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The Great Battle of Hoth, or the Battle of Viau Hoth was a pyrrhic victory for the Galactic Empire (Viau) and the one of the worst battlefield defeat suffered by the New Galactic Republic in 3 ABY (1417 NE). The battle was an failed Axis invasion aimed at destroying the Alliance's Echo Base hidden on the remote ice world Hoth but it was heavily defended by the Alliance's superweapon, the Particle Collider. The base's location was compromised when a viper probe droid deployed by the Axis landed on Hoth. When the Death Squadron fleet commanded by General Tizzioulia Cilivikki of the Combine and Imperial Admiral Kendal Ozzel of the Galactic Empire left lightspeed too close to the Hoth system, the Admiral inadvertently alerted the Alliance of the Imperial's presence, giving the Alliance prepare to fire at the fleet. Thus, Vader executed Ozzel for that fatal mistake and immediately promoted Captain Firmus Piett to replace him.
The Great Battle of Hoth was infamous for its lack of cover for infantry and amour along with vast snow with the temperature being colder than most troops were used to. The Axis of Empires consisted primarily of the Empire's AT-ATs, a few of the Seperatists' Droid Tanks and Synths during the battle with many of them modified to include a shield although this shield did not prove effective at holding mass firepower at bay. Despite the efforts by Rogue Squadron and other Allied forces, the power generator was eventually destroyed by Veers' main AT-AT. The remaining base personnel proceeded to evacuate, as the 501st Legion, led by Darth Vader, entered the base. The Republic and HVF forces were able to slow down the Imperial invasion to buy time for the New Republic to have their fleet scattered across the Skydiver Galaxy leading to a multitude of scattered skirmishes across the galaxy for over six months to throw them off-guard.
After the First War, the Great Battle of Hoth served as the basis for a historical training simulation designed to test Allied officer cadets. While it wasn't a total loss for the Alliance, it served as a reminder to learn from their mistakes and able to catch the Axis by surprise.
Prelude[]
Following the Rebel Alliance's major victory at Yavin and proclaiming the birth of the New Galactic Republic, Imperial forces eventually forced the New Republic to abandon their base on Yavin 4 and began searching the galaxy for new possible bases of operation, considering worlds such as Daxan Beta and Insk. They also attempted to set up base at Crait. A holocron created by Bail Organa, one of the founders of the Rebel Alliance, contained a list of possible hideouts in the event that the Yavin 4 base was lost, their Filo counterparts and new allies, Human-Vortigaunt Federation helped find a base for the High Command, drawing up a list of potential planets, including the planet Hoth in the Anoat sector was chosen by Luke Skywalker as the New Republic's new main base after he was stranded on the planet for a period of time around 1 ABY (1415 NE). Subsequently, the Corps of Engineers with new Allied support constructed the base over the course of two standard years, hoping to claim it as their new base of operations while avoiding the watchful eyes of the Galactic Empire or the Combine. The base was inhabited for less than a month before the battle took place.
Following the defeat of the Galactic Empire three and a half years earlier at the Battle of Yavin, the New Republic suffered from relentless Imperial and Combine attacks during the Mid Rim Offensive, which itself had lackluster results for the New Republic. Rumors of the exact location of New Republic's High Command, circulated throughout the Alliance, though only a few in the New Republic actually knew concrete details of its existence. New Republic troopers at Echo Base, far-distanced from the largely pyrrhic New Republic tactical situation in the Mid and Outer Rim Territories, actually had access to better equipment and training than New Republic soldiers throughout the rest of the Skydiver galaxy. The Galactic Empire began to intensify its search for the New Republic's High Command after the ambush of a New Republic convoy at Derra. The Human-Vortigaunt Federation and the Galactic Republic provided support to build a suitable base and established a dimensional gate for them and sent in volunteered soldiers from Pol Earth for their first training on an alien world after joining the Alliance.
Shortly before the battle, a strategy conference was held at the base after the arrival of several transports arrived, which were rumored to carry Princess Leia Organa, General Carlist Rieekan, Commander Chiffonage, a Bothan spy, and several other members of Alliance Command. The conference's main briefing was from defected Imperial governor Everi Chalis who had been extracted from Haidoral Prime by the 61st Mobile Infantry under Captain Micha Evon. Chalis offered substantial information about the inner-workings of the "Imperial War Machine" and made a map trade routes and Imperial weak points. The meeting ended shortly before the battle, which meant that Leia and the other attendees were forced to run the Imperial blockade in order to leave the system.
The Galactic Empire sent Viper probe droids to search for hidden Allied and Republic bases throughout the Viau Skyriver. One such droid was deployed from the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Stalker and eventually located the Allied base on Hoth. On the ground, Commander Luke Skywalker spotted the probe droid crash while on a reconnaissance mission on his tauntaun and believed it to be a meteorite, went closer to investigate. On his way, Skywalker was attacked by a native wampa and dragged off into a cave before he could get a closer look. Han Solo eventually went off to rescue Skywalker during a harsh snowstorm, in spite of the concern from his comrades.
Later, Solo and Chewbacca were tasked with investigating the lead that Skywalker came across, leading to their discovery of the existence of the probe droid. Upon being spotted by it, Han attempted to destroy it, only to have droid activate its self-destruct mechanism. Receiving new intelligence from the probe, the crew of the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Executor initially dismissed the findings. In spite of Admiral Kendal Ozzel's concern that pictures of the shield generator merely belonged to smugglers, Darth Vader instructed the Imperial Death Squadron to invade the planet alongside General Tizzioulia Cilivikki's forces to launch a combined assault on the New Republic. With their location revealed, the wrath of the Empire would soon be unleashed upon the New Republic.
The Battle[]
Preparations[]
Vader's personal Death Squadron fleet reached the Hoth system with the Combine emerged alongside them, following a chance discovery made by a Viper probe droid that was sent to the planet. The landing of the Viper droid was briefly witnessed by Luke Skywalker during one of his patrols, believing it to be a meteorite, although he was unable to investigate the issue further before he and his tauntaun were ambushed by a wampa.
Luke's disappearance did not go unnoticed, with Han Solo (who had originally planned to depart Hoth due to his status as a wanted criminal by Jabba the Hutt, with the main motivating factor behind the decision being an encounter with a bounty hunter at Ord Mantell) eventually deciding to go into the snowstorm to find Skywalker when he failed to report back before the personnel were forced to close the base due to the blizzard. Skywalker managed to escape the wampa cave, also amputating one of the occupants in the process, although he was left barely alive from the encounter due to both the attack as well as from being caught in the blizzard. He eventually saw the ghost of his deceased Jedi mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who told Skywalker to head to the Dagobah system to seek training from the Jedi Grand Master Yoda just as Solo arrived and found Skywalker. Because Solo's own tauntaun perished from the blizzard, Solo and Skywalker were forced to camp out for the night, with the former using the latter's lightsaber to split open his deceased steed to offer them some warmth, choking back the stench.
The next morning, Zev Senesca, using the moniker Rogue Two, was dispatched to scout for them and bring them back to base, with Solo responding to his hailing of them. Upon being recovered and brought back to Echo Base, Skywalker was subject to a bacta tank for his injuries. The Viper was later discovered and encountered by Solo after investigating suspicious radio transmissions picked up near the shield generator, who alongside Chewbacca fought it. The probe droid ended up self-destructing shortly after Solo attempted to disable it with a blaster, although not before it transmitted evidence of their shield generator. Their discovery turned out to be the main base of the Rebel Alliance, located on the sixth planet of the system. Although Death Squadron's commander, Admiral Kendal Ozzel, felt the evidence only suggested that it was a base for smugglers rather than the Rebels, Vader believed otherwise. To oversee the vital assault on the heart of the Rebellion, Grand General Malcor Brashin and his talented second-in-command General Brenn Tantor were summoned to the Hoth system.
Vader and many of his top officers had planned a sneak attack, jumping out of hyperspace at some distance from the planet and taking advantage of the fact that the meteor activity made it difficult for the Rebels to spot approaching ships. They would then initiate limited long-range orbital bombardment to destroy the base, along with any spacecraft and defenses. Major General Maximilian Veers would then mount a sweeping ground assault to capture any survivors.
The plan would have likely allowed the Imperials to easily take the planet with few casualties. However, Ozzel made his own assault plan. He exited hyperspace close to the star system, hoping to surprise the Rebels before they could prepare their defenses. However, this backfired when the Rebels' early-warning sensors detected the fleet. The planetary shield protecting Echo Base was activated, which precluded any aerial bombardment. Veers notified Vader, who immediately realized that Death Squadron would have to mount a full-fledged ground assault to take the base rather than simply destroy it from the air. An incensed Vader Force choked Ozzel to death for his incompetence and promoted Firmus Piett, then chief fleet captain of the Star Dreadnought Executor, to Admiral.
Alliance Retreat[]
Aftermath[]
The Battle of Hoth was a major disaster for the New Republic. The Allies lost hundreds of soldiers and pilots who either died during the defense or were killed when the ships transporting them off Hoth were destroyed, thousands more had it not been the Commonwealth's intervention to save as many as they could. The loss of the base itself put the New Republic to rethink their strategies and reorganize its forces to realise how powerful the Combine were in combtat, giving the Galactic Empire an edge over the New Republic for some time.
Some Imperials went as far to call the war in their galaxy over. The Empire's victory at Hoth was significant enough that Emperor Palpatine, a short while after the event, had supplied a speech promising that the Galactic Civil War would end with the Empire's victory at hand to crush the rebels, even redirecting all but the most essential elements of the Imperial Naval forces back to Coruscant due to the necessity of the speech.
Despite the failure of the battle, the New Republic were not defeated. Most of their leadership was able to escape the planet with the help of the Alliance, which ultimately secured the New Republic's survival for some time more. Shortly after leaving Hoth Han Solo and company were still aboard the Millennium still trying to evade Vader's forces. Solo used the ship's uncanny maneuverability and his piloting skills to elude an Imperial Star Destroyer chasing them, and two more emerging from hyperspace. Solo's maneuvers in the Falcon caused the two Star Destroyers approaching and the one pursuing to nearly collide with each other. The Falcon then attempted to make the jump into lightspeed, but was stopped short by an equipment malfunction; forced to take drastic measures to avoid capture, Solo made the decision to pilot the Falcon into a nearby asteroid field in an attempt to lose the Imperial pursuers.
However, his repairs were cut short as he had unknowingly landed inside a Exogorth inside a random asteroid. Escaping just in time as the beast's huge mouth was closing, the Falcon was discovered by the Star Destroyer Avenger. They attempted to jump to lightspeed but once again, the hyperdrive was not fully repaired. Solo then had Chewbacca change course and fly directly at the Avenger's bridge in an apparent suicidal attack run. The ship disappeared from sight and became undetectable to Avenger. It had not gone far: Solo had attached the Falcon to a blind spot on the conning tower of the Star Destroyer. Adhering to standard Imperial procedure, the Star Destroyers of Death Squadron ejected all scrap and garbage before entering hyperspace. Solo then signaled Chewbacca to release the ship's landing claws, allowing the Falcon to "float away with the rest of the garbage." The bounty hunter Boba Fett, however, saw through this ruse, and waited behind in the Slave I, following the Falcon as it left the system.
Some time after the battle, a painting, Battle of Echo Base, was made in honor of the battle. Similarly, a holographic simulation of the battle was also presented to various Spacers across the galaxy.
Jobin's mother, Mon Mothma, would eventually receive his message a few months later via General Crix Madine, as well as confirmation of his death during the battle of Hoth. She then gave her speech to the Rebel Alliance regarding the development of the second Death Star and the Emperor's inspection.
After the Alliance was reorganized into the New Republic, the Battle of Hoth served as the basis for a historical training simulation designed to test New Republic officer cadets.
Gallery[]
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