The Galactic Civil War (4 BBY–5 ABY), also referred to as the revolution or the rebellion, was a galactic power struggle in which the Alliance to Restore the Republic waged a rebellion against the ruling Galactic Empire in an attempt to restore democratic rule to the galaxy.
“During the rise of the Empire, the Emperor’s home planet of Naboo rapidly established itself as a major irritant. After a number of Naboo’s ambassadors were sent home in various states of dismemberment, her newly elected Queen broke off diplomatic ties, and began exploring military options. Clearly it was time for a regime change, a change that would be effected by the 501st, now under the direct command of Darth Vader. Our orders were simple: to infiltrate the city, take out their leader, sending a clear signal to other potential troublemakers in the Empire.”
“With the Queen eliminated, Naboo quickly fell in line. It was the first time the 501st was called upon to “adjust” a planet’s government, but it wouldn’t be the last. Within months, the 501st gained a well-deserved reputation as “Vader’s Fist”.”
“Although the Clone Wars were over, some people never seemed to get the message. The worst case of denial was Gizor Dellso, a Geonosian Separatist who’d somehow escaped Lord Vader’s efforts to wipe out the remnants of the CIS. Lord Vader tracked him to Mustafar, and brought us in to finish the job. It seemed like a simple enough mission, but when we saw the fleet of droid ships, hovering over the planet, we suddenly realized that Delso’s denial mechanisms were a little more dangerous than we’d imagined.”
“The slight whiff of nostalgia the 501st had enjoyed fighting the droid fleet over Mustafar had already grown sour by the time we’d established orbital positions. Now it was time to find out what this was all about.”
“By the time we’d made our way to the molten surface of Mustafar, it was apparent that Dellso had been a busy little bug. All by his lonesome, he’d found a previously hidden droid factory, fired it up and cranked out his own private army of battle droids. Needless to say, this got the men of the 501st…a little hot under the helmet, and not just because of all that lava. Truth be told we’d all had our fill of those gear heads during the war, and we couldn’t stomach the thought of going through another one. So we blew them up. Blew up the droids, blew up the factory, damn near blew up the planet.”
“The destruction of the mining facility put an end to any thoughts of a second droid rebellion. For the first time in years, the men of the 501st could relax, and get about the business of maintaining an Empire, rather than building one.”
“Officially, there never was a clone rebellion on Kamino. Unofficially, approximately twenty years after we were created, a special detachment of the Imperial 501st Legion was dispatched to Kamino, with orders to eradicate an army of clones that had been bred to take arms against the Empire. Our mission commander, an expert on the inner workings of Kamino, was a young bounty hunter named Boba Fett.”
“The bounty hunter left after the battle was over. He said something about tracking down a smuggler on Tatooine. After the Kamino uprising, the Emperor decided that an army of genetically identical soldiers was too susceptible to corruption. Future troopers would be cloned from a variety of templates. Though the 501st itself remained pure, the rest of the Imperial Army gradually became more and more diverse. We never really got used to the new guys.”
“Once it was finally finished, the Death Star was the Emperor’s favorite toy. It was also the most boring assignment in the galaxy for a stormtrooper. Tedious inspection drills, endless hours of guarding impregnable force field generators. Things got so bad that when a prison break erupted in the cell block, we were almost happy to have someone shooting at us again. If only we had known what an embarrassing snipestorm we were about to wade into, we probably would have jettisoned the whole detention block into space.”
“After the embarrassment of the prison break, Lord Vader removed us from our comfortable billet, and began dragging the 501st across the galaxy, in a dangerous hunt for the now missing Death Star plans. Ironically, our punishment eventually proved to be our salvation. The poor souls who took our place in the detention area were completely wiped out when the Death Star was destroyed.”
“By the time of the raid on Polis Massa, the men of the 501st were starting to get a little sick of this so called “Rebellion”. In the past, we’d secretly enjoyed putting down a local insurrection or two. They kept the troops sharp and the Empire feared, but these Rebels were different. They were organized, they were growing, and they were everywhere. The raid on Polis Massa was a perfect example of how things were starting to fall apart. We were supposed to go in, wipe out a small band of Rebels, and recover some stolen Imperial plans on an encrypted holodisk. Before we knew it, we were nearly overrun by Rebel forces, with the holodisk nowhere to be found.”
“Even though the Polis Massa raid was only a partial success, we finally had a lead on the whereabouts of the Death Star plans, which suited the 501st just fine.”
“With the information gathered on Polis Massa, Vader concluded that the stolen plans had been given to Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan. We weren’t surprised. For all their talk of being a peaceful planet, Alderaan had been thumbing its nose at the Empire for years. After a brief and pointless battle, we boarded the ship, the Tantive IV, over Tatooine, began looking for the plans, and waited for Lord Vader’s arrival.”
“After Lord Vader took custody of Princess Leia, we all figured it was just a matter of time before she coughed up the plans. Many of us had been unwilling witnesses to Vader’s powers of persuasion in the past. The thought of a pampered little princess resisting his terrible will was inconceivable.”
“When the Death Star was destroyed, about half of the 501st Legion was still in the hangar getting to their ships. Of those who made it out, another third were caught in the explosion. I’d fought with some of those men for over twenty years. Afterwards, those of us that survived hooked up with a nearby Imperial fleet making a retaliatory strike on the Rebel’s base on Yavin IV. It wasn’t the best thought out plan, but we were cut off from our leaders, tired, and operating on instinct. If not for our training, we probably would’ve never gotten past their orbital defenses.”
“And so the battle over Yavin came to an end. I’m told we destroyed hundreds of Rebel ships that day. Even if it had been thousands, it wouldn’t have made up for the Death Star.”
“By the time we landed on Yavin, whatever shock we’d felt at the destruction of the Death Star had been replaced by anger. For months we’d treated the Rebellion like a disobedient child, only to be repaid for our tolerance with treachery on an unimaginable scale. Frankly, I don’t remember much of the fighting. I guess we won.”
“After the battle, the surviving members of the 501st finally caught their breath. The Empire had taken the Rebel’s best shot and come up standing. Now it was our turn to strike.”
“No one ever complained about the cold on Hoth. We never felt it. Even though we were blinded by blizzards, we could see the final end of the Rebellion in our blaster sights. Was it only a mirage? Perhaps. But on that day, on that planet, our blood ran hot with dreams of victory, melting the ice that stood in our way.”
“As the Rebels fled, the 501st gathered around a burning bunker and let out a cheer that shook the stars. The Rebellion was done, the Death Star was being rebuilt, bigger than ever. Order had finally returned to the Galaxy, in no small part due to the efforts of the fighting men of the 501st.”