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A legendary starship despite its humble origins and deceptively dilapidated exterior, the Millennium Falcon has factored into some of the Rebel Alliance's greatest victories over the Empire. On the surface, the Falcon looks like any other Corellian freighter, with a saucer-shaped primary hull, a pair of forward cargo-gripping mandibles, and a cylindrical cockpit mounted to the ship's side.
Beneath its hull, though, the Falcon packs many powerful secrets. Its owners made "special modifications" on the freighter, boosting its speed, shielding and performance to downright illegal levels. Its weaponry has been upgraded to military-class quad-turbolaser turrets. To cover rapid escapes, the Falcon sports a ventrally mounted hatch-concealed antipersonnel repeating laser. Between its forward mandibles rest concussion missile launchers. The habitable interior of the vessel also has a few surprises, such as concealed scanner-proof smuggling compartments.
The Falcon pays a heavy price for its augmented performance, though. It is extremely recalcitrant and often unpredictable. Its reconditioned hyperdrive often fails. Its current captain, Han Solo, has even been seen to restart a failed ignition sequence with a hard rap on the bulkhead with his fist.
A vessel employed in the shady fringe business of smuggling, the Falcon was owned by Lando Calrissian before Solo won it in a heated sabacc game. Under Solo's command, the Falcon became a famous starship, completing the Kessel Run at unprecedented speeds. Solo and his first mate Chewbacca maintained the Falcon, constantly modifying and tinkering with it, coaxing the maximum speed from the ship.
This speed became quite useful as Solo and Chewbacca were drawn deeper into the Rebel cause, and the Falcon began flying missions for the Alliance. It was the Falcon that provided covering fire for Luke Skywalker's final attack run on the first Death Star. The Falcon became Princess Leia Organa's escape transport during the Battle of Hoth. During the decisive Battle of Endor, the Falcon flew point for the Alliance Fleet. Under Lando Calrissian's command, it soared into the heart of the incomplete Death Star, and delivered a missile volley that helped seal the Empire's fate.
Related: --Han Solo-- --Chewbacca-- --Lando Calrissian-- --Rebel Alliance--
47π 8π
Tauntauns are a species of snow lizard found roaming the windswept snow plains of Hoth. The Rebel Alliance domesticated the swift creature during their stay on the ice planet, and used the tauntauns for patrol duties outside Echo Base. The animals were useful as the Rebel technicians had difficulty adapting their repulsorlift speeders to the subzero temperatures.
Both Luke Skywalker and Han Solo rode tauntauns on Rebel patrol missions, planting a network of life-form sensors along Echo Base's perimeter. Though tauntauns are sure-footed and well equipped to handle Hoth's daytime temperature, the chilling extremes of a Hoth night will prove deadly.
Related: --Hoth-- --Echo Base-- --Wampa Ice Creature--
11π 3π
Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, was the scourge of the Jedi, a master of the dark side of the Force, and one of the Emperor's most trusted servants. He wasn't always a fearsome enforcer, however.
He began life as Anakin Skywalker, a young slave from Tatooine skilled in piloting and strong in the Force. Once discovered by maverick Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Anakin was taken before the Jedi Council to be trained. There was some controversy on the subject -- despite Jinn's adamant assurances that Skywalker was the chosen one spoken of in an ancient Jedi prophecy, the council was hesitant to allow his training at the age of nine.
Finally, the council agreed that Anakin should be trained, and he was assigned to Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kenobi recklessly thought that he could be as skillful a master as Yoda. His mistakes had dire consequences for the galaxy.
Skywalker was seduced by the dark side of the Force. Fueled by rage and discontent with the pace of Obi-Wan's training, Anakin challenged his master to a duel. Despite newfound power bestowed by the dark side of the Force, which added to his already formidable abilities, Anakin was grievously wounded in the fight. His burning anger kept him alive, and he was forever scarred not only by his wounds but also by betrayal. He abandoned his former identity. When metal coupled with flesh in the form of cyborg implants and enhancements required to sustain him, Skywalker's transformation was complete. He was no longer Anakin. He was Darth Vader.
At the time of his transformation, Vadar never knew he was due to be the father of twins. Obi-Wan Kenobi hid the children from the Dark Lord and Vadar's master, Emperor Palpatine. He somehow discovered that he had a son, Luke Skywalker, but never suspected he had a daughter, Leia, who was secretly taken to be raised by Bail Organa, Viceroy and First Chairman of Alderaan.
In the chaos that accompanied Palpatine's rise to power, he became one of the Emperor's most loyal servants. The Emperor entrusted him with the elimination of the Jedi Knights. During these dark times, Vader and his agents destroyed the Jedi order.
When the Galactic Civil War raged across the Empire, he was tasked with discovering the location of the Rebel Alliance's secret base. He captured Rebel operative Princess Leia Organa and had her tortured to reveal the location of the hidden fortress. Vader also sought technical plans stolen by the Rebels. These plans carried the complete schematics of the Empire's most powerful weapon, the Death Star battle station. When a rescue team successfully liberated the princess, he found himself face to face with his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He defeated the aged Jedi Knight in a lightsaber duel.
Using the stolen plans to pinpoint the Death Star's weakness, Rebel forces launched a starfighter attack on the station. Entering the battle, He piloted his own specially modified fighter. He managed to destroy the most Rebel pilots in the battle, but was forced out of the conflict when his own vessel was crippled by the Millennium Falcon.
Three years after the destruction of the Death Star, Vader led an elite squadron of Star Destroyers headed by his flagship, the Super Star Destroyer Executor. He was to seek out and capture the Rebels responsible for the Death Star's demise. Eventually, Vader tracked the Rebels down to the ice-world of Hoth. There, he launched a ground attack destroying the base. His quarry, the Millennium Falcon, escaped.
During the Hoth campaign, the Emperor commanded Vader to track down the "son of Skywalker," and have Vader turn him to the dark side of the Force. He planned to use Skywalker's friends as bait to lure him into a trap. He hired a motley gang of bounty hunters to track down the Falcon, and drew Luke to Bespin's Cloud City. He and Luke clashed in a lightsaber duel that Vader won by ruthlessly severing Luke's sword-hand. He then revealed to the broken young Jedi that he was his father, and that they would rule the galaxy as father and son. Luke refused to succumb to the dark side, and escaped his father. Vader was left empty-handed.
After these incidents, Palpatine reassigned Vader from the Imperial fleet, and instead put him in charge of overseeing the new Death Star operation. The Emperor began to distrust his once loyal servant. Vader's contact with his son sparked something within him, something the Emperor did not like.
Palpatine was scheduled to arrive at the second Death Star. The Emperor foresaw that Skywalker would come before the two, and then they would seduce young Luke to the dark side, just as Anakin had been drawn to its power decades earlier.
When Luke surrendered, and was taken before the Emperor, Palpatine pitted father and son in a lightsaber duel. Skywalker refused to fight and give into the temptation of the dark side. Vader, probing his mind, learned of his daughter, Leia Organa. He threatened to turn her to the dark side. At this threat, Luke gave into his hatred and attacked his father. In the ferocious assault that followed, young Skywalker nearly killed him. Horrified by what he had become, Luke abandoned his new found dark side rage, and refused Palpatine's offers of power. "I am a Jedi, like my father before me," Skywalker proudly claimed.
Palpatine unleashed a deadly barrage of dark side energy on the young Jedi. Lightning bolts spawned from pure evil tore into Luke's body with searing pain. Vader stood helplessly, watching his son writhe in agony from torture delivered by his master. Unable to watch anymore, Vader turned against his master. He grabbed a surprised Palpatine from behind, hoisted him above his head, and tossed his evil master down a bottomless reactor shaft. Vadar was bombarded by the Emperor's Force lightning, mortally wounding him.
As he lay dying, he ceased to be. Anakin Skywalker returned. He asked his son to remove the cumbersome, fearsome mask that had concealed his face for decades. His mask and life support removed, Anakin looked upon Luke for the first and last time. He then died, his body disappearing into the light side of the Force. Luke burned the dark armor that had encased Anakin's crippled body in a quiet funeral pyre on the forest moon of Endor that night.
Related: --Galactic Empire-- --Anakin Skywalker-- --Palpatine-- --Luke Skywalker-- --Super Star Destroyer-- --Tie Advanced x1--
47π 21π
Located in the Hoth system is a chaotic asteroid field filled with dangerous swarms of colliding rocks. Stray bodies from the field get caught in Hoth's gravity well, and enter the ice planet's atmosphere, becoming meteorites.
If the threat of being crushed by massive asteroids is not enough to deter the most foolhardy pilot, the asteroid field is also home to dangerous lifeforms. At least one unbelievably huge space slug has made a home out of one of the larger asteroids. The field is infested by mynocks, leathery-winged energy parasites that attach themselves to passing ships and then chew on the power cables.
The odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximately 3,720 to 1. Han Solo, never being too concerned with the odds, recklessly plunged the Millennium Falcon into the field to escape Imperial pursuit after the Battle of Hoth.
Related: --Hoth-- --Space Slug--
7π 3π
After abandoning their headquarters at the Massassi outpost on Yavin 4, the core group of the Rebel Alliance established Echo Base on the Hoth. Alliance engineers worked non-stop to adapt their technology to withstand the subzero temperature extremes of the frigid ice planet. When the technicians were unable to get the T-47s functioning in time, the Rebels domesticated the indigenous tauntaun for use as a patrol mount.
The nerve center of Echo Base was its darkened command center, where General Rieekan issued orders to the rest of his troops. Here, Alliance scanner operators carefully monitored incoming data from the scattered sensors placed by Rebel scouts in the Hoth wilderness.
Protecting Echo Base was a powerful energy shield strong enough to deflect Imperial bombardment. When the Empire arrived in the Hoth system, the Rebels erected the shield, forcing the Imperials to engage in a ground battle. The Rebels speedily evacuated the personnel and equipment they could aboard Rebel transports with starfighter escorts, offering covering fire for the fleeing ships from a massive ground-based ion cannon.
As the transports retreated, the Rebel ground forces and snowspeeder squadrons covered their escape by delaying the Imperials for as long as they could. Rebel troopers dug into snowy trenches, blasting at the incoming Imperials with turret-mounted laser cannons and blaster rifles. The Imperial walkers were unstoppable. The Rebels were routed and Echo Base was overrun.
Related: --Hoth-- --Snowspeeder-- --Rebel Alliance--
8π 2π
The Incom T-65 X-wing starfighter has become a symbol of the Rebellion's starfighter corps. Pressed into service time and again, the typical Alliance X-wing shows the scars from previous engagements, though the fact that it still performs as an advanced vessel of space superiority is indication of the ruggedness of the craft.
The sleek fuselage of the X-wing starfighter is 12.5 meters long. The long, narrow spaceframe is flanked in the aft quarter by four massive realspace engines. Each engine has an aerodynamic S-foil mounted on it. The wings not only serve as stabilizer surfaces in air travel, but also distribute deflector shield energy and serve as weapons mounts. The surface of each S-foil bears squadron and fighter markings.
Located midway through the ship is the X-wing's cockpit module. Behind the X-wing's cockpit is an astromech socket. The astromech droid provides astrogation data for the fighter's hyperdrives, and serves as a co-pilot and technician during flight. Three landing gears extend when the fighter is docked.
Related: --Rebel Alliance-- --Y-Wing Starfighter-- --A-Wing Starfighter-- --B-Wing Starfighter--
37π 13π
Growing increasingly outdated with the advent of sleeker, more powerful starfighters, the Y-wing nonetheless has a proud track record of service in the Rebel Alliance. The sturdy fighter-bomber gets its name from its shape: a reinforced central spar connects the cockpit to a cross-spar. At each end of the cross-spar rests a powerful engine nacelle, which houses the fighter's sublight and hyperdrive engines. Just aft of the cockpit module is the astromech droid socket.
The Y-wing's primary weapons are twin forward-firing laser cannons, housed in a recessed slot in the front of the cockpit module. A secondary weapon is a turret mounted paired set of cannons. Though many Y-wings fly as single-pilot fighters, some sport a two-seat configuration with a rear-facing tailgunner operating the turret canons.
The Y-wing also carries proton torpedo launchers. During the Battles of Yavin and Endor, Y-wing squadrons were influential in helping defeat the Death Star threats. A Y-wing brandishes its squadron colors and markings on its main cockpit module and the forward tips of the engine nacelles.
Related: --Rebel Alliance-- --X-Wing Starfighter-- --A-Wing Starfighter-- --Koensayr--
16π 12π