Evacuation of D ' Qar The evacuation of D ' Qar , also known as the siege of D ' Qar , took place in 34 ABY , in the days that followed the Battle of Starkiller Base during their war with the First Order . Having destroyed the First Order ' s newest superweapon , Starkiller Base , the Resistance feared reprisal attacks now that their position had been revealed . Therefore , they were forced to abandon their base on D ' Qar in order to find a new base of operations . Prelude . In 34 ABY , the First Order superweapon known as Starkiller Base destroyed Hosnian Prime , capital planet of the New Republic , and the other worlds of the Hosnian system . The Resistance , led by General Leia Organa , sent a reconnaissance team to discover the location of the superweapon and report back to the Resistance at their base on D ' Qar . The First Order tracked the reconnaissance ships back to D ' Qar , thus discovering the location of their enemy forces . On the orders of Supreme Leader Snoke , who wanted to prevent the Resistance from finding Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and enlisting him in their fight against the First Order , General Armitage Hux prepared the weapon to destroy the Resistance . Without the New Republic Defense Fleet , however , the Resistance seemed doomed to destruction . Before the First Order could unleash the weapon , the Resistance sent a small strike force — ex - General Han Solo , his first mate Chewbacca , and former stormtrooper and Starkiller Base worker Finn — to Starkiller Base to disable the shields preventing the destruction of the base . Meanwhile , Commander Poe Dameron led a starfighter force to Starkiller Base to destroy it . The ground forces succeeded , though Solo was killed in battle , and the Resistance fighters destroyed the base . The Resistance fighters returned to D ' Qar , celebrated their victory , and prepared a mission to discover Skywalker ' s whereabouts . The First Order , while reeling from the destruction of their weapon , still nonetheless had the location of the Resistance base . The evacuation . Shortly after Starkiller Base was destroyed , the Resistance began evacuating their base on D ' Qar . In orbit around the planet , General Organa commanded the Resistance fleet from the cruiser " Raddus " . The escape was interrupted by the arrival of a First Order fleet consisting of three " Resurgent " - class star destroyers and one " Mandator IV " - class Siege Dreadnought , the " Fulminatrix " . The dreadnought opened fire on the Resistance base almost immediately , but the base had been fully evacuated just in time . To buy time for the Resistance transports to escape , Commander Poe Dameron attacked the dreadnought in his X - Wing , eliminating its surface cannons and clearing the way for a squadron of Resistance bombers to attack despite counterattacks from the dreadnought and its TIE squadrons . As the " Fulminatrix " began to aim its Orbital autocannon s at the " Raddus " , resistance bombers began to approach the dreadnought , defended by starfighters to block TIE fighter attacks . The resultant assault successfully obliterated the " Fulminatrix " , but at a high cost . All bombers were lost along with four of their escorting starfighters , and after the first attack on the fleet , the Resistance was reduced to just 400 personnel aboard four ships . However , Dameron ' s attack bought enough time for their fleet to jump to hyperspace . Aftermath . The evacuation ' s high cost led to General Organa demoting Commander Dameron to Captain , as he had disobeyed her direct order not to press the dreadnought assault after neutralizing its defenses . The Resistance was unable to fully escape the First Order due to the latter ' s new technology that could track ships through hyperspace . Eventually , after a nearly 18 - hour long pursuit and with fuel supplies critically low , the Resistance slipped away and headquartered themselves in an old Rebel outpost on the mineral planet Crait . This escape was detected by the First Order , however , and led to the subsequent Battle of Crait . Behind the scenes . The first footage of the battle of was shown in the teaser trailer on April 14 , 2017 . The evacuation of D ' Qar was first referenced as part of the story of , set for release on December 15 , 2017 , at San Diego Comic - Con 2017 .