PROLOGUE A long time ago in a galaxy far far away The Clone Wars were over leaving entire civilizations civilizations in ruin The Jedi Knights were all but extinct And the Old Republic the democratic galactic government that had prevailed for almost 25,000 years had been replaced by the Galactic Empire Yet the Empire's supreme ruler the evil Emperor Palpatine remained hungry for even more power To expand his rule and crush all remnants of the Old Republic Republic Palpatine had approved the construction of a secret weapon the Death Star an immense armored space station that could destroy an entire planet The Empire was not without opposition The Alliance Alliance to Restore the Republic commonly known as the Rebel Alliance led the fight to overturn the Empire and bring justice and freedom back to the galaxy After Rebel spies learned of the Death Star Project
Project they managed to intercept an Imperial transmission transmission of the space station's technical data The Rebels hoped the data would reveal a way to destroy the Death Star The Empire was determined to recover the stolen plans now in the possession of a young Senator from the planet Alderaan Princess Leia Organa 2
CHAPTER 1 Bursts of laserfire streaked after the consular starship Tantive IV which was racing for the planet Tatooine Tatooine The ship was fleeing from the Devastator an immense immense Imperial Star Destroyer that was firing nearly all its turbolasers at the elusive ship Both vessels had just entered Tatooine's orbit when the Devastator's lasers scored a direct hit on the Tantive IV's primary sensor array The array exploded and the blast overloaded overloaded the starboard shield projector which caused another explosion damaging the power generator system and triggering a chain reaction throughout the ship With no starboard shield and no power to its engines the Tantive IV was effectively crippled Inside the battered Tantive IV the crew raced to extinguish fires as more blasts rocked the ship Struggling Struggling to remain on their feet Rebel crewmen and troops ran through a narrow white walled passageway passageway taking little notice of the two robots that stum
