Rebel Alliance

The Rebel Alliance, more properly known as the Alliance to Restore the Republic, was founded by Senator Mon Mothma and a number of other Senators who opposed the rule of Emperor Palpatine.

Initially, the Rebellion was essentially a guerilla war, with individuals, and more rarely planets, defecting to its cause. While individuals might be able to flee from the Empire or evade detection, rebellious planets were often brutally 'pacified' or wiped out utterly. Most of the Rebel's war materiel was gained through the black market, defections by Imperial citizens and officers, by capturing enemy assets, and through 'donations' from sympathetic corporations.

The Rebel headquarters was forced to make frequent location changes due to the Empire's constant attempts to root them out. Over the course of only a few years, they moved from Dantooine, to Yavin, and to Hoth, among others. Even these planets were dangerously close to Imperial forces - frequently 'under the nose' of the Empire itself.

Eventually, the Alliance grew to the point where the Rebellion developed into the Galactic Civil War, a conflict on a scale not seen since the Clone War. By gaining powerful allies such as the Sullustans and Mon Calamari, the Rebellion acquired enough economic infrastructure to build and supply their own military forces. The Mon Cals in particular were instrumental in providing the Rebels with badly needed capital combat vessels.

Still, the Rebels were severely outnumbered and outgunned by the Imperials, possessing perhaps only a few dozen capital ships compared to the millions under the control of the Empire. The Empire attempted to crush the Rebellion by luring the bulk of their fleet into a trap: an unfinished second Death Star, supposedly an Imperial secret, was simply too great a threat and too tempting a target to ignore. The Rebels found themselves trapped in a pincer movement between the armed and operational DS II and an Imperial fleet led by the HIMS Executor. Through sheer luck, a Rebel commando team was able to disable the battlestation's protective shield generator, and a few fighters penetrated into the DS's incomplete superstructure to destablize its reactor core. The mission was successful, destroying the second Death Star and killing Emperor Palpatine.

The Rebel Alliance made huge gains in the chaos that followed, but large territories were still held by rogue Imperial governors and admirals. These enemies would be the greatest challenge to the Rebels as they morphed into the New Republic.

Record 73 - group - Last update 28 Mar 2007, 23:08:59

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