i was thinking about how what if the empire in its glory had gone up against the vong. Lets saw the the rebellion was crushed at Hoth, let asume that Vader got rid of Ozzel, he was a palpatine puppet anyway, And of course Peitt listened to Vader plan and the rebellion was caught off guard. Also lets say that Vader captured Luke at Hoth as well and turn him to the Dark Side. Alright so far Empire stirkes Back is Luke being taught by Vader to kill good old papa palpatine insteed of yoda. Han, chewie, Leia and C-3po still get out of hoth before its too late, why you ask? because Han's luck is just that good (best reason i could think of, plus i cant see han not be able to get out just anything except being backstabbed by Lando ).
Alright Return of the Jedi, Vader is able to hide Luke from paps, some how.( i'm using Lucas logic. the same logic that says hiding leia right in front of two sith lords works) So Palpatine still uses Death Star II as a trap for the remaining rebel fleet. Vader and Luke confront paps right at his monument of victory over the remaining fleet. Paps dies, Vader is badly hurt but Luke is able to save him via the dark side so they rule the empire as father and son. Just as Vader and Paps foretold.

Alright let flash forward to that BS that is the Dark Empire, So Paps clones comes back for some revenge right? yup yup. Vader is probly dying at this point and Luke has killed Mara Jade(sorry Mara fans but evil Luke would have just killed her). Luke kill paps clone with help of a the loyal royal guardsman, Carnor Jax. Kir Kanos trys to avenge Paps but is kill in a pretty cool duel with Luke. (because he deserves to fight and lose to Luke) But damage is done infighting of the empire is using up vital reasources but Luke is now Ruler of the Empire, Thrawn returns to tell Luke of the coming of the Vong.( Thrawn allys with Luke seeing him as the strongest faction in the empire) Luke spend the next couple of years getting rid of all of paps dark siders, find a Kyp Durran and selects him to be his apprentice. Find the Sun crusher ect ect. Sending time fighting a internal civil war in the Empire. Lukes win thur the use of the Dark Side, Death Star II, and Thrawn' sEmpire of the Hand.

Now the war with the vong, the empire has the death star II, several Super star destroyers, billions of men and resources, A large Fleet, use of the spaarti clones. Now What would happen? would the Vong still be able to hit as hard as they did? Nom Anor is still an active player in this universe, there is still small rebels here and there not to mention various imperial factions. But Luke has the core of the empire military machine. what do guys think?

I forget what novel it's in (maybe Outbound Flight? or might've been something in the Legacy of the Force series? perhaps something Vergere said?) but there's some things that are said that makes it seem that perhaps Palpatine had a Force vision of an invading extra-galactic force. He maybe didn't know exactly that it was the Vong, but he knew something was coming. So, that's the reason why he worked to gain control of the Republic and build his Empire, because he was trying to build the galaxy to a point where it could survive the incoming invasion. Kind of almost gives a benevolent feeling to Palpatine's actions, as if he was committing those atrocities "for the greater good". Not that it makes what he did right, but it's an interesting perspective.

The Empire would certainly have had an easier time defending against the Vong. Heck, as it is, the way the NJO played out, the Vong mostly left the Imperial Remnant alone, because they knew that it would be tough to battle them.

The Empire would have wiped out the Vong as soon as they entered thier space, and not argue and argue about what to do in the Senate like the NR until the Vong control half the Galaxy. Of course, the Vong probably would have taken steps to weaken the empire before the invasion. Maybe the Rebellion was Vong planned (wierd idea, but those oggilith Masquers can be realllly tricky! Maybe some of the leaders of the Rebelion were Vong!

In any rate, the Vong wouldn't have taken on such a strong target without weakening it first. The NR was very weak and thats why they fell so fast. The Vong would have people like Nom Anor causeing all sorts of havoc before the invasion with starting Civil Wars and assainations.

The Vong would have done to the Empire what they did to the NR, except it would prolly have been less successfull. However if a bunch of halfdressed underequiped rebels could take on the empire the Vong would have rolled them too. However in reality the empire would have prolly done a better job of fighting back. After all palp would have poured resources at them, after all he clearly had them to do so.