This battle occurred during the Galactic Civil War, shortly before the Battle of Endor. The battle started when Renegade Squadron—the Rebel Alliance's elite fighting unit founded by General Han Solo—attacked the Sith planet of Korriban. Under Commander Col Serra, Renegade Squadron hoped to capture data regarding the Galactic Empire's second Death Star from Emperor Palpatine, while he was visiting Korriban. After a brief engagement with Imperial forces, Renegade Squadron was able to capture a data holocron from the Emperor's shuttle. The Korriban battle was considered to be one of the most dangerous and challenging that Renegade Squadron had ever faced, and Serra would later recount the conflict to Jedi archivist Tionne Solusar, years after the fall of the Empire.
During the Galactic Civil War, soon after the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon and the rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, the Rebel Alliance began to plan their assault on the newly discovered second Death Star that was stationed over the forest moon of Endor. To do this, the Alliance needed to gather more intelligence about the Imperial superweapon. Commander Col Serra, the second-in-command of Renegade Squadron—an elite fighting squadron composed of smugglers and spacers founded by the recently appointed general, Han Solo—offered an idea. Emperor Palpatine, Dark Lord of the Sith and the Imperial ruler of the galaxy, was due to make a pilgrimage to the Sith tomb world of Korriban. Serra believed that the Sith Lord was likely carrying at least some information concerning the Death Star, so the Alliance planned to lure the Emperor into a trap and contain him while they stole his secret data.
Renegade Squadron's troops near the Sith academy
Renegade Squadron landed on Korriban in the Valley of the Dark Lords near the ancient Sith academy shortly before Palpatine touched down. Serra quickly put his plan into action, and ordered his unit to capture the old Sith academy and the communications station in order to stop the Imperial garrison from warning Palpatine of the Rebel threat. Serra knew that the Sith Lord had most likely already sensed Renegade Squadron, but he hoped that Palpatine would think they were a too insignificant a threat to worry about, and that his stormtroopers would be able to take care of the Rebels.
After the Rebels had captured the academy, the Imperial soldiers regrouped for a counter-attack against the invaders while the Emperor entered the atmosphere of Korriban in his Lambda-class shuttle. After Palpatine landed, the stormtroopers launched a large wave of attacks to cripple Renegade Squadron, but the Rebels were able to hold out and push the Imperial forces back to the nearby tombs. In order to obtain a stronger foothold, Commander Serra ordered his men to capture the Sith tombs, and as Renegade Squadron surged forward, the Imperials were slowly pushed back deeper into the tombs. After some brief fighting, Serra's men were able to capture the small atrium room, along with two of the three main entrances to the tombs. The Imperials still held the larger room next to the atrium, which contained all of the valuable Sith artifacts, and the small in-ground enclosure behind the tombs that contained the landing pad onto which Palpatine's shuttle had landed.
Serra decided to carry out the second part of his plan, which was necessary if the Alliance wanted to capture the information. The Rebels planned to trap the Emperor inside the Sith burial chambers by luring him inside and then destroying the three entrances. Serra had already managed to place explosives at all three entrances prior to Palpatine's landing, and now sent a member of Renegade Squadron to go and set them. The first two were set with relative ease, for they were located in the atrium that the Alliance had already captured. The last set of explosives were difficult, since they had been placed in the back entrance that connected the Imperial control main room and the shuttle landing pad. There were two means of approach to the explosives—one course led through the tombs, and the second through the small cave system that led to Palpatine's landing site—both of which contained many Imperial troops. Renegade Squadron was able to successfully set the explosives and continue with their plan.
To lure the Emperor inside the tombs, Serra ordered his men to destroy several ancient and valuable Sith artifacts scattered all around the main room of the tomb; he believed the wreckage would anger the Sith Lord and cause him to come inside the tombs and save the priceless relics. Renegade Squadron then began to push farther up into the main room, using their blasters and grenades. To further enrage Palpatine, they blew up the biggest and most valuable Sith artifact, a large statue of a hooded figure, set in the middle of the tomb using a detpack. Furious, Palpatine came charging into the tomb, killing a Mon Calamari Rebel vanguard and any other of the other Rebels he saw with Force lightning. Renegade Squadron was unable to harm Palpatine for he had created a strong Force barrier around him that none of their attacks could penetrate, but this was of little matter as the Emperor was now inside the tombs.
This played right into Serra's plan, and now Renegade Squadron could finally spring the trap. Serra ordered the remaining members of Renegade Squadron out of the tombs, and as soon as everyone was out safely, he set off all three explosives. The doors caved in, momentarily trapping the Emperor and most of his forces inside the tomb. Aware that the rocks would not hold a strong Force-sensitive like Palpatine for long, Serra told Renegade Squadron to get the data holocron that he had located inside Palpatine's shuttle.
Traveling through the cave system to the landing site, the Rebels encountered the few Imperial troops that had not been trapped with Palpatine. The Imperials tried to defend the holocron; nevertheless, a member of Renegade Squadron managed to retrieve it from the shuttle and ran it back to the LAAT gunship waiting for him at the evacuation zone. When the Rebel carrying the holocron returned, Serra quickly looked over the data, and his search revealed that the Emperor was planning to go to the Endor system to oversee the final construction work on the Death Star. Serra stated that maybe the Alliance could kill two birds with one stone by destroying the Death Star and the Emperor all at once. The surviving members of Renegade Squadron quickly left Korriban and the Valley of the Dark Lords after everyone was safely aboard the evacuation ships.
Renegade Squadron soon returned to the Alliance fleet and gave the holocron to Mon Mothma, one of the founders of the Rebel movement. It revealed to the Alliance important information about the second Death Star and that the Emperor had made a crucial mistake in his plans. However, this was actually a trick devised by Palpatine to draw the Rebel Alliance into his own trap, and it would later become known as the Battle of Endor. The Alliance would succeed, however, and the Death Star would be destroyed along with the Emperor himself.
Renegade Squadron and Commander Serra would be ordered to Sullust shortly before the attack on the second Death Star, to distract the Imperial fleet and draw them away from Endor. This would be a useless gesture, as the Empire was not fooled, and instead sent the bounty hunter/assassin droid IG-88 to stop Renegade Squadron.
Years after the Battle of Endor and the rise of the New Republic, Jedi archivist Tionne Solusar tracked down Serra to ask him about Renegade Squadron for her archives. Serra described to her many of their battles, including the ambush at Korriban.
The battle made its first and only appearance in the video game Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron, which recounts the various battles and exploits of Renegade Squadron during the Galactic Civil War. The battle itself makes up the ninth level in the game's campaign mode.