6Empire at War: Galactic Unification
Summary: Palpatine's Grand Plan doesn't quite pan out as well as he first expected. A few years down the line everything just goes wrong. With Rebels, Relics, and rising powers popping up everywhere it's time for plan B.
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, Empire at War, Forces of Corruption, or EAW Remake
Thoughts and flashbacks
Regular Conversation
Powerful and Force-Enhanced Dialogue
Chapter 1. Timeline
19-16 BBY:
During the final months of the Clone Wars, Darth Sidious Travels to Mandalore to apprehend Darth Maul. He kills Savage Oppress and takes Maul Captive, leaving his criminal empire behind.
Within months, the remnants of Jango Fett's true Mandalorians rally under Spar (A rouge Arc Trooper with the memories of Jango Fett) and form the Mandalorian Protectors. Meanwhile, across Mandalore, the ideal of the Super Commandos and the Neo Crusaders begins to gain popularity with people sick of being controlled by terrorists and Criminals. Spar, claims the Darksaber from Bo-Katan, who recovered it from the site of the battle between Maul and Sidious, and takes the title of Mandalore the Resurrector. Bo-Katan convinces the Death Watch to side with the new Mandalore and form a new government, effectively ending any worry of internal strife for the Mandalorian people. Mandal Motors and Mandal Hypernautics begin reasserting their economic prowess on the mid and outer Rim planets. The newly formed Imperial Intelligence assets within these corporations note that production has significantly exceeded orders.
The remains of Maul's Criminal Empire begin to fall apart until an ambitious leader by the name of Tyber Zann quickly seizes power within the organization. With Prince Xizor, the Pyke Syndicate, the Zann Consortium, and Hutt Clans under Jabba, there's a distinct power growing in the Outer Rim. Whispers start reaching the newly Formed Empire of missing cargo shipments located in a section of the outer Rim that ranges from Socorro to Nal Hutta. Strangely, these convoys are primarily military resources, Tibanna freighters, Doonium Shipments, and even parts for the Emperor's Death Star. As a result, Oversectors Red Tails, Iron Lance, and Hook Nebula begin coordinated anti-piracy operations under the rapidly promoted Admiral Zsinj. This effort puts increased demands on the recovering imperial economy, and many of the newest ships coming out of Fondor are rushed straight into the Southeastern Rim sectors.
Order 66 is carried out as planned, but a number of clone special operations units, as well as a large number of troopers rapidly defect from the Empire. Palpatine, subsequently, orders increased effort to be put into normal recruiting operations. The budget and priority of Kamino rapidly begins to diminish.
15 BBY- 14 BBY:
Reports from isolated locations in the outer Rim begin to flood Imperial Intelligence. Droid Factories, old relics from the Clone Wars, have apparently started up again without warning. This sparks a mad hunt to locate the only known member of the former CIS council who could possibly have overridden the shutdown code, Gizor Delso. Reports from imperial intelligence indicate that Delso had been coordinating a droid rebellion for years. Reactivating factories on Hypori, Geonosis, Munilist, Sulis Van, and Mustufar. Death Squadron is sent to execute Dellso on Mustafar. Reports from the 501st indicated that Dellso had used his time to not only rebuild the Sepratist's Droid armies and fleets but also upgrade them. Death Squadron faces a pitched naval battle, and ultimately the 501st is unable to destroy the factories on Mustufar. With additional droid ships arriving, Vader is forced to evacuate the system. A military Blockade is set up around the systems. 3 additional attempts to engage the droid forces over Mustufar leave Oversector Night Hammer's fleet assets severely strained.
Efforts by the new criminal alliance, combined with the defection of the geonosians, and the reactivation of the Hypori droid foundries have left the Empire critically overstretched in the southern outer rim regions. Admiral Zsinj and recently promoted Moff Ardus Khaine cannot deal with the endless ambushes, even with new interdictor ships. Imperial special projects warns Emperor Palpatine that progress on the Death Star has noticeably stalled due to resource shortages, slave riots, and constant pirate attacks. In Order to keep up with the demands of patrolling so many systems, Mandal Hypernatics, Corellian Engineering, and Rendelli Star Drive are contracted to build planetary defense Fleets. Clone Wars Surplus ships are also reactivated to cover shortages.
Across the outer rim worlds, anti-imperial Sentiment is rising. While it is currently unnamed, Imperial intelligence believes there is a coordinated resistance movement gaining strength. ISB agents have identified a number of high-profile individuals with abnormal spending habits. Meanwhile; ships, supplies, and personnel are starting to disappear from imperial stockpiles and military defections are on the rise.
13 BBY - 10 BBY
The Imperial Senate put forth the Planetary Militia Edict. This compels all imperial worlds outside of the Core to raise their own anti-piracy and invasion defense militias and fleets. Though Emperor Palpatine loathes the idea of giving so many planets free will and weapons, the massively overstretched Imperial Navy cannot defend its own convoys and thousands of star systems at once.
Tyber Zann Proposes that the Hut Empire begin officially breaking off relations with the empire, citing that Imperial forces are in no shape to police so many worlds. Jabba agrees and begins the quiet process of re-arming Hutt Space. Factories from Shola to Sleheryon begin to work on ship designs reminiscent of the days when the Hutts were at the Apex of their power. Meanwhile, Consortium and Black Sun Pirates have grown bold and well-armed. Attacks on military convoys have continued and even fleets escorted by imperial star destroyers are not free of persecution. Requests for Immobilizer 418 Cruisers as well as more combat and support ships flood the straining military-industrial complex of the core and mid-rim. To further complicate things, Agents from the Criminal Alliance infiltrate drydocks and target any ships destined for the southern reaches. In shipyards across the mid-rim, a number of interdictor ships disappear entirely.
On Coruscant, one of the Emperor's personal vaults is breached. A single Sith Holocron is stolen. Palpatine believes this heist occurred on the orders of Darth Vader.
Production rates of ships, troops, and vehicles begin to fall behind from the Cloning facilities of Kamino, as well as the manufacturing world of Rothana. Meanwhile, the research station at Scarrif goes silent. An Imperial Taskforce is deployed and also does not return. General Cassio Tagge is sent to determine the status of Scarrif and the missing task force. Upon arrival, his fleet detects a number of Venator Class Warships, alongside several other ships of an unknown make but clearly inspired by the Venator Design. General Tagg makes contact with the supposed leader of the fleet and comes face-to-face with a Jango Fett Clone. This Clone, proclaiming himself as X-2, informs General Tagge that these are not imperial ships, but a return of the Republic. At this time, the imperial senate receives a transmission from the Emperor's home planet of Naboo. This transmission, from Naboo's Queen Apailana, declares a civil war and the return of the Old Republic. Apailanan further claims that the Kaminoians had created a new Grand Army that would overthrow the Emperor and return to the Democracy of Old.
An attempt is made by the Imperial 501st to destroy this "Anti-Trooper" clone army but is thwarted. A 500 thousand unit strong Clone Army begins to deploy to a number of revolting worlds. Reinforcements are expected to continue coming out of Kamino as it is revealed that Corellia and Rothana had been working to rebuild the republic fleet in secret. While of no equivalent size to the imperial navy- these modernized republic warships were able to blitz a number of Key Sectors and isolate the Imperial navy from Kuat, and Fondor.
26 Hours Later, a second transmission rings across the galaxy. It claims that Queen Apailana, while well-meaning, is going too far in using clone troopers. It claims the old governments should be cast down and a new democracy built. The Transmission further rallies systems to their Rebel Alliance, and to "Cast down these tyrants and free your homes from their grasp."
With imperial Control Rapidly failing in the outer Rim and even into the mid rim and Core- Palpatine begins to call upon Oversector Shadow Hand and Oversector Black Sword to defend the core. Admiral Zaarin and Moff Kalast are put in charge of these assets, with some of the most advanced warships of the Empire, including the New Imperial II Class Star Destroyer (Rushed into service to counter CIS and Pirate attacks). This "Grand Liberation Fleet" would work its way from Courscant to the Outer Rim and sweep aside all attacks. Moff Kalast and Admiral Zaarin instead take their chance to seize power and assassinate Palpatine. This results in a protracted Space Battle over courscant the likes of which hadn't been seen since the final days of the clone wars. This leads to the total destruction of Vader's Death Squadron and most of the Coruscant Defense Fleet as well as most of the combined fleets of Shadow Hand and Black Sword. Zaarin and Kalast's assassination attempt also led to a widespread officer coup in the imperial navy and opened up yet another player in the battle for galactic dominance. These Imperial defectors, calling themselves the New Empire, rapidly seized control of key core worlds and further cut imperial troops off from their assets in the galactic north, including the Key Shipyards at Bilbringi, and Ord Trasi, important Mining worlds such as Aeten II, key defensive systems like Ord Mantel, the research labs of Dubrillion, and even Bastion.
Approximately 6 weeks later, while Meditating, Darth Sidious is brought to his knees when a backlash of dark side energy overtakes him for a moment, initially believing it to be Vader, he comms Vader, only to be informed that Vader had sustained major injuries when he collapsed on the battlefield.
Within days Director Isard is inundated with requests for reinforcements from garrisons in Oversector Cerulean Spear. It appears an Invasion fleet of unknown ships had poured out of Korriban, Dromund Kass, and Malachor V. Designs that haven't been seen for thousands of years but are still deadly effective have been pouring across dozens of Imperial worlds. The Corporate Sector garrisons are able to hold these invaders but worlds like Felucia, Columex, Rhen Var, and Raxus are rapidly conquered. Battlefield reports claiming enemy troopers scream and rave about the "return of true Sith, The Awakened Master, and the Dark Heart" make their way to Sideous. One thing is for certain, there is something both ancient and powerful behind these sudden fleets. Palpatine resolves to investigate some ancient artifacts of his own.
With an unanticipated Sith invasion threatening the Corporate Sector, radical military reformations are pushed through the many board rooms of the megacorporations the make up the Corporate Sector. The Corporate Sector Authority assumes the responsibility of any world pledged to the Corporate Sector or their affiliate megacorps. Using private sector, Clone Wars surplus, and many corporate-specific designs, the CSA rapidly militarizes and moves to defend its own territory separate from the Imperial garrisons. Approximately 4 months later CSA Executive Orman Tagge declares the CSA's intent to remove itself from direct Imperial control. "We are happy to continue doing business with the Empire, but we will no longer allow you to dictate our practices and tax our profits on a whim". This message is corroborated by numerous Imperial garrisons returning to the core, already damaged from conflicts with Sith troops and forced to surrender their positions and ships to overwhelming numbers. Palpatine flies into a rage and orders a complete purging of House Tagge in Imperial space. Tagge Co is nationalized and Generals Cassio and Ulrich Tagge are Executed. While detrimental to the Imperial Economy, the loss of the Corporate sector remains a footnote during this period.
9 BBY
The 10,000 Revolts Begin. In response to the rapid collapse of Imperial power across the galaxy, combined with the declaration of the Rebel alliance, as well as the many other factions vying for dominance comes the critical moment of Imperial History. The 10,000 Revolts is the collective name for the nearly simultaneous defection of planets with local imperial militia from the empire, most choosing to retain their independence, but many throwing their weight behind local factions. While poorly defended in most cases, most planets could resist any attempt to be occupied by any other faction. With this, the Empire is fully surrounded, Isolated, and with the exception of a handful of loyal systems, locked into the Core.
It is from this point that Emperor Palpatine officially declares war on "Everyone who stands against Order, Unity, and Security." In private he laments his crippled navy, destroyed Army, lost territory, and the very real threat of being deposed by any of his many enemies.
(AN) Welcome to my first story. This is less a traditional dramatic narrative piece so much as it is designed to be more like a historical document with excerpts from the people who lived it. As you can see, this timeline goes very poorly for Palpatine. To some of you, this might seem familiar to you. This is actually based on a video game called Star Wars Empire at War Forces of Corruption and the mod Empire at War Remake (Ver 4.0). The Narrative of the game is very bare bones, but as a writing exercise, I wanted to novelize my campaign as a sort of After Action report/story. The mod has its own cannon, which I will try to stick to, but I am also mixing cannons, Legends, and some of my own headcannon here to create something new.
Each Chapter of this work will focus either on a major score of events or a specific battle. Expect to dive into the greatest minds of the Empire, and some OC's that are just along for the ride.