The Wing Commander herein details the last hours of the Emperor's Hammer immediately prior to the apocalyptic Battle of Endor....
07:30 - 09:30
The dark sister moon of Endor, Eloggi
can be seen here over Endor's horizon...Eloggi
has the richest mineral resources in this
isolated system and produced most of the
materiel for construction of the new
Deathstar Battlestation...
(Photo: TREYNARD, 2/95)
The Emperor's Hammer arrives in system and sets up a Patrol Area in the area of the Eloggi Imperial Mining Platform...Nav buoys are placed and intensive TIE Fighter patrol patterns are implemented....Many Hammer Pilots have questioned why the Hammer has not been sent to the Deathstar for escort, but rather kept "in-reserve"...In accordance with Emperor Palpatine's orders, Grand Admiral Ronin flies his modified TIE Defender, escorted by 3 Lancers from his Honor Guard, to the Deathstar for a private conference with the Emperor and Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has returned briefly from the Unknown Regions especially for this audience with the Emperor...
09:30 - 13:00
The Emperor relays his Final Directives to
Grand Admiral Ronin....
(Photo: SJain, 2/95)
Immediately upon entering the Endor System, Grand Admiral Ronin was contacted by Emperor Palpatine to join him and Grand Admiral Thrawn in his Throne Room on the Battlestation. Several administrative aides reported that they were in conference for over 3 1/2 hours! It has often been said on Coruscant that the Emperor has forseen that the imminent Battle of Endor would herald a massive and unavoidable re-alignment in the Force and consequently, in our Empire as well. As such, the creation of the Emperor's Hammer Strike Fleet and the massive diversion of resources for its use has sparked many rumors that the Emperor has always had "special plans" for the Hammer. Palpatine reportedly was once overheard telling his Sovereign Guards that the Empire and its Citizens would be "tested" following Endor and that the Emperor's Hammer would be play an important role in the Empire's future. Following the meeting with Palptaine, Grand Admiral Ronin immediately proceeded to his specially modified TIE Defender for return to the SSD Avenger...He reportedly did not even address Lord Vader as he exited the Emperor's Throne Room...
13:00-18:00
The Emperor's Hammer Fleet loads all supplies it can salvage from the Imperial Mining Facility at Eloggi...All types of manufacturing equipment, raw materials, parts, machinery, weaponry/armaments and rations were taken...All ships in the Hammer Fleet were ordered by Grand Admiral Ronin to assist in the transfer of materiel...for 5 hours the capital ships of the Fleet looked as if they were surrounded by swarming insects....With the transfer of materiel complete, the Emperor's Hammer Fleet has effectively doubled its "consumables" and thus extended its ability to wage war against the Rebels...
Sienar Systems Bulk Tarnsport docking with the TFC Roxanna...
(Photo: SJain, 2/95)
18:00 - 22:00
The Battle of Endor commences with the Rebel's arrival into the Enodr System and destruction of the Deathstar shield facility on the forest moon of Endor....
The Rebel Armada appears in system....
(Photo: SNorbut659, 4/95)
The following description of the Battle of Endor was intercepted and is thought to be a Rebel Historian's transmissions, as was presented in A Guide to the Star Wars Universe (Bill Slaviscek, Del Rey/Ballantine Books, Lucasfilm, Ltd., 11994, pp. 38-39):
"The Battle of Endor has been called the most decisive engagment of the Galactic Civil War. The Alliance to restore Freedom to the Galaxy and the Galactic Empire clashed near the forest moon of Endor in a battle that saw the deaths of both Palpatine and Darth Vader.
The Empire had selected the forest moon as the construction site for its second Deathstar battle station. Bothan spies intercepted information that named the secret construction location. In addition, those same spies learned that the Emperor himself was heading to Endor in order to supervise the final stages of construction. The Alliance decided that this would be its best opportunity not only to strike a blow at the Imperial war machine, but to get at the Emperor outside his impenetrable Imperial City fortress.
As Admiral Ackbar gathered the Rebel Alliance fleet around the planet Sullust, a special strike team was sent ahead to sabotage the shield generator protecting the unfinished Death Star. The strike team, led by Han Solo and including Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, and a squad of Rebel commandos, used a stolen Imperial shuttle to get through the Empire's forces and down to Endor's forest moon. The timing had to be perfect. The strike team had to disable or destroy the shield generator by the time the Rebel fleet emerged from hyperspace so that the surprise attack could begin.
Unfortunately, the information that many Bothans died to deliver to Alliance High Command was a deception planned by the Emperor himself. The unfinished Death Star was not as helpless as it appeared, for its superlaser was fully operational. As for the strike team, a full legion of stormtroopers and other Imperial soldiers were waiting to defend the shield generator and capture the Rebel commandos. While the strike team battled the Empire on Endor's moon, the Rebel fleet arrived to find the protective shield still in place. The battle, it seemed, was over before it had begun.
The Emperor's plan called for the Imperial fleet to remain in reserve on the far side of the moon while swarms of TIE fighters engaged the outnumbered Rebel ships. Alliance starfighters met their Imperial counterparts in dramatic dogfights as the Emperor looked on. The onslaught of TIEs was but the first stage of the Emperor's trap. The second stage involved turning the Death Star's prime weapon upon the Alliance's capital ships - vaporizing each one in its path with a single shot.
Lando Calrissian, leading the Alliance starfighters from the command seat of the Millenium Falcon, convinced Ackbar on a new course of action. By engaging the poised but as yet docile Star Destroyers in ship-to-ship combat, the Rebel ships would be using the Empire's own vessels as protection from the Death Star's weapon. Of course the Star Destroyers were also more poweful than the Rebel ships, but not by the magnitude of the Death Star. The Alliance had bought itself some time, but it still needed the strike team to succeed if it was going to have a chance at winning the day.
On the forest moon, the native Ewoks became the key to victory.The primitive natives had been dismissed as inconsequential by the Imperial troops, but this mistake was to be the Empire's undoing. The same Ewoks who had be-friended the strike team helped free them, allowing Han and his companions to carry out the sabotage mission. When the shield generators were destroyed, the protective shield surrounding the Death Star disappeared.
As soon as the opening presented itself, Lando Calrissian and his starfighters moved to attack. The Falcon and Wedge Antille's X-Wing flew into the unfinished Death Star's superstructure and fired proton torpedoes at the battle station's power regulator. Simultaneously, Lando Calrissian fired concussion missiles at the main reactor. The resulting explosions destroyed the Death Star, and the Imperial fleet lost the central, powerful evil that had been its cohesive force. Without the Emperor, the dark side became diffuse, non-directed, and the Imperial forces were plunged into confusion, desperation and damp fear. What remained of the Imperial fleet scattered and this phase of the Galactic Civil War came to an end..."
22:00 - 22:30
The Emperor's Hammer is ordered to scuttle the Imperial Mining Facility....
The Imperial Mining Platform at Eloggi is
scuttled by elements of the Emperor's
Hammer immediately following Palpatine's
death to prevent its capture....
(Photo: SNorbut659, 4/95)
22:30 - 23:00
The Wing Commander personally briefs the Command Officers and Squadron Commanders aboard the SSD Avenger...Grand Admiral Ronin has ordered the immediate withdrawal of ALL Emperor's Hammer forces to the PLT Daedalus in the Outer Rim Territories...Our Platform shall serve as our base of operations for the near future....The Empire's future seems dim....However, the Grand Admiral has assured all Officers of the Hammer that we will continue our fight in this Civil War and that the Hammer has in no way been defeated by the Alliance nor is it EVER to surrender to the Alliance...
As Emperor Palpatine told Grand Admiral Ronin, so Ronin related to his Officers..."Serve the Emperor above all others...although the path will be difficult in the years ahead, the Dark Side shall prevail and the Emperor's Hammer will be instrumental in achieving this end...."
Grand Admiral Ronin during Emergency
War Briefing on board the SSD Avenger...
(Photo: Sjain, 3/95)