Pursuer

The Pursuer was an Imperial I-class Star Destroyer that was in service to the Imperial Navy of the Galactic Empire. The Pursuer became the headquarters of the Empire's 204th Imperial Fighter Wing by 0 BBY, and assisted the fighter wing in a number of operations. The Star Destroyer earned its name as a result of a chase through the Redspace Reefs.
Following the Battle of Endor and the death of the Galactic Emperor in 4 ABY, the Pursuer jumped between star systems in search of a winnable fight until it received new orders, the initiation of Operation: Cinder. As part of the operation, the Star Destroyer deployed the 204th at the planet Nacronis, where the fighter wing devastated the world. After Nacronis, the vessel continued moving between battles, the 204th's Commanding officer Colonel Shakara Nuress searching for an organized Imperial leadership.
The Pursuer received much damage and was forced to fall back, entrenching at the planet Pandem Nai. As the 204th conducted operations against outposts and New Republic scouts, the Star Destroyer helped destroy some outposts with possible communication abilities. After, the vessel returned to Pandem Nai and begun repairs. However, the New Republic attacked the 204th at the world and forced the fighter wing to retreat, leaving the Pursuer behind.
==Description==
A wedge-shaped Imperial I-class Star Destroyer, the Pursuer stood at 1,600 meters long and was armed with turbolasers and ion cannons, along with ten heavy tractor beam emitters. The Star Destroyer also bore a command tower, a solar ionization reactor and two deflector shield generator domes. The Pursuer was also equipped with three destroyer-I ion engines, four emergency-use gemon-4 ion engines, deflector shields, and a hyperdrive.
The interior of the Pursuer included a hangar which could hold starfighters like TIE fighters, TIE bombers and TIE interceptors as well as shuttles like the Lambda-class T-4a shuttle and vehicles like the AT-ST walker. Other areas included a mess hall,Victory's Price a bridge, at least one utility room, at least one tactical center, at least one shooting rangeTIE Fighter 5 and at least one office.TIE Fighter 4
==History==
===Early service===
During the Galactic Civil War, the Pursuer served in the navy of the Galactic Empire. By the time of the Battle of Yavin in 0 BBY,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas the Star Destroyer became the carrier and headquarters of the Empire's 204th Imperial Fighter Wing, which had been permanently assigned to the vessel as the fighter wing began to gain notoriety under the command of Colonel Shakara Nuress. The Pursuer did not receive its name until the Star Destroyer's involvement in a chase through the Redspace Reefs. After joining the 204th, the Imperial Academy graduate Yrica Quell suffered a moment of acute nausea and threw up. Following a patrol mission to the celestial body Cathar, Quell attempted to scrub her flight suit clean of the bile smell, being caught doing so by Sergeant Meriva Greef. At another point, the TIE pilot sneaked out of her bed to repair her TIE's acceleration compensator.
Around 3 ABYAlphabet Squadron establishes that Yrica Quell defected after the destruction of Nacronis, two weeks after the Battle of Endor, and that she then spent one month at Traitor's Remorse. Shortly after, Quell thinks about the bombardment of Mek'tradi nine months prior, which would place the bombardment seven and half months prior to the Battle of Endor. Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dates the Battle of Endor to 4 ABY, so the bombardment of Mek'tradi must have therefore occurred around 3 ABY. the vessel traveled to the planet Mek'tradi, where the 204th's TIEs were deployed under the Star Destroyer's shadow. The fighter wing laid waste to a Rebel Alliance outpost and its fleeing personnel before returning to the Pursuer. Quell, who had taken part, was debriefed after, and she was approached by Major Soran Keize who talked to her about who they were fighting for.
===Anti-rebel operations===
Following the Battle of Hoth that year, the Alliance's forces were scattered and pursued by the Empire. Around 4 ABY,The events of Star Wars: TIE Fighter take place up to the time of the Battle of Endor, which Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dates to 4 ABY. Therefore, the events of the series must take place around that year. The Pursuer took part in a fleet battle against Alliance ships, where Quell rescued fellow TIE pilot Flight Officer Zin Graw. The pair conversed on the Star Destroyer's hangar after the battle, and Graw soon proceeded to a utility room, where she made contact with a mobile rebel recruitment base, wishing to defect. Within the next week, the Pursuer assisted the 204th in an attack on a rebel cell. While the 204th's Squadron Five dealt with the rebel fighters, the Star Destroyer destroyed at least one rebel vessel, an EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate.
Nuress summoned members of Squadron Five to a tactical room, tasking the squadron with escorting a Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier Summit on a mission to assure the safety of the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Celerity. Squadron Five carried out their mission, losing two of their members, including Flight Officer Graw, to rebel forces.TIE Fighter 3 Meanwhile, the Imperial Security Bureau learned that Graw had been in contact with the Alliance and discovered the presence of the rebel recruitment base. Nuress updated the rest of Squadron Five of the matter, and the squadron left on a Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier to assist in a mission to destroy the recruitment base.
===Last orders===
While Squadron Five attacked and destroyed the rebel recruitment base, a large engagement occurred above the forest moon Endor, which resulted in the destruction of the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station and the death of the Galactic Emperor. In the two following weeks, the Pursuer jumped between star systems evading the rebel forces which begun capturing Imperial worlds and searching for a winnable battle. That was when a sentinel arrived with orders for Nuress. The orders were part of Operation: Cinder, a mission given to much of the Imperial navy to cleanse various worlds. The 204th was tasked with the destruction of all civilization on the planet Nacronis. The Pursuer traveled to the Nacronis system and deployed the fighter wing to carry out the mission.
Nacronis ultimately saw devastation from siltstorms stoked by the 204th's vortex detonators, and the surviving TIE fighters and bombers returned to the Pursuer. After Nacronis, the 204th received no further orders from higherups in the Empire, and so the Star Destroyer sought out opportunistic targets while Nuress endeavoured to locate a central authority within the Empire. However, the Pursuer sustained considerable damage, with some sections of the vessel being rendered uninhabitable, the targeting array being barely functional and the reactor becoming prone to losing significant output. Nuress, having failed to find organised leadership, ultimately advised the Pursuer captain to fallback for repairs. The 204th chose the planet Pandem Nai, home to tibanna gas mining stations to regroup, and they established a base of operations there.
===Maintaining secrecy===
Becoming entrenched in the Pandem Nai system, the 204th planned to use the planet's tibanna production to resupply other Imperial forces. In the meantime Nuress coordinated missions to destroy nearby outposts and put an end to scout missions carried out by the Alliance, which had since reorganized into the New Republic, to maintain the secrecy of the fighter wing's operations. The colonel acquired three Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carriers to carry squadrons to their targets, but she also used the Pursuer to attack nearby outposts. One of the Star Destroyer's targets was a spice-mining outpost which had the potential to report the 204th's presence to the New Republic.
The Pursuer rained turbolaser fire onto the outpost's defense shield to penetrate it. Nuress asked of the Star Destroyer's power levels, Major Rassus updating her accordingly. Once the outpost's shields were down, TIE bombers were planned to deploy, but Nuress chose for the Pursuer to destroy the outpost itself. With the outpost wiped out, the Star Destroyer had three more outposts and a solar station across three more systems to deal with. Before the vessel moved on to those targets, Nuress questioned the progress of another mission being carried out by two squadrons aboard the Aerie, receiving an update from Rassus.
===Fall of Pandem Nai===
After destroying its final targets, the Pursuer returned to the Pandem Nai system and traveled for the inner system where Pandem Nai was situated. As the Star Destroyer approached a minefield protecting Pandem Nai, the vessel was contacted by Colonel Madrighast from his own Imperial-class Star Destroyer the Unyielding. Madrighast invited Nuress and the 204th to join his forces and the Empire's 108th in the Gordian Reach. Nuress declined, instead inviting the other colonel to resupply at Pandem Nai before his signal was lost. The Pursuer then proceeded to pass the minefield and to Pandem Nai. There, its crew disembarked and the vessel underwent repairs, being riddled with scaffolding.
However, New Republic forces soon attacked Pandem Nai. The battle resulted in the deaths of Nuress and many 204th personnel. A large bulk of the fighter wing then escaped, leaving the half-repaired Pursuer behind. Pictures of the Pursuer and the attack on Pandem Nai reached the New Republic's news feed, which broadcast to worlds like Vernid. Around 5 ABY, Yrica Quell envisioned being in the Pursuer when subjected to visions by Force energies from an observatory in the Cerberon system.
==Commanders and crew==
The Pursuer was commanded by an Imperial captain with the oversight of Colonel Shakara Nuress. Other crew roles aboard the Star Destroyer included comscan officer, gunner, engineer, ordnance specialist, and ground crew. In addition to that, the Pursuer housed all of the personnel in the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing.
==Behind the scenes==
The Pursuer first appeared in the comic TIE Fighter 1, written by Jody Houser, penciled by Rogê Antônio and Michael Dowling, and released on April 17, 2019.
==Appearances==
*TIE Fighter 1 
*TIE Fighter 4
*TIE Fighter 5
*Alphabet Squadron 
*Shadow Fall 
*Victory's Price 
==Sources==
* 
==Notes and references==
Category:Imperial I-class Star Destroyers
Category:Starships of the Galactic Empire