The DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station (more commonly known as the Death Star II) is the second Death Star battle station constructed by the Galactic Empire. Much larger than its predecessor, measuring 200 kilometers in diameter, it was only partly complete after the destruction of the first Death Star at the Battle of Yavin. Emperor Palpatine insisted on the reconstruction of the battlestation, as it was an integral part in his plan to destroy the Rebel Alliance, leaving the galaxy in the hands of the Empire.
The second Death Star's superlaser was revealed to be operational before the construction of the station was completed, taking the Alliance attackers by surprise during the Battle of Endor. This was Emperor Palpatine's pre-meditated plan all along, and it nearly led to the defeat of the Rebellion. The Alliance ground forces on the forest moon of Endor managed to deactivate the energy shield surrounding the battle station, and the Rebel fleet proceeded to destroy the station from within, signifying the beginning of the downfall of the Empire.
Three decades after its destruction, the wreckage of this Death Star is seen on Endor's ocean moon of Kef Bir, where Rey finds one of the Sith wayfinders and then has her last duel with Kylo Ren, which results in her saving his life and him coming back to the light side of the Force.
The destruction of the first Death Star over the fourth moon of Yavin was a devastating defeat for the Empire. In typical fashion, Emperor Palpatine decided that the best revenge would be to again confront the Rebellion with its greatest fear; a resurrected Death Star.
Palpatine summoned the original Death Star's lead designer, Bevel Lemelisk, ordering him to produce an even more advanced battle station. After finishing work on the original Tarkin battle station, Lemelisk's design team soon completed the second Death Star's design.
Not only was the second Death Star larger and more deadly, but several flaws in the original design were corrected; the vulnerable thermal exhaust ports were replaced with several millimeter-wide heat dispersion ducts, leaving no weak spots in the battle station's armor for the Rebellion to exploit. The finished design increased the overall size of the new Death Star to 200 kilometers in diameter. The north pole of the station featured a one-hundred story tower topped by the Emperor's private observation chamber perhaps the most heavily armored and shielded portion of the station.
Death Star II Schematics.
This new Death Star's central weapon, the terrifying superlaser, featured substantially increased power, allowing it to be recharged in a matter of minutes rather than 24 hours. The superlaser's targeting and power control systems were refined so the weapon could be turned on capital starships.
Lemelisk added 20,000 turbolasers to repel attacks from starfighters and capital ships. Once completed, this station would have carried thousands of TIE Fighters, Troopers, and ground combat vehicles. This new Death Star would have been invincible; the only way to stop it would have been to destroy it while it was still under construction.
Appearances[]
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi[]
The second Death Star was part of an elaborate trap set by Emperor Palpatine to lure the Rebels out of hiding. For nearly six years the Rebels had managed to avoid destruction. The Emperor provided a target so dangerous that the Rebels could not afford to pass it up.
Palpatine allowed the Alliance's Bothan spies to learn of the second Death Star; but carefully avoided disclosing the fact that the superlaser would be fully operational by the time the Rebel fleet arrived, which lured them into his simple trap.
Imperial engineers built an immense shield generator on the forest moon of Endor to protect the partially completed Death Star. However, the Empire underestimated the "primitive" Ewoks indigenous to Endor's moon. A small team of Rebel commandos was able to enlist the Ewoks' aid and destroy the shield generator, thus allowing the Millennium Falcon, commanded by General Lando Calrissian, to fly inside the partially completed battle station and destroy its power core before construction could be completed.
As the second Death Star exploded over the forest moon, the Emperor was killed and his war fleet was flung into disarray. The loss of the second Death Star, the Emperor, and Darth Vader was a loss the Empire never recovered from and signaled the beginning of the end for the Galactic Empire.
For thirty-one years, the remains of the second Death Star would lay on Endor's ocean moon of Kef Bir which Rey explores. She comes across Palpatine's destroyed throne room where she locates the Emperor's Sith wayfinder before then being faced with a vision of her darker side. Then, she encounters Kylo Ren as he has been following her and finds her inside the throne room. She gets into a fight with Kylo after he destroyed the wayfinder she just found, urging her to join him to travel to Exegol together. During the duel, they leave the throne room and go to the top of the ruins, where the confrontation ends after the two sensed the death of Leia Organa.
Rey regrets impaling Kylo in an act of fury during their duel. She heals all his wounds, saving his life, before confessing that she does want to join him, but as Ben Solo, in the light side of the Force. She then leaves the ruins aboard his TIE whisper. Left alone on the ruins, Kylo comes back to the light side after being confronted by a vision of his father. Ben Solo finds an old TIE scout in the wreckage and uses it to follow Rey to Exegol, with the intent to save her from the revived Emperor Palpatine.
Trivia[]
The second Death Star model was actually the reverse of what appears in Return of the Jedi, with most of its left-hand superstructure incomplete. The image of the battle station was flipped horizontally when used in the final cut of the film.
In the Legends continuity, the droid bounty hunter IG-88 had uploaded his mind into the second Death Star itself, effectively becoming the station itself. This was part of his grand plan for a Droid Revolution. Had he not been on the second Death Star, the superlaser would have completely missed its targets by a wide margin, as he was able to make corrections on-the-fly. When the station was destroyed, IG-88 was also destroyed, as was any hope of the Droid Revolution's success.
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