Battle of Khoonda

The First Battle of Dantooine, also known as the Battle of Khoonda, was one of the local conflicts that followed the catastrophic Jedi Civil War in 3,951 BBY and was a major event of the First Jedi Purge.

The main target was Khoonda, the local government established after the destruction of the Jedi Enclave, and particularly Administrator Terena Adare&mdash;the only person on Dantooine capable of uniting the surviving farmers. Territories outside the Khoonda Plains were inhabited by salvagers, who sought for Jedi relics in the ruined Enclave, and mercenaries of the Exchange led by Azkul, who participated in the Jedi Civil War on Darth Malak's side.

Preparations
The Exchange hoped to use Dantooine - almost severed from the Galactic Republic when it had lost its main source of interest, the Jedi Enclave&mdash;as their base of smuggling operations. Administrator Adare and her advisor, Jedi Master Vrook Lamar&mdash;one of the former members of the Dantooine Jedi Council&mdash;were seen as obstacles on the Exchange's way. The latter one seemed to be removed when Master Vrook was caught by the mercenaries in the Enclave sublevel and brought to a prison cell in the Crystal Cave. Azkul then intended to transport him to Nar Shaddaa to receive G0-T0's bounty for live Jedi.

What was unknown for Azkul was that another Jedi arrived on Dantooine, seeking Master Vrook&mdash;the Jedi Exile. Soon, the Exile entered the Crystal Cave and freed Vrook, but the Master was not grateful. He understood that with this event tensions between Khoonda and the mercenaries would grow into a full-scale war conflict.

Vrook ran to Khoonda to warn the officials about the upcoming threat. Azkul was confident that his attack would succeed, knowing Khoonda was almost completely defenseless and he had four times more men. His overconfidence, however, proved to be his undoing. After failing to persuade the Exile to aid him in his coup d'état, he ordered some of his men to kill her, an attempt which cost all the would-be assasins their lives.

Administrator Adare and Zherron, the militia commander, charged the Jedi Exile with bolstering Khoonda's defenses. While the mercenaries were preparing for their assault, the Exile persuaded several civilians to join the militia, planted more mines in the surrounding fields, and repaired damaged gun turrets, medical and combat droids. Ironically enough, the Exile was repeating his own experience from the Mandalorian Wars, when he had turned a disorganized mess into a powerful army.

The battle
When all preparations were ready, Master Vrook left, hoping to slow down the mercenaries' progress on their way to Khoonda, while the Exile was trying to strengthen the militia's will to fight. Vrook killed 4 to 9 mercenaries in his delaying action. The inital battle was a mess for Azkul's mercenaries and the Exchange. Believing intelligence that was true up until recently, Azkul led a straight charge over the two bridges, believing them to be only lightly mined. This cost him anywhere from 3 to 5 men due to the heavy sapping done, most of it by the Exile personally. The mercenaries took heavy losses, from 5 to 9 men, just getting to the battlefield thanks to the minefields after the bridges.

His intelligence also told him that the turrents attacked anyone on the battlefield, friend and foe alike, and thus the defenders would not deploy men on the battlefield itself. This proved wrong when he saw militamen standing calmly by the turrents as they killed merc after merc, around 6 to 13. He also believed that the militia were few and cowardly. This idea collapsed when he found out that: 1. The Exile had managed to recruit several civilians and salvagers into the milita on a temporary basis, 2. The Exile had hastily but throughly healed all the militamen in the infirmery, and 3. the inspirational speech had been made not by Zherron, notably a poor inspirational speaker, but by the Jedi Exile, noted for his charisma and oratary prowess not very long ago. Azkul's two columns ran into about seven militia each (or 14 total). The militia were all killed, but not before inflicting 2 to 4 times their number of casualities on the attackers. These were the only militia casualties in the battle.

The intelligence Azkul collected also pointed to the external armory door being lightly locked, and thus allowing his men to loot it for better weapons while at the same time flanking the defenders concentrated around the main entrance. This would not be the case, as the exile jammed the external armory door badly. It would take over a year after the battle to finally reopen it! Still taking casualties from the guns, Azkul tried, failed, and had to go through the defender's main force at the main entrance.

Azkul and his men's sacrifices would not work however, as when Azkul and his men came in, they were severly outnumbered by the milita, civilian voulanteers, and the crew of the Ebon Hawk. Also, the defense droids Azkul believed were inoperable were fully optimized for maximum defense and firepower, and only targeted hostiles (like the turrents, previously they attacked anything and everything). With Vrook's return, the odds would steepen even more, but the worst blow was one he could not have hoped to predict.

Vrook returned near the end of the battle, when Azkul finally breached through Khoonda's outer defenses into the main hall with his right hand man Dopak and his 8 to 10 surviving men, attempting to reach and slay the Administrator. Azkul was suddenly betrayed by Dopak, a mercenary leader who had entered a secret alliance with Zherron. A quick struggle between the mercenaries themselves followed, and Azkul's forces were finally defeated, proved to be no match for the combined efforts and overwhelming numbers and firepower of the militia, the turncoat mercenaries, the droids, and the two Jedi&mdash;Vrook and the Exile.

The aftermath
With Khoonda victorious, the political confrontation on Dantooine was finally over. As the first sign of the beginning age of peace and prosperity, the once Jediophobic civilians collaborated to rebuild the ruined Jedi Enclave, as a tribute to the Jedi who once saved them, as well as a part of their history and heritage.

Behind the scenes
The player, as the Jedi Exile, can trigger an alternate dark side scenario by helping the Exchange mercenaries to take over Khoonda and depose Adare. In this case, the Jedi Enclave is also mysteriously rebuilt, but Darth Traya predicts that in time, Dantooine will become abandoned, with only wild animals and nomads treading over the ruins of the Enclave.

Also in the alternate ending, the Exile confronts and kills Master Vrook.

Appearances

 * ''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords