Post by Jace Kinay'sor on Jun 1, 2009 10:43:26 GMT 8
History
[edit]Early foundations
"Vote for Palpatine. Vote for the Empire. Make Mon Mothma vote for him too. Be good little Senators. Mind your manners and keep your heads down. And keep doing all those things we can't talk about. All those things I can't know. Promise me, Bail."
―Padmé Amidala to Bail Organa, during the Declaration of a New Order[src]
Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, among others, discuss the formation of the Rebel Alliance.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when rebellion against Palpatine began, but its earliest known roots existed shortly before the end of the Clone Wars. By this time, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had accumulated a massive power base, and had passed the Sector Governance Decree, installing his own officers and troops on Republic worlds. Senators such as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma saw this as a move towards dictatorship, and not as a way of reinforcing democracy. Meeting with other trusted Senators, Organa and Mothma formed the Delegation of 2000, arguably the first organization to which the future Rebellion can be connected.
Members of the Delegation drew up a petition, attempting to force the Chancellor to lay down his emergency powers and pursue a more peaceful resolution to the war. Palpatine rejected this, however, and soon after, transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire, installing himself as Emperor with the support of much of the Galactic Senate. Many of those who had signed the Petition of 2,000 were imprisoned, killed, or forced into exile, though Organa and Mothma managed to elude Palpatine's attention—in part thanks to the advice of the late Padmé Amidala, who had pleaded with Bail, during the very session of congress that saw the birth of the Empire, not to attract attention to his secret resistance. Bail had agreed, and, slowly, he and Mon Mothma began to build a de facto resistance to Palpatine's regime.
[edit]Armed resistance
Rebel troops and armor patrol in actions against the Imperial Army.
"The Empire maintains order, and people like you disrupt that order."
―Sarkli[src]
In the following years, as Palpatine's Empire grew in size and power, small resistance cells began to spring up on planets across the galaxy. These small and unorganized groups periodically raided Imperial installations, including sabotage that directly affected the Imperial construction of the Death Star. These groups were a mixed bunch, ranging from loyalists still holding on to the ideals of the Republic to former Separatists. As these early resistance cells became known to one another, former enemies became unexpected allies. Some raids were led by Jedi, determined to make a stand in the Dark Times. One former Jedi and Republic officer, Ferus Olin, gathered remaining Jedi and created a slowly growing resistance movement that spanned the galaxy.
[edit]Massacre at Ghorman
When Imperial warships under the command of Wilhuff Tarkin landed on top of protesters against high Imperial taxation on the planet Ghorman, killing hundreds, many in the galaxy began to wonder if this new Empire was in fact malevolent. Many career officers whose service records stretched back to the Republic, like Jan Dodonna, resigned or retired from Imperial service. Bail Organa, long opposed to armed resistance began to rethink his own role in the scheme of the brewing rebellion. Yet, with so many countless cells of rebels unorganized and uncoordinated, there seemed to be no chance of mounting a serious resistance to Palpatine’s regime.[3]
[edit]Cantham House
Discussion between Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Garm Bel Iblis continued at the Cantham House Meetings on Imperial Center. These meetings were informal, designed to gauge the respective leaders' commitment to open rebellion. Mon Mothma of Chandrila was by far the most outspoken critic of the Emperor, having been forced to go underground to avoid capture or death by Imperial agents. It was a last minute call from her friend and colleague Bail Organa that spared this future leader of the galaxy. It would take a coordinated alliance of rebels to fully pose a threat to the Empire.
[edit]Birth of the Rebellion
"The historical records will claim that the Rebel Alliance was born on Corellia. That is a documented fact. But the truth is this. The Rebel Alliance was born in the Scarl system…aboard Darth Vader`s personal starship, the Executor."
―PROXY[src]
During the Purge, Darth Vader had secretly raised an apprentice named Galen Marek, codenamed Starkiller. Plotting to overthrow Palpatine, Vader used Starkiller as his personal assassin to kill fugitive Jedi in preparation for the coup against Palpatine. Around the same time, Senator Bail Organa came in contact with Jedi Rahm Kota, using the Kota Militia as a temporary minor rebellion. This rebellion raided several Imperial targets, eventually attacking the TIE Fighter Construction Facility over Nar Shaddaa. Vader used this as Marek's final test, before officially knighting him. In the ensuing battle, Kota confronted Marek in a lightsaber duel, where he was blinded when his own lightsaber was forced into his eyes, then thrown through the overturned glass ceiling into Nar Shaddaa's atmosphere - but not before Kota foretold a future to Marek in which Kota would be of utmost importance to him.
Following the assassinations of Jedi Shaak Ti and Kazdan Paratus, Palpatine discovered Marek and ordered Vader to kill him. But Vader made it seem like he killed his apprentice, having him recover on his science vessel, the Empirical for six months. When Marek awoke, Vader told him they must distract the Emperor's spies by gathering the Empire's enemies. Feeling that Kota may help him, Marek went to Nar Shaddaa to seek out the blind, Force-severed Jedi. Eventually, Marek caught up with Kota in a bar on Bespin. Kota said that he lost contact with Bail after his mission. On Kashyyyk, Bail's daughter, Princess Leia Organa said that her father went looking for Shaak Ti on Felucia, but had been captured by her fallen Padawan, Maris Brood. Marek saved Organa and let Brood go. Afterwards, Organa said they must show that the Empire is weak and Vader suggested he destroy a Star Destroyer shipyard above Raxus Prime.
[edit]Election of Leadership
"And with you leading us... we will have the power of the Force on our side."
―Bail Organa[src]
A Rebel Alliance General
The shipyard's destruction brought together the three main resistance forces: Chandrila, Alderaan, and Corellia and signed the Corellian Treaty. The Treaty was named for Garm Bel Iblis, as the Senator of Corellia, who had organized and personally guaranteed security for the three groups attending the meetings that led to its ratification. This was the founding document of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, or Rebel Alliance, and set out the structure and framework of the Alliance. While Bail's great wealth would fund the rebellion, Garm would supply them their starships and Mon Mothma would supply the alliance's soldiers. In spite of this, however, they were leaderless. And so Galen Marek, with the support of Rahm Kota was appointed the leader of the Rebel Alliance. Bail stated that with Galen leading the Alliance, they would have "the power of the Force on our side." For the first time, scattered resistance groups began to unite and form into a real threat to the Empire.
But unfortunately for the Rebels, Darth Vader and Imperial troops arrived at the signing to arrest the Senators. This plot to organize Imperial opposition was actually a plot by Palpatine to gather all resistance spearheads into one location and that Vader had no intention of killing Palpatine yet -- at least, not with Galen. PROXY distracted Darth Vader with a poorly choreographed imitation of Obi-Wan Kenobi using the lightsaber Kota had dropped during the Imperial arrest. The distraction led to PROXY's eventual, if temporary, dismemberment. The decoy was a success, regardless, having progressed long enough for Marek to escape being executed by Vader. Though weakened, he was able to reunite with Juno Eclipse and escape Corellia. Grief stricken and driven to redeem himself to his new allies, Galen eased himself into a self-induced Jedi Meditation in order to locate the captured senators, during which spare parts and loose tools throughout pilot's bridge began to levitate and orbit around him. His meditation took another step when he saw more than the location of the senators, but a glimpse of a possible future; one that ended with the death of his newly acquired friend and mentor - Rahm Kota. When asked by Juno what he saw, he envisioned the Death Star I still under construction.
Upon arriving at the Death Star, Galen told Juno that she must be ready to evacuate the Senators to safety. Juno said she had a bad feeling about the operation and asked if she would ever see him again. Galen, who knew this was a one way trip, felt it best not to lie and told her "Probably not, no." This gave Juno enough emotional drive to embrace him in a passionate kiss, saying "Then I'll never have to live this down." Galen, with the Rogue Shadow hovering over massive access network terminal, dove into the mechanical abyss of tunnels and power tubing. With a pulsing surge of the Force, he quickened his speed into the depths where he landed amidst ranks upon ranks of imperial forces. The leader of the Rebel Alliance had come to save his people.
Skillfully infiltrating the inner depths of the Death Star, Marek fought a wide array of imperials, including a Force-talented regiment of Royal Guards led by one of the Emperor's Shadow Guards before facing off with Vader himself. The duel was hard fought before Galen gained the upper hand by collapsing a ceiling of pipes and poles on top of Vader, girding him across a floor-based energy shield, and finally lurching him up in mid-air and violently hurling him through the window leading to the Emperor's viewing dome where the Dark Lord of the Sith slammed into one of the statues, toppling into a pile of smoking refuse. While the Emperor gave Galen a choice to kill Vader and take his place, Kota intervened, but not with enough strength to stop the Emperor's favored assault of Force lightning as the senators watched helplessly. Faced with the choice of slaying his master for power or saving his friends, Marek chose the more chivalrous path and personally engaged the Emperor, who was no stranger to the arts of war himself. While the Emperor used his wiles and cunning, even summoning numerous Shadowtroopers to overwhelm Galen, the Rebel Leader was more than apt in tearing down all opposition where he was able to deal a semi-finishing blow to Palpatine by battering him around with ragdoll-like vehemence, before finally grounding the Emperor in preparation of executing him once and for all.
The Emperor beckoned Marek to kill him, saying that Galen was meant to defeat him. With an ignited lightsaber ready for the final strike, Marek's action was halted by Rahm Kota's intervention, telling him to let it go. Marek, having once been sworn to the dark side before his redemption, knew better, saying that Palpatine was stronger than Rahm knew and that he deserved to die for all he had done. While Rahm agreed with Marek's reasoning, the Jedi Master told Galen, "If you strike him down in anger, you'll be right back where you began." This calmed the Rebel leader into a sounder state of mind. Galen told Rahm to get the senators to safety and that he'd be right behind them. The moment Rahm turned his back and Galen lowered his guard, Palpatine's venomous fervor reared itself again and he pummeled the Jedi Master with another wave of Dark Side Force Lighting. Galen stepped in bound before any further damage could be done, absorbing the dark force energy into the grip of his hands. With his allies free, Galen ordered them to get to the Rogue Shadow and for Rahm to protect the senators. To make matters more grim, Stormtroopers, led by a crippled but functional Vader, were already rushing onto the scene, firing their blasters at full power in a volley of gunfire. Galen, knowing he had no means of material escape, opened himself to the Force in a fervent battlecry, enveloping himself into a supercharged version of Force Repulse, resulting in a far spanning shockwave that devastated the observation dome to such a degree that its ruins could still be seen from afar as the Rogue Shadow made its escape.
In the end, Marek sacrificed his own life to allow the other Rebel leaders to escape. Emperor Palpatine bitterly admitted that the secret apprentice's selfless act of heroism would galvanize the countless dissidents who were left disillusioned and disaffected by Imperial rule, thus forcing the Sith Lords to actually fight the very rebellion that they had secretly helped to create and subsequently lost control over.
"Are we ready to finish what he started?"
―Bail Organa to the other rebellion leaders after Galen Marek's death[src]
On Kashyyyk, the senators, Rahm and Juno met in Marek's old family home to hold a final conference, declaring that the Rebel Alliance was finally born. To honor her friend, Leia elected to use his family's crest as the visual creed of the Alliance as a "symbol of hope."
Due to the shadowy involvement of the Sith Lords and their former instrument, Starkiller, the Rebel Alliance was similar to the fallen Confederacy of Independent Systems in that it was intended to be a "puppet rebellion" that the Sith could secretly control. But unlike the Confederacy, Palpatine had lost his hold over the Alliance and unlike in the Clone Wars, this time he would have to fight a war against a rebellion of which he had no influence over.
[edit]New allies and weapons
"Time to retire those Z-95 Headhunters!"
―Raymus Antilles, after the victory at Fresia[src]
The most notable equipment contributions included the defection of some Incom Corporation staff and all relevant material involved in the development of an advanced starfighter, the T-65 X-wing, which was acquired at the Battle of Fresia. With this advanced fighter, Rebel pilots had a clear advantage over the more numerous yet unshielded TIE fighters. Mon Mothma then secured an alliance with the Mon Calamari, who openly joined the Rebel Alliance and used their renowned skill in ship construction to supply badly needed capital ships that could take on the Imperial Navy. Their considerable fleet of Mon Calamari Star Cruisers gave the newly formed Alliance substantial firepower. Part of the Alliance's strategy was the doctrine of space denial. That is, the Alliance would attack Imperial shipping in hit and run raids; both to disrupt Imperial supplies and operations, and to confiscate desperately needed materials. In these situations, their fighters had hyperdrive capability along prearranged routes which would allow this kind of harassment and escape before the Empire could react.