Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/Week 49, 2011/0

In the early days of the Great Galactic War between the reconstituted Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, the Outer Rim planet Korriban fell back into the control of the Sith following a short and fierce battle. Korriban was the ancestral homeworld of the Sith Empire, and had been a holy site and training ground for adherents to the Sith religion since its inception. Over one thousand years after the Sith's defeat in the Great Hyperspace War and their subsequent exile from Korriban, the dark side users returned to known space in the year 3,681 BBY and launched a brutal campaign for dominance in the galaxy's Tingel Arm region. The attack prompted the Republic, which was severely under-prepared for such an assault, to rally its naval forces and send them into the Tingel Arm theater. The effort pulled defense vessels away from other planets, including Korriban, which was left without any substantive military defenses. A vigil over the world was maintained by the Jedi Order alongside a small number of Republic troopers, but that proved to be ineffective against the full force of the Sith naval fleet.

With an armada of over thirty battlecruisers, the Sith Empire invaded the Horuset system and engaged the small number of Jedi and Republic defenders in orbit over Korriban. Aboard a Republic space station, Jedi Padawan Satele Shan, Master Kao Cen Darach, and several Republic troopers fought in vain against boarding Sith soldiers and Imperial battle droids. During their attempts to escape Korriban and warn the Republic of the Empire's return, the Jedi and troopers were met by the Sith Lord Vindican and his apprentice, Malgus. Although Shan and her Master held the two off for a time, the younger Jedi was eventually forced to flee and leave Darach behind to fight alone. While she and one of the troopers escaped the station with the assistance of an incarcerated smuggler, Master Darach remained aboard and continued to battle the avenging Sith. The Zabrak Jedi was killed by Malgus during the duel and the remaining Republic and Jedi forces were annihilated, clearing a path for the Sith to return to their homeland. After a thousand years of exile from the holy planet, the Empire retook Korriban and re-established it as a training ground, wherein students studied to continue the war with the Republic. The recapture was so efficiently and surprisingly performed that an extended period of time passed before the Jedi Council even learned of Korriban's loss, despite Shan's survival.