Imperial Remnant

"We call it the Remnant, but to these people it's still the Empire.''" "''An Empire without an Emperor."

- Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo

The Imperial Remnant was an Empire formed from the unified holdings of various Imperial Warlords who had ruled their own territories following the final collapse of the Galactic Empire in 11 ABY. As the galaxy's largest Imperial power, the Remnant adhered to the tenets of the former Galactic Emperor Palpatine's New Order; although slavery and anti-alien sentiment were abolished, the Remnant maintained a strong military and limited public expression. The military was composed of the Imperial Navy, Imperial Army, and Stormtrooper Corps; making up the Remnant's war machine were traditional Imperial vehicles such as Star Destroyers, TIE series starfighters, and Imperial walkers. Led by a Council of Moffs and the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet from its inception in 12 ABY, the Remnant was later ruled by a Head of State, which eventually became a democratically electable position in a wave of sweeping reforms. The citizens of the Remnant remained under its rule by their own choice, preferring the order and efficiency of New Order policy.

The Remnant was born in 12 ABY when Admiral Gilad Pellaeon led the United Warlord Fleets&mdash;themselves formed when Admiral Natasi Daala killed thirteen squabbling Warlords and unified their holdings&mdash;out of the galaxy's Deep Core and united them with surviving Imperial factions in the Outer and Mid Rims. With a well-defined stretch of territory and several Star Dreadnoughts in his fleet, Pellaeon was elected Supreme Commander by the Moffs of the Rim factions. He called the new state the true Empire, but it was also known as Pellaeon's Empire or simply the Empire. Pellaeon continued the former Galactic Empire's fight against the New Republic in the ongoing Galactic Civil War, and expanded the Remnant's borders through the successful Orinda campaign in that year. However, New Republic advances continually won territory over the next seven years, reducing Imperial space to just eight sectors in the Outer Rim and forcing a relocation of the Imperial capital from Orinda to Bastion. Realizing that the war was lost, Pellaeon sued for peace in 19 ABY; although his efforts were nearly undermined by a power grab from a Sinister Triumvirate of Imperials, he exposed them as traitors and signed the Bastion Accords with New Republic Chief of State Ponc Gavrisom.

A tense relationship between the Remnant and the New Republic existed in peacetime, and when the latter government requested Imperial assistance in repelling an invasion by the extra-galactic Yuuzhan Vong in 25 ABY, the Moffs elected to instead sit the Yuuzhan Vong War out and fortify their own territory against the invaders. After conquering much of the galaxy and capturing the New Republic capital of Coruscant, the Yuuzhan Vong attacked Bastion in 28 ABY and forced an Imperial retreat. Pellaeon was finally able to convince the reluctant Moff Council to take the fight to the enemy, and under his direction, the Imperial Remnant joined the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, the New Republic's successor state. 29 ABY saw the Yuuzhan Vong defeated by the Galactic Alliance's combined fleets at Coruscant, and Pellaeon later retired, but 41 ABY saw him resume his role as Supreme Commander when Galactic Alliance Chief of State Jacen Solo requested the Remnant's aid in prosecuting the Second Galactic Civil War against a Confederation of breakaway planets. When Pellaeon refused to support Solo's brutal tactics in the Second Battle of Fondor, he was assassinated by Solo's Sith apprentice Tahiri Veila, and with Drikl Lecersen acting as their de facto leader, the surviving Moffs pledged themselves to Solo.

In the final weeks of the war, Lecersen authorized the creation of a nanovirus that targeted the bloodline of the royal family of the Hapes Consortium, members of the Galactic Alliance–opposed Jedi Coalition. When Solo was killed in a lightsaber duel, the Coalition rejoined the Alliance and confronted the Moffs with an ultimatum: Face war crime trials for the deployment of the nanovirus, or install a young man named Jagged Fel as their new Head of State and force the outmatched Confederation to surrender. Although the war was over, the Remnant withdrew from the Galactic Alliance, and Fel attended a Unification Summit on Coruscant in 43 ABY designed to mend galactic ties that had been severed during the conflict. When he returned to Imperial Space, he survived an assassination attempt by a power-hungry Admiral Daala, who hoped to usurp control of the Remnant, now commonly known as the Galactic Empire. Public support for Daala due to her Imperial past prompted Fel to call a general election among the Remnant's citizens as part of his democratic reforms, and with Fel's assistance, Admiral Vitor Reige was elected as the new Head of State. However, at some point before 127 ABY, the Remnant was reorganized into the Fel Empire, a dynastic monarchy with Fel as its Emperor.

Overview
"Jag, do you need to get back to the Imperial Remnant embassy?''" "''Galactic Empire. And yes."

- Jaina Solo and Imperial Head of State Jagged Fel, in 43 ABY

The Imperial Remnant was an Empire that emerged in 12 ABY when Admiral Gilad Pellaeon led his United Warlord Fleets out of the Deep Core and pledged them to the protection of Imperial factions in the Mid Rim and Outer Rim Territories, provided that said factions joined him. The Galactic Empire had ceased to exist one year previously, its remnants reduced to squabbling Warlord fleets and Moffs answerable to no one. The unified Remnant was the new locus of Imperial power, and it continued to prosecute the Empire's Galactic Civil War against the New Republic until the two sides signed the Bastion Accords in 19 ABY and brought the war to a peaceful end.

In the Remnant's early years, Pellaeon called it the "true Empire" to distinguish it from remaining Imperial Warlord factions, but it was also known as "Pellaeon's Empire." Imperial and New Republic individuals alike also used the term "remnants of the Empire," which had previously been applied to the Galactic Empire in the years after Galactic Emperor Palpatine's death at the Battle of Endor. The Remnant was also known as simply the "Empire," and by 43 ABY, Imperial individuals had revived the term "Galactic Empire," although "Imperial Remnant" was still the most common nomenclature used by the rest of the galaxy. The Remnant was symbolically represented by the traditional Imperial crest.

Government
"Join the Galactic Alliance? Have you gone mad? You can't believe that any of us would ever agree to this!''" "''I don't need your agreement, Kurlen. When I say that I am advising the council, I am only following a formality. This is the way it will be, because this is the way it has to be. I am simply saving you the need to think it through for yourselves."

- Moff Kurlen Flennic and Supreme Commander Gilad Pellaeon, in 28 ABY

Admiral Pellaeon held the rank of Supreme Commander of the Imperial Fleet, and by 28 ABY had become a Grand Admiral. He was the leader of the Remnant despite being technically subordinate to the organization's Council of Moffs. The Moffs appointed him Supreme Commander, and they had the authority to order the fleet into military action. However, several disastrous offensives against the New Republic that lost large swathes of Imperial territory prompted Pellaeon to tell the council in 17 ABY that he was finished with obeying their orders. The chastened Moffs accepted his declaration, but their consensus was yet required before Pellaeon could make any large-scale decisions. In 19 ABY, the Supreme Commander addressed each Moff as "Your Excellency." By 28 ABY, Pellaeon was picking and choosing what information he shared with the Moffs, asserting to outsiders that the Remnant was not run by a committee. In that year, he explicitly told the council that he considered their consensus to be a mere formality.

When Pellaeon temporarily retired following the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Council of Moffs led the Remnant in his absence. They again took the Remnant's reigns following Pellaeon's death in 41 ABY. Moff Drikl Lecersen served as their de facto leader in the latter instance. Later in the year, the Moffs agreed to install a young man named Jagged Fel as the Remnant's new Head of State, a decision forced upon them by the Jedi Coalition as an alternative to facing the consequences of war crimes which they had recently committed. The Head of State position became a democratically electable one by the Remnant's citizens three years later as part of a wave of democratic reforms instituted by Fel. Although Admiral Vitor Reige won the election, the Remnant was eventually reorganized into a dynastic monarchy known as the Fel Empire with Fel as its first Emperor.

The Remnant's government sat on the planet Orinda from 12 ABY to 17 ABY, after which they relocated to Bastion. In 28 ABY, during the Yuuzhan Vong War, the Remnant joined the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances in order to combine their strength against the extra-galactic, invading Yuuzhan Vong. Pellaeon was integrated into Galactic Alliance High Command in 29 ABY during the final stages of the war. However, the events of the later Second Galactic Civil War strained the relationship of the two governments, and the Remnant had broken from the Alliance by 43 ABY.

Some aspects of Palpatine's Empire that the Remnant maintained included a strong military and limited venues of public expression, but the Remnant was far more progressive than the Empire had been, abolishing both slavery and anti-alien sentiment. However, the Remnant unobtrusively adhered to the strict tenets of Palpatine's New Order and consequently found itself growing increasingly irrelevant to galactic affairs during the Yuuzhan Vong War. A number of Moffs were killed during the Second Galactic Civil War, and when Jagged Fel was appointed Head of State at the end of the conflict, he negotiated a deal with new Galactic Alliance Chief of State Natasi Daala which stipulated that half of the new Moffs would be female. Traditionally Imperial Moffs such as Lecersen were uncomfortable with the deal. Further reforms came in 44 ABY when Jagged Fel called a democratic election; he also charged the Imperial News Network with with reporting on government affairs at every level in order to ensure complete governmental accountability. The end of the Second Galactic Civil War also saw the pilot Han Solo suggest that the Moffs atone for their war crimes by setting up a mission to aid poverty-stricken worlds, by the time of the Fel Empire, this idea had been realized as the Imperial Mission, born from Jagged Fel's "Victory Without War" initiative.

Military
"We still hold eight sectors&mdash;over a thousand inhabited systems. We have the Fleet, nearly two hundred Star Destroyers strong. We're still very much a force to be reckoned with."

- Captain Ardiff, in 19 ABY

The Imperial Remnant's state was based on having a strong military and a Supreme Commander as its leader. The Imperial Military consisted of the Imperial Navy, Imperial Army, and the Stormtrooper Corps. The military was answerable to Imperial High Command. Imperial Intelligence was used by the Imperial Remnant, as were Fleet Intelligence and Communications Intelligence, and a Ubiqtorate station was kept at the planet Yaga Minor. Imperial agents were routinely dispatched to worlds outside of Imperial Space, including planets such as Belkadan where general intelligence-gathering occurred.

Each Moff governed a sector and commanded a Sector Fleet. The various fleets of the navy were largely made up of Star Destroyers, 200 of which composed the Imperial Fleet in 19 ABY&mdash;Pellaeon lamented the number as being a pale shadow of the 25,000+ arsenal that had once been boasted by the Galactic Empire. Throughout the Remnant's history, its Star Destroyer complement included Executor-class Star Dreadnoughts and other Star Dreadnoughts, Sorannan-class Star Destroyers, Imperial I-class Star Destroyers, Imperial II-class Star Destroyers, Victory II-class Star Destroyers, Interdictor-class heavy cruiser, Turbulent-class Star Destroyers, and at least one eight kilometer–long Super Star Destroyer. Also in the fleet were freighters, frigates, Lambda-class shuttles, tugs, Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers, Crusader-class corvettes, and Strike-class medium cruisers&mdash;for a time, the Remnant depended on the Strike-class more heavily than even Star Destroyers, as it was one of the few classes of capital ships which they had the capacity to produce in large numbers. As early as 44 ABY, Remnant space was patrolled by Burst Fire-class Deep-Space Patrol Vessels, ships whose small bays contained boxy military-grade rescue shuttles.

As Imperial Head of State, Jagged Fel secretly maintained the Empire of the Hand, an organization to which he had once belonged. Its fleet included Chiss Star Destroyers and Nssis-class Clawcraft starfighters. Other starfighters employed by the Remnant were TIE fighters, TIE interceptors, TIE bombers, TIE defenders, and starhunters. Preybird-class starfighters were briefly utilized by the fleet in 19 ABY through a deal that Moff Vilim Disra struck with the Cavrilhu Pirates. The Imperial army included AT-AT and AT-ST walkers, and stormtroopers were the Remnant's footsoldiers, some of whom served in the Imperial Elite Guard. The Remnant's elite shock troopers were said to be as good in combat as the legendary 501st Legion that was historically employed by the Imperial Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.

Territory


"Can we hold on to our territory, though? The New Republic has perpetuated the lie that we rule by terror and force. Won't they insist on our destruction, treaty or not?''" "''I don't think so. I believe we can convince even the most rabid of them that the worlds currently under Imperial rule remain with us by their own choice."

- Moff Edan and Supreme Commander Pellaeon discuss the idea of a treaty with the New Republic

The Remnant's territory originally consisted of space that had previously belonged to the Pentastar Alignment and the other Imperial Rim factions that joined with Pellaeon to create the new Empire in 12 ABY. Imperial territory stretched from Wild Space to the Mid Rim, but after seven years of losing ground to the New Republic, it had been reduced to eight sectors in the Outer Rim, consisting of over a thousand habitable systems that all fell within former Pentastar Alignment space. The Remnant's borders remained as such until 35 ABY, but by 41 ABY, their territory had increased in size considerably, stretching through the Mid Rim and the Expansion Region into the Inner Rim. Each sector was governed by a Moff, and the systems within remained under Imperial rule by their own choice, preferring the efficiencies of New Order policy. However, some systems were ceded to the Remnant by the Galactic Alliance in 41 ABY in return for aid leant during the Second Galactic Civil War.

Economic development in the Remnant proceeded slowly in the years after the Bastion Accords. Only a few pockets of Imperial Space had amenities available that were comparable to those of the New Republic, and citizens of some Imperial worlds lived in grinding poverty. Industries were crippled due to the availability of cheap imported goods from the New Republic, which led to unrest and rioting.

An Empire falls
In 4 ABY, the Galactic Empire suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Endor to the Rebel Alliance, their opponent in the Galactic Civil War. The Alliance Fleet destroyed the Empire's Death Star II battlestation, and Emperor Palpatine was killed; the battle also saw the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Executor, flagship of the Imperial Navy's Death Squadron, and the battlecruiser Pride of Tarlandia destroyed. Admiral Horst Strage, commander of the next communications ship in line&mdash;the Imperial II-class Star Destroyer Chimaera&mdash;was killed when an ion blast overloaded his neural shunt, and command of the fleet was left in the hands of the Chimaera Captain Gilad Pellaeon. Finding his forces in disarray, Pellaeon ordered a retreat to the planet Annaj.

With the fleet regrouped, Pellaeon called a council of war and advocated that they return to Endor and crush the Rebels. When Adye Prittick, the ranking admiral, proved indecisive, Admiral Blitzer Harrsk took part of the fleet and retreated into the Deep Core until a clear chain of command could be established. As the Emperor had never provided a succession plan in the event of his death, other naval officers followed Harrsk's example and fortified their holdings, declaring themselves independent warlords. Grand Vizier Sate Pestage claimed the Imperial throne and, wary of Alliance strikes against key targets, fortified strategic systems and fortress worlds, which put the Empire on the defensive despite their numerical and economic advantages over the Rebels. Countless worlds flocked to the fold of the New Republic, the successor state of the Alliance, after hearing news of the Emperor's death.

The Republic consolidated their holdings and won worlds over through diplomacy before executing an aggressive military push into the Core against an Empire that was crumbling from within due to the machinations of its own ambitious politicians. By 9 ABY, the Empire's territory had been reduced to a quarter of its former size, and the state was widely considered to be merely the "remnants of the Empire." Campaigns by Grand Admiral Thrawn and by the reborn Palpatine reclaimed swaths of lost territory, but Palpatine's final death saw the fleet again splinter into warlordism and Imperial territory reduced to a narrow band stretching from the Outer Rim to the Colonies. Following the death of self-proclaimed Emperor Xandel Carivus in 11 ABY, utter collapse of Imperial authority ensued, and the Empire ceased to exist.

Rising from the ashes
"One Empire, one fleet&mdash;only this will guarantee us victory."

- Admiral Daala

Later in 11 ABY, Imperial Admiral Natasi Daala's Maw fleet emerged from years of seclusion in the Maw and prosecuted a disastrous military campaign against the New Republic. After limping into the Deep Core aboard her sole remaining ship, the Gorgon, she declared herself a freelance ambassador and spent one year traveling to the various Deep Core warlords' fortress worlds espousing a message of unification. Unwilling to give up their power, the feuding warlords dismissed her ideas and continued their Imperial Civil War against each other. While she was at the fortress of "Supreme Warlord" Blitzer Harrsk in 12 ABY, the forces of "High Admiral" Treuten Teradoc attacked, fleeing after destroying the flagship of Harrsk's fleet. Harrsk ordered her at blasterpoint to lead a counterassault, and in orbit above Teradoc's own fortress, Daala, fed up with the warlords' squabbling, fired an ion cannon from the bridge of the Star Destroyer Firestorm at Harrsk's own Whirlwind and ordered the fleet to stand down.

Pellaeon, now a Vice Admiral in Teradoc's fleet, found himself agreeing with Daala's assertions over an open comm channel that the warlords needed to stop fighting amongst themselves and focus their efforts against the New Republic. He ordered Teradoc's defensive fleet to similarly stand down and took a shuttle from his Victory-class Star Destroyer 13X to join Daala on the bridge of the Firestorm. The ship fled into hyperspace along with the 13X and one more of Pellaeon's Destroyers to a negotiating point in the dead of space, where Daala and Pellaeon agreed that a leader needed to be chosen from among the warlords, and proposed a detente council. Using both of their reputations as pull, Pellaeon convinced thirteen Deep Core warlords&mdash;including Harrsk, Teradoc, Sander Delvardus, and Yzu &mdash;to convene at a space station called Tsoss Beacon, where they met inside of a storeroom. Daala insisted that they unite their forces and choose a nominal leader, but when three hours' worth of arguing amounted to nothing, she donned a breath mask. Pellaeon quickly put on one of his own as the Admiral released a nerve gas into the room, ending both the discussion and the warlords' lives.

The fleets of the dead warlords pledged themselves to Daala, the architect of the Imperial Reunification. In a departure from Palpatine's Humanocentrism, she welcomed women and non-Humans to actively participate in military service. Daala intended to relinquish control of the United Warlord Fleets after launching a devastating strike at the New Republic; her target was the jungle moon Yavin 4, home to the New Republic–allied New Jedi Order. However, the Force powers of the Jedi students were able to blast Pellaeon's vanguard fleet of twelve Star Destroyers out of orbit, and Daala's Super Star Destroyer Knight Hammer was disabled following an infiltration by the Jedi student Callista Ming. The Battle for Yavin 4 was a disaster for the Imperials, and with her plans having fallen to rubble, Daala relinquished full command of the United Warlord Fleets to Pellaeon.

Although not the type to seize power, Pellaeon proved himself an extremely capable leader. He strengthened ties with the Moffs of surviving Imperial factions in the Outer and Mid Rims&mdash;who had earlier supported Daala's United Warlord Fleets with with credits and war matériel&mdash;and decided to withdraw all of his fleets and war arsenals from the Deep Core, which he felt would keep his new Empire bottled up. Before leaving, he discovered squadrons of robotic TIEs, caches of arms, mines, and the Star Dreadnoughts Megador and Dominion within abandoned Deep Core armories. As the Outer and Mid Rims offered more resources, better-traveled hyperlanes, and favorable opportunities to harass New Republic shipping, Pellaeon pledged his fleets to protect the Imperial Rim factions on the condition that they joined his Empire. The Moffs of the Rim factions, including the Pentastar Alignment, agreed that the Megador, Dominion, and the Reaper&mdash;a dreadnaught belonging to the Pentastar Alignment&mdash;were enough to defend against the New Republic, and named Pellaeon the Supreme Commander of the new Imperial Remnant. Donated to the new Empire were their carefully-hoarded stores of munitions and war matériel.

The Remnant was a well-defined Empire stretching from the Mid Rim to Wild Space, with additional scattered holdings in other regions of the galaxy. These holdings included systems in the former Borderland Regions that acknowledged the rule of the planet Sartinaynian, which was defiantly renamed "Bastion." Pellaeon referred to his new state as the "true Empire," but it was also known as simply the "Empire." The Remnant was also called "Pellaeon's Empire" in order to distinguish it from surviving Warlord factions, such as the Constitutional Protectorate of Prakith and several Warlords who remained in the Deep Core.

Expansion through conquest
"Thanks to Daala's unification efforts, the Empire was stable, though still only a shadow of its former self. If anyone could restore the Empire&hellip; Pellaeon appeared to be the one."

- Voren Na'al

Pellaeon knew that his Empire was not capable of mounting a serious offensive against the galaxy's inner systems, but he believed that the Outer and Mid Rims contained hundreds of thousands of worlds that were ripe for conquering. Both he and the Moffs were aware that some factions in the New Republic would prefer to see the Empire wiped out completely; indeed, New Republic pickets were routinely pushing deep into the Northern Quadrant. As such, Pellaeon decided to show his enemies that the New Order was not yet dead by defending what he saw as the Empire's borders. While the fleet was preparing to mount an offensive against the New Republic, Imperial agents took over the New Republic embassy on the planet Dathomir in order to investigate the ancient Star Temple and determine if the Infinity Wave superweapon could be used in the war. After finding that there was nothing left of the Infinity Gate's control chamber, General Vit attempted to salvage the mission by training the local Nightsisters as Force-using Imperial troops.

Around the same time, fallen Jedi Dal Konur was on a one-man mission to assassinate the members of the Moff Council. After encountering and escaping from the Imperial fleet, which was gathering near Agamar, he landed on Dathomir and was recruited to serve as a trainer in General Vit's "Project Nightsaber". However, Konur and Vit were defeated by a team of Jedi-allied heroes and a former Emperor's Royal Guard, Kir Kanos, who had come to Dathomir in search of Imperial scientist Sigit Ranth. Dathomir was accordingly liberated from the Remnant.

Six months after Daala's resignation, Pellaeon took the Reaper to the planet Borosk and retrieved a complement of fighters from the legendary 181st Imperial Fighter Group, which was led by starfighter ace Turr Phennir. Pellaeon and Phennir kicked off the Orinda campaign by swiftly capturing Orinda and six systems coreward of it along the Entralla Route, taking Lonnaw last. The Supreme Commander believed that holding Orinda would sufficiently demonstrate Imperial power without provoking an aggressive response, and as such, he dispatched emissaries to Ord Mantell who stated that no further offensives would be launched if the Empire's new borders were respected.

The New Republic responded with force, as they feared another assault on the Core, and dispatched General Wedge Antilles to the front lines aboard the Executor-class Star Dreadnought Lusankya, accompanied by the famous Rogue Squadron of X-wing starfighters. Before Antilles's fleet arrived, Pellaeon took the Corthenia and Urce systems while Pennir, accompanied by a complement of Imperial-class Star Destroyers, captured the defenseless systems of Hewett and Tartaglia. The arrival of the Lusankya at the front sparked a series of strikes and parries between the 181st and the Rogues as the Reaper and the Lusankya stalked each other throughout the Mid Rim; the first engagements came in the Darkon and Traval-Pacor systems, and both battles were won by the New Republic, who secured the systems.

The 181st were able to best the Lusankya in a bid for control of the Tyan system after battling the Rogues to a stalemate at Orocco, and citizens of both the Remnant and the New Republic became enthralled by tales of the duels between the great capital ships of the opposing fleets. A less captivated New Republic military sent Admiral Areta Bell and the fleet carrier Endurance to back Antilles up, and Pellaeon gradually fell back. Antilles and Bell defeated the Reaper and the 181st in the Obredaan system, and a final showdown came at Orinda, where Pellaeon sprang a trap. Six interdictor cruisers and the Dominion&mdash;whose existence had been kept a secret&mdash;decanted from hyperspace and destroyed the Endurance along with the squadrons of E-wing fighters it held. The Lusankya fled with the Rogues, and the Remnant's southern borders were secured. The New Republic fortified surrounding systems, however, and border clashes became routine. Both governments maneuvered for position with neutral planets such as Adumar.

Also in 12 ABY, a New Republic investigation into possible Imperial Remnant activity on the planet Kejim revealed a sinister plot by the Imperial splinter faction known as the Empire Reborn.

Force and counterforce
"I hope your father is not having ''second thoughts&hellip; ?" "About rejoining the Empire? No. No "second thoughts," but he has'' been thinking. He is concerned that the Empire is at a serious crossroads. This protracted war is draining the treasuries of the Empire and its allies. We cannot afford to continue on our present course."

- Pellaeon and Feena D'Asta, in 13 ABY

The Wild Space planet Adumar, rich with ordnance-producing resources, had recently discovered the wider galaxy and was interested in joining either the Remnant or the New Republic. As the Adumari held fighter pilots in high esteem, Phennir and three other members of the 181st were invited to the planet in 13 ABY as diplomatic ambassadors, as were Wedge Antilles and three members of Rogue Squadron. Admiral Teren Rogriss ferried the 181st pilots to Adumar aboard the Star Destroyer Agonizer and gave his word to a representative of the planet's nation-state of Cartann: if Adumar ultimately joined the New Republic, the Agonizer would leave the system within the hour. However, Rogriss's instructions from on high were to disregard the order and return with an invasion force. The Admiral accordingly underwent a deep internal struggle regarding the question of honor.

Phennir and his men flew for Cartann when it declared war on Adumar's other nation-states, but only Phennir survived Cartann's defeat to the Antilles-led Adumari Union. After being offered New Republic clemency by Antilles if he decided to keep the word he had given, Rogriss defected from the Remnant and locked down the Agonizer holocomm unit, thereby preventing the Imperials from alerting their superiors until they returned to Remnant space. A Remnant task force did return to Adumar and attack, but strong resistance from New Republic and Adumari forces forced a retreat. Pellaeon did not give up the conquest and initiated a protracted campaign against Adumar, bombarding the planet from the bridge of the Reaper.

13 ABY also saw Moff Tol Getelles of the Antemeridian sector conspire with the former Old Republic senator Seti Ashgad to take over the neutral Meridian sector. Ashgad would cripple the Meridian sector by unleashing the Death Seed plague, after which Getelles's Sector Fleet would invade with the aid of needle fighters secured from the Loronar Corporation. However, Getelles's fleet was defeated by a makeshift New Republic force that had been hastily assembled by the Republic-allied Han Solo and Lando Calrissian concurrently with the Adumar mission. It was backed up by a fleet of the Independent Company of Settlers, which was led by a retired Admiral Daala, who was disgusted with Getelles's actions and fought against him in the name of Imperial honor. Not long afterward, the New Republic pressed their advantage by bringing two fleets into the Antemeridian sector, where they defeated Getelles and claimed both the sector and a large chunk of neighboring space. After the New Republic pushed through the Borderlands and toward the Hydian Way, the Council of Moffs&mdash;fearing a power grab and emboldened by Pellaeon's victory in the Orinda campaign&mdash;ordered the Supreme Commander, who was preoccupied at Adumar, to go on the offensive.

Adumar ultimately remained a New Republic world as a reluctant Pellaeon launched Remnant fleets from Imperial space and attacked the New Republic on two fronts, scoring victories at both Barison and Lucazec. Grievous losses were inflicted against the Remnant's enemies, but the next battles, fought at Arda and Quell, were both won by the New Republic. Pellaeon was forced back to Celanon, where he was soundly defeated by the New Republic's Admiral Etahn A'baht, losing the Reaper in the process. Rather than push their advantage, the New Republic chose to cool the fires of war by jump-starting commerce, while Pellaeon attempted to build up the Remnant's defenses and turn it into a functioning state that could co-exist with the New Republic.

Before the year came to an end, Pellaeon was made aware that Baron Ragez D'Asta &mdash;a powerful shipping magnate whose private fleet had once served the Galactic Empire &mdash;was considering joining the Remnant. The Baron's daughter, Feena, visited Pellaeon on Orinda and revealed that her father was concerned about the drain on the Remnant's resources that the ongoing war was causing. If Pellaeon were to seek a truce with the New Republic, the Baron would intercede with the Moffs and give the Supreme Commander his full backing. While Pellaeon considered her proposal, Imperial forces were defeated by a New Republic fleet at Pallaxides. Feena D'Asta soon after represented the Remnant at peace negotiations with Mirith Sinn, a representative of the New Republic, but the talks were ambushed by stormtroopers of the Restored Empire, an Imperial splinter faction whose leadership hoped to take down both the Remnant and the New Republic. Feena D'Asta was killed, and Pellaeon&mdash;believing the New Republic was responsible&mdash;ordered an immediate retaliatory strike at Coruscant in order to demonstrate solidarity to the D'Astan sector.

The Supreme Commander made a contingency plan, however, and arranged for part of D'Asta's fleet to hide behind Orinda's moon. While the Orinda fleet was en route to Coruscant, the nearly defenseless Imperial capital was attacked by the Venator-class Star Destroyers of the Restored Empire, and when the faction's stormtroopers landed on-world and blasted their way right to Pellaeon, the Supreme Commander was confronted by the Restored Empire's leader, Ennix Devian. Pellaeon shot and killed his dignitary Zam Basdor after learning that the man had been secretly reporting to Devian, and was then given an ultimatum: join Devian and rebuild a great Empire, or die. Pellaeon instead revealed that Devian's Venators were even then being destroyed by the D'Asta fleet, and the Baron himself arrived on the scene with his own stormtrooper complement. The resulting skirmish saw Devian killed in combat with Kir Kanos, and the Restored Empire was defeated.

Losing ground
In 14 ABY, the Remnant cooperated with a Sith cult known as the Disciples of Ragnos, who sought to resurrect the spirit of the Sith Lord Marka Ragnos and rebuild a new Sith Empire. During the Disciples of Ragnos crisis, the Remnant was active at locations such as an old power station on Bakura, Echo Base on Hoth, Bast Castle on Vjun, Kril'Dor, Dosuun, Yalara, the remains of Byss, and Taspir III. The Remnant had several run-ins with members of the New Jedi Order, and the Master-and-apprentice pair of Kyle Katarn and Jaden Korr proved to be thorns in their side, thwarting Remnant operations time and again. For instance, the Imperial Army officer Rax Joris was killed by Korr on Dosuun. Under the command of the Dark Jedi Tavion Axmis, Remnant troops fought alongside Sith Cultists and other New Reborn Dark Jedi, as well as mercenaries hired by the Disciples of Ragnos. A few Remnant troops were present at the Battle of Korriban, but were not involved in the fighting until they were attacked by Jaden Korr who single-handedly managed to eliminate them all and move on to defeat Axmis, thus ending the cooperation between the Remnant and the Sith Cult for good.

Over the next several years, the Remnant continued to wilt, but Pellaeon scored a personal victory when he reclaimed the Chimaera, his old flagship, from the New Republic's Admiral Ackbar at the Battle of Gravlex Med. In the year 16 ABY, two Star Destroyers of the long-lost Black Fleet emerged from the Koornacht Cluster and joined the Remnant, as did the experimental weapons test bed EF-X. During this largely peaceful period, Imperial systems near the Hydian Way began to push for an end to the hostilities between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic, an offer made all the more enticing in 17 ABY when the New Republic Senate made a peace offering by allowing former Imperials to hold elected office. The Council of Moffs believed it to be a prelude to invasion and secretly contacted Admiral Daala, who had united a group of Replacement warlords in the Deep Core. They proposed that she aid the Remnant in a decisive campaign against the New Republic, and when she obliged, they similarly ordered Pellaeon into battle. Although he believed the plan to be a mad one, he acquiesced to the council's wishes, hoping that a handful of victories would allow him to convince the Moffs to seek a peace treaty. The Remnant thus launched their campaign to reclaim formerly-held sectors, believing that the New Republic would decline to respond in full force out of a fear of creating a public relations debacle.

After scoring a victory at Adumar, Pellaeon launched surprise strikes at Taris and Champala, the latter an Inner Rim world. Both battles were Imperial victories, concurrently, Daala was handily defeated at Columus by the New Republic Fourth Fleet under General Garm Bel Iblis. With Daala out of the war, Bel Iblis's fourth fleet, as well as the Third and fifth fleets under Admiral Ackbar, routed Pellaeon's forces at Champala, Taris, Ketaris, and Tangrene. The final engagement came at Anx Minor, where Pellaeon deployed the Domion, Megador, and the EF-X&mdash;renamed the Rakehell&mdash;hoping for a repeat of Orinda. However, New Republic Intelligence knew of a weak point in the Rakehell armor, against which Ackbar ordered multiple strikes. The ship's antimatter reservoir exploded, destroying six Star Destroyers, damaging the Megador, and prompting Pellaeon to order a retreat to Bastion. The Remnant's navy was decimated, and it found itself controlling a mere eight sectors in a strategically unimportant area of the Outer Rim, and Pellaeon told the eight remaining Moffs that he was finished obeying their orders. As five years of work had been undone in a matter of weeks, they accepted his proclamation. One year later, the New Republic kept a tight lid on the Remnant during the Corellian Crisis.

Final years of conflict (17–19 ABY)
"Tell them that it's time to send an emissary to the New Republic. To discuss the terms of our surrender."

- Fleet Admiral Gilad Pellaeon These matters were beginning to press on Pellaeon's mind as he thought about the future of the Empire. In 19 ABY, it would eventually lead him to conclude that the Imperial Remnant could no longer last if it continued at war with the New Republic. There were those within the Imperial Remnant who thought differently from the Supreme Commander, among them the official in charge of the Braxant sector, Moff Vilim Disra. Determined to oust Pellaeon and continue the war, he formed a triumvirate with Emperor's Royal Guard Major Grodin Tierce and the con-artist Flim. While Disra provided the resources and political needs necessary to carry out the coup, Tierce conducted the military aspect, all of which relied on Flim and his disguise as Grand Admiral Thrawn. With the New Republic in chaos over the Caamas Document and Bothan involvement, the triumvirate moved and prepared a situation that they hoped would eventually drive the New Republic to civil war. Fortunantly, Pellaeon&mdash;assisted by Mistryl Shada D'ukal, smuggler Talon Karrde, and, indirectly, Jorj Car'das&mdash;succeeded in uncovering the plot and had Disra and Flim taken into custody.

The coup foiled, the plot to start a civil war within the New Republic was successfully halted when copies of the Caamas Document were discovered and brought to public attention. These matters settled, Pellaeon's plans for peace could finally be realized. Aboard the bridge of Chimaera, more than two decades after its inception, the Galactic Civil War at last came to end with the signing of a treaty of peace. The Imperial Remnant was no longer a rogue entity of a greater past, but a recognized state, politically equal to the New Republic.

Between 19 ABY and 25 ABY, a number of unreconstructed Imperial fled to the Remnant, taking a vast amount of wealth with them.

War against the Yuuzhan Vong (25–29 ABY)
"Understand this: If the Yuuzhan Vong can defeat the New Republic, we cannot stand against them."

- Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon

The Empire adopted an isolationist stance until the New Republic's former Chief of State, Leia Organa Solo, went on a diplomatic mission to the Remnant to seek an alliance against the Yuuzhan Vong shortly after the Battle of Dantooine. Grand Admiral Pellaeon, seeing the threat the Yuuzhan Vong posed to the galaxy, persuaded the Council of Moffs to send a fleet to assist the New Republic.

The Imperials rescued a New Republic task force and aided in the eventually futile defense of the planet Ithor. When Ithor was devastated by the Yuuzhan Vong's biological weapons, the Council of Moffs ordered Grand Admiral Pellaeon to return to Imperial space and ready Imperial defenses against a possible attack by the extragalactic aliens. Grudgingly, Pellaeon obeyed. Curiously, Pellaeon did not withdraw the entirety of Imperial forces from Republic space, as a small Imperial task force centered around the Star Destroyer Erinnic continued to assist New Republic forces until the Battle of Ord Mantell. It appeared some Imperial elements defended Bilbringi prior to the Battle of Fondor.

As the war between the New Republic and the Yuuzhan Vong continued, the Imperial government and general populace grew increasingly convinced that the Yuuzhan Vong would simply bypass the Remnant. For a number of years, they were correct. Even though Pellaeon personally favored of joining the military campaign against the Yuuzhan Vong, the political leadership of the Empire remained officially neutral. Despite yet another attempt on Leia Organa Solo's part to forge a military alliance between the two states, the Remnant continued to stay out of the fighting. Grand Admiral Pellaeon, however, supplied the New Republic with the Empire's highly classified star charts of the Deep Core regions as a gesture of good faith. The New Republic would later use these state secrets to plan a highly successful trap at Ebaq 9.

Perhaps in retaliation for the Empire's hand in the preparation of the Battle of Ebaq 9, the Yuuzhan Vong launched an invasion of the Imperial Remnant. Despite achieving the element of surprise and burning the capital city of the Empire to the ground from orbit, the attack would prove disastrous for the Yuuzhan Vong.

Grand Admiral Pellaeon, although confined to a bacta tank after the initial assault on Bastion, was able to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong at the Battle of Borosk, forcing the alien invasion force to retreat and abandon its attempts to knock the Imperial Remnant out of the war. Following the victory at Borosk, Grand Admiral Pellaeon was again able to ram an alliance down the collective throat of the Imperial Council of Moffs, despite extreme resistance from old guard Imperial politicians such as Moff Flennic, who came close to attempting an assassination on the "Old Man of the Empire".

While the Empire lent its fleets to assisting the Galactic Alliance, Grand Admiral Pellaeon personally commanded a squadron that chased down the surviving vessels from the Yuuzhan Vong fleet that had invaded the Empire. After a string of indecisive victories, Pellaeon routed the Yuuzhan Vong fleet at the Battle of Esfandia.

In the operation to retake the Bilbringi system, a handful of Imperials took part in the near-disastrous battle. Those who found their way into the system were TIE/D Defender pilots from the interdictor Wrack, including the ship's captain, Mynar Devis. All the Imperials were killed when they attempted to disable a Yuuzhan Vong picket ship. Gilad Pellaeon's reaction to learning of Captain Devis's death led Jaina Solo to believe Devis was somehow Pellaeon's son.

The Empire participated in numerous other battles near the end of the war, most notably in the defense of the Galactic Alliance's provisional capitol on Dac and the invasion and liberation of occupied Coruscant. In a private ceremony following the surrender of the Yuuzhan Vong, Grand Admiral Pellaeon presented Han and Leia Organa Solo with a piece of art from his own personal collection&mdash;Killik Twilight, a painting that Pellaeon had inherited from his mentor, Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Post-Yuuzhan Vong era (35–c. 127 ABY)
By 35 ABY, Pellaeon had retired from his post and the Imperial Remnant had become a member state of the Galactic Alliance, while retaining a degree of autonomy over its own affairs.

When Pellaeon was the Supreme Commander of the Galactic Alliance, the Remnant became more and more integrated into the Alliance.

After the death of Cal Omas, Gilad Pellaeon returned to the Remnant and chose to fight against Sith Lord Darth Caedus in contrast to the Moff Council, who wished to side with him. Pellaeon recalled Daala and her Imperialist fleet. Shortly thereafter Pellaeon was assassinated by Jacen Solo's enforcer Dark Jedi Tahiri Veila. After recovering Pellaeon's body, Daala and her faction allied themselves with the Mandalorians, while the Moff Council sent in their fleets to fight for Caedus, who they may have seen as a new Galactic Emperor in the making. Following the death of Darth Caedus, and the conclusion of the Second Galactic Civil War, Luke Skywalker offered the Moffs a peace plan so as to end the war: they would have to accept Jagged Fel as Head of State so that he could supervise the Moffs. Another clause was delivered by Daala, newly elected Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, that half the Moffs would have to be women. The Moffs accepted as the alternative was to be delivered to the Hapans as prisoners of war after their nanovirus attacck on their Queen Mother's ship, supposedly killing her daughter Allana. The Remnant at this time possessed at least one Super Star Destroyer of unknown class, the Dominion, and fielded it during the First Battle of Roche.

Two years after the end of the war, Fel started to negotiate with Natasi Daala, the new Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance, and Turr Phennir to unite their respective governments in a single galactic power. However, the Moffs, led by Drikl Lecersen, were plotting to undermine Fel until they could amass enough incriminating evidence about his secret alliance with the Jedi against Daala's anti-Jedi policies to destroy him and take control of the Remnant. Lecersen soon joined forces with Kuati Senator Haydnat Treen who was planning to reunify the Remnant and the Alliance into a new Galactic Empire. The first step in this process was removing Daala and Fel from the leaderships of both galactic powers.

As the unification talks on Coruscant continued, a galactic crisis erupted when galaxywide slave uprisings, assisted by the abolitionnist movement known as the Freedom Flight, begun to overthrow planetary governments and slave organizations. Daala, who feared the political instability that would come from these movements, assigned Mandalorians to put down the uprisings. However, during the repression of the Blaudu Sextus slave revolt, the tensions between the Jedi and Daala finally came from push to shove: the Jedi assigned to Blaudu Sextus intervened to stop the massacre and the media assumed this meant that the Jedi had decided to support the slave uprisings. The Jedi Council, taking this mistake as a sign from the Force as to what they should do, decided to start assisting the uprisings.

In the meantime, Fel had managed to convince the Moffs to fully join the Galactic Alliance. However, his worry over Daala's management of the crisis, specifically when she threatened him into providing Imperial ships so that she could put down the uprisings, led Fel to pull the Remnant out of the talks. A few days later, Daala was arrested by a coup orchestrated by both the Jedi and Lecersen's conspirators. Fel openly proclaimed himself in support of the coup which led the Moff Council to denounce him.

Daala escaped from prison with help from Boba Fett and set about taking revenge on those who imprisoned her. She started by gathering her Maw Irregular Fleet and then by coercing the Moffs into supporting her. Most joined her and formed a fleet to take over the Remnant.

An election was held in 44 ABY that saw Admiral Vitor Reige become the Remnant's Head of State.

Legacy
"I was tired of Fel playing us against each other! It was time for the Moffs to reassert their authority like in the old days&mdash;back in the Remnant!"

- Moff Geist of Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire

The Remnant was eventually reorganized into a dynastic monarchy known as the Fel Empire, with Jagged Fel as its first Emperor. In 130 ABY, the throne of Fel's grandson, Emperor Roan Fel, was usurped by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Krayt. His new empire, Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire, was opposed by Fel's Empire-in-exile in the Second Imperial Civil War. Moff Geist of Krayt's Empire rued being a servant to the Sith and in 137 ABY longed for the days of the Imperial Remnant, which had granted its Moffs considerable power.

Behind the scenes
Although the 1995 novel Ambush at Corellia, set in 18 ABY, features the character of Mara Jade musing that the Empire is dead with no "Imperial remnant" still remaining, the seeds of the Imperial Remnant were sown later in 1995 when Admiral Daala unified thirteen Warlord holdings and passed their command on to Gilad Pellaeon in Kevin J. Anderson's novel Darksaber, set six years before Ambush. A post-Darksaber Empire was later referenced throughout 1996 and 1997 in several novels,   and 1997's Specter of the Past, set one year after Ambush, depicted the Empire with Pellaeon as its leader. The term "Imperial Remnant" was first used in the opening issue of Michael A. Stackpole's 1999–2000 comic series Star Wars: Union, although the Galactic Empire in the years after the Battle of Endor had been referred to as the "remnants of the Empire" as early as 1992's Heir to the Empire Sourcebook.

Later sources, such as 2009's The Essential Atlas, established that the Imperial Remnant was only born after the events of Darksaber, when Pellaeon took Daala's unified Imperial forces out of the Deep Core and united them with various Imperial Warlord factions in the Outer and Mid Rims. 2012's The Essential Guide to Warfare confirmed that Daala's forces in Darksaber were a unique Imperial faction known as the "United Warlord Fleets." The first appearance of the Imperial Remnant can thus be said to be Barbara Hambly's 1997 novel Planet of Twilight&mdash;published several months before Specter of the Past&mdash;which features an Imperial fleet belonging to Moff Tol Getelles and references Pellaeon as the leader of the Empire. However, a Force-based Fallanassi illusion of several Imperial Intelligence agents had previously appeared in 1996's Before the Storm.

The Imperial Remnant's entry in 2008's The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia asserts that Pellaeon's Empire did not adopt the name "Imperial Remnant" until after the signing of the Bastion Accords in 19 ABY, as does Pellaeon's entry in 2002's The New Essential Guide to Characters. However, this has been retconned by more recent sources such as The Essential Atlas and The Essential Guide to Warfare, both of which state that Pellaeon's Empire was known as the Imperial Remnant at the time of its birth in 12 ABY. Additionally, the comic series Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost, released throughout 2011 and 2012, features characters who call Pellaeon's Empire the "Imperial Remnant" in 13 ABY. Although the 2002 video game Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast refers to its Imperial antagonists as the "Imperial Remnant," they were later retconned into in fact being representatives of the Empire Reborn, an Imperial splinter faction first introduced in the 1994 novel The Crystal Star.

The Remnant's entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia presents another discrepancy by captioning a picture of the Moffs of the Fel Empire as "Imperial Remnant leaders." The comic series Star Wars: Legacy had earlier confirmed that the Fel Empire was a unique state, into which the Imperial Remnant reorganized at some point before 127 ABY. Legacy assertion of the Fel Empire as a unique state is confirmed elsewhere in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia. Another error regarding the Remnant occurs in Warfare, where a lone sentence mistakenly asserts that the Imperial Remnant participated in the post-Zsinj campaign of 8 ABY.

The Remnant was going to play a role in Elaine Cunningham's novel Blood Oath, which was set to feature a plotline involving Jagged Fel and the Moff Council during Fel's early days as Head of State. However, the book was canceled by Del Rey and never published.