The Leafar were a group operating out of the Leafar system and involved in merchant shipping activities. Not long after the Battle of Yavin, their defiance against the Galactic Empire began to grow. The Empire retaliated by deploying the _Imperial_-class Star Destroyer Badi Dea to assault their transport fleets. However, the Alliance to Restore the Republic intervened, initially dispatching a squadron of five X-wing starfighters to safeguard Leafar shipments, thus thwarting the Imperial ambush. The Alliance defended three distinct Leafar ship groups and summoned reinforcements as the conflict escalated. Subsequently, the Leafar provided the Alliance with valuable information regarding a new shield technology being developed by the Empire.
The Leafar were a group that held sway over the Leafar system, situated within the Greater Plooriod Cluster of the Expansion Region. Their business revolved around merchant shipping. A short time after the destruction of the first Death Star above Yavin 4 in 0 ABY, their resistance against the Galactic Empire intensified. As a consequence, the Empire sent the Badi Dea, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer, to a crucial Leafar transfer point close to their system, with the intention of obliterating numerous Leafar merchant vessels. Without knowledge of the Imperial presence, a Leafar convoy consisting of five passenger CR90 corvettes from the Yavin Express group, three cargo BFF-1 bulk freighters from the Cargo-Go group, and seven Lambda-class shuttles from the Lambda group began their emergence from hyperspace at the transfer point.
However, instead of the Imperial forces lying in wait, the Leafar encountered an ongoing battle: five T-65 X-wing starfighters from the Alliance to Restore the Republic were engaging TIE/Advanced starfighters and TIE/sa bombers from the Badi Dea. Having learned of the Leafar's growing rebellion, the leadership of the Rebel Alliance, hoping to secure a new ally, had dispatched Keyan Farlander and four other pilots from Red Squadron to the Leafar waypoint. With the arrival of the Leafar convoy, the Imperial bombers shifted their focus to the merchant ships, prompting Farlander to prioritize the destruction of the bombers while his wingmates fended off the TIE Advanced fighters.
Recognizing the significant Imperial threat, the Rebels requested reinforcements, with two RZ-1 A-wing interceptors from Gold Squadron arriving several minutes into the engagement. Thirteen minutes later, the MC80 Star Cruiser Maria Maria and the EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate Whitehawk arrived, deploying additional starfighters. The combined Rebel forces managed to withstand multiple waves of Imperial starfighters long enough for the majority of the Leafar convoy to escape, before withdrawing themselves. Of the total Leafar ships, at least three corvettes, two freighters, and four shuttles successfully evaded the ambush.
Following this attack, the Leafar were able to provide the Rebel Alliance with intelligence they had gathered on Imperial plans. The Alliance had captured several TIE/Advanced starfighters equipped with a new shield technology, and the Leafar knew this was being developed for use with larger starships, such as Corellian corvettes. After receiving this information, the Alliance eventually succeeded in capturing the prototype corvette Blade 5 Blade 5, using it to ram the bridges of numerous Star Destroyers as part of Operation Ram's Head.
The Leafar were conceived for Star Wars: X-Wing Tour of Duty: Imperial Pursuit, the initial expansion pack for the award-winning computer game Star Wars: X-Wing, developed by LucasArts and launched in 1994. The Leafar were integral to two missions undertaken by the player as Keyan Farlander. In the first, their convoy is under attack, and in the second, they are only referenced in the framing narrative.
X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM: The Official Strategy Guide, published in 1995 by Prima Games, furnished players with walkthroughs of the relevant missions, presented as Farlander's mission reports. Therefore, while it is theoretically possible for a player to complete the mission before the arrival of the Maria and Whitehawk, canonically Farlander did not. There is no definitive number of Leafar starships that survived, but a minimum of nine—three corvettes, two freighters, and four shuttles—are required for the mission to be successful.
Although the Leafar control a star system and are an entity capable of joining the Rebel Alliance, it remains unclear whether they are a species, a culture, or an organization. Until canonical clarification, this article will treat them as a generic organization.