De acordo com o (canon) conto Eclipse , os habitantes estavam em grande parte no escuro sobre a natureza de sua morte iminente. O "assassino do planeta" era um segredo bem guardado. Alguns indivíduos estavam cientes do que tinha acabado de chegar em órbita, mas tudo aconteceu muito rapidamente e as comunicações foram bloqueadas, de modo que qualquer esperança de resistência organizada ou fuga em massa não era uma opção.
Beside her, Bail gasped and then seemed to go limp. He turned to her, eyes empty, mouth moving but silent. At last, he found his voice and searched the ground at her feet.
“The planet killer.”
She fought back the surge of nausea that slammed into her like a breaking wave and placed her hands on his face, forcing Bail to look at her. It couldn’t be true. Not Alderaan. They were in the heart of the galaxy, a major planet, a bastion of tradition and peace and prosperity…
The perfect symbol to destroy. The perfect message to send. No planet was too sacred, too populous…No planet was safe.
“My love, they wouldn’t,” she said, even as she knew they would.
Bail smoothed his hands over hers and touched their foreheads together. “At least we will be together.”
“No!” She [Breha Organa] refused to believe it. How could such evil exist? “There…There must be time. The spaceport is too far, but we could reach our private shuttle. We…We could evacuate as many as possible! There must be something, anything, that we can—”
The sound was incredible. They turned toward it in awe and dread, a deadening of air that pulled all noise from around them before a tremendous blast like lightning rent the air. Bail yanked her into his arms, squeezing her as light blinded them, a ring of white that grew from the horizon, spreading fast, bringing trees, beasts, and rocks with it.
Descendo a escala do canon, há uma menção no suplemento Legends RPG Galaxy Guide 3: O Império Contra-Ataca que algumas forças rebeldes na superfície de Alderaan procuraram ajuda por rádio depois de ver a Estrela da Morte chegar. Seu comandante, o general Rieekan, decidiu que uma evacuação em massa poderia provocar uma resposta do Império e que era melhor permanecer na superfície.
When the Death Star battle station appeared in orbit around Alderaan. the panicked calls came in to Rieekan almost immediately. People pleaded for help, for evacuation ships, for anything. Never mind that there wasn't time to evacuate, or that nothing was capable of disabling that Imperial monstrosity. Rieekan feared that evacuation then would be admitting the Alliance's knowledge of the Death Star to the Empire. If they saw thousands of starships suddenly lift off from the planet, the Imperials would surely take that as confirmation of the planet's Rebel connections. Planets loyal to the Empire have nothing to fear, the bureaucrats would argue. No, he thought, we'll sit tight and hope this is all a bluff, or some kind of display of force meant to scare us into submission.
Minutes later, the Empire proved that it was not bluffing. The planet was vaporized. Countless lives were instantly extinguished. Never again would Rieekan underestimate the ruthlessness of the Empire.