User:Werdoland/WIP

Description
"Unlike other worlds, holding Kuat's ground is largely meaningless. It's holding the shipyards that matter."

- Dasken Hobiv

Kuat was the fourth planet from the star Kuat, located in the Kuat system of the Kuat sector in the Core Worlds region of the galaxy. Situated on a hyperlane that connected it to Raxxa and Balmorra and less than six parsecs away from Neimoidia, it was a green terrestrial world orbited by two moons named Bador and Ronay. A day on Kuat was 20 standard hours in length, and a year lasted 322 local days. Kuat had standard gravity and a breathable atmosphere, and at 10,000 kilometers in diameter, it was considered a small planet.

The surface of Kuat featured three continents and scattered islands, and most of the world's terrain consisted of lush forests, rolling green plains, and carefully-groomed gardens. The planet had a temperate climate with a cool, wet winter and a warm, dry summer. Hostile animal life was nonexistent on Kuat, as terraformers had stocked the planet with inoffensive herbivores such as drebin, which provided compost for the world's gardens. The introduced species did not overrun the planet due to short life spans and the presence of predators.

An industrial world and a center of manufacturing, Kuat was the home of Kuat Drive Yards, whose shipyards and construction facilities were the most prominent feature of Kuat, encircling the planet in the shape of a large ring. Kuat was considered one of the most efficient shipyards in the galaxy, and its defenses were formidable, with protection provided by the Kuati Sector Forces and designs used for self-defense by Kuat Drive Yards. Kuat had an aristocratic government and exported luxury goods, alcohol, art, and food while importing electronics, machinery, and raw materials.

Early history
Coruscanti Humans settled on Kuat in a sleeper ship expedition in 27,500 BBY. An aristocracy formed on the world as wealthy families placed hereditary claims on the growing starshipwright industry, and by 26,000 BBY, Kuat had built its own colonization arks and sent its Humans to Axum, Tepasi, and Humbarine. Kuat was a political power by 25,000 BBY, when it became a founding member of the Galactic Republic, and a consortium of the wealthiest merchant families, known as The Ten, eventually came to rule Kuat.

Galactic Republic
The Ten allied with the goal of forming the largest and most influential shipbuilding concern in the galaxy and hired terraformers, ecologists, and animal breeders to transform Kuat, then a barren, uninhabited world, into a paradise. Over a period of 20 years, the project changed Kuat into a lush planet with an artificial ecosystem. At the same time, engineers and construction personnel began to construct the first six shipyards of what would become the Kuat Drive Yards. Kuat was located on a Republic-controlled hyperlane during the Alsakan Conflicts that occurred from roughly 17,000 BBY to 12,000 BBY.

Kuat was within space controlled by the Galactic Republic during the final years of the New Sith Wars. By the final years of the Galactic Republic, Kuat's delegates in the Galactic Senate were selected by the Kuat family, who ensured that their chosen representatives always benefited Kuat Drive Yards and, by extension, the Kuat family itself. By 22 BBY, Risi Lenoan served as the Senator of Kuat. Lenoan was later removed from office, and Onara Kuat, the leading member of the Kuat family and the principal director of Kuat Drive Yards, appointed Giddean Danu as her replacement.

Clone Wars
"Whenever a campaign to capture Coruscant happens&mdash;and it will happen&mdash;there will be a need to silence Kuat first."

- A Trade Federation official during the Clone Wars

Defended by three Star Dreadnoughts by the time of the Clone Wars, Kuat remained loyal to the Galactic Republic during the conflict, producing troopships and other war materiel for the Republic's clone army, and fell within territory defended by the Fourth Outer Rim Army during the war's early campaigns in 22 BBY. Being the site of foundries and shipyards that produced a large portion of the Republic's military hardware, Kuat enjoyed economic and political benefits from the Clone Wars, and many members of Kuat's upper administrative echelons, having won the favor of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, pursued agendas that encouraged the conflict. Senator Giddean Danu was seemingly alone in opposition to the war, causing the Kuati electorate to nearly recall him from office twice.

An attempt by Onara Kuat to remove Senator Danu from office failed due to the belief of other members of the Kuat family that Danu was an effective advocate for Kuati independence. When Balmorra seceded from the Republic, Kuat abandoned its assets on the factory world, which consisted mostly of ground-based walkers and heavy vehicles. By 21 BBY, orbital screens had been erected around Kuat's most heavily-guarded shipyards in an effort to dissuade long-range intelligence gathering, and Kuat had attempted to infiltrate Neimoidia with modified worker droids equipped with concealed spyware. Early in the Confederacy of Independent Systems's assault on Duro later in 21 BBY, Confederacy forces were believed to be positioning to cut off possible Republic reinforcements from Kuat.

Galactic Empire
When the Galactic Empire was formed, Kuat was among the first worlds to be secured under Imperial control, making a smooth transition to rule under the new government. Moff Thichis Kuras, a native Kuati and a member of the world's lesser nobility, governed the entire Kuat system, and Senator Giddean Danu served as Kuat's delegate to the Imperial Senate. Under Imperial rule, the Bureau of Ships and Services restricted access to Kuat and its orbital shipyards. Most of the Kuati shipyards fell under military jurisdiction and operated with varying degrees of supervision and regulation, but they were still considered to be civilian-operated in 4 ABY, shortly before the Battle of Endor. A duplicate of the Super Star Destroyer Executor was built at Kuat before being rechristened Lusankya and moved to Coruscant. Kuat was also the site of facilities that produced AT-ATs. After the Battle of Endor, the Empire drastically increased security at Kuat's shipyards while loosening its control over the planet itself. Rebel operatives were active on Kuat around this time and learned that every stardock and vessel under construction had been rigged to explode in preparation for a possible scuttling of the shipyards.

New Republic and beyond
In 8 ABY, Kuat was one of a remaining handful of fortress worlds held by the Galactic Empire. By that time, most of the Imperial warships that guarded Kuat had departed for the New Territories, leaving the planet dependent on its own defenses; at the time, these included the Star Dreadnought Aurora, the battlecruisers Event Horizon, Stellar Halo, and Luminous, and more than twelve Star Destroyers. The New Republic captured Kuat in 8 ABY in a scheme conceived by Wedge Antilles, Airen Cracken, and Ral'Rai Muvunc, with Muvunc and three other Kuat Drive Yards board members, who held a majority of KDY's shares, voting in favor of Kuat's surrender to the New Republic.

When Kuat joined the New Republic, the senior design engineers of Kuat Drive Yards fled the planet for the Deep Core. The New Republic maintained a small embassy in Kuat City and a smaller subembassy in the orbital array. Kuat was a stronghold of the New Republic during the Thrawn campaign in 9 ABY and was later one of the manufacturing centers targeted by Imperial Executor Sedriss QL during Operation Shadow Hand. During the Second Galactic Civil War, Hutt batils, tarradas, and chelandions supported the Confederation at Kuat, where a Confederation fleet was halted. By 137 ABY, Kuat was within the Core Worlds Security Zone, a region of space controlled by the Galactic Empire of Darth Krayt.

Locations
Kuat City, which hosted many shops, hotels, restaurants, and places of general merchant business, lacked a groundside spaceport and was accessible by shuttles.

Inhabitants
The Kuati were a proud, class-conscious people who considered the ability to trace one's ancestry back to The Ten a trait worthy of pride. Humans comprised 80% of Kuat's population of 3.6 billion sentient beings. Hundreds of millions of workers lived in the Kuat Drive Yards orbital stardocks, and while most Kuati citizens lived in apartment complexes built into the array, upper-class Kuati resided in vast estates on the planet. Kuati beings who did not live on their world's surface could only access the countryside through Kuat City, while non-Kuati were required to obtain numerous costly permits to visit the surface. Furthermore, the Kuati police reserved the right to refuse entry into the lands to anyone, even those who were able to pay the appropriate fees. Many visitors from offworld remained in the orbital array throughout their trip to the planet. Galactic Basic Standard and Kuat were languages spoken on the planet. The Jedi Bultar Swan was a native of Kuat.

The Alliance's plan depended on a strike force making its way to the forest moon of Endor to destroy the shield generator protecting the unfinished Death Star II battlestation. The strike team, led by Han Solo, was to disable the generator prior to the emergence of the Alliance fleet from hyperspace. When the fleet arrived from its staging area around Sullust, it was to attack the Death Star II. Unknown to the Alliance, an Imperial legion awaited the strike team on Endor and an Imperial fleet in hiding on the far side of the moon awaited the Alliance fleet. Emperor Palpatine had allowed the Alliance to learn of the construction of the Death Star II, assuming that they would inevitably attack the station, especially after it was learned that Palpatine himself would oversee the final stages of its construction.

Imperial strategists intended to rely on stealth and intelligence to obtain victory; because they felt certain that the Alliance would be unable to land large numbers of troops and would only send a small force, the military presence was centered on a large number of simple ground troops, with heavy combat vehicles such as walkers kept to a minimum. The use of speeder bikes was integral to the Imperial battle plan, as scouts were expected to detect incoming assaults in advance. Alliance commanders believed that a small force could slip through gaps in the Imperial wall of security and disable the shield long enough for the Alliance fleet to destroy the Death Star II.

Before the Alliance fleet's attack, a contingent of Alliance commandoes, led by General Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, Major Bren Derlin, and Commander Luke Skywalker penetrated the defense grid surrounding Endor and launched an initially unsuccessful attack on the garrison guarding the command bunker. The commandoes were quickly surrounded and captured, while Commander Skywalker was whisked away to face Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader aboard the Death Star II. Admiral Gial Ackbar and General Lando Calrissian, having assembled the largest Alliance armada since the organization's inception, led an attack that soon became a rout.

With no way to penetrate the Death Star II's shielding, Calrissian and Ackbar directed their fleet into combat with the Imperial fleet, reasoning that the Death Star II would have difficulty targeting Alliance ships that were in close proximity to Imperial ships and that while fighting through the series of Interdictor cruisers at the edge of the Endor system would inflict devastating casualties, some of the fleet might survive. A rescue attempt staged by the Ewoks–small bipeds native to Endor–allowed the commandoes to push the Imperials back. Through a battle plan that divided and disoriented the Imperial forces, the Ewok and Alliance fighters used subterfuge to capture the command bunker and destroy the shield generator.

While the Rebels rounded up the last of the Imperial troops, the Alliance's starfighters and cruisers pressed an attack on the Imperial fleet, destroying the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer Executor with a concentrated assault. The Executor was ultimately pulled in by the Death Star II's gravitational field and exploded against the surface of the space station. Several TIE fighters that had been assigned to defend the exposed sections of the Death Star II began to make crucial errors after the destruction of the Executor, which was their command ship and source of coordination, and several Alliance starfighters and the Millennium Falcon slipped through the Death Star II's defense perimeter. Reaching the interior of the station, the Millennium Falcon and Commander Wedge Antilles's X-wing fired upon and destroyed the station's reactor core.

Within minutes, the Death Star II was destroyed in an explosion. The station had possessed the primary communications node for Imperial ships stationed in the Endor system, and when it was destroyed, contact beyond the star system was lost along with the in-system HoloNet. Furthermore, the explosion of the station interfered with scanner systems and communications equipment, and residual interference from the explosion prevented an Imperial communications center on the far side of Endor from transmitting a HoloNet distress signal that could have alerted the entire Imperial fleet. The Imperial ships, accustomed to superior communications, were unprepared when they suffered a sudden reduction in communications range, while the Alliance forces, trained to operate under less than ideal conditions, pressed their assaults on various ships. Although the destruction of the Death Star immediately reversed the momentum of the battle, fighting continued for nearly four hours as the unified Imperial blockade action degenerated into a series of single engagements.

Deteriorating morale among the Imperial forces eventually led to their retreat. The Alliance had achieved a decisive victory against the Empire, but suffered significant losses; casualty estimates for Alliance starfighter pilots exceeded twenty percent, and shipboard casualties were nearly as high, while nearly 75 percent of the remaining Alliance vessels requiring extensive repairs before they could return to duty. Estimating that it would take roughly 20 to 48 hours for a sizeable Imperial force to regroup, repair their vessels, and plan an assault, Ackbar ordered immediate repair and salvage operations. The Alliance had also captured two Star Destroyers, the Adjudicator and the Accuser. While the Accuser remained almost entirely operational, the engines and power systems of the Adjudicator had been nearly destroyed in the battle, and several Alliance heavy cruisers were relegated to towing the Adjudicator to a friendly port.

As Alliance forces patrolled the area around Endor, their sentry ships encountered a series of minor probing attacks. Although few Alliance ships were damaged, the Alliance fleet remained at full-alert status. Approximately one hour after the first attack, Alliance starfighters repelled an attack on the medical frigate Mercy by five Imperial spacetroopers who had stowed away aboard one of the captured Star Destroyers. One A-wing was destroyed and one Y-wing was damaged in the skirmish, after which Alliance forces were alerted to possible saboteurs and stowaways among the debris of Imperial ships. As repair operations progressed, Alliance picket ships detected a series of Imperial system patrol craft in close proximity. At this point, Ackbar ordered the placement of a series of sensor drones throughout the Endor system and the movement of sentry lines away from the bulk of the Alliance fleet. Any starfighter pilots not actively patrolling the fleet's perimeter were ordered to augment the overworked repair crews.

Roughly two hours after starfighters were redeployed, the Alliance sensor net detected the launch of a number of Imperial probe droids from an Imperial Star Destroyer, which jumped to hyperspace before an engagement could occur. The appearance of a Star Destroyer convinced Ackbar that Imperial forces were in the area. Alliance starfighters swept the area clean of the Imperial reconnaissance units, though the probe droids' weaponry damaged several starfighters. Rebel starfighters subsequently intercepted a second wave of Imperial probe droids, but these units were programmed to ram enemy ships when engaged instead of scanning the Alliance's fleet deployment. The modified droids destroyed several Alliance fighters, and the Mon Calamari cruiser Reef Home was dispatched to deal with the remaining droids.