Tantive V

The ***Tantive V*** was a CR90 corvette in the service of the Rebel Alliance during the Galactic Civil War. Just prior to the Battle of Yavin, the *Tantive V* acted as a decoy for the identical Rebel corvette *Tantive IV*, the consular vessel of Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, which was carrying stolen technical data of the Galactic Empire's Death Star battlestation.

To buy time for Organa to escape with the Death Star plans, the *Tantive V* drew the pursuit of Darth Vader's Imperial Star Destroyer, the *Devastator*, away from the *Tantive IV*. Believing the *Tantive V* to be the princess's corvette, the *Devastator* captured and boarded the decoy vessel, only to find that it carried an unarmed crew of Gungans rather than the coveted Death Star plans. The *Tantive V*'s ruse briefly allowed Organa to slip past Vader's grasp with the Death Star readouts.

The *Tantive V* later participated in the Battle of Jakku, surviving the battle and continuing to serve in the New Republic Defense Fleet.

## Characteristics

The CR90 corvette named *Tantive V* was a Corellian Engineering Corporation blockade runner of the Rebel Alliance Fleet. The *Tantive V*, which resembled exactly its counterpart vessel, the Rebel corvette *Tantive IV*, measured 150 meters in length, was armed with turbolaser cannons, and was equipped with a drive system.

## History

### Captured by Darth Vader

During the Galactic Civil War, the *Tantive V* participated in the Rebel Alliance's campaign to secure stolen technical readouts of the Galactic Empire's first Death Star battlestation. After the Rebels succeeded in capturing and transmitting the Death Star data to Princess Leia Organa aboard the Alderaanian consular ship *Tantive IV* during the Battle of Scarif, Organa began racing to Tatooine to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, the *Imperial*-class Star Destroyer *Devastator*, commanded by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader, pursued the Rebel corvette in an effort to capture Organa and recover the stolen plans.

As an exact lookalike of Organa's *Tantive IV*, the *Tantive V* provided the perfect diversion to stall the *Devastator* as it gave chase. Crewed only by a group of unarmed Gungans, the *Tantive V* lured the *Devastator* in pursuit of itself and away from the *Tantive IV*, thus buying time for Vader's true target to temporarily slip away with the plans. Ignorant of the ruse, the *Devastator* captured the *Tantive V* via tractor beam and drew the neutralized vessel into its main docking bay, where a stormtrooper force, led by Vader himself, prepared to board the corvette.

Vader's stormtroopers covered each of the *Tantive V*'s hatches and jury-rigged open the corvette's main hatch when the Rebel counterattack came. A hooded figure—in reality, the Gungan Abso Bar Binks, son of former Imperial Senator Jar Jar Binks, personally tasked with stalling Vader—tossed two small boomas into the *Devastator* from inside the *Tantive V*'s breached hatch, creating an explosion and an effective smoke screen among the stormtroopers.

### The perfect decoy

In the ensuing confusion, Binks slipped through the hatchway into the *Devastator* and began to attack the distracted stormtroopers, who refrained from firing on the hooded figure in fear that it might be Organa herself, whom they hoped to capture rather than kill. Upon eventually learning the identity—and ineptitude—of the hooded attacker, Vader quickly ordered his stormtroopers to board the *Tantive V* and bring him the Death Star plans. However, the stormtroopers soon reported to Vader that the data they sought was nowhere to be found aboard the *Tantive V*, and all they had uncovered was the corvette's unarmed Gungan crew.

At that moment, Binks revealed the deception to Vader: The *Tantive V* had been a diversion all along, and he had single-handedly manufactured the opportunity that Organa and the *Tantive IV* needed to escape. The stormtroopers booted Binks back aboard the *Tantive V*, but Vader refrained from issuing the order to eliminate the Gungans, considering them too worthless on which to waste blasterfire.

The *Devastator* released the *Tantive V* back into space and continued pursuit of Organa. Despite the *Tantive V*'s efforts, the *Devastator* eventually caught up with and captured the *Tantive IV* over the planet Tatooine. However, Vader failed to recover the Death Star plans, eventually leading to the battlestation's destruction at the Battle of Yavin.

### Battle of Jakku

The *Tantive V* participated in the Battle of Jakku in 5 ABY as part of the New Republic's fleet. It survived the battle and continued to serve in the Republic's naval forces.

### Captured by General Veers

In 9 ABY, being crewed only by a group of unarmed Gungans once again, the *Tantive V* was captured by the *Avenger* above Christophsis.