Following the Battle of Yavin by a short time, a crime lord known as Jabba the Hutt had supplied weapons and equipment that were being transported on an Imperial Lambda-class T-4a shuttle when a robotic CR90 corvette assaulted it. This corvette was the property of pirates who were funded by the criminal families of the Crymorah Syndicate and operated out of a space station. The pirate ship had been dispatched to seize the Imperial weaponry for their own purposes.
The robotic vessel was after the Imperial weapons that were the shuttle's payload. Darth Vader intervened with the intention of eliminating the pirates and rescuing the shuttle. However, upon his arrival, the shuttle self-destructed, its crew opting to end their own lives rather than allow the pirates to take possession of the Empire's assets. Vader, accompanied by a pair of TIE fighters, swiftly managed to cripple the robotic pirate vessel and take it as a prize, seeking to uncover the larger network supporting the attacks. A later attack on the pirates' base of origin revealed that the Crymorah Syndicate was the entity providing support to the pirates.
During the time of the Galactic Civil War, the Alliance to Restore the Republic achieved the destruction of the Empire's mobile deep-space battle station, the Death Star, which also served as their most potent weapon. The only one to survive this catastrophe was the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Palpatine, the Emperor of the Empire and Vader's Sith Master, held Vader personally accountable for what he considered to be the Empire's most significant setback in its near two-decade history.
Following the Alliance's triumph at Yavin, the Empire found itself with depleted resources. As a consequence of his failure to prevent the destruction of the Death Star and Weapons Factory Alpha, Darth Vader was tasked by the Emperor with negotiating with Jabba the Hutt, who headed the Hutt Clan. Jabba ultimately accepted the Empire's conditions and began to serve as a supplier for them.
In the wake of the Death Star's obliteration, pirates, raiders, and various other lawless beings exploited the Empire's state of disarray. With neither the Imperial Senate nor the Death Star maintaining order, attacks on Imperial ships and installations surged to levels far exceeding what was considered normal. One such pirate group made use of a robotic CR90 corvette that had been provided to them by the Crymorah Syndicate to conduct multiple raids on Imperial assets. These included the theft of weapons that Jabba had recently supplied to the Empire. This incensed Grand General Cassio Tagge and Darth Vader, who were collaborating to suppress these raids from aboard the former's Executor-class Star Dreadnought, the Annihilator (Annihilator). During this period, the pirates dispatched the corvette from their base of operations to engage in further illicit piratical activities.
Shortly thereafter, a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle, designated CZ-246 by the Empire, came under attack from the CR90 corvette. This forced it to execute evasive maneuvers in an attempt to safeguard its cargo of weapons. The shuttle's pilot transmitted a distress signal, alerting nearby Imperial forces to their need for assistance. The raiders swiftly disabled the shuttle's engines, leading the crew to realize that the pirates were solely interested in their weapons cargo. Vader responded to the distress call and was en route to their location aboard his TIE Advanced starfighter, accompanied by two TIE fighters as escorts. The pilot, communicating over the ship's comlink, announced that they were trapped with no means of escape. Subsequently, he initiated the shuttle's self-destruction, resulting in the deaths of himself and his copilot, rather than allowing the pirates to seize their shipment of Imperial weaponry or be left exposed to the vacuum of space when the droid ship breached the shuttle to quickly seize the contraband and retreat.
Vader's arrival coincided with the shuttle's self-destruction, prompting him to shift his priorities and attempt to prevent the pirate vessel from escaping. He instructed Black Two and Black Three, the two accompanying TIE fighters, to follow his lead. Vader was impressed by the robotic ship's capacity to flee and its ability to shoot down both Black 2 and 3 with the corvette's laser cannons. Vader avoided a similar fate due to his exceptional piloting skills and the power of the dark side of the Force. Vader was soon able to maneuver into an aggressive position and fired on the fleeing corvette's engine core, causing the engines to explode and putting an end to the violence. He contacted the Annihilator and informed them of the successful mission.
Tagge's Super Star Destroyer captured the corvette and placed it in its hangar, where it remained until Tagge determined it was sufficiently repaired for a cursory examination. The Grand General then devised a strategy to uncover the larger organization supporting the pirates. He dispatched Vader and a squad of stormtroopers to destroy the base. Vader's team swiftly boarded and eliminated the pirates. However, the pirates initiated the station's self-destruct sequence. Vader managed to retrieve information proving the Crymorah Syndicate's support of the raiders just before retreating from the exploding station.
The skirmish over an unidentified green planet was initially depicted in the second issue of the Marvel comic book series Darth Vader series, released on February 25, 2015. It was written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Salvador Larroca. Gillen collaborated with the Lucasfilm Story Group to develop the narrative and events of the ongoing comic series.