Battle of Death Star III The Battle of Death Star III was a space battle fought a few months after the Battle of Endor . During the battle , the Alliance of Free Planets ' Red Squadron attacked a Death Star - like space station near Endor . The station was defended by a fleet of " Imperial - class " Star Destroyers and its contingent of TIE / LN starfighter s . A similar weakness to the first Death Star had been discovered in the unfinished superstructure , and the Republic starfighters made their way past the Imperial escorts , fought TIE squadrons and made a trench run to their designated target . The unit was forced to defend a Star Tours travel agency " StarSpeeder 3000 " after the civilian vessel ' s inexperienced droid pilot accidentally stumbled into the midst of the battle . Firing proton torpedoes into a thermal exhaust port similar to the one on the Death Star I , the starfighters and the Star Tours ship withdrew from the battle , leaving the station to be destroyed . Prelude . After the events of the Battle of Endor , the interstellar traveling agency Star Tours attempted to capitalize on Endor by making a touring route known as the Endor Express . C - 3PO and R2 - D2 were placed on temporary loan for the company while their owners in the Alliance of Free Planets fought against the Tof s during the Nagai – Tof War . Because of Emperor Palpatine ' s death at Endor , the Galactic Empire had fractured into multiple factions , led by various warlords . One of these factions , the Kaarenth Dissension , led by self - proclaimed Supreme Commander Ennix Devian , managed to steal two unfinished Worldcraft from Coruscant ( which had intended to be gifted to him and his rival , Ardus Kaine ) , and separated them to two different portions of the galaxy . He eventually modified one of the Worldcraft to resemble one of the Death Star superweapons as part of a feint against the fledgling Alliance of Free Planets . The battle . As Devian expected , the Alliance of Free Planets eventually uncovered evidence of the construction of a supposed third Death Star being developed somewhere close to Endor , at that time the capital of the Alliance of Free Planets . They then dispatched Red Squadron to take it out . Before attacking the station directly , however , they had to deal with a fleet of Star Destroyers and a TIE fighter squadron . Because of this , the sector was coroned off from civilian travel due to the combat situation . At some point during the dog - fight , a " StarSpeeder 3000 " , ST - 45 , belonging to the Star Tours travel agency , unintentionally arrived in the middle of the battle after escaping a nearby comet storm ( the droid pilot , RX - 24 , in a calculation error due to inexperience , inadvertently bypassed Endor completely due to exiting Hyperspace too late from their destination ) . The ship was later caught in one of the Star Destroyer ' s tractor beams , although it managed to escape after one of the Red Squadron pilots advised RX - 24 to ease up on the main thruster . The ship was later damaged by a TIE fighter shot , although the ship was spared from destruction after R2 - D2 repaired the stabilizer . Eventually , Red Squadron allowed it to participate in the actual battle on the Death Star , where it observed the group ' s X - wings maneuvers and also aided them by shooting down pursuing TIE fighters . Red Squadron then reached its target : a Thermal exhaust port similar to the one that doomed its predecessor , which the squadron then proceeded to fire a salvo of proton torpedos into . Despite impacting on the surface instead of entering perfectly , the torpedoes still managed to cause a chain reaction , just as Jan Dodonna had predicted in 0 BBY , and destroyed the station , taking all hands aboard with it . Aftermath . After the battle , the " StarSpeeder 3000 " returned to its docking area with minor damage . This event , however , was only the beginning of similar incidents that later forced the Star Tours agency to be shut down . Although the battle was won by the Alliance of Free Planets , it ultimately turned out to be a pyrrhic victory , as Devian had successfully raided various Alliance - aligned shipyards and stole several vessels while they were distracted with the battle . Behind the scenes . The Death Star III idea was created to explain why a Death Star is present on the " Star Tours " ride when both of the stations in the movies were destroyed . Its canon icity was later confirmed in " " , an article written by James McFadden for the official blog on StarWars . com . Later , a blog entry by Abel G . Peña and Daniel Wallace - - - - revealed Death Star III ' s full origin as a distraction concocted by Ennix Devian .