After Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's Carrion Spike corvette was commandeered, a rebel cell commanded by Berch Teller launched an assault on an Imperial space station. This station was in orbit around Galidraan III, a planet within the Galidraan system. The starship inflicted significant damage; the station's defenses struggled to retaliate due to the ship's cloaking capabilities. Subsequently, Tarkin and Darth Vader arrived aboard the Parsec Predator and, along with starfighters from the station, attempted to engage the Carrion Spike. Although the Predator damaged the corvette, the Carrion Spike successfully disabled the Imperial vessel before fleeing the system.
In 14 BBY, [Berch Teller](/article/berch_teller], a former agent of Republic Intelligence, formed a rebel cell and collaborated with Imperial Vice Admiral Dodd Rancit to seize the Carrion Spike, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's personal corvette. The rebels intended to utilize this advanced ship for a series of attacks against Imperial assets. To lure Tarkin away, they executed a brief attack on Sentinel Base, Tarkin's base of operations, prompting his recall to the planet of Coruscant. On Coruscant, Tarkin was partnered with the Sith Lord Darth Vader and dispatched to Murkhana to investigate a cache of communication equipment dating back to the Clone Wars.
The cache turned out to be a rebel trap. While Vader and Tarkin were engaged in a meeting with Murkhana's Imperial ambassador, a team of five rebels successfully boarded and stole the Carrion Spike. Vader and Tarkin then commandeered another vessel, the Parsec Predator, from a Murkhana crime syndicate known as the Sugi. Teller and his crew were surprised to find that Vader could track them in the Carrion Spike, despite its advanced stealth systems rendering it invisible to the naked eye and all sensors. Vader's tracking relied on using the Force to locate his personal meditation chamber, which was stored on board the Carrion Spike. To evade pursuit, the rebels jumped to the Fial system, but Vader continued to sense them. The Parsec Predator soon followed, prompting the Carrion Spike to jump again, this time to their initial target: an Imperial space station in orbit around Galidraan III within the Galidraan system.
Upon arriving in the Galidraan system, the Carrion Spike initiated an attack on the station. The ship inflicted substantial damage, tearing a section of the station's rim and causing gases, flames, debris, and bodies to be expelled into space. The corvette, a highly customized design by Sienar Fleet Systems, possessed advanced sensors and a cloaking device, rendering it undetectable to both Imperial scanners and the naked eye. The station's particle-beam weapon emplacements could only fire blindly, hoping for a lucky hit. Despite possessing the firepower to destroy the station entirely, the rebel cell opted to conserve energy for future operations by moderating their attacks.
As the Parsec Predator entered the system, it collided with a dead stormtrooper floating in space as a result of the battle. The Predator then advanced towards the station, where Tarkin and Vader observed the invisible Spike continuously maneuvering while firing at the wheel-shaped station's spokes. The station's crew responded by launching flights of ARC-170s and V-Wings from its hangar bays to locate the hidden attacker. The pilots attempted to force the corvette to reveal itself by flying directly towards the source of the energy bolts impacting the station, a tactic that proved fatal for many. Vader kept the Parsec Predator out of the immediate conflict to avoid being targeted, but began to parallel the damage caused by the Carrion Spike, slowing his ship to match the target's speed.
Vader instructed Crest to target the origin of the attacks, then relinquished control of the Predator to Tarkin. Tarkin navigated the ship through the debris field while Vader operated the ship's forward cannons. The Sith Lord managed to strike the Carrion Spike, momentarily revealing its position as the cannon fire impacted its particle and ray shields. Tarkin attempted to evade the Spike's counterattack, but the rebel cell anticipated his movements and struck the Predator with a barrage that nearly overwhelmed its shields. The Predator sustained a second barrage as it passed close to Galidraan III's atmosphere, then dropped behind the enemy ship, hoping to outmaneuver it. However, the corvette executed a half-turn and opened fire with its pintle guns, forcing Tarkin to swerve. To mitigate the damage, Tarkin directed all energy to the aft shields, which absorbed the impact but were reduced to forty percent, and then to twenty percent by a second volley as the rebels jammed the Imperials' instruments. A third round of fire left the ship disabled and adrift.
With the Predator neutralized, Teller and his crew focused on their own damage, which included a fire in one of the Spike's cargo holds and the destruction of the escape pod air lock controls. The hyperdrive was also damaged, requiring ten to fifteen minutes for diagnostics. Meanwhile, another squadron of fighters emerged from the damaged station and began searching outwards from the Parsec Predator's location. While waiting for the hyperdrive to recharge, Artoz suggested Teller jettison Vader's meditation sphere, correctly suspecting it was enabling Vader to track the corvette. The station dispatched a shuttle to retrieve Vader and prepared their fastest corvette to continue the pursuit.
However, before the vessel was ready, Vader issued orders to the station's fighters, providing them with the Carrion Spike's coordinates. A colonel onboard the station transmitted a series of calculations for Vader and Tarkin to study, and informed them of nearby Imperial targets that the Carrion Spike might attack next. Tarkin and Vader considered the rebels' potential next move and why they hadn't destroyed the Predator. Vader then realized that his sphere had been ejected from the Carrion Spike. The Sith ordered the Imperial starfighters to fire on the sphere's ejection point, but the Carrion Spike destroyed the system's hyperspace buoy and fled the system.
Following the battle, the Empire's Chiefs of Intelligence requested a meeting with Galactic Emperor Palpatine, but were instead sent his underlings Mas Amedda and Ars Dangor. Deputy Director Harus Ison of the Imperial Security Bureau was unconcerned about the attack, but Admiral Terrinald Screed feared it would lead to further attacks. Rancit tried to emphasize the danger caused by the attack, but Ison and Admiral Conan Antonio Motti remained unfazed. Amedda then asserted that the rebels' primary threat was their role as a symbol of defiance against the Empire. While the Imperials convened, the rebels attacked Imperial-protected TaggeCo mining facilities on Lucazec. The Imperials were alerted to the attack mid-meeting and witnessed the facility's destruction via live-feed.
The rebels continued to attack various Imperial targets, while the Empire struggled to predict their next move. Rancit, who had provided the cell with its target list, eventually betrayed them, setting a trap at the Nouane system that nearly destroyed the Carrion Spike. Realizing they had been betrayed, the cell abandoned the Spike and sent it on autopilot to its next destination, the Carida system, where Rancit awaited.
By this point, Tarkin had identified the individuals involved in the Carrion Spike's theft, including the Vice-Admiral. Vader arrived in the Carida system and executed Rancit for his treachery, while Tarkin ambushed the rebel cell during their planned final attack on a convoy transporting parts for the Death Star. All crew members were captured and subsequently executed, except for Teller, who escaped and confronted Tarkin on his homeworld of Eriadu. Tarkin outmaneuvered the former agent, leaving him injured on the Carrion Plateau with little chance of survival, hoping he would one day seek revenge for his crew.
The attack was first depicted in Tarkin, a novel penned by James Luceno and released in 2014.