqueror by the New Republic in an astonishing six days.