Galactic Civil War

"Our goal isn't conquest, but alchemy. The transmutation of the galaxy. We are a catalyst; where Rebellion comes into contact with Empire, change must occur. The substance of oppression becomes the substance of freedom–and as with any such change, terrible energies are released: war, victory, and defeat."

- Captain Micha Evon of the Rebel Alliance

The Galactic Civil War was a galactic power struggle in which the Alliance to Restore the Republic waged a rebellion against the Galactic Empire in an attempt to restore democratic rule to the galaxy. The origins of rebellion could be traced to the Clone Wars, when rebel cells were equipped by the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order to fight against the Confederacy of Independent Systems. After Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, transformed the Republic into the Empire and destroyed the Jedi Order, many rebel cells began fighting against the Empire. A number of these cells eventually joined together and became the Rebel Alliance.

The Alliance scored its first major victory against the Empire when it stole the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's planet-destroying battle station. The plans were brought to the Rebel Alliance by Princess Leia Organa, with the help of companions such as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. An analysis of the plans led the Rebels to launch the Battle of Yavin, in which Skywalker, with Solo's assistance, destroyed the Death Star. A series of follow up attacks by the Alliance, including an assault on the Empire's primary weapons factory, left the Empire reeling from the Alliance's advances. As a result, the Empire hunted the Alliance across the galaxy under the leadership of Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith and the Emperor's chief enforcer. Vader's forces located the Alliance on the planet Hoth. The resulting Battle of Hoth left the Alliance fleeing the snow planet, and sending its fleet into hiding.

Six months later, the Emperor allowed the Alliance to learn of the existence of a second Death Star as part of a trap to lure the Alliance to its destruction. The Alliance, believing that they were launching a surprise attack, waged the Battle of Endor. During the battle, Skywalker, who had learned that Vader was his father, confronted the Dark Lord in a final lightsaber duel aboard the Death Star. The Emperor attempted to kill Skywalker, but the sight of his injured son led to Vader's redemption, and the Dark Lord threw the Emperor down a reactor shaft and to his death. Vader died from injuries he sustained during the battle, bringing an end to the Sith rule over the galaxy. The Alliance, meanwhile, destroyed the second Death Star, leaving the Empire fractured.

As a result of the power vacuum left in the wake of the Emperor's death, Imperial Moffs began jockeying for power. In an attempt to prevent his people from learning about the Emperor's death, Governor Adelhard locked down the Anoat sector behind the Iron Blockade, sparking an uprising within the sector. One year later, the Empire fought the New Republic in a final stand over the desert world of Jakku. Following a decisive defeat for the Empire and facing severe internal unrest, the Galactic Concordance would be signed on Coruscant, officially ending the five-year conflict and severely limiting the Empire's military capabilities.

Obtaining the Death Star plans
"Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you."

- Darth Vader to Princess Leia Organa

Nineteen years after the formation of the Galactic Empire, spies working for the Rebel Alliance learned of the Empire's construction of the Death Star and were able to get their hands on the plans for the battle station and transferred them to Princess Leia Organa aboard the Tantive IV.

Secret mission to Tatooine
Racing towards the desert planet of Tatooine with the plans in hand, Organa was hoping to enlist the help of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, Darth Vader was able to catch up and capture the Tantive IV in a space battle over the desert planet. Vader's forces managed to board Organa's ship, forcing her to hide the plans of the Death star in the memory banks of the R2 series astromech droid, R2-D2. R2-D2, along with the protocol droid C-3PO used an escape pod to travel to Tatooine, where they were found by Jawas and then later sold to Owen Lars, uncle of Luke Skywalker.

While Skywalker was cleaning the droids, he stumbled upon part of the message in R2-D2 and became interested. However, R2-D2, operating under the programming that he was the property of Obi-Wan Kenobi, escaped and tried to find Kenobi. After an encounter with Tusken Raiders in the Dune Sea, Skywalker met up with Kenobi. R2-D2 then played for Kenobi and Skywalker Organa's desperate plea for help. The two soon discovered that Imperial Stormtroopers had attacked the Jawas who had sold Skywalker and his uncle the two droids in a vain search for the death star plans. Skywalker raced back to the Lars moisture farm to find his home burned and his aunt and uncle killed. He then accompanied Kenobi to Mos Eisley, where, after using subterfuge to get passed Imperial troops, the two negotiated with Captain Han Solo and first mate Chewbacca to take them, the droids and the death star plans to Alderaan aboard the Millennium Falcon.

Galactic Emperor Palpatine used this conflict to his advantage in dissolving the Imperial senate.

Destruction of Alderaan
While in Imperial custody, Organa was then transferred to the Death Star where she was interrogated by and tortured by Vader for the location of the Alliance's hidden base. When she refused to succumb to torture, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin decided to get the information out of Organa another way by threatening to destroy Alderaan, Organa's homeworld. Fearing the loss of Alderaan, but not wanting to give up the Alliance's location, Organa lied to Tarkin and declared that the Alliance was located on the planet of Dantooine.

Tarkin, confident in his victory, continued with the operation to destroy Alderaan regardless, stating that Dantooine was "too remote" for an effective demonstration of the Death Star's abilities. Thus, Alderaan was destroyed by a single blast from the Death Star, an event that killed billions and showed the true might of the Empire.

Rescue of Princess Leia
Following Alderaan's destruction, Tarkin sent a scout team to Dantooine to ascertain whether or not there was indeed a Rebel base there. Meanwhile, the Millennium Falcon had arrived out of hyperspace to find out that Alderaan had been destroyed. Fearing that they would be identified by a lone TIE/LN starfighter, they attempted to stop it but not before being trapped aboard the Death Star by a tractor beam. Skywalker sought out to rescue Organa while Kenobi went alone to disable one of the several tractor beam generators on the station and confront Darth Vader.

When Tarkin learned that Organa has deceived him and that there was a rebel base on Dantooine but had long since been abandoned, Tarkin ordered her execution. But before the order could be carried through, she was rescued by Skywalker. An escape commenced throughout the Death Star's corridors. As Skywalker, Solo, Organa and Chewbacca (along with C-3PO and R2-D2) finally made it to the hangar to escape aboard the Falcon, Skywalker watched as Kenobi faced off against his former padawan, Darth Vader. Kenobi let down his guard, allowing himself to be struck down by Vader's lightsaber instantly becoming one with the Force.

Alderaan vigil rioting
Rioting took place after the destruction of the planet Alderaan by the Empire. Rumors of what happening began reaching the Alderaanian population on Coruscant who got angry when images followed the rumors, confirming Alderaan had been destroyed. The vigils turned into rioting which lasted for several days until the security forces and the stormtroopers were sent in to restore order. However, as the troops marched into the streets, the stormtroopers opened fire with their blasters. The crowds dispersed and the following day, the police arrested anyone caught out in the streets. The day after that, stormtroopers began taking Alderaanians to be taken to be questioned.

The Battle of Yavin
"This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of Kenobi; it will soon see the end of the rebellion."

- Darth Vader to Grand Moff Tarkin before the battle

The Millennium Falcon soon managed to escape afterwards, but not before being pursed by several TIE fighters. The Falcon managed to defeat the fighters but it was all for naught, as it was all a ploy devised by Tarkin as he had placed a homing beaching onboard the Falcon that led the Empire straight to the Rebels hidden base on Yavin 4.

In the Great Temple of Massassi, The Rebel Alliance was able to analyze the technical readouts and come up with an attack plan that was conceived by General Jan Dodonna. As the Death Star was entering into range to fire its superlaser, Rebels ships took off in a desperate attempt to destroy the battle station. Dodonna's plan called for starfighters to skim down the death star's trench and follow it to where a thermal exhaust port laid and fire a proton torpedo into the exhaust port where it would then be able to reach the Death Star's main reactor and set off a chain reaction, thus destroying the battle station. In the ensuring and intense battle, the pilots of the Rebel Alliance faced off against Imperial starfighters and turbolasers while also trying to make attack runs on the exhaust port. Having underestimated the Alliance chances, Tarkin refused to send out more reinforcements to deal with the rebel starfighters. He also ignored one of his underlings warnings of the threat to the exhaust port and continued with his assault upon Yavin 4.

Rebel pilots continued to be destroyed one-by-one by Darth Vader and other Imperial pilots. Being nearly the last of the rebel assault force, Luke Skywalker, Biggs Darklighter, and Wedge Antilles made one final run against the exhaust port. Vader shot down and killed Darklighter and was also able to force Antilles to retreat, and was mere moments away from shooting down his son, before Han Solo entered the fight with the Millennium Falcon. Vader was driven out of the battle by Solo, giving Skywalker one final shot at the thermal port. The attack succeeded, and moments later the Death Star exploded, taking with it millions of Imperial lives. Yavin 4, along with the Alliance, was saved.

Evacuation of Yavin
After a key victory over the Empire and the Royal Award Ceremony, the Rebellion was forced to evacuate Yavin 4 in order to find a new base of operations as the Imperials knew their location. All Rebel fleets arrived at the planet in order to assist with the evacuation, and General Jan Dodonna began working to find a new planet to settle on.

Mission to rescue the survivors of Alderaan
During the evacuation of Yavin and following the Disaster, the Galactic Empire sought out surviving Alderaanians in an attempt to eradicate them, and Organa set out with Rebel pilot Evaan Verlaine and astromech droid R2-D2 to rescue them. They first fled from the Rebel base on Yavin 4, over the objections of General Jan Dodonna. After escaping, they made their way to the Naboo, where they rescued a group of Alderaanian musicians called the Melodic Order, before heading for Sullust. Unknown to Organa and her followers was that the Empire was tracking their every move whose efforts were spread throughout the galaxy.

Imperial attacks
"You want to blame someone, Artur? Start on the rebels for once. They claim they're fighting for the common people, and now thousands in that city are dead because of what they did."

- Trompo to Artur

The Empire started launching attacks against Rebel targets, and Nashtah Squadron flew on several missions over a course of a week, often with poor intelligence. They lost three pilots at the battle of Portocari, while Banshee Squadron lost two pilots at Phindar. Right afterward, the Empire was to send a task force to the Jovan system. In the wake of the loss of the Death Star at Yavin, the Empire mobilized its forces and reorganized TIE pilots into the same command system.

Mid Rim Retreat
The Rebel Alliance, bolstered by their victory at Yavin, launched a military campaign in the Mid Rim. It was amongst the largest operation the Rebel Alliance had conducted, using military units such as Twilight Company and thousands of starships. But after nine months, after Twilight Company had fought on multiple worlds and established bases, Rebel High Command decided the fleet was overextended and the campaign would maintain defense of their captured territories. Not long after, the forces started a retreat. Twilight Company evacuated their bases, and after nine more months, fought a large battle on Haidoral Prime.

Skirmish over Llanic
While Lieutenant Luke Skywalker was onboard the Desert Jewel on a mission to rescue Drusil Bephorin and to open up a supply line, he entered a skirmish between a Star Destroyer and a Kupohan starship.

Mission to Rodia
In order to keep the war in the Rebel Alliance's favor, Luke went to open a secret smuggling supply line on Rodia. Luke after this went on a mission to Fex.

Mission to Pasher and Denon
Warned by Organa not to trust blindly on Kelen, who father was biotech mogul. Skywalker set off for Pasher with Kelen and R2-D2 to receive intel from her father about their destination and the necessary equipment to survive its atmosphere.

Rescue on Omereth
The Jewel was intercepted by bounty hunters and a confrontation ensued between the rebels and their pursuers. Despite the formers' victory, Kelen was killed by one of the bounty hunters while Luke rescued and completed his mission by reuniting Bephorin with her family.

Assaulting Cymoon 1
Following the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire was put into a state of disarray. The Rebel Alliance decided to use this to their advantage by assaulting, infiltrating, and destroying Weapons Factory Alpha on Cymoon 1, the largest weapons factory in the galaxy.

After the failure to prevent both the destruction of the Death Star and Weapons Factory Alpha, the Empire was forced to increase its supply of weapons, while the Emperor sent Darth Vader to negotiate with the Hutt Clan. This was in order to enlist Jabba the Hutt as a reliable weapons dealer as well as two bounty hunters

Pirates raids
Taking advantage of the Empire's disarray, a group of pirates funded by the crime families of the Crymorah syndicate started attacking a cargo of weapons. However, Imperial forces would gain the upper hand when they discovered the pirates' space station after lunching an attack and wiping out all the pirates.

Vader personal missions
As the war rage on between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance, a split had occurred between Darth Sidious and Darth Vader due to recent events in the war. Vader went on a secret mission to first Quarantine World III where he met Aphra and second to Geonosis where the Sith Lord was seeking a private army of formally Confederacy of Independent Systems BX-series droid commandos, meanwhile a Wookiee bounty hunter called Black Krrsantan that Vader had hired from Jabba had discovered a plot by an agent of the Emperor to replace the Sith Lord.

Mission to Cylo-IV's research base
Vader and Aphra along with 2 platoons of BX-series droid commandos attacked Cylo's research base to eliminate rivals possible to himself and regain Sidious' favor.

Attack on the Son-tuul Pride
Under the command of Grand General Cassio Tagge, Imperial forces begun a crackdown on the Outer Rim criminal interests that had gone unchecked in the past and to take down the Son-tuul Pride who were a major competitor of the Hutt Clan based out of Son-tuul. Using one of the Pride's smugglers as a double agent equipped with a tracker, Darth Vader, who had returned from his personal mission, destroyed the Pride's base and seized its hordes of credits.

Further engagements
A mercenary unit on Tatooine was asked to assist a garrison on Tatooine with dealing with a Tusken Raider camp in order to keep its grip on the planet, while also helping the Alliance to Restore the Republic who requested support in a mission to recover medical supplies from the Imperial aligned Hutt Clan on the planet of Dandoran.

Later on, the Empire began a crackdown on Jawas who were seen to be in engaged in widespread unlicensed trade which led a local detachment of Rebels on Tatooine to protect the Jawas from the Imperials.

Shortly after, Imperials and Rebels began searching an old freighter which led to a confrontation between the Empire and Rebel Alliance as well as the Hutt Clan after defeating mercs who were supporting the rebellion. Meanwhile Darth Vader ordered a search for his missing shipment that was took by Liana Kor on Dandoran. On the planet, the Empire had gained the formal senator Johhar Kessen who was held prisoner in a base in order to prevent his rescue only for the Rebels to rescue him later. The Rebels had to return to Yavin 4 in order to prevent the Empire from finding out about the data centers that were left behind and were each destroyed by the Alliance that led to a ground battle for control of Yavin 4. Also Er'kit saw battle between the Empire and Rebels before the Battle of Hoth.

The Battle of Hoth
Three years after the Battle of Yavin, the Empire sent out probe droids across the galaxy in an attempt to discover where the rebels had established their new base. A status of the report was verified by Captain Piett and Vader, where the Empire had located the rebel base on the Ice planet of Hoth.

Although Echo Base was evacuated in the eleventh hour and was able to get past the Imperial fleet, the Battle of Hoth still resulted in a clear utter defeat for the Alliance who had to retreat after their base was overrun by Vader and his Snowtroopers, which led to a great victory for the Imperials after what had been years of disarray.

Imperial takeover of Bespin
After the battle on Hoth, it became an uncertain time for the Rebellion's cause as a small group of rebels led by Han Solo evaded the Imperial fleet led by Darth Vader and were forced to flee to Bespin. However, the bounty hunter Boba Fett tracked them to the world, allowing the Empire to create a trap in order to capture Luke Skywalker. The trap was eventually sprung, and Skywalker learned of his true relation to Vader, but the Imperial forces found themselves betrayed and, at least initially, overwhelmed by Cloud City local authorities. The rebel leaders escaped Imperial custody again, but not without cost. Skywalker lost his hand in his duel with Vader, while Solo was frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett on behalf of Jabba the Hutt. Battered and bruised, the Rebels were once again in flight from pursuing Imperial forces, while Bespin was taken over by the Empire.

Alliance fleet reorganization over the galaxy
After a major blow on Hoth and the fall of Bespin, the rebels retreated to a point in space above the galaxy in order to avoid being found by the Empire.

Rescue of Han Solo
Sometime later, Organa and Skywalker launched a mission to recover Solo from Jabba the Hutt. They infiltrated the Hutt's Palace separately, but Jabba refused to bargain and tried to kill Skywalker with a Rancor, although Organa managed to free Solo from the carbonite. When Skywalker managed to kill the beast, they were sentenced to an execution at the Great Pit of Carkoon, but they managed to escape after a struggle with the Hutt's guards, killing Jabba.

Alliance regroup over Sullust
Meanwhile, the Alliance fleet was assembling near Sullust, with reports reaching Emperor Palpatine. After Organa and the rest returned, Mothma and Ackbar briefed the fleet and soon launched into hyperspace to go into battle at Endor.

Battle of Endor
The Rebels sent a strike team led by Solo to take out the shield generator protecting the Empire's second Death Star. The Emperor, though, leaked the details of the project at Endor as a trap to defeat the Rebel Alliance, and the team was captured. As the fleet arrived, expecting to find the space station defenseless, but the shield was still up and a large Imperial force trapped them. Solo's team formed an alliance with an Ewok village, which allowed them to destroy the shield. Ackbar's cruisers engaged the Imperial Star Destroyers while Calrissian led fighters to destroy the Death Star's reactor. Skywalker had surrendered to Vader and was brought before Palpatine. He and Vader dueled, but when Skywalker refused to turn to the dark side of the Force, Palpatine tried to kill him, awakening Anakin Skywalker in Vader and causing him to turn on Palpatine, killing him. Calrissian and Antilles managed to destroy the reactor. The Alliance then celebrated their victory on Endor with the Ewok village.

Iron Blockade
News of the Empire's defeat spread throughout the galaxy. In response, Governor Adelhard refused to believe the news and locked down the Anoat sector and enforced his rule with Purge Troopers. He was opposed by a mixture of criminals and nobles in the region.

End of the War
After the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance promptly reorganized themselves into a new government called the New Republic, and broadcasted the defeat of the Empire across the galaxy urging star systems to join them in overthrowing the remnants of the Empire. The Republic, now supported by many systems across the Galaxy, pressed its advantage against the Empire by liberating worlds like Naboo, and scored key victories against any remaining Imperial leaders at Naalol, and Akiva. Slowly, but surely the Empire started to crumble as infighting among Imperial leaders became frequent, and they continued to suffer losses from the ever growing Republic, which prevented them from becoming a single unified force. In the meantime, the New Republic started to flourish, and eventually revived the Galactic Senate, and established its capitol on Chandrila. Eventually, the remaining forces of the Empire planned in order to win a much needed victory over the Republic by luring them to the world of Jakku, which ended up being the largest battle fought since Endor. However, due to outdated, and very predictable Imperial tactics, the New Republic forces were able to gain the advantage in the battle, and win a decisive victory. After the Battle of Jakku, the remnants of the Empire signed the Galactic Concordance which ended the war, and reduced the Empire to a rump state having to obey strict disarmament policies, and pay war reparations.

Non-canon appearances

 * Epic Yarns: A New Hope
 * Epic Yarns: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Epic Yarns: Return of the Jedi
 * LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures