Galactic War

"We are at war! The Dark Council has placed me in charge and battles are being waged across the galaxy."

- Darth Baras

The Galactic War was a conflict which broke out after the collapse of the peace treaty between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic.

After twelve years of tenuous peace in the form of the Cold War, the actions of several powerful individuals caused open warfare to break out once more between the major galactic powers.

Origins
"Neither the Republic nor the Jedi are prepared for another war. We would lose. Billions would die."

- Grand Master Satele Shan

The return of the Sith Empire to known space in 3681 BBY marked a turning point in galactic affairs. Though the Galactic Republic had suffered greatly in recent centuries, the ferocious war unleashed by the Empire posed an existential threat unlike anything in living memory.

After nearly three decades of fighting, the two powers settled on an uneasy truce meant to conclude the war. Over a decade of peace followed, but it was neither civil nor enduring. Longstanding grievances, exacerbated by the actions of powerful individuals on both sides, served to re-ignite the paused conflict into war once again.

Settling old scores
The outbreak of a new war between the Empire and Republic was preceded by a number of proxy clashes, among them the conclusion of several conflicts which had been left unresolved at the close of the previous war between the two great powers.

With the end of the last war, the Empire declared victory in their long struggle for control of the industry world Balmorra. Ultimately, however, the celebration proved to be premature. Elements within the Republic Army refused to cede defeat, choosing instead to defy the Treaty of Coruscant by remaining on Balmorra and forming a resistance movement in partnership with the planet's natives. After over a decade of guerrilla warfare, Republic interests finally prevailed when a Jedi Consular rallied the resistance and drove the Empire from the planet.

Meanwhile, in the Outer Rim, the Empire scored a victory of its own. For a number of years during the Cold War, the Republic had made an effort to turn the ruined world Taris into a symbol of hope, by rebuilding the planet following its devastation at the hands of the Sith three centuries earlier, during the Jedi Civil War. The Republic's efforts would ultimately prove fruitless, as Darth Gravus spearheaded an effort to sabotage the project by eliminating key supporting personnel. With their deaths, the project collapsed and the Republic's work to restore the planet came to an end. Even as they were being driven from Balmorra, the Empire was able to claim victory on Taris.

Shadows of the past
During the strain on the tenuous peace, Republic Navy Fleet Admiral and Jedi Master Oteg was contacted by the spirit of the long-dead Jedi Knight Meetra Surik. Having vanished from Republic space three centuries earlier, Surik had died in a failed attempt to slay the Sith Emperor with her old Master, the legendary Knight Revan. Revan, meanwhile, had been captured by the Emperor and detained in a form of stasis for the intervening centuries. With the conflict between Republic and Empire again heating up, Surik knew that the time had come for Revan to be freed from captivity.

Following an intelligence-gathering assault on the Imperial fortress at Taral V, Oteg led his fleet into The Maelstrom to attack the Imperial prison facility inside. A fierce battle&mdash;one of the first of the soon-to-be new war&mdash;ensued, with both sides taking heavy casualties. Ultimately Oteg's fleet prevailed, successfully retrieving Revan before withdrawing from the area. With his freedom, Oteg believed that the Republic had obtained the means by which to finally defeat the Empire.

Revan's respite and sojourn to Republic space would be brief. Now fully aware of the crisis facing the galaxy, he set out to utterly destroy the Empire with the aid of ancient Rakata technology, an automated mass-manufacturing space station known as the Foundry. The Foundry was set to manufacture countless extermination droids designed with bioscanners to detect Sith genetic material, and destroy any life containing it&mdash;which would result in the genocide of the vast majority of the Imperial population.

The Empire had prepared for this situation. Darth Malgus, long opposed to the peace with the Republic, revealed to his chosen strike team that the rescue of Revan had been Malgus' own design. He intended that Revan would lead the Empire to the Foundry, in order that it could be used by the Empire in the coming war against the Republic. The Imperial strike team was successful in their attack on the Foundry, destroying the few active extermination droids already built before defeating the Jedi "hero" himself. But rather than die, Revan vanished in a mysterious burst of light and energy, his fate unknown. After mopping up the remaining Republic starships, the Empire claimed victory&mdash;and with it, ownership of the Foundry.

Hunt for the Sith Emperor
Elsewhere in the galaxy, Jedi Master Tol Braga set in motion an ambitious plan which he hoped could pre-emptively avert the coming war: to capture and subsequently redeem of the Sith Emperor to the light side of the Force.

Braga's quest enlisted the aid of a rising Jedi star who, by that point, had become known as the Hero of Tython due to his role in saving Tython from destruction at the battle of the Oppressor. The Hero travelled the galaxy for this mission, seeking out clues as to the whereabouts and technical specifications of the Emperor's highly secretive space station, conducting investigations on Balmorra, Quesh, and finally Hoth. The attack on the Emperor's person went poorly for the Jedi strike team&mdash;the entire force was captured, and most of the Jedi were effortlessly subdued by the Emperor's awesome command of the dark side of the Force.

Plan Zero
The end of the peace treaty was also aggressively pursued by Darth Baras through his apprentice. Baras set into motion his years-in-the-making Plan Zero, a plot with the two-fold objectives of assassinating the Republic's War Trust military leadership, and in so doing, ignite a war in which the Republic would no longer have the leadership necessary to prevail. The mission was an Imperial success, seeing Baras' apprentice eliminate every one of the targets to re-ignite open war between the Empire and the Republic.

Threats from within
At the start of hostilities, both powers were beset by serious threats from within. The intervening decade of relative peace had not been an idle one for the covert communities of the galaxy, seeing many deep-cover operatives installed, who could seriously undermine the war effort of both sides.

The Sith Emperor's long-term project, the Children of the Emperor, saw his agents unwittingly placed into Republic society, each rising to levels of significant power and influence&mdash;among them Syo Bakarn, a member of the Jedi Council. While most were unaware of their true natures, they remained puppets to the Emperor's will, bound to obey his wishes. It fell to the Jedi Order's Barsen'thor to seek out these agents and remove them as threats, a quest which took him to Voss and Corellia, among other places.

Within the inner circles of the Empire, Darth Baras made his own play for power, seriously threatening the stability of the state. The successful completion of Plan Zero saw Baras elevated onto the Dark Council, where he soon acted against his Emperor. Baras' saw to it that the current embodiment of the Emperor's Voice would be trapped on the planet Voss with no means of escape. In the Emperor's absence, Baras falsely claimed to be the new Emperor's Voice, in order that he could rule the Empire himself. However, in his play for power, Baras betrayed his apprentice. This would set off a chain of events leading to his apprentice being named the Emperor's Wrath, who would then go on to slay Baras in single combat.

The Emperor's ritual crisis
After a length of time as a willing servant of the Emperor, the Jedi Knight known as the Hero of Tython was redeemed and freed. The spirit of the Hero's old master, Orgus Din, helped to break the influence of the Emperor's will, while physically freed with the assistance of the Imperial turncloak, Lord Scourge. Scourge, while no friend to the Jedi or the Republic, knew that the Emperor had designs which went beyond political or philosophical differences&mdash;the Emperor planned to use a Sith ritual to enhance his own power and lifespan by destroying all life in the galaxy.

Armed with this knowledge, the Hero, Scourge, and their allies set out to stop the Emperor's plan. When word came that fanatically loyal followers of the Emperor had attacked the Republic prison world Belsavis, the group knew that it would be the first target of the Emperor's genocidal plans. Upon arrival at Belsavis, the group fought to end the Imperial incursion and avert their mission before the Emperor's ritual could begin. While there, the group encountered the Dread Masters, a group of immensely powerful dark side users who had been incarcerated for several decades. In the chaos, the Dread Masters were able to escape their imprisonment, which would have dire consequences for the galaxy in the following year.

Battle of Corellia
Not long after the incident on Belsavis and another on Voss, the Republic and the Empire came to blows in the first major armed battle of the new war. Imperial forces under the command of Darth Decimus, after months of negotiations with corrupt officials, launched a full-scale invasion of the prestigious Core world Corellia. In spite of the negotiated agreement with some officials, Imperial forces conquered many areas by force anyway.

The Imperial invasion of Corellia marked the Emperor's third attempt at mass murder in order to start his galaxy-destroying ritual of Sith sorcery. The Hero, Scourge, and their allies rushed to the beleaguered world to avert the crisis, learning that Jedi Councillor-turned-Sith Emperor fanatic, Tol Braga, was leading the operation. Eventually the Hero was able to confront his old ally, and defeated him in combat before returning the Kel Dor master to the light.

In the months of fighting and occupation, Corellia suffered millions of casualties.

Confronting the Emperor
"Survival is not our goal here&mdash;only destroying the enemy.''" "We get one shot at this. We win, or die trying." "''Every one of us is expendable. If the galaxy is to survive, the Emperor must fall."

- Lord Scourge and the Hero, to the rest of their group

Pressing their victory, the Republic and Jedi forces pushed on to a bold counterstrike&mdash;a direct attack on the Imperial capital planet, Dromund Kaas, and with it, an attack on the Sith Emperor himself.

While the Republic Fleet engaged the Imperial First Defense Fleet in orbit, a strike team commanded by the Hero of Tython descended to the stormy world to confront the Emperor and determine the fate of the galaxy. After battling their way through the Imperial capital, the team entered the inner sanctum of the Emperor: the Dark Temple. The group separated to pursue various objectives, while the Hero went on with the faithful droid companion T7-O1 to battle the dark overlord.

The Hero and the Emperor, in a new Voice body since their last encounter on Voss, battled ferociously, with the Emperor employing numerous dark side abilities and tricks to defeat his opponent. Ultimately, however, the Hero prevailed and slew the Emperor's host. His consciousness critically damaged, the essence of the Emperor retreated to his own body to hibernate for rest and recovery. Though the Emperor was not completely defeated, his state had been effectively left without a ruler.

Indirect engagements
The defeat of the Sith Emperor&mdash;while not initially revealed to the public by either power&mdash;was a stunning blow to the Empire, but it did not have the hoped-for effect of assuring swift Republic victory. Rather, it served to splinter the larger conflict into a number of smaller ones as various factions rose and vied for prominence in the ensuing chaos.

The New Empire
One of the first to seize advantage of the new circumstances was the long-dissatisfied Sith Lord Darth Malgus. Nursing decades-long grudges against the Dark Council over the Treaty of Coruscant, as well as for their own infighting and exclusionary practices, Malgus seized the opportunity to proclaim himself ruler of the New Empire.

Already in possession of the Foundry facility from the early struggle with Revan, Emperor Malgus also seized control of the Sith Emperor's now-abandoned space station. Malgus quickly searched out allies and others sympathetic to his belief that the Sith could only survive and be improved by constant warfare. Among the new allies was the Schism Collective, a technologically adept group who quickly adapted the Foundry's mass-production technologies for use on the Emperor's space station.

Following a string of victories in the Unknown Regions, Malgus and his forces gathered and struck at Ilum, a planet notable both as a place sacred to the Jedi Order as well as for its natural production of Adegan crystals. The goals of the New Empire were twofold: first, Malgus intended to destroy both the Republic and Sith Empire forces there as punishment for disloyalty. Second, the capture of the planet's crystals would provide an invaluable military resource for the fledgling state. The already-contested world quickly found itself besieged by a new player in the Galactic War.

Both Republic and Imperial forces were forced to turn and engage the New Imperial attackers, which was ultimately to the benefit of the Republic as the two Imperial groups whittled away each others' strength. A strike team was eventually able to board Malgus' commandeered space station and fight their way to his throne room. There, Malgus was slain in single combat&mdash;bringing an end to his New Empire.

The assault on Ilum, at first a major threat, had turned into an overwhelming victory for the Republic forces. Malgus' New Empire was vanquished, and in the fighting, the Sith Empire's forces on Ilum had been severely reduced. The outcome of the battle left the Republic firmly in control of Ilum, and deprived the Sith Empire of access to the valued Adegan crystals.

Return of the Dread Masters
Unknown to the Republic, the apparent death of the Sith Emperor had also caused another serious fracture in the Imperial hierarchy: the secession of the recently-freed Dread Masters. Long subservient to the Emperor's will, this group of immensely powerful Force-wielders found no-one worthy of their loyalty after his "death" and struck out on their own with intentions of coming to rule over the galaxy themselves. The machinations of these Dread Lords would also lead the Republic and the Empire into a fresh round of hostilities. The Dread Host launched a series of surgical strikes on Hutt Space designed to sew chaos and uncertainty in the region.

Rise and fall of the Hutt Cartel
In response to the attacks and lost territories, the Hutt Cartel, under the leadership of Karagga, seized control of 10 neutral star systems, which in turn drew the attention of both the Republic and the Empire. Alarmed by the unexpected threat, both powers sent strike forces to confront the Hutt Supreme Mogul and demand that he answer for it.

The confrontation on Hutta quickly descended into violence, and the strike team fought their way into the heart of Karagga's Palace, where Karagga himself was slain. The immediate threat presented by the naked Hutt aggression had been stopped, but a far more serious threat was revealed. Intelligence gathered from the raid revealed the role in the Dread Masters' attacks in prompting the Hutts' expansionism, putting both the Empire and the Republic on guard against the previously unknown threat.

The danger would have to wait, however, as Hutt aggression had not yet ended. In the wake of Karagga the Unyielding's death, Toborro rose to power as the new Supreme Mogul of the Hutt Cartel, bringing with him grandiose dreams of a galaxy ruled not by the Republic or Sith Empire, but rather by a Hutt Empire. The key to Toborro's designs lay on the non-aligned world Makeb; the galaxy's only source of the substance isotope-5. Isotope-5 possessed powerful gravity-altering properties, which had the potential to provide a near-unlimited source of power. Utilizing this newfound power would allow the Hutts the opportunity to wrest control of the galaxy away from both of the major powers.

Through a combination of force and bribery of local security forces, the Hutt Cartel seized control of Makeb. The capture of the planet drew the ire of both the Republic and the Empire, though for markedly different reasons. Within the Republic, officials were alarmed that the invasion was a pretext for a larger Hutt war of conquest&mdash;a reasonable concern, given Toborro's dreams&mdash;while the Empire had identified isotope-5 as an important means of recovering from the losses they had suffered at Corellia, Dromund Kaas, and Ilum.

The Republic's arrival initially went well for its emissaries: the Makeb locals with no loyalty to the Hutts would gladly join the Republic in exchange for the liberation of their world. A mission to rescue the niece of the rebel leader was undertaken, which turned up shocking new intelligence. The increased groundquakes experienced since the Hutt invasion were, as had been suspected, a direct result of the Hutts' deep core drilling projects. Worse, the geologic instability paired with the gravity-warping effects of isotope-5 meant that time was short before Makeb would be rendered uninhabitable.

The rescued niece, Dr. Lemda Avesta, had overheard what was believed to be valuable intelligence during her time as a prisoner of the Hutts. Terms such as "Project Failsafe" and "the Ark" lent hope and the belief that there was a means by which Makeb could be saved from destruction. This intelligence had been misinterpreted. In truth, Project Failsafe was a means by which the insane Hutt leader could flee the planet's destruction with all the mined isotope-5. Republic forces were successful in capturing the Ark and repurposing it for the evacuation of the people of Makeb.

Having finally realized that their Supreme Mogul was insane, the other leaders of the Hutt Cartel turned on him and went to the Republic for help. In exchange for allowing them to join the evacuation aboard the Ark, the Hutts agreed to end their neutrality and join the Galactic War on the side of the Republic. After retrieving the Ark's fuel rods from Toborro's Palace, in the process killing the deranged Hutt leader, the Republic and its allies were able to begin the evacuation of the planet.

Even as the Republic-aligned group prepared to flee, Imperial forces had arrived on planet without their knowledge. Racing against time, their force rushed to stabilize the core of the dying world in order to take control of the isotope-5 resources. Their mission proved overwhelmingly successful; the planet's core was stabilized, and in the process the surface was devastated by massive tectonic and volcanic activity&mdash;which appeared to the Republic forces as the planet destroying itself, just as they expected.

The battle for Makeb ended up a great boon to the Empire's war ambitions. While the Hutt Cartel was now ostensibly allied with the Republic, the Dark Council-ruled Empire was now in possession of virtually all of the isotope-5 supply.

The Dread War
The architects of the Hutts' follies, meanwhile, had been making other inroads toward galactic dominance. After a skirmish for resources on Denova, the Dread Lords came to dominate local warlord Kephess, who subsequently declared the world independent. The Trandoshan's victory would be short-lived, as both Republic and Empire dispatched forces to eliminate him and continue their fight for the planet.

For their next effort, the Dread Masters turned to a darker approach to war. They resurrected their slain Trandoshan puppet and sent him to the ancient Gree world Asation, or more specifically, to take control of the Grand Hypergate located there. The Dread Masters intended to use this ancient technology to call forth ancient and powerful horrors from beyond known space, to aid in their plans of destroying the Republic and Empire both. A call for help from the local Gree population resulted in Republic and Imperial forces being dispatched, who ultimately defeated the so-called Terror From Beyond and put an end to the Dread Masters' plans on Asation.

Eventually, the Dread Masters' base of operations was located on the planet Oricon, on the fringes of Imperial space. After the loss of numerous ships to the battle meditation technique of the dark lords of Oricon, Republic and Imperial forces secured a temporary truce in order that the greater threat of the Dread Masters could finally be eliminated. The joint strike team was able to infiltrate the Dread Fortress and Dread Palace and confront the Dread Masters directly. In the arduous fight that followed, the strike team emerged victorious: the Dread Masters were killed, ending their threat to the galaxy forever.

Open war
Indirect and proxy conflicts had been frequent flashpoints between the great powers throughout the Cold War, and into the early stages of the Galactic War as well. Though they remained a common means by which the sides could oppose one another while expending minimal resources, the war also escalated into direct confrontations between the Republic and Imperial armed forces.

Operation End Game
The Ascendant Spear, a Terminus-class destroyer by design, began to be modified into a long-range battle cruiser near the end of the Cold War. With enhanced hyperdrive capabilities and a devastating megalaser primary weapon, the Ascendant Spear was considered by many to be an Imperial superweapon. It would be commanded&mdash;directly&mdash;by Darth Karrid through a cybernetic interface.

The Republic had become aware of the ship several years earlier, when a covert SIS operation had uncovered its existence in the Vesla system. Eventually, the understanding of the threat coalesced into a mission to Imperial space in which SIS agent Theron Shan teamed with Jedi Master Gnost-Dural to steal a black cipher encryption device from the Empire in order to track the ship's movements. The functionality of the encryption device was proven when the SIS learned of an impending imperial attack on the Republic agriworld Ruan. But, in order to protect the knowledge that the Republic possessed the cipher device, Supreme Commander Jace Malcom was unable to send any military assistance to aid the doomed world. The Imperial forces attacked, killing thousands and destroying Ruan's agricultural production capabilities.

Karrid began selection of her next target, while Republic forced hurriedly arranged for a trap to be laid. Through the actions of Republic covert intelligence, Darth Karrid was lured into attacking the Republic shipyards at the planet Duro. The ambush was a success. The Republic forces under Supreme Commander Malcom were able to engage and destroy the fleet commanded by Moff Nezzor, which in turned allowed Agent Shan and Master Gnost-Dural to infiltrate the Ascendant Spear itself. The pair were able to defeat Karrid, and the Imperial superweapon was destroyed.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel
 * The Old Republic: Annihilation
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Galactic Starfighter
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Galactic Strongholds
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan
 * Star Wars: The Old Republic: Shadow of Revan