Assault on the Mako-Ta Space Docks

"Now they understand. I feel their terror. Most satisfactory.''" "The next target, my Lord?" "''Hope. Hope dies."

- Darth Vader and Admiral Kendal Ozzel

In 1 ABY, the Galactic Empire launched an attack on the Rebel Alliance's Mako-Ta Space Docks after the Imperial spy Queen Trios revealed to Darth Vader the location of the rebels. Death Squadron launched its attack on the rebel base, and while the newly formed Rogue Squadron was eventually deployed, the Vader and his forces destroyed the majority of the rebel fleet and killed numerous rebel leaders. The remaining rebel survivors were left scattered from their high losses.

Prelude
"Friends, dignitaries, allies what you have seen today is strength. The fleet is our hidden blade&hellip;but all of you should know, it is there. When it is needed, we will be here for you."

- Chancellor Mon Mothma

After the mutiny on Mon Cala, the Alliance to Restore the Republic held a party at their base at the Mako-Ta Space Docks to celebrate their victory and show their fleet to their allies. During this party, Leia Organa spoke with the Monarch of Shu-Torun, Queen Trios as Mon Mothma prepared to give a speech. She told Trios how they outfitted the cruisers with Shu-Torun technology to thank her for her help in getting them the cruisers. Alliance starfighters, which included Luke Skywalker among its pilots, did a flyby before landing in the hangar of General Jan Dodonna's cruiser. The mood among the Rebels was high and some believed the Galactic Empire did not stand a chance against the Rebellion now.

At the same time of the party, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and C-3PO traveled to the Ring of Kafrene. There Solo negotiated a deal for a set of transponder codes. They had an run-in with two of Jabba the Hutt's bounty hunters, and as they escaped Solo promised them he would pay Jabba the money he owed him.

As the rebel sub-groups reported to Organa, and General Vanden Willard, of Delta Group, told Organa to wish Mothma good luck in her speech. Mothma gave her speech and promised that the fleet would help their allies whenever they needed it, but when the ships were about to jump to hyperspace they could not. Leia asked where Trios was but she had already left for her ship. The party was then interrupted by the arrival of Death Squadron, which had been secretly contacted by Trios shortly before.

The Battle
After the Empire's arrival at the docks, Darth Vader told his ships to wait for the rebels to take in their situation. The cruisers attempted to scramble their fighters and realized that their cargo bay doors would not work, neither would their turbolasers or their propulsion engines. Now satisfied, Vader ordered the closest cruiser to be destroyed, the closest being Willard's cruiser. Willard had his crew to divert all power to the shields, but they didn't hold and they were incinerated as his ship blew into a fireball. Admiral Ozzel asked Vader what their next target was and he told him hope, before saying that hope was to die.

Hope Dies
As the Star Destroyers began engaging the rest of the cruisers, Queen Trios made it to her ship and they attempted to flee the spacedocks. However, the rebel command refused it's departure and Organa sent on a boarding party, led by her and General Bandwin Cor, to capture Trios and find a way to regain control of the cruiser's systems. Trios ordered a defensive line and her soldiers engaged the rebels. Organa was almost killed but Cor pulled her back, telling her she was too valuable to lose. They broke the defensive line and the remaining Shu-Torun soldiers fled the scene. Trios was notified of this and she made for an escape pod as the rebels entered the room. Organa chased Trios but she made it into an escape pod before she could catch her and launched it.

Generals Cor and Davits Draven began looking into the database on Trios ship but could not find a way to regain control of all of the cruiser's systems. However, he discovered that while the hanger doors could not opened manually, they would still open automatically when a ship with a rebel transponder flies towards the cargo bay doors, meaning there was still a chance to get the fighters out of the cruisers. Cor volunteered to take his shuttle there and try. He flew it towards the cruiser but was soon shot down by TIE fighters. Shortly after, another cruiser exploded after taking too much turbolaser fire from the Star Destroyers. Organa said that they had to keep trying if they wanted to survive.

A Spark of Hope
Shortly after, the Millenium Falcon arrived after escaping the Ring of Kafrene. Han Solo was surprised to see Death Squadron there and raised Organa on the comms. She told him to fly at the hanger doors of the cruiser in order to have them open. Solo complied and they were soon engaged by TIE fighters. Vader was notified of the Falcon's arrival and he left the bridge to reach his TIE advanced. The Falcon managed to shoot down at least one of the TIE fighters and destroyed a couple of the turbolasers on one of the Star Destroyers. It then flew towards General Jan Dodonna's cruiser to get it's hanger doors open. However, Vader engaged the light freighter in his TIE advanced before it could make it to the cruiser.

The Millenium Falcon tried to evade Vader's TIE advanced but could not shake it off. At that same time, Commander Lajaie's cruiser was being crippled under fire. Lajaie ordered his men to abandon ship and they jettisoned on the escape pods. As they did that, Vader told Ozzel to get rid of the escape pods. As TIE fighters massacred the pods, Lajaie's cruiser exploded and Solo saw an opportunity from it. He flew into the fire ball to lose Vader. Vader followed him in and tried to follow the Millenium Falcon. However he failed to do so and Solo made some distance between the two ships. Solo then put a plan into action: he had Chewbacca put C-3PO into an escape pod and launched him into Dodonna's cruiser. Skywalker found 3PO after the droid crawled his way into the airlock and he told him about how the hanger doors could open automatically.

Skywalker rushed to his X-wing starfighter and Dodonna ordered him to stand down. Skywalker, disobeying orders, flew at the doors which opened for him. The rest of the pilots followed in their X-wings and when Wedge Antilles asked what their callsign was, he thought of Jyn Erso and named them Rogue Squadron. As the fighting began, Alliance command scrambled all Alliance Intelligence agents to find a solution and bring their ships back online. Luke, now going by the call-sign Rogue Leader, determined that more time was needed and opted for Line Of Sight communication. He activated his trail and flew towards Ackbar's ship, demonstrating that the hangar bay doors have a fail-safe system that opens them up. Upon seeing this, Ackbar ordered his crew to launch probes close to the hangar bay doors to see if they would open, and ordered all fighters to launch should that happen. Meanwhile, Han Solo was forced to land the Falcon, albeit upside-down, and man an X-Wing.

Finding an Answer
Alliance Intelligence managed to find an answer. They discovered that there were codes that would reboot all systems and bring the ships online, yet there was just one issue: the codes were in the computer data-banks aboard the Executor. With the intel, Leia, Draven and his commandos boarded the Executor using Queen Trios' ship. Leia impersonated the queen and successfully fooled the control tower into allowing them to land. Vader was promptly informed of the supposed arrival of Queen Trios and was somewhat fooled himself. Leaving a rear guard to slow Vader down, Leia and her team began their mission. When Vader arrived, he realized he had been tricked and proceeded to cut down the rebels with ease.

When the commando team reached the main computer, they quickly downloaded the codes. With Vader fast approaching, Leia and Draven bid each other an honorable farewell, with Draven remarking that this was his chance to atone for his mistakes regarding Jyn Erso. He stated that Jyn proved him wrong about her, something of which he felt guilty of being unable to tell her in person. He told Leia to board a TIE fighter and get the codes back, and he joined his doomed commandos to slow Vader down further, sacrificing himself and buying Leia time to get the codes back to the ships.

Escape
Leia managed to return with the codes thanks to Draven and Luke's affinity with the Force. This brought Jan Dodanna's ship, the Republic, back online. Promptly the ship jumped to hyperspace, but Dodanna changed his mind, choosing to return to the battle and bring the other ships online.

Making their return, the Republic performed a strafing run on the Executor whilst Han, Luke and Leia took a group of small support ships to the surviving starships. Hera Syndulla's cruiser, the Geist, was one of the first cruisers to come back online''. ''Syndulla conferred with Dodanna on the plan, and he told her to support the rest of the fleet as they restored power. One by one the ships rebooted and came online, then jumped to their secure locations, however the Republic's engines were hit, immobilizing her. Dodanna opted to cover the escape, sacrificing himself in the process.

Aftermath
Despite the fact that many of their cruisers had been able to escape, Chancellor Mon Mothma, ordered that all Alliance ships scatter across the galaxy. Luke, Han, and Leia had become separated from the rest of the fleet, and desperately tried to learn the location of Gial Ackbar's cruiser. During a communication with Mothma, the chancellor informed them they must find their own way back and subsequently gave each of them promotions. Leia Organa was promoted to general, Skywalker to commander, and Solo was promoted to colonel, although he rejected the promotion.

Behind the scenes
The attack on the Mako-Ta Space Docks is the main event in Star Wars Book XI: Hope Dies, which happens at some point between Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. It also saw the introduction of Rogue Squadron.

Appearances

 * Star Wars 50: Hope Dies, Part I
 * Star Wars 51: Hope Dies, Part II
 * Star Wars 52: Hope Dies, Part III
 * Star Wars 53: Hope Dies, Part IV
 * Star Wars 54: Hope Dies, Part V
 * Star Wars 55: Hope Dies, Part VI
 * Star Wars 56: The Escape, Part I
 * Star Wars 57: The Escape, Part II
 * Star Wars 58: The Escape, Part III