Strategic Warfare Strategic Warfare was a campaign launched by former Grand Admiral Zaarin against the Galactic Empire after his failled attempt to capture Emperor Palpatine . The campaign . Zaarin ' s forces attacked the TIE Avenger plants in the Omar system . The Imperial Navy managed to stand their ground for quite some time , and managed to destroy a large portion of Zaarin ' s forces . However , all plants were eventually destroyed , making this campaign a great success for Zaarin . First Battle of Omar . Prelude . Prior to the attacks on Omar , Imperial Grand Admiral Demetrius Zaarin , former head of research and development for the Galactic Empire , sought to seize power from Emperor Palpatine in an attempt to install himself as the Galactic Emperor . Zaarin launched a coup d ' etat against the Emperor that saw the capture of Palpatine and his near execution at the hands of Zaarin . However , the kidnapping attempt failed after a decisive intervention by Darth Vader and Vice Admiral Thrawn . The initial failure of the coup forced Zaarin ' s loyal forces to flee to the Outer Rim Territories in order to evade their destruction at the hands of the Empire . However , Zaarin still desired to take control of the galaxy , so he launched a campaign of terror against the Empire ' s various starfighter and warship production centers , hoping to wear down the Emperor ' s forces to the point where the Emperor would no longer be able to resist . Zaarin decided to begin by stripping the Empire of its ability to manufacture the TIE / ad starfighter s , a fighter he himself designed . This attack would start with the destruction of the TIE Advanced facilities at Omar , where the vast majority of the Empire ' s TIE Advanced starfighters were produced . The Battle . Zaarin launched the frigate " Raptor " to attack the lightly - defended TIE Advanced plants at Omar , with a full load of TIE Bombers and " Delta " - class DX - 9 stormtrooper transports to aid in the assault . The bombers were launched in groups of five and targeted the facilities " Omar 1 " , " Omar 2 " , and " Omar 3 " , launching a vicious barrage of heavy rockets . The Imperial personnel aboard the three stations had no means to defend themselves , and immediately called for reinforcement . The Imperial fleet sent in a force of TIE Defenders , led by Emperor ' s Hand Maarek Stele , to defend the facilities while various transports proceeded to evacuate the personnel . These ships came in the form of bulk freighters , Container Transports , and YT - 1300 light freighters . By the time Stele and his squadron arrived at Omar , " Omar 3 " was totally evacuated , but " Omars 1 " and " 2 " had yet to be vacated . Stele and his wingmen proceeded to destroy the various TIE Bomber squadrons destroying the facilities . Zaarin ' s forces destroyed Omar 3 before it could be saved , so Stele ' s squadron focused on defending " Omars 1 " and " 2 " . While they did this , several Imperial freighters and transports arrived sequentially to evacuate the station personnel . After the bombers were eliminated , Stele ' s squadron attacked the " Raptor " , eventually destroying the frigate under concentrated heavy fire . Despite this , several waves of " Delta " - class DX - 9 stormtrooper transports arrived to launch their own attack on the Omar facilities , forcing Stele ' s squadron to break up and attack different squadrons . After " Omar 2 " was abandoned , evacuations were solely focused on " Omar 1 " . However , an Imperial officer soon radioed an SOS , stating that he and some of his comrades had been left behind on " Omar 2 " . But the station was soon destroyed despite Stele ' s best efforts to defend it . Stele finished off the remaining transports and assisted the evac ships at " Omar 1 " . His squadron held off several counterattacks while " Omar 1 " was finally evacuated . With the success of the operation , the Imperials abandoned the area , and " Omar 1 " would later be destroyed by Zaarin . Aftermath . Although the Imperials were successful in saving countless lives during the battle , the loss of all three Omar facilities severely impaired the Empire ' s ability to produce the TIE Advanced . Zaarin then focused his efforts on the remaining stations spread across Omar . Eventually , only one plant , ZA - 13 , was left in operation , forcing the Empire to defend this station in an effort to continue the production of the TIE Advanced . Battles of ZA - 13 . First Battle of ZA - 13 . The First Battle of ZA - 13 was a battle fought during the Zaarin insurrection at the Imperial Facilty known as ZA - 13 . ZA - 13 was at the time manufacturing Hyperdrive units for Demetrius Zaarin ' s rogue Imperial forces . Then , Vice Admiral Thrawn was instructed to capture the facility , as Zaarin ' s forces had destroyed a lot of the Empire ' s own manufacturing facilities . The attack was led by Maarek Stele , who took 3 TIE / D Defender starfighters to sweep the area of enemy forces . The factory was fairly lightly defended , mostly by TIE Avengers , which Stele and his wingmen cut through easily . The factory itself remained neutral during the battle , due to the fact that the station ' s personnel were not all loyal to either Zaarin or the Empire . Stele also disabled the various freighters and transports that were attempting to make off with the equipment . Imperial forces came in to take possession of the stolen goods , leaving the ships themselves to be finished off by Stele . Stele was soon to return , leading the attack force in the Second Battle of ZA - 13 , which would result in the capture of the station itself . Second Battle of ZA - 13 . The attack was an immediate follow up on the First Battle of ZA - 13 . The Imperial attack was again led by Maarek Stele , who again led a group of 3 TIE / D Defenders into the area . Due to the fact that ZA - 13 was not entirely loyal to Zaarin , the factory did not need to be disabled . There were also no craft defending the station . Once the capture operation began , however , some Alpha - class Xg - 1 Star Wings arrived , and began harassing Stele and his wingmen . Soon after the arrival of the Gunboats , CR90 corvettes from Caplure group arrived , to provide heavy fire support . As Stele ' s flight group had been armed with proton rockets , however , they proved no threat . Once the Corvettes were dispatched , the Carrack - class light cruiser Jumimi entered the battle zone . This was again not much of a threat to Stele and his colleagues , who were able to use their remaining rockets to lower its shields , before disabling it and finishing it off with lasers . During the battle , several Delta - class DX - 9 stormtrooper transports arrived and fired rockets at ZA - 13 . They were supported by a small number of TIE Avengers , making it tricky for the loyalists to destroy them without being eliminated themselves . Throughout the battle , craft were docking with the factory to re - staff it , to supplement the staff on board that had remained loyal to Palpatine . Zaarin ' s forces harassed a number of the shuttles , meaning Stele had to keep an eye on both them and the capital ships attacking the factory . After all of Zaarin ' s forces had been destroyed , the Imperial - class Star Destroyer Render arrived to relieve the Defenders . Third Battle of ZA - 13 . The final stage of ZA - 13 was to retrofit and upgrade the factory to enable it to manufacture TIE Advanced as Palpatine declared that continued production of TIE Advanced fighters as a top priority . To that end , a Convoy called Rope 17 was assigned to deliver the supplies and materials needed . However , the convoy soon came under attack from Rebel raiders taking advantage of the situation . Stele , once again , led a grout of 3 TIE / D Defenders to escort and protect the convoy as it delivered cargo to ZA - 13 . When Stele arrived Rope 17 fended of two Y - wings . Then B - wings , more Y - wings and Z - 95 Headhunters , shortly afterwards 4 Corellian corvettes from Cobra escorted by Z - 95s arrived . Despite the escort and the corvettes armed with a missile launcher , they were all destroyed by Maarek Stele . Finally a final wave of fighters consisting of Y - wings , A - wings and X - wings arrived to attack ZA - 13 only to be destroyed by Maarek Stele . Imperial High Command noticed that some of the fighters were equipped with Mag Pulse Warheads and wanted to acquire the technology to get an edge over Zaarin . With the factory receiving the supplies . Two Nebulon - B escort frigates were assigned to guard the factory from future attacks . Battle of RS - 32 . Tracking the Rebel attack to a space platform called RS - 32 . The Empire sent a strike force lead by Thrawn in the Victory I - class Star Destroyer " Sceltor " . Starting with Maarek Stele and his wingmen destroying Escort shuttle TT - 109 and the Z - 95 Headhunters . Stele then launched a proton rocket barrage at the station which overwhelmed the station ' s shields . The station called for reinforcements and launched T - Wings that the Alliance recently acquired to see if it can be a successful replacement to their A - wings . These proved to be not the case as they were easily destroyed by Stele , even then there were multiple flaws then that forced the Alliance to abandon them . The station ' s call was answered with multiple fighters and two CR92a Assassin - class corvette s called " Rampart " . The station also launched a transport called " Blue " carrying officers and technicians . However , the reinforcements weren ' t enough ; The transport and the Station were disabled and reinforcements were defeated . The Imperials captured the station and acquired the Mag Pulse technology . Destruction of the Grappler . However , before they could celebrate , Zaarin had struck . Not only did he take advantage of both Stele ' s and Thrawn ' s focus of ZA - 13 so that he could send an assault force to successfully destroy ZA - 13 . He sent three ships , Nebulon - B2 frigate " Shadow " , Strike - class medium cruiser " Serpent " and Immobilizer 418 cruiser " Grappler " to trap Thrawn ' s ship . Stele in his TIE Defender , armed with the Mag Pulse Warheads , attacked with few friendly starfighters all of Zaarin ' s starfighters and used the Mag Pulse warheads to help destroy the " Serpent " , by using the warhead to disable Serpents weapons and allow the Sceltor to destroy it . Then hit the " Grappler " with a warhead to allow the Sceltor to launch 3 TIE / sa bombers to destroy the ship and finally the " Shadow " with the help of the bombers . Aftermath . The campaign was a victory to Zaarin . With the destruction of all the factories in the Omar system , the TIE Advanced production line was seriously compromised . He ordered commander Raveen to move his forces to the Outer Rim to launch new attacks from there . After this campaign , Maarek Stele was awarded the Medal of Dignity for successfully holding off Zaarin ' s attacks against the Empire ' s TIE Avenger production facilities .