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 Sith Civil War. After the destruction of the ship Convergence and the factory Black Fang on Darkknell, Lord Daiman captured Narsk Ka'hane, the Bothan operative behind the bombing. As Daiman suspected Ka'hane to be working for Odion, Daiman's brother, Daiman plotted to set a trap for Odion. He allowed Ka'ahne to overhear a conversation between himself and Lord Ayanos Bactra, in which Bactra agreed to deliver an arxeum, a massive, mobile university, to Daiman on the volcanic planet Gazzari. Daiman then allowed Ka'hane to go free, expecting the spy to deliver that information to Odion. He also hired numerous independent mercenaries, including Jarrow Rusher, Mak Medagazy, and a Nosaurian mercenary to prepare an ambush for Odion.

Daiman sent the mercenaries to Gazzari, and then traveled there himself, unaware that Jedi Knight Kerra Holt had stowed aboard his ship using a Cyricept Personal Concealment System, Mark VI, which she had stolen from Ka'hane. Holt also had a number of baradium nitrate explosives which she had stolen from a factory on Darkknell. Daiman landed on Gazzari, but left the bulk of his fleet away from the system. Once on the surface, the mercenaries prepared for the ambush, assembling themselves on the walls of a massive crater. Four transports from Industrial Heuristics, carrying with them over a thousand students which Daiman intended to use in the arxeum, arrived and set down inside the crater. As the students began departing the transports, the arxeum itself arrived, followed closely by Odion’s forces, including Ka'hane. Odion saw Bactra's forces, which had delivered the arxeum, near Gazzari’s sun, but did not attack them. Instead, he descended into Gazzari’s atmosphere and lowered a Death Spiral, a massive siege tower, directly between the Industrial Heuristics transport and the arxeum, cutting the students off from their intended destination. The Death Spiral exchanged fire with the mercenaries on the ridge, and raised a shield which made it impervious to energy attacks. While Rusher's Brigade began launching projectiles closed in on the Death Spiral, Odion's ship landed, carrying the Sith Lord and his Thunder Guard units, many of which fought from speeder bikes. Once Odion had landed, Daiman's fleet came out of hyperspace behind Odion's, cutting off their retreat.

However, Odion was winning the battle on the surface, as the Death Spiral destroyed all four Industrial Heuristics transports as well as the bulk of the arxeum itself. Unable to withstand the fire of the Death Spiral, Rusher ordered his troops to retreat back to his ship, the Diligence. Holt managed to capture one of the Thunder Guard speeder bikes, and began shepherding the students from the transports off the battlefield. With the arxeum destroyed, Holt led the students toward the cliffs where Daiman's mercenaries were retreating. Before leaving the battlefield, Holt strapped the baradium nitrate explosives to a speeder bike and sent it toward the Death Spike, using a detonator to set off the explosion, which destroyed Odion's massive weapon. She then convinced Rusher, who had lost more than half his forces, to allow the students aboard 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 fired on Bactra's ships, still in orbit above Gazzari. 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. Ka'hane was to gather information on Daiman's starship Convergence, being built at the Black Fang on Darkknell, and to subsequently destroy the ship. Using a Cyricept Personal Concealment System, Mark VI, Ka'hane infiltrated the Black Fang and downloaded the Convergence's technical readouts onto a datapad. Leaving several baradium thermal charges with the ship, Ka'hane left the Black Fang. However, he was spotted by Jedi Knight Kerra Holt, who hoped to have the Concealment System 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 Black Fang. Taking Ka'hane's Concealment System 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 Black Fang, brought Ka'hane to his Sanctum Celestial, where he contacted 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, 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 frontier world of Gazzari. Allowing Ka'hane to listen in on the conversation with Bactra, Daiman then ordered the bonds holding the Bothan spy to be loosened. With the help of Holt, who sneaked into the Sanctum with Ka'hane's Concealment System, 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. 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, Rusher's Brigade 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 slick 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 Concealment System, 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 the Nautolan 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 set down their landing ramps, and the young students inside poured out, making their way toward the arxeum. Holt, realizing that the students and arxeum 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 forces of Bactra, 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 rings of the Death Spiral continue to move, 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 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 and without the Industrial Heuristics transports, which had been destroyed by the Death Spiral. Holt killed the three troopers, and hijacked one of the speeder bikes, using it to reach the students and shepherding them toward the arxeum, where they could use its massive body for cover against the Death Spiral.

The Death Spiral, meanwhile, was continuing to rain fire on Daiman's forces, disabling many of Rusher’s Kelligdyd cannons. Daiman 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 last known position, hoping to salvage any equipment and survivors from the battalion. Though given orders not to leave 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 and would not receive the 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 a Vodran trooper, she noticed Daiman’s command dome, untouched due to the energy shield it had raised. Believing she had left the bandolier of baradium nitrate outside the dome, Holt prepared to detonate them, not realizing 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 then saw a speeder bike flying toward her, piloted by a Givin. 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 the Givin 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. She then led the students to the east, where the laser fire from the Death Spiral had created a climbable 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 to allow her student refugees aboard his ship.

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

Appearances

 * Knight Errant