A day after the destruction of the MC40a Lusla, Maarek Stele was transfered to the VSD Protector and an hour after he had located his bunk, he was in combat helping to bring the Sepan Civil War to an end. Imperial Forces recieved a distress signal from a Ripoblus convoy which was under attack by Dimok Forces. Six TIE Fighters would be deployed as Alpha and Beta groups to attack the Dimok Y-Wings. Also three TIE Bombers from Beta Squadron were to be deployed to deal with the Dimok Modified Corvette. However Imperial Forces were ordered to let some of the Dimok Y-Wings to escape, so that they could report to their leaders that the Empire seriously meant to end the Sepan Civil War. The Secret Order ordered Stele to inspect the Ripoblus convoy, since Admiral Harkov's performance in dealing with this civil war was not that all that was hoped for. Also there were conflicting reports making it appear not everything is what is seems to be.

    Once the battle had started, the Ripoblus convoy requested assistance from Imperial Forces, while the Dimok Forces claimed that they were seizing illegal war supplies. They also told Imperial Forces not to interfer with their operation or they would fire on Imperial Forces. But Imperial Forces did not heed to their demands. In the beginning of the battle, the TIE Bombers first did not go after the Dimok Modified Corvette which was attacking the Ripoblus convoy, but instead targeted the Dimok Cargo Ferry Mangonel. Stele went after a Y-Wing, and took a few shots at the Dimok Modified Corvette. By this time the Dimok Cargo Ferry Mangonel had been destroyed. After he destroyed his target, Stele went after another Y-Wing. About this time, a Dimok light cruiser hypered into the area about 11 km away. With that Stele turned his attention on the Ripoblus convoy and inspected it.

    With the discovery on Imperial arms on one of the Ripoblus ships, an Imperial Stormtrooper Transport was launched to capture it. After his inspection of the convoy, Stele once again turned his attention on the Dimok Y-Wings. About this time, the Dimoks began to withdraw from the battle. However, all of the escorting Ripoblus shuttles were destroyed. Stele then helped out the Stormtrooper Transport bring down the shields of the Ripoblus craft carrying the Imperial arms. Then a group of escort shuttles hypered into the area. Stele along with other Imperial pilots engaged them. Stele just kept them off balance to prevent the escort shuttles from interfering with the boarding operations of the Ripoblus craft. Once the boarding operations were completed, Stele headed back to the VSD Protector's hanger.