Citizens' Resistance

"Romin is now in the hands of its people. The Citizens' Resistance is now occupying the palace of the tyrant Teda as well as the government buildings. We have control of communications and transportation. Order has been returned to the streets. Some regrettable looting and burning has occurred, but it has been stopped. No one will be granted exit from Romin without the permission of the Citizens' Resistance. The army of the Great Leader has deserted or joined us. Let us rejoice, citizens, in our victory. Our tyrant is finished."

- Citizens' Resistance leader Joylin, to the people of a liberated Romin.

The Citizens' Resistance was a large organization of the desperate, oppressed citizens of the planet Romin, which had been ruled for many years by the tyrant-dictator Roy Teda.

In 24 BBY, the Jedi Order dispatched a Jedi team to Romin on a mission to track down and capture an escaped criminal of the Republic, mad scientist Jenna Zan Arbor. They came impersonating a captured criminal gang, the Slams, in order to gain admittance to the criminal-harboring world.

Soon after the arrival of the undercover Jedi team, two of its members—Anakin Skywalker and Ferus Olin—were captured by stealthy operatives of the Citizens' Resistance and brought before their leader, a tall, slender Romin by the name of Joylin. The resistance group had been informed of the Slam gang's arrival and were eager to employ its expert thieves in their imminent revolt against Teda's regime, which they hoped would be "bloodless." Events had coalesced, at last, to coincide with the ideal chance for a successful revolution—a big reception that Teda was hosting at his grand palace for the wealthy criminals he had agreed to harbor on his planet. Members of the Citizens' Resistance, many of whom lived within the boundaries of the capital city of Eliior, stood behind Joylin—in the shadows of a dank and murky, ill-kept building in one of the far less opulent sectors of the city, which Joylin called "Teda Estates"—as he interrogated Skywalker and Olin, whose "special skills" he was desperate to employ.

Joylin's rationale for choosing the gang members for his purposes was that they were new to Romin, without ties, friends, loyalties, or any need to betray anyone in order to help his revolutionaries. Already with an undercover inside operative within Teda's palace (Becka), Joylin was careful to impress upon his captives that they were among "the winning side," as most of Romin's wealthy citizens and criminal refugees underestimated "the power of desperation." Indeed, the only difference between the decaying structure they were then conversing in and those on the other side of the capital's Cloudflower Wall was that, within the walls of a typical dwelling outside the city, two or three families were crowded together, living amdist "rampant" disease and unemployment. "Many of our children die before their second birthday. The ones who survive have no hope of getting better than a menial position, of traveling to the city once a day to rake a lawn, clean a sewer, fix a dataport."

With enough information now to satisfy their own requirements, the undercover Jedi ended up cutting a deal with the Citizens' Resistance to steal critical codes from Teda's private office (during Teda's reception, the night as their scheduled revolt) that would allow the revolutionaries to incapacitate the security systems of the capital that controlled all official agency and residential gates and take over the government. In return, beyond his proposition's monetary payment of double the gang's going rate and permitting them to be the only criminal group allowed to stay on Romin after its liberation (with each gang member given "lifetime citizenship" as long as they kept Romin law), Joylin agreed to the Slams' stipulated terms of half their payment before the revolt, half after, but also that Joylin guarantee the safe passage off-planet of the scientist who was the object of their presence on Romin—Jenna Zan Arbor. The Jedi knew that she would be desperate for help when her own security crumbled with Teda's collapse.

The Citizens' Resistance knew they had but one chance to sabotage the CIP controls for the droid army that Teda used to control the city and guard the wall; it all depended on striking a quick and decisive blow simultaneously to capture all of the government officials and Teda himself. Only then, by locking the officials and their personal troops inside their houses, could the revolution be a "bloodless" one. For without the officials and their droid army, the Citizens' Resistance could easily take control of the planet.

On the appointed night of the reception, after Obi-Wan Kenobi was successful in making it past the private-office guards and obtaining Teda's security codes, the Citizens' Resistance began their revolt by disrupting the capital's communication systems from the capital's security center, having already infiltrated the tyrant's Security Mangement Control. Even though the volume of sentry droids that filled the skies after Teda's government went on full alert was greater than expected, once the CIP was knocked out, they crashed to the ground, lifeless. But then Teda's army flooded the streets and headed for Cloudflower Wall to quell the resistance. Meeting them was a mass of beings that had burst through the security gates like a huge moving mountain, marching determinedly toward Teda's palace. The raging revolutionaries pushed the army back in a hard battle, looting and vandalizing as they went: they had been deprived of too much for too long, living in fear as they watched their children suffer. Their anger fed on itself and burgeoned, seeking to destroy what had destroyed them.

Monuments fell, buildings were destroyed, trees were hacked down, fires were lit in the businesses that catered to the wealthy, but also in the banks, assembly halls, and even hospitals. Dragged into the streets and slaughtered were citizens who had profitted from Teda's regime. As the Jedi could not be everywhere to quell the extreme measures taken, it all, too rapidly, careened out of control. Hoping for the best, lamentably they'd seen the worst. Guiding cowering workers to shelter, tending to the wounded and preventing further violence where possible, the Jedi had by night's end established their own villa as a refugee outpost that they guarded against the mob. The sounds of destruction had receded as the Romins advanced towards other parts of the city, and by morning's light the resistance workers patrolled the streets, endeavoring to restore order.

Joylin had the Slams' Ubrikkian star yacht fueled and ready for departure at dawn. As theirs was the only transport the Citizens' Resistance was permitting to leave the planet, the Slams' were Zan Arbor's only choice now.

With control of the communication system, Joylin broadcast a victory speech on behalf of the Resistance. Though all had despised living under Teda, yet the liberators themselves had very nearly destroyed the city. But as they began a new government of justice and peace, Joylin warned that the tyrant who had abused their trust, their people, their wealth, their cities, their lands, was still at large. Teda had fled, like the coward he was. The hold of the Citizens' Resistance on the government was therefore shaky at best, as long as Teda remained at large. The dictator had fled with the few who continued to support him—his chief of staff, General Yubicon, and the galactic criminal Jenna Zan Arbor. As Teda was now a wanted criminal, charged with crimes against Romin, Joylin vowed that unless the tyrant surrendered to the Resistance government, the rest of Teda's senior staff and ruling officials would be executed, one by one. Joylin therefore issued a challenge to the ousted ruler, asking him to prove to the planet that he wasn't "a monster" by saving those who had been loyal to him and meeting the justice of the people he claimed to love. Joylin called upon Teda to surrender. Should he fail to do so within one hour, his first aide Hansel would be the first to be executed.

When the Jedi met with Joylin soon after his speech, the new government leader disclosed that, contrary to plan, Zan Arbor and Teda had somehow escaped. The Resistance had tried to trail them, but couldn't find where they'd gone. While Zan Arbor's ship was destroyed by rioters when they hit the landing platform, Joylin said he was able to save their ship from the same destruction and even managed to have it refueled. Assuming the Jedi had come for the last half of their payment, Obi-Wan Kenobi told Joylin to keep not only it but also the first half already paid and to put the monies toward restoring the hospital. Noticing the different attire the Slams were now wearing, Joylin was informed by them that they were not, in fact, the Slam gang, but were Jedi, there on the authority of the Galactic Senate. They had come to prevent the Citizens' Resistance executions from taking place, and when Joylin countered that as the leader of Romin he could do anything he wanted, they reminded him of how very similar his tone was to that of Teda. Despite the extensive misery the tyrant had caused, that was not justification for murder. A single being who served as judge, jury, and executioner for an entire people went against galactic law. Joylin still objected, however, stating that if he didn't proceed with the executions his Resistance could lose control of the government. The Jedi pressed Joylin to delay, for the Senate had approved the assistance of additional Jedi who were, even then, on their way. Moreover, Joylin's objections were sounding more and more like he was the government, rather than an instrument to preserve the government or prevent its collapse—at which point, Joylin's patience was strained, and he demanded the Jedi leave or he would have them forcibly removed. Of course, the Jedi knew that no one in the palace had the power to throw them out, yet another battle was clearly not productive and would do no good. They left peaceably.

Ultimately, both Hansel's execution and Joylin's own brand of severity were stopped only by the intervention of Jedi High Council member Mace Windu, who had rushed to Romin to help deal with the crisis and to negotiate, on behalf of the Senate, the terms of Teda's surrender. The Senate supported the people's revolt based on the tyrant's many crimes against his own citizens. Master Windu and the other Jedi, who captured Teda and Zan Arbor after a fierce battle outside a planetary prison, escorted the criminals to the headquarters of Romin's new government, where Joylin was waiting with his closest advisors. Windu pronounced that no executions could take place, that trials must be held and evidence gathered to prosecute properly. For even the Citizens' Resistance couldn't begin a new government using the tactics of the one it had overthrown. As Senate support was crucial to building their new world, and because they had already accomplished so much, their vision deserved the best chance to flourish. Joylin agreed with that reasoning, now that Teda had surrendered (albeit by force, not voluntarily), and the planned executions were stopped. Teda, his future unsure, was committed by Joylin's guards to a jail cell with the other prisoners of the ousted regime.

Sorrowful over the deaths of so many, Windu was yet optimistic and felt the outcome was good: the change on Romin would make a better world.

It was later discovered, however, that Joylin had orchestrated a ruse of his own. He'd depended on Teda's cowardice not to surrender, so that he might proceed unfettered to execute all of the dictator's loyal followers who threatened Joylin's new power base, should they ever grow strong again. He never needed Teda dead because, as a mere figurehead, Teda never posed a real threat. Joylin only needed Teda gone. And so, by accepting, just as the revolt began, a bribe from Zan Arbor to permit the escape of Teda and herself offworld, Joylin had effectively accomplished that riddance. Zan Arbor and Teda escaped on the Slams' star yacht. But unbeknownst to the criminals, the Jedi now tracked their progress towards the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories, thanks to a tracking device placed on their ship by Anakin Skywalker before they were able to take flight.

Appearances

 * Jedi Quest: The Changing of the Guard