As late as 0 BBY, Captain Ranif Parlan was serving as the commanding officer of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Relentless assigned to patrol duty in the Outer Rim.
Soon after the Rebel victory at Yavin, Parlan captured the pirate Quist and ordered his execution. Quist tried to bargain for his life, offering information about the long-believed dead tactician and hero of the Galactic Republic, Adar Tallon. The captured pirate revealed that he had aided Tallon in faking his death to escape from the Galactic Empire.
Parlan reported this new information to Darth Vader, who ordered Parlan to capture Tallon alive. Not having many resources for this task, Parlan issued an Imperial bounty for Tallon, designation 82,471. This bounty was accepted by Jodo Kast and his associates, Zardra and Puggles Trodd, as well as droid bounty hunter IG-72. Parlan also ordered Quist to infiltrate Tallon's home, among his allies, just to have an ace up his sleeve when Kast arrived.
Unbeknownst to Parlan, one of his officers, Ensign Dana, was really a secret agent from the Alliance. Dana jumped ship while the Relentless docked at Kwenn Space Station to report his discovery to the Alliance. Jodo Kast managed to kill Dana, but an Alliance squad recovered the information from her data storage pad.
This Rebel team outsmarted and out-skilled both Kast's team and IG-72, and escaped from Tatooine with Adar Tallon, who then joined the Rebel Alliance. Due to the failure of his operation, Parlan was considered responsible of the disaster. He tried to apologize to Vader, but the Sith Lord executed Parlan using the power of the Force.
Parlan was replaced by Captain Westen as commanding officer of Relentless.
- The Star Wars Rules Companion
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia