Galactic Empire

"In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society!"

- Darth Sidious declares a new order

The Galactic Empire, also known as the New Order, the First Galactic Empire, the Order or simply the Empire was the government that rose to power in the aftermath of the Clone Wars, replacing the Galactic Republic. Central authority was given to Darth Sidious, publicly known as Emperor Palpatine, who was also the Dark Lord of the Sith. For nearly two decades, the legislative body was the Imperial Senate, but it was dissolved by the Emperor shortly before the Battle of Yavin. During the reign of the Empire, countless star systems were conquered and dissident actions ruthlessly stamped out by the rapidly expanding Imperial Army and Navy. The Empire also oversaw the near extermination of the Jedi, with the destruction of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and its renovation into the newly named Imperial Palace.

After nineteen years of minimal resistance, the Empire would face its first major setback after losing its planet-destroying battle station known as the Death Star to a survivor of the Jedi Purge. The following four years would see the Galactic Civil War wage across the galaxy as the Order rapidly attempted to stamp out the growing Rebellion on the galaxy's outer fringes. Following the death of Galactic Emperor Palpatine and his right hand man Darth Vader in the Battle of Endor, the Empire would be fragmented as the New Republic slowly pushed its way back towards the Coruscant Core. Following the disastrous Battle of Jakku, the Empire would be forced to sign the Galactic Concordance, severely limiting its ability to wage war and effectively transforming it into a rump state. Dissatisfied Imperial leaders would ultimately venture into the Unknown Regions with some of the regime's greatest secrets. There, distanced from the prying eyes of the New Republic, the First Order would emerge from its ashes. With the Galactic Empire no more than a former memory, it would be commonly referred to as the Old Empire.

Background
"I have good news for you, my Lord, the war has begun.''" "''Excellent. Everything is going as planned."

- Dooku and Darth Sidious

For at least a thousand years, the dominant governing body of the galaxy was the unicameral and democratic Galactic Republic, led by an elected Supreme Chancellor. In the last decades of its existence, the Republic Senate became mired in bureaucracy, rendering it woefully ineffectual as a governing body. Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith known publicly as Senator Palpatine of Naboo, privately lamented the declining state of the Senate, noting that the Republic was "not what it once was." Thirteen years before the Republic's end as a democracy, Darth Sidious orchestrated the invasion of Naboo by the Trade Federation, in order to create a leadership crisis in the Senate. Sidious used the crisis to manipulate the then–Queen of the Naboo, Amidala, into calling a Vote of No Confidence against sitting Chancellor Finis Valorum. The vote passed, and in the subsequent election, Sidious&mdash;in his public persona of Palpatine&mdash;secured the position of Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic for himself. Ultimately, Sidious would be the last individual to hold this office. In the decade that followed, Sidious secretly manipulated galactic events to the extent that war became inevitable. Besides persuading a dead Jedi Master to create a secret clone army, he also tasked his Sith apprentice, Darth Tyranus, with exacerbating political tensions in the Republic and engineering a Secessionist Movement. These actions would culminate in the outbreak of the Clone Wars, the last conflict of the Republic, while Sidious himself "reluctantly" accepted emergency powers.

Birth of the New Order
"The war is over. The Separatists have been defeated, and the Jedi rebellion has been foiled. We stand on the threshold of a new beginning."

- Emperor Palpatine

For the duration of the war, Chancellor Palpatine remained a popular leader, remaining in office at the will of the Senate for far longer than his term technically allowed. Throughout this period, Sidious continued to consolidate and centralize his own power,  paving the way for his eventual ascension to Emperor. As the war drew toward its end, the Jedi Order learned of Palpatine's true identity as Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious. Following an attempt to arrest him, a brief but vicious fight ensued in which several Jedi were killed at Sidious’ hands, and Sidious himself visibly injured in the struggle. The intercession of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, who was a personal friend of Chancellor Palpatine, and already disillusioned with both the Order and the war, ensured Sidious' victory. The prodigal Jedi was turned to the dark side of the Force, while Sidious had a pretext upon which to turn the Republic against the Jedi.

Sidious immediately seized the opportunity to order the clone army to enact Order 66: to exterminate the Jedi commanding forces across the galaxy. With this command programmed into the clones since their beginnings on Kamino, the Republic soldiers immediately turned on their Jedi commanders, and exterminated the vast majority of the Jedi Order in an instant. However certain Jedi such as Depa Billaba and Luminara Unduli initially survived the purge, while Jedi Master Uvell gave antiques dealer Antron Bach numerous Jedi scrolls, lightsabers and other objects of historical significance to hide from the Galactic Empire in an abandoned Geonosian colony on a remote moon. Shortly afterward, Sidious dispatched his new apprentice, now christened Darth Vader, to wipe out the Separatist leadership on Mustafar, following which Imperial financier Arsin Crassus plundered the Trade Federation's accounts to fund the new Imperial government. Now able to demonstrate threats to the Republic from both within and without, a visibly injured and scarred Sidious addressed the Galactic Senate to announce the reforms which had been his endgame since the beginning. To the thunderous applause of the Senators, Sidious&mdash;now known publicly as Emperor Palpatine&mdash;announced that in order to ensure safety and security, the Republic would be reorganized into the Galactic Empire.

Age of the Empire
"Emperor unveils ambitious plan for Imperial fleet expansion" "Count Vidian contributes star power to new industrial inspection tour" "Leftover unexploded ordnance from Clone Wars remains a concern"

- Headlines, Imperial HoloNews (Gorse Edition)

Immediately following the conclusion of the Clone Wars, the Separatist Droid Army was promptly shut down and its fleets dismantled at locations across the galaxy such as at the Bilbringi shipyards. However various droid models and Separatist technology escaped Imperial appropriation and managed to work its way onto the black market, with many modules taken from CIS frigates and destroyers, including pieces from Admiral Trench's warship, the Invincible. Despite Separatist-era technology continuing to be used and appearing in locations such as the Corporate Sector, the Empire nonetheless continued to root out remaining Separatist holdouts four years after the Clone Wars, while criminal organizations composed of re-purposed battle droids such as the Droid Gotra operated in Coruscant's underground.

A year after the end of the Clone Wars, seeking to make examples of worlds who continued to harbor secessionist tendencies, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin was assigned to make an example of Antar 4, a populous moon that had been a part of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and involved in a scheme involving Republic Intelligence to train locals into well-armed resistance groups. With Captain Teller formerly leading the effort to disrupt Separatist occupation, the swift end of the war necessitated the removal of priority assets involved in the enterprise. However the up and coming Commission for the Preservation of the New Order refused Captain Teller and Republic Intelligence's requests to transport the partisans off-world, and subsequently allowed the Empire to carry out mass arrests, executions and massacres with no regard to sort Imperial loyalists from Separatist fanatics. While COMPNOR initially stifled information regarding the killings, word soon leaked out about the operation through inquisitive reporters such as Anora Fair and Hask Taff, while the event was soon penned as the Antar Atrocity, capturing the attention of many Coruscanti and other citizens from the Core Worlds. Seeking to distance his friend and ally from the political fallout resulting from the operation, the Emperor swiftly reassigned Tarkin to pacification operations in the Western Reaches, while COMPNOR arranged disappearances for those who connected themselves to the event.

With the Empire's grasp expanding across the galaxy, re-organization of the Empire's governmental agencies was necessary to ensure the continuing efficiency of its many initiatives. Four years after the end of the Clone Wars, Emperor Palpatine invited Commandant Baylo of the Defiance Flight Training Institute along with various other officers and Vice Admiral Tallatz, the last Naval chief of the Galactic Republic, to a meeting in order to discuss how Republic-era military schools could be incorporated into the Imperial academies across the galaxy. Being born over 84 years before the Battle of Yavin and thus older than Palpatine himself, Baylo saw with regret the changing geopolitical situation in the galaxy, and sought to reverse its course by assassinating the Imperial head of state along with his apprentice, Darth Vader. Programming the starship Defiance to crash into the sun of the planet Christophsis, Pell Baylo announced his distaste of the Galactic Empire to Palpatine personally, believing that navies should only be used as a defensive, and not offensive force. However, upon the entrance of the Defiance into realspace, the starship was still millions of kilometers from the star, and Darth Vader, having earlier suspected foul play, had reverted Pell Baylo's previous command and restored the original from a young officer known as Rae Sloane to merely remain in orbit over the crystalline planet. With the survival of the Emperor ensured, Darth Vader executed Baylo for his betrayal, all while the Defiance was renamed the Obedience.

Having survived the assassination attempt, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader—referred to by the Imperial Military as 1 and 2—transferred to the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Perilous in order to quell an incessant rebellion on the Outer Rim world of Ryloth. Where Moff Delian Mors and Colonel Belkor Dray were busy fighting an insurgency known as the Free Ryloth movement, which was led by former Twi'lek Resistance leader Cham Syndulla, father to later rebel Hera Syndulla, with Cham establishing hidden bases across Ryloth and executing raids against the Empire and its lucrative spice and slave trade in the sector. Composed of freedom fighters who fought with the Galactic Republic and Jedi Master Mace Windu during the Clone Wars to free their homeworld from Separatist occupation by Emir Wat Tambor, the newly formed Free Ryloth movement continued its struggle for independence against the now Galactic Empire.

Upon the arrival of the Perilous in the Ryloth system, numerous mines and upgraded droid fighters attacked the capital ship, and due to the unexpected nature of the attack were able to inflict heavy damage onto the Star Destroyer. A strike team consisting of various rebels lead by Isval feigned to offer aid to the damaged ship in the guise of a Twi'lek repair craft after the battle, managing to infiltrate the chaotic starship and detonate the hyperdrive chamber, destroying the Perilous in a massive explosion. It's destruction being the first time Moff Mors could recall an Imperial-class Star Destroyer ever being destroyed by dissidents. After a botched attempt at killing the Emperor and Lord Vader in an escaped Imperial shuttle, the craft nevertheless crashed onto the equatorial jungles of Ryloth, prompting the Imperial heads of state and their Royal Guards to trek through the wilderness in an attempt to be rescued.

In an attempt to buy more time to locate and eliminate their targets, the Free Ryloth movement managed to destroy the Equatorial Communications Hub and thus reduce all transmissions on the planet to strictly line of sight. Being fed information by Colonel Dray who was secretly blackmailed by the resistance movement, the rebels managed to locate their quarry in an isolated Twi'lek village. After an intense firefight, the Emperor and his apprentice, Darth Vader managed to survive the ambush thanks to the help of Moff Mors and a squadron of V-wing starfighters who had defected from Belkor's personal army after learning that it was Dray and not Mors who had betrayed the Empire. Rounding up the surviving Twi'lek prisoners, Darth Vader promptly executed the majority, while Cham Syndulla managed to escape the planet, vowing to continue fighting until the galaxy was finally free.

Five years after the Proclamation of the New Order, various survivors of the Antar Atrocity and other malcontents joined together under the leadership of the former Captain Teller, who organized them into a band of rebels intent on stalling the development of the Emperor's newest weapon under construction at Geonosis. After utilizing a modified warship to attack Sentinel Base, the Emperor sent Tarkin and Lord Vader to investigate a communications cache believed to be connected to the recent assault on the war-torn world of Murkhana, a location involved in the Separatist Shadowfeed operation. While cataloging the cache, Tarkin's personal starship the Carrion Spike; the fastest ship in the Imperial Navy and featuring advanced cloaking technology based on a prototype stealth corvette used during the Battle of Christophsis during the Clone Wars; was overrun and captured by Berch Teller's rebel cell.

Subsequently the captured starship managed to wreck havoc across numerous star systems including Lucazec, Galidraan III and Nouane all while transmitting holovids of their attacks on Imperial HoloNet frequencies, increasing anti-Imperial propaganda across thousands of Mid and Outer Rim star systems before the Empire was able to shut down the communications grid. In response to the sudden attacks on Imperial facilities, massive fleet deployments from systems as far as Rothana and Bothawui were conducted by Vice Admiral Rancit, while Interdictor cruisers being developed for the Deep Core Security Zone were utilized in an attempt to draw the rebels out of hyperspace in the Obroa-skai system, an attempt that became a blunder, with the Immobilizer 418's fail-safes malfunctioning and causing collateral damage to multiple starships, including the Mon Calamari star cruiser the Stellar Vista.

Nonetheless after extensive research on high-level databases, Tarkin was able to ascertain the identity of the conspirators, as well as discover Vice Admiral Rancit's involvement in coordinating the attacks with the rebels with plans to untimely betray them above Carida in order to increase his reputation with the Emperor. However, the rebels were able to catch wind of Rancit's designs, and had instead sent a damaged Carrion Spike to Carida and utilized the same modified warship used to assault Sentinel Base to attack an Imperial supply convoy inbound from Desolation Station containing parts for the new Death Star. Consequently Rancit was swiftly executed for his involvement in the scheme while Tarkin aboard the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Executrix managed to disable to rebel warship and capture the dissidents after a brief battle and timely arrival of Star Destroyers Compliant and Enforcer. As an award for proving his skill, the Emperor gave Tarkin personal command of the Executrix and promoted him to the newly created rank of Grand Moff as well as oversight of the Outer Rim Territories, all while the recent attacks on Imperial facilities were made to look like an elaborate plot to root out rebel cells. The Empire had effectively dealt with a potentially disastrous situation, rooted out a traitor and had managed to keep details regarding the development of its superweapon at Geonosis a mere rumor.

Imperialization
"With shipyards turning out Imperial-class Star Destroyers, any revolt will be hard pressed to make so much as a dent in the Emperor's armor."

- Artoz

Almost immediately as part of the new regime, existing government bodies were renamed to reflect the change in authority. The Grand Army of the Republic became the Imperial Army, while the Republic Navy became the Imperial Navy and the Galactic Senate was rechristened as the Imperial Senate. The renowned Senate Plaza, with its name reminding residents of the Old Republic, was promptly changed to the Imperial Plaza, while an enormous statue of the Emperor was erected in its place.

For the next decade and a half, Imperial rule; bolstered by the military created to fight in the Clone Wars; dominated the galaxy largely unchallenged. The Empire soon began to upgrade their military hardware, replacing V-wing and ARC-170 fighters with newer TIE models five years after the end of the Clone Wars, however Republic-era military equipment continued to be used for a while on distant outposts and locations such as Galidraan Station. The Republic's Phase II clone trooper armor would be replaced by superior stormtrooper armor, whose development had been headed by the Imperial Department of Military Research

Throughout this period, dubbed the "dark times" by Jedi survivor Obi-Wan Kenobi, any survivors of Sidious' Jedi purge were systematically hunted down and killed by Darth Vader, with the assistance of at least three Inquisitors. Decades later, only four known Jedi had survived the Empire's wrath: Kenobi, Yoda , Ahsoka Tano (who went by the name "Fulcrum") and a Padawan named Caleb Dume, who changed his name to Kanan Jarrus in order to avoid detection. In order to hunt down any surviving Jedi and those in the galaxy who could sense the Force, the Empire created the Inquisitorius, an order of Force-sensitive Jedi hunters charged with finding and destroying the remaining Jedi and preventing the Force-sensitive youth of the galaxy from being used against them. The Empire also initiated Project Harvester, an clandestine operation designed to root out children with force sensitivity and detain them at an underground facility connected to the Arkanis Academy, located on the Outer Rim world of Arkanis. Meanwhile, the Empire constructed a massive battle station with enough firepower to destroy an entire planet, later known simply as the Death Star, that had formerly been a Separatist project with supplies coming from various planets and locations such as Sentinel Base and Geonosis. The Emperor's long-term plan was to allow what he called the 'skeleton of the Republic' to remain in place until the Death Star was completed; this included maintaining the Imperial Senate to make the systems believe that they still had a part to play in government. However, upon the completion of the Death Star, the Emperor planned to dissolve the Senate and grant its legislative and administrative powers to the military. The Death Star would provide order by making people too afraid to stand against the Empire.

Expansion into the Outer Rim
"Eventually the Empire will claim the Outer Rim. It is not without precedents to go to the periphery to secure the center."

- Emperor Palpatine

With the creation of the Galactic Empire, Palpatine had come one step closer to his ultimate plan of ruling the entire galaxy and unlocking the secrets of the Sith Masters that had come before him. With the near extermination of the Jedi Order and the Empire swelling in size and strength, the Emperor ultimately planned to posses the powers of the dark side to reshape reality itself into something of his own creation, and an omnipotent Empire would allow all the galaxy's inhabitants to be held in his dark embrace.

As the Empire expanded into the galaxy's periphery, most worlds would see their planets ecologically devastated, with rampant industrialization and mass-produced garments eroding local culture and ecological health. Men and women would see their sons and daughters drafted into Imperial service, while corrupt governors and magistrates would often exploit local populations on worlds such as Jelucan, Devaron and Tangenine. New bio-weapons would also be tested on remote planets such as Coyerti against primitive indigenous populations and Wookiee slaves. Parades, obligatory attendance at patriotic functions and the erection of barracks and garrisons on various worlds across the galaxy would become the norm. While the Empire turned a blind eye to various abuses, it still maintained a policy of zero corruption and maintained its high standards of conduct, resulting in numerous ISB officials to actively hunt down corrupt and negligent officials, even resulting in investigations by Lord Vader himself. Despite this, many citizens were content with the geopolitical situation in the galaxy, believing that strict measures were necessary to maintain order and stability after the destructive Clone Wars. Many also believed that the Empire, while not the best, was a better alternative than anarchy and chaos.

Despite this, many worlds and their people would continue to hold separatist tendencies and even exude hostility against the Empire, with those that fought in the Clone Wars seeing the transformation of the Empire from a source for order into a brutal bully in a quest for control. During this so called 'Age of the Empire,' worlds such as Naboo would see rampant beautification projects in an effort to produce idealized versions of life in the Empire as a whole, with the state-sponsored HoloNet continually quoting new building projects, successful trade negotiations and endless economic prosperity. With the growing view of the Empire as a nearly invincible force, at least five years into the Emperor's reign, the Empire attempted to mine the asteroids around Geonosis for their abundance of minerals, however doing so proved impractical. The Empire nevertheless invested heavily in garrisoning the planet with stormtroopers as well as sterilizing the planet's native Geonosian population with heavy bombing. It would later serve as a construction site for the Death Star, a product of the Emperor's wish for absolute rule through fear, while surviving Geonosians would work in Imperial facilities as mere slave laborers.

Despite its seemingly endless expansion, a major turning point against the Empire's advance into the Outer Rim would occur eight years after the end of the Clone Wars and eleven years before the Battle of Yavin, with the Empire being engaged in a small skirmish in the Inner Rim system of Gorse. This event would see the meeting of later rebels Hera Syndulla and Jedi survivor Kanan Jarrus who were confronting efficiency expert Count Denetrius Vidian and his aggressive methods of extracting thorilide&mdash;;a vital component in the construction of turbolaser batteries and thus essential for the expansion of the Imperial fleet. The Gorse conflict ultimately ended with the transferring of local thorilide mining operations to Imperial-aligned Baron Lero Danthe, while Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus departed on the heavily modified VCX-100 light freighter Ghost, and would become essential for the eventual formation of the Rebel Alliance.

With more and more worlds beginning to realize the Empire's true intentions after various massacres on Kashyyyk and increasingly brutal tactics, such as the Empire committing genocide on the Lasat homeworld of Lasan, a growing number of citizens of the galaxy began to rebel against Imperial dominion. At least nine years after the proclamation of the New Order, the Corellian Resistance fought the Empire from its headquarters on the planet Corellia. During this time, one of its members attempted to warn the insurgency of an imminent Imperial crackdown, finally being able to do so after a crash landing and brief encounter with Imperial stormtroopers on one of the fifteen moons of Geonosis.

Around fourteen years into Sidious' rule as Emperor, the Outer Rim world Lothal joined the Imperial Registration Program seeking protection and economic opportunities whereby local citizens would find work in the local Sienar Fleet Systems facilities. Ostensibly this was to grow the local economy, but was in fact secretly part of a much larger five-year plan involving numerous Outer Rim worlds. Unbeknownst to the planet's settlers, this alliance would result in great oppression, and few people were arrested for protesting against it. For example, the couple Ephraim and Mira Bridger were arrested for setting up broadcasting transmissions authorized by Lothal governor Ryder Azadi on the HoloNet to speak out against the Empire's harsh rule, leaving their seven-year-old son Ezra to live out on the streets for the next eight years as a beggar and thief.

Lothal's industrial importance soon came to the fore for the Empire as the Emperor began to make plans to expand Imperial dominion over the Outer Rim Territories. Five years into the the reign of the New Order, Grand Moff Tarkin was appointed Governor of the Outer Rim and charged with leading their subsequent pacification. In order to maximize the worth of newly occupied systems, worlds such as Lothal soon bore witness to Imperial authorities relocating farmers away from their farm lands to mine for Imperial purposes, leading to the development of settlements such as Tangletown and Lothal re-settlement camp 43, known by the residents as "Tarkintown."

A growing rebellion
"I don't know when things went wrong. But as law came back to Tangenine, the Empire changed from what it was to&hellip; whatever it is we've got now. I brought a man in for stealing power converters and saw him jailed for life. I tracked down a gang leader, a spice dealer&mdash;the lowest of the low&mdash;and saw him pardoned because he bribed a magistrate."

- Brand

The aggressive dislocation of persons and high tax rate eventually led to the development of a small insurgency against the Empire on Lothal. Although the insurgency itself (and several others across the Imperial territories) was of little consequence, the Empire did fear that various rebel cells could unite and form a more potent menace against the Empire and its interests in the Outer Rim. Imperial military command maintained a list of known Rebel sympathizers on several Outer Rim worlds, including Lothal, however most of them were not arrested due to them having powerful allies in the Senate, a known hotbed of corruption and decadence. Among these cells on Lothal was the Rebel crew of a VCX-100 light freighter called the Ghost, consisting of Kanan Jarrus, the Twi'lek pilot Hera Syndulla, the Lasat genocide survivor Garazeb Orrelios, the sixteen-year-old Mandalorian Imperial Academy dropout Sabine Wren and the now fifteen-year-old Ezra Bridger. When rumor on the discovery of Jarrus' Jedi identity and his duty on leading the insurgency begun to emerge, the Empire sent the Grand Inquisitor, a Force-sensitive Jedi hunter, to track him down. After several failures at stopping the insurgency or capturing the Jedi and Bridger, who the former took on as his Padawan, Grand Moff Tarkin himself came to Lothal to put an end to the rebel threat.

After Jarrus was captured by the Empire, his fellow rebels launched a mission to rescue him from the Imperial fleet stationed over Mustafar. During the confrontation aboard Grand Moff Tarkin's second flagship, the Sovereign, Kanan succeeded in defeating the Inquisitor after a lengthy duel. After the Inquisitor took his own life instead of facing the punishment his failure would bring, the flagship was destroyed by its damaged reactor. As the rebels attempted to escape in some stolen TIE fighters, a fleet of Rebel ships came out of hyperspace and protected the TIE fighters before making the jump to hyperspace. The fleet, commanded by former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, was part of a larger rebel movement across the entire galaxy which included several cells, led by Tano and Imperial Senator Bail Organa. Following rumors of the Imperial defeat over Mustafar, spontaneous riots and unrest on several Imperial worlds occurred, including Lothal. As a result, Grand Moff Tarkin returned to Lothal to reimpose order, as well as to find the rebels and destroy them. The size of the rebellion had also caused concern in the higher ranks of the Empire. With the Grand Inquisitor's death, the Emperor sent his loyal enforcer, Darth Vader, to Lothal to quash the threat to the Empire's reign.

The resulting efforts by Darth Vader to crush the Lothal rebels resulted in the Siege of Lothal, in which Imperial authorities deployed multiple Imperial-class Star Destroyers into orbit and outlying settlements such as Tarkintown were burned to the ground, with its inhabitants held captive in an effort to intimidate those who may hold rebellious sympathies, as well as draw the rebels out of hiding. The Empire also initiated a planet-wide lockdown, in which any ship leaving the planet would be destroyed. The Lothal rebels, now part of a larger rebel cell composed of Commander Sato and Phoenix Squadron along with Jedi Purge survivor Ahsoka Tano had earlier arrived on the planet in order to rescue Prime Minister Maketh Tua, who fearing for her life promised to give the rebels a list of rebel sympathizers, as well as reveal the true intention as to why the Empire had come to Lothal. Complications with the rescue resulted in Tua's death, which Agent Kallus blamed on the rebels in order to turn public opinion against them. After a fight with Darth Vade], the rebels barely managed to escape onboard a Sentinel-class landing craft, and escape the planet-wide lockdown by agreeing to give three of six Colicoid 49-v99 Deflectors to smuggler Lando Calrissian in return for masking transponders, which allowed them to confuse the Imperial blockade and escape the planet.

Unbeknownst to the rebels, a tracking device had been secured onboard the vessel, and upon arrival at the rebel fleet a lone TIE Advanced x1 piloted by Darth Vader was single-handedly able to destroy multiple RZ-1 A-wing interceptors as well as disable the command ship ''Phoenix Home. ''However during the battle, Ezra, Jarrus and Tano attempted to use the force so as to learn more about the Sith Lord's identity, only to have Tano, and Vader realize each other's true existence. With the rebel fleet driven into hiding, Darth Vader reported his findings to Darth Sidious, while another Inquisitor was dispatched to destroy the rebels and their Jedi leaders.

Eventually, the Alliance to Restore the Republic would be formed in the few short years before the destruction of the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin, with the Alliance's Sixty-First Mobile Infantry striking at Imperial-held worlds such as Mygeeto, Crucival and Vir Aphshire for at least over two months prior.

Galactic Civil War
"Even though I've only been in active service for a few weeks, it has already become evident to me that the Rebel Alliance is a far larger and more dangerous group than official broadcasts have ever acknowledged. We do not operate as a peacetime military. Our preparations are more appropriate for a time of war."

- Jude Edivon

Search for the missing plans
"I have traced the Rebel spies to her. Now she is my only link to finding their secret base."

- Darth Vader

Around four years later, Rebel forces captured the plans for the Death Star, seeking to find a weakness and exploit it to destroy the battle station. Imperial forces commanded by Darth Vader captured one of the leaders of the Alliance and the one who was in possession of the plans, Imperial Senator and Princess of Alderaan, Leia Organa; who, unknown to Vader, was in reality his own daughter. While nearly all of the old institutions of the Republic had been swept away in the intervening decades, this provided Sidious the opportunity to finally wipe away the last vestiges of the old democracy, and dissolve the Imperial Senate permanently. With this, governance of the various systems of the Empire came to be directly under the purview of the Regional Governors and the Imperial military. Organa's presence, and her refusal to give up the location of the Alliance's base, precipitated Grand Moff Tarkin's decision to test-fire the newly-completed Death Star's primary weapon on her homeworld, Alderaan. In an instant, the Imperial military's superweapon utterly destroyed the populous, influential world. In so doing, Tarkin hoped not only to force Organa to submit, but also to strike fear into any others who sought to rebel against Imperial rule. Soon after the destruction of Alderaan, dubbed "the Disaster" by Alderaanian refugees, vigils for the dead were held on Coruscant's Level 3204, with many on the level having formerly lived on Alderaan. However, as soon as the circumstances behind the event became clear, the once peaceful vigils turned into violent riots, with many calling for justice and revolution against the Empire. Imperial stormtroopers and Coruscant underworld police were soon called in to restore the peace, and began arresting and eventually relocating those who would question Imperial rule.

Eventually, Organa was rescued from the Death Star by the unlikely alliance of Han Solo, a smuggler, Jedi survivor Obi-Wan Kenobi, who later sacrificed himself in his duel with Darth Vader, and her unknowing twin brother, Luke Skywalker. The group escaped the Imperial fortress and fled to the Alliance base on Yavin 4; pursued by the Death Star. At Yavin 4, the Empire and the Rebels engaged in a major battle, with the fate of the rebellion hanging in the balance. Despite destroying a great many of the Alliance's starfighters, the battle ultimately ended up a major defeat for the Imperial forces, when young Skywalker successfully fired the shot which destroyed the Imperial battle station. The Death Star was destroyed, marking the Rebellion's first major victory against the Empire.

Aftermath of Yavin
"You want to blame someone, Artur? Start on the rebels for once. They claim they're fighting for the common people, and now thousands in that city are dead because of what they did."

- Trompo to Artur

In the immediate aftermath of the Empire's defeat in the Yavin system, the Rebel Alliance hastily began to evacuate its base on Yavin 4 located in the Great Temple of Massassi right after a medal ceremony for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, in which both were awarded medals of valor. Immediately after the ceremony, the Alliance wasted no time in packing its remaining and supplies and equipment onto transport ships, a task overseen by Admiral Gial Ackbar. However due to the fact that Leia Organa had not been assigned any duties, Leia quickly sought an audience with General Jan Dodonna to discuss how she could help the rebellion now that the Death Star had been destroyed. To Leia's surprise, Dodonna promptly told her the best thing she could do was mourn for Alderaan's loss and to stay with the Alliance Fleet due to the 10,000,000 credit bounty she had on her head from her involvement with the Rebellion, along with circulating rumors that the Empire was seeking reprisals against any surviving Alderaanians.

With Leia fearing the loss of her people to the Empire, she and pilot Evaan Verlaine managed to escape the Alliance at Yavin 4 and rescue numerous survivors at various enclaves on Naboo, Sullust and Espirion. However a member of the rescued cast, Tace, was unknowingly leaking information to the Imperials through communication with her sister, Tula, who was in reality an Imperial officer and attempting to ascertain the position of Leia's fleet. After Leia had learned of the development, she organized a prisoner transfer for Tula, giving herself up in the process. Commander Dreed would oversee the transfer on the desert world of Skaradosh, while an Imperial-class Star Destroyer would be parked in orbit. With the successful transfer of Tace to the remaining Alderaanians, the Mellcrawler piloted by expert smuggler Nien Nunb managed to evade the Star Destroyer in orbit and engage the Imperial forces on the ground, all while rescuing Leia from the clutches of Commander Dreed, who attempted to use her as a hostage. Sending a decoy ship into orbit, Dreed's Star Destroyer opened fire and destroyed it, believing it to be the escaping rebels. Assuming Organa dead, the Star Destroyer continued to Espirion where the rest of the refugees were located, only to be overwhelmed by the combined forces of Alderaanian survivors from across the galaxy, along with Espirion's military forces. With the successful rescue of the scattered survivors of Alderaan, the Rebel Alliance not only managed to win an important propaganda victory, but save the remnants of a lost worlds people, much to the Empire's chagrin.

Concurrently, the smuggler Han Solo at the behest of his Wookiee partner Chewbacca reluctantly agreed to aid Princess Leia Organa in rescuing a member of the Shrikes, an elite rebel recon unit operating on the fringes of Imperial territory. Sending the Millennium Falcon to the industrial world of Cyrkon, the two ran into the Imperial Star Destroyer Vehement under the command of ISB Commander Alecia Beck after a failed capture of other Shrikes at Taanab. With both forces after the unit's surviving member Lieutenant Caluan Ematt, Han Solo managed to evade bounty hunters determined to collect the 224,190 credit bounty on his head by Jabba Desilijic Tiure as well as Imperial stormtroopers led by TX-828. The two eventually managed to escape the planet with the aid of a longtime friend of Solo's, who opened fire on forty stormtroopers attempting to capture them as they left the planet's capital, Motok. Jumping into hyperspace, the trio managed to prevent sensitive Alliance information from falling into Imperial hands, an even more vital task with the Emperor now viewing the growing Alliance as a credible threat. Issuing a communique the morning after the Death Star's destruction ordering all ongoing ISB operations to be superseded for the immediate detention of known and suspected rebel sympathizers, as well as Admiral Ozzel ordering the fleet into battle readiness.

In an attempt to keep the Rebellion off-balance, the Empire engaged in rushed and scrambled offenses across the galaxy and raided spice worlds such as Kerev Doi in an attempt to cut off possible sources of income for the Alliance. With major military redeployments occurring around the clock, the Imperial military began to mobilize for a full-scale galactic war, while the Rebellion began to push into the populous Imperial Mid Rim in a failed operation that only months later would become known as the Mid Rim Retreat, with it's ultimate demise owing in large part the the Empire's numerical superiority. Following losses at Phindar and Portocari two weeks following the Battle of Yavin, members of the Nashtah Squadron learned at the Zero Angle bar on the Bright Jewel Oversector Flight Base on Axxila III that the military was going to undergo a mass re-organization, rescinding the classification between Imperial Navy and Imperial Army pilots.

Searching for the Rebel fleet
"Astounding. I have never thought of it before, having had no occasion to do so, but the Force must be a fulcrum variable. Yes, I must give this more thought." "Sorry—a fulcrum variable?" "A variable around which improbabilities can be turned to probabilities, or vice versa. The impossible becomes possible—at which point one might as well not even do the math. But of course I can't help myself in that regard."

- Drusil Bephorin to Luke Skywalker

Unbeknownst to the Empire following the destruction of the first Death Star, the Rebel Alliance had successfully evacuated their base on Yavin 4 and was orbiting the remote world of Orto Plutonia in the Pantora system, located in the Sujimis sector, with the nearest Imperial presence being Moff Abran Balfour who patrolled the world of Llanic situated at the intersection of the Llanic Spice Route and Triellus Trade Route. A brief skirmish erupted when Luke Skywalker, in the luxury yacht the Desert Jewel, attacked two TIE fighters assaulting a Kupohan ship. Unknown to Skywalker at the time, the ship was in reality carrying a Kupohan spy with vital intelligence regarding Drusil Bephorin, a Givin woman with a reputation for being able to slice into security systems at an astonishing rate and interpret encoded messages at breathtaking speed.

Desperately searching for the Alliance Fleet, the Empire sought to convince Drusil to use her cryptographic skills to aid them in their efforts and kept her in a sort of luxurious imprisonment on Denon in an effort to sway her favor. Secretly, Drusil offered to join the Alliance as long as the rebels could successfully extract her family to the ocean world of Omereth, a task given to Major Bren Derlin. After a side mission to the Deep Core, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 and Nakari Kelen managed to successfully extract Drusil at a café after Artoo disabled an Imperial security droid with an ion cannon and Nakari neutralized several undercover ISB agents. After a chase through the sewers, Skywalker, Kelen and Drusil manged to escape Denon in the Desert Jewel right as a systemwide blockade was announced by the Empire.

Aware that the rebels had kidnapped a high priority asset, the Empire immediately set a bounty for the re-capture of Drusil Bephorin and alerted its garrisons on other worlds, via the interstellar HoloNet, to seize the Desert Jewel should it enter an Imperial aligned system. The Empire also sent numerous Imperial Interdictor cruisers along various hyperlanes in an effort to pull the rebel ship out of hyperspace. One of these cruisers, a discontinued model Immobilizer 418, managed to pull the Desert Jewel out of hyperspace in the Daalang system by using gravitational projectors to stimulate mass in the direction of the oncoming vessel. However, due to the Immobilizer 418's frequent use in defense against Alliance raids, Luke Skywalker was able to quickly form an attack strategy against the ship that involved destroying the particle shield generators on the port side and then swiftly eliminating the gravity projectors with any leftover munitions. Facing off against the gun emplacements of the cruiser as well as twenty-four TIE fighters, Luke Skywalker was able to disable the shield generators and ultimately destroy the ship with a Utheel Rockcrusher Compact Seismic Charge, splitting the cruiser into two pieces.

With the successful escape from the Imperial Interdictor cruiser, Luke Skywalker, along with his companions, landed at Nessin Courier and Cargo at the city of Tonekh on Kupoh, homeworld to the Kupohans, in order to repair their sublight engines. With the owner of the facility, Azzur Nessin, being on a list of friendly contacts picked up from a rebel aligned agent on Denon, the Desert Jewel was left in the hanger to be repaired; repairs that were estimated to take several days. With the Empire's lucrative bounty on Drusil and the rebels, it wasn't long before two mechanics, Ruuf Waluuk and Migg Birkhitt informed Imperial authorities of their presence. While Drusil was initially able to stifle the communication of Ruuf Waluuk, the Empire was able to receive Migg Birkhitt's transmission. After checking his house, Skywalker and Nakari managed to corner him in a local cantina where he bolted outdoors, only to be hit by a stun blast by Nakari.

The chase however, attracted the attention of a Gotal who attempted to disarm Skywalker and Nakari, and while initially successful, was rendered unconscious by an electric shock from R2-D2. Escorting the now prisoners back to a hotel room, the rebels were able to learn that the Gotal assailant was in reality Barrisk Favvin from the Imperial Security Bureau who was sent to investigate Migg's claims about knowing the location of the rebels. Luckily for the rebels, Favvin was not reporting to the ISB on a schedule, and thus he and Migg were able to be locked in a hotel room for an indefinite period of time.

Though that time would be short lived, as the engine was soon repaired and the Desert Jewel ready for takeoff. As Luke bid farewell to Azzur, his skull suddenly exploded from a blaster shot fired by Ruuf Waluuk and a Devaronian bounty hunter presumably sent to capture Drusil and claim the bounty for themselves. After a brief shootout, Nakari was able to help Skywalker finish off the intruders, and the ship managed to exit the planet's atmosphere. In the time it took the ship to be repaired however, the Empire had suspected foul play and had sent six Imperial-class Star Destroyers and three Interdictor cruisers to block off egress points into existing hyperlanes. With all outbound commercial traffic being boarded by stormtroopers in order to capture the now deemed criminals, Drusil managed to calculate a new hyperspace lane out of the system. With the Desert Jewel ignoring hails from the Imperial blockade, Drusil was able to translate encrypted communications between the vessels, a translation that revealed arguing over whether or not the ship was actually the Desert Jewel or a diversion, as its transponder codes had been changed to identify it as a freighter from Polser Couriers. The flagship commander eventually ordered that an Interdictor cruiser was to redirect its gravity projectors in front of the rebel ship to block their escape and a TIE squadron to pursue it after it received confirmation from Polser that it had no outbound shipments headed towards Rishi. Yet by the time it took for the Interdictor to redirect its gravity projector, the Desert Jewel had already jumped into uncharted space.

The ship was eventually able to make it to Omereth safely, where it was quickly attacked by several bounty hunters who were waiting for its arrival. After downing the ship, all three survivors, including Artoo were able to head for a small wooded island, where after an intense shootout, were able to defeat the bounty hunters. Hacking into one of their ships, Luke Skywalker was able to transport Drusil Bephorin to the planned drop-off point where Major Bren Derlin and a combat-outfitted CR90 corvette awaited their arrival with Drusil's family. With the successful extraction of Drusil and her family, the rebellion now possessed a keen edge in its fight against the Empire, while the Empire grudgingly suffered an embarrassing defeat.

Giju and Devaron
During a rebel mission above Giju where a transport carrying underground rebel leaders was being evacuated from the planet, the Empire attempted to destroy the defending members of Red Squadron but ultimately failed. Eventually, Skywalker and R2-D2 set course to Devaron where he and several other rebels would be sent on a mission to steal Imperial communication logs ordered by Mon Mothma herself to attain information on Imperial operations on the Shipwrights' Trace.

After refueling his ship, the trio departed for Whiforla 11 and jumped out of hyperspace in the Tertiary Usaita system, but an Imperial attack forced them to return to Devaron. Letting the Force guide him into the Temple of Eedit, an abandoned Jedi Temple destroyed by the Empire, Luke Skywalker landed in the nearby village of Tikaroo in order to repair his ship. After being told the temple was off-limits by the Empire; the outcast Sarco Plank offered to be his guide to the temple. Discovering the temple monitored by numerous sensors by the Empire, Skywalker managed to find a secret entrance by an derelict dam destroyed in the Clone Wars.

During his stay in the temple, Skywalker gradually improved his connection with the force, practicing his skills with a lightsaber with several training remotes. Eventually, he found himself surrounded by Imperials with orders to apprehend him and his fugitive starfighter, using Farnay&mdash;a young child he met earlier in the village&mdash;as a hostage. However, Plank unexpectedly appeared and helped Skywalker fight the Stormtroopers with his electrostaff.

After the Imperials were overwhelmed by the duo, Plank had planned to ransack the Temple to pay his debts. After Skywalker refused him, Plank then turned on him in a duel, however Farnay interrupted him, for which Plank put binders on her. Nonetheless, it gave Skywalker the time to cast Sarco and his electrostaff into a nearby pit as well as the remaining stormtroopers in an attempt to hide the fight from any subsequent Imperial investigation. As he left the temple, Imperial reinforcements began to arrive to investigate the disturbance.

An Empire besieged
"We kept the skeleton of the Republic for nearly twenty years while the Death Star was constructed. Twenty years, my apprentice. All that planning is now a layer of dust orbiting around Yavin... Now, we no longer have the Senate to hold order. We do not have the Death Star to force it. Our greatest weapon is gone. Our production is in ashes. We are besieged. In all these years, we have never skirted closer to disaster."

- Darth Sidious to Darth Vader

Following the destruction of the first Death Star by Luke Skywalker above Yavin 4, the Rebel Alliance sought to press their advantage by unleashing attacks on Imperial military targets throughout the galaxy. Most notably an attempt to assault, infiltrate and destroy Weapons Factory Alpha located in the Corellian Industrial Cluster on Cymoon 1, reputedly home to the largest weapons factory in the galaxy. In the meantime, the Empire opened negotiations with the Hutt Clan, led by Jabba the Hutt, to secure raw materials for Imperial military production and secure their support for their expansion in the Outer Rim. The meeting was due to happen on Cymoon 1, however the Rebels managed to intercept Jabba's envoy and sent a team led by Han Solo (masquerading as the Hutt's envoy) to infiltrate Weapons Factory Alpha and destroy it. Despite the arrival of Darth Vader, who sensed a disturbance in the Force and led the assault to capture the Rebel force, the Rebels were successful and destroyed the factory, crippling Imperial production and causing another major setback.

For his failure to stop the destruction of both the Death Star and the loss of Cymoon 1, Vader was relieved of much of his authority by Emperor Palpatine and was assigned to serve in the Imperial military instead of commanding it. As much of the Empire's military command had been lost with the Death Star, the Emperor appointed General Cassio Tagge, the head of the Imperial Army, to the rank of Grand General and assigned him command of Imperial military matters due to his foresight to fear the Alliance Fleet and doubt the invincibility of the Death Star. Vader would serve under him after completing negotiations to secure Jabba the Hutt's rexcources on the desert world of Tatooine. The Emperor pressed the military to focus its efforts on the conquest of the Outer Rim and the destruction of the Rebellion for, with the Death Star gone and the Senate disbanded, there was no longer any way for the Empire to maintain sufficient support to keep dissenting systems in line. As a result, the military was to preserve order by any means necessary until the second Death Star was completed.

With the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire was vulnerable to increasing attacks where it had once been secure with pirates beginning to conduct raids on Imperial supply lines, threatening Imperial dominion. Under Tagge's command, Vader led an assault on a pirate base. The information taken from the pirates revealed that they had the backing of the Crymorah crime syndicate and of their allies, the Droid Gotra, who had provided the pirates with modified droideka security droids. However, Vader succeeded in neutralizing the droids and the pirates. Lord Vader at this point left and conducted personal missions to Quarantine World III and Geonosis.

As the conquest of the Outer Rim progressed, Tagge launched a significant crackdown on criminal elements who had gone unchecked in the past. The only criminal powers allwoed to survive were the Hutts, per Vader's agreement with Jabba. The destruction of competitors also allowed the Hutts to capitalize on "new markets" supplied by the Empire. However, Vader and Tagge refused to provide the captured hordes of the criminals to the Hutts. As part of this plan, Vader used a smuggler working for the Son-tuul Pride, a criminal organization led by a Rodian competitor of Jabba's, to track down the Pride and destroy it. Son-tuul's underworld passed to Jabba as a result of his competitor's death.

Mid Rim Retreat
"[&hellip;] Our forces just chased half the Alliance out of the Mid Rim. How many other rebel ships managed to escape an engagement in this sector after sustaining damage&mdash;in the past week, say? How many others need repairs, as well? It's your hunt." "It's our hunt. All of ours!"

- Captain Tabor Seitaron and Prelate Verge on tracking down the rebel ship Thunderstrike during the Mid Rim Retreat.

Following the destruction of the first Death Star, the Rebellion embarked on a massive military campaign to liberate hundreds of worlds under Imperial control by pushing into the heavily populated Mid Rim. With thousands of starships, hundreds of battle groups and dozens of worlds involved in the operation, it was initially met with stunning success as Imperial forces, unprepared for such a large-scale operation and shattered from the recent shake-ups in the Imperial hierarchy, fell back from world to world, allowing the Rebellion to press further into Imperial space. Taking the factory-deserts of Phorsa Gedd and the Ducal Palace of Bamayar, the Rebellion's advance gradually slowed as Imperial resistance stiffened. Eighteen months into the operation, fearing to overextend the fleet and occupied with the consolidation of worlds now under Rebel control, High Command ordered for the defense of occupied territories, and shortly thereafter the slow withdrawal of Alliance military resources back towards the Outer Rim.

Units such as the Alliance's Sixty-First Mobile Infantry, Twenty-First, Thirty-Second Infantry and the aquatic Sixty-Eighth Infantry embarked on numerous operations during the withdrawal to distract the Imperial war machine from assaulting the scattered elements of the Alliance Fleet heading for the safety of the Outer Rim. Eighty four days into the Mid Rim Retreat and following a hard-fought battle on Haidoral Prime, the Sixty-First Mobile Infantry had the vital task of escorting Imperial defector Governor Everi Chalis to the Rebellion's new rumored base of operations owing to her technical knowledge of the Empire's logistical network. Following a final offensive measure to distract the Imperial fleet on Coyerti, Bestine and various other worlds, the majority of the Alliance had escaped Imperial interdiction and arrived safely into Rebel space, even though a portion narrowly escaped an Imperial ambush designed to re-capture Everi Chalis. With the high-priority prisoner brought safely to the Alliance's new base on the sixth planet of the Hoth system eight days before the Battle of Hoth, along with bringing a highly-detailed readout on Imperial military infrastructure across the galaxy, a strategy conference was held at the base with top commanders such as Leia Organa and General Carlist Rieekan attending.

Further escalations
Meanwhile, as the war continued on between the Galactic Empire and Alliance to Restore the Republic, Darth Vader contracted a mercenary unit on Tatooine to assist a garrison on Tatooine with dealing with a Tusken Raider camp in order to maintain a grip on the planet.

Later on, the Empire began a crackdown on Jawas who were seen to be in engaged in widespread unlicensed trade leading to a battle between them and a local rebel force who had a number off small bases present for control over the planet. Shortly after, Imperials searched an old freighter which led to a confrontation between the Empire and Rebel Alliance and Hutt Clan after crushing mercs who favoured the Rebels.

Concurrently, Darth Vader ordered the local force on Tatooine to search for his missing shipment that was took by Liana Kor on Dandoran who got her hands on various Imperials assets in order to try to push the Empire off-world. Meanwhile on the planet, the formal senator Johhar Kessen had been captured by the Empire and held in order to prevent the Rebels from rescuing him. During this period of conflict on Dandoran, a secret Imperial research facility housed Project Blackwing, a clandestine effort seeking to uncover the secrets to immortality ultimately went out of control, leading to an outbreak of undead troopers across the planet who had been stationed at the research facility. Infected by what was dubbed 'the Sickness,' a viral agent that would infect and turn their corpses into mindless, cannibalistic monsters. A distress call was sent, but the facility had gone silent upon its answer by Imperial command. When it became evident that an army of Death Troopers was spreading on Dandoran, the commanders of the Empire tried to keep things under wraps, ultimately being able to contain the outbreak on the planet.

During this time, Rebel forces from Tatooine were sent to Yavin 4 in order to destroy the data centers that were left behind after the Battle of Yavin to prevent the Empire from discovering them, however, the Rebel plan was found out and both sides ended up fighting over the data centers, that would later carry on in a full-scale second battle on Yavin along with a battle on both Er'Kit and Takodana, leading into the Battle of Hoth.

Assaulting Echo Base
"Make ready to land our troops beyond their energy field, then deploy the fleet so that nothing gets off the system."

- Darth Vader

While the loss of both Tarkin and the Death Star itself were significant, Imperial resolve toward putting down the rebellion only increased. For the next three and a half years, Imperial forces under the direct command of Darth Vader relentlessly pursued the Alliance. While the hunt was personal for Vader, having learned that the young rebel Skywalker was actually his son, the Imperial military nevertheless scoured the galaxy with Imperial probe droids.

Eventually, the Empire's search came to fruition when one of its probe droids located the Alliance's new base on the ice planet Hoth. The massive Imperial fleet, led by the command ship Executor, arrived in the system and deployed ground forces at the Moorsh Moraine, a glacial feature on the planet in preparation for a major assault on the Alliance forces at Echo Base. Overwhelmed, the rebels were forced to flee, and the Empire claimed a decisive victory. The Imperial pursuit of the rebels, however, did not stop at Hoth. The Imperial fleet continued to chase down the fleeing rebels, pursuing Leia Organa and now-General Han Solo into the Hoth asteroid belt. Though Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, did manage to elude Imperial pursuit, Vader engaged the services of bounty hunters to track down the fleeing Alliance leadership. One of these bounty hunters was successful in tracking Organa and Solo back to Cloud City on Bespin, enabling Imperial forces to capture them and lay a trap for Luke Skywalker. The trap was eventually sprung, and Skywalker learned of his true relation to Vader, but the Imperial forces found themselves betrayed and, at least initially, overwhelmed by Cloud City's local authorities. The rebel leaders escaped Imperial custody again, but not without cost. Skywalker was maimed in a duel with Vader, while Solo was frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter. Battered and bruised, the Alliance was once again in flight from pursuing Imperial forces.

Splintering of the Rebellion
"Since the destruction of the Alliance base over fifteen rebel outposts and seven members of the enemy leadership have surrendered. Emperor Palpatine is reportedly considering public trials for select combatants in the hope that others&mdash;witnessing their fair treatment&mdash;will follow their example and turn themselves in."

- Imperial HoloNet News

Operation Ringbreaker
"This is the Alliance's moment of weakness. The Emperor intends to deliver the killing blow at last, hunting down the scattered members of Alliance High Command as they flee deep into the galaxy's Outer Rim."

- Governor Everi Chalis

Following the disastrous Battle of Hoth, the Alliance Fleet was scattered across the galaxy and the absence of clear orders and the condition of Alliance High Command put the movement into its most critical stage in the war effort. With Imperial forces required to maintain the Mid Rim border and combat active war zones, vast numbers of Imperial forces from the Core Worlds were deployed to finally quash the Rebellion in the Outer Rim. This redeployment however, left the Core's defenses enervated if only by a slight margin. Knowing the Empire's reliance on the Imperial shipyards at Kuat and their vital importance in planetary containment and and fast infantry deployment, Imperial defector Everi Chalis proposed the assault and destruction of the shipyards following a series of major strikes at essential Imperial military installations and warehouse worlds vital for the Imperial war effort in an attempt to force the defenses on Kuat to be thinned even further. With the plan greenlit by the senior staff of one of the many rebel fragments across the galaxy, the lightning strikes on the mega-port world of Mardona III, the dockyards of Najan-Rovi and the worlds of Obumubo, Nakadia, Naator, Xagobah, Heap Nine and finally the asteroid mines of the Kuliquo belt would force the Empire to scatter its forces in an effort to defend possible worlds in the Rebel's path. With the vital manufacturing world of Sullust one of the last three worlds on the Sixty-First Mobile Infantry's list of planned attacks, the rebel forces prepared for what would unknowingly become the bloody Siege of Inyusu Tor.

Battle of Sullust
With Sullust's turbolaser defenses too formidable for a prolonged engagement, the Sixty-First jumped out of hyperspace less than half a million kilometers from the planet in order to rapidly deploy drop ships onto the Inyusu Tor mineral processing facility, the most critical facility on the planet for Imperial military production. While the assault met with initial success, roughly twelve hours later as the Sixty-First prepared to leave the system, their transport the Thunderstrike was destroyed by the Imperial Vixus Squadron which was hidden behind one of Sullust's moons in order to trap the company on the planet. Preparing for a bloody siege, the Imperial Army began a slow and laborious assault on the facility, however held back its full strength until the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Herald commanded by Prelate Verge arrived in the system. Utilizing the facilities natural mountainside elevation, the Rebels managed to hold off the Imperial assault for three days, and several scouts sent earlier to rally the local Sullustan resistance proved successful, resulting in a full-scale revolt in the nearby city of Pinyumb. While the Herald would be forced to withdraw after twenty ion bombs would be internally detonated by Everi Chalis, who arrived on the ship pretending to have escaped the rebel forces who had kept her hostage below.

With the pouring of magma onto the mountainside, the Alliance managed to destroy the advancing AT-ST walkers, Imperial fleet troopers and stormtroopers attempting to advance on the facility, while subsequent riots across the planet ultimately liberated it from Imperial rule. Operation Ringbreaker would ultimately be canceled following heavy looses, while the Sixty-First would act as a temporary police force for the interim-government of the newly freed Sullustan people.

Conflict at Endor
"Admiral Ackbar is right. The Death Star isn't our only enemy&mdash;time is, as well. Our attack must come before the battle station is operational&mdash;or all will be lost"

- Chancellor Mon Mothma

Operation Yellow Moon
"We'll use codes that we know the Empire's broken but that it thinks we think are still safe. Meanwhile, our real fleet will be assembling as far away from Corva sector as possible." "Operation Yellow Moon." "You see? We even have a name."

- Leia Organa and General Carlist Rieekan

Six months after the Rebellion's catastrophic loss at Hoth, the Rebel Fleet would split into small fragments across the galaxy in an attempt to avoid another propaganda victory for the Empire, further extending the Imperial fleet in an effort to engage the rebellion. Despite its previous advantages following the Battle of Yavin, the Rebellion would be sitting on a knife's edge after knowledge of yet another battle station being constructed by Emperor Palpatine. Following the loss of the first Death Star, the Emperor made clear his determination to create yet another planet-shattering space station, this time more powerful than the first. Utilizing S-thread boosters to carve a secret hyperspace lane through the Outer Rim, the Emperor planned on destroying the rebels in a doomed engagement over the forest moon of Endor, construction site of the Death Star II and unbeknownst to the rebels with a fully armed and operational superlaser. Following the presumed destruction of a sizable portion of the Alliance's military capabilities, the Emperor planned on deploying some of the largest invasion fleets seen in centuries to blockade the known rebel strongholds of Mon Cala and Chandrila until the Death Star could destroy them, successfully eliminating any hope of a successful galactic resistance and thus permanently ending the Alliance to Restore the Republic through sheer terror and intimidation.

After the Bothan spynet successfully transmitted intelligence regarding the Empire's new and improved Death Star to Alliance High Command, an emergency summit would be held on the remote trade world of Zastiga, far from the Galactic Core. There, Rebellion leaders and generals were to be informed of the construction of the second Death Star located over Endor which, they knew, had to be destroyed before it became operational. Needing to buy time for the scattered fleet to assemble over Sullust, Princess Leia Organa devised a strategy to divert the Imperial attention to her, instead of the upcoming mission to Endor. Known as Operation Yellow Moon, the plan would call for the placement of hyper-transceivers on worlds in the Corva sector. The transceivers would then transmit coded messages calling for potential recruits to rendezvous at the gas giant Galaan at a pre-specified time, while General Cracken's agents would plant rumors of the operation into communication networks and Leia's team would utilize outdated codes the Rebellion knew the Imperials had cracked. Despite heavy objections over the morality of knowingly misleading recruits to their deaths, the plan was greenlit by Mon Mothma, knowing full well what an operational Death Star would spell for the rebellion, and that Leia's worth to the Empire was too great for it to ignore.

The rebel team led by Organa soon reached Basteel's capital, Eladro City, where she met with Rebellion contact Bon Yoth to place the first hyper-transceiver in a cave system above his house. Almost immediately, the Empire sent the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Shieldmaiden led by the determined Captain Khione to root out the rebels, locking down the planet and punishing the worlds inhabitants in an effort to coax any information out of the populace over the Princess and her whereabouts. Undeterred, the rebels continued onto the Sesid system, where they placed another transceiver on a volcanic island but were soon chased by Imperials on the open sea until the intervention of Aurelant and his Draedan pirates, being rescued by his submersible craft the Daggadol. Being friendly to the Alliance, he aided their efforts to get off-planet on Sesid's orbital launching escape pods, which were installed in most cities in the event of a volcanic eruption. Following their subsequent escape, they made their way to Jaresh where they met with their local contact Nyessa. Learning of her people's intent to rise up against the Empire in her system, the group faced a substantial moral challenge. Placing the last transceiver on the top of a communications tower, Leia informed her team of the true purpose of the mission, and determined to do right, took part in the Riot on Jaresh, successfully aiding the natives in destroying a small Imperial force in Jowloon, after which the Star Destroyer Shieldmaiden tried and failed to hail the Mellcrawler, the ship of ex-smuggler Nien Nunb who was ferrying the group in its efforts against the Empire.

After escaping Jaresh, Organa decided to change the operation shortly before arriving in Galaan's orbit, warning the Sapphire Rogue and other ships to flee the system. The ships left, but not before the Imperials arrived in the system and captured Leia and her crew; forcing them to board the Star Destroyer. After a brief interrogation, the Star Destroyer was suddenly attacked by an amalgam of ships, while Lokmarcha detonated an EMP pulse hidden inside his body, killing him instantly. In a bid to escape the ship, Leia disguised herself as the ships now unconcious captain, and escorted her 'prisoners' to the Mellcrawler, where team member Antrot sacrificed himself by blowing a hole in the Star Destroyer's hull with the vessel, allowing their departure on the Lambda-class T-4a shuttle Tydirium, just as the Rebel ships previously warned to flee from the rendezvous helped destroy the Shieldmaiden with covering fire. Barely managing to escape just as another Star Destroyer arrived in the system.

With the destruction of the Shieldmaiden, Organa then contacted Skywalker who informed her that most of the fleet was nearly assembled, and that they now knew Solo was still alive and frozen in carbonite in Jabba's Palace owing to Lando Calrissian's infiltration of it. Arranging a rendezvous on Kothlis, the two would discuss their upcoming mission to rescue Solo. With the successful completion of Yellow Moon, the Rebel Alliance had gained valuable time for its now consolidated fleet to finally be able to strike out at an incomplete Death Star, and ultimately restore freedom to the galaxy.

Trapping the Rebellion
"Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design."

- Darth Sidious

With the Alliance Fleet assembled over Sullust, the Emperor decided to proactively approach the rebel problem. Rather than guard the station's secrets, as with the first Death Star, Sidious opted to leak just enough information to bait the Alliance into striking at the station before it was completed&mdash;including the fact that he would be overseeing the final stages of the station's construction personally. Unknown to the rebels, large portions of the Imperial Starfleet had already began massing in the Hudalla system, while Imperial engineers had ensured that the new Death Star's main weapon was fully operational. Eventually, Imperial military command had discreetly moved the gathered warships to a staging point on the far side of Endor's moon, where the Death Star was orbiting. Simultaneously, a legion of Imperial troops was deployed on the surface to stop any attempt at sabotaging the station's ground-based SLD-26 planetary shield generator, which neutralized any attempt at directly assaulting the station.

Imperial intelligence reports indicated that Sidious' trap was indeed well underway when it was discovered that the rebel fleet was massing at Sullust, as a staging ground for their strike at Endor. Per the Emperor's design and command, Imperial military authorities were ordered to ignore the buildup so that the rebels would commit their entire force to a doomed attack. When the Alliance fleet arrived en masse, the Emperor's trap was sprung. The rebel ground forces had taken the bait and been captured, allowing the Death Star's shield to remain active, while the Imperial fleet moved into position to trap the rebels. With the Alliance Fleet trapped between the bulk of the Imperial fleet and a shielded, fully-operational Death Star, victory for the Empire seemed assured.

Down on the surface of Endor, the tables were turned on the Imperial forces when they were unexpectedly attacked by the planet's indigenous Ewok population, giving the Alliance ground forces a free hand to destroy the Death Star's shield generator. With the shield down, Alliance starfighters were able to launch an assault on the Imperial station's reactor core. Meanwhile, aboard the station, a blow of an entirely different kind was struck against the Empire. A captive Luke Skywalker, now a Jedi in his own right, was successful in convincing Darth Vader to turn on his master. Vader&mdash;once again Anakin Skywalker&mdash;seized the Imperial head of state and hurled him down a shaft to his death. Soon after, the rebel starfighters were successful in attacking the Death Star's reactor core. The station was destroyed; like its predecessor, lost with all hands. With the loss of both the Emperor and his right-hand man, Vader, the destruction of the Death Star itself, and significant losses inflicted on the Imperial fleet, the Imperial remnants were forced to withdraw to the Annaj system. The Empire had suffered a decisive defeat.

Fragmentation of the Order
"This isn't some kind of inspirational story. Some scrappy, ragtag underdog tale, some pugilistic match where we're the goodhearted gladiator who brings down the oppressive regime that put him in the arena. They get to have that narrative. We are the ones who enslaved whole worlds full of alien inhabitants. We are the ones who built something called a Death Star under the leadership of a decrepit old goblin who believed in the 'dark side' of some ancient, insane religion." "Were this a better day, you'd be executed for treason, General Shale." [&hellip;]"Then why do governors turn away from us every day? Why do we lose more ships every week? Why do we see holovids of freed worlds throwing parades and tearing down statues? They did so much with so little, Pandion. You misunderstand our place in history."

- General Jylia Shale and Moff Valco Pandion

With the destruction of the Death Star and death of the Order's totalitarian ruler, many worlds across the galaxy began to celebrate the Empire's defeat over Endor believing the war to be over. Despite being at the heart of the Galactic Empire, the Imperial Center would also see tumultuous festivities by its populace, eventually leading to a riot breaking out in Monument Plaza. Citizens present celebrated the Empire's defeat over Endor and toppled a statue of the former Emperor until Imperial forces descended on the rioters firing energy weapons. Undeterred, the citizens fought back, throwing rubble and Imperial authorities out of their hovercrafts.

The day after the Death Star's destruction, an Alliance strike team called the Pathfinders carried out an assault on an Imperial outpost on the far side of Endor, with the outpost being manned by Imperials who were looking for an opportunity to counterattack after the destruction of the second Death Star. Not wishing to leave a battalion behind, General Han Solo led the strike team in an assault on the base. The Rebels were ultimately victorious and brought with them Imperial intelligence detailing Imperial plans for after the Battle of Endor. Although the Empire was in chaos following their shattering defeat on Endor, the Galactic Civil War was far from over.

In the days that followed the Battle of Endor, Governor Adelhard, who was in charge of the Anoat sector, received word of the Emperor's demise. In an attempt to cover up the Rebel victory at Endor, he shut down all travel and communications in and out of the Anoat sector, establishing the Iron Blockade. The citizens who dared to fight back and speak of so-called "rumors" of the Empire's defeat were hunted and eliminated by Commander Bragh and his Purge Troopers. Since the Alliance to Restore the Republic was stuck on the other side of the blockade and thus unable to help, an alliance of bounty hunters, gangsters, smugglers and freedom fighters arose in the sector, forming an Uprising.

With the Empire fragmented, the Rebel Alliance embarked on numerous campaigns such as the Beltire Liberation and the Battle of Cawa City to capitalize on its stunning success over Endor, resulting in numerous Imperial defeats. Twenty days after Endor, the posthumous contingency plan of the late Emperor known as Operation: Cinder would be delivered to numerous Imperial captains by the Messenger. The plan would order the scouring of his homeworld of Naboo along with at least a dozen other worlds such as Burnin Konn, Candovant, Abednedo, and Commenor with climate disruption arrays. Utilizing N-1 starfighters dating 36 years earlier to the Battle of Naboo, the Alliance managed to destroy the satellites along with the aid of an MC80 star cruiser and the Alliance Fleet. Despite the Order's defeat over Naboo, the Empire would still attempt to execute the operation on numerous worlds in the three months following the Battle of Endor.

Regrouping against the New Republic
"The rebels&mdash;because that's what they are, rebels, criminals, deviants&mdash;did what they did with almost no war machine in place. Insurgents, all of them. They managed a few lucky shots with their slingshots but we still have the ships, the men, the training. The money."

- Moff Valco Pandion

Eventually, the Galactic Empire would have to contend with the New Republic, a rival galactic government formed in the wake of the Rebel Alliance's victory at Endor. Suffering a string of defeats against the Republic including the loss of Sevarcos and Malastare, along with a failed attempt to restart the former Separatist droid foundries on Geonosis, the Empire gradually began to crumble. Self-appointed Grand Moffs such as Valco Pandion, Randd and other military leaders began to jockey for power, while corrupt sector governors accepted payments for the Republic's allocation of Imperial ships, and an actor on Coruscant impersonated the late Emperor. Eventually, the truth of the Emperor's demise became known to the general citizenry, while declarations of a new Emperor were announced almost everyday with none able to consolidate any substantial power. Former aide to Emperor Palpatine since the Clone Wars, Grand Vizier Mas Amedda attempted to keep the Empire together while splinter fleets and other Imperial officials fought each other to support the various claimants to power.

During this time, many planets were either captured or seceded to the New Republic owing to the Empire's fractured state. With the loss and failure of three successive sieges to retake the Mid Rim world of Naboo, birthplace to the Emperor and thus influential rallying point for the New Order's shattered forces, the Empire retreated to numerous fallback positions on strategically unimportant worlds such as Naalol, often drawing the New Republic into long and indecisive conflicts, forestalling its slow push toward the Core Worlds. The galactic capital Coruscant was also subject to instability in the form of the Anklebiter Brigade, which operated in the CoCo Town area and assaulted numerous Imperial positions in the lower levels. The Imperial military soon began suffering numerous losses of warships and troops, and began expending more ordinance than it could produce fighting Republic forces. This ultimately led to a supply deficit forcing Imperial-class Star Destroyers to make do with an inadequate supply of TIE/LN starfighters and resulted in both the Imperial Navy and Imperial Army utilizing untrained personnel pulled early from the numerous Imperial academies across the Empire.

Facing attrition, the surviving Imperial leaders and their military forces converged on the Outer Rim planet of Akiva in an attempt to avoid New Republic detection and stabilize the remaining factions of the Empire in the months following Endor, with various portions of the Outer Rim still occupied by Imperial forces. While on a routine and solo reconnaissance mission, New Republic pilot Wedge Antilles discovered the Imperial summit and military build-up on Akiva, however before he could warn the New Republic, he was shot down and made prisoner by recently promoted Admiral Rae Sloane. However, Antilles succeeded in sending out a distress signal before being captured, alerting Rebel fighter Norra Wexley. Wexley assembled a small cell composed of her son, a Zabrak bounty hunter and an Imperial defector to investigate the distress call and the situation on Akiva.

During the Akiva summit, various Imperial delegates discussed the future of the Empire in the aptly named Imperial Future Council. Amid the conference, the various Imperial leaders were divided over how the Empire should deal with their newfound situation, and whether or not it would be wise to continue the war, or enter into a state of cold war. The summit eventually began discussing the notion of abandoning the Emperor’s devotion to the Dark Side and to truly become a force for Order, or whether to continue the Emperor’s Dark Side teachings and search for its ultimate power, which was allegedly hidden on the outskirts of the galaxy. With the more pressing objective to organize and thus strike out against the New Republic before it could grow any stronger, the delegates soon began discussing who should lead the Empire as the new Galactic Emperor. Before any real progress could be made, Akiva was ultimately liberated after a New Republic fleet arrived, forcing the Imperials to scatter once more and resulting in Akiva to be the first Outer Rim planet to formally join the New Republic. In reality, an Imperial fleet admiral going under the surname of 'the Operator' had been secretly manipulating the entire event in an attempt to weed out those that he saw as weak, and had been giving the New Republic secret Imperial intelligence for quite some time following Endor.

A year and four days after Endor, the Empire and the New Republic fought a major battle over and on the planet Jakku as the rebels sought to expand their territory into a vital sector in the galactic war. With the Empire controlling most of the galaxy's major shipyards, the Republic sought to expand their fleet by capturing Imperial vessels, and in a daring move intended to capture the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Inflictor, sending Thane Kyrell and a number of former Imperials on the mission. With the battle initially in the Empire's favor, it soon turned into a rout as the smaller rebel forces attacked the Imperials from their flanks, owing in part to the tumultuous military leadership following the Emperor's death. After Republic soldiers boarded the Inflictor, Captain Ciena Ree realized their intents and attempted to activate the ship's self-destruct, only to discover that the boarders had disabled it. Seeing no other option, Ree ordered her crew to evacuate and then scuttled the ship by crashing the Star Destroyer onto the surface of Jakku which would became littered with wreckage from the battle for decades to come.

Fall of the Galactic Empire
"You will be avenged&mdash;when the Empire rises again."

- Nash Windrider

Signing the Galactic Concordance
"In the month since the Battle of Jakku, the Empire has attempted no further large-scale offensives. Sources report all Imperial vessels within the Core and Inner Rim staying within the boundaries defined by the treaty. A few prominent members of the Provisional Senate have speculated that the New Republic's war with the remnants of the Empire has finally come to an end and that a final surrender may be imminent. However, in her address today, the chancellor warned that all planets should remain on high alert, and that the New Republic Starfleet should be kept on a war footing for the foreseeable future."

- A news holo a month following the Battle of Jakku

Following losses on and over Jakku, the Empire did not attempt to instigate any major offensives with the New Republic. With severe depletion setting in, the Empire would eventually be forced to sign the Galactic Concordance, effectively surrendering to the New Republic after negotiations on Coruscant. Treaty stipulations would see the building and mobilization of stormtrooper forces forbidden, heavy war reparations and other harsh concessions that would limit the Empire's ability to wage war and sustain its armada. The treaty would also force all Imperial vessels located in the Core and Inner Rim to be confined within pre-defined boundaries, locking the Empire into an endless cold war with the New Republic and seeing its eventual transformation into a rump state, with political hardliners dominating its internal affairs. With the Empire facing severe internal unrest, several prominent members of the Galactic Senate came to believe that the war with the Empire was nearing its end and that the Empire's surrender was imminent.

Concurrently, large numbers of Imperial warships began retreating into the galaxy's Unknown Regions seeking to escape the prying eyes of the New Republic and its bans on the sale of military armaments to the Empire. There in the galactic west, the scattered Imperial elements had re-united under a common cause as the factionalism that had previously scarred the Empire had been swept away. While smaller, remnants of the Imperial Starfleet had gathered in the Queluhan Nebula a month after Jakku owning to its ability to hide their ships from enemy scanners. With weapons upgrades to its TIE/LN starfighters and over ten Star Destroyers and countless light cruisers, the Galactic Empire would formulate its eventual plan to strike out at an unsuspecting galaxy.

Legacy
"One conqueror replaces another..."

- Sinjir Rath Velus



With the Empire's collapse, many of the Emperor's servants fled into the Unknown Regions with some of the regime's greatest secrets. There for nearly three decades after Endor, the Empire's first true successor state would coalesce as the mysterious First Order. Situated in the galaxy's vast frontier, the First Order would undergo the rapid expansion and colonization of newly discovered star systems, while new bases, shipyards, and weapons labs would begin churning out a technologically advanced military in a bid to conquer the galaxy. Inspired by the previous Galactic Empire and composed of various military leaders of the former regime, the First Order fought for control of the galaxy against the Resistance, a private military force led by General Leia Organa and funded by like-minded senators in the New Republic who believed the Order posed a greater threat than many believed.

Government
Amongst high-ranking military personnel, the Emperor's name was spoken with fear along with his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader. Though frequently styled as a "Lord", and treated with a similar fearful deference as Palpatine, it is unclear whether Vader performed an official function of government. Serving the Empire and its interests were numerous Dark Side Adepts, Force-sensitive individuals of the Inquisitorius trained to track down and eliminate any surviving Jedi. Due to the nature of their mission, Inquisitors could commandeer local Imperial forces, and possessed authority over other officers in the Imperial military.

With the rise of the new order, many previous governmental agencies were re-named and re-purposed, with many official buildings remodeled to fit a darker and more angular aesthetic. One such agency was the Republic-era COMPOR, newly dubbed COMPNOR, the Commission for the Preservation of the New Order. It was the Empire's umbrella agency dedicated to ensuring order and stability for the countless worlds under the Emperor's rule by supporting the new regime through propaganda and intelligence services. Organizations such as the Imperial Security Bureau and Military Intelligence worked under its oversight, with the ISB helping to stamp out potential dissident actions along with Military Intelligence's vast information and data gathering operations on the countless citizens in the galaxy. Also working under the auspices of COMPNOR was the Ministry of Information, designated under the Coalition for Progress. The Ministry was primarily tasked with muzzling the HoloNet News Agency of anti-Imperial messaging and ensuring the necessary infrastructure for the vast communications systems within the Empire. It also worked to monitor the Imperial Press Corps at the grand COMPNOR arcology, located in the Federal District of Coruscant, Level 5127.

The Empire also maintained the Imperial Information Office which employed civilians to help the Empire and its massive data operations in the galaxy, allowing employees the option of whether to cybernetically enhance their performance with AJ^6 cyborg constructs. The Ministry of Agriculture and Imperial Agricultural Collective oversaw the horticultural aspect of Imperial dominion, with officials on many worlds across the galaxy, including Lothal. The Economics Ministry, Education Ministry, Weather Ministry, Transportation Ministry and Imperial Survey Corps also employed numerous citizens across the Empire. The Imperial Mining Institute also existed under the New Order, while the Imperial Department of Military Research helped to boost the combat forces of the Empire, developing the widely used stormtrooper armor and the IT-O Interrogation Unit, along with the 9D9-s54 Spy Droid.

The Empire also employed the services of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, along with freelance bounty hunters to track down elusive elements within Imperial dominion. Bounty hunters such as Boba Fett, IG-88 and Dengar all assisted the Empire in tracking down the Millennium Falcon shorty after the Battle of Hoth, while Boba Fett had helped Darth Vader earlier by uncovering the mysterious agent of his master, Darth Sidious. In order to supply law enforcement information to the countless worlds in the galaxy, the Empire maintained the Imperial Enforcement DataCore and allowed it to be accessed by authorized Imperial personnel or bounty hunters for a small fee, and supplied Imperial Peace-Keeping Certificates to those who actively helped the Empire and its interests. The Imperial Office of Criminal Investigation also aided in law enforcement operations across the galaxy.

During the reign of the Empire, the Imperial Senate gradually lost the prestige it once held as the forum for galactic debate, as increasing numbers of senators became entangled into Emperor Sheev Palpatine's web of corruption, which began earlier during the Clone Wars. With the once powerful Senate firmly in Palpatine's hands, passing legislation became a mere formality for the New Order. However certain senators, such as Bail and Leia Organa of Alderaan actively questioned the accountability of the Empire and its actions, much to the ire of Imperial authorities. Suspicions eventually began rising over Leia Organa using her diplomatic immunity to help the Rebel Alliance. After her capture aboard the Tantive IV, which was known to be carrying technical readouts for the Death Star, the Emperor used the incident as an excuse for disbanding the Imperial Senate shortly before the Battle of Yavin. With the dissolution of the Senate, authority over the various systems and sectors passed directly to the regional governors&mdash;effectively transitioning governance into military jurisdiction, who answered directly to the Emperor.

Foreign affairs
The Galactic Empire maintained a number of foreign relations with several independent or client states in the galaxy during its political existence. It maintained relations with both independent entities and established a number of protectorates across the galaxy. Following the Battle of Yavin, Vader would deliver pieces of the planet Alderaan to systems that needed a reminder of the Emperor's might. The Empire also maintained strategic resource systems, in which industrial surveillance, heightened security measures and higher work quotas were in effect, and were often placed under the supervision of influential barons, moguls and efficiency experts.

Military
"Look on our new military not as trespassers or interlopers, but as gatekeepers, here to shore up the Emperor's vision of a pacified and prosperous galaxy."

- Wilhuff Tarkin As the direct successor to the Grand Army of the Republic, the Imperial Military comprised vast numbers of warships and countless soldiers. One of the most recognizable warships being the Imperial-class Star Destroyer, the mere sight of one usually being enough to bring a troublesome system in line. Rule through fear of force rather than force itself was the driving philosophy throughout the Imperial military. A philosophy bolstered by the near limitless resources at the Empire's disposal and loyalist companies such as Taim & Bak, Borstel and Phylon. Corporations such as Kuat Drive Yards and its subsidiary Kuat Systems Engineering produced many of the New Order's Star Destroyers, as well as the formidable All Terrain Armored Transport, which was frequently deployed at hotspots throughout the galaxy. The AT-AT became to be feared for its formidable chin-mounted heavy laser cannons, while lighter walkers such as the All Terrain Defense Pod featured a single laser cannon able to be rotated independent of the walkers front facing direction, and were deployed primarily to protect Imperial military interests on backwater worlds. BlasTech Industries was the primary weapons producer for the widely used E-11 blaster rifle and DL-18 blaster pistol. The Aratech Repulsor Company manufactured the 614-AvA speeder bike, commonly referred to as the Imperial speeder bike which starred two BlasTech JB-37 blaster cannons and a top speed of 375 kph. Sienar Fleet Systems produced many of the Empire's Imperial TIE fighters and variants, such as the TIE Advanced v1 which was originally unveiled on Empire Day and featured dual chin-mounted laser cannons and the ability to launch warheads such as the XX-23 S-thread tracker. The TIE Advanced x1 would be naturally become the next evolution of the deadly v1, as well as the preferred craft of Lord Vader. In addition, the Empire inherited the military assets of the defunct Separatist movement&mdash;the most notable of which was the Death Star.

Leading the Imperial military were highly trained admirals, generals and Moffs who were instructed at the numerous Imperial Academy complexes throughout the galaxy. Several veteran officers also formerly served in the Galactic Republic, with decorated members such as Wullf Yularen. During the sixth year of the Emperor's reign there was a fixed number of twenty Moffs who answered directly to the Imperial Ruling Council. The title of Grand Moff was specifically created for Wilhuff Tarkin, while other Moffs such as Tiaan Jerjerrod and Therbon sought to increase their reputation with the Emperor. Some ambitious officers even supported insurgent activities with later plans to betray and destroy them in hopes of a promotion. It was not uncommon for high ranking officials to maintain private investments, with Hiram Zataire owning large plantations and a vineyard on Naboo, and Cassio Tagge being a member of the Tagge family, held ownership of TaggeCo and its mining facility at Lucazec.

The Imperial Army and Navy were responsible for carrying out the Empire's military operations across the galaxy. Ostensibly dedicated to maintaining law and order, Imperial military forces came to be feared and fled from. Perhaps the most ubiquitously visible element were the Imperial stormtroopers. These faceless soldiers were the enforcers of Imperial order, often exercising a 'shoot-first' policy. Following the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire's martial forces began to suffer both resource and personnel shortages, ultimately forcing untrained and untested recruits to fill the front lines in the Imperial war effort, while the once mightly Imperial Navy was reduced to a single Super Star Destroyer, the Ravager, which would ultimately be destroyed during the Battle of Jakku.

Society and culture
"Can you stop thinking of yourself as a native of your home planet and begin thinking of yourself as an Imperial first? An Imperial only? Can you accept that protecting and serving the world you came from is best accomplished by strengthening the Empire to which it belongs?"

- The introductory speech at the Royal Imperial Academy on Coruscant.

The Galactic Empire officially supported the political ideals of the New Order, and actively promoted its ideals through propaganda posters and pro-Imperial news reports delivered by news anchors such as Alton Kastle and monitored by the Ministry of Information on the HoloNet News, the only state-sanctioned news agency which was intent on glorifying the Empire and its armed forces, though there still existed local news outlets such as the Lothal Bulletin that supported the Galactic Empire. The Imperial Press Corps worked in league with HoloNet News, ensuring reporting stayed in line with "acceptable" news coverage. Due to physical alterations to Palpatine to make him look younger and more appealing in broadcasts, many citizenry did not know of the Emperor's scarred appearance, nor did they comprehend that the galaxy was under the command of a Sith Lord.

To enhance its legitimacy in the eyes of the people, the Empire used the duel in Palpatine's office to officially support the idea of a "Jedi Rebellion" occurring, and that the Jedi Order had attempted to stage a coup intent on taking control over the Republic, thus necessitating Order 66. In the years after the Proclamation of the New Order, all remaining recordings of the Jedi were removed, with many eventually believing and supporting the Emperor's version of events. However individuals such as Zaluna Myder and even Luke Skywalker questioned the Empire's account of the events leading up to their destruction, while those that knew the Jedi in person could not bring themselves to believe in the notion of a Jedi-lead coup. Those that attempted to distribute independent publications could be punished with imprisonment without term, while a defense was only allowed in civil cases, and not trials against the Empire. The Empire also outlawed any displays of organized worship and belief in the supernatural, yet underground religions such as the Church of the Force would exist well after the Age of the Empire.

Nonetheless, with the end of the Clone Wars and the dismantling of the Separatist Droid Army, a renewed sense of peace and prosperity returned to the Core. This peace was aided by the efforts of the Coalition for Progress division of COMPNOR, who took note when artistic media appeared to undermine the Empire, using its authority in one instance to dismantle a statue of Janyor of Bith on the Outer Rim world of Garel, or by banning subversive operas such as the Song of Lojuun and sending members of the band Hakko Drazlip and the Tootle Froots to work in the mines of Kessel after a song with political undertones mocked Lord Vader, with the song being declared contraband as a result although afterwards was still available illegally in various formats. Unemployment in strategic resource systems was declared unlawful.

Grav-ball was a popular sport within the Galactic Empire, with many worlds hosting teams that would occasionally compete with one another. The Junior Academy of Applied Sciences on Lothal hosted a team known as the AppSci SaberCats, and consisted of ten players on a 64-meter grid, with which the game could be played with multiple rule variations such as Corellian rules. There also existed underground gladiatorial games within Imperial territories, with the Outer Rim Carve-up and Stormblade Bloodfest being some of the organized occurrences of the sport within the early years of the Empire.

Within the Imperial military, an "institutionalized suspicion" was noted by Tarkin as having established itself within the Imperial hierarchy, which he believed was used as a tool by Emperor Palpatine to control the various members of the Empire and its numerous organizations. There also existed an intense fear of the Emperor and Lord Vader, mainly due to harsh punishments often resulting in death or torture if a task was not completed in time or resulted in failure. Imperial patrol transports and stormtroopers were often utilized as the local police force for numerous worlds, while off-duty personnel could frequent local venues and neighborhoods after signing-out of their local garrison. The euphemism "off-base, recreation," was used in the Imperial military when referring to the visiting of various mistresses or cantinas by personnel, while out of consideration it was common for duty officers to ask no questions about such escapades. Members within the Imperial Army believed that those stationed furthest from the Imperial Center were believed to be of less importance to the New Order, causing many to resent deployments on remote worlds such as Belderone.

By the time after the Battle of Endor, illicit holovids of the Emperor's defeat over Endor and rebel propaganda detailing the liberation of worlds such as Naboo began to disseminate throughout the galaxy, with many facing the risk of arrest and execution for spreading what the Empire deemed lies. However the increasing view that the Empire was weakened prompted thousands of citizens to join the New Republic, while Imperial military defections steadily began to increase. In order to counter the accusations of the Emperor's demise, a proxy actor was installed in his place, however some citizens were able to notice slight differences in the facsimile. Eventually, numerous cliamants to power would attempt to sow their legitimacy in the eyes of the public, however the real power would be held by Palpatine's former aide, Grand Vizier Mas Amedda who would attempt to keep the Empire from falling apart in the tumultuous years after Endor.

Demographics
"... I have no issues with aliens myself&mdash;some of my best friends are nonhumans&mdash;but some grav-ball fans object to alien physiognomies, seeing them as giving nonhumans an edge."

- Janus Fhurek

The population of the Empire was dominated largely by humans, a species native to the Imperial capital world Coruscant. Humans were the most common species in both the Imperial military and the Empire's political circles, with the highest echelons of the New Order almost entirely consisting of humans. Since the Empire looked down on aliens, it was rare for aliens to serve as Imperial officers. Nevertheless, some non-humans were known to occupy lofty roles within the Empire, such as the Chagrian Mas Amedda, who served as the Empire's Grand Vizier and the Pau'an Grand Inquisitor, the leading figure in the Inquisitorius during the Age of the Empire. The Empire also discouraged the learning of alien languages and cultures such as Ithorese, and sought to impose high 'Imperial standards' for its citizens.

Slavery
Within the Empire, non-humans were routinely subjugated, with many sent to numerous slave labor camps across the galaxy. One of the most infamous being the spice mines of Kessel, where Wookiee slaves, prized for their strength would be sent to mine the valuable spice located in the planets interior. A literal death sentence for many, with an expected survival time of three months. Humanoid species often had a longer survival time, ranging from one to two years in the mines. On Ryloth, isolated settlements often existed with little or no knowledge about the Empire at large, with those same camps oftentimes being disbanded and its inhabitants relocated to slave labor camps when needed. Escaped slaves or displaced persons often made up these camps, similar to Tarkintown on Lothal. Those that resisted Imperial rule could see their whole planet devastated and species reduced to near-extinction, with the Lasat homeworld of Lasan being ecologically destroyed by the later banned T-7 ion disruptor rifles, while the reptilian Bodach'i would be forced to work in spice mines on planets such as Kerev Doi.

Astrography
As the successor state to the Galactic Republic, the Galactic Empire's authority spanned most of the known galaxy. Its reach was vast, claiming as its own every territory within the former Galactic Republic, as well as those which had joined the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Empire also controlled many territories through puppet states, alliances and had many protectorates throughout the known galaxy, most notably the Corporate Sector. The Empire maintained numerous outposts in systems such as Trogan, Jomark and Felucia, as well as a small outpost on Rhen Var and a mining colony and Imperial prison on Nam Chorios. An invisible boundary existed on the border of the Mid Rim and Outer Rim Territories, with it being considered the 'front line' against the lawlessness of the Outer Rim. Nonetheless, the Imperial sphere of influence ended shortly before reaching Hutt Space, resulting in its reputation as a haven for smugglers, bounty hunters and other denizens of the galaxy. However following the Battle of Yavin, the Empire began to cut into Hutt Space trade in an effort to reduce their independence. Seeking to find the source of the Dark Side, the Empire established numerous labs and communications stations on distant moons and asteroids beyond known space, with Emperor Palpatine believing his power was drawn from beyond the galaxy.

Following the Battle of Endor, the Galactic Empire's size steadily began to wane, losing numerous worlds to the recently formed New Republic, while Imperial assets and academies on worlds such as Uyter were destroyed in bloody warfare. Eventually, Imperial warships began jumping into the Unknown Regions following the Galactic Concordance to escape the prying eyes of the New Republic. This was made easier owning to the fact that parts of the Unknown Regions had previously been explored by military scout ships surveying star systems and blazing hyperspace routes only known to a select few.

Behind the scenes
The Galactic Empire first appeared as the main antagonist of the first Star Wars movie Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope in 1977. It later appeared in the two other films of the Original trilogy: Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. George Lucas later used the Prequel trilogy to chronicle the events which led to the rise of the Empire. The Empire's origins and role in the Star Wars universe was subsequently expanded by various Expanded Universe literature and media over the next four decades. Following the Lucasfilm Story Group's decision in May 2014 to reboot the Star Wars universe, the Galactic Empire reappeared as a major antagonist in several new Canonical media and literature including the Disney XD television series Star Wars Rebels.

According to the author Jason Fry, the Galactic Empire in the newly established Canonical universe was not openly xenophobic and misogynistic unlike the Legends version. However, he acknowledged that some of the Empire's most devoted supporters including xenophobes like his character Janus Fhurek, a minor antagonist in Fry's 2014 junior novel Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy. In his view, the idea of a misogynistic Empire was discounted by the presence of prominent Imperial female characters in John Jackson Miller's novel A New Dawn and Star Wars Rebels. The reference guides Star Wars Rebels: The Visual Guide and Star Wars Rebels: Visual Guide: Epic Battles have since confirmed that pro-human xenophobia existed within the Imperial Military and government bureaucracy.

Non-canon appearances

 * Epic Yarns: A New Hope
 * Epic Yarns: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Epic Yarns: Return of the Jedi