Battle of Khoonda

The First Battle of Dantooine, also known as the Battle of Khoonda, was a local conflict that followed the catastrophic Jedi Civil War in 3,951 BBY and was a major event during the First Jedi Purge.

The main target was Khoonda, site of the local government established after the destruction of the Jedi Enclave. It was particularly aimed at Administrator Terena Adare, the only person on Dantooine capable of uniting the surviving farmers. Territories outside the Khoonda Plains were inhabited by salvagers, who sought for Jedi relics in the ruined Enclave, and mercenaries of the Exchange led by Azkul, who participated in the Jedi Civil War under Darth Malak's command.

Preparations
The Exchange hoped to use Dantooine, which had nearly been severed from the Galactic Republic following the loss of the Jedi Enclave, as their base of smuggling operations. Administrator Adare and her advisor, Jedi Master Vrook Lamar (one of the former members of the Dantooine Jedi Council) were seen as obstacles to the Exchange's plans. The latter seemed to be removed when Master Vrook was caught by the mercenaries in the Enclave sublevel and brought to a prison cell in the Crystal Cave. Azkul then intended to transport him to Nar Shaddaa to receive G0-T0's bounty for live Jedi.

What Azkul didn't know was that the Jedi Exile had arrived on Dantooine, seeking Master Vrook. Soon, the Exile entered the Crystal Cave and freed Vrook, but the Master was not grateful. He understood that, following this event, tensions between Khoonda and the mercenaries would soon grow into a full-scale war.

Vrook ran to Khoonda to warn the officials about the upcoming threat. Azkul was confident that his attack would succeed, knowing that Khoonda was almost completely defenseless and his forces held a numerical advantage of nearly four to one. His overconfidence, however, proved to be his undoing. After failing to persuade the Exile to aid him in his coup d'état, he ordered some of his men to kill her, an attempt which cost all of the would-be assassins their lives.

Administrator Adare and Zherron, the militia commander, charged the Jedi Exile with bolstering Khoonda's defenses. While the mercenaries were preparing for their assault, the Exile persuaded several civilians to join the militia, planted more mines in the surrounding fields, and repaired damaged gun turrets and medical and combat droids. Ironically enough, the Exile was repeating her own experience from the Mandalorian Wars, when she had turned a disorganized mess into a powerful army.

The battle
Once all of the battle's preparations were ready, Master Vrook left, hoping to slow the mercenaries' progress toward Khoonda while the Exile was trying to strengthen the militia's will to fight. Vrook killed several mercenaries during his delaying action. The initial battle was a disaster for Azkul's mercenaries and the Exchange. Following intelligence that had changed only recently, Azkul led a straight charge over the two bridges, believing them to be only lightly mined. This cost him a number of men due to the heavy sapping done, most of it conducted personally by the Exile. The mercenaries took heavy losses just getting to the battlefield thanks to the minefields set beyond the bridges.

His intelligence also told him that the turrets would attack anyone on the battlefield, friend and foe alike, and thus the defenders would not deploy men on the battlefield itself. This proved false when he saw militiamen standing calmly by the turrents as they killed merc after merc. Azkul also believed that the militia members were few in number and cowardly. Here, he was stymied once more by the Exile; the Exile had managed to recruit several civilians and salvagers into the militia on a temporary basis and hastily, yet thoroughly, healed all the militiamen in the infirmary.



Azkul's two columns ran straight into the militia. The militia were all killed, but not before inflicting 2 to 4 times their number of casualties onto the attackers. These were the only militia casualties in the battle.

The intelligence Azkul collected also pointed to the external armory door being lightly locked, which would allow his men to loot it for better weapons, while at the same time flanking the defenders concentrated around the main entrance. This would not prove to be the case, as the Exile jammed the external armory door shut to the point where it would take over a year of work once the battle had ended to finally reopen it. Still taking casualties from the guns, Azkul failed to force his way into the armory, and had to go through the defender's main force at the main entrance instead.

His men's sacrifices would not amount to anything, however, as when Azkul and his men came in, they were severely outnumbered by the militia, civilian volunteers, and the crew of the Ebon Hawk. Also, the defense droids Azkul believed to be inoperable were fully optimized for maximum defense and firepower, and only targeted hostiles (like the turrets, they had previously attacked anything that moved). With Vrook's return, the odds would steepen even further, but the worst blow was one he could not have hoped to predict.

Once Azkul had finally breached through Khoonda's outer defenses into the main hall, he took his right hand man, Dopak, and his surviving men, and attempted to reach and slay the Administrator. Azkul was suddenly betrayed by Dopak, who had entered a secret alliance with Zherron. A quick struggle between the mercenaries themselves followed, and Azkul's forces proved to be no match for the combined efforts and overwhelming numbers and firepower of the militia, the turncoat mercenaries, the droids, the crew of the Ebon Hawk, and the two Jedi.

The aftermath


With the victory, the confrontation on Dantooine was finally over. As the first sign of the coming age of peace and prosperity, the once Jedi-phobic civilians collaborated to rebuild the ruined Jedi Enclave as a tribute to the Jedi who had fought to save them.

Alternate endings
Upon exiting the crystal caves, Azkul offered the Exile credits in exchange for sabotaging Khoonda and helping him in the fight. The Exile agreed and went back to Khoonda to perform acts of sabotage. She met with Zherron and Adare, who gave her a key card to enter the base. The exile sabotaged the turrets to shoot the militia members, disabled mines, re-activated the droids and programmed them to help the mercenaries, and opened up the jammed door. She then went back to Azkul who then decided to start the battle. The militia was overwhelmed, and the mercenaries took minimum casualties while storming Khoonda. Inside, the Exile, along with Azkul, his mercenaries, and the re-programmed battle droids, finished off the remaining militia members before Azkul dealt with Adare personally. Vrook arrived too late to help the militia and proceeded to fight with the corrupted Exile, leading to his death at her hands. Azkul then gave the Exile her well-deserved credits. In this case, the Jedi Enclave is also mysteriously rebuilt, but Darth Traya predicts that in time, Dantooine will become abandoned, with only wild animals and nomads treading through the ruins of the Enclave.

Another possible scenario is that the Exile initially helps Khoonda, but later betrays them when Azkul offers her credits to stay out of the battle.

Appearances

 * ''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords