Battle of D'Qar

"This is where we snuff out the Resistance once and for all."

- General Armitage Hux

The evacuation of D'Qar, also known as the siege of D'Qar, took place in 34 ABY, in the days that followed the Battle of Starkiller Base during their war with the First Order. Having destroyed the First Order's newest superweapon, Starkiller Base, the Resistance feared reprisal attacks now that their position had been revealed. Therefore, they were forced to abandon their base on D'Qar in order to find a new base of operations.

Prelude
"&hellip;the Resistance must be destroyed before they get to Skywalker.''" "We have their location. We tracked their reconnaissance ship to the Ileenium system." "''Good. Then we will crush them once and for all. Prepare the weapon."

- Supreme Leader Snoke and General Armitage Hux

In 34 ABY, the First Order superweapon known as Starkiller Base destroyed Hosnian Prime, capital planet of the New Republic, and the other worlds of the Hosnian system. The Resistance, led by General Leia Organa, sent a reconnaissance team to discover the location of the superweapon and report back to the Resistance at their base on D'Qar. The First Order tracked the reconnaissance ships back to D'Qar, thus discovering the location of their enemy forces. On the orders of Supreme Leader Snoke, who wanted to prevent the Resistance from finding Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and enlisting him in their fight against the First Order, General Armitage Hux prepared the weapon to destroy the Resistance. Without the New Republic Defense Fleet, however, the Resistance seemed doomed to destruction. Before the First Order could unleash the weapon, the Resistance sent a small strike force&mdash;ex-General Han Solo, his first mate Chewbacca, and former stormtrooper and Starkiller Base worker Finn&mdash;to Starkiller Base to disable the shields preventing the destruction of the base. Meanwhile, Commander Poe Dameron led a starfighter force to Starkiller Base to destroy it. The ground forces succeeded, though Solo was killed in battle, and the Resistance fighters destroyed the base.

The Resistance fighters returned to D'Qar, celebrated their victory, and prepared a mission to discover Skywalker's whereabouts. The First Order, while reeling from the destruction of their weapon, still nonetheless had the location of the Resistance base.

The evacuation
"We've caught them in the middle of their evacuation."

- Captain Edrison Peavey to General Armitage Hux

Shortly after Starkiller Base was destroyed, the Resistance began evacuating their base on D'Qar. In orbit around the planet, General Organa commanded the Resistance fleet from the cruiser Raddus. The escape was interrupted by the arrival of a First Order fleet consisting of three Resurgent-class star destroyers and one Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought, the Fulminatrix. The dreadnought opened fire on the Resistance base almost immediately, but the base had been fully evacuated just in time. To buy time for the Resistance transports to escape, Commander Poe Dameron attacked the dreadnought in his X-Wing, eliminating its surface cannons and clearing the way for a squadron of Resistance bombers to attack despite counterattacks from the dreadnought and its TIE squadrons. As the Fulminatrix began to aim its Orbital autocannons at the Raddus, resistance bombers began to approach the dreadnought, defended by starfighters to block TIE fighter attacks. The resultant assault successfully obliterated the Fulminatrix, but at a high cost. All bombers were lost along with four of their escorting starfighters, and after the first attack on the fleet, the Resistance was reduced to just 400 personnel aboard four ships. However, Dameron's attack bought enough time for their fleet to jump to hyperspace.

Aftermath
"They can't get away, Supreme Leader. We have them tied on the end of a string."

- General Armitage Hux to Supreme Leader Snoke

The evacuation's high cost led to General Organa demoting Commander Dameron to Captain, as he had disobeyed her direct order not to press the dreadnought assault after neutralizing its defenses. The Resistance was unable to fully escape the First Order due to the latter's new technology that could track ships through hyperspace. Eventually, after a nearly 18-hour long pursuit and with fuel supplies critically low, the Resistance slipped away and headquartered themselves in an old Rebel outpost on the mineral planet Crait. This escape was detected by the First Order, however, and led to the subsequent Battle of Crait.

Behind the scenes
The first footage of the battle of was shown in the Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi teaser trailer on April 14, 2017. The evacuation of D'Qar was first referenced as part of the story of Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, set for release on December 15, 2017, at San Diego Comic-Con 2017.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron
 * The Last Jedi: Bomber Command
 * Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi
 * Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition
 * Star Wars: The Last Jedi: A Junior Novel
 * The Last Jedi: Rey's Journey
 * The Last Jedi: Rose and Finn's Secret Mission
 * The Last Jedi: Rose and Finn's Secret Mission