Battle of Bakura

Despite the animosity between the Rebels and Imperials, the Alliance commander Luke Skywalker and his Imperial counterpart Pter Thanas quickly managed to establish an effective defense grid. This was vital because the Ssi-ruuk soon returned and effectively blockaded the planet. Despite the loss of their human-piloted battle droids, they were supplemented by a steady flow of P'w'eck slaves.

Skywalker advised Thanas to see the Rebel forces as his own and Thanas acted accordingly: In the final plan the more powerful Rebel starfighters took over key position and would be in the center of Ssi-ruuvi fire. General Solo opposed this deployment at first, but a simulation showed higher overall casualties if key position would be evenly distributed between Imperial and Rebel squadrons. This changed Solo's mind.

Salis D'aar's spaceport and the orbital repair platform were used to repair both Imperial and Rebel ships. One Imperial repair crew was allowed access to the Alliance flagship Flurry to repair the previously damaged starboard deflector shield. Although time was short, Bakuran engineers were able to modify the DEMP weapon technology and mount it on two patrol boats. General Solo wanted a prototype of this technology for the Falcon, but Nereus and Thanas declined, stating that there was neither enough time nor parts.

Around one day after the Rebel arrival the preparation were completed: The plan was, in case of another attack, to destroy one or more cruisers and force the Ssi-ruuk to retreat. Rebel forces would spearhead every attack. However, should the Ssi-ruuk not launch another attack, Nereus ordered a counterattack at the evening of the following day. Thanas wanted attack sooner, but Nereus insisted, since he had his own plans.

Rebel crews were allowed downtime on Bakura, although this soon proved difficult for non-Humans. Due to their isolation from the greater Galaxy, most Bakurans had an aversion to alien species and could not differentiate between a Ssi-ruu and a Mon Calamari. This was further compounded by a long-standing anti-droid sentiment due to a droid revolt.

Shortly after the Ssi-ruuk were driven away, Leia Organa was allowed to speak in front of the Senate. Many of the older Bakuran senators and veterans of the Imperial invasion had opposed the Empire but remained subdued for years. However, Leia's speech aroused them.

In the evening, Prime Minister Yeorg Captison invited both Rebel and Imperial leaders to his house to provide a neutral ground for further discussions. During this dinner, the Bakura Truce was signed after Nereus received verification of the Emperor's death and the absence of any reinforcements. However he warned Organa that any encouragement for rebellion would still be punished.

To increase the animosity between the Bakurans and the Rebels, Nereus encouraged a few thugs to 'look around' landing Pad 12, where a Rebel Corellian gunship was stationed, on the pretext of preventing any Ssi-ruuk from slipping through the blockade. The thugs attacked a few Mon Calamari, who then defended themselves. Only the timely arrival of Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca prevented any escalation, but two Bakurans died in the shoot out.

Skywalker later learned that the Bakurans who had been at the area had been encouraged to be there by Nereus. The next day, Leia Organa made a formal apology to the Bakuran Senate over the incident. Organa also offered the services of two Alliance droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, to assist with efforts to translate intercepted Ssi-ruuk transmissions.

During the morning of the next day Skywalker visited the elderly Eppie Belden and used his abilities to start her mental healing process. Although this act of mercy was more to assure Gaeriel Captison of the good nature of the Force and Jedi, it would prove vital for the later battle.

Despite Nereus' warnings, Organa tried to persuade the Bakurans to secede from the Empire and join the Rebellion. She went out with Captison and senator Orn Belden were out on a private airspeeder cruise. Using a Disruption bubble generator to prevent Imperial eavesdropping, they discussed the status of the Bakuran resistance, as well as the likelihood of Bakura revolting against Imperial rule. However, their activities were monitored by Nereus and they were arrested and imprisoned.

Organa was imprisoned at Nereus's private hut, to be handed over to the next Emperor. These arrests compounded by the death of Belden during interrogation caused great unrest among the citizens. A curfew was established, but preparations for an uprising were made.

Gaeriel was present at the Beldens' house when the Bakuran resistance sprang into action, on her way to tell Eppie about the death of her husband, who had died after being captured by the Empire on charges of sedition. Instead, she was surprised to see a recovered Belden, successfully healed by Skywalker, leading the resistance effort and already cognizant of her husband's death.

After some persuasion from Belden, Gaeriel agreed to help the resistance. Belden gave Gaeriel a computer chip that allowed her to access Imperial stormtrooper communications, which she used to send fake distress calls to Imperial forces across Salis D'aar. She then destroyed the chip and went to warn Skywalker of the impending Ssi-ruuk attack.

Meanwhile, Han Solo had received news of Organa's arrest. With the help of C-3PO he deactivated any proximity sensors around Nereus hut and disabled the two stormtroopers guarding his room. He sent off C-3PO, disguised as a Stormtrooper, to warn Skywalker of the attack before joining Chewbacca and the Falcon, before he left to save Organa with a stolen speeder. As Salis D'aar was in uproar, Solo was intercepted by an armored security speeder, but with wild maneuvers, Solo managed to lose his pursuer in the city's streets.

After the initial defeat the Ssi-ruuvi fleet returned just outside the Bakura's defense grid and established a blockade.

The fact that the Human slave Dev Sibwarra and Skywalker made telepathic contact during the battle opened an interesting theory to the Entechment Master Firwirrung: Skywalker, since he was stronger than Sibwarra, might be able to entech thousands of beings at the same time, even from lightyears away. To implement these plans, he constructed a special entechment rig, designed to keep the occupant alive and under control. It was tested on Sibwarra who used the Force to entech a captured human male a few meters away and a human female on another deck.

To get their hands on Skywalker, the Ssi-ruuk secretly contacted Governor Nereus with a deal. If he would handover the Jedi, the Ssi-ruuk fleet would withdraw. Nereus agreed but was wise enough not to trust the saurians. Since he suspected Skywalker would be left alive during his capture, he revived one of his old plans and infected the Jedi with three olabrian trichoid larvae. During the delivery, one of the larvae infected Senator Gaeriel Captison.

When Skywalker waited for his transport to the Flurry, Nereus dispatched a shuttle to the Shriwirr to pick up the Ssi-ruuvi delegation. This delegation consisted of Sibwarra, Sh'tk'ith, Firwirrung, two pilots and another Ssi-ruuvi soldier. While the pilots stayed with the shuttle, the rest, together with four Stormtroopers, confronted Skywalker, his astromech droid R2-D2 and Gaeriel Captison in a cantina near Pad 12.

In the ensuing skirmish Skywalker first made the stormtroopers stun themselves by using the Force, before engaging the nun-humans. Skywalker severed Firwirrung's claws and beheaded the other soldier, but his leg was hurt by the exotic weapons. Sibwarra tried to use an Imperial rifle to attack Skywalker, but the Jedi used a massive mental push with the force to break Sibwarra's brainwashing. Captison, who had no combat experience at all tried to attack Bluescale, but missed and was stunned in return. R2-D2 pulled the helpless senator to safety and returned as soon as possible to help his master, but Skywalker, distracted by the situation, had been taken out by a tail-kick and a stun beam.

To cover the escape of the shuttle, which was now completely under Ssi-ruuvi control, the remaining expeditionary fleet attacked the grid. The shuttle could now leave the almost abandoned spaceport, as Rebel and Imperial crews hastily returned to their ships. Sibwarra, despite being free of the brainwashing, played the loyal servant he had been and hoped for a good opportunity to escape with Skywalker. If necessary, he would kill the Jedi to disrupt the galaxy-threatening plans of his former masters.

Within minutes, Solo had reached Nereus' hut in the mountains. Solo managed to evade the ten Navy troopers and a Security droid as he infiltrated the compound. However, Leia had already worked on her own escape. As they both tried to escape in a stolen Kishh'tih Airspeeder, Nereus's trap sprung and they were pursued by three Tracker-4 Military Airspeeder. However, two X-wings of Rogue Squadron, led by Gayla Riemann and sent down by Skywalker, scared them away. Solo and Organa reached the city and joined Chewbacca and Threepio onboard the Falcon before heading off to space.

Admiral Ivpikkis had launched several simultaneous attacks on the defensive web to distract the defenders from the captured shuttle. One starfighter was able to launch an attack, but was quickly destroyed by a squadron of Swarm-droids before he reached the shuttle. Other starfighters tried to reach the shuttle and managed destroyed several droids, but were pushed back by rapidly approaching swarms that formed a corridor to the Shriwirr.

While the attack caught the defenders off-guard, Thanas' strategy and skills enabled the Rebels and Imperials to hold their ground. Nine Ssi-ruuvi picket ships moved into attack positions, as the Millennium Falcon, together with three TIEs moved to its designated position. Rogue Squadron engaged the enemy on the other side of the planet. During the first wave, the Ssi-ruuk launched their D'kee-class landers. However, these sluggish ships proved easy prey for the more maneuverable defending starships. The battle brought the Falcon relatively close to the Shriwirr and Solo and Organa had to fight of dozens of battle droids and were able to destroy another picket ship.

Once the captured shuttle had reached the Shriwirr, Dev carried the unconscious Skywalker to the modified entechment lab. He tried to warn and awake Skywalker with telepathic messages through the Force, but received no answer. The Ssi-ruuk, however had smelled through Sibwarra's act and when they arrived in the lab, Firwirrung offered Sibwarra the reward he had always promised: entechment. Upon being discovered, Sibwarra panicked and tried to strangle the Jedi.

In the meantime, the seemingly unconscious Skywalker had been able to take over the mind of a simple P'w'eck slave. He used it to distract his captors by taking out the lights, freed himself and called back his lightsaber with the Force. After he ordered Sibwarra to hide, he killed every P'w'eck and Ssi-ruuk in the room, except for Firwirrung and Bluescale, whom managed to escape. Skywalker pursued them, but was stopped by three security droids.

After dispatching the droids, Skywalker returned to the lab and demolished every single entechment rig, to stop any further Ssi-ruuvi plans. He and Sibwarra proceeded to the engine room on Deck 18 and had to face another group of six security droids. Skywalker used the Force to communicate with their enteched souls and freed them with his lightsaber. When he and Sibwarra sprung a stun trap on their way to the engine room, they alerted the Ssi-ruuk of their whereabouts.

Faced with a Jedi loose on their flagship, most of the Ssi-ruuk had abandoned their cruiser, taking every singe available escape pod and ship, including the Imperial shuttle. Admiral Ivpikkis was among them, he continued to command the battle from an escape boat. Only Firwirrung and Bluescale had remained onboard, still hoping to catch the two force-sensitives. Firwirrung and his P'w'eck assistants had quickly modified another rig for Skywalker while Bluescale dispatched three detachments of P'w'ecks from Deck 16 once he had located Skywalker.

Sibwarra and Skywalker worked their way through stun traps and a final ambush led by Bluescale, before they reached the engine room. In the ambush, Dev Sibwarra managed to kill the imposing Ssi-ruu and afterwards revealed their plans to Skywalker. The Jedi understood the motives behind Sibwarra's actions they proceeded to the engine room where Skywalker destroyed several consoles and freed every single trapped soul on the ship.

In the meantime, the two Olabrian trichoid larvae inside Skywalker had matured and wandered through his body, causing a deteriorating coughing fit inside him. Ignorant of the real cause, Skywalker assumed he was allergic to something in the Ssi-ruuvi ship's atmosphere. While making their way across the abandoned bridge of the Shriwirr, the pair came under attack from a lone P'w'eck armed with a blaster and grenade.

Skywalker severed its fore-claw and used the Force to propel the grenade out of the bridge and slamming the exits shut. He then told Sibwarra to tell the P'w'eck that they did not intend to harm him if he agreed to help them. However, the P'w'eck refused to cooperate and reached for his blaster, prompting Dev to shoot him dead. Skywalker admonished Sibwarra for killing in cold blood to which the latter responded that the P'w'eck would have murdered them when it had the right opportunity.

Meanwhile, Pter Thanas received word of Skywalker's abduction. He also received further orders to destroy the Shriwirr and any escape pods, due to contagious nature of the olabian trichoids. At this point, the Shriwirr had only four picket ships left for its defense. Solo urged Thanas to question the orders, but nevertheless, the Captain ordered squadrons Eight through Eleven to attack the pods. Manchisco, Organa and Solo protested, but the progress in battle prevented any further actions. Chewbacca had been able to repair C-3PO, which now allowed the Alliance to dechiper the Ssi-ruuvi communication.

The Flurry and a patrol craft attacked a Wurrif-class cruiser and tried to force it into the range of the Dominants tractor beams. The Dominant, however, came under attack from another squadron of battle droids, but was able to destroy two of them right away. The attackers were able to heavily damage the cruiser's engines, leaving the Dominant only with maneuvering thrusters and out of range to attack the Shriwirr. The Falcon had to face another squadron of battle droids as the Ssi-ruuvi cruisers launched more battle droids as soon as the old ones had been destroyed.

The combined forces of Imperial and Rebel ships were soon able to encircle two more cruisers. Rebel forces took over key positions and came under concentrated Ssi-ruuvi fire, while the Falcon lead four X-Wings of Red Group and five TIE fighters into battle. A patrol craft, Digit/Bakura VI, took heavy damage and used its remaining energy to ram a cruiser.

An hour later the channels were flooded with Ssi-ruuvi chatter, as a hasty retreat was ordered. All ships retreated, except for the Shriwirr and its four escorting pickets. Solo, distrusting the Imperials, ordered all Rebel ships to break away and form up around the Falcon. The Flurry, however, had been in range of the Dominant and was the first victim of the broken truce. All hands were lost but the Dominant did not escape without any damage as the Flurry returned fire before its destruction.

With the neutralization of the Ssi-ruuvi threat, the Imperials had torn up their earlier truce with the Rebels and launched a new offensive to annihilate the scattered Rebel starships. Before Red Group was able to form up, numerous TIEs forced them into dogfight. Rogue Squadron was still trapped on the other side of the planet and had barely received Solo's warning. The Dominant continued to destroy Rebel forces and only a few survivors were able to gather around the Falcon.

Once again Thanas proved his tactical skill and surrounded the remaining Rebel forced in a globe formation. TIE Fighter and patrol boats drove the Rebels into the Carracks tractor beam range. In that situation, Solo came up with a desperate plan which involved using the Falcon to ram a patrol craft on a kamikaze attack on the Dominant. With the cruiser out of the way, the Alliance fighters would be able to scatter.

In the midst of the fighting, Gaerial received medical treatment at the Salis D'aar Imperial base where an Imperial medic diagnosed her condition as a form of nervous ionization. She quickly learned of the Ssi-ruuvi attack on the orbital station. Due to her collaboration with the Rebels and her important position in Bakuran politics, she was confined in a bare chamber with no windows and a high ceiling to deter escape.

Having recovered, she was brought into Governor Nereus' private office which was adorned with trophies of various animal species that the latter had hunted throughout his career. Nereus had been trying to ally Captison with his faction within the Bakuran Senate. While initially repulsed by his mannerisms and plans to take-over full control of Bakura, Captison managed to maintain a diplomatic front and attempted to obtain the governor's approval for a public funeral for the late Orn Belden. Nereus refused, citing a curfew that banned all public gatherings.

She then inquired into the nature of Eppie Belden's illness. Nereus calmly intimated that he had used a parasite to debilitate Belden years earlier as punishment for her seditious activities. Sensing Gaerel's growing fatigue, Nereus revealed that he had inoculated Olabian Trichoid larvae into her meal with Skywalker as part of a plot to infect the Ssi-ruuk. However, since she was invaluable to his schemes, Nereus had her immediately treated with pure oxygen to kill the larva.

The governor then revealed his intentions to eliminate and destroy the Alliance ships once the Ssi-ruuk attack had been beaten off. With the Ssi-ruuk in full retreat, the Imperial forces had begun to fire on the Alliance ships, inflicting severe casualties. An outraged Captison voiced her objections to Nereus' actions and argued that the Alliance had risked their lives to repel the Ssi-ruuvi invaders.

Nereus countered that the Rebel assistance was in the past and that the Coruscant government would punish Bakura for accepting aid from the enemy. He also reminded Gaerial that she ought to be grateful to the Imperials since they had subsidized her education and that Bakura had benefited from its ties to the Empire. Meanwhile, an illegal protest organized by the Bakuran resistance was gathering nearby the complex.

Sensing victory, Nereus attempted to coerce Gaeriel into approving himself as the new successor Prime Minister. He then threatened to shoot Yeorg Captison, whom he accused of treachery, unless the two yielded to his demands. These demands included compelling them to tell the Bakuran populace to cease resistance and submit to Imperial rule with Nereus in charge.

At this movement, the Bakuran resistance sprung into action. They incapacitated his Stormtrooper bodyguards by unleashing a painful electronic alarm system through their helmets. The elderly 123-year old Eppie and several other resistance members entered the room. Much to Nereus' surprise, she was fully recovered, leading the resistance effort and already cognizant of her husband's death. Outnumbered, Nereus surrendered to the resistance fighters; ending his bid to seize power over Bakura.

Taking advantage of the Imperial garrison's preoccupation with the Ssi-ruuvi threat, resistance agents had been able to infiltrate the Imperial military base. The resistance was also greatly aided by about 24 high-placed sympathizers within the Bakuran government who had provided them with access codes. They had also been helped by R2-D2, whom had alerted Eppie after Imperial forces had taken Gaeriel into custody. Initially, the Bakuran resistance wanted to try Nereus for his crimes but Belden persuaded them to hand him over to the Rebel Alliance.

Despite growing weaker from the effects of the parasites in his body, Skywalker tried to used his remaining strength to summon the Force to make a mental connection with the Imperial captain Thanas. Meanwhile, Sibwarra managed to activate one of the Shriwirrs ion cannons and use it to destroy a picket ship. However, they were then attacked by Dev's former master Firwirrung and a gang of P'w'ecks.

While Luke managed to immobilize the P'w'ecks, he was cornered by the Ssi-ruu who leveled his paddle beamer at the former. At that moment, the damaged Dominant broke formation and opened fire on the Shriwirrs bridge, killing Firwirrung but severely wounding Dev in the process. He placed the wounded Sibwarra in a Jedi sleeping trance and then used the Force to eliminate the olabrian trichoid larvae by exposing them to oxygen.

Soon, Han, Leia and Chewie boarded the wrecked Shriwirrs bridge and managed to evacuate Skywalker and the mortally-wounded Dev. While aboard the Falcon, Luke used the Force to mentally communicate with Thanas and persuade the latter to desist from his mission of destroying the Dominant by sending feelings of peace and serenity. Admiring the heroism of his former foes and seeing the underlining flaws in his superior Nereus, Thanas made contact with Skywalker.

The Jedi assured that he had taken care of the parasites and that he needed a medical crew to treat the wounded Dev. As a good will gesture, the Imperial commander agreed to come in person. Thanas also agreed to surrender himself and the Dominant to the Alliance authorities in exchange that his men be sent to a neutral pickup point and allowed to return home, and that Sibwarra be put on trial. When the local Imperial Security Bureau operative among the bridge crew tried to intervene, Thanas quickly stunned the man.

Thanas dispatched an unarmed two-man evacuation pod to the Falcon and placed Captain Dren Jamer in de-facto command of the vessel. While aboard the vessel, they received news from Bakura that Madam Belden's resistance fighters had captured Nereus and that Gaeriel was well and alive at the Bakur complex. Having taken command over the Dominant, Skywalker ordered the crew to move into firing position over the Imperial garrison at Salis D'aar. The Alliance B-wings were dragging it into place and the vessel was escorted by a pair of X-wings.

The Millennium Falcon landed on the Bakur complex and were greeted by Yeorg and Gaeriel along with a captive Nereus. During a brief war of words, Nereus announced to Leia and her companions that he still commanded 3,000 ground-based troops and claimed that Imperial survivors were landing on Bakura in escape pods. Leia responded that the Dominant had submitted to Rebel control and that its weapon systems were aimed directly at the garrison.

In the midst of the spat, Skywalker stepped onto the scene. Horrified and believing that Skywalker was still infected, Wilek Nereus yanked a blaster rifle from Gaeriel and tried to kill Skywalker. Unfortunately for him, the Jedi merely deflected the laser blast with his lightsaber back at Nereus, killing him.

The Battle of Bakura saw the neutralization of the Ssi-ruuk, the liberation of Bakura from the Empire and the immediate Alliance to Restore the Republic being reorganized into the Alliance of Free Planets, the precursor to the New Republic, with Bakura immediately joining. The New Republic historian Voren Na'al later referred to the battle and surrounding events as the Bakura Incident to play down public fears of the Ssi-ruuk. Unfortunately, in the following day, the Ssi-ruuk threat was replaced with the Nagai-Tof threat and would last a month, before ending with their defeat and the subsequent formation of the New Republic, while still based in Bright Tree Village on Endor. 2 years later the New Republic would take Coruscant from Imperial rule and thus the New Republic, had officially replaced the Galactic Empire.

To prevent a second Ssi-ruuvi attack on the worlds on the edge of Wild Space, the Rebel Alliance's successor state—the New Republic—organized an invasion force for an expedition into the Ssi-ruuvi Imperium's territory. This task force consisted of the captured Shriwirr which had been renamed Sibwarra, 12 Nebulon-B escort frigates and several escort warships.

The New Republic also provided the fragmented Imperial warlords with intelligence on the Ssi-ruuk in the hopes of a securing a second joint attack on the Ssi-Ruuk. However when the New Republic fleet emerged in Ssi-ruuvi space, they discovered that the Chiss Ascendancy had already launched a blistering campaign in Ssi-ruuvi territory; devastating the Imperium capital of Lwhekk and fragmenting the Ssi-ruuvi socio-economic caste system. The Chiss had attacked in retaliation for attacks on several Chiss worlds which had seen several of their citizens enteched.

Above Lwhekk, the New Republic fleet clashed with the remnants of the Ssi-ruuvi fleet under Ivpikkis. Having reached a stalemate, the New Republic attempted to negotiate unsuccessfully with the Ssi-ruuk. With the Ssi-ruuk unable to mount another campaign for an unforeseen period and with the growing conflict with the fragmented Imperial warlords looming in the horizon, Chief of State Mon Mothma ordered the withdrawal of the New Republic fleet from Ssi-ruuvi space for an attack on Imperial-held Clak'dor VII.

The devastation of the Chiss attack was to a degree that it was not until many years later that the Ssi-ruuvi contemplated renewing their expansion. Two major events occurred in that time. One was the birth of the Keeramak, an event of major significance in the Ssi-ruuvi religion. The Keeramak himself, a mutant Ssi-ruu, was a skilled strategist and politician. The other event was the secret takeover of the Imperium by the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong, who secretly placed one of their own, E'thinaa, into the ranks of the Ssi-ruu as a ranking general.

Meanwhile on Bakura, when her uncle Yeorg retired from public life, Gaeriel won the election to succeed him as Prime Minister, and had the distinction of being Bakura's youngest Prime Minister. One of her main accomplishments was the establishment of the Bakuran Defense Fleet; she placed Pter Thanas, the former commander of the Imperial garrison on Bakura, in command of it.

In 18 ABY, Bakura withdrew from the New Republic in protest of the misuse of its Defense Force during the attack on Centerpoint Station during the Corellian Crisis. Unwilling to make the same mistakes as the Old Republic which adopted a hard-nosed attitude towards the Separatist movement, the New Republic did not interfere with Bakura's decision.

In Ssi-ruuvi Space, E'thinaa and the Keeramak devised a new strategy for continuing the invasion. They made a secret deal with the Prime Minister of Bakura, Molierre Cundertol, and engineered a faux P'w'eck slave uprising by the P'w'eck Emancipation Movement under Lwothin, positing the Keeramak as its leader. Together, they succeeded in consecrating Bakura and launching a second invasion of the planet in 23 ABY during the devastating Yuuzhan Vong War, but when the P'w'eck's actually did revolt and managed to kill the Keeramak, all was lost. Cundertol himself fled back to Lwhekk, where E'thinaa—revealing himself to have been a disguised Yuuzhan Vong agent—killed him.

• The Truce at Bakura Sourcebook
• The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels
• Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded
• The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology
• The Official Star Wars Fact File3
• The Official Star Wars Fact File23
• The Official Star Wars Fact File119
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• The Unknown Regions
• The Essential Guide to Warfare