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With the shield now down and the Imperial fleet suddenly in disary, Admiral Ackbar ordered all Rebel starfighter groups to commence attack on the Death Star's interior. While sensor and ship log data are scetchy, it is generally accepted that it is this point at which Home One went down, destroyed by the Executor and losing all hands aboard; Admiral Ackbar and Commander-in-Cheif Mon Motha were counted among the dead. Alliance starfighters, lead by General Lando Calrisian, did succeed in destroying the Death Star's massive reactors, triggering the chain reaction that caused the Imperial super-weapon to self-destruct. General Calrisian lost his life in the resulting explosion while exiting the Death Star, along with Rebel starfighter pilots Wedge Antilles and Tycho Celchu.
The death-toll for Alliance forces numbered above eighty-five thousand, and included Admiral Ackbar, Commander-in-Cheif Mon Mothma, and several other high-ranking Alliance officers. Commander Luke Skywalker, a member of the Alliance ground force, was listed as missing in action; his sister, now-Prime Minister Leia Organa-Solo, places Skywalker aboard the Death Star itself during the battle. It is generally accepted that if Skywalker did indeed manage to escape the Death Star's destruction, his was one of the countless escape vessels to fall to enemy fire from the withdrawing Imperial fleet. No solid figures can be produced concerning Imperial fleet losses, but the death toll is generally beleived to be roughly equal to if not greater that of Alliance forces. A body-count of the Imperial ground forces found over two-hundred head of infantry, and a full six ground patrol (AT-AT/AT-ST) units. While several escaping Imperial vessels were later tracked down and either destroyed or absorbed, the Executor itself and its main stable of support ships remain at large to this day.
With the loss of Mon Mothma and Ackbar, leadership fell to Leia Organa, who hastily regathered the remains of the Alliance forces and withdrew from the sector.
The Rebellion was quick to declare itself the new governement in the aftermath, and the death of the Emperor and his super-weapon gave this new "Union of Galactic Peoples" all the momentum it needed to continue its campaign until all primary sectors were under its control. Prime Minister Leia Organa-Solo began a series of military operations (headed largely by her husband, now-Admiral Han Solo) aimed at remnant Imperial fleets and other potential warring powers. The first of these resistance pockets to fall was the unsuspecting Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was still in the process of building an adequate fleet-strength and was unprepared for the Union's uncharacteristically aggressive tactics. While Thrawn's fleet was defeated and his flagship destroyed, the Grand Admiral himself was not counted among the dead and is considered "at large" by the Union. Other such "warlords" to fall before Admiral Solo's fleet during the two-year offensive included Warlord Zsinj and Admiral Daala, who's entire fleets were totally destroyed by the Union. Unconfirmed reports make the headquarters for Daala's fleet to be the "Maw Installation," an Imperial weapon development installation where the Death Star was allegedly designed. However, all information regarding the Maw Installation--verification of its existance, what if anything was retrieved from it--have all been classified by Prime Minister Organa-Solo.
Nearly a decade passed under the guidance of the Union. And its citizens are beginning to realize that things have been slowly, gradually changing.
To support the massive, ever-growing Union war machine sanctioned by Prime Minister Organa-Solo, the worlds of the outer rim have been called upon for greater and greater amounts of production materials and resources. In the most recent years, the Rim worlds have actually begun to reach economic threshold, unable to raise production any further and still maintain a stable government and social structure. The Union's response to this situation was to declare martial law on all Union worlds lying beyond the galactic core. A Union-refitted Star Destroyer is stationed in ever Rim sector, given orders from Admiral Solo himself to keep production climbing steadily at any cost, and a Union "security outpost," actually a military installation, has been set in orbit above every major Rim world.
And finally, as it always does, oppression has bred rebellion. A new resistance has formed, and this Rim World Coalition is now secretly building a warfaring strength comprable to that of the Rebel Alliance's prior to the Battle of Endor. Protected from early discovery by Senator Garm Bel Iblis, a hero of the Thrawn campaign and trusted advisor of the Prime Ministor, the Coalition has thrived to the point it is ready to begin fielding operations against the Union.
Senator Bel Iblis has been the secret leader of the Coalition since its founding, and has been using his possition to help hide, fund and arm his forces. Most significantly, Bel Iblis retrieved plans for a new class of destroyer-carrier from the classified Maw Installation files, providing the Coalition the knowledge and resources to produce a capital ship capable of challenging the Union's MC-80 cruisers and Star Destroyers.
And now, even as the Union of Galactic Peoples realizes the threat forming before them and mobilizes its considerable forces, Garm Bel Iblis escapes to Coalition High Command, bringing with him a new ally, and a hope for the future of the Rim Worlds... |
