STAR WARS EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE Ryder Windham Based on the story and screenplay by George Lucas Disney LUCASFILM PRESS
PROLOGUE A long time ago in a galaxy far far away The Clone Wars were over leaving entire civilizations in ruin The Jedi Knights were all but extinct And the Old Republic the dem o cratic galactic government that had prevailed for almost 25,000 years had been replaced by the Galactic Empire Yet the Empire’s supreme ruler the evil Emperor Palpatine remained hungry for even more power To expand his rule and crush all remnants of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 Empire and bring justice and freedom back to the galaxy After Rebel spies learned of the Death Star proj ect they managed to intercept an Imperial 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 stolen plans now in the possession of a young Senator from the planet Alderaan Princess Leia Organa
CHAPTER 1 Bursts of laserfire streaked after the consular starship Tantive IV which was racing for the planet Tatooine The ship was fleeing from the Devastator an 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 the starboard shield projector which caused another explosion 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 EXtinguish fires as more blasts rocked the ship Struggling to remain on their feet Rebel crewmen and troops ran through a narrow white-walled passageway taking little little notice of the two robots that stumbled along with
