Part in-universe history, part fanfic. The further you go, the more stuff I just made up. Let me know what you think. Obviously, this is just a skim of the major galactic events, but I was thinking of doing some more in-depth ones of each individual war.
Background Information
Mandalorians:
A hundred thousand years before the movies, Humans and Taungs battled for supremacy over Coruscant. The Taungs lost, and were driven off the planet. A great warrior known as Mandalore led them to a new world, which was named Mandalore in his honor. The Taungs became a warrior society of great renown, eventually even allowing non-Taungs of considerable skill to join them. The Taungs, renamed the Mandalorians, then made a move at galactic conquest about 4,000 years prior to the movies. They did well at first, but were eventually defeated by the Jedi. Suitably humbled, the Mandalorians renounced conquest in favor of working for the highest bidder. This worked well for a time, until a splinter faction known as the Death Watch formed, arguing that the Mandalorians should return as a galactic power. The remaining Mandalorians broke apart further, forming the New Mandalorians and the True Mandalorians. The New Mandalorians, led by Duchess Satine Kryze, renounced violence of all kinds, living peacefully. The True Mandalorians, led by Jaster Mereel, favored the long-standing Supercommando Codex, a document detailing how Mandalorians should work as mercenaries. The Death Watch were led by the Vizslas, starting with Tor Vizsla. Each faction opposed the other two with equal fervor, but only the True Mandalorians and the Death Watch followed this opposition with war. While they fought, the New Mandalorians took control of the planet through politics.
Sith:
The Sith were founded when a group of Jedi were banished from the Order for their dabblings in what has come to be known as the Dark Side of the Force. These Dark Jedi fled to the planet Korriban, where they met a species known as the Sith. They swiftly bent these creatures to their will, becoming the rulers of Sith society. Many years later, the Sith and their Dark Jedi masters attacked the Galaxy, conquering vast areas before their ultimate defeat. They retreated to the Unknown Regions, rebuilding their strength for another strike. This pattern repeated itself several times throughout history, until, finally, a new idea was introduced.
As the Brotherhood of Darkness (the latest incarnation of the Sith
) built up it’s power, a young Sith known as Darth Bane, disgusted by the continuing cycle of Sith defeat, began to plot the downfall of the Sith Order. At the Battle of Ruusan, Bane unleashed his weapon: the thought bomb, a device that annihilated living creatures while leaving architecture intact. This secret superweapon was detonated as a massive Jedi army came down on the Brotherhood’s stronghold, killing all of the Sith and most of the Jedi. Bane, now the sole Sith in the Galaxy, instituted the Rule of Two, a law stating that there could only ever be two Sith: a master and an apprentice. The only way an apprentice could step out of their master’s shadow would be to eliminate the master. This meant that the Sith line was constantly improving, as the only way an apprentice could defeat the master was if the apprentice surpassed the master, either physically or mentally. The Sith also renounced conquest through force; rather, they focused on remaining hidden from the Jedi, building their power in ways other than military force.
Republic:
Prior to the Battle of Ruusan, the Republic had a large military force led by the Jedi. The Jedi themselves became the unofficial lords of various sectors and systems, as they freed those sectors from pirates and slavers the Republic was too busy to bother with or incapable of defeating. When the Brotherhood of Darkness threatened the Galaxy, a Jedi known as Lord Hoth called the other Jedi to fight, creating the Army of Light. With this army massacred at Ruusan, and the Sith Order believed destroyed, the Republic underwent a vast change: the military was downsized and decentralized, being reformed into the Judicials, the police force controlled by the Senate, and the Planetary Security Forces, militias assigned to specific systems and often controlled by either the Senator for that area or an elected planetary leader. The Jedi Order was also rebuilt: the Jedi lords were condensed into a single Temple and swore not to attach themselves to the Senate of the Republic; rather, to advise the Republic, but ultimately decide their own fate.
Lead-Up to the Clone War
Fett Story:
The Death Watch pursued the True Mandalorians through the Fett family farm on Concord Dawn. Jango Fett’s father allowed the True Mandalorians to hide in his barn. The Death Watch caught up, and tortured Jango’s parents for the location of the True Mandalorians. When they moved to start on Jango, then just a boy, his mother fired on them, killing one. In the ensuing chaos, Jango escaped into a field, where he is rescued by Jaster Mereel, Mand’alor of the True Mandalorians. As he departed, however, he saw a helmetless Death Watch soldier murder his parents. The Death Watch then set the field on fire, but Jango led Mereel and his men through a drainage pipe and to safety. With Jango, the True Mandalorians attacked a nearby settlement held by the Death Watch. Jango, eager to avenge his family, planted a bomb beneath a Death Watch tank, coming face-to-face with his parents’ murderer as he clears the blast area. Jango promptly shot the man, fulfilling his honor as a Mandalorian. Jaster Mereel saw promise in the boy, and allowed him to join the True Mandalorians, as well as taking him as his adoptive son.
Years later, Jango, now a full member of the True Mandalorian military, accompanied Mereel to Korda VI to put down an insurrection. The battle went poorly from the start. The employer had made it clear that the insurrectionists were poorly armed and coordinated, but during the drop the Mandalorians realized there was an ion cannon battery right in the landing zone. With several transports already destroyed, the remaining forces under Mereel had to battle their way up a hill towards a heavily entrenched enemy. Making matters worse, the coordination displayed by the rebels was not present in the Mandalorian ranks, as the jetpack-equipped aerial unit under Mereel’s lieutenant Montross disobeyed direct orders to the contrary and immediately assaulted a vastly superior force, taking heavy casualties. Meanwhile, Jango Fett led another force towards the rendezvous point where they would meet units from the local militia. Upon arrival, however, they discovered an empty clearing. This empty clearing swiftly developed into a Death Watch ambush. Mereel discovered this on his own when Tor Vizsla arrived in a tank, firing on the helpless Mandalorian below him. The critically injured Mereel turned to Montross, calling for an airlift; however, the treasonous soldier refused, leaving Mereel to die. He promptly did so, right as Jango returned to warn him of the Death Watch presence. Jango immediately took command of the Mandalorian army, banishing Montross for his actions, or lack thereof. Jango brought his army to victory, nearly annihilating the Death Watch in the process.
An unknown amount of time later, the True Mandalorians were hired to rid the planet Galidraan of a very powerful group of terrorists. This was done without issues; however, when Jango visited the governor in his office to collect payment, he was ambushed by Tor Vizsla and several other members of the Death Watch. He was able to escape, but as he made his way towards the Mandalorian camp, he noticed several Republic vessels doing the same. By the time Fett arrived at the camp, the Republic vessels were already disgorging their Jedi passengers. The Jedi, led by Dooku, delivered an ultimatum: the Mandalorians would either surrender to Republic justice, or die. Fett realized that the Death Watch had called in the Jedi, tricking them into fighting the True Mandalorians for them. However, before he could notify the Jedi that they’d been lied to, one of his men opened fire. Left with no choice, Jango ordered his men to kill the Jedi. A long and bloody battle ensued, but the end was unavoidable: Jango was the only survivor of the True Mandalorians. He was handed over to the governor, who promptly stole his armor and sold him into slavery.
He spent three years aboard a slaving vessel, until, one day, it was attacked by pirates. In the battle, the pirates offered Jango his freedom if he joined them. Jango accepted, but remained part of the pirate crew for only as long as it took for the battle to end. The pirates, drunk with victory as well as several other types of intoxicants, were slaughtered by the vengeful ex-mercenary. Fett then took the ship back to Galidraan, broke into the governor’s mansion, and stole back his armor, killing the governor in the process. He took that vessel to Corellia, where he had learned Tor Vizsla was based. He boarded the Death Watch warship in orbit of Corellia, and took on Vizsla alone. The prideful Death Watch leader ordered his men to stand down and watch the end of the True Mandalorians. However, Fett swiftly turned the tables on the overconfident Vizsla, wrestling him into an escape pod to escape the ship full of enemies that would likely turn on him if the battle seemed to be going badly for Vizsla. The fight continued as the pod fell, and after landing the two warriors battled their way out of the pod. Finally, Vizsla managed to stun Fett, buying enough time to draw a poisoned blade. Vizsla stabbed Fett in the side, incapacitating him and dumping a full load of poison into his system. Before going down, Fett shot Vizsla in the side, badly injuring him. As Fett fell to the ground, delirious from the poison, the triumphant Vizsla drew back his blade for the final blow. Before he could bring down the knife, however, a Corellian direcat leapt on him, followed by several others. The Death Watch leader fought briefly, but was injured and outnumbered, and soon succumbed. The direcats ignored Fett, smelling the poison in him. Fett had survived due to the very poison designed to kill him.
Several years later, Count Dooku, now secretly a Sith Lord, contacted Fett to negotiate the terms of a cloning contract. Fett agreed, becoming the template for the clone army of the Republic --- knowing that they would eventually slaughter the Jedi, as the Jedi once slaughtered the True Mandalorians.
Sith Story:
Eventually, one Sith came along in Bane’s line who decided it was he who would finally realize Bane’s vision of a Sith-controlled Galaxy. This Sith, known as Plagueis, owned a large portion of a prominent banking corporation under the pseudonym Hego Damask. His influence in the bank led to influence over anyone who took loans from the bank, magnified by his mind-altering Force abilities. As this Sith gathered economic power, he met a young politician-in-training from Naboo. This man, named Palpatine, turned out to have quite powerful force abilities and a vicious streak miles wide. After some discreet instruction and urging from Damask, Palpatine, going on vacation, murdered his entire family in the train. Upon arrival, he blamed the attack on a political competitor trying to remove any possibility of Palpatine’s victory. With his rival discredited, Palpatine was able to take the job as Senator of Naboo. From there, he eventually took office as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. However, there was still a long way to go before he could take over the Galaxy for the Sith. He ruled, but he ruled a decadent, corrupt government with no real power and no way to exercise that power even if he’d had it. However, he was a Sith Lord, and did not waste time marveling at the enormity of the task.
His first step was to con the Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas into ordering a massive clone army from the Kaminoan clonemasters. This army remained a secret, to be unveiled at the exact right time, no sooner. To keep it this way, Master Sifo-Dyas had an unfortunate accident while trying to negotiate peace between several warring tribes on Felucia. In reality, he had been murdered by Palpatine’s apprentice, Count Dooku. With this army on the way, Palpatine now required a war to use it in. He had his apprentice Dooku give a stirring HoloNet speech blasting the Republic for it’s corruption in what became known as the Raxus Address. After that speech, Dooku met with the leaders of several powerful mercantile corporations who had been forced to pay heavy taxes and limit their reach to certain sectors. These leaders formed the core of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a rebel group opposed to the Republic’s authority. As more and more Rim systems drifted to their cause, the Republic got increasingly nervous, as their was no military force available to fight the massive droid armies raised by the CIS.
When two Jedi and a Senator were captured by the CIS, the Temple on Coruscant sent a force of over two hundred Jedi to rescue them. This force did well, but then Dooku unveiled the droid armies just outside the arena they were battling in. The Jedi were slaughtered, but, when the end seemed near, Grand Master Yoda arrived with one hundred ninety-two thousand clone troopers fresh from Kamino. The Clone War had begun.
The Galactic Civil War
As the Clone War raged across the Galaxy, the Senate granted increasingly drastic emergency powers on Palpatine, Supreme Chancellor of the Republic and secretly a Sith Lord. These powers granted him the ability to put in place exactly what he would need to control the Galaxy as Emperor, such as the clone army now loyal solely to him, the governor-generals with supreme military power in their sectors, and the increasingly large amounts of Jedi isolated in the field.
As the Clone War began wind down, Palpatine decided his plans could progress to the next stage. He personally requested the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker as his advisor, as he had sensed both great power and great turmoil within the young man. Preying on his fear of losing the woman he secretly loved, Palpatine slowly seduced the young Knight to the dark side. When a force of five Jedi Masters, having sensed Palpatine’s dark power, arrived to arrest the Supreme Chancellor, Anakin intervened, killing one of the Jedi and completing his passage to the dark side. Palpatine wasted no time, ordering the clone commanders to execute their Jedi generals for treason. The clone troopers, genetically engineered to be fanatically loyal, did so without a second thought. Palpatine then moved on the Senate, declaring himself Emperor and anyone who opposed him a traitor. His governor-generals turned into Moffs, his clone troopers became Stormtroopers, and Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. His triumph was complete.
Years into the New Order, a group of Senators, worried that their vocal opposition to Palpatine’s policies would result in their assassination, formed a breakaway organization known as the Alliance to Restore the Republic. More commonly known as the Rebel Alliance or the Rebellion, this organization united several of the largest rebel groups into a single, cohesive group capable of opposing the Empire. That they did, carrying out numerous strikes against the Empire, ranging from blowing up fuel depots to blowing up moon-sized battle stations. Eventually, the Alliance was able to force Palpatine out of his fortress on Coruscant and into the field aboard his second Death Star. This turned out to be a trap, but the Alliance managed to kill the Emperor and destroy his Death Star all the same.
Aftermath of Endor
The Battle of Endor shattered the Empire. With the Emperor dead, as well as his successor, Lord Vader, the Empire dissolved into dozens of competing miniature Empires, headed by various Advisors and Moffs-turned-warlords who decided they were fit to carry the mantle of Emperor. The Rebellion, on the other hand, was doing better than ever, with dozens of systems openly declaring war on the remnants of the Empire. However, there were also new threats to the Galaxy, such as the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, the Nagai invaders, and enormous, green-skinned Tofs.
First to invade were the Ssi-Ruuk. Possessing a technology that allowed them to pull the essences from living beings and put them into droids, they ruthlessly attacked the Rim world of Bakura with hordes of automated soldiers. Their threat was short-lived, however, as an unlikely truce between Imperials and Rebels sent them scurrying back into their own territories. They were pursued, but when the Rebels arrived, they found only the ruins of a devastated empire.
The next threat was the invasion of the Nagai from satellite galaxy Companion Besh. These raiders came in wirework vessels led by former Sith Adept Lumiya. Their alien hyperspace technology allowed them to skip past blockades and minefields, facilitating the spread of fear. The Nagai threat seemed unstoppable, bolstered as it was by Lumiya and stormtroopers loyal to her.
However, the Nagai were soon followed by the Tofs, other natives of Companion Besh intent on conquering as much as possible. The Nagai, who had invaded the Galaxy to escape the Tofs, pleaded to the Alliance of Free Planets (the latest incarnation of the Rebel Alliance) for help. Lumiya, who was merely using the Nagai as a tool with which to reassert Sith rule, was entirely opposed to this. However, with the help of the Nagai, Luke Skywalker was able to defeat her and banish the Sith Lady into the Unknown regions. The Nagai and the Alliance proceeded to eliminate the Tofs and retake the Nagai homeworld.
But these alien threats were not all the Alliance had to face, nor the most dangerous. Zsinj, a tactical genius with his own Super Star Destroyer, controlled a vast portion of the Galaxy and was intent on capturing Han Solo. Ysanne Isard, previously head of the Ubiqtorate (Imperial Intelligence), had seized control of Coruscant and was trying desperately to restore Imperial order to the Galaxy. Ardus Kaine, ex-Grand Moff of Oversector Outer (succeeding the legendary Wilhuff Tarkin), had united several other would-be warlords under the banner of the Pentastar Alignment in the New Territories, and possessed the Super Star Destroyer Reaper.
As the years went by, the Alliance of Free Planets (now the New Republic) gradually wore down the Imperial warlords, taking control of major worlds such as Coruscant, Kuat, Corellia, and Sullust. However, six years after the Battle of Endor, a new threat emerged: the last Grand Admiral, known only as Thrawn. This blue-skinned, red-eyed alien from the Unknown Regions quickly proved himself quite capable of taking on the New Republic, even with the vastly outstripped production capabilities of the Empire. His first major strike came at the resource-rich world of Nkllon, where Lando Calrissian had set up mining operations. A single Star Destroyer attacked, stealing fifty-one of the plasma-spraying mole miners Calrissian was using. These vehicles were then hidden with forty TIE fighters in the cloaked cargo bay of a converted bulk freighter. This freighter was equipped with a transponder telling all who would listen that it had been attacked by pirates and had been forced to jettison its cargo due to engine damage. The freighter was deployed to the Sluis Van shipyards, where over a hundred New Republic vessels were undergoing repair and refitting. As the freighter self-destructed and released its deadly cargo, a force of several Star Destroyers entered the system, drawing off the heaviest defense vessels. Meanwhile, the mole miners used their plasma torches to quickly melt holes and deposit troops in the empty capital warships undergoing refitting. Just as it seemed as if Thrawn would simultaneously cripple the New Republic fleet and fill his own with warships, Lando Calrissian, here with Han Solo and Luke Skywalker for repairs on their own ships following the Battle of Nkllon, remotely activated the plasma drills on the mole miners, burning through the captured warships. Thrawn, his vessels destroyed, promptly retreated. The New Republic had managed a draw militarily, but the political situation was much worse. Admiral Ackbar, who had ordered the ships to Sluis Van in the first place, was accused of treason by the Bothan Councilor, Borsk Fey’lya. Fey’lya had Ackbar under house arrest, and was aiming to have him executed and the job passed to himself.
With the New Republic in turmoil, Thrawn began to research another source of warships: the Dark Force. Many years before, the shipyards of Rendili had built a massive force of Dreadnaught Heavy Cruisers specially modified to require only two thousand crewers instead of the usual sixteen thousand. However, during one of its tours, the Dark Force picked up a deadly hive virus, which , before killing the crews, drove them completely mad. In their lunacy, the admiral of the fleet used the experimental slave-linking and jumped all two hundred of them to a random point in space. Thrawn had located the captain of a smuggling vessel that accidentally stumbled across the Dark Force while on the run from the Empire. Thrawn immediately went for the fleet. However, the New Republic had found another smuggler who had been present when they found the Dark Force, and the race was on. The New Republic arrived with a single frigate, led by Councilor Fey’lya. Soon after the frigate's arrival came Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Lando Calrissian, and Rogue Squadron. They immediately landed on the lead Dreadnaught, and began trying to activate the slave link to jump the fleet safely to New Republic space. However, they were soon joined by an Imperial Star Destroyer. The Destroyer swiftly dispatched troops to capture the Dreadnaught fleet.
As the last of the boarders were killed by Luke, he noticed something strange about their sense. Closer inspection revealed that the soldiers were clones. As the outgunned New Republic force fought on, they realized something terrible: only fifteen of the predicted two hundred Dreadnaughts were present. With the Empire already in possession of most of the fleet, the New Republic withdrew.
Thrawn now possessed warships, and with the cloning technology he’d found at the storehouse on Wayland, he had the crews to fill them. He had been carrying out only lightning-fast hit-and-fade attacks on lightly defended targets, but he now began reclaiming territory. World after world fell before him, and many more hastily swore fealty to the Empire once they saw the sudden shift of power. Thrawn eventually launched a raid on on Coruscant itself. The attack did little damage, but he deployed twenty-two cloaked asteroids into Coruscant’s orbit, while dry-firing his tractor beams to make it seem as if hundreds had been dropped. If the New Republic could get ahold of a Crystal Gravfield Trap, then they could detect and destroy the asteroids and safely lower the planetary shields. Unfortunately, there were only three CGT’s in the Galaxy, and all of these were controlled by the Empire.
The New Republic decided it was of the utmost importance that one of these be acquired. The most obvious target was the world of Tangrene, with a Ubiqtorate base using the CGT for their own nefarious plots. However, New Republic Command saw this as too easy, and decided to instead attack the heavily defended Bilbringi shipyards. Thrawn had, in fact, laid a trap at Tangrene, but he predicted the New Republic’s attack at Bilbringi, and laid another trap there. Eleven Mon Calamari cruisers jumped to the Bilbringi shipyards, along with dozens of support vessels. However, Thrawn used Interdictor cruisers to pull the force out of hyperspace early, protecting the yards and dropping the enemy fleet in the middle of an even larger fleet of Star Destroyers. However, at that point a coalition of smugglers attacked the yards directly, forcing him to redeploy Star Destroyers to protect them. The Empire still had a chance, until Thrawn’s Noghri bodyguard stabbed him in the heart. With his Grand Admiral dead, Captain Pellaeon ordered a retreat, ending the Empire’s last hope.
The Dark Empire
When Thrawn died, the remnants of the Empire lost hope, with many members defecting or simply refusing to respond to orders. On the opposite side, the New Republic was jubilant. The last Grand Admiral was gone. The rest was merely a mopping-up action. Unfortunately for the Galaxy as a whole, neither side was justified in its behavior. Soon a clone of Palpatine inhabited by his dark side essence would appear in the Deep Core and begin calling the remaining warlords to his side. New Republic Intelligence saw the movements, or rather noted the lack of warships on the frontlines, and decided something was up, but they could not figure out what. Then the resurrected Palpatine unleashed everything he had on the Galaxy. Three massive task forces roared out of the Deep Core; one targeted Kuat, the base of New Republic shipbuilding power; another captured Ord Cestus, an important fuel depot and fleet staging area; the third took Coruscant itself, heart of the Galaxy, capital of the New Republic. Response fleets were not slow to retaliate; unfortunately, neither was the Empire. The attack fleets sent out were destroyed and the fortresses left undefended were captured. The Empire was triumphant.
Few agree on what exactly happened next, fewer still on why. Some say that the reborn Emperor sought to weaken potential troublemakers, others claim that he simply lost control of his men. Whoever you ask, one thing is clear: the geniuses who had worked for over a decade to restore the Empire had simply lost their minds. Robotic TIE fighters tore apart the dreadnought Aculeus, the Whelm and the Panthac blew each other to pieces, the captain of the Javelin flew his eight-kilometer vessel into the defense station over Chasin, and the base on Tangrene attempted to shoot down the Star Destroyer Empire, resulting in the destruction of both. That is to say nothing of the battles on Coruscant itself, where Imperial Intelligence blew up the Imperial palace, the Stormtrooper Corps locked down the COMPNOR barracks, and the ISB released thousands of dangerous chemicals into the converted Senate Building housing the Imperial Moffs. The Imperial Army under General Alix Balan tried to restore order, only to be torn limb from limb by angry civilians as the came out of their fortress.
Palpatine did nothing to prevent this madness, his only response being the unveiling of his new superweapons: the Eclipse, the Galaxy Gun, and the World Devastators. He attacked the Pinnacle Moon with the Galaxy Gun, destroying the New Republic base there and exterminating the indigenous population. However, during the New Republic attack on his citadel at Byss, R2-D2 managed to activate the huge weapon and vaporize the planet, killing Palpatine and destroying the Eclipse. Yet Palpatine returned again in another clone, and ordered his World Devastators to attack Mon Calamari, birthplace of the Rebellion. There, the destroyed dozens of cities and recycled the constituent elements into even more warships. The molecularly-shielded Devastators were immune to counterattack, and continued their destructive rampage for weeks. Meanwhile, Palpatine had lured Luke Skywalker into his clutches and was seducing him to the Dark Side while Leia Organa Solo and her husband formulated a rescue plan. Finally, as the New Republic attacked again, Luke tore himself from the Dark Side and began battling Palpatine. Leia soon joined him, and together they turned his Force Storms back on him and destroyed the Eclipse II. Palpatine survived, but not for long. Han Solo gunned down Palpatine and the dying Jedi Corran Horn dragged his essence into the Force. R2-D2 was then able to hack the control matrices for the World Devastators and force them to battle each other, with only one survivor. This survivor was dedicated to cleanup operations of the past nine years of nearly continuous war, sucking up destroyed cities and ships to build new ones. It was eventually scrapped due to the propaganda attacks of the Imperial Remnant, pointing out that the oh-so-perfect New Republic was using one of the worst terror weapons ever created.
The Yuuzhan Vong War
If the Dark Empire had surprised the New Republic, the Yuuzhan Vong caught them napping. These extragalactic alien invaders attacked without warning or mercy, devastating hundreds of worlds within weeks. One of the first casualties was the Wookiee Chewbacca, who died trying to evacuate refugees. The Vong, as it was frequently abbreviated, used an advanced form of biotechnology and rejected the more standard technologies, to the point where any machines were destroyed as religious blasphemy. The Vong were not simplistic savages with no grasp of modern technology, as many thought. They were extremely skilled in their mode of operation, and were able to enslave half the Galaxy because of it. Furthermore, every planet they captured was terraformed to match their ancient homeworld of Yuuzhan’tar. This enabled them to create and test even more weapons anywhere they wanted.
The first Yuuzhan Vong warships appeared at Bakura, rolling over the small defensive fleet with ease. Before the New Republic, or anyone else, could make head or tail of the frantic reports, the Vong struck again at Rattatak, Firrerre, and Endor, swiftly capturing the Moddell sector. By now, organized resistance was forming, but the brilliant minds of the old Rebellion had long since retired or died, leaving only career generals and toadies. Admiral Sien Sovv was a by-the-books man far inferior to the retired military genius Gial Ackbar, and Chief-of-State Borsk Fey’lya was a scheming, corrupt fool who had won the election through political maneuvering. These two, among others, allowed the Vong to conquer hundreds or even thousands of systems while pursuing a decisive fleet battle. Unfortunately, these strategies were both ineffectual and made the Vong seem unstoppable. Worst of all was the abandonment of the tactics that had made the Rebellion so successful, such as commerce raiding, starfighter hit-and-run tactics, guerilla warfare, and destruction of production assets.
The Jedi split with the New Republic soon after the war began, as they did not believe that abandoning a world to monsters was a price worth paying for a chance at a decisive fleet battle. The Jadi engaged in the aforementioned tactics, primarily due to their small number, and were extremely successful. The Vong considered the Jedi so much of a threat that they went so far as to engineer an entirely new animal dedicated solely to the destruction of Jedi. Two of the more notable conflicts were the raid on Yavin 4 by Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin Solo, freeing thousand of slaves, and the attempted defense of Ithor by Luke Skywalker. At Ithor, the Empire deployed four Star Destroyers, nineteen Strike-class cruisers, and half a hundred Carrack-class light cruisers. These were supported by a dozen or so Jedi in their starfighters (mainly StealthX’s) and four Hapan Battle Dragons from the Hapes Cluster. This fleet was only meant to delay the enemy, however, and did not possess the firepower to destroy the Vong warfleet.
When the fleet arrived, Luke Skywalker challenged Warmaster Tsavong Lah to a duel, with Ithor as the prize. Lah could not refuse and maintain honor, and honor was vital to the Yuuzhan Vong social system. The ensuing battle lasted for over three hours, with neither side able to gain the upper hand. But then, Luke was able to cloud the mind of the warrior’s living armor, which prevented him from intercepting the decapitating blow coming towards him. Luke had emerged victorious.
Unfortunately for the Ithorians, Tsavong Lah’s second-in-command was not as honorable as his leader. He unleashed a devastating bioweapon on the planet, turning all life into stinking black ooze. At that point, it was discovered that the baffor trees native to the world produced a pollen deadly to the armor worn by the Vong. The New Republic viciously attacked the Jedi and the Empire for not preserving such a resource, if only to hide the embarrassment of inaction.
Still the war ground on. By now, the Vong seemed unbeatable, and the Empire, Jedi, and Hapes Cluster had severed ties to the New Republic and started their own coalition against the alien menace. Then the new Warmaster Nas Choka offered a cease-fire. The New Republic accepted, hoping that their own shipbuilding and recruitment would outpace the enemy’s, but the Jedi coalition did not. They pursued a war on the sidelines, hitting shipping, slave centers, and shaper nests (the equivalent of factories). The Jedi were hunted viciously in return, with the Vong even going so far as to make Jedi-hunting a state-sponsored sport. The Jedi were helping the war effort, but they were not enough.
Nas Choka, the creature to offer the cease-fire, was actually the one who broke it. He struck at Coruscant, heart of the New Republic. Only the New Republic and the Empire had sufficient ships to mount any kind of defense. The Hutts were also present in force, though only to discuss potential trade agreements. The Hapans had been on station as well, but were unwilling to side with a government that made deals with Hutts. Therefore, when Choka attacked, the defense fleet was severely understrength. The battle was swiftly progressing towards a rout for the New Republic and Empire until a stray Vong coralskipper mistakenly fired on a Hutt transport. Within minutes, every Hutt clan present had declared war on the Vong and dedicated their vessels to the defense effort. While this was unable to prevent ultimate Yuuzhan Vong victory, the Hutt intervention was able to prevent a total rout and save the majority of the defending fleets. The Empire pulled back first, followed by the New Republic. The Hutts fought nearly to the death, fleeing only after every vessel but the Clan Citadel had been destroyed. The Yuuzhan Vong took nearly seventy percent casualties, but were still able to sack Galactic City.
With the fall of Coruscant, the New Republic government relocated to Dac and officially became the Galactic Alliance, bringing together the New Republic, the Empire, the Jedi Coalition, the Hapes Consortium, the Mandalorian Protectorate, and the Collection of Communist Planets. The Hutts remained independent, due to both their desire to remain economically powerful and as a compromise to several of the other powers. This agreement was bound with blood when the Yuuzhan Vong attacked Dac in another attempt to destroy the New Republic. They initially made headway, but were nearly annihilated when a massive CCP fleet arrived with a full load of Roche snubfighters. This event marked a turning point in the war, perhaps even more so than the agreement that preceded it.
From there, the war started going well for the Galactic Alliance. Despite losing the major industrial center of Fondor and the agricultural giant of Ukio, they were able to recapture the propaganda-rich world of Anaxes and the logistics nerve centers of Ord Cestus and Ord Mantell within days. After feinting at Bilbringi, they proceeded down the Perlemian Trade Route, destroying fleet after fleet of Vong warships. Nas Choka went on the defensive, shifting resources away from the battles in Hutt space to hold the Perlemian and the Hydian Way. The Jedi, monitoring fleet movements across half the Galaxy, informed the Galactic Alliance Chiefs of Staff of this slip. Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker himself was swiftly appointed to lead a motley fleet of Hapan Battle Dragons, Mandalorian heavy gunships, and Jedi X-wings in a devastating ambush on the Yuuzhan Vong fleet over Nal Hutta. Apparently the Hutts had an even more efficient spy network, as they arrived in force within minutes to reclaim their capital.
All of this served to hearten the Galactic Alliance soldiers on the front lines, as well as the civilian support network in the back. No longer was the Galaxy merely a playground for the Yuuzhan Vong; no longer was the Galactic Alliance an incompetent collection of career admirals and generals (they still were, but now they were viewed as heroes); and no longer were infantry simply meat for the grinder (again, they still were, but the public now saw the actual gains they were making). The only thing left was to recapture Coruscant.
The planners and tacticians of the Galactic Alliance threw everything they had at the battle. Imperial TIE fighters established atmospheric superiority and space parity; Mandalorian supercommandoes secured beachheads among the towers of Galactic City; CCP destroyers and cruisers blew up fleet supply ships; Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari cruisers engaged the fleet head-on; Hapan Battle Dragons and Nova Cruisers backed a Jedi strike at the heart of the enemy, the flagship Baanu Rass. This small strike force went after Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane planning to kill him and demoralize the enemy, to whom he was a god.
The Vong were able to repel this strike force, but not before Jacen Solo managed to get aboard the Baanu Rass. He dueled with the Supreme Overlord, and emerged victorious. Unfortunately, another Yuuzhan Vong had been planning to assassinate Jamaane for years, and was completely set up to take his place. For a moment, the tide of battle seemed to shift in favor of the Vong. This shift was reversed with the arrival of a massive Hutt fleet, mostly composed of ships and crews straight from storage and in perfect condition. The Vong held for a time, but when the Baanu Rass fell, they broke and were destroyed in detail. Within weeks, the rest of the alien invaders had surrendered, and the Galaxy fell back into Galactic Alliance control.
Despite the propaganda beamcasts to the contrary, not everything slid right back into place after the end of the war. The Bothans were still hunting the remaining Yuuzhan Vong and exacting revenge for the destruction of their homeworld, despite the Galactic Alliance promise that there would be no further persecution. This led to a split, with Bothawui declaring itself separate from the Galactic Alliance. The Galactic Alliance responded with an invasion, as well as trade embargoes on the Bothan colony worlds. One of these was the capital of the CCP, which responded with secession. The Galactic Alliance realized it had a problem, and recalled the fleet over Bothawui and removed the embargoes. The Mandalorians saw this as a sign of weakness, and withdrew as well. GA leadership considered an invasion of Mandalorian space, seemingly forgetting the fact that Mandalore was the only planet to repel the Vong without external aid. There was a brief naval battle, followed by a very long and very costly ground invasion, ending in GA defeat. With this, the Empire withdrew its own support, but did remain an allied state.
Furthermore, the Hutts had started demanding payment for their aid during the war. With nearly half the Galaxy undergoing massive terraforming and repair projects, and the galactic economy in shambles, the GA found itself in no condition to make good on its debts. But then a discovery was made: when GA ambassadors ventured into Hutt space for negotiations, they noticed a mysterious lack of evidence of Vongforming (the nickname for the Yuuzhan Vong form of terraforming). When questioned, the Hutts revealed that they had discovered a compound deadly to many of the Vongformed organisms, and that it was available for sale. The GA ambassadors accepted instantly, but this yet again drove off the Hapans, who were still prejudiced against Hutts. While no one had devolved into outright war, the stage was set.
The Second Galactic Civil War
The Second Galactic Civil War truly began when the Hutt biological weapon failed. It was first tested on several worlds, with outstanding success. It was then distributed on a massive scale, with hundreds, if not thousands, of worlds being sprayed with an aerosol version. At first, this was as successful as the first tests, but things soon started going wrong. The organisms native to worlds, now returning in great numbers, sprouted odd growths similar to Yuuzhan Vong armor and started to die out. The affected world's blamed the Hutts, who denied all accusations. The Jedi defended the Hutts, arguing that, if it was a Hutt poison, it would have made itself apparent sooner. The Jedi also pointed out that there was a similar effect apparent on Hutt planets treated with the same chemical. However, the public wanted blood, and they couldn’t get it from a phantom. The Galactic Alliance, or what was left of it, declared war on the Greater Hutt Clans.
While the Jedi were unwilling to go to war on only the assumption of guilt, they were also reluctant to split with the GA again after just recently becoming a single entity. So the Jedi declared war under charges of gunrunning, smuggling, possession of illegal goods, spice dealing, piracy, and treason. These were mostly true, but as the Greater Hutt Clans had declared themselves an independent state, they were free of GA law. Only the operations outside of Hutt Space were punishable, and these were ignored. This led to unprecedented amounts of sympathy for the Hutts, even among the Core Worlds. After a short, ineffective invasion, the GA withdrew its fleet and negotiated peace. However, public opinion was not strong enough to prevent the GA from imposing a set of embargoes severely affecting Hutt operations. They also deployed a very large fleet to eliminate Hutt operations on the other side of the border. This was very successful for a time, and the average crime rate for the Outer Rim dropped by eleven percent in just three weeks. Best of all, public opinion was now on the side of the GA.
But the Hutts were not going to let the GA take a (relatively) bloodless victory. Emissaries were sent to the various lords of the underworld with orders to forge them into an army. Through skill, cunning, or just the simple fact that most of these criminals owed the Hutts millions, they did so. Four infamous pirate lords recalled all of their raiding vessels and met at Gamorr to pick up an army. Acting on intelligence gathered by spice dealers and their clients, they destroyed a detachment of the GA’s Fifth Fleet, about to invade Christophsis. With the Gamorrean boarders, the pirates were able to capture nearly a third of the fleet, including two of the new MC90 battleships. This was a huge PR victory for the Not Hutt Coalition (an unofficial name, but no official name was ever given). The high-tech, well-trained GA navy had been trounced by spice addicts in thirty-year-old vessels. Pirates and rebels from across the Galaxy started joining, creating a real problem for the GA. And now the Hutt emissaries were organizing the smugglers and spice dealers into a shadow supply network, keeping the massively growing fleet fueled. A new galactic power was emerging, and it was not a friendly one.
The GA attempted to negotiate peace with Hutt space, and while this was successful, the Hutts denied any connection with the pirate fleet. However, they were willing to assist the GA in the destruction of the threat, for a price. The GA accepted, if only to avoid war with the Hutts. The combined fleet closed on Christophsis only to find a cloud of jettisoned waste. The GA scout ships reported movements at Ord Pardron, and the fleet jumped. Again they were too late. After several more repetitions, GA Chief of State Cal Omas accused the Hutts of feeding information to the pirate gang. The Hutts, outraged, withdrew their support immediately and entered a period of isolationism. The Fifth Fleet detachment, now considerably weaker, cruised around picking up the planetary fleets of Loronar, Corellia, and Fondor (three prominent shipbuilders), before returning to Christophsis. They found the pirate fleet waiting.
With a quarter of her vessels disabled in the first two minutes due to planetary ion fire, Chief of State Omas ordered the planetary militia auxiliaries they’d picked up to cover the retreat of the GA forces. This resulted in very light casualties for the GA, but extremely high casualties for the militia fleets. The owners of the fleets were outraged. Corellia demanded compensation for the value of the fleet, plus a four hundred billion credit bonus for “disregard for the lives of the crew,” while Loronar and Fondor seceded immediately. The GA, already strained from the refugee crisis and the war with the Hutts, refused to pay. Corellia then followed the example set by Fondor and Loronar.
The GA fleet, still going after pirates, achieved a minor victory at Rishi and a major one at Ando Prime, at the cost of a third of the vessels. This alienated the Aqualish, as several ships had fallen into their oceans and nearly killed off the Aquala (the marine race of the Aqualish). For the first time in thousands of years, the Aquala and the Quara put aside their differences to wage war on the invaders. The Fifth Fleet, the majority of it docked in the orbital shipyards, was a sitting duck. However, the Hapans arrived before the Aqualish could deal much damage, and the fleet escaped.
Chief of State Omas ordered a retreat to Eriadu to finish the repairs, unaware that it had recently announced its secession. They were flying into a trap, and one heavily stacked against them. Immediately surrounding the navigation point was a cocoon of homing mines, with four wings of the new Veermok-class fast-attack bombers behind them. The last layer was composed of nineteen Imperial II-class Star Destroyers (produced at Eriadu), thirty-five Carrion Spike-class corvettes (vastly downgraded versions of their namesake), ninety-four Warrior II-class gunships, and three Interdictor cruisers. In the unlikely event of the GA breaking through this force, four Golan Defense Space NovaGun-class space stations were parked by the outgoing hyperlanes.
The Fifth decanted right in the middle of the minefield. In less than a minute, no vessel had particle shield power above ten percent, and several of the more damaged ones had taken hits to the hull. After the mines had run their course, the fighter-bombers swarmed in.First firing a load of concussion missiles to blow through the shields, the vicious little crafts then let loose a volley of ion torpedoes and repulsor mines (small tractor/repulsor beam projectors coupled with a bonding pad. They push and pull off of nearby objects, essentially flying the ship they’re attached to in circles) and pulled away to clear the path for the Warrior II’s. The GA fleet was now in disarray, with half its ships on fire and venting their atmospheres, and the other half uncontrollable and increasingly at risk of running into each other. Several vessels tried to launch fighters and escape pods, only to watch them be yanked helplessly around as the mines latched onto them. When the Warrior II’s came screaming in, almost nothing was available to resist them. A few scattered turbolasers fired, but the blasts were easily absorbed by the shields. They dropped a payload of driller mines (little cylinders equipped with beamdrills that would bore through a ship’s hull) onto the already crippled vessels, then withdrew to rearm. By that point, the Star Destroyers were closing in for the kill.
With Chief of State Omas dead after a driller mine vented the bridge, command fell to ranking officer Sien Sovv. However, Jacen Solo declared the fleet to be temporarily under his control. This led to a brief firefight on the secondary bridge between Jacen-loyal and Sovv-loyal marines, with Jacen coming out on top. Solo then ordered all vessels to initiate protocol ÆGIS NINE FOUR, calling for all vessels to detonate EMP devices within their hulls. This not only disabled the driller mines, it wiped the memories of the repulsor mines. The Eriaduan ships now flying among the GA fleet were no longer safe from the repulsor mines, as the codes that had preventing friendly fire were now gone. This, plus a bit of overlap with with the EMP blast radii, led to total confusion among the Eriaduan fleet. An order to shut down the repulsor mines was immediately issued. The GA took full advantage of this by launching all remaining fighters and flying them to attack the now-undefended Interdictors. This attack succeeded before the Eriaduans could react, and the GA fleet immediately jumped to hyperspace.
Jacen Solo was now a hero, and Sien Sovv had been completely discredited. Everyone forgot that Solo had committed treason, only seeing that he had saved an otherwise doomed fleet. He was elected co-Chief of State, along with Supreme Commander Cha Niathal. Solo and Niathal formally declared a state of high military readiness in regards to the growing Confederacy, but did not declare war. However, this did not mean peace with the Confederates. Far from it. One of the first acts of Chief of State Solo was to found the Galactic Alliance Guard, or GAG. This was a commando force of absolutely loyal troopers, the modern incarnation of the Stormtrooper Corps. They were expected to take on a full range of missions, from counter-insurgency and antiterrorist actions to those with less savory parameters, such as kidnappings, assassinations, PGOs, and the rounding up of political dissidents. In fact, the first mission given by now-Colonel Solo was to begin moving the large number of Corellia-born Coruscanti to internment camps. This was a rather ill-advised move, as it drove several more systems over to the side of the Confederacy and demoralized the civilian population of Coruscant. However, Colonel Solo’s personal involvement with the GAG missions led to very high morale among the troops, and also made him a very popular leader.
The negotiations rambled on for weeks without either side getting closer to a decision. Many were secretly happy at this, as they feared a negative outcome if the negotiations ever did end. However, Jacen Solo grew sick of it, and eventually put together a clandestine GAG task force, disguised as Imperials, to end the negotiations with extreme prejudice. They did so quite nicely.
The Galaxy was outraged. The Imperials had violated a truce and killed diplomats on both sides. The GA and the Confederacy put aside their differences to focus their fury on the Imperial Remnant. Unfortunately for the GA, the Hapans and the CCP both relied on Imperial trade to support their economies, and declared war on the GA and Confederacy alliance. However, the war only lasted a year before an individual from the strike force that had killed the negotiation teams, disgusted at the conflict she had caused, released a holotape of the mission briefing. This led to further schism, with the GA splitting in two. About three-quarters still favored Solo, and the rest followed Niathal. The Jedi also split with Solo, and reactivated the Jedi Coalition. All of these were arrayed against the GA, yet the Chief of State was able to hold his own for seven years before a Jedi strike team assassinated him. Even then, the remnants of his military refused to rejoin the GA, and retreated into the Unknown Regions. With Solo gone, the Galaxy made peace at last. The Confederacy, CCP, Mandalorian Protectorate, Hapes Consortium, and Jedi Coalition were once again absorbed into the GA, while the Empire, resurgent with land stolen over the last decade, remained an allied state. The Galaxy finally had time to heal.
A History of Star Wars
Moderator: NecronLord
A History of Star Wars
If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
Re: A History of Star Wars
And here's the final bit.
The Sith-Imperial War
The Sith-Imperial War truly began twenty-five years before the Battle of Yavin, when the son of a Jedi-turned-Tusken Raider witnessed his father’s death at the hands of a Jedi. The teenager flew into a storm of rage and grief, attacking the Judicials around him in desperation, despite the fact that he was unarmed and his wrists were bound. Even in this condition, he was able to knock two of the policemen to the ground and hold a third hostage. The Jedi simply had to wave his hand, however, and pulled away the thoughts of the young Tusken. The boy slumped to the ground, unconscious.
When he awoke, he was aboard a starship bound for the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The Jedi that had taken him captive had sensed Force ability and a sense of determination in the youth, and had decided to train him as a Jedi. At first, the Tusken fought viciously, but eventually decided to bide his time, waiting for the perfect opportunity. The Padawan, named A’Sharad Hett, trained for two years before the Clone Wars erupted and he was pressed into service. During the war, he witnessed the deaths of over half the Padawans he had trained with for years. This experience, followed by Order 66 and the deaths of many times that number of Jedi, had a profound effect on the Knight-in-exile. He lost what little morals the Jedi had given him, and turned to bounty hunting to support himself. He decided to live out the rest of his days as a hired gun, forgetting galactic affairs.
Unfortunately for Hett, the Yuuzhan Vong had other ideas. An advance scouting party came four years before the Battle of Yavin and kidnapped a number of individuals for experimentation to aid the planning of the upcoming invasion. Discovering Hett’s Force ability, they moved him out of the standard laboratories and into an advanced torture chamber run by the fallen Jedi Vergere. During his time here, Hett was implanted with several Yuuzhan Vong yorik coral seedlings, extending his life dramatically. As Vergere discovered the hatred and anger burning within the Force-user, she moved the focus from experimentation to turning Hett to the dark side. She accomplished this, but did too well. After the Yuuzhan Vong doctors replaced his left eye with a synthetic one (organic, not mechanical), Hett ripped off his restraints with concentrated mental fury. The surprised Vong wardens immediately called for Vergere, but were sliced apart as the enraged testee summoned his lightsaber from across the room. He moved onwards through the door, into the armory. Acquiring the set of yorik armor Vergere had intended to test on him and grabbing a second lightsaber made of yet more yorik coral, Hett continued his rampage through the facility.
The implants within A’Sharad Hett’s body allowed him to link directly into his armor, allowing an astonishing amount of agility while still offering serious protection. This was all that saved him when Vergere leapt from behind and brought her own lightsaber down towards his head. He was able to dodge the worst of the blow, and the lightsaber was deflected off his shoulder plate. He struck back with a single vicious blow and was able to nearly kill the unfortunate Fosh. Hett met little resistance from then on as he made his way out of the facility.
After stealing a ship, A’Sharad Hett set off with no idea where he was or how to get back to the Galaxy. However, after only an hour or so of cruising around and testing systems, the recently-turned Jedi felt a nexus of Force power in on area. Setting the hyperdrive (it was a Vong spy ship), he leapt away. As the freighter decanted, he felt a surge of dark energy, nearly overwhelming him. He immediately flew down to the surface, but was surprised when four starfighters rose up and opened fire on him with archaic lasers and primitive missiles. Curious, he decided to surrender rather than destroy the his enemies outright. Escorted down to the surface by the fighters, he was met with a battalion of armored troopers and two beings clad in flowing robes, one Human and one Chagrian. Sensing the hostility in the atmosphere, Hett was initially very cautious. But he also sensed Force power in these two individuals, and they sensed it in him.After giving him a thorough screening, the two Grandmasters of the Sith allowed Hett to become a learner in their organization. The Dark Jedi had found the Lost Tribe of the Sith.
In a period of only six years, Hett rose to the top of the Sith hierarchy, short of joining the triumvirate of Grandmasters. Gathering influence, Hett was able to overthrow this trio and make himself sole Lord of the Sith. Overturning the previous system, he instituted his own Rule of One. There would be one true Sith Lord atop a pyramid of lesser Sith. Taking the name Darth Krayt for the fearsome predator of his homeworld, the Lord of the Sith busied himself with the building of an empire. Anxious to know where this planet was in the Galaxy, but just as anxious to remain hidden, he deployed hundreds of one-man scout vessels to find nearby planets. He then moved to issues within the government itself, first clearing out the corrupt, weak, and stubborn politicians, followed by completely rewriting the organizational system to conform with his ideas. This entailed the almost total removal of a civilian government, with high-ranking Sith being expected to both write laws and personally lead armies into battle. With this out of the way, he set about selecting his second-in-command. After much consideration, he decided on the Chagrian Darth Wyyrlok, a skilled bureaucrat and a master manipulator.
After four months of cataloging systems and scanning worlds, the scouts returned to relay the data to Darth Krayt. Most of the discovered worlds were alien to Krayt, but six of them matched up with the holochart aboard the stolen Vong undercover freighter. Now knowing where he was, he ordered the small shipyards to reverse-engineer the small freighter and produce massive amounts of them. He also ordered colony ships deployed to the ninety-seven inhabited worlds the scouts had uncovered, charged with subjugating whatever sentient species may be present and establishing a self-sustaining manufacturing capability. All that was left was to find potential allies in the wider Galaxy.
Without an external enemy for centuries, the Sith military focus had moved from large numbers of frontline infantry to small commando teams capable of assassinating political rivals. While he wanted the former, Darth Krayt had always been trained never to waste, and made do with what he had. Cross-training political assassins and industrial spies as field agents and PGO-oriented commandos as their backup, Krayt was able to forge a powerful central intelligence network where none had previously existed. These new spies were loaded aboard the brand-new freighters and ordered to disperse throughout the Galaxy and set up individual cells, gathering intelligence and fomenting rebellion. Meanwhile, Wyyrlok was busy giving stirring speeches encouraging the population to join the military forces, whether in a support or combat role. This led to massive buildup of the military, enabled by the new factories built on the colony worlds. Now the personal guards of various Sith were the minority, with Krayt controlling the vast majority of the military might. Still, even this force was vastly inferior to the militaries of the rest of the Galaxy.
As Lord Krayt’s power grew, so too did his impatience and bloodlust. The only outlet for this were his own worlds and their unfortunate inhabitants. He waited for reports from spies, keeping his armies occupied by conquering primitive worlds as fast as his scouts found them. When one recently-conquered species rebelled, he ordered the planet depopulated and strip-mined to it’s core. When another planet protested, he threatened the same treatment. However, before the president-turned-governor could deliver a response, his mansion was mobbed by hordes of his own citizens. Wyyrlok was able to turn it into a huge propaganda victory, recruiting millions more troopers for their cause.
With the military growing at this prodigious rate, Krayt needed a cost-effective way to guarantee the loyalty of his men. Because cyborging was too expensive and too advanced for the (relatively) primitive technology of the Sith, this task fell to Darth Wyyrlok. Wyyrlok and some of his assistants took low-level recruits from their usual duties and trained them in using the Force to subtly alter minds on a massive scale. This allowed small numbers of Sith to influence millions of troopers ever so slightly, encouraging loyalty and boosting morale. As a test, Wyyrlok took thirty of these trainees and two regiments of regular infantry (roughly four thousand men) to a recently discovered world with a considerable technology level. His soldiers should have all died in the first week. They forced a surrender in three days.
As Wyyrlok dedicated himself fully to training the next class of Sith Overseers, Krayt began reading the first reports from his spy cells. Due to the vast scope of operations and the fact that the spies were gathering fairly general information, none of them had been caught. Despite the lack of depth, Krayt and the upper echelons of Sith society were able to learn much about the disposition of the Galaxy. The Empire still ruled the Galaxy, but some of the cells reported unrest among the populace, ranging from angry bartenders to bombings of military facilities. This prompted Krayt to begin training teams dedicated to aiding this rebellion. Weakening the central government could only help him.. Meanwhile, he had other issues.
The fleet of scouts had not been idle after their dismissal from mainstream affairs. They had redeployed elsewhere, finding unknown worlds to add to the holochart, new species to conquer, new ores to mine. Several of these had stumbled across worlds with space-age technology, and a comparison of their finding upon their return to staging areas revealed several similarities, from species to architecture. Several other scouts were reassigned to further investigation of this potential empire and ally. Contact was made not long after, and negotiations of potential alliance against the Empire. Darth Krayt was on his way to oversee said negotiations when it was reported that the entire team of diplomats had been murdered. This sparked a war between the Sith and the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, a war that the Sith won. The Sith Overseers proved instrumental in the early engagements, before transports could deliver reinforcements, as the battle was often weighted in favor of the Imperium (numerically). When Sith reinforcements did arrive, it turned into a slaughter for the Ssi-Ruuk. Their vastly inferior tactics and troopers allowed the Sith to take planet after planet, dropping prefabricated colonies, starfighter bases, and mines as they passed. But before the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium could be totally annihilated, advance scouts reported incursions at the far end of the Imperium. Further investigation revealed that these were in fact warships from the wider Galaxy. Much to the dismay of those governed, Krayt ordered an immediate and total withdrawal from the conquered territories, including garrison forces. He was not yet ready to be discovered.
The war with the Ssi-Ruuk had cost more vessels, vehicles, and lives than it had gained, but it was an enormous morale booster. Those living under the Sith had jumped wholeheartedly into the war, dedicating everything to the effort. This had taken Krayt by surprise; he had expected some mind influence to be necessary before an effort like this would be shown. It also reminded him that if he didn’t start another war, his citizens would lose faith, would become stale. So the next century was spent finding, or, in some cases, creating, enemies to fight while spies monitored the Galaxy.
Darth Krayt finally brought the Sith into the Galaxy after the Second Galactic Civil War, when the GA finally realized that the Empire was stealing territory from other allies. The current leaders of the two factions were too smart to allow this to become a war, but Krayt had other ideas. He dispatched Darth Wyyrlok and a handful of Sith Overseers to turn things in his favor. They were very successful.
Within a year, the Galaxy had once again split apart. Krayt and the Sith controlled the Empire, while the rest of the Galaxy was arrayed against them, led by the Jedi. The first few strikes were devastating for the GA, as defenses were unprepared for the skill and will to fight of the Imperial crews. Under normal conditions, these strikes would not have been enough to win the war for the vastly inferior Empire, but Krayt had dedicated thousands of Overseers to the operation, vastly decreasing the turnaround time for reactivating captured industrial facilities. In fact, the Overseers proved to be the most useful addition to the Empire, at least until Krayt could get his conventional army upgraded to modern standards. Their effect on their men changed the course of battles, and the low Force skills required allowed many to be recruited. An unexpected, but welcome, side effect of the Overseers was that enemy spies often colored their reports or even defected to the Empire, revealing numerous secrets.
Yet as the war went so well, Krayt was not satisfied. He disliked sharing power with Emperor Roan Fel, and dislike even more having to debate internal fleet movements with the Moffs. In return for the aid of his Overseers and the tactical and strategic genius of his general's, Krayt demanded technology. While his home military was powerful numerically and perfect for conquering frontier worlds, it was woefully inadequate for a modern battle. More powerful turbolasers, stronger shields, faster engines and hyperdrives, and more efficient power generators were all in demand. The Empire was more than happy to accommodate the Sith, never suspecting that this could be turned against them. To further allay suspicions, Krayt offered to train a class of Imperial Force-users in various skills. This coincided with the capture of Coruscant. The Galactic Federation of Free Planets, the latest incarnation of a Galactic government, had fallen.
With only a third of the Galaxy not under Imperial control, and a much smaller military than could be expected for such an area, the Galactic Alliance Remnant sued for peace. The Empire accepted, but did not consult Krayt and the Sith first. This forced Krayt’s hand, perhaps prematurely. Krayt had just sent thousands of Overseers to Coruscant to aid in the “reeducation” of the population, and these men were now ordered to seize command from Emperor Fel and the Moffs, who had also just come to Coruscant. In a bloody coup, Sith Overseers were able to combine powers and take control of Fel’s own stormtroopers, killing nearly all of the Moffs. Fel was able to escape, however, due to the sacrifice of the new Imperial Knights, those Krayt’s Sith had been training. While this coup was completely successful, the strain of turning men completely against their beliefs resulted in the mental deterioration and eventual death of nearly eighty percent of the Overseers. While more were available, it was not a viable tactic for the future.
While Sith seized control on Coruscant, Krayt denounced Emperor Fel elsewhere and demanded fealty from all Imperial personnel. While the majority of the Imperial crews swore their allegiance to the Sith, nearly a third remained loyal to Fel. If not for the massive Sith force waiting in the Unknown Regions, it might have been the end of Krayt. As it was, he faced a daunting task ahead of him. The Jedi had once again formed their own faction and were waging a vicious partisan war, the Remnant’s new Supreme Commander Gar Stazi was pushing an end to the peace, and Roan Fel was keen to take back his rightful title. Krayt, however, was not going to sit back and watch his hard work go to waste. He personally led an assault on the Jedi Temple on Ossus, he preempted Stazi with a strike deep into Remnant territory, and Fel was faced with the unfortunate reality of traitors within his ranks when a squad of stormtroopers attempted to assassinate him. But the Galaxy has a way of righting itself. And all empires come to an end.
The Sith-Imperial War
The Sith-Imperial War truly began twenty-five years before the Battle of Yavin, when the son of a Jedi-turned-Tusken Raider witnessed his father’s death at the hands of a Jedi. The teenager flew into a storm of rage and grief, attacking the Judicials around him in desperation, despite the fact that he was unarmed and his wrists were bound. Even in this condition, he was able to knock two of the policemen to the ground and hold a third hostage. The Jedi simply had to wave his hand, however, and pulled away the thoughts of the young Tusken. The boy slumped to the ground, unconscious.
When he awoke, he was aboard a starship bound for the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The Jedi that had taken him captive had sensed Force ability and a sense of determination in the youth, and had decided to train him as a Jedi. At first, the Tusken fought viciously, but eventually decided to bide his time, waiting for the perfect opportunity. The Padawan, named A’Sharad Hett, trained for two years before the Clone Wars erupted and he was pressed into service. During the war, he witnessed the deaths of over half the Padawans he had trained with for years. This experience, followed by Order 66 and the deaths of many times that number of Jedi, had a profound effect on the Knight-in-exile. He lost what little morals the Jedi had given him, and turned to bounty hunting to support himself. He decided to live out the rest of his days as a hired gun, forgetting galactic affairs.
Unfortunately for Hett, the Yuuzhan Vong had other ideas. An advance scouting party came four years before the Battle of Yavin and kidnapped a number of individuals for experimentation to aid the planning of the upcoming invasion. Discovering Hett’s Force ability, they moved him out of the standard laboratories and into an advanced torture chamber run by the fallen Jedi Vergere. During his time here, Hett was implanted with several Yuuzhan Vong yorik coral seedlings, extending his life dramatically. As Vergere discovered the hatred and anger burning within the Force-user, she moved the focus from experimentation to turning Hett to the dark side. She accomplished this, but did too well. After the Yuuzhan Vong doctors replaced his left eye with a synthetic one (organic, not mechanical), Hett ripped off his restraints with concentrated mental fury. The surprised Vong wardens immediately called for Vergere, but were sliced apart as the enraged testee summoned his lightsaber from across the room. He moved onwards through the door, into the armory. Acquiring the set of yorik armor Vergere had intended to test on him and grabbing a second lightsaber made of yet more yorik coral, Hett continued his rampage through the facility.
The implants within A’Sharad Hett’s body allowed him to link directly into his armor, allowing an astonishing amount of agility while still offering serious protection. This was all that saved him when Vergere leapt from behind and brought her own lightsaber down towards his head. He was able to dodge the worst of the blow, and the lightsaber was deflected off his shoulder plate. He struck back with a single vicious blow and was able to nearly kill the unfortunate Fosh. Hett met little resistance from then on as he made his way out of the facility.
After stealing a ship, A’Sharad Hett set off with no idea where he was or how to get back to the Galaxy. However, after only an hour or so of cruising around and testing systems, the recently-turned Jedi felt a nexus of Force power in on area. Setting the hyperdrive (it was a Vong spy ship), he leapt away. As the freighter decanted, he felt a surge of dark energy, nearly overwhelming him. He immediately flew down to the surface, but was surprised when four starfighters rose up and opened fire on him with archaic lasers and primitive missiles. Curious, he decided to surrender rather than destroy the his enemies outright. Escorted down to the surface by the fighters, he was met with a battalion of armored troopers and two beings clad in flowing robes, one Human and one Chagrian. Sensing the hostility in the atmosphere, Hett was initially very cautious. But he also sensed Force power in these two individuals, and they sensed it in him.After giving him a thorough screening, the two Grandmasters of the Sith allowed Hett to become a learner in their organization. The Dark Jedi had found the Lost Tribe of the Sith.
In a period of only six years, Hett rose to the top of the Sith hierarchy, short of joining the triumvirate of Grandmasters. Gathering influence, Hett was able to overthrow this trio and make himself sole Lord of the Sith. Overturning the previous system, he instituted his own Rule of One. There would be one true Sith Lord atop a pyramid of lesser Sith. Taking the name Darth Krayt for the fearsome predator of his homeworld, the Lord of the Sith busied himself with the building of an empire. Anxious to know where this planet was in the Galaxy, but just as anxious to remain hidden, he deployed hundreds of one-man scout vessels to find nearby planets. He then moved to issues within the government itself, first clearing out the corrupt, weak, and stubborn politicians, followed by completely rewriting the organizational system to conform with his ideas. This entailed the almost total removal of a civilian government, with high-ranking Sith being expected to both write laws and personally lead armies into battle. With this out of the way, he set about selecting his second-in-command. After much consideration, he decided on the Chagrian Darth Wyyrlok, a skilled bureaucrat and a master manipulator.
After four months of cataloging systems and scanning worlds, the scouts returned to relay the data to Darth Krayt. Most of the discovered worlds were alien to Krayt, but six of them matched up with the holochart aboard the stolen Vong undercover freighter. Now knowing where he was, he ordered the small shipyards to reverse-engineer the small freighter and produce massive amounts of them. He also ordered colony ships deployed to the ninety-seven inhabited worlds the scouts had uncovered, charged with subjugating whatever sentient species may be present and establishing a self-sustaining manufacturing capability. All that was left was to find potential allies in the wider Galaxy.
Without an external enemy for centuries, the Sith military focus had moved from large numbers of frontline infantry to small commando teams capable of assassinating political rivals. While he wanted the former, Darth Krayt had always been trained never to waste, and made do with what he had. Cross-training political assassins and industrial spies as field agents and PGO-oriented commandos as their backup, Krayt was able to forge a powerful central intelligence network where none had previously existed. These new spies were loaded aboard the brand-new freighters and ordered to disperse throughout the Galaxy and set up individual cells, gathering intelligence and fomenting rebellion. Meanwhile, Wyyrlok was busy giving stirring speeches encouraging the population to join the military forces, whether in a support or combat role. This led to massive buildup of the military, enabled by the new factories built on the colony worlds. Now the personal guards of various Sith were the minority, with Krayt controlling the vast majority of the military might. Still, even this force was vastly inferior to the militaries of the rest of the Galaxy.
As Lord Krayt’s power grew, so too did his impatience and bloodlust. The only outlet for this were his own worlds and their unfortunate inhabitants. He waited for reports from spies, keeping his armies occupied by conquering primitive worlds as fast as his scouts found them. When one recently-conquered species rebelled, he ordered the planet depopulated and strip-mined to it’s core. When another planet protested, he threatened the same treatment. However, before the president-turned-governor could deliver a response, his mansion was mobbed by hordes of his own citizens. Wyyrlok was able to turn it into a huge propaganda victory, recruiting millions more troopers for their cause.
With the military growing at this prodigious rate, Krayt needed a cost-effective way to guarantee the loyalty of his men. Because cyborging was too expensive and too advanced for the (relatively) primitive technology of the Sith, this task fell to Darth Wyyrlok. Wyyrlok and some of his assistants took low-level recruits from their usual duties and trained them in using the Force to subtly alter minds on a massive scale. This allowed small numbers of Sith to influence millions of troopers ever so slightly, encouraging loyalty and boosting morale. As a test, Wyyrlok took thirty of these trainees and two regiments of regular infantry (roughly four thousand men) to a recently discovered world with a considerable technology level. His soldiers should have all died in the first week. They forced a surrender in three days.
As Wyyrlok dedicated himself fully to training the next class of Sith Overseers, Krayt began reading the first reports from his spy cells. Due to the vast scope of operations and the fact that the spies were gathering fairly general information, none of them had been caught. Despite the lack of depth, Krayt and the upper echelons of Sith society were able to learn much about the disposition of the Galaxy. The Empire still ruled the Galaxy, but some of the cells reported unrest among the populace, ranging from angry bartenders to bombings of military facilities. This prompted Krayt to begin training teams dedicated to aiding this rebellion. Weakening the central government could only help him.. Meanwhile, he had other issues.
The fleet of scouts had not been idle after their dismissal from mainstream affairs. They had redeployed elsewhere, finding unknown worlds to add to the holochart, new species to conquer, new ores to mine. Several of these had stumbled across worlds with space-age technology, and a comparison of their finding upon their return to staging areas revealed several similarities, from species to architecture. Several other scouts were reassigned to further investigation of this potential empire and ally. Contact was made not long after, and negotiations of potential alliance against the Empire. Darth Krayt was on his way to oversee said negotiations when it was reported that the entire team of diplomats had been murdered. This sparked a war between the Sith and the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, a war that the Sith won. The Sith Overseers proved instrumental in the early engagements, before transports could deliver reinforcements, as the battle was often weighted in favor of the Imperium (numerically). When Sith reinforcements did arrive, it turned into a slaughter for the Ssi-Ruuk. Their vastly inferior tactics and troopers allowed the Sith to take planet after planet, dropping prefabricated colonies, starfighter bases, and mines as they passed. But before the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium could be totally annihilated, advance scouts reported incursions at the far end of the Imperium. Further investigation revealed that these were in fact warships from the wider Galaxy. Much to the dismay of those governed, Krayt ordered an immediate and total withdrawal from the conquered territories, including garrison forces. He was not yet ready to be discovered.
The war with the Ssi-Ruuk had cost more vessels, vehicles, and lives than it had gained, but it was an enormous morale booster. Those living under the Sith had jumped wholeheartedly into the war, dedicating everything to the effort. This had taken Krayt by surprise; he had expected some mind influence to be necessary before an effort like this would be shown. It also reminded him that if he didn’t start another war, his citizens would lose faith, would become stale. So the next century was spent finding, or, in some cases, creating, enemies to fight while spies monitored the Galaxy.
Darth Krayt finally brought the Sith into the Galaxy after the Second Galactic Civil War, when the GA finally realized that the Empire was stealing territory from other allies. The current leaders of the two factions were too smart to allow this to become a war, but Krayt had other ideas. He dispatched Darth Wyyrlok and a handful of Sith Overseers to turn things in his favor. They were very successful.
Within a year, the Galaxy had once again split apart. Krayt and the Sith controlled the Empire, while the rest of the Galaxy was arrayed against them, led by the Jedi. The first few strikes were devastating for the GA, as defenses were unprepared for the skill and will to fight of the Imperial crews. Under normal conditions, these strikes would not have been enough to win the war for the vastly inferior Empire, but Krayt had dedicated thousands of Overseers to the operation, vastly decreasing the turnaround time for reactivating captured industrial facilities. In fact, the Overseers proved to be the most useful addition to the Empire, at least until Krayt could get his conventional army upgraded to modern standards. Their effect on their men changed the course of battles, and the low Force skills required allowed many to be recruited. An unexpected, but welcome, side effect of the Overseers was that enemy spies often colored their reports or even defected to the Empire, revealing numerous secrets.
Yet as the war went so well, Krayt was not satisfied. He disliked sharing power with Emperor Roan Fel, and dislike even more having to debate internal fleet movements with the Moffs. In return for the aid of his Overseers and the tactical and strategic genius of his general's, Krayt demanded technology. While his home military was powerful numerically and perfect for conquering frontier worlds, it was woefully inadequate for a modern battle. More powerful turbolasers, stronger shields, faster engines and hyperdrives, and more efficient power generators were all in demand. The Empire was more than happy to accommodate the Sith, never suspecting that this could be turned against them. To further allay suspicions, Krayt offered to train a class of Imperial Force-users in various skills. This coincided with the capture of Coruscant. The Galactic Federation of Free Planets, the latest incarnation of a Galactic government, had fallen.
With only a third of the Galaxy not under Imperial control, and a much smaller military than could be expected for such an area, the Galactic Alliance Remnant sued for peace. The Empire accepted, but did not consult Krayt and the Sith first. This forced Krayt’s hand, perhaps prematurely. Krayt had just sent thousands of Overseers to Coruscant to aid in the “reeducation” of the population, and these men were now ordered to seize command from Emperor Fel and the Moffs, who had also just come to Coruscant. In a bloody coup, Sith Overseers were able to combine powers and take control of Fel’s own stormtroopers, killing nearly all of the Moffs. Fel was able to escape, however, due to the sacrifice of the new Imperial Knights, those Krayt’s Sith had been training. While this coup was completely successful, the strain of turning men completely against their beliefs resulted in the mental deterioration and eventual death of nearly eighty percent of the Overseers. While more were available, it was not a viable tactic for the future.
While Sith seized control on Coruscant, Krayt denounced Emperor Fel elsewhere and demanded fealty from all Imperial personnel. While the majority of the Imperial crews swore their allegiance to the Sith, nearly a third remained loyal to Fel. If not for the massive Sith force waiting in the Unknown Regions, it might have been the end of Krayt. As it was, he faced a daunting task ahead of him. The Jedi had once again formed their own faction and were waging a vicious partisan war, the Remnant’s new Supreme Commander Gar Stazi was pushing an end to the peace, and Roan Fel was keen to take back his rightful title. Krayt, however, was not going to sit back and watch his hard work go to waste. He personally led an assault on the Jedi Temple on Ossus, he preempted Stazi with a strike deep into Remnant territory, and Fel was faced with the unfortunate reality of traitors within his ranks when a squad of stormtroopers attempted to assassinate him. But the Galaxy has a way of righting itself. And all empires come to an end.
If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
Re: A History of Star Wars
This doesn't belong in User Fiction. OFF to SCI-FI
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
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Elheru Aran
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 13073
- Joined: 2004-03-04 01:15am
- Location: Georgia
Re: A History of Star Wars
Just felt someone here might find some enjoyment. Educating the masses, one post at a time.
If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
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Elheru Aran
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 13073
- Joined: 2004-03-04 01:15am
- Location: Georgia
Re: A History of Star Wars
The thing is... we *already* have histories of Star Wars. Why go to the effort of trying to create a new one? Is there some point about the old histories that don't appeal to you? Are you trying to reconcile stuff like TOR, TCW etc with the movies? What?
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
Re: A History of Star Wars
I just went and collected all of it in one place, eliminating nonsense and inconsistency as I went. Granted, I kept the Dark Empire, but at least I got rid of the whole Balmorra thing. And I plan on adding to this, perhaps rewriting some of the pre-Yavin stuff to make more sense, adding to the EU, that sort of thing.
If I do say so myself, this is much better written (and less plagiarized) than Wookieepedia, but it's still free.Elheru Aran wrote: Is there some point about the old histories that don't appeal to you?
If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
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Elheru Aran
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 13073
- Joined: 2004-03-04 01:15am
- Location: Georgia
Re: A History of Star Wars
I was actually thinking more along the lines of the DK 'Ultimate History of Star Wars', which I'm pretty sure is actually still canon.
It's a strange world. Let's keep it that way.
Re: A History of Star Wars
This version rewrites the Second Galactic Civil War and the history of the One Sith.
If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
--Mace
The Old Testament has as much validity for the foundation of a religion as the pattern my recent case of insect bites formed on my ass.
--Solauren
I always get nervous when I hear the word Christian.
--Mountain
Brought to you by Carl's Jr.