In
current
Star
Wars
canon,
the
plot
to
steal
the
Death
Star’s
technical
plans
is
incredibly
straight
forward:
it’s
Rogue
One:
A
Star
Wars
Story,
the
tale
of
Galen
Erso’s
sacrifice
and
the
ragtag
team
that
swooped
down
to
Scarif
and
gave
their
lives
to
ensure
that
data
fell
into
Rebel
hands.
But
in
the
expanded
universe,
one
of
Star
Wars’
most
legendary
games
set
the
stage
for
a
much
larger,
more
complicated
process.
Dark
Forces,
released
in
1995—and
re-released
this
week
with
a
new
remaster
across
PC
and
consoles—was
one
of
the
first
slices
of
Star
Wars
gaming,
alongside
the
flight
sim
X-Wing
a
couple
years
prior,
to
let
gamers
live
out
an
incredible
dream:
as
Kyle
Katarn,
be
the
hero
to
swipe
the
Death
Star
plans
from
under
the
Empire’s
nose,
and
set
the
stage
for
the
events
to
come
in
A
New
Hope.
The
problem
is,
in
the
years
since,
“steal
the
Death
Star
plans!”
became
just
as
buzzy
a
video
game
fantasy
as
“play
the
battle
of
Hoth!”
or
“become
a
Jedi!”—and
as
the
Expanded
Universe
kept,
well,
expanding,
version
after
version
of
the
plot
to
steal
the
Death
Star
plans
kept
getting
told,
and
needed
to
all
interconnect
in
some
logical
way.
The
result
was
Operation
Skyhook:
after
learning
of
the
existence
of
the
Death
Star
while
it
was
still
under
construction,
Alliance
leadership
tasked
a
series
of
raids
and
intelligence
operations
designed
to
acquire
information,
and
ultimately
liberate
technical
data,
relating
to
the
battlestation’s
superstructure,
and
any
indicators
of
weakness
that
could
be
exploited.
Playing
out
across
over
a
decade
of
video
games,
comics,
and
books—and
of
course
culminating
in
the
events
of
A
New
Hope—Skyhook
was
the
scattered
story
of
how
the
Alliance
won
its
first
key
victory
against
the
Galactic
Empire.
The
Death
Star
didn’t
hatch
entirely
from
the
mind
of
Palpatine;
a
planet-sized
superweapon
had
been
theorized
for
years
even
before
the
the
climax
of
the
Clone
War
and
the
establishment
of
the
Galactic
Empire
gave
the
now-Emperor
the
means
and
desire
to
construct
such
a
weapon.
Early
ideas
for
a
planetary
battle
station
were
developed
by
Raith
Sienar,
a
scion
of
Santhe/Sienar
Technologies.
After
discovering
Sienar’s
design
plans
for
an
“Expeditionary
Battle
Planetoid,”
Wilhulff
Tarkin—a
Republic
military
official
and
close
confidant
of
now-Chancellor
Palpatine
in
the
wake
of
Valorum’s
ousting—presented
the
plans
to
the
Chancellor,
who,
in
his
dual
identity
as
Palpatine
and
Sidious,
began
quietly
enacting
plans
to
iterate
on
the
design
and
set
the
stage
for
its
eventual
construction.
It
was
Palpatine’s
separatist
allies
in
the
Geonosians
who
would
ultimately
refine
Sienar’s
plans
into
a
feasible
superweapon,
with
their
battle
plans
secured
by
Count
Dooku
on
Geonosis
during
the
outbreak
of
the
Clone
War,
who
returned
the
plans
to
his
master
on
Coruscant.
As
the
Clone
Wars
came
to
an
end
three
years
later—and
the
Republic
gave
way
to
Palpatine’s
Empire—the
plans
for
the
Death
Star
were
brought
out
of
Palpatine’s
personal
veil
of
secrecy
and
enacted
as
one
of
the
first
great
works
of
the
new
regime.
Constructed
in
shadow,
the
need
to
avoid
potential
insurgent
activity
from
discovering
the
weapon
prior
to
its
completion,
the
plans
were
split
up
into
various
files
and
distributed
across
Imperial
research
stations
and
facilities
across
the
galaxy,
in
the
hopes
that
a
single
breach
would
uncover
Palpatine’s
plans.
The
Death
Star
was
constructed
over
the
course
of
the
next
few
decades
and
kept
under
wraps—until
a
moment
of
hubris
set
the
stage
for
Operation
Skyhook
to
begin.
The
signing
of
the
Corellian
Treaty
in
2BBY
officially,
formally
established
the
Alliance
to
Restore
the
Republic
underneath
Senators
Mon
Mothma,
Bail
Organa,
and
Garm
Bel
Iblis,
themselves
leaders
of
multiple
resistance
groups
working
against
the
the
Empire.
Through
the
deception
of
Palpatine
and
his
apprentice,
Darth
Vader,
the
meeting
was
interrupted
by
Vader,
and
the
captured
senators—alongside
the
rebellious
former
dark
acolyte
trained
by
Vader,
Galen
Marek—were
brought
to
see
the
still-under-construction
Death
Star
in
all
its
glory
before
their
execution.
Marek,
turning
to
the
light
side,
sacrificed
himself
to
buy
the
senators
time
to
escape
the
facility,
and
in
his
memory
the
newly
formed
Rebellion
established
its
first
major
operation
in
open
war
with
the
Empire:
find
the
technical
plans
of
the
Death
Star
and
analyze
them
for
a
weakness
so
that
it
could
be
destroyed.
First
Covered
In: Star
Wars:
The
Force
Unleashed
(2008)
After
Captain
Raymus
Antilles,
acting
on
Bail
Organa’s
behalf,
recruited
the
smuggler
Han
Solo
to
plant
tracking
devices
and
EMPs
on
a
ship
bound
to
an
Imperial
research
facility
in
orbit
over
the
planet
Corulag,
a
Rebel
raid
recovered
data
to
“confirm”
the
existence
of
the
battle
station
Alliance
Command
had
been
captured
on,
as
well
as
the
scope
of
its
destructive
capability.
Also
recovered
during
the
raid
was
the
personal
slave
of
now-Grand
Moff
Tarkin,
recruited
to
the
Rebel
cause:
a
young
Mon
Calamari
named
Gial
Ackbar.
First
Covered
In: Star
Wars:
Empire
at
War
(2006)
Meanwhile,
during
construction
aboard
the
Death
Star
itself,
prisoners
staged
a
violent
uprising
against
Imperial
forces
stationed
there.
In
the
chaos
of
the
rioting,
the
first
technical
data
about
the
Death
Star
recovered
was
beamed
to
a
Rebel
cell
operating
on
the
planetoid
Polis
Massa—before
Vader’s
personal
Stormtrooper
legion,
the
501st,
quelled
the
riots.
Formerly
stationed
aboard
the
battle
station,
Vader
put
the
501st
to
work
hunting
down
the
now-missing
plans.
First
Covered
In: Star
Wars
Battlefront
II
(2005)
Rebel
listening
outposts
stationed
in
the
Cron
Drift
recovered
further
technical
data
about
the
Death
Star,
leading
to
Rebel
operative
Biggs
Darklighter
personally
escorting
the
information
from
there
to
the
Mon
Calamari
cruiser
Independence,
which
then
transferred
the
data
to
Organa’s
personal
ship,
the
corvette
Tantive
IV.
Defended
by
the
X-Wings
of
Red
Squadron
and
several
blockade
runners
acting
as
decoys,
the
transfer
was
completed
and
the
Tantive
IV
fled
to
a
base
on
the
planet
Toprawa.
First
Covered
In: Star
Wars:
X-Wing
(1993)
The
combination
of
the
data
from
Polis
Massa
and
the
data stolen
in
the
Cron
Drift
laid
the
foundations
for
the
bulk
of
the
Rebel
Alliance’s
knowledge
of
the
Death
Star’s
layout,
but
a
vital
piece
of
the
puzzle
remained
missing:
layouts
of
the
station’s
point
defense
systems.
After
tracking
down
a
potential
set
of
schematics
to
the
planet
Danuta,
Mon
Mothma
hired
the
mercenaries
Kyle
Katarn
and
Rianna
Saren
to
recover
the
plans
held
there.
Both
successfully
completed
their
missions
and
beamed
the
data
to
the
Rebel
operatives
on
Toprawa.
First
Covered
In: Star
Wars:
Dark
Forces
(1995),
Star
Wars:
Lethal
Alliance
(2006)
The
Rebel
spies
based
on
Toprawa,
now
in
possession
of
almost
all
of
the
Rebellion’s
knowledge
of
the
Death
Star,
launched
a
raid
on
Imperial
research
facilities
there
to
recover
the
final
pieces
of
technical
data
required—including
potential
weaknesses
in
the
superstructure’s
design.
The
raid
and
subsequent
capture
of
the
data
lead
to
finally
combining
the
gathered
information
into
a
complete
technical
schematic
of
the
Death
Star
held
by
Leia
Organa
aboard
the
Tantive
IV
which
escaped
the
blockade
enacted
on
the
world
in
response
to
the
Rebel
attack.
In
the
Expanded
Universe
continuity,
it
was
this,
not
the
Battle
of
Scarif,
that
was
the
“first
victory”
mentioned
in
A
New
Hope’s
opening
crawl.
First
Covered
In: Jedi
Dawn
(1993)
Concurrently,
the
501st
finally
tracked
the
initial
leak
of
Death
Star
data
stolen
during
the
prisoner
uprising
on
the
station
to
Polis
Massa,
where
they
encountered
and
eliminated
a
Rebel
cell—but
not
before
discovering
the
signal
from
the
cell’s
transmission
of
the
data
to
the
Tantive
IV,
tracking
the
stolen
plans
to
the
ship.
First
Covered
In: Star
Wars
Battlefront
II
(2005)
Eager
to
save
face
after
the
embarrassment
the
501st
faced
during
the
prison
uprising,
Vader
took
his
forces
in
pursuit
of
the
ship,
which
attempted
to
resist
capture
under
Leia
Organa’s
senatorial
immunity
before
succumbing
to
an
Imperial
boarding
action.
With
the
majority
of
the
crew
killed
during
combat
or
captured
by
Vader’s
forces
in
the
aftermath,
Senator
Organa
was
rendered
into
Imperial
custody—but
the
stolen
plans
were
nowhere
to
be
found
in
the
Tantive
IV’s
databanks.
Little
did
the
Empire
know
that
an
escape
pod
containing
two
droids
was
hurtling
down
to
the
nearby
desert
world
of
Tatooine
with
the
data
in
one
of
their
memory
banks,
and...
well,
you
know
the
rest
of
it
from
here,
don’t
you?
First
Covered
In: Star
Wars:
A
New
Hope
(1977)
Mon
Mothma’s
utterance
of
the
phase
“Many
Bothans
died
to
bring
you
this
information”
in
Return
of
the
Jedi
was
in
reference
to
the
technical
readouts
of
the
second
Death
Star
in
construction
above
Endor,
not
the
first
iteration
of
the
battle
station.
That
small
detail,
however,
did
not
stop
the
EU
from
slaughtering
a
bunch
of
Bothans
for
the
first
time
round
anyway.
Sometime
before
the
Polis
Massa
cell
recovered
the
technical
data
stolen
during
the
Death
Star
uprising,
a
defecting
Imperial
Moff,
Kalast,
worked
with
the
Bothan
Spynet
to
crack
a
series
of
Imperial
command
codes
related
to
the
Death
Star’s
systems
and
transmit
them
to
the
alliance.
A
furious
Palpatine
traveled
to
the
Bothan
homeworld,
Bothawui,
to
punish
its
people
for
the
Spynet’s
complicity,
personally
slaughtering
untold
numbers
of
Bothans
alongside
his
personal
guard.
A
surviving
Bothan
begged
for
their
life
by
revealing
the
Tantive
IV
as
the
location
of
the
stolen
codes
and
plans
were
being
sent
to,
leading
to
Vader’s
chase.
First
Covered
In: Star
Wars:
Empire
at
War
(2006)
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