Evacuation of Yavin 4

Nineteen years after Sheev Palpatine's rise to emperorship, on a day that was later marked as the start of a new calendar system, the Rebels of the Alliance to Restore the Republic launched an attack on the Galactic Empire's Death Star battle station from their headquarters at the Great Temple, on the fourth moon of Yavin. They managed to destroy the planet-killing battle station, dealing the Empire a major blow. Although there had been casualties, the Alliance happily celebrated their victory. The morning after the battle, two heroes of the battle, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, were awarded the Medal of Bravery during a ceremony presided by Princess Leia Organa of the Alliance, who was instrumental to the rebellion, and whose homeworld of Alderaan had been destroyed by the Death Star.

As soon as the award ceremony was over, General Jan Dodonna addressed the assembled Rebels, telling them that the base should be evacuated immediately for fear of Imperial retaliation. All rebel fleets arrived in order to assist with the evacuation, and each Rebel was assigned a station for dismantling and transporting, while some were charged with scouting for potential outposts. Solo and Chewbacca also prepared to depart from the rebels, but they ultimately agreed to carry out the Cyrkon Extraction at Organa's request.

Meanwhile, Dodonna began working to find a planet or moon to serve as a new secret base of operations. Against the general's order, Princess Leia Organa left the base under the cover of darkness with a compatriot and fellow Alderaanian, Evaan Verlaine of the Rebel Alliance Starfighter Corps. Together, they undertook an unsanctioned mission to rescue their fellow Alderaanians who had survived the destruction of their home planet. When Organa came back alone, Verlaine having remained behind with the newly assembled Alderaan Flotilla, the evacuation of Yavin 4 was still ongoing. Lieutenant Myra Talcon was stationed in the base's command center and helped oversee secruity efforts as starships were stocked and departed.

The Imperial retaliation strike Dodonna had feared did happen. Several Imperial-class Star Destroyers, stormtroopers, and Viper probe droids were involved in the Imperial retaliation strike. The Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader also took part. An experienced , which was reinforced by Rebel troopers sent by Talcon as the battle continued, protected the outside before needing to move into the base. According to a tale told by Wild Space cartographer Emil Graf, while most of the Alliance personnel were still inside the Great Temple, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer and a contingent of TIE/ln fighters appeared in the sky of Yavin 4 and started attacking the site. According to Graf, Evaan Verlaine and a few Alliance troopers manage to infiltrate the Star Destroyer and incapacitate its crew. However, the controls were locked, and the capital ship was programmed to shoot at the Great Temple at full power after five minutes. As the troopers could not bypass the security protocols, Verlaine decided to handle things herself. She ran to the Star Destroyer's hangar, boarded a Raider-class corvette she found there, and took off.

Once in the atmosphere, she programmed the corvette to ram into the Star Destroyer before quickly escaping in a life pod. At first, it seemed that her plan had failed, since the capital ship did not change course. However, when the Star Destroyer finally fired, it turned out that it had moved just enough to deviate the blast slightly to the right. It hit a mountain behind the Temple, blowing off its summit and creating the "Flat Mountain of Yavin" in the process. Even though the Empire eventually regained control of the Star Destroyer, Verlaine's audacity and quick thinking allowed the Alliance to complete their evacuation. The experienced squad eventually fled aboard its small freighter and escaped Yavin 4's atmosphere alongside the medium transport Freedom Fighter. In space, both ships were faced by an Imperial Star Destroyer that was pulling in another rebel transport. As the destroyer was not focused on them, both rebel ships escaped into hyperspace.

Not long after the Rebel evacuation, the Empire began scouring the Great Temple in hopes of finding out where the Rebels had gone. As punishment for failing to stop an attack on the Tarkin Initiative laboratory on Eadu, Imperial Captain Magna Tolvan was tasked with leading that mission on Grand General Cassio Tagge's order. The captain's efforts, however, were greatly disturbed by the presence of the rogue archaeologist Chelli Aphra and her team. Ultimately, Tolvan and her men did not find anything of interest left behind in the Great Temple, just as Tagge had expected.

A bit later, however, the Rebels realized that, in their haste to evacuate, they had neglected to destroy some of their data centers completely. Suspecting that the Imperials might be on their way to retrieve the secrets of the Alliance, Colonel Jennica Pierce ordered her Tatooinian agent to return to Yavin 4 and destroy the data before it fell in the Empire's hands. When the agent and their partner Saponza arrived at the former Rebel site, the Empire was already there, having massed forces and set up operations all over the moon. Despite the sheer number of Imperial troops opposing them, the Rebel operatives managed to destroy the data centers in time.

After that, the Empire left Yavin 4, which remained largely untouched until after the Battle of Endor, when it was settled by colonists. In the years that followed the evacuation, the Rebels headquartered themselves in Echo Base on the snow planet Hoth and later on the small planet 5251977.

The evacuation of Yavin was first mentioned in the opening crawl of Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and it made its first canonical appearance in the 2015 comic, Princess Leia 1.

In the 2017 video game Star Wars Battlefront II, a multiplayer mode in Galactic Assault depicts the evacuation. As the base's evacuation neared completion, an Imperial brigade lead by Colonel Brenna landed on Yavin 4 and attacked the Rebels, hoping to obtain their data banks. They were met with resistance from Alliance Major Shin and his troops, who attempted to hold them off while the last of anything valuable to the Empire was evacuated, including the data banks.

The evacuation of Yavin is depicted in the 2017 Star Wars: Imperial Assault companion app Legends of the Alliance. However, the way the game's squad is involved in the event differs between the game's tutorial and the "Flight of the Freedom Fighter" campaign. In particular, the "Flight of the Freedom Fighter version starts in a larger area of the base parameter, while the tutorial involves the player entering a larger portion of the base as the mission carries on. This article does not assume which depiction of the squad's involvement in the evacuation is canonical. Details both versions share or details mentioned that do not contradict from the overall depictions will be assumed as canonical, however.

In the game's tutorial, the mission starts with a message from Lieutenant Myra Talcon, who welcomes an experienced squad to a new phase of the Galactic Civil War. The squad is assigned to patrol the boundaries around the Great Temple to keep an eye out for any incoming Imperial forces while the evacuation carries on. Somehow managing to sneak past the Alliance's sensors, a squad of stormtroopers ambush the rebel team and attack. While the squad manages to wipe out the stormtroopers, Talcon—staying in contact with the squad via comlink and monitoring the incident from the base's command center—deduces more Imperials will be arriving and thus unlocks the base gate, allowing the squad to fall back to a courtyard. Talcon further declares the evacuation will need to be sped up. Their defeat of the stormtroopers did, however, convince Talcon of the squad's previous exploits.

Upon entering the courtyard, which contains a door that leads into the base, the squad is ambushed by two Viper probe droids that hover over the courtyard fence, leading to a fight in which blaster fire from the probe droids damages the door terminal. The squad manages to destroy both droids. Under orders from Talcon, the squad retreats into the base to help the evacuation after repairing the terminal. Inside and near a docking bay, the squad finds the hectic evacuation effort that has resulted in rebels running about, moving critical supplies to the evacuation ships, and a mess of spare parts and other supply crates being spread around the room. In particular, one crate carries some of the Rebellion's always valuable medical supplies. At that moment, however, Imperial forces under Darth Vader himself breach the base via the docking bay and several imposing Imperials arrive at the squad's location, just as Talcon tries to warn them. The Imperials have the chance to enter the squad's hanger bay if not stopped. When several rebel guards ambush the Imperial force from behind, Vader elects to deal with the guards after deflecting their blasts and orders two Emperor's Royal Guards to attack the squad, who are rushed by both before they have a chance to react.

The squad manages to take out both, impressing Talcon, who orders them to flee to the transport with whatever nearby supplies they can find. At this time, Talcon knows the incident is a losing battle. With the assistance of Rebel troopers dispatched by Talcon, the squad takes out a randomized Imperial force under the command of an Imperial officer. The squad also collects the last of the nearby supplies, including foodstuff from one crate, a medpac from the medical crate, and a supply card for the player from another. The rebel team flees to its small freighter, with the arriving with their arms full of supplies. Escaping from Yavin 4 alongside the medium transport Freedom Fighter, the two ships are confronted by an Imperial-class Star Destroyer. However, the Star Destroyer is focused on pulling in a different transport, so the squad's transport and the Freedom Fighter are able to escape into hyperspace. With this, the game allows the player to continue from here into the "Flight of the Freedom Fighter" campaign.

If the player starts the "Flight of the Freedom Fighter" campaign without the tutorial, the evacuation of Yavin 4 mission, called "Under Assault", picks up after most transports have fled the moon, with the player's squad remaining to provide security for those ships still being loaded with supplies. The squad carries out parameter sweeps around the temple to look for any Imperial troops that sneak past the sensors or any lookouts. Just as another circuit around the Temple ends and the squad begins to share patrol notes, the player hears and spots a Viper probe droid from the nearby overgrowth, with two other Viper probes emerging from the tree line before the rebel can fire at the first. Upon reporting the droids' arrival, Talcon orders the squad to destroy all three, lest they report back to their ship and give the Empire a landing zone. After the battle, which ends with the Probes destroyed and the rebels thereby securing more time for themselves, the base detects several incoming Imperial-class Star Destroyers. Talcon is certain more Imperials are coming.

Just as Talcon predicted, a number of randomized Imperial troops rush at the base from the forest with their weapons hot. At this time, the rebels are finishing loading up the last of the evacuation transports. Under orders from Talcon to hold off the Imperials for as long as they can, with the option to flee back into the base should they take too many losses, the rebel squad fights with the Imperials with the aid of three Rebel troopers. Those three ran out to help, with the door closing behind them. Despite what Talcon said, the door remains locked for the player. After the rebels take out that Imperial force, they are repeatedly ambushed by stormtrooper squads but hold the line while a growing number of transports escape. In hard mode, more randomized Imperial forces also attack during this time. Although Talcon ordered the squad to stand strong as they fought the stormtroopers, she allows the squad to retreat into the base if they need the supplies, opening the door to a room where the squad finds two crates accidentally left behind in the chaotic evacuation: one contains two medpacks and 25 credits, the other contains supply cards for the player.

More rebel troopers also rush out to help, granting the player a maximum of three once again. Talcon again orders the squad to hold off the Imperial assault as long as possible, with the opened door granting the player relative safety as well, should they need to fall back. Inside the room is another door that leads into the base, which remains locked and is to be defended from the Imperials. The squad is repeatedly ambushed by more stormtrooper squads, each of which is taken out. However, an imposing figure then emerges from the haze and smoke left from blaster fire, with his red lightsaber revealing to the rebels it is nonother than Darth Vader, who the rebels realize they will be unable to defeat. In hard mode, Vader is joined by two randomized Imperial groups that the rebels can take out. At this point, only two transports are yet to flee the base. The rebels try to stand strong: while unable to kill Vader, the rebels hold on and hold Vader off as the last two ships escape, even though the rebels become fatigued by the jungle heat. In hard mode, it is instead noted the stress of the battle is getting to the team.

Once the last ship escapes, the squad members and any surviving rebel troops with them flee into the base and make it to their waiting ship. The squad's small freighter takes off as the last of the team gets on, joining the Freedom Fighter while flying out of the atmosphere. Upon escaping, they are faced by an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, but the destroyer is focused on pulling in another rebel transport. As such, the squad's transport and the Freedom Fighter can escape to lightspeed. The surviving rebel troopers, grateful for the squad's role in keeping them alive, are free to join the next mission. The game states it is thanks to the player's "heroic efforts" that the last of the rebel transports had a chance to fly out before the Empire arrived.

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