Battle of Endor

The Battle of Endor.

Midway into the Galactic Civil War, the Rebel Alliance would discover that the Empire was using the Forest Moon of Endor as the secret construction site for a second Death Star. The bothan spies who’d discovered this also found out Emperor Palpatine himself would be personally overseeing the final phases of its construction. The intel supplied to the Rebels indicated the battle station was vulnerable and unoperational. While the information was true there was more to it, Endor and the Deathstar II orbiting the moon was a setup orchestrated by the Emperor himself. Its purpose, to eliminate and turn the Jedi Luke Skywalker to the dark side and deal a crippling, if not fatal blow to the Rebel Alliance. Waiting for them would be not just the Deathstar, which was, in fact operational, but also a massive Imperial fleet. Unaware of this, the Rebellion gathered their armada at the planet of Sullest and sent a strike team ahead using a captured Imperial shuttle. The strike team would sneak onto the moon’s surface and destroy the shield generator protecting the Deathstar, opening up the battlestation for internal starfighter attack.

Palpatine would put in place the ambush while his Sith apprentice, Lord Vader, would make sure all was ready and bring Skywalker to the Emperor when the time came. Coordinating the battlestation operations would be conducted by Moff Ral Fel, with the aid of Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod. Commanding the Imperial armada was Fleet Admiral Firmius Piett aboard the mighty Executor-class Star Dreadnought.

For the Rebels, the Mission to Endor would be put together and overseen by the organization’s second in command Chancellor Mon Mothma as well as General Crix Madine. Their fleet would be led by the esteemed Admiral Gial Ackbar, General Lando Calrissian, and Commander Wedge Antilles while the strike team and following ground reinforcements were led by General Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa.

## **Infiltration and Arrival**

Initially, things went smoothly for the Rebels. On November 20th, their strike team was able to sneak planetside where they would end up making contact with the Ewoks, the moon’s native inhabitants. After some negotiation, the Ewoks agreed to allow the Rebels to use their villages as a crude base of operations. While planning their attack, Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Knight accompanying the strike team, was convinced he had to confront Lord Vader himself. Since they’d entered orbit, he’d sensed the Sith Lord’s presence through the Force and knew Vader could feel him as well. He was worried his continual presence with the Rebel force would give away their position to the Imperials and put the entire operation at risk. He also had more personal matters he needed to face with the dark lord and departed from the strike team to meet with him alone. This led to Vader apprehending the jedi and bringing him before Lord Palpatine. Luke’s act prevented the Rebels from being discovered however, and they would begin their attack the next day. Working with the Ewoks, Solo and the team would infiltrate the Imperial shield bunker and prepare for its destruction. This was short-lived though, as Imperial reinforcements would arrive and take the team prisoner. This bump in their plans did not stop the Rebel fleet. They saw this as a chance to potentially cripple the Empire and arrived at the moon on schedule.

The Imperial fleet would emerge from the far side of Endor and effectively pin the Rebels between it and the Deathstar. Through his use of Interdictor-class Star Destroyers, Admiral Piett was able to prevent any attempt the Rebels had at escape and forced them into a stand up fight. Realizing the battle was a trap and that the surface shield generator was still online, the Rebels broke off from their original attack plan as Moff Jerjerrod unleashed the station’s TIE squadrons to intercept the scattering Rebel strike craft. With the Rebel fleet in panic, Palpatine ordered Fel to begin targeting Rebel vessels directly with the battlestation’s superlaser. Shocked by this revelation, General Calrissian convinced Ackbar to have the Rebel fleet take the Imperial armada head on in a desperate attempt to hamper the station’s ability to target them by fighting so close to it’s friendly forces. As the space battle went into full swing, the Rebel team on the ground managed to break free from capture thanks to the help of an Ewok ambush. The Imperial garrison was able to kill or push away most of the Rebels and natives from the shield bunker, driving deep into the forest.

## **The Tide Turns**

   Despite what was looking to be an assured victory, the Emperor had severely underestimated the threat of his enemy. While engaging the Imperial battlegroups, General Madine had scrambled legions of Rebel troops to the moon’s surface in an attempt to aid the strike team and get the shield offline as quickly as possible. Amidst the raging battle in the forest, the combined effort of Ewok and Rebel reinforcements was starting to turn the tide. Through better knowledge of terrain and hit and run tactics respectively, the two groups were able to divide and lure Imperial forces further away from their base where they were easier to ambush. The distraction allowed for General Solo and what remained of the strike team to re-enter the bunker and complete their sabotage.

With the Deathstar’s shield taken down, General Calrissian and Commander Antillies took half of their fighter squadrons and began their attack run into the station. A tough fight awaited the separated Rebel pilots as a large contingent of Imperial squadrons led by the elite TIE-fighter ace, Captain Rune Kelenko, viciously pursued. As this was happening, Admiral Ackbar had the rest of the Rebel fleet concentrate everything it had on the Executor-class Star Dreadnought, eventually taking down its shields and chipping away its hull. In an incredible stroke of luck for the Rebels, one of their A-wing interceptor pilots by the name of Arvel Crynyd who’d fallen prey to the star dreadnaught’s monstrous laser barrages would fly his craft straight into the bridge of the vessel in a final act of defiance. The resulting impact instantly killed Fleet Admiral Piett and crippled the massive warship’s helm systems long enough for it to lose thruster control and crash into the Deathstar, causing a fair amount of damage to the station itself.

## **The Jedi and Sith**

Throughout the battle, aboard the Deathstar, Palpatine had tried to sway the captured Jedi Knight to his side by showing him the futility of the Rebellion’s efforts during the initial stages of the engagement. Tempted by the dark side, Luke Skywalker would attempt to strike and kill the Emperor but would be stopped by Darth (Lord) Vader. Both Skywalkers would engage in battle and would end with Luke victorious, sparing his father after realizing his mistake in letting his anger get the better of him. However, Emperor Palpatine would not let this transgression go lightly and tortured Luke with force lightning. A heavily damaged Vader, now seeing his son writhing in pain, would kill his master, choosing his son over his master and turn back to the light side of the force. Vader no longer, Luke and the wounded Anakin would make their escape.

As the two made their way from the Emperor’s tower, they came face-to-face with Moff Jerjerrod and a security detachment who’d been sent by Fel to see why the Emperor was no longer responding. Jerjerrod would be killed in the initial confrontation as Luke and Vader were forced to fight their way off the station. Eventually, the two reached an Imperial shuttle and were able to escape to a Rebel star cruiser where Vader would succumb to the wounds sustained during his fight with Luke and their escape.

## **The Desperate Scramble**

    With Jerjerrod, Piett, and the Emperor himself dead along with Vader turned traitor, Fel took total command of the station defense. Thanks to Kalenko, he’d learned that the Rebel fighter groups were headed for the Deathstar’s core and ordered the captain to break off from his pursuit and direct all available squadrons to meet them at the station’s reactor. He then focused his attention to the crumbling spacebattle. Though their main command ship was destroyed and fleet losses were mounting, the Imperials still had enough ships to strike back. Fel had been studying the enemy armada closely in the Executor’s final minutes and was finally able to distinguish the Rebel’s flagship: an MC80A “Home One”-class Star Cruiser of the same name. Without hesitation, Fel ordered the Deathstar to target the Home One. Despite doing what little he could to avoid the overwhelming attack, Admiral Ackbar, General Madine, and their ship were completely vaporized. With the Rebel’s own naval leadership crippled, Fel was able to consolidate the remaining Imperial vessels and use the Rebel’s own tactics against them by eliminating their capital ships one by one.

On the ground, the fight had turned into a complete mess for the Imperials. They were completely cut off from each other and lost pockets were being picked off. Still, the sight of the Deathstar in the sky and the orbital battle raging indicated the fight was far from over. The destruction of the shield generator also resulted in the death of their garrison’s leadership. As a last resort, isolated squads and platoons made a desperate retreat to their burning shield base, hoping to retake it and hold off the Rebels until reinforcements could arrive from the fleet. The most successful of these groups was a veteran team of stormtroopers known as Kraken Squad who were sent to secure one of the base’s outer landing pads from the Rebels earlier in the battle. The squad would singlehandedly fight their way through several teams of Rebels and hunting parties of Ewoks as they rallied a dozen walker and infantry groups to converge on the shield base with the other survivors. After a long, bloody, and harsh push, they’d claw their way into the base, forcing General Solo and his companions to retreat.

Back in space, the Rebel fleet had completely lost their momentum and was teetering on the edge of total destruction. In the brutal dogfight that ensued in the battlestation’s core, Commander Antilles managed to damage the station’s reactor, disabling its superlaser, however, Captain Kalenko and his pilots had prevented them from completely destroying the station. With the rest of the battle quickly falling apart, General Calrissian called a full retreat and directed everything the Rebels had left on destroying the Imperial interdictor preventing their escape. Far from the protection of their main armada to avoid the knife fight’s carnage, the Interdictors were easily overwhelmed by the desperate Rebel fleet who managed to escape bloody and beaten.

## **Aftermath and Impact**

The aftermath of the battle had left both sides shocked and broken. The Rebels had lost a sizable amount of ships and manpower that, though becoming easier to acquire at this point in the war, was still challenging to replace. This wound was further salted by the death of their premier admiral and one of their best generals, sacrifices for a mission which ultimately ended in failure. The Rebellion’s efforts were not completely in vain, however, as the Empire had fared arguably far worse. Though the losses to their fleet were great, the biggest blow was the death of the Emperor and his closest subordinate. This left a massive power vacuum that only grew with each passing day and would end up shattering the Empire. As severe as their losses were though, the battle was still a very pyrrhic victory, one which Moff Fel would use to further his position and martyr the death of Palpatine to keep the Imperials fighting. Before it began, the Battle of Endor was seen as the climax of the Galactic Civil War, the fight that would make or break either side. In reality, it was only the midpoint that catapulted the conflict into its second phase and set the foundations for great changes that would occur within both the Rebellion and Empire.

The survival of the Deathstar II was a tremendous boost to Fel’s reputation in the Empire. He was seen as a hero who managed to pull off a victory when the battle seemed bleakest. The sangheili would take full advantage of this in his subsequent rise to Emperor. Though immobile and incomplete, he would use the battle station, its location still mostly unknown, as a secret base of operations and boastful trophy to wave at those who held doubt, continuing to perpetuate the claim it was operational. Repair of the station’s superlaser and further construction would be cancelled by the new Emperor. Though he never expressed it vocally, he personally felt the project and its predecessor were an unnecessary use of Imperial resources and didn’t want to invest in something so large only for him to dismantle it later. Regardless, he kept the battlestation for the uses it could serve through the entirety of the Imperial Civil War. During the Golden Age, starting in 2558, Fel ordered the deconstruction of the station where it would be cannibalized to feed the retooling of the Imperial war machine and further the Emperor’s new doctrine.

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