Resistance base

This article is about Saw Gerrera's base on D'Qar. You may be looking for Saw Gerrera's Base on Segra Milo.

"Sector clear, Resistance base."

―A resistance pilot^[10]

The Resistance base, also known as the D'Qar base, Resistance headquarters, or as Saw Gerrera's base, was the base operated by the Resistance on the Outer Rim planet D'Qar, during their conflict with the First Order. After the destruction of the Hosnian system, the base was used to plan the assault on Starkiller Base, the First Order's planet-converted superweapon. However, it was soon destroyed by First Order forces during the Battle of D'Qar.

Description

Resistance HQ SWDA — The Resistance base command center

The Resistance base,^[11] or Saw Gerrera's base^[12] when it was used by Saw Gerrera's Partisans during the Imperial Era,^[13] was located mostly underneath the surface of D'Qar, with only the facility's landing areas and antenna arrays exposed. Inside the base was a command center, as well as as multiple hangars, both above and underground, used to store T-70 X-wing starfighters. Underneath the hangars was an area known as the maintenance level, where damaged vehicles could go to be repaired. Surrounding the base was thick jungle foliage, which helped hide the facility from air and ground sensors and conceal potential power leaks. Most of the equipment used at the base was portable, a feature insisted by General Leia Organa due to her experience of the Rebel Alliance's near-extinction on Hoth.^[11]

History

In 3 BBY, Saw Gerrera and his Partisans operated out of the base. After discovering the Imperial spy Pluti among their ranks, they left the base on D'Qar behind.^[9] After being scouted by Corona Squadron^[14] sometime after the Battle of Hoth,^[15] the location was then considered for usage by the formal Alliance to Restore the Republic as a possible base.^[14] Only ever serving a small outpost for the Alliance,^[16] however, the base was used towards the end of the Galactic Civil War but was abandoned shortly after its establishment to focus on pursuing the retreating Imperial Military.^[14]

When Sith Lord Darth Vader was revealed to be Senator Leia Organa's biological father twenty-four years after the formation of the New Republic, Organa's reputation was impacted dramatically.^[17] Believing there to be a new threat facing the galaxy, Organa pleaded with the Republic to investigate, however, her protests about the Military Disarmament Act were dismissed as paranoia, while her warnings of the growing First Order were misconstrued as warmongering. Having no other option, she formed the Resistance to combat the threat of full-scale war once again engulfing the galaxy.^[11]

In need of a base of operations, Organa remembered D'Qar's abandoned Rebel Alliance outpost and sent engineers to expand the facility.^[16] The base was the launch point of several missions and offensives against the First Order.^[14] In the thirtieth year after the Battle of Endor, the Resistance received word that the astromech droid, BB-8, who was in possession of a map leading to Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, was on the Mid Rim planet, Takodana.^[18]

Within minutes, the First Order, having also received the same information, arrived at the planet and attacked the castle BB-8 was located at. Shortly after, however, Resistance pilots also arrived, and engaged the First Order's air and ground forces. During the battle, the First Order captured the scavenger, Rey and retreated, believing they had got what they came for. After arriving back at the Resistance base, Finn, a deserter First Order stormtrooper, gave the Resistance intel on how to destroy Starkiller Base, the First Order's planet-converted superweapon, which had recently destroyed the Rebublic's capital, Hosnian Prime, and was now targeting D'Qar. After identifying Starkiller Base's weak point as its thermal oscillator, the Resistance starfighter pilots began preparing their ships for battle, while Finn, Han Solo, and Chewbacca readied Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon. Arriving at Starkiller Base, Finn, Solo, and Chewbacca managed to lower Starkiller's shields, rescue Rey, and blow an opening in its thermal oscillator, allowing Poe Dameron, leader of the Resistance starfighter corps, to enter and destroy it. With the superweapon destroyed, D'Qar and the Resistance base was safe from destruction.^[18]

Arriving back at base, R2-D2, who had been in low-power mode since Skywalker's disappearance, overheard Rey stating that the First Order had recovered the majority of the starchart that was recovered from the Imperial archives, but they were still lacking the final piece to match with the fragment BB-8 had acquired. The droid promptly reactivated after years of hibernation, and searched his records and found that he had previously downloaded this map while upon the first Death Star.^[6] Projecting the map into the room, R2-D2 matched his map with the piece that BB-8 held, revealing the location of the first Jedi Temple, and in turn, Luke Skywalker. With this revelation, R2-D2, Rey, and Chewbacca left the base in the Millennium Falcon in search of the Jedi Master.^[18]

Shortly after, anticipating an attack by the First Order, the Resistance personnel scrambled frantically to transfer personnel and equipment to the flagship Raddus in orbit. Led by Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix, they managed to completely clear the base and evacuate mere seconds before it was fired on and destroyed by the Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought Fulminatrix.^[5]

Personnel

Blue Squadron Pilot 2016 X-Wing Open alt card — Three X-wings of Blue Squadron

The upper levels of the Resistance hierarchy consisted mainly of veterans of the Galactic Civil War who had served alongside Leia Organa in the Rebel Alliance. High ranking individuals included General Cypress, a commander of the Resistance ground forces, Major Taslin Brance, a communications officer who kept Organa up-to-date on First Order operations, Major Caluan Ematt, a well-traveled veteran of the Galactic Civil War, Admiral Statura, who fought against the Empire during the liberation of his home planet of Garel, and Admiral Gial Ackbar, an experienced commander who fought in the Clone Wars and was instrumental to the Rebel Alliance's victory over the Galactic Empire.^[14]

Poe Dameron was the leader of Black Squadron,^[19] Red Squadron, and Blue Squadron under the callsign Black Leader.^[14]

Behind the scenes

The Resistance base first appeared in the Junior novels The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure and Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, two books that were part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a multimedia project of a series of at least twenty books and comics that featured content related to the film leading up to the 2015 Star Wars film, Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens.

The scene shown was filmed at the GAMA (GLCM Alert and Maintenance Area) Site bunkers of RAF Greenham Common, a former American force base in Berkshire, England. These bunkers hosted up to 96 ground-launched cruise missiles from 1983 to 1991, when the missiles were removed as part of the INF Treaty.^[20]