Imperial resistance to Palpatine was the opposition by individuals and groups in the Galactic Empire to Emperor Palpatine’s Imperial new order between 19BBY and 4ABY. In the Star Wars Legends timeline, there were three known major military attempts to overthrow Emperor Palpatine.
Gentis Coup 19BBY – ‘Ghost Prison Incident‘
The first major coup attempt against Emperor Palpatine’s Imperial regime, occurred only a few months after the Declaration of the New Order and the emergence of the Galactic Empire in 19BBY. The coup incident was written by author Haden Blackman for Dark Horse Comics in 2012.
Legends – Haden Blackman, Dark Horse Comics (2012)
In the Legends timeline, this coup attempt immediately occurs after Darth Vader tracks down and murders Imperial Naval defector Garoche Tarkin in the Atoan System, the son of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. Garouche’s defection was in response to the brutal Imperial colonisation of the Galaxy and it turned out that his views were not that entirely uncommon amongst other members of the Imperial military command, and his views were actually more widespread than Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader had first believed.
It turned out, that the Imperial Academy Headmaster of Raithal and former Republican Army General – Gentis – also held the same views as Garouche Tarkin. Gentis began to secretly develop some radical anti-Palpatine views during the early months of the Galactic Empire, which had been motivated by the sheer number of dead Imperial soldiers that had died during the Imperial colonisation of the Galaxy.
A few months into Palpatine’s New Order, Headmaster Gentis decided enough was enough and it was time to act to prevent further deaths. Gentis devised a sophisticated military coup to conquer Imperial Centre (Coruscant) and to hopefully assassinate Emperor Palpatine. The plan was that the coup would be carried out by his own, loyal, Imperial cadets from the Raithal Imperial Academy after their official military graduation on Imperial Centre. Emperor Palpatine would then be assassinated personally by Gentis with the very deadly Aorth-6 necrotic virus in the throne room. With pro-Gentis forces occupying Imperial Centre, the next stage of the plan would be for Gentis to bring stability to the Imperial high military command, through negotiation and diplomacy, in order to commence his new regime.
In the book, the story is narrated by Cadet Laurita Tohm who was not involved in the coup, but accidentally witnessed it. As planned, the Gentis Coup began during the evening hours, after the Official Military Graduation, on Imperial Centre. Bombs were denoted at 72 Imperial targets including the Officers Club, a number of Stormtrooper garrisons, the Comm Towers and a large supply depot. Whilst the bombs were going off, hundreds of pro-Gentis cadets poured into Imperial Plaza and began fighting with pro-Palpatine military forces on the ground.
During the street shootouts, another deadly explosion occurred at the Imperial Palace – which was Gentis assassinating the Emperor with the deadly Aorth-6 virus.
Panicking, both Darth Vader and Cadet Tohm make their way to the Palace to be greeted by absolute carnage. The Aorth-6 virus was deadly, killing hundreds of stormtroopers and a number of Royal Guards. Vader and Tohm then enter the Emperor’s Throne Room where they are greeted by a very weak Emperor Palpatine. He is alive, but only just.
Vader and Tohm then meet Moff Trachta, a human cyborg, and the only other Imperial officer to survive the Palace bomb due to his special breathing apparatus. Trachta then informs both Vader and Tohm that the Emperor needs some time to recover from this shock before they can fight back against Headmaster Gentis, who by now has captured most of Imperial Centre and is beginning to consolidate his power throughout the Galaxy.
With the Galactic Empire in chaos, the story continues with Vader, Tohm, Trachta and Palpatine escaping Imperial Centre and flying across the Galaxy to the Diab system where they intend to recruit a loyal army of degenerates and criminals to fight back against Gentis. Vader found this crucial piece of information from the abandoned Jedi Temple. The Diab system is where the Jedi kept a secret prison, called ‘The Prism’, a place full of war criminals and psychopaths.
Once at ‘The Prism‘ Vader changed the plan of recruiting all of the prisoners, believing that the prisoners should brutally fight one another for the right to join the Galactic Empire instead. Of the 207 prisoners released, only 33 of them survived in fighting condition.
Whilst all this was occurring, a power struggle was beginning to emerge back on Imperial Centre between Headmaster Gentis and Grand Moff Tarkin. Speaking via hologram from the secret Death Star construction site, Tarkin was not convinced that Headmaster Gentis was telling the whole truth about the so-called ‘terrorist attack’ on the Imperial Palace – and was not willing to believe the story that the Emperor had suffered life threatening injuries. The fact that both Darth Vader and Moff Trachta had simply ‘disappeared’ was also very difficult for Tarkin to believe as well. Tarkin then says that he will be travelling back to Imperial Centre to take command due to him outranking Gentis – i.e. being a Grand Moff – whilst the Emperor recovers – much to the annoyance of Gentis. Gentis reluctantly accepts this but then schemes a plan to detain the Grand Moff anyway, upon his arrival at the capital.
Back on the Diab system, Vader, Tohm, Trachta, Palpatine and 33 other ‘former’ prisoners leave ‘The Prism’ to confront Gentis back on Imperial Centre. Their plan reached fruition when they were able to intercept Grand Moff Tarkin’s shuttle en route, informing the Grand Moff of Gentis’s coup attempt. Only a few days after escaping Imperial Centre, the old guard arrive back on the capital with powerful reinforcements.
A huge battle soon erupts between Palpatine’s forces and the insurgent officers upon the shuttle’s arrival; and in spite of Gentis’s superior numbers, they were quickly overcome. Emperor Palpatine personally killed Headmaster Gentis during the battle, finally ending the coup and reclaiming Imperial Centre.
With the old regime back in power, Emperor Palpatine quickly ordered the death penalty for any surviving coup plotters. The Gentis coup only lasted one standard week, and this disastrous failure against Emperor Palpatine would quickly scare off any other potential dissidents.
Although Headmaster Gentis came close to killing the Emperor, his coup still failed because he initially had no plans to kill both Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin – two loyal Palpatine individuals that still outranked him in the Imperial hierarchy. Even if he had killed the Emperor, Headmaster Gentis would still have to eliminate both Darth Vader and Tarkin in order to bring some sort of stability to his regime. It is important to note that many of Palpatine’s loyal Imperial advisors such as Sate Pestage, Janus Greejatus and Sim Aloo – had also survived and were not present in the throne room when the bomb was let off.
Despite these failures, the Gentis coup did come close to succeeding and it did have the Emperor on the back foot (temporarily). If it wasn’t for the quick reaction by Darth Vader, Tohm and Trachta, then the coup might have worked.
Trachta’s Coup 1BBY – ‘Anti-Sith Conspiracy’
One of the key heroes from the Gentis coup, Moff Trachta, would soon find himself on the wrong side of both Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader – shortly before the Battle of Yavin. This coup attempt was written back in 2002 by Dark Horse Comics.
Approximately twenty years after the Declaration of the New Order and Headmaster Gentis failed coup attempt on Imperial Centre, Grand Moff Trachta of the Imperial Centre Oversector, attempts to overthrow the Sith ‘theocracy’ at the head of the Galactic Empire. In 11BBY, Trachta started to become very disillusioned with the two ruling Sith lords and strongly believed that the Galactic Empire should be led by a secular leader.
Over time, Trachta began rallying a number of conspirators to his cause from all parts of the Imperial leadership. Trachta and his close colleague, Grand Moff Bartam, would be the two highest ranked officers within the ‘Anti-Sith conspiracy’ and below them would be a number of highly ranked Imperial Army and Naval officers such as Army General Skosef (a technician), Moff Kadir of the Coruscant Security Forces, Naval Captain Dezsetes, Army Captain Carsan and Imperial bounty hunter/assassin Gauer.
Trachta’s plan would be to eliminate both Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader at the same time. Killing both Sith lords at the same location, however, would be very difficult and possibly suicidal, so Trachta devised a plan to keep Palpatine and Vader separated, essentially isolated from each other, making it far more easier to eliminate them both.
When Vader was called to track down a renegade Jedi over the planet Dargulli in the Inner Rim in 1BBY, and knowing that the Emperor would become more vulnerable whilst isolated, Trachta decided to finally make his move. Darth Vader would travel to Dargulli on the Star Destroyer Mathayus, which was the naval ship of co-conspirator Captain Dezsetes. Trachta instructed Dezsetes to kill Darth Vader during the journey.
With Vader out of the way, Trachta would devise a two part operation to kill the Emperor on Imperial Centre. The first would be to kill most of Palpatine’s security team with an explosion onboard one of the Emperor’s Lambda-class shuttles before taking the Emperor out himself in the Throne Room. The assassination of the Emperor would be with Trachta’s own, loyal, stormtrooper legion – which had been specially designed, in secret, by Army Captain Carsan.
However, the one thing that proved problematic for the conspirators was their paranoia with each other. Before the coup attempt even began, Trachta privately confided with Moff Kadir about the loyalty of Grand Moff Bartam and asked Kadir to spy on him. Interestingly, we soon find out that Bartam was also expressing the same ‘loyalty’ concerns about Trachta, as well, to the Imperial assassin Gauer, and even hints about assassinating the Grand Moff when the time comes.
Back in space – the Mathayus is approaching the planet Yorn Skot en route to Dargulli and Captain Dezsetes is making his final preparation on killing Vader. Arriving in orbit above the world, they detect a rebel vessel emitting a distress signal. There, the conspiracy had a stroke of luck: due to the fact that the original communication had been on an open channel, Dezsetes recognised that it was a trap, but let Vader walk into it anyway. The Rebel ship entered the hanger of the Mathayus and a boarding party was prepared by Vader. Vader, in the end, decided to observe from a distance which proved to be the correct decision. A massive explosion then occurred, killing the boarding party but only injuring Vader.
On Imperial Centre, the first part of Trachta’s coup is initiated. The Emperor would be visiting the Death Star construction sight and Trachta would be present in making sure that the Emperor would depart safely from the capital. General Skosef was in charge of bringing the bomb onboard the Emperor’s Lambda shuttle. As Trachta expected, the Emperor suddenly stopped the departure proceedings, due to feeling a disturbance in the force. Then, the bomb went off, killing hundreds of people in the main hanger.
The Emperor survived the explosion relatively unscathed but his security detachment did not. This would allow Trachta to reinforce the Emperor’s security team with his own loyal stormtroopers, with the prospect of killing Palpatine in the Throne Room.
However, the paranoia amongst the conspirators on Imperial Centre reached fever pitch after the bombing. Trachta informed bomb technician General Skosef that he had been implicated, and so recruited him to carry out his own plan – to kill Bartam. Without much choice, the General infiltrated the apartment of Bartam on the capital and executed the Grand Moff at point-blank range. Bartam’s stormtrooper bodyguard, who had been distracted,then shot Skosef, killing him and inadvertently cleaning up any trace of Trachta’s role in the assassination.
However, the real twist would come a little later on. It turned out that Moff Kadir also had powerful ambitions and hired the assassin Gauer to eliminate the main conspirator, Grand Moff Trachta. Gauer then travelled to Trachta’s apartment. Trachta was wary, though, and when the muzzle of a blaster poked through the crack in his apartment door, Trachta shot the unseen assailant. As he went into the hallway to investigate, however, he learned that it had only been a droid. Gauer then ambushed the Grand Moff, shooting him and officially ending his life. With Trachta, Bartam and Skosef all dead, a large power vacuum quickly emerged at the head of the conspiracy. Moff Kadir took the responsibility of carrying out the final part of the plan in the Emperor’s throne room.
Moff Kadir and Gauer then took control of Trachta’s loyal stormtrooper legion, and walked them straight into the Emperor’s throne room to confront Palpatine. But several Royal Guards leaped out of the red drapes and began killing Kadir’s men. Gauer, waiting outside, heard the commotion, turned, and ran. Palpatine let the guards attack the stormtroopers for some time, then finally let loose a torrent of Force lightning, laying waste to the soldiers left standing. Kadir barely survived but he would still attempt one last opportunity to kill Palpatine – shooting at him with his blaster which was deflected away by Palpatine.
Meanwhile, above the planet Dargulli, Dezsetes plan to escort Vader to the planet’s surface hit a glitch, as the Sith lord decided on going to the planet alone, without any stormtroopers. Dezsetes, obviously, unaware of the situation on Imperial Centre, just decided to wait for Vader to return from the surface before assassinating him back onboard the Mathayus.
Back in the throne room, Palpatine began to interrogate Kadir personally. Kadir realised that the coup had obviously failed but there was perhaps still an opportunity to spare his life. He informed the Emperor that Vader had been killed and that he was willing to take his place at the Emperor’s side. Palpatine knew of course that Kadir did not contain any special force powers and that he was only saying this to keep himself alive. He then shows a hologram to Kadir, displaying some footage from the Mathayus and Darth Vader killing all of Dezsetes stormtroopers at will. Vader then kills Dezsetes right in front of Kadir. Palpatine then electrocutes Kadir, killing him instantly which officially ends the coup attempt.
Vader travels back to Imperial Centre, believing that the Emperor is dead. In Captain Dezsetes final moments, he explained to Vader that there had been a coup led by Grand Moff Trachta and that the Emperor had been assassinated. Vader would be in shock when he arrives back at the Imperial Palace to see the Emperor still alive. The Emperor then assigns Vader to head to the Death Star to work with Grand Moff Tarkin, leading up to the events of Star Wars Episode 4.
Trachta’s coup attempt failed purely because of paranoia amongst the conspirators. It was a decent coup operation and it could have worked if everyone kept trusting each other. In the end, Moff Kadir was far too inexperienced and naive to deal with the Emperor alone and he failed miserably.
Zaarin’s Coup 3.5ABY – ‘Zaarin’s Insurrection’
The third major coup attempt occurred during the Legends timeline, 3.5 years after the Battle of Yavin, and only a few weeks before the events of Return of the Jedi (Star Wars Episode 6) in 4ABY.
The Zaarin Insurrection was displayed on the old video game – TIE Fighter – released in 1994 by Totally Games, Lucas Arts.
The main protagonist of this insurrection, Demetrius Zaarin, was a Grand Admiral that had been promoted to that position by Emperor Palpatine in 2BBY. The Grand Admiral at first was very loyal to Emperor Palpatine but during the Galactic Civil War, he began to express doubts about Palpatine’s leadership after the events at the Battle of Yavin. Zaarin used the power that his rank brought sparingly, ensuring that he had all the resources required for his TIE research and development projects, but not getting too involved in Imperial Court politics.
Zaarin wanted to take over the Galactic Empire in 3.5ABY and he soon split from Palpatine’s Imperial regime to became an Imperial warlord in the Outer Rim territories, with a vast fleet of his own star destroyers and TIE fighters.
While Vader dealt with Prince Xizor of the Black Sun crime syndicate, a rival for the Emperor’s favour, Zaarin had finalised his plans for a coup against Palpatine. Immediately after Vader killed Xizor in a battle over Imperial Center, the Dark Lord cornered the remainder of the late Admiral Harkov’s forces (a defecting Imperial to the Rebel Alliance) in the Ottega system. However, Vader’s forces were struggling there, and so the Dark Lord requested the aid of Zaarin’s forces.
Zaarin promised to send reinforcements to help Vader – but he was double bluffing. In an extraordinary move, Zaarin told his loyal forces to instead attack Vader’s flag ship Garrett upon their arrival at the Ottega System. Zaarin would then speed to Imperial Centre and kidnap the Emperor in his coup attempt.
Vader managed to defeat Zaarin’s forces at Ottega before speeding back towards Imperial Centre where Emperor Palpatine had been stationed in his personal star destroyer,the Majestic. But Zaarin successfully detained the Emperor and took him onboard his flagship, the Glory, to prepare for his execution.
Vader and Chiss Vice Admiral Thrawn soon came to the Emperor’s rescue and managed to free Palpatine from Zaarin’s grasp. Realising that his coup had been lost, Zaarin fled back towards the Outer Rim to continue his insurrection plans, whilst being pursued by Thrawn’s forces.
Sources:
Star Wars Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison
Legends – Haden Blackman, Dark Horse Comics (2012)
Star Wars Empire: Betrayal Parts 1-4
Legends – Dark Horse Comics (2002)
Legends – TIE Fighter Video Game
Totally Games, Lucas Arts (1994)
Outlander Club - The Politics of Star Wars 