With the Rneekii Pirates trap defeated, modified corvette group Hashim still remained disabled with the now vulnerable TIE Defender prototypes. The Galactic Empire commandeered 3 Mssan Cargo Ferries. The first two of three of these vessels arrived approximately 24 km away, without escort a few minutes before the battle started. Moments later, a Rebel strike force hypered into the area 20 km away and they were only 17 km away from the Cargo Ferries. Assault Gunboat group Nu was the only protection at the moment, so Stele was launched once again in TIE Defender Delta 1, since only a TIE Defender could stop the Rebels. Utility Tug 9f5 was launched from modified corvette Hashim 1 to repair shuttle G'nabgib. TIE Defender Delta 1 was launched from modified corvette Hashim 3 and it quickly sped off to intercept the 2 B-Wings that were gunning for Cargo Ferry Mssan 1. Cargo Ferry Mssan 3 arrived with its Assault Gunboat escort from Mu group. On the way to intercept the Rebel B-Wings, 2 A-Wings intercepted Maarek Stele and attempted to stop him, but they failed and were destroyed. Stele was able to destroy both B-Wings before they could destroy Cargo Ferry Mssan 1. Meanwhile, the Assault Gunboats were fully engaged with the Rebel X-Wings and utility tug 9f5 repaired shuttle G'nabgib. Without warning, Nami forces arrived to raid the helpless Imperial convoy. The Nami Y-Wings quickly disabled Hashim 1 and boarded it with YT-1300 Dhoora, with that they were able to quickly take over the corvette with the TIE Defender prototype still onboard, while the T-Wings engaged the Assault Gunboats. Shuttle G'nabgib did what it could against the Nami forces before it went into hyperspace and utility tug 9f5 went to land in modified corvette Hashim 2. The Nami were able to escape into hyperspace with the modified corvette Hashim 1. As if on queue, the traitor forces of former Admiral Zaarin arrived and TIE Defenders Z-Alpha 2 and 3 were targeting Mssan 3, while the last one targeted the loyal TIE Defender Delta 1. Combat Utility Vehicle CL-Ou812 entered the battle near the modified corvettes, when Stele ran out of Advanced Concussion Missiles, ready to reload his TIE Defender. With no Rebels left to fight, the remaining Assault Gunboats joined the fight against Zaarin's TIE Defenders. Zaarin sent more TIE Defenders to replace those that were destroyed by Stele, however in the end, Zaarin was unable to rid himself of Maarek Stele and he lost 12 TIE Defenders in this battle, but was unfortunately able to destroy the remaining Assault Gunboats. Mssan 1 went into hyperspace empty handed. Mssan 2 was able to dock with Hashim 2 and got the TIE Defender and safely went into hyperspace. Just then, the Rneekii Pirate MC40a Sumpntodo came out of hyperspace near the modified corvettes and launched its full complement of z-95 Headhunters, which most likely Stele destroyed before entering the cargo bay of cargo ferry Mssan 3 to be hypered out of the area to where Admiral Thrawn was waiting. The cargo ferries carrying the TIE Defenders went to where Admiral Thrawn was waiting. Admiral Thrawn's orders were to safeguard the remaining TIE Defenders. However, with the stolen TIE Defender, the Empire was now facing a new threat and would have to face the wide spread repercussions to the spread of the TIE Defender technology. So in response, the Empire would go to great lengths to stop the new threat.