Battle of Jebble

"&hellip;and though the enemy brought great numbers to the field of battle&hellip;for every number there is a negative. Their strength became my own. Their minds became my own."

- An excerpt from Naga Sadow's translation of the Codex of Karness Muur

The Battle of Jebble was a battle of the Mandalorian Wars that took place on the ice planet of Jebble where every Mandalorian recruit from the Outer Rim assembled to invade Alderaan. However, before transports for the invasion arrived, the Muur Talisman introduced the Rakghoul Plague, which ravaged the waiting troops and set them against each other when the bitten soldiers mutated into rakghouls. Upon arrival, Cassus Fett's ships bombarded Jebble, destroying all rakghouls and troops on the surface of the planet, putting an end to the conflict.

Prelude
The Mandalorian survey ship Mar'eyce returned from Taris after former assistant to the recently incarcerated Demagol, Pulsipher, and his Mandalorian team found the ancient Sith artifact known as the Muur Talisman. Unbeknownst to him, he had three stowaways onboard, Jedi Padawan fugitive Zayne Carrick, Marn "Gryph" Hierogryph, and Covenant Shadow Celeste Morne, currently engaged in her mission to retrieve the Talisman. Celeste tried to trick Pulsipher into throwing the Talisman out the airlock, but under the Talisman's influence he resisted. Immediately, it began wrapping around his right arm and attacked the nearest Mandalorians, leaving one dead and others with red marks on their armor.

The Mar'eyce soon landed, just as Mandalorians were conscripting new recruits for an invasion of Alderaan&mdash;as soon as Cassus Fett brought the transports. Unfortunately, the Mandalorians who were now marked turned into a rakghouls and quickly began biting others, transforming them into rakghouls, and faster than usual witnessed. Worse, the Muur Talisman enabled the rakghouls to use their previous skills as beings and therefore they were smarter and could use weapons and equipment such as basilisk war droids.

Battle
As a result, it was Mandalorian fighting against Mandalorian turned rakghoul and Zayne Carrick contacted Cassus Fett in route with the transports, warning him about the plague. Cassus had good reasons to not trust Zayne, as he was part of the group who tried to kill him, but Zayne insisted that despite their positions on opposing sides he still regarded the Mandalorians as people and told him to survey first and not land.

Pulsipher, at the time using the Talisman in his possession to control the rakghouls, captured Zayne and demanded he reveal more of its secrets. But the Talisman wanted a Jedi, so it abandoned Pulsipher to the rakghouls and lashed at the Padawan. Zayne considered claiming the Talisman in order to control the rakghouls and save the galaxy, but Celeste took the fall and became the Talisman's new wearer and host of the spirit of Karness Muur. Blinded by the dark side, Celeste began to lead the rakghouls in battle against of all the Mandalorians. Zayne soon convinced her that she was doing the Sith's work, the opposite of her sworn mission to prevent the return of the Sith as a member of the Jedi Covenant. To isolate the power of the Muur Talisman, Celeste allowed Zayne to enclosed her in the oubliette of the Sith Dreypa until he could find Jedi who could help her, sealing the Talisman's influence.

Conclusion
"To stop the infection Cassus amputated the limb. Very like him."

- Rohlan Dyre

With the Talisman withdrawn the rakghouls became mindless, abandoning their weapons and attacking everything in sight, including themselves. Zayne and Gryph soon found themselves under attack and barely escaped on the Moomo Williwaw, but Zayne hoped to return to retrieve Celeste until Cassus Fett's ships arrived. Instead of landing the ships fired onto the planet's surface, destroying all structures, the rakghouls, and any remain troops.

Aftermath
Upon witnessing the destruction Zayne believed that Celeste had perished, but she survived and remained in stasis inside the oubliette. Centuries later a historian noted the battle's placement in the Mandalorian Wars and Gryph recorded his memoirs of the event in his hologram. Ice miners on Jebble discovered the undamaged oubliette about two thousand five hundred years later.

Behind the scenes
The Battle of Jebble appeared in the Knights of the Old Republic arc of Star Wars: Vector series of comics, with John Jackson Miller as writer and Scott Hepburn providing the art.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 26: Vector, Part 2
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 27: Vector, Part 3
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 28: Vector, Part 4
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 37: Prophet Motive, Part 2
 * Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 49: Demon, Part 3
 * Star Wars Dark Times 11: Vector, Part 5