Battle of Corellia

"Our victory today sends a message. The Republic may falter, but we will never fall&mdash;as long as we keep fighting."

- Supreme Chancellor Leontyne Saresh

The Battle of Corellia was a large-scale conflict that occurred on the planet Corellia during the Second Great Galactic War between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic. As the peace brought by the Treaty of Coruscant collapsed into open war, the Sith Lord Darth Decimus led an invasion force to the prestigious Core World, sparking a lengthy fight for control. Darth Decimus' invasion force descended on the planet after months of planning and forming of alliances with the Corellian Council, who declared Corellia's allegiance to the Empire as the Imperials arrived in the skies. However, pockets of civilian resistance soon began to spring up, organized by the Corellian Security Force and the native Green Jedi, and the Empire quickly discovered that the Corellians would not accept Imperial rule so easily.

Under the command of Darth Decimus and his subordinates, Darth Acharon and Darth Hadra, the Imperial Military and the Imperial Guard began to crush the native resistance, but the forces of the Republic soon arrived and established a foothold in the blastfield shipyards on the outskirts of Corellia's capital, Coronet City. The once pristine metropolis, already ravaged by war, quickly became a battlefield as Republic and Imperial forces battled for control, with both sides aided by native corporations and groups of mercenaries. Both forces suffered heavy losses as the conflict continued, with powerful Jedi and Sith falling to battle and betrayal&mdash;but Darth Decimus believed victory was within his grasp after Jedi Master Arfan Ramos and the rest of the Green Jedi Council were killed when an Imperial strike force stormed the Green Jedi Enclave.

As the battle raged in districts of Coronet City like Axial Park and the Government District, both the Republic and the Empire continued to pour resources into the fight in hopes of controlling the planet. The Emperor's Wrath was summoned to the planet in order to dismantle the organization of the traitorous Darth Baras, who was trying to declare himself Voice of the Emperor and therefore de-facto ruler of the Empire itself. At the same time, Darth Thanaton battled his rival Lord Kallig across Corellia as part of the ancient Sith ritual known as a Kaggath, and the power bases of the two Sith waged war upon each other while Republic and Imperial forces fought for control of the capital.

After rescuing the Republic cruiser Valiant in the Inner Rim from the control of fallen Jedi Master Warren Sedoru, the renowned Jedi Knight known as the Hero of Tython rushed to Corellia to stop a corrupted Master Tol Braga from massacring millions in order to start the Sith Emperor's ritual. Grand Master Satele Shan placed the Knight in command of the recently gathered Outer Rim Jedi Forces, and the Jedi under the Hero's command aided General Var Suthra and the Republic Military in gaining ground against the Empire. With victory in sight, Grand Master Shan and Republic High Command pulled some of their forces off the planet to aid in an all-out assault on the Imperial capital of Dromund Kaas to serve as a distraction so that the Hero of Tython could face the Emperor, but even with the reduced troops the Republic was still able to push the Empire on the defensive.

The Republic's efforts were aided immensely when the elite Special Forces unit Havoc Squad led an all-out assault on the Bastion&mdash;a Republic military complex that had served as one of the military's main centers of operations before its capture early in the invasion&mdash;and successfully retook the base, capturing General Arkos Rakton in the process. The Barsen'thor of the Jedi Order brought the full might of the Rift Alliance to the Republic's aid, with Voss Commandos, Esh-kha, and members of the former Balmorran Resistance joining the fight alongside the Republic Military. The Barsen'thor fought to reclaim the fortresses known as the Guardian Holds from the Children of the Emperor, aiding the Republic in their fight to maintain control of Coronet, and managed to defeat the Children's leader, the First Son, in a fierce duel. With the defeat of the First Son, the Jedi were able to locate the rest of the Children, many of whom were unknowningly traitors within the Republic Military.

The height of the battle saw Darths Acharon and Hadra killed by Republic strike teams, and with the loss of the inside knowledge provided by the Corellian Council&mdash;many of whom defected to the Republic or were killed during the battle&mdash;the Imperial offensive began to lose cohesion and direction. After securing Axial Park and pushing through the Imperial presence in the Government District, a Republic strike force attacked the Corellian Legislature and defeated Darth Decimus in the process, signalling the death blow to the Empire's forces on the planet. Supreme Chancellor Dorian Janarus was been assassinated aboard his personal flagship during the long battle, but his successor Leontyne Saresh received the formal declaration of victory by General Aves to the Senate. While pockets of Imperial resistance would remain, the battle ultimately resulted in a Republic victory and the withdrawal or defeat of the majority of Imperial forces.

Prelude
"This planet was ripe for conquering. Darth Decimus plotted our assault, and we moved in."

- Darth Charnus

The Sith Empire's invasion of the planet Corellia was carefully planned over a number of years during the Cold War by the Sith Lord Darth Decimus. Agents of Imperial Intelligence identified potential turncoats in the highest levels of the planet's government and secretly recruited them, promising the politicians lifetime power in return for loyalty, and the Empire soon had the entire Corellian Council in its pocket. Darbin Sull, one of the youngest individuals ever elected to the council, was quick to pledge loyalty to the Empire when they promised him the position of prime minister in return &mdash;something they refrained from informing the current Imperial-allied prime minister, Cal Falcone. Councillor Belos agreed to aid the Empire out of a belief that their superior military might would inevitably overwhelm the Republic, while Councillor Caicos used a combination of bribes, blackmail, and threats to convince the other council members to back the Empire when the Voidwolf called in a debt.

Around 3,642 BBY, the tenuous peace brought by Treaty of Coruscant shattered under the stress of multiple conflicts both internal and external amongst the Republic and the Empire. Seeing an opening, Decimus put his plans in motion: Imperial Intelligence agents attempted to infiltrate the offices of the Corellian Engineering Corporation in order to seize control of the complex's powerful defense systems to halt any possible resistance. However, Intelligence's operatives disappeared after entering the offices, and CEC's defenses remained under the corporation's control when Decimus ordered the invasion to proceed as planned. Launching an fleet from the heart of the Empire, he signaled the Corellian Council to make their move. The politicians declared a fake emergency that cleared all hyperlanes into the Corellian system and shut down the planet's spaceports, and convened in the Government District of Coronet City for a meeting. There, the Council unanimously voted to submit to Imperial control just as Darth Decimus' fleet arrived above the capital city.

Seizing Coronet City
"The invasion was magnificent, our occupation flawless. Imperial forces filled Corellia's high-speed rocket trams. We began to cover Coronet City."

- Darth Charnus

While the Corellian Council capitulated to the Empire, Decimus' forces attempted to conquer the planet anyway as a show of force. All communications were immediately cut, leaving the Republic unaware of the Imperial invasion. An initial attack on the capital of Coronet City shattered sections of the fabled Coronet Zoo, releasing alien wildlife into the streets of the city, and one of the Empire's primary targets was the district known as the Incorporation Islands. A series of towers occupied by Corellia's largest corporate entities, the sector quickly became a battleground as corporate security forces fought back against the Empire aided by armies of droids.

The Bastion, a massive military complex in Coronet City, was a stronghold of resistance that served as the center of operations for the entire Republic military. Therefore, it was a prime target for Imperial conquest in the eyes of General Arkos Rakton, and part of the Imperial invasion involved the reformation of an elite black ops team under the command of Lieutenant Pierce. Pierce's unit, including Captain Lorant, Sergeant Arlos, Lieutenant Tanido, and several other soldiers, infiltrated a Republic shuttle carrying reinforcements to the Bastion mere hours before Darth Decimus' forces arrived in-system, and the team had complete control of the complex a few hours later. Axial Park was the target of an Imperial force led by the Sith Emperor's own personal Guard, and the captured Museum Republica quickly became an Imperial base of operations. One of the city's high-rise towers was clipped by a damaged Imperial warship, and the near collapse structure killed the founder of the Beharen Droid Factory.

Resistance
"No one expected the transition to be easy. But the Republic turned some minor resistance into an all-out war.''" "''The real Corellia rioted in the streets. CorSec launched full-scale attacks on the Empire. There was nothing minor about it."

- A member of the Corellian Council and Councillor Belos

However, the Corellians were not a culture to submit to Imperial dominance so quickly. As Darth Decimus made his headquarters in the offices of Corellia's Trade Tariff Service at the advice of his lieutenant, Moff Tarandon, the Corellian Security Force immediately realized it would not survive an all-out war with the invaders. Therefore, CorSec commissioner Jonah Carter and his lieutenants sent out a panic alert to all officers, sending them underground, and began to prepare for war. However, some CorSec officers, like Raddus Venn, willingly submitted to the Empire and began to aid the planet's new rulers. Coronet Durasteel immediately joined the Empire at the beginning of the invasion, and it was followed by corporations like Horizon Enterprises, led by its Senior Executive President Erin Kaldo. However, while the Board of Directors and the rest of the company's upper management were willing to work with the Empire, Horizon's workforce had begun to rebel the moment they learned the Empire arrived. Kaldo and the directors were forced to call in Imperial help to "reduce" the workforce, hoping that the elimination of a number of workers would convince the others to see reason and submit to Imperial rule.

Normal citizens began to band together with freighter crews and unemployed mercenaries in an effort to strike back against their new rulers, and with coordination and training by CorSec the rebels proved highly successful in the early days of the occupation. Over a dozen high-ranking Imperial officers were assassinated, and the group bombed many of the shipyards that the Empire was using as landing pads; rebels would often pretend to cooperate with the invaders in order to access Imperial bases and wreak havoc. A major target of the Empire's first strikes was the enclave of the Green Jedi, a group of Corellian Jedi who wore green cloaks to symbolize the fact that they valued their loyalty to their native world over that of the Republic. A first attempt to bombard the structure was halted by the Enclave's powerful shields, powered by internal reactors, and the Green Jedi quickly erected offensive weapons emplacements. The Imperial warship sent to attack the Enclave a second time was shot down by the base's defenses, and the section of the vessel that did strike the structure failed to weaken it or inflict heavy casualties. The Green Jedi's leader, Arfan Ramos, quickly allied with the resistance and the group began aiding their fellow Corellians in the fight agaisnt the Empire.

Another stronghold of resistance was the CorSec Maximum Security Prison. CorSec forces under the command of Wolroff had secured the facility for use as a staging area for attacking the Empire, and many of the prisoners had agreed to aid the police in exchange for a shortened sentence. However, the Empire had gained intelligence on the prison's extensive security systems from a captured program&mdash;the systems now ignored CorSec personnel and only attacked Imperial forces, but an assault team could reprogram the systems at certain control nodes. This covert assault was successful in their mission, causing the prison security systems to inflict heavy enough losses to drive out the CorSec presence, and the unit also managed to eliminate Wolroff in the process.

Fighting back
"Then rebellion erupted. Unruly Corellians knocked out the rocket trams. Now our soldiers are stranded."

- Darth Charnus

Despite small errors, the Imperial invasion was progressing almost perfectly until rebels knocked out Coronet City's rocket tram system, which the invaders had been using to quickly move their troops. Corellian Engineering Corporation targeted the trams with ion weaponry, freezing the invasion and stranding different sections of the Imperial forces across the city. Fighting soon began to erupt in the Incorporation Islands as powerful companies began aiding those Corellians who resisted the Empire.

Upon learning of the situation with the rocket trams, Darth Decimus ordered his subordinate Darth Charnus to rectify the problem. At the Sith Lord's directive, Imperial operatives struck a blow against the Czerka Corporation by eliminating several of its weapon caches in the Incorporation Islands as part of an operation to seize the company's Hull Cracker weapon. Charnus continued to direct operations from orbit aboard his flagship, the Tears of Taris, and directed a strike force to aid Commander Jastal at Imperial Outpost Alpha in the Imperial Guard's attempt to retrieve the Hull Cracker. After retrieving the codes for the weapon from the Czerka employee Brall Tavor, the strike team seized the Hull Cracker and prepared to use it against the Corellian Engineering Corporation.

By disabling two of CEC's signal towers, the Imperial operatives shut down the corporation's massive army of security droids, and Commander Jastal initiated his siege of the CEC complex. A CEC employee by the name of Benton Maas desperately attempted to save himself by offering the Empire access to the complex's back door in exchange for safety, but Charnus's forces chose to continue the original plan&mdash;blasting through the building's main door with the Hull Cracker. Commander Krade and Charnus' forces defended Imperial explosives experts while they planted charges, and the Sith Lord's operatives stormed the company board room itself. After defeating the prototype C-9X droid sent by Maas, the Imperial forces killed the CEC board and overloaded the ion cannons targeting the rocket trams.

A major rebel assault on the occupation forces was averted when the Imperial agent Hazeen, who had infiltrated the resistance, managed to alert other Imperials to the rebels' blind drops and thereby put a stop to the attack. As they had in several other regions, the Empire offered bounties on groups of rebel saboteurs in the Incorporation Islands when the resistance members became especially troublesome. When Raddus Venn learned that groups of heavily-armed CorSec officers were still resisting Imperial control in the Incorporation Islands, he helped an Imperial strike team draw out and kill several of them, hoping that his former comrades would see reason and surrender to Imperial rule. However, CorSec continued to resist&mdash;an elite CorSec unit gained access to high-grade explosives and used them to bomb Incorporation Spaceport, destroying an entire squadron of Imperial transports and forcing the Empire to use the nearby Coronet Spacecport instead. An Imperial squad under Randun were ordered by Junia Tavrak to eliminate the CorSec officers, but when the squad failed Tavrak was forced to enlist the help of other agents of the Empire in order to stop an attack on Coronet Spaceport.

A group of Drall&mdash;a species native to the planet of the same name in the Corellian system&mdash;under the leadership of a Drall named Aerowynn resisted initial attempts by Lieutenant Veet's squad to take their weapons factory, but further attacks by the Empire allowed the invaders to successfully take control of the explosive mines and munitions stored in the factory. A unit under Captain Helricks encountered a group of Wookiee factory workers within the magnogravitics plant in the Incorporation Islands. The Wookiees quickly decimated the squad, and Helricks was forced to retreat and seek help from other Imperial operatives. Despite their size and ferocity, the Wookiees eventually fell in battle, and the Imperials gained control of most of the planet's industry.

War begins
"The Republic has allies all over Corellia, but they're no help if we can't reach them. We've got to find those neutron emitters."

- General Aves

When the Republic finally restored communications with Corellia and learned of the situation there, they immediately mobilized a significant military force to aid the besieged planet. Arriving on the planet, the military under General Aves quickly established a beachhead at the Shipwright Auxiliary Spaceport in Coronet's blastfield shipyards and withstood all Imperial attempts to force them off the planet. Before long, the shipyards served as the main entry point for Republic forces, and their presence has survived the numerous bombing runs made by the Imperials across the sector. The Empire established its own beachhead in the area by seizing the Coronet Shipping trade hub, destroying the main ground approach to the facility's landing pads and maintaining constant aerial patrols to dissuade Republic assault shuttles. The Imperials also restricted Republic troop movements when they began use modified neutron emitters to blockade the blastfield shipyards. The emitters, which were targeted at the rocket trams and killed all organic lifeforms aboard, deadlocked Aves' forces and prevented him from moving any large detachments to most of Coronet other than Axial Park.

However, fighting with the resistance primarily spilled over into the Labor Valley region, where Imperial forces under Major Tradik fought rebel guerrillas amidst burning factories and devastated structures. As the fighting increased across Corellia, arms dealers came to the planet in order to ply their trade to the occupation forces. One of these arms dealers, Jerris Rez, set up shop in the Labor Valley and began to supply military-grade ordnance and other weapons to Major Tradik. However, when groups of Wookiees, Drall, and Selonians began to attack his shipments, Rez hired several mercenaries to eliminate the aliens in exchange for some of his stock. Corellia StarDrive, a hyperdrive manufacturer, began to funnel credits and supplies to the resistance, but the Empire soon learned of this and had Corgan Sturm's troops detonate explosives throughout the company's complex. The Republic forces aiding StarDrive were killed in the explosion, and the company's buildings were reduced to rubble.

What few Republic forces that could get through to Axial Park soon managed to gain a foothold, and both the Empire and the Republic quickly erected shied generators and weapons emplacements to secure the region. Fighting also spilled over into the Government District, and a Republic command center was established in the Drall Library as the resistance and military besieged the Legislature buiding. The heavy fighting for Axial Park soon came to be called the "Battle of Axial Park" by the natives, as both the Republic and the Empire deployed significant portions of their forces and their military hardware to the fight for control of the region.

In response to continued resistance in the Labor Valley region, the Empire bombed several factories known to harbor Corellian rebels. However, many Corellians escaped the attack and were aided by Republic doctors, and the Sith Lord Velash ordered the execution of the survivors as a warning to the resistance. The Empire also began to offer a bounty on rebel Selonians in an effort to cull the aliens' numbers. Tradik's forces gained significant ground against the resistance when information from Councillor Sull allowed the Imperials to destroy several of the rebels' supply stores, striking a heavy blow against the Corellians. However, the resistance forces fled into the Selonian tunnel network underneath Coronet, forcing an Imperial strike team to follow and eliminate the Selonian leader Murthil. As the resistance began to draw back from the region, Lieutenant Bregor ordered attacks on several of the rebels' remaining supply caches in order to deprive the Corellians of further resources in the fighting.

General Hesker's forces in Axial Park were forced to defend against Republic infiltrators when their turrets came under attack, and the Republic quickly deployed jump troopers, walkers, commandos, and artillery batteries in an effort to maintain their foothold in the area. Ambushes by Green Jedi soon became common in the park, and mercenary teams hired by the Empire to eliminate the ambushers failed repeatedly until the alien Grud enlisted the help of Imperial operatives. After drawing out the ambushers near the park's rocket tram tunnels, the Imperials overwhelmed the Green Jedi and ended the threat they posed. The Republic employed its elite rocket-jumpers as another method of ambushing Imperial forces, but the alien Thadd convinced Imperial squads to move the rocket-jumpers' landing beacons, drawing the Republic soldiers into ambushes themselves. When an Imperial weapons transport was shot down over the park, Lord Karvus led a munitions recovery team to retrieve the craft's newly-designed high-yield explosives, but Republic forces ambushed the unit. Lieutenant Ogden, the squad's only survivor, was forced to seek help from other Sith and Imperials in the area in order to recover the bombs before the Republic.

As fighting in Axial Park reached its height, the Republic released several jaggalors from the Coronet Zoo upon the advancing Imperials. Despite the protests of zoo staff, Lieutenant Boonan's men exterminated the rare Corellian predators in order to end the threat they posed. When a Selonian warren in Axial Park began to threaten the Imperial occupation forces there, Lord Kanno's forces invaded their den and eradicated the natives. General Dane's position in Axial Park was threatened when the Republic began to deploy sapper droids against the shield generators protecting the Imperial Garrison there. Fortunately for the Empire, a combined Imperial and Sith offensive drove back the Republic troops from the generators, and the Imperial Garrison remained secure against the Republic. Hesker's forces eventually managed to push back the enemy into their command center, where an elite strike force stormed the compound and eliminated the Republic commander Jedi Master Corin Tok and his apprentices. The loss of Tok was a grievous blow to the Republic presence in Axial Park, and they were forced to retreat from the region and regroup.

A strike to the heart
"A compact will be signed, publicly. Corellia's governor will demand the Supreme Chancellor ratify the treaty and withdraw Republic forces. The Supreme Chancellor will have to acknowledge that the Corellians have chosen Imperial rule, but not before Jun Seros convinces him that his Jedi can turn the tide."

- Darth Tormen

When the Sith Lord Darth Tormen learned of the Corellian resistance to the occupation, he transferred his forces under General Krau from the recently-conquered planet Rabaan to Corellia. He also utilized a bounty hunter, who had been publicly disgraced and criminalized by Supreme Chancellor Dorian Janarus and the Jedi Master Jun Seros, to advance the Imperial cause on the embattled Core World. Tormen intended to crush the Corellian resistance before the Republic could marshal a full military response, which would force the Republic to recognize a treaty declaring Corellia an official subject of the Empire, and therefore draw out the Chancellor so that the bounty hunter could eliminate him.

On Corellia, the hunter was employed by Tormen to capture several influential leaders of the rebellion so that the Empire could force them to publicly surrender. Working with Tormen's forces, the mercenary successfully captured Chairman Harlon Fane of the Corellian Corporate Council from his stronghold in the executive offices of the Corporate Council's tower in the Incorporation Islands. The bounty hunter also captured the Selonian Shrona Bel-Il, a raider who was aiding the resistance in breaking the Imperial lines, and delivered her to Tormen in the Sith Lord's headquarters in Axial Park. Tormen's third assignment was to capture Commissioner Carter from the CorSec Headquarters itself, and Prime Minister Falcone broadcasted the trio's surrender from the Grand Assembly of the Corellian Legislature itself. To Falcone's suprise, Tormen killed the man immediately after the address as punishment for allowing the Corellian resistance to take shape.

Tormen's plan worked perfectly&mdash;the Republic responded to the surrender by mobilizing a fleet to the Corellian system that included the Supreme Chancellor's personal Valor-class cruiser Founder. In the midst of the renewed fighting, the bounty hunter's enemy Jun Seros&mdash;the Jedi Order's own renowned battlemaster&mdash;landed a small force of Jedi in the Green Gardens outside of the Green Jedi Enclave, intending to lead the Green Jedi against the Empire in concert with the Republic's planned offensives. However, the hunter infiltrated Seros' headquarters and killed the experienced Jedi Master before he could complete his preparations.

Not long after Janarus arrived in the Corellian system, he and Jedi Master Syo Bakarn learned that an Imperial fleet composed of over thirty troop transports, carrying thousands of reinforcements, was on its way to Corellia, led by a dreadnaught named the Javelin. Fortunately, the Javelin was captured by a strike team led by the Jedi Master who held the title of Barsen'thor, or Warden of the Order.



However, Tormen detected the Chancellor's transmission and gave the bounty hunter the assignment of assassinating Janarus himself&mdash;gaining access to the cruiser using a fake emergency signal, the hunter cut a path through the Supreme Guard and killed Janarus while the Founder was still in orbit.

The loss of Janarus dealt a great political blow to the Republic, but in the days that followed his assassination the battle for Corellia continued. Leontyne Saresh, the former governor of the resettlement initiative on the ruined world of Taris, was elected as Supreme Chancellor, and she continued to send resources and men to aid the Corellian resistance. The Barsen'thor, meanwhile, traveled to Corellia to recover one of the members of the Javelin strike team, who had been ejected in an escape pod that had crashed in the Blastfield Shipyards. The Jedi Consular was engaged in a hunt for the mysterious Children of the Emperor, sleeper agents amongst the Republic who were extensions of the Emperor's will, and the companion who had crashed had managed to recover data vital to the search from the Javelin computers before ejection.

Furious that Darth Tormen was stealing his moment of triumph, Darth Decimus began making plans to personally lead an elite force of Sith and Imperial operatives in an assault against the Green Jedi Enclave. After his agents defeated a team of Republic commandos and the Jedi Master Bedoch in the Republic Foundation Museum in order to recover the Enclave's access codes. Decimus' forces and a team of Imperial Guards under General Hesker's leadership stormed the structure and fought a brutal battle against the army of Green Jedi within. Within the Enclave, the Sith forces killed Master Arfan Ramos and the other members of the Green Jedi Council in a battle in the Council's chamber, and Decimus' agents eliminated Darbin Sull since the man had outlived his usefulness. After taking the Green Jedi enclave, the Imperials established a garrison in the structure, but the Republic employed stealth troopers in an attempt to drive out the invaders. The Imperial tech specialist Shorn determined that the Republic was utilizing an incredibly advanced cloaking technology, but managed to modify a stealth field generator to disrupt other fields. As a result, Imperial forces were able to strip the stealth troopers' advantages, leveling the playing field and allowing the more numerous Imperials to secure their control of the enclave.

During the fighting in the Government District, Captain Zender's unit managed to corner a sizable resistance force, but the rebels managed to construct several repeating blasters to halt the Imperial advance. However, Zender's forces were able to overwhelm the rebel defenses with the aid of Sith and Imperial operatives, and significantly reduced the resistance's numbers in the area. Admiral Hestun enlisted the help of an Imperial strike team to target the Republic's anti-air defenses so that his fleet could bombard the emplacements, as Hestun was not permitted to bomb the entire sector&mdash;the Emperor himself wanted the Legislature intact. The team was successful in its mission, allowing Hestun to accurately target the emplacements, but the Republic would retain a foothold in the Drall Library despite their loss. The Republic was able to establish an encampment in the Coronet Arms Hotel near the Legislature, and after repeated Imperial assaults failed to dislodge them the Sith Lord Malichose was personally selected by Darth Decimus to rectify the situation. Malichose's operatives stormed the hotel, massacring the Republic troopers and resistance members inside before destroying the heavy artillery set up there. The Imperial Ministry of War also offered bounties on Green Jedi after an enclave was discovered in the Government District, in an effort to thin the ranks of the native Jedi. Captured Green Jedi were brought to interrogation expert Emma Thex, but she was forced to employ the aid of other Imperial operatives in order to recover CorSec interrogation droids from a Republic storage facility when her captives proved resilient.

Political intrigue
"Darths Thanaton, Baras, Vowrawn... half the Sith on the planet are expending Imperial troops on power plays instead of the war."

- Keeper

As the conflict escalated, certain high-ranking Sith Lords decided to take advantage of the chaos to pursue their own ends. Darth Baras, who was attempting to declare himself Voice of the Emperor, but had tried to kill his apprentice in order to silence the younger Sith. Baras' apprentice had been appointed to the position of Emperor's Wrath by the servants of the Emperor, and the Emperor's Hand had ordered the Sith to protect the Dark Councillor Darth Vowrawn from Baras' assassins on Corellia. The Wrath foiled several assassins in the Incorporation Islands before making contact with Vowrawn in the elder Sith's base within one of the nearby towers. Allying with Vowrawn, the Wrath began to target Baras' subordinates on Corellia, starting with Colonel Senks, a spy planted in the Corellian resistance. After killing the spy in a resistance stronghold located in the Labor Valley, the Wrath exposed the traitorous Jedi Master Injaye to her comrades Rubatin, Tatham, and Joce before killing all four of the Jedi in their secret bunker. The Sith Warrior's final actions against Baras involved storming the Sith Lord's secret base on the planet, defeating Baras' servant Lord Draahg and releasing the mysterious Entity the elder Sith used to gain visions of the future.

Around the same time, the Dark Councillor Darth Thanaton declared a Kaggath&mdash;an ancient Sith rite that involved a battle between two Sith and their power bases&mdash;against a young Sith Lord named Kallig, and declared Corellia to be their battlefield. On Corellia, Kallig's first strike was to kill Thanaton's apprentice Lord Skar in the Incorporation Islands, and Thanaton responded by trying to destroy a fuel refinery needed to refuel Kallig's fleet. Thanaton briefly confronted the younger Sith as Kallig raced to disarm the explosives in the refinery, but instead of fighting he sprung a trap that would have caused destroyed the structure with a series of explosions if Kallig had not shut down the refinery.

Seeking to claim victory, Kallig enlisted the help of Major Ilun's forces after defeating a Republic strike force in Axial Park, and with the support of Ilun's troops the Sith Inquisitor stormed Thanaton's headquarters in the Museum of Corellian Industry. After destroying the DP-6 Guard Droid Thanaton left to defend his headquarters, Kallig deactivated the museum's shields so that Moff Pyron and the Inquisitor's fleet could bombard the structure. However, Thanaton took advantage of his opponent's absence to attack Moff Pyron's headquarters in Capitol Square, forcing Kallig to defend the Moff before meeting the elder Sith for a final duel. But instead of facing Kallig himself, Thanaton first unleashed his subordinate Darth Kallous and cyborg soldiers upon his opponent, and when Kallig succeeded in defeating Thanaton in combat the Dark Councillor fled the planet. Fleeing to Korriban to seek aid from the Dark Council, Thanaton was pursued by Kallig, who fought and killed him in a final confrontation in the Council chambers.

Gaining ground
After his victories in Axial Park and the Government District, Darth Decimus soon turned his attention to the continued Republic presence in the blastfield shipyards, and his forces began to press the offensive against their trapped opponents. Several bombing runs were attempted, but the Republic's anti-aircraft emplacements in the region soon forced the Empire to switch to a more conventional ground assault. An Imperial bomber was shot down over the shipyards by Republic anti-aircraft emplacements, but it crashed near the Shipwright Auxiliary Spaceport with several active warheads still attached.

Fortunately for the civilians and military in the area, Sergeant Larus's explosives experts managed to disarm the ordnance before they ignited the gas conduits underground and ripped apart half of Coronet City. With the Republic's help, CorSec established a command center in the Gilded Descent Casino, and the casino's owner Hannak Vrish turned to betting on the conflict as a new source of revenue. However, he was still willing to aid the Republic war effort out of both loyalty and desire for profit, so he helped the Republic rewire several of his hidden cameras in the region to spy on Imperial movements. When the Empire seized the Rendili Vehicle Corporation's facility in the blastfield shipyards, the company's personnel managed to evacuate but left behind several newly-developed shuttles. A recovery attempt led by Sergeant Herron failed to retrieve the shuttles when a large group of mercenaries hired by the Empire was discovered guarding them, and Herron was forced to seek aid from other Republic and Jedi forces. A strike team was able to infiltrate the warehouse and open an access tunnel for Herron's men, and the sergeant and his subordinate Yung led the unit in stealing the shuttles while the strike team blew up a fuel depot outside as a diversion.

When Councillor Haronn, one of the last pro-Republic Council members, was being shipped off-world by Republic forces, his transport was shot down over Imperial territory in the eastern shipyards. Agent Halloway of the Republic Strategic Information Service enlisted the aid of both resistance members and Republic forces to successfully recover the Councillor before the Imperials could locate him in the Production Park region. The blastfield shipyards' gang-ridden Blue Sector became a battlefield when the criminal Coronas began to shake down resistance-friendly Corellians. When Ben Kahob was murdered by the Coronas for the medkits he was stockpiling for the Republic, Officer Danod of CorSec requested the Republic's aid in putting a stop to it. Answering Danod's request, a Republic and Jedi strike force attacked the Corona hideout, driving the gang out of the sector. One of Aves' subordinates, Lieutenate Boteke, discovered that the Empire was preparing to deploy special forces against the trapped Republic military, but died in the process of gaining the information. However, Aves' CorSec allies managed to gain information on the emitters' location, and the general employed groups of Jedi and Republic operatives to take out the Empire's supply camps in the area so that he could reach the CorSec base in the Red Light Sector. There, the general and his allies learned that the emitters were located in the Imperial-held Coronet Shipping, but CorSec suspected that some of the Selonian tunnels ran underneath the Imperial base.

However, the CorSec officer who was meeting with the Selonians, Cole Cantarus, had been captured by the Empire and imprisoned in an Imperial-held CorSec station in the nearby Entertainment Plaza. Aves' forces assaulted the facility and rescued both Cantarus and his Selonian contact Gosse. With Gosse's information, the Republic began preparing for an assault on Coronet Shipping, but also freed her trapped den-mates from the Imperials at her request. The capture of Gosse' sept, or den-family, was part of the Empire's crackdown on the Selonians, whose efforts in aiding the resistance had greatly frustrated the Empire. The Imperials hired a bounty hunter named Vermilion, who had learned to fight Selonians during an earlier contract on one of their den mothers, began to deploy specially-programmed war droids that targeted Selonians&mdash;regardless of whether they aided the resistance or not. However, the Selonian scout Lachei was able to locate the droids' command unit in the tunnels below the shipyards, and Republic forces were able to destroy the unit and thereby end the threat. As General Aves mobilized his forces in preparation for boarding the rocket trams, a Republic strike force attacked Coronet Shipping using the tunnels and inflicted heavy casualties on the surprised Imperials. After defeating the Imperial commander Captain Granta and his elite shock troopers, the strike force prepared to shut down the neutron emitters, but Aves informed his forces that the Imperials were already aboard the trams&mdash;they were going to attack the Republic forces in an attempt to stop them from moving out into the city. However, Cantarus protested that several dozen civilians were aboard the trams, and instead of using the emitters against the Imperials the strike team simply shut down the trams. Aves' men were forced to defeat the Imperials aboard the trams before they could board themselves, but the general later acknowledged that it was the right decision.

With the rocket trams accessible to the Republic once again, Aves' forces were able to further reinforce the resistance fighters in Labor Valley and renew their offensive in Axial Park. To the general's surprise, he and Captain Cantarus were contacted by Councillor Belos, one of the Council members who had helped the Empire in the invasion. Belos claimed to have had a change of heart, and was quick to explain to the general that his forces in Labor Valley were in danger&mdash;the Empire was utilizing prototype droids capable of bringing down any short-range vehicle, a technology developed under duress by Corellia's best scientists and technicians. Despite his suspicions about Belos' loyalty, Aves agreed to send some of his forces to aid the Councillor's assistant Deena Behar in stopping the droids. The Empire was producing the prototype droids in a secure facility with prison-grade vault doors, and since the doors would only open in an emergency, Behar directed Aves' forces to the captured Beharen Droid Factory, which specialized in disaster relief droids capable of triggering the doors. The assault on the factory was successful, with the disaster relief droids allowing the Republic forces to break down the doors on the Empire's lab. The chief scientist working on the prototype droids, Danison Varik, activated his droids in an attempt to kill the Republic forces, but he was taken into custody after his droids were defeated.

As the Republic's forces moved into Labor Valley and began to aid the beleaguered resistance members still in the area, the Corellia Chemical Corporation factory became a war zone when Republic forces tried to force the Imperials out of the structure. During the fighting, the factory took heavy damage, and a CorSec officer named Lanius Carr was forced to begin evacuation when it was discovered the factory was going to explode. Fortunately for the civilians in the area, Jedi and Republic forces were able to fight past the Imperial battle droids in the factory to shut down the chemical refining equipment, averting the disaster and hundreds of civilian casualties. Not long afterwards, the Drall doctor and environmental specialist Ernisto Misar discovered that the fighting in the factory had ruptured its main pipelines, causing toxic chemicals to spill into one of the city's aquifers. His clan was able to repair the pipelines thanks to the efforts of the Republic, whose agents recovered the specialized materials necessary for the repairs from the battlefield in the Labor Valley.

Doctor Tan Kirin, a Republic medical officer, sought help from the Jedi and Republic military in order to destroy smokescreen, a gaseous toxin that had been developed by Ardus Industries. Kirin was able to recruit a team of Jedi and troopers to liberate the company's factories and destroy the toxin, which captured by the Empire when the factories had been seized. Amidst the continuing looting of resistance supply caches by Imperial forces, a Jedi by the name of Palla Mazlin attempted to defend one of the caches but was injured in the fighting. She was forced to seek help from other Jedi and Republic forces to retrieve the stolen medkits, shield emitters, barricades, and other equipment, and with the supplies the resistance was able to retain a foothold in the region as Republic aid continued to arrive.

Captain Ranneth's patrol unit was ambushed by Imperial forces in the Advanced Product Research Sector of the Labor Valley, and he was the only member of his team to escape. However, a A Republic rescue team was able to liberate the injured soldiers and deliver much-needed medical assistance before extracting them to the Republic's tram station. The bombing in the Labor Valley also damaged a munitions factory that was storing starship torpedoes, and Lieutenant Kallum's attempts to put out the fires and remove the detonite charges from the torpedoes failed when they were attacked by damaged and rampaging droids. Fortunately for the civilians and military forces in the area, reinforcements were able to fight through the droids to reach the torpedoes and disarm the charges, preventing the torpedoes from destroying the sector.

The Battle of Axial Park
Pushing into Axial Park, the Republic was able to establish a safe house near the Leisure Garden, and General Aves' forces engaged the Imperial soldiers, Sith, and Imperial Guardsmen who had set up long-range artillery and defensive trenches across the Garden. Further offensives by the Republic resulted in the destruction of most of the Empire's walkers in Axial Park using their own heavy ordnance, the elimination of Imperial snipers in the Coronet Zoo, and the destruction of several long-range artillery pieces in the Leisure Garden. Aves' forces continued to press their advantage, attacking the Imperial Command Center in Archival Square and recovering vital information from the Empire's computer systems. An early action by General Aves' forces in Axial Park was to send a unit under Lieutenant Rufar reclaim the Cross of Glory Walk, a memorial path in the Leisure Garden that honored the heroes of the Jedi Civil War, but the Empire's deployment of Mandalorian rocket-troopers allowed them to recapture the Walk and strike a blow to the Republic's morale. Imperial forces made a sport out of blasting Republic war memorials, and a group of CorSec officers were killed trying to protect the Carth Onasi monument. However, additional Republic and Jedi forces were able to drive the Mandalorians out of the area, reclaiming the holo statues and boosting morale.

However, the Empire would not let the rocket trams out of their grasp without a fight. With the help of Imperial forces to fight off the Republic's snipers and troopers, the expert demolitionist Kapp Zyman detonated bombs along the rocket tram's green line and deprived the Republic of a vital route into Coronet. But fortunately for the Republic, repair teams sent by Sia Norrin were able to repair a second line that had been damaged during an Imperial attack, giving the Republic an alternate route into Axial Park. An attempt to reprogram the Imperial artillery in the area failed when the astromech B3-RD was destroyed by Imperial snipers, but Republic forces recovered the targeting program from the broken droid and managed to install it in the Imperial artillery. As a result, the artillery began to target any Imperial bombers that approached nearby residential zones.

The Corellian Security Force Academy in Axial Park was captured by the Empire early during the invasion so that they could make use of SurvNet, a network of security cameras that covered Coronet City and fed back to the Academy. CorSec and the Republic made repeated efforts to reclaim the Academy throughout the battle, but it was not until Republic forces were recruited by Officer Silas to attack the Academy while he and his squad distracted the Imperials. The attack was a success, and additional forces rescued Silas, Hanley, Davit, Crissom, and the rest of his squad before they were overrun by the Empire. An Imperial unit under Commander Rigby captured the nearby Daoba Hotel and held the dozens of civilians inside hostage for several days while they installed heavy artillery atop the building. The Republic's Colonel Tott was unable to call in any airstrikes because of the civilians, but a combined Jedi and military effort freed the hostages so that an airstrike could remove the threat of the artillery.

Sergeant Gelens's Manka-class Armored Transport was attacked by Imperial forces and disabled, leaving his unit trapped inside the damaged walker in the middle of the battle-torn Axial Park. Republic forces were able to locate a distress beacon on one of his unit's body nearby, and Gelens managed to communicate his predicament so that the squad could be rescued. As the fighting continued, the data from the Imperial command center allowed the Republic to locate Commander Tainor, the head of the Imperial Guard, in the Imperial-occupied Museum Republica. A subsequent assault by an elite strike team resulted in Tainor's capture, and the Imperial forces in Axial Park were thrown into disarray with their commander in Republic hands, and Aves was able to push forward into the Government District itself.

Jedi forces


Among the first reinforcements who would turn the battle in the Republic's favor was the group of Jedi under the command of the Jedi Knight known as the Hero of Tython. The Hero, who was attempting to foil the plans of the Sith Emperor and prevent him from completing a dark ritual that would allow the Emperor to consume the life of the entire galaxy, had learned that the corrupted Jedi Master Tol Braga was aiding the Sith forces on Corellia, and Grand Master Satele Shan immediately ordered the young Jedi to the planet. Suspecting that Braga would be able to block the Republic's efforts using his knowledge, the Grand Master began gathering reinforcements from the Outer Rim Territories and appointed the Hero as Supreme Commander of all Jedi forces on the planet.

With help from Captain Rikdine of the Republic Military, the Hero was able to gather the few remaining Jedi in the blastfield shipyards, battling through Mandalorians, war droids, and Imperial troopers while the Grand Master's reinforcements&mdash;the Outer Rim Jedi Forces&mdash;arrived. The Hero and Unaw Aharo were able to fight off an attack on the apartment building of several resistance-friendly families, and the Knight then rescued fellow Jedi Bengel Morr from a group of Mandalorian mercenaries who had been pursuing the Nautolan across the shipyard's Entertainment Plaza. An attack on resistance forces in the tunnels beneath the western shipyards was also halted by the former Sith Lord Praven and the Hero, allowing the resistance fighters to push back the enemy in that area. By the time the Jedi reinforcements arrived, General Aves' forces had successfully broken out of the blastfield shipyards, and the Hero's old ally General Var Suthra was able to establish a forward base in the Labor Valley before summoning the Knight to the region.

In the Labor Valley, Suthra and the Hero strategized on how to locate Braga's forces in the area, and the Knight diverted the Outer Rim Jedi to recapture several weapons factories belonging to the wealthy businesswoman Magremme Thrakus. Thanks to the efforts of SIS Agent Helver, the Hero was able to locate a Sith strike force constructing a chemical bomb in the Saxan Chemical Refinery, and a subsequent attack on the refinery ended the Sith threat while the Outer Rim Jedi successfully retook Thrakus' weapons factories so that they could continue to supply the Republic war effort.

Suthra was able to establish a base in the Corellian Science Museum near the Republic's main base in Axial Park, and

Storming the Bastion
With the information gained from Master Braga, Grand Master Shan and General Suthra withdrew a significant part of the Republic's forces from Corellia in a risky gamble&mdash;an attack on the Imperial capital of Dromund Kaas itself, as a way of buying time for the Hero of Tython to confront the Sith Emperor in his Dark Temple. However, the Hero's Jedi forces remained on the planet to aid the military, and Supreme Commander Rans directed reinforcements to Corellia so that the Republic would not lose its advantage. The first of the two waves of reinforcements was a significant deployment of armor and infantry, led by General Elin Garza and the elite Special Forces unit Havoc Squad.

The Rift Alliance
A second wave of reinforcements came from the Rift Alliance, a coalition of worlds considering secession that had recently returned to the Republic fold thanks to the Barsen'thor

Victory
When the Republic discovered that the Empire had procured a Republic warhead from a classified source and were planning to detonate it underneath the Government District, "Operation Black Haze" was put into effect: an elite Republic squad was charged with locating and disarming the warhead with ion charges. However, the squad was ambushed before they could reach their object, and after learning of the operation from one of the fallen soldiers' datapad other Republic forces descended into the tunnels to complete the mission themselves. Colonel Marclonus of the 4th Infantry Division was charged with securing the Republic's position in the western section of the Records and Communication Sector, but the Imperial Guard ambushed his troops and kidnapped several non-Human officers. Marclonus, who had spent ten years as a Hutt's slave messenger, was furious to learn that his men had been placed in shock collars, and enlisted the help of other Republic and Jedi forces when his commanding officer refused to send him any additional squads. At Marclonus' request, the reinforcements attacked the Imperial Guards and their shocktroopers, freeing the captive officers and driving the Empire out of that sector.

As the battle in the Government District heated up, the Empire began to deploy mortar cannons to blast the Republic forces out of the area. Sergeant Volos, his squads, and CorSec's Tactical Response Teams made progress against the Empire's forces near the main rocket tram station, but they were unable to proceed until Republic strike teams managed to eliminate the Imperial shock troopers guarding the mortar cannons and destroy the weapons. The supply frigate Fortress was vital to the Imperial supply chain on Corellia, and its loss would deal a severe blow to Imperial operations on the planet. Therefore, the Republic Military formulated plans for an assault on the craft, but the plans were stolen and brokered to Imperial Intelligence before the attack could take place. Fortunately for the Republic, operatives from both the military and the SIS managed to infiltrate the Imperial Intelligence headquarters in the occupied Corellian Communications Center. The recovery effort's secondary objective&mdash;to override the center's listening posts and relay Imperial data straight to the Republic&mdash;was also successful, allowing SIS operative Talash to intercept vital information on Imperial movements.

The Empire also began to deploy droids that took control of Corellian models, turning them against the resistance, but the plot was quickly discovered and stopped before it incurred many casualties. However, the Empire resorted to utilizing signal scramblers against Republic ships in the area, causing the Republic to target their own ships. After three medical transports were shot down over the Government District and killed their several hundred passengers, General Aves and the other commanders grounded all flights across the region. Fortunately for the Republic, Private Vekker of the 2nd Infantry recruited the help of other Republic operatives in taking out the Imperial forces guarding the control tower with the jammers, and after the scramblers were disabled Republic air traffic could resume. The Empire soon began deploying starfighters on bombing runs across the Government District against Republic troops, but Captain Bathens refused to authorize a military strike against the starfighters' hangar out of the belief that the structure was too well defended. However, the mercenary Trigo Shane, who had been hired by the Republic as a consultant, managed to convince several Jedi and Republic operatives to launch a concentrated assault on the hangar, and the strike team successfully ended the Imperial threat when they blew up the building with demolition charges.

In the Government District, Captain Cantarus was informed by Councillor Belos that the Empire had a surprise in store for the Republic: the Ion Wall. The destructive weapon would deactivate all electronics in its target area, rendering the Republic's forces helpless, but Belos alerted Cantarus to the location of the Ion Wall's emitters. With that information, the Republic was able to realign the emitters and target the Legislature instead, and a strike team infiltrated the Intra-Corellian Intelligence building to reach the Ion Wall's controls. In the process, the strike team encountered and defeated Darth Acharon, a member of the Dark Council who had been sent to Corellia after Tormen's success with the Chancellor cast doubts on Decimus' ability to lead the battle. The successful activation of the Ion Wall stripped away a significant amount of the Imperial defenses around the Legislature, allowing General Aves' forces to enter the Legislature itself.

With reinforcements from CorSec and the Green Jedi, Republic forces were able to fight through the heavy Imperial presence in the Legislature and reach the building's holdout room, where a strike force defeated the Dark Councillor Darth Hadra and arrested the members of the Corellian Council who were still aiding the Empire. A final push into the Speaker's Courtyard saw the death of Darth Decimus himself&mdash;an event that was broadcast across the entire planet, throwing the Empire's forces into disarray. General Aves, Cantarus, and Belos capitalized on their success by contacting Supreme Chancellor Saresh from the Legislature's Press Room, and Saresh delivered a resounding victory speech before the Galactic Senate.

Aftermath
With the death of Darth Decimus and the public declaration of a Republic victory, Imperial forces were thrown into confusion across Corellia. The Dark Councillor Darth Marr, recognizing that the issues in Hutt Space and the ongoing attempt to capture Denova had left the Empire vulnerable and unable to sustain the Core offensive, appointed General Adele Konya as acting commander and ordered her to withdraw all Imperial forces, redirecting them with General Hesker to Ilum.

The Black Hole
However, Konya was also given the assignment of staying behind with a task force on a suicide mission - to take control of the Black Hole hypermatter refinery.

Behind the scenes
The Battle of Corellia appears throughout the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic, released by BioWare and LucasArts. The events of the invasion are detailed throughout the in-game Codex, while the events of the occupation and the battle are described through the Imperial and then Republic world and class missions.

All missions can be completed by a group of players, and any class can complete both the world missions and side missions. Therefore, this article refers to the player characters in each quest as a group of Imperial or Republic operatives, and assumes that each faction completes their respective missions according to their respective alignments.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic

Notes and references
-