To this end, he found an opportunity by secretly contacting Dren Melne who spent years being a mercenary pilot before returning to Naboo, and contracted him to prepare the theft. Soon a Hornet-class carrier attacked Station TFP-9 as part of a "demonstration" to see if the fighters are as good as he heard. When the Royal Space Fighter Corps sent 12 Police Cruisers and 2 N-1 Starfighters in response and managed to defeat the first squadron of Z-95 Headhunters the second Hornet-class carrier, which had Captain Sorran of the Velumina, arrived with another squad of Z-95s armed with concussion missiles and Droid starfighters from the first carrier. Combined with Dren Melne switching sides to engage Echo Flight, it was meant to make the odds so overwhelming to consider the fight foolish to continue.
Despite the overwhelming odds, Essara Till in her own N-1, with Rhys Dallows who was piloting Police Cruiser Echo Five managed to destroy the first carrier, combined with other losses caused Captain Sorran to kill Dren to cover their tracks. Challep would later deny any involvement with the attack, although investigations regarding his recent investigations into purchases of fighter technology by Senator Sio Bibble implied otherwise.