After the recent raid of the MB-C1 medium transport Suprosa and theft of a supercomputer. Darth Vader was sent to investigate the circumstances behind the attack. Imperial command had captured high ranking Rebel and Bothan prisoners, that were trying to leave Coruscant, and brought them to the Dreadnaught Dargon which was to rendezvous with the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Garrett. Imperial intelligence suspected an attack would be made by the Alliance, either to rescue their comrades or, failing that, destroy the dreadnaught.
Maarek Stele was assigned to relieve the previous TIE Advance and escort the Dreadnaught. Soon afterwards, multiple Rebel starfighters including A-wings, B-wings, X-wings and Y-wings from Red Squadron arrived. As Stele engaged the fighters two Corellian Corvettes named Keeper arrived carrying Explosives, indicating that the Rebels were willing to destroy the Dreadnaught rather than disable and rescue their own. Stele helped the Dargon fight of the corvettes and destroy them, while a similar number of starfighters from Gold Squadron arrived to comlpicate things. A modified corvette Hut'to arrived to block the path of the Dargon, followed by Blue Squadron, but despite fighters flying around was soon destroyed by Stele. Soon the Mon Calamari Cruiser Columbia arrived but by then the Dargon escaped into Hyperspace.
Before the Dargon could reach the Garrett it then suffered engine failure and was about 23 Kilometers away. Supsecting sabotage and Vader being impatient sent an assault transport Sigma 1 to board and bring the prisoners to him for interrogation. When Stele was launched to oversee the operation, Sigma 1 had already acquired the prisoners under escort from TIE Fighters and was on its way to the Garrett when a modified frigate Bay Point arrived and launched A-wings and Y-wings to intercept the transfer. Although able to eliminate the TIE Fighters, they were thwarted once again as Maarek Stele and his wingmen engaged and destroyed the Rebel fighters, allowing the transport to be brought to the Garrett
While Vader interrogated the prisoners, Stele was debriefed about the capture of the Suprosa. Vader, wanting as much information as possible, decided to attack the Bothan trade routes to gather more information about the freighter's location.
This battle first appears in the 1994 PC Game Star Wars: TIE Fighter in the expansion pack Enemies of the Empire which was released in 1995. It appears in the twelve "Battle" called Prelude to Endor as the first mission for the first phase and the second mission for the second phase. This article assumes "Medium" difficulty. If the player tries "Hard" Difficulty then a similar number of fighters from Grey Squadron is added along with multiple A-wings from Yellow Squadron for the first mission. While in the second mission there are more A-wings as well to contend with.
However, the first stage also appears in the computer game Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, which was released April 30th 1997 and is one of the missions on Operation: Quick Strike. In this case, players can participate in the mission "Rescue from Imperial Prison Ship Dargon" on either the Rebel or the Imperial side—both sides have conflicting mission objectives—and victory is not essential to access the next set of missions, like all the other missions on Operation: Quick Strike, the battle itself is considered canon but the canon outcome of the battle is unknown. The mission features Rogue Squadron which would engage the TIE Avengers and Assault Gunboats escorting the prison ship Dargon, while Red Squadron covered Gold Squadron as the Y-wings disabled the Imperial Dreadnaught.
After the Dargon is disabled, the Calamari Cruiser Columbia would arrive nearby, to launch Group, a trio of Gamma-class ATR-6 assault transports, in a bid to board and capture the Dargon. Some time later, the Victory-class Star Destroyer Callisto would arrive to rendezvous with the Dargon, along with an Imperial ATR-6 transport called to carry a team intending to repair the damage done to the Dargon.
It is virtually certain, given the overwhelming numbers of Y-wing starfighters and the mag pulse warheads carried by Rogue Squadron, that the Dargon will be disabled; whether it is then captured by Alliance Special Forces or recovered by the Imperial repair crew aboard XP-1 depends largely on player actions and is uncertain.
This article is assuming Star Wars: TIE Fighter as the official Legends canon story.
- TIE Fighter Collector's CD-ROM: The Official Strategy Guide