Around early June 2617, CSN Cardinal came under attack by a raiding party as it travelled through Temper, en-route to Spirit Orbital. Whilst going about their regular duties, the crew came across a suspected case of Shizaru's Fever (although this was never conclusively proven). The ship jumped back to the nearest system, Temper, and sent advance warning to Spirit Orbital.

On the way there, they were attack by a party of raiders, whose numbers included Daniel Sullivan. The group hadn't targeted Cardinal specifically, knowing only that it was a CSN vessel and therefore might contain some military secrets and equipment which could be sold for a high price on the black market.

As the raiding party attacked, Cardinal broadcast an SOS to Spirit Orbital, who dispatched a search and rescue team consisting of Merekat and Buffalo. They also directed the White Knights, who were patrolling nearby, to the vicinity of the incident. Though many of the raiding party's craft were destroyed (even after they had boarded), the crew were unable to adequately defend themselves and many lost their lives after barricading themselves in the bridge.

As events took a turn for the worse for the raiders, Daniel Sullivan decided to cut his losses and end his ties with the raiding party (whom he was not a member of and had only joined them to make up numbers). He eliminated the surviving members of the raiding party, before booby-trapping Cardinal, taking what he could carry (including a dump of the ship's data banks) and fleeing the Temper system via a timed jump point.

The White Knights arrived on the scene, but didn't act quick enough to stop Sullivan from escaping. They had also failed to spot his ship clung to the underside of Cardinal.

Cardinal was destroyed when Fisher, a member of Merekat's boarding team, set off the booby traps that Sullivan had set. CSN Merekat was destroyed along with it, being locked into Cardinal via docking tubes at the same time.

Sullivan escaped to Imperial space, unwittingly carrying with him the blueprints for the ATAF and Operation Sudarberg.