Battle of Korriban

"This&hellip;is only the beginning.''" "''Yes. After a thousand years, Korriban is ours again. Welcome home."

- A Sith Master and Darth Malgus

In the early days of the Great Galactic War between the reconstituted Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, the Outer Rim planet of Korriban fell back into the control of the Sith following a short and fierce battle. Korriban was the ancestral homeworld of the Sith Empire, and had been a holy site and training ground for the Sith religion since its inception. Over one thousand years after the Sith's defeat in the Great Hyperspace War and their exile from Korriban, they returned to known space in the year 3,681 BBY and launched a brutal campaign for dominance in the galaxy's Tingel Arm region. The attack prompted the Republic, which was severely under-prepared for such an assault, to rally its naval forces and send them into the Tingel Arm theater. The effort pulled defense vessels away from other planets, including Korriban, which was left without any substantive military defenses. A vigil over the world was maintained by the Jedi Order alongside a small number of Republic troopers, but this proved to be ineffective against the full force of a Sith naval fleet.

With an armada of over thirty battlecruisers, the Empire invaded the Horuset system and engaged the small number of Jedi and Republic defenders in orbit over Korriban. Aboard a Republic space station, Jedi Padawan Satele Shan, her Master, and several Republic troopers fought in vain against boarding Sith troopers and Imperial battle droids. Shan and one of the troopers escaped the station with the assistance of an incarcerated smuggler, but her Master stayed behind to battle a Sith Inquisitor and his apprentice. The Zabrak Jedi was killed and the remaining Republic and Jedi forces were annihilated. After thousands of years of exile from their ancestral homeworld, the Empire retook Korriban and reestablished it as a training ground wherein students would study to continue the war with the Republic. The recapture was so efficiently performed that an extended period of time passed before the Jedi Council learned of Korriban's loss.

Prelude
"Korriban, ancient birthplace of the Sith. We believed ruins were all that remained of their evil empire."

- Satele Shan

The Outer Rim world of Korriban served as the homeworld of the Sith species, as well as the Sith religious order and its Empire, prior to the Great Hyperspace War of 5,000 BBY. Following the Empire's defeat in the war, the surviving Sith abandoned Korriban and fled into the Unknown Regions to build a revitalized Empire. During the Jedi Civil War, Darth Revan's Sith Empire reoccupied the world and used it as a training ground for new Sith recruits. After the defeat of Revan's empire, the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order seized Korriban and maintained a protective force around the planet. Centuries later, the rebuilt Empire from the Great Hyperspace War returned and initiated the Great Galactic War against the Republic in 3,681 BBY. Early in the conflict, the Sith Empire launched a widespread campaign to secure the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories. Their first concentrated effort was in the Tingel Arm, where the Sith Emperor had already installed puppet governments on a number of worlds formerly allied with the Galactic Republic.

In response to the Empire's offensive, the Republic Navy organized a fleet to retake the Tingel Arm. Ignorant of the Empire's puppet governments, the Republic haphazardly charged into the region and found itself deep in enemy territory. Republic military leaders, caught off-guard by the audacity and aggressiveness of the Sith advance, called upon every available ship in the navy to aid the fleet in the Tingel Arm, thereby leaving other strategically important regions in the galaxy undefended. Korriban stood among the worlds that lost nearly all of its military defenses, and the Sith, eager to retake their home planet, decided that the holy world was a top priority in their campaign to seize the galaxy.

Although the Republic Navy had abandoned the world, the Jedi Order chose to maintain a small but dedicated vigil over the planet, in an effort to guard its dark secrets. Two Jedi&mdash;the Human Padawan Satele Shan and her Master&mdash;participated in the protection of Korriban from a space station in orbit above the planet. The two were joined there by a number of troopers from the Republic's Special Forces division, who also assisted the Jedi as a police force for the region. In the year of the Empire's return to the known galaxy, Shan, her Master, and two Republic troopers arrested a smuggler captain who was caught illegally transporting Sith artifacts. As the four of them escorted the smuggler through the space station, Shan sensed a considerable dark ripple in the Force.

The Sith attack
At that moment, an Imperial armada of over thirty Sith battlecruisers jumped out of hyperspace into the Horuset system, near Korriban and its space station. The war ships immediately dispatched numerous wings of interceptor starfighters that began strafing runs on the Republic's station. The first few volleys inflicted heavy damage on the installation, causing reactive explosions throughout the station and setting fire to several internal areas of the structure. Shortly afterward, boarding parties consisting of Sith troopers and assault droids landed on the station and engaged Republic personnel on board.

The Zabrak Jedi Master understood the gravity of the situation and decided that the defender's first priority must be to warn the Republic of the Empire's new offensive. The corporal agreed, but informed the Jedi that their shuttles would have no chance of outrunning the Empire's much more agile interceptors. Having overheard the conversation, the detained smuggler offered his XS stock light freighter as a means of escape, given that it was the fastest ship in the Esstran sector. The Jedi agreed, and together with the smuggler captain and troopers, rushed to the station's hangar in hopes of reaching the vessel and informing Republic authorities of the situation. Upon reaching the hall that led into the hangar, Shan and her Master rushed ahead to clear the landing zone of Sith troopers while the Republic soldiers brought up the rear, holding off pursuing Imperial forces. While they the two soldiers were distracted, a Sith trooper launched a missile at them, killing one and temporarily incapacitating the corporal. Witnessing the incident, the captain drew his blaster pistols and quickly killed four of the approaching Sith troops. Having regained his faculties, the Republic corporal armed himself with a blaster chaingun and joined the smuggler to destroy two advancing assault droids.

As Imperial forces continued to make their way through the station, the smuggler and corporal retreated into the hangar, sealing the entry behind them to prevent any further intrusion from enemy troopers. Shan and her Master simultaneously finished eradicating the troopers who had already taken position in the hangar, allowing the four of them to regroup and examine the smuggler's freighter, which had been slightly damaged by the violent rocking of the station caused by the attacking vessels. The captain lamented the state of his craft, but reassured the Jedi Master that his freighter was resilient enough to take flight once more and flee the station. However, before any of the Republic fighters could board the vessel, a Fury-class Imperial interceptor landed in the hangar and disgorged two Sith: a Master Inquisitor Sith Pureblood and his Human apprentice, Malgus. Their primary goal was to prevent the Jedi and others from leaving the station to warn the Republic of the attack; the Jedi were determined to prevent the Sith from interfering in their escape. Shan, Malgus, the Zabrak, and the Pureblood engaged one another in a four-way duel while the corporal and smuggler rushed onto the freighter to prepare for lift-off with the captain's astromech droid, T7-O1.

On the landing bay floor, the Jedi and Sith fought fiercely, with Malgus and Shan engaging one another while their Masters dueled a short distance away. During the melee, Malgus was able to outmaneuver Shan, ultimately disarming her before delivering a powerful knee thrust into her abdomen. While the young Jedi was doubled-over from the impact, the Sith apprentice moved to finish her with an over-handed lightsaber swing. Just as his weapon was descending to kill Shan, her Master, who was himself engaged in combat with the Inquisitor, broke from his own struggle long enough to throw his lightsaber in Malgus's direction. Malgus, who did not see the incoming blade, was caught off-guard by the impact of the Zabrak's lightsaber against his own. Shan used the borrowed time to kick the Sith away from her and reclaim her lost weapon. She proceeded to make an attempt at attacking the Sith Master, but the elder Sith swatted her away with a blast of Force lightning. In response, Shan's Master Force-pushed the Sith Pureblood across the hangar so that he might regroup with his Padawan.

Meanwhile, the smuggler captain managed to bring his vessel online and lift off from the hangar bay. The Republic corporal descended the ship's boarding ramp in an attempt to collect the two Jedi, but was instead met by the two Sith, who were trying to halt the starship with waves of Force lightning. The corporal responded with an ineffective shot from a missile launcher before turning his attention back to the Jedi. While he called for them to join him, Shan and her Master conferred; the Zabrak informed his apprentice that their paths were about to deviate, and that she must flee on the freighter while he remained behind to hold off the Sith. The young Jedi complied and furnished her Master with her own double-bladed lightsaber before leaping into the departing smuggler ship. While the freighter narrowly escaped the hangar, the Jedi Master re-engaged the two Sith. Wielding both his lightsaber and that of his apprentice, he drove the two back while expertly defending himself against their Force attacks.

After slashing the Sith Master across the face, the Jedi deactivated one end of Shan's weapon and continued to perform agile flurries of strikes. The Zabrak was eventually able to maneuver himself into a position that allowed for him activated Shan's weapon through the Sith's abdomen, thereby incapacitating him for the remainder of the battle.

With Republic naval vessels on duty in the Tingel Arm, the planet was guarded by only a small contingent of Jedi security ships. Taking advantage of the Republic's distraction in the Tingel Arm campaign, Imperial forces entered orbit of Korriban and engaged the security ships. Fury-class Imperial warships quickly destroyed the Jedi craft, clearing the path toward the planet. On the surface, the Sith once again walked in the Valley of the Dark Lords and reclaimed their ancestral homeworld.

Aftermath
"Retaking the holy planet of Korriban as a top priority, the Sith re-established the glorious Sith Academy and began training a new generation of Sith to inherit their dark legacy and seize their birthright as the true rulers of the galaxy."

- A HoloNet dossier on Korriban

Because the Imperial forces had completely annihilated the Jedi defenders, the Jedi Council had no knowledge of the Sith's return to Korriban. Over the course of the war, the Empire turned the dry and arid world into a bastion for the training and education of Sith, reestablishing the Korriban Sith Academy and dedicating it to the cultivation of a new generation of devotees who could continue the fight against the Republic.

Following the conclusion of the Great Galactic War with the Treaty of Coruscant, the Kel Dor Jedi Master Gnost-Dural made a holorecord documenting the opening battles of the conflict. In the record, the Jedi Master included the fall of Korriban and the events surrounding it.

Behind the scenes
The fall of Korriban was first introduced in Onslaught of the Sith Empire, the sixth installment of the Galactic Timeline. The timeline is a series of web videos presented as an historical accounting of the events leading up to the upcoming LucasArts video game, Star Wars: The Old Republic. The installments are available on the game's official site and are narrated by the Kel Dor Jedi Master Gnost-Dural, who is portrayed by actor Lance Henriksen.

Appearances

 * Timeline 6: Onslaught of the Sith Empire
 * Return

Notes and references
Schlacht um Korriban (3681 VSY) Batalla de Korriban (Gran Guerra Galáctica) Bitwa o Korriban (3681 BBY)