With the Republic bogged down against battle droids during the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker proposed training fighters to lead insurgent movements on Separatist planets. Together with his Padawan Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex, Anakin taught Onderon’s resistance fighters how to organize themselves and gave them pointers for taking out Separatist units. Such militias would serve as starting points for a growing rebel movement against the Empire.

Resistance movements such as Onderon’s depended as much on leadership as they did on military hardware. Leaders such as Steela Gerrera had to soothe the egos of key rebels and get cell members to agree on their objectives. Such leadership would prove crucial in the struggle against the Empire.

As the Clone Wars wound down, a number of Republic senators met to share their concerns about Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s vast array of wartime powers. These seeds of resistance would one day grow into the Rebel Alliance, with former Senators such as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma becoming symbols of the movement to restore the Republic.

Many of the early resistance movements on Imperial worlds were strictly local – the Empire moved ruthlessly to combat any dissent spreading between star systems. Groups such as Hera Syndulla’s Lothal rebels launched most of their operations without consulting resistance movements elsewhere. But the lessons learned by such local cells would prove critical in time.

Attacks on the Empire and the symbols of its power told the increasingly downtrodden people of the galaxy that Palpatine’s regime was not in fact all-powerful. The Empire could be embarrassed and its programs derailed -- and perhaps one day it might be defeated.

The construction of the Death Star and its planet-killing superlaser threatened to extinguish all resistance to Imperial rule. Rebel spies stole the plans to the battle station and gave them to Princess Leia Organa, who fled to Tatooine but was captured by Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer. When Vader’s troops stormed Leia’s starship, her crew sacrificed their lives to buy the princess time – which she used to conceal the plans in the memory banks of R2-D2.

Luke Skywalker and Han Solo rescued Leia from the Death Star and brought the plans to the rebel base on Yavin 4. There, the Alliance’s General Dodonna concocted a desperate plan: send X-wing fighters armed with proton torpedos against the Death Star. A precise hit on an exhaust port could start a chain reaction that would overload the battle station’s main reactor, destroying it.

TIE fighters dueled the rebel X-wings and Y-wings above the Death Star’s surface, with Darth Vader leading the Imperial defenses and shooting down many rebel pilots. All the while, the Death Star was creeping nearer to Yavin 4, waiting to fire on the moon and end the Rebellion.

Before the Death Star could incinerate Yavin 4, Luke fired the fateful shot that destroyed the battle station. The rebels had won an enormous victory, and word of the Death Star’s demise fanned the flames of resistance to the Imperial war machine.

The Empire hunted the rebels across the galaxy, forcing them to find new bases and hide from the Imperial starfleet. Princess Leia’s rebel cell relocated to the frozen planet of Hoth, where the Alliance’s freedom fighters struggled to adapt their equipment to the cold.

The rebels had barely settled in on Hoth when the Empire discovered their base and stormed it with a task force of Star Destroyers in space and an invasion force of AT-ATs on land. Some rebel units escaped into space, but the battle was a disaster for the Alliance.

The rebel units that did escape gathered in deep space, moving in convoys in hopes of evading the Empire’s warships. The Alliance had been dealt a grievous blow, but it still survived.

The Rebellion’s hopes seemed to dim further when Alliance leaders learned the Empire was secretly constructing a new, more powerful Death Star to replace the one destroyed at Yavin. But they also learned that the Emperor was aboard this new battle station – and decided to risk everything in a raid on its construction site.

While the Alliance fleet prepared its attack, Han Solo led a commando team to the Forest Moon of Endor. The team’s mission: destroy the shield generator protecting the Death Star in orbit above.

Unfortunately, the Emperor himself had leaked word of his presence to the Alliance. The Death Star was operational, and the Alliance was rushing into a trap. While Solo’s commandos battled stormtroopers protecting the shield generator, the rebel fleet traded hammer blows with Imperial warships.

Han’s team destroyed the shield generator, allowing Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles to fly into the Death Star superstructure and destroy the battle station. The rebels and their Ewok allies celebrated the greatest victory of the rebel cause, while bracing themselves for a tough fight against the remnants of the Imperial war machine.