Galactic Civil War

After a four-year, galaxy-wide conflict with the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Galactic Republic emerged victorious from the Clone Wars. However, the citizens of the Republic did not know that their leader, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, was secretly the Dark Lord of the Sith who had orchestrated the war for his own profit and to complete the Revenge of the Sith.

The war had opposed the loyalist elements of the Republic to a Separatist movement led by former Jedi Master Dooku. The Jedi Order, despite its official role as peacekeepers, agreed to lead the newly formed Grand Army of the Republic, leading its clone troopers into battle along several fronts throughout the galaxy. The role the Jedi played in the war caused their numbers to dwindle, both from the losses they suffered on the battlefield and from certain individuals, like Barriss Offee who rebelled against the Order for abandoning its beliefs. They also began to lose support among not only the political elite of the Republic, but also the growing military leadership of the Grand Army and a galactic population that they had become increasingly distant from. Protests against them and the war began, and, with their peacekeeping duties having been discarded in favor of the war, criminal cartels rose up to claim ground.

In addition to the Jedi's decline, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine ensured his own rise as the Senate constantly increased his powers, suspending his term limits and allowing him greater control over both the military and the Republic. By the end of the war, his powers had virtually become limitless and his relationship with the Jedi Council had deteriorated to such an extent that they had begun to consider removing him from power should he refuse to return his emergency powers to the Senate. When Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker brought them proof that Palpatine was actually the hidden Dark Lord of the Sith, they attempted to arrest him. However, their attempt failed when Skywalker betrayed them and pledged his allegiance to Darth Sidious as his new apprentice, Darth Vader.

Sidious initiated the culmination of the Sith's grand plan to eliminate both the Jedi and the Republic, ordering the clone troopers to execute Order 66 which called for the execution of their Jedi commanders while Vader led an attack upon their Temple on Coruscant. Although many clones had come to love and respect their Jedi officers, each trooper had been implanted with a behavioral modification biochip, which forced them to obey the order. With his Jedi enemies eliminated, the Republic and its military apparatus under his control and any opposition spent by years of war, Sidious declared himself Emperor and announced the Republic's reorganization into the Galactic Empire, one cheering Senators accepted to ensure security and stability after the chaos of the Clone Wars.

The Empire quickly moved to assess its military, with which it would control the galaxy; Admiral and Governor Wilhuff Tarkin was dispatched to the clone homeworld of Kamino, informing Prime Minister Lama Su that the Imperial regime was calling the role of clones into question. Interested in the possible effectiveness of Clone Force 99, an elite team of enhanced clones who called themselves "the Bad Batch," Tarkin deployed them on a mission to Onderon, claiming they would wipe out a force of Separatist insurgents. However, Clone Sergeant "Hunter" ordered his squad to stop their mission after seeing the supposed insurgents included children, meaning their targets included refugees. Taken prisoner by the rebels, their leader, former-Republic fighter Saw Gerrera, warned the squad that small rebel groups were the only thing stopping Palpatine from controlling the galaxy, telling them that a civil war was on the horizon. Similarly, former Republic Intelligence ranger Matese later told smuggler Has Obitt that galactic conflict was merely "on pause," with certain groups seeking former Separatist equipment to use for when another war broke out.

Although he intended to use his Empire to seize unlimited power, Darth Sidious entertained a facade that the new regime was merely a continuation of the Republic. However, this was a play to prevent his enemies from gathering enough strength to openly act against him. He reorganized the former Galactic Senate of the Republic into the new Imperial Senate. Although this new body did not possess as much power as its predecessor, it did retain the ability to pass legislation. Most Senators refrained from engaging in direct criticism of the Emperor as the Empire grew stronger, but the Senate soon became divided between followers of the New Order and those who still wished for a return to democracy. These Senators worked as hard as they could to rein in the Empire's excesses and soon became as the only check to the Emperor's power.

Most prominent among the Emperor's silent opposition were former members of the Loyalist Committee, such as Bail Organa of Alderaan and Mon Mothma of Chandrila, who hoped that they could make a difference from the inside, but to no avail. Nevertheless, they came to hold enough weight in the Senate to influence the Empire's decisions, as the new regime's higher-levels constantly feared a potential uprising against their rule. Chief among their achievements, the Senators limited the influence of the new Imperial Military by outlawing the forced conscription of stormtroopers, regular beings brought into the Empire's service after the clone troopers were phased out of military service, and preventing beings from being sold into slavery for failing to honor debt commitment.

Following the brutal suppression of the planet Lasan and the near-genocide of its people, they banned the use of T-7 ion disruptor rifles after they were used on the Lasat. And they tried to alleviate the suffering of populations caught in the Empire's web of expansion. When the planet Wobani became snared in the Commodities Enhancement Program, their economy collapsed due to their inability to meet the Empire's quotas and a severe humanitarian crisis occurred on the world. Senators Organa and Mothma, along with their allies in the Senate, negotiated with the Empire for weeks to ensure the relocation of Wobani's citizens. However, these efforts failed due to the intervention of Organa's adopted daughter, Princess Leia Organa, who led an unauthorized mercy mission to Wobani, rescuing hundreds of its citizens but angering the Empire enough for them to end negotiations with the Senate.

In addition to their official activities as part of the Imperial Senate, Organa, Mothma, and their allies began undertaking covert operations with the goal of eventually mounting a considerable and unavoidable opposition to the Empire. Their goals were not originally to organize a rebellion or any form of armed opposition against the Emperor; they sought to find and recruit groups and individuals who opposed the New Order and unite them towards a common goal: the restoration of the Republic and an end to the Empire's tyranny.

However, as the movement grew and the atrocities worsened, this growing movement began to entertain the notion that armed resistance would be the only way to save the galaxy. Using covers and hiding their dealings, they began to channel funds towards the formation of a united military under a banner of rebellion. Once-isolated groups of insurgents, such as Saw Gerrera's Partisans and Enfys Nest's Cloud-Riders, were united and given common goals to accomplish while remaining as discreet as possible. Other cells were hidden from view completely, establishing bases on remote worlds, like Crait and shipyards to refit civilian vessels for military use. A major shipyard was established in secret in the Paucris system.

The Empire's High Command was aware of the Senate's efforts to impede its long-term plans and its moves to protect rebel sympathizers from scrutiny. However, although they suspected rebellion, they could not prove it, and in the years following the Proclamation of the New Order, the Senators still wielded enough power to be protected.

Order 66 and the declaration of the Jedi as traitors by Emperor Palpatine led to the devastation of the Jedi Order, as a galaxy-wide purge began. Barely a few hundred of the once ten-thousand strong Order escaped with their lives. Several more fell into a trap set by the Lord Vader who sent out a message to all surviving Jedi to return to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. However, Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who had both survived the clones' attempts to kill them, infiltrated the Temple and altered the code to save what Jedi they could.

Few in number and spread across the galaxy, the surviving Jedi charted different courses. Some, such as Yoda and Kenobi, hid until they were ready to emerge and defeat the Sith. Others, such as former Padawan Caleb Dume, took different names and set aside their Jedi ways to avoid detection, moving on whenever their identity was at risk of being discovered. Others turned their attention to other concerns: former Jedi Librarian Jocasta Nu built an underground school which contained a new Jedi archive for future Jedi students she intended to train to rebuild the Order. Her attempts ended with her death at the hands of Darth Vader after she infiltrated the former Jedi Temple to recover a list of Force-sensitive children who had been identified by the Jedi for recruitment.

Other Jedi made it their task to resist the newly formed Empire from its inception; a former Padawan named Ferren Barr used the Force to compel several opponents of the Empire to join him on a quest to turn the galaxy against the Emperor. Inspired by visions of rebellion led by the aquatic Mon Calamari people, he began advising Lee-Char, King of Mon Cala, to resist the Empire. However, Barr's manipulations led to the Empire's invasion of Mon Cala, in the first Imperial show of force against a rebellious world. Like Jocasta Nu, ex-Jedi Knight Cere Junda and ex-Padawan Cal Kestis worked together to try to rebuild the Jedi Order. The two looked for a holocron that contained a list of Force-sensitive children that had been hidden by Jedi Master Eno Cordova in Bogano. Although they obtained the holocron after some conflicts with the Empire and even a confrontation with Vader, the two decided to destroy the holocron so that the children on the list were safe from the Empire.

As time went by and the Empire's oppression grew, several Jedi who had hidden in the shadows began to emerge and take the fight to their longtime enemies and their rule of the galaxy. Unlike Ferren Barr's early attempt at rebellion, these Jedi chose to keep their identities hidden as long as possible to avoid drawing the Empire's attention on their efforts. One of the most important of these beings to assist the growing movements emerging against the Empire was actually a former Jedi: former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who had left the Jedi Order shortly before the end of the Clone Wars. Hiding away on an agricultural moon called Raada in 18 BBY, Tano got caught up in a grassroots resistance movement when the Empire invaded Raada to produce the herbs needed for their nutrients, causing irreversible damage to the crops in the process. Tano's actions caught the attention of Senator Organa, who had been secretly looking for surviving Jedi since the Purge had begun.

The senator recruited Tano into the fledgling opposition that he had been building, giving her charge of its nascent intelligence network. Tano created the "Fulcrum" agents, a network of undercover agents operating under this common name to mask their numbers. Their task would be to gather intelligence on Imperial activities and recruit more individuals and groups to form a larger movement against the Empire. The Fulcrum agents kept their identities secret even from the cells they handled while providing with supplies and information to target Imperial interests while protecting the secret of their larger plan. One cell that was recruited by Tano under her guise as Fulcrum was the Spectres, who operated in the Lothal sector. This cell distinguished itself by the presence of a Jedi in its ranks. Kanan Jarrus, the new name of Caleb Dume, eventually took on an apprentice of his own, Ezra Bridger, in 5 BBY.

However, while some Jedi hid and others began to join or found rebellious movements, a darker path was open for survivors of the Purge. Concerned that surviving Jedi or other Force-sensitive beings would be a threat to his rule, the Emperor created the Inquisitorius, a cadre of former Jedi Knights who had forsaken their old allegiance and fallen to the dark side of the Force. Governed by Lord Vader and trained in the dark arts without being given access to the full power of their Sith masters, the Imperial Inquisitors were given two missions. The first was to hunt down the surviving Jedi whenever they appeared, for which they were granted an Imperial writ signed by the Emperor that any opposition to their actions would be taken as an act of war against the Empire. The second was to track down other Force-sensitive beings in the galaxy, such as children who might be trained as Inquisitors themselves in a program codenamed Project Harvester.

As part of Project Harvester, the Inquisitorius monitored Imperial Academies to identify such beings and remove them before they could grow too powerful and potentially challenge the Emperor. This mission also included tracking down trained Force-sensitives threats to the Empire, namely the one that the Inquisitors came to know as the "shadow": Darth Sidious's former apprentice Maul. Having survived the Clone Wars, Lord Maul had rebuilt his power in the criminal underworld by leading the syndicate known as the Crimson Dawn. He would later be tracked to the forgotten Sith world of Malachor by the Eighth Brother, a confrontation that would eventually include Ahsoka Tano, Kanan Jarrus, and Ezra Bridger, as well as two additional Inquisitors: the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister. All three Inquisitors perished in the ensuing battle.

The disappearance of the Jedi caused a significant shift in the galaxy's awareness of the Force: although the practices of the Order were not well-known at the time of their height, the Empire's rise caused knowledge of such practices to be looked down upon. Imperial authorities worked hard to eliminate reminders of the Jedi, occupying sites that had once been important to their religion, such as the Holy City of Jedha or the ice planet Ilum. And even among the highest ranks of the Empire, knowledge of both the Force and their practitioners was limited and dabbling in what was perceived as occultism frowned upon. Some Imperials, such as Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, had known the fabled Jedi during the Clone Wars, but others hadn't. Even Lord Vader and his Inquisitors, despite their influence and the favor they enjoyed with the Emperor, were occasionally treated with suspicion, dismissed even by some of the high-ranking Imperial officers as "sorcerers" or "mystics."

As the Empire tightened its grip on the galaxy through oppressive and repressive means and aggressively expanded across the galaxy through military conquests, a number of resistance movements and insurgencies rose up to challenge the Empire across the galaxy as part of an early rebellion against the Galactic Empire. At first, these rebel movements were strictly local, emerging on individual planets, star systems, or sectors and fighting for their own freedom or independence. The Empire's intelligence agents and military forces moved in ruthlessly to deal with any rebellious worlds that showed signs of large-scale resistance to Imperial rule. However, the Empire was unable to stem the coming together of rebel groups across the galaxy, many of which were brought together as rebel cells under a clandestine network organized by figures, such as Senators Bail Organa and Mon Mothma and their allies. Once, a coordinated attack by multiple rebel cells was considered unprecedented, and some Imperial officials doubted any evidence of a larger-scale, galaxy-wide rebel operation. However, the Empire would eventually have to contend with the reality of a growing rebellion against its rule.

Despite their attempts to suppress rebel activity, the Empire's greatest fear was secretly growing larger as various rebel groups began to unite against them. The first true rebel excursion against the Empire occurred in 4 BBY after Kanan Jarrus, a member of a rebel crew known as the Spectres, was captured while his team was hijacking an Imperial communication tower on Lothal to beam out a transmission to nearby systems in the Outer Rim. Taken to the Mustafar for interrogation, Jarrus was freed by his team while he was in transit aboard Governor Tarkin's flagship, the Sovereign. The escape attempt saw the death of the Empire's Grand Inquisitor as well as the destruction of the Sovereign. But it was as the Spectres made their escape that the truth of the rebellion's scale emerged: a fleet of corvettes jumped out of hyperspace, neutralizing the approaching TIE fighters, and allowing the Spectres to escape.

In time, the dissident Senator Mon Mothma realized that it was impossible to reform the Empire through the Imperial Senate. After denouncing the Emperor, Mothma was forced to flee into hiding. Mothma and her followers rendezvoused with the Spectres in deep space. Pursued by Imperial forces commanded by Commander Vult Skerris in his TIE/d "Defender" Multi-Role Starfighter, the rebel convoy traveled through the dangerous Archeon Nebula. Despite losing Skerris, the rebels found a pair of Star Destroyers commanded by Governor Arihnda Pryce and Admiral Kassius Konstantine waiting on the other side. Syndulla managed to facilitate Mothma's escape by firing proton torpedoes into the nebula. The various rebel forces then amassed above Dantooine where Mon Mothma gave a hologram speech announcing the formation of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

Thanks to Mothma's speech, once local rebel groups combined their efforts into a full-blown Alliance as more and more rebel cells arrived to Dantooine. Nevertheless, even though the founding of the Alliance marked the official start to the Galactic Civil War, open war would not start for sometime, as the Rebellion needed to prepare itself. Although the conflict was considered a war that was raging across the galaxy, the rebels focused their efforts on building their strength and making smaller strikes against Imperial forces, waiting until they were ready to make an all out assault. Still, the war created a new danger within the galaxy for the many citizens who sought to live normal lives. Despite the conflict, many citizens still faced the regular challenges of everyday life, which could include Imperial tyranny on occupied worlds, and both sides made efforts to appeal to the galactic population through propaganda.

While undertaking a mission on Killun Station to obtain clearance codes for the planned raid on Lothal, the rebel droid Chopper was remotely reprogrammed by a team of Imperial Information Office slicers and analysts led by LT-319. Desiring glory and victory, LT-319 embarked on an ambitious plan to use Chopper to download the coordinates of the Phoenix Cell's Chopper Base. LT-319's plot was foiled by the combined efforts of the Spectres, Wedge Antilles, and AP-5. In retaliation for harming her droid, Hera Syndulla transmitted a data surge back to the Imperial team's Gozanti-class cruiser, destroying the vessel and keeping the secret of Chopper Base's location.

Following the death of Maul on the planet Tatooine at the hands of Kenobi, Grand Admiral Thrawn obtained intelligence that the Phoenix Squadron was rendezvousing with General Jan Dodonna's Massassi Group for a combined attack on Lothal's TIE Defender factories. Thrawn trapped an Imperial-turned-rebel mole, Agent Alexsandr Kallus, and used his communications to determine the location of Chopper Base on the planet Atollon. The Grand Admiral's Seventh Fleet blockaded Atollon and wiped out much of the two rebel cells. However, Thrawn was denied full victory when Commander Jun Sato rammed Admiral Konstantine's Interdictor-class cruiser. This created a temporary gap that allowed Ezra Bridger and Chopper to escape with news of the siege of Atollon.

Unable to get help from Mon Mothma, Bridger and Chopper appealed to Sabine Wren and the Mandalorian Clan Wren for aid. Sabine's mother, Countss Ursa Wren allowed Sabine and Fenn Rau to bring a Mandalorian strike force to Atollon to aid the rebels. Meanwhile, the surviving rebels retreated to Chopper Base as Thrawn launched a withering orbital bombardment. As Imperial ground forces stormed the base, Kanan Jarrus appealed to Bendu for help. However, this enraged the Bendu, who went on a rampage. Back in space, Bridger, Chopper, and their Mandalorian allies managed to destroy Thrawn's second Interdictor cruiser. This allowed the surviving remnants of Phoenix Squadron to retreat to Yavin 4 along with the defector Kallus where they merged with the rebel forces there. Despite this defeat, the Rebellion strengthened their alliance with Clan Wren and the other Mandalorian clans opposed to the Imperial–backed Clan Saxon on Mandalore.

In 1 BBY, out of gratitude for the Mandalorian assistance on Atollon, Syndulla managed to convince Rebel Command to allow the Spectres to assist Clan Wren and its allies on Mandalore. The Spectres helped their Mandalorian allies to rescue Sabine Wren's father Alrich Wren from execution. In response, Governor Saxon's brother and successor Tiber Saxon deployed the "Duchess," a superweapon capable of incinerating Mandalorian warriors by turning their vaunted armor against them. To atone for her role in creating the weapon, Sabine Wren led a successful strike operation which destroyed the weapon and Tiber Saxon's Star Destroyer. Following the operation, Lady Bo-Katan Kryze accepted the Darksaber and the mantle of Mandalorian leadership, allowing Sabine Wren to rejoin her rebel comrades.

The violent campaigns led by Saw Gerrera's Partisans resulted in their official official censure and removal from the Rebel Alliance. Nonetheless, the Rebel Alliance received intelligence from Gerrera that the Empire was using a relay station on Jalindi to disrupt rebel supply runs. At the advice of Kallus, Rebel Command dispatched the Spectres on a mission to plant a spike on the relay station to monitor Imperial transmissions. Thought the mission was disrupted by the arrival of Commander Titus' light cruiser Marauder, the Spectres were aided by the arrival of Saw's U-wing. Saw rescued the strike team members Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper before bombing both the Jalindi relay and the Marauder. Saw then recruited the three rebels for his quest to investigate why the Empire had exterminated the Geonosians.

Saw and the three Spectres then traveled to Faos Station where they infiltrated the Imperial Freighter 2716, which was transporting a large Kyber crystal to the Tonnis sector. Aboard the ship, the rebels freed several technicians who had been conscripted for an unknown project. While Ezra and Sabine wanted to evacuate the civilians, Saw was determined to find out what the Empire was building at any cost. Saw was disappointed when the freighter emerged in empty space and was intercepted by Captain Slavin's Star Destroyer. Unwilling to concede defeat, Saw ignited the kyber crystal, leading to an explosion that consumed both ships. Saw escaped aboard his U-wing while the Spectres and technicians fled aboard a shuttle. Despite failing to uncover the Empire's secret project, the Alliance gained new recruits from the technicians.

The Empire launched a crackdown on Lothal that claimed the life of Lothal resistance member Jho. Despite this crackdown, Ryder Azadi managed to warn Rebel Command about the TIE/D Defender Elite project on Lothal. Mon Mothma dispatched the Spectres on a mission to acquire information about the prototype fighter. With the help of the crime lord Cikatro Vizago, the Spectres managed to infiltrate Lothal. After splitting up, Ezra and Sabine visited Jho's former bar and learnt that it had been taken over by the Empire. There, they reunited with an old rebel contact Jai Kell. Despite being pursued by Imperial forces, the rebels managed to escape through the sewers and link up with Azadi's group.

With the help of Ryder, the Spectres made their way to a remote Imperial testing facility where the TIE/D Defender Elite was stored. The rebel heist coincided with a visit by Grand Admiral Thrawn and Governor Pryce. Prior to the test demonstration, Ezra and Sabine managed to steal the ship and fought with several TIE Interceptors. Thrawn took advantage of the heist to test the TIE/D Defender Elite's combat capabilities. Following a crash-landing, Ezra and Sabine managed to escape with the craft's flight data recorder to Yavin 4. After getting lost in the wilderness, they encountered a loth-wolf which brought them to Ryder's camp.

The following day, Ezra, Zeb, and Jai Kell returned to the crash site to retrieve the TIE/D Defender Elite's hyperdrive; which Sabine hoped to install on Ryder's U-wing. While Governor Pryce insisted on leading the manhunt, Thrawn dispatched his Noghri tracker Rukh to hunt the rebels. Despite being pursued by Rukh and scout troopers, the rebels managed to return to the camp in stolen vehicles. While Hera and Chopper departed with the flight data recorder aboard the refitted U-wing, the other Spectres, Jai and Ryder fled into a series of tunnels. There, they encountered a pack of loth-wolves which guided them to Lothal's southern hemisphere.

After setting up base in the caves, the Spectres encountered a Mining Guild ore crawler Crawler 413-24 that was extracting minerals from Lothal's surface. The crawler was staffed by several prisoners including Vizago, who had been convicted of aiding the rebels. The rebels freed the prisoners, killed the Trandoshan overseer Proach, and imprisoned the captain Seevor. The rebels narrowly avoided detection by an Imperial search party. Ezra later killed Seevor when he tried to retake the crawler. The rebels subsequently received news from Hera that Rebel Command had authorized a strike on Lothal to take out the Empire's TIE factories. The rebels and liberated prisoners were designated as the air raid's ground support team.

General Syndulla led a squadron of X-wing starfighters and Y-wing starfighters on the planned raid on Lothal's factories while the rebel ground team sabotage the Imperial artillery defenses. However, they were intercepted by Thrawn's fleet and suffered heavy casualties. Hera, Chopper, and Mart Mattin survived the rough landing but were pursued by Imperial forces including Rukh. While Mart and Chopper managed to flee into Lothal's sewers, Hera was captured by Rukh, who handed her over to Governor Pryce. Due to the failure of the air raid, Kanan Jarrus and the ground team were forced to retreat from Capital City. During an ensuing effort to rescue Syndulla, Pryce ordered an AT-AT to fire upon the local fuel supply in a desperate final attempt to wiping out several of the Lothal rebels. Dying in the explosion, Jarrus gave his life to save Syndulla.

Much to Thrawn's anger, Pryce's attack also wiped out the fuel supply, thereby bringing the TIE Defender project to a halt for the time being. Called away from Lothal, Thrawn had helped uncover fellow Grand Admiral Balanhai Savit's treasonous efforts to direct material away from the Death Star project. Working alongside officers from Thrawn's home Chiss Ascendancy, Thrawn's forces also helped defeat a Grysk infiltration into Imperial space. However, by focusing on those problems, Thrawn had technically failed to put a stop to a gralloc infestation impacting Death Star supply lines, even though it had been caused by Savit's plot. Nevertheless, the failure left the funds assigned to the TIE Defender free to be appropriated into the Death Star project, although Tarkin claimed funding would have a chance to resume once the battle station was complete.

On Lothal, Commander Bridger and the Spectres also uncovered the Empire's efforts to excavate the Lothal Jedi Temple on the order of Palpatine himself. The project was overseen by Palpatine's advisor Veris Hydan. The Temple contained an entrance to the mythical World Between Worlds, with which Palpatine could take control of the universe. After rescuing Ahsoka Tano from the mission to Malachor through the World Between Worlds, Bridger escaped the plain and Palpatine's interference, destroying the portal into the World Between Worlds in the process. While the Rebel Alliance proper would not be involved in the engagement, the Spectres and their various allies then launched a gambit to liberate Lothal and end its Imperial occupation. Bridger also planned to summon a pod of purrgil to deal with the orbiting Imperial armada. Meanwhile, the Emperor personally ordered the Grand Admiral return to Lothal to put down the local rebellion and capture Bridger.

Overseeing the scheme by hologram, Palpatine tried to convince Bridger to open a new portal into the World Between Worlds through a surviving portion of the Lothal temple. However, Bridger rejected his manipulation and destroyed the portal once more. With the Purrgil, Bridger wiped out Thrawn's fleet and commanded the creatures to latch onto Thrawn's command ship, taking him, the Grand Admiral, and all aboard the Chimaera into hyperspace. After the Purrgil defeated the Imperial fleet, the ground garrison, which had been largely recalled to the Imperial Command Dome under Protocol 13, was almost entirely wiped out through the Dome's self-destruction. Lothal was thus freed from Imperial control. The growing war with the Rebel Alliance left the Empire unable to launch a retaliatory strike against Lothal. Furthermore, Thrawn's disappearance left him unable to take part in subsequent campaigns against the Alliance, with Palpatine also robbed of his chance to use the Grand Admiral as a pawn in his plan to take over the Chiss Ascendancy.

The rebellion also fought the Empire in skirmishes at Carsanza and at Nexator. The tactics deployed in both engagements were reused later in the war. For the Alliance, the time period before open warfare was defined mainly by surgical operations—including sabotage, thievery, espionage, and even assassination—that could disrupt Imperial progress, with the Empire and rebellion both attempting to hide public knowledge of such inglorious rebel victories. On the planet Vulpter, an undercover agent operating under the Rebel Alliance Intelligence Service carried out a data raid on the Arakyd Industries data storehouse.

However, the Alliance's refusal to launch major strikes against the Empire began to weigh heavily on General Davits Draven. While he helped lead the Rebel Alliance Intelligence Service and its covert operations, he had joined the Alliance with the hope of defeating the Empire before it became impossible. By 1 BBY, Draven had come to look at the Alliance as a group that had refused one too many chances to truly hurt the Empire. At that time, there were members in the Alliance Civil Government who still argued the Alliance's goal should be a negotiated peace with Palpatine. All the same, despite the Alliance's resistance to open attacks out of fear such conflict would harm any peaceful resolution the Senate could bring forth, the Alliance sent the 61st Mobile Infantry—otherwise known as "Twilight Company" on missions against the Empire.

Founded and led by Captain Micha Evon, Twilight Company was dispatched by rebel commanders in a bloody campaign against the Empire. At a point where the company had seen action on numerous worlds, it was sent to Crucival to destroy its transmitter tower in the Battle of the Tower. The Empire had armed many civilians to thwart their attack but were left for dead as the Empire hid behind their shield from Twilight Company's CR90 corvette the Thunderstrike. Twilight Company won after three days of bloody fighting and set up an open recruitment drive to bolster their numbers and many citizens, including Hazram Namir, signed up. Twilight Company would travel to Vir Aphshire two months later.

In 1 BBY, Galen Erso, the main designer of the Death Star, sent Bodhi Rook, an imperial pilot, to Jedha to tell Saw Gerrera about the Death Star and its weakness. Hearing the rumors and that Rook had been captured by Saw, the Alliance recruited Galen's daughter and Saw's old associate Jyn Erso to confirm the information and extract Galen, along with intelligence officer Cassian Andor and K-2SO. She and her team successfully extracted Rook but not before the Death Star destroyed Jedha City in a test run. The team then went to Eadu and, although Andor was ordered to kill Galen, attempted to extract him. However, the Alliance mistakenly attacked the facility, resulting in Galen's death and a massive amount of damage to the base. While the Eadu raid was not the first open rebel attack of the Alliance-Imperial conflict, it nonetheless represented an escalation of hostilities in the brewing Galactic Civil War due to its nature as an open assault in a period where the Alliance tried to avoid such attacks.

Most of the Rebellion's leaders chose not to act on the team's information. However, Jyn, Andor, and K-2SO, along with a team of soldiers of the Alliance naming themselves Rogue One attacked the Citadel on Scarif and snuck themselves inside the facility to steal the original plans to the Death Star. The Alliance on Yavin 4 was informed, and Admiral Raddus rushed in with a large chunk of the Alliance Fleet to assist. The infiltrators managed to get the plans with one loss and sped to the top to transmit them to Raddus's ship, the Profundity. With the help of the Lightmaker ramming a disabled Star Destroyer into the shield gate, the plans made it to the flagship, but as the fleet attempted to escape, Vader's Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Devastator came in and stopped them getting away before too many ships got out.

The Profundity was disabled and the rest of the fleet was either destroyed or scattered. But inside the Profundity, Rebel troopers put the plans onto a data tape and transferred them to Princess Leia Organa aboard the Tantive IV (docked inside the flagship) before Lord Vader could intercept it. The vessel escaped and jumped out of the system. Although the team was successful in their mission, they died completing their task along with Director Orson Callan Krennic and any other Rebel or Imperial forces, as the Battle of Scarif ended with the Death Star destroying the surface of the planet.

Racing towards the desert planet of Tatooine with the plans in hand, Organa hoped to enlist the help of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, Vader caught up with the Tantive IV and captured the ship in a space battle over the planet. Darth Vader's forces boarded Organa's ship, forcing her to hide the plans of the Death Star in the memory banks of the R2 series astromech droid R2-D2. R2, along with the protocol droid C-3PO, used an escape pod to escape to Tatooine, where they were captured by Jawas who then sold them to moisture farmer Owen Lars, uncle of Luke Skywalker.

While Skywalker was cleaning the droids, he stumbled upon part of the message in R2-D2 and became interested. However, R2-D2, operating under the programming that he was the property of Master Kenobi, escaped and tried to find Kenobi. After an encounter with Tusken Raiders in the Dune Sea, Skywalker met up with Kenobi. R2-D2 then played for Kenobi and Skywalker Organa's desperate plea for help. The two soon discovered that Imperial stormtroopers had attacked the Jawas who had sold Skywalker and his uncle the two droids in a vain search for the Death Star plans. Skywalker raced back to the Lars moisture farm to find his home burned and his aunt and uncle killed. He then accompanied Kenobi to Mos Eisley, where, after using subterfuge to get past Imperial troops, the two negotiated with Captain Han Solo and first mate Wookiee Chewbacca to take them, the droids along with the Death Star plans to Alderaan aboard the Corellian YT-1300 light freighter the Millennium Falcon. Emperor Palpatine used the princess' rebel affiliation to his advantage in dissolving the Imperial Senate.

While in Imperial custody, Princess Organa was transferred to the Death Star, where she was interrogated and tortured by Vader for the location of the Alliance's hidden base. When she refused to succumb to torture, Tarkin decided to get the information out her by threatening to destroy Alderaan, the princess' homeworld. Fearing the loss of Alderaan, but not wanting to give up the Alliance's location, Organa lied to Tarkin and declared that the Alliance was located on the planet of Dantooine.

Governor Tarkin, confident in his victory, continued with the operation to destroy Alderaan regardless, stating that Dantooine was "too remote" for an effective demonstration of the Death Star's abilities. Thus, Alderaan was destroyed by a single blast from the Death Star, an event that killed billions and showed the true might of the Empire.

Following Alderaan's destruction, Tarkin sent a scout team to Dantooine to ascertain whether there was indeed a Rebel base there. Meanwhile, the Millennium Falcon had arrived out of hyperspace to find out that Alderaan had been destroyed. Fearing that they would be identified by a lone TIE fighter, they attempted to stop it but not before being trapped aboard the Death Star by a tractor beam. Skywalker sought to rescue Organa while Kenobi went alone to disable one of the tractor-beam generators on the station.

When Tarkin learned that Organa had deceived him and that there was only a long-abandoned Rebel base on Dantooine, he ordered her execution. But before the order could be carried out, Skywalker rescued her. An escape commenced throughout the Death Star's corridors. As Skywalker, Solo, Organa, and Chewbacca finally reunited with C-3PO and R2-D2 and made it to the hangar to escape aboard the Falcon, Skywalker watched as Kenobi faced off against his former Padawan, Darth Vader. Kenobi let down his guard, allowing himself to be struck down by Vader's lightsaber, instantly becoming one with the Force.

Rioting took place after the destruction of the planet Alderaan by the Empire. Rumors of what happening began reaching the Alderaanian population on Coruscant who became enraged when images followed the rumors, confirming Alderaan had been destroyed. The vigils turned into rioting which lasted for several days until the security forces and the stormtroopers were sent in to restore order. However, as the troops marched into the streets, the stormtroopers opened fire with their blasters. The crowds dispersed, and the following day, the police arrested anyone caught out in the streets. The day after that, stormtroopers began taking Alderaanians in to be questioned.

The Millennium Falcon escaped the Death Star, but not before being pursued by several TIE fighters. The Falcon defeated the fighters, but it was all a ploy devised by Tarkin and Vader, who had placed a homing beacon aboard the Falcon that led the Empire to the Rebels' hidden base on Yavin 4. By sending the TIEs after the Falcon, it made it seem like the Empire did not want the ship to get away. Despite Solo's confidence they would be safe, Organa feared that they were indeed being followed. Upon their arrival at the Great Temple, the Rebel Alliance analyzed the technical readouts. Organa and several other officers, including General Dodonna, conceived an attack plan in which snub-fighters would target the exhaust port weak point with proton torpedos.

As the Death Star was entering range to fire its superlaser, Rebel starfighters took off in a desperate attempt to destroy the battle station. As per the plan, the starfighters moved to skim down the Death Star's trench and follow it to the thermal exhaust port, knowing their torpedoes could reach the Death Star's main reactor, set off a chain reaction, and destroy the battle station. In the intense battle, the pilots of the Rebel Alliance faced off against Imperial starfighters and turbolasers while also trying to make attack runs on the exhaust port. Having underestimated the Alliance chances, Governor Tarkin refused to send more reinforcements to deal with the Rebel starfighters. He also ignored an underling's warnings of the threat to the exhaust port and continued with his assault upon Yavin 4.

Rebel pilots continued to be destroyed one by one by Vader and other Imperial pilots. Being nearly the last of the Rebel assault force, Skywalker, Biggs Darklighter, and Wedge Antilles made one final run against the exhaust port. Vader shot down and killed Darklighter and forced Antilles to retreat, and was mere moments away from shooting down his son before Solo entered the fight with the Millennium Falcon. Vader was driven out of the battle by Solo, giving Skywalker one final shot at the exhaust port. The attack succeeded, and moments later, the Death Star exploded, taking with it millions of Imperial lives. Yavin 4, along with the Alliance, was saved.

After a key victory over the Empire and the Royal Award Ceremony, the Rebellion was forced to evacuate Yavin 4 in order to find a new base of operations as the Imperials knew their location. All Rebel fleets arrived at the planet in order to assist with the evacuation, and Dodonna began working to find a new planet to settle on.

During the evacuation of Yavin and following the Disaster, the Empire sought out surviving Alderaanians in an attempt to eradicate them, and Organa set out with Rebel pilot Evaan Verlaine and astromech droid R2-D2 to rescue them. They first fled from the Rebel base on Yavin 4, over the objections of General Dodonna. After escaping, they made their way to the Naboo, where they rescued a group of Alderaanian musicians called the Melodic Order, before heading for Sullust. Unknown to Organa and her followers was that the Empire was tracking their every move whose efforts were spread throughout the galaxy.

In the time after Alderaan's destruction, Lindon Javes rose through the ranks of the Rebel Alliance by hunting Imperial capital ships.

The Empire started launching attacks against Rebel targets, and Nashtah Squadron flew on several missions over the course of a week, often with poor intelligence. They lost three pilots at the battle of Portocari, while Banshee Squadron lost two pilots at Phindar. Right afterward, the Empire was to send a task force to the Jovan system. In the wake of the loss of the Death Star at Yavin, the Empire mobilized its forces and reorganized TIE pilots into the same command system.

The loss of the Death Star was a major blow to the image of Imperial power, with the Rebellion spreading video of their victory across the DarkNet. In response to its loss in reputation, the Empire began to crack down on criminal elements it had previously ignored to begin to restore its image, although the Hutt Clan was allowed to continue on with its operations. In one city, a small Imperial detachment arrived at the illegal casino operated by a man who went by the name "Luck Luck Freidal." While Freidal had been bribing Imperial officers to keep his operation running, the detachment sent to the casino ignored their previous cooperation, killed Freidal, and claimed all the casino's earnings as Imperial property.

The Rebel Alliance, bolstered by their victory at Yavin, launched a military campaign in the Mid Rim. It was amongst the largest operation the Rebel Alliance had conducted, using military units, such as Twilight Company, and thousands of starships. But after nine months of fighting on many worlds, that had seen the Alliance establish many bases, Rebel High Command decided the fleet was overextended and the campaign would maintain defense of their captured territories. Not long after, the forces started a retreat and the battle companies evacuated their bases.

A rebel spy named Eneb Ray was stationed on Coruscant, posing as a tax collector under the name Tharius Demo. Leia Organa gave him Intelligence on a group of convicted former Senators in the Arrth-Eno Prison Complex and asked him to help save them. When he infiltrated the complex, he discovered they were going to be personally visited by Emperor Palpatine. He then brought together all the spies on Coruscant, and they attacked the sovereign as he was talking to the doomed Senators. Palpatine attempted to escape the battle, and Ray chased him to the roof, where he gunned him down. However, that Emperor was a decoy, and the real one revealed himself as his shuttle came over. Furious, Ray charged over and launched himself into the shuttle as it started to fly away. As the shuttle with Ray and the Palpatine flew away, the complex exploded, killing everyone inside. The Emperor then revealed his true identity by attacking Ray with Force lightning and throwing them off the shuttle.

While Lieutenant Skywalker was on board the Desert Jewel on a mission to rescue Drusil Bephorin and to open up a supply line, he entered a skirmish between a Star Destroyer and a Kupohan starship.

In order to keep the war in the Rebel Alliance's favor, Luke went to open a secret smuggling supply line on Rodia. Luke, after this, went on a biological research mission to Fex for Fayet Kelen in order to make some money. There, he came across some brain sucking creatures which had killed the former team and taken the Harvester. Luke and Fayet's daughter, Nakari Kelen successfully took back the ship and gathered necessary data for Fayet's company.

Despite being warned by Organa not to trust Kelen blindly, Skywalker set off for Pasher with Kelen and R2-D2 to receive intel from her father about their destination and the necessary equipment to survive its atmosphere. They then went to Denon to help the natives there.

Skywalker and Kelen were on Denon to rescue Drusil Bephorin from Imperial custody. They first contacted the Kupohan spy Sakhet, whose son was on the ship Skywalker rescued over Llanic. She gave them valuable intelligence on Drusil's whereabouts during each day, and Skywalker and Kelen observed her visit to the local park. They then planned to extract her when she was visiting a cafe. With R2-D2 chirping as a signal, they took out the security droid and distracted the bodyguards before taking Drusil and transporting her through the sewer.

They took her off Denon and to Kupoh, where one of the Kupohan spies, Azzur Nessin, was stationed. Nessin owned a company called Nessin Courier & Cargo and was not happy about harboring highly wanted rebels. But they made a deal with him anyway. But one of the company's workers, Migg Birkhit, had told the Empire of their whereabouts, and Drusil was too late to find out. They found Migg with a Gotal ISB agent called Barrisk Favvin. They captured both of them and kept them hostage in their hotel room. However, another Kupohan worker called Ruuf Waluuk had also contacted the Empire, and this time the Empire sent a blockade. As Skywalker, Kelen, and Drusil were about to leave, Ruuf and a Devaronian mercenary came and killed Nessin. Skywalker and Kelen then killed the two and fled the system with Drusil.

The trio went to Omereth, where Major Bren Derlin and his team were waiting with Drusil's family, which they had separately rescued. But they were intercepted by bounty hunters who had tracked Derlin's team to Omereth, and they were shot down and crashed into the ocean. They swam to shore and confronted the bounty hunters. Despite the formers' victory, Kelen was killed by one of the bounty hunters while Luke rescued and completed his mission by reuniting Drusil with her family.

Following the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire was put into a state of disarray. The Rebel Alliance decided to use this to their advantage with over a dozen attacks against vital Imperial installiations. Rebel bombing runs were taken against the Kuat shipyards and the Imdaar supply base. Solo, Organa, and Skywalker led an assault and infiltration against Weapons Factory Alpha on Cymoon 1, the largest weapons factory in the galaxy.

After the failure to prevent both the destruction of the Death Star and Weapons Factory Alpha, the Empire was forced to increase its supply of weapons, while Palpatine sent Vader as his envoy to negotiate with the Hutt Clan. This was in order to enlist Jabba the Hutt as a reliable weapons dealer. Vader, however, also took the moment to enlist two bounty hunters: he sent Boba Fett to learn more about the pilot who destroyed the Death Star, while he hired Krrsantan to learn more about a contact he had seen speaking to Palpatine, Doctor Cylo.

Vader was collecting information to hunt down Luke Skywalker and had recently learned his name from Boba Fett. Then one of Vader's rivals Commander Karbin located Skywalker and let the location slip to Doctor Chelli Aphra. Aphra then told Vader this and he went to Skywalker's location at Vrogas Vas where three squadrons of X-wing starfighters, Red Squadron, Blue Squadron, and Yellow Squadron, including Skywalker. Lord Vader battled the many X-wings picking them off one by one until there were barely any left to face him. Skywalker, in an attempt to end his opponent, crashed his X-wing into Vader's TIE Advanced and they both crashed onto the planet.

Meanwhile, the rebels at the Rebel Refueling Base were deploying troops, vehicles and Y-wing bombers to take Vader out for good. The rebel Y-wings of Gray Squadron started bombing his position, only for their target to begin hurling pieces of the ground at them, taking them out one by one. As reinforcements arrived, he then found himself surrounded by hundreds of Rebel troopers and dozens of rebel tanks ready to kill him. Vader stood still, and the rebels looked confused until they found their grenades activated through the Force. Hundreds of them died in one barrage of explosions, and the rebels scattered. He cut through many of them and deflected tank shots back at them. Vader also got hold of a cannon and used it on the airspeeders of Cyan Squadron.

Meanwhile, Skywalker roamed the desert, looking for any sign on help from the rebels. While searching, he found an ancient Jedi Temple, but, before he could learn more, he ran into 0-0-0, a deadly protocol droid who was painted gold to look like C-3PO. Triple Zero stunned Skywalker and was joined by Aphra, who wanted to redeem her reputation with Vader by catching Skywalker. While, Han Solo then engaged Aphra to save Skywalker, Leia Organa took a squad to attempt to end Vader once more. However, mercilessly slaughtered them first, but let Leia go in order to attract more rebels. Leia then ordered the Y-wings of Amber Wing to start bombing the area. As they did they were met by Karbin's forces which had arrived at Vrogas Vas to clean up. Commander Karbin attempted to take Skywalker away but Lord Vader wouldn't let him take the prize and engaged the other cyborg. They battled it out until Vader lured Karbin onto a natural stone bridge and used the Force to throw Aphra's ship into it. Vader went down there to finish Karbin off when the Millennium Falcon rode off with Skywalker, Leia, Solo, and a captured Aphra.

Eneb Ray, who had formally attempted to kill the Emperor, was now physically and mentally scarred. He felt that the Imperial prisoners held by the rebels were not worthy to live, and so he brought a team of IG-RM droids together and they attacked Sunspot Prison, where many Imperials were being held by the Rebel Alliance. They broke into the control center, killed the warden and then started to execute the prisoners. Leia Organa and Sana Starros were present on in the prison after bringing the captured Doctor Aphra to the there. They intervened with Ray's executing and Dr. Aphra helped them take him down and arrest him. The mercenaries killed many of the prisoners, and the rebels were forced to abandon the prison. Later, Task Force 99 came to the prison to find it empty. Kreel ordered a new mission to kill the rebels. They later fought rebel forces during a skirmish on the Ghost Moon.

With their base on Yavin 4 gone, the Alliance sent Skywalker, Organa, Solo, Chewbacca, Antilles, and some other rebels to the abandoned rebel base on Crait. They met up with a miner called Trusk Berinato who showed them around. When satisfied, they started setting up defenses there until Trusk double-crossed them and Task Force 99 came to take them down. The rebels engaged the elite squad and defeated them before leaving Crait.

Skywalker, Organa, Solo, and Admiral Gial Ackbar met up with Grand Admiral Dors Urtya of the Mon Cala Mercantile Fleet to discuss the transfer of the Mon Calamari ships into the rebel fleet, but they were interrupted by an Imperial patrol. After escaping, Urtya declined to involve Mon Cala, in fear that the planet would yet again be subjected to the Empire's wrath like they did when Raddus left following the Invasion of Mon Cala. Leia decided to break King Lee-Char out of imprisonment so he could convince the people to revolt against the Empire. Luke, Han, C-3PO, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 infiltrated the Moncaladrome and kidnapped Moff Tan Hubi and enlisted Tunga Arpagion, a Clawdite Changeling, to turn into him. They took the Moff to Strokill Prime and successfully infiltrated the planet's prison. They found Lee-Char barely alive, attached to a life support machine. Stormtroopers burst in and began a firefight, killing Lee-Char and Moff Tan Hubi, the rest escaping. They returned to Mon Cala, where Urtya took the recording of Lee-Char's last moments and played it to the fleet. This inspired the fleet to revolt and flee the system, with help from the Rebellion, to the Mako-Ta Space Docks..

The Alliance now had a new fleet of Mon Cala ships, including several MC75 and MC80 star cruisers and both Home One and Liberty type cruisers. the ships, however, were mostly unarmed. Trios, queen of Shu-Torun, offered Shu-Torun engineers to help retrofit these cruisers to battle-ready status. When the ships were finished, Mon Mothma called together most of the leadership of the Alliance, including Dodonna, Ackbar, Organa, Davits Draven, Syndulla, Bandwin Cor, Skywalker, Vanden Willard, Antilles, Lajaie, and Bob Hudsol. The celebrations were cut short though, as the Imperial fleet codenamed Death Squadron, led by Darth Vader and Admiral Kendal Ozzel, jumped into the system.

The ships attempted engagement, but none of the Mon Cala cruisers could as the space station had locked them down, disabling their weapons and shields and locking the flight bay doors. This revealed Trios' treachery, as the whole time she was a spy for Vader, who now had most of the rebel leadership and a large portion of their fleet in his sights and began to pick them off. Luke was able to break his squadron free and officially dubbed them "Rogue Squadron" after Rogue One, joining Han Solo and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon. During the battle, Leia and Draven led a group of rebels to infiltrate Vader's flagship, the Executor, pretending to be Trios, and were able to steal codes to unlock their cruisers. However, the Dark Lord realized this and came down to stop them. Vader cut down the rebels but Leia was able to escape with the codes.

The ships were able to break free with the codes. While many were able to escape, the losses were heavy, with much of High Command dead including Dodonna, Draven, Hudsol, Lajaie, and Bandwin, along with over half of their cruisers and almost all of their starfighters.

The rebel companies which once waded their way through the Mid Rim in triumph were now in full retreat. Companies, such as Twilight Company, Bitter Pill Company, Fish Eye Company, and the Twenty-First were rescuing Generals, making distractions on other worlds and helping the rebel fleet to withdraw from the Mid Rim. In 3 ABY, Twilight Company launched a campaign on Haidoral Prime and managed to extract the defecting Governor Everi Chalis. She offered her knowledge on the workings and weak points in the "Imperial War Machine." After her knowledge proved useful in the Coyerti campaign, the High Command invited her, Captain Micha Evon, and three others to Echo Base on Hoth. Meanwhile, rebel bases, such as Unroola Dawn, Talrezan Four, and Hope Station fell to the Empire, the Twenty-First fought on Bestine and General Amrashad was killed. But despite the losses, the rebel fleet was almost completely withdrawn from the Mid Rim.

A mercenary unit on Tatooine was asked to assist a garrison on Tatooine with dealing with a Tusken Raider camp in order to keep its grip on the planet, while also helping the Alliance to Restore the Republic who requested support in a mission to recover medical supplies from the Imperial aligned Hutt Clan on the planet of Dandoran. Later, the Empire began a crackdown on Jawas who were seen to be in engaged in widespread unlicensed trade, which led a local detachment of Rebels on Tatooine to protect the Jawas from the Imperials.

Shortly after, Imperials and Rebels began searching an old freighter, which led to a confrontation between the Empire and Rebel Alliance as well as the Hutt Clan after defeating mercs who were supporting the Rebellion. Meanwhile, Vader ordered a search for his missing shipment that was taken by the smuggler Liana Kor on Dandoran. On the planet, the Empire had gained the formal senator Johhar Kessen, who was held prisoner in a base in order to prevent his rescue, only for the Rebels to rescue him later. The Rebels had to return to Yavin 4 in order to prevent the Empire from finding out about the data centers that were left behind and were each destroyed by the Alliance that led to a ground battle for control of Yavin 4, while Er'Kit and Takodana both saw battle between the Empire and Rebels. Project Blackwing would also go awry during that time and create the Undead Troopers invasion.

Around 3 ABY, around three years after the Battle of Yavin, the Empire sent out thousands of probe droids across the galaxy to discover the Rebels' current base of operations as part of Project Swarm. The ambush of a rebel convoy at Derra intensified the Empire's search. The Alliance's Red Squadron suffered losses in an ambush as well. A probot designated XJ9-CS14 launched from the Star Destroyer Avenger landed on the ice planet of Hoth, and sent back images of the Alliance's power generator to Vader's fleet Death Squadron in 3 ABY.

The Imperial Navy launched an assault on Hoth, although the Rebels became alerted to the incoming attack after Admiral Ozzel brought the fleet out of hyperspace too close to the Hoth system; Vader subsequently killed Ozzel for his stupidity and clumsiness. This gave the Rebels time to mount a holding action and an evacuation of their Echo Base. They started evacuating their GR-75 medium transports with their X-wing starfighters to escort them and their heavy ion cannon to disable Star Destroyers from Death Squadron's blockade. Imperial Gozanti-class cruisers dropped AT-AT walkers and AT-STs of Blizzard Force to destroy the power generator. A weaker force of troops and AT-STs disabled Perimeter Outpost Delta, where Sergeant Hazram Namir of the Sixty-First Mobile Infantry and his two comrades Roja and Beak were based. They had to retreat to the main base with the other troops.

The AT-ATs were met with the T-47 airspeeders of Rogue Squadron and Corona Squadron, which slowed the vehicles and took out three of them including Blizzard 1 which an airspeeder crashed itself into it as a last-ditch effort. Despite the large resistance from the two squadrons, the AT-ATs destroyed the shield generator, and Vader and his elite snowtroopers entered the base. Vader soon ran into Sergeant Namir, his two comrades, Everi Chalis and the unconscious Captain Micha Evon. He slaughtered Evon and the two poor soldiers and then charged towards the Millennium Falcon, which escaped before he could board it. Namir and Chalis escaped the system with Chalis's clearance codes, and the Millennium Falcon, carrying Han Solo and Leia Organa, had to evade the blockading Star Destroyers.

In the days after the Battle of Hoth, the Empire sent General Sorin to root out any rebels still in hiding on Hoth, where a grouping of rebels encountered his forces and stole an Imperial shuttle. Tracking the ship, Sorin discovered the rebels had fled to the village of Haven on the planet Ison. The rebel team frantically returned to Hoth and boarded to try and prevent his attack on Ison, but the destroyer managed to jump into hyperspace. In the ensuing Imperial invasion of Ison, the rebels managed to crash Sorin's destroyer and confront the general himself on the ground, where they triumphed over Sorin and his troops.

After the Battle of Hoth, Organa, Solo, Chewbacca and C-3PO evaded the Imperial fleet on the Millennium Falcon, outsmarting Captain Lorth Needa, and were forced to flee to Bespin to find Solo's friend Lando Calrissian. Needa was killed by Vader as a punishment for his failure. However, the bounty hunter Boba Fett tracked the Falcon, allowing the Empire to capture Leia, Solo, and Chewbacca by using Calrissian as an accomplice. Vader then arranged Calrissian to set a trap to capture Luke Skywalker by freezing him in carbonite, but not before testing it on Solo. Luke came to rescue Leia and Solo and faced Vader, where they dueled and Skywalker learned of their true familial relation. Meanwhile, the Imperial forces found themselves betrayed by Calrissian and, at least initially, overwhelmed by Cloud City local authorities. The Rebel heroes escaped Imperial custody again, but not without cost. Skywalker lost his hand in his duel with Vader, while Solo was handed over to Fett for delivery to Jabba the Hutt. Bespin was also taken over by the Empire.

Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Lando Calrissian went to a flotilla, where the EF76 Nebulon-B escort frigate Redemption was stationed with a large number of freighters. The Alliance was scattered with no aim or safe communication. General Philap Bygar was dead. At some point, the Rebellion successfully captured four fully-laden transports in the Pyros system, although that victory did not make up for the loss of the Echo Base ion cannon.

The Sixty-First Mobile Infantry had suffered the loss of all their rebel officers with Captain Micha Evon being slaughtered by Vader on Hoth and their other officers being killed by Imperial spies in the Elochar sector. The company had taken refuge on Ankhural to regain their strength following their crippling blow. However, their Imperial turncoat Everi Chalis had a better idea. She planned up Operation Ringbreaker. The target was Kuat Drive Yards and it would required multiple attacks along the way to distract the Imperials. Although past rebel attacks on Kuat had failed miserably, Chalis's plan in theory could work. Led by newly promoted Captain Hazram Namir, Twilight Company attacked Mardona III. There, the dockyards had sustained severe damage from Twilight squads planting mines all around the tunnels. Najan-Rovi was the next target. Its dockyards housed Imperial luxury vehicles produced by Corellian Engineering.

The naval trooper garrison was completely unprepared, and annihilated. No Twilight soldiers were lost, but several were injured. The loss of almost a hundred luxury vehicles forced the Empire to relocate resources away from Kuat, just as Chalis suspected. Obumubo was the site of the next assault. The garrison had been from fighting off the sea creatures of Obumubo for months and were experienced. The battlefield favored the defenders and the garrison expertly defended the fort. In the initial landing, 2 Twilight soldiers and a medic drowned after jumping from the dropships. Another dozen died in the first assault. It took two more days for the siege cannons to be prepped on the fluid landscape and the cannons brought down the garrison at last.

Nakadia would be one of the worst assaults for the Company. Nazrim knew that it would be a tough fight to take the synthetic armor facilities, but he never expected what came next. Namir left Everi Chalis behind on the Thunderstrike and accompanied the squads on the first assault. The Company did multiple night raids from the stalks. The strategy worked, but exhausted the soldiers and had to leave some injuries unattended. Maediyu and others returned with bloody eyed and the medics confirmed his suspicions. It was not pesticides that were affecting the soldiers, but military bio-weapons. Namir told the squad leaders about it and told them to be careful. Sixteen more soldiers fell to airspeeders spraying it before their origin point was located. A squad attacked and burned the facility to the ground. Twilight then destroyed the factories and left Nakadia as star destroyers arrived. Both the Battle of Naator, and the Battle of Xagobah would also be victories for the 61st. Although, they did sustain casualties. Next, Namir personally selected twenty soldiers for a sabotage of the machinery in the Kuliquo belt. The operation was a complete success.

Meanwhile, Prelate Verge and Captain Tabor Seitaron, who sought to bring justice to Chalis for defecting to Alliance, were attempting to predict Twilight Company's next move. Operating aboard the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Herald, the pair whittled down possible targets to a handful of worlds, including Sullust, and prepared each for an anticipated attack. Verge positioned multiple TIE/IN interceptor squadrons near the worlds, including Vixus Squadron near Sullust.

Twilight Company jumped out of hyperspace aboard their starships, the CR90 corvette Thunderstrike and its escort the Braha'tok-class gunship Apailana's Promise, a mere half million kilometers from the planet in an effort to rapidly deploy dropships to attack the Inyusu Tor mineral processing facility before Imperial orbital defenses could scramble a defense in time. The attack on the facility began with the assault on the Inyusu Tor mountain. News of Twilight Company's arrival at Sullust reached the Herald, and Verge and Seitaron contacted Vixus Squadron to travel for Sullust.

The Star Destroyer Herald arrived at Sullust, and the Imperial ground forces launched an assault on the factory of Inyusu Tor where Twilight Company, led by Captain Namir, were waiting for them. The battle was slow, but the Imperials continued to push back the rebel line. The Apailana's Promise returned to keep the Herald distracted for the forces on the ground. Everi Chalis deserted the rebels and made for the Herald on a stolen shuttle. When she landed in the hangar and was greeted by Prelate Verge and Captain Tabor Seitaron, she detonated an ion bomb, which forced the Herald to retreat from the atmosphere before the detonation sent it plummeting. Prelate Verge died on the Herald. With the Herald out of the battle, Twilight Company could finish off the ground forces and claim victory on Sullust. The Apailana's Promise had barely survived, and Twilight Company had lost over a third of its troops, but overall, they had survived. The small Sullustan resistance led by Nien Nunb riled up an uprising in the nearby capital city of Pinyumb, and revolutions broke out all over the planet, delaying any inevitable counterattacks from the Empire for weeks. Twilight Company used that time to replenish its numbers and plan their future.

With the Alliance fleet scattered across the galaxy, General Organa and the Fourth Division conceived of a plan to reassemble the fleet. The Empire was able to intercept rebel codes and destroy the fleet divisions whenever contact was made. Named after the Starlight Beacon, "Operation Starlight" consisted of new codes sent out to the rebel divisions that the Imperials had yet to crack. The rebel Pathfinders led a heist at the Imperial Museum on Coruscant in order to acquire the Autonomous Translator Module, Mark II droid, which could translate the uncracked Trawak language into codes for the rebels. The codes were given to Starlight Squadron, who traveled near Felucia to deliver the codes to the Sixth Division. But the Sixth Division was destroyed and the squadron was ambushed by the Tarkin's Will under Tarkin's old student Commander Ellian Zahra. Starlight Squadron was then joined by Skywalker when they answered a distress signal from the Eleventh Division at Ab Dalis. Given the coordinates, Starlight Squadron blew up the ground under the Star Destroyer Ultima II, which was laying siege to the ground forces of the Eleventh Division. This caused an volcano to erupt underground and destroy the Imperial forces.

Afterwards, the Tarkin's Will assaulted the Second Division at the Temporary rebel cell base on Panisia. In the ensuing Battle of Panisia, the ship was then ambushed by the entire rebel fleet. The Tarkin's Will dove towards the surface of the planet, taking many rebel ships down with it and destroying the rebel base. Upon returning to engage the fleet, the Star Destroyer focused its fire on the Home One. However, the Tarkin's Will was disabled under heavy Rebel fire and crashed to the surface of the planet. Surviving the crash, Zahra demanded that Organa herself confront her on Panisia's surface, leading to the Imperial commander's defeat.

With the Alliance on the run since the defeat at Hoth and hunted by Zahra's fleet, the public could be led to believe there had not been any major Rebel activity for months. As such, the Imperial Propaganda Office declared that the war had ended in an Imperial victory. After Zahra's defeat and the reunification of the Rebel Fleet, Organa decided the time had come for a public Rebel strike to showcase their movement still lived, choosing to attack the Imperial Unity Day parade on the planet Bar'leth in the Core itself. A public victory that proved the Alliance still stood, the Rebels also showcased their care in not hurting civilians and did not suffer a single causality. After destroying the parade, the Rebel Fleet escaped before Imperial defenses, a swarm of TIEs from the local airbase, could reach them.

The Battle of Hoth had shown the Empire that the rebels would up and abandon whatever their current gathering place was when faced with a surprise attack; while such surprise attacks prevented the rebels from being organized into a coordinated unit capable of effective counterattacks, as they were forced to scatter and retreat, the rebellion survived via its retreat. Indeed, constantly forcing the rebels to retreat from their current safe points and then pursuing small cells across the Outer Rim opened the Empire up to a propagandic hit: the people of the galaxy could see the Empire was unable to destroy the Alliance, and, in time, the regime would lose popular support to the surviving Rebellion. While in theory a surprise attack on the current Rebel base or gathering point could succeed, if the rebellion and its leadership took enough losses in the surprise attack, such attacks had failed up to that point. Added to the fact that the main rebel force was proving hard to find, with any rebel rallying point the Empire discovered only belonging to a single cell instead of the overall Alliance, and how the almost never ending pursuit of such fleeing rebel cells would not end the conflict, Emperor Palpatine decided to adopt a new strategy.

Looking at the lessons of Hoth and remembering the Battle of Yavin, which had shown the Alliance would not flee with faced with a threat so dangerous it had no alternative to fighting, the Emperor decided he needed a great target with which to lure out the Alliance, who would walk into their own destruction instead of being ambushed. Should the rebels not know they were entering a trap, Palpatine reasoned, he could present them with a grand target they had no choice but to act against. Fortunately for the Empire, Palpatine had such a target in the form of the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station: since the destruction of the First Death Star, the Empire had been building a second Death Star, which was set to complete its construction over the forest moon of Endor. On the order of Palpatine himself, the Bothan Spynet was allowed to get hold of its location. With many Bothan agents killed in the action, the supposed leak deceived the rebels into thinking they could take the Empire by surprise. Indeed, the leak was designed in such a way to make the rebels believe the new Death Star's superlaser was not yet operational. Palpatine also let it be known that he would personally enter the unfinished station to oversee its completion, turning it into an even greater target; it was the Emperor's hope that his presence and the totemic symbolism of the new station would lure the Rebellion into the Endor system, where they would be destroyed in a trap.

The Rebel High Command rendezvoused to the Galaan system, where they discussed the plan to destroy the Empire's new project. The rebels of the MC80 Star Cruiser Invincible Faith intercepted a message from Moff Derrek Raythe concerning the Imperial fleet setting a trap at Endor. Commander Iden Versio of Inferno Squad let herself get captured by them to delete the message and then fled from the ship to the Corvus.

When in the Galaan system, the high command planned to launch Operation Yellow Moon, named after Galaan's yellow moon, which would distract the Empire so that the Alliance Fleet could mass at Sullust. This was led by Princess Leia Organa and a small team including the former Sullustan resistance leader Nien Nunb, Dressellian Major Lokmarcha, the tech specialists Abednedo, Antrot, and Cerean, and communications specialist Kidi Aleri. They traveled to Basteel, Sesid, and Jaresh on the Mellcrawler to place hyper-transceivers which would distract the Imperial forces. On each planet they would narrowly evade the Imperial forces led by Captain Khione of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Shieldmaiden.

The team then fled back to the Galaan system, where they scattered other ships before the Shieldmaiden arrived in pursuit. Captain Khione captured Leia and almost immediately interrogated her and her crew. But Lokmarcha had an EMP device hidden inside his chest and activated it, disabling many of the ship's systems. It cost the Dressellian his life, but Leia and her team escaped, and the Shieldmaiden fell under attack by the same vessels Leia had told to flee. Leia impersonated the unconscious Captain Khione to get them off the ship, but the ruse was short-lived, and they were forced to flee to a nearby Lambda-class T-4a shuttle called the Tydirium. Antrot got onto the Mellcrawler and crashed it through the hull of the Shieldmaiden. The others escaped the Shieldmaiden before it was destroyed. The many ships fled the system as another Star Destroyer arrived.

Sometime later, Organa and Skywalker launched a mission to recover Solo from Jabba the Hutt. They infiltrated the Hutt's palace separately, and Organa managed to free Solo from the carbonite. But Jabba refused to bargain and tried to kill Skywalker with a rancor. When Skywalker killed the beast, they were sentenced to an execution at the Great Pit of Carkoon. They escaped after a struggle with the Hutt's guards, in which Organa killed Jabba.

The Alliance fleet was assembling near Sullust, with reports reaching Emperor Palpatine. After Organa and the rest returned, Mothma and Ackbar briefed the fleet and soon launched into hyperspace to go into battle at Endor. The Rebels sent a strike team led by Solo to take out the shield generator protecting the Empire's second Death Star. But the Emperor's trap was in motion, and the team was captured when storming the rear entrance. As the fleet arrived, expecting to find the space station defenseless, the shield was still up, and a large Imperial force trapped the Rebels. Solo's team had formed an alliance with an Ewok village, which allowed them to overrun and scatter the Imperial forces and destroy the shield.

The Death Star II, meanwhile, was firing on Ackbar's cruisers, forcing them to engage Imperial Star Destroyers to stay out of range while Calrissian led fighters to destroy the Death Star's reactor. Skywalker had surrendered to Vader and was brought before Palpatine. He and Vader dueled, but when Skywalker refused to turn to the dark side of the Force, Palpatine tried to kill him, awakening Anakin Skywalker within Vader and causing him to turn on and kill his master resulting in the destruction of the Sith. On the ground, Inferno Squad was assessing the damage of the shield generator and cleared multiple Rebel teams. Calrissian and Antilles got to the reactor and wreaked havoc before fleeing back through the large exhaust port through which they had entered. The Alliance Fleet fled back to Endor as the Death Star exploded. Some cruisers stayed at the wreckage to clear off any remaining Imperial forces. The Alliance then celebrated their victory on Endor with the Ewok village.

On the day after the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance launched an assault on an Imperial outpost on the far side of Endor. This attack was led by Han Solo and uncovered a lot of data and communications on Imperial plans. In the days following the Battle of Endor, news of the Emperor's death spread to several worlds across the galaxy including Tatooine, Naboo, Bespin, and Coruscant despite many attempts by the Empire to conceal the fact and declare this information to be false.

While there was much celebration, a riot broke out at Coruscant's Monument Plaza. This led to a civil war on Coruscant. The Empire's command structure collapsed without its central leader; TIE pilot Rella Sol later declared that, after the Battle of Endor, the Empire lost its head of state and only gained massive factionalism. Meanwhile, Governor Ubrik Adelhard imposed a blockade on the Anoat sector. Denouncing all reports of the Emperor's death as "treasonous fabrication," the Moff enforced his rule with Purge Troopers. He was opposed by a mixture of criminals and nobles in the region. At some point, the Imperial fleet of Moff Royen was cut off from the rest of the Empire and left to fend for itself by the Red Hand Cluster, effectively turning it into an Imperial splinter faction.

As the Rebel Alliance gained momentum, scattered Imperial forces across the galaxy including Captain Lerr Duvat and Admiral Garrick Versio received the Emperor's posthumous orders to implement Operation: Cinder, a contingency plan to scour loyal planets and rebellious worlds alike. Targets included Vardos, Naboo, Burnin Konn, Candovant, Abednedo, and Commenor in order to throw the galaxy into chaos. The attacks would consist of experimental climate disruption array satellites, which could create superstorms ravaging the targeted planet, and other tactics. These satellites were made at Fondor Shipyards.

In theory, Operation: Cinder was designed to remind the galaxy that the Empire was its chief controller by instilling fear. Indeed, one purpose of the operation was to dissuade the galaxy from joining the Rebellion's new government out of fear. However, with both New Republic and Imperial worlds attacked, it tied into Palpatine's overall Contingency plan that would see the Empire and galaxy alike burn for the regime's failure to protect its ruler. The Sith Lord had decreed that the Empire should not be allowed to outlive his death and that only the most ruthless of the Empire deserved to rebuild the regime, with his secret return on the planet Exegol also a factor that would see him secretly control whatever arose through the Contingency: when he was killed by Vader, Sidious's consciousness and spirit escaped his body for a clone form kept on Exegol.

When Admiral Versio's special force Inferno Squad was sent to make sure Moff Raythe got his satellites, the Alliance attacked the shipyard and disabled the Moff's Star Destroyer, the Dauntless. Inferno Squad, consisting of Iden Versio, Del Meeko, and Gideon Hask, defended the Dauntless from incoming U-wings along with the TIE fighters of the Dauntless. After successfully protecting the ship from the rebel attacks, Iden boarded the rebel MC80 Star Cruiser and wreaked havoc in the hanger. Iden then charged through the hallways toward the ship's ion cannons, killing any rebel who got in the way, and then she stormed the large room with the ion cannons and killed the rebel personnel controlling it.

Hask then joined her, and they destroyed each ion cannon whilst holding off the rebel troopers trying to kill them. The last cannon fell out of the Star Cruiser and crashed into a CR90 corvette outside, making it launch itself into the Star Cruiser. Iden and Hask then got back into their TIE fighters and reentered the battle outside, where the Dauntless had regained power. They then took out the disabled docking clamps keeping it in, and the Star Destroyer broke free. The Rebel cruiser wasn't ready for this and quickly fell victim to the first barrage of turbolaser fire the Dauntless set loose, bringing about an Imperial victory.

Shortly after the Attack on Fondor, Inferno Squad sent Del Meeko to destroy one of the Emperor's observatories located on the coral world of Pillio. His path crossed that of Luke Skywalker, who took out all of his men. Luke, however, did not kill him but helped him to the entrance. They then disabled the self-destruct system and got into the observatory. Luke took a compass with him, and Del decided to not destroy the observatory in the end.

Inferno Squad returned to Vardos to find that it was one of the targets the Emperor had set for Operation: Cinder. Iden was furious that the Empire would attack her loyal homeworld and confronted her father, who was blindly going along with it. She and her team were ordered to extract Protectorate Gleb from Vardos and no one else. However, when they went to get her out, Iden decided to let other civilians go with them. Hask was furious about this as they were disobeying orders. But despite his unbreakable loyalty to the Empire, Iden and Del just weren't going with it anymore, and as he tried to stop them, Iden shot him in the knee and they fled with the civilians. Hask took Gleb back to Admiral Versio and reported the mutiny of his former peers.

Iden, Del, and their ship's crew turned themselves in to the Alliance, and Captain Shriv Suurgav of the MC80 Liberty Type Heavy Star Cruiser Restoration took them in. General Calrissian came to see them. Seventeen days after the events of Endor, Alliance forces clashed with Imperial forces on Sterdic IV. Princess Leia also undertook a diplomatic mission to Naboo to invite Queen Soruna to align her planet with the New Republic, the government created by the Rebel Alliance. Her mission coincided with an Imperial attack on Naboo led by Captain Duvat.

Rebel forces led by Solo and Chewbacca later captured an Imperial Security Bureau facility on the Wretch of Tayron. There, they discovered information about Operation: Cinder and the attack on Naboo. General Calrissian offered Iden and Del to help them save Naboo before Captain Duvat could devastate the planet further with climate disruption array satellites. Lando Calrissian arrived in the cruiser Mellcrawler II along with the Restoration and Danger Squadron led by Shriv and included Iden and Del. They escorted the Y-wing bombers as they bombed Duvat's Star Destroyer Torment. Once the bombers took out the shielding, the Restoration opened fire on the Torment and destroyed it.

However, the Torments ground forces escaped and flew down and to Naboo's capital, Theed. The Restorations forces flew down to meet them along with Leia's troops. They had Iden and Del help them get the power back to the palace for its secret weapon, an ion pulse to disable the enemy weapons. They got the power back and retreated to the Palace to activate the EMP and render the Imperial forces defenseless. Following their surrender, Iden and Del officially defected to the Rebellion. The Alliance forces were then deployed to disrupt other Imperial forces from carrying out Operation: Cinder. Meanwhile, the Alliance pilot Shara Bey accompanied Luke Skywalker on a mission to recover Force-sensitive trees from an Imperial base on Vetine.

After the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance set about rebuilding the Galactic Republic and promptly reorganized themselves into a restored government called the New Republic and broadcast the defeat of the Empire across the galaxy, urging star systems to join them in overthrowing the remnants of the Empire. The New Republic also liberalized the HoloNet and encouraged the creation of new media networks, such as Queen of the Core Network. The weeks and months after Endor saw Imperial remnant and New Republic leaders struggle for support, whether it be maintaining support or gaining it in the first place, throughout the whole galaxy. Indeed, with the Alliance military was reconstituted as the New Republic Defense Force, they saw extensive action against Imperial forces on numerous fronts across the galaxy, including Naalol, Malastare, Geonosis, and Sevarcos. For the pilots of both sides in specific, the war became an unrelenting gauntlet of battles, missions, and skirmishes. Pilot squads were often equipped with a wide range of ships to meet whatever surprises a mission would call for. The Alliance's leader Mon Mothma became the New Republic's first Chancellor. While her position still held the emergency powers granted by Palpatine during the Clone Wars, Mothma planned to abolish them and to reduce the New Republic military once victory over the Empire had been achieved.

At some point, a civil war erupted over control of the Virgillia system, with both the Alliance and Empire backing a specific side. While the Empire supported the system government, the Rebel-backed Virgillian Free Alignment triumphed in the end, leaving the Virgilla system free to join the New Republic. As news of the Empire's defeat spread throughout the galaxy, the Empire began to crumble as infighting among Imperial leaders became frequent, and continued losses to the ever-growing Republic prevented them from becoming a single unified force. Due to the lack of clear system of succession following the Emperor's demise, chaos and anarchy gripped the Empire. Several members of the Imperial Ruling Council took the opportunity to grab onto territory and tailed contradictory propaganda messages about the New Republic and the Emperor's survival. Early Imperial propaganda attempts claiming the Emperor was still alive by using an actor to pose as Palpatine collapsed after observers quickly realized that the person was an impostor.

Some Imperial forces attempted to restart droid factories on Geonosis but were discovered by the New Republic, which launched an operation on Geonosis. Elsewhere, Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax secretly assumed command of the Imperial fleets in the Vulpinus, Almagest, Recluse's, Queluhan, Ro-Loo Triangle, and the Inamorata nebulae. Taking command of the Super Star Destroyer Ravager, Rax ordered Admiral Rae Sloane to convene an emergency summit on Akiva to discuss the future of the Empire. In secret, Rax and Sloane planned to eliminate his rivals within the Empire. Putting Rax's plans into action, Sloane organized an Imperial Future Council consisting of herself, Grand Moff Valco Pandion, General Jylia Shale, the Adviser Yupe Tashu, and the financier Arsin Crassus.

The Future Council meeting was discovered by the New Republic pilots Captain Wedge Antilles and Lieutenant Norra Wexley. While scouting Akiva, Wedge was captured by Sloane. Before the Imperial Future Council could finish its proceedings, Norra organized a motley rebel cell consisting of her son, Temmin Wexley, his B1-series battle droid Mister Bones, the former Imperial loyalty officer Sinjir Rath Velus, and the Zabrak bounty hunter Jas Emari. Working together, they inspired a rebellion on Akiva and disrupted the conference. Posing as an informant known as the Operator, Admiral Rax also supplied Admiral Ackbar with intelligence on Imperial fleet movements and the Akiva summit. As a result, New Republic forces attacked Akiva and captured General Shale and Adviser Tashu. However, Sloane managed to escape back to the Ravager, having fulfilled Rax's orders. Following the events on Akiva, the New Republic reconstituted the Galactic Senate on its capital Chandrila.

Other incidents around that time included the Battle of Naalol, the Battle on Mordal, the Battle in Central City on the planet Uyter, and the Battle on Sevarcos. The New Republic launched a siege of the Imperial stronghold Arkanis, which eventually fell. In the months following the Battle of Endor, Han Solo and Chewbacca embarked on a campaign to liberate the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, which had been subjugated by the Grand Moff Lozen Tolruck, who had fitted the enslaved Wookiees with inhibitor chips and treated them as an expendable slave labor force. After receiving intelligence from Imra that the Empire had reduced its presence on Kashyyyk, Solo and Chewbacca organized a task force of refugees and smugglers to liberate the planet. However, this information was a ruse set up by the Empire to trap them. Han escaped, but Chewbacca was captured.

About six months after their defection. Iden Versio and Del Meeko were now the New Republic's Inferno Squad. Leia Organa asked Iden to find her husband, Han Solo, on Takodana. Han was meeting with an Imperial defector called Ralsius Paldora who had valuable intelligence on Imperial interests and Chewbacca's homeworld of Kashyyyk. Han and Paldora were then met with dozens of stormtroopers, which they managed to take down. Once they got back to the Falcon, Inferno Squad had arrived to support them against the TIEs and the Arquitens-class command cruiser and took them out thanks to the help of the Millennium Falcon.

With Paldora's intel, Iden and Del located their former Imperial colleague Gideon Hask, who would be the key to tracking Iden's father. They went to Chinook Station on Bespin and infiltrated the inside disguised as stormtroopers. However, when they got to the Overseer's Tower they were met with Hask's hologram, who knew they were coming. Hask flew out on a Star Destroyer, and Iden and Del were forced to fight their way down to find something to fly. They were forced to take a Cloud Car, and they rode it to the nearby refinery, where three Star Destroyers were refueling. They fired at the fuel tanks until the refinery detonated, bringing down the three Star Destroyers with it.

Shriv Suurgav and Lando Calrissian went to a weapons factory there which should have been abandoned. But when they got in, they realized it was in full production. They fought their way through the assembly line and down to the control center, where Lando attempted to shut the place down. That, however, only set off the alarm. Lando compromised and sent Shriv to find them a way out whilst he went down to the Lava pumps. Lando sabotaged the pumps, and the factory started flooding with lava. Lando then ran out of the factory to where Shriv was waiting in an AT-ST. They drove it to the nearby Lambda-class T-4a shuttle, which took off last minute. Shriv and Lando were saved by Iden on the Corvus.

New Republic High Command was terrified at the idea of Troithe being used as a shortcut between Core Worlds. As a result, they sent General Hera Syndulla with the Lodestar and its fleet to combat Imperial forces there. Troithe was invaded by the 61st Mobile Infantry after a long and bloody siege. Twilight Company took massive losses taking the capital, and Governor Hastemoor was killed during the battle. Catadra and Verzan were also taken.

The goal of taking Troithe also had another motive, to lure the 204th Imperial Fighter Wing into a trap. Caern Adan designed a plan in which Troithe's garrison would be allowed to broadcast a distress message for Shadow Wing to pick up. Adan suspected they would try to use an asteroid to bypass Troithe's orbital defenses and wreck havoc on the planet. A large amount of Imperial Insurgents, led by acting Governor Fara Yadeez, remained on Troithe, biding their time.

After the devastating Cerberon system campaign, Soran Keize contacted Grand Admiral Rae Sloane and formally pledged allegiance to her and the remnant of the Empire. Sloane's first assignment for Shadow Wing was the destruction of disloyal Imperial groups. The Yomo Council was targeted for refusing to redirect its forces to the D'Aelgoth sector and not acknowledging the Regent on Coruscant. Dybbron III, Kortatka, and Fedovoi End were all destroyed as a part of Operation: Cinder. Shadow Wing gained many recruits from these planets because they offered surrender before the planet was destroyed. Soran's speech transmission was picked up at Fedovoi End, and Hera's Fleet pursued.

Soran Kieze deployed many sabotage droids at Fedovoi End, causing major damage to the Deliverance. However, the Deliverance continued to pursue. The Barma Battle group engaged them in several battles, such as Skirmish in the Ciaox Verith system, Battle in the Red Yars system,Third encounter with the Yadeez, Fourth encounter with the Yadeez, and Battle in the Ghonoath system. The pattern of Shadow Wing retreating, being rediscovered through a comm burst or a lucky find, then escaping again was repeated several times in these battles. During the Skirmish in the G'Tep'Noi system, Yriqa Quell decided to reveal that she had joined shadow Wing.

The Battle at Chadawa was caused by Governor Bordanivaux's decision to separate Chadawa from Sloane. Soran Kieze contacted Colonel Madrighast about rendezvousing with Sloane, but he claimed that his unit would be protecting Chadawa. Chadawa was a unique planet, it had not been formed like most planets, but constructed by an ancient species billions of years ago. At "high tide" the planet's rings expelled massive amounts of radiation that made it impossible to fight in. Even at low tide, navigation and scanning was complicated. Chadawa had half a dozen ships protecting it, the largest being the Star Destroyer Unyielding, which they positioned inside the planet's rings. Shadow Wing managed to push inside the rings. The New Republic was unable to get inside before the rings exploded.

Shadow Wing was inside and started to probe Madrighast's defenses. The New Republic would cycle out one of its three squadrons to attack the Yadeez while the other two would patrol the system. Two of the Raider-class corvettes started deploying satellites to absorb radiation, then drop onto the planet. Meanwhile, Nath Tensent Wyl Lark, and others started broadcasting personal stories on open broadcast to mess with the TIE pilots. After many hours of prep, the New Republic launched its attack with Hail Squadron, Flare Squadron, and Wild Squadron. The A-wings and X-wings engaged first but suffered heavy losses. As the Y-Wings of hail squadron approached, Syndulla aborted the attack due to the particle count and incoming TIE's. Meanwhile, Commander Broosh and Colonel Kieze were discussing their plans. Broosh suggested a possible attack on the Star Destroyer, but Kieze knew that time was the only thing needed for the planet to fall. Suddenly, Lark challenged Kieze to a personal duel in the atmosphere. Kieze accepted. As they dueled, Tensent led another attack by Hail Squadron onto one of the Raiders. However, TIE's intercepted them and began slaughtering the Y-Wings. Two proton torpedoes hit the Raider, and only five of the Y-Wings escaped. The Y-Wings made an attack on the other Raider, but the Chadawan Imperial Star Destroyer arrived and began decimating both Shadow wing and Hail Squadron. Kieze received a message that Quell had returned, as well as the situation with the Raiders, and decided to end the duel. Wyl was shot down over one of Chadawan's moons.

What followed was a three way fight between Shadow Wing, the New Republic, and the Chadawan Imperials. The Yadeez managed to retreat when Quell's ship arrived with extremely important data. The Unyielding and Deliverance circled each other with the Deliverance eventually winning. Chadawa was saved with the New Republic taking control of the planet.

By the following year, the war was turning in the New Republic's favor. The Republic launched a program to hunt down Imperial fugitives. New Republic forces also seized more worlds from the Empire including Arkanis and Nag Ubdur. Both sides also employed propaganda. New Republic media, such as Queen of the Core Network highlighted Imperial atrocities and suicide attacks on Nag Ubdur. In response, the Office of Imperial Promotion, Galactic Truth, and Fact Correction published posters and fabricated data depicting the New Republic as terrorists and criminals. Some criminals, like the reptilian crime lord Eleodie Maracavanya took advantage of the chaos to expand their criminal enterprises. Eleodie's power was boosted by the stolen Super Star Destroyer Annihilator.

Meanwhile, Grand Vizier Mas Amedda tried to maintain a semblance of control over Coruscant, which was experiencing a civil war. With the Imperial Security Bureau barely able to hold on to Coruscant, Mas attempted to surrender to the New Republic. However, Chancellor Mothma and Princess Leia rejected his terms and ordered him to find a way to secure the Empire's surrender. Elsewhere, Sloane assumed leadership of the Imperial forces in the Vulpinus Nebula as Grand Admiral. However, she served merely as a front for Gallius Rax, who was the true ruler of the Imperial remnants. According to his instructions, Sloane convened the Shadow Council to promote the resurgence of the Empire. The Shadow Council consisted of the former Commandant Brendol Hux, Grand Moff Randd, General Hodnar Borrum, and the Imperial propagandist Ferric Obdur. In private, however, Sloane distrusted Rax's agenda and undertook an investigation of the Imperial fleet inventory and Rax's background.

Following the disappearance of Han Solo, Princess Leia solicited the services of Norra and her team in finding her husband. After refusing an order from Admiral Ackbar to abandon her search for Solo, Norra resigned from the New Republic military to search for Han. Norra's team and Solo teamed up on the planet Irudiru to capture and interrogate the Siniteen prison designer Golas Aram, who was privy to a secret Imperial prison on Kashyyyk called Ashmead's Lock. Infiltrating Ashmead's Lock, Solo and Norra's team managed to free Chewbacca and a hundred other rebel prisoners including Brentin Lore Wexley. Norra, Temmin, Mister Bones, and the prisoners returned to Chandrila aboard Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon.

Meanwhile, Sinjir, Jas Emari, and the New Republic soldier Jom Barell stayed behind on Kashyyyk to liberate the planet from Imperial rule. They decided to hunt down Grand Moff Tolruck in order to disable the control module controlling the inhibitor chips. Unknown to the New Republic, the liberation of the Ashmead's Lock prisoners played into the hands of Fleet Admiral Rax, who had secretly implanted inorganic biochips into their heads. Rax then put into a motion a plan to assassinate the New Republic leadership on Chandrila. Following the fall of Kuat and its shipyards, Sloane offered to enter into peace talks with the New Republic. Believing the Empire was near defeat, the Galactic Senate accepted her offer.

A month later, Sinjir tracked Grand Moff Tolruck down at his island fortress. He disabled the control module controlling the inhibitor chips and rescued Jom from Imperial captivity. As a result, a mass planetwide uprising broke out on Kashyyyk. Meanwhile, Solo and the rest of his team attacked Camp Sardo, a slave-labor camp near the Wookiee city of Awrathakka. In a last-ditch defense, Tolruck ordered the orbiting Imperial Star Destroyers to bombard Kashyyyk. However, Princess Leia learned about the attack from the slicer Conder Kyl and convinced Captain Antilles and Admiral Ackbar to send ships there. They were aided by Solo and his team, who hijacked the Star Destroyer Dominion. As a result, Solo, Chewbacca, and the New Republic ended the Imperial subjugation of the Wookiees.

Meanwhile on Chandrila, Chancellor Mon Mothma organized Liberation Day to celebrate the liberation of the Ashmead's Lock prisoners. These festivities were meant to precede the upcoming peace talks with Sloane. To entice more worlds to join the New Republic, the celebrations were broadcast live on HoloNet. With the help of his local agent Windom Traducier, Rax transmitted a signal that forced the former prisoners to attack New Republic officials. As a result, numerous New Republic officials, including Chancellor Mothma and Commodore Kyrsta Agate were wounded while others, like General Crix Madine and Hostis Ij were rumored to be killed. Sloane turned against Rax after disagreeing with his dishonorable tactics.

Following the attack on Chandrila, Rax seized power as Counselor to the Empire and ordered his Imperial armadas to assemble on the planet Jakku for a showdown with the New Republic. The attack on Chandrila dampened the New Republic's desire for peace talks with the Empire and discouraged numerous worlds from joining the new government. With the backing of Leia, Norra and her team embarked on a campaign to hunt down Admiral Sloane, who they believed was responsible for the attack on Chandrila. Meanwhile, Sloane joined forces with Brentin to hunt down and kill Gallius Rax. With the help of the bounty hunter Mercurial Swift, they discovered that Jakku was Rax's homeworld. New Republic forces also repelled three Imperial attempts to retake Naboo.

During a meeting with the highest members of the New Republic, General Airen Cracken reported on major progress in the Western Reaches. Ackbar then commented on the situation along the Corellian Trade Spine. Six New Republic fleets were positioned along the Spine for rapid movement towards the Western Reaches. General Ria commented on the Xagobah campaign. General Si-Flachitt reported on skirmishes with the New Separatist Union. Admiral Ho'ror'te began looking for allies within the Ravager's Rift in order to reinforce Ackbar's fleets. Coruscant remained untouchable. There were riots and other clashes, but Troithe had shown the cost of urban warfare in the Troithe operation, and Coruscant had a much higher population.

One of the final battles of the war came with a skirmish near the planet Polaar, during which a Mon Calamari battle cruiser was damaged but escaped into hyperspace. The ship's damaged hyperdrive, however, led to it leaving hyperspace very close to Polaar, leading to it crashing onto the planet.

For several months, Norra Wexley, her son, Temmin, and her team hunted for the fugitive Admiral Sloane. After capturing the bounty hunter Mercurial Swift on Taris, the Imperial hunters learned that the former Grand Admiral had traveled to Jakku. Elsewhere, New Republic forces conducted mopping up operations against Imperial holdouts on Kashyyyk and Cloud City. Meanwhile, the remnants of the Empire waited on Jakku for a showdown with the New Republic. While Counselor Gallius Rax regarded the barren, desert world as an ideal testing ground for his forces, the harsh conditions sapped the spirit and strength of his forces. In addition, Rax recruited local orphans and street children into a fighting force of child assassins.

Unknown to his subordinates, Rax was the secret executor of the Emperor's posthumous Contingency plan to see the regime destroyed for its failure and then rebuilt in secret. As part of the Contingency, Rax had engineered the deaths of numerous other Imperial commanders. The final stage of the Contingency involved instigating a showdown between the Empire and the Rebellion above Jakku. Rax planned to destroy the planet and the two enemy fleets by throwing Sith relics down a borehole which led to Jakku's core, triggering a cataclysmic explosion. In secret, Rax planned to flee into the Unknown Regions with a select few Imperials including Brendol Hux, his son, Armitage, and his child assassins.

Norra and her team soon discovered the Imperial fleet. While Norra and Jas Emari took an escape pod to search for Sloane, Temmin and Sinjir returned to Chandrila with news of the Imperial presence on Jakku. After learning of the Imperial presence, Chancellor Mothma went to the Galactic Senate to pass a bill deploying New Republic forces to Jakku. The vote failed to pass since it fell short of a majority of five senators. These senators had been coerced into voting against the bill by the Black Sun and Red Key crime syndicates, who wanted to profit from the war. This vote coincided with the New Republic's efforts to relocate its capital to the Mid Rim agrarian world of Nakadia. Han Solo, Temmin, Sinjir, Conder Kyl, and Jom Barell managed to convince the senators to change their votes by rescuing Senator Nim Tar's child and offering them a pardon if they changed their votes during the re-vote on Nakadia. As a result, Chancellor Mothma secured the majority needed to send New Republic forces to Jakku.

A New Republic fleet led by Admiral Ackbar entered the space around Jakku and engaged Rax's Imperial fleet. The New Republic also deployed several ground forces to attack the main Imperial headquarters and an Imperial weapons facility. Other New Republic participants included the starfighter pilots Captain Wedge Antilles and Temmin Wexley, and Commodore Kyrsta Agate. As the battle raged, Norra joined forces with Sloane and Brentin to hunt down and stop Rax, who had traveled to the Jakku Observatory with Adviser Yupe Tashu to initiate the destruction of Jakku.

At first, the battle went in the Empire's favor. The Imperial fleet had formed a tight defensive formation around Rax's Super Star Destroyer Ravager. This tight formation slowed the onslaught of the New Republic assault and allowed the Ravager to repeatedly bombard the New Republic fleet from the safety of its protective cordon. After the Star Destroyer Punishment broke formation and rammed the Starhawk-class battleship Amity in a kamikaze attack, Commodore Agate positioned her ship Concord in the gap and bombarded the Ravager. Despite being crippled by the Super Star Destroyer, Agate managed to use the Concords powerful tractor beam to drag the larger ship to Jakku's surface. The New Republic ships and starfighters then disabled the Ravagers engines.

In the midst of the battle, Iden Versio and Shriv Suurgav were responding to distress calls across the battle field, and responded to rescue Captain Lindsey and his crew after his corvette crashed and was surrounded by Imperial ground forces. With the help of bombardments from Starhawk Command, they took out the two AT-ATs and took Lindsey and his team with the Corvus. Iden and Shriv then went to a downed Star Destroyer and blew up the hanger to prevent incoming bombers from it. Once they returned to the Corvus they fell under attack by the Eviscerator led by Admiral Garrick Versio. Gideon Hask was also there in a TIE Interceptor, and Iden shot him down along with the other TIEs. Iden then crashed her X-wing starfighter onto the Eviscerator and went for her father. At the bridge she tried to convince him to go with her, but he denied and told her his time had come. Iden then escaped the Eviscerator in an escape pod as it crashed onto the surface.

After the Ravagers commander Grand Moff Randd fled, the battle turned in the New Republic's favor. New Republic forces then attacked the beleaguered Imperials on multiple fronts in space and on the ground. During the battle, Captain Ciena Ree crashed her Star Destroyer Inflictor onto Jakku's surface in an effort to deny the New Republic access to her ship. The New Republic was also aided by the bounty hunters Jas Emari, Dengar, Embo, and Jeeta, who secured pardons for their efforts. Meanwhile, Sloane and her New Republic allies hunted down and killed Rax and stopped his plot to destroy Jakku. Sloane then fled with Brendol, Armitage, and Rax's child soldiers on a replica of the Emperor's yacht Imperialis to a set of secret coordinates in the Unknown Regions.

The Battle of Jakku coincided with Mas Amedda's escape from house arrest in the Imperial Palace. With the help of a group of child resistance fighters known as the Anklebiter Brigade, Amedda in his capacity as Emperor upon Rax's demise, went to Chandrila and sign the Imperial Instruments of Surrender and the Galactic Concordance with Chancellor Mon Mothma. These agreements formalized the Empire's capitulation to the New Republic and ordered all Imperial forces to cease fighting. Despite the decisive defeat of the Imperial fleet above Jakku and the signing of the Galactic Concordance, Imperial forces continued fighting on Jakku's surface and parts of the galaxy for months. Following the battle, the scattered remnants of the Imperial fleet regrouped at various locations including the Queluhan Nebula for a coordinated attack on the New Republic.

A month after the Battle of Jakku, the remaining Imperial forces were confined to pre-determined boundaries in the Core Worlds and Inner Rim. Under the terms of the Concordance, the defeated Empire was required to obey strict disarmament policies and pay war reparations, which the remnant in the Core and Inner Rim obeyed, confining themselves to the new set of borders. The Concordance also banned the recruitment and mobilization of stormtrooper forces, the abandonment of Imperial Academies, ceded the former galactic capital Coruscant to the New Republic, and outlawed torture. While the New Republic turned its attention to reshaping the galactic order, a remnant of hardliners that eventually relocated to the Unknown Regions and became the First Order. Despite the end of the Galactic Civil War, the New Republic had to contend with other new factions including the New Separatist Union, the Confederacy of Corporate Systems, and the Sovereign Latitudes of Maracavanya, and some of the surviving Imperial splinter groups.

The war that began through rebellion was remembered as a revolution in the postwar years of the galaxy. Following the conclusion of the Galactic Civil War, as the New Republic became the dominant government of the galaxy, the Republic became locked in a Cold War with the Imperial remnants. The former Imperial known as "the Client" hated the state of the galaxy after the Galactic Civil War, alleging that the fall of the Empire brought chaos and destruction. While a galactic recession was underway, his statements were ignored by those he was speaking to—Din Djarin, Greef Karga, and former rebel shock trooper Carasynthia Dune.

Some wealthy collectors, such as the Centrist senator Ransolm Casterfo collected historical artifacts including Imperial helmets, banners, and armor. In addition, Rebel Alliance and Imperial banners, equipment, and other artifacts were sold at places, such as Chrome Citadel. Key Rebel leaders, such as Senator Bail Organa, Chancellor Mon Mothma, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker had a high level of respect and prestige among the galactic populace. Still, some like Casterfo regarded the extreme actions taken by Saw Gerrera's Partisans, and even some actions taken by the official the Rebel Alliance, as terrorist activities.

By 28 ABY, two factions had emerged in the Galactic Senate: the Centrists who favored a stronger central government and the Populists who wanted member worlds to wield considerable sovereignty. Some Centrists admired the "Old Empire" and questioned the official New Republic accounts of the Battle of Yavin and the Galactic Civil War. Some even expressed skepticism that Skywalker had destroyed the first Death Star and suggested that it was the work of an Imperial traitor. Several Centrist senators including Lady Carise Sindian and Erudo Ro-Kiintor worked as undercover agents of the First Order to subvert the New Republic from within.

Due to his role as Palpatine's right-hand, Lord Vader was widely reviled by much of the galactic population. As a result, his children Princess Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker withheld the full details of their parentage from all but a close circle of friends. After Lady Carise discovered Leia's true parentage, she manipulated Leia's friend Senator Casterfo into revealing Leia's connection to Darth Vader during a hearing to consider Leia's candidacy for the office of First Senator. Consequently, the Princess lost much support in the Senate and was forced to withdraw her candidacy. Later, Leia uncovered evidence that a paramilitary faction called the Amaxine warriors, a mere front to the First Order, were planning to attack the New Republic. However, her warnings were dismissed as warmongering by the Senate. Sensing another galactic war approaching, Princess Leia formed a paramilitary outfit called the Resistance to protect the New Republic.

Many of the soldiers and military officers in the First Order, including General Armitage Hux, were taught that rebel "terrorists" had stolen the future of the galaxy during the civil war. The First Order viewed the New Republic as too weak to save the galaxy from chaos and believed that the First Order had to save the galaxy from itself. In the years leading up to the Hosnian Cataclysm, an uneasy peace existed between the New Republic and the First Order. A neutral buffer zone known as the Trans-Hydian Borderlands lay between the New Republic and First Order.

With the New Republic unwilling to take action against the First Order out of fear of another war erupting, General Organa's Resistance kept a watch over the Imperial remnant. Following a series of skirmishes with the Resistance, the First Order destroyed the New Republic capital of Hosnian Prime. This ended the cold war and set the stage for open warfare between the First Order and the Resistance, the primary threat to the First Order's ambitions of restoring the Empire.

The Galactic Civil War has been for decades the titular Star Wars that defines the saga, or more specifically, the original trilogy. Most of the fiction created for the Star Wars Legends continuity and for the current canon continuity have been set during the Galactic Civil War.

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