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 Queen Trios revealed to Darth Vader the location of the rebels.

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, where they had an run-in with two of Jabba the Hutt's bounty hunters.

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 realised 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 told his crew to divert all power to the shields, but they didn't hold and he wasn't able to fully say his last words before he was 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.

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 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 dorrs, 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.

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 reach him in his TIE advanced and began to engage the light freighter 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.

Finding an Answer
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, determines that more time is needed and opts for Line Of Sight communication. He activates 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 is forced to land the Falcon, albeit upside-down, and man an X-Wing. Alliance Intelligence manages to find an answer. They discover that there re codes that will 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.

Boarding the Executor
With the intel, Leia, Draven and his commandos board the Executor using Queen Trios' ship. Leia impersonates the queen and successfully fools the control tower into allowing them to land. Vader is promptly informed of the supposed arrival of Queen Trios and is somewhat fooled himself. Leaving a rear guard to slow Vader down, Leia and her team begin 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. Telling Leia to board a TIE fighter and get the codes back, he joined his doomed commandos in slowing Vader down further, sacrificing himself and buying Leia time to get the codes back to the ships.

Escape
Leia manages to return with the codes thanks to Draven and Luke's affinity with The Force. Bringing Jan Dodanna's ship, the Republic, back online. Promptly the ship jumps to hyper space, 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, but during a communication with Mothma, the chancellor informed them they must find their own way back before giving each of them promotions.

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