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The
New Republic
Nearly forty years have passed since the deaths of Emperor Palpatine
and Darth Vader on the second Death Star over the forest moon of
Endor in Return of the Jedi.
In this time the victorious Rebel Alliance reformed itself into the
New Republic: restoring the political and democratic rights of all
citizens that were previously eroded under Imperial rule. However,
the New Republic and the galaxy did not witness the peace promised
by the Emperor's death and instead found itself fighting remnants of
Imperial leaders and Warlords, all attempting to restore Imperial
power over the galaxy. Notable was the formidable threat of Grand
Admiral Thrawn and Captain Gilad Pellaeon who almost completely
destroyed the New Republic's military and government. Thrawn's
military campaign was eventually defeated, when Thrawn
was killed by one of his own Noghri bodyguards (the Noghri were
secret assassins of Vader, whom Thrawn
commandeered, but their loyalty was to Vader. Recognising Princess
Leia's lineage, they swore allegiance to her and have been her
personal bodyguards ever since). However the legacy of Thrawn's
near victory would haunt both the New Republic military and
government for almost a decade. In between, Admiral
Natasi Daala would be a thorn in the New Republic's side with
several attacks that never really amounted to much, but nonetheless
her access to a top secret Imperial research center gave her some of
the most devastating weapons ever conceived. Eventually Admiral
Daala would be forced into exile hiding away from the rest of
the galaxy.
The New Republic survived its formative early years and Luke
Skywalker, once believed to be the last of the Jedi, established his
own Jedi Academy when he began to discover that more Force-sensitive
people had survived the Emperor's purge and to train them in the
ways of the Force. Under Luke's tutelage and leadership this new
Jedi Order would be philosophically distinct from the Jedi Order of
Yoda's time by a new Jedi Code and a broadened view of the Force.
Luke's sister, Princess Leia, returned to politics: first becoming a
member of the Inner Council that ran the government on a day-to-day
basis before eventually becoming the New Republic's Chief of State,
replacing Mon Mothma. Leia would eventually marry Han Solo and give
birth to three children: twins Jacen and Jaina; and Anakin (named
after his grandfather Anakin Skywalker). But her political position
meant that not only were the lives of Han and herself under
continual threat, but so were their children and so Leia would
eventually resign her position as Chief of State, allowing the
politically opportunistic Bothan Borsk Fey'lya to accede to position
as Chief of State. However Fey'lya's reign would see the New
Republic becoming embroiled in the same petty inter-planetary
squabbles and corruptness that beset the pre-Empire government. Over
the years Han and Leia's children would eventually attend their
uncle's Jedi Academy and become Jedi Knights themselves. Meanwhile
Luke Skywalker married Mara Jade, a Force-sensitive who used to be
an assassin for Palpatine but was eventually redeemed by Luke after
she attempted to eliminate him during Thrawn's
campaign.
Nearly twenty years after the death of Palpatine, the galaxy
witnessed the formal declaration of peace between the Imperial
Remnant and the New Republic, thus ending more than forty years of
galactic civil war. However not long after the peace declaration the
galaxy, the New Republic, the Imperial Remnant, the Jedi, Luke,
Leia, Han, Mara, and the Solo children would face the greatest
threat ever seen as an extragalactic alien race invaded.
The New Jedi Order and the Yuuzhan Vong invasion
The Yuuzhan Vong were a species never encountered before, although
humanoid in appearance, they were unique in that they were invisible
to the Force. They also had religious ideologies of masochistic pain
suffering through organ grafting and ferment anti-technology
beliefs. During the long five year war, the Yuuzhan Vong would
conquer almost half of the galaxy including its capital, Coruscant;
lay waste to complete planetary systems; split the Jedi Order; and
trillion's of beings would lose their lives including Chewbacca,
Anakin Solo and around half the Jedi Order.
In the beginning, splits in both the New Republic government and the
Jedi Order, now with over 100 Jedi Knights, hampered initial
defences and counter-attacks against the alien invaders. A division
in the government held back important military assets while a schism
evolved amongst the Jedi Order: those who believed it should be used
peacefully and those who held the view that the Jedi should take a
more proactive, aggressive stance against the invaders.
The invasion would ultimately destroy the New Republic government as
the Yuuzhan Vong conquered the galactic capital, Coruscant.
Fey'lya's last act as Chief of State would, in a way, redeem his
past political mistakes. With a massive bomb connected to his own
heartbeat, it exploded when the invasion commander killed Fey'lya,
killing an estimated 25,000 Yuuzhan Vong - a massive blow to the
Yuuzhan Vong's strategy and conquest plans for the rest of the
galaxy. The New Republic survivors formed the Galactic Federation of
Free Alliances, or Galactic Alliance under the leadership of Cal
Omas with its provisional capital on Mon Calamari. But amidst the
death and destruction of the war, Luke and Mara had a son, Ben,
named after Luke's mentor Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi.
Victory against the Yuuzhan Vong was secured with an unlikely
alliance with the Imperial Remnant, still militarily powerful, but
no longer seeking conquest, and commanded by, now a Grand Admiral
himself, Gilad Pellaeon. Meanwhile, the Jedi discovered the living
planet Zonama Sekot (believed to be the Yuuzhan Vong's spiritual
homeworld), and a combined effort of Alliance, Imperial and Jedi
forces finally retook Coruscant, killing the Yuuzhan Vong's supreme
leader. The end of the war would see the uniting of the Jedi Order
which now swore to protect the Galactic Alliance with Luke Skywalker
as its Grandmaster, and once again becoming guardians of galactic
peace.
Although the alien invaders had been defeated, the galaxy would
never be the same again. Many planets were now uninhabitable due to
a terra-forming process called Vongforming, millions of citizens
were homeless and destitute, even the Jedi Academy had to relocate
from Yavin IV to Ossus. It was during this time of recovery and
rebuilding that Jacen Solo, who had been captured and tortured by
the Yuuzhan Vong, set out on a five-year voyage of self-discovery
seeking out the different forms of Force use across the galaxy. At
the end of his journey he sired a daughter, Allana, with fellow Jedi
Knight Tenel Ka, who was also the Royal leader of the Hapes
Consortium, a small confederation of planets. Allana's lineage was
kept secret by both Jacen and Tenel Ka from the rest of the galaxy
including Leia, Han and Luke.
Legacy of the Force and the Second Galactic Civil War
However, peace was relatively short-lived as within ten years of
victory against the Yuuzhan Vong, the galaxy would once again tear
itself apart in a terrible Civil War. What began as an independence
dispute between Han Solo's home planet of Correllia and the Galactic
Alliance government quickly spread as more and more planets wanted
to break away from the Galactic Alliance. Very quickly the dispute
escalated into full Civil War dividing the galaxy and the
Skywalker/Solo family friendships. Han Solo found himself loyal to
his homeworld of Correllia and its Federation, while Luke
Skywalker's Jedi Order was loyal to the Galactic Alliance. Even
worse, Leia Organa-Solo, now a fully trained Jedi Knight had to
choose between loyalties to her husband or to her brother and the
Jedi Order. In the end, that decision was made for her by her son,
Jacen.
Believing he had the ability to unite the galaxy and restore peace,
Jacen Solo, under the tutelage of a secret Sith assassin and
teacher, found himself embracing the Dark Side more and more, but at
the same time convinced that he would not make the same mistakes as
his grandfather, Darth Vader. Events and situations would eventually
place him as the Galactic Alliance's Chief of State when Cal Omas
was killed and in a serious of devastating military moves he subdued
the Federation's forces. However, Jacen's Dark Side motives where
becoming more and more apparent and harder to justify as he
instigated biological weapons and merciless attacks on rebellious
Galactic Alliance systems. In an attempt to protect his identity as
the Sith Lord Darth Caedus he even killed Luke's wife and his own
aunt, Mara Jade Skywalker. Devastated at both the loss of his wife
and Jacen's fall to the Dark Side, Luke and the Jedi Order abandoned
their oath to serve the Galactic Alliance and move against Jacen
with support from the Wookiees and Mandalorians. Requiring further
military reinforcements to deal with the Jedi and disaffected
Galactic Alliance forces, Jacen, now revealed to be Darth Caedus,
reaches out for support from Pellaeon and the Imperial Remnant (it
still maintained a formidable military fleet). Unwilling to support
the Sith Lord, Pellaeon declined Jacen's offer and contacted Daala,
still in exile, to request support in removing Jacen from his seat
of power. However Pellaeon was killed by Jacen's apprentice, Tahiri
Veila, and the Imperial Remnant was forced into an alliance with
Darth Caedus and the Galactic Alliance.
The final battle witnessed a coalition of Jedi, Mandalorians, Admiral
Daala (who had sworn revenge for Pellaeon's death) and
disaffected Alliance forces being attacked by Darth Caedus and the
Galactic Alliance. In that battle Jaina Solo was forced to kill her
own brother to save the galaxy, but not before he pre-warned Tenel
Ka and his daughter Allana of the existence of an Imperial nano-virus
that targeted the Hapan Royal family. In the end, the Federation
surrendered and the Imperial Remnant was forced to switch
allegiances to the Jedi coalition. Tenel Ka entrusts the safety of
her and Jacen's daughter, Allana, to Han and Leia who adopt her.
Restoring the Galactic Alliance, Admiral
Natasi Daala is named as its new Chief of State but distrust of
the Jedi ferments in many people's minds and Daala
swears to bring it under full governmental control or disband it all
together. Can Luke Skywalker bring his Jedi Order back under control
following Darth Caedus' brutal reign and does a new start for the
Galactic Alliance mean the beginning of the end for the Jedi Order?
Find out in Fate of the Jedi, a nine book
series beginning with Outcast by
Aaron Allston. |