— Ch. 1 · Delegation of 2000 Senators —
Rebel Alliance.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
In the year nineteen before the Battle of Yavin, six senators gathered in Senator Bail Organa's office to discuss ways to counter Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Padmé Amidala and Mon Mothma stood among them as they debated how to preserve democracy within a Republic that was rapidly losing its soul. The Clone Wars were waning, yet Palpatine had seized extraordinary powers that subverted the Constitution. These six senators agreed to a pact of silence while most of their colleagues disappeared from public service. They formed what would later be called the Delegation of 2000, though only a handful knew the true scope of their conspiracy. Amidala initially doubted Palpatine's evil intentions because he had supported her during the Trade Federation's occupation of Naboo years earlier. Organa and Mon Mothma announced the formation of an anti-Palpatine organization without involving the Jedi Council. Most members of this delegation were eventually arrested by Imperial forces. Only Mothma and Organa retained their senatorial positions by remaining outwardly obedient to Palpatine while secretly leading the unification of disparate insurgent bands.
Stateless Guerrilla Strategy
The Rebel Alliance conducted covert operations on Imperial garrison worlds using stateless strategy combined with wolfpack-guerrilla warfare against the Imperial fleet throughout the galaxy. Capital ships held no place in the Rebellion because they were logistically expensive to build, maintain, and crew fully. The rebellion lacked both manpower and resources to justify putting so much into giant targets for the Empire to destroy. While the Empire could always field greater numbers and firepower, the rebels focused on hitting high-valued targets and getting out quickly. Their military largely consisted of mothballed, improvised, repurposed, or stolen civilian ships from dozens of manufacturers. They lacked shipyards to build thousands of military-grade capital ships. The biggest warships available were several MC80 star cruisers supplied by Mon Calamari, yet these remained in reserve even when bases like Yavin and Hoth came under siege. Anti-Imperial operations emphasized depredation and delayed actions rather than becoming decisively engaged. The Alliance fleet avoided pitched battles, frontal assaults, wars of attrition, and conventional symmetric engagements at all costs.