Great Aquilaris Deluge

The Great Aquilaris Deluge was an event during the Second Charge Matrica's Aquilaris campaign in 1,032 BBY. The Hutt crimelord Zodoh successfully tested his Stormdriver superweapons on Aquilaris. His Stormdrivers were large capital ships equipped with moisture vaporators that generated large artificial floods on Aquilaris, killing many civilians and inflicting much damage on the infrastructure. During the flooding, Jedi Knight Kerra Holt along with the Seacroppers saved thousands of lives by evacuating many survivors into underwater harvester stations.

The Stormdrivers' global flood was disrupted by the actions of Devil Squadron Captain Kerra Holt who set of a series of explosions and escaped Zodoh's flagship Voracious. This disruption ended the global flood and the waters began to gradually recede.

Despite this setback, Zodoh viewed the Deluge as a victory since it proved the effectiveness of his Stormdrivers and he could exploit Aquilaris as a source of seafood. Having achieved his goals, Zodoh launched an attack on Darkknell, capital of Sith Lord Daiman's realm.

Background
Following the capture of Devil Squadron, the planet Aquilaris Minor was left virtually undefended. This suited the Hutt crimelord Zodoh since his fleet of Stormdrivers would be able to position themselves around the planet and then create a global flood using their moisture vaporators. Zodoh planned to usurp the Sith warlords within the Grumani Sector and then carve up his own empire. He also planned to secure Grace Command's stash of Deluge spice and then synthesize his own stock of the addictive spice to circulate among the inhabitants of the Grumani Sector as a means of weakening resistance to his conquest. Zodoh coerced Devil Squadron's Captain Jenn Devaad into obtaining the remaining stashes of Deluge spice by promising to release her crew if she agreed to cooperate.

Aquilaris was an ocean world with low-lying continents and islands with no high mountain ranges. This made the planet's landmass vulnerable to large-scale flooding. Aquilaris was ill-prepared to handle such a large scale environmental disaster since the Aquilarian people had been impoverished during the Sith occupation since the conquest of the planet in 1,032 BBY. The Aquilarians lacked any logistical means of evacuation or safe refuges to accomodate refugees during the flood. The few remaining Aquilarian landspeeders were incapable of operating in such storms and there were no boats since they had been destroyed by the Sith Lords to prevent any civilians from escaping. While the Seacroppers' Guild still had a fleet of submersibles, they were barely operationable due to a lack of maintenance. The logistical problem was aggravated by the drug-ridden state of much of the population due to Operation Deluge, a black-operation run by the Galactic Republic's Grace Command with the aim of undermining the Sith war effort.

Evacuations
Jedi Knight Kerra Holt was the sole survivor of the debacle that ensnared Devil Squadron. She landed back at Capital Cay's spaceport in her Fire Lotus-class starfighter and began to organize the evacuation efforts. During a meeting with residents, Kerra encountered much disencouragement and dismay which was compounded by a serious logistical problem. When Kerra queried about the role the Seacroppers could play, a pessimistic Padgett explained that the Seacroppers were still addicted to Deluge spice and were thus unable to render any services because they wanted nothing else in life but Deluge. Kerra expressed surprise that the effects of the drug had not worn off despite the medical treatment supposedly provided by Grace Command. When Kerra querried about using the submersibles to evacuate the population, Padgett again shrugged off that suggestion by stressing their decrepit state. Despite her frustrations, Kerra was determined to continue the evacuation and ordered the civilians to evacuate the Seacroppers from the barracks and to use force if necessary.

While the Aquilarian civilians began their evacuation efforts, Kerra went to inspect the submersible at the docks of Capital Cay. Kerra expressed her exasperation at the compounding logistical problem and the apathy of the Aquilarian civilians. While inspecting a submersible, she encountered a despondent and drug-afflicted Joad within its command deck. Following a brief conversation about their childhood experiences and separation during the invasion of Aquilaris ten years ago, she tried to convince him to help by repairing the submersible so that it could help in the evacuation efforts. Still grieving over the loss of his family, Joad refused to help, stating that he had nothing to live for in life except his Deluge addiction.

After Joad climbed out of the command deck, Kerra expressed her exesperation by kicking one of the orange food containers left by Grace Command open. She quickly discovered that the container only contained Deluge spice. She quickly realized that Grace Command's relief operations were actually a cover for distributing Deluge spice among civilian populations in Sith-occupied Space. She returned to the barracks in time to catch Captain Jenn in the act of loading spice into a shuttle and harassing the local civilians at gunpoint. Using her Force powers, Kerra overpowered Jenn and confronted her about Grace Command's spice smuggling operations. Joad quickly revealed that Grace Command was a black operation established by Baron Lemayne of Alderaan with the goal of sabotaging the Sith war effort and dismissed the addicted civilians as collateral damage in the greater war against the Sith.

She also revealed that her animosity towards civilians stemmed from the illfated Dalaang campaign. The civilians had been unwilling to shelter her and her Republic Navy comrades. Consequently, they were captured and enslaved by the Hutt crimelord Zodoh. Finally, she revealed that she was planning to save her crew by obtaining the remaining stocks of Deluge in Capital Cay. Kerra was unable to convince Jenn to assist in the evacuations. Following the departure of Jenn in a transport shuttle, the orbiting fleet of Stormdrivers activated their moisture vaporators, trapping the moisture in the atmosphere and using their trapped energy to generate large storms and floods.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knight Errant 8: Deluge, Part 3
 * Star Wars: Knight Errant 9: Deluge, Part 4
 * Star Wars: Knight Errant 10: Deluge, Part 5