Duel on Cophrigin V

"After all these years, you are still a worthy opponent." "Your own skills remain considerable as well, Vader&hellip;particularly for a creature more machine than man."

- Darth Vader, and the Dark Woman

In 1 BBY, a lightsaber duel was fought on the fifth planet of the Cophrigin star system, between exiled Jedi Master An'ya Kuro and Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. After Kuro, known only to her pursuers as "the Dark Woman", was tracked to her hiding place on Cophrigin V by the Emperor's Hand Mara Jade, Darth Vader was dispatched by his Sith Master Darth Sidious to the Outer Rim territories to find and eliminate the rogue Jedi. In doing so, Vader hoped to complete his Master's plan to eradicate all Jedi, as ordered and initiated by Sidious himself nearly twenty years prior.

Darth Vader's arrival on Cophrigin V was sensed by Kuro, and the Jedi Master prepared herself for an encounter with the Dark Lord. Vader found Kuro in her sanctuary and quickly attacked with expectations of cutting her down swiftly, but was surprised by the skill with which his opponent dueled. Kuro managed to overcome Vader on several occasions, using the Force to subdue him with the surrounding flora as well as successfully disarming him when she knocked his lightsaber from his grasp. However, when the Dark Woman's own power began to wane before the increasing dark side strength of Darth Vader, she was subsequently killed when the Dark Lord used his lightsaber and the Force to fell a massive tree, which crushed the Dark Woman beneath it. An'ya Kuro's death on Cophrigin V resulted in a mission accomplished for Darth Vader, and also marked the end of Lord Sidious' Great Jedi Purge.

Background
Eighteen years had passed since the Galactic Republic had been overthrown by the Order of the Sith Lords and replaced with the establishment of a Sith-governed Galactic Empire. The Jedi Order, stewards of the Republic since its inception, had been all but exterminated in a purge initiated by the Sith's Dark Lord, a man known as Darth Sidious. On the same day the Republic fell and was reorganized into the Galactic Empire, Sidious, in his guise as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, issued an order to the clone troopers in the Grand Army of the Republic to execute all Jedi without question, thus enacting the Great Jedi Purge. Nearly all were killed, and most of the survivors were hunted down by agents of Sidious' Empire in the years that followed. One such individual was a Human female Jedi Master named An'ya Kuro, known only to Imperial spies as the "Dark Woman".

By 1 BBY, reports of Kuro's whereabouts in the Outer Rim territories had reached Sidious through one of his operatives, Emperor's Hand Mara Jade. Jade was ready and willing to dispatch the Jedi fugitive and even vied with the Emperor's Sith apprentice, Darth Vader, for the mission, but Sidious assigned the task of hunting Kuro down to Vader, given his reputation for being able to find and eliminate Jedi Knights&mdash;wherever they hid. He promptly left for the fifth planet in the Cophrigin system with a contingent of Imperial stormtroopers in search of the Dark Woman.

Formidable opponent
When Vader's Lambda-class shuttle touched down on Cophrigin V, he advised his accompanying stormtroopers to maintain their position with the craft, as his mission did not require their support. The Dark Lord's arrival was also sensed through the Force by Kuro, who, in an acceptance of fate, ceased her meditation and readied herself to face Darth Vader in battle. It was not long before Vader appeared at the threshold of her sanctuary, and was greeted by the mysterious Dark Woman.

Behind the Scenes
The duel on Cophrigin V first appeared in author Ron Marz's two-part comic series titled Darth Vader: Extinction. The duel marked the end of the Great Jedi Purge, an event which began with Order 66 and first appeared in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The contest between Kuro and Vader also saw the first use "Plant Surge", a light side Force power that was later explained with great detail in the Wizards of the Coast's Power of the Jedi Sourcebook, a guide for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.

Appearances

 * Extinction
 * Star Wars Tales 1
 * Star Wars Tales 2

Notes and references
Duelo en Cophrigin 5 Párbaj Cophrigin 5-ön