I agree with both of your thoughts. Since the New Republic doesn’t serve much of a purpose in this movie it’s best to leave their reference as brief as possible here.
It just looks like you messed up on your verb tenses. Here’s an example of how you can fix that:
Amidst this rising threat,
only a daring militia
stands in RESISTANCE,
its brave pilots deployed
across the galaxy to find
the last Jedi and restore
the light of hope to the
darkening stars….