Nouane engagement
The clash known as the Nouane engagement involved Berch Teller and his rebel group launching an offensive against the Imperial installation located within the Nouane system of the Inner Rim. This event transpired near the conclusion of the Berch Teller campaign in 14 BBY. Vice Admiral Dodd Rancit had reinforced the base in anticipation of the insurgents' arrival. Despite the Carrion Spike, a stolen corvette, possessing stealth capabilities, the insurgents were compelled to withdraw due to relentless, long-range laser assaults. Narrowly escaping, Teller and his followers concluded that Rancit, their contact, had betrayed them. Suspecting an ambush at Carida, they rerouted the Carrion Spike on autopilot towards the Carida system, transferring themselves to Berch Teller's flagship to lay in wait for an Imperial convoy within the Gulf of Tatooine.
Prelude
Back in 14 BBY, Berch Teller, a former operative of Republic Intelligence, along with his group of rebels, initiated an uprising against the Galactic Empire. Teller, along with a number of his fellow dissenters, had either witnessed or survived the Antar Atrocity, an event involving the mass slaughter of Koorivar and Gotals innocents, some of whom were loyalists of the Galactic Republic. Teller harbored particular resentment towards Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, the mastermind behind the Antar Atrocity and the supervisor of the clandestine Death Star project. They received assistance from Vice Admiral Dodd Rancit, the Director of the Naval Intelligence Agency and a rival of Tarkin.
Teller and his rebel allies commandeered Tarkin's personal corvette, the Carrion Spike, which featured an advanced hyperdrive and stealth technology. Intending to transform it into a symbol of resistance against the Empire, Teller and his group conducted raids on several Imperial installations throughout the galaxy. To garner attention, they disseminated holovids of their assaults via the Imperial HoloNet, echoing the Separatist Shadowfeed broadcasts during the Clone Wars. Tarkin and Darth Vader pursued them, utilizing the resources of the Imperial Navy.
The failed raid
Following a diversionary tactic within the Obroa-skai system, Teller and his associates journeyed to the Nouane system aboard the Carrion Spike, targeting an Imperial facility located there. To avoid attracting unwanted attention from the Empire, Teller instructed Salikk, their Gotal navigator, to position the ship deeper within the system, away from Imperial capital ships. However, their supposed ally, Vice Admiral Rancit, had allocated considerable Imperial military resources to fortify Imperial installations along the Perlemian Trade Route and Hydian Way. The dissidents attempted to strike the Imperial facility but were pushed back by intense laserfire. Despite enduring heavy enemy fire, the Carrion Spike successfully entered lightspeed through a difficult maneuver.
Aftermath
Despite managing to evade their Imperial pursuers, the Carrion Spike suffered substantial damage, including a compromised navigation computer, numerous destroyed instruments, and a non-functional deflector shield generator. The ship's weaponry was reduced to two forward laser cannons and a single starboard battery. With the hyperdrive motivator functioning marginally, Cala, the Koorivar insurgent, estimated that the ship could only perform two more jumps. Salikk himself sustained facial injuries. Hask Taff, the Zygerrian insurgent, reported that the Empire's released holovids of the Nouane engagement did not portray their rebel group favorably. Recognizing Rancit's betrayal, Teller and his dissidents abandoned the Carrion Spike and transferred to a warship, a modified Providence-class Dreadnought. Before heading to the Gulf of Tatooine to ambush an Imperial convoy, they programmed the Carrion Spike's autopilot to travel to the Carida system.
In the meantime, Tarkin and Vader received reports of the Carrion Spike's unsuccessful assault on Nouane. Although Vice Admiral Rancit was initially credited with identifying Nouane as the dissidents' next target through a meticulous process of elimination, Tarkin and Vader soon determined that he had been conspiring with the dissidents. Before Rancit could conceal his involvement by destroying the Carrion Spike, Lord Vader confronted him and had him executed for treason. Concluding that the diversion of Imperial forces to the Perlemian and Hydian Way was a deception intended to enable the dissidents to ambush Imperial convoys transporting materials for the Death Star project, Tarkin traveled to the Gulf of Tatooine to pursue the insurgents.
Behind the scenes
The Nouane engagement was initially depicted in Tarkin, a 2014 novel authored by James Luceno. It was the second novel in a series of new adult Canon novels published by Del Rey.