In the aftermath of the Clone Wars, an insurrection took place in the highland jungles of the planet Haruun Kal. The Korun natives mounted a guerilla campaign against the ground forces of the Galactic Empire, which struggled to cope with the harsh indigenous environment of fungus and fever wasps. Eventually, the Imperial fleet resorted to orbital bombardment to suppress the insurrection, resulting in a decisive victory that would contribute to the reputation of the fledgling Imperial Navy.
Depa Billaba and General Grievous (both pictured) led their armies and clashed on Haruun Kal during the Clone War.
Haruun Kal had previously been a battlefield during the Clone Wars, between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Republic clone forces of Jedi General Depa Billaba had been decisively defeated by the Separatist Droid Army under General Grievous, suffering ninety percent casualties.
In 19 BBY, the Clone Wars were brought to an end with the abrupt dissolution of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the deactivation of the droid armies, and the reorganization of the Republic into the Galactic Empire. Nevertheless, its immediate aftermath saw the continuation of several smaller conflicts, and in areas with Separatist holdouts such as the Western Reaches, the Empire attempted to pacify the insurrections. On Haruun Kal, the insurrection by the native Korun people was another conflict left over from the Clone Wars, necessitating the intervention of the might of the Imperial Military.
In an effort to suppress the insurrection, the Empire first landed ground forces. Imperial orbital fire made "smoke circles" in the highland regions of the planet, burning back the jungle and creating clearings for their Sentinel-class landing craft. Accompanying the stormtroopers was Imperial Navy liaison was Lieutenant Canonhaus, of the Quasar Fire-class cruiser-carrier Swoop. However the infantry ran into problems almost immediately, with the native fungus grounding the shuttles and speeders within two days. Only their armored HAVw A6 Juggernauts were left operational, with their blasters only saved through "obsessive cleaning."
The commanding officer of the Imperial ground troops ordered a march to a lake thirty kilometers away. Canonhaus would remember this decision as being tactically unsound, but ascribed the poor judgement to the fact that the CO had larvae of fever wasps growing in her brain. After the wasps killed her, the formation was stranded in the wet darkness of the Haruun Kal jungle. At nightfall, they would be attacked by Korun natives from the trees using crude slugthrowers and bombs that could penetrate stormtrooper armor. Though they returned the first attacks with disciplined and accurate fire, the Imperial ground forces eventually resorted to indiscriminately mowing down the jungle with their E-Web heavy repeating blaster emplacements. In the aftermath of these skirmishes, Canonhaus would take it upon himself to confirm the stormtroopers' kills, in an effort to boost morale.
After the difficulties faced by the ground forces, the Imperial fleet resorted to an orbital bombardment of the planet's surface, executing Base Gamma One. Those Imperials remaining on the ground sought shelter in their Juggernauts, which were themselves driven beneath a lake for additional protection; however, the ensuing firestorm boiled the lake off. As the Juggernauts were unable to cool their air fast enough, the heat generated from the bombardment had severe repercussions for many Imperials, causing some to go into convulsions. Eventually, the Empire was able to claim victory, largely because of the orbital bombardment.
The suppression of the insurrection was a major contributor to the fearsome reputation earned by the nascent Imperial Navy, despite the harmful effect that the orbital bombardment had on the ground forces. Several years later, during the Galactic Civil War, Commander Tian Karmiya would remember Haruun Kal as a glorious victory.
As late as 3 ABY, the now-Captain Canonhaus was stricken with traumatic flashbacks to his time on Haruun Kal, including his experiences with the fever wasps and counting enemy corpses. Nevertheless, when discussing the insurrection with Karmiya, he assented to her view of the battle as a proud episode in the history of the navy, even lying that he had helped conduct the bombardment from orbit rather than experiencing it from the surface.
- Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook