Evacuation of Yavin 4 The evacuation of Yavin 4 by the Alliance to Restore the Republic took place in 0 ABY , in the days that followed the Battle of Yavin . Having destroyed the Galactic Empire ' s newest battle station , the Death Star , the Alliance feared reprisal attacks now that their position had been revealed . Therefore , they were forced to abandon the Great Temple on Yavin 4 in order to find a new base of operations . According to the cartographer Emil Graf , the final act of the evacuation involved an attack by an " Imperial " - class Star Destroyer , which was thwarted by the Alliance pilot Evaan Verlaine . Prelude . Nineteen years after Sheev Palpatine ' s rise to emperorship , on a day that was later marked as the start of a new calendar system , the Rebels of the Alliance to Restore the Republic launched an attack on the Galactic Empire ' s Death Star battle station from their headquarters at the Great Temple , on the fourth moon of Yavin . They managed to destroy the planet - killing battle station , dealing the Empire a major blow . Although there had been casualties , the Alliance happily celebrated their victory . The morning after the battle , the heroes Luke Skywalker and Han Solo were awarded the Medal of Bravery during a ceremony presided by Prince ss Leia Organa of Alderaan , whose homeworld had been destroyed by the Death Star . Evacuating . As soon as the award ceremony was over , General Jan Dodonna addressed the assembled Rebels , telling them that the base should be evacuated immediately for fear of Imperial retaliation . All Alliance fleets arrived in order to assist with the evacuation , and each Rebel was assigned a station for dismantling and transporting , while some were charged with scouting for potential outposts . Meanwhile , Dodonna began working to find a planet or moon to serve as a new secret base of operations . Against the general ' s order , Princess Leia Organa left the base under the cover of darkness with a compatriot , Evaan Verlaine of the Rebel Alliance Starfighter Corps . Together , they undertook an unsanctioned mission to rescue their fellow Alderaanian s who had survived the destruction of their home planet . When Organa came back alone , Verlaine having remained behind with the newly assembled Alderaan Flotilla , the evacuation of Yavin 4 was still ongoing . The Flat Mountain of Yavin . According to a tale told by the Wild Space cartographer Emil Graf , the Imperial retaliation strike Dodonna had feared did happen . While most of the Alliance personnel was still inside the Great Temple , an " Imperial " - class Star Destroyer and a contingent of TIE / ln fighters appeared in the sky of Yavin 4 and started attacking the site . According to Graf , Evaan Verlaine and a few Alliance troopers manage to infiltrate the Star Destroyer and incapacitate its crew . However , the controls were locked , and the capital ship was programmed to shoot at the Great Temple at full power after five minutes . As the troopers could not to bypass the security protocols , Verlaine decided to handle things herself . She ran to the Star Destroyer ' s hangar , boarded a " Raider " - class corvette she found there , and took off . Once in the atmosphere , she programmed the corvette to ram into the Star Destroyer before quickly escaping in a life pod . At first , it seemed that her plan had failed , since the capital ship did not change course . However , when the Star Destroyer finally fired , it turned out that it had moved just enough to deviate the blast slightly to the right . It hit a mountain behind the Temple , blowing off its summit and creating the " Flat Mountain of Yavin " in the process . Even though the Empire eventually regained control of the Star Destroyer , Verlaine ' s audacity and quick thinking allowed the Alliance to complete their evacuation . Aftermath . In their haste , however , the Rebels neglected to destroy some of their data centers completely . Suspecting that the Imperials might be on their way to retrieve the secrets of the Alliance , Colonel Jennica Pierce ordered her Tatooinian agent to return to Yavin 4 and destroy the data before it fell in the Empire ' s hands . When the agent and his partner Saponza arrived at the former Rebel site , the Empire was already there , having massed forces and set up operations all over the moon . Despite the sheer number of Imperial troops opposing them , the Rebel operatives managed to destroy the data centers in time . At one point , Imperial Captain Magna Tolvan was assigned to a punishment duty on Yavin 4 on Grand General Cassio Tagge ' s order . She and her men did not find anything of interest left behind in the Great Temple , as Tagge had expected . In the years that followed , the Rebels headquartered themselves in Echo Base on the snow planet Hoth and later on the small planet 5251977 . Behind the scenes . The evacuation of Yavin was first mentioned in the opening crawl of and it made its first canon ical appearance in the 2015 comic , " Princess Leia , Part I " .