Attack on Galidraan Station

"Governor Tarkin came close to losing his life to his own ship. Given his experience and expertise, we have to assume that the Carrion Spike is in the hands of a very competent and dangerous group."

- Admiral Screed comments on the attack

After stealing the corvette Carrion Spike from Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, a rebel cell lead by Berch Teller attacked an Imperial space station orbiting the planet Galidraan III in the Galidraan system. The starship managed to cause large amounts of damage to the station, and as it was invisible the stations defences had trouble returning fire. Tarkin and Darth Vader then arrived in the system on board the Parasec Predator and proceeded to try and attack the Carrion Spike alongside starfighters from the station. The corvette was damaged by the Predator, but managed to disable the Imperial's vessel before escaping the system.

Prelude
"Time to get down to business. Coordinates for Galidraan?"

- Berch Teller prepares to attack Galidraan Station

Around fourteen years before the Battle of Yavin, a rebel cell created by the former Republic Intelligence Berch Teller began working with Imperial Vice-Admiral Rancit in order to steal the Carrion Spike, the personal corvette of Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. The rebels' planned to steal the advanced ship and use it to make a series of attacks on Imperial targets. To draw Tarkin out, they made a brief attack on Sentinel Base, the facility Tarkin was stationed at, which resulted in the Moff being called to the planet Coruscant. On Coruscant, Tarkin was teamed up with the Sith Lord Darth Vader and sent to the planet Murkhana in order to investigate a cache of communications equipment left over from the Clone Wars.

The cache was in fact a trap set up by the rebels, and while Vader and Tarkin were busy meeting with Murkhana's Imperial ambassador, a group of five rebels managed to board the Carrion Spike and steal it. Vader and Tarkin then managed to appropriate another vessel known as the Parasec Predator from a Murkhana crime group known as the Sugi. Teller and his crew were shocked to discover that Vader was able to track them in the Carrion Spike, despite the fact that the corvette's stealth systems made it invisible to the Human eye and all sensors. Vader's tracking was dependent on using the Force to track his own personal meditation chamber, which was stored on board the Carrion Spike. To escape their pursuers, the rebels jumped to Fial system, but Vader was still able to sense them, and the Parasec Predator soon jumped to the Fial system as well, causing the Carrion Spike to jump again, this time to their first target, an Imperial space station orbiting the planet Galidraan III in the Galidraan system.

The battle
"Shots in the dark," "Only from your vantage,"

- Tarkin comments on shooting at the invisible Carrion Spike to Darth Vader

Once in the Galidraan system, the Carrion Spike opened fire on the station. The ship was able to cause considerable damage to the station, ripping apart of the station's rim open and causing gases, flames, debris and corpses to be sucked out into the vacuum of space. The corvette, being very a custom corvette designed by the esteemed Sienar Fleet Systems, had very advanced sensors and a cloaking device and as such was invisible to both the Imperial's scanners and the naked eye. The station's particle-beam weapon emplacements could only shot out at nothingness in the hope of getting a lucky strike on their attacker. Despite having the fact that the Spike had enough power to destroy the station entirely, the cell chose to taper their attacks in order to preserve some energy for future operations.

As the Parasec Predator arrived in the system, the vessel immediately struck the body of a dead stormtrooper left floating in space by the battle. The Predator then raced toward the station, where Tarkin and Vader found the invisible Spike constantly advancing and retreating while shooting at the spokes of the wheel-shaped station. The station's crew responded by releasing flights of ARC-170s and V-Wings from its hangar bays, sending them to search for the hidden assailant. The ships' pilots attempted to force the enemy corvette to reveal its location by flying directly at the source of the energy bolts coming at the station, a tactic which cost many of the pilots their lives. Vader kept the Parasec Predator back out of the battle, in order to not be targeted by either side, but then began trying to follow parallel to the damage the Carrion Spike was causing, and dropped his ship's speed to match that of his target. Ordering Crest to target the source of the shooting, Vader handed control of the Predator over to Tarkin, who steered it through the debris from the station while Vader manned the ship's forward cannons. The Sith Lord was able to hit the Carrion Spike, revealing the ship's location for a moment as the cannon blasts struck its particle and ray shields. Tarkin yawed away trying to evade the Spike's counter attack, but the cell managed to move with Tarkin and hit the Predator with a salvo that nearly overwhelmed its shields. The Predator was struck by a second salvo as it skimmed along the edge of Galidraan III's atmosphere, but then dropped behind the enemy vessel hoping it would overtake them. Instead the corvette half turned and opened fire with the pintle guns, causing Tarkin to try and swerve out of the way. In order to survive the damage from the guns, Tarkin had Vader redirect all energy to aft shields, which managed to absorb the damage but were reduced to forty percent, then twenty by a second volley as the rebel's jammed the Imperials' instruments. A third round of firing left the ship disabled and floating in the void.

With the Predator dealt with, Teller and his crew focused on the damage they had taken, which included a fire in one of the Spike's cargo holds and destruction of its escape pod air lock controls. The hyperdrive was also damaged, requiring ten to fifteen minutes for a diagnostic to be run. Meanwhile another squadron of fighters emerged from the damaged station and began radiating out from the Parasec Predator's location in search formation. Waiting to be able to jump to hyperspace, Artoz advised Teller to jettison Vader's mediation sphere, as he correctly suspected that it was allowing Vader to track the corvette. The station dispatched a shuttle to pick up Vader and readied their fastest corvette so the pair could continue pursuit.

As they waited for the vessel however, Vader issued orders to the station's fighters giving them the coordinates of the Carrion Spike. A colonel onboard the station then transmitted a series of calculations for Vader and Tarkin to study, and informed them of nearby Imperial targets that the Carrion Spike might strike next. Tarkin and Vader considered what the rebels' next move might be and why they had not destroyed the Predator after which Vader realised that his sphere had been ejected from the Carrion Spike. The Sith ordered that the Imperial starfighters fire on the location the sphere was ejected from, but the Carrion Spike then destroyed the system's hyperspace buoy and fled the system.

Aftermath
"I accept the dissidents have managed to wreak havoc in an isolated star system, but the fact remains that they brought only one ship to bear on our facility."

- Harus Ison speaks in the aftermath of the attack

Following the battle, the Empire's Chiefs of Intelligence requested a meeting with Galactic Emperor Palpatine, but were denied being sent his lackeys Mas Amedda and Ars Dangor in his place. Deputy Director Harus Ison of Imperial Security Bureau was unworried about the attack, but Admiral Screed feared it would lead to further attacks. Rancit tried to emphasis the danger caused by the attack but Ison and Admiral Conan Antonio Motti were still unphased. Amedda then declared the main threat the rebels now posed was that they acted as a symbol of defiance against the Empire. While the Imperials met, the rebels attacked Imperial-protected TaggeCo mining facilities on the planet Lucazec. The Imperials were alerted to the attack mid-meeting and watched the destruction of the facility via live-feed.

The rebels then went on to attack a number of other Imperial targets, while the Empire attempted to guess where the cell would strike next. Rancit, who had provided the cell with its list of targets, eventually betrayed them and set a trap at the Nouane system where he nearly destroyed the Carrion Spike. Knowing they had been betrayed the cell abandoned the Spike and sent it on autopilot to its next destination, the Carida system where Rancit was waiting.

Tarkin by this point however, had worked out the identities of those involved in the Carrion Spike's theft including the Vice-Admiral. Vader arrived in the Carida system and executed Rancit for his betrayal, while Tarkin ambushed the rebel cell during what they hoped would be their final attack, targeting a convoy carrying parts for the Death Star. All members of the crew were captured and eventually executed except Teller, who escaped and confronted Tarkin on his homeworld of Eriadu. Tarkin outsmarted the ex-agent, and left him injured on the Carrion Plateau giving him slim chance of surviving so that he might one day try and avenge his crew again.

Behind the scenes
The attack first appeared in Tarkin, a novel written by James Luceno and published in 2014.

Appearances

 * Tarkin