Jakku Imperial remnant

The Imperial fragment on Jakku was composed of the remaining loyal troops under the command of Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax until his demise during the Battle of Jakku. By the point in time when the New Republic Defense Force arrived, Rax's forces included units from both the Imperial Navy and Imperial Army. The Ravager, an Executor-class Star Dreadnought that functioned as Rax's command ship, was in orbit above Jakku along with a group of Imperial-class Star Destroyers, while the surface was occupied by an army of stormtroopers and various specialized units like sandtroopers, scout troopers, and Imperial shock troopers.

The New Republic successfully destroyed a significant portion of Rax's forces, including the Ravager, which crashed onto Jakku's surface. However, the remaining Imperial loyalists who did not surrender or desert continued to fight even after the official end of the battle. The Imperials within the Jakku fragment refused to accept defeat, having convinced themselves that victory was still attainable. The soldiers under Rax's command had resorted to acts of brutality during their time on Jakku, employing harsh methods to suppress dissent and discourage those who questioned Rax's plan. As a remnant, they held onto the conviction that Rax had instilled in them. It took several more months for the fighting on Jakku to completely cease; by that time, the surviving Imperials had come to realize that the Empire's rule had truly ended.

Following the Battle of Endor, Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax gained influence during the concluding period of the Galactic Civil War. A protégé of the deceased Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious, Rax controlled the Empire's governing body, the Shadow Council, as the self-proclaimed Counselor to the Empire. Using his newly acquired power, he gathered a force of Imperial loyalists and brought them to his birthplace of Jakku. The months that Rax's forces spent in the Jakku wasteland had a significant impact on their physical and mental well-being, but Rax claimed that it was intended to prepare them for the final confrontation against the forces of the New Republic. Unbeknownst to his own troops, Rax planned to sacrifice all those he deemed unworthy of the new Empire that he intended to establish in the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. The Emperor had trained Rax to ensure the success of the Contingency, a secret plan for the destruction of the Galactic Empire, which was to be considered a failed state in the event of its ruler's death.

The Battle of Jakku commenced in 5 ABY, one year and four days following the Battle of Endor. Counselor Rax was killed by his rival, Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, who escaped into the Unknown Regions, seized control of the Emperor's flagship, the Eclipse, and took Rax's place in overseeing the secret plan to rebuild the Empire. The stormtroopers TK-603 and TK-605 became disillusioned with the Empire's defeat on Jakku. They abandoned their stormtrooper armor, fleeing the planet after TK-605 killed their superior officer, a corporal who ordered them to fight until the last trooper.

With Rax's death and Sloane's disappearance, Grand Vizier Mas Amedda regained sufficient power to seek peace with the New Republic and called for an end to further Imperial resistance. He signed the Imperial Instruments of Surrender, which was followed by the Galactic Concordance, the treaty that officially ended the Galactic Civil War.

Despite the transition from the Empire to the New Republic commencing, remaining Imperial forces on Jakku continued to resist the New Republic, defying the decision to surrender made by Mas Amedda, in whose name they fought as loyalists of the former Empire. Other Imperial Remnants also persisted, but the New Republic considered them a minor threat to its interests. The remnant on Jakku, however, continued to command the New Republic's attention as its forces moved to completely end the conflict on Rax's home planet.

The fighting on Jakku truly ended several months after the war's official 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 battleground on Jakku was covered in the wreckage of Imperial and New Republic ships that scavengers would loot for decades. During the New Republic Era, conflicting stories circulated 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 line 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 placed in command of 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 solidified its position 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—essentially a successor to the old Empire—was formed in the Unknown Regions by a group of Imperial hardliners who sought to reclaim the Empire's legacy.

The Jakku Imperial remnant appeared in Chuck Wendig's 2017 novel Aftermath: Empire's End.