In the shadow of the remote gas giant Yavin, near its fourth moon, a great battle for the very survival of the Rebellion takes place. Using a homing beacon aboard the Rebel craft Millennium Falcon, Darth Vader finally tracks down the location of the Rebel base on Yavin 4. Under the command of Grand Moff Tarkin, the Empire's planet-destroying Death Star emerges from hyperspace in the vicinity of Yavin and orbits the planet as it prepares to destroy the Rebel Base and all hope for freedom in the galaxy. Against the monstrous battle station the Rebellion sends up a small fleet of 30 one-man fighters, in a desperate effort to bomb the Death Star's single critical weak spot. Considered harmless by the Empire, these fighters dart through the hail of defensive laser fire designed to destroy larger, slow-moving capital ships. Darth Vader orders TIE fighters into action against the Rebel craft, piloting an advanced TIE prototype personally. Soon the superior Imperial technology takes its toll, and the Rebel pilots are annihilated one by one until only three remain. As the station draws into firing range on the Rebel Base, Luke Skywalker focuses his concentration on his one crucial chance. In the heat of the final moment, the young farm boy from Tatooine turns off his targeting computer and trusts the power of the Force to guide him.

Designed and constructed in secret, the Death Star is the brainchild of the sinister Grand Moff Tarkin, governor of the Imperial Outland Regions. In orbital construction yards circling a remote planet code-named Despayre, this battle station was pieced together by technicians, slaves, and titanic robot factory machines. The completed Death Star is powered by a hypermatter reactor and is capable of destroying an entire planet with its prime weapon, a horrific superlaser. This abomination is the galaxy's ultimate weapon, and the greatest symbol of the Emperor's absolute power. The battle station is now fully operational, and the Emperor has ordered the Imperial Senate dissolved. Tarkin's doctrine of Rule by Fear will replace the bureaucracy as the Death Star drifts menacingly through the galaxy, frightening into submission those worlds with rebellious leanings. Meanwhile, the rebellious young Senator-Princess Leia Organa has been brought on board as Darth Vader's prisoner. A complete technical readout of the Death Star has fallen into Rebel hands. Instead of providing any hope, the schematics have only documented the almost infinite destructive power of the station. Rebel agents look with dismay at the listings: thousands of turbolaser battery emplacements speckle the rugged surface of the battle station, designed to defend it against capital ship assaults. Countless hangar bays house TIE fighters, shuttles, and other combat and transport craft. The station seems invincible. The Rebellion is doomed. Unless a crucial weakness can be found.....

Waiting at the end of a long trench in the Death Star's upper hemisphere lies a critical thermal exhaust port only two meters wide. This single chink in the Death Star's armor is the only hope for the Rebel forces to defeat the sinister Imperial battle station before it uses its planet-destroying laser to obliterate the Rebel Base on the Fourth Moon of Yavin. Thoroughly ray-shielded against laser fire, the port can only be hit with proton torpedoes, making split-second timing of the torpedo fire absolutely critical. During the Rebel attack against the Death Star, the Rebel X-wing pilot Red Leader fires his torpedoes at the exhaust port but scores only a near miss, one of the torpedoes striking the side of the trench (causing substantial damage) and the other leaving an impact scar close to the exhaust port. Even the X-wing targeting computer was not able to hit the port, leaving the hope of the Rebellion with Luke Skywalker, who turns off his computer at the last second.

On first inspection by Rebel leaders, the stolen plans of the Imperial Death Star only make the situation look hopeless. The battle station is even larger and more heavily armed than the Rebels expected. However, Jan Dodonna spots a crucial weakness in the Death Star's design, which might allow a one-man fighter to set off a chain reaction in the station's core reactor. The weak point is a small thermal exhaust port, connected directly to the main reactor. This exhaust port, only two meters wide, is protected in a trench running 50 kilometers across the Death Star's surface, toward the upper pole. Turbolaser turrets protect most of the surface with a deadly hail of fire, but the far end of the trench is thinly defended. A ship maneuvering into the trench at this point might have a chance of surviving the run and bombing the exhaust port. Dodonna's plan is carried into action, and the bold Rebel pilots in X-wing and Y-wing fighters find themselves racing down the Death Star trench at terrific speeds. While in its northern section the trench does offer shelter from the turbolasers, the Rebels soon face the devastating pursuit of TIE fighters, led by Darth Vader himself, and one by one the freedom fighters are eliminated until hope hangs by a thread.

A vast ocean of sand that stretches across the Tatooine wastes, this huge desert once was a large inland sea. The area is inhospitable to most life-forms due to extreme temperatures and a lack of water. The hermit Ben Kenobi has lived in the western portion of the Dune Sea for years. Jawas traverse the dunes in their mighty sandcrawlers, and a number of exotic creatures have adapted to the harsh environment, baked by the planet's twin suns. Moisture farmers avoid the dangers of the open dunes, setting up their extensive vaporator fields on more-stable salt flats and gravel wastes.

A dry, hot and rocky region on the planet Tatooine, its most prominent features are a canyon and mesa. The Jundland Wastes border the Dune Sea and are inhabited by Tatooine's nomadic and fiercely independent Sand People, or Tusken Raiders. Humans venture into the Wastes at their own peril. If the Sand People or the strange creatures of the wilderness do not attack, the climate can be just as lethal.

Located on salt flats at the edge of the desolate Dune Sea near the settlement of Anchorhead, the Lars family homestead is typical of the moisture farms of Tatooine. The main business of the family is using vaporators to squeeze water from the air to use for drinking, to irrigate subterranean produce, and for sale. The living quarters are below ground both for defensive reasons and to ward off the midday heat of the planet's twin suns.

A spaceport city on the remote planet Tatooine, Mos Eisley attracts interstellar commerce as well as spacers looking for rest after a long haul. The vast number of aliens and humans constantly moving through the spaceport and its distance from the centers of government activity have long made Mos Eisley a haven for thieves, pirates and smugglers. The local presence of crime lord Jabba the Hutt seems only appropriate amidst this "wretched hive of scum and villainy." The city's old central section is laid out like a wheel, while the newer sections are formed into straight blocks of buildings that are half-buried to protect them from the heat of Tatooine's twin suns. Instead of having a central landing area, the entire city is a spaceport, with crater-like docking bays scattered throughout its structure.

Established on the moon Yavin 4 after the Rebels evacuated their base on Dantooine, the secret headquarters of the Alliance occupies several ancient Massassi ruins. The primary location is the round Great Temple, where the Alliance has an enormous War Room on the ground level, along with a Communications Center and many common rooms built into the ancient chambers. The top of the temple houses an observation deck, and below that is the grand audience chamber. Under the chamber are housing levels for Alliance troops. Under the command of General Jan Dodonna, Alliance engineers cleared out the ancient structures and made them fit for habitation once more, and also erected high lookout towers. The structure's lower levels provide a secure hiding place for the Alliance's precious fleet of X-wing and Y-wing fighters.

A harsh desert world orbiting the twin suns Tatoo I and Tatoo II, this arid planet is covered with sodium-rich deserts, deep rocky canyons, and endless dunes. Located in the remote Outer Rim Territories at the edge of the galaxy, Tatooine is a nexus of hyperspace shipping routes, making the planet's spaceport Mos Eisley a way station for traders. Far from the watchful eyes of the Empire, Tatooine also serves as a haven for frontiersmen such as smugglers, mercenaries, and bounty hunters, as well as the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Only a few small human settlements and moisture farming communities (such as Anchorhead and Bestine) dot the barren surface of the planet. The deep deserts and wastelands are left to the native Jawas, the nomadic Sand People, and the strange life forms inhabiting remote areas.