Death Star Uprising

"We were almost glad to have somebody shooting at us again."

- Retired 501st stormtrooper

The Death Star Uprising was an unsuccessful riot by prisoners-of-war of the Rebel Alliance&mdash;who were being held in Detention Block 2180 of the first Death Star&mdash;to escape the Imperial battle station by fighting their way into two hangars and stealing a Sentinel-class landing craft.

Pre-battle
During the later stages of the Death Star's construction, captured Imperial enemies from all across the Galaxy were quietly sent to the top-secret space station for interrogation and imprisonment. A group of captives of the organized Rebel movement became acquainted with an unidentified Human Jedi Padawan prisoner who was also confined to Block 2180. He had devised a simple plan to escape from the Imperial battle station that could be initiated with the co-operation of the other inmates.

The battle
The Empire was probably not alerted of the stealthy prison-break until after the rioters had raided an Imperial arsenal, arming themselves against expected stormtrooper counter-attacks.

The first stormtroopers to become aware of the riot were those in Hangar 84-G who met up with the elite 501st Legion troopers&mdash;coincidentally onboard the Death Star for an exterior inspection&mdash;that assembled in the hangar and drove off the Rebels through two blast doors that they poured in through. Most prisoners could not be recaptured without a fight and so were shot down in the unanticipated bloodshed. Hangar 84-G was at last secured and locked-down by the Empire after a few minutes of assault and the Rebels instead moved on toward the Fire Control Room where the superlaser was located.

Rebels who seized the Fire Control Room insensibly activated the superlaser, firing it sporadically every few moments, thus leaving the Death Star in chaos.

Meanwhile, stormtroopers rushed across walkways toward the superlaser, blasting a Rebel who had stolen the Death Star's schematics. Unfortunately for the Empire, the bridge normally spanning a reactor tunnel, which led to Hangar 84-G on one side and the Fire Control Room on the other, had been taken down earlier. The stormtroopers instead had to use the alternate (and much longer) route through the prison area. In the meantime, other Rebels had managed to arrive at Hangar 85-G, just beyond the Fire Control Room, capturing it long enough to beam a separate, partial set of the schematics to a Rebel base on Polis Massa. The other sets would be stolen at the Battles of Danuta and Toprawa.

All the rioters in the Fire Control Room were blasted and the Imperial troopers moved onward to Hangar 85-G before the Rebels could completely board and hijack a Sentinel-class landing craft as an escape shuttle. With not more than two minutes before take-off, stormtroopers burst into the hangar eliminating as many escapees as they could. Their Jedi Padawan leader at last exposed himself in a desperate sprint toward the shuttle, but a moment later, Imperial shock troopers had blown it up. But they found out that the ships had their own troops and weapons aboard.

The frenzied Jedi ignited two green-bladed lightsabers and cut through any trooper that stepped into his path. Auto-turrets above the hangar were finally used to neutralize him and the other inmates who were murdered rather than recaptured. Imperial intelligence later tracked the missing schematics to Polis Massa, where an even more fiery skirmish would eventually break out.

Ironically, if it hadn't been for this uprising, the 501st Legion would have been wiped out when the Death Star exploded. Darth Vader, furious with the potential problem, replaced the 501st with a different legion of troopers.

Related battles
Several months later, a second, smaller battle occurred when Princess Leia Organa was captured and held in the Death Star.

Reclusive Jedi Obi-wan Kenobi, allied with Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Luke Skywalker, was transporting R2-D2, an astro droid holding the Death Star plans, to Leia's home planet of Alderaan. It turned out that the Death Star had annihilated the world when Leia had refused to divulge the location of the Rebel Alliance, and the Imperial space station subsequently captured the small group.

As an alternative method of delivering the plans to the Alliance, they attempted, and succeeded in, rescuing the Princess. In the process they downed many squads of stormtroopers and managed to escape in their ship, the Millennium Falcon, thanks to Obi-Wan sabotaging the Death Star's tractor beam.

The Jedi was almost at the door to the Falcon's hangar when he was ambushed by Darth Vader, who engaged him in a lightsaber duel. The Jedi was eventually defeated by the Sith Lord.

At that point the Falcon fled, and after a small intervention from Imperial TIE Fighters, escaped with Leia into hyperspace.

Trivia
The Uprising was the initial way that Rebel inmates revealed the Death Star's top-secrecy. Although the Empire tried to cover up the riot, other Rebels soon found out about the event as well as the Death Star's existence when they obtained the stolen Death Star plans. However, the Rebels remained unaware that all of their imprisoned allies (as well as a Jedi) had been completetly obliterated and continued to strive to rescue them.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Battlefront II