Capture and Discovery
The Death Star was constructed over the course of the next few decades and kept under wraps—until a moment of hubris set the stage for Operation Skyhook to begin. The signing of the Corellian Treaty in 2BBY officially, formally established the Alliance to Restore the Republic underneath Senators Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Garm Bel Iblis, themselves leaders of multiple resistance groups working against the the Empire.
Through the deception of Palpatine and his apprentice, Darth Vader, the meeting was interrupted by Vader, and the captured senators—alongside the rebellious former dark acolyte trained by Vader, Galen Marek—were brought to see the still-under-construction Death Star in all its glory before their execution. Marek, turning to the light side, sacrificed himself to buy the senators time to escape the facility, and in his memory the newly formed Rebellion established its first major operation in open war with the Empire: find the technical plans of the Death Star and analyze them for a weakness so that it could be destroyed.
First Covered In: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008)
