<P> Kylo fails to retrieve the map fragment that would lead him to Luke, and the Resistance manages to destroy the Starkiller Base moments before it is able to fire on the Resistance base on D'Qar, though Kylo and General Hux are able to escape the explosion . </P> <P> The Last Jedi follows immediately after the events of The Force Awakens, and the narrative narrowly focuses on the First Order's fleet attacking and chasing the Resistance from their only base (on the planet D'Qar). As a result, the First Order's intended galaxy - wide offensive against the decapitated New Republic is only alluded to in passing--and indeed, has only just begun, given that the events of The Last Jedi itself only span a few days or weeks . </P> <P> The First Order's main fleet, led by General Hux and Kylo Ren, assault the Resistance base on D'Qar now that they have discovered its location (in a conventional attack, as their original plan to obliterate it using Starkiller Base failed). The Resistance manages to evacuate most of its personnel and equipment from the surface before it is destroyed by orbital bombardment, but then have to fight their way through the First Order blockade . Poe Dameron rashly leads an assault against a First Order Dreadnought--one of only a handful of heavy orbital bombardment platforms in the enemy fleet--and manages to destroy it, but at the cost of the entire bomber wing of the Resistance . Kylo Ren then personally leads an assault in his TIE Silencer which destroys the rest of the Resistance fighter wing in its own carrier's hangar bay . Ren hesitates to fire on the command bridge of the Resistance carrier, containing his mother Leia Organa, but his support craft carry through with their attack, wiping out all of the Resistance leadership (including Admiral Ackbar), except for Leia herself (who, while blown out into space, uses the Force to pull herself back to the ship). Vice Admiral Holdo assumes control of the Resistance fleet while Leia recovers . </P> <P> The small Resistance fleet manages to escape via a hyperspace jump, only for the First Order fleet to reappear at their location moments later: the First Order developed a new "hyperspace tracking" technology, making it impossible to evade them simply by jumping away . The Resistance ships would simply exhaust their fuel by making more hyperspace jumps, without shaking the First Order fleet, so they continue to flee at sub-light speed (at which they are slightly faster than the larger and more powerful First Order ships). This only forestalls the inevitable, however, as their sub-light fuel at continuous full speed will still be exhausted in a day . This devolves into a siege - like battle of attrition, as one by one the smaller Resistance ships run out of fuel and are destroyed by the chasing First Order Star Destroyers . </P>

How did the empire become the first order