Notes: [1] marks ideas and elements that I have borrowed from Darth Yoshi's very excellent Infinities series. [2] marks ideas and elements that I have borrowed from Darquecyder 6's "A Simple Decision" series. Both series are of the type of SW AU kind that I like to classify as "holistic;" they basically incorporate loads and loads of characters and concepts from the EU and use them to maximum effect, rather than your typical alt-Obi-Wan love story. Interestingly, [1] was written from 2002-2005 and has a very different rise of Palpatine, while [2] was written only a few months ago, and is so up-to-date it references the upcoming Force Unleashed games.
On with the timeline.
The end of the Empire began with a sigh.
Somewhere on Coruscant, Emperor Palpatine, behemoth of the leviathan that was his Empire, felt his age. It was not a pleasant feeling for any being, but it was particularly alarming for Palpatine, master of the Dark Side.
The Force was slipping away from him.
He did not know why. He had consulted Sith Holocrons, but the had been mute. He had paid pilgrimage to the tombs of the Sith on Korriban, but the spirits that dwelt there were silent. Even Byss, where the entire population of the planet slowly had their Force-essences sucked away to be absorbed by him, failed to cheer him up.
Palpatine knew not why. The Force was fickle, but it was still a tool. He bent it to his will, not the other way around. There should have been no reason for this. His plans did not break the rules set out by Darth Bane. He had but one apprentice, and his minions were Dark Jedi or Force Adepts but not Sith. There was no immediate danger of the Force being somehow diluted by overuse, or of secret superweapons, or anything of that matter.
Yet the Force was changing, and not for him. So Palpatine, having meditated for several months, consulted with the wayward Prophets of the Dark Side he had made his Mages, and killed a few underlings for old time's sake, decided on a plan that would keep him at the top of the Galaxy (and the universe) for all time.
ABY 0
The battle had begun to rage. The Death Star was assaulted by the ridiculous tiny snub-fighters, an insulting foe for the magnificent battlestation to fight against. Ridiculous! Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin surveyed his domain and smiled as the moons of Yavin loomed closer. The Rebellion was going to end here, and the end would come soon.
Outside the command center, General Moradmin Bast fretted. He had just received news that a weakness had been found in the Death Star's defenses. It was a small one, and probably hard to find, but if attacked then it was all over. He had immediately informed High General Tagge, who just looked at him with a moment of horror and returned to his post, commanding the defenses with almost a frenzy. There was no chance that he would order an evacuation, however. He was merely third-in-command of the station. That would be up to Grand Moff Tarkin himself.
He scoffed. Tarkin was in love with his machine, had fallen into a deep spell by it. There would be no way he would order an evacuation. But who else could he talk to? Admiral Conan Antonio Motti was a man meriting fear and respect, but he was also a lackey of Tarkin. If there was anyone who was more confident in the Death Star than Slick Willy, it was him. There was no one else. Unless-
Bast rushed to an office hidden in one of the innumerable hallways of the battlestation. Within was the mustachioed Wulff Yularen, officer of the Imperial Security Bureau, essentially Palpatine's non-Sithian commissar aboard the Death Star. The white haired man asked the communications officer what was the matter. Bast told him.
Wulff stared in disbelief and considered his options. Too late to do an evacuation now- so how many of his fellow ISB agents could he escape with? Perhaps all of them, actually; they weren't really an intrinsic part of the battle. But that still left hundreds of thousands of other Imperials aboard. But he shook his head. Both sides had damned them with intractability. The Rebels with their perverse, reactionary fanaticism would no doubt be able to destroy the Death Star, no matter how many TIE fighters they poured into the defense. It was too late, the weakpoint too chancy. Men like Tarkin and Motti too, had condemned the battlestation to destruction with their unwavering faith in it, in its symbolic manifestation of the Tarkin Doctrine and the New Order.
Wulff could have contacted his superior, Central Commander Sollaine, but it would have been futile. No time, and Sollaine would have just waved it off and censured him for such apparent cowardice in the middle of a battle. The officer bristled a little at that. His whole posting on the Death Star was so he could be promoted if he had caught Tarkin making any false moves of disloyalty, but now he was trying to politick to save his own life. Using his manipulative mind, toned and sharpened after years in service of the Bureau, Wulff concocted a scheme. First, he summoned all of his ISB agents and informed them to prepare two shuttles for evacuation. Next, he gave Bast his instructions.
Bast informed Tarkin and Motti that the Emperor himself had sent a holo. Though neither had wanted to be called away from witnessing the slaughter, they could not resist the prospect of praise from Palpatine. Instead they were confronted with the station's ISB agents, alongside Tagge and several officers. Before Tarkin could accuse them of a takeover, they stunned him and his second. They then evacuated.
It was a dicey operation. Yes, they could have simply usurped control of the Death Star and retreated. But unfortunately for the men still on the battlestation, Bast, Tagge, and Yularen were fearful men, men who could not risk such an open break from authority. If they had retreated, they would have been executed for cowardice. If they had won the battle themselves, they would have been condemned as making a power grab, and executed. If they had failed, they would had died. Their best hope was to withdraw as many of their vital staff without creating a general panic, and hope that the Death Star would be able to fight off the Rebels. That way if they won, they would simply return to the battlestation. If not...
Of course, the Rebels won the Battle of Yavin as in history. The few shuttles carrying the Death Star survivors (mostly ISB men. Tagge could only extract a few of his core staff, and Tarkin had virtually none of his aboard) limped back to Coruscant. Perhaps they were risking execution, but at least they could claim they had forcefully evacuated the Grand Moff.
Surprisingly, they faced none of that. Though when Tarkin had awakened he was livid with rage, he had been struck dumb by the destruction of his awesome superweapon. Motti, too, was speechless. They, along the others, felt that they had failed to such a degree as to deserve death. But the Emperor had none of that. In almost passionless tones he had rebuked them and demoted them, making Moff Ardus Kaine the new governor of Oversector Outer. He even praised Yularen's quick thinking, making him to Central Commander of the ISB. And that was that.
Tarkin himself was overcome with rage that followed his relief. How dare the Emperor strike him down for a design mistake that was not his! How dare he promote that worm for not even allowing him to know it! Surely had he known about the flaw, he would have taken appropriate measures to save the Death Star. He was not an unreasonable man!
And the Emperor had the audacity to not even grant him an honorable discharge through death. Better he had died a thousand deaths for his failure than to live to endure it. But that would prove to be Palpatine's undoing, he supposed. That wretched, overpampered, political game-playing fool had lost touch with the men who were dying at the front lines. Something had to be done about it, and Tarkin had Motti whispering in his ear every other day about it. Though the destruction of the Death Star was a setback for their secret plans, there were more than one device to enforce his namesake Doctrine...
Besides a few things such as Tyber Zann being rescued from Kessel by Dash Rendar and his droid Leebo rather than Han and Chewie [2], not much happens in this universe, other than there is a general drop in public approval ratings (well, were they to actually exist) of Palpatine, and many in his regime begin to feel a loss of confidence in him. Even his Dark Side underlings believe that he may have become weaker in the Force, as impossible as that sounds. And most importantly, as we will come to see, several of his more rebellious vassals [2] end up postponing their schemes until later.
The New Republic: The Battle of Yavin had been a victory not even Master Yoda could have foreseen. Despite the improbable survival of Tarkin and Vader, it was clear that the Empire had suffered a great propaganda defeat, and even the Emperor had somehow become unhinged by it. Almost overnight, dozens of worlds secretly approached the Rebel Council for admittance, while thousands of Rebel cells bloomed across the Galaxy. In its moment of triumph, its leaders (prematurely) declared themselves to be no longer a mere alliance in rebellion, but a truely New Republic. But even as the celebrations went on there were some who felt that it had almost been too easy, that somehow this defeat was engineered by Palpatine himself.
They were correct.
Yes, the Republic continued to do as well as it did in the original history, striking victory after victory. But at the same time, a vague sense of near-complacency loomed its ugly head. The New Republic established a base on Hoth, and then evacuated it neatly after an Imperial incursion. The Council realized that Palpatine had began to withdraw from his already loose management of the Empire. Rumors of sickness and senility ran wild through the Empire. His Executor, Darth Vader, was also seemingly distracted, eschewing full command to pursue his own missions in search of something none but him (and the Emperor) knew. They even received the unlikely defection of Prince Xizor [1], vigo of the Black Sun and once highly-regarded pet of the Emperor. The cunning Falleen, deciding that he was on a sinking ship, and that his future would not be best served tied to an imminently dead man, brought the full resources of his criminal empire into the New Republic, and was immediately made into a General as the head of the New Republic Intelligence Service.
Rebel Alliance: The only defeat the NR saw was the loss of Garm Bel Iblis and his Corellian Free Renegades[1]. Without Bail Organa to maintain the triumvirate, Mon Mothma and Bel Iblis came to many disagreements, and the latter finally left when he was pushed one too many times to use his forces in a way that he saw as excessive. Making muted accusations that Mothma had aspirations for the Imperial throne, he and a large detachment of the Corellian forces of the New Republic left and labeled themselves as "the Rebel Alliance," thus stealing the original moniker of the New Republic and the prestige that went along with it. Though these new Rebels agreed to maintain peace with the New-Republicans, they also vowed to continue the war on their terms and to further their own goals, i.e. the independence of Corellia. Joining them were a few others who doubted the leadership of the NR, and who had finally realized what resurrecting the Galactic Republic would actually mean.
[I kind of see the Rebel Alliance as being very much guerrilla fighters and partisans like the French Resistance, while the New Republic was much more conventional, like the Free French forces.]
Tarkin Technocracy: Shortly after the Battle of Hoth, Moff Tarkin paid a visit to the Maw Installation and his lover, Admiral Daala. There he promoted her to Grand Admiral, and together they stole the old Death Star prototype and destroyed the rest of the superweapons at the base [1]. Unfortunately, the Sun Crusher was elsewhere at the time [1]. They then took the would-be Death Star, now named the Nova Colossus, to Corellia, where Tarkin had recently rooted out a Rebel base and conquered.
In an hour-long speech the most grandiose and ideological in fictional history this side of John Galt, Tarkin declared that the Emperor had abandoned the ideals of the New Order, become corrupted by nepotism and court politics, betrayed hundreds of systems in favor of rich liberal Core worlds, was no longer fit to run the Empire,[1] and most shockingly- had knowingly allowed the Rebellion to destroy the Death Star in order to justify his own continued hold on power. Tarkin then revealed that Emperor Palpatine and Darth Sidious of the Clone Wars were one and the same, having played the Galaxy for fools for over thirty years. After declaring himself Prefect Tarkin [1], lord of the Tarkin Technocracy, he invited all members of the Imperial government, military, and constituency to accompany him in creating a regime that truly practiced the New Order.
The response was violently mixed. Many kept their loyalties to the Emperor, accusing Tarkin of being a madman and a traitor. Others bit their tongue and worked out the historical equations- and it did indeed show that the senator from Naboo could very well have been a Sith Lord. Finally, many of the common soldiers and sailors- the ground-pounders [1] - bought Tarkin's message and defected. On the other hand, only select commanders, mostly those from the Rim and worlds that were indeed seemed to have been passed over by the government, joined him. In the end, Tarkin's Circle had few officers join, but his ranks did swell up with defecting noncoms. Those who did believed in his muscular ideology of totalitarianism, subjugation of the Core worlds to benefit the Rim, and virulent xenophobia. Tarkin's third-in-command, (now Grand) Admiral Motti, also encouraged a particular strain of Human High Culture that believed in cultivating a particular brand of officer class that could both lead in war and rule at home- all "accents and sideburns," as some called it. The defection also brought a schism within COMPNOR and totalitarians of the Galaxy, as most continued to support the Emperor and Palpatinism, while others believed that Palpatinist-Tarkinism was truly embodied in Prefect Tarkin. Tarkin himself promoted a system based on order through fear, putting Palpatine's ideals to the max by using his personal pseudo-Death Star.
Unfortunately for the Technocracy, its presence was quickly overshadowed by an even more popular uprising from within the Empire.
Imperial Commonwealth: Grand Admiral Zaarin has been called many things, but his most infamous title is "First among Warlords." The name does not refer to his former position as one of the GA's of the Imperial Starfleet, but because of his early role in destabilizing the Empire from within. An utterly ambitious man but also one capable of leading others of as equally great ambition, he formed a cabal sometime after the destruction of the first Death Star in the Battle of Yavin. Gathering figures from within the Imperial armed forces and some alien members of the Inquisitorius, he conspired to bring about an overthrow of the Emperor using his own military. Unfortunately, while Zaarin had a considerable fleet as well as the combined forces of his conspirator allies, his conspiracy was beset with internal strife as time passed. After all, Zaarin had to contend with not only maintaining the absolutely loyalty and devotion from his men, but also working with such notable personalities such as Emperor's Hand Arden Lyn, Grand Moff Trachta and his band of plotters, General Rom Mohc, High Inquisitor Ja'ce Yiaso, his fellow GADM Martio Batch, [2] Hutt Cartel crimelord Durga Besadii Tai, and the Imperial Guardsman and Sovereign Protector Carnor Jax.
Zaarin's main goal was to remove Palpatine from power and rebuild the Empire as a Commonwealth that would be more 'amenable' to the needs of the fighting men, weapons designers, and non-human members of the Galaxy. Ironically, while he was more of a moderate paternalistic authoritarian than the New Order totalitarians and wasn't particularly attracted to the Tarkin Doctrine, his proposed Imperial Commonwealth was supported by many of the people who could have enabled Palpatine's autocracy and Tarkin's technocratic terror. Zaarin himself was an avowed technophile, as were many of his co-conspirators. However, while there is some signs that he was aware of the ambitions of Tarkin and his Circle, Zaarin declined to either join or invite the former Grand Moff to his cabal, perhaps viewing him as a threat.
Conveniently, the declaration of the Tarkin Technocracy had been made just after Emperor Palpatine chose to leak false news that stated he was suffering from a terminal illness, and an Imperial Will had been written. Immediately after the Technocracy's secession, Grand Admiral Zaarin began Operation Paladin, detaching his forces from the loyal military, ordering his Inquisitor agents to sabotage Imperial operations, and launching an attempt to kidnap and execute the Emperor. Operation Paladin was a mixed success, because as much as he had thought of himself, Zaarin was never quite the popular figure of the Galaxy as he had thought, though more of the military did flock to him instead of Tarkin. He did manage to secure production sites of advanced war technology such as TIE Defenders. His co-conspirators themselves made headway in securing a few moderate moon-busters; for countering other superweapons, they assured him, not destroying worlds themselves. And on Coruscant, specially modified stormtroopers supplied by Trachta and several Guardsmen who had been turned by Carnor Jax made their attempt against the Emperor.
Insurgents of the Empire: Overall, the actions undertaken by the great traitors Tarkin and Zaarin robbed the Empire of between 15-20% of its territory. In the aftermath of the Battle of Endor, that figure would nearly double. The conflict had also erupted into two- the main Galactic Civil War between the New Republic and the Empire, which continued largely as it did in real history, and the Imperial Insurgency, between the loyal Royalists and the Tarkinist and Zaarinite flavors of Imperial-Insurgent.
As many critics sneered, the Tarkinists' regime was much of a Terrorcracy, while the Imperial Commonwealth were the true technocrats. The fear was established not only in the Corellian masses trembling at the thought of the Nova Colossus being used against them, but by also in the government as well. Though Tarkin used terror to keep his planets in line, he himself was afflicted by it, growing more and more paranoid, afraid to engage in much expansion for fear that the Emperor had another secret superweapon to use against his Death Star [1]. In time this fear manifested as a real disease that made him bed stricken [1], a malaise that some whispered had been Force-sent by Palpatine himself.
Zaarin, on the other hand, was actually far more interested in the technocratic aspects of his splinter empire. As part of Operation Paladin, he wholeheartedly encouraged his colleagues' work into super-science in which he hoped would empower his soldiers, sailors, and pilots to fight better against the Empire. Thus, production of TIE Avengers and Defenders bloomed under his administration [2], TIE Hunters and Phantoms under GADM Batch's Imdaar projects [2], General Moc produced thousands of Dark Troopers [2], and even the crimelord Durga began work on a superweapon on the side. When the coup d'etat was attempted, however, he found that while his fancy prototypes were highly effective, the sheer numbers of the Empire was capable of overwhelming them. Furthermore, he had also overestimated his popularity; many Imperial deserters had first jumped on Tarkin's ship, and the New Republic still had the hearts of the majority of the people. So ultimately, the main battle was still betwen the New Republic and the Empire. Nevertheless, Zaarin's technological prowess and somewhat superior tactical genius brought him several victories- including the assassination of Palpatine.
The Fall of the Emperor: On Coruscant, security forces loyal to Moff Kadir allowed a contingent of specially-modified stormtroopers and Crimson Guardsmen under Carnor Jax to enter the Imperial Palace [2]. There they slew dozens of guardsmen still loyal to the Emperor, before they confronted Palpatine himself. With a cackle he then proceeded to kill nearly all the stormtroopers and Kadir, before Carnor Jax unveiled a secret weapon- a ysalamiri. Trapping themselves in a Force-proof bubble, Jax dueled Palpatine, but without the Force, the older man eventually succumbed to the young warrior. With a triumphant cry, the former Sovereign Protector declared the Emperor to be finished.
Thousands and millions of light-years away, Zaarin broadcasted to the entire Galaxy. He proclaimed that the Empire itself was over, to be reformed under his rule as an Imperial Commonwealth, with greater rights to all beings. He then named himself Lord Protector.
However, Zaarin's conspiracy never finished its entire course. Emperor Palpatine's Imperial Will was opened and broadcasted to the Galaxy by COMPNOR. It revealed that Grand Vizier Sate Pestage was to succeed him temporarily as Chancellor until a "suitably Imperial successor" could be "found." (Whether by election or by blood, it was unclear.) It also bequeathed quadrillions of Palpatine's personal fortune to Coruscant and thousands of the worlds of his Empire. Almost overnight, the fickle sentiments of the Galactic public shifted back to Palpatine, as they reflected with very very rosy glasses the good things he had done for the Galaxy, as well as the order he had made. Labeling Tarkin as a perverter of their beloved leader's ideals, and Zaarin as a cheater and a divisive corruptor, they chased Carnor Jax and his surviving guardsmen off of Imperial Center and flocked to acting-emperor Chancellor Pestage, who continued the war against the New Republic.
And so things continued as in real history, though the NR did benefit from both the splintered Imperial military and the intelligence brought by General Xizor. And then came the Battle of Endor.