Battle of Mako-Ta

The Battle of Mako-Ta, also known as the assault on the Mako-Ta Space Docks, was a major battle during the Galactic Civil War between the Alliance to Restore the Republic and the Galactic Empire. In 1 ABY, the Empire launched an attack on the Alliance's Mako-Ta Space Docks after the Imperial spy Queen Trios revealed the base's location to Darth Vader. Death Squadron launched an attack on the rebel base, and while the newly formed Rogue Squadron was eventually deployed, Vader and his forces destroyed the majority of the rebel fleet and killed numerous rebel leaders. The remaining rebel survivors were left scattered, having taken heavy losses.
==Prelude==
After a meeting with Kendal Ozzel and Maximilian Veers on Mustafar, Darth Vader determined that the Rebel Alliance's scattered nature was what made it difficult for the Empire to get a hold on them. With this in mind, Vader conceived a risky plan: Allow the Rebel Alliance to grow in strength, then crush them when their power was concentrated in one place.
To this end, he contacted Queen Trios of Shu-Torun, instructing her to take over mining operations in the ruins of Jedha, after which she would pretend to defect to the Alliance and sabotage them from within.
After the mutiny on Mon Cala, the Rebel Alliance found itself in posession of several Mon Cala cruisers that could easily be refitted into full-fledged warships. The ships were brought to the Mako-Ta Space Docks to be refitted, where Trios provided many Shu-Torun engineers to help with the work, providing many critical components and systems.
As work on the ships concluded, Mon Mothma called many dignitaries who supported the Alliance to the station to celebrate their victory and show the new fleet to their allies. During this party, Leia Organa spoke with Trios, thanking her for providing the materials and technology to outfit the fleet. Alliance starfighters, Luke Skywalker among their pilots, did a flyby before landing in the hangar of General Jan Dodonna's cruiser, the Republic. The mood among the Rebels was high, some even believing that the Empire did not stand any chance against the Rebellion now.
Meanwhile, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and C-3PO traveled to the Ring of Kafrene, where Solo negotiated a deal for a set of transponder codes. They encountered a pair of Jabba the Hutt's bounty hunters, who were after Solo because of his debt to the Hutt. Solo escaped from the hunters, promising that he would pay Jabba back eventually.
As the rebel sub-groups reported to Organa, General Vanden Huyck Willard of Delta Group told Organa to wish Mothma good luck in her speech. Mothma gave her speech and promised that the fleet would help their allies whenever they needed it. The Rebel ships attempted to jump to hyperspace, but found that they could not. Leia, realizing that they had been betrayed, asked where Trios was, but the Queen of Shu-Torun had already left for her ship. The party was then interrupted by the arrival of Death Squadron, which had been secretly contacted by Trios shortly beforehand.
==The battle==
After the Empire's arrival at the docks, Darth Vader instructed his ships to wait for the rebels to take in their situation. The Rebel cruisers attempted to scramble their fighters, only to realize that their cargo bay doors would not work, nor would their turbolasers or propulsion engines. Satisfied with the Rebels' realization of their helplessness, Vader ordered the closest Rebel cruiser to be destroyed. The closest Rebel cruiser was the Yavin's Hope. Its captain, Vanden Willard, ordered his crew to divert all power to the shields, but the shields didn't hold and the cruiser was incinerated, along with everyone aboard. Admiral Ozzel asked Vader what their next target was, and Vader responded "hope," elaborating that the Rebellion's hope would be next to die.
===Hope Dies===
As the Star Destroyers began firing on the rest of the cruisers, Queen Trios attempted to flee the spacedocks aboard her personal ship. However, rebel command prevented its departure. Leia Organa and General Bandwin Cor lead a boarding party to capture Trios and find a way to regain control of the cruiser's systems. Trios ordered a defensive line and her soldiers engaged the rebels. Organa was almost killed in the fighting, but Cor pulled her back, telling her she was too valuable to lose. The rebel forces soon broke the defensive line and the remaining Shu-Torun soldiers fled the scene. Trios made for an escape pod as the rebels entered the room, Organa pursuing her, but Trios made it to the pod and fled.
Generals Cor and Davits Draven searched Trios' ship's database for a way to restore operation of the Rebel fleet's systems, but found none. However, they discovered that despite the hanger doors being unable to open manually, they would still open automatically if a ship with a rebel transponder flew towards the cargo bay doors. Knowing this was their chance to get their starfighters out of the cruisers and into the battle, Cor volunteered to take his shuttle and try it himself. He flew his shuttle towards a cruiser, but was shot down by TIE fighters. Shortly after, another cruiser was destroyed by the relentless onslught of turbolaser fire from the Star Destroyers. Refusing to give up hope, Organa stated that they had to keep trying if they wanted to survive.
===A Spark of Hope===
Soon, the Millennium Falcon arrived, having escaped the Ring of Kafrene. Han Solo was shocked at the sight of Death Squadron destroying the Rebel fleet and raised Organa on comms. She instructed Solo to fly at the hanger doors of a nearby cruiser to force them open. Solo complied, but was attacked by TIE fighters. Vader was notified of the Falcon's arrival and took off in his TIE advanced to destroy the Falcon himself. Meanwhile, the Falcon managed to shoot down at least one TIE fighters and destroy a couple of the turbolasers on one of the Star Destroyers. The Falcon then flew towards General Dodonna's flagship, the Republic, intending to land in its hanger, but was cut off by the sudden appearance of Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced.
Solo attempted to evade Vader's TIE Advanced but failed to shake the Sith Lord's pursuit, and Commander Lajaie's nearby cruiser was about to be destroyed by Death Squadron's assault. Lajaie ordered his men to abandon ship, the ship's crew fleeing in escape pods. Seeing their escape, Vader instructed Admiral Ozzel to destroy the escape pods. As TIE fighters massacred the pods and Lajaie's cruiser exploded, however, Solo saw an opportunity in the destruction. He piloted the Falcon into the fireball left behind by the cruiser's explosion in an attempt to shake Vader off his tail. Vader followed Solo into the fireball, but failed to maintain his pursuit. 
Having successfully put some distance between himself and Vader, Solo then enacted a plan to get the information about the automatic hanger doors to the rebel cruisers. Chewbacca launched an escape pod carrying C-3PO towards Dodonna's cruiser, which impacted on the ship's surface. Though the impact destroyed the protocal droid's lower half, C-3PO was able to crawl to an airlock and enter the ship. He made contact with Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 and told them about the failsafe that would allow the rebel starfighters to launch.
Skywalker immediately rushed to his X-wing starfighter, ignoring an order from Dodonna instructing him to stand down, and flew it at the doors. When they successfully opened and Skywalker escaped, the rest of the pilots on the ship boarded their own X-Wings and followed. Wedge Antilles then asked Skywalker what the newly formed squadron's callsign was, and Skywalker named it Rogue Squadron in memory of Jyn Erso. As the X-Wings engaged the Imperial Forces, Alliance command scrambled all Rebel Alliance Intelligence Service agents to find a solution and bring their ships back online. Skywalker, now going by the call-sign Rogue Leader, realized that the Rebels needed more time and decided to attempt to get more alliance starfighters into the fight. 
Skywalker activated the colorful trail his X-Wing had used during the display at the party earlier and flew past Admiral Ackbar's ship, hoping that the trail would catch the Admiral's attention. This succeeded, and Ackbar watched as Skywalker flew at the hanger doors of another cruiser, causing them to open. Upon seeing this, Ackbar ordered his crew to launch probes at his own hanger doors to see if they would open, and to launch all fighters if they did. Meanwhile, Han Solo was forced to land the damaged Falcon upside-down and man an X-Wing instead.
===Finding an Answer===
Soon, Alliance Intelligence managed to find a solution to the fleet's plight. They discovered that there were codes that would reboot all systems and bring the ships online, but the codes were stored only in the computer data-banks aboard the Executor. TO acquire the codes, Leia, Draven, and his commandos boarded the Executor using Queen Trios' ship. Leia impersonated the queen and successfully fooled the dreadnought's control tower into allowing them to land. The ruse worked too well, however, as when Vader was informed of the supposed arrival of Queen Trios he immediately returned to the Executor to receive her. Leaving a rear guard to slow Vader down, Leia and her team began their mission. When Vader arrived, he realized he had been tricked and proceeded to cut down the rebels with ease.
When the commando team reached the main computer, they quickly downloaded the codes. With Vader fast approaching, Leia and Draven bid each other an honorable farewell, Draven remarking that this was his chance to atone for his mistakes regarding Jyn Erso. He stated that Jyn proved him wrong about her, something he felt guilty about being unable to tell her in person. He instructed Leia to board a TIE fighter and get the codes back, before joining his doomed commandos in their fight to slow Vader down further and buy Leia time to escape. Draven sacrificed himself, but he and his commandos succeeded in their mission. Leia made it out alive.
===Escape===
Commandeering a TIE fighter, Leia was nearly shot down by Skywalker and Solo. Organa was unable to communicate with her allies as the TIE fighter had no native comms systems, only those built into the pilot's helmet she didn't have. Instead, Leia shot down another TIE fighter, and Skywalker's connection to the force confirmed that Leia's TIE was his ally. Luke and Han escorted her to Dodonna's ship, the Republic, and used the codes to bring it back online, but Skywalker's X-Wing was damaged in the process. The Republic promptly jumped to hyperspace, but Skywalker and Organa convinced Dodonna to bring the Republic back to the fight to draw fire while the codes were delivered to the other ships of the fleet. Skywalker then transferred R2D2 to Solo's X-Wing while he and Organa took a ship to the space docks to rescue Mothma and the Alliance dignitaries.
The returning Republic performed a strafing run on the Executor while support ships were deployed to the surviving cruisers. Starting with Hera Syndulla's cruiser, the Geist, the Alliance ships rebooted and came online one by one, immediately jumping to separate secure locations as soon as they were all capable. Before the Republic could escape, however, its engines were hit, immobilizing it. Dodonna and his crew, realizing they could not escape, continued attacking the Imperial fleet until the Republic was destroyed.
Meanwhile, the X-wing piloted by Solo and R2-D2 was damaged, preventing them from escaping. Organa and Skywalker commandeered a Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier to rescue them, but their stolen cruiser was also damaged by TIE fighters. Fortunately, they managed to escape, though their damaged ship would not last long after that.
==Aftermath==
Landing on Corosi 7, Organa, Skywalker, and Solo managed to get into contact with Mothma, who informed them that the Rebel Fleet was under order to go into hiding, reorganize themselves, and carry on the fight separately. To get back to Ackbar's cruiser, and the Millennium Falcon still on board with Chewbacca, they would have to find their own way back. To honor their actions taken in the battle (and fill positions lost), Mothma also gave each of them promotions. Leia Organa was promoted to general, Skywalker to commander, and Solo was promoted to colonel, although he rejected the promotion. The trio made their way to Nar Shaddaa, where they were able to get assistance from Sana Starros.
The Alliance lost over half the cruisers they gained from the Mon Cala, as well as several experienced and talented commanders. The loss was also a severe blow to their morale, as the Empire showed they still held the upper hand in this conflict. Despite these losses, however, the Rebel Alliance still gained a substantial number of warships and material. Nonetheless, Emperor Palpatine deemed Vader's efforts satisfactory.
==Behind the scenes==
The assault on the Mako-Ta Space Docks is depicted in Star Wars Book XI: Hope Dies, the eleventh story arc from the Marvel Comics' Star Wars comic book series, with the battle taking up the majority of the story arc. The story arc featured the death of several Rebel high-ranking officers, such as Lajaie and Dodonna, who appeared in the 2016 Star Wars Anthology film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope but were absent in the next two movies of the Star Wars original trilogy. This is a result of lead writer Kieron Gillen coming up with the battle as a way to kill off these characters and explain how the heroes rose through the ranks of the Rebel Alliance so quickly.
==Appearances==
*Star Wars (2015) 50 
*Star Wars (2015) 51
*Star Wars (2015) 52
*Star Wars (2015) 53
*Star Wars (2015) 54
*Star Wars (2015) 55
*Star Wars (2015) 56 
*Star Wars (2015) 57 
*Star Wars (2015) 58 
*Star Wars (2015) 59 
*Star Wars (2015) 61 
*Star Wars (2015) 62 
*Star Wars (2015) 63 
*Star Wars (2015) 64 
*Star Wars (2015) 65 
*Star Wars (2015) 67 
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==Sources==
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*Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition 
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*Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy
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*Star Wars: Timelines
*Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire
*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
==Notes and references==
Category:Battles in the Outer Rim
Category:Battles of the Galactic Civil War