Thon's Orchard

Thon's Orchard

Thon's Orchard was aGR-75 medium transport of theRebel Alliance Fleet. Originally a product of ill-fatedstarship manufacturerGallofree Yards, which went bankrupt severalyears before the height of theGalactic Civil War,Thon's Orchard and other outdated Gallofreetransports like it were sold to theRebel Alliance at bargain prices. As one of thirty GR-75 medium transports stationed atEcho Base, theAlliance High Command headquarters on theOuter Rim TerritoriesiceplanetHoth,Thon's Orchard later helped facilitate the Rebellion's successful evacuation of its compromised outpost during theBattle of Hoth in3 ABY.

The Rebels' defensive strategy against theImperial invasionforce during the battle relied heavily on the Echo Base transportfleet to evacuate command personnel and supplies from the besieged planet. While theRebel pilots ofRogue Group fought to buytime for the evacuation, the transports faced a dangerous run through theImperial Star Destroyerblockade in Hoth'sorbit, with only minimalstarfighter escort and covering fire from Echo Base'splanetary ion cannon to protect them.Thon's Orchard,piloted by Rogue Group memberTarrin Datch, departed Echo Base with the final evacuation group late in the battle. Despite the loss of theion cannon,Thon's Orchard safely passed through the Imperial blockade with assistance from escort pilotsLuke Skywalker,Wedge Antilles, andDerek "Hobbie" Klivian and regrouped with the Alliance at itsrendezvous point.

Description[]

Thon's Orchard was aGR-75 medium transport manufactured byGallofree Yards, Inc. that served in theRebel Alliance Fleet. Thetransport measured ninetymeters in length,^[1] was equipped withsublight andhyperdriveengines, and itsbridge contained acomlink forship-to-ship communications.^[2]

History[]

Battle of Hoth[]

Following starship manufacturer Gallofree Yards' bankruptcy severalyears before theBattle of Yavin, many of the company's remaining transports ended up in the service of theRebel Alliance^[6] in itsstruggle against theGalactic Empire. The Rebellion purchased these^[1] outdated^[7] transports at bargain prices,^[1] but they nevertheless required plenty of regular upkeep.^[3] By the year3 ABY,^[1][8] the secretAlliance High Command headquarters ofEcho Base, located on the remoteOuter Rim TerritoriesiceplanetHoth,^[9] housed afleet of thirty GR-75 medium transports, includingThon's Orchard.^[1]

The Empire's discovery of Echo Base in 3ABY forced the Rebellion into a hasty evacuation of its compromised facility.^[8] As Imperialforces descended on the base in theBattle of Hoth,Thon's Orchard^[1] and the rest of the transport fleet had the critical responsibility of evacuating command personnel and important supplies from the ice planet^[3]—a difficult task that required each transport to pass through the Imperialblockade waiting in low Hothorbit under minimalstarfighter escort and surface-to-space covering fire from the base'sv-150 Planet Defenderion cannon. The Echo Base defenses, meanwhile, had todelay the Imperial invasion force as long as possible to give the transportstime to escape.^[10]

Echo Base's transport fleet and its starfighter escorts began assembling at the Rebels'South Ridge evacuation launch site^[1] and lifted off one by one while thebattle raged.^[11] However, as the situation grew dire for the Rebels, base command ordered the transports to begin running the Imperial blockade in pairs, a risky prospect, as the Rebels could not guarantee that the base's ioncannon could protect multiple transports at once.^[12]Thon's Orchard assembled at the staging area as part of the final evacuation group,^[5] withRogue Group memberTarrin Datch set topilot the transport on its blockade run,^[4][10] though Datch and fellowRogueWedge Antilles delayedThon's Orchard's departure to wait forRogue LeaderLuke Skywalker, one of the last survivingpilots to reach the South Ridge.^[5]

Along withThon's Orchard, the final evacuation group included the GR-75 medium transportsDutyfree andBright Hope, escorted collectively by sixX-wing starfighters, including pilots Skywalker, Antilles, andTarn Mison, as well as pilotsDerek "Hobbie" Klivian andWes Janson flying together in aBTL-S3 Y-wing starfighter.^[13] RebelhistorianLieutenantVoren Na'al also rode aboardThon's Orchard.^[10] Knowing that Imperialsnowtroopers had already seized control of the base and were bearing down on their position, the group lifted off with no time to spare.^[5] However, complicating the group's blockade run, the Empire had also captured the ion cannon,^[10] eliminating any hope that the^[2] transports^[13] would have protective fire as they braved the waiting Imperialwarships.^[2]

Running the gauntlet[]

Thon's Orchard,Dutyfree, and theBright Hope departed Echo Base as the last three transports to evacuate,^[14] but the group soon encountered largesquads^[15] of incomingTIE fighters,TIE interceptors, andTIE bombers in Hoth'satmosphere. Thebombers harried each of the three transports, requiring Skywalker todispatch many of the attacking Imperial fighters before they could destroy the fleeing Rebel cargo ships.^[16] YetThon's Orchard's path still was not clear—anImperial Star Destroyer sat directly in its escape lane as the transport entered Hoth's orbit.^[2]

With theStar Destroyer spitting heavylaser fire, Antilles orderedThon's Orchard to drop back while he prepared to execute a radical maneuver, called theTallon split, designed to fool thecomputer-controlled Imperial guns. By pulling his fighter close together with Derek Klivian's Y-wing, Antilles effectively tricked the Star Destroyer into reading their ships as a single target. Once they were close enough, they split their fighters apart, too quickly for the Star Destroyer to track them both at once, allowing Antilles a clear shot that destroyed one of the Star Destroyer'ssensor globes.^[2] Their maneuver, combined with a hidden attack by Skywalker from underneath the transport, cleared the way for Datch andThon's Orchard to escape intohyperspace.^[17]

Skywalker, Antilles, Klivian,^[10][17] Mison,^[18][19] and theDutyfree similarly survived the blockade run,^[20] although theBright Hope was destroyed.^[19]Thon's Orchard safely rejoined the Alliance Fleet at the Rebels' predeterminedrendezvous point^[10] above thegalactic plane,^[9] but it was among^[2] just thirteen of Echo Base's thirty transports to avoid destruction in the Battle of Hoth, which proved to be a devastating Rebel defeat.^[1] Afterward, Antilles recordedThon's Orchard's blockade run in his personal memoirs, which he shared with Voren Na'al for the latter's ongoing documentation work of the Rebel Alliance's history.^[2][10]

Commanders and crew[]

During the Battle of Hoth, theHuman male Tarrin Datch successfully pilotedThon's Orchard past the Imperial Star Destroyer blockade^[4] and regrouped with the rest of the Alliance Fleet at the rendezvous point. A member of Rogue Group asRogue Ten, Datch served dual piloting duty during the battle,^[10] also flying one of Echo Base'ssnowspeeders against the Imperial invasion force^[21] before leadingThon's Orchard to safety.^[10] Datch knew Wedge Antilles well enough not to question his unorthodox order to adjustThon's Orchard's course in preparation for Antilles' Tallon split maneuver, which helped the transport to evade the blockading Star Destroyer.^[2]

Behind the scenes[]

Continuity development and inconsistencies[]

Thon's Orchard traces its origins to authorBrian Daley's1983National Public Radiodramatization ofThe Empire Strikes Back. In theunabridged script for the radio drama, Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles escort a Rebel transport, piloted by a character named Tarrin, away from Hoth. After lifting off, the pilots encounter a Star Destroyer. Skywalker orders Antilles to pull their fighters close together underneath the transport so that they will appear as a single blip on the Star Destroyer'sradar. At the right moment, Skywalker orders Antilles to fire aproton torpedo at the Star Destroyer, a surprise attack that damages the Imperial ship enough to allow the transport to escape into hyperspace.^[22]

However, much of this dialogue was cut from the final recorded version of the radio episode, "TheMillennium Falcon Pursuit." In the episode, references to Tarrin's transport are removed, implying that he may be in a fighter like Luke and Wedge. The ships of the Imperial Starfleet have scattered in pursuit of other Rebels, so the three pilots are able to slip through the blockade without incident. Luke flies his fighter in the direction of two very distant Star Destroyers in case they "try something," but he is only using them as an excuse to separate from the other two pilots so that he can surreptitiously set course for theDagobah system.^[5]

The radio script would not be published until1995 asThe Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization, but this deleted scene nevertheless has much in common with a short narrative called "Running the Gauntlet," written byMichael Stern for the1989West End Gamesroleplaying sourcebookGalaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back. In that story, narrated by Wedge Antilles, Antilles and Hobbie respectively fly an X-wing and Y-wing to escort a transport past a blockading Star Destroyer using a diversionary tactic called the Tallon split.^[23] The maneuver closely parallels Skywalker's maneuver in the radio script,^[22] but Wedge replaces Luke as the leader, while Hobbie fills in as his wingman. The transport's pilot is only identified as an unnamedcaptain.^[23]

These three differing versions of the events - the radio script,^[22] radio episode,^[5] and story by Stern^[23] - began a long history ofcontinuity inconsistencies and revisions regardingThon's Orchard.^{[4][10][17][20][24]}

The 1995 reference bookThe Essential Guide to Characters, authored byAndy Mangels, makes an effort to reconcile these inconsistent sources. Mangels explains how Skywalker, Antilles, and Y-wing pilot Janson escort one of the last transports, piloted by Tarrin, from Echo Base: Antilles and Janson employ the Tallon split maneuver, in conjunction with Skywalker's surprise attack from below the transport, to allow all parties to escape the Star Destroyer.^[17] Mangels' version favors the radio drama script over the final radio episode and effectively identifies Tarrin as the unnamed transport pilot from "Running the Gauntlet."^{[5][17][23][22]} However,The Essential Guide to Characters created a new inconsistency by identifying the Y-wing pilot as Janson rather than Hobbie.^[17]

In revising and expanding Stern's originalGalaxy Guide 3 text for the sourcebook's1996 updatedsecond edition, authorPablo Hidalgo altered "Running the Gauntlet"'s text to identify the transport captain as Tarrin,^[10] which matched Mangels'The Essential Guide to Characters.^[17] Hidalgo also first named the transportThon's Orchard and identified it as the ship that was to bePrincessLeia Organa's escape transport fromThe Empire Strikes Back.^[10] This corresponds with another scene in the radio drama in which Luke, before the battle, tells Leia that he has been assigned to escort her transport^[25] - though the drama is not totally consistent, since in anther scene, when Han Solo comms her transport, the voice that responds is a different character from Tarrin.^[22] AuthorM. Shayne Bell's subsequent 1996 short story "Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM" in the anthology bookTales of the Bounty Hunters introduced a new inconsistency, identifying the princess's transport as theBright Hope.^[19] To date, theBright Hope has remained Organa's intended transport.^[26]

AuthorMichael Stackpole's1999 novel,X-Wing: Isard's Revenge, created a new line of continuity that disregardedThon's Orchard^[20] and persisted for nearly fifteen years.^[4] In dialogue between Antilles andNew RepublicAdmiralAreta Bell,Isard's Revenge establishes that Tarrin piloted the transportDutyfree during the Hoth evacuation, with Bell as the transport'snavigator, while Skywalker and Antilles flew escort.^[20]

The2004 reference bookInside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy, written byJames Luceno, made strides toward reconciling the previous sources. Luceno's book definitively identifiesThon's Orchard,Dutyfree, and theBright Hope as separate transports stationed at Echo Base during the Battle of Hoth.Inside the Worlds also designates theDutyfree as being escorted by Skywalker and Antilles, and theBright Hope as being escorted by Antilles, Hobbie, and Janson. However, the text does not mention Tarrin or provide any additional details forThon's Orchard.^[24]

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia of2008, compiled primarily by authorStephen J. Sansweet,^[27] reinforced theIsard's Revenge version of events by stating that Tarrin piloted theDutyfree^[28] and that Areta Bell commanded the transport as its captain during the Hoth evacuation.^[29] The text makes no mention ofThon's Orchard.^[27] However, the2013Rogues Gallery department fromStar Wars Insider 146 effectively returned the line of continuity to its original version, stating that Tarrin pilotedThon's Orchard past the Imperial blockade. To date,Star Wars Insider 146 remains the most recent source to address the matter.^[4]

Continuity resolution[]

Despite the many competing versions of the events, this article considersThon's Orchard's continuity resolved on the basis of theStar Wars Insider 146Rogues Gallery department. Its information was directly approved byLeland Chee,^[4] Keeper of the Holocron for theLucasfilm Story Group, which determines allStar Wars canon.^[30] Given Chee's authority, this article concludes that Tarrin Datch pilotedThon's Orchard and that contrary claims fromIsard's Revenge andThe Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia are in error. Moreover, this article considersThe Essential Guide to Characters andGalaxy Guide 3, Second Edition to be the canonical version of events forThon's Orchard's blockade run, and considers any contradicting elements fromThe Empire Strikes Back radio drama or its script to be overridden.

This article also attempts to reconcile the multitude of sources with varying versions of Rebel pilots escorting transports, and considers the following pieces of information to be canon: Skywalker, Antilles, and Janson escortThon's Orchard, according toThe Essential Guide to Characters;^[17] Antilles and Hobbie escortThon's Orchard, with Janson riding in Hobbie's Y-wing, according toGalaxy Guide 3, Second Edition;^[2] Skywalker and Antilles escort theDutyfree, according toIsard's Revenge andInside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy;^[20] and Antilles, Hobbie, and Janson escort theBright Hope, according toInside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy.^[24] This article treats these escort roles as overlapping pieces between transports. In addition, this article considers Hobbie and Janson flying in a single Y-wing fromGalaxy Guide 3 to be the canon version of events, given thatGalaxy Guide 3 is the most recent source to specify a starfighter type for either character's blockade run.

Regarding the transports,The Empire Strikes Back radio drama establishes that Skywalker, Antilles, andThon's Orchard are part of the final evacuation group;^[5]Galaxy Guide 3 confirms thatThon's Orchard is one of the last transports to evacuate;^[10] andInside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy confirms both that theDutyfree is one of the last transports to evacuate and that theBright Hope is the final one. In addition, theInside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy Echo Base map depictsThon's Orchard,Dutyfree, and theBright Hope positioned adjacently in the Echo Base hangar prior to evacuation during the Battle of Hoth, clearly suggesting that they are, indeed, the last three transports to evacuate.^[24] Therefore, given the aforementioned overlapping escort roles, this article concludes that the final evacuation group must consist of the transportsThon's Orchard,Dutyfree, andBright Hope, escorted collectively by Skywalker, Antilles, Hobbie, Janson, and Tarn Mison, the last following theStar Wars Customizable Card Game.^[18]

This conclusion is supported by several pieces of indirect source material, the most significant of which is the2003Nintendovideo gameStar Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike. In this game's "Battlefield Hoth" level, the player, as Luke Skywalker, and assisted by otherNPC X-wing pilots, must escort the last three transports to leave Echo Base, and these three transports leave at the same time. Although the transports are not named in the game,^[16] they correspond toThon's Orchard,Dutyfree, and theBright Hope, according toThe Empire Strikes Back radio drama,^[5]Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy,^[24] and the aforementioned escort combinations, and this article therefore treats them as such. Secondly,The Empire Strikes Back establishes that the Rebel evacuation transports initially lifted off individually but were forced to begin departing in pairs as the battle progressed.^[11][12] Thirdly, the"Bright Hope" card from the 2013Escape from Hoth expansion pack ofStar Wars: The Card Game depicts theBright Hope departing Echo Base with other transports as a group.^[31] Finally,Tales of the Bounty Hunters establishes that theBright Hope was escorted by six X-wing fighters,^[19] which this article treats as applying to all three transports of the final evacuation group.

Appearances[]

• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike(Retcon)
• The Empire Strikes Back radio drama — "The Millennium Falcon Pursuit"(Indirect mention only)
• "Running the Gauntlet" —Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back(reprinted inSecond Edition andThe Movie Trilogy Sourcebook)(First appearance)

Sources[]

• The Empire Strikes Back: The National Public Radio Dramatization(Indirect mention only)
• The Essential Guide to Characters(Indirect mention only)
• Galaxy Guide 3: The Empire Strikes Back, Second Edition(First identified asThon's Orchard)
• Star Wars: Behind the Magic(Indirect mention only)
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike: The Official Nintendo Player's Guide(Indirect mention only)(Retcon)
• Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy(First pictured)
• Star Wars: Complete Locations
• Obsessed With Star Wars
• "Rogues Gallery: Clearance for Immediate Launch" —Star Wars Insider 146(reprinted in Special Edition 2016)
• Inside the Fearless Rogue Group onStarWars.com(original link is obsolete)

Notes and references[]