The first mission that Maarek Stele was assigned after becoming an Imperial starfighter pilot was this one. It was a routine assignment at a waypoint. He was temporarily based on an Imperial corvette. Stele was Cadrath's wingman in this battle. It was an uneventful duty, where they simply flew around and sensor-scanned various freighters and transports that jumped into the area. Then a group of 6 freighters hypered into the area. Stele headed towards them to scan them. The Stele scanned the freighters and found they were carrying food supplies. However when he got to the fifth freighter he detected weapons on board. He called it in and was told that help was on its way. Suddenly, several shuttles appeared out of hyperspace. They did not identify themselves. Stele targeted the closest one and moved to engage it.

    The shuttles had the emblem of the Rebel Alliance painted on their dorsal fins. Stele reset his recharge rates to maximum and lowered his throttle to two thirds. He was able to get close enough to identify the shuttle he targeted. Staying on the tail of the Rebel shuttle, Stele opened fire on it. Suddenly the shuttle ahead turned sharply to the right. Another Rebel shuttle appeared from behind it, bearing directly down on Stele. His threat indicator lit up and he veered off course in a sharp turn. A last minute juke saved him from being hit by friendly fire from an oncoming TIE Fighter who had joined the pursuit. Quickly, he found the shuttle he was pursuing and once again he stayed on the Rebel shuttle's tail. In the end, Stele shot down three Rebel shuttles as they arrived in successive waves. During the battle he witnessed one of the Imperial pilots die. His TIE Fighter had collided with a Rebel shuttle and disintegrated. The Rebel shuttle's shields took a beating, but the shuttle was not destroyed. From that point on Stele decided to become the best in his squadron, so he could fly a better craft and to become one of the elite, since only the elite had any hopes of surviving for long.