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- "The Empire is always expanding its operations in Mos Eisley. For the benefit of the Emperor and his Sith, not the people of Mos Eisley methinks."
- ―Watto
The Imperial garrison base in Mos Eisley was a short-lived Imperial outpost on Tatooine during the Galactic Civil War. It was purposefully built on Tatooine due to its symbolic relationship with the Alliance to Restore the Republic, which at the time had just won major victories against the Empire at the Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the First Death Star. Even though Darth Vader himself had come to oversee the expansion of the base, not too long after this visit, Luke Skywalker and Anduvil managed to infiltrate the stronghold and sabotage the complex, destroying it completely.
Layout
Overview of the base
The Imperial garrison base was a fortified and immense stronghold in the Tatooinian city of Mos Eisley, with several buildings inside, as well as a command bridge between two turbolaser towers.[3] Its facilities included a TIE hangar, a medical center, a detention block[1] a landing platform, a main patio and outward-facing autoturrets[2]. The main gate was located in Straight Street, while the rest of the outpost overlooked Kerner Plaza.[3]
The base housed a large contingent of troops, officers and a medical staff, and at various times has harbored vehicles such as a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle, All Terrain Armored Transports,[2] All Terrain Scout Transports, All Terrain Advance Raiders, armored tanks, Omega-class freighters, a TIE lander[3] and TIE/LN starfighters.[1]
History
- "The Imperial garrison base, an area I only visit when I have to. But sometimes it's-a not so easy to say no to the Empire, eh? Vader himself has come to oversee the expansion of the base and his presence has angered a few of the locals. But it's-a not too bad, eh? There are droid bargains to be had and it's nice to observe the wildlife and take in the ancient city. While it still stands, eh?"
- ―Watto
Darth Vader arrives at the Base.
In large part due to the events of the Battle of Yavin and the Rebel Alliance's destruction of the Death Star, an Imperial-built superweapon/battlestation capable of annihilating entire worlds,[4] the Galactic Empire chose to symbolically build a permanent military outpost on Tatooine.[1] In 0 ABY, Sith Lord Darth Vader, accompanied by a member of the Emperor's Royal Guard, personally visited the base to oversee its expansion, causing a commotion among the locals.[2] For this enlargement project, the Empire routinely employed armored tanks to demolish neighboring private residential homes in order to expand the garrison's limits towards Kerner Plaza.[3]
The Toydarian junkyard entrepreneur Watto occasionally had to visit the base, mostly because he had a hard time otherwise refusing the Empire's requests. Nonetheless, he saw the droid bargains, observing the wildlife and admiring the ancient city of Mos Eisley as compensation for the trouble of dealing with the Empire. Watto also suspected that the establishment of the base was largely intended to benefit Emperor Palpatine's Sith allies rather than the people of Mos Eisley.[2]
The base is blown up as Luke and Anduvil escape.
By this time, the base's medical facility was used to, among other things, analyze potential cases of Bledsoe's disease infections. The medical staff, under the auspices of Doctor Kaaldar, would record the star maps gleaned from its "window-eyes" symptom, as it revealed the location of secret bases operated by the Rebel Alliance.
This practice was, however, unexpectedly sidetracked after a transport capsule containing Bledsoe's disease ended up unwittingly intercepted by a Jawa sandcrawler. Rebel Alliance member Luke Skywalker, having been infected with Bledsoe's while investigating the remains of the sandcrawler, was later delivered to the base, where the Imperials admitted Skywalker to a medical chamber. A portion of the base's main gate was later severely damaged after the sandcrawler, manned by Skywalker's droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, attempted to breach the base in an attempt to rescue Skywalker.[1]
The Imperial garrison base was later utterly destroyed when Rebel intelligence operative Anduvil sabotaged one of the TIE/LN starfighter's P-s4 twin ion engines by realigning the energizer and thus compromising the recharging system. Anduvil had done this by infiltrating the main hangar bay, which at the time was left unguarded due to the unintentional diversion caused by C-3PO and R2-D2's attempt to breach the main gates. The ensuing ion explosion engulfed the complex and killed a number of stormtroopers and officers, as well as Doctor Kaaldar, while Luke, Anduvil and the droids safely escaped on a landspeeder.[1]
Behind the scenes
Tatooine Sojourn's view from the main gate showed a vast desert on the horizon, in opposition to Inside the Worlds, which depicted it inside the city of Mos Eisley.
The Imperial garrison base was first introduced in 1979's comic strip Tatooine Sojourn, distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Russ Manning. The outpost was formally named in 2004's reference book Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy and reused in 2012's online puzzle game Star Wars Galactic Spy.
The depiction of the base, however, is somewhat different between Tatooine Sojourn and Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy, while Star Wars Galactic Spy mainly draws from Inside the Worlds, with small adaptations, such as the addition of military units and characters. Tatooine Sojourn places the outpost amidst a Tatooinian desert, on the outskirts of Mos Eisley while Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy places it within the city. Other differences such as in the design, size and coloring employed between both versions are also visible.
Due to the fact that the three stories are set around 0 ABY and in the same region, this article assumes they refer to the same structure.
Appearances
- Star Wars Galactic Spy
- Tatooine Sojourn (First appearance)
Sources
- Inside the Worlds of Star Wars Trilogy (First identified as Imperial garrison base)
- Star Wars: Complete Locations