Shortly before the Rebel Alliance established its main secret base on Hoth, Chewbacca and
C- 3PO were sent to a believed desolate moon
as part of a plan to destroy multiple Imperial Star
Destroyers in a trap.
The plan was to plant precise detonators within the moon’s inner core, then send a signal
across the galaxy to bait the Imperial fleet within nearby systems to come investigate
the moon, in which the Rebels would explode the moon
that would in theory destroy all Imperial ships near
it.
Although both Chewie and C-3PO were successful in planting all the detonators within the
designated positions, they came to discover that the moon they originally believed to
be uninhabited, was actually inhabited by an
electric rock species, which were undetected by
traditional bio scans.
Deciding to abandon the original mission of using the moon as a giant bomb to destroy
Star Destroyers as they didn’t wish to wipe out
an entire innocent species, both Chewie and 3PO
made haste to deactivate the detonators they planted.
Unfortunately for them, the Millennium Falcon they flew on was detected by the Imperials,
with that intel being sent to Darth Vader’s Super Star Destroyer.
Being informed that a single Wookiee was onboard that ship, and believing it to be the same
Wookiee that was a part of Luke’s crew on the Death Star, Vader ordered his ship to
make its way toward the moon, with the intention of
capturing Chewbacca and torturing the Wookiee as a
means of luring Luke Skywalker, the same way he eventually did to Han Solo on Cloud City
in The Empire Strikes Back.
Back on the moon, C-3PO came to understand the rock people’s language when one of them
touched the golden droid and sent an electric shot into him, allowing him to effectively
communicate with them.
The droid explained to them the danger they were in due to the
detonators they had planted earlier and how they were now attempting to disarm them.
But before all the detonators could be effectively disarmed by Chewbacca deep underground,
Darth Vader arrived at the moon and located the rock people along with C-3PO.
In Canon, this is the first time Vader has technically met
his old droid friend that we know of, but the Sith Lord
either didn’t recognize his droid or simply didn’t care, as he made no comment about
it.
And since C-3PO had his memory wiped of all the events prior to the end of Revenge of
the Sith, he didn’t realize he was speaking
to his former master.
Nonetheless, Vader attempted to seduce the rock people to join him, first through a simple
invitation, and then later by force after they refused to obey him immediately.
Through the use of the dark side, the Sith Lord attempted to
use its power to dominate their minds under his
control, with it initially appearing to be working, upon confirmation from C-3PO who
told Vader that the rock people were ready to serve him.
However, this was a lie from the droid, who used it to deceive Vader long enough to allow
the rock people to get closer in an attempt to
strike at the Sith Lord.
Afterall, the rock people were nothing like the beings Vader was used to
using the dark side on, so his technique had no real
effect on them.
The deception allowed 3PO enough time to escape Vader’s grasp as he dealt with the rock
people, with the droid making his way back to Chewbacca.
Unfortunately, Chewie didn’t have enough time to disable all the detonators,
leaving only a few minutes before they were all timed
to explode.
Due to this extremely limited time scope, the two were forced to call upon the other
rock people to help them.
Across the galaxy, Luke was notified on the situation that was happening on the moon,
with him then traveling to his friends in hopes of
helping them, especially upon hearing Vader was there.
Leia and Han did the same, making their way toward it too, as they were near the moon
as well.
On the moon, with only seconds remaining before the detonators were to explode, the rock
people ended up using their electric powers to basically create an electric disruption
that went across the entire moon, which effectually
disabled all the detonators, in addition to all other
electronics on the moon, including C-3PO himself, and even affecting Vader’s suit, but he
was able to defend against it to a degree.
This disruption happened right when Luke Skywalker arrived on the moon in his X-Wing, which
disabled his ship, causing it to drop him near a damaged Vader.
Upon realization of this, Luke readied himself for a fight against the Sith Lord, but before
it began, Vader was crushed from the back with
a massive boulder held by Chewbacca.
Staggered by this attack, Vader was then grabbed by the Wookiee and disarmed by him,
dropping his lightsaber.
Despite having his suit damaged and having just been smashed by a giant boulder, Vader
was able to overpower the Wookiee once he was
able to refocus, grabbing Chewbacca by the throat
and starting to choke him, proclaiming it to be the last fight the hairy beast ever
fought.
Overtime, Chewbacca was able to eventually free himself from Vader’s grasp, quickly
dodging the Sith Lord’s lightsaber strike after
Vader was able to retrieve the hilt back with the force.
Following the dodge, Chewie grabbed Vader and basically yeeted him into a lava pit below
them.
The Sith Lord reacted quickly, using the Force to slow his descent and part the lava from
his landing, later grabbing the same lava with the force and chucking it back at the
Wookiee.
Although the lava itself didn’t make contact with Chewbacca, its intense heat burned him.
Seeing his friend injured, Luke attempted to aide Chewie by causing an avalanche toward
Vader by throwing down a boulder down, but all that did was give the Sith Lord an opportunity
to Force Choke Luke from a distance.
Chewie came for the rescue once again, picking up his
Human friend and making a run for it, later meeting up with Han and Leia as they landed
on the Moon close by.
With all of them together, the Rebels now armed with blasters from the ship made a charge
toward Vader, firing upon the still damaged Sith Lord, but despite his injuries and damaged
suit, Vader was still able to defend himself with
the Force, blocking all the blaster bolts and force
pushing the rebels away.
Now backed with his own reinforcements, Vader made his way toward the landed Imperial
shuttle, using the ship’s energy to re-empower his own suit, causing a massive electric charge
that recharged all nearby electronics, including C-3PO and Luke’s X-wing.
While this gave Vader full control of his suit again, it did allow for the rebels a
chance to escape, with Luke now attempting to leave the moon
in his X-Wing.
As he was beginning to take off, Vader came in an attempt to stop the starfighter from
leaving the Moon’s surface, but his attempt was
disrupted as the Moon itself began to crumble, as the
largest member of the rock people awakened from its slumber, a giant rock creature the
size of the moon itself.
As the newly awakened massive moon-sized rock creature began to destroy the nearby Star
Destroyers, Vader was able to escape its wrath by using the force to propel himself into
a shuttle, and eventually got himself into his
Super Star Destroyer that was near the orbit.
Upon realization that Vader was back inside, Admiral Ozzel readied to leave the system
to get away from the giant rock creature.
While Vader was back inside the hanger, he noticed Luke’s
X-wing in the distance.
Using the force, he grabbed onto Luke’s starfighter and began to pull it
into the hanger, but before he could successfully capture it, the super star destroyer jumped
into hyperspace, leaving Luke safe from the Sith
Lord’s grasp.
With that, Luke made it back safely to his friends and together they met up with the
rest of the Rebel Alliance, as it was starting to construct
its new base on Hoth,