The Battle of Dac City was a conflict that occurred one year after the rise of the Galactic Empire, when Darth Vader undertook a mission to the planet Mon Cala to determine if a Jedi was hiding there and advising the Mon Calamari king, Lee-Char, in negotiations with the Empire. Moff Wilhuff Tarkin aboard the Sovereign had previously sent down ambassador Telvar to make an trade deal with Lee-Char but the king continued to deny the man and he was forced to take leave for the time being.
At that moment, Vader arrived, along with three Inquisitors and a squad of elite Purge Troopers. They were confronted by the king's chief of security Gial Ackbar who denied the possibility of there being a threat on Mon Cala. However the Lambda-class T-4a shuttle carrying Telvar exploded, killing all on board. This prompted Tarkin to deploy his forces onto Mon Cala. Lee-Char informed the Jedi of this and the Jedi said he could handle the Inquisitors and that he knew the identify of the black armored individual Ackbar had failed to get the name of.
Mon Calamari and Quarren forces under King Lee-Char battled an Imperial battalion consisting of AT-AT walkers, AT-PD walkers, and TIE fighters. Meanwhile, Darth Vader, the Inquisitors Ninth Sister, Tenth Brother, and the Sixth Brother, and Purge Troopers secured the landing platform after killing many Mon Calamari and Quarren.
The Inquisitors headed towards the palace. The Ninth Sister thought that it was folly to believe that the Jedi fugitive would be hiding near the King. Vader responded that King Lee-Char knew how to contact the Jedi fugitive. The Tenth Brother thought that Lee-Char probably fled the moment that the Imperial battalion arrived. However, Vader sensed that the king was still there. Per his previous encounter with the king , Darth Vader reasoned that the king would not abandon his city till the battle was done.
In the command center, King Lee-Char viewed a hologram of the battle. Commander Ackbar informed him that the defenders were holding their own but the Empire had landed substantial forces on all their "above ground" settlements, which the Mon Calamari and Quarren did not excel at fighting. King Lee-Char gave orders for the troops to hold until the evacuation was complete. Ackbar promised that their forces would hold and that they had already moved fifty percent of civilians below the surface.
Admiral Raddus was unwilling to surrender Mon Cala's surface cities to the Empire since this was their planet. Lee-Char countered that this was strategic retreat. Once their populations were safe, he said that they would consider their response. He explained that his goal was to convince the Empire to leave without shedding the blood of Mon Cala. He saw two options: war and diplomacy.
The Battle of Dac City was first mentioned in Darth Vader (2017) 13 and appeared in the subsequent comic, Darth Vader (2017) 14. Both canon comics were released in 2018, and were authored by Charles Soule and pencilled by Giuseppe Camuncoli.
- Star Wars: Timelines