Sith armada (Lost Tribe of the Sith)

"When Ship came to us with the news of the near extinction of the Sith, we did not fall victim to despair. We acted. Vessel by vessel, we are assembling a fleet with which we will eventually take back the galaxy from the Jedi, who spread like vermin throughout system after system."

- Lady Rhea

The Sith armada was a fleet of starships captured for use by the Lost Tribe of Sith&mdash;descendants of a group of Sith who survived the crash-landing of their warship, the Omen, on the remote planet of Kesh in 5,000 BBY&mdash;with the purpose of conquering the weakened galaxy. In 41 ABY, a Sith Meditation Sphere known as Ship arrived on the planet. The Tribe began using Ship to attack vessels, at first to scavenge parts to repair the Omen, and later to capture them and expand their fleet. By 43.5 ABY, their armada contained more than two dozen ships.

Lady Rhea and her Sith apprentice, Vestara Khai, served in the armada aboard the Eternal Crusader, the starship used by the Sith strike team sent to recover Ship and eliminate Luke Skywalker in 43 ABY. The strike team was decimated by the Jedi, however, with Khai the only survivor. Lord Viun Gaalan then led a group of shuttles to Dathomir to retrieve Khai and a group of Nightsisters there which she helped to capture. However, after Jedi intervention, Khai was taken by the Jedi. As the Jedi flew into orbit, however, they were taken by surprise by a group of eleven ChaseMaster frigates led by High Lord Sarasu Taalon, who proposed they form an alliance in order to destroy Abeloth, a powerful dark side being. However, the alliance was a ploy; the Sith had no intention of assisting the Jedi.

Composition
"We will need more than you, Ship, if we are to conquer worlds in the name of the Sith."

- Vestara Khai

The Sith armada was a fleet in use by the Lost Tribe of Sith&mdash;a group of Sith stranded on the remote planet of Kesh&mdash;consisting of around two dozen starships. The ships were varied, ranging from large bulk freighters to warships to a Sith Meditation Sphere. The Sith worked together as a team, often employing several starships together during an attack. After a vessel was captured by the Tribe, it was towed back to their homeworld of Kesh to be repaired, renamed, and integrated into the armada.

The first vessel in the armada was Ship, the Sith Meditation Sphere. At first, it served as the leader of the armada; it knew where to take the Tribe to find a new target and was the Tribe's only means of transportation off-planet. Once the Tribe had acquired enough parts, they managed to repair the Omen, the dreadnaught in which the Tribe's ancestors had crashed onto Kesh more than 5,000 years prior. With the Omen repaired, the Tribe began capturing vessels, rather than just foraging them for parts, and the fleet quickly grew.

One of the first vessels to be commandeered was the Eternal Crusader, a warship larger and more powerful than even the Omen. It served under the command of Lady Rhea and was used in the capture of several more vessels. Other capital ships used included at least eleven ChaseMaster frigates, among them the Black Wave, that served under the command of High Lord Sarasu Taalon.

History
"I will teach you. I will teach all of you."

- Ship, to Vestara Khai

In 5,000 BBY, during the Great Hyperspace War, a Sith starship, the Omen, crash-landed on the remote planet of Kesh while attempting to transport Lignan crystals to Sith Lord Naga Sadow. The survivors of the crash eventually formed a group called the Lost Tribe of Sith.

Ship, a Sith Meditation Sphere, arrived on Kesh in 41 ABY and made contact with the Tribe, revealing that the Sith had been driven from the galaxy, and only a small group remained. The Tribe decided that it was their destiny to restore the Sith, and Ship then told them that it could help them repair the Omen by scavenging parts from other vessels. Ship took the Sith aboard, and for the first time in around 5,000 years, members of the Tribe left the planet's atmosphere and returned to space. The Tribe first used Ship to attack a single vessel, forcing it to crash on an uninhabited planet. The crew of the ship was then slaughtered by the Sith, and the defeated vessel's parts were scavenged to help begin the repairs on the Omen.

With Ship, the Tribe began to attack more vessels, leaving no being left alive to reveal the location of their homeworld. Eventually, the Omen was completely repaired, and it became the first vessel to serve alongside Ship in the armada. The Tribe continued their attacks, now capturing vessels and pressing them into service in the fleet. The new lifestyle forced the spacefaring Tribe members to change their clothing and weaponry to be more efficient for their new duties. By 43.5 ABY, the armada numbered more than two dozen starships.

Strike team
"Luke Skywalker has done much to fight the Sith, the dark side. He was at one point the last Jedi, and now he has re-created the Order with hundreds of them. And now, somehow, he has broadcast his presence into the Force. And we can take him down."

- Lady Rhea

In 43.5 ABY, Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker touched an Aing-Tii relic, the Codex, which amplified his presence and called out his name to the Tribe through the Force. Ship revealed to the Tribe the danger that Skywalker presented to them, and the Tribe's Grand Lord, Darish Vol, called an emergency meeting in the Circle Chambers in Kesh's capital city of Tahv. Vol and Rhea chose a strike team from the armada, commanded by Rhea, to be sent to hunt down Skywalker, but before they could depart, Ship abruptly left the planet to follow the call through the Force. The strike team was then tasked with finding and retrieving Ship before eliminating Skywalker.

The strike team tracked Ship to a planet in the Maw, where they met a powerful being named Abeloth. They eventually recovered Ship, although many members of the team were killed by the planet's deadly plants. They traveled to Sinkhole Station, a space station in the Maw where Abeloth had located Skywalker and his son, Ben. They ambushed the Jedi, but in the ensuing skirmish the entire Sith team was eliminated except for Rhea's apprentice, Vestara Khai. Khai fled in a dilapidated SoroSuub StarTripper yacht, She's a Chancer, eventually landing on the planet Dathomir and sending out a hypercomm message to the Sith on Kesh to retrieve her.

Dathomir
"We have a common cause.''" "Are&mdash;are you suggesting we form an alliance?" "''Precisely."

- High Lord Taalon and Grand Master Skywalker

As the Sith organized a group of ships to travel to Dathomir to rescue Khai, Khai encountered the Nightsisters&mdash;a group of dark side-using Witches&mdash;and decided that they could be of use to the Sith, reporting their existence to the Tribe. Lord Viun Gaalan led a group of shuttles to Dathomir, where they captured the Nightsisters. However, before Gaalan could retrieve Khai, the Skywalkers&mdash;who had tracked Khai to Dathomir&mdash;intervened, and Gaalan was forced to flee without Khai. Taking Khai captive, the Jedi left Dathomir, but as they entered orbit they were ambushed by a group of eleven capital class ChaseMaster frigates under the command of High Lord Sarasu Taalon. Taalon lied to them that members of the Sith Tribe had been suffering from the same psychosis as several Jedi back on Coruscant recently, and that he wished to form an alliance with the Jedi in order to eliminate Abeloth, who was causing the psychosis. In reality, the proposed alliance was simply a ploy by the Sith; they had no intention of assisting the Skywalkers.

Commanders and crew
"I am High Lord Sarasu Taalon, commander of this force."

- High Lord Taalon, greeting Grand Master Skywalker

At first, Ship served as the leader of the armada, as the Tribe relied on the Sith Meditation Sphere as their only means of space travel, as well as a source of knowing when and where to hit their next target. As the armada expanded, however, the Sith began to take over leadership, and vessels were placed under the command of high-ranking Tribe members, such as High Lords. One of the first vessels to be commandeered, the Eternal Crusader, was put under the command of Lady Rhea. Also serving on that starship was Rhea's apprentice, Vestara Khai. Lord Viun Gaalan later commanded a small group of shuttles to retrieve Khai from Dathomir, and eleven capital class ChaseMaster frigates, including the Black Wave, were placed under the command of High Lord Taalon.

Behind the scenes
The armada was created by author Christie Golden for her debut Star Wars novel, Omen, the second novel in the Fate of the Jedi series.

Appearances

 * Omen
 * Abyss
 * Backlash
 * Allies

Notes and references
Armada Sith