Battle of Malachor V

"I still remember that final battle in the skies above Malachor V. The two fleets filling the space around it, outshining the stars..."

- Canderous Ordo

The Battle of Malachor V was the final cataclysmic battle of the Mandalorian Wars. It transformed the planet Malachor V into a "graveyard world" after Revan sacrificed a significant portion of his own forces to obliterate the Mandalorian Neo-Crusaders.

The Battle
"It was not your ships or your men or your vaunted 'fight for freedom' that won this, the final battle of the war. It was by the actions of one person–the Jedi Revan–that you prevailed. Revan's strategies and tactics defeated the best of us. Even Mandalore himself was taken aback by the ferocity, the tenacity, and the subtlety of Revan's plans. Revan fought us to a standstill and then began pushing us back. We didn't really have a chance."

- Canderous Ordo

In the year 3,960 BBY, Revan forced a final confrontation with the Mandalorians above Malachor V. He deployed a massive Republic fleet to the planet consisting mostly of those whose loyalties to himself remained in doubt. In utter secrecy, he had prepared a superweapon, known as the "Mass Shadow Generator," which had been designed by the Zabrak engineer Bao-Dur. The weapon was the centerpiece of a trap with which he hoped to bring about a conclusive end to the destructive conflict. Commanding the fleet and overseeing the device's use was a capable and jaded Jedi General (later known as the Jedi Exile) who had taken part in the recent bloody campaign on Dxun. Revan lured the Mandalorians to the cursed planet and a massive fleet battle ensued in orbit.

Revan himself was delayed outside the system by a Mandalorian scouting party. He eventually arrived at Malachor and entered the fray, but he was late and the Mandalorian Fleet was far from defeated. In that moment, he drew upon the Sith energies haunting the surface below to augment his power. Soon thereafter, Revan drew Mandalore into a direct confrontation and the fallen Jedi struck the great Mandalorian leader down in single combat. Meanwhile, more and more of the Jedi fighting in orbit found themselves unable to resist the draw of the power emanating from the planet below and were thus drawn to the dark side. With renewed vigor, Revan's forces pressed the attack. They soon achieved a stalemate and then slowly began to push the Mandalorian fleet back towards Malachor V.

Finally, as the fighting grew intense, Revan's Jedi general observed that the Mandalorians had taken the bait and that her trap was set to spring. With a nod of her head, she commanded Bao-Dur to activate the secret weapon. Moments later, she watched in horror as a significant portion of both fleets were suddenly drawn from orbit into a vast gravity vortex that was powerful enough to crush the countless ships into the planet's crust and fracture the world to its very core.

During the event, Malachor V was turned into a broken cluster of planetoids, only held together by the power of Bao-Dur's Mass Shadow Generator. Orbiting the broken remains of the planet was the wreckage of countless Mandalorian and Republic warships. All that remained on the surface of the planet was a desolate graveyard echoing with the deaths of thousands of Jedi, Republic soldiers, and Mandalorians. It was littered with destroyed vessels and its only surviving inhabitants were vicious storm beasts.

Few ships from either fleet survived the battle of Malachor V unscathed, but the Mandalorians sustained the worst damage and the highest casualties. The few, shell-shocked survivors rapidly transmitted their unconditional surrender.

Aftermath
After slaying Mandalore the Ultimate and winning the war with a sweeping victory at Malachor V, Revan and Malak were hailed as heroes and saviors of the Republic. Soon after the battle, they led the remainder of their forces into the Unknown Regions under the pretense of tracking down the remaining remnants of the Mandalorian fleet, but they did not return and sent no word of their whereabouts. In time, the Republic feared them lost in some tragic disaster. In reality, they were amassing their forces to prepare for a conquest of the Republic. It was Malachor that marked Revan's final descent into darkness, a journey that would at last be completed when the former Jedi hero declared himself Dark Lord of the Sith.

The Jedi general who had brought the war to its cataclysmic conclusion proved incapable of withstanding the psychic backlash of the destructive energies that she had unleashed. The concentrated deaths of so many Jedi, Mandalorians, and Republic soldiers all at once created a immense Wound in the Force. The only way for her to endure it was to unconsciously deafen herself to the Force. Thereafter she was deafened to its call; incapable of sensing it through the interference caused by the echoes of the suffering that she had witnessed.

Galactic Republic/Jedi Crusaders

 * Bao-Dur
 * Cede
 * Jedi Exile
 * Arren Kae
 * Saul Karath
 * Malak
 * Carth Onasi
 * Atton Rand
 * Revan
 * Xamar
 * Yusanis

Mandalorian

 * Bralor
 * Ergeron
 * Cassus Fett
 * Mandalore the Ultimate
 * Canderous Ordo

Appearances

 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 5: Commencement, Part 5
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords