Stark Hyperspace War/Legends

"We have the Republic by the throat. Without access to bacta and hyperspace lanes, their alliance will collapse. If we stay united, and do whatever needs doing, then we will be the dominant force in the Galaxy."

- Iaco Stark



The Stark Hyperspace War (44 BBY) was a conflict that pitted the Galactic Republic against the Stark Commercial Combine, led by Iaco Stark. It was also called the Stark War, Stark Conflict, and the Stark Hyperspace Conflict.

Prelude
Iaco Stark was a smuggler who was active in the Outer Rim. He stole the goods traded by the large business conglomerates and sold them at a large enough price to maintain a profit, but less than they charged, thus making him into a hero to the people of the Outer Rim. The charismatic and visionary Stark managed to convince large groups of smugglers, pirates, mercenaries, bounty hunters, and assassins to join his already-large fleet, forming a group called the Stark Commercial Combine or Stark Collective. Aided by four co-directors (Boor-Daa, Tam Gozon, Lom Portom and Trodos) and under the watch of the flagship Raptor, Stark forged the Collective into a force strong enough to challenge the military and political authority held by both the Trade Federation and Galactic Republic in the Outer Rim. An alliance between such rogues on the scale of the Combine had never been seen before.

Although it was his preying on their commerce that had brought him to power, Stark did not wish to attack the Trade Federation. Instead, he made a deal with the leader of the Federation, Hask, as well as Adol Bel, the leader of the important bacta-supplying company, Xucphra. Armed with Stark's vision, their combined economic and military might, and the Combine's newly-developed navicomputer virus, Stark was able to sway Hask and Bel to his idea: the toppling of the Republic through the control of its bacta and the neutralizing of its space forces.

The Crisis Begins
Shortly afterwards on the planet Thyferra, a Xucphra-owned alazhi processing plant - vital to the creation of bacta - exploded. As Thyferra was the only source of both the bacta healing gel and the alazhi bacteria used to make it, and Xucphra was the leading bacta producer on Thyferra, bacta suddenly became amazingly scarce. The price of bacta skyrocketed, and then rose again as bacta hoarding proliferated.

The ships of the Stark Collective 'raided' the cargo ships of the Trade Federation, stealing bacta in a ruse known only to themselves and selling the drug to the people of the Outer Rim. The Combine's standing up to the tyrannical Federation and ineffective Republic, and their delivery of the vital bacta at much lower prices, made Stark even more of a hero than he already was to the oppressed people of the Outer Rim.

Deliberation and Deceit
In the Galactic Senate, the Federation's representative, Minister Nute Gunray (who possibly did not know of the alliance between the Federation and the Collective) demanded that the Senate allow the Federation to increase the size of its battle droid military as a means of self-defense. Senator Ranulph Tarkin, leader of the Militarist faction, used the opportunity to demand that the Republic re-create the Republic Army and Navy that had been eliminated in the Ruusan Reformation.

However, the even-headed Senator Finis Valorum suggested that the Republic, Federation, and Combine settle their differences through diplomacy. Stark agreed, as did the Senate, which chose Valorum and Gunray to be the representatives. The meeting was decided to be held on the Combine world of Troiken, although only the delegates knew of the location.

The Senate requested that a team of Jedi accompany its delegation to Troiken. Senator Valorum approached the Jedi Council to inform them of the mission, causing Master Tyvokka – known for his powers of intuition and the ability to sense the future – to suspect the nature of the ‘shortage.’ Valorum insisted that evidence be found before any action be taken against Xucphra or the Federation, and so under the advice of Tyvokka, the Council ordered Jedi Knight Tholme and his Padawan, Quinlan Vos, to go to Thyferra, despite the misgivings Grand Master Yoda had about Vos’ inner darkness. Tyvokka selected his own former Padawan, Plo Koon, as well as Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi to accompany him to Troiken; Adi Gallia also joined after Valorum requested her, the two having a close relationship. Elsewhere on Coruscant, another meeting was taking place. As part of his Militarist campaign, Senator Tarkin had assembled a paramilitary force from the regional defense forces of planets sympathetic to his cause, and had entered into an agreement with Minister Gunray. Despite some reluctance at the end, Gunray eventually provided Tarkin with the location of the conference world, after the senator threatened to release information to the Senate on Gunray’s various clandestine business activities.

Tarkin’s goal in smashing the Combine was to weaken the position of anti-Militarists such as Valorum while highlighting the Militarists as the new dominant force in the Senate. He also planned on having the Senate declare his paramilitary force the new official Republic Army and Navy, and wished to become the leader of the Republic (although whether through using his success to win election as Supreme Chancellor, or his military in staging a coup, is unknown). However, he unknowingly lacked the element of surprise: possibly through their Federation contacts, the Combine’s spies had learned of the existence of Tarkin’s fleet, and his plans for its use.

The Jedi and diplomatic teams were dispatched to Thyferra and Troiken, Tarkin readied his fleet for battle, and Stark planned the destruction of all three.

The Fighting Begins
The Jedi and Republic negotiators arrived on Troiken, meeting with Stark and his Combine co-directors. Once the first meeting began, Gunray activated a homing beacon on his mechno-chair, transmitting the co-ordinates of the meeting to Tarkin’s fleet. Tarkin ordered the ships to enter hyperspace, intending to attack the summit and kill both the Combine’s leadership and the Republic’s entourage.

No sooner had the Combine’s leadership been seated had Tyvokka suggested they skip the formalities and head to what Stark intended to be the real solution. Stark agreed, and his men drew their weapons on the Republic negotiators, using the pretext of Gunray’s treachery. Stark revealed his knowledge of Tarkin’s fleet – as well as the fact that he had piggybacked his navcomputer virus on Gunray’s signal, incapacitating the navigational computers of Tarkin’s ships. Many emerged from hyperspace in areas that would destroy them (such as near stars or black holes), others emerged in realspace safely but far off course, and only fraction – including Tarkin’s flagship Invincible – made it to the Qotile system, where they immediately came under fire from the Combine ships that outnumbered them. Although Valorum protested that he knew nothing of Tarkin’s unsanctioned plans, Stark would hear none of it, insisting that the Republic team surrender. Tyvokka, realizing that his suspicions were true, literally turned the tables on Stark’s men, with the Jedi springing into action. Under Qui-Gon Jinn’s advice, the panicked Gunray ordered his security droids to “kill them all.” The droids opened fire on both Stark’s men and the Jedi, critically wounding Tyvokka and forcing the Jedi to destroy the droids while Stark and his co-directors escaped. The Jedi and their charges quickly made their way back to their Consular cruiser while they still could (Gunray’s transport having been destroyed just before their escape) retreating to Mount Avos. Tyvokka died en route, ordering Adi Gallia to protect Valorum to ensure a peaceful solution, Koon to rally Tarkin’s troops lest the Senate surrender (as well as to join the Jedi Council as Tyvokka had hoped), and Jinn to seek a way to override the computer virus. En route, Plo Koon used his telepathic abilities to scare off the Stark fighter following them. Upon arrival at Avos, their damaged Consular exploded.

Overhead, less than a fourth of Tarkin’s fleet remained. After the Invincible received critical damage and he received a message from Valorum informing of their retreat location, Tarkin ordered his crews to abandon their ships and aim their escape pods for Mount Avos. The fighting ships of Tarkin’s fleet surrounded the troop carriers while their crews left, before being evacuated themselves. The Invincible was destroyed just after Tarkin and his staff evacuated, the burning hulk impacting near Avos, as the Jedi and soldiers began to regroup inside the mountain’s abandoned spice mines.

Interlude on Thyferra
As the ill-fated summit on Troiken began, Tholme and Quinlan Vos arrived on Thyferra, scouting the site of the Xucphra Plant explosion and encountering security droids programmed to kill any interlopers. Destroying the droids, the two encountered a secret meeting between Xucphra’s Bel and the Federation’s Hask, learning of the secret deal between them and Stark that had caused the bacta shortage and war in the first place. Evading hunter/killer droids and a sewer’s tunnel grinder, Tholme and Vos made their way onto a Federation bacta freighter. The ship was ‘seized’ by the Combine and rerouted to Troiken where, in an attempt to deny such an advantage to their enemy, the Jedi caused the freighter to explode.

The War Continues
Following the regrouping inside Mount Avos, the Combine began bombarding the mountain with artillery fire. Inside the cave, a survey by Jace Dallin, Tarkin’s aide and second-in-command revealed that while the cave had plenty of water, the soldiers only had ten days worth of food, limited medical supplies, and no bacta. Tarkin and Gunray opted for surrender, while Valorum and Koon opted to continue resistance.

Koon could gain access to Stark’s mind with his telepathy; at the moment the Combine’s co-directors were in meeting, all unhappy with the outcome of the first battle. Stark assured them that the situation, while not what they had anticipated, was not bad: Tarkin’s forces were trapped in Mount Avos, the Republic still had no bacta, and by now the navicomputer virus had spread throughout many of the Republic’s ships, crippling interstellar commerce and transport. Anticipating a swift surrender of both Tarkin’s force and the Senate, Stark managed to convince his lieutenants to continue with the plan, and prepared for a frontal assault on the mountain. Koon heard this, and armed with this knowledge the Republic force was able to put up a stiff resistance. After Tarkin’s troops were saved at the last minute by the Jedi, Stark changed tactics, deciding to stop attacking and maintain a siege, starving the Republic soldiers out. Koon used his telepathy to learn of this strategy while tending to the wounded soldiers, an action that helped convince many (all Humans chosen by Tarkin due to his anti-alien prejudices) that there was no difference between aliens and Humans. It was decided that Gallia and the negotiators’ Judicial Forces pilot would take Valorum and Gunray back to Coruscant to convince the Senate not to surrender; Tarkin was offered the chance to go but refused, viewing it as an attempt by Koon to steal his command.

As Dallin launched an diversionary attack, the pilot, Gallia, the senators, and Jinn and Kenobi left Mount Avos through a side tunnel, heading towards the Combine headquarters on a captured speeder. Reaching the spaceport just as Tholme and Vos destroyed the captured bacta freighter, the team returning to Coruscant stole one of the Combine’s spacecraft and took off, while the four remaining Jedi met up and returned to Avos. There, Vos and Kenobi began a friendship that would last years as they encountered and sealed off a cavern containing thousands of challat eaters, carnivorous insects that would eat sentients alive. At the same time a native Xexto named Billibango joined the Republic force, offering vital information about the mountain and its mines.

Meanwhile, after arriving around Coruscant, a booby-trap activated in the Stark shuttle, killing the Judicial pilot and blowing up the ship, the remaining three making it to off in escape pods just in time. Rescued by Coruscant Security, Gallia briefed the Jedi Council while Valorum addressed the Senate. Although he single-handed convinced the Senate not to surrender to Stark, it refused to send any aid to Troiken; the replacing of trade ships’ navicomputers took priority, and Tarkin’s fleet had been an unsanctioned vigilante force.

Combine agents on Coruscant reported this to Troiken, where a second assault on Mount Avos had been repulsed by Tarkin’s men. Koon was able to learn of the Senate’s decision through his link to Stark’s mind. Tarkin again wished to surrender, but Koon had another idea. Joining with the powers of the other Jedi, he was able to reach his niece, Sha Koon, a Jedi on Coruscant. Through her, the Jedi Council was able to establish a two-way communication with the Jedi on Troiken, who filled them in on the situation.

Koon and Oppo Rancisis developed a plan. Koon had entered Stark’s mind and informed him of the unenviable situation he was in, and offered him amnesty in return for cooperation in ending the war. Stark agreed. It was decided that a Jedi strike force would be sent to Troiken; Jinn and Tholme would acquire the patch to the navicomputer virus and broadcast it to the Jedi’s ships. As the Senate would not offer the use of any Judicial Forces ships, Gallia and Mace Windu approached Nute Gunray. Through a combination of pointing out that it was in the best interests of the Federation to destroy the pirate Collective, and threats to reveal their role in fomenting the bacta crisis unless they complied, Gunray managed to arrange for the Jedis' use of a large Trade Federation fleet. The stage for the end of the Stark Hyperspace War was set.

The Fighting Ends
Stark’s co-directors were unwilling to continue to tolerate what they saw as his bumbling leadership, and were on the verge of killing him until he told them that he had an ally on the inside, neglecting to point out the nature of that alliance.

Meanwhile, the Trade Federation had given the Jedi the use of a fleet of light freighters and C-9979 landing craft. Oppo Rancisis was on the bridge of the command ship where his use of Battle Meditation would be most effective, while Saesee Tiin prepared to command the two Jedi fighter groups, Red and Blue Squadrons. Windu, Gallia, and fellow Master Eeth Koth also accompanied the force. Although outnumbered by the Combine fleet, they trusted that their better training, resolve, and use of the Force would carry the battle.

On Troiken, Tholme and Vos infiltrated the Combine’s command ship, Raptor, in preparation for broadcasting the patch, while Jinn and Kenobi infiltrated the Combine’s headquarters to acquire it. They encountered trouble, as the protocol droid in charge of the patch required a password to activate. The password was supplied by Stark, who arrived with his co-directors – who he killed in front of the Jedi. Stark supplied the password and then helped the two Jedi pacify the command center. Overhead, Tholme and Vos transmitted the patch to the Trade Federation fleet, with Vos additionally setting the shield generators of the Raptor to lower when ordered to raise. The Jedi then fought their way off the ship on one of its fighters as the Jedi force arrived in the Qotile system. At Mount Avos, the Republic force retreated out a back entrance while the Combine forces swarmed in from the front. Koon planned to seal both entrances once the Republic soldiers had evacuated, thus trapping the Combine soldiers harmlessly inside the mine. The plan failed however when, determined to kill off both the Jedi who had stolen his glory and the enemy he had been unable to vanquish, Tarkin stole the last detonator charge and used it to open the challat eater cave, killing himself in the blast. Koon managed to escape just in time, using the Force to seal the mine, unfortunately trapping the majority of the Combine soldiers inside the insect-infested mine, where they were eaten alive. As the Raptor was destroyed overhead, the few surviving ground forces of the Combine surrendered, ending both the Fifth Battle of Qotile and the Stark Hyperspace War.

Aftermath
As the war was fought during a bacta scarcity, Stark War veterans suffered higher death rates than were expected, and many of the survivors bore the scars and injuries they received fighting for the rest of their lives.

Tarkin's soldiers were entitled by the Republic government to wear a flag pin (presumably of the Republic insignia) on their clothing, signifying that they were Stark veterans. The Stark Veteran Assembly was also formed, as a congregation and advocate group for Republic veterans of the war.

The war also proved to be a training ground for pirates, mercenaries, and terrorists, many of whom put the martial skills they learned in the war to their own use afterwards. The most notable examples were the militant wing of the Nebula Front and the bounty hunter Bossk, who got his first bounty hunting down a deserter from the war.

The deaths of Tyvokka and Ranulph Tarkin opened empty seats on the Jedi Council and Galactic Senate, respectively. The former was filled by Tyvokka's former apprentice Plo Koon, who was promoted to Jedi Master as well as given Tyvokka's seat on the Council after leading the Republic to victory in the Fifth Battle of Qotile. In the Senate, Eriadu's new representative was Ranulph's relative Shayla Paige-Tarkin. In 40 BBY, Valorum would become Supreme Chancellor, thanks to heavy support by the Tarkin family. In exchange, Valorum would declare Ranulph the "Hero of Troiken", leading to a public perception of reliance from Valorum on the Eriadu-based Tarkins, and a swift rise through the Republic power structure for Ranulph's nephew, Wilhuff Tarkin.

Iaco Stark's Combine was destroyed, and he eventually joined the Commerce Guild as an apparently legitimate businessmen. Nute Gunray would be made Viceroy of the Trade Federation partially due to his “vision” in having Federation ships allotted for Jedi use at the end of the war, but forever denied ever seeing a Jedi in action.

The war was a major impetus for those who advocated both for the formation of a standing Republic military, and for greater Republic control of outlying sectors and their commerce, both views of which the SVA advocated.

Battles

 * Pirate raids in the Outer Rim
 * First Battle of Qotile
 * Mission to Thyferra
 * Second Battle of Qotile
 * Third Battle of Qotile
 * Fourth Battle of Qotile
 * Fifth Battle of Qotile

Republic

 * Billibango, Xexto
 * Jace Dallin, Republic soldier
 * Jan Dodonna, Republic officer
 * Laslo Dorits, Republic soldier
 * Adi Gallia, Jedi Master
 * Nute Gunray, Trade Federation senator
 * Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Master
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Padawan
 * Plo Koon, Jedi Knight
 * Sha Koon, Jedi Padawan
 * Eeth Koth, Jedi Master
 * Oppo Rancisis, Jedi Master
 * Ranulph Tarkin, Eriadu senator
 * Tholme, Jedi Master
 * Saesee Tiin, Jedi Master
 * Tyvokka, Jedi Master
 * Finis Valorum, Lytton senator
 * Quinlan Vos, Jedi Padawan
 * Mace Windu, Jedi Master

Stark Combine

 * Adol Bel, Xucphra Corporation Director
 * Boor-Daa, Combine co-director
 * Tam Gozon, Combine co-director
 * Hask, Trade Federation official
 * Lope, mercenary
 * Lom Portom, Combine co-director
 * Shorshone, Raptor officer
 * Iaco Stark, Combine leader
 * Trodos, Combine co-director
 * Zur, Raptor captain

Other

 * Bossk, bounty hunter
 * "Miles Croft" (a fake identity of Tholme)
 * Eru Matalis, war activist

Behind the scenes

 * The Stark Hyperspace War was first mentioned in the novelization of The Phantom Menace, where Plo Koon was described as "a veteran of the Hyperspace Wars." As at that time the only "Hyperspace War" was the Great Hyperspace War of 5000 years earlier, the Stark Hyperspace War was developed to explain the discrepancy.
 * Due to the nature of the conflict – separatists aided by big business attempting to take down the Republic – some fans believe that the Stark War was one of Palpatine’s plots to prepare for the Clone Wars. Some fans also believe that the Kol Huro Unrest could have been part of the war.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Republic: The Stark Hyperspace War