During the initial years of the Galactic Civil War, the Empire launched an invasion against the planet of Velabri. The Imperial forces planned to use the indigenous Velabri people as forced slave workers. The Alliance, with its limited resources, provided aid by secretly extracting government personnel and their relatives shortly before the Imperials landed. As part of this rescue operation, Airen Cracken rescued a transport vessel containing the family of Quillin Durand. Profoundly thankful, Durand pledged a Velabri Bloodvow to Cracken, promising to repay his life-saving act.
After the evacuation, Velabri who escaped enslavement allied with the burgeoning Alliance, establishing a combat unit called the Velabri Lancers.