Mission to hijack an Imperial weapons shipment In 14 BBY , several members of the Free Ryloth movement led by Pok undertook a mission to hijack an Imperial weapons shipment at the Yaga Minor shipyards . They managed to load their weapons onto a freighter and attempted to rendezvous with another Free Ryloth starship commanded by Cham Syndulla and Isval . Despite their efforts to make multiple hyperspace jumps in order to outrun their Imperial pursuers , Darth Vader managed to board their freighter . He then personally killed Pok ' s entire team . Cham and Isval heard the entire massacre via comm and vowed to accelerate their rebellion against the Empire . Prelude . During the Clone Wars , the Galactic Republic annexed the Twi ' lek homeworld of Ryloth after liberating it from the Separatists . The Republic was succeeded by the Galactic Empire , which established a protectorate over Ryloth . The Empire sought to exploit Ryloth for its spice resources . While the planet was nominally independent and represented in the Imperial Senate by Senator Orn Free Taa , real power lay in the hands of the Imperial governor Moff Delian Mors and her subordinate Colonel Belkor Dray . By 14 BBY , an active insurgent movement known as the Free Ryloth movement had emerged on Ryloth under the leadership of Cham Syndulla , a veteran of the Clone Wars . Cham fought to free Ryloth from Imperial rule . He recruited and trained hundreds of rebel fighters and established a network of informants and contacts across the Ryloth system . The Free Ryloth movement staged attacks on Imperial personnel and disrupted the planet ' s spice trade . Cham was assisted by Belkor Dray , who resented Moff Mors ' decadent lifestyle and wanted to discredit her . He became an important spy for the Free Ryloth movement . The mission . Pursuit . In 14 BBY , Cham ' s lieutenant Pok hijacked an Imperial weapons shipment at the Yaga Minor shipyards and fled into hyperspace . Pok planned to rendezvous with Cham and Isval ' s ship in the rings of a gas giant in an off - chart system . To avoid detection , Pok and his crew kept silent over the com . On the way , they skimmed a gas giant to re fuel . While waiting , Isval sighted Pok ' s stolen transport . The transport began hailing Cham ' s ship and he ordered his crew to aleart the offload team , get the weapons aboard , and destroy the transport . Before they could dock with Pok ' s transport , Cham received a frantic message from Pok that they were being pursued by Darth Vader ' s personal Eta - 2 Actis - class light interceptor and several V - wing starfighters . Pok had made several hyperspace jumps in an attempt to lose the Imperials but had failed to shake off Vader and his squadron , whose fighters were equipped with hyperspace transport ring s . One of the hijacked transport ' s engines broke down due to the strains of the pursuit . Vader ordered his V - wing pilots to disable the ship ' s deflector shield s and the remaining two engines in order to prevent it from jumping into hyperspace again . The Twi ' lek rebels fought back with the ship ' s armaments and managed to shoot down two of the Imperial V - wings . The remaining V - wings attacked the transport from multiple angles and managed to weaken the shields and knock out another engine . The squadron commander split the squadron and ordered his fighters to circle the ship until they had knocked out the shields . Meanwhile , Cham offered to help Pok but Pok refused . He explained that they were already down to one engine and that there was a Star Destroyer behind them . Though Isval urged Cham to helped Pok , Cham decided not to intervene in order not to expose their position behind the ring . After the Imperials had disabled the transport ' s shields , Vader ordered them to take out the engines and to destroy the ship ' s turrets and starboard - side midline gun bubble . The squadron leader then recommended leaving the ship stranded in space until Vader ' s Star Destroyer " Perilous " to tow it into its cargo bay . Boarding . However , Vader had no intention of letting the crew live and intended to board the transport . Though the squadron commander pointed out that the ship ' s docking clamp was damaged and that it had no landing bay , Vader was unperturbed . He used the Force to ram his light interceptor into the remaining gun bubble before ejecting into space . This caused the hijacked transport to lurch . Vader contacted the squadron commander via his helmet comm and informed him that he was docking with the transport . He also instructed the crew to remain on comm silence and to escort the stricken freighter until the " Perilous " arrived . Once aboard , Vader used his knowledge of override codes to enter the ship ' s corridors . He killed the Twi ' lek man Tymo with his lightsaber before the latter could shoot him with his blaster . Taking Tymo ' s comlink , he informed the rest of the crew he was coming for them . With the ship ' s engines and defenses destroyed , Pok and his 26 crew decided to make their way to the cargo hold and use their weapons as a fail - safe to fight Darth Vader . Pok was willing to die for a free Ryloth . Isvak wanted to help Pok but Cham countered that Pok ' s team were " dead in space . " Vader killed the team that Pok had sent to the hold . After wishing Cham and Isval farewell , Pok commenced with his plan to ambush Vader . Vader fought his way to the bridge and killed the eight rebels guarding the turbolift . Vader fought his way into the bridge and attacked Pok and his remaining crew . Following a brief battle , Vader killed Pok ' s remaining men and proceeded to Force choke the rebel leader . Vader demanded that Pok tell him what he wanted to know but Pok cursed him in Twi ' leki . Vader then broke Pok ' s neck . Cham and Isval heard the battle and Pok ' s last moments on the com . Vader then announced that Cham ' s allies were dead before Cham switched off the com . Aftermath . Following the death of Pok and his team , Cham and his crew took their ship deeper into the rings . They hid while Vader ' s V - wings searched the area for other rebel ships . To avoid detection , Cham reduced life support to the minimum . Cham ' s ship collided with a rock but survived the collision intact . After the Imperials had passed , Cham ordered his crew to power up their ships . Since they had failed to obtain the weapons shipment , Cham ordered his crew to return to Ryloth . He vowed that they would use " no more half measures " and that they would " think bigger . " After returning to Coruscant , Vader and the Emperor deduced that a spy within either Senator Orn Free Taa ' s staff or the Imperial government had been leaking information to the Free Ryloth movement including the Yaga Minor weapons shipment . To lure the rebels out of hiding , Palpatine planned to travel to Ryloth with Senator Free Taa aboard the " Perilous " . Through a spy in the Senator ' s staff , Cham Syndulla learned about the trip and mounted a daring attempt to overthrow the Emperor . Behind the scenes . The mission to hijack an Imperial weapons shipment first appeared as the exposition to Paul S . Kemp ' s 2015 novel " Lords of the Sith " .