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6.5 years after the
Battle of Endor (8.5 years post ANH), the Imperial Palace on Coruscant now houses the New Republic Provisional
Government.
The following
presents a description of the Galactic Empire following the Battle of
Endor. Thus, the
"setting" for the Emperor's Hammer in
the chaos that is now the Imperium.
...The remnants of the Imperium and the New Republic
Territories...
...Detailed view of the lines of battle between the Emperor's
Hammer and the Rebel Squadrons...
Related WWW Sites...
The following text was excerpted from the Dark Empire
Sourcebook; Michael Allen Horne, West End Games; June, 1993; pp. 31-33:
(Images are
primarily from X-Wing CD (1994) and TIE Fighter CD (1995), created by LucasArts)
Overview
The Old Republic
had endured for millennia, evolving and maturing till it was as familiar as the night sky
itself. Misty tales surrounded its birth and cloaked the heroes of its early years in the
grandeur of legend. But as the Republic grew complacent, corruption flourished.
Weakened thus, the Republic fell prey to the ambitions of one man and collapsed, a
ruthless Galactic Empire rising in its place.
The Empire was
founded by Palpatine and the members of his corrupt councils seeing the spirit of malaise.
 What no one could know was just how strong the
unassuming president's ties to the Dark Side were. He knew only the Jedi Knights could
defeat him, and so he took steps to eliminate them, Palpatine held absolute power through
fear and violence. Compared to the Republic, the New Order was in its infancy, having
endured only a couple of decades. But in that time its hold over the lives of its
citizenry had become so invasive, its control so absolute, that those who fought against
it seemed almost mad to rebel at all.
Around the New
Order was gathered all the power a galaxy could offer: military might, in the form of star
fleets; secret police, formed from the remnants of the Republic's intelligence services;
and, an elite body of advisors and Dark Side Adepts.
The Defeat at Endor
During the
difficult weeks immediately following the debacle at Endor, the problem was all too
apparent to the Imperials themselves. In an absolutist state, power must be wielded
absolutely. But by whom? It became increasingly apparent that succession to the throne was
something the Emperor, so circumspect in everything else, had never seriously prepared
for. When the Emperor was killed during the Battle of Endor, the speed with which the
Empire's structure disintegrated amazed even some Alliance strategists. Obviously
something was going very wrong in the Empire.
Some felt an
unwitting heir might prove better than no heir at all, so a genealogical trace was
proposed. Unfortunately, nearly all of Palpatine's personal records had been deleted from
the known libraries. Nor had the Emperor left a will or any final orders.
During these
chaotic months, the one person who might have offered some clue to a resolution was Grand
Visier (Sate) Pestage. As Steward of the Imperial Personal Archives, he was privy to
Palpatine's most secret holo-communications and recordings - if an heir was to be found in
the Emperor's correspondence, this was where to look. Pestage refused, providing no
explanation.
Many feared Pestage
might have his eye on the throne. He had been running many of the day-to-day affairs of
the Empire on his own even before the Battle of Hoth, allowing the Emperor to go about his
arcane studies. To some minds, it seemed quite likely he might claim some executive
privilege.
The ranks of
Imperial Advisors, never cooperative in the best of times, felt a new kinship and closed
ranks against Pestage. Within weeks, he was impeached as Visier, formally censured, and
stripped of his properties, titles and privileges. All that saved him from the
disintegration booth was his surprising offer to retire permanently to private life on
Byss, the Emperor's personal sanctuary world. Little did anyone suspect his real reasons
for doing this.
If the Emperor had
not left a designated successor, and there was no constitutional procedure for one, then
those with ambition felt they must make a new emperor from among themselves.
But the
Empire seemed uncontrolled and uncontrollable. Charismatic leaders who seemed capable of
asserting power were toppled by jealous rivals and their own greed as time and the
Alliance fleet trampled the once great Empire.
 This crisis in authority was
now seriously harming the war against the New Republic, and public confidence was eroding
rapidly. Of course, the rule in the individual sectors had not changed significantly in
the inner portions of the galaxy, but as Mon Calamari cruisers, Corellian corvettes and
the rest of the Republic fleet drove Star Destroyers from planet after planet, there was a
growing sense that the "Imperial juggernaut" would face defeat. Soon, when many
spoke of Palpatine, it was as an emperor, no longer as the emperor. Sheer arrogance led them to blame Palpatine
for the failings of the Empire, rather than look to their own weaknesses and folly.
It proved nearly
impossible to coordinate the hundreds of surviving task forces across the sea of space.
Access codes changed overnight, troops received inconsistent orders, and commanders
were intractable and independent. The Navy might order a system under Rebel
siege defended, only to find a few weeks later the same fleet had been, with all proper
procedure, redirected to an insignificant fortress world deep in the core.
Furthermore, each
planet to join the New Republic was one less world to pay taxes into the once limitless
treasury, causing one fiscal crisis after another. This wasn't helped much by the
fact that Palpatine had always kept the left hand guessing what the right was up to, so
any attempt to streamline the enormous spending programs proved futile. All attempts
to guarantee proper apportionment of credits vital to perimeter defense efforts failed.
Huge sums continued to be spent on useless projects, like the long delayed palace in the
Corporate Sector.
 Most notable
was the ceaseless construction on the prototype Eclipse-class Super Star Destroyer.
Designed as the flagship for the late Emperor, it was typical of the type of
self-aggrandizing acts that had once been obsequiously approved, yet couldn't now be
justified.
Clearly
naval planners felt traditional ships of the line were what were needed to handle the
Rebellion, not some grandiose yacht sitting for years in space dock with no sign of
completion.
The Empire
disintegrated under its own weight, splintering into countless factions with cautious
allegiances to other factions, and all swearing loyalty to the "Empire".
All this time, while party officials, admirals and advisors jockeyed for some clear
mandate, the New Republic was more than ready to fill the vacuum. Of course, they
had their work cut out for them: strategically the Empire was dying like a wounded vornskr,
but that was when a vornskr was most dangerous. With so much chaos, it
was unsurprising that dozens of systems opted out of either side and formed independent
system-states. Neither Empire nor Republic could spare the personnel or resources to make
much of an appeal to these iconoclasts. Both sides resolved to settle the more
important matter of which government would survive first, and then parley with these
worlds.
Ironically, many
turned to nostalgia for the Old Republic as a solution. Despite his dissolution of
the Senate, Palpatine had been elected by that body in the first place, so many tried to
claim its backing. Former senators were drafted, cajoled or bribed into becoming
figureheads, supporting this Moff or that general in their ambitions.
The Republic
steadily forced the Empire back, claiming system after system, sector after sector.
Some Imperial factions fought to the death, such as those under Lord Shadowspawn;
others surrendered and were absorbed into the growing Republic.
Others proposed
peace plans. For example, three years after Endor, Admiral Betl Oxtroe began making
secret overtures to the New Republic to negotiate the creation of a parliamentary
monarchy. She proposed Ederathh Pallopides, an eleven year old remote grandniece
of
Palpatine, as heir. The Republic's Provisional Council would replace the Imperial
Advisors in exchange for amnesty for the military. Sadly, the first round of talks
had only begun when the Admiral fell to an assassin's blade, presumably wielded by Noghri,
and the plan was forgotten.
Four years after
Endor, the New Republic controlled half the galaxy and was able to claim Coruscant, once
the capital of the Empire."
Supplemental
The Empire was in ruin,
only a parcel of what it once was a mere few years previously. With Admirals
taking their own fleets and forming their own empires, all looks but lost, until
a hero of the Empire emerges.
Appointed as the second
to the last Grand Admiral, by Emperor Palpatine, Thrawn returns from the Unknown
Regions and takes command of what is left of the Imperial war machine. To test
his fleet's readiness, the admiral launched a hit-and-run attack on the planet
Bpfassh and two other worlds in the Sluis system. He also stole mole miners from
Lando Calrissian's mining operation on Nkllon to use in his next attack on the
Sluis Van shipyards. In a move to trap the Republic leaders, Thrawn's ships
released cloaked asteroids and confusing sensors into orbit above Coruscant.
At a climatic
confrontation at the Bilbringi shipyards, Thrawn was surprised by the appearance
of a fleet of smuggler ships aiding the New Republic, and his forces were
defeated when he was taken unaware and stabbed by his own bodyguard.
Within the following
week, Coruscant fell to the combined forces of the Empire who had been inspired
by Grand Admiral Thrawn, however, they fell to pity bickering and began a civil
war amongst themselves on the planet. Reeling from this small war, the Imperial
forces had to defend Coruscant when the New Republic launched a counter-strike
and attempted to retake the planet.
All of this of course,
was but a mere portion of the Emperor's plan to weed out the weak and let the
strong amongst the Empire live. Hidden away on the Emperor's sanctuary planet
Byss, Sate Pestage activated the cloning tanks and resurrected the Emperor as
ordered. With a fleet of warships, the resurrected Emperor dispatched a new line
of command ships to his four most trusted officers, and took his prized Eclipse-class
Super Star Destroyer against the New Republic at their new base of command.
The Emperor was
defeated, yet the officers of the Empire lived on and continued to fight for
what they believed in. Knowing that the Emperor had formed his base of power by
eliminating the Jedi Knights, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker formed an academy to
train those adept the ways of the Force. The Empire was at a loss, they had no
way to combat Jedi Knights, especially seeing whereas just one had defeated the
Emperor. Yet, their was still hope. Thrawn had been the second to last of the
Grand Admirals and had been sent to tame the Unknown Regions. The last of the
Grand Admirals had been given similar orders for the Minos Cluster.
 Having
survived for so long and still holding quite some ground for the Empire, the
last of the Grand Admirals was one of the four officers that the Emperor trusted
most and gave one of the new command ships, the Sovereign-class
Super Star Destroyers. For five long years after the battle of Endor, an
officer of such caliber arose, he was Grand Admiral Ronin. He had been given
command of the Emperor's Hammer strike fleet as well as a perfect base of
operations to attack the New Republic from. Building his remnant of the Empire
with the aid of Dark Jedi, he was able to make a force worthy of his ranks
holdings.
Now, prepared for the
war of all time, with an army of veteran Imperial officers and Dark Jedi Adepts,
Grand Admiral Ronin readies his fleet for the battle ahead. And so the adventure
begins...
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