The Alderaan Enclave was a compound that lay deep beneath the surface of the volcanic planet Sullust. The Enclave was built by a group of Alderaanians after they emigrated from their homeworld of Alderaan and bought the land from the native Sullustans. The Alderaanians had originally come to provide culture and education to the native population, but the enclave became a sanitarium after Alderaan was destroyed by the Galactic Empire to test their Death Star's capabilities. Preserver Jora Astane was the leader of the Alderaanians on Sullust after Alderaan was destroyed.
Princess Leia Organa, as an ambassador for the Rebel Alliance, came to the compound not long after Alderaan's destruction to gather and protect the survivors of the Disaster. However, an unknowing spy in Organa's company, in the form of the Alderaanian girl Tace, leaked their position to the Empire, who sent an Imperial strike team to kill the Alderaanians; but they were beaten by Organa's team and a herd of rockrenders who caused significant damage to the compound. Preserver Astane and her people subsequently joined Organa on her quest and evacuated the compound with the help of the Sullustan smuggler Nien Nunb.
One of the compound's command centers
The Alderaan Enclave was a series of cave systems located deep underneath the surface of the volcanic planet Sullust, and south of the Mayjein Eruption. The compound consisted of several large chambers, one of which was very large and housed several structures built in an Alderaanian architectural style around a series of magma pools. A command center was located near the roof of the cave in an alcove overlooking the buildings where the leader of the Alderaanian cloister, Preserver Jora Astane—whose responsibility it was to preserve what was left of Alderaan's culture—and other technicians, including Bornae and Astane's assistant Covis, monitored the traffic of people in-and-out of the compound.
There was more than one entrance into the Enclave; one entrance, auxiliary hatch three, was sealed from the inside, and had a long tunnel leading from outside the compound into an antechamber. The Alderaanians were obsessed with security because of the Empire's ruthlessness and, as such, there was more than one surveillance room that contained holoprojectors, datascreens, and weapons caches. But the biggest of them all was the Eyewell; the Eyewell spiraled downward farther underground, and was located just beneath the Preserver's command center. It housed several dozen computer stations that were manned and monitored by Alderaanians who used the security equipment to oversee the Enclave, the surface of Sullust, and even Sullust's moon.
The entire complex was built over a mine called Mine 3601. A natural waterway carved its way through the mine, along with a river of magma. After the Enclave was finished and the Alderaanians moved in, the mine and waterway became polluted with debris and waste from the complex. A herd of rockrenders, large orange-colored cave-dwelling beasts, lived in the mine, surviving off of mineral deposits located in the caves.
Organa, Verlaine, and Artoo are escorted into the enclave
The Alderaan Enclave was built in a large cave system south of the Mejien Eruption by a group of Alderaanians sometime during the reign of the Galactic Empire. The Alderaanians that constructed the Enclave pooled their wealth to buy the land from the native Sullustans in the hopes of remaining hidden from the Imperials who had a presence on the planet mining minerals and manufacturing Imperial weapons and war machines in the SoruSuub Centroplex weapons factory. The inhabitants of the enclave constructed many buildings and expanded on several caves to increase the enclave in size. They had emigrated to Sullust in the hopes of providing cultural services, arts, education, and food to the local population.
During the Galactic Civil War, the Alderaanian homeworld of Alderaan was destroyed by the Empire to test their ultimate weapon, the Death Star. Alderaan's Princess, Leia Organa, had been forced to watch her homeworld be destroyed. Therefore, she undertook a mission to rescue the survivors of Alderaan throughout the galaxy; albeit, against direct orders from her superiors in the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
The inhabitants of the compound became paranoid after the destruction of their homeworld, as the Empire was hunting down Alderaanians. Therefore, they stepped up security and cut off communications outside the compound. A native Sullustan smuggler named Tivvy even claimed that the Alderaanians had gone insane in their plight to remain hidden. Organa, her pilot Evaan Verlaine, and her astromech droid R2-D2, arrived on Sullust and landed on the surface near the enclave in a T-1 shuttle. They engaged Tivvy who led them into the compound through the enclave's auxiliary hatch three. Their arrival was noticed by Preserver Jora Astane who recognized the Princess; however, she considered Organa a traitor for suspiciously surviving the destruction of Alderaan, so the Preserver ordered a rifle squad to apprehend the Princess. Organa and her team soon overpowered the squad and were escorted to the Preserver deeper into the compound. The two parties came to a distrustful agreement and Astane took them on a tour of the enclave, eventually making their way to the Eyewell.
Word came while they were in the Eyewell that an Imperial cruiser was nearby and had dispatched a Sentinel-class landing craft to storm the compound, the signal of which had been intercepted by Covis as having originated from the T-1 shuttle—in reality, the message was between two sisters: Tace and Tula. Tace had been keeping in contact with her sister in order for their pair to meet up, but Tula, however, had other plans—she had become an Imperial officer and inclined to capture Organa on the behest of Commander Dreed, her superior officer on the Star Destroyer she was stationed. Astane ordered her subordinates to kill Organa and her team, but she and Verlaine fled into the Eyewell; prompting the Preserver to order her squads to hold their fire in fear of damaging the equipment and computers. Organa utilized one computer to send a message to the Lord Junn, a starship that was holding the Melodic Order, a group of Alderaanian musicians Organa had recently rescued from Naboo, was in orbit over Sullust. Then, the Imperial landing craft touched-down and its stormtrooper platoon began drilling through the ground into the enclave.
Stormtroopers rappel into the compound
Organa, Artoo, and Verlaine fled through the bottom of the Eyewell to Mine 3601. They were distraught with the pollution and mess the Alderaanians had made. The Preserver expected the Imperial troops to invade through auxiliary hatch three and stationed her troops there. Instead, the stormtroopers forged a hole in the ceiling above where the troops were stationed and repelled through into the chamber while firing on the Alderaanians. Meanwhile, Artoo piloted a repulsorcraft and shot off down a cavern and began herding several rockrenders through the cavern wall and into the chamber where the fighting was. The imposing rockrenders had no trouble plowing through the wall and eating the stormtroopers whose armor possessed minerals they consumed. Soon, the Imperials were all dead, the rockrenders left, and Astane pledged herself to Princess Leia. Immediately after, the Alderaanians, with the help of another Sullustan smuggler named Nien Nunb, fled Sullust.
The Alderaan Enclave first appeared in Princess Leia 3, the third issue of Marvel Comics five-part miniseries written by Mark Waid, with art by Terry Dodson. The issue was published on April 29, 2015 after a two-week delay. The miniseries was written with input from the Lucasfilm Story Group.
The "Alderaan Enclave" was never spoken by any character in the issue. It was identified only as the "compound" or the "enclave" in dialogue. However, out-of-universe narrator text identified it as the Alderaan Enclave early on in the issue.
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