Battle of Orion IV

The Battle of Orion IV took place during Operation Strike Fear early on in the Galactic Civil War.

The battle


As part of this operation the Rebel Alliance base on Orion IV was the third objective in the Sector after the Battle of Rudrig.

The procedure was to blockade the planet and then perform orbital bombardment against the planetary shield before the final overwhelming assault of the rebel installations by Imperial ground forces decimating all resistance.

Several rebel pilots stationed on the base were captured during the battle, some newly acquired R-22 Spearheads were used for the base defense, but not in enough numbers to have had any influence on the outcome of the battle.

The battle was the earliest known appearance of the Alpha-class Xg-1 Star Wings and the first Imperial-era AT-AT walkers (before their upgrade).

Behind the scenes
According to the game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, AT-AT walkers were introduced to the Empire only shortly before the Battle of Hoth, and clearly after the Battle of Yavin.

Note that an early version of AT-AT already existed in the Clone Wars era, and fought at the Battle of Jabiim. The cutscene in X-wing shows AT-ATs as well, but since Maximilian Veers conducted tests of an experimental AT-AT model in Galactic Battlegrounds, these can be rationalized as earlier, pre-Veers models.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: X-wing