Raid on GemDiver Station The Raid on GemDiver Station was an operation launched by the Second Imperium against Luke Skywalker ' s Jedi Praxeum in 23 ABY in order to secure more recruits for the Second Imperium ' s Shadow Academy . It marked the beginning of the Second Imperium ' s campaign against the New Republic . History . Prelude . Prior to the raid , Brakiss had formed the Shadow Academy to train and establish a new order of Dark Jedi . Recruiting candidates was a simple matter after he had helped revive the Nightsisters on the planet Dathomir under the aegis of the Great Canyon Clan . However , the flow of recruits from Dathomir started to dry up . Additionally , Brakiss ' s sadistic methods of rooting out weak students in his academy claimed the lives of at least six students . One other event may have contributed to the Shadow Academy ' s decision to kidnap Jedi trainees from the Jedi Praxeum . That was the arrival of a pilot named Qorl in a hyperspace - capable TIE / LN starfighter . When he gave his report , Qorl related his encounter with the Solo twins . Though he had already known of the existence of the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 , the fact that Skywalker was training a new , powerful generation of Jedi Knights may have been news to Brakiss . Believing that their young minds would be easier to sway than those of adults , Brakiss decided that kidnapping students from the Jedi Praxeum would help his new order of Dark Jedi to grow . Just prior to the start of the raid , the Jedi trainees Lowbacca , Jacen , and Jaina Solo embarked upon a field trip to Lando Calrissian ' s GemDiver Station . It is not known how the Shadow Academy discovered that the three Jedi trainees would be on the space station , which orbited the gas giant Yavin . A force of four Skipray blastboat s and one modified assault shuttle , was assembled . Raid on GemDiver Station . GemDiver Station detected an unidentified fleet approaching its position after Calrissian and the three students had returned from an expedition into the lower atmosphere of Yavin . The station was unable to call for outside help because the attacking force had set up a jamming field . They also refused to respond to any hails from the space station . Alarms were sounded and security personnel aboard the station armed themselves with additional weapons . As he made his way up to the control bridge with the students , Calrissian asked for a status update and was apprised of the current situation by a security chief . The security chief added that the intent of the fleet was unknown . When he and the students got to the bridge , Lando ' s assistant Lobot , informed Calrissian that GemDiver Station was under attack , but did not know by whom . Jaina Solo , drawing upon her knowledge of starship design identified the ships in the fleet as Imperial in origin . Using their talents , the Jedi trainees sensed a dark presence in the attack force and realized that they were the ones that the attackers were after . As the attack force approached the perimeter of automated defensive satellites , Lobot had their fail - safes removed . The satellites worked as they were supposed to , but their lasers were unable to penetrate the heavy armor of the blastboats . The blastboats disabled four of the satellites with their ion cannons and then destroyed them with their lasers . Meanwhile , the assault shuttle moved in on the space station and attached itself to an airlock at or near Lower Equipment Bay 34 . Security personnel were ordered to set up positions around the airlock in order to repel boarders . Calrissian armed himself and made his way to the airlock as well . He had ordered the students to find some place safe and hide , but they ignored it , following him to the equipment bay . The assault shuttle used industrial - grade Corusca gems to drill through the space station ' s hull . After it had cut deeply enough into the hull , shaped charges were used to breach it . Stormtroopers , accompanied by Tamith Kai , who lead the strike , swarmed through the hole . Though GemDiver Station ' s security forces used lethal force in their attempt to defend the station the stormtroopers had been ordered to keep their blaster rifles set on stun , so as not to kill or injure their quarry . Four stormtroopers were killed outright when they boarded the station . After hearing Tamith Kai reminding the stormtroopers not to harm the children , Calrissian noticed that the Jedi trainees had not obeyed him . Calrissian and the students made their way to GemDiver Station ' s shipping chamber , which was considered to be the safest place aboard the station . It was situated behind heavy , triple - armored doors and an airlock . Calrissian left them there and stepped outside . He was later stunned . Since they had not been allowed to construct their lightsabers yet and could not find an armory in the shipping chamber , the Jedi trainees were trapped . Stormtroopers managed to cut through the doors of the shipping chamber and cut through the doors with a heavy - duty laser . Despite the protestations of one of the packing droids in the chamber , the stormtroopers entered . The droid was summarily blasted into slag . Jacen , Jaina , and Lowbacca were stunned and kidnapped . Aftermath . Jacen , Jaina , and Lowbacca , as well as Lowbacca ' s droid Em Teedee were kidnapped and taken to the Shadow Academy where Brakiss and Tamith Kai attempted to indoctrinate them into turning to the dark side of the Force . Jacen and Jaina both rejected Brakiss ' s teachings . Tamith Kai , however , made a bit more headway with Lowbacca , due to his somewhat short - tempered nature . Another aggravating factor was the reprogramming of Em Teedee to be more loyal to the Empire . Though Em Teedee had been annoying in the first place , he was even more so when he said things like " The Empire is your friend . " However , Lowbacca managed to keep Tamith Kai ' s sadistic training methods from turning him . After regaining consciousness , Calrissian informed Luke Skywalker of the disappearance of the trainees . He noted that the attack force had used industrial - grade Corusca gems to drill into GemDiver Station ' s hull , and noted that , in an ironic twist , that his broker was the only person who the raiders could have bought the industrial - grade gems from . When Skywalker arrived , Calrissian gave the Jedi Master an old blockade runner named " Off Chance " so that he could travel incognito to Borgo Prime in search of the broker . In the meantime , Calrissian and Lobot attempted to find ways to improve GemDiver Station ' s security , one of which involved using Corusca gems to defend the station . It is not known what the other ideas were , or if any were implemented . Skywalker and Tenel Ka embarked upon a mission to find them . Due to the nature of the Corusca gem industry , they managed to track down who bought the industrial - grade Corusca gems through Calrissian ' s unscrupulous broker . The trail led them to the planet Dathomir , where they found that the Nightsisters had been revived . Passing themselves off as possible recruits for these new Nightsisters , Skywalker and Tenel Ka were sent to the Shadow Academy where the missing Jedi trainees were being held . When they arrived they found Jacen , Jaina , and Lowbacca were in the process of escaping the Shadow Academy . After a confrontation with Brakiss and Tamith Kai , the Jedi stole a shuttle and made it back to Yavin 4 . In the immediate aftermath of the raid on GemDiver Station , Brakiss was pleased with the results . Figuring that Skywalker would be gone looking for his missing Jedi trainees , he planned more raids on the Jedi Praxeum . However , he didn ' t know how right he was . After the escape , he had to move the Shadow Academy immediately so that New Republic scouts that had been dispatched to find the missing trainees would not find it . He also scuttled his plans to kidnap more trainees from the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin . Instead , he would focus on recruiting disadvantaged youths to his cause .