Ace evades enemy fire.
Following the attack on the Veltnor convoy, the Imperial in the Anoat sector shifted their operations from active search efforts to defensive deployments focused on convoy and remote unit defense. In an effort to gather hard data on the Imperial search force, Rebel Admiral Nammo ordered a reconnaissance mission. Nammo also suspected the Imperials would be seeding the area with probe droids—after what happened at Hoth, the Rebels all knew how effective those units could be—and authorized the destruction of any probots encountered during the mission.
Two A-wings from Blue Squadron, including Ace Azzameen, launched from the Defiance and proceeded through several systems deemed likely locations for the Imperial search efforts. The first two were empty, but the Corrupter Task Force was indeed at the third. While Blue 1 provided cover, Ace moved to inspect all the capital ships, determining their IDs and captains.
After Ace's initial inspection pass, the Corrupter began launching probe droids, followed by the Cerebus and the Vigiliance. Despite being under constant fire from the task force and enemy fighters, Ace managed to destroy all three probot groups. Their mission fulfilled, he and Blue 1 then withdrew from the combat zone.
The recon mission was a success, though the results fell short of expectations. Admiral Garreth Holtz, now known to be commanding the Imperial search force, was known to be a competent officer and unaccustomed to failure. However, the loss of the probe droids made the Imperials hard-pressed to maintain coverage on the surrounding systems, and by the time they were resupplied, the Defiance Task Force had rejoined the rest of the Rebel fleet.