Steadfast (Resurgent-class)

The Steadfast, a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer of the First Order Navy, was the flagship of Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and Allegiant General Enric Pryde. Launched in 28 ABY, it was named after the Steadfast, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer that Pryde served on until its destruction in the Galactic Civil War. During the First Order-Resistance War, Ren and General Armitage Hux transferred from the Finalizer to the Steadfast. The First Order Supreme Council, an advisory board of high-ranking First Order officers founded by Ren, was also stationed on the Steadfast.
The Steadfast traveled to several locations during the last days of the galactic conflict, from Mustafar to Pasaana, Kijimi, and the Sith world of Exegol. The Resistance infiltrated the Steadfast at Kijimi, resulting in the rescue of Chewbacca and Pryde's execution of Hux for aiding the First Order's enemies. After Ren renounced the dark side of the Force, the resurrected Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious summoned Pryde to Exegol where the Sith Eternal's fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers, the Final Order, was set to deploy across the galaxy.
The Steadfast was destroyed by the Resistance in 35 ABY, during the Battle of Exegol, while attempting to guide the Sith fleet through Exegol's atmosphere. Pryde and Admiral Frantis Griss were both killed when the bridge exploded, and the remaining Sith Star Destroyers were destroyed by the combined forces of the Resistance navy and the Citizens' Fleet.
==Description==
The Steadfast was a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, the new-generation warship in the Star Destroyer line manufactured by Kuat-Entralla Engineering for the First Order. Vessels of the Resurgent-class were modeled on the Imperial-class Star Destroyers from the Imperial Era. Although it featured the familiar "wedge-shaped" appearance of the Galactic Empire's warships, the Resurgent-class was designed for improved efficiency. As a result, a First Order Star Destroyer was armed with weapons more advanced than its Imperial ancestor, such as kyber crystal-powered turbolasers. It was also more efficient than the Imperial-class in the rapid deployment starfighters, and therefore contained hangars for the requisite complement of TIE/fo space superiority fighters. The Steadfast was designated as the command ship of a battlegroup, and additionally served as the flagship of the First Order Navy.
Its command crew comprised the members of the First Order High Command, such as Allegiant General Enric Pryde and the senior fleet officer Admiral Frantis Griss. The Steadfast served under Griss, its commanding officer who also controlled the support ships in the Steadfast battlegroup. Griss in turn served under Pryde, whose military rank gave him authority over both the First Order Army and Navy. Additional high-ranking First Order military officials aboard the Steadfast included General Bellava Parnadee, General Domaric Quinn, and General Amret Engell. The crew of the Steadfast consisted of young First Order officers, as well as older officers, some of whom reported directly to the members of High Command, such as Commander Masir Trach, Lieutenant Lanzora Garan, and intelligence officer Tishra Kandia. As with the Finalizer and other Star Destroyers in the First Order fleet,Phasma the Steadfast carried a contingent of First Order stormtroopers.
Supreme Leader Kylo Ren transferred his headquarters from the Finalizer to the Steadfast, which was thenceforth identified as "Ren's Destroyer," following his ascension as Snoke's successor after it was extensively damaged in the Battle of Batuu. Ren also had General Armitage Hux transferred to his new flagship, unwilling to leave the general unsupervised due to the enmity they developed as rivals for power. Although Hux joined the Steadfast command crew, his authority was superseded not only by Supreme Leader Ren, but Allegiant General Pryde as well. Nevertheless, Hux's presence onboard the Steadfast sowed division among its crewmembers who became caught in the rivalry between Hux and Pryde. Commander Trach, who was also transferred from the Finalizer, concentrated on his assignments in order to avoid siding with either senior officer.
One of Ren's acts as Supreme Leader was the establishment of the First Order Supreme Council, a cabinet consisting of Pryde, Hux, and other High Command officers who served in the Steadfast command crew. As a result, the Steadfast contained a conference room for the Supreme Council's use. The Star Destroyer also housed the Supreme Leader's suite, where Ren kept the mask of his late grandfather, the Sith Lord Darth Vader, atop an obsidian pillar, as well as holding cells for the detainment and interrogation of prisoners. One such cell was Interrogation Six.
==History==
===Commissioning===
During the New Republic Era, the Steadfast was constructed as one of the new Star Destroyers built for the First Order in violation of the Galactic Concordance between the Old Empire and the New Republic.Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary Enric Pryde, a former Imperial officer who served in the Galactic Civil War, was given control of the Steadfast by Supreme Leader Snoke in 28 ABY. The Steadfast shared the same name as the Imperial Star Destroyer that Pryde served aboard until its destruction at the Battle of Jakku.
===First Order/Resistance War===
====Flagship of the First Order====
The Steadfast owner was not involved with the early phase of the First Order-Resistance War. Pryde had been left in charge of the First Order's reserve forces by Snoke, who was killed and replaced by his apprentice, the dark warrior known as Kylo Ren. In addition to bringing the reserve forces to the forefront of the war, the new Supreme Leader promoted Pryde to the rank of Allegiant General,Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: A Junior Novel giving Pryde authority over the First Order military as a whole.
The Steadfast served as Ren's flagship during his reign as Supreme Leader, replacing the Finalizer which had been damaged during a battle with the Resistance over the planet Batuu. By then the Star Destroyer's commanding officer was Admiral Griss, a trusted colleague of Pryde, although the flagship remained under the overall authority of Ren and Pryde. Haunted by the presence of his late uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, Ren revisited several locations from his past in an attempt to find and destroy his former mentor. Taking the Steadfast to Crait, Ren journeyed to the planet's surface but found no trace of Skywalker at the site of their final confrontation. By the end of his fruitless search, Ren ordered General Armitage Hux to have the Star Destroyer's batteries obliterate the ruins of Skywalker's Jedi Temple on Ossus.
Following the announcement of Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious in 35 ABY, Ren took the Steadfast to Mustafar, where he retrieved the Sith wayfinder that once belonged to his grandfather Darth Vader. The Steadfast remained in orbit over Mustafar while Ren, accompanied by generals Pryde and Hux, and a contingent of stormtroopers, carried out his mission to locate Exegol.
After confirming the Emperor's presence on Exegol, Ren returned to the Steadfast accompanied by the Knights of Ren. He convened a meeting of the Supreme Council to discuss his plans for the First Order, which included taking control of the Xyston-class Star Destroyers that composed the Sith Eternal fleet known as the Final Order. Unlike General Quinn who questioned Ren's alliance with a group of Sith cultists, Pryde saw advantages to reinforcing the First Order with the forces of the Sith Eternal, particularly the exponential increase in the First Order's ability to project its military might across the galaxy. Ren executed Quinn for continuing to question his agreement with Sidious to prevent anyone from finding out what his grandfather's master wanted, silencing any further debate on the topic and, certain in his future as the new Emperor of a true Empire ruling over the galaxy, directed the Supreme Council to continue suppressing all worlds that defied them.
The Steadfast continued in its role as the Supreme Leader's flagship during his personal mission to locate and capture Rey, the Jedi apprentice of Ren's mother, General Leia Organa of the Resistance. Utilizing his connection with Rey, Ren seized a husk necklace from the scavenger, causing the item to physically transfer to his location on the Steadfast through the Force. An analysis of the necklace conducted by Officer Tishra Kandia connected it to the planet Pasaana. Though Ren's troops failed to capture Rey, they apprehended one of the scavenger's companions, Chewbacca, with the help of the Knights of Ren. The Wookiee prisoner was escorted by stormtroopers to the Steadfast and, upon being presented to Allegiant General Pryde by General Hux, was taken to Interrogation Six.
The interrogation of Chewbacca was personally conducted by Ren, whom the Wookiee once knew as Ben Solo, the son of his late friend, Han Solo. Having long convinced himself that neither Chewbacca nor his family cared about him, Ren proceeded to torture the Wookiee, using the dark side of the Force to probe his mind for information about Rey. Instead, Ren discovered memories of his past where as a child he regarded Chewbacca as an uncle. Ren, who struggled to suppress the light side of the Force within him, left Chewbacca in the interrogation cell. His belongings were taken to the Supreme Leader's quarters in the Steadfast, including the dagger which had been discovered in the Pasaana desert by Rey's team.Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition
The Steadfast was taken to the occupied world of Kijimi after the Knights of Ren tracked Rey's team to Kijimi City. Ren marshaled his soldiers in the city to search for the scavenger while the Steadfast orbited the planet. Due to its proximity, Rey sensed Chewbacca's presence on through the Force and realized that her friend was held captive in Ren's Star Destroyer. Using a First Order Captain's Medallion, obtained from Zorii Bliss, an affiliate of the former smuggler Poe Dameron, Rey and her companions infiltrated the Steadfast to rescue Chewbacca and retrieve Ochi's dagger. FN-1226 and FN-0606 confronted the group, only to fall under Rey's influence through her use of the Jedi mind trick ability, which forced the stormtroopers to provide the Resistance with directions to Chewbacca's holding cell. Rey directed her friends to rescue the Wookiee while she recovered the dagger from Ren's chambers.
A firefight ensued in the Star Destroyer's corridors shortly after Dameron and Finn released Chewbacca from his cell. Though the Resistance fighters succeeded in killing numerous stormtroopers during their escape attempt, they were eventually overwhelmed and surrounded by the First Order soldiers, forcing them to surrender. Allegiant General Pryde ordered their immediate execution, but the firing squad was killed by General Hux, who had secretly become a spy for the Resistance in order to undermine Ren's reign as Supreme Leader. Hux guided Rey's team to the hangar where their starship, the Millennium Falcon, was stored.
Meanwhile, Rey located Chewbacca's belongings along with the Ochi's dagger upon locating Ren's quarters. By then, she reconnected with Ren through their bond in the Force, allowing them to communicate without seeing the other's surroundings. Determined to convert Rey to the dark side, Ren started to reveal the full truth of Rey's origins, causing the young apprentice to attack him with the Skywalker lightsaber. A lightsaber duel commenced between them, causing items to transfer between their separate locations, including the helmet of Ren's grandfather. The Sith relic's sudden appearance on Kijimi confirmed Rey's location aboard the Steadfast to Ren, who ordered his forces to put the flagship on lockdown in order to prevent Rey from escaping.
Ren confronted Rey upon returning to the Steadfast in his personal TIE/wi modified interceptor. A contingent of stormtroopers marshaled in the hangar where Rey and Ren were located. Armed with the knowledge of Rey's secret lineage, Ren revealed to the scavenger her biological relationship with Sidious, she was his granddaughter because of her father being the Emperor's son. Ren also disclosed the nature of their own relationship as a dyad in the Force, a connection unknown to Rey's grandfather. He urged her once more to join him, declaring that together they would kill Sidious, take the Throne of the Sith, and rule the galaxy as a dyad. Rey refused his offer, however, and rejoined her friends on the Millennium Falcon. A number of stormtroopers were injured and killed by the Falcon's engines, which also inflicted damage to the Steadfast hangar, neither of which concerned Ren as he remained fixated on his objective of turning Rey.
Sidious contacted Ren through the Force; suspecting Ren of duplicity, he warned the Supreme Leader that he could turn the Sith fleet against him. Ren assured the Sith Lord that he would not allow Rey to become a fully-trained Jedi. He departed from the Steadfast again, traveling to Kef Bir in the Endor system for a final confrontation with the scavenger. Meanwhile, Hux attempted to convince Pryde that he had been captured by the Resistance, who forced him to aid their escape from the Steadfast. Seeing through Hux's attempt at deception, the Allegiant General personally executed the younger officer for trying to sabotage Supreme Leader Ren's war efforts, and ordered Lieutenant Garan to contact the Supreme Leader for him so he can reveal the spy's fate.
====Service under the Sith Eternal====
Kylo Ren was redeemed and returned to the light side of the Force as Ben Solo. As a result, General Pryde once again became a loyal servant to Darth Sidious. The First Order and the Sith Eternal united to conquer the galaxy, although some First Order officers harbored concerns about their alliance with a group of Sith cultists, preferring technology and logic over the Sith Eternal's reverence for the dark side of the Force but didn't question their ways to keep themselves safe from the wrath of the Sith.
Under the direct command of the Allegiant General, the Steadfast served as the leading capital ship of the Sith fleet on Exegol, and was armed with the newly introduced Sith troopers and Sith Jetpack Troopers.
During the Battle of Exegol, the Steadfast noticed that a Resistance ground team was planning on blowing up the navigation tower to prevent the Sith fleet from leaving Exegol, so General Pryde ordered that they switch over the source of navigation signal from that tower to one of the Steadfast towers.
The Resistance ground team landed on the Steadfast and engaged the ground forces of the Sith Eternal, until the ship was destroyed by Finn and Jannah, who took out the command deck with one of the ship's own hotwired laser cannons, decimating the bridge and claiming the lives of its officers, including Pryde and Admiral Griss. The Steadfast then crashed onto the surface of Exegol and exploded, yet not before Finn and Jannah were rescued by the Millennium Falcon.
==Appearances==
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*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition 
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: A Junior Novel 
===Non-canon appearances===
*LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
==Sources==
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Galactic Guide 
*Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary
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*The Star Wars Book
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*Star Wars: Battles that Changed the Galaxy
*Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy
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==Notes and references==
Category:Flagships
Category:Resurgent-class Star Destroyers
Category:Starships of the First Order
Category:Starships of the Sith Eternal