Around 0.5 ABY, the Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett captured a group of Rebel Alliance members that included Admiral Gial Ackbar. Fett delivered Ackbar to the Galactic Empire and sold his remaining crew into slavery to the Hutt Cartel in the city of Mos Eisley on the planet Tatooine. The Alliance responded by assigning its new elite fighting force, Renegade Squadron, created by smugglers-turned-Rebels General Han Solo and Commander Col Serra, on a mission to rescue the prisoners. The local Imperial garrison on Tatooine attempted to stop the Rebels from freeing their comrades, but Renegade Squadron rescued the prisoners. The Rebels initially believed the mission to be a success and a miraculous rescue effort on the part of Renegade Squadron.
However, Fett had placed a tracking device in an R5-series astromech droid that had accompanied Renegade Squadron on the mission, leading the Imperials to the Rebels' new base on Boz Pity. Years later, following the Empire's defeat and the formation of the New Republic, Serra recounted Renegade Squadron's Mos Eisley rescue mission to Jedi Knight Tionne Solusar for her archives.
Boba Fett's Slave I lands on Tatooine.
During the height of the Galactic Civil War around 0.5 ABY, the Rebel Alliance sent Mon Calamari Admiral Gial Ackbar to Saleucami on a scouting mission to determine if the planet was fit to host a new Alliance base after the loss of their base on Yavin 4. However, before he could reach Saleucami, Ackabar's transport was attacked by the Mandalorian bounty hunter Boba Fett, who was looking to collect the bounty on captured Rebels put up by the Galactic Empire. Fett disabled Ackbar's transport over the planet by firing laser cannons from his ship, the Slave I, upon the transport's engines, thereby destroying them. The attack killed some of Ackbar's crew, and Fett was able to capture the Mon Calamari admiral and his remaining comrades.
Soon after, Fett sold Ackbar to the Galactic Empire, and when the Rebels liberated the Admiral in a battle at Kessel, he revealed that the crew had been sold into slavery to the Hutt Cartel in Mos Eisley, a spaceport city located on the planet Tatooine. Alliance High Command dispatched the Rebellion's new unit, Renegade Squadron—a group composed of spacers and pirates formed and led by former smugglers General Han Solo and Commander Col Serra—to Tatooine in hopes of rescuing the prisoners. They were unaware that the entire scenario was actually a trap orchestrated by the Empire.
Renegade Squadron arrived at Mos Eisley aboard Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, and immediately deployed on the southern side of the city. The squadron's second-in-command, Col Serra, ordered the Renegades to go and capture the local cantina to see if anyone there would reveal information for the price of a few drinks, and to get a stronger foothold in the city. While en route to the cantina, they were ambushed by stormtroopers from the local Imperial garrison.
The Imperial garrison deploys their stormtroopers.
After fighting their way through the stormtroopers, Renegade Squadron arrived at the cantina and fought off the stormtroopers stationed there. Once they had successfully captured the building, the squadron found a Rodian with Rebel sympathies, who agreed to take them to where the prisoners were being held. The Renegades followed the Rodian across the street to a force field protected hangar owned by the Hutts, fending off additional Imperials who were trying to stop the Rodian. The Rodian identified that the hangar was were the prisoners were being held, so Solo dispatched the squadron to find and destroy the three shield generators that powered the force field to the hangar.
Although the generators were scattered around the city, Serra quickly discovered the generators' locations and uploaded the information to the squadron's tactical maps. Two generators were located in the city's southern slums, and the last was in the bantha pens on the northern side of the city. After eliminating the stormtroopers defending the generators, the Renegades rendered the generators inoperative. With the shield generators disabled, Renegade Squadron was finally able to move inside the hangar. The stormtroopers guarding the prisoners attempted to fend off the Rebels, but after a brief fight, Renegade Squadron was able to defeat them and capture the hangar.
The prisoners were locked in a small cell in the hangar, so Solo started use a fusioncutter to free them. The remainder of the Imperial garrison attempted to retake the Hutt hangar to stop Solo from freeing the slaves, but Renegade Squadron was able to hold back the Imperial assault for a few minutes while Solo finished his work. As soon as the prisoners were freed, the Imperials sent in two AT-STs to pin the group in the Hutt hangar. However, the Renegades destroyed the two walkers while the liberated Rebels made their way back to the southern slums where the Falcon was waiting for them. When all the prisoners were aboard, General Solo prepped the ship for takeoff while Commander Serra and the rest of the Squadron defended the landing site. Once the ship was ready to go, Solo ordered everyone aboard and took off, leaving Tatooine and the remaining Imperials behind.
Although the Alliance considered the mission a success and a miracle rescue, it was later learned that the entire mission was a trap. Boba Fett knew the Rebels would attempt a rescue, so he planted a tracking device on an R5-series astromech droid that had accompanied the Rebels during the mission. Fett tracked the Rebels to their new base on Boz Pity, and after a few hours, an Imperial fleet exited hyperspace over the planet, beginning an assault on the base.
Years later, after the formation of the New Republic, Jedi Knight Tionne Solusar tracked down Col Serra to ask him about Renegade Squadron for her archives. He would tell her about many of their battles and missions, including their mission to Tatooine.
The mission 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 fifth level in the game's campaign mode.