However, Imperial loyalists continued to fight with New Republic forces on the desert surface of Jakku, becoming a remnant of diehard Imperials while the Empire proper adhered to the terms of its peace treaty with the Republic. It took several months to subdue the Imperial holdouts on Jakku, at which point the remaining Imperials were either killed or captured by the New Republic military. Other remnants continued to defy the terms of peace, including the requirement of demobilization which ultimately saw the First Order's rise as a successor to the Empire in all but name.
The Imperial remnant on Jakku was all that remained of the Galactic Empire's loyalist forces.
The Imperial remnant on Jakku comprised the remaining loyalist forces led by Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax until his death during the Battle of Jakku. By the time of the New Republic Defense Force's arrival, Rax's forces consisted of units from both the Imperial Navy and Imperial Army. The Ravager, a Executor-class Star Dreadnought that served as Rax's flagship, orbited Jakku along with a fleet of Imperial-class Star Destroyers while the surface was occupied by an army of stormtroopers and variant units such as sandtroopers, scout troopers, and Imperial shock troopers.
The New Republic succeeded in destroying much of Rax's forces, including the Ravager which crashed into the surface of Jakku. Nevertheless, what remained of the Imperial loyalists who did not surrender or commit desertion continued to fight after the battle officially concluded. The Imperials comprising the Jakku remnant rejected the notion of defeat, having convinced themselves that victory was still a possibility. The troopers under Rax's leadership had been driven to commit acts of barbarism during their time on Jakku, using brutal methods to suppress dissent within the ranks and discourage those who harbored doubts about Rax's plan. As a remnant, they clung to the certainty that Rax had instilled within them. It was several more months before the fighting on Jakku completely ended; by then, the surviving Imperials had come to accept that the Empire's reign had truly ended.
Imperial and New Republic forces converged on Jakku to bring a decisive end to the Galactic Civil War.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Endor, Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax rose to power during the final days of the Galactic Civil War. A protégé of the late Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious, Rax controlled the Empire's ruling body, the Shadow Council, as the self-proclaimed Counselor to the Empire. Using his newfound authority, he rallied a force of Imperial loyalists and brought them to his homeworld of Jakku. The months that Rax's troops spent in the Jakku desert took a heavy toll on them physically and mentally, but Rax claimed that it was meant to prepare them for the final battle against the forces of the New Republic. Unknown to his own soldiers, Rax intended to sacrifice all he deemed unworthy of the new Empire that he planned to build in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. The Emperor had raised Rax to ensure the success of the Contingency, a clandestine plan for the destruction of the Galactic Empire which was to be deemed a failed state in the event of its ruler's demise.
The Battle of Jakku began in 5 ABY. one year and four days after the Battle of Endor. Counselor Rax was killed by his rival, Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, who escaped into the Unknown Regions where she took control of the Emperor's flagship, the Eclipse, and assumed Rax's place in overseeing the secret plan to rebuild the Empire. The stormtroopers TK-603 and TK-605 were disillusioned by the Empire's defeat on Jakku. They discarded their stormtrooper armor, fleeing from the planet after TK-605 killed their commanding officer, a corporal who ordered them to fight to the last trooper.
The Battle of Jakku gave way to months of sustained fighting due to a remnant of Imperial loyalists refusing to surrender.
With the death of Rax and Sloane's disappearance, Grand Vizier Mas Amedda regained enough power to sue for peace between the Empire and the New Republic. Calling for an end to further Imperial resistance, he signed the Imperial Instruments of Surrender which was followed by the Galactic Concordance, the treaty that marked the formal end of the Galactic Civil War. The Empire accepted mass demobilization as part of the terms of the Galactic Concordance, which forbade the training of stormtroopers and required the Empire to dismantle its network of Imperial Academies throughout the galaxy. The Empire became a rump state with its remaining forces confined within new borders in the Core Worlds and the Inner Rim.
Despite this outcome, the remaining Imperial forces on Jakku continued to resist the New Republic, defying the decision to surrender that was made by Mas Amedda in whose name they fought as loyalists of the Empire. Other Imperial Remnants remained as well, but the New Republic deemed them a minor threat to its interests. The remnant on Jakku, however, continued to hold the New Republic's attention as its forces moved to bring a complete end to the conflict on Rax's home planet.
Imperial warships littered the desolate surface of Jakku, becoming relics of a bygone era.
The fighting on Jakku truly ended several months after the war's formal conclusion, allowing the New Republic to estimate the death toll of the battle and its aftermath, in addition to the Imperial captives who fell under the New Republic's custody. The battle site on Jakku was littered with the wreckage of Imperial and New Republic warships that scavengers would plunder for decades. During the New Republic Era, contradicting stories were told about the Battle of Jakku in the planet's settlements. The mysterious dead-enders established their group in Carbon Ridge, and were rumored to be protecting a secret Imperial research base.
Not all of Rax's supporters were killed or captured by the New Republic. In keeping with his plan to rebuild the Empire after destroying it, the Counselor arranged for Commandant Brendol Hux's escape to the Unknown Regions along with his illegitimate son, Armitage Hux whom Rax gave command over an experimental group of child soldiers. Rax also intended for Admiral Garrick Versio to survive, having ordered him to withdraw from the battle, but the officer chose to die on Jakku after accepting the Empire's defeat. While the New Republic consolidated its place in the galaxy, other Imperial Remnants emerged in the Outer Rim Territories secretly defying the terms of the Galactic Concordance. Moff Gideon commanded a remnant of the Imperial Military; a refinery was occupied by Imperial Remnants on Morak; and the First Order—a successor to the old Empire in effect—was formed in the Unknown Regions by a movement of Imperial hardliners who sought to reclaim the Empire's legacy.
The Jakku Imperial remnant appeared in the Chuck Wendig's 2017 novel Aftermath: Empire's End.
- Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy
- Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire