Battle of Onderon (Galactic Civil War)

The Battle of Onderon was the final battle between the reborn Emperor Palpatine's Dark Empire and the New Republic during the devastating Operation Shadow Hand. With his last clone body succumbing to accelerated aging due to genetic tampering, Palpatine sought to essence transfer into the infant Anakin Solo's body—the grandson and name-sake of his late apprentice Anakin Skywalker. Receiving information that the Solos had relocated to the planet Onderon in the Inner Rim, he dispatched his new flagship the Eclipse-class dreadnought Eclipse II along with a task force of Dark Side Adepts and Royal Guards.

During the battle, Luke Skywalker and his Jedi team engaged Palpatine, his Dark Jedi and Imperial Guards in a fierce duel, which resulted in the final death of Palpatine and his escorts. However, two Jedi Rayf Ysanna and Empatojayos Brand were killed while several members of the Jedi team received various injuries.

Meanwhile, a Rebel strike team lead by Lando Calrissian and Kam Solusar struck the Imperial flagship Eclipse II and succeeded in sabotaging the vessel's automated hyperdrive engines. This set the vessel on a course for the Imperial throneworld of Byss in the Deep Core where it would exit hyperspace at the precise location of the Galaxy Gun—another of the Emperor's superweapons. The resulting explosion destroyed the two massive weapons of war while the planet Byss was destroyed by a loose projectile.

The death of Emperor Palpatine on Onderon and the destruction of Byss and the surrounding Imperial fleet scored a heavy blow for the New Republic against the Imperial Remnant, which fragmented into several factions.

Text and facts from the “Battle of Onderon (Galactic Civil War)” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.