Galactic Civil War

The Galactic Civil War was a galactic conflict fought between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The Alliance was a Rebel faction dedicated to defeating the Empire, which had supplanted the Galactic Republic at the end of the Clone Wars.

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 onboard the Tantive IV.

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 homestead 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.

With being 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.



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 fighter, 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.

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.

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.

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.