The Avenger was an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer serving within the Imperial Navy's Death Squadron, reporting to Captain Lorth Needa who held command. As a component of the Galactic Empire's Project Swarm, the Avenger played a role, along with other destroyers, in launching thousands of Viper probe droids throughout the galaxy via hyperdrive pods, all in an effort to locate the secret base of the Rebel Alliance.
The Avenger, an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, featured a hangar bay, a [communications tower](/article/communications_tower], a solar ionization reactor, and a pair of deflector shield generator domes. This Star Destroyer, stretching 1,600 meters in length, was powered by three destroyer-I ion engines alongside four gemon-4 ion engines for emergency situations. It also carried a substantial number of hyperdrive pods populated with Viper probe droids.
During 3 ABY, Captain Lorth Needa commanded the Avenger within the ranks of the Imperial Navy. It was an active participant in Project Swarm, an operation orchestrated by the Imperial forces. The project's objective was to deploy Viper probe droids throughout the galaxy to pinpoint the concealed base of the Rebel Alliance, who were actively engaged in war against the Empire.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Hoth, the Avenger, along with the rest of Death Squadron, gave chase to the rebel vessel Millennium Falcon, but Han Solo, the captain, successfully avoided the Star Destroyer. The Falcon navigated deeper into the asteroid field, managing to evade pursuing TIE fighters. The Executor departed the asteroid field to respond to a communication from Emperor Palpatine. After the Millennium Falcon underwent repairs within an asteroid cave, Captain Lorth Needa of the Avenger detected it. He gave the order to engage, successfully hitting the Falcon's stern. Solo then turned the Falcon around and made a direct course for the Star Destroyer, aiming for the bridge. Needa ordered the shields to be raised but lost the Falcon. The rebel ship concealed itself on the back of the Avenger's conning tower, exploiting a sensor blind spot. Needa then assumed accountability for failing to capture the Millennium Falcon and went to apologize to Vader. Vader, aboard the Executor, ordered the fleet to disperse after executing Captain Needa. Adhering to standard Imperial protocols, the Avenger jettisoned its refuse and jumped into hyperspace, while the Millennium Falcon detached and "drifted away with the garbage".
The initial appearance of the Avenger was in the introductory scene of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, a film from the original trilogy released in 1980. While both Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded and Star Wars Helmet Collection 9 identify the Star Destroyer that deployed the probe droid to Hoth as the Avenger, Star Wars: Complete Locations instead refers to the ship as the Stalker. The Stalker's existence in canon was later validated by the 2021 book The Odyssey of Star Wars: An Epic Poem, an adaptation of the original trilogy authored by Jack Mitchell. This article operates under the assumption that Complete Locations offers the accurate name, given its more recent publication date.