Luke Skywalker is seen employing a Covert Shroud Maneuver in order to bait the Chimaera.
To evade capture by a tractor beam, starship pilots devised an evasive strategy known as the Covert Shroud Maneuver. In this tactic, the fleeing starship deployed a cloud of reflective particles. These particles scattered the tractor beam, enabling the starship to break free and escape. The resulting disruption caused a feedback loop within the tractor beam system, effectively shutting down the targeting mechanism.
Another version of this maneuver served as a desperate escape or infiltration tactic. It involved concealing a smaller vessel within a larger one, thereby masking the smaller ship's true purpose. When the larger ship was ensnared by a tractor beam, the crew initiated its self-destruction sequence. This created a debris field of reflective fragments, overwhelming the tractor beam's targeting system. This allowed the crew to escape in the smaller ship. Due to its near-impossibility to counter, this maneuver gained popularity during the era of the Galactic Empire.
Luke Skywalker's utilization of the covert shroud gambit.
In 9 ABY, Luke Skywalker employed this maneuver to evade a trap orchestrated by Grand Admiral Thrawn. Rejlii Mithel, the tractor beam operator, attempted to recapture Skywalker's ship using an innovative, though ultimately unsuccessful, approach. Mithel anticipated execution for his failure, having recently witnessed another officer suffer a similar fate. However, Thrawn, impressed by his resourcefulness, instead assigned him the task of developing an effective countermeasure.
The newly promoted Lieutenant Mithel concluded that his solution would have succeeded if the targeting computer could have processed the relevant sensor data. He recommended that computer technicians be assigned to implement the necessary adjustments. The New Republic intercepted his communication to Thrawn regarding this matter.
Ten years later, when Lando Calrissian attempted to use this gambit to escape the Star Destroyer Relentless, he was surprised when his yacht, the Lady Luck, was recaptured, forcing his surrender. Flim, a con artist impersonating a resurrected Thrawn, informed him that they had ample time to develop a response since Skywalker's escape.
In The Last Command, Luke Skywalker utilized this maneuver. The destruction of the ship generated reflective particles that confused the tractor beam computers, causing the targeting systems to attempt to lock onto all particles simultaneously, resulting in a feedback loop. This tactic is also referred to as the Covert Shroud Maneuver, and is similarly named in various other stories. It seems a mistake at some point resulted in these two distinct tactics sharing the same designation.