Uphrades

"I saw this planet once, with Master Kiwiiks. It used to be green."

- Kira Carsen

Uphrades was a planet located in the Uphrades system of the Inner Rim. Originally a green and fertile agriworld during the years leading up to the renewed war with the Sith Empire, Uphrades supplied the Republic capital planet of Coruscant with much of its food supplies. This earned it the nickname "Coruscant's Granary," until the agriworld was targeted by the Sith Lord Darth Angral during his campaign of vengeance in 3,643 BBY. As part of his revenge against the Republic and the Jedi Order for the death of his son, Tarnis, Angral tested the Desolator superweapon on Uphrades and devastated its surface, killing millions and trapping the few hundred survivors on the planet by ionizing its atmosphere. Thanks to the efforts of Doctor Senessa and the crew of the Republic medical frigate Daybreaker, the survivors endured the several months it took for the ion field to dissipate, but the planet itself remained a desolate and barren world.

Description
"There's virtually no vegetation left. Even the oceans are boiling."

- Doctor Nasan Godera

Located in the Uphrades system, a star system in the slice of the Inner Rim with grid coordinates M-8 that lay between the Hydian Way and the Perlemian Trade Route hyperlanes, Uphrades was a green agriworld throughout much of its history. The terrestrial planet's soil was especially rich thanks to a significant amount of volcanic activity some 20,000 years before the Cold War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. Uphrades also possessed a temperate climate with a breathable, Type I atmosphere and significant surface water separating its five continents.

However, when the Sith Lord Darth Angral used the Desolator superweapon on the planet, Uphrades' surface was torn apart, and its atmosphere turned into an enormous ion cannon. Large chunks of the planet's crust were ripped away, exposing pockets of magma and forming an asteroid belt around the world, while the missing pieces of the crust left behind craters. The planet's oceans were vaporized, and its green surface turned to ash, leaving behind rocky plains and canyons with rivers of lava.

History
"That agriworld supplies nearly half of Coruscant's food&hellip; Any damage to Uphrades' food production could cripple the Republic."

- General Var Suthra

Approximately 1,500 years after the founding of the Republic, Uphrades experienced a large amount of volcanic activity that would cause the world's soil to become especially rich over the next twenty millenia. By the end of the Great Galactic War with the Sith Empire, Uphrades was a fertile agriworld that supplied a large portion of the food for the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant. This would earn it the nickname "Coruscant's Granary" by the time of the Cold War, when the Jedi Master Syo Bakarn and the Jedi Restoration Concord worked with the people of Uphrades to quadruple the planet's food production in just two years.

Sometime between 3,645 BBY and 3,643 BBY, Jedi Master Bela Kiwiiks visited the planet with her new Padawan, Kira Carsen. However, Uphrades became a target of the Sith Lord Darth Angral during his crusade against the Republic in 3,643 BBY. In an attempt to exact revenge on the Jedi Order and the Republic for the death of his son, Tarnis, at the hands of a Jedi Knight, Angral brought the Desolator superweapon to bear on Uphrades. Constructed using stolen Republic weapons technologies, the Desolator ionized Uphrades' atmosphere, trapping all sixteen million inhabitants on the world, before destabilizing the planet's core through seismic vibrations. The attack devastated Uphrades' surface, killing millions and leaving only a few hundred survivors on the planet.

The Republic medical frigate Daybreaker was in the Uphrades system when Angral's warship, the dreadnought Oppressor, arrived and attacked the planet, and was damaged by wreckage from Uphrades' surface. The disabled frigate was subsequently attacked by an Imperial boarding party, but a Jedi Knight&mdash;Tarnis's killer and the target of Angral's wrath&mdash;arrived just in time to stop the assault. After the attack, the Daybreaker medical officer, Doctor Senessa, detected survivors on the surface, and she decided to take the frigate down to deliver aid. The ship's captain, a Cathar named Dal, objected when he learned that the Daybreaker would be disabled and unable to leave the planet if they entered the atmosphere, and decided to take an escape pod rather than sacrifice himself for the survivors. With the supplies aboard the Daybreaker, Senessa and the ship's crew ensured that those on the surface survived the several months that it took for the atmosphere's ionization to dissipate. Once Republic aid ships were able to enter the atmosphere safely, the survivors and the Daybreaker crew were rescued.

Inhabitants
"Uphrades had millions of citizens&hellip; whole continents of farmlands."

- General Var Suthra

In the days before Angral's attack, Uphrades boasted a population of 16 million farmers and food technologists, spread out across Uphrades' five continents. However, the catastrophic effects of the Desolator killed almost all of those sixteen million people, leaving less than a thousand survivors.

Behind the scenes
Uphrades first appears in the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game Star Wars: The Old Republic, released by BioWare and LucasArts on December 20, 2011. It appears in the finale of the Act I storyline for the Jedi Knight class, after the player completes the assignments on the planets Tatooine and Alderaan. While its exact location is uncertain, Uphrades' placement on the in-game map and the Galaxy Map on The Old Republic official website place the planet in grid square M-8 in the Inner Rim, near Mindor in the region of space between the Hydian Way and the Perlemian Trade Route.

The devastation of Uphrades and the attack on the Daybreaker appear in the Jedi Knight mission "Uphrades" and features one major alignment choice. Captain Dal presents a dark side option when he asks the Knight to convince Doctor Senessa that the sensor readings showing signs of life on Uphrades are false and that there are no survivors, as Dal wants to return to his family. As a reward, the Captain offers to bribe the player with medical supplies from the Daybreaker stock. The light side option of refusing his offer results in Dal taking an escape pod while Senessa and the crew of the Daybreaker travel down to the surface, despite knowing that they will be unable to leave. Senessa will later send a message of thanks to the player, confirming that the people on the surface will be able to survive until the atmosphere becomes safe again and the Republic can launch rescue efforts.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Old Republic