Death Star plans/Legends

"If the rebels have a complete technical readout of this station it is possible, however unlikely, that they might find a weakness, and exploit it." "The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands."

- General Cassio Tagge and Darth Vader

The Death Star plans were the blueprints of the first 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, using plans and concepts provided by Wilhuff Tarkin. Poggle the Lesser possessed the original (or a copy of the) plans, which he handed to Dooku during the Battle of Geonosis.

Tyranus attempted to flee the planet and go to Coruscant, but he was intercepted by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Yoda; Tyranus defeated the two Knights; however, Yoda, in order to save the other two, let Tyranus escape with the plans. It is thought that should he make a different choice, he would lose the lives of the two Jedi, but save billions of lives. The future of the Galaxy was judged by this decision.

Tyranus managed to arrive on The Works of Coruscant and he delivered the schematics 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.

Rumors Confirmed
The top-secret Imperial weapons project headed by Tarkin was hinted at by several high officials, including Tarkin himself, but its true nature remained unknown. Even Ackbar, Tarkin's personal slave rescued during a Rebel raid, knew little about the plot.

Using funds stolen from the raid on Ylesia and other sources, the Rebellion planted and aided spies on the world of Ralltiir. One of their number, Basso, confirmed the existence of a massive Imperial construction, code-named Death Star. This was later identified as a massive superlaser-wielding battlestation by the Empire's Lord Tion Shortly before his death, Tion revealed that a convoy containing the Death Star plans was en route to Toprawa from Tarkin's headquarters on Eriadu.

Discoveries at Orron III and AX-235
A BFF-1 bulk freighter called Phoenix stole several communications satellites from the Imperial base on Orron III. The freighter was later recovered by the alliance and the satellites were spread by the CR90 corvette Jeffrey in the Cron Drift to intercept Imperial transmissions in the hopes of learning more.

Technical information from the Death Star came to the attention of outpost AX-235 in the Cron Drift. Due to the importance of what had been discovered, Biggs Darklighter was sent to personally courier the schematics out of AX-235, taking them to the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Independence. From there, shuttle Maria transfered them to Tantive IV.

Death Star Uprising
A section of the plans were stolen from the Empire during a Rebel jail break inside the nearly 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 one copy to rebel forces on Polis Massa.

Compiling the Plans
Mon Mothma and Bail Organa knew that Rebels needed to obtain a complete technical readout of the Death Star. If their engineers could pinpoint a weakness in the battlestation, then the Rebels might be able to destroy it. The Alliance set into motion the biggest anti-Imperial offensive it had ever attempted: a complex, coordinated operation to compile a complete set of plans for the Death Star and transmit it to the Tantive IV.

Rebels on Danuta had learned that Lemelisk had visited the local research facility, and obtained video of a set of Death Star plans being held there. The problem was that while the Toprawa plans included the battle station's hull design and life support infrastructure, the Danuta plans included additional engineering schematics and a complete map to the offensive and defensive weapons emplacements. The plans for the superlaser control systems were not included in these plans either, but were held within the Imperial Research Facility on Toprawa itself. Additionally, the Alliance already held the intercepted technical data from AX-235 and the plans from the actual Death Star. All of this information was needed to ensure success. The Rebels on Toprawa had a shot at the convoy, while Mon Mothma recruited an Imperial defector named Kyle Katarn to infiltrate the Danuta facility.

Battle of Toprawa
The Toprawan Rebels were ordered to cripple the Imperial convoy heading for Toprawa, and steal the plans, which included a list of its potential flaws. Combined with the superlaser control system plans and other technical schematics, the Rebellion would then have a complete technical readout of the battlestation. Bria Tharen and Red Hand Squadron volunteered to accompany an Alliance infiltration team to Toprawa aboard the Retribution, to aid in the transmission of the plans, an operation dubbed "Skyhook", though they were unaware of the exact nature of the weapon.

The Toprawan Rebels attacked and crippled the Imperial convoy and captured the plans--an even often considered the first major victory for the Alliance. In response, the Empire blockaded the planet. Bail Organa was to have taken the Tantive IV to intercept the transmission of the stolen Death Star plans, but his daughter, Leia Organa, volunteered to go in his stead.

Mission to Danuta


Katarn was assigned to infiltrate an Imperial outpost on Danuta and steal a memory matrix there that contained the plans for the Death Star. With the aid of Jan Ors and Meck Odom, Katarn escaped the facility and 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.

Keyan Farlander's Success
Keyan Farlander and members of Red Squadron protected the Tantive IV while the technical data from the Independence transferred from the shuttle Maria. Four other corvettes were used as decoys in order to protect the Tantive's identity, but the Star Destroyer Immortal arrived, and launched an attack on the Tantive. Thanks to Keyan Farlander, the Tantive managed to escape to Toprawa.

Detour to Kalakar VI
Darth Vader, who had sworn to recapture the plans after the Death Star uprising, briefly followed up on a tip that led him to Kalakar VI. It proved to be a ruse generated by the Prophets of the Dark Side, who had predicted that the Death Star would soon be destroyed. Instead, Vader chose to pursue Leia Organa to the Toprawa system, while the 501st Legion traced the Rebels from the Death Star uprising to Polis Massa.

Raid on the Imperial Research Station
The Rebels on Toprawa were without the proper equipment to transmit the plans to the Tantive. They decided to attack the IRS, and use its comm station. A young man named Havet Storm was recruited to steal the superlaser control plans.

The combined Rebel forces hit the main reception building. They managed to take the communications center station, where Havet Storm arrived with the superlaser plans. Here they were ambushed by head of security Commander Diamond and her stormtroopers. While Red Hand Squadron held off Imperial forces outside the Center, Havet transmitted the plans in a quick burst, using frequency 1215. The transmission was barely in time—Imperial fire chopped the comm/sensor tower in half just seconds after the Tantive sent out a "transmission complete" acknowledgement.

The 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 from Polis Massa to the Tantive IV. The Signal branch of Imperial Intelligence's Analysis Bureau discovered that the plans had been sent to the Tantive IV by analyzing the un-shielded ELEL (Extremely Low Energy Level) transmission from her ship. This allowed Vader to track the Tantive to Tatooine.

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 the Star Cruiser Liberty, but a sudden appearance of the Star Destroyer Immortal caused the transfer to stop; Tantive IV moved to Tatooine to reach 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. 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.

Behind the scenes
In the early production of the original movie, the hollow dish was designed to be on the equator, but then it was decided to be on the "northern" hemisphere. However this old design can still be seen in the grid plan animations seen in the movie. This is because the animation was created before the prop designers decided to change it, creating a blooper. Any explanations that the plans represent an earlier version are invalid, since the original plan in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones shows the "later" form.

Unfortunately, the exact order of events and the way the multiple plans were combined by the Rebels are not clearly understood so far. One major reason for this is that, like fighting in the Battle of Hoth, stealing or protecting the Death Star plans has become a playable feature in the Star Wars video games, such as Star Wars: X-wing, Star Wars: Dark Forces, Star Wars: Battlefront II, Star Wars: Empire at War and Star Wars: Lethal Alliance. These games don't always keep older ones in mind, so a future retcon should combine all sources in one cohesive storyline. Such an attempt was made with the Soldier for the Empire graphic novel, which reconciled the Toprawa and Danuta plans, while The Lost Jedi Adventure Game Book and Rebel Dawn incorporated the Toprawa story from the get-go.

In the meantime, the Star Wars Databank article on the Death Star acknowledges the contributions of Kyle Katarn, Keyan Farlander, "Rebel spies in the Toprawa system", and other unnamed heroes. The Death Star Uprising and 501st Legion are both mentioned, but the article makes no reference to the plans even being involved in this jailbreak.

The campaign of Empire at War has an alternative and quite different version of the above article, without mentioning any of the above battles and events, established in Star Wars: X-wing and Dark Forces, according to this game, the Alliance learned about the project from a pirate, and later employed Han Solo to obtain part of the plans. Due to the many canon-contradicting elements of the game, its events is often considered doubtful. It's possible however, that since the name 'Skyhook' is never mentioned, that the events were outside the Operation and parallel to it, therefore 'unofficial'.

The upcoming novel Death Star may resolve these discrepancies.

The Lethal Alliance game may also work to resolve these discrepancies (or further complicate them), as it will follow Rianna Saren's role in stealing the Death Star plans. As it is said to include Kyle Katarn, Danuta, Despayre, and the Death Star itself as a setting, the game has sound potential to incorporate elements presented in X-wing, Dark Forces, and/or Battlefront II.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * A Death Star Is Born
 * Star Wars: X-wing
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars: Dark Forces
 * Star Wars: Rebel Assault
 * The Lost Jedi Adventure Game Book
 * Rebel Dawn
 * Resurrection
 * Star Wars Empire: Darklighter
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope