Shattered Galaxy

The sequel to my previous Star Wars map, Shattered Dreams.

It has been three years since the fateful day that Jaina Solo arrived on Yavin 4. During her trip, she discovered in the ruins of the temples used by the Rebels the “ghost” of her uncle, the Rebel fighter pilot Luke Skywalker. There he explained how he and his sister, Leia Organa (Darth Vader’s apprentice), were descended from a line of “Jedi,” a group of individuals that could command an underlying power in the universe called “the Force.” What’s more, through Leia, both Jaina and Jacen (who lived with her mother) were also force sensitive. Reeling from this information, Jaina realized that her father, Han Solo, had kept this information from her to protect her from the fate of his wife and son, having fallen to the dark side to serve under Vader. Still, the ghost of her uncle taught her some simple tricks that he had learnt through becoming one with the force, as to show her the power she could harness. With this information she left the planet, a new plan forming in her mind…

Since then the war has progressed regrettably. Despite both the Empire and the Rebellion’s industrial capacity now being fully utilized to combat the invading Yuuzhan Vong, they have kept coming. While the only systems to fall were once in the Western Reaches and Trailing Sectors in the rimward sections of the galaxy, now the entirety of Unknown Space as well as the trailing side of the New Territories have fallen. These huge swathes of territory are now being subject to vongforming, the manipulation of biospheres to allow compatibility with the Yuuzhan Vong biology. The loss of land isn’t the only bad news, as reports are coming in that most Vong ships engaged in recent combat were manufactured in the galaxy, rather than from extragalactic sources. This is incredibly worrying as it shows that the Vong have entrenched themselves to the point of establishing significant infrastructure.

While the Vong seem to be getting stronger by the day, the Empire is at the complete opposite of the spectrum, with basic Imperial society tearing at the seams from the stresses of the war. While many once believed there was a fighting chance for the Empire, this seems slimmer and slimmer with each passing day to the average citizen, as leaders such as Palpatine, Thrawn, and now Natasi Daala having been felled in the war. Every single Imperial planet is under martial law, with all industry and services now turned on supplying the Imperial war effort. Despite this, the Empire still seems to be losing. While unity and camaraderie once drove the Empire’s defense, now it is necessity and desperation that has taken hold of it’s populace. With Natasi Daala, the extremist yet effective de-facto leader of the Empire, killed at the titanic Battle of Sullust, the Imperial Senate once again gained control of the Empire, and elected the weak-willed Grand Moff Tol Getelles to Emperorship, with Getelles being an obvious puppet of the Senate. The aging Darth Vader now rules from the new Imperial Intelligence Centre, built atop the destroyed Jedi Temple, while his second-in-command and grandson Darth Caedus runs a special strike force of Sith trainees from his secret camp on Tython. Leia Organa, once prominent proponent of the Imperial Senate and one of the most loyal of Vader’s subjects, has slipped into thin air recently, with no intelligence on the woman for two years. Despite the now-strengthened Imperial leadership, it is looking very desperate for the Empire.

The Rebel Alliance, however, has been largely benefitting from the Empire’s downfall. This, combined with their alliance to the Hutts and their physical distance from the Vong invasion, has allowed for their expansion, with them now dominating The Slice. The alliance with the Hutts, however, has now left the tail wagging the dog, as the Rebellion’s own assets are minuscule compared to the Hutt cartels and their huge trade networks. With the Hutt’s new expansions into previous Imperial territory, the cartels have been getting greedier, and Rebel leaders feel their strongest alliance becoming strained at best. Still, the Alliance takes what it can get, and Hutt credits fund the Rebel armies and navies, allowing for the liberation of Imperial worlds. While there has been recent expansion, this rate of progress has noticeable slowed as the Imperial Inner Core and Borderlands system have become increasingly well-defended with the Empire’s new consolidation strategy after the death of Admiral Daala. From the Skywalker extended family, Han Solo helps captain many escort missions for the Rebellion, while his companion Chewbacca is usually present with as the commander of Rogue Sqaudron, if not helping on the front lines. Jaina Solo, having returned from Yavin a changed woman, has been stirring up Rebellion politics with her galaxy-wide search for more information on the Force, the Jedi, and other aspects of this new world she has discovered. Despite her father’s protestations, Jaina has been getting increasingly vocal in utilizing the Force for the Rebellion, maybe in the form of a resurrected Jedi Order.

Despite the two power’s situations, things aren’t always as they seem. For the Hutts and the Rebellion, their non participation in the Vong War has come to a close, as Hutt and Vong territory edges closer together. Battles between the Rebel and Vong forces have been becoming more and more frequent, especially around the space of Ord Pardon and Hypori. The subsequent battles have consistently been devastating for the Rebel navies, as their lighter yet more maneuverability ships and tactics of the Rebellion are no match for the huge worldships of the Vong. Even the new Hutt-designed battlecruisers haven’t fared well, despite their large armament of offensive and defensive capabilities. A redirection in tactics is currently being tested by Rebel command to help better combat this advancing threat.

For the Empire, their saving grace has come in the form of the Geonosians, the original designers of the Death Star. By modifying the superlaser that the Death Star’s utilize to project a more conical ray rather than dense beam, the laser can now attack multiple targets with one charge, as well as still being effective due to the lighter but more massive structure of the biotechnological Vong ships. The ray would also be able to base delta zero a planet, blasting away the vongformed biosphere (as well as any remnants of the remaining biosphere) while still keeping the structural integrity of the planet. This ray, while still a prototype, has been successfully used to defend the planet of Geonosis, which has been getting more and more isolated as the Vong continue their advance.