While the defeat at Hoth had certainly set the Rebel Alliance back, the battle had the unintended
consequence of springing the Rebels into immediate action as their backs were up against the wall.
At Sullust, the Rebels won an unexpected victory, setting them up to strike at the
Emperor’s new superweapon. Welcome to the Wizards and Warriors channel,
we are glad you’ve come to see our video! As is our custom, please get comfortable, invite some
of your Ewok friends and Mon Cala buddies, and let us tell you the story of the Battle of Endor.
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WIZARDSANDWARRIORS at movaglobes.com With the crack that the 61st had made
into the Imperial armour, the Rebel Alliance was invigorated to strike at their foe once again.
Their series of defeats had not made them abandon the cause, far from it, Vader's relentless pursuit
and brutality in stamping them out only ever served to enrage them, and the 61st had given them
hope again. But before they could strike, they would have to reunite. This was not easy to do,
as many rebel groups had reservations about such a maneuver, worried that an Ambush at
Mako-ta might be repeated. But nevertheless, they had all put their reservation aside,
as Sullust had given the Alliance a high to ride on, and it was a do-or-die moment.
To this end, the Rebels held an emergency conference at Zastiga in 4 ABY, during
which the nature of their strategy was about to change. Alliance intelligence had discovered the
Imperials were building yet another Death Star near the Outer Rim planet of Endor.
Its targets were the worlds of Chandrila and Mon Cala, but it was largely incomplete and would take
a while to be completed. That made it vulnerable, and the rebels knew this was the opportunity they
had been waiting on. They decided to concentrate the fleet on the newly captured planet of Sullust
and attack with their full force. But to assemble without detection, they needed
time and secrecy to this end, they concocted Operation Yellow Moon and Operation Starlight.
The latter was devised by the Rebel cell known as the Fourth Division to deal with their code
encryption problems, as without reliable codes, the Imperials were able to intercept them and take
out the scattered Rebels one by one. The plan was to steal a droid from the Imperial Museum,
specifically a Talker Droid or Autonomous Translator Module Mark II. Droids of this type
were not special in their own right, as most of them were scrapped long ago, but this one
spoke the Trawak, a reclusive language that had never before been cracked by the linguists and had
long died out. So, the Fourth Division sent their pathfinders to Coruscant accompanied by Calrissian
aboard the Falcon, and they were able to retrieve the droid, suffering only one casualty.
Sending the codes was another challenge all to itself as the Fourth division was being hunted
by Commander Zahra and her formidable ship, the Tarkin's Will, and this is exactly who Starlight
Squadron ran into while carrying the codes. They attempted to contact the Sixth Division and give
them the codes but found only the debris floating around the planet and realized it was a trap.
It was too late to retreat, and a skirmish broke out between the squadron and the Star Destroyer,
but Starlight Squadron, under the command of their Ace Sharon Bey, was able to disable the
ship's tractor beam and escape, albeit without their commander, whose ship was shot down.
After this, Starlight Squadron went to Ab Dalis under the command of Luke Skywalker to deliver
the codes to the 11th Division, which included Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar. But upon arriving,
they found them grounded and being heavily bombarded by the Star Destroyer Ultima II
under Admiral Kalaxo, who was part of Zahra’s group hunting the Rebels in this sector.
But despite their nearly hopeless situation. the 11th was able to escape with a cunning
plan transmitted to Starlight Squadron, which involved the volcano in which the
Ultima II was situated over being erupted and within a few passes by, they were
able to hit the target destroying the ship and allowing the 11th to escape.
With the Ultima II destroyed and the Tarkin's Will disabled, the rebels were able to have
a little more freedom of movement to send the codes. With that, the entirety of the
Rebel Alliance was given orders to assemble at Sullust. The other Operation being conducted,
that being Yellow Moon, was to be a distraction that would grab the Empire's attention away from
Sullust and to the Corva sector. It was led by General Organa, who proposed the plan.
She initially faced criticism as the loss of life she’d incur by using lightly encrypted
codes would be high and new recruits would be killed, but Organa reminded them of Alderaan,
and the lives that were at stake should the new Death Star be allowed to be completed.
Only after this, she got the green light from Mon Mothma gave the green light.
The plan called for a series of missions to be conducted on Basteel, Sesid, and Jaresh. During
each, they would meet the resistance leaders on each world and place hyper-transceivers that
would generate transmission activity calling the rebels for a rendezvous over the planet Galaan to
conduct an unspecified operation. The plan worked, and the rebels were able to successfully distract
the Empire in all three of the missions, but they were also being hunted by Captain Khione and his
Imperial-class Star Destroyer Shieldmaiden the whole way and were nearly caught several times.
Upon arriving over Galaan, Leia ordered the ships to disperse. She knew Khione would not be far
behind. She arrived soon, capturing Leia’s ship and taking her and her crew aboard the
Shieldmaiden to interrogate them. But their stay was brief, thanks to the sacrifice of some of the
members of Leia’s team. They could disable the ship, kill Khione and escape aboard an Imperial
shuttle before the Shieldmaiden exploded and another Star Destroyer came to the scene.
With both operations conducted successfully, all they had to do now was wait for the fleet to be
fully massed. This gave time for General Organa, Skywalker and Calrissian to find the location of
their captured friend Han Solo. Calrissian had discovered he had been taken to Tatooine and
was put on display in the Palace of Jabba of the Hutt Clan. They were able to rescue Solo but not
before they were captured after a brief hiccup that almost got them executed in a Sarlacc pit
outside the Palace. Luke and Calrissian had anticipated this and were able to break free,
destroying Jabba’s Sail Barge and killing the crime lord himself before escaping.
With the Rebel fleet nearly gathered, all of the leaders of the fleet were convened to discuss the
plan of attack. The Imperial station itself was still under construction but was protected by a
deflector shield generator that was based on the forest moon of Endor which the station itself
situated next to. The incomplete Death Star was already tempting target, but the Rebels have also
learned that the Emperor himself was there to oversee its final construction, making this was
an opportunity that could not be missed. The plan called for Rebels to divide their forces: General
Solo was to command the ground forces that would infiltrate the moon using the Lambda Class shuttle
Leia stole from the Shieldmaiden, the Tydirium, and destroy the deflector shield generator.
The ground forces consisted of many elite scouts from the entirety of the fleet,
as well as the team of the Millennium Falcon that being Organa, Chewbacca, and Skywalker.
The next day, once they had destroyed the base at the specified time, the Fleet would follow.
The Fleet was itself commanded by Supreme Commander Admiral Ackbar and consisted of
at least 4 MC80A Home One-type Heavy Cruisers, including Ackbar’s command ship the “Home One”,
5 MC80 Liberty Type Heavy Star Cruisers, 16 GR-75 medium transports, 4 Braha’tok Class gunships,8
CR90 Corvettes, 10 EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigates, 4 DP20 Frigates, a few X4 Gunships,
and a YT-2400 light freighter. Attached to them were Btl-A4 Y-wings, A/SF-01 B-wings,
RZ-1 A-wings, Ut-60D U-wings, and T-65B X-wings all divided into Red Squadron, Blue Squadron, Gray
Squadron, Green Squadron, Riot Squadron, Corona Squadron, Blade Squadron, and Gold Squadron.
The latter was put to be under the command of General Calrissian aboard the Millennium Falcon
and they were given the task to take out the Death Star itself while the fleet covered them.
Come morning, the Strike team reached the forest moon and was given clearance to pass onto Endor
by the Executor, as Vader sensed Luke aboard the ship. Luke in turn feared he had endangered the
mission by coming, as he sensed Vader, too but he was calmed by Solo. They were able to infiltrate
the moon without much of a problem, but almost immediately were forced to fight the imperials
in a speeder chase and then Solo’s group was captured by the Natives known as Ewoks and
taken to Bright Tree Village. Initially the Ewoks were adamant on eating the Solo and his friends,
but their fondness for C-3PO, who they called a “Golden Deity” and a little force demonstration
by Skywalker convinced them to let them go. The Rebels explained to the Ewoks why they were there
and that the Imperials, whom the Ewoks had been fighting all this time, were their enemies too.
This led to the Ewoks convening a council of war in which they agreed that this was the
time to strike and they would do so unanimously with the support of all the tribes. Before dawn
broke they left into the forest. Skywalker too left during the night knowing he had to face his
father and allowed himself to be captured and come morning was brought to the Death Star by Vader.
Meanwhile, Solo’s team departed the village with their gear and the supplies given to them by the
Ewoks and linked up with their remaining squads, making their way to the generator.
The Ewoks led them to the rear entrance which was lightly defended and after one of the Ewoks stole
a speed bike and diverted the guards’ attention, the Rebels stormed the base and started setting
explosives to destroy the installation and disable the shield defending the Death Star.
Unfortunately for them, but were then set upon by
the Stormtroopers of the 501st Legion and forced to surrender.
Just as this was happening, the Rebel Fleet entered the system, and Gold Squadron led the way,
with all wings reporting in. Calrissian commenced his attack, but immediately
something was awry. His co-pilot, Nien Nunb, detected their signals were being jammed,
Calrissian immediately knew what was going on and called his squads to retreat and signalled Home
One to fall back, knowing the shield of the Death Star was still intact. At that point, the Rebels
detected ships coming in behind them: it was a trap! The Rebels were pinned in with the Death
Star on one side and the massive Imperial fleet that had hidden behind the moon, led by Death
Squadrons flagship, the Executor, accompanied by 30 Star Destroyers, as well as several Interdictor
ships who activated their gravity wells upon arriving to close the hyperspace for the rebels.
The battle began with the Imperial Fleet launching its TIE fighter and bomber squadrons which swarmed
the Rebel Fleet. All of the Rebel squadrons were ordered to protect the main ships, and a fierce
duel broke out among them, with the Rebels trying to establish a defensive position and drive the
TIE squadrons out of their formation. Calrissian ordered all of the fighter squadrons to follow him
toward the Executor to draw the Imperial TIEs away from the fleet. The maneuver worked as the TIEs,
and the Rebels smashed into one another, and a great battle took place between the Fleet lines,
eventually leaking over onto the Imperial side. The Imperial Fleet, despite its massive advantage
in firepower, would not engage, which puzzled the Rebels. The Imperials were eager to get into the
fight but were under orders from the Emperor to just hold the Rebel Fleet in the system.
It would soon become apparent to both sides as the disk of the Death Star shone green
and its beams connected to blast the Rebel ship Liberty into pieces that the monstrous
station was not incomplete at all, despite its appearance, it was very much fully operational.
As both sides were shocked by this, Ackbar was prepared to sound the retreat,
but Calrissian knew that very few would be able to get out of the system alive and hope that,
given more time Solo would have the shield down, not knowing that they had been captured.
Calrissian recommended that all ships close in on the Imperial Fleet and engage them at point-blank
range, reasoning to Ackbar that they’d last longer fighting the Fleet than against the Death Star.
Not long after, the Death Star fired again and destroyed the Nautilian and with no time
left to spare, Ackbar agreed with Calrissian and the whole of the Rebel Alliance fleet charged.
The Imperials were taken aback by this, not expecting the Rebels to be foolish enough to
engage their superior battleline, but in what was basically close quarters melee on the scale
of Space, the Rebel Starfighters were the best. These were not the fighters of the same calibre
which Vader easily defeated on Vrogas Vos, nor the ones they had run out of Mako-Ta and Hoth. They
had been there for all of that and were now all aces. Ackbar aided them in their efforts with his,
later iconic, Slash tactic, which was the concentration of their fire at single points
where the enemy had no chance to repel them, and all the Death Star could do was watch while one by
one the Star Destroyers fell, Blade Squadron took out Vader’s own Devastator, followed by
others taking out the Pride of Tarlandia which severely weakened the Imperial communications,
and then Vehement and Harbinger fell. But this was coming at the cost of many of the
rebel starfighters who were giving their all to win what they knew would be the deciding battle.
Events were transpiring on the surface. As the battle was playing out above,
the Ewoks entered the fray and freed Solo’s strike team. During the close quarters fighting,
the rebels managed to take over Imperial AT-ST and destroyed the shield installation. Now with
the shield down, Ackbar ordered the attack on the Death Star. Calrissian broke off from the fight
ordering Gold and Red Squadrons to converge on him, with Antilles leading the way they
entered the Death Star being hotly pursued. To buy them time and get the Imperials off their tail,
Ackbar ordered all ships to concentrate their fire on the Executor, knowing that it was the lynchpin.
The Executor was hammered heavily but dealt heavy damage in return. During the fight, its bridge’s
deflector shields were destroyed, and an A-wing fighter of Arvel Crynyd rammed into the bridge,
killing the Executor’s commander Piett and all of the command crew. Admiral Sloane’s Vigilance
moved in to cover the Executors flank and protect it, knowing that the Rebels will now destroy the
Executor, but by then, it was already too late as with the loss of the bridge crew power could not
be controlled, and the ship went down being pulled by the gravity well generated by the
Death Star which it crashed into. Admiral Sloane then took command and ordered the fleet to form
up on the Vigilance to continue the fight, as the chain of command was broken - no orders from the
Emperor or anyone aboard the Death Star were being relayed for some time. And no orders were coming.
The Emperor himself was already dead, having been killed by Darth Vader as Palpatine tried to kill
Luke, who wouldn’t turn to the Dark side as he had hoped. Vader himself was severely wounded
doing this, and Luke took him to the docking bay to escape as the Death Star. The station shook
violently from the fight erupting in its interior between the Rebels and Imperials in their race
for the reactor. Skywalker managed to get off with Vader in time as Antilles and Calrissian
found and destroyed the reactor causing the chain reaction that started blowing up the Death Star.
Seeing this, Ackbar ordered the fleet to pull back as the station,
the symbol of Imperial dominance, exploded before them. Admiral Sloane knew that the
situation was now hopeless, as the proper chain of command was impossible to maintain.
She ordered a retreat to the Annaj system to the commanders that still listened to her.
The war now completely turned in favour of the Rebels. News spread quickly across the galaxy
of not only the Emperor's demise but the complete victory that the Rebels had won. The Rebels had
lost more ships, but with the destruction of the Executor, the Death Star and the deaths of Piett,
Palpatine, and Darth Vader, the command structure of the Empire was broken. While many of the Moffs
and Governors now jostled for power, the Rebel Alliance would rise up as the New Republic,
and they would be greeted enthusiastically by the worlds that now joined in the celebration
of the new age. Still, although the War had turned dramatically, it was not over yet.
Our next video in this series will be on Operation Cinder, as the Empire will strike back once again,
and we are planning to cover the battles of many other fantasy, sci-fi, and space opera universes,
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