An Exhaustive History since the Battle of Endor (4 ABY to 6.5 ABY)

## Background

The Galactic Empire suffered a grave defeat at the Battle of Endor, the Death Star II being destroyed along with multiple star destroyers and the Endor bunker and one of the Empire's best stormtrooper legions. With it, and worse, were the deaths of the Emperor and his feared enforcer, Darth Vader. In the ashes of the Empire's defeat, all is quiet and operating as it is supposed to: no Operation Cinder, no mighty collapse of the Galactic Empire and its mighty Imperial Military from within by its own hand. However, Imperial political infighting and a brief Imperial Civil War following the Emperor's death in the year after the Battle of Endor for the Imperial throne---mostly contained to the Inner Rim & Core Worlds among the Imperial Ruling Council against the rebellious Grand Moff Dunhausen and Moff Leonia Tavira supported by Grand Admiral Josef Grunger---hamper a proper and focused Imperial counterattack after the Battle of Endor and allow the Rebellion to make easy inroads into Imperial territory, easily taking large areas of the Outer Rim Territories.

What some hoped the Battle of Endor to be as the final watershed moment for a all but assured Rebel Alliance victory against the Galactic Empire has been anything but a mixed bag of broken promises and half truths three years later. The same divisions that divided the post-Clone Wars Separatist Holdouts, Early Rebellion fighters, and the assembled Rebel Alliance force that opted against a combined assault against the Empire before the Battle of Scarif resurface after the Empire's devastating defeat over Endor. These smaller ideological divisions among the Rebel leadership do not prevent the Rebel Alliance---swollen with pride, momentum, aroused public interest in the freedom fighters, and fresh recruits and sources of financial funding & war materials because of their Endor victory---from forging ahead. One-by-one Imperial worlds fall as the Alliance marches forward over the next two months following their victory at Endor, using their precious few hidden reserves and their battle damaged victorious Endor forces, capturing & liberating planets such as Sullust, Cmaoli Di, Darkknell. As the Rebels roll up Imperial forces to thunderous Outer Rim joy, Outer Rim recruitment, Imperial defections, and captured & abandoned Imperial war materials, supply & garrison bases, and shipyards give the Rebels much needed infusement of war machines & supplies, including Imperial Light Cruisers, Gozanti-class cruisers, EF76 Nebulon-B Escort Frigates, and *Gladiator*-class Star Destroyers, all Imperial assets once assigned to patrolling and enforcing Imperial rule in Wild Space, Western Reaches, and Trailing Sectors. Soon, worlds such as Bortras, Averam, Dorvalla, Clak'dor Vll (and Clak'dor IV & Clak'dor V with the ruins of the Clak'dor V Prison Colony) and Triton would become liberated in the months that follow. By 5.5 ABY---a year and a half after the Battle of Endor---the Rebel Alliance controls the vital hyperspace routes of the Sanrafsix Corridor, Five Veils Route, Llanic Spice Run, and access to the all-important Triellus Trade Route, ensuring the command of industries, world economies, and populations of some 61 notable worlds and hundreds of smaller worlds and moons, from as far east as Darkknell to as far west as Ryoone and Koda Station & its many poorer planets, and the Koda Spur.

Swollen with sudden public interest in the freedom fighters, the Rebel Alliance finds support, resources, financial aid, war materials, and recruits from the ill-forgotten Outer Rim Territories under Imperial rule, the native Outer Rim inhabitants suddenly free and emboden to reject the yoke of their Imperial masters and join the Rebel Alliance war effort. Planets such as Mustafar, Dorvalla, Bespin, and Cotellier support the raw material and gases needed for the raw industrial might of worlds such as Abridon, Elrood, and Sullust; Sullust's SoroSuub Corporation's catalog of vehicles, vessels, equipment, and weaponry, as well as abandoned and captured Imperial production lines, become the backbone of the Rebel Alliance's war effort after the Battle of Endor. The Rebel Alliance is officially transformed into the **New Republic** by 5.5 ABY and its first **Capital World** is the world of Barkhesh.

Despite this great Rebel success, notable Imperial holdouts such as Eriadu, Javin, and Isde Naha are bastions of Imperial control and might within the confines of the New Republic, becoming fortress worlds almost overnight and housing much of the remaining *Imperial*-class Star Destroyer fleet in Wild Space, Western Reaches, and the Trailing Sectors, which smartly retreated instead of face capture and thus deprived the Rebel Alliance and now New Republic of its heaviest firepower in the fight in the Galactic Civil War. The Imperial Ruling Council has stabilized the Empire after claiming victory against the rebellious Grand Moff, Moff, and Grand Admiral---savagely executing the survivors and much of their officers and other high ranking military personnel---and with the aid of the Imperial Security Bureau and Commission for the Preservation of the New Order, the defunct Imperial Senate is reinstated to power to help balance & strengthen the Empire after Endor and show a more open and willing approach to its citizens, as well as distance itself from some of the questionable political practices of Emperor Palpatine.

Smartly, the Imperial Ruling Council further installs Palpatine's loyal second-in-command Grand Vizier Mas Amedda as Imperial regent on the throne while Sate Pestage rose to Grand Vizier and oversees the Imperial Ruling Council, both moves maintaining Imperial power with Palpatine's closet aides and public faces of the Empire to both the general populace and the military, as well extending a very public branch of healing old wounds to various alien species around the galaxy for past Imperial actions against non-humans. Three loyal Grand Moffs---Grand Moff Naomi Dargon, Grand Moff Rufaan Tigellinus, and Grand Moff Cinzero Gann---are elected to the Ruling Council to fill the void left by Amedda & Pestage and strengthen the council's creditability to both the military and the reformed Imperial Senate. While the ruling council and senate strengthen and stabilize the Empire politically---the remaining Grand Moffs are "disposed of" in various ways, keeping only sector governor Moffs that are now were under their local Imperial Senator in political and domestic power, although held more power of commanding the military, law enforcement, and intelligence assets in the sector---the Imperial High Command with Grand Admirals Rae Sloane and Octavian Grant prepare a brutal Imperial counter-attack against the Rebellion.

Sensing time is short with the Empire stabilizing per New Republic Intelligence Service by 5.5 ABY, New Republic High Command secretly moves a bulk of their forces along the priceless Triellus Trade Route to the world of Junkfort, where they meet up with the remains of the Mon Calamari Exodus Fleet, and attack & liberate the worlds of Quermia, Pakuuni, Ruisto (rebuilting their destroyed shipyards), Mon Calamari & the Mon Calamari Shipyards, and finally secured the greater Overic Griplink hyperspace lane. Seeing mirrored success as they did the months after Endor and fueled by the Mon Calamari's shipyards and liberated zeal, the New Republic quickly attacks and liberates the planet of Troiken, before starting a deliberate and forced move down the Perlemian Trade Route and securing much of the Outer Rim between the Perlemian Trade Route and Hutt Space. Riding high on success and support, the New Republic dives into the Mid Rim and gets as far as Kashyyyk before things start to fall apart, if at first slowly.

Despite overwhelming successes and support in the backwater worlds of the Outer Rim Territories, the New Republic finds itself in a less advantageous position the closer and deeper it gets into the Mid Rim. The freedom fighter zeal is not as strong in the Mid Rim, where citizens' lives are relatively happy & productive with a fair opinion of the Galactic Empire; that fair view of the Empire is increased to good when the Imperial Senate is reformed and put back in power. Despite these pro-leaning Imperial views, however, the New Republic finds enough to support to continue the offensive.

But the Empire has other plans.

With each step forward, the weaknesses of the New Republic are exposed: a wartime ideological rebellion equipped with castoffs in military equipment and vessels & vehicles and poorly funded lacking a robust logistical and supply chain are easy pickings when forced to defend outposts, shipyards, and whole planets against better equipped and funded Imperial counter attacks, especially after the Imperial Civil War has settled the question of accession to the Imperial throne and the new found Imperial leadership has stabilized the internal crisis. What raw and now established strength the New Republic has is in the distance Wild Space, Western Reaches, and Trailing Sectors with strong logistical structures, supply chains, and industrial output minus well be a galaxy far, far away with the long trek along the Triellus Trade Route. But it is something---until the Empire launches devastating counter-attacks at Formos, Bheriz, Aduba, and Teth cut off that supply link and the Empire blockades, patrols, and raids the Triellus Trade Route almost freely up until Arkanis and the Corellian Run. The Empire forces the New Republic forces near the Perlemian Trade Route to rely on their new found conquests and yet-to-be fully operational Ruisto & Mon Calamari shipyards.

Despite lacking the far-reaching strength, financial means, industrial support, and---understandability---the trust, support, and recruitment pool of the average galactic citizen in the Mid Rim verses the Outer Rim, the determined New Republic pushes deeper into the Mid Rim and the push starts to falter when the flow of needed supplies is halted by the Empire and then the New Republic is savagely halted by the Empire and pushed back with major losses at failed advances into Imperial held terrority at Mytaranor, Coachelle, Ota, and most brutally at Nazzri, Uyter, and Togoria by the second year after Endor (6 ABY). The final New Republic advance and subsequent defeat at Randon is so horribly devastating that it breaks the spine of the New Republic after the previous losses earlier in the year and the New Republic leadership and the very foundations of the original Rebellion are shook to its core.

The earlier divisions of ideology after the victory at Endor 2 years earlier are split wide open, turning "Rebel heroes" into little more than pity criminals, bullies, and ideological purists & activists carrying weapons in some areas of recently captured Imperial planets in the slice between the Perlemian Trade Route and Hutt Space. The pressure is put on the New Republic as Imperial forces surround the newest New Republic territory on three sides---Kashyyyk and all along the Randon Run, on the north & north-west sides of the Perlemian Trade Route stretching from the planet Gizer all the way to Roche, and from Randon to Chalacta---and then the Empire starts advancing with targeted attacks, disrupting what supply depots and communications networks the New Republic has first, then targeting isolated fleet elements and garrison bases. While the Empire lacks the raw firepower and manpower to advance on all fronts at once en masse after the losses at Endor and the months that followed (not to mention the internal civil war), they do have numbers, supplies, and logistics on their side and as such, they can advance in smaller task force size elements along all three sides to devastating targeted effect or have one or two sides of their near encirclement hold as another side advances en masse. Whatever the case, the New Republic is trapped and panic starts to set in.

Despite the crushing losses and the near encirclement, New Republic forces are able to limp back to Kashyyyk and hold the thinnest---but very strong---defense along the Great Kashyyyk Branch back to Charros IV, Bimmisaari, and finally Boz Pity & Boonta. Beyond Boonta and towards the slice of territory in between the Perlemian Trade Route and Hutt Space, a confusing web of New Republic loyalists, Separatist Holdout fighters, and Rebel Alliance purists clog together the New Republic's newest won territory. In the newest territory held by the New Republic in the galaxy and by far its most important to date, cooperation is becoming harder to come by among the various desperate Rebel groups of the New Republic as the Imperial near encirclement tightens; civilians are suffering with underfunded public services offered by the New Republic in the newly gained planets and territories, mismanaged and greedy government officials rule under the guise of the New Republic and take advantage of the panic to their own benefit, and public opinion is falling fast of the new government. Worse, New Republic relief forces from the Wild Space, Western Reaches, and Trailing Sectors are unable to punch through the Imperial forces along the Triellus Trade Route and similar attempts along the Gamor Run, Bothan Run, Trax Tube, and the desperate attempt along the heavier guarded Corellian Run through the Expansion Region are met with even worse results, Imperial forces waiting in ambush for the desperate New Republic relief forces. What supplies and what relief forces are able to get through are simply not enough.

Panic starts to set in by 6.5 ABY, 6 months into the mass semi-encirclement of the New Republic forces. Declining and failing New Republic currency---once a progressive staple of hope & change from the Wild Space, Western Reaches, and Trailing Sectors---and generally a sense of a lack of control and stability in the region lead to looting, rioting, civil unrest, murder, and worse in the New Republic's newly held territory; whole New Republic-controlled planets and military forces in the slice between the Perlemian Trade Route and Hutt Space start breaking away from the New Republic and forming their own planetary governments and, in some cases, cruel despots of whole star systems, desiring to save their own skins and fight on their own terms then go down with New Republic leadership stuck on Kashyyyk. Even worse, some of these independent planetary governments and star systems make alliances with the Galactic Empire to hold onto their new found power & freedom, further weakening the case for the New Republic.

Desperately, the "central" New Republic government and leadership at Kashyyyk involving such political faces as the newly married Leia Organa Solo secure a temporary ceasefire with the Galactic Empire. The New Republic leadership understands it is hopelessly outgunned, out-resourced, and out-industrialized to the Empire's unified might and any hope of maintaining any legitimacy within galactic politics, within military circles, within the eyes of the average galactic citizen, and to give any hope---however remote---for a future galactic-spanning New Republic to bring back the Grand Republic's glory days and replace the Galactic Empire starts with a peace treaty between the New Republic and the Galactic Empire. Additionally, New Republic Intelligence Service has discovered that the Empire lacks the ability---right now---to do a final all-out military push to wipe out the newly held territories of the New Republic; the spy service also expands that the Empire's goals are to weaken and delegitimize the New Republic from within and from without, causing the movement to fall apart. Worse from the spy agency is the Empire's newfound popularity in contrast in the Mid Rim and even parts of the Outer Rim to the New Republic's popularity stuck on Kashyyyk and elsewhere up along the Perlemian Trade Route. Even more stressing for the New Republic is the Empire's search for a new emperor to replace Grand Vizier Mas Amedda as Imperial regent on the throne and for the Grand Vizier to assume his previous duties, a move that has sparked strong public support and interest across the galaxy after Palpatine's debated rule the last 23 years. And as if it could not get any worse, the more the New Republic avoids a peace deal with the Empire, the less time it has to rearm and reassess its military position as the Empire---with strong evidence---is secretly building new weapons of war to challenge the New Republic's superiority in starfighters, anti-starfighter warship technology & deployment, and new Imperial tactics, a development that could spell the end of the New Republic in a dragged out war. Despite all the reports from the New Republic's spy agency, the most glaring and alarming report has not been submitted: Leia, Gial Ackbar, Crix Madine, Han Solo, and Chewbacca are all stuck on Kashyyyk, why does the Empire not apply all available forces and resources from across the vast Empire to take out heroes of the Rebellion that helped destroyed both the First Death Star and Second Death Star?

Naturally, the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order has taken great delight in the panic collapse of New Republic military forces and civilian populace and has mobilized the Imperial Press Corps enemas and the HoloNet News and Imperial Holovision show repeated nightly imagines, holos, and first person accounts of the chaos unfolding. Unfortunately for the New Republic, NewsNet, Galaxy News Service, and TriNebulon News has also carried the damaging news across the galaxy as well, among other news agencies. What great successes the New Republic enjoyed after the Battle of Endor in the Wild Space, Western Reaches, and Trailing Sectors is largely overshadowed by the meltdown of the New Republic in the slice between the Perlemian Trade Route and Hutt Space.

Despite the doom the New Republic finds itself in, the Empire finds itself in a equally unsure position, although it has the unquestionable support of the Deep Core, Core Worlds, Colonies, and most of the Inner Rim. Despite the stabilization of the Empire and its recent popularity, the old guard of of the Imperial Senate is not so quick to forget the wrongs done to it---both as an institution & as a political body---and just as much as the Imperial Ruling Council has schemes and plans in place to check the Imperial Senate and utilize them merely as a token political body to stabilize the Empire until a new Emperor is found, so does the Imperial Senate has schemes and plans in place to bring back the glory days of the Empire after the Clone Wars and wipe clean---once and for all---the Palpatine hardliners who supported such projects as the Death Star and Death Star II and the dual destructions of Jedha City and Alderaan. Holding the two fractions together is the shared interest in the once and for all final destruction of the Rebel Alliance, now turned New Republic. But that will not always be the case.​