Battle of Starkiller Base

"Roger, base — red squad, blue squad, take my lead."

- Poe Dameron

Approximately thirty years after the Battle of Endor, a battle was fought on Starkiller Base between the forces of the First Order and the Resistance. The battle was fought with First Order TIE fighters, and T-70 X-wing fighters, of the Resistance. The goal of the Resistance fighters was to disable and destroy the Starkiller Base in order to prevent further First Order attacks against target planets by the weapon of mass destruction which was housed on the installation.

Prelude
During their search for Luke Skywalker, the First Order sought to use Starkiller Base to destroy the Resistance and cripple the New Republic. They first tested the weapon on the capital of the New Republic, Hosnian Prime, and four other planets in the Hosnian system. They were successful, destroying the planets and a New Republic fleet.

On Takodana, Kylo Ren realized that the scavenger and Resistance ally Rey was Force-sensitive. During the Battle on Takodana, he captured her and took her to Starkiller Base for interrogation.

Finn had given them the Base's blueprints, which revealed that the base drained the energy of the sun in order to charge its superweapon, and that it required a thermal oscillator, which sustained the energy on the planet, that, if destroyed, would de-stabilize the planet's core and implode the Base. However, they would need to do it before the Base fully charged its weapon. Finn, Han, and Chewie volunteered to disable the Base's defensive shield from the inside.

Han Solo piloted the Millennium Falcon to Starkiller Base accompanied by Chewbacca and Finn. Their objective was to disable the shields and allow the X-Wing squadron to strike, although Finn's main objective was to rescue Rey. Flying through the shields at lightspeed, the Falcon landed roughly on the edge of a cliff.

The aerial assault
"All teams. I'm going in! Pull up and cover me!"

- Poe Dameron

With the shields down, Blue Squadron and Red Squadron, led by Poe Dameron as Black Leader, commenced their assault. All starfighter squadrons locked their S-foils in attack position to initiate the attack on the the thermal oscillator. They attempted to dive bomb the oscillator, hitting it directly but causing no damage towards it. General Hux, seeing the damage from outside, ordered to dispatch all squadrons, and the First Order TIE Fighters staged a counterattack. A heavy cannon emplacement launched a missile that destroyed an X-wing fighter, while other X-wings retaliated the TIE fighters and missiles. With ten minutes left until the weapon became fully charged, half of the Resistance fleet had been destroyed.

The thermal detonators went off in the base, and a new hole to the oscillator was visible to the fighter squadrons. Red Four and Red Six covered Poe while the rest of the squadron focused on firing on the target. As the squadrons soared through the trenches of the Base, Ello Asty's X-wing was shot down. Poe's X-wing weaved through the breach. Poe then ordered his squadron to cover him as he entered the hole of the oscillator. A pursuing TIE fighter did not clear the gap, leaving Poe to circle the interior of the unguarded structure, firing volley after volley of torpedoes, which destroyed the base's thermal oscillator thirty seconds before it drained the sun to charge the superweapon. This caused a chain reaction to go off, which destroyed the base and leveled the entire planet's terrain.

The ground assault
"It's just us now. Han Solo can't save you."

- Kylo Ren to Finn and Rey

Han, Chewbacca, and Finn snuck into the main base and captured Captain Phasma, whom they forced to disable the shields before disposing her in a garbage chute. They reunited with Rey, who had already escaped on her own. Seeing the aerial assault, Han, Chewbacca, Finn, and Rey tried creating an opening by planting thermal detonators inside the base. Han then confronted Kylo Ren on a bridge over a large pit, pleading with his son to reject Snoke and return to the light side of the Force. However, Ren refused and impaled his father with his lightsaber, sending Han plummeting down a shaft as Finn, Rey, and Chewbacca looked on. Chewbacca injured Ren with his bowcaster and proceeded to shoot down several stormtroopers.

Finn and Rey exited the base, but were followed by Ren. Ren caught up to Finn and Rey in the forest. Rey angrily called Ren a monster for murdering his own father. She then proceeded to shoot him with her blaster, but Ren knocked Rey out by Force pushing her into a tree. A desperate and terrified Finn came to her aid immediately. Ren then angrily accused Finn of being a traitor. Angered, Finn pulled out Luke Skywalker's old lightsaber. Kylo declared his true possession of the weapon. Finn then attacked Kylo in a rage. However, Kylo easily overpowered the former Stormtrooper and dealt him a grievous injury. Suddenly, Rey arrived and used the Force to pull Luke's lightsaber into her hand. She then attacked Ren. Kylo initially held the advantage, however, by calling on the Force, Rey was able to overpower Kylo and deal him a severe wound while breaking his lightsaber. They were separated, however, due to a trench forming between them.

Final actions
"Our job's done here. Let's go home!"

- Poe Dameron

Inside the main base, chaos abounded as General Hux had departed and there was no way for anyone to escape. Hux, meanwhile, reported to Snoke, who ordered him to rescue Kylo and flee the Base. Meanwhile, Rey returned to Finn and began to despair as Finn would not wake up and they were trapped on the rupturing planet. However, Chewbacca arrived with the Millennium Falcon to rescue them. The Millennium Falcon and the remainder of the Resistance fleet managed to escape Starkiller Base as it erupted into a ball of fire, and entered hyperspace to return to D'Qar.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens novelization
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens junior novelization