The Battle of Telos IV was a battle that started the downfall of the dark trinity of Darth Nihilus, Darth Sion, and Darth Traya in 3951 BBY.
The conflict was orchestrated by Kreia, who realized that Darth Nihilus had to be stopped from consuming all the life in the galaxy in his hunger for the Force. Knowing that General Vaklu and Colonel Tobin were allied with Nihilus, she lied to the latter—who had barely survived the Second Battle of Onderon—about a number of Jedi hiding in Atris's secret academy on Telos IV. In fact, the only Jedi inhabitant of the academy was Atris herself.
Kreia's plan worked as intended. Immediately after leaving Onderon, Tobin reported the misinformation to Nihilus. The Sith Lord took the bait and moved his fleet to Telos IV to feed on the supposed Academy's Jedi. Despite the surprise of the Sith's appearance out of seemingly nowhere, the Telos Security Force, led by Lieutenant Dol Grenn, managed to keep them from completely overrunning Citadel Station until reinforcements arrived. Thanks to Meetra Surik's earlier aid in stopping a weapons smuggling ring, Grenn was able to arm some of his men with the confiscated weapons. She also ensured that the station was capable of remaining in orbit after previously negotiating with Vogga the Hutt on Nar Shaddaa to supply the station with fuel from Sleheyron after the Skirmish at Peragus II led to the destruction of the station’s original primary fuel source.
The first reinforcements were sent from Dantooine and Onderon, led by Captain Zherron of the Khoonda Militia and Major Riiken of the Onderonian military, respectively; both worlds, in the midst of political turmoil, had been stabilized by Surik during her search for the Lost Jedi. After that, Surik herself arrived on the station with the Ebon Hawk, accompanied by Mandalore the Preserver and his clans. With Surik's help, the combined Republic forces cleared Citadel Station of Sith troops and saved the fueling station.
Following the arrival of a large Republic fleet under the command of Admirals Carth Onasi and Cede, Surik prepared to infiltrate the Sith Fleet's flagship, the Ravager, with the help of Visas Marr, as well as Mandalore and his troops. Mandalore had his personal reasons to participate in the battle—he wanted to restore the Mandalorians' to their former glory and remind the galaxy of their courage during the Battle of Malachor V. The Republic forces were too far away to cause any damage to the Ravager.
Meetra Surik, Visas Marr, Mandalore and the Mandalorians boarded the Ravager using a small shuttle and planted four proton charges at different sites of the ship. Unfortunately, one of the charges detonated prematurely when a squad was ambushed. Three cores on their own couldn't destroy the ship, so Surik got another one from the ship's missile bay. Surik, Marr and Mandalore confronted and killed Nihilus on the bridge, after which the group left the Ravager just before it exploded. With their flagship destroyed and their leader dead, the Sith were forced to retreat while the other Sith ships were destroyed by the Republic.
In the wake of the battle Admiral Onasi requested an audience with Surik where he asked Surik if she had heard anything from one of their common acquaintance. Surik told Onasi that she hadn't heard or seen Revan, and was surprised that Onasi knew Revan. Onasi told Surik the story of his adventures with Revan during the Jedi Civil War, starting with their escape from the Endar Spire. He asked Surik to search for Revan, and asked her to tell Revan, if ever found, that Admiral Onasi was following Revan's orders to protect the Republic. Bastila Shan, who somehow escaped the Jedi purge that followed the Jedi Civil War, came with Onasi to the battle. She did not reveal herself to Surik though, and spoke only to Onasi after Surik left about what the Exile had told Admiral Onasi about Revan. Then, Surik took the Ebon Hawk off Telos, heading to the forgotten world of Malachor V to confront Kreia, to destroy the wound in the Force once and for all, and also to begin her search for Revan.
The ending described above only occurs if the player indicates early in the game that Revan is male. If Revan is considered female, Bastila does not appear, and Carth asks the Exile to tell Revan that he still loves her. Carth does not appear at all if the player sets Revan to be dark sided, instead being replaced by Cede, and the cutscene where the Exile meets Carth is removed entirely.
Also, Azkul and a group of his mercenaries appear in place of Zherron and the Khoonda Militia, if the Jedi Exile makes the dark side choice on Dantooine to help him. Also, the Onderon Royalist soldiers are replaced by Vaklu soldiers, if the Exile makes the dark side choice on Onderon by assisting Vaklu, Captain Riiken won't even appear too.
The duel with Darth Nihilus was originally supposed to be much bigger and more threatening.
- When the Exile and Visas approached Nihilus, he was supposed to suspend them in the air. After the Exile had a few words, Nihilus dropped the Exile while keeping Visas suspended. She begged him not to harm the Exile. Nihilus then threw Visas across the room after Visas confessed her betrayal.
- The Exile now had options to join Nihilus, or deceptively accept his offer. If the Exile chose to lie, Visas would catch on to this deception and would attack Nihilus. However, if the Exile chooses to willingly become Nihilus's new apprentice, Visas attacks the Exile claiming she is truly a student of Kreia and gets killed.
In other material cut from the game, Citadel Station would be destroyed by the Ravager, crashing into it at some point during the battle.
Also in a cut content, the Exile would encounter Jana Lorso, who lost all of her bodyguards and hired mercenaries. Jana would then panic and flee at the sight of Sith Troops and would be killed by a Sith turret.