Battle of Exegol

The Battle of Exegol, also known as the raid on Exegol or the Sith Eternal uprising, was the decisive final battle in the war between the First Order and the Resistance which resulted in the Resistance and the Citizens' Fleet defeating the Final Order, the Xyston-class Star Destroyer fleet built by the Sith Eternal. The Resistance's victory prevented the Star Destroyers from leaving Exegol to reinforce First Order forces and began an uprising against it across the galaxy. The battle was also the final battle of the ancient, millennia-long war between the Jedi and the Sith, ending in a decisive victory for the Jedi with the destruction of Darth Sidious and prevention of the Sith's return once and for all.
The origins of the battle emerged from the revelation that the spirit of Darth Sidious had returned after his death at the Battle of Endor and was hiding on Exegol in the Unknown Regions, where Sith cultists had constructed a massive fleet to establish a new Sith Empire. The Jedi Padawan Rey, having just learned her true identity as the Emperor's granddaughter, utilized a Sith wayfinder to locate Sidious' stronghold, simultaneously showing the Resistance the path to Exegol.
The battle began when the Resistance navy attacked Exegol to prevent the launching of the Sith fleet. A ground team led by General Finn was tasked with taking out a navigation tower while an air team commanded by General Poe Dameron was to defend them. However, when a First Order officer realized the Resistance was targeting the navigation tower, Allegiant General Enric Pryde had the source of the navigation signal switched to his command ship, forcing the Resistance's ground team to land on the hull of his Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Steadfast. The Resistance was nearly destroyed by the Sith Eternal forces until General Landonis Balthazar Calrissian and Chewbacca arrived in the Millennium Falcon with a massive makeshift citizens' fleet composed of over fourteen thousand starships piloted by volunteer civilians from all across the galaxy.
Meanwhile, Darth Sidious attempted to turn Rey to the dark side of the Force, exhorting her to sacrifice him and rule the galaxy as a Sith. In truth, Sidious planned to have his spirit transferred into Rey, which would allow him to possess her body, with the help of a ritual that he learned from his master Darth Plagueis. However, Ben Solo arrived to help her; they defeated the Knights of Ren and Sidious' Sovereign Protectors, but Sidious used their connection to heal himself. The Dark Lord disposed of Solo, using the Force to cast him into a nearby abyss, and ascended the Throne of the Sith himself, from where he unleashed torrents of Force lightning into the sky, electrifying the Resistance's fleet and the citizens' fleet. However, Rey was restrengthened by the spirits of past Jedi, allowing her to stand and face her grandfather, who refocused his lightning towards her, giving the Resistance an opportunity to finish their mission. Finn and Jannah destroyed the command ship, disabling the signal and preventing the Sith fleet from leaving Exegol, while the citizens' fleet and starfighters destroyed a large number of Sith Star Destroyers.
Rey defended herself from her grandfather's Force lightning with the lightsabers of her masters, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, causing the lightning to deflect back at the Sith Lord and disintegrate him, killing the Emperor and his disciples and permenantly preventing the return of the Sith. Rey died, but Solo reappeared and sacrificed himself to resurrect her, giving his life force to her. With the Sith fleet destroyed, Rey and the rest of the Resistance and citizens' fleet departed from Exegol. During their return to their base, they learned that people all across the galaxy were rising up against the weakened First Order.
==Prelude==
Following the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas the Dark Lord of the Sith and Emperor of the Galactic Empire Darth Sidious was able to return after his death and arrive on the planet Exegol in the Unknown Regions in a clone body, albeit requiring to be sustained by an Ommin harness due to his new body being physically impaired. On Exegol, the Emperor was attended to by a Sith cult, the Sith Eternal. During the following years, the Sith Eternal constructed a massive armada of planet-destroying Xyston-class Star Destroyers for what Sidious called the Final Order, with the goal of establishing a new Sith Empire and restoring Sith rule to the galaxy.
In 35 ABY, by which point the First Order, a military junta formed by former Imperial officers, nobles, technologists, and warlordsStar Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary who had fled into the Unknown Regions after the fall of the Empire,Aftermath: Empire's End had controlled large swathes of the galaxy as part of their war of conquest. An unexpected broadcast was put out across the galaxy using the voice of Emperor Palpatine, long thought to be deceased, which promised revenge.
Seeking to crush any potential threat to his rule, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, who had risen to rule the First Order after assassinating his master and predecessor, Snoke, sought a path to the Emperor. Ren acquired his grandfather's wayfinder device and used it to travel alone to Exegol, where he found Sidious, who did return to the land of the living, and his followers. The Sith Lord revealed to Ren that he created Snoke, and told Ren that the First Order was "just the beginning." He promised Ren the might of the Final Order if he killed Rey, the last Jedi, who he revealed to Ren was his granddaughter.
After a series of missions with Poe Dameron, Finn, Chewbacca, C-3PO, BB-8, and D-O, Rey acquired the Emperor's wayfinder. However, it was destroyed by Ren to stop her from facing Darth Sidious without him, who had also informed her that she was the Emperor's granddaughter, making her a Palpatine. Rey defeated Ren in a lightsaber duel after he was distracted by the death of his mother and Rey's Jedi Master, General Leia Organa, and took his TIE whisper. Initially giving into fear and exiling herself on Ahch-To, where she destroyed Ren's ship, Rey was motivated by the spirit of her first Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker, who encouraged her to face her fear to win the war and restore the Jedi Order to its former glory.
Rey traveled along a safe route to Exegol in Skywalker's X-wing, Red Five, using Ren's wayfinder and transmitted her plotted course to the Resistance, allowing them to travel along her passage. Through information acquired from D-O, a droid that had been owned by a Sith cultist, Ochi, the Resistance learned that the Sith fleet required a signal from a navigation tower in order to deploy off of Exegol, and devised a battle strategy to take out the tower. Poe Dameron would lead an air team to find the navigation tower and take out the enemy cannons while Finn would lead a ground team to take out it out. Rose Tico added that they deduced that destroying the fleet's axial superlasers would ignite the main reactor, destroying the ships. Beaumont Kin suggested pulling off Holdo maneuvers, but Finn thought the move had a one in a million chance of working. Dameron and Finn, the former who had become the leading general of the Resistance after Organa's death, sent General Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon to the Core systems to try and recruit any of their allies to aid them. Meanwhile, Ren experienced a vision of a memory of his father, Han Solo. Confessing his love for his father, Ren threw his lightsaber into the sea and renounced the dark side, redeeming himself and assuming his born identity as Ben Solo once again.
Darth Sidious contacted the First Order's Allegiant General Enric Pryde, who, as an Imperial veteran, had previously served the Emperor, allowed Sidious to formally take charge of the First Order, which gained the Sith fleet in order to increase their resources so they can become strong enough to restore the Empire. General Pryde subsequently pledged his personal allegiance to the Sith Lord. Sidious then declared that the Final Order was beginning; he ordered Pryde to meet him on Exegol, and sent him a ship from the Sith fleet, which Pryde used to destroy a planet known to the Resistance on the Emperor's orders, Kijimi. Pryde arrived at Exegol on his Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, the Steadfast, which served as the Sith fleet's command ship.
==The battle==
===Air battle===
The Resistance arrived on Exegol to find a massive armada of Xyston-class Star Destroyers, which comprised the Sith fleet. They realized the fleet had the potential to destroy any planet in the galaxy when they received Darth Sidious' demand for the free world's immediate surrender or else they perish, since every Star Destroyer was equipped with the same cannon as the one that destroyed Kijimi. Finn led the ground assault covered by the air assault led by Dameron in order to disable the navigation tower while at the same time avoiding Sith Eternal tracking. In response to the Resistance's attack, Pryde ordered all Star Destroyers to open fire using their ion cannons only, to minimize damage from friendly fire, A Resistance B-wing was immediately destroyed by the Star Destroyers' fire. The Sith fleet soon deployed swarms of TIE/dg starfighters. A First Order officer then spotted the assault force and informed Pryde, who immediately recognized the threat and had the source of the navigation signal transferred to the Steadfast, intending to guide the fleet out themselves.
When the lander realized the signal had been transferred, Finn reached out with the Force to identify the new source of the command signal. Identifying the Steadfast as the source because it stood out among the Sith Star Destroyers, they went forward with their ground assault and landed on the hull of the Resurgent Star Destroyer instead. Pryde ordered a large group of Sith troopers onto the hull to stop the boarders, along with an electromagnetic pulse to disable their speeders. To his disbelief, another officer told him that they weren't using speeders; instead, they were using orbak mounts. The strike team managed to disable the tower after a brutal battle. Pryde was not concerned, and simply ordered it to be restarted. As the Resistance strike team prepared to leave, Finn and Jannah stayed behind to stop them from resetting and switching the signal to another Star Destroyer. Poe then ordered the starfighter pilots to launch an attack on the Sith Star Destroyers until General Calrissian and his reinforcements arrived.
===Showdown with the resurrected Sidious===
While the battle raged above, Rey entered the Sith Citadel and found Darth Sidious in the throne room, which contained an arena filled with Sith loyalists. Sidious expressed his satisfaction at finally seeing his granddaughter, while telling her that the Resistance was walking into a trap. Above the throne of the Sith, he opened the ceiling, revealing an outnumbered and outmatched Resistance and its seemingly imminent failure against the Sith Eternal military. Sidious exploited Rey's feelings for the Resistance, telling her that the only way to save them would be for her to strike him down in anger, calling her "Empress Palpatine" and encouraging her to take her rightful place on the throne of the Sith and no one has her back like how Luke was rescued by his father. This would ensure the Sith Lord's essence's transferal to Rey, which will allow him to possess her bodyStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition, thus renewing the Sith Eternal for the reign of a new Sith Empire that would control the galaxy. Rey was faced with a confrontation of wills as the desire to save the Resistance as well as her uneasiness of being a Palpatine collided in her mind. With the Sith loyalists chanting, Darth Sidious prepared to be killed by Rey.
However, a glimpse of hope came when Rey sensed the newly redeemed Ben Solo through the Force. Landing his TIE scout next to Red Five, which Rey had used to reach Exegol from Ahch-To, Solo made his way into the Sith Citadel, shooting down some Sovereign Protectors. On the way, he encountered his former comrades, the Knights of Ren. He attempted to get past them by Force pushing Cardo to the ground. However, Kuruk and Ushar responded by Force pushing Solo.
When Vicrul attempted to attack Solo with his phrik scythe, Solo caused him to stumble. The other knights, Cardo, Kuruk, Trudgen, and Ushar, attacked the unarmed Solo, scarring his face. He contacted Rey through their Force-bond and nodded. Pretending to strike down Darth Sidious, Rey instead used their Force bond to transfer the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker to Solo as she ignited the lightsaber of Leia Organa. Solo then proceeded to use the Skywalker lightsaber to kill his former comrades, starting with a fatal slash to Kuruk and Cardo's chests and grazing Ap'lek's Mandalorian executioner vibro-ax.
Blocking swings from Ushar's war club and Trudgen's vibrocleaver, Solo Force pushed Ap'lek to his death, as he restrained and felled Vicrul. Trudgen attempted to attack his former leader but was effortlessly stabbed in the chest. Ushar attempted to attack too but Solo leapt over him and stabbed him from the back. After Ushar dropped dead, Solo then arrived at Sidious' lair and reunited with Rey, who had just finished off Sidious' Sovereign Protectors.
At first, Darth Sidious intended to kill both of them, but realized that the duo together made a Force dyad, a phenomenon that, according to Sidious, was a power like life itself and had not been seen in generations. Realizing that their powers combined would allow him to fully return to life, Sidious used the Force to drain the life energy of both Rey and Solo to restore himself to the form he had before his first death at the hand of Solo's grandfather, during the Battle of Endor. Drained of their powers, Rey and Solo collapsed to the floor. Having no further need for Solo, Darth Sidious used the Force to throw him into a nearby abyss, exclaiming revenge and declaring the death of the Skywalker family.
===The galaxy fleet arrives===
Up above, the Resistance was taking heavy losses, as Finn and Dameron continued to lead the fight. Major Temmin Wexley was shot down by Sith TIEs, making Poe realize that they were losing the battle. However, General Calrissian arrived in the Millennium Falcon, bringing with him the Citizens' Fleet, a massive armada comprised of 14,000+ ships from all points across the galaxy. Amongst those gathered included the legendary Tantive IV, the Mon Calamari fleet, the Phantom Squadron, the Ghost, the Anodyne two, the Alphabet two, Zay Versio from the Inferno Squad, the Fireball piloted by Resistance pilot Kazuda Xiono, and more. The citizens of the galaxy had come to aid the Resistance in their hour of need.
Dameron quickly ordered the fleet to target the superlaser cannons, to considerable effect. Pryde was stupefied at the appearance and size of the fleet, arguing that the Resistance had no navy. Admiral Griss, on the other hand, realized that it was not a navy but ordinary people that finally had enough of the Emperor's tyranny and banded together to bring him down once and for all. Sith Star Destroyers began falling to cruisers and fighters alike, with one being brought down single-handedly by a lone Y-wing piloted by Zorii Bliss, who had escaped the destruction of her homeworld with Babu Frik.
===The death of Darth Sidious and the Sith Order's demise===
Darth Sidious, having been fully restored to his former self, told his faithful loyalists to not fear the attack of the Resistance, as nothing would stop the Sith's return. He then proceeded to ignite a powerful storm of Force lightning into the air, which disabled all Resistance ships up to the size of Nebulon-B frigates, including those of Poe and the galaxy fleet, and sending them plummeting toward the ground, including the Tantive IV. Much to Poe's shock, he realized he was losing control of his X-wing. Weakened and seemingly defeated, Rey heard the voices of past Jedi, including her first Master Luke Skywalker, Luke's father Anakin, Anakin's former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, Anakin and Luke's Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan's Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Grand Master Yoda, Master Mace Windu, Master Luminara Unduli, Master Aayla Secura, Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus, and Master Adi Gallia encouraging her and lending her the strength to carry on against the Sith Lord. She had embraced peace and calm, experiencing a state of oneness.
Rey then stood up, with her new courage and strength received from the Jedi before her. Darth Sidious, noticing this, ceased his Force lightning attack on the Resistance fleet and their friends. General Dameron, having realized that his starship's systems were back online, regrouped the allied forces along with his own and resumed their assault on the Sith fleet, stating that they had one chance to take out the armada of Sith Star Destroyers. Telling Rey that her death would be the end of the story of the Rebellion, Darth Sidious launched a barrage of Force lightning at Rey. Rey then attempted to block it with Leia's lightsaber, but Sidious told Rey that she was just "a scavenger girl" "no match for the power in" him and that he is "all the Sith." However, Rey issued an immediate rebuttal by telling Darth Sidious that she is "all the Jedi," calling back Anakin's lightsaber and igniting it, using the two lightsabers to deflect Darth Sidious' lightning back at him. Sidious was initially successful at resisting the attack, but very soon, he became physically unable to defend against the strain of the lightning being used against him. As his body slowly degraded, Sidious howled in pain and agony as he was ultimately disintegrated by his own lightning. In a massive explosion that consumed Sidious, the citadel, and all of the Sith Eternal under him, the evil tyrant known as Darth Sidious - the former senator of Naboo, the final Supreme Chancellor of the Old Galactic Republic, Dark Lord of the Sith, the Phantom Menace, the first and only Galactic Emperor, and the man who had wrought evil over countless worlds across the galaxy for a long time - was finally and ultimately destroyed both physically and spiritually permanently, bringing both the Sith Order, as well as the ancient Jedi-Sith conflict that had lasted for many millennia, to its end once and for all.
Rey made the ultimate sacrifice and gave up her mortal coil providing the sheer force required to defeat Darth Sidious, an event which was felt by Finn, and her limp body crashed to the ground. However, Ben Solo, having survived the earlier ordeal with Sidious, managed to climb up the cliff face from the abyss, and, finding Rey's body near the throne, ran over to her. Ben saw her lifeless face and tearfully cradled her in his arms. However, Ben soon realized that Rey needed to carry on his master's legacy, and decided to sacrifice himself so that she could live again. He put his hand on Rey's chest and began to transfer his own life force to her body, and soon Rey was resuscitated. The pair shared a longing look and a brief kiss, before Ben Solo, the last Skywalker and redeemed Jedi, became one with the Force and vanished into thin air, having helped bring balance back to the Force, just as his grandfather once had. Simultaneously, back on Ajan Kloss, Maz Kanata watched with a peaceful gaze as Leia Organa became one with the Force, seeming ending the bloodline of the Skywalker family.
===Fall of the Final Order===
Meanwhile, above Exegol, the Resistance and citizens' fleet were continuing to press the attack against the remaining Sith forces. Finn and Jannah successfully destroyed the Steadfast by turning its turbolasers against the ship itself. The Steadfast burst into flames, killing all on board. It then fell towards the ground and crashed into the surface of Exegol, while Calrissian and Chewbacca rescued Finn and Jannah aboard the Millennium Falcon. 
With the Steadfast destroyed before it could transfer the signal to another friendly ship, the entire Sith fleet became trapped on Exegol. The Resistance and the galaxy fleet destroyed the rest of the Sith Star Destroyers in a similar fashion to the Steadfast, by blowing up their axial superlasers. With the Final Order fleet destroyed, the First Order defeated, and all the enemy ships falling to the ground in ruins, Rey, the Resistance and the galaxy fleet emerged victorious; and left Exegol to return to Ajan Kloss, where they celebrated the end of the First Order-Resistance War.
==Aftermath==
As the Resistance and their Citizens' Fleet left Exegol, they learned that across the galaxy people were rising up as the weakened First Order began to collapse without their cultist allies to reinforce them or the leadership of their Emperor. Across the galaxy, people rose up and destroyed the Resurgent-class Star Destroyers, as seen on Cloud City, Jakku's Starship Graveyard, and on the forest moon of Endor. The Resistance returned to the their base on Ajan Kloss, where they celebrated their victory, among them Rey, General Finn, General Calrissian, and General Dameron.
Through Rey and Ben Solo, the ancient Jedi-Sith conflict ended in an ultimate victory for the Jedi, with Darth Sidious being destroyed and the threat of any further Sith rule being quashed forever. Through Finn, Poe Dameron, Lando Calrissian, and the entirety of the Resistance's and Citizen's Fleets, Sidious's Final Order fleet collapsed on Exegol, with no possible threat of return, ushering in a new sense of hope and courage among the galaxy's residents as they mustered up the will to rise up and destroy the remnants of the First Order. With the fall of the First Order, the galaxy had at long last found the peace and tranquility that it had long desired.
===Rey becomes a Skywalker===
Sometime after the celebration, Rey, with BB-8 alongside her, traveled to Anakin and Luke's home world of Tatooine. Rey found Owen and Beru Lars' old homestead, which also served as Luke's home, and as she stood in it, she started to reminisce and think back to everything she had accomplished since she started on her journey. She then ventured outside the homestead and wrapped both Luke and Leia's lightsabers in cloth, using the Force to bury them both into the sand. As she rose, she revealed that she had constructed a lightsaber of her own, and ignited its yellow blade. An old woman soon passed by and asked who she was, and, with Luke and Leia's Force ghosts watching on, Rey confidently declared that she had inherited the Skywalker name and was now known as "Rey Skywalker". In her quest to restore galactic peace, Rey had become a Jedi Master, just as Luke had done before her. 
==Behind the scenes==
The Battle of Exegol served as the climactic battle of the 2019 film, Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, the final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
==Appearances==
* 
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition 
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: A Junior Novel 
*
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Graphic Novel Adaptation
*
*Star Tours: The Adventures Continue 
*Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
===Non-canon appearances===
*LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales 
*LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Battles of Exegol
Category:Battles of the First Order–Resistance war
Category:Duels