Before the Second Imperium could launch its battle to retake the galaxy, it needed first to fill its ranks with new recruits and procure basic equipment for the construction of a battle fleet. After the kidnapping of the Solo twins and the resultant debacle, the Shadow Academy was moved to the inner Coruscant system to fulfill both of these purposes.
To fulfill the former objective, Tamith Kai, Vilas—her apprentice—and Garowyn were sent to the undercity of Coruscant. They were charged with finding Force-sensitive youths who could be easily swayed to the dark side. Youths who were not Force-sensitive could be useful as well, for they knew their way around a planet that was considered to be the heart of the New Republic and thus could be used as spies or saboteurs. They could also be trained to become stormtroopers or TIE pilots.
Among those youths who had been "recruited" was Zekk, who had been found to be considerably powerful in the Force. He gave some resistance to the suggestion that he join the Shadow Academy, which resulted in him being stunned and taken there anyways. After some meetings with Brakiss, Zekk would come around to his point of view that the New Republic should be eliminated with a new Second Imperium rising from the ashes.
Zekk would accompany Tamith Kai, Garowyn, and Vilas to the undercity once again to recruit the Lost Ones into the Second Imperium. He gave a speech while the other three used the Force to compel the Lost Ones to listen to the speech. All was going well until Jacen Solo and Tenel Ka barged in and confronted Zekk. However, a stun blast solved that problem quite easily. Tamith Kai, Garowyn, Vilas, and Zekk made their exit with the new recruits in tow before Jacen and Tenel Ka regained consciousness.
To fulfill the latter objective, the Second Imperium managed to collect enough data to ascertain that the Adamant, a bulk cruiser that was carrying many turbolasers and hyperdrive cores, was going to make a stop at Coruscant, prior to resuming its course to Kuat Drive Yards, where the components would be used to arm and equip a new fleet of battleships for the New Republic.
However, the operation would be tricky in that it would require precise timing. Due to the critical equipment aboard and the fact that a prominent officer was overseeing the delivery of the equipment and would make a formal inspection tour upon arriving at Kuat Drive Yards, the Adamant was liable to be heavily guarded by other ships upon reverting from hyperspace. However, there would be a five minute window of opportunity between the time that those ships disengaged from their task of guarding the Adamant and the time that the Coruscant Security Force took over.
The Adamant reverted to realspace on schedule and immediately made its way toward one of the docking zones located near one of Coruscant Space Traffic Control's space stations. The Adamant's escort of fourteen corvettes and a number of X-wings and E-wings peeled away from the Adamant. Unaware of the threat that awaited the Adamant and its crew, the ship's commander, Admiral Ackbar was discussing with his crew about where they would rest once they were on Coruscant when the Adamant's tactical officer informed him that an unidentified fleet had suddenly appeared off the bulk cruiser's starboard bow, at a range of fifty kilometers. When it appeared that a boarding action was imminent, they took whatever cover the could behind the bridges consoles.
The group of Second Imperium fighters wasted no time in using their ion cannons to disable the Adamants meager defenses. They created a minor hull breach so that the ship's emergency bulkheads would close and isolate the bridge. The Adamant tried to transmit a distress signal, but it had been taken down in the initial attack. An Imperial Assault Shuttle piloted by Qorl moved a specially modified cofferdam—that was specially equipped for cutting into hulls—into position just outside the bulk cruiser's bridge.
As soon as the airtight seal was completed the stormtroopers that the assault shuttle was carrying charged through the cofferdam and onto the bridge. The stormtroopers stunned most of the bridge crew while taking three casualties in the process. The last member of the crew—Ackbar—physically attacked Qorl as he made his way to the helm. Both wrestled shortly and Qorl was victorious by virtue of the fact that he used his powerful prosthetic arm to knock Ackbar out.
With the bridge finally secure, Qorl took command of the Adamant and ordered the stormtroopers to place the ship's crew into an escape pod. After completing the task the stormtroopers made their way back to the assault shuttle and detached it from the Adamant. Qorl, protected from the decompression by the suit that he was wearing, set course for the Shadow Academy as a New Republic fleet unsuccessfully attempted to catch up with the hijacked Adamant.
Qorl would bring the Adamant in to dock with the Shadow Academy. The unloading of its cargo began in earnest. The data regarding the Adamants cargo was accurate and it was estimated that the Second Imperium's military strength would be doubled with the use of these components. The escape pod that contained Ackbar and the bridge crew of the Adamant was successfully retrieved. Security patrols of the Coruscant system were increased in the interest of guarding against the chance of any further Imperial attacks upon shipping that traveled to and from Coruscant.
Some time later, a cargo shuttle named Moon Dash departed from the space station Coruscant One. Laden with cargo, it collided with the cloaked Shadow Academy's upper docking tower as it accelerated to hyperspace. This would result in the destruction of the Moon Dash and the death of her crew—Captain Narek-Ag and her co-pilot Trebor. Shortly before the destruction of the Moon Dash Coruscant One received a message from Trebor stating that he believed that the small shuttle had crashed into a piece of space debris. The New Republic's Commissioner of Trade would seize upon this incident and use it to lobby Chief of State Leia Organa Solo to divert more resources to the charting of the space debris that had surrounded Coruscant since the Galactic Civil War.
Leia was skeptical of the proposal, given that the New Republic's resources were already stretched thin. Her daughter, Jaina Solo, had overheard her conversation with Han Solo regarding the subject and volunteered herself and her friend Lowbacca to chart the space debris that surrounded Coruscant.The two of them would spend a significant amount of time while charting the debris. When Peckhum visited the Solos' quarters to see if he could learn anything about his friend Zekk's disappearance, Jaina decided that it would be easier to chart the debris from the Orbital Solar Energy Transfer Satellite that Peckhum would be stationed at during a later time.
Once they were there, Jaina and Lowbacca resumed their task of charting the debris and fixed a few things on the station as well. While Jaina was taking a break, Lowbacca noticed an anomalous region within a debris field that was completely free of debris. At the time, Jaina was viewing a number of captured images of the raid on the Adamant, trying to make sense of the fact that there seemed to be no base nearby, but there were a number of short-range fighters employed in the assault.
The satellite that they were aboard received a call from Jacen Solo who told his sister that Zekk had joined the Shadow Academy. It was then that Jaina put all of the facts together and told Peckhum to focus the satellite's mirrors upon the anomalous area of the debris field while she told her brother to tell their mother to inform Admiral Ackbar of the anomaly, and her suspicion that it was the Shadow Academy. Her suspicion turned out to be true when the mirror was focused on the anomalous area of space. Noticing that they had been found, the Shadow Academy accelerated to hyperspace before the fleet of New Republic warships could catch up to it.
- The Essential Chronology
- The New Essential Chronology