Resistance

"Ignite the Spark. Light the Fire."

- Resistance motto

The Resistance, also known as the Rebellion, was a private military force founded by General Leia Organa during the cold war between the New Republic and the First Order. Modeled to an extent on the Alliance to Restore the Republic, which Organa served with in the Galactic Civil War, the Resistance was composed of human and alien members that shared Organa's views on the threat that the First Order posed to the Republic and the galaxy at large. Among the organization's personnel were members of the New Republic military, such as the pilots Poe Dameron and Kazuda Xiono who supported the Resistance in lieu of direct action from the Galactic Senate, while others like Paige and Rose Tico rallied to Organa's cause as a result of the First Order's exploitation of their homeworld. Their organization was small, however, and therefore resources were limited. As such, the Resistance relied on the support of sympathetic senators who discreetly funneled credit, starships, and weapons to Organa's cash-strapped movement.

Though tolerated by the Republic, the galactic government regarded Organa and her followers as extremists that risked open warfare with the First Order&mdash;an outcome the Senate wished to avoid even as the Order disregarded the terms of the Galactic Concordance. Organa herself had been sidelined from the political process, her concerns about the Galactic Empire's successor dismissed as paranoid warmongering. Further isolated by the public revelation that the Sith Lord Darth Vader was, in fact, her biological father, Organa struck out on her own to oppose the First Order as founder of the Resistance. A period of hostility ensued between the two organizations characterized by various methods short of open warfare, such as espionage and propaganda. The Resistance also competed against the First Order during the search for the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, who disappeared into self-imposed exile following his failed attempt to restore the Jedi Order.

The cold war escalated into open conflict when the First Order launched an attack on the New Republic, annihilating the Senate and its capital on Hosnian Prime with the power of Starkiller Base in 34 ABY. In the wake of the Hosnian Cataclysm, the Resistance military launched a direct assault on Starkiller and ultimately destroyed the superweapon. Their victory was short-lived, however. The military forces of the First Order struck back, inflicting heavy losses on the the Resistance which was forced to evacuate their headquarters on D'Qar. The Resistance fleet whittled away under the relentless assault by the First Order Navy. The surviving members of the Resistance sought refuge in an abandoned outpost on Crait, but Supreme Leader Kylo Ren pursued them with the armies of the First Order under his command. The Resistance narrowly survived the Battle of Crait due to the efforts of the Jedi Luke Skywalker, who emerged from his hermitage to save his twin sister's rebellion, although this action would cost Skywalker his life. Nevertheless, his death had invigorated the Resistance, inspring them to rebuild and continue the war against the First Order.

Formation
"The sun is setting on the New Republic. It's time for the Resistance to rise."

- Leia Organa

At the end of the Galactic Civil War, the Galactic Empire suffered their final defeat against the New Republic during the Battle of Jakku. The once-powerful Empire signed a peace treaty with the Republic called the Galactic Concordance, which mandated that they keep the peace with the Republic and remain inside predetermined borders within the Core Worlds and the Inner Rim. After the signing of the treaty, the Imperial starfleet disappeared into the Unknown Regions, where they quietly formed the First Order from the ashes of the Empire. Meanwhile, the Republic carried out the demilitarization of the New Republic Defense Fleet, cutting down on much of its military force in the interest of pursuing peace and preventing a galactic war from ever occurring again. Princess Leia Organa, who had been one of the leaders of the Rebel Alliance during the war, argued strongly against the demilitarization policies and said that the Republic could not trust that the Empire would honor the peace. She urged the Republic to take the threat of the First Order seriously once it arose, but was considered a warmonger.

Leia Organa had formerly been an influential member of the Republic's Senate, but lost almost all credibility with the legislature and was forced to resign following the public revelation of her father having been Darth Vader. Following the Mission to Sibensko, Leia was partially vindicated when she discovered evidence that a paramilitary faction called the Amaxine warriors was colluding with Rinnrivin Di's cartel to overthrow the New Republic. While Leia warned that there were more threats, much of the Senate disagreed, with some accusing her of warmongering. Realizing that the Senate could not protect the New Republic, Leia along with the few remaining allies she could trust, such as Gial Ackbar, C-3PO, Joph Seastriker, and Temmin Wexley, formed a paramilitary outfit called the Resistance.

Fearing an occupation of their independent homeworld, Ryloth, by the First Order during their rise of power, numerous Twi'leks pledged their allegiance to Leia Organa and the Resistance.

Cold war
"I'm a Republic officer, General. I swore an oath to protect the Republic, to&mdash;''" "''No, you misunderstand. I like it. It was rash of you, as I said, it was foolish. But we could use some rash these days, and foolish and passionate are often confused, and passion is something we desperately need."

- Poe Dameron and Leia Organa

To be a check on the designs of the First Order, Organa formed the Resistance with a base on D'Qar, in an outpost that was once intended as an Alliance base during the war. The Resistance was a splinter group from the Republic's military and operated wholly independently of the Republic chain of command. The Republic quietly tolerated Organa's activities, as she pursued evidence that the First Order was violating the Galactic Concordance, while some members of the Galactic Senate secretly supported her actions with their funding and sympathies. The Resistance went into combat against the First Order on a few occasions and even exposed the New Republic senator Erudo Ro-Kiintor as a First Order agent.

Following Operation: Sabre Strike, General Organa knew that the Resistance would need more help, so she hoped to find her missing brother, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, who had gone into exile after the destruction of his new generation of Jedi. Believing that Lor San Tekka held the key to finding Skywalker, General Organa sent Poe Dameron and his Black Squadron on a quest to find the ancient explorer. Using the information acquired during Operation: Sabre Strike, Black Squadron undertook a mission to Ovanis to question the Crèche cultists about Tekka's whereabouts.

Their mission was complicated when the First Order dispatched Agent Terex to recover the information that Poe had acquired during Operation: Sabre Strike. While Poe dealt with the Crèche and Terex's landing party, Black Squadron at the urging of L'ulo L'ampar attacked Terex's TIE fighters and landing platform. The fighting was complicated when two large winged creatures hatched from the Crèche egg and fought. Ultimately, Poe defeated Terex in physical combat and forced the First Order agent to withdraw his forces. Having obtained the information from the Crèche elder, Poe and Black Squadron departed Ovanis.

Continuing their search for Lor San Tekka, General Organa bribed Warden Luta into letting Black Squadron enter Megalox prison on the high-gravity world of Megalox Beta to question Grakkus the Hutt. However, Terex found his way first and managed to bribe Luta into abandoning Black Squadron inside the prison. Despite Terex's tactics, Poe and his fellow pilots managed to reach Grakkus' fortress. Grakkus then offered to sell the information to whoever got him out of the prison first. In response, Poe got BB-8 and the other astromech droids to embark on a mission to disable Megalox space station's gravity shield. Jess's droid O-R10N was destroyed by a security droid.

When Terex hired an army of gangsters to attack Grakkus' fortress, Black Squadron joined Grakkus' posse in fighting off the rival gangs. They held out long enough for BB-8 and his team to deactivate the gravity shield. While Terex and the other gangsters were crushed under the weight of Megalox Beta's high gravity, Poe and his fellow pilots were unaffected since they wore gravity belts. After rescuing Grakkus, they convinced Luta to let them go in return for restoring control of the prison. Before escorting Grakkus into hyperspace, Black Squadron stopped Terex's starship Carrion Spike from attacking the Megalox prison shuttles rushing to evacuate the prisoners. Having extracted the necessary information from Grakkus, Black Squadron allowed him to flee into hyperspace.

Despite outsmarting the First Order, Poe and General Organa realized that the First Order had a spy among their ranks and suspended the search for Tekka. Poe subsequently embarked on a solo mission to the Inner Rim gas giant of Pheryon to meet with the Galaxy Beacon journalist Suralinda Javos, who wanted to sell information about the First Order's illegal rearmament efforts to General Organa. During the course of the mission, the two were captured by the First Order Security Bureau Agent Weel. Javos managed to kill Weel and free Poe. After escaping, Javos experienced a change of heart and decided to join the Resistance.

At the request of General Organa's spymaster C-3PO, Poe along with BB-8 and the technician Oddy Muva undertook a mission to Kaddak to retrieve a member of the Resistance spy droid network who had obtained data on the First Order including the location of Supreme Leader Snoke. However, Agent Terex had planted the data as part of a rogue mission to destroy the Resistance. Terex had retaken control of the Ranc gang and was determined to continue his pursuit for Poe. Poe, BB-8, and C-3PO managed to retrieve the spy droid, who turned out to be the BX-series droid commando N1-ZX.

Poe's mission was complicated further by Oddy Muva embarking on a mission to rescue his wife, Sowa Chuan, who had been kidnapped by Terex in order to exert leverage against Oddy. Terex had forced Oddy to spy on Poe and Black Squadron. Meanwhile, Poe realized that Terex was planning to track him back to the Resistance Base on D'Qar. Poe and the droids crash-landed on a desert world in an attempt to evade Terex and his Ranc gang. Poe's Black Squadron mates soon arrived and fought with Terex's "Uglies." The Resistance pilot L'ulo L'ampar and N1-ZX were killed during the skirmish. Terex's forces were wiped out by First Order forces under Commander Malarus, who had been sent to chastise the prodigal First Order agent. Poe allowed Malarus to arrest Terex, and the two factions departed peacefully in an effort to avoid open warfare.

Sometime later General Organa at the height of the galactic tensions released the Grace Report to the Galactic Senate where she claimed the First Order has violated the Galactic Concordance and was building hidden shipyards, armories, research-and-development labs, and academies, detailing the fact facilities were working day and night on the massive military buildup, one far larger than the First Order would need to defend its member worlds. It also included accounts of testimony from refugees who fled from First Order space to warn the Resistance of what life is under their rule with stories about property seized, populations relocated, children kidnapped, and dissenters exterminated and accusing the Order cooperation agreements with the neutral systems being enforced by the business end of blasters as well as threatening the neutral worlds in the galactic borderlands. And that the First Order calls to civilize the galactic frontier were all but a story they told to cover their colonization of star systems.

Following a series of adventures, Organa sent her most trusted pilot, Commander Poe Dameron, to Jakku to find a segment of a star map that was in the possession of the legendary Lor San Tekka. Tekka gave Dameron the map, who in turn trusted it to his astromech droid BB-8 just before Dameron was captured. The map came into the possession of Finn, a stormtrooper who defected from the First Order, and a desert scavenger named Rey. With the help of former Alliance General and famed smuggler Han Solo and his first mate Chewbacca, Finn and Rey set off on a mission to return BB-8 to the Resistance. They sought the help of the pirate Maz Kanata on Takodana, where they were tracked by the First Order.

A new galactic war
"We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the First Order down."

- Poe Dameron

In the immediate aftermath of the Hosnian Cataclysm as open war between the forces of the First Order and the Resistance began, T-70 X-wing starfighters led by Commander Dameron, who had escaped from the First Order with Finn's help, arrived with several starfighter squadrons and fought the First Order off, though Rey was captured as part of the First Order's quest to find Skywalker as well. The Resistance engaged in a fierce dogfight, resulting in the destruction of many First Order TIEs and the deaths of many stormtroopers. As the battle raged on above the castle, the remaining First Order troops boarded their ships and withdrew, taking the captured and unconscious Rey along with them.

Upon arriving on D'Qar, the site of the Resistance's headquarters, they planned an counterattack, Finn had given them the Base's blueprints, which revealed that the base drained the energy of the sun in order to charge its superweapon, and that it required a thermal oscillator, which sustained the energy on the planet, that, if destroyed, would destabilize the planet's core and implode the Base. However, they would need to do it before the Base fully charged its weapon. Finn, Solo, and Chewbacca were to go to Starkiller Base, who also intended to rescue Rey from the base and to disabled the shields protecting a oscillator.

Beginning
"People are counting on us! The galaxy is counting on us!"

- Han Solo to Finn

Following the loss of the senate and the Hosnian System, the New Republic was virtually helpless as the First Order fleet spread across the galaxy as many Republic member worlds to surrender to the First Order without a fight. These events quickly led to the collapse of the New Republic where its surviving senators had dissolved the remaining task forces in a effort to protect their own homeworlds,

The Resistance however had some early successes with one notable example being able to liberate the Colossus station on Castilon from the First Order grip and was able to escape into deep space while being pursed by the First Order. Inferno Squad was also able to escape the First Order as large-scale fighting between Jinata Security forces, and the First Order began in Kestro, the ruined abandoned capital city of Vardos, as the Order burned the city.

Meanwhile, Solo piloted the Millennium Falcon to Starkiller Base accompanied by Chewbacca and Finn and snuck into the main base and captured Captain Phasma, whom they forced to disable the shields before disposing of her in a garbage chute. They reunited with Rey, who had already escaped on her own. Upon arriving at the junction, Rey quickly went to work. Within a very short span of time she managed to rig the junction properly, leading to a service hatch opening upon the complex Han and Chewie were sneaking within. Han and Chewie then planned a proper strategy to make maximum use of the explosives at their disposal before getting to work.

Han confronted Kylo Ren on a bridge over a large pit, pleading with his son to reject Snoke and return to the light side of the Force. However, Ren refused, and killed his father with his lightsaber who with love stroked Ren's face before he plummeted down a shaft as Finn, Rey, and Chewbacca looked on in horror. Ren then felt weakened and horrified by his actions. Meanwhile Chewbacca was able to injure Ren with his bow-caster and proceeded to shoot down several stormtroopers.

Chewbacca then detonated explosives on columns supporting an access tunnel that led into the thermal oscillator's conduit. Finn and Rey exited the base into the forest, but were followed by Ren. in the forest and knocked out Rey, then Finn ignited Anakin Skywalker's old lightsaber. Ren claimed that the lightsaber rightfully belonged to him and dueled over it. All of a sudden the lightsaber flew out from the snow into Rey hand and begun her own duel with Ren. With the tunnel open, Dameron, entered it and began a chain reaction of explosions across the planet's surface as it imploded and then exploded. Before Rey could move to finish Ren off, the planet ruptured between where they were standing and they were separated and the stored material from the drained sun then began to expand to create a new star in the planet's place, turning the star system into a binary.

Rey, Finn and the rest Resistance then returned to the base, though at the cost of Solo and many starfighter pilots. Upon their return, R2-D2 awoke from a years-long slumber and provided the remainder of the map needed to find Skywalker. Rey, accompanied by Chewbacca and R2-D2, traveled to the planet Ahch-To to find Skywalker, but he refused to join the Resistance, overcome with grief and shame over his disastrous failure to train Kylo Ren. Rey eventually left to confront Ren herself, leaving Skywalker behind.

Organa held a funeral was held on D'Qar for Solo and thought that it would provide a chance to inspire troops with the old rebel spirit from the days of the Galactic Civil War. Organa also took the opportunity to read out the names of the pilots who never made it back from Starkiller.

Survival
"In every corner of the galaxy, the downtrodden and oppressed know our symbol, and they put their hope in it. We are the spark that will light the fire that will restore the Republic. That spark, this Resistance, must survive. That is our mission."

- Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo

While Rey was on Ahch-To, the Resistance moved to hastily evacuate its primary base on D'Qar. The destruction of Starkiller Base had saved the planet from immediate destruction, but the First Order still knew the base's location, and moved to launch a conventional attack. With the exception of some small cells, agents, fighting groups, the entire Resistance navy was summoned to help evacuate the planet and search for a new home base. Knowing desperately that they needed aid, Organa dispatched Black Squadron and Inferno Squad to gather allies in the Outer Rim.

The First Order Fleet arrived near the end of the evacuation of the base, using a Mandator IV-class Siege Dreadnought to destroy it. To give the Resistance fleet time to escape, Wing Commander Dameron disabled its defenses in a high-speed attack run before leading a bomber attack, defying Organa's orders to fall back. The attack led to the dreadnaught's destruction, but the entire Resistance bomber fleet was lost in the process. For his costly and disobedient action, Organa demoted Dameron to the rank of Captain.

In the aftermath of the evacuation, Captain Doza and a band of Resistance fighters arrived with the Colossus to retrieve coaxium from the wreckage of the Fulminatrix. The Resistance effort led by Hype Fazon was able to get the coaxium and depart as the First Order began to resume it hunt for the Colossus. Senator Xiono shortly before contacted Kazuda Xiono, his son via a special coded message and revealed that both himself and his family had survived the Hosnian Cataclysm. However, the First Order had identified Kazuda as a spy. The senator further warned Kaz that bounty hunters would be after him. After departing, the Aces who were in need of combat training, the Colossus went to the mostly uninhabited ice moon Celsor 3 to train.

After coming out of hyperspace, the Resistance Fleet headed to Crait, only to find a fleet of First Order ships, including the Supremacy. Low on fuel and supplies, the fleet was slowly destroyed as ship after ship ran out of fuel and being destroyed by the Supremacy. Kylo Ren, the corrupted son of Organa and Solo who had joined the First Order years prior, led a TIE Fighter attack that wiped out the Resistance's starfighter wing, but hesitated to open fire at the bridge of the Resistance's flagship, the Raddus, upon sensing his mother's presence. His escorts fired instead, killing the entire bridge crew except for Organa, who was rendered unconscious in the attack. Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo was assigned to temporarily replace Organa, remaining passive about the situation, much to Dameron's irritation.

Finn and maintenance worker Rose Tico later informed Dameron that the First Order was tracking them through hyperspace. The two had devised a plan to sneak on board the Supremacy to disable the tracking device to allow the Resistance to flee to safety. Knowing Holdo would never sanction their plan, Dameron decided to keep it on a need-to-know basis. Teaming up with Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix, they covered Finn, Tico, and BB-8 fleeing the Raddus aboard a small transport as they traveled to Canto Bight to recruit a codebreaker to help get past the Supremacy sensor grid.

As all but the Raddus fell to the First Order's guns, Holdo announced her plan to use unarmed transports to evacuate the Raddus. Furious with the decision, Dameron staged a mutiny on the ship to stop her to buy his friends more time. Unfortunately, Finn's group was discovered and captured aboard the Supremacy before they could disable the tracking device. At this time, Organa recovered and incapacitated Dameron, allowing Holdo's evacuation plan to go forward. When Dameron regained consciousness, Leia informed him that Holdo was well aware that the First Order was tracking them and thus had the transports cloaked from their sensors so they could reach Crait and wait until the enemy fleet had departed the system. Unfortunately, Finn's group's codebreaker, DJ, sold out the Resistance to the First Order, allowing the Supremacy to spot the fleeing transports and begin firing on them, wiping out all but six of the thirty. Holdo subsequently sacrificed herself to destroy the Supremacy by ramming the First Order's fleet at light speed.

During the battle, Rey boarded the Supremacy and tried to convince Kylo Ren to turn back to the light side of the Force and join the Resistance. However, Ren refused and later framed her for his murder of Snoke after she fled the ship.

The remaining transports arrived on Crait and prepared to send a transmission to the Resistance's allies in the Outer Rim. However, the First Order struck again, with Kylo Ren, now the new Supreme Leader, leading an attack on the former Rebel base. Finn's group, having escaped, crash-landed in a Xi-class light shuttle after escaping the Supremacy, initially being shot at by the Resistance soldiers in the confusion, they would then join the last of the Resistance as they readied for their last stand, whose numbers were rapidly depleted by the invaders. The Millennium Falcon, piloted by Rey and Chewbacca, arrived to help, but this still was not enough to slow the First Order's advance. As the battering ram prepared to fire, Dameron ordered all speeders to fall back as it would be a suicide run. Finn, however, disobeyed and piloted his speeder directly towards the barrel of the cannon. Unwilling to let Finn die, Tico crashed her speeder into his, saving Finn's life but badly injuring herself.

As the cannon opened fire through the main doors of the base. The Resistance realized that all of the messages sent to their allies had been received, but none had responded. Greatly saddened, Organa gave up all hope and said the spark was out with all seemed lost before Skywalker intervened via a Force projection. Organa and Skywalker spoke one last time before he went to face Ren.

Ren ordered all of the walkers to open fire on Skywalker appeared outside in a futile attempt to destroy him. However, the Jedi Master was unscathed, Ren then arrived on the surface and confronted Skywalker in a epic lightsaber duel, Rey meanwhile helped the remaining Resistance members escape. Before his projection faded and he died from exhaustion, Skywalker stated that the Rebellion would be reborn from the last of the Resistance, and that the legacy of the Jedi would endure through Rey. Following a remaining vulptex, having left through a natural exit. Dameron led the surviving Resistance members in search of the exit and escaped on Falcon. Skywalker passed away peacefully and became one with the Force. His passing was felt by Rey and Organa, who noted that he was content and at peace. What remained of the Resistance retreated, on a quest to build their new Rebellion. Ren had failed to destroy the Jedi Order as the last Jedi, Rey, had survived.

Resistance Reborn
"Most of the Resistance did get wiped out by the First Order, but that's the tricky thing about doing what's right and fighting the good fight: People just keep doing it no matter what."

- Vi Moradi, to Zade Kalliday

But just when Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron finished talking about their past adventures together and while C-3PO was translating one of the sacred Jedi texts to Rey in the Millennium Falcon, BB-8 opened a distress call from the Resistance's Black Squadron, who were currently aiding the struggling Ikkrukk resistance led by Prime Minister Grist against the First Order and sympathizers. After Poe got Leia Organa's permission to help and repromotion to commander, he got a ship loaned from Grakkus, who was supporting the Resistance after the Battle of Crait, and rescued the squadron by shooting down TIE fighters so as to serve as bombs to a Star Destroyer and trick the assaulters by bringing down the shield and using ground cannons to finish the job. This in turn earned the Ikkrukk's alliance with the Resistance.

Having lost almost all of their forces, the Resistance took the shape of guerilla fighters. Despite this, they remained in the fight against the First Order, seeking to restore both justice and the Republic. The Resistance then fled to the neutral world of Tah'Nuhna who gave assistance to them, but this came at a heavy price as this was soon discovered by the First Order who quickly destroyed Tah'Nuhna. Meanwhile, Dameron was tasked to go to the Moon of Avedot to obtain munitions that the New Republic had impounded from the pirates. While General Organa and Rey traveled to Mon Cala following the news on Tah'Nuhna in the hopes of negotiating an alliance and adding Mon Calamari ships to the Resistance's armada, however they were confronted by Chadkol Gee who was fiercely isolationist, and the advisor of General Nossor Ri, an ex Separatist, but were stopped by Aftab Ackbar, son of the late Admiral Gial Ackbar, Organa then visited the Mourning Shrines with him and then provided the Resistance with starships

The Resistance later was able to establish a presence on Batuu, where they set up a base outside Black Spire Outpost. The pirate Hondo Ohnaka made a deal with Chewbacca to use the ship, and hired a temporary crew to take part in one of Ohnaka's jobs, where they were tasked with hijacking a First Order train containing coaxium. The Resistance also began to locate allies, sanctuary and firepower. However, the First Order discovered this and deployed the 709th Legion led by Supreme Leader Kylo Ren to Batuu to take over the the Outpost to get rid of the Resistance.

Carlist Rieekan was brought by Inferno Squad to meet up with other allies of the Resistance on Ryloth at some point.

Some time later at a bacta production plant on Tevel was liberated from First Order forces and was successfully retaken by the Resistance and the Tevellan. The First Order sometime after went to Minfar to obtain the Echo Horn, a weapon to control the Zixon but was destroyed by Dameron, Rey, Tico and Resistance members sympathizers.

Government
"You are the leader of the Resistance, a critical check on the designs of the First Order. You are a symbol of the Resistance and an inspiration to all soldiers who follow our cause and do their duty in hard times."

- PZ-4CO, to Leia Organa

The Resistance was a band of soldiers and pilots who served in a struggle against the First Order many years after the Battle of Endor. The Resistance was led by its de facto leader General Leia Organa, who had once been a vital leader in the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Galactic Civil War, and reputedly knew the name of every single member in her organization.

Other members of Resistance command included Major Caluan Ematt, Admiral Statura, Admiral Gial Ackbar, and Major Taslin Brance. Organa's droids C-3PO and R2-D2 also served in the Resistance, while PZ-4CO took command of the control center's operations with the assistance of C-3PO. Many other individuals performed tasks, such as starfighter and droid maintenance, in the Resistance base on D'Qar.

During the attack on the Resistance fleet, most of the Resistance high command were killed when Ren's wingmen destroyed the bridge of the Resistance Flagship Raddus, leaving Organa as the only survivor.

Military
"Just because something doesn't matter to the First Order doesn't mean it lacks value. The Resistance is built on hope. People need something to believe in, a symbol to stand behind. So we go to places where the First Order doesn't have a foothold, win the people over, and create a place where anyone who stands for freedom can find their home&mdash;or park their X-wing and wait for orders. By now, you probably know how few people we have left. We lost most of our fleet, tons of our allies. Every bolt-hole we can build to hide and gas up our ships is one more pocket of hope."

- Vi Moradi, to Archex

Utilizing hit-and-run tactics against the forces of the First Order, the Resistance's military strategy was to merely delay the movements of the First Order and obtain irrefutable evidence of illegal military incursions into New Republic territory to present to Republic Command. An organized group, the Resistance had a designated rank system for members in both the army and navy.

Militarily, the Resistance was forced to make do with outdated and aging equipment unlike the New Republic, and was so undermanned that most of its personnel were forced to do double duty as scanner technicians, droid programmers, starship mechanics and regular foot soldiers. Owing to its lessened pool of manpower, the Resistance placed a greater emphasis on treating the wounded and returning them to duty, and as a result finding medical equipment was a high priority. Resistance troopers commonly utilized the BlasTech EL-16HFE blaster rifle and were ferried into combat on Resistance transports, which were heavily modified transports assembled from varying vessels from previous wars. Gian-211 patrol speeders and an army of droids helped keep the Resistance up and running, with many robotic workers given more responsibility and independence than elsewhere in the galaxy and seen as more than just droids, which was a continuation of the ideas of the Rebel Alliance. Many protocols of the Rebel Alliance also remained in use, with code K-one-zero signaling the evacuation of a base, which was most notably used during the Battle of Hoth. In addition, C-3PO led the Resistance's droid spy network, with GA-97 alerting the Resistance to BB-8's location on Takodana.

The upper levels of Resistance command consisted of veterans of the Galactic Civil War who had remained loyal to Leia Organa. With many skilled commanders left unemployed by the Military Disarmament Act, several old rebels readily rallied to Leia's call to action. Officers such as Admiral Ackbar were treated with great respect by Resistance personnel, many of whom existed in a generational divide, with most young "victory kids" barely in their twenties having never witnessed the horrors of tyranny firsthand. Many of the youngest kids were used to fill out the ranks of the Starfighter Corps and were recruited from local planetary defense forces. Spirited and idealistic, many of the pilots formed a close-knit bond and were eager to bring the fight to the First Order. All members of the Resistance, including pilots, technicians and ground crew were given infantry training.

As a symbol in their struggle against the First Order, the Resistance adopted the starbird once used by the Rebel Alliance. The symbol adorned the helmets of Resistance starfighter pilots, who were known to use T-70 X-wing starfighters in combat, which were older than the New Republic T-85 X-wing. Owing to New Republic demilitarization efforts, acquiring capital ships was near impossible. Consequently, the Resistance base on D'Qar contained two starfighter wings, code-named Red and Blue. Blue Squadron served as the primary line of defense for the base, while Red Squadron flew as support. Commander Poe Dameron led both squadrons as Black Leader, not as an indication of a special squadron, but to denote his specialized fighter, Black One.

Foreign relations
"Our distress signal's been received at multiple points&hellip;but no response.''" "''They've heard us&hellip;but no one's coming."

- Kaydel Ko Connix and Larma D'Acy

As a splinter group of the New Republic military, the Resistance had a tense relationship with its main sponsor, which wanted to avoid war with the First Order. Resistance members like Leia Organa and Poe Dameron were frustrated with the Galactic Senate's slow decision-making process and unwillingness to take action against the First Order. While the Republic officially tolerated the Resistance, some military commanders like Major Lonno Deso disliked the Resistance for allegedly exaggerating the threat posed by the First Order. While the Republic believed that the First Order were a minor but troublesome Imperial remnant that exaggerated their strength and power, the Resistance saw the Order as a threat to the New Republic and the galaxy. Due to its efforts to resist the First Order's advances, the military junta identified the Resistance as one of its main obstacles to galactic domination and tried unsuccessfully to destroy its base on D'Qar.

Behind the scenes
The Resistance was created for the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. Its name was first revealed at Celebration Anaheim in April 2015 and made its first appearance in the prologues and epilogues of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens young readers novels Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure and The Weapon of a Jedi: A Luke Skywalker Adventure.

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens