ESCALATION

As 35 ABY progressed into 36, new foes, tactics, and weapons emerged amid the fires of war, and major developments threatened to shift the galactic balance of power yet again. R&D efforts were in full swing as the First Order and Corellian Treaty raced to achieve a technological advantage over one another. The end of 35 ABY would see the first appearances of the TIE Spectre and T-90A Raptor, as well as a host of new horrors from the depths of First Order space.


PRASIDION

"There are few planets more hateful than Prasidion. Were it not for its military importance, I would have glassed this place from orbit." - Admiral Jonah Belisarius, 35 ABY

As one of the most crucial objectives in the galactic north, the Prasidion System was the site of the largest battles in the Imperial Theater in 35 ABY. The Imperial Remnant was reluctant to suffer casualties on the level sustained during the liberation of the Bastion hyperlane. The First Order's heavy use of Spaarti cloning and forcible decraniation left the Remnant at a distinct disadvantage if it tried to win an offensive campaign through raw attrition. Thus, rather than adopting General Vauban's grinding siege strategies, the ground command staff chose to appoint the more mobile and dynamic General Dragases to take command of the invasion force.

Before hitting Prasidion itself, the Remnant needed to deal with the system's outer planets. At the system's edge was the desolate rock Fortuna, home to a listening post and an in-system comm relay manned by a division of vassal conscripts. Belisarius bypassed Fortuna entirely, relying on his fleets' ECM systems to jam enemy comms long enough to reach the first of the Remnant's real objectives: the gas giant Cherona. Cherona was home to multiple gas-mining platforms responsible for supplying Prasidion with vast quantities of helium-3, an isotope with a wide variety of industrial and military applications. Before the war, the Remnant had fortified these mining platforms, constructing enormous armored domes over their critical sections. A handful of roofless external landing pads allowed conventional unloading of personnel and equipment, and each pad was heavily protected by anti-air weapons. Heavy armored fighting vehicles were unusable on the floating platforms due to weight concerns, leaving the task to the poor bloody infantry. Intent on seizing Cherona's helium-3 industry intact, Belisarius and Dragases both agreed that a planetary landing was preferable to simple airstrikes. Dragases tasked his subordinate General Gerhart Voss with taking Cherona, giving him command of fifteen Imperial Army infantry divisions and five stormtrooper legions, including the elite 501st. The carrier Ark Imperial was assigned to assist the Cherona landings, along with the destroyers Scimitar, Sanguine, and Stiletto.

Given the obvious risk of a direct assault from above, Voss chose to make his first planetary insertions ten kilometers away from each platform, keeping his transports flying at perilously low altitude on approach. This minimized the number of AA guns capable of depressing to aim at his transports, but also risked putting his troops in close proximity to the planet's atmospheric storms. Fortunately for Voss, careful maneuvering and accurate intel from naval meteorologists kept environmental casualties low, resulting in the loss of less than ten transports to the storms. The first wave, consisting of Imperial Commandos, entered the platforms from maintenance airlocks and waste disposal hatches in their underbellies, fighting their way upwards using jetpacks, grappling hooks, and mag-boots to shut down the platforms' anti-air fire control centers. This operation saw the first use of the commandos' new Lorica-class powered armor, whose shielding and armor proved highly effective in the cramped confines of the mining platforms. The novelty of the commandos' landing tactics caught the FO defenders by surprise, allowing the regular infantry in the next wave to land ahead of schedule, greeted by an enemy already in disarray. The FO garrisons, flat-footed and outflanked, bloodied the Empire's nose in close-quarters combat but fell nonetheless, granting the IR fleet control over local gas supplies. With Cherona taken, the Remnant was free to focus on the true prize.

The Siege of Prasidion would become one of the most inhospitable battlefields of the Imperial Theater. A massive planet-sized industrial complex, Prasidion quickly turned into a nightmare of concrete, choking dust, and urban combat. As one of the galactic north's most crucial strategic locations, Prasidion became a pit into which the Remnant and First Order poured entire armies and impossible quantities of ordnance. The maddening noise and shock of artillery was a constant companion right from the start of the Imperial landings. Outside of Prasidion's forge-cities, the planet's wastelands became filthy moonscapes cratered by indiscriminate use of explosives, where one misplaced step could bring a man into the sucking embrace of the endless mud. Trenches became miserable hives of disease, even with the Empire's best efforts to maintain sanitary living conditions. On Prasidion's northern hemisphere, the coming of summer brought with it tropical heat and humidity, the irritation of near-endless daylight, and swarms of stinging, disease-ridden insects. On its southern hemisphere, the harsh winter caused an equally intolerable inverse as troops were plunged into the freezing dark. As the First Order prepared to drag the Remnant into a prolonged siege, the pressure was on to find key openings with which to seize a swift, cost-efficient Remnant victory.


DARKER FORCES

The First Order's masterminds did not sit idly while the Battle for the Perlemian raged. The FO merged old Shadow Droid and Phase 0 Dark Trooper technology to produce new biomechanical abominations tainted by the dark side. Phase IV Dark Troopers were the first unholy fruit of such research, taking to the field on planets like Dentamus and Karadesh. Controlled by the salvaged brains of mortally wounded FO infantry, the Phase IV Dark Troopers were suicide shock troops, equipped with fearsome weapons that endangered both the highly expendable user and his foes. Chem-throwers, radiation bombs, and alchemical plague rockets sowed terror among the FO's victims, who died in excruciating agony as their lands were rendered uninhabitable for years to come. The Knights of Ren further refined their skills in Sith necromancy, raising increasingly intelligent hordes of undead on the galaxy's battlefields. Reports from frontline sources claimed that these newly raised zombies were capable of using tools and weapons, albeit with less finesse than the ancient Korriban zombies once raised by the Dathka Graush. Wraith Squadron intel-gathering efforts also uncovered an effort by the Knights of Ren to hunt down the fabled Muur Talisman. First Order high command also assigned large numbers of newly built Hangman-class interdictor vessels to the Perlemian fleets, allowing the FO to more effectively counter the Corellian carrier groups' hit-and-run strikes. While the FO fleets were unable to oust the Treaty from the Perlemian, their interdictor-equipped forces were able to inflict severe casualties on Treaty naval forces, who were also pressed by the threat of the duinuogwuin prowling the space around the old Sith Worlds. By the end of 35 ABY, only three Corellian Endurance-class CVs remained afloat: CV-5 Champala, CV-6 Endeavor, and CV-8 Vespid.

But even as the pre-war Endurance carriers fell in battle, the Corellian shipyards were hard at work producing newer, more advanced warships to replace them. The new Constitution-class carrier was a largely home-grown design, a pure CV rather than the turbolaser-toting hybrids that the original Nebula and Endurance classes truly were. Designed to carry even more starfighters than even the old Venator SDs, the Constitution would be the centerpiece of new Corellian battle groups after entering mass production. To test some of the tech planned for the Constitution series, Endeavor underwent an extensive refit after Kashyyyk to replace her turbos and ions with more hangar space, AA guns, and damage control systems. With support from the Treaty's new Longsword-class destroyers and Daring-class light cruisers, the upgraded Endeavor would prove to be a considerable thorn in the FO's side. The year's end would also see the first combat flights of the T-65K Eagle, BTL-S8 Bloodhound, and T-90A Raptor.


RESURRECTION P

"How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?" - Unknown Jedi Knight, KIA 35 ABY

In a different galaxy, the reign of Supreme Chancellor Borsk Fey'lya would perhaps go down quietly as just another unremarkable chapter in the New Republic's history of political ineptitude and corruption. Perhaps he might have eventually sunk into obscurity along with the late Odamicus and other oafs. But he had chosen perhaps the worst possible time in galactic history to advance his political career.

Following the First Order's failed initial attempt on Borleias, FO naval assets in the Unknown Regions mounted a series of strikes along the NR's galactic western and southwestern defenses, forcing the New Republic Navy to stretch its already badly thinned fleets to their absolute limit. When another, even larger push came down on Borleias, the planet's depleted and demoralized garrison was overwhelmed. As Borleias' troops prepared for battle, a great and terrible shadow darkened the sky, dwarfing even the mighty Resurgent-class Star Destroyers. The Star Dreadnought Vengeance had returned, unseen since the fall of High Inquisitor Jerec in 5 ABY. From its holds sprang swarms of troops and starfighters, descending upon Borleias like locusts. In its current state, the Borleias garrison barely had enough manpower to match Vengeance's landing force. With Vengeance supported by a host of RSDs and bulk troop transports, they had no hope at all of getting out alive. General Brenn Tantor, commander of Borleias' defenders, ordered his troops to bunker down and sell their lives as dearly as possible. Calls for reinforcement went unheard. Even if the FO had not jammed out-system comms, Tantor's pleas would fall on deaf ears as the NR's last generals fought for their lives on other battlefields. General Rand Talor and Admiral Pariades were too busy organizing the defense of Coruscant. Tyr Taskeen, Horton Salm, and Edor Crespin were occupied in the west, fighting a desperate battle to keep the Pranapur Gulf shut. In the east, Airen Cracken had fallen silent after the fall of Contruum, while Keyan Farlander had been incapacitated during the Battle for the Perlemian. Planetary militias mutinied en masse as more and more worlds lost faith in Coruscant, leaving the NR without its reserves. Alsakan outright seceded and went into isolation, refusing to open its ports to any of the war's belligerents.

With Borleias conquered, the road south to Coruscant was wide open. Despite putting up a spirited defense, the New Republic's Admiral Pariades was unable to halt the First Order's invasion of Coruscant, his plans frustrated at every turn with flawless execution by foes that seemed to operate in perfect sync. Despite the arrival of fresh ships from Dac, Pariades' fleet at Coruscant was battered aside. Pariades himself was killed in action Vengeance struck the primary bridge pod of his flagship with a missile barrage. With the loss of the Star Defender Krakana, the Coruscant defense fleet's morale plummeted. Facing the fleet's imminent annihilation, Admiral Nammo aboard the MC Harbinger ordered a general retreat from Coruscant and the Borleias hyperlane, falling back to Anaxes.

The speed with which Coruscant fell was astounding, even by the standards of the NR military. The Golan defense platforms that defended the planet during the Galactic Civil War had been sold off during the interbellum to pay off the old Rebellion's debts. Negligence and budgetary reductions had left Coruscant's shield generators in poor condition. With most of its veterans dead or defected, the New Republic military was a pale shadow of its former self. The troops under the overworked Rand Talor were underpaid, inexperienced, and poorly trained, having undergone only half the training period of the pre-war New Republic trooper. The overwhelming majority were hastily recruited Coruscant militiamen rather than the professional troops that made up the cream of the early New Republic forces. Ammunition, food, and water supplies were insufficient to last more than four weeks, and disease among the civilian populace had clogged most of the planet's hospitals. Fey'lya, in an attempt to raise funds for the NR's depleted treasury, had auctioned officer positions to the highest bidder, fostering resentment from the enlisted who now answered to nobles and socialites who had never seen a day at the academies. For all their experience, Talor and his inner circle could only do so much with so little. With troops and ships pulled from Anaxes, Nammo attempted to break through the First Order blockade around the system, only for his force be nearly annihilated. Of the 200,000 ground troops that attempted planetfall, less than 5,000 survived to link up with Talor's army. Harbinger was crippled in the assault and ultimately scuttled.

As the First Order made its landings, a great darkness fell upon Coruscant. Massive thunderstorms struck Galactic City, and mobs of feral decraniated and sithspawn ran amok through the streets. Knights of Ren struck at Galactic City's water supply, tainting it with a strain of the Krytos virus. At the heart of every major assault were the First Order's red-armored Sith elites, the largest gathering of Sith since the fall of Skere Kaan. It was here that the true power of the Sith legions first came to light. Clouds of lightning and walls of telekinetic force intercepted incoming explosives. Telepathic and precognitive officers worked in tandem to coordinate their forces, blunting every counter-attack with unprecedented speed. And the few Gatalentan Jedi on the ground sensed that behind them all was an even greater presence, commanding them from afar. Against Talor's meager force, it was like euthanizing a sick man with a sledgehammer.

The historian Tervinus writes: "Talor had been dealt the worst possible hand. With a proper army, he might have been able to turn Coruscant into a labyrinthine, exhausting slog for the First Order, but the forces he commanded now were a far cry from the army he had commanded during the Liberation of Coruscant so many years ago. Worse still, the militia regiment in charge of defending one of the shield generators betrayed the New Republic, shutting their shield down to give the First Order a landing zone. Talor and his men fought like devils, but they were ultimately powerless to prevent the ensuing slaughter."

By the end of the battle, New Republic High Command was all but annihilated. Supreme Chancellor Fey'lya, General Rand Talor, their aides, and the last handful of surviving senators emerged from the ruined Republic Executive Building to offer terms of surrender. Fey'lya was clearly inebriated and the train of sycophantic senators trailing behind him wept openly, their robes stained with wine and food. General Talor was the only one to approach with any sort of dignity, but even he faltered at the sight of the man leading the First Order's triumphal procession. Talor was stun-blasted and captured, while Fey'lya and the senators were electrocuted to death by the invaders' Sith mastermind. Across the planet, another signal was given. The Sack of Coruscant commenced. With a population of over a trillion, the butcher's work would not be quick or without resistance, but it would be an unprecedented bloodbath all the same. As Coruscant screamed, one man stood atop the bodies, his head thrown back, laughing his lungs out as he raised his fists towards the lightning-split skies. Coruscant's Emperor had come home.