The Pride of Tarlandia was a battlecruiser and Destroyer that served as a communications ship in the Imperial Navy. As part of the Sith Lord Darth Vader's personal fleet, Death Squadron, the starship fought in the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY as part of the war between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance. During the battle, it served as the Empire's main communications ship and prevented the Alliance from detecting the deflector shield that protected the second Death Star.

In the battle, it faced off against a Rebel cruiser and destroyed it, though the cruiser damaged the Pride of Tarlandia. Because of the damage it sustained, Rebel General Lando Calrissian, along with other Alliance starfighters, decided to launch an attack run on the Pride of Tarlandia, and succeeded in destroying the vessel. The vessel's destruction enabled the Alliance to detect the Death Star's shield and caused the command of Death Squadron to fall to the Chimaera.

Characteristics[]

The Pride of Tarlandia was a battlecruiser-classed^[1] Destroyer and communications ship^[2] that served in the Imperial Navy.^[1] It was one of the larger Destroyers present at the Battle of Endor^[2] in 4 ABY.^[1] The Pride of Tarlandia was equipped with several different sizes of guns, including front batteries and lasers. It possessed a tower, long axis, a gunmetal hull, and reactors positioned just inside its cargo bay.^[2] It shared its name with the Core Worlds' Tarlandia system.^[3]

History[]

In 4 ABY,^[1] as part of the Galactic Civil War between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, the Alliance was lured to^[2] the Outer Rim moon of Endor, where Emperor Palpatine had laid a trap for the Alliance in hopes of destroying it. A member of the Sith Lord Darth Vader's personal fleet, Death Squadron,^[1] the Pride of Tarlandia fought in the Battle of Endor, where it was the main communications ship used by the Imperial fleet, jamming the Alliance's scanners and thus preventing them from detecting the status of the Death Star II battlestation's shield generator. The Pride of Tarlandia went into a rough battle with a Rebel cruiser and emerged victorious, destroying the other ship. It suffered reparable damage during its encounter, and because of the damage it had sustained, Alliance General Lando Calrissian decided to attempt a fighter run against it while it was still vulnerable.^[2]

Calrissian's Millennium Falcon, Red Leader Wedge Antilles, Blue Leader^[2] Merrick Simms,^[4] and Green Wing began their attack run against the battleship. They went in low enough to avoid the Pride of Tarlandia's bigger guns, performed a high-speed power-dive perpendicular to the ship's long axis, and raced along the hull while under heavy fire. Green Wing was hit and crashed into the front batteries on the port side of the vessel, allowing the other fighters a chance to hit the power reactors located inside a cargo bay.^[2]

Pulling out of the bay after a heavy strike, the surviving Rebel fighters escaped as the ship was destroyed in a series of increasing explosions, with one of the explosions killing Simms and destroying a nearby Imperial ship. The Pride of Tarlandia's destruction greatly hampered the operations of the rest of the fleet and caused the scanner jamming of the Rebel fleet to stop, allowing them to detect the status of the Death Star II's operational shield generator.^[2] The Battle of Endor resulted in a victory for the Alliance, with the Death Star II and a large portion of the Imperial fleet being destroyed.^[1] Because of both the Pride of Tarlandia's destruction and the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Executor's eventual destruction, command of Death Squadron fell to^[1] the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer^[5] Chimaera, the next communications ship in line.^[1]

Crew[]

The Pride of Tarlandia possessed a crew that included reactor personnel. Its reactor personnel were surprised and horrified when Calrissian pulled the Falcon into a sharp bank to destroy the ship's reactors.^[2]

Behind the scenes[]

The Pride of Tarlandia originated in the novelization of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, which was written by James Kahn and published on^[2] May 12, 1983, before the film's release on May 25 of that same year.^[6] Although it was not identified in the novel,^[2] the vessel was identified as the Pride of Tarlandia in the reference book The Essential Guide to Warfare, which was written by Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart and published in 2012.^[1]

Appearances[]

• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi novelization (First appearance)

Sources[]

• The Essential Guide to Warfare (First identified as Pride of Tarlandia)

Notes and references[]