Battle of Kemplex IX

"We will do a double-feint and strike the Kemplex IX jump-station after all!"

- Aleema Keto

A significant event in historical terms, the Battle of Kemplex IX (fought in 3,996 BBY) was one of the major turning-points of the Great Sith War.

Following the successful strike against Coruscant and rescue of Ulic Qel-Droma from his Senate war crimes trial, Exar Kun and his lieutenants began planning the next phase of their war against the Old Republic. Beginning with a galaxywide pogrom carried out against the Jedi Order by its own students, resulting in the deaths of eight great Masters, a strategy was laid down to strike against a key Republic hyperspace jump-station at Kemplex IX in the Auril Sector.

With the capture of Qel-Droma, many of the Sith commanders under Aleema Keto questioned her right to take his place as de facto Krath military commander. Aleema sought to use the opportunity take the Kemplex IX station as proof of her leadership capabilities, with Crado as her battle overseer. Conceived by Ulic as a ruse to trick the Republic fleet into leaving Coruscant undefended, the ancient flagship of Naga Sadow&mdash;with its onboard Force-enhancing devices capable of wrenching out the heart of a star&mdash;was refitted in order to lead the assault. However, unbeknownst to Aleema or Exar Kun, Lord Mandalore the Indomitable secretly presented Ulic with evidence of his lover's treachery in the sudden withdrawal during the First Battle of Coruscant. Qel-Droma decided to keep Aleema in place as mission commander, but promised Mandalore that her betrayal would be repaid in full.

Launching the strike against Kemplex IX, the Sith battleship succeeded in obliterating all Republic defenses in the area. Word of the attack reached the Jedi enclave on Ossus&mdash;the only major planet close enough to render aid to the besieged station&mdash;and Master Thon gave the order for a counterattack against Kemplex, commanded by Dace Diath, Shoaneb Culu, and Qrrrl Toq. Arriving on the scene, the Jedi were horrified to discover all aboard the station dead, and the facility itself nearly annihilated. Detecting the ion-wake of Sadow's flagship, they headed into the nearby Cron Cluster, a stellar body of ten densely-arrayed stars. Opening fire on the Sith fleet, the Jedi ships were utterly unprepared for what happened next: Aleema, using the ancient technology aboard Sadow's ship, ripped the radioactive core out of one of the Cron suns, bathing the Jedi in gamma radiation, sterilizing the region in an instant.

Ulic's vengeance upon Aleema came to fruition in the next moments, however&mdash;having sabotaged the Sith device to ignite a terminal chain-reaction within the star, its destructive energies were triggered in a sudden supernova, unleashing a chain-reaction within the other nine nearby suns. Aleema, Crado, and the rest of the Krath war fleet were vaporized, Aleema herself realizing in her last moments that her treachery had finally been exposed.

The end result of this battle would be the creation of the Cron Drift supernova remnant, and an outspreading shockwave that would shortly reach the Jedi world of Ossus, its devastation forever ending an era of that Order.

Appearances

 * Tales of the Jedi: The Sith War
 * Tales of the Jedi: Redemption
 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction