Laakteen Depot, located just off the Giju Run hyperlane in the Colonies region, was a pirate base and later the Rebel Alliance's closest outpost to the planet Fondor early during the Galactic Civil War against the Galactic Empire. The Rebellion fought nearly a year to win Laakteen Depot, capturing the base through the efforts of ace starship mechanic Kufra Ahara and the Sanjin Green Hawks.
Six months after the Battle of Yavin and the loss of the Empire's Death Star battlestation, the Super Star Destroyer Executor destroyed Laakteen Depot during the ship's maiden voyage as a deliberate show of Imperial military might. By annihilating the Rebel base with his newly completed warship, the Dark Lord Darth Vader intended to demonstrate to the galaxy the Empire's supremacy.
Laakteen Depot was an outpost located on the planetoid known as Laakteen, which sat near the Giju Run hyperlane in the Colonies region. The outpost consisted of a series of interconnected domed structures. By the era of the Galactic Civil War, while controlled by the Alliance to Restore the Republic, Laakteen Depot housed a defense shield and at least one large gun emplacement.
Laakteen Depot was constructed as early as circa 53 BBY, some twenty years before Palpatine's ascension to Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. Around that time, Laakteen Depot played host to an incident in which the Bando Gora, a criminal cult of Force-worshipers, planned to kill the humanoid Iram Radique. One of the cultists, Artagan Truax, betrayed the Bando Gora and rescued Radique from them. Radique later established himself as a clandestine weapons dealer within the Cog Hive Seven prison, where he protected Truax from the Bando Gora's wrath.
By the beginnings of the Galactic Civil War between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance, Laakteen Depot served as a pirate base. At some point before the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion captured Laakteen Depot after nearly a year of fighting. Modifications performed by Murachaun ace starship mechanic Kufra Ahara helped the Sanjin Green Hawks to take the outpost, which became the Rebellion's closest military base to the planet Fondor, home to one of the galaxy's foremost shipyards.
Darth Vader christened the Executor with the destruction of the Rebel base at Laakteen Depot.
In 0.5 ABY, six months after the Battle of Yavin, the Fondor Shipyards completed construction of the Empire's new Super Star Destroyer and the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader's personal flagship, the Executor. On the warship's maiden voyage, Vader formally christened the Executor by annihilating the Rebellion's nearest installation, Laakteen Depot, in a tremendous show of force.
Laakteen Depot's destruction was both political and military in nature. Vader intended to demonstrate to the Rebels and the galaxy that the Alliance's victory over the Empire's Death Star battlestation at the Battle of Yavin was pure chance and that the Executor was unstoppable. In their final moments, as the Executors attack shattered the base's defense shield, the Rebels of Laakteen Depot sent a frantic warning to the main Rebel base on the moon Yavin 4 that Vader's new warship was closing in, forcing the Rebellion to scramble to evacuate its Yavin headquarters.
Laakteen Depot first appeared in the Revenge of the Jedi comic strip, written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Al Williamson. Revenge of the Jedi was originally published by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate as a newspaper serial comic from November 1982 to January 1983. Its stories told the events that took place between the films Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. In the comic, Laakteen Depot serves to introduce the operational status and might of the Executor, Darth Vader's newly completed Super Star Destroyer.
Several continuity errors regarding Laakteen Depot arose in subsequent source material. The 2000 A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded mistakenly states that Laakteen Depot was a Rebel Alliance outpost around the time of the Battle of Endor, while the 2005 first issue of the Star Wars: The Official Figurine Collection magazine states that Darth Vader destroyed Laakteen Depot prior to the Battle of Yavin. Additionally, The Official Star Wars Fact File 47 credits the Executors maiden voyage and destruction of Laakteen Depot to Admiral Amise Griff, an Imperial character who figures prominently in the storyline but who does not command the Executor during its maiden voyage in the Revenge of the Jedi comic strip. Finally, both the 2009 reference book The Essential Atlas and the 2014 novel Maul: Lockdown misspell the subject as "Lakteen."
- A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded
- Star Wars Encyclopedia
- A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded
- The Official Star Wars Fact File19
- The Official Star Wars Fact File47
- Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds
- Star Wars: The Official Figurine Collection 1
- Star Wars: The Comics Companion
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
- The Essential Atlas
- The Essential Guide to Warfare