Xim Wars

The warlord Xim the Despot had inherited the acquisitions of the Cronese Sweeps within the Kingdom of Cron from his ruthless pirate father around 25,130 BBY. Following in his father's footsteps, Xim invaded and conquered large areas of the neighboring space with his armies and fleets which were equipped with the highest technology available at the time including beam tubes, kiirium, mytag crystals, and war-robots. He controlled his conquests through his dreaded secret police, the GenoHaradan, and the use of terror tactics such as mass executions.

The first years of Xim's reign were his Expansionist Period, and he conquered most of the Tion Cluster, including the Livien League which contained the world Desevro. Xim's empire eventually stretched from the Radama Void to the Maw and numbered thousands of worlds.

By the time of his conquest of the Kiirium Reaches, however, rumours had started to reach Xim of a powerful empire just outside his borders: the Hutt Empire was said to be staggeringly wealthy and as large as Xim's dominion. Curious about the Hutts, Xim knew that they were too powerful to be conquered outright. Instead, he hoped to coexist with them while at the same time preparing for war. The Kiirium Reaches were fortified and the hyperspace beacon network expanded to create a hyperlane, the Warrior's Trace, to the edges of Hutt Space.

From GenoHaradan interrogations of traders, the Tionese gained a sketch of the Hutt territories: on the edges of Hutt Space was the temperate world of Ko Vari, from which led trade routes back into the tangle of Hutt satrapies in the Si'Klaata Cluster. Beyond that was Sleheyron, a treasure world that marked the boundary of the Hutts' core sphere of influence, and where only the Hutts' most trusted slaves were permitted.

A diplomatic mission was sent to the outlying Hutt colony of Ko Vari, where some-dozen Hutt nobles were in attendance. However, the Hutts regarded the presence of Xim's envoy, his name recorded by them as Oziaf the Insignificant, as a grievous insult. Despite this, they could not disregard the scale of Xim's conquests, and instead offered him and the Tionese the chance to live under Hutt rule as particularly favoured slaves.

Enraged by this, Xim resolved to conquer the Hutts, taking the old Rakatan title Daritha - Ruler of Worlds - as his own in a lavish ceremony on his capital of Chandaar. He provocatively declared Sleheyron the Ninth Throne of his empire.

Little is known about the detailed conduct of the conflict as both Hutt and Tionese records of it were lost or retold over the centuries. What is known is that Xim's war fleet expanded the Warrior's Trace to flank Hutt territories, pushing to the Kossimur system to flank Ko Vari and as far south as Xoloch and Moralan to flank Sleheyron. Then in the twenty-fifth year of his rule, Xim launched a two-pronged attack on Ko Vari and Sleheyron.

Ko Vari was brutally sacked and devastated in an orbital bombardment. However, the commander of the Hutt defense, Boonta Hestilic Shad'ruu, cost the Tionese dearly by sacrificing countless slaves in suicide attacks on the Despot's ships and ground forces. Additionally, the drive to take Sleheyron failed, and Xim's ships were driven back to Xo's Eye, where many were lost in the Maw black hole cluster.

Despite this victory, the Hutts came to regard Xim as a powerful and dangerous opponent. Boonta the Hutt's defense of Ko Vari had bought them time, and so the Hutts defended Sleheyron while resorting to unconventional tactics. Impressed by Boonta's military skill, the Hutt leader, Clan-General Kossak Inijic Ar'durv gave him command of privateers to harass Xim's shipping. The raids sapped Xim's material and leading him to handle logistics in an increasingly paranoid fashion, sending secret shipments to fortified bases.

Meanwhile, Kossak manipulated Xim by accusing him of cowardice and hiding behind huge numbers. Xim was lured into a ritual combat at Vontor, a site long-used for such purposes by the Hutts and, it transpired, a source of increasingly-scarce kiirium for Xim's war machine.

In 25,100 BBY, Xim's fleet was demolished by the Hutts at the First Battle of Vontor, the Hutt strategy coordinated by Boonta Hestilic Shad'ruu. Despite this, Xim disregarded the Hutts' demands that he withdraw from occupied worlds claimed by them. Xim rebuilt his forces, and sent newly built warships into the Si'klaata Cluster to raid Kintan, Klatooine and Vodran. Additionally, the Tionese sponsored an uprising among the Hutt slaves on Moralan, who overthrew their oppressors. The Parliament of Moralan proclaimed an independent Moralan republic.

A year later, Kossak challenged Xim to another ritual combat. Xim chose to fight on the ground in the Second Battle of Vontor, only to find his elite Duinarbulon Star Lancers and other ground forces defeated by Jilruan flechetteers and Cyborrean heavy infantry. However, he escaped with a great haul of Vontorian kiirium.

Xim's High Command began to turn against the war, warning of the Hutt pirates loose in the Kiirium Reaches and suggesting that the Despot suspend the campaign and fortify his empire. Xim regarded this as treason and sent many officers to their execution at the Forbidden Gardens of Nuswatta. He bought time by conceding the Moralan system to the Hutts. Boonta the Hutt's forces promptly sterilized the planet as an object lesson to the Hutts' slave species.

Xim all-but bankrupted his empire to rebuild his fleets and armies. Meanwhile, Boonta led the recapture of Ko Vari and Kossak challenged Xim to a third ritual combat: if Xim won, he could have Ko Vari and what was left of Moralan. If he was defeated, he would renounce all claim to the Kiirium Reaches.

Xim agreed to the combat, believing victory was inevitable. However, Hutt representatives had brokered an agreement known as the Treaty of Vontor with several warlike sentient species from the Si'Klaata Cluster: the Klatooinians, Vodrans, and Nikto. This agreement sealed the fate of these species in eternal Hutt bondage.

Xim was defeated by Kossak and Boonta at the Third Battle of Vontor thanks to the manpower of the newly enslaved races, in addition to the Weequay species. His remaining armies held up on the planet were already short of ordnance due to privateering harassment, and low on morale due to earlier defeats, and were wiped out by the Hutt forces.

Xim died, blinded and in captivity in the grim dungeons of Kossak at the Hutt capital of Varl, though Tionese history claimed that he was treacherously killed at Vontor. His treasure ship, the Queen of Ranroon, escaped to the planet of Dellalt where it would be guarded for millennia by a cache of Xim's war-robots known as the Guardian Corps and a secret brotherhood known as the "Survivors," descended from the original crew and elite guards on board the ship.

The sentient species who were originally recruited as allies to defeat Xim were pressed into Hutt servitude well into the days of the New Republic under the terms of the Treaty of Vontor. Ko Vari was renamed Boonta in honor of its defender, but it never fully regained its former glory and became something of a backwater throughout the reign of the Galactic Republic.

Boonta the Hutt would additionally be honored with the holiday of Boonta's Eve, said to be the anniversary of the night before the Third Battle of Vontor, when Boonta addressed his kin, retainers and slaves. On Boonta's Eve, Hutt slaves would renew their vows of obeisance and were rewarded with a feast and gifts from their masters.

The Tion Cluster split into several warring factions including the Honorable Union of Desevro & Tion, the Jaminere Marches, the Indrexu Confederation, the Keldrath Alignment, the Thanium Worlds, and the Kingdom of Cron. The Hutts retained the Kiirium Reaches as a buffer zone between them and the Tion, raiding it for slaves and maintaining the Warrior's Trace as a potential invasion corridor. When the Galactic Republic first encountered the Tionese just prior to the Tionese War in 24,500 BBY, the Hutts viewed it as a precursor to the Tionese allying with the Republic and took pre-emptive action, devastating the Kiirium Reaches in a genocidal campaign known as the Devouring. The lifeless stretch of space between Hutt Space and the Tion Cluster became known as the Ash Worlds.

Despite his reign of only thirty standard years, Xim's influence would continue through history with the study of him and his empire being known as Ximology. It was even rumored that the GenoHaradan survived as a secretive, but powerful, criminal syndicate as late as the Jedi Civil War. The romance of Xim's lost treasure would inspire fortune-seekers throughout history, until it was discovered millennia later by Han Solo and the Ruurian historian S. V. Skynx.

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