Battle of Gazzari

"Odion's changing the map of this place. This is the big showdown."

- Narsk Ka'hane

The Battle of Gazzari took place in 1,032 BBY during the Second Charge Matrica. After the destruction of the Daimanate Dynamic Testing Facility on Darkknell, Lord Daiman captured Narsk Ka'hane, the Bothan operative responsible for the attack. Suspecting Ka'hane to be working for Daiman's brother Odion, Daiman plotted to set a trap for his brother. He contacted the Sith Lord Ayanos Bactra, who agreed to deliver an arxeum, a mobile university, to Daiman on the volcanic world Gazzari, and to provide students from his corporation Industrial Heuristics. Daiman also hired numerous independent mercenaries, including Jarrow Rusher, to help in the ambush. Daiman and the mercenaries traveled to Gazzari, unaware that Jedi Knight Kerra Holt had stowed aboard Daiman’s ship, planning to assassinate the Sith Lord with baradium nitrate explosives and a remote detonator which she had stolen from Ka'hane. Arriving at Gazzari, Daiman landed on the planet with his mercenaries, but left the bulk of his fleet away from the system. While the mercenaries assembled themselves on the ridges of a massive crater, four transports with students from Industrial Heuristics arrived and set down inside the crater. As the students departed the transports, the arxeum arrived, followed closely by Odion's forces, including Ka'hane, who had escaped from Daiman. Ignoring Bactra's ships, drifting near Gazzari's sun, Odion and his ground forces, which included Ka'hane, the Givin Jelcho, and a massive siege tower known as a Death Spiral, set down directly between the Industrial Heuristics transports and the arxeum. Once Odion had landed, Daiman's fleet came out of hyperspace, engaging Odion's fleet and cutting off their retreat.

While the Death Spiral engaged Daiman's forces and destroyed all four Industrial Heuristics transports, as well as the bulk of the arxeum, Holt captured a speeder bike and began shepherding the students from the transports off the battlefield. She led them toward the cliffs, where Daiman's mercenaries were retreating, and was chased by Jelcho, on his own speeder bike. Knocking Jelcho unconscious, Holt strapped him and the explosives to his bike and jammed its accelerator, sending it toward the Death Spiral. She used Ka'hane's detonator to set off the explosion, which destroyed Odion's massive weapon. She then convinced Rusher to allow the students aboard his ship, the Diligence.

Meanwhile, Ka'hane received a signal from his true master, Vilia Calimondra, the grandmother of Daiman and Odion. Ka'hane was to deliver a message to the brothers to fire on Bactra's forces. Once the message was delivered, the forces of Daiman and Odion turned on Bactra, still observing the battle near Gazzari's sun. Bactra's ships retreated into hyperspace, followed by Daiman and Odion, while the Diligence, too damaged to continue fighting and crowded with student refugees, made for Byllura, in the Dyarchy.

Prelude
"We have a number of facilities that could reach your territory quickly. There is one near Tergamenion. Alphoresis. Gazzari&hellip;''" "''Gazzari. That sounds well."

- Lords Bactra and Daiman

In 1,032 BBY, the Bothan spy Narsk Ka'hane, working secretly for Vilia Calimondra, was hired by Calimondra's grandson Odion. Odion ordered Ka'hane to gather information on Daiman's starship Convergence, being built at the Daimanate Dynamic Testing Facility on Darkknell, and, subsequently, to destroy the ship. Using a Cyricept Personal Concealment System, Mark VI, Ka'hane infiltrated the testing facility and downloaded the Convergence's technical readouts onto a datapad. Leaving several baradium thermal charges with the ship, Ka'hane left the facility. However, he was spotted by Jedi Knight Kerra Holt, who hoped to have the Mark VI for her own use against Daiman. After a chase through the streets of Xakrea, Holt incapacitated Ka'hane and activated his remote detonator, destroying the testing facility. Taking Ka'hane's Mark VI and detonator, Holt left the Bothan in a garbage bin, where he was captured by Daiman's Correctors.



Daiman, suspecting his brother's involvement in the destruction of the facility, brought Ka'hane to his Sanctum Celestial, where he contacted the Quermian Ayanos Bactra, a neutral Sith Lord that preferred to gain power through corporate bureaucracy rather than military might. Daiman had recently been allowing one of Bactra's corporations, Industrial Heuristics, to recruit students from Darkknell and elsewhere in the Daimanate in exchange for the fruits of the students' research. Daiman requested an arxeum, a mobile university dedicated to the science of war, from Lord Bactra, as well as recruits that Industrial Heuristics had taken from the Daimanate. In exchange, Daiman granted Bactra safe passage through the Daimanate to strike at Vellas Pavo, a gadolinium-rich planet. Bactra agreed to deliver the arxeum and the students to the volcanic world of Gazzari, on the frontier of Daiman's border with the Odionate. Allowing Ka'hane to listen in on the conversation with Bactra, Daiman then ordered the bonds holding the Bothan spy to be loosened, expecting him to tell his master Odion what he had heard. With the help of Holt, who sneaked into the Sanctum with Ka'hane's Mark VI, the Bothan escaped and told Odion of Daiman's plans.

Daiman also invited several mercenaries to his Sanctum Celestial to help him execute an ambush against his brother. Among these mercenaries were Brigadier Jarrow Rusher, Mak Medagazy, Kr'saang the Togorian, and a Nosaurian mercenary. After his meeting with Bactra, Daiman hired the mercenaries and directed them to Gazzari, where they would deploy their forces and await the arrival of Odion. Kr'saang, however, refused to work for Daiman, insisting that he only fought straight-up fights, and would not participate in ambushes. Instead of allowing Kr'saang to leave, however, Daiman killed the Togorian with his lightsaber. He then sent Correctors to induct Kr'saang's shock troopers and his ship, the Dar'oosh, making them a part of his slave army. Daiman also met resistance from Rusher, who was uncomfortable with the idea of using young students as bait. When Daiman began Force-choking the brigadier, however, Rusher agreed to participate. The mercenaries departed for Gazzari, as did Daiman, unaware that the Jedi Holt had stowed aboard his ship, the Era Daimanos.

Upon arriving, the Era Daimanos landed on the planet, but Daiman kept the rest of his fleet outside the system. Rusher's Brigade, landing in the ship Diligence, assembled their Kelligdyd laser cannons on the eastern ridge of a massive bowl crater several kilometers across. The Nosaurian mercenary positioned his Brock-Eight cannons on the northern ridge, and Medagazy's battle droids were arranged among the crevasses inside the crater. Thanks to the constant ash and rainfall on the planet, the floor of the crater had turned to a thick tar, making landing a starship or building a structure virtually impossible inside the crater. However, Daiman and his mercenaries built several temporary structures to give enemy vessels the opposite impression. Daiman's forces, invisible from orbit due to the thick clouds of volcanic ash, lined the ridge on all sides, surrounding the crater, where the trap set for Odion would be sprung.

The battle
"It's a trap, Lord Odion!''" "''Of course it's a trap. The little snot doesn't operate any other way."

- Narsk Ka'hane and Odion, upon arriving at Gazzari

Upon reaching Gazzari, Kerra Holt left the Era Daimanos and shed her Mark VI, which was now useless due to the volcanic ash clinging to the suit. Carrying on Ka'hane's bandolier the baradium nitrate she had taken from Darkknell, Holt made her way toward Daiman’s command dome, planning to use the baradium and the remote detonator to kill him. She was spotted by a Nautolan trooper, but quickly killed him by suffocating him with his own head tendril. She picked up the trooper’s rifle, and reached the command dome, where she heard Daiman speaking with his aide, Uleeta. Before Holt could detonate the explosives, however, four transports from Industrial Heuristics arrived, setting down inside the crater. Within a few moments, the arxeum set down a kilometer to the east of the transports. The transports lowered their landing ramps, and the young students inside poured out, making their way toward the arxeum. Holt, realizing that the students were being used as bait, resolved to protect them. Cutting down two Daimanite troopers with her lightsaber, she ran toward the students in the valley, but was hindered by a stinging pain in her heart, caused by the arrival of Lord Odion in the system.



Odion, aboard the Sword of Ieldis, ordered his Givin navigator, Jelcho, to search for Daiman's forces. While they saw no trace of Daiman's fleet in the system, they did spot the about a dozen of Bactra's ships near Gazzari's sun, where they could observe the battle between Odion and Daiman from a safe distance. While Odion knew that Bactra had just delivered the arxeum, he ordered his fleet not to fire on him. Instead, his fleet formed an orbital perimeter around the planet and awaited the arrival of his most important weapon, a massive siege tower called the Death Spiral. Once the Death Spiral exited hyperspace behind Odion's fleet, Odion ordered his Thunder Guard units to their transports. He then boarded his own transport, ordering Jelcho and Ka'hane with him.

The Death Spiral landed in the crater, directly between the Industrial Heuristics transports and the arxeum, cutting the students off from their intended destination. After releasing scores of speeder bikes, airspeeders, and three-legged armored transports from its base, the Death Spiral raised a powerful energy shield.

The artillery units of Rusher and the Nosaurian pummeled the Death Spiral with laserfire. However, when Rusher noticed the Death Spiral continue to move and fire, he demanded a damage assessment from his spotter, Sergeant Wenna'lah. When Wenna'lah reported that the Death Spiral had taken zero damage, Rusher ordered Ripper and Sat'skar Battalions to concentrate projectile attacks on the Death Spiral, and his energy weapons crews to fire on Odion’s vehicles and personnel, which were fanning out across the valley toward the arxeum and the Industrial Heuristics transports.

Once Odion's forces had landed, Daiman's fleet, previously outside the system, exited hyperspace behind Odion's, hoping to trap Odion's forces in the system. On the surface, Odion's Thunder Guard, many on speeder bikes, engaged Medagazy's battle droids, which were charging the valley from the east. Three Thunderers on speeder bikes broke off to engage Holt, who was still trying to reach the students, now cut off from the arxeum. Holt killed the three troopers and hijacked one of the speeder bikes, using it to reach the students and shepherd them toward the arxeum, where they could use its massive body for cover against the Death Spiral.

The Death Spiral, meanwhile, continued to rain fire on Daiman's forces, disabling many of Rusher’s Kelligdyd cannons. Rusher ordered Tun-Badon, commander of Serraknife Battalion, to unload the Gweith Brothers concussion missile launchers from the Diligence. However, Rusher realized that the constant fire from the Death Spiral had put Serraknife, Flechette, and Sat'skar Battalions out of action. While Rusher searched for a safe route to pull his battalions back to the Diligence, Ryland Dackett, the Diligence's master, led a recovery team to Serraknife's position, hoping to salvage any equipment and survivors from the battalion. Though Dackett had intended to stay on the ship, the presence of Odion was, unbeknownst to many, causing troops on the battlefield to act recklessly, even suicidally. Dackett was injured before reaching Serraknife, but was rescued by the clumsy Duros recruit Beadle Lubboon, who pulled him to safety using a cargo crawler and a makeshift stretcher. Rusher then ordered a general retreat, using the battalions on either side of the Diligence to protect the ship and the forces returning to it.

Aboard one of Odion’s transports, Narsk Ka'hane, under surveillance by the navigator Jelcho, received a signal from his true master, Vilia Calimondra. Calimondra, grandmother to Daiman and Odion, wished for her grandsons to use this opportunity to unite against Bactra, who was still observing the battle from space. Ka'hane was to help her deliver this message to her grandsons. His comlink, however, was not working due to his proximity to the Death Spiral's energy shield. Convincing Jelcho to leave him to join the battle against Daiman, Ka'hane made his way south of the Death Spiral, where he hoped the reception would be clearer. However, he waited to deliver the message, as both Odion and Daiman were on the battlefield, approaching each other and preparing for a duel. With both Sith Lords engrossed in the battle, Ka'hane found it unlikely either of them would receive his message.



Meanwhile, Holt, trying to lead the students to safety, was also feeling the subconscious suicidal effects of Odion's presence. As she leaped off her speeder bike to impale one of Odion's Vodran troopers, she noticed Daiman's command dome, untouched due to the energy shield it had raised. Believing she had left the baradium nitrate just outside the dome, Holt prepared to detonate it, not unaware the bandolier was still slung over her shoulder. She was saved by Tan Tengo, a Sullustan student, who distracted Holt and prevented her from detonating the explosives. Holt, suddenly realizing that the bandolier was on her shoulder, saw a speeder bike flying toward her, piloted by Jelcho. Standing her ground, Holt used the Force to telekinetically push the bike to the ground, then knocked the Givin unconscious. Using her bandolier to secure Jelcho to the bike, Holt jammed the bike's accelerator and sent it flying toward the base of the Death Spiral, which was destroyed when Holt detonated the explosives using the detonator she had stolen from Ka'hane. She then led the students to the east, where the laser fire from the Death Spiral had created a path to the top of the ridge. Climbing to the top, Holt encountered Jarrow Rusher and his brigade, whose members were now loading their weaponry onto the Diligence. After a lengthy argument, Holt convinced Rusher, who had lost five-sixths of his forces, to allow her student refugees aboard his ship.

After the destruction of the Death Spiral, Ka'hane was able to deliver his message to Odion and Daiman. One ship each from the Odionate and the Daimanate met on the surface of the planet as the Diligence, carrying Rusher, Holt, and the arxeum students, made for space, where the battle had been just as fierce. Several ships from each battling side had been destroyed, with Bactra's forces observing the carnage untouched. As ships from both sides fired on the Diligence, unsure of just whose side they were on, Rusher ordered that the ship be brought closer to Bactra's forces, hoping to hide there for safety. However, the fleets of both Daiman and Odion began firing on Bactra's ships, destroying half of the flotilla of one dozen ships in under a minute. Bactra's forces fled to hyperspace, and Daiman and Odion ordered their troops to the planet Jutrand, Bactra's capital. As the forces of all three Sith Lords made for Jutrand, the Diligence, too damaged to continue fighting and carrying over a thousand students seeking refuge from the battle, fled to Byllura, a planet in the Dyarchy, where they hoped they could find safety for themselves and the refugees.

Aftermath
"I wish to offer you all my congratulations on the liquidation of Lord Bactra."

- Vilia Calimondra, congratulating her grandchildren at The Bequest

The forces of Daiman and Odion, now working together, spearheaded an invasion into the Bactranate. Numerous Sith of the Calimondra family, including Daiman, Lioko, and Malakite, all captured portions of Bactra's territory. Odion himself captured the capital of Jutrand, and Bactra fled to a Quermian retirement colony.

Holt and Rusher, hoping to find a safe haven for the refugees, took the students to Byllura. However, when they realized the planet's entire population were slaves to the Sith twins Quillan and Dromika, they escaped the surface, taking Quillan with them. The planet was captured by Arkadia Calimondra, Vilia Calimondra's granddaughter and older sister to Quillan and Dromika. Arkadia, offering protection for Holt, Rusher, and the students, took the Diligence to the planet Syned, in the Arkadianate. Vilia later initiated a Bequest, a meeting of the Calimondra family, in which she praised her Sith grandchildren for their destruction of the Bactranate, and doled out Bactra's various corporations to them. Vilia allowed Odion to maintain control of Jutrand, but gave control of Industrial Heuristics to Daiman. The Diligence later escaped the Arkadianate, with the help of Narsk Ka'hane, and fled to Galactic Republic space.

Behind the scenes
The Battle of Gazaari was created by John Jackson Miller for use in his first professional novel, Knight Errant, which was released in January 2011.

Although the timing of the battle fits with the Second Sith Civil War, Miller prefers to categorize the battle as part of the Second Charge Matrica. Though this is ambiguously canonical and does not refute the possibility that the battle is indeed part of the Second Sith Civil War, the novel gives the Second Charge Matrica as the foundation of the conflict between Daiman and Odion.

Appearances

 * Knight Errant