Death Star plans

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TheDeath Star plans were the blueprints of thefirst Death Star, anImperialsuperweapon that was the brainchild ofGrand MoffWilhuff Tarkin.

The plans[]

The idea for theDeath Star began when theGeonosians designed the Ultimate Weapon, using plans and concepts provided byWilhuff Tarkin.^[3]Poggle the Lesser possessed the original (or a copy of the) plans, which he handed toCountDooku during theFirst Battle of Geonosis.^[2]

Dooku attempted to flee the planet and go to Coruscant, but he was intercepted byObi-Wan Kenobi,Anakin Skywalker, andYoda, who sought to capture him. Dooku defeated the two Knights. Yoda let Dooku escape with the plans in order to save Obi-Wan and Anakin. The future of the galaxy was strongly affected by this decision.^[2]

Dooku fled tothe Works of Coruscant and he delivered the schematics personally toPalpatine.^[2] Once theClone Wars were over, Palpatine ordered theGalactic Empire to use the plans as the basis for the construction of the station. After the Death Star's completion, the plans became a prime target for theRebellion, whose members hoped to find and exploit a weakness in the superweapon. In large part because of this, the Empire split up the plans and sent it to various places ofthe galaxy to prevent enemy hands from acquiring it.^[4]

History[]

The Rebel Alliance acquires the plans[]

First encounter[]

The top-secret Imperial weapons project headed byWilhuff Tarkin was hinted at by several high officials, including Tarkin himself, but its true nature remained unknown for some time. The first vital piece of information about the Death Star was obtained during themission toDarkknell,^[5] which took place sometime before the signing of theCorellian Treaty in2 BBY,^[6] during whichDarth Vader captured the Rebel LeadersBail Prestor Organa,Mon Mothma, andGarm Bel Iblis and sent them to the unfinishedDeath Star I for execution. ThereEmperorPalpatine revealed them the name and the purpose of the battle station before executing them, but the Rebel leaders were saved byGalen Marek, who sacrificed himself to allow them escape.^[7] As the construction of the Death Star drew closer to completion,Mon Mothma and Bail Organa knew that Rebels needed to obtain a complete technical readout of the Death Star. If their engineers could pinpoint a weakness in the battlestation, then the Rebels might be able to destroy it. The Alliance set into motion the biggest anti-Imperial offensive it had ever attempted: a complex, coordinated operation to compile a complete set of plans for the Death Star and transmit it to theTantive IV. Various missions were undertaken by the Rebel Alliance with this purpose, but while some of them succeeded, others simply confirmed the Death Star's existence, name and purpose, which were in fact already known to the Leader of the Alliance.

Events on Vergesso and Raltiir[]

For the raid on Vergesso facilitiesCaptainRaymus Antilles secured the assistance ofHan Solo's smuggling skills. Solo, originally extremely reluctant to involve himself in Rebel affairs, was forced to comply after Antilles made assisting him the condition for rescuing him from Imperial custody over the surface ofCorellia.

Solo undertook a mission to infiltrate the Imperial shipping facilities in theVergesso Asteroids, planting a tracking device andEMP emitter in a cargo container bound for an Imperial research station inCorulag. The EMP successfully disabled the station's defenses long enough for Rebel search teams to raid the station. The data they acquired "confirmed" the existence of theDeath Star I and gave the Rebels an idea of the scale of its destructive capabilities, but failed to provide any technical information with which a weakness could be identified. EvenGial Ackbar, Tarkin's personal slave rescued during the raid, knew little about the plot.

Using funds stolen from the raid onYlesia and other sources, theRebellion planted and aided spies on the world ofRalltiir. One of their number,Basso, also "confirmed" the existence of a massive Imperial construction, code-named Death Star. This was later identified as a massive superlaser-wielding battlestation by the Empire'sLordTion. Shortly before his death, Tion revealed that a convoy containing the Death Star plans was en route toToprawa from Tarkin's headquarters onEriadu.

Death Star uprising[]

Main article:Death Star Uprising

A section of the plans were stolen from the Empire during a Rebel jail break inside the nearly completed Death Star.Stormtroopers of the501st Legion, who had been guarding the plans onboard the Death Star, crushed the uprising and were thought to have recovered the plans. However, some prisoners had managed to transmit one copy to rebel forces onPolis Massa.

Discoveries at Orron III and AX-235[]

Main article:Battle of Orron III

ABFF-1 bulk freighter calledPhoenix stole severalcommunications satellites from the Imperial base onOrron III. The freighter was later recovered by the alliance and the satellites were spread by theCR90 corvetteJeffrey in theCron Drift to intercept Imperial transmissions in the hopes of learning more.

Technical information from the Death Star came to the attention of outpostAX-235 in the Cron Drift. Due to the importance of what had been discovered,Biggs Darklighter was sent to personally courier the schematics out of AX-235, taking them to theMon Calamari Star CruiserIndependence. From there, shuttleMaria transferred them toTantive IV.

Keyan Farlander's success[]

Keyan Farlander and members ofRed Squadron protected theTantive IV while the technical data from theIndependencetransferred from the shuttleMaria. Four other corvettes were used as decoys in order to protect theTantive's identity, but the Star DestroyerImmortal arrived, and launched an attack on theTantive. Thanks to Keyan Farlander, theTantive managed to escape to Toprawa.

Mission to Danuta[]

Main article:Mission to Danuta

Rebels onDanuta had learned that Lemelisk had visited the local research facility, and obtained video of a set of Death Star plans being held there. Rebel Intelligence hoped that the Danuta plans included additional engineering schematics and a complete map to the offensive and defensive weapons emplacements.^[9] Additionally, the Alliance already held the intercepted technical data from AX-235 with the plans from the actual Death Star. All of this information was needed to ensure success. The Rebels on Toprawa had a shot at the convoy, while Mon Mothma recruited an Imperial defector namedKyle Katarn and the mercenaryRianna Saren to infiltrate an Imperial outpost on Danuta.

Kyle was to steal a memory matrix there that contained the plans for the Death Star while Rianna was charged with retrieving more Intel fromZarien Kheev. With the aid ofJan Ors andMeck Odom, Katarn escaped the facility and transmitted this set of the plans to Rebel spies in the Toprawa system, where it was eventually passed toPrincess Leia on the Tantive IV. As for Rianna, she andZ-58-0 also completed their objective and transmitted the plans to Princess Leia in theToprawa system.^[3]

Battle of Toprawa[]

Main article:Battle of Toprawa

Rebel Intelligence knew that the plans for the battle station's hull design andlife support infrastructure were held within the Imperial Research Facility on Toprawa.^[9] The Toprawan Rebels were ordered to cripple the Imperial convoy heading for Toprawa, and steal the plans, which included a list of its potential flaws. Combined with the superlaser control system plans and other technical schematics, the Rebellion would then have a complete technical readout of the battlestation.Bria Tharen andRed Hand Squadron volunteered to accompany an Alliance infiltration team to Toprawa aboard theRetribution, to aid in the transmission of the plans, an operation dubbed "Skyhook", though they were unaware of the exact nature of the weapon.

The Toprawan Rebels attacked and crippled the Imperial convoy and captured the plans - an event often considered the first major victory for the Alliance. In response, the Empire blockaded the planet. Bail Organa was to have taken theTantive IV to intercept the transmission of the stolen Death Star plans, but his daughter,Leia Organa, volunteered to go in his stead.

Raid on the Imperial Research Station[]

The Rebels on Toprawa were without the proper equipment to transmit the plans to theTantive. They decided to attack the IRS, and use its comm station. A young man namedHavet Storm was recruited to steal the superlaser control plans.

The combined Rebel forces hit the main reception building. They managed to take the communications center station, where Havet Storm arrived with the superlaser plans. Here they were ambushed by head of security CommanderDiamond and her stormtroopers. While Red Hand Squadron held off Imperial forces outside the Center, Havet transmitted the plans in a quick burst, using frequency 1215. The transmission was barely in time—Imperial fire chopped the comm/sensor tower in half just seconds after theTantive sent out a "transmission complete" acknowledgment.

Detour to Kalakar Six[]

Darth Vader, who had sworn to recapture the plans after the Death Star uprising, briefly followed up on a tip that led him toKalakar Six. It proved to be a ruse generated by theProphets of the Dark Side, who had predicted that the Death Star would soon be destroyed. Instead, Vader chose to pursue Leia Organa to the Toprawa system, while the501st Legion traced the Rebels from the Death Star uprising to Polis Massa.

The Battle of Polis Massa[]

Main article:Raid on Polis Massa

The 501st Legion was sent to retrieve the plans that had been transmitted to Polis Massa. Once there, the 501st was caught up in a firefight with the Rebellion. By the time the 501st got to the plans, a copy had already been beamed from Polis Massa to theTantive IV. TheSignal branch ofImperial Intelligence'sAnalysis Bureau discovered that the plans had been sent to theTantive IV by analyzing the unshielded ELEL (Extremely Low Energy Level) transmission from droidU-3PO aboard the ship. This allowed Vader to track theTantive IV toTatooine.

Moff Kalast and the Bothan Spynet[]

Sometime prior to the Death Star plans arriving on Polis Massa, rogue ImperialMoffKalast aided the Rebellion with information linked to the battlestation. TheBothan Spynet had acquired secret top priority Imperial codes from the Death Star and transferred them to Kalast who, in turn, delivered them to the Rebellion.^[4]

After learning of the combined treachery of both the Spynet and Kalast, Emperor Palpatine personally traveled toBothawui to punish the Bothans. The Emperor, along with two of hisRoyal Guards,slaughtered a large number of Bothans. One Bothan, begging for his life, informed the Emperor that the plans were to be beamed to theTantive IV in theTatoo system. The Emperor regrouped with Vader, who had learned the same, and ordered his servant to Tatooine.^[4]

R2-D2's mission[]

Having received the various sets of blueprints, the Rebels onTantive IV were able to recreate a full tactical readout of the Death Star. They attempted to deliver this readout to theStar CruiserLiberty, but a sudden appearance of theStar DestroyerDevastator caused the transfer to stop;Tantive IV moved toTatooine to reachObi-Wan Kenobi so that he could bring it to Bail Organa onAlderaan. Before they could succeed, though, Darth Vader led astrike against the ship by the 501st Legion. Princess Leia, knowing the Rebels had no hope of defeating Vader's forces, placed the plans within theastromech droidR2-D2, programmed him to deliver them with a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi onTatooine, and then, after being captured by Vader, denied thatTantive IV had ever received such plans.

R2-D2 boarded an escape pod withC-3PO and journeyed through the sands of Tatooine to fulfill his mission. The plans were nearly in danger of being lost forever whenJawas ambushed and enslaved R2, but a string of events led R2 to the ownership ofOwen Lars. R2 convinced Lars's nephewLuke Skywalker to remove the droid'srestraining bolt, suggesting that doing so was the only way R2 could access the rest of Princess Leia's message (which Luke had accidentally discovered), but it was not long after Luke had done so that R2 had taken the opportunity to escape, seeking out General Kenobi. Luke and C-3PO chased R2 down, after which they stumbled across a group ofSand People. Again the plans were nearly doomed, but the Sand People scattered at the arrival of one they knew and feared: Obi-Wan Kenobi. R2-D2 had completed his task.

The trail to Yavin[]

Leia's message conveyed to Obi-Wan the urgency of bringing R2 to Bail Organa. Joined by Luke and C-3PO, they hired the mercenaryHan Solo andChewbacca to smuggle them to Alderaan on theMillennium Falcon, and they escaped fromMos Eisley spaceport in a fierce firefight.

The plans, however, would never make it to Alderaan. In a demonstration of the Death Star's capabilities, Grand Moff Tarkin hadordered the planet destroyed, and the crew of theFalcon exitedhyperspace only to find their destination missing, while a loneTIE/LN starfighter fled the scene. Han determined to destroy the fighter so that their location could not be reported, but following the fighter led theFalcon to the Death Star itself.

R2 was as close to the Imperials as he could be, and at one point he and C-3PO were even forced to interact with a squad of stormtroopers. Still, none of the soldiers realized that the little droid the Empire had been searching for was on the very station it posed so dangerous a threat to. When the crew of theFalcon escaped with Princess Leia and headed toYavin 4, R2 and the precious plans he carried were with them.

Having arrived on Yavin 4, the Death Star plans were studied by GeneralJan Dodonna and other Rebel officers in the hope of finding an exploitable weakness. In addition, because of the Death Star's unexpected arrival shortly thereafter thanks to a tracking droid smuggled on theFalcon, the personnel also rushed through trying to strategise on how to destroy the Death Star via the plans. They found it in the form of a smallthermal exhaust port which, if hit directly by aproton torpedo, would trigger a chain reaction destroying the battle station. This is precisely what Luke Skywalker did in the proceedingBattle of Yavin.

The Hutt threat[]

Following the fall of the Empire, the Death Star Plans were kept by theNew Republic in a secure computer system on Coruscant. However, in12 ABY, a team ofTaurillcommandos broke in during a diplomatic reception forDurga the Hutt and stole a copy of the plans. They delivered them to Durga, who had Bevel Lemelisk use the captured designs to create a new version of the Death Star, theDarksaber. However, this threat was thwarted when the station wasdestroyed in theHoth asteroid field.^[10]

Behind the scenes[]

In the early production ofthe original movie, the hollow dish of the Death Star was designed to be on the equator, but then it was moved to the "northern" hemisphere. However, the old design can still be seen in the grid plan animations in the movie. This is because the animation was created before the prop designers decided to make the change. The original plans displayed inStar Wars: Episode IIAttack of the Clones, set twenty-two years earlier, show the final form.

The grid plan animations shown during the Rebel briefing for the attack on the Death Star late inA New Hope were an actual computer graphics simulation from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made by Larry Cuba and Gary Imhoff as part of a project for school at CalArts, and had been included during filming forStar Wars: Episode IVA New Hope (then known as justStar Wars). Originally, the writers and staff planned to thank JPL for assisting in the graphics, but it was changed to the specific programmers' names after one of the programmers, Mike Plesset, pointed out that JPL didn't even know their computers had been used.^[12]

TheA New Hope audio drama in 1981 is the first to mention rebels on Toprawa transmitting the information to Leia aboard the Tantive IV.^[13] In 1994, the second edition ofA Guide to the Star Wars Universe would add the character of Bevel Lemelisk as well as the planet Despayre to the plans.^[14] The release ofDark Forces in 1995 saw Kyle Katarn steal the plans from the planet Danuta as part of "Operation Skyhook."^[15] In 1998, with the release ofStar Wars Encyclopedia, the mission inDark Forces and theBattle of Toprawa mentioned in the audio drama and the novelRebel Dawn would be tied together as part of the operation mentioned inDark Forces with the information Katarn collected being sent to the rebel cell on Toprawa.^[16]

In the succeeding years a number of other games would also involve the theft of part of the Death Star Plans. The 1993Star Wars: X-Wing game for PC also had a mission involving the theft of the Death Star Plans however that mission does not get mentioned in other sources leaving its canonicity in question. Other parts of the game are referenced in later media such as theStar Wars Encyclopedia (1998) but aside from his role as a Y-wing pilot at the Battle of Yavin the theft of the Death Star Plans are not mentioned.^[16] The 2007Death Star novel also tied the 2005 video gameStar Wars: Battlefront II Death Star mission to the operation as well as giving a reason for the data to be moved to another planet.^[3] While the plans are stolen inBattlefront II (2005) andLethal Alliance (2008), it was not the player character's mission to retrieve the plans and the plans do not get transmitted to the Rebel Alliance.^[8][17] A mission reminiscent of theX-Wing game also appeared in the gameStar Wars: Empire at War; however, the game contains a number of missions that do not line up with other parts of canon or would have been impossible outside of the games setting.^[4]

TheStar Warsoriginal Databank article on the Death Star acknowledged the contributions of Kyle Katarn, Keyan Farlander, "Rebel spies in the Toprawa system," and other unnamed heroes. The Death Star Uprising and 501st Legion were both mentioned, but the article made no reference to the plans even being involved in this jailbreak.^[18]

Kenner's 12-inch R2-D2 "large size action figure" released in1979 included a plastic card with graphic stickers on it representing the Death Star plans. An opening panel allowed the card to be held in a compartment in the back of the action figure.^[19]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

• Choose Your Own Star Wars Adventure: A New Hope
• "A Death Star Is Born" — Star Wars Tales 4
• "Tantive IV" —Star Wars Manga: Black
• LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
• LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
• Club Penguin Star Wars Takeover

Sources[]

Notes and references[]