The New Republic | The First Order | The Resistance | The Resistance War



THE RESISTANCE WAR
The Resistance War, sometimes given the cumbersome name 'the First Order-Resistance War', was a one-year-long regional
war between two incompetent adversaries known as the First Order and the Resistance. It was, in reality, a proxy war between
the New Republic and the Final Order, two far more powerful organizations which were each completely destroyed in a single
day during this struggle. The New Republic's government and entire military were destroyed in the opening day of the war,
and the Final Order emerged in the last week of the war, only to be destroyed days later in the final day of the war. The war
seems to have taken place entirely in the portion of the Rim in the southern galaxy, adjacent to areas of First Order control
in the Unknown Regions and within the Western Reaches. The war was fought over the exact same ideological divide as
in the Galactic Civil War, with the First and Final Order promoting order through militarism, fascism, and authoritarianism,
and the Resistance and New Republic promoting order through peaceful coexistence, cooperation, and democracy.
The war was totally unnecessary, and was the product of the ideologically driven priorities of prominent figures from
the era of the Civil War who were unhappy with how the shape of the galaxy did not conform to their philosophical ideals.

The First Order had spent over a decade developing in the Unknown Regions, and only emerged in DS 8006 (29 ABY) after
Luke Skywalker's New Jedi Order had been wiped out by an agent of the Sith Eternal. The Resistance War had essentially
already begun by DS 8010 (33 ABY), as there were several small battles between forces of the First Order and the Resistance
during the cold war between the First Order and the New Republic. The New Republic had spent this cold war period divided
over how to respond to the First Order, or whether or not it was necessary to do so. Leia Organa formed the Resistance to
take action where the New Republic would not. The First Order had used the time since emerging from the Unknown Regions
to increase their child solider conscription program, and to secretly construct a huge fleet of massive warships which were
illegal according to New Republic law, with the aid of powerful political and economic forces within the New Republic.
The resources for this massive military build up were extracted from asteroids and planetoids by mining bases the First Order
had constructed in remote regions. The First Order took great care to ensure the New Republic was unaware of this activity.

The First Order's plans to eliminate the New Republic's government and military centered around Starkiller Base, which was
a planetary-scale superweapon built into the planet Ilum, designed to destroy entire planets by firing solar plasma through
hyperspace. The project took decades, and the timing of the First Order's emergence and eventual attack on the New Republic
were timed to coincide with the progress of the superweapon. This timetable also gave the First Order time to prepare its
forces to begin planetary occupations, as they intended to begin military occupation of any world hostile to their authority.

The destruction of Hosnian Prime and the other inhabited planets in its starsystem resulted in the complete collapse of
the New Republic. The planet was their capital and only military base, and as a result the entire government, starfleet,
and other military forces were all lost in the surprise attack by the First Order using Starkiller Base. The New Republic's
strategic deployment which made this attack so devastating was not simply due to their military's incompetence, but
also due to the ideological commitment of the New Republic's leadership to opposing militarism. Their government did
not want to appear to be militarily occupying the galaxy, and arrogantly believed their fleet far outmatched any other.
It is likely that some remnants of the government and military did exist somewhere, however the New Republic had
functionally ceased to exist, and the efforts of republican insurgencies against the First Order were informal
movements, most of whom would be considered to be independent parts of the Resistance after these events.

The Resistance was able to destroy Starkiller Base shortly after its first use during an unlikely series of events, which was
a significant setback for the First Order which removed their most convincing and powerful means of encouraging
planets to surrender to their rule. The reaction of the First Order was to destroy the Resistance's headquarters in
the Battle of D'Qar using conventional weapons. The ensuing battle would see the majority of the Resistance Fleet
destroyed, which drove the remaining Resistance leadership underground, constantly pursued by the First Order.

One day after the war began, the Resistance was apparently the only organized fighting force left in the entire galaxy which
was opposed to the First Order, and they had been reduced to 400 people, most of whom were killed the following day.
The few survivors went off to hide and slowly begin to coordinate anti-First Order activity with other resisting forces.
Supposedly, the First Order was to have controlled "all the major systems within weeks", however that assessment was
given by someone who had left a backwater planet for the first time two days earlier, and should be considered hyperbole.
Even with the New Republic and Resistance out of the picture, conventional military doctrine specifies that it takes about
20 troops for every 1000 civilians to effectively occupy a settled area. Since the major systems alone had a population
in the trillions, the First Order would have needed to have had hundreds of millions of troops just to occupy the more
troublesome of the "major systems." It is clearly stated later that their forces were far smaller than that, which is
one of many indications that the First Order's occupations primarily targeted worlds with manageable populations,
and primarily those located in the southern galaxy, in regions adjacent to their prewar centers of power.

The one thing the First Order did dominate was interstellar space, as their large navy had the complete run of the galaxy.
These forces had little to challenge them in space, and largely operated as mobile command centers for their ground-based
operations. Most fleets were engaged in the hunt for the Resistance, and other emerging opposition elements.

After about a year of warfare, the First Order was largely still winning, but was bogged down in constant warfare with
insurgents on planets of relatively moderate population, still primarily located in the southern regions of the galactic Rim.
Efforts to occupy the galaxy through military force without the aid of significant loyal planets was a task beyond their
means, as they were not even close to becoming a "true empire." Their efforts to quash the Resistance were largely
successful, however they did divert important resources away from the First Order's primary battle with insurgents.

The Final Order emerged from the Unknown Regions, and established direct control over the First Order which had been
its proxy force in the war, unbeknownst to most of the First Order's leadership. It had somehow secretly constructed
"the largest fleet the galaxy has ever known" without any meaningful support mechanisms or industrial base, and these
ships were each armed with planet-destroying superlaser canons. The threat posed by this fleet led the Resistance to
attempt a suicidal attack which led to the Battle of Exegol. This unstoppable fleet was easily destroyed in the battle by
being overwhelmed by civilian ships of minimal power, lesser numbers of antiquated warships, and a small collection
of starfighters. Their ship commanders apparently had no idea how to use their vastly superior technology in combat
and also made no attempt to maneuver during the battle. In addition, their ships could not flee the battle because they
could not be navigated away from Exegol without a beacon. This inexplicable strategic decision prevented them from
retreating, even though the ships which destroyed them were able to easily come and go from the planet. Although
these destroyers were designed to shred enemy vessels at close range, they apparently had little to no effect on the enemy
fleet, as they were seen to rapidly lose the battle, and to explode with ease far faster than should have been possible.
The leadership of both the First Order and the Final Order were all killed in the battle, victims of their own incompetence.

Despite the loss at Exegol, some Final Order superweapon destroyers had been deployed before the battle, and the First
Order was still dominating space and countless systems. Fortunately, the remainder of their vast forces began to suddenly
be defeated everywhere in the galaxy almost immediately after the Battle of Exegol. This was all the more surprising due
to most armed, spacefaring vessels in the galaxy having swarmed to Exegol for the all-important battle, meaning that this
incredibly unlikely feat was simultaneously accomplished across the galaxy by forces even more pathetic than those which
destroyed the most powerful fleet in the history of the galaxy in about 10 minutes. Apparently, not all of their ships were
destroyed by combat with small vessels, as others seem to have mysterious caught on fire and crashed, purportedly as
a result of unexplored civilian "uprisings." The war was over and the Resistance had won, despite not having actually
overcome the vastly superior opponent they spent the entire war fighting. The First Order and Final Order disappeared
as suddenly, as incredibly, and as inexplicably as they had emerged, apparently having posed little real threat.