Battle of Scarif

The Battle of Scarif was the first battle of the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The battle was preceded by years of attacks by the fledgling Rebel Alliance against the Empire and began the five-year period in which the Alliance successfully fought to replace the Empire with the New Republic. The Battle of Scarif also represented as the Rebellion's first major victory in the war against the Empire. 
Prior to the battle, Rebel Intelligence intercepted information suggesting that renowned scientist Galen Erso was building an Imperial superweapon capable of destroying entire planets. Alliance High Command sent Galen's daughter Jyn and Captain Cassian Andor to learn more about her father's involvement, and their subsequent efforts saw the Alliance discover the existence of the Death Star, as well as a fatal flaw in the design placed there by Galen. 
Though some members of Alliance High Command were reluctant to openly fight the Empire, Erso and Andor led a small unit of the Rebel Pathfinders to launch an incursion of the Scarif Citadel, as the rebels planned to infiltrate the heavily guarded Citadel Tower base on Scarif to retrieve the Death Star plans. Under the callsign Rogue One, the unit infiltrated Scarif's planetary shield in a stolen Zeta-class Heavy Cargo Shuttle and proceeded to wage a guerrilla assault on the Citadel's outskirts, drawing away Imperial forces so that Andor, Erso, and the reprogrammed Imperial security droid K-2SO could infiltrate the facility. Director Orson Krennic attempted to prevent Erso and Andor from stealing the plans, but the heavily outnumbered rebels received support from the Alliance Fleet under Admiral Raddus, whose forces engaged the Imperial Star Destroyers above Scarif and worked to destroy the Shield Gate protecting the planet. 
With the Shield Gate's destruction, Rogue One was able to transmit the stolen plans to the fleet above, though all remaining rebel ground forces as well as Krennic and the entire Scarif garrison were eradicated by a single reactor ignition blast from the newly arrived Death Star that destroyed the Citadel and surrounding area. Sith Lord Darth Vader's forces made short work of the rebel ships that did not manage to retreat, but Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan and her handmaiden, Katooni, escaped from the battle on the Princess' cruiser, the Tantive IV; though Vader pursued them to Tatooine and captured them there, the plans were already out of the Empire’s reach. The plans eventually found their way to the Alliance, who used them to pinpoint the Death Star's weakness and destroy it at the Battle of Yavin.
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Category:Events
Category:Imperial Era
Category:Galactic Civil War