The young senator Leia from Alderaan, and member of the Rebel Alliance was to contact the last remaining jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and beg his assistance in the fight against the Empire. They had almost arrived at Tatooine when a star destroyer appeared from nowhere. As her little ship, "Tantive IV", reverberated from laser blasts, Leia's presence of mind never left her. She went through all the secret documents and destroyed them, except for one...the most important set of plans ever to be stolen. The plans for a huge Death Star capable of destroying entire planets. Quickly she fed them into an artoo unit along with a message to Obi-Wan asking him to deliver the plans to Alderaan for her.
Soon imperial troops had taken over her ship, and after a brief scurmish they stunned her and she was dragged off to meet the reason for her captivity...Darth Vader. She had heard about him of course, his offhand executions, slaughter of civillians, and most of all, his "interrigation" sessions. Nevertheless she faced him boldly, accusing him of attacking a diplomatic mission. If it had been anyone but Vader she might have persuaded them to back off and let her be, she could tell even the officers present thought he was doing the wrong thing. Instead, she was shoved into a temporary cell on the star destroyer, bound for the very thing she had risked so much to try and avoid - the Death Star.
During her entire lifetime she could not blot out the memories of her time, though brief, spent on the giant space station. Several times she almost gave in and told everything she knew. But something always kept her going, kept her sane...until the time an officer came and took her to the bridge. There, under the watchful eyes of Tarkin and Vader there was no hope for escape. She had to watch as they blew up everything she knew, her friends her planet, and the only father she knew.
Back in her cell Leia was in mental agony, until falling into a peaceful forgetful sleep. She woke up to the familiar noise of the door opening, and braced herself for dreadful sound of Vader's resperator. Instead she saw a short stormtrooper, standing there and gawking before removing his helmet to reveal a blonde youth not much older than herself. Apparently he had come to rescue her and was with Obi-Wan. When she left her cell she found herself in the middle of a firefight and the only exit cut off. Quickly she took the lead and jumped down the garbage chute, while the others followed suit. Apparently the boy was called Luke, and his friend was some kind of smuggler. They managed to get out of the garbage bin eventually and with Luke's help she made it back to their ship. Unfortunately, Obi-Wan was killed helping them escape. It seemed Luke was his padawan. They made it back to the rebel base on Yavin IV only to find the Death Star had tracked them. Luke and the smuggler(Han Solo), blew it up just in time.
The Rebel Alliance founded a new base on the windswept icecovered planet Hoth. Certainly the last place the Empire would look. Han and Luke were still helping out, however, they disappeared. First Luke didn't check in, and then Han went after them. R2D2's sensors couldn't find any trace of them, and the doors had just been closed for the night. Leia knew she wouldn't get any sleep and spent the entire night pretending to be busy. Early next morning search parties were sent out, and they found Han & Luke. They soon found another problem as well - an imperial probe droid.
Leia knew they had to evacuate immediately which was a blow. She began making preparations, but Han kept bothering her. One time, when she was particularly angry at him she called him a "halfwitted nerfherder". The ships were being loaded with the more important, harder to obtain items, and the first transport was sent off just as the Imperial Fleet arrived. Through no fault of her own, Leia had to escape on the Millenium Falcon with Han. Unfortunately the trouble didn't end there. The Falcon was damaged, and they couldn't go to lightspeed. Chewie worked on trying to repair it while Han piloted the ship into an asteroid field to get the fighters off their back. He sent the ship into a large cavern in one of the asteroids and went back to help Chewie. This seemed like a good idea, however, Han figured out that they weren't in a cavern at all - they were inside a huge monster. He took off and only just made it out as the mouth closed.
Soon the fleet found them and began blasting at the small Falcon. The shields were almost down when Han nipped onto one of the star destroyer's towers and docked! When the fleet began to disperse, they let go and floated off with the garbage. Leia was beginning to admire Han for his creativity and courage. The nearest friendly planet was Besbin. Han had a friend on Cloud City called Lando. They arrived and were allowed to land. Lando seemed to remember Han, and agreed to repair the Falcon. He was very kind to Leia and so when Lando invited them both to lunch they were not suspicious. There was a lunch waiting for them all right - and an unexpected guest, crasher of many parties known as Vader. They were flung into a prison, and Han was harshly inflicted with electrical shots. Lando said the Empire had arrived just before them and threatened him if he did not cooperate. Apparently all this was to get Luke.
By now Leia cared very deeply for Han, which made Vader's next plan very difficult for her to handle. Han was to be put into carbon freeze and handed over to a bounty hunter. She would never forget seeing him leave her, not knowing if he would live or die. Lando was becoming more and more nervous about the situation and ended up helping her escape. She picked up Luke and they all headed back to join the Rebel Fleet massing near Sollust.
A small masked figure entered Jabba's palace. Looming behind her was Chewie. Boosh boldly entered Jabba's throneroom and demanded a bounty on the wookiee. Jabba agreed, and Boosh joined the other bounty hunters. Late that night she softly crept over to a small alcove where the carbonated Han was hung. Boosh pushed a few buttons on a small control panel, and released Han who fell to the ground. He was shaking all over and was temporarily blind. Boosh removed her helmet to reveal Princess Leia only to hear Jabba's laughter come from behind. Han was sent to a dungeon and she was reduced to a slave girl. Several days went by until Luke came. Jabba didn't give him much of a welcome - he sent him to the Rancor to be eaten. Luke managed to kill the Rancor, so Jabba decided to feed him to the Sarlaac.
Leia helplessly watched as Luke and Han were prodded towards the Sarlaac pit. Suddenly Luke's lightsabre seemed to appear out of nowhere and a battle ensued. Leia never lost her presense of mind. She started by turning off the lights, and ended by flinging her chain around Jabba's neck and strangling him. R2D2 zapped her chain, and she rushed onto the deck to assist Luke. He told her to point the guns at the deck, and set them off. They all got away on a speeder as the entire barge burst into flames.
Several days later they were reunited once again in the Alliance briefing room. Apparently the Empire had built a second Death Star which was grievous, except for one thing - the emperor himself was personally overseeing the final construction. This was their big chance! Leia, Chewie, Han, and Luke started off in a stolen imperial shuttle, and pretended to be technicians. Their mission was to disable the shield generator so the Alliance could fly in and destroy the Death Star. All seemed to be going well, until they ran into some guards on Endor. Leia was separated from the others in the middle of the forest after having been flung from her speederbike. Fortunately she befriended Wicket, an ewok and native inhabitant, who took her with him to his village.
A few hours later she came out of a hut to find Han and the rest of the gang tied up. With the help of 3PO and Luke, they managed to persuade the ewoks to set them free and enlisted their help. That night Luke took Leia aside. Apparently Vader had sensed his presence on the moon. He also told her something else - that she was his sister and Vader was their father. Obviously she didn't take this very well, but they had a mission to accomplish. The next morning they set out for the shield generator. At first the plan went perfectly - until they were captured by almost a hundred stormtroopers. The ewoks then proved themselves to be powerful allies, using their primative equipment they were able to defeat the imperial troops. Leia was wounded during the fight, however, she still managed to help set the explosives that blew up the shield generator. The fleet was able to destroy the death star, and Luke got away only just in time. Leia told Han that Luke was her brother, and that night everyone celebrated the death of the Empire!
