The Battle of D'Qar, which can also be called the defense of D'Qar, the D'Qar evacuation, the D'Qar siege, or the D'Qar attack, occurred in 34 ABY, during the days immediately following the Battle of Starkiller Base. This conflict was part of the broader war raging between the Resistance and the First Order. After destroying Starkiller Base, the First Order's latest superweapon, the Resistance inadvertently revealed the location of their own base. Fearing retaliatory strikes, they were compelled to leave their base on D'Qar to seek out a new operational headquarters.
Back in 34 ABY, the First Order's superweapon, known as Starkiller Base, obliterated Hosnian Prime, the capital planet of the New Republic, along with the other planets of the Hosnian system. The Resistance, under the leadership of General Leia Organa, dispatched a reconnaissance team to pinpoint the superweapon's location and relay the information back to the Resistance at their base on D'Qar. The First Order managed to trace the reconnaissance ships back to D'Qar, thereby uncovering the location of their adversaries. Upon the orders of Supreme Leader Snoke, who aimed to prevent the Resistance from locating Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and recruiting him to their cause, General Armitage Hux readied the weapon to annihilate the Resistance. With the absence of the New Republic Defense Fleet, the Resistance seemed destined for destruction.
Before the First Order could unleash the weapon, the Resistance dispatched a small strike team—former General Han Solo, his co-pilot Chewbacca, and ex-stormtrooper Finn, who had worked at Starkiller Base—to disable the shields that protected the base from destruction. Simultaneously, Commander Poe Dameron spearheaded a starfighter squadron to Starkiller Base with the intention of destroying it. The ground team was successful, even though Solo perished in the battle, and the Resistance fighters destroyed the base.
The triumphant Resistance fighters returned to D'Qar, celebrated their victory, and began planning a mission to discover Skywalker's location. The First Order, while staggered by the destruction of their weapon, still possessed the knowledge of the Resistance base's location.
Not long after Starkiller Base was obliterated, the Resistance initiated the evacuation of their D'Qar base. In the early hours of this evacuation, Organa conducted a funeral service for her late husband, Han Solo. Orbiting the planet, General Organa oversaw the Resistance fleet from the cruiser Raddus.
Concurrently with the battle of Starkiller Base, Inferno Squad members Zay Versio and Shriv Suurgav retrieved schematics for the First Order Dreadnought and intelligence concerning Project Resurrection from the Retribution. Upon their arrival amidst the evacuation, General Organa tasked Inferno Squad with rallying their allies from the Outer Rim, while also providing Commander Dameron with the schematics. Using this information, Poe was able to devise an attack strategy.
The escape was disrupted by the arrival of a First Order fleet, which consisted of three Resurgent-class Star Destroyers and one Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought, the Fulminatrix. The dreadnought immediately commenced firing on the Resistance base, but the base had been completely evacuated just in time. To allow the Resistance transports to escape, Dameron launched an attack on the dreadnought in his X-wing, despite Organa's orders against attacking the dreadnought. He eliminated its surface cannons, paving the way for a squadron of Resistance bombers to attack, despite counterattacks from the dreadnought and its TIE squadrons.
As the Fulminatrix began to aim its orbital autocannons at the Raddus, Resistance bombers approached the dreadnought, shielded by starfighters to ward off TIE fighter attacks. The resulting assault successfully destroyed the Fulminatrix, but at a significant cost. All bombers were lost, along with four of their escorting starfighters. Following the initial attack on the fleet, the Resistance was reduced to a mere 400 personnel aboard four ships. However, Dameron's attack provided sufficient time for their fleet to jump to hyperspace. Simultaneously with their escape, the Supremacy and thirty additional Star Destroyers arrived in the Oetchi system.
The battle's heavy toll resulted in General Organa's demotion of Commander Dameron to Captain, as he had defied her direct order not to proceed with the dreadnought assault after neutralizing its defenses. The Resistance was unable to completely evade the First Order due to the latter's new technology capable of tracking ships through hyperspace. Eventually, after a pursuit lasting nearly 18 hours and with critically low fuel reserves, the Resistance managed to slip away and establish a headquarters in an old Rebel outpost on the mineral planet Crait. This escape was detected by the First Order, leading to the subsequent Battle of Crait. After the departure of both the First Order and the Resistance, Team Colossus aboard the Colossus arrived and observed debris from the battle. Captain Imanuel Doza authorized a salvage mission to recover fuel from the Fulminatrix's wreckage.
Despite the Resistance's successful escape, First Order officers who were not present during the battle were informed that the Resistance had been annihilated.
The initial footage of the battle was showcased in the Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi teaser trailer on April 14, 2017. The evacuation of D'Qar was first mentioned as part of the story of Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, which was unveiled on December 15, 2017, at San Diego Comic-Con 2017. The opening bombing run sequence of the Evacuation of D'Qar drew inspiration from the World War II book Vertical Warfare, which director Rian Johnson discovered while exploring the library of Skywalker Ranch.
The comic issue Poe Dameron 28 establishes that Dameron suggested his plan to distract the First Order by flying Black One during the battle before the evacuation had even begun. Previously, the "Poe's Plan" short story and Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition had depicted Dameron as suggesting the plan after the First Order arrived over D'Qar. It is the comic's version of events that is reflected in Star Wars: Timelines. Furthermore, Poe Dameron 28 sets up the remaining issues of Star Wars: Poe Dameron, with those final issues themselves setting up the novel Resistance Reborn. As there is more canonical weight behind Poe Dameron 28, this article follows its version of events.