[i]The Essential Chronology[/i] wrote:The speed with which the Empire crumbled was amazing, surpassing the mass confusion that occurred following the Battle of Endor.
Of course, one must recognise immediately that the territorial decline of the Galactic Empire is not synonymous with the territorial expansion of the New Republic. The
Dark Empire Sourcebook describes the increasing balkanisation of the galaxy in the post-Endor period; this, combined with the rogue warlordism that characterises the interregnum and post-Palpatine era provides ample alternatives to the Galactic Empire and the New Republic.
E.g., the Dawferm Selfhood States and the Botor Enclave are mutual protection federations, completely independent of the two great powers. Lianna, home of Santhe/Sienar Technologies, instituted home rule and was granted a charter of secession from the Empire; the Corporate Sector declared neutrality.
Some warlord states grew to be fairly large; the Pentastar Alignment encompassed large sections of the Outer Rim Territories, and the
Rebellion Era Sourcebook states that the Warlord Zsinj's holdings (of which the Quelii sector formed the core) encompassed one-third of the galaxy.
To wit, it is possible for the Galactic Empire to have lost territory that did not revert to the New Republic. To argue that the Empire's accelerated decline must have accelerated the Republic's growth is an argument
non sequitur.
Circumstancial Evidence Here: The New Republic maintained the yards and resources to continue refitting and to crew the Executor -class Commandship Lusankya.
The Duskhan League also maintained sufficient support resources to maintain, equip, and crew three such warships; however, per explicit statements in
Before the Storm (p. 69), the Duskhan League included eleven populated worlds (and an undetermined number of unpopulated worlds) in the Koornacht Cluster.
Whilst it does indeed provide some measure of implicit evidence as to the size and scope of the New Republic at the time, that information is very vague, and establishes only an undetermined lower limit.
Circumstancial Evidence Here: The New Republic maintained the fleet resources, organization, and size to launch counteroffensives against Imperial positions and shipyards (laying siege to them as written later in the comic). Troopships casualling roundezvoused with fighter groups in deep space were carrying one hundred thousand New Republic Army troops and heavy armor and supplies for ground assualt. Heavy ground assualt and "sieges" of Imperial worlds likely would involve the use of ships to blockade shielded planets. Attempted New Republic offensives all the way to Byss is suggested. This indicates that if these sieges were feasable, that the New Republic's military itself was too large to affectively counter with this weapon, as the Imperial High Command instead chose to pick off ships as a show of force to New Republic member worlds in hope of depriving them of support and resources. The New Republic was hardly reduced to pre-Endor levels here, however their leadership was highly vulnerable to being picked off all at once by this weapon, and thus the New Republic High Command and government-in-exile was forced to hide in a Rebellion-style fashion. They were still fighting a traditional war with the Empire.
As of immediately after
Dark Empire, the New Republic maintained possession of approximately one-half the galaxy, as stated in Ch. 5 (p. 73) of the
Dark Empire Sourcebook; Brigadier Colin Darkmere, Intelligence Operations Command, stated (p. 114) in a memorandum to the Provisional Council that "militarily, we still hold the winning hand."
The Republic's territorial possessions as of that time were as follows:
Currently, the New Republic has a stable hold on many of the worlds in the Expansion Region, the Colonies Region and several other key regions of the galaxy. It also has control of many less vital regions (less vital in that they are not key to the overall strategy of maintaining control of the galaxy; many of these regions do make substantial contributions of raw materials, soldiers and other important supplies). Unable to hold onto Coruscant, the Rebel Alliance has made strategic withdrawals to their current comamnd base in the Da Soocha system.
In contrast, the Empire's possessions:
The Empire has regained the Core Worlds, and still holds the Deep Galactic Core, as well as many high industry regions beyond the Core Worlds. It seemed that the Imperail Coalition was dispersed -- while it held Coruscant, the former capital wasn't used as the prime base of operations.
The Empire supplies its fleet sfrom power bases in the Mid-Rim and the reclaimed Inner Rim, where the industrial planets depend on wartime economies to survive. However, the most significant Imperial victory occurred when the Empire retook the Core Worlds, linking Imperial holdings all the way to Wild Space. Once control of these vital planets was ensured, the Empire began bulwarking them against further attack.
Note that many worlds had already been converted into the so-called Fortress Worlds immediately prior to the Imperial Civil War; although the New Republic launched campaigns against Imperial supply ports and shipyards, it would be another six years until the New Republic had the ability to overwhelm the defences of Imperial-held Fortress Worlds.
To wit, the New Republic did not have the capacity at this time to lay siege to and take possession of a properly-defended Imperial-held world; nor did it have the ability to do so until the Fifth Fleet was made operational following Operation Hammerblow.
Operation Shadow Hand continued after the Emperor's death, under Sedriss's direction; according (p. 94) to
The Essential Chronology:
Executor Sedriss consolidated the forces remaining in the newly subjugated Core and Colonies regions. First, he targeted the weapons factories on Balmorra, which had turned against Imperial domination.
By the time of
Dark Empire II, the Empire had already seized control of one of the regions under the New Republic's control; given that the Republic withdrew its forces from Coruscant, it is likely that the Republic withdrew its forces from the Colonies, as well.
The Essential Chronology continues to state (p. 95):
Realizing the seriousness of this new threat, New Republic commando and sabotage teams attacked the Galaxy Gun, but were uanble to destroy it. The Emperor continued to launch his deadly projectiles, destroying unruly worlds and bringing the resistance to its knees. Within a short time, Palpatine regained key territories in the Inner and Outer Rim.
In
Empire's End, Nist states that the Galaxy Gun has only been fired four times -- this statement being made after the destruction of the
Pelagia, and necessarily after the destruction of Da Soocha V. It would appear, then, that the destruction of two "unruly worlds" was perfectly sufficient to pacify significant portions of Republic-held territory, as the only strategically significant area not known to have been seized by that time was the Expansion Region.
One should further note, of course, that the Outer Rim was already submitting to Imperial suzerainty by the time that the actions narrated in the prologue -- the attacks on supply ports and shipyards -- were being undertaken by the Republic.
As mentioned earlier, it is likely that the Republic withdrew from regions it could no longer hold. This would suggest that whilst the Republic had the fleet resources to launch counteroffensive strikes (which would appear to be fairly strategically ineffective), it most probably did not have the infrastructure to maintain those resources for long.
By the time of
Empire's End, the Republic had effectively lost control of the Core Worlds, the Colonies, the Inner Rim, and at least part of the Mid-Rim and the Outer Rim; these are merely those details that are known. In
Empire's End, Mothma ordered the fleet to disperse.
Therein lay the true measure of the strategic impotence of the New Republic by the end of Operation Shadow Hand: The Republic had ceased to co-ordinate naval actions. A single communications ship was the link between forces; without co-ordination, any significant military or naval operation would be inconceivable.
Even if the Republic retained a significant overall military and naval service, the fact that it was no longer able to fight a conventional war would be psychologically damning. The New Republic Defence Forces exist to provide for the common defence; what good is a Republic that cannot defend its members -- or cannot even defend its own forces, that must disperse itself for fear of destruction?
The New Republic counteroffensives following the Emperor's final destruction appear to have weakened the extra-Deep Core territories (which dwarf the Imperial remnant with 200 ISDs later on) to the point where a private fleet is able to rout the Imperial head-of-state's forces and sieze the capital, forcing a settlement. To a business leader. And the business fleet could not have been overly large. With the exception of the distant Imperial client state known as the Corperate Sector Authority, the largest private fleet we ever see that Palpatine allows in the civilized regions of the galaxy is Xizor's pathetic fleet containing nothing larger then a frigate.
In
Shadows of the Empire (comic adaptation), the Emperor himself states explicitly that the Prince Xizor "controls the largest merchant fleet in the galaxy," and instructs Vader to make shipping arrangements with him for the Death Star project at Endor. If the largest transport available to Xizor Transport Systems were no larger than a frigate, the XTS fleet must have been quite large in order to provide any meaningful transport to the Death Star project.
Secondly, in some of the Marvel Comics stories, the Lord Tagge was seen to have used a Tagge Company mining explorer as his personal flagshp; Dr Saxton states on his page that the mining explorer was nearly the size of a standard Imperial Star Destroyer.
Thirdly, in
Crimson Empire II, Carivus angrily demands an explanation from an admiral as to why d'Asta's attack has not been "dealt with"; the admiral responds "I'm doing my best, Your Majesty. But d'Asta has assembled his entire armada -- while our fleets have been scattered across the galaxy, searching for Kir Kanos!"
Earlier in the same issue, the same officer had a conversation with Carivus, in which he stated that d'Asta commands the largest privately owned fleet in the galaxy; Carivus asked nonchalantly if he commanded as many ships as the Empire, to which the admiral responded "Well, no... but we're already at war with the New Republic. And with the trouble the Whiphids are raising...", whereupon Carivus stopped paying attention.
One should note that a privately owned fleet is not the same thing as a merchant fleet. Furthermore, the primary reason that d'Asta's attack on Ord Cantrell was successful was due to gross mismanagement of the Empire's naval resources by Carivus, conceivably the single most incompetent leader in Imperial history. Carivus issued orders literally scattering the entire fleet to search for a single man, while the Empire was already at war, and provoked the Lord d'Asta into attacking the capital -- the capital which had no more than a token defence force.
(On a more humourous note, one must wonder if perhaps Xandel Carivus studied naval strategy at the United Federation Starfleet Academy; he proved to be quite adept at self-delusion, losing sight of what navies are for, and even employed the classic Starfleet home defence plan -- leaving one's capital virtually undefended.)
Circumstancial Evidence: They say the New Republic's been reduced to "less than half" the galaxy.
As already mentioned, the New Republic held approximately one-half of the galaxy as of the
Dark Empire Sourcebook. It then promptly lost control of an entire galactic region, as well as strategic portions of the Outer Rim.
Finally, with the depleted state of the galaxy as a whole after six years of near-constant total warfare and in the aftermath of two years of devestating waves of offensives and counteroffensives after the fact each time by the New Republic AND if their borders were so confined, it is unlikely they'd seek membership from troublesome crime-ridden planets at the edge of the galaxy such as Kessel. (Reference the map on page 167 of the Essential Chronology).
Nor would the New Republic spend funds on reestablishing the Jedi Knights and allow Master Skywalker to establish his academy at Yavin if they felt they had to much at stake to concern themselves defending something so far away. Keep in mind, Yavin is between the Imperial-held Meridian and Antimeridian Sectors and the major Imperial base/shipyard at Yaga Minor at this point. (Reference, map on page 167 again)
Nor would they end up in dangerous skirmishes over the Imperial-occupied Meridian and Antimeridan Sectors in the Outer Rim on the edge of the Empire proper's territory. (Reference, map on page 167 again)
Nor would they embark in militaristic nation-building on politically unstable Adumar deeply in the Outer Rim at the galactic disk's edge and well within the Empire's sphere of influence if they were militarily insecure or their borders were thousands of light-years away. (Reference, map before the novel in the Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand paperback)
Antemeridian sector was held by an Imperialist warlord; Meridian sector was Republic-held space.
The point, however, stands: Why does the New Republic's behaviour fail to match its diminutive size as of the Black Fleet Crisis?
In the first place, Mothma's comments in
Jedi Search suggest that whilst a large portion of the galaxy is not under the direct adminstrative control of the New Republic, they maintain amicable relations with it. It may even be so much as recognition of a nominal suzerainty, such as that offered to the Imperial remnants by Moff Getelles of Antemeridian sector.
Perhaps the Republic has signed treaties of peace and friendship with the numerous non-allied states; perhaps it has a large number of protectorates under its authority, which Organa Solo did not think to mention to Nil Spaar. Strictly speaking, a protectorate remains a sovereign power, and not part of the territory of the protector.
However, the question of patrolling borders is partially answered by implications of
Specter of the Past and
Vision of the Future; it is fairly unlikely that the New Republic patrolled its borders routinely. Rather, it is more likely that the New Republic patrolled its more sensitive borders, leaving the maintenance of border integrity to its several members, except when asked to provide assistance.
Publius
