Prior to the raid, Brakiss had formed the Shadow Academy to train and establish a new order of Dark Jedi. Recruiting candidates was a simple matter after he had helped revive the Nightsisters on the planet Dathomir under the aegis of the Great Canyon Clan. However, the flow of recruits from Dathomir started to dry up. Additionally, Brakiss's sadistic methods of rooting out weak students in his academy claimed the lives of at least six students.
One other event may have contributed to the Shadow Academy's decision to kidnap Jedi trainees from the Jedi Praxeum. That was the arrival of a pilot named Qorl in a hyperspace-capable TIE/LN starfighter. When he gave his report, Qorl related his encounter with the Solo twins. Though he had already known of the existence of the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4, the fact that Skywalker was training a new, powerful generation of Jedi Knights may have been news to Brakiss. Believing that their young minds would be easier to sway than those of adults, Brakiss decided that kidnapping students from the Jedi Praxeum would help his new order of Dark Jedi to grow.
Just prior to the start of the raid, the Jedi trainees Lowbacca, Jacen, and Jaina Solo embarked upon a field trip to Lando Calrissian's GemDiver Station. It is not known how the Shadow Academy discovered that the three Jedi trainees would be on the space station, which orbited the gas giant Yavin. A force of four Skipray blastboats and one modified assault shuttle, was assembled.
GemDiver Station detected an unidentified fleet approaching its position after Calrissian and the three students had returned from an expedition into the lower atmosphere of Yavin. The station was unable to call for outside help because the attacking force had set up a jamming field. They also refused to respond to any hails from the space station. Alarms were sounded and security personnel aboard the station armed themselves with additional weapons.
As he made his way up to the control bridge with the students, Calrissian asked for a status update and was apprised of the current situation by a security chief. The security chief added that the intent of the fleet was unknown. When he and the students got to the bridge, Lando's assistant Lobot, informed Calrissian that GemDiver Station was under attack, but did not know by whom. Jaina Solo, drawing upon her knowledge of starship design identified the ships in the fleet as Imperial in origin. Using their talents, the Jedi trainees sensed a dark presence in the attack force and realized that they were the ones that the attackers were after.
As the attack force approached the perimeter of automated defensive satellites, Lobot had their fail-safes removed. The satellites worked as they were supposed to, but their lasers were unable to penetrate the heavy armor of the blastboats. The blastboats disabled four of the satellites with their ion cannons and then destroyed them with their lasers. Meanwhile, the assault shuttle moved in on the space station and attached itself to an airlock at or near Lower Equipment Bay 34. Security personnel were ordered to set up positions around the airlock in order to repel boarders. Calrissian armed himself and made his way to the airlock as well. He had ordered the students to find some place safe and hide, but they ignored it, following him to the equipment bay.
The assault shuttle used industrial-grade Corusca gems to drill through the space station's hull. After it had cut deeply enough into the hull, shaped charges were used to breach it. Stormtroopers, accompanied by Tamith Kai, who lead the strike, swarmed through the hole. Though GemDiver Station's security forces used lethal force in their attempt to defend the station the stormtroopers had been ordered to keep their blaster rifles set on stun, so as not to kill or injure their quarry. Four stormtroopers were killed outright when they boarded the station.
After hearing Tamith Kai reminding the stormtroopers not to harm the children, Calrissian noticed that the Jedi trainees had not obeyed him. Calrissian and the students made their way to GemDiver Station's shipping chamber, which was considered to be the safest place aboard the station. It was situated behind heavy, triple-armored doors and an airlock. Calrissian left them there and stepped outside. He was later stunned. Since they had not been allowed to construct their lightsabers yet and could not find an armory in the shipping chamber, the Jedi trainees were trapped. Stormtroopers managed to cut through the doors of the shipping chamber and cut through the doors with a heavy-duty laser. Despite the protestations of one of the packing droids in the chamber, the stormtroopers entered. The droid was summarily blasted into slag. Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca were stunned and kidnapped.
Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca, as well as Lowbacca's droid Em Teedee were kidnapped and taken to the Shadow Academy where Brakiss and Tamith Kai attempted to indoctrinate them into turning to the dark side of the Force. Jacen and Jaina both rejected Brakiss's teachings. Tamith Kai, however, made a bit more headway with Lowbacca, due to his somewhat short-tempered nature. Another aggravating factor was the reprogramming of Em Teedee to be more loyal to the Empire. Though Em Teedee had been annoying in the first place, he was even more so when he said things like "The Empire is your friend." However, Lowbacca managed to keep Tamith Kai's sadistic training methods from turning him.
After regaining consciousness, Calrissian informed Luke Skywalker of the disappearance of the trainees. He noted that the attack force had used industrial-grade Corusca gems to drill into GemDiver Station's hull, and noted that, in an ironic twist, that his broker was the only person who the raiders could have bought the industrial-grade gems from. When Skywalker arrived, Calrissian gave the Jedi Master an old blockade runner named Off Chance so that he could travel incognito to Borgo Prime in search of the broker.
In the meantime, Calrissian and Lobot attempted to find ways to improve GemDiver Station's security, one of which involved using Corusca gems to defend the station. It is not known what the other ideas were, or if any were implemented. Skywalker and Tenel Ka embarked upon a mission to find them. Due to the nature of the Corusca gem industry, they managed to track down who bought the industrial-grade Corusca gems through Calrissian's unscrupulous broker. The trail led them to the planet Dathomir, where they found that the Nightsisters had been revived.
Passing themselves off as possible recruits for these new Nightsisters, Skywalker and Tenel Ka were sent to the Shadow Academy where the missing Jedi trainees were being held. When they arrived they found Jacen, Jaina, and Lowbacca were in the process of escaping the Shadow Academy. After a confrontation with Brakiss and Tamith Kai, the Jedi stole a shuttle and made it back to Yavin 4.
In the immediate aftermath of the raid on GemDiver Station, Brakiss was pleased with the results. Figuring that Skywalker would be gone looking for his missing Jedi trainees, he planned more raids on the Jedi Praxeum. However, he didn't know how right he was. After the escape, he had to move the Shadow Academy immediately so that New Republic scouts that had been dispatched to find the missing trainees would not find it. He also scuttled his plans to kidnap more trainees from the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin. Instead, he would focus on recruiting disadvantaged youths to his cause.
- The Essential Chronology
- The New Essential Chronology