With the theft of the Death Star Plans during the battle of Scarif, the Rebel Alliance had
hopes of beating the Empire.
To recover them, Tarkin sent Darth Vader in pursuit, but that pursuit would have consequences
neither of Emperor’s henchmen could have predicted.
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We are glad to have you with us for our third jump into the Star Wars Universe and our next
episode on the Galactic Civil War, so please get comfortable, make sure your Hyperdrive
is functional and provisions stocked, and listen to the story of the Battle of Yavin.
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With Death Star’s plans onboard, Tantive IV’s Captain Raymus Antilles set course
for Tatooine, which was its original destination before the Scarif operation, hoping to evade
the pursuit of Vader’s Devastator.
Onboard the Tantive IV was the daughter of one of the leaders of the rebellion Bail Organa
Princess Leia, and her mission was to find the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi who had been
in exile since the Great Jedi Purge.
He was to be given the Death Star Plans and then escorted to Alderaan.
However, the Devastator managed to follow Tantive into the Hyperspace, and upon exit
crippled the rebel ship in a matter of minutes drawing it within its hanger ignoring the
ship's broadcast of being on a diplomatic mission.
The rebels attempted to use the escape pods but the first ones were shot down by the Devastator,
so they resolved to stand and fight.
As the stormtroopers were about to breach the ship Leia gave the plans to an astromech
designated R2-D2, ordering it to go to the surface in one of the pods and deliver her
message and the plans to Kenobi.
The ship was boarded and a brief firefight broke out in the halls resulting in the death
of nearly all the Alderaanian Consular Security force.
However, their resistance allowed R2-D2 and the protocol droid 3-CPO to escape in a pod,
which the imperials didn’t shoot at, detecting no organics.
The droids landed in the desert with no settlement for miles and were then captured by Jawas,
native inhabitants of the planet who specialized in scavenging abandoned items such as droids
and selling them.
As such their captivity was not long as they were sold by them to a moisture farmer named
Owen Lars.
While they were in his care, Owen’s nephew Luke Skywalker discovered Princess Leia’s
message and sought to find this “Kenobi” thinking it may be the hermit “Ben” who
lived nearby.
Despite C-3PO’s protest, R2-D2 struck out alone the next day, determined to deliver
this message, which forced Luke and C-3PO to go out to recover him.
However, they were set upon by another native group - Tusken Raiders and were nearly killed
until the hermit Ben arrived scaring the raiders away.
He confirmed that he is the legendary Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and then took the trio
back to his home.
Seeing Leia’s message, he realized that he can’t stay out of the war and decided
to go to Alderaan.
He attempted to recruit Luke revealing that he was the son of his old friend and a very
powerful Jedi Anakin Skywalker, who was killed by Kenobi’s apprentice Vader.
Initially Luke refused to join Kenobi on the way to Alderaan, but soon after returning
home, he discovered the remains of his Aunt and Uncle, and his home burnt to ash, most
likely by the imperial stormtroopers who were still searching for the droids.
With no other option and eager to avenge his family, Luke joined Kenobi.
They had made their way to Mos Eisley spaceport and hired the captain of a Corellian YT-1300
light freighter Millenium Falcon Han Solo and his Wookie copilot Chewbacca.
Eager to pay off the debt to the local crime lord Jabba the Hutt, Solo accepted Kenobi’s
lucrative offer, and the unlikely crew set off from Tatooine, despite the attack of the
Stormtroopers that came too late.
Meanwhile, Leia was now detained on the Death Star which was in the Alderaan system and
the Emperor used her involvement with the Rebel Alliance to finally put an end to the
Galactic Senate, dissolving the body entirely.
Palpatine, now no longer constrained by their protection of Senatorial status, imprisoned
many of the Senators on Coruscant, ending the threat the Rebels had posed from within.
Completed Death Star was the most powerful force in the Galaxy and so there was no longer
a need to retain control of the Galaxy through the use of the Senate.
The might of the Empire was the only thing keeping the planetary system at bay and the
threat of the Death Star would keep them quiet, but the Emperor and Tarkin knew that a show
of force and a demonstration of the power of their new weapon would need to be shown.
Among those now no longer protected by their Senatorial status was Princess Leia who was
tortured at length on the location of the main rebel base.
As the torture failed to work, Tarkin threatened to blow her home planet if she refuses to
provide the location of the rebels.
Leia tried to deceive her captor and named the planet Dantooine - the rebel base that
was abandoned previously.
Despite that, Tarkin ordered the Death Star to destroy Alderaan which was considered one
of the centers of the rebellion and thus was a threat.
More than 2 billion civilians were killed in the destruction of the planet, among them
Bail Organa.
The news of its destruction spread rapidly, terrifying some, while steeling the resolve
of others.
The Alderaanians on Coruscant held a Vigil that turned into a riot that lasted for several
days but they were put down brutally by the stormtroopers.
Many Alderaanians and their sympathizers joined the rebellion.
Meanwhile, having successfully escaped and arrived in the Alderaanian space, Millenium
Falcon was seemingly caught in a meteor shower, but as it ventured further the crew was puzzled
as to why Alderaan was not here.
Kenobi who felt the death of the billions in the Force said it was the Empire doing
and that they had destroyed the planet, but this was dismissed by Solo who said not even
an entire fleet could’ve done this.
Before they could learn the truth, the Falcon was attacked by a single TIE fighter acting
as a Scout which Solo followed believing he could destroy it with no Imperial bases around
for him to escape to or get help from.
What he originally thought to be a moon was soon discovered to be the Death Star which
the scout had been luring them too and they were caught in its tractor beam before they
could escape and were taken aboard.
Using Solo’s smuggler tactics, Kenobi’s Jedi skills, and R2’s hacking, the crew
of the Falcon managed not only to avoid capture, but disabled the tractor beam and freed princess
Leia, saving her from the execution.
However, when they almost escaped, the crew was accosted by Darth Vader.
The Emperor's enforcer, who had waited a long time to avenge his previous crippling defeat
at Kenobi’s hands, was eager to destroy his old master and the two began to duel.
It started with Kenobi’s taunt “You cannot win Darth.
If you strike me down I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”.
Vader took a very cautious approach which was uncharacteristic of his style, but he
knew just how dangerous Kenobi was and the old Jedi was just trying to distract Vader
and the stormtroopers, which allowed the crew to make their way to the Falcon.
Upon seeing that, Kenobi stopped fighting, letting Vader strike him.
However, once the blow found its mark Kenobi vanished with nothing left but his saber and
a slashed robe.
The duel gave the crew of Falcon enough time to board their ship and the freighter escaped
from the Death Star hangar.
A half-dozen imperial TIE fighters were sent to pursue them, but the rebels were able to
destroy the enemy starships, making the jump to Hyperspace and the safety of Yavin IV.
The crew was in a celebratory mood but Leia knew that the Imperials had let them escape
and had probably placed a tracker on the ship, but hoped that the Death Star plans might
swing the battle in their favour.
When they arrived, the plans were immediately given to General Dodonna for assessment and
soon Galen’s design flaw was found and the plan conceived: Dodonna decided to send the
remaining pilots of Gold, Red, and Green starfighter Squadrons alone against the Death Star, as
the monstrous station would have a harder time hitting them than any medium or heavy
craft.
The pilots were ordered to attack a single two-meter wide exhaust port with their proton
torpedoes, which, once successfully entered, would go all the way down to the reactor chamber
and set off the reaction that would destroy the Death Star.
Not long after, the Death Star Arrived in the System and began Orbiting Yavin Prime
to get into position to fire its moon Yavin IV, situated on the other side of the Planet.
Luke joined Red Squadron as a pilot with his childhood friend Biggs, Solo meanwhile had
received his payment for his aid and left Yavin to pay his debts intending to not be
part of the battle to come.
To many, this seemed like a suicide mission, but the Pilots sent out were invigorated and
could be counted on to fight till the last.
The rebel forces consisted of 22 T-65B X-wing starfighters that were divided between Red
Squadron, commanded by Garven Dreis, and Green Squadron commanded by an unknown pilot.
The X-Wings were to serve as a distraction as well as escort for the 8 BTL-A4 Y-wing
bombers of Gold Squadron, commanded by Jon Vander, as the bombers were supposed to make
an attack run through the meridian trench of the Death Star which was guarded by 20
turbo lasers, and then to the exhaust port.
The Imperial force was made up of the Battle Station itself, the Death Star, which had
15’000 turbolaser guns along with 768 tractor beam emplacements, and was complemented with
several hundred TIE fighter squadrons within its hangars.
The Death Star was also accompanied by the Imperial II-Class Star Destroyer “Fortitude”,
but this ship was used in a defensive posture.
The Rebel Squadrons exited the surface of Yavin IV and made their way towards their
target and with 15 minutes left for the Death Star to get into firing position, they confirmed
their numbers locked their S-Foils into attack position, beginning the Battle of Yavin.
Just as Dodonna had accessed the Death Star’s surface guns were too widely dispersed and
too slow to catch the starfighter which dodged and picked them off with relative ease.
With these reports coming in, Darth Vader ordered his personal Black Squadron to attack,
determining that the battle would have to be won in ship-to-ship combat.
Vader’s appearance proved to be enough to start changing the situation, but wasn’t
enough, as he was fighting the best fighters the Rebel Alliance had to offer and they were
a match for any of the best Imperial Pilots.
Determining the way was safe Commander Vander took Gold 2 and Gold 5 with him to make the
first attack run into the trench.
They entered and navigated most of it with relative ease as the defensive guns stopped
shooting at them.
At this point, Darth Vader entered the trench after them in his TIE Advanced accompanied
by two TIE Fighters and himself destroyed all three of the ships and exited the trench.
As the battle still raged, Imperial officers analyzed the rebel attack and discovered the
flaw in the Death Star that could be fatal, but Tarkin dismissed this saying "Evacuate?
In our moment of triumph?
I think you overestimate their chances!"
With three minutes left for the Death Star to get into the shooting angle, commander
Dreis took Red 10 and Red 12 to begin the second attack run.
Although they knew that the imperial TIE fighters will show up again, they took the same path,
as it was now easy to traverse.
Indeed, Vader was in pursuit again and managed to destroy Red 10 and Red 12 soon.
Dreis got in range and launched his Torpedoes but was unable to hit the target.
He was then chased down and cut down by Vader.
With only 1 minute to spare Luke took command of the next attack run and entered the Meridian
Trench at a high speed accompanied by Wedge Antilles’ Red 2 and Biggs Darklighter’s
Red 3.
His wingmates hung back to cover him from the enemy fighters, while Luke himself attacked
the target.
Just like clockwork, the guns fell silent and Vader with his support arrived.
The imperials quickly caught up with the X-wings damaging Red 2 who was ordered to disengage
by Luke.
The chase continued on with Vader letting the ship flee and now it was left to Luke’s
friend Biggs to distract the TIE Fighters long enough to allow Luke to take his shot.
However, soon his craft was severely damaged and then destroyed before he could pull up,
leaving Luke as the only fighter left to complete the mission.
He turned on his targeting system knowing at any moment now the battle would either
be won or lost.
But as he drew closer he heard a voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, telling him to rely on the
Force and trust his feelings.
Vader sensed this disturbance in the Force and became intrigued by this pilot finding
it harder to hit him.
Luke trusted Kenobi and turned off his computer to the alarm of Rebel base and confirmed he
would proceed without it.
Just as Vader had locked onto Luke, the ship guarding his right suddenly burst into flames
catching Vader off guard - it was the Millennium Falcon arriving overhead.
Its cannons forced Vader’s wingmate to dodge, and the TIE Fighter hit Vader’s vessel sending
it careening into space.
With his flank secured Luke took the shot with both torpedoes finding their mark and
he pulled off accompanied by what remained of the rebel force.
With the Death Star’s laser set to go off, the station exploded from the chain of reaction
caused by Luke’s torpedo.
The explosion sent shrapnel throughout the system and heavily damaged the nearby Fortitude
which forced it to retreat.
Despite the fact that the Empire still retained nearly all of its fleet and still controlled
most of the worlds, the battle was disastrous for its rule.
The Death Star explosion not only cost them thousands of highly qualified officers but
the political fallout was devastating, as with no Death Star to serve as a threat the
Emperor’s will would be hard to maintain.
But while this was a major victory for the rebellion, the war was far from over.
Our series on the Galactic Civil War will continue soon and we are planning to cover
the battles throughout many Fantasy universes and Sci-Fi sagas, so make sure you have subscribed
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