REBEL YELL
The Hosnian Cataclysm of 34 ABY heralded a massive shift in the galactic balance of power. In the wake of its capital's destruction, the New Republic lost its shaky dominance on the galactic stage. The provisional government assembled from the ashes of the New Republic's political structure found little support as planet after planet capitulated to the First Order, fell out of contact, or seceded. The most significant secession was that of Corellia.
Corellia's senators and planetary leaders had long been critical of the New Republic, strongly opposing its military and tax policies following the end of the Galactic Civil War. Its senator, Garm Bel Iblis, had also long been considered a political firebrand. He had taken a hawkish post-war stance against the Imperial forces that had not been accounted for in Imperial Remnant records. He had repeatedly stated his open disrespect and disdain for those he believed were Imperial infiltrators and remained a staunch supporter of Leia Organa-Solo, even in the wake of the scandal that revealed her relation to Darth Vader. He was also vocal over what he saw as the sidelining of old Rebel Alliance veterans in the Senate in favor of a new class of ex-Imperial politicians. To many of his fellow senators, he had become an inconvenience, a threat. The rift between old guard like Bel Iblis and the new ex-Imperial senators had grown and festered over the years.
When the New Republic Provisional Government issued a call to arms to its remaining member worlds, Bel Iblis refused. The Provisional Government had ordered Corellia to deploy all of her fleets and armies to the Aressa Salient, a Rimward section of the war facing an immediate advance by the First Order's Third Fleet. Bel Iblis described this order "the latest in a long string of strategic blunders." He opposed the idea of giving command of Corellia's military over to a government he considered incompetent in an action that his intel had deemed suicidal. The total deployment ordered by the Provisional Government would have also deprived Corellia of most of her defenses. Bel Iblis announced Corellia's secession from the New Republic, voicing his lack of faith in a government that had "failed the Rebel dream." Bel Iblis vowed that Corellia would fight the First Order and win or die on its own terms.
On the home front, Corellia was truly united for the first time in decades. The heartbreak of the Galactic Civil War was still fresh in living memory. The last war had been a war between brothers, with Corellians finding themselves on both sides of the conflict. Siblings had buried siblings. Nobody, whether former Rebel or former Imperial, wished to take up arms against their kin again. And so they marched arm in arm. Whatever the future, they would face it as one united planet. Former Rebels demanded blood for blood, while former Imperials saw themselves as distinct from the distant First Order, which they viewed as a band of upstart pretenders and extremists. The fires of industry flared into newfound life in the following weeks as the shipyards of Corellia, Selonia, and Talus switched to a wartime footing. The mood was defiant, optimistic. Military volunteer rates skyrocketed as young men and women, a new generation of untested warriors, were swept up in the indignant, patriotic anger of the moment, perhaps blissfully ignorant of the price that war would force them to pay.
Corellia was not alone, either. Bel Iblis and planetary governor Elios Thane reached out to trade partners, treaty signatories, and old Galactic Civil War contacts. Duro was the first planet to answer the call, an old friend coming in Corellia's time of need. Devaron, Bestine IV, Yag'Dhul, and the Wookiee Worlds rallied to the Corellian banner soon after. Veterans of both the Rebel Alliance and Bel Iblis' old splinter rebellion came in from the cold, offering what services they could to the cause. Even surviving elements of the New Republic military joined in, deserting following the Provisional Government's continued ineffectiveness. The most notable defectors from the New Republic were the aces of Rogue Squadron and the commandos of Wraith Squadron. Volunteers also arose from other worlds not officially aligned with Corellia. Volunteer fighter wings from Coruscant, Taanab, and Ralltiir arrived to join the fight. From Hapes came the 1st Hapan Volunteer Fusiliers Regiment. Jedi Master Kyle Katarn surfaced leading a handful of Jedi Knights, the last proud survivors of their order following the Ossus Massacre and Luke Skywalker's disappearance. Most surprising of all, however, was an offer of support from the Imperial Remnant.
In the years leading up to the Hosnian Cataclysm, the Imperial Remnant had maintained a shaky relationship with the First Order. Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, the Remnant's head of state, had taken steps to distance the Remnant from the First Order. He had refused all overtures for military alliance, personnel exchanges, and military trade. Imperial Remnant Archive documents indicate that the Remnant had, at most, signed a mutual non-aggression pact and limited trade treaties for consumer goods and foodstuffs.
Relations had soured considerably towards 34 ABY, however. First Order commerce raids had taken a toll on Imperial shipping deals with other worlds. The First Order warship Bonecrusher destroyed the bulk freighter Haystack, mistaking it for a Resistance vessel and killing 200 Remnant civilians. First Order ships regularly waylaid and captured the crews of merchant vessels plying the trade routes connecting the Remnant to its trade partners, press-ganging the crews into naval service. The First Order blockade of Tanabar, a supplier of tibanna to the Remnant and New Republic, was met with Imperial outrage. The act that doomed the Remnant-First Order relationship, however, was a disastrous secret meeting between a First Order delegation and the Remnant government. Admiral Kurita of the First Order met with Pellaeon and the Central Committee of Grand Moffs with an offer of military alliance.
Kurita had suggested that with the Remnant's armies at the forefront of the war, the two powers could set the galaxy ablaze. Pellaeon, by this point fed up with the First Order's antics, refused. To him, the language was clear. The First Order wished to use the Remnant as an expendable meat shield. It was to be a repeat of the cowardice displayed during Operation Cinder, where Pellaeon and countless others were left as an expendable rearguard as the First Order's founders laughed from the safety of the Unknown Regions. At gunpoint, Kurita and his diplomatic entourage were forced to depart the Remnant. Subsequent First Order commerce raids on Remnant shipping lanes increased in quantity and ferocity. Then the Hosnian Cataclysm happened. Thousands of Remnant ambassadorial personnel and tens of thousands of other Remnant civilians on business and tourist permits had been wiped from the face of the galaxy. This was the final straw. The Imperial Remnant declared war on the First Order one day after Hosnian. Pellaeon's forces, however, were a shadow of the old Empire's, drained by both the post-war disarmament and the damage from Operation Cinder. The First Order's forces were inexplicably massive. Where had they sourced the manpower to crew their massive new Star Destroyers and their rumored planet-sized superweapon? From whence did the First Order's massive Stormtrooper Corps originate? How much of the Unknown Regions did the First Order control?
The Remnant's next objective was obvious: Pellaeon needed allies. He set a course for Corellia.
To formalize Corellia's new alliances, a conference was held on Corellia to draft what the media had dubbed the Second Corellian Treaty. It had been a long time since Pellaeon had set foot on his birth planet. His homecoming was an uneasy one. Many Corellians considered him an outsider, not out of malice, but as a natural consequence of his long years of domicile on Bastion. Most of Corellia's allies had chafed under the old Empire's rule, also. The other members of the conference were skeptical of Pellaeon's claims until he produced a recorded holo of the secret meeting and evidence of the First Order's aggression against the Remnant. He had his own blood toll to collect. Though they did not fully trust him, the other members of this budding alliance grudgingly conceded. In a twist of cosmic irony, Pellaeon would become a signatory of this Second Corellian Treaty. Thrawn would have rolled in his grave.
Though the number of powers represented at the Corellian Conference was hailed by the media as a grand interstellar union, the harsh realities of the situation were not lost on the Treaty's signatories. They were a handful of worlds in a galaxy of hundreds of millions of planets, most of whom had accepted the dominion of the First Order. As the delegations turned their eyes to the stars, Duros Admiral Vor Kaalaz summed up their situation: "Are all the lights in the sky our enemy?"