Episode 7: The Imperial Civil War

Episode 7: The Imperial Civil War was the seventh installment of the Ultimate Star Wars Saga. It described the fracture of the Galactic Empire and the fighting over its mass. It also described the New Republic attempt to weaken it.

Imperial Civil War
Imperial leaders meet on Coruscant in 7 ABY and try to elect a new Emperor, and keep the Empire from dissolving. There are several divisions over who to led. The three leaders are, Admiral Zsinji, Viceroy Gilvon, and Grand Admiral Thrawn. It ends up in a bitter argument and the Empire dissolves. The Imperial forces and senators side with whom they think would make the best leader.

In a montage, the Empire is seen fracture, and taking up sides. Then, the three leaders clash in a titanic battle at Fondor Station, whihc is nearly completely destroyed during the battle.

Rebillion Insurrection
In 10 ABY, the Alliance decides to take advantage of the situation. During the Imperial Mutiny (another name for the Imperial Civil War), the Rebel Alliance sought to weaken the factions as much as possible by surreptitiously entering systems and battles with captured Star Destroyers broadcasting falsified signals, and provoking attacks by one group against another.

The leader of the True Imperials (Grand Admiral Thrawn) believes that the Rebillion will strike Coruscant next. He counters by concentrating an Imperial force there, and changing the codes in a last minute desicion, hoping the disern between Imperial and Rebel ships.

Within days, Luke Skywalker launches one of these raids to the Coruscant system, in the Star Destroyer Liberator (formerly the Adjudicator), an Imperial-class Star Destroyer captured at the Battle of Endor and, over a five-year period, repaired and beefed-up for covert missions; its sister ship, the Emancipator (originally the Accuser) would have better luck in its initial missions, destroying the Allegiance in the Battle of Mon Calamari, where it was then devoured by the World Devastator Silencer-7 - they emerged into the Coruscant system, where three Star Destroyers demanded novel and unusual codes for clearance.

The codes the Alliance had stolen or bartered with slicers for did not work, and Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian were shot down over the former Imperial City in a exciting fire fight. They should have perished, but in a curious parallel to the events of the Clone Wars, Luke, like his father, managed to successfully land the gargantuan vessel without too many casualties on the surface of Coruscant. For the next several days, Luke and Lando and their forces hid and fought Imperial forces in the dirty underground of the Imperial Capitol..

Rescue Force
When the news reached Han Solo and Leia Organa, they rushed to the rescue along with Wookiee Chewbacca and droid C-3PO. They arrived in the nick of time to rescue Lando and the crew of the Liberator. However, Luke said there was a great disturbance in the force. At that moment, a Force storm comes out of a hyperspace wormhole. Luke told everyone to go but R2 stayed with him. Luke tried to use the lightside of the Force to destroy the storm. As the Falcon took off, Luke and R2 were sucked by the anomaly as it overpowered Luke.

Later, at the Alliance base on the fifth moon of Da Soocha, code-named Pinnacle base, the Alliance leaders report that the separate Imperial factions have disappeared into the unknown regions of the Galactic Core. Furthermore the initial phase of Operation Shadow Hand has begun: fleets of World Devastators, brainchildren of Umak Leth, machines which destroyed everything in their path, plunging them into vast furnaces which produced weapons and items which could repair or build new World Devastators. The first target selected, for their long and steadfast support of the Rebellion, is the planet Mon Calamari.

The recently rescued Lando and his crew were dispatched aboard the Emancipator to fight a holding action while the main Rebel fleets assembled near Bespin.

Behind the Scenes
=== Based on the Dark Empire series, this shorter film/book was left at a cliffhanger point for several reasons. One was the fact that the next book would start off very dramatically. The other was the author wanted people to be held in suspense to grab the next episode. ===