TURNING TIDES
With the coming of the war's second year came a shift in fortunes for the galaxy's major belligerents. With victories like Bescane, Vulpter, and Ruusan under its belt, the newborn Corellian Treaty had won the respect of much of the galactic community. As the first year came to its close, the First Order quickly realized that there were yet powers in the galaxy which refused to go gently into that good night. While the New Republic was ready to fall apart at the seams, several of the second year's events would serve to underline the fact that the Corellian Treaty was no longer merely a stubborn collection of B-list holdouts and secessionists, but a potential threat to the galactic dominance of both the New Republic and the First Order.
THE SECOND-YEAR OFFENSIVE
With the Remnant victory at Bescane, the First Order's forces in the galactic north had lost all momentum, sent reeling by the deaths of so many senior officers above the fortress world. Despite the heavy losses suffered by the Imperial Navy, Pellaeon immediately ordered his admirals and generals to seize the initiative and begin the reconquest of Imperial space, starting with Jaemus, Entralla, Muunilinst, and other worlds along Bastion's hyperlane.
To bolster the depleted Imperial military, the first of the so-called Pellaeon Reforms was passed: the Nonhuman Conscription Act. With the NCA, the Central Committee of Grand Moffs declared that all nonhuman citizens, not just near-humans, were eligible for conscription into the Imperial military. Hundreds of nonhuman Army auxilia divisions were raised within a month of the NCA, later followed by large numbers of enlisted naval personnel. The NCA met a mixed reception from the Imperial populace. While some were glad to have the reinforcements or happy to serve the Empire, others resented mandatory military service. However, the political effects of the bill will not be discussed in detail in this record, as their direct effect on the war was negligible.
Belisarius' fleets swiftly retook the Bastion hyperlane, crushing the now-disorganized FO siege fleets with heavyweight assets from Battlefleet Bastion. With the aid of the newly raised NCA auxilia divisions and Bastion's Imperial Elite Guard legions, the Imperial Army was able to crush any remaining FO ground assets along the besieged worlds. Within two months, Bastion's vulnerable coreward flank was secured, allowing the Imperial Navy to push towards its old westward border. Much of the conquered Imperial space had fallen into the hands of either the First Order or a myriad of minor FO client states formed shortly after the initial push into Remnant space. Along the spinward flank was the Hessendine League, a congregation of merchant states that had declared independence from the Remnant in the first year of the war. Led by Admiral Kharun Yoneck, the Remnant fleet sent to invade the League consisted mainly of destroyers, cruisers, and light carriers packing the cream of the Empire's starfighter squadrons. Advancing down the coreward flank, through directly FO-controlled space, was a fleet commanded by Belisarius himself. In anticipation of heavy FO resistance, Belisarius concentrated most of his heavyweight warships into the primary push.
Progress in the Hessendine Theater was astonishingly quick by Imperial standards. Carefully coordinated lightning raids on key hypercomm relays and star forts scattered the Hessendine naval forces, which quickly became uncoordinated in the face of a communications blackout. Taking advantage of the enemy's initial confusion, Admiral Yoneck sent his carriers and light cruisers along the lightly defended Gaslight Trail, capturing the hyperspace hubs of Schenvaal II, Stasbeck, and Fiske. With the Gaslight Trail supply line and three major hyperspace crossroads in Imperial hands, Remnant forces then began the second phase of their strategy. Taking a page out of the Rebel Alliance playbook, Imperial fighter squadrons began commerce-raiding operations, running roughshod over the inexperienced and relatively light Hessendine forces. The worlds of the Hessendine League were economically interdependent, with few planets possessing truly self-sufficient economies, a side effect of pre-war Imperial economic policies. Cut one world off from its connections, and those neighbors would instantly lose access to that world's crucial export, whether that came in the form of grain, fuel, industrial machinery, tibanna gas, or something else necessary to running a war effort. With Imperial fighter squadrons and destroyer wolfpacks infesting Hessendine hyperlanes, more and more of the League's member states began to sue for peace as the year progressed. With the Hessendine League brought back into the fold ahead of schedule, the Imperial forces in this zone halted their push to consolidate territorial gains, allow supply lines to catch up, and fortify the salient they had created in anticipation of a counter-push from coreward FO space to the galactic south or from the cosmo-barbarian tribes to the galactic west.
Belisarius' advance along the coreward hyperlanes was much slower. The First Order fleets along the Via Aurelia and Via Lydinia were not as spineless, green, or poorly armed as the nascent merchant princedoms to the galactic north. Resistance was heavy right from the beginning as Belisarius' forces struck at the Phalanx Cluster, where the FO had dug in on the fortress worlds of Actiolanum, Bessenia, Xanica Colonia, and Aetolium. The wars for these fortress worlds were bloody, urban meat grinders that consumed entire Stormtrooper legions and Army divisions. After three months of gruesome attrition warfare, Belisarius broke through the Phalanx Cluster and engaged in a series of naval slugging matches with the First Order fleets of Grand Admiral Oshika, a veteran of the FO's Unknown Regions campaigns. A near-equal match, the two admirals could not achieve a decisive victory over the other. Despite defeats at Corinna IV and Edyra Prime, the Imperial Navy continued its push forward until it was halted at the industrial world Prasidion, where an immense FO naval and ground presence stubbornly held on. The siege of Prasidion was a grueling affair, for the world's shipyards, arms factories, and ammunition dumps were considered a high-priority objective by both belligerent powers. Given the scarcity of well-equipped ports in the northern Outer Rim, any campaign targeting Bastion or the FO's northern territories would require holding Prasidion and its hyperlane if it wished to have a hope of success. Thus, both the Empire and the FO's northern fleets poured more and more forces into the stalemate at Prasidion, which would continue well into 36 ABY.
SPOTLIGHT: KINETICS
Although technology tends to march forward during periods of galactic war, there are times when it pays to fall back on older, proven weaponry. As supply lines broke down and key economic producers fell into darkness, many of the galaxy's belligerent powers looked to cheaper, more archaic ways of waging war. The resurgence of kinetic weaponry in the galaxy was a product of this backwards-looking trend. Blaster manufacturing requires a level of infrastructure and expertise that became increasingly inaccessible as the war progressed. Demand and prices for tibanna skyrocketed while supplies dwindled, particularly when trade routes became increasingly unsafe. While blaster pistols and rifles remained a common sight, the galactic markets for heavy weaponry saw a resurgence in affordable, easily manufactured kinetics. The Corellian Treaty powers, for instance, made extensive use of the Coronet Arms H303 self-propelled howitzer and the Gorm-Talquist A-35 cannon, which could be produced at a fraction of the cost of energy-based pieces like the SPMA series. Ammunition for such weaponry could be manufactured in bulk from even the most primitive factories, and the variety in ammunition types granted greater versatility than turbolaser-based ordnance. Smoke, illumination, cluster, and mine shells saw frequent use among the CT's artillerymen throughout the war. The introduction of droid brains as guidance mechanisms further added to the growing popularity of kinetic artillery among the CT powers. Perhaps the only common complaint about such weapons was the logistical burden of storing, transporting, and disposing of the massive quantities of ammunition needed to support a planetary army.
Magnetic weaponry research also returned to relevance on the stellar stage. Mass drivers returned en masse to galactic battlegrounds, most commonly in the hands of Mandalorian vessels, Imperial Remnant armor divisions, and Wookiee bowcaster infantry. Wookiee R&D efforts also saw the adaptation of bowcaster tech into ground-based artillery and naval weaponry. Energy-sheathed explosive shells, inspired by bowcaster ammunition, eventually found their way into the stores of NR and CT artillery batteries as an expensive but undeniably destructive solution to the galaxy's most heavily armored problems.
Though its R&D was stymied by feverish adherence to the glories of old, even the FO's most dogmatic traditionalists saw the potential of solid-ammo weaponry, remembering the effectiveness of Clone-era AT-TE and AT-AP mass drivers. Mass drivers and autocannons saw extensive use in the FO's fleets and armor divisions, though the wealth of its holdings in the Unknown Regions allowed the FO to maintain a reliable supply of turbolasers and other heavy-duty energy weapons.
THE CRISIS OF 35 ABY
The first quarter of 35 ABY was a military disaster for the New Republic. The inadequacy and slowness of NR reinforcements and resupply to Ord Mantell led to the planet's fall early in the year as the starved and depleted defenders finally surrendered to the invading FO fleet. Dorin fell shortly after as the FO's invasion force was bolstered by the fleet from Ord Mantell. Bilbringi and Palanhi, disappointed at the NR's weakness, defected to the First Order shortly after the loss of Dorin. The FO advance was only barely stopped at the Borleias System, when the NR gathered 6 fleets and 9 army groups with Gatalentan Jedi support to overwhelm the FO and its vassal auxilia. The commander of the operation, Admiral Pariades, was hailed as the Hero of Borleias by the NR media, but in his private memoirs, Pariades noted that another victory like Borleias would kill the New Republic. Nevertheless, the road to Coruscant was secured for the moment. But even with the victory at Borleias, the NR could not rest easy. Under the FO's employ, the cosmo-barbarian warbands of the Lascarae and Chereuscid kingdoms attempted to skirt the NR defenses at Borleias. The barbarian hordes probed at the defenses of the nearby Pranapur Gulf, hoping to open an alternate route to Coruscant and split the NR's badly overstretched defenders.
Economically, the NR continued its decline. The loss of many productive industrial and agricultural centers in the galactic north left the NR's remaining worlds severely under-supplied. The continued degradation of healthcare standards killed countless people and crops in the NR's last few breadbaskets, further exacerbating the food shortages that began in 34. Securities markets suffered greatly as dozens of major galactic corporations exited the public market or went bankrupt. The value of the New Republic credit also worsened on galactic exchanges as faith in the NR's economy evaporated. In addition to public discontent, NR leadership also had to deal with dozens of military rebellions as its armies demanded better pay. Only the intervention of Gatalentan Jedi diplomats managed to calm these rebellious sentiments.
The combined pressures of so many threats proved too much for Supreme Chancellor Odamicus, who suffered a nervous breakdown and was eventually assassinated by his bodyguards. Following the assassination, Odamicus' political opponents seized power, engaging in a series of political campaigns that ultimately culminated in the ostracism of Odamicus' inner circle and the election of Supreme Chancellor Borsk Fey'lya.
FAREWELL, FRIENDS
While Corellian Treaty strategists saw the fall of Ord Mantell and Dorin as inevitable, they had not expected them to fall so early in the year. With Ord Mantell's collapse, the recently charted hyperlane between the Bright Jewel System and the Corsin System had been flung wide open, providing the First Order with an additional invasion corridor southward. The Corsin System was overwhelmed and burned within a week, and FO-aligned fleets quickly ran down connecting hyperlanes, burning and plundering all they saw. The largest of these fleets targeted Kashyyyk and Taanab, prompting Corellian Treaty brass to cancel planned invasions of FO vassal states along the Perlemian Trade Route.
Taanab's importance as an agri-world had won it many friends in the galactic community, and its history of dealing with pirate raids had led to an interbellum push towards militarization. Unwilling to see their breadbasket put to the torch, many of Taanab's neighbors rushed to heed the call of the Taanab Yellow Aces, contributing warships, starfighters, materiel, and manpower to the cause. By this point, the Hapes Consortium could also not afford to remain neutral any longer due to its reliance on Taanab's agriculture and commerce along the Perlemian Trade Route. Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo added her signature to the Corellian Treaty five days after the fall of Corsin, sending the Hapan Royal Navy's 2nd Fleet to Taanab's defense. Taanab's defenders quickly annihilated the First Order invasion fleet's vanguard elements. Seeing the magnitude of the firepower arrayed against it, the Taanab invasion fleet retreated to Gizer, where it remained for some time, having the numbers and weight to lock down much of the Perlemian Trade Route but not enough to make an invasion of Taanab anything more than a pyrrhic victory at best. And so the stalemate at Taanab began.
Kashyyyk was a very different story. While the Wookiees were as fearsome as ever on the ground, they had yet to catch up with other Corellian powers in the field of naval power, still lacking the capacity to manufacture battleships and full-sized carriers. The Wookiees' assortment of escorts and heavily armored cruisers could punch above their weight class, especially once in boarding torpedo range, but they still could not hope to stand against a Resurgent-class SD. Standing with the Wookiees were Corellia's 6th Carrier Group and 1st Army Group, the Duros 10th Fleet and 22nd Army Group, the Givin 3rd and 4th Fleets, and assorted fleets and armies raised from Wookiee colonies around the Mytaranor Sector.
Rather than sit and wait at Kashyyyk, the Corellian Treaty navies attempted to soften the enemy from the moment it left port at Lantillies. Sortie after sortie of starfighters harried the enemy's escorts and tankers, assisted by stealthed torpedo boats, mine layers, and Longprobe reconnaissance craft. However, the First Order fleet master, Admiral Vale, had long since cottoned on to the old Rebel Alliance carrier playbook, having defected from the New Republic shortly after the Hosnian Cataclysm. The Treaty's carrier strikes were blunted by Vale's adoption of New Republic anti-air escort formations, with scores of torpedoes detonating harmlessly in storms of point-defense fire. Treaty fighter wings were forced to engage at ranges too close for comfort, and as Vale's fleet closed in, more and more squadrons returned with vacancies to fill. While the First Order's still-obsolete point defenses could not totally avert casualties, the losses inflicted were not enough to force a retreat or a change in plans.
When the First Order reached Kashyyyk, the story in space progressed in much the same way as at Bescane, Ord Mantell, Dorin, and countless other worlds. The FO fleet, overwhelming in its size and weight, battered aside any who dared slug it out in a gunnery duel. The Trandoshan Navy, kept at bay until now, sprung from the dark side of Trandosha to assist the First Order. Within days, the FO and its allies had achieved space superiority, forcing the surviving CT fleets to retreat to the system's edge to preserve their numbers and await the call to protect a last-ditch evacuation.
Fat-bellied transports descended on Kashyyyk like a swarm of insects. Chenachochan was glassed from orbit. Okikuti fell to the FO's 1307th Legion, granting the FO access to the city's fisheries, farms, and mines. The Ittummi Fortress, home to one of Kashyyyk's oldest berserker temples, stood for a time as Chieftain Shorrkarr and his raging warriors put up a courageous defense, but courage alone was not enough. One month after planetfall, the Ittummi Fortress was a smoking, bloody ruin, its defenders killed to the last man by the Trandoshan 4th Army. Tunnatutikan was drowned as FO Special Forces troops sabotaged the nearby Freyyr Dam. Kerritamba City burned as First Order TIEs firebombed the Kkowir Forest, its few surviving evacuees captured by Trandoshan slavers as they fled to neighboring towns. The CT ground forces were quickly pushed back, concentrating their defenses in the great cities of Rwookrrorro, Kachirho, and Kepitenochan.
Kepitenochan fell after three months, its walls breached by titanic siege weapons and its government tree burnt to ash along with Jedi Knight Rosh Penin, Star Colonel Roderic Ordo, Chieftain Korro, and approximately 21 divisions' worth of troops. Penin, Ordo, and Korro were personally slain by the infamous Amon Horkos, a Knight of Ren more commonly known as the Butcher of Contruum. Kachirho was razed two weeks after Kepitenochan. FOSF and Trandoshan commando teams had blinded Kachirho's defenders by silencing nearby coastwatcher stations. Using code books looted from slain coastwatchers, FO forces were able to avoid most Corellian Treaty patrols, catching the city by surprise. As stormtroopers and walkers flooded into the city, Chieftain Tarfful led the defense of Kachirho's last wall. For a time, it seemed as if the Treaty forces in Kachirho would hold out, but on the penultimate day of the siege, Tarfful was wounded by a poisoned blade during a duel with a Trandoshan champion. Though Tarfful killed the Trandoshan, his death from poison sapped the defenders' morale and emboldened the First Order and Trandoshan forces at the final gate. Kachirho fell the next day, its defenders fighting to the last man. Perhaps the only consolation in Kachirho's destruction for the Corellian Treaty was the successful sabotage of the city's spaceport, denying its use to the First Order. Only Rwookrrorro remained.
Kashyyyk's capital city was no longer a humble habitation platform among the trees but a Wookiee metropolis with defenses on par with anything in Imperial space. Multiple layers of theater shields, hundreds of artillery and anti-air batteries, nigh-impregnable curtain walls, and dozens of anti-orbital weapon batteries kept the city and its inhabitants safe. There would be no surprise from the woods, for the city's leaders had ordered the nearby forests leveled for kilometers around. Here, the greatest of Kashyyyk's leaders and warriors made their stand. Commanding the defense were the chieftains Attichitcuk, Ovarra, and Attabura, along with General Bannon of Corellia, General Kasor of Duro, and SaKhan Alaric Ordo of Mandalore. The First Order force marching on Rwookrrorro, while formidable, had been badly bled by the stubbornness of Kashyyyk's defenders and its inexperience in navigating the treacherous, inhospitable wilds of the planet. With the Corellian Treaty fighting tooth and nail to maintain air superiority around Rwookrrorro, the besieging FO forces faced an imminent supply shortage as orbital supply lines were forced to land further and further from the front. They had no choice but to attempt an immediate breach.
The outermost walls held for a two weeks, surviving multiple scaling attempts by FO war machines and bombardments by FO siege artillery. Time and time again, Jedi Master Kyle Katarn and Triumphant Grakarr of the Alaris Prime 1st Army rallied the troops, pushing back the FO divisions that managed to set foot on the walls. The first line was finally breached when one of the First Order's superlaser siege cannons penetrated the armored shutter protecting one of the wall guns, setting off the gun's magazine and causing a catastrophic chain reaction of secondary explosions that destroyed a section of the wall, burying a division of Corellian Marines and the Jedi Knight Baldwin of Hyades. As FO troops flooded into Rwookrrorro's outermost hab districts, General Bannon's Corellian armored divisions swing in from north of the breach, supported by air cover from Rogue Squadron, Wraith Squadron, and three wings of Wookiee fighter-bombers, but were pushed back by a suicidal counter-charge performed by the Trandoshan 2nd Army's own armored and mechanized units. It was at this point that Ashtar Moloch, one of Kylo Ren's chosen lieutenants, took to the field, pursuing the retreating Corellians with a retinue of his fellow Oathbreakers. Moloch claimed the heads of Jedi Knight Dorsk 83 and Wookiee berserker chief Kwarrurrok Red-Hand before falling back from the second wall's withering firepower.
The second and final wall protected Inner Rwookrrorro, the old districts of the city housing the planetary government tree and spaceport. With their tight timetable worsened by the cost of taking the first wall, the FO forces gambled on an all-or-nothing push as their food and water supplies reached critical levels. FO and Trandoshan forces unleashed everything they had at the second wall. The deployment of FO executioners and Knight of Ren enforcers made it abundantly clear to the troops that there would be no retreat, no surrender. The hell unleashed on the second wall was punishing. The 208th Kashyyyk Mechanized and 119th Kashyyyk Ranger Divisions were annihilated entirely when artillery fire obliterated their barracks in the old commercial district. The 25th Corellian Highlanders Division was rendered combat-ineffective after suffering 80% losses against a scaling attempt by flamer-equipped war machines. General Kasor was very nearly killed by falling rubble while en route to take command of the eastern sector of the second wall, while Attabura was severely wounded by an enemy sniper. When Horkos, Moloch, and their fellow dark Knights set foot on the second wall, none could stand before them. Chieftain Ovarra was maimed when she attempted to stop them with a cadre of berserkers and rangers. Chieftain Attichitcuk suffered equally severe injuries fighting off a team of Trandoshan commandos. An airburst artillery shell incapacitated Jedi Knight Godfrey of Montressonne, leaving Ben Skywalker and Kyle Katarn alone to face the enemy Knights. As Katarn charged Moloch and his bodyguards, Skywalker dueled the Butcher.
Even after witnessing the atrocities Moloch's cabal had committed against Rwookrrorro's civilians, Katarn could not bring himself to aim for killing strikes at first. He exhorted them to lay down their arms and turn back from the dark path, only for his pleas to fall on deaf ears. As Moloch drew a blaster to try and execute the fallen Godfrey, Katarn realized that there would be no redemption for these former students like there was with Rosh Penin. Only then did he stop holding back, throwing himself back into the fight with lethal intent, but even a Jedi Master could fall when he was as outnumbered and tired as Katarn was in this moment.
Against the Butcher of Contruum, Skywalker initially held the upper hand. Fatigued, bleeding from a score of minor wounds, Skywalker was nevertheless the superior swordsman, having spent his time since Ruusan training and studying feverishly under the tutelage of Korr and Katarn. Horkos had grown complacent after years of easy victories, and now found himself unable to open up Skywalker's defense or match the freakish strength that the Jedi had inherited from his father and grandfather. As the two dueled, Horkos was forced back, unable to retake the offensive, his very bones shuddering with each impact of Skywalker's lightsaber until a stray siege laser blast leveled his Jedi foe. With the young Jedi knocked senseless, the Knight of Ren seized the opportunity, raising his saber pike to perform the coup de grace.
All seemed lost until a familiar flash of green fire struck down the Butcher of Contruum. Unseen since the Ossus Massacre, Grand Master Luke Skywalker had returned to the galaxy. He appeared as his friends and family remembered him: standing proud and strong in the iconic Endor black, holding aloft the blade that carved his legend into the stage of history. A cheer that could split the heavens erupted among the Corellian Treaty armies as the greatest Jedi in history once again went to war. Struck with terror, the First Order force halted in its tracks, then fell back in a panic as Rwookrrorro's defenders sallied forth in support of Luke Skywalker's advance. Father and son led the charge, the two Skywalkers fighting side by side. The enemy's armor was no match for Luke's mastery of the Force, and his skill with the ancient saber forms bested any blaster or blade brought to bear against him. The Trandoshans immediately attempted to retreat from Kashyyyk altogether to preserve the loot and slaves they had acquired so far. The FO, rallied by their generals and ancient Sith overseers, made an attempt to regroup and counter-attack, but the Trandoshan departure left the FO's flanks wide open. Unwilling to allow his entire landing force to be annihilated, Admiral Vale ordered a general retreat, scrambling every fighter squadron and transport he had left to salvage such a disastrous defeat. As more and more ships entered the system from the Wookiee colonies, the FO's naval superiority waned. There was no more reason to stay, and no time to glass the planet out of spite. Of the Knights of Ren who took to the field that day, only Ashtar Moloch survived, retreating to the FO's evacuation transports after Katarn claimed the fallen Knight's sword arm.
What the Jedi failed to realize until the end of the battle was that this was Luke Skywalker's last hurrah. Unbeknownst to his comrades in the Corellian Treaty, Skywalker had performed the near-impossible: with the Force, he had split, projected, and solidified his image in two separate places at once across astronomical distances, fighting on Kashyyyk with his old friends while also lending his sword to another major battle in the Resistance Theater. While his actions proved pivotal to successes on both fronts, the cost of achieving those victories was a heavy one. Fatigued and wounded by years of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines, Luke Skywalker proved unable to survive the strain of fragmenting his consciousness. Minutes after the Battle of Kashyyyk ended, Luke Skywalker breathed his last, and his shade on Kashyyyk faded with him. Every Jedi Knight in the galaxy felt his passing, and a great melancholy fell upon the Corellian Treaty as the news began to spread. One more candle to add to the makeshift memorial on Corellia. Such was the fate of all who joined the endless vigil.
Kashyyyk was a smoking ruin. Much of the planet's once-green surface was scorched black and most of her greatest cities were naught but rubble and corpses. However, the Wookiees were a hardy people, and most of the civilian population outside Rwookrrorro had managed to survive, eking out a living among the trees or in minor provincial towns far from the FO invasion's primary objectives. The Wookiee colonies, untouched by the invasion, answered the homeworld's call once more after the battle to lend what aid they could and protect Kashyyyk space from further Trandoshan attacks. Attichitcuk, Ovarra, and Attabura survived their injuries, as did General Kasor and Jedi Knights Baldwin and Godfrey. Corellian Treaty casualties were immense, and the Corellian, Duros, and Givin assets deployed at Kashyyyk were rotated out of frontline service to catch much-needed rest, repairs, and replacements. The Mandalorian mercenaries slain in the siege were celebrated in Clan Ordo's sagas, and SaKhan Alaric led the ceremonies that saw them all brought into the embrace of the Manda, where they would ride eternal, shiny, and beskar.
Trandosha itself was far too heavily defended, and the Corellian Treaty forces far too exhausted for a counter-invasion plan to be feasible. Until such a time when that plan did become feasible, Wookiee colonial fleets maintained a blockade over the planet, denying the First Order further access to Trandoshan mercenaries. Admiral Vale's star had fallen as quickly as it had risen, his quick victories in the galactic east overshadowed by this grand defeat. Rather than face the FO Admiralty and Kylo Ren to account for the loss of so many expensive FO assets, Vale took his own life, leaving his second-in-command to be the unfortunate bearer of bad news.
STATE OF THE WAR
With victories at Bescane, Ruusan, Vulpter, and now Kashyyyk and Hessendine, the Corellian Treaty had seized the initiative, winning a string of high-profile victories in the Imperial and Coreward Theaters. With all eyes on the First Order, its loss of momentum in the galactic east and north had disappointed many of its potential allies and vassals in the Core, Colonies, Mid Rim, and Inner Rim, who increasingly looked to the Corellian Treaty's banner instead. The allegedly neutral New Separatist Alliance and Confederacy of Corporate Systems both began to shift their business plans away from First Order preferential treatment as well.
The New Republic at this point in the war had earned its moniker of "Sick Man of the Galaxy." While its territory and military remained far larger most of the galaxy's polities (including the Corellian Treaty), rampant mismanagement, corruption, and catastrophes threatened to tear it apart completely. Markets, morale, and living standards had plummeted during Odamicus' term. The term of newly elected Supreme Chancellor Fey'lya was perhaps the New Republic's last chance to bounce back from the brink. Even so, many believed that Coruscant's time in the sun would quickly pass to the ascendant "Eagle of the East," as certain hyperbolic tabloids labeled the eastern CT powers.