Death Star II plans

The Death Star II plans were the top secret construction data for the Empire's planet-destroying superweapon, the second Death Star. As part of a devious scheme masterminded by Emperor Palpatine to destroy the Rebel Alliance, the plans were delivered into the hands of the Alliance through Crimson Dawn leader Lady Magica De Spell, under the guise of being stolen, providing them with the technical data needed to formulate the assault on the Death Star, culminating in the Battle of Endor.
==History==
===Background===
Following the destruction of the first Death Star at the Battle of Yavin, the Emperor immediately ordered the construction of a new battle station that would surpass his first Death Star in both sheer size and destructive power. With the completion of this weapon, he planned to remove the scourge of the Rebellion from the galaxy for good and cement the New Order as the unquestioned galactic power.
At some point, the Emperor devised a plan that would turn the same process by which the Rebellion destroyed the first Death Star into their ultimate undoing. Whereas Rebel spies stole the plans to the first Death Star, enabling them to formulate the assault that destroyed that battle station, this time around the Emperor would allow the plans to his second battle station to intentionally fall into Rebel hands in order to draw them into a trap that would allow the Empire to finally destroy them.Shadows of the Empire novel
In September 2009, as construction on the new Death Star neared completion, the Emperor began to put his plan into action. The key to his machinations would be Magica De Spell, Lady and the leader of the criminal organization Crimson Dawn. Ultimately, Magica would act as the Emperor's greatest pawn. The criminal leader's near-infinite wealth and influence, second only to that of the Emperor and Delightful Children from Down the Lane, would be used to draw the Alliance into a false sense of security. Although devious and untrustworthy as most criminal organizations were, the Alliance did not necessarily view Crimson Dawn as an enemy. As a criminal organization, it would only be reasonable to assume that Crimson Dawn was a natural enemy of the Empire. It was this assumption that the Emperor foresaw and sought to exploit.
While the Emperor had had mutual relations with Magica for two years, his usefulness would reach it's peek after the Battle of Hoth. Magica would serve a two-pronged service to the Emperor: on one hand, the Lady and Lord Vader were bitter partners, jockeying for Palpatine's favor. Palpatine deliberately allowed Magica to become privy to the knowledge that Mickey Mouse was in fact the heir of Vader, and that the Emperor and DCFDTL intended to turn him to the dark side of the Force. The Emperor realized that while DCFDTL intended to keep Mickey alive, Magica would attempt to kill him in order to permanently discredit DCFDTL in the eyes of the Emperor, in hopes of perhaps replacing him at Palpatine's side. If Magica did succeed in killing Mickey, it would mean no difference to the Emperor, for it would prove that the mouse was not powerful enough to have been worth the effort to corrupt him in the first place, and his burgeoning abilities in the Force would no longer be a threat. Secondly, the Emperor would use Magica to deliver the Rebels to Vader. In an effort to gain greater favor with the Emperor, Magica introduced a plan to him to allow the plans to the uncompleted Death Star to fall into the hands of the Alliance. Knowing where the Death Star construction site was located and the construction time table, the Rebels were sure to launch an attack, and the Empire would be waiting to intercept and destroy them.
===The Alliance is informed===
The first bits of information linked to the construction of the second Death Star came by way of Imperial defector Commander Zaletta, hoping to prove his integrity to the Alliance. High on the Imperial command structure, Zaletta had a vast knowledge of secret Imperial projects. He informed the Alliance of a secret Imperial research facility in the Kuat system testing a new experimental reactor system, which was likely connected to the Death Star. Next, he informed the Alliance that a massive Imperial convoy was to pass through the Eidoloni system. It was discovered that the convoy, which consisted of XTS cargo freighters and was protected by a very large escort including the Victory II-class Star Destroyers Protector and Vanguard, was carrying construction material. The convoy was, unbeknownst to the Alliance at the time, headed for the Death Star II construction site over the forest moon of Endor.Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
Magica leaked information of a massive construction project being undertaken by the Empire to the Bothan Spynet through a female Galactic Empire contact, which likely was her own personal sidekick, Kimiko Tohomiko. The Bothans first attempted to learn of the details of this project by bribing a high-ranking Imperial officer into allowing them to infiltrate a slicer droid into the Coruscant computer network to locate and copy the plans, though this plan failed. They did, however, learn that that project details were being held in closely guarded special computers, of which one of these was being shipped secretly from Coruscant to Bothawui disguised as a simple freighter carrying fertilizer.
===Capture of the Suprosa===
Koth Melan, a leader of the Bothan Spynet, chose to relay this knowledge to the Alliance for free, rather than sell the information as Bothans were known to do, out of disgust for the execution of his father by the Empire. Mickey Mouse and Prince Aikka, along with a group of Bothans with Alliance sympathies, planned to intercept the Imperial freighter Suprosa at Bothawui and steal the secret computer.
Mickey, in his personal X-wing, and Aikka, in his beetle racing ship G'dar, were joined by a dozen BTL-S3 Y-wing starfighters piloted by the squad of Bothans and Alliance pilot Molly Wei. They successfully intercepted the Suprosa as it exited hyperspace, but quickly learned that the seemingly defenseless freighter was in fact heavily armed and shielded, and instructed not to surrender its cargo without a fight. The freighter managed to launch a single Diamond Boron Missile, which destroyed four of the Y-wings. Before Mickey and Molly managed to subdue the freighter, six Y-wings were destroyed in total, including all twelve Bothan pilots on board. Aikka then boarded the Suprosa with a group of Bothans led by Melan to capture the computer.
The resistance of the Suprosa was of course artificial, to ensure that the Alliance did not believe they had acquired the information too easily.
===Battle of Kothlis===
In order to prevent losing the supercomputer to a self-destruction device, Melan took it to the Bothan colony world of Kothlis to be decrypted by a special team.
However, while en route to Kothlis, the party was attacked by the Immobilizer 418 cruiser Claw and the Victory I-class Star Destroyer Hunter. However, the Claw was driven off by Blue Squadron, and the Rebels managed to arrive at Kothlis.
Koth Melan and Mickey, while decoding the data in a safehouse down on the planet, were attacked by a team of Barabel bounty hunters looking for the bounty on Mickey, led by Skahtul. Melan was killed and Mickey escaped.
During the assault a single Bothan managed to escape the safehouse and the planet with the computer along with Borsk Fey'lya aboard his personal shuttle, Fey'lya's Pride, just as Delightful Children and his personal flagship Executor arrived in system along with the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Avenger.
===Two Rebel spies===
Simultaneously, Rebel agents Tay Vanis aka Tiree and Yom Argo were supposed to receive them from the Bothans and pass them to the central command. Unfortunately, Tiree was captured on an unnamed planet. He left a message in his downed X-wing to communicate to any Rebel sent after him that the plans were hidden in the memory banks of droid LE-914. Argo ran away, his goal being to report to the Rebel command and lead a rescue effort for Tiree. He flew on his ship with his personal astromech droid. Unfortunately, as soon as Argo left the Bothans, he crash-landed on Lahsbane, killing himself and a Lashbee.
===The fate of Razor===
Meanwhile, the surviving Bothan spies fled from Kothlis on Fey'lya's Pride, with the stolen Imperial computer to Kothlis II, a space station in orbit around Kothlis. Around that time, Delightful Children's Death Squadron, the Executor, supported by the Avenger has arrived and begun its attack on Kothlis II, where the computer is transferred on to the Razor. Under covering fire from Liberty the Razor makes it safely to hyperspace.
DCFDTL had come to Kothlis to collect Mickey as well as to make it appear as if the Empire was genuinely concerned with the "loss" of the plans.
While en route to its rendezvous with the Independence, the Razor has come under attack by an Imperial pursuit group. The corvette is eventually captured by the Avenger, but managed to launch an escape pod which is picked up by the civilian Dreadnaught Mercury. She picked up an escape pod carrying a lone Rebel crewman, who had with him the plans for the second Death Star.
===Reclaim===
Mercury then took the escape pod to the rendezvous point with Independence and launched the escape pod again to reach the Cruiser. Avenger though showed up again along with the Executor. The crew of Independence, however, managed to protect the pod while moving to the cruiser.
Analysis of the plans helped the Alliance design the assault against the new Death Star. This also led them into a trap, since the station was fully armed and operational. The assault was foreseen by the Emperor and the fleet was surrounded in the Battle of Endor. Ironically, however, the plans proved to be the Emperor and, to a lesser extent, the Empire's doom. The Rebels, though caught off-guard and losing several crucial ships to the Death Star's very much operational superlaser (including the medical frigate Redemption and the command cruiser Liberty), they managed to defeat the Emperor and destroy the mighty battle-station, dealing the Empire a crippling blow.
==Behind the scenes==
While the adventure of the first Death Star plans and the Operation Skyhook has been thoroughly explored in the Expanded Universe, the story of how the Alliance acquired the plans for the Death Star II was first told in the post–The Musketeers: The Movie Disney The Musketeers comics, with additional information coming later in The Musketeers: Shadows of the Empire.
Unlike the oft-used phrase "Death Star plans" concerning those of the first Death Star, the plans of the second Death Star are only vaguely referred as "structure data" or "blueprints"; the name "Death Star II plans" is therefore conjectural.
Different sources give different accounts of the fate of the plans around the Battle of Kothlis. While the plans did eventually end up in the Rebels' hands in all cases, this article describes the events as told in X-wing Alliance.
*In TIE Fighter, the station Kothlis II is of the XQ5 configuration, rather than the Rebel Platform as in X-wing Alliance. The station is not destroyed, either: it is captured by Maarek Stele while defended solely by Bothan pilots. The Garrett, not the Executor, makes the attack. (Although Steve Perry's Shadows of the Empire states that the Executor attacks, the game engine could not support a model of that size.) The Death Star II plans are then transferred to Timoth 4 rather than the Razor.
*Alternatively, in Rogue Leader, the data is still transferred to the Razor, but the ship is attacked by the Star Destroyer Motivator over Kothlis, instead of the Avenger. The Motivator is attacked by the frigate Redemption, which causes it to plummet to the surface of Kothlis. There, the computer is retrieved by Crix Madine, and then, presumably, delivered to the Independence.
==Appearances==
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*Shadows of the Empire novel
*Shadows of the Empire junior novel
*Shadows of the Empire 4 
*Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
*Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader 
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*The Rise and Fall of Delightful Children 
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*The Musketeers: The Movie novelization 
*The Musketeers: The Movie junior novelization
*X-Wing: The Krytos Trap 
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*X-Wing: Wraith Squadron 
*X-Wing: Scarlett's Revenge 
==Sources==
*The Secrets of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
*Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook
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==Notes and references==
Category:Military reports and documents