In the year 3640 BBY, during the Galactic War between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, the Imperial warship Ascendant Spear under the command of the Sith Lord Darth Karrid attacked the planet Boranall, destroying a small fleet of Republic vessels before bombarding Boranall's surface in order to suppress a growing rebellion on the other planets of the Boranall system.
In the aftermath of the death of the Sith Emperor and the disastrous Battle of Corellia, the Sith Empire was forced on the defensive in their Galactic War with the Galactic Republic. In 3640 BBY, the Dark Councilor Darth Marr requested that Davidge, the Minister of Logistics, review the situation in the Boranall system to see if it was worth suppressing the recent rebellions on the star system's three habitable planets. Davidge's analysis indicated that the Empire would be better off abandoning their efforts there, as the cost of a protracted campaign in the system would negatively affect the Empire's military resources. However, Marr decided that an example needed to be made of the Boranall system, and he ordered Davidge to contact Darth Karrid, a newly-appointed Dark Councilor and the commander of the prototype warship Ascendant Spear, as she was still in the sector. Despite Davidge's misgivings, he complied with Marr's orders and convinced Karrid to deploy the Spear by playing up the Republic threat in the region.
Upon Karrid's arrival in the Boranall system, she used the Spear to destroy the Republic Navy vessels there before turning her ship's weapons on the planet Boranall. The orbital bombardment resulted in massive civilian casualties, leveling several cities and successfully cowing the inhabitants of the system's other two planets into submission.
The Imperial News Network spun the events of the battle into Imperial propaganda, claiming that the Republic ships had been responsible for the bombardment of Boranall and that the Imperial Navy had arrived too late to save the planet.
The attack on Boranall first appeared in the 2012 novel The Old Republic: Annihilation by Drew Karpyshyn. In Chapter 11, Minister Davidge is ordered by Darth Marr to contact Darth Karrid about the Boranall system, and the results of her visit are later depicted on an Imperial news broadcast that Theron Shan and Gnost-Dural, the novel's protagonists, see while on the planet Ziost.