Battle of Scarif

The Battle of Scarif was the first major battle of the Galactic Civil War which was fought in 1 BBY between the Alliance to Restore the Republic and the Galactic Empire. The battle was preceded by years of attacks by the rebel cells against the Empire and began the five-year period in which the Alliance successfully fought to replace the Empire with the New Republic.

Prior to the battle, Rebel Alliance Intelligence Service intercepted information suggesting that renowned scientist Galen Erso was building an Imperial superweapon capable of destroying entire planets. Alliance leadership sent Galen Erso's daughter, Jyn Erso, and Captain Cassian Andor to learn more about her father's involvement, and their subsequent efforts saw the Alliance discover the existence of the Death Star, as well as a fatal flaw in the design placed there by Galen Erso.

Though the Alliance High Command refused to openly oppose the Empire, Erso and Andor led a small unit of the Marine Corps and other allies and defied orders, taking it upon themselves to launch an incursion of the Scarif Citadel, as the rebels planned to infiltrate the heavily guarded Citadel Tower base on Scarif to retrieve the Death Star plans. Under the call sign Rogue One, the unit infiltrated Scarif's planetary shield in a stolen Zeta-class Heavy Cargo Shuttle and proceeded to wage a guerrilla assault on the Citadel's outskirts, drawing away Imperial forces so that Andor, Erso, and the droid K-2SO could infiltrate the facility. Director Orson Krennic, the former commander of the Death Star, attempted to stop Erso and Andor from stealing the plans, but the heavily outnumbered Rebels received support from the Alliance Fleet under Admiral Raddus, whose forces engaged the Imperial Star Destroyers above Scarif and worked to destroy the Shield Gate protecting the planet.

With the Shield Gate's destruction, Rogue One was able to transmit the stolen plans to the fleet above, though all remaining Rebel ground forces were eradicated by a low-powered blast from the newly arrived Death Star that destroyed the Citadel and surrounding area. The arrival of forces directed by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, made short work of the rebel ships that did not manage to retreat, but Princess Leia Organa escaped the battle in the Tantive IV; Lord Vader pursued her to the planet Tatooine and captured her there, but the plans were already out of his reach. The plans eventually found their way to the Alliance, who used them to pinpoint the Death Star's weakness and destroy it at the Battle of Yavin.

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