Jakku Imperial remnant

"I gave my life to this Empire. Fought to keep it strong. Hard to believe this is all that's left."

- Admiral Garrick Versio

Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax organized a remnant of the Imperial Military consisting of starships and soldiers from both various other splinter groups and the disorganized Imperial armed forces on the desert planet Jakku in 5 ABY following the attack on Chandrila. This unified faction consisted of most of the remaining forces of the Galactic Empire. While Rax claimed that he had brought the Empire to Jakku in order to toughen and purify it for a final struggle against the New Republic, he actually planned to destroy the remnants of the Empire as part of the Contingency plan. Although his plans were thwarted by his second-in-command, Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, the unit ultimately collapsed as a result of the Battle of Jakku.

Description
The Imperial remnant on Jakku was led by Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax, who was supported by the Shadow Council consisting of Grand Moff Randd, General Hodnar Borrum, the propagandist Ferric Obdur, and the former Commandant Brendol Hux. Rax's military forces consisted of the Empire's purported last remaining Super Star Destroyer Ravager and a fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers. Rax also established a large Imperial base beyond the Goazon Badlands and the Sinking Fields. The main Imperial base housed a stormtrooper garrison and a large number of walkers.

Other known Imperial facilities included an Imperial weapons facility, the Jakku Observatory, and a remote Kesium gas rig. Unknown to the Shadow Council, the Jakku Observatory was central to the late Emperor Palpatine's Contingency plan to destroy the Empire in the event of his death. The Observatory contained computer generated maps of the Unknown Regions and was built on top of a borehole that led to the planet's core. Rax planned to detonate the core in order to destroy Jakku along with much of the Empire and the New Republic Defense Fleet. Then he intended to lead a select group of Imperials whom he deemed worthy of joining him in the Unknown Regions to rebuild the Empire. Rax's forces including a contingent of child soldiers who were recruited from local orphans.

Origins
The man who became Gallius Rax was an orphan boy who had stowed aboard Palpatine's luxury yacht Imperialis roughly three decades before the Battle of Jakku. Seeing potential in the boy, Palpatine tasked him with guarding an excavation site in the Valley of the Eremite which became the Jakku Observatory. After ten years of service, Palpatine inducted Rax into the Empire and tasked him with executing the Contingency. Palpatine believed that the Empire's sole purpose was to protect him and that it was unworthy of surviving should it outlive him. Palpatine used his power and influence to aid Rax's career advancement in the Imperial Navy. By 5 ABY, Rax had attained the rank of Fleet Admiral.

Following the Rebellion on Akiva, Rax officially served as Grand Admiral Rae Sloane's adviser. While Sloane was the public leader of the Imperial remnant in the Vulpinus Nebula, Rax was the true ruler of what remained of the fleet. Additionally, Rax also secretly commanded the Imperial remnants in the Almagest, the Recluse's Nebula, the Queluhan Nebula, the Ro-Loo Triangle, and the Inamorata. As part of the Contingency, Rax eliminated his Imperial rivals by leaking intelligence to the New Republic, the successor to the Rebel Alliance while posing as "the Operator". With Sloane's help, Rax engineered the downfall of the Imperial Future Council's emergency summit on Akiva.

After creating a Shadow Council from several worthy Imperials including Commandant Brendol Hux, Rax used Sloane to instigate faux peace talks with the New Republic. However, this was a pretext to make an assassination attempt on New Republic leaders and military commanders on Chandrila using liberated rebel prisoners from Ashmead's Lock prison who had been outfitted with inorganic bio-chips. Following the Attack on Chandrila, Gallius Rax took over leadership of the remnant in the absence of Sloane, who had been caught up in the events on Chandrila. As Counselor to the Empire, Rax ordered the Imperial remnants he commanded to travel to Jakku.

Rax's hour
In public, Counselor Rax claimed that he had brought the Empire to Jakku in order to toughen and harden them for their final showdown against the New Republic. Rax instituted a brutal training regime which encouraged savagery and violence among the Empire's soldiers and officers. In training sessions, officers egged their men to maul each other. Dissenters like RK-242 who questioned what the Empire was doing on Jakku were brutalized by their comrades for questioning Rax's agenda. The stormtroopers stationed on Jakku degenerated into armed thugs who developed an unkempt appearance due to the harsh, arid climate.

For months, the Jakku Imperial remnant waited for the New Republic to launch its attack. The prolonged state of alert began to take a toll on the Imperial forces based on Jakku. While General Borrum expressed concerned that the long wait was beginning to take a toll on the sanity of his men, Grand Moff Randd supported Counselor Rax's harsh regime as a purification process. During that time, Rax also struck a deal with the Hutt crime lady Niima, who was the leader of a cult. In return for supplying weapons, Niima guarded the path to the Valley of the Eremite and kidnapped local orphans. These orphans were trained by Commandant Hux into Rax's personal guard of child soldiers, which he hoped would become the template of his new Empire in the Unknown Regions.

Norra Wexley and her team discovered the Imperial presence on Jakku. Her son Temmin Wexley and the former Imperial loyalty officer Sinjir Rath Velus returned to Chandrila with news of the Jakku Imperial remnant. In response, Admiral Ackbar dispatched the scouting ship Oculus and several probe droids into the Jakku system to corroborate Temmin and Sinjir's information. The scouting party found that much of the Imperial fleet had indeed retreated to Jakku and were consolidating in a defensive arrangement. Despite some political obstruction in the Galactic Senate, Chancellor Mon Mothma managed to pass a resolution dispatching the New Republic Starfleet to Jakku.

Meanwhile, Gallius Rax captured his rival Sloane and the former rebel operative Brentin Lore Wexley, who had teamed up with Sloane to stop Rax. After capturing them, Rax gave a test demonstration of his child soldiers. As a symbolic act of his plan to tear down the Empire and start a new regime, Rax ordered his child soldiers to execute a contingent of stormtroopers. Following the demonstration, Rax imprisoned Sloane and Brentin. With the New Republic fleet entering the Jakku, Rax delivered a rousing speech claiming that the coming battle would be the Empire's final stand against the New Republic.

Final showdown
During the Battle of Jakku, the Imperial fleet was commanded by Grand Moff Randd while the Imperial ground forces were commanded by General Borrum. Randd's strategists devised a battle plan which involved the Star Destroyers forming a defensive cordon around the Ravager. During the battle, the Star Destroyers would periodically open formation to allow the Ravager to bombard the New Republic fleet with turbolasers and missiles. This blunted the New Republic assault until Commodore Kyrsta Agate attacked the Ravager with her Starhawk-class battleship Concord. Despite her ship being crippled, she managed to use the Concord powerful tractor beam projector to drag the Ravager down into Jakku's atmosphere. This turned the tide of the battle in the New Republic's favor.

Meanwhile, Rax along with Commandant Hux, his son Armitage Hux, the Imperial Adviser Yupe Tashu, and the child soldiers traveled to the Jakku Observatory. While the Huxes and the child soldiers waited aboard a replica of the Emperor's yacht Imperialis, Rax and Tashu entered the Observatory to activate the mining bore that would destabilize the planet's core. Rax planned to detonate Jakku's core, destroying the Imperial forces and the New Republic fleet. His plan was to then take the Huxes and the child soldiers into the Unknown Regions. As part of the ceremony, Rax threw the unwitting Tashu, who was carrying several Sith artifacts, to his death down the borehole, initiating the self-destruct mechanism.

Rax's plan was ultimately foiled by Sloane, Brentin, and Norra. Following a fight, Sloane managed to kill Rax. Sloane then managed to seal the borehole shaft, stopping the planet's core from destabilizing further. This effectively sabotaged Palpatine's Contingency plan to destroy the remnants of his Empire. Heeding Rax's last words, Sloane assumed responsibility for carrying out the final stage of the Contingency. She accompanied the Huxes and the child soldiers into the Unknown Regions. After several months of travel, they rendezvoused with the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse, which had been sent in advance after the Observatory's computers had plotted a safe route through the Unknown Regions.

Legacy
The Imperial remnant on Jakku disintegrated with the death of Gallius Rax, the disappearance of Rae Sloane, and the catastrophic defeat during the Battle of Jakku. Shortly later, Chancellor Mothma and Grand Vizier Mas Amedda signed the Galactic Concordance, which facilitated the Empire's surrender to the New Republic and formally ended the Galactic Civil War. Despite these developments, the Imperial remnant on Jakku continued fighting for several months until being subdued by New Republic forces. While several Imperial captains crashed their Star Destroyers onto Jakku, others used secret coordinates to flee into the Unknown Regions. Later, some would return to the Core Worlds, but as per the stipulations of the concordance would have to remain within the new borders of the Imperial remnant. Despite the agreement, some of the imperials on Jakku disregarded it, instead remaining on-world where they continued to fight against the Republic for months

While several other Imperial remnants remained, they posed little threat to the New Republic. The wrecked Imperial ships and vehicles on Jakku would be plundered by local scavengers for spare parts and equipment. Brendol Hux's son Armitage would eventually become a General in the First Order, a remnant of Imperial hardliners who had relocated to the Unknown Regions. Before his death, Rax had made the young Armitage the leader of his father's child soldiers. The younger Hux would use his father's ideas to develop the First Order's stormtrooper program.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * Lost Stars
 * Star Wars Battlefront
 * Aftermath: Empire's End
 * Last Shot
 * The Legends of Luke Skywalker
 * Poe Dameron 8: The Gathering Storm, Part I
 * Poe Dameron 8: The Gathering Storm, Part I