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Bases & Space StationsEcho Base On Hoth
After abandoning their headquarters at the Massassi outpost on Yavin 4, the core group of the Rebel Alliance established Echo Base on the Hoth. Alliance engineers worked non-stop to adapt their technology to withstand the subzero temperature extremes of the frigid ice planet. When the technicians were unable to get the T-47s functioning in time, the Rebels domesticated the indigenous tauntaun for use as a patrol mount. Echo Base was not the first outpost to be established in the frozen caverns of Hoth. Many of the planet's northern glacial plains are hollowed out naturally by volcanic and seismic activity. These vast networks of caverns in the ice have lured smugglers, pirates, Imperials and Rebels alike. When Alliance High Command agreed to use Hoth as their headquarters, the task fell to Major Kem Monnon and his Alliance Corps of Engineers to carve Echo Base out of the living ice. Monnon, a capable engineer and respected leader, led his crew through the cold hardship of carving the ice with laser-borers, mechanical drills and more than a few mitted hands and vibro-spades. It took 18 months to carve the base and it took another two to fit the caverns with electronics, weapons and life support. The nerve center of Echo Base was its darkened command center, where General Rieekan issued orders to the rest of his troops. Here, Alliance scanner operators carefully monitored incoming data from the scattered sensors placed by Rebel scouts in the Hoth wilderness. Two large bay doors provided main entrances at the north and south ends of the mountain range. The hangar was one of the first segments built to allow for the steady inflow of resources. The facility included perimeter defense trenches, static anti-infantry and
anti-vehicle emplacements, v-150 Planet Defender ion cannon, OrC-19 planetary com-scan unit, theater shield, medical facility and command center. At its height, the base housed 7,500 combat and command personnel, 350 medical personnel and 120 droids. The hangar was large enough to simultaneously house at least thirty GR-75 Medium Transports, sixty Rebel starfighters, twelve snowspeeders, the
Millennium Falcon and Outrider. Protecting Echo Base was a powerful energy shield strong enough to deflect Imperial bombardment. When the Empire arrived in the Hoth system, the Rebels erected the shield, forcing the Imperials to engage in a ground battle. The Rebels speedily evacuated the personnel and equipment they could aboard Rebel transports with starfighter escorts, offering covering fire for the fleeing ships from a massive ground-based ion cannon.
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