Death Star plans/Legends

"What's so important? What's he carrying?"

- Han Solo

The Death Star Plans were the blueprints of the Death Star, a superweapon created by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin for the Galactic Empire.

The Plans
The idea for the Death Star began when the Confederacy of Independent Systems designed the Ultimate Weapon. Poggle the Lesser possessed the original (or a copy) of the plans, which he handed to Darth Tyranus during the Battle of Geonosis. Tyranus was intercepted by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Yoda, however the latter, in order to save the other two, let Tyranus escape with the plans. It is thought that should he make a different choice, he cold lose the lifes of the two Jedi, but save millions of lives. The future of the Galaxy was judged by this decision.

Tyranus managed to arrive on The Works of Coruscant and he delivered them personally to Darth Sidious. Once the Clone Wars were over, Palpatine shaped this idea for his own purposes. Blueprints were used as a basis for construction of the station, and, after the Death Star's completion, the plans became a prime target for the Rebellion, whose members hoped to find and exploit a weakness in the superweapon.

The Rebel Alliance Acquires the Plans
Acquiring the Death Star plans was a necessary phase of Operation Skyhook: the effort to destroy the Death Star. Rebel forces would not locate the Death Star schematics in a single document, but they would learn information about the dreaded station in bits and pieces--from a combination of heroes--placing these pieces together to form a full technical readout.

Discovery at AX-235
The Rebellion after the Strike Fear, got hints about the existence of a massive Imperial construction. They first learned of the Death Star's existence when their outpost of AX-235 intercepted an Imperial transmission of the station's schematics. Keyan Farlander, an X-wing pilot, later delivered these plans to the Tantive IV.

Mission to Danuta
Kyle Katarn, a Rebel mercenary recently converted from the Empire, was assigned to infiltrate an Imperial outpost on Danuta and steal a portion of the Death Star plans there. After escaping the facility, he transmitted this set of the plans to Rebel spies in the Toprawa system, where it was eventually passed to Princess Leia on the Tantive IV.

Death Star Uprising
A section of the plans were stolen from the Empire during a Rebel jail break inside the completed Death Star. Stormtroopers in the 501st Legion, who had been guarding the plans onboard the Death Star, crushed the uprising and were thought to have recovered the plans. However, some prisoners had managed to transmit two copies of them to rebel forces: one copy was sent to a base on Polis Massa; another was sent to the Tantive IV.

Battle of Polis Massa
The 501st Legion was sent to retrieve the plans that had been transmitted to Polis Massa. Once there, the 501st was caught up in a firefight with the Rebellion. By the time the 501st got to the plans, a copy had already been beamed to the Tantive IV, a Corellian Corvette under the flag of Alderaan.

Battle of Toprawa
Often considered the first Rebel victory against the Empire, the heaviest fighting in this battle was a diversionary attack. It was during the battle that rebel spy Havet Storm used his position within the Imperial research station on Toprawa to secure the plans for the Death Star's superlaser, which was to be its most devastating weapon.

R2-D2's Mission
Having received the various sets of blueprints, the Rebels on Tantive IV were able to recreate a full tactical readout of the Death Star. They attempted to deliver this readout to Obi-Wan Kenobi so that he could bring it to Bail Organa on Alderaan. Before they could succeed, though, Darth Vader led a strike against the ship by the 501st Legion, who had chased a set of the plans from the Death Star to Polis Massa to Tantive IV. Princess Leia, knowing the Rebels had no hope of defeating Vader's forces, placed the plans within the astro-mech droid R2-D2, programmed him to deliver them with a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine, and then, after being captured by Vader, denied that Tantive IV had ever received such plans.

R2-D2, the persevering droid he was, boarded an escape pod with C-3PO and journeyed through the sands of Tatooine to fulfill his mission. The plans were nearly in danger of being lost forever when Jawas ambushed and enslaved R2, but a string of Force-inspired events led R2 to the ownership of Owen Lars. R2 convinced Lars's nephew Luke Skywalker to remove the droid's restraining bolt, suggesting that doing so was the only way R2 could access the rest of Princess Leia's message (which Luke had accidentally discovered), but it was not long after Luke had done so that R2 had taken the opportunity to escape, seeking out General Kenobi. Luke and C-3PO chased R2 down, after which they stumbled across a group of Sand People. Again the plans were nearly doomed, but the Sand People scattered at the arrival of one they knew and feared: Obi-Wan Kenobi. R2-D2 had completed his task.

The Trail to Yavin
Leia's message conveyed to Obi-Wan the urgency of bringing R2 to Bail Organa. Joined by Luke and C-3PO, they hired the mercenary Han Solo and Chewbacca to smuggle them to Alderaan on the Millennium Falcon, and they escaped from Mos Eisley spaceport in a fierce firefight.

The plans, however, would never make it to Alderaan. In a demonstration of the Death Star's capabilities, Grand Moff Tarkin had ordered the planet destroyed, and the crew of the Falcon exited hyperspace only to find their destination missing, while a lone TIE fighter fled the scene. Han determined to destroy the fighter so that their location could not be reported, but following the fighter led the Falcon to the Death Star itself.

R2 was as close to the Imperials as he could be, and at one point he and C-3PO were even forced to interact with a squad of stormtroopers. Still, none of the soldiers realized that the little droid the Empire had been searching for was on the very station it posed so dangerous a threat to. When the crew of the Falcon escaped with Princess Leia and headed to Yavin 4, R2 and the precious plans he carried were with them.

Having arrived on Yavin 4, the Death Star plans were studied by General Jan Dodonna and other Rebel officers in the hope of finding an exploitable weakness. They found it in the form of a small thermal exhaust port which, if hit directly by a proton torpedo, would trigger a chain reaction destroying the battle station. This is precisely what Luke Skywalker did in the proceeding Battle of Yavin.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars: Dark Forces
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope