In the year 19 BBY – a year of historical significance – during the Vaklin insurgency, insurgents launched an assault on an Imperial command center situated on the planet of Vaklin. Their objective was to liberate a Jedi Knight held captive within. However, the Sith Lord Darth Vader intervened, resulting in the deaths of all the attackers. Amidst the ensuing chaos, the imprisoned Jedi managed to escape and confront Vader, but met the same fate at the hands of the Sith.
Not long after the conclusion of the Clone Wars – a conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems – an insurgency erupted on the planet of Vaklin, directed against the newly established Galactic Empire. The Vaklin insurgents, under the leadership of three members of the Jedi Order, prompted the Sith Lord Darth Vader to travel to Vaklin. His mission was to lead the Imperial forces in suppressing the rebellion as part of the broader Great Jedi Purge. Vader killed one Jedi Master and captured a Jedi Knight, leaving only the Jedi Master Cho'na Bene at large. Bene continued to harass Vader's forces after the Knight's capture, and twelve days after the capture ambushed Vader whilst he was on patrol. Shortly after the ambush, Vader returned to the city Vaklin Zenith, where an Imperial command center was located. There, in the command center, he engaged in discussions with several Imperial officers regarding the Insurgency, before visiting the captive Jedi Knight. Vader's intent was to lure Bene out of hiding by using the Jedi as bait, but he also interrogated the captive in order to discover the Jedi Master's location in case the bait was not successful.
The assault commenced with a detonation caused by an explosive device concealed within an MSE-series droid, deployed by the insurgents directly into the command center. This explosion inflicted damage across three levels of the structure, enabling three armed insurgents to infiltrate the vicinity of the holding cells, where they encountered Vader interrogating the Jedi. The insurgents engaged Vader in combat, but utilizing the Force, he caused a section of the passage to collapse, killing all three attackers. This distraction allowed the Jedi prisoner to break free from his stun cuffs and launch an attack on the Sith Lord. However, Vader swiftly defeated him with a single strike of his lightsaber. Among the areas damaged by the attack was the conference room where Vader had previously conferred with Imperial Officers. Several of these officers were present when the room collapsed. While Vader was occupied with the insurgents, Oniye Namada, a Major within the Imperial Security Bureau, rallied the officers in the conference room and provided assistance to a wounded officer, aided by two other officers from the meeting.
Following the assault, Imperial forces initially expressed satisfaction with their response, deeming the attack a failure. However, the local populace viewed the insurgents' actions as a courageous endeavor, commemorating the Jedi as both a martyr and a hero. The local celebrations intensified when the Imperials were compelled to withdraw to an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer orbiting Vaklin due to the damage sustained by the command center. Enraged by the population's reaction, Vader instructed Namanda to initiate a purge of all Jedi-related elements from Vaklin, aiming to erase the memory of the Jedi Order and suppress support for the insurgency. Namanda later documented the details of the attack in an ISB report titled I-1807-VAK.
The attack was first depicted in 2012 within Purge – The Tyrant's Fist 1, a comic book belonging to the Star Wars: Purge series. The comic's narrative was crafted by Alexander Freed, with illustrations by Marco Castiello and Andrea Chella.