Battle of Tatooine (Galactic Civil War)

"I doubt if the Empire would even fight to keep this system."

- Laze Loneozner

The First Battle of Tatooine in the Galactic Civil War was a series of battles and skirmishes in the Tatoo system, primarily on the planet Tatooine, within a few days before the climactic Battle of Yavin.

Many of the local Rebel enemies of the Galactic Empire were captured or killed, with the ground operations being carried out in parts by the renowned 501st Legion of stormtroopers.

Prelude
"With the information gathered on Polis Massa, Vader concluded that the stolen plans had been given to Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. We weren't surprised. For all their talk of being a peaceful planet, Alderaan had been thumbing its nose at the Empire for years."

- Unidentified 501st stormtrooper

An unwitting instigator to the battle was the disguised corvette Tantive IV, being used as an important vessel in the Rebel Alliance fleet, most notably in the operation to steal the Death Star plans.

The theft of these plans successfully occurred during a distracting Rebel prisoner revolt on the Death Star, being supplemented by partial documents stolen during the Battle of Danuta and the Battle of Toprawa.

Immediately, an Imperial assault on a makeshift Rebel base on Polis Massa was initiated, being tasked with retaking the stolen plans. This, however, failed in recovering the lost schematics. The next attempt in the recovery effort involved the Emperor's feared enforcer, Darth Vader, taking his legion of Imperial stormtroopers to where the Tantive IV was harbored&mdash;within the Tatoo system. The information that the Tantive IV held the plans had been obtained by captured Rebels, as well as a Bothan who revealed it to Emperor Palpatine on Bothawui.

Recovering the plans
"Where are those transmissions you intercepted? What have you done with those plans?!''" "''We intercepted no transmissions&hellip;! This is a consular ship&hellip;! We're on a&hellip;diplomatic mission&hellip;"

- Darth Vader and Captain Antilles

Upon reaching the Tatoo system, the Imperial fleet was ambushed by a pirate fleet near the planet Tatooine. Upon taking out most of the pirate attackers, the Navy then hid in the surrounding nebulas, avoiding detection by Blue Squadron, led by Raymus Antilles, who were scouting the area.

When Tantive IV moved toward the uplink station, Immobilizer frigates were activated, preventing it from escaping. A clash between the Imperial fleet and the Alliance fleet broke out, with both sides taking several casualties in the crossfire. The Star Destroyer Devastator pursued Tantive IV out of the battlefield and chased it around the planet Tatooine, Vader's homeworld.

Soon Devastator captured what they thought was Tantive IV but in fact it was just a decoy called Tantive V. After searching the ship and finding no one except Gungans, Tantive V was set adrift in the space and the Devastator continued to pursue Tantive IV.



A laser bolt hit near the engine section of the Tantive IV, disabling the main reactor and preventing the vessel from entering Tatooine's atmosphere. The Devastator moved in and caught the corvette in a tractor beam. Vader then dispatched a TIE boarding craft filled up with troops, to board and secure the ship as soon as possible, but later the crew of the destroyer attached a portable accessway to the corvette.

Inside the Tantive IV
"Retrieve the plans and bring the ambassador to Lord Vader--alive."

- Instructions given to all 501st stormtroopers, prior to the battle on the Tantive IV.

As troopers of the 501st stormed the hallways of Tantive IV, a skirmish erupted between them and Rebel troopers defending the ship. Due to the use of thermal detonators, both sides incurred heavy casualties, but the 501st broke through, capturing the main Rebel barracks and clearing the way for Lord Vader's arrival.

Vader personally destroyed all security terminals on the bridge, in order to send the defenses into disarray, and disabled a turbine console to steal a set of access codes, in an attempt to gain entry to the ship's escape pod bays. He and a set of Imperial bodyguards then set out through the corridors, killing some Rebel troopers and capturing many more. The team then stormed the cockpit of the corvette. Eventually, Vader captured the Rebel command, including Princess Leia (unaware that she was his daughter), as well as the ship's captain, Raymus Antilles, whom Vader killed personally, although the 501st reported back to Vader with bad news: the stolen plans were no longer on the ship's main computer. In addition, the Devastator also destroyed any escape pods that were utilized by any escaping Rebel personnel.

The Rebel protocol droid C-3PO, along with an astromech droid vital to the Rebellion, subsequently escaped the ship: R2-D2 having secretly obtained the Death Star schematics Vader had been so eager to recover. The Devastator also prepared to destroy the escape pod C-3PO and R2-D2 were on, but stopped when they realized that it contained no life signs, and subsequentily dismissed it as a malfunction. Nonetheless, they reported the incident to Vader, who deduced that the escape pod must have been where Leia stashed the Death Star plans, and ordered them to search Tatooine for the plans.



Soon after these events, an alarm sounded in the Rebel Anchorhead Base on Tatooine. Rookie One, Ru Murleen and Thurlow Harris, flew their X-wings in space above the planet and turned their weapons towards a Star Destroyer. They managed to strike a critical blow and returned to the surface. However they were not in time to prevent three TIE fighters from destroying their Base. Acting quickly to prevent the TIEs reporting their presence back to their commanders, Rookie One gave chase through Beggar's Canyon and destroyed all three Imperial fighters.

Desert extermination
The second Imperial strike was originally to be conducted by the local garrison and intended as a means of eliminating native desert inhabitants, primarily unruly Tusken Raiders, so desert outposts could be secured and set up to overlook activity in the nearby spaceport of Mos Eisley.

However, Mos Eisley was renowned as a magnet for outcasts, crooks, and intergalactic escapees, and was believed to be the refuge of a fugitive R2 unit dispatched by the Rebellion. With the stolen schematics in its databanks, R2-D2 had become a high-priority Imperial target and because of Tantive IV suspicious location over the dangerous, barren planet, the Empire suspected a Rebel base may be hidden in Mos Eisley. This brought the 501st into the fray, as an elite detachment from the Devastator was sent to deal with the matter.

As Imperial sandtroopers attempted to construct command stations in the Dune Sea, they were assailed by the fierce, nomadic Tusken Raiders, emerging from their camps stationed around a fierce Sarlacc.



Soon after, Rebel soldiers, presumably from Mos Eisley, appeared. A three-way battle broke out, with the Tuskens besieged on two sides. Rebels who were effortlessly able to smuggle heavy weaponry into lawless Tatooine, now exposed their explosive equipment. The small Rebel army was completely eradicated&mdash; and now positive that Rebels had established a cell in Mos Eisley, the Imperial commander on the ground, Nahdonnis Praji, had the city hastily surrounded by his men.

Siege of Mos Eisley
The Imperial sandtroopers, led by Praji, joined with the local Mos Eisley stormtrooper garrison and scattered throughout the city, to retrieve information about the stolen Death Star plans.

A few local Rebels, using guerrilla tactics, kept the sandtroopers on their toes by coming out through alleys, striking suddenly, and then shrinking away. Armed stormtroopers, some on dewbacks, casually strolled through neighborhoods and homes, interrogating anyone they felt inclined to.



In the Mos Eisley cantina, Garouf Lafoe rushed to notify the Imperial troops upon witnessing a scuffle between a raving madman and a man wielding a lightsaber. Upon the troops' arrival, the man had already vacated the premises. Meanwhile, Imperial spy Garindan informed the stormtrooper force of the droids' location, and that the smuggler, Han Solo, after a brief conversation with Jabba the Hutt, was helping the droids escape the planet. About this time, Captain Kosh also arrived on the planet in a shuttle to help search for the missing droids.

The squad moved into Docking Bay 94, where they engaged Solo in a firefight, only to have him escape. During the firefight, Captain Mod Terrik was gunned down by Imperial traitor Davin Felth.

After the Millennium Falcon escape from Docking Bay 94, a "pacification" campaign was waged in the streets. Several Mos Eisley citizens, along with Rebels, managed to secure run-down apartment districts and a damaged sail barge among other locales. The Stormtroopers managed to squelch the resistance in short order.

During the pacification, Garindan led a stormtrooper contingent toward Anchorhead, but was intercepted by the Rebel Ketwol. Ketwol managed to kill some infantry and Garindan fled. Having lost their informant, the Imperials retreated back to Mos Eisley.

Ultimately, the Rebels ended their hit-and-run attacks&mdash;most blasted dead before causing any real harm to Imperial soldiers&mdash;leaving the Empire victorious during this final operation. However, they never recovered the lost Death Star plans, as several Star Destroyers blockading the planet failed to capture Millennium Falcon as it fled. This would ultimately result in the Rebel's amazing victory in the Battle of Yavin not long after.

At some point Captain Merrick Simms joined the three Rebels of the Blue Squadron and proceeded to Mos Eisley where the Empire was deploying ground forces. While Murleen left to attempt to cut off the Imperial supply lines, Rookie One joined Simms and Harris in engaging All Terrain Scout Transports and Imperial landing craft. After causing as much damage to the Imperial forces as they could, and with TIE fighters incoming, the group was forced to withdraw.

While the Imperial garrison remained on high alert for some time to come, the 501st detachment left Tatooine and returned to the Death Star.

Aftermath
To hide their attack on Tantive IV, Imperial officials declared that the pirate resistance over Tatooine had boarded the corvette, and a meteor shower had destroyed it. It was claimed the Imperial task force had simply gone to investigate.

Pursued by TIE fighters and interceptors, the pilots of the Blue Squadron fled through the nearby asteroid field, losing their pursuers before rendezvousing with the fleet and proceeding to Gamma Base on the ice-world of Hoth.

The punishment of Mos Eisley would continue for many months, and homesteads were continuously harassed by Viper probe droids.

About six months after the Battle of Yavin, the Empire decided to make a harsh maneuver &mdash; TIE Bombers were ordered to execute a bombing run on Mos Eisley, killing dozens of civilians and destroying many buildings. Fortunately, Luke Skywalker's newly-formed Rogue Squadron happened to be training in the area of Beggar's Canyon at the time and were available for assistance. In the ensuing skirmish, Rogue Squadron was successful in intercepting and destroying the TIE Bombers before they could cause too much damage to the city. After this setback, the Imperial pacification campaign finally came to an end, although the Empire would continue to maintain nominal control over Tatooine for the next few years.

During the four years of Tatooine's brutal control by the Empire, the planet saw little relief. The citizens would finally be freed during the Liberation of Tatooine.

Behind the scenes
"Local smugglers from Mos Eisley have escaped with the Rebel droids. It is time to bring Imperial order to Tatooine. Seize control of Mos Eisley and terminate any who resist."

- Emperor Palpatine briefing the player before the Mos Eisley mission

The battle was appeared first in the novelization of A New Hope, ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and published in 1976.

The computer game Star Wars: Rebel Assault includes a bonus level where X-wings from Anchorhead Base have to clear out Mos Eisley from AT-ST walkers soon after the Tantive IV incident above Tatooine. Star Wars: Complete Locations confirms that AT-STs were stationed in Mos Eisley.

It is not known if Anchorhead Base was the base of the ground forces that participated in the skirmish.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Empire at War
 * Star Wars: Rebel Assault
 * Star Wars: Force Commander
 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars: Empire: Darklighter
 * Star Wars Journal: The Fight for Justice
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novelization
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars: Heroes in Hiding
 * Star Wars 31: Return to Tatooine
 * The Courtship of Princess Leia
 * Darksaber

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga