The Electrum was a Venator-class Star Destroyer that saw service with the Imperial Navy throughout the Imperial Era. This Star Destroyer, initially positioned at the deepdock of the planet Ryloth, was reassigned to the flotilla of the Imperial facility known as Sentinel Base. In 14 BBY, under the command of Captain Burque, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, the commanding officer of Sentinel, selected the Electrum to respond to a distress signal originating from the nearby Rampart Station.
Suspecting the signal to be a deception, Tarkin instructed Burque to pilot the Electrum to the outer limits of Sentinel Base's system using a microjump. Following Burque's execution of this order, Sentinel Base was attacked by a warship and droid fighters belonging to a rebel cell. Upon Tarkin's orders, the Electrum returned to the base, with its TIE fighters engaging the attacking enemy starfighters. Although the rebel warship quickly retreated after the Venator's arrival, Burque's team later successfully retrieved wreckage from the droid fighters for investigative purposes.
The Electrum was a Venator-class Star Destroyer that was outfitted with a hyperdrive and sublight engines, in addition to several weapons systems. Squadrons of TIE fighters were housed within its dorsal hangar bay, and a holoprojector was also included.
Named after a specific type of crystal, the Star Destroyer Electrum operated under the authority of the Imperial Navy. During the Imperial Era, the vessel was initially stationed at a deepdock on the planet of Ryloth which is located in the Outer Rim. However, by the year 14 BBY, the Electrum had been reassigned to serve as part of the flotilla belonging to Sentinel Base. This Imperial installation was commanded by Moff Wilhuff Tarkin and oversaw the construction of the Imperial battle station that would eventually be known as the Death Star. During its time at Sentinel, Captain Burque was in command of the Star Destroyer.
In that year, the majority of the flotilla's other capital ships, including the Core Envoy, which was Sentinel Base's Imperial-class Star Destroyer, were away escorting supply convoys to the planet Geonosis. Geonosis was the location of the battle station's construction. With most of its ships away, the base received a holotransmission reporting that the nearby Rampart Station, a marshaling depot for supply ships bound for Geonosis, was under attack. Upon arriving at Sentinel Base's command center to investigate the transmission, Tarkin correctly suspected that the holovid was a fake, due to the presence of a distinctive bar of interval noise. After promising reinforcements to Rampart, Tarkin inquired of a comm specialist as to which of Sentinel's vessels were available. The specialist informed him that the only ships available were the Electrum, the frigate Salliche, and the tug Fremond. The latter two were unmanned and parked in stationary orbits above the moon on which Sentinel Base was located.
After assessing his options, Tarkin ultimately instructed the specialist to contact Captain Burque. Speaking to the captain via hologram, Tarkin inquired whether Burque was aware of the situation at Rampart. The captain confirmed that he was and that the Electrum was prepared to travel to the station through hyperspace at the Moff's command. However, Tarkin ordered Burque to keep Rampart's coordinates ready but instead initiate a microjump to the Rimward edge of Sentinel Base's system, where he would await further instructions.
Burque then asked if the Electrum should be in plain sight or hidden. Tarkin responded that it likely would not matter, although it would be preferable to find something to hide behind. After Tarkin revealed that he was expecting trouble, the communication ended, and the Electrum commenced its ordered microjump shortly thereafter. Not long after the Star Destroyer had departed, a rebel cell's 920-meter-long, heavily armed warship—the same vessel seen attacking Rampart in the fake transmission—reverted from hyperspace 200,000 kilometers from Sentinel Base. The specialist reporting the details of the vessel to Sentinel's command center then exclaimed that it was fortunate that the Electrum had been dispatched, as it would have been destroyed by the enemy's arrival.
When the carrier launched droid starfighters to attack Sentinel Base, including tri-fighters and vulture droids, Tarkin ordered the Electrum to return. As the base's ground-based artillery began to destroy the enemy fighters, and just as the warship began to retreat, the Venator-class Star Destroyer returned. Tarkin then requested that Burque be informed that his TIE fighter pilots were going to have many targets available to them.
Burque then appeared via hologram, and Tarkin instructed him that the Electrum should merely incapacitate the warship in order to interrogate its crew. Subsequently, squadrons of newly manufactured TIE fighters were launched from the Star Destroyer's dorsal bay to engage the droid starfighters. Just as Tarkin was contacted by Rampart Station, who confirmed that they had not been attacked, the enemy warship jumped to hyperspace before the Electrum could fire a disabling shot. As a result, the attackers' droid fighters were sent spinning out of control, making them even easier targets for the TIEs.
Disappointed, Tarkin ordered Burque to gather debris for analysis and to capture a few intact droids, warning the captain that they could still be liable to self-destruct. The Electrum's salvage teams recovered a vulture droid whose auto-destruct mechanism had been damaged during combat. The droid was then analyzed in Sentinel Base's maintenance hangar, revealing limited intelligence on the enemy. Deeply troubled by the attack, Tarkin pursued leads on the rebel cell, eventually defeating the group.
During its time at Sentinel Base, the Electrum was under the command of Captain Burque. Despite being confused by Moff Tarkin's order not to assist Rampart Station, the captain followed his superior's instructions. The Electrum was also staffed by Imperial Starfighter Pilots and salvage teams.
The Electrum made an appearance, although only as a hologram, in Tarkin, a 2014 novel authored by James Luceno.