Death Star

The **DS-1 Orbital Battle Station**, better known as the **Death Star** or **Death Star I**, also designated as the **DS-1 Death Star Mobile Battle Station** and known to the public as the **Imperial Planetary Ore Extractor**, was a massive Imperial battlestation/superweapon with a diameter of 120 kilometers designed to enforce law and order throughout the Empire with the threat of planetary destruction.

It started off as the Separatist **Ultimate Weapon** before becoming the **Expeditionary Battle Planetoid Development Initiative** or **Project Death Star** after it ceased to be a Separatist project and became an Imperial one in 19 BBY. It was built in orbit of Geonosis and supported by a complex logistical network of bases. The station, which took many years longer to complete than expected, was eventually moved from Geonosis to Scarif in its final stages of construction.

When the Alliance to Restore the Republic learned of the Death Star's existence, it caused a split among the Alliance members, with some feeling that the presence of such a weapon was too great a threat to justify the continued existence of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, while others felt that the Alliance should attack the platform to exploit a rumored defect in the Death Star's design. Ultimately, rogue operatives Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor led a mission, which the Rebel Alliance soon joined, to steal the battle station's design plans, as Erso had discovered that her father, who had been the primary engineer behind the project, had left a fatal flaw in the design, which could enable the Death Star to be destroyed with relative ease. Having retrieved the Death Star plans from the Imperial Center of Military Research on Scarif, Erso was able to transmit them to the Rebel fleet above the planet, and they were received by Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan aboard the *Tantive IV*, before Organa's capture and demonstration of the weapon's capabilities on her home planet. After a daring rescue, Organa got the plans to the Rebel base on Yavin 4, from which the Alliance launched the Battle of Yavin with a small squadron of starfighters. The original station was destroyed by a shot fired by Rebel pilot Luke Skywalker with the aid of the Force.

## History

Soon after the destruction of the giant battle station, salvaging companies and other organizations such as the Ugors and the Ni'lyahin Smugglers arrived at Yavin IV and carted off large chunks of debris. It didn't take long before the Empire stepped in and stopped all further theft by unauthorized agencies.

The Empire set up an Imperial Salvage Station in orbit around Yavin IV to collect the floating remains of the destroyed Death Star. The salvage team aboard the station was led by Major Reskik of the Imperial Security Bureau. The salvage teams consisted of civilian engineers sent by the major defense contractors that had provided the primary system designs for the Death Star project. Additional zero-G work crews were provided by the Empire.

Countless pieces of debris rained down on the jungle moon. Many left scorched craters behind and set the jungles on fire. Some pieces remained largely intact. After the Alliance left Yavin 4, many salvage teams combed the jungles to recover pieces of Death Star technology. Many independent salvagers like Nagem Dr'Lar sold the debris to the Empire. But other organizations interested in the Empire's technology also sent their own teams to the remote moon. The Hutt Expeditionary Force led by Osae Meilea tried to recover debris for the Hutt crimelords. Even the Black Sun crime cartel tried to get their hands on pieces of the destroyed station.

A year after the Death Star's destruction, some spacers had a piece of wreckage from the battlestation.

In 5 ABY, debris from the Death Star that was collected by the New Republic was given to the Alderaan Flotilla as a gift from Princess Leia Organa to use to build a space station over the ruins of Alderaan. The former plan was to scrap the debris, but Leia used her political connections to see that it was put to good use.

In 9 ABY, during an expedition on Yavin 4, Indiana Jones and K-7R3 came across leftover pieces of the Death Star's debris.

## Appearances

* Shadows of the Empire (First appearance) (Appears on a poster)
* Into the Great Unknown (Mentioned only)
* "Desert Sands"—*The Further Exploits of Indiana Jones* (Likeness displayed on Skywalker World attraction)
* "Alliances"—*The Further Exploits of Indiana Jones* (Appears in drawing)
* "The Arrival"—*The Further Exploits of Indiana Jones* (Wreckage only)