The assault on Kashyyyk took place early in the Galactic Civil War on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. The forces of the Galactic Empire assaulted the Rebel Alliance monitoring outpost that had been established in secret on the planet. The initial Imperial attack was repelled by the Rebels, forcing the Empire to initiate a second assault. This time, the Empire was successful in taking control of Kashyyyk, although some of the Rebel troops had managed to evacuate from the planet.
Some time prior to the Battle of Yavin, the Rebel Alliance had secretly developed and built a small outpost on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, doing so right under the Galactic Empire's nose. The outpost consisted of a planetary communications array for monitoring local radio traffic as well as a barracks to house a small garrison.
After a Rebel patrol squad sent into a nearby forest to perform a routine perimeter sweep disappeared, another patrol, Squad Three, was sent out to search for the lost unit. The disappearance of the Rebel squad was, in fact, part of a ploy set up by the local Imperial forces to discover the location of the hidden Rebel outpost. The Empire had deployed a communications jamming device in order to draw the Rebels out. The destruction of the device confirmed to the Imperial commander stationed there that there was indeed a Rebel presence, and an attack on the outpost was put into action immediately.
Stormtroopers assault the Rebel outpost on Kashyyyk.
After destroying the jamming device and restoring their communications abilities, all Rebel patrols were recalled in order to defend the base. When Imperial markings were discovered on the remains of the device, the commander was able to deduce that their existence had been compromised and that enemy forces were on the way. Soon afterward, an Imperial attack force consisting of TIE Maulers, stormtroopers, and All Terrain Scout Transports was able to advance upon and attack the Rebel outpost, having discovered its location. The attack was repelled, however, and the Alliance ground forces were able to move on to capture several Imperial landing zones deeper within the forest.
The Empire attacks the Rebel space station above Kashyyyk.
After the Rebels captured the final Imperial reinforcement point on the surface, the Imperial Navy sent a task force consisting of four Tartan-class patrol cruisers and two Acclamator-class assault ships plus their TIE/LN starfighter support. The Imperial ships entered the star system and destroyed the small orbiting space station, which the Rebels had occupied and refurbished only a short time before the battle; though it was still in a dilapidated state, the station was functional enough to mount a meager defense. In the orbital exchange that followed, the station, along with a Rebel EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate and several fighter and bomber squadrons, was destroyed. This action forced the Alliance to abandon Kashyyyk completely, retreating back to their base on the planet Bothawui.
In the wake of the skirmish in orbit, the Empire sent a scouting force down the planet's gravity well to reclaim Kashyyyk after the Rebel Alliance had been forced to evacuate. The surviving Rebel forces had retreated to the main Alliance Fleet, which was stationed over Bothawui at the time. The Rebel leader Mon Mothma was relieved to see that there were survivors from Kashyyyk, but she explained to them that the credit-strapped Alliance was now in dire need of new sources of income if it was to have any chance of withstanding further Imperial assaults.
The Rebels then proceeded to establish a new base on the planet Ryloth, but it was soon also discovered and subsequently overrun by an Imperial assault, thanks to data that the Empire had managed to obtain from the starship logs kept by a captured Rebel smuggler. A short time later, an Alliance Special Forces company was deployed to relieve another Rebel outpost present on the planet Tatooine, which had come under siege by the Imperial Navy and Army.
This battle is one of two combat training levels in the real-time strategy video game Star Wars: Empire at War, developed by Petroglyph and published by LucasArts in 2006.
Occasionally, the player can be given 10,000 credits at the start of the Space combat training level. This allows the player to construct a Level 3 Space Station and supplant their given forces with additional Victory-class Star Destroyers and TIE Scouts. The player can even upgrade their Space Station to Level 4 and construct Immobiliser 418 cruisers and TIE Defenders, if done in the Forces of Corruption expansion.