Yavin 4

During the Galactic Civil War, Princess Leia was a member of a rebel cell based on the jungle moon of Yavin 4. The Alliance had converted an ancient, massive stone temple into an operations center housing squadrons of starfighters. After Luke Skywalker and Han Solo rescued Leia from the Death Star, she told them Yavin 4’s secret. The Millennium Falcon rushed to the jungle moon, where technicians analyzed the battle-station plans in R2-D2’s memory to search of a weakness.

Time was of the essence. Leia suspected – correctly – that the Empire had tracked Solo’s freighter and would soon arrive. The Alliance decided on a desperate course of action: Starfighters would attack the Death Star, using targeting computers to fire proton torpedos at an unguarded thermal exhaust port that led to the battle station’s main reactor.

Luke volunteered to join the attack, flying with Red Squadron. To his surprise, one of his fellow pilots was Biggs Darklighter, his old friend from Tatooine. Their reunion was brief – it was time to fly, with the fate of the Alliance hanging in the balance.

Squadrons of X-wing and Y-wing starfighters rose into the skies above Yavin 4’s jungle, assuming formation as they prepared to attack the Death Star. After most of the rebel fighters were able to evade the battle station’s turbolaser fire, Darth Vader led TIE fighters into space to destroy the attackers ship-to-ship.

On Yavin 4, Princess Leia and the other rebel leaders monitored the battle with increasing anxiety. The Death Star would soon be in range of the moon – and its superlaser would blast the Yavin 4 into particles, as it had Leia’s homeworld of Alderaan.

Before the Death Star could fire, Han saved Luke from Vader’s TIE fighters and the Tatooine farmboy used the Force to guide a torpedo to its target, destroying the battle station in a massive explosion. The Falcon and the surviving rebel starfighters returned to Yavin 4, where cheering throngs greeted them.

The Alliance had won a great victory – one that would fan the flame of rebellion on more and more Imperial worlds. In a hastily convened ceremony, the rebels honored Luke, Han and Chewbacca for their heroism.

No sooner had the ceremony ended than the rebels made preparations to evacuate Yavin 4. The base had served the Alliance well, and the Battle of Yavin would be celebrated for decades. But the jungle moon’s secret was out, and Leia and her fellow rebels knew they had to abandon their base before more Imperial forces arrived.