The Imperial-class Star Destroyer Chimaera waited for the arrival of the scout ships sent to conduct the raid. As the craft arrived, Captain Gilad Pellaeon, commanding officer of the Chimaera, shifted the sentry line to yellow alert after reports that they had been followed and consulted Grand Admiral Thrawn on how to proceed. Thrawn disregarded the scout wing commander's belief that they had lost their pursuers; shortly thereafter a New Republic pursuit force of four Assault Frigates and three wings of X-wing starfighters emerged from hyperspace in symmetric cloud-vee formation.
Thrawn, ignoring Pellaeon's instincts to flee or summon reinforcements, chose to stand and fight. As the scout ships raced towards the Chimaera, Thrawn ordered three sentry line ships to engage the enemy frigates. The Chiss Grand Admiral, observing as the pursuit line shifted and destroyed one of the sentry ships, determined that the New Republic commander was Elomin, and called the sentry line back. The Chimaeras superstructure was brought to face the pursuers' vector to provide launch cover for its TIE/LN starfighters and Thrawn ordered the Sector Four sentry ships and TIE Fighters to initiate a Marg Sabl closure maneuver.
By studying the art of the Elomin, Thrawn knew that the New Republic commander would be psychologically incapable of responding adequately to the unstructured attack profile of the maneuver, given the seeming inferiority of the forces involved. The frigates and X-wings fell back and assumed a defensive posture which allowed the Chimaera to take the fight to them. As a result, the entire New Republic task force was destroyed.