Ossus Project



The Ossus Project was a project jointly overseen by the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, the Jedi Order and Yuuzhan Vong Shaper caste to terraform the war-devastated planet of Ossus sometime following the Second Corellian Insurrection.

Success on Ossus
The Galactic Alliance gradually finished rebuilding itself a few years later, but would never be the same as the pre-invasion New Republic. Some time after 40 ABY, as part of a move to improve relations between the Yuuzhan Vong and the rest of the galaxy, the Galactic Alliance New Jedi Order permitted Yuuzhan Vong Shapers to use a desolate part of Ossus, one of the Jedi Order's most ancient strongholds which was once devastated, as a testing area.

The intent of those who mostly supported the project &mdash; such as Jedi Master Kol Skywalker, a leading member of the Jedi Council &mdash; was to see if Vong terraforming techniques, such as those that had once transformed Coruscant into the species's temporary homeworld of Yuuzhan'tar (27-29 ABY), could restore the world had left barren and devastated. The experiment appeared to work perfectly, returning Ossus to vibrant life again. When the Jedi showed the results to the outside Galaxy, the response was tremendous as other worlds gained their chance to restore planets devastated by the Yuuzhan Vong War and presumably the Second Corellian Insurrection itself.

Sowing Seeds of Hatred
One hundred devastated planets were selected as the potential of terraforming. Yuuzhan Vong Shapers, overseen by Jedi escorts, set to work, and the initial results were wondrous to behold. But agents from the new Sith Order secretly sabotaged the terraforming processes, under the orders of the cult's leader, Darth Krayt; soon, the vegetation grew withered, and painful bony growths, of a kind not seen since the Vong forcibly took populations as slaves, sprouted from the skin of the inhabitants.

Immediately, the Jedi suspected sabotage at once, but they had no idea who had done it. Across the Galaxy, however, fingers were pointed at the Yuuzhan Vong; too many bad feelings existed against the authors of one of the most destructive wars the Galaxy had ever seen for people not to suspect that the Vong had resumed their crusade by other means (apparently exactly what the Sith had intended). The Jedi, devoting to the truth that the Vong were innocent, convinced the Galactic Alliance to support the Vong against domestic criticism.

The Empire reacted accordingly, however. With the Pellaeon-Gavrisom Treaty that ended its war against the former Rebellion came in 19 ABY, the Imperial Remnant had ended its hostilities to New Republic as a neutral faction, and the Vong invasion had brought them together as allies to the New Republic and its successor. But its nominal government, the members of the Moff Council, still had many hard-core, hard-liners who wanted to restore the Empire to primacy as the dominant galactic power, peace treaty or not. Now they called for retribution and, invoking the Treaty of Anaxes, started its war on the Galactic Alliance. The peace that so many had fought and died for in decades past was undone in a stroke, all thanks to the resurgent Sith.

The War
From the beginning of the war, the Alliance was handicapped. Its defense of the Yuuzhan Vong had alienated numerous member worlds, whose populations still nursed bitter memories of the Vong invasion, and many of them refused to support the Aliance. Soon, the Alliance found itself facing a secession movement as well as general war. The Empire used this to its advantage, luring some of these disaffected worlds into the Imperial camp and weakening the entire Alliance government. Other worlds declared neutrality.

It was at this time that the Sith gained their entry to the war. Through Nyna Calixte, the ruthless and ambitious Director of Imperial Intelligence and Moff, the Sith approached the Empire and allied themselves with the Imperial cause. When the Sith then declared themselves openly, the Jedi knew that they were suspected of behind the sabotage of the Vong terraforming processes, but this was never proved.

After three years of bloody warfare, the Galactic Alliance was easy to conquer. Imperial forces had even retaken Coruscant after more than a century after the final death of the clone Palpatine. The Alliance finally surrendered, and its holdings were absorbed into the Empire, with the Galactic Alliance Core Forces remained to fight the new Empire. It is unknown if the Empire made any efforts to genocide the Yuuzhan Vong. The Emperor called on the Jedi Order to surrender and submit to the Empire, with some of them did, becoming the Imperial Knights. But the rest, remaining true to the will of the Force, refused to ally themselves with the Sith and withdrew from Coruscant to their temple on Ossus. The Sith eventually followed the Jedi there, and Darth Krayt himself led a brutal attack on Ossus, aided by Imperial forces led under Moff Rulf Yage. The Massacre of Ossus scattered the Jedi across the Galaxy, though the order was not yet entirely destroyed.

Shortly after, the Sith, determined to rule the Galaxy themselves, launched a revolt to assassinate Emperor Roan Fel and his Imperial Knights. After killing what he later determined to have been a fake, Darth Krayt ascended to the Imperial throne himself, restoring, for the first time in a century and a half since Palpatine, the rule of a Sith Lord over the Galaxy.