Orbit of Tibannas I I I, Tibannas Sector
Moff Karla Illustrious of the Tibannas sector stared out the window of her quarters. She was on her flagship, the Bellator Class Star Dreadnought Decisiveness. Over 7,000 meters in length, it was by far the largest warship in this or any of the surrounding sectors. It was an unmistakable sign of the sector's wealth, with most of the the poorer surrounding sectors only having Star Destroyers and the occasional battlecruiser.
She observed the various ships coming and going from the planet, both military and civilian. She also watched her fleet stand guard above the world, protecting it from all that would threaten it.
Karla had always liked looking out at space, trying to see the ships and stars bustling about. It had been what spawned her interest in starships, and eventually what had gotten her into Anaxes War College as she dreamt of commanding one of them.
And her dreams had become a reality a lot sooner than expected. Several months before graduation the Clone Wars began, which changed the fortunes of every candidate on Anxaes. The burgeoning Republic Navy needed officers fast, so she was graduated early and placed in command of the newly commissioned Venator Star Destroyer Inconceivable. Many joked that it was inconceivable that she would get command of such a ship right out of war college, and Illustrious believed so as well.
Despite her inexperience, she quickly found herself fighting against the seperatist forces. Over the next three years she would find herself growing in reputation and skill. One of her greatest triumphs was at the Battle of Coruscant, where she helped lead a counterattack that paved the way for the Jedi general's Anikan Skywalker and Obiwan Kenobi rescue of the chancellor. This brought her to the attention of Sheev Palpatine, who had her promoted to Admiral in the final days of the war thanks to her actions.
For the next few years, Illustrious led Imperial forces to victory against seperatist holdouts, early rebel groups and pirates deep in the outer rim. While she could have advanced further into the ranks of the admiralty, Karla had other plans. She managed to secure the position of Moff of the Tibannias Sector, a major producer of Tibanna gas that supplied many of the Seperatist's offensives in the region. It was controlled by the Commerce Guild during the war, and many of its people had suffered under the brutal corporate government, which cared more for its profits than people.
Upon taking control of the sector, she seized the assets of many prominent seperatist collaborators and nationalized the Tibanna mining industry, creating the state owned Tibannacorp. The products from both these actions created credits that were reinvested in infrastructure and civil services that helped people in the sector. Some of the capital was invested into promising startups throughout the sector.
This created economic growth, and with state subsidies the economy was diversified into a variety of sectors. While Tibbana was the primary export and the most well known, soon foodstuffs, other minerals, ores, and gasses, and industrial machines from droids to entire starships.
This economic growth led to massive boosts in wages and quality of life for the average citizen, who soon became far wealthier than the average in other sectors. With a few exceptions that were mandated by Imperial powers outside the sector, aliens and nonhumans had full legal equality with humans. There was even a form of local democracy and while Illustrious still held all the power this show of power in the people's hands helped with popularity. Due to this prosperity and an almost unequivocal support for Illustrious, rebellions and uprisings became a thing of the past. Neither pro separatist groups like the Free Confederacy, nor independent groups like Saw Gerrera's partisans, nor even the Rebel Alliance itself dared to conduct operations within the Tibannas Sector. This was even the case if they were extremely active in neighboring sectors like the Zoloch Sector.
While some might call her stuck up, Illustrious believed she had found the answer to stopping the rebellion. It would not lay in building more Star Destroyers or going to a full wartime total mobilization, but by making the populis support the Empire. The Tarkin Doctrine had been an absolute and total failure. A ruler who ruled by fear would find himself turned on when his power looked to be in question. The mass defections of Imperial personnel after the distraction of the Death Star were unequivocal proof of that.
To make an empire popular, you need more than vast displays of military might to sway the people. While these certainly helped, nationalism was one thing and material conditions was another. You needed to give them economic, political, legal and social stability, and in some way or another the Empire lacked them. Unless of course you were an executive at Sienar Fleet Systems or Tagge Co, then you had stability. The galactic markets had constantly been in flux since the Clone Wars, with corporations rising and falling at the whim of the Empire, who made sure that well connected entities got all the major contracts and let them destroy competitors without a thought of fairness. It was cronyism through and through.
This prevented startups from becoming successful. At best the owners sold their companies at a fair but forced price to a larger intergalactic megacorp. At worst if the entrepreneur refused to sell, they would mysteriously die in a hover car or shuttle accident. Not to mention access to capital and loans was significantly more difficult in this day and age, and established companies had a massive advantage in that field.
On a more personal level, the power of Imperial institutions over the average person prevented the stability that the Empire claimed to possess. A family did not know if a group of stormtroopers was going to seize their home and belongings for no reason, and this was an all too common occurrence in areas with significant rebel activity. And whatever trial the person might have would be some sort of sham, if they even had one at all. Just so the district attorney could brag to his friends how many criminals he or she had locked up. And apparently friendly neighbors were all too willing to report family and friends for suspected rebel affiliation, meaning no one could know who to trust.
Despite what rebel movements claimed, there were still good Imperials who did their best to protect the people of the Empire. There were stormtroopers who called for medics when the old lady fell and protected them until the medical personnel arrived. Or the faithful Imperial Navy crewman who made sure pirates didn't prey on civilian freighters. These were the men and women who she had made sure get into her sector. The ones who cared about the people of the Empire and not their own self interest.
A chime at the door snapped her out of her thoughts. She let in as one of her aides and trusted confidants, Lieutenant Dravon Jent, J a native of Tibanna who had grown up in poverty before the economic reforms implemented by Illustrious. He had then joined the Imperial Navy with a command track in mind, but ended up taking her offer to serve as an aide.
"Moff Illustrious, there is a priority 1 message from Admiral Picot of the Zoloch Sector. They have come under attack by rebels, and Moff Flag, Vice Admiral Kolaski, and Generals Cain and Hicks have all been killed." He said, handing her a data pad.
Illustrious read the same message that Captain Gondra had read hours ago, and then read it again to make sure she hadn't misread anything. She was utterly shocked, but part of her realized it made sense. Picot had been an incompetent foul to lose half of his Star Destroyers to ill fated expeditions of and rebel attacks. No wonder why there were so many uprisings on so many worlds, the sector was stretched so thin.
However the most unexpected part of this story was Earth. She had heard rumors, but mostly thought little of it. She cared little for the affairs of sectors outside of hers unless they were directly affecting the Tibannas sector.
But if a planet on the edge of the galaxy with no outside contact with civilization was charging into Imperial space and successfully invading it, there was something special about them.
Right now she needs information. About the strength of the invasion and the disposition of Picot's forces. With his under strength fleet especially in heavy assets, she doubted he could stop the invasion. So she would have to prepare a border defense.
"Is there any more information?" She asked.
"Yes, there are numerous reports on the next page. I didn't get a great look but none of them looked good for Picot's forces.
She flipped to the next page and read the startling reports. They detailed the invasions of several worlds, including Njmok, Vamos, Kleas, and Jkenna. The invasion fleets were always in the dozens of hundreds of ships, and many of them appeared to have happened simultaneously, indicating that both Earth and the Free Confederacy had several hundred combat warships. They would have to have sizable logistics and support fleets, and they were likely not committing all of their combat assets to offensive operations.
One alarming report from the invasion of Jkenna hours ago indicated that the Free Confederacy had come into possession of a Subjectator Class Heavy Cruiser, the same type of 5000 meter ship as the Seprrstist Malevolence. Such a vessel had been used to great effect against Republic Navy forces in the region.
The details of these invasions had confirmed Illustrois's suspicions. Against such a combined force, it would be difficult for Picot to muster an effective defense. He simply didn't have enough ships to stop these rebels on a large front, and if he were to try and successfully defend a world he would probably let several others fall around him, exposing his flanks and allowing him to be encircled and the system to be cut off.
He might be able to hold if other sectors poured their ships into his to help, but that was something Illustrious definitely wasn't going to do. This wasn't her war to fight unless Earth or the Free Confederacy made it hers. But unless attacked, she did not want to assist the incompetent Picot in his lauphable defense.
"Lieutenant, I want you to keep me informed of new developments in the Zoloch Sector and send me any new reports from there. There is also a mission that I wish for you to undertake that knowledge of must not leave this room. Do you understand me?"
"Yes Ma'am." He replied.
"I want you to see if you can get into contact with either the Free Confederacy or Earth or both. I will explain further my intentions later if this succeeds, but suffice to say the fortunes of the Empire are changing and I want all options on the table. If you are able to get contact, you are to tell them that a high ranking member of the Tibannas sector wants to talk to them and has some useful intelligence. Anything you need to accomplish this task will be given to you." She said.
"But Ma'am that's treason…"
"I know fully what this is, but do you care more for some administrative sycophant on Coruscant or the people of the Tibannas sector. Like I said before I never said we were going to necessarily join them, but you can see what is happening in the Empire. I want to have an option if things go downhill for the New Order." She said.
"Understood ma'am. I will get to work immediately." He said as he left the room.
The boy was right to be skeptical, but even those with impared vision could see the empire was in decline all around them. The rebel alliance was gaining ground and support on an unpresented scale, with many Imperials defecting to this fledgling organization. They were successfully holding territory against the Empire, and so far Imperial attempts at reconquering it had failed miserably. While the Alliance could not hope to win an attritional war, especially in the long run, their fighter and bomber raids were disrupting industrial and logistical systems.
The Rebel Alliance was far from the only rebel group in the galaxy however. While they had succeeded in unifying many smaller cells, many groups remained separate or even just loosely affiliated with the larger alliance and given great autonomy in their operations. There were also numerous pirate and criminal organizations such as the Black Sun and Zann Consortium who often raided Imperial shipping. And there were also plenty of bitter Separatists who continued to fight after so many years, though over the years their threat had been reduced as they had little ability to procure new ships. However, many Imperial officers suspected that they had refused to show their true strength, which had until recently been the case with the Free Confederacy. Even the remnants of Saw Gerrera's Partisans still were known to cause trouble from time to time, with their brutal tactics condemned by the wider rebellion.
The Empire was under siege from many directions, and while many might call her cynical, she was starting to believe its days were numbered. As the fires of rebellion grew larger and spread further, they would be harder to stop.
So she thought it wise to be prepared, whatever happened.