Battle of Kashyyyk (19 BBY)

"We left as heroes. Years later, we would return, as conquerors."

- Entry from the Journal of the 501st

The Battle of Kashyyyk was a conflict between the Wookiees and the Galactic Empire led by Lord Vader. It occurred after he tracked a group of surviving Jedi to the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. It was during this crisis that Vader made a deal with Moff Tarkin to capture Wookiees as slave labor to help build the Death Star. The battle itself was also seen as an early, but by no means the last, demonstration to the Galaxy of how the Galactic Empire would respond to internal dissent.

Prelude
Following the devastation of Order 66, Jedi Padawan and survivor Olee Starstone began looking for any Jedi survivors.

One destination she investigated was Kashyyyk, where Masters Yoda, Luminara Unduli and Quinlan Vos had been stationed when Order 66 was carried out. She arrived on the planet along with several other Jedi survivors&mdash;Siadem Forte, Deran Nalual, Klossi Anno, Iwo Kulka, Jambe Lu and Nam Poorf, as well as the slicer Filli Bitters. After meeting with Tarfful and Chewbacca, the Jedi learned of Yoda's survival. The Wookiees offered the band of Jedi safe harbor on Kashyyyk, but the meeting was interrupted by the arrival of a CR25 troop carrier at Kachirho.

Not long after the Jedi’s arrival, the Military Executor Darth Vader had arrived in the Kashyyyk system, along with the Imperator-class Star Destroyer Exactor, where it joined Wilhuff Tarkin and the Executrix. The two plotted their attack on Kashyyyk&mdash;Vader interested in hunting down and destroying the fugitive Jedi, Tarkin interested in enslaving the Wookiees for use in the construction of the first Death Star.

At around this time, the night before the main Imperial attack, Tarkin dispatched a platoon of stormtroopers under Captain Janzor to act as a distraction. Although all but three would be killed, due to a combination of a crash, unforeseen hostile fauna, and underestimating the Wookiees, they managed to distract the Wookiee forces long enough for the main Imperial thrust to conquer an entire continent.

Although the fleet commanders were eager to bombard the planet, Vader overruled them, ordering a direct assault on several cities including Kachirho, Rwookrrorro, Kepitenochan, Okikuti, and Chenachochan.

The battle
At Kachirho, the landed Imperial troops ordered the Wookiees to hand over the fugitive Jedi, but the enraged Wookiees attacked the troops, and Starstone and her Jedi soon joined the battle. As more Imperial forces landed, the Wookiee warriors and the Jedi covered the evacuation of Kachirho, as countless Wookiees fled the Imperial troopers, fleeing from enslavement. Imperial landers and gunships were engaged by Oevvaor jet catamarans, retrofitted with rocket launchers and other high-end military hardware, salvaged by the Wookiees from the remains of the earlier Battle of Kashyyyk. Realizing that the Empire was attacking indiscriminantly, many traders and merchants onworld began to evacuate Wookiee families while others used their craft's concealed weapons to engage various imperial transports. By this time, all of the troopers of the first wave were dead

A local hour after the attack had started, Lord Vader flew a Theta-class T-2c shuttle down to Kachirho, in an attempt to hunt the Jedi down. He was accompanied by Commander Appo and a squad of troops, but met heavy anti-air fire on his way down. Around the planet, the Imperial incursions were being repulsed by fierce Wookiee warriors, and an alarming number of Imperial troops were being lost in the assaults. Following Appo's advice, Vader acceded the fleet commanders the permission to begin orbital bombardment, warning them to save Kachirho for last. Upon making a landing at Kachirho, Vader was confronted by Starstone and her cadre of Jedi. Vader slew Forte and Kulka, and injured Lu, Poorf and Anno, leaving only himself and Starstone in the fight.

Shryne vs. Vader
The two briefly faced off, but the bout was interrupted by the arrival of Jedi Master Roan Shryne and the smuggler Archyr Beil. Shryne killed Appo while Archyr dealt with the rest of the stormtroopers, and Shryne moved in to duel Vader, giving Starstone and Archyr a chance to escape with the wounded Jedi.

As Shryne and Vader fought, the main battle began to drift east of the city, moving closer to the lake, as Imperial gunships and artillery drove the Wookiees down out of the city and towards the ground. Heading to the main Kachirho landing platform, Archyr and Starstone loaded their drop ship and transport with escaping Wookiees, including Chewbacca.

Abruptly, the Imperial gunships began to break off from Kachirho, as the orbiting Star Destroyers began their orbital bombardment. Shryne and Vader’s duel was interrupted by the strike, and the two moved inside one of the great wroshyr trees. Once inside, Vader called upon the Force to batter Shryne with planks of wood and other debris, critically injuring the Jedi in the process and throwing him down from a high bridge. Assured that Shryne was going to die anyway, Vader chose not to strike down the Jedi, instead revealing his true identity to the man&mdash;Anakin Skywalker, who was later redeemed by his son Luke Skywalker during the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY.

As Shryne died, Victory-class Star Destroyers began to descend into atmosphere, completing the conquest of Kashyyyk. Approximately two hundred thousand Wookiees, including Tarfful, were captured and moved to containment camps on the Wawaatt Archipelago.

Daring escape
Meanwhile, escaping Kashyyyk, Starstone and the surviving Jedi rendezvoused with Jula Shryne's Drunk Dancer in orbit, where they learned that a Detainer CC-2200 Interdictor Cruiser was stationed over Kachirho, preventing any ships from escaping into hyperspace from that city. Undaunted, Starstone and Bitters hatched a plan to destroy it in order to escape. With the help of Chewbacca, Archyr, Cudgel, and the rescued Wookiees, the pair managed to reactivate a damaged Recusant-class light destroyer, a Separatist ship left over from the earlier battle weeks ago. They tasked the droid-controlled destroyer to ram the Interdictor, destroying the ship and giving the transports trapped in orbit about Kashyyyk a chance to escape.

Enraged at this, Lord Vader ordered a full orbital bombardment of the planet. Tarkin would later relate to Palpatine that the planet suffered much more damage than one would have expected, especially given the resources under Vader’s command. Nonetheless, Kashyyyk had been claimed by the Empire, and Tarkin&mdash;perhaps aided by Trandoshan slavers which descended onto the world in masses following the battle&mdash;had gained a valuable new source of slave labor for the Death Star project.

Following the battle, half of the Delegation of 2000 removed their signatures from the Petition of 2000, afraid to continue challenging Palpatine.

Imperial

 * Commander Appo †
 * First Sergeant Tak Bazierre †
 * First Sergeant Dalia †
 * Captain Darcc
 * Corporal Wayson Dower
 * Captain Janzor †
 * Ensign Nullip †
 * Gilad Pellaeon
 * Moff Wilhuff Tarkin
 * Corporal Milo Strander
 * First Sergeant Oswald Strepp †
 * Darth Vader
 * Captain Ugan †
 * Private Sterns Yennich †

Anti-Imperial

 * Klossi Anno
 * Archyr Beil
 * Filli Bitters
 * Chak
 * Chewbacca
 * Cudgel
 * Eyl Dix
 * Skeck Draggle
 * Siadem Forte †
 * Guania
 * Iwo Kulka †
 * Lachichuk
 * Jambe Lu
 * Deran Nalual
 * Nam Poorf
 * Chief Tarfful
 * Captain Jula Shryne
 * Jedi Master Roan Shryne †
 * Padawan Olee Starstone
 * Padawan Deran Nalual

Appearances

 * Pax Empirica
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial