Between the years of 39 BBY and 36 BBY, a colonial war unfolded on the lunar surface of Alaris Prime. This conflict involved a group of Wookiee settlers, the Trade Federation, and the native gundarks, a predatory species inhabiting the moon. Alaris Prime, abundant in resources, shared the same star system as the world Kashyyyk. Wookiee pathfinders had re-discovered it two decades before the onset of the war. A request was submitted to the Galactic Republic's Senate seeking the authority to settle the moon. After twenty years of discussion, the Wookiees were granted these rights, and they journeyed to Alaris Prime under the leadership of Wookiee Attichitcuk. Simultaneously, the Trade Federation dispatched its Droid Army secretly aiming to seize control of Alaris Prime. Gundarks assaulted Attichitcuk's initial settlement, and the constant danger posed by these creatures led both factions to devise a plan to eliminate them at their nesting ground.
With assistance from Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, the Wookiees trained a small group of fighters, led by Attichitcuk's offspring, Chewbacca, to confront the gundarks at their nest. There, they found Trade Federation combat droids engaged in the massacre of the gundarks. The automatons then turned their weapons towards the Wookiees, but they were destroyed. To defend against the Trade Federation, the Wookiees intensified their military training. During a reconnaissance mission, Attichitcuk was nearly killed in an ambush by Trade Federation Battle Droid Beta Models. After saving his father, Chewbacca assumed command of the Wookiee colonists and, with Jinn's guidance, planned further offensives against the Trade Federation.
Chewbacca instructed Wookiees to raid a Trade Federation installation, successfully defended his encampment from an onslaught, and obliterated a Trade Federation communications array. Ultimately, Chewbacca resolved to expel the Trade Federation from Alaris Prime altogether. He organized a major assault on the Trade Federation's primary headquarters, supported by Jinn, his recovered father, and his cousin Shoran. During the Battle for Alaris Prime, the Wookiees demolished the Trade Federation's stronghold, effectively ending the war and securing their control over the moon. Under Chewbacca's direction, Alaris Prime flourished as a technological center for the Republic and achieved financial prosperity.
Alaris Prime existed as a small but resource-rich satellite orbiting the planet Alaris within the Kashyyyk system. Following a minor conflict during the New Sith Wars around 1002 BBY, Alaris Prime vanished from galactic maps, concealed by the immense size of Alaris. Between 59 BBY and 56 BBY, Wookiee scouts originating from Kashyyyk re-discovered Alaris Prime. Subsequently, Wookiee Chieftain Attichitcuk petitioned the Galactic Republic's Senate for the right to initiate a settlement on the moon.
During these negotiations, the galactic entity known as the Trade Federation voiced their interest in Alaris Prime. Their intention was to establish it as a commercial hub connecting planets like Kashyyyk, Kessel, and Bimmisaari. The Trade Federation also planned clandestine manufacturing operations among other remote worlds. Darth Maul, a Sith Lord, volunteered to participate, but his master, Darth Sidious, who was secretly manipulating the Trade Federation for the Sith Grand Plan, rejected the proposal. After two decades of debate, the Republic awarded the Wookiees the rights to Alaris Prime. In recognition of his political efforts, Attichitcuk was named the leader of the colonists.
The Wookiee colonists set out for Alaris Prime aboard the transport vessel Thalmussen, along with three other colony ships, sometime between 39 BBY and 36 BBY. Chewbacca and Shoran—Attichitcuk's son and nephew, respectively—were among the travelers. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn was dispatched by the Jedi Council to guide the Wookiees and provide remote instruction in resource gathering and exploration. Despite being denied colonial rights, the Trade Federation covertly deployed its Droid Army to Alaris Prime, accompanied by their allies, Trandoshan slavers led by Pekt. The Federation arrived before the Wookiees and began establishing bases. One power cell was constructed but subsequently attacked by predatory gundarks, which forced the Federation to abandon the area, leaving the power core damaged but still functional.
Upon landing, Attichitcuk was the first to venture out and explore Alaris Prime. He established a small base camp north of the landing site, marking the way for the other Wookiees. Shoran also explored and left his own markers, but stopped when he discovered the damaged Trade Federation power core, unsure of its origin. Chewbacca then disembarked and, guided by both Shoran's markers and Jinn's remote instructions, also reached the power core. Following Jinn's advice, the two Wookiees used their bowcasters to destroy the power core and then followed Attichitcuk's markers to his camp.
Four gundarks then attacked Attichitcuk's camp, but the three Wookiees defeated them. Shortly after, a Trade Federation B1 battle droid named OOL-2 discovered the wreckage of the power core destroyed by Chewbacca and Shoran and reported it to Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray, blaming the gundarks for the destruction. Gunray ordered OOL-2 to find the gundarks, eliminate them, and deliver their furs to the Trandoshans.
The Wookiees began constructing more bases, including a command center staffed by three Wookiee laborers. Jinn assisted the workers by instructing them on how to gather resources such as provisions, carbon, nova crystals, and minerals, all vital for the colony's survival. The Wookiees also practiced a drill in case of a gundark attack, retreating into the command center and using its turret to fire at the creatures. Two additional workers arrived at the base to help gather resources along with Chewbacca. When four gundarks suddenly attacked the command center, the workers followed the drill's protocol and fought off the gundarks with Chewbacca's help. After the Wookiees gathered a set amount of resources, Jinn decided that the gundarks had to be exterminated for the Wookiees' colonization to succeed.
At another outpost led by Chewbacca, Jinn had the workers gather resources briefly before instructing them to build a training facility to train bowcaster troopers. Simultaneously, the Trade Federation dispatched a unit of Battle Droid Beta Versions to eliminate the gundarks at their nest. Once at least ten soldiers had been trained, Chewbacca led them to raid the nest, only to find the Trade Federation finishing off the gundarks. With all the creatures dead, the battle droids attacked the Wookiees, who retaliated and destroyed all the droids. The attack at the nest resulted in the extinction of gundarks on Alaris Prime and alerted the Wookiees to the Trade Federation's presence on the moon, shaping the colonial effort's future direction.
Attichitcuk, accompanied by two other Wookiees, began a scouting mission to learn more about the Trade Federation's presence. At another base managed by Chewbacca, Jinn instructed the Wookiees on advanced food gathering techniques, mainly through building farms and animal nurseries, as well as assisting them in improving their level of technology. As Attichitcuk headed for the base, he was intercepted by a group of Battle Droid Beta Versions commanded by DRN-38, who shot the Wookiee leader and killed his two companions. Jinn sensed through the Force that Attichitcuk had survived and told Chewbacca to train more bowcaster troopers and build a medical droid to save the cheiftain. A force of eleven Wookiees, including Chewbacca, marched towards Attichitcuk's position, destroying all battle droids in their path. After Attichitcuk was found and healed by the medical droid, the Wookiees returned to their base, also fighting off three droidekas sent by DRN-38 in retaliation.
With his father needing time to recover, Chewbacca took the lead of the colonists. Together with Jinn, he began planning to remove the Trade Federation from Alaris Prime. Hoping to intimidate them with a show of force, Chewbacca's first target was a Trade Federation outpost commanded by GWC-04, which contained a troop center where B1 battle droids were produced. After two HummBike scouts located the outpost, Chewbacca trained eleven other Wookiees, including bowcaster troopers, dragon troopers, and grenade troopers. The Wookiees traveled to the outpost and attacked it, with the bowcaster troopers defeating the B1 battle droids there and the dragon and grenade troopers destroying the defensive walls and the troop center.
Following the attack, Chewbacca was present at a settlement near another camp run by Shoran. Chewbacca set his workers to gather resources while Jinn instructed him to build a spaceport to exchange goods with Shoran using Corellian HoverFreighters. Shoran discovered a Jedi holocron within his camp, which Jinn sought to retrieve for the Jedi Order. He contacted the Jedi Council for permission to build a Jedi temple on Alaris Prime to store the holocron, a request which the Council granted. Jinn sent his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi to the newly constructed temple to retrieve the holocron.
Shoran then spotted a strike force of beetle droids and Battle Droid Beta Versions that was heading for Chewbacca's camp under the command of LUH-989. He warned Jinn about the invaders, and between five and six Wookiees, including Chewbacca, two bowcaster troopers, and a dragon trooper, rallied at the edge of the camp and successfully repelled the droids. Afterward, Kenobi brought the holocron to the Jedi temple, and Shoran discovered a nearby Trade Federation listening array, also run by LUH-989, that was being used to spy on the Wookiee communications. Chewbacca gathered a force of between eight and thirty Wookiees and, combined with Shoran's forces, they stormed the listening array and destroyed every droid and transmitter there.
Recognizing Chewbacca's strategic prowess, Jinn requested the Jedi Council's permission to personally join the Wookiees' final assault on the Trade Federation's main base in what became known as the Battle for Alaris Prime. The Council agreed, provided the Wookiees construct a fortress in one of their bases. Chewbacca, Shoran, and a recovered Attichitcuk gathered at the base and directed workers to gather more resources and construct more buildings to support their military, including the fortress. The Trade Federation commander SRAM-13 sent a group of beetle droids and a droideka to attack Wookiee sentry posts outside the base.
Once the fortress was built, Jinn landed at the Wookiee base, spotting several unusual ships near the Trade Federation base and correctly suspecting that they belonged to Trandoshan slavers that had arrived to capture the Wookiees. Subsequently, SRAM-13 sent a trio of light droid starfighters to scout the base, prompting the Wookiees to increase their air defenses with anti-air missile turrets. Using an airbase and a Heavy Weapons Factory, the Wookiees manufactured ten Agr starfighters, three Heavy Blade bombers, and three energy pummels. With those forces, along with five Sentinel mechs and five heavy bowcaster troopers, Jinn and the Wookiee leadership marched towards the Trade Federation base, intent on destroying its fortress. The bombers and fighters destroyed the defensive turrets and picked off any droids left in the base, after which the ground troops marched in and the pummels demolished the fortess, removing the Trade Federation from Alaris Prime.
Pekt was inside the Trade Federation fortress when it was destroyed but escaped on one of his transport ships, vowing to return to the Kashyyyk system as long as Wookiee furs remained valuable. In Jinn's final transmission to the Jedi Council, he reflected on the skills he had imparted to Chewbacca, believing the Wookiee was ready to find his place in the galaxy. Darth Sidious was frustrated with the outcome of the war, believing the Neimoidian leaders of the Trade Federation had carelessly allowed their manufacturing operations on Alaris Prime to be exposed. Having lost Alaris Prime, Nute Gunray directed the Trade Federation's attention to the planet Naboo, launching an invasion there in 32 BBY in accordance with Sidious's designs.
The Alaris Prime colony became a thriving technological hub for the Republic and experienced financial prosperity under Chewbacca's leadership. Wookiees still inhabited the moon during the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems in 22 BBY. The Trade Federation continued to attack Wookiee colony worlds for two decades, and battles on Alaris Prime occurred into the Clone Wars, where the Trade Federation joined the Confederacy. The Wookiee colonists on Alaris Prime were enslaved by the Separatists during the Dark Reaper crisis and were freed by the Republic in the battle on Alaris, although they were attacked again during the Hunt for the Decimator.
In 19 BBY, the Trade Federation bypassed Kashyyyk's colony worlds to besiege the planet directly in the Battle of Kashyyyk. That same year, Sidious fulfilled the Grand Plan and transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire. Pekt collaborated with the Empire to fulfill his plan to profit off of the Wookiees, becoming a major slaver on Kashyyyk. He was ultimately stopped by Chewbacca, who had traveled the galaxy in the intervening years and become one of the greatest heroes of the Rebel Alliance. The war for Alaris Prime, particularly Jinn and Kenobi's involvement, was also acknowledged in a chronicle of galactic history published in 36 ABY.
The video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, developed by LucasArts, featured the Alaris Prime colonial war and launched on November 11, 2001. This war was initially referenced in the strategy guide for the game, authored by Steven L. Kent and published by Prima Games on November 7 of that year. The Attichitcuk tutorial campaign, comprising seven stages where players command the Wookiee armies, uses the colonial war as its central storyline. Qui-Gon Jinn provides narration for each stage, delivering guidance and teaching the game's mechanics to the player. A level is instantly failed if any of the player's hero characters, such as Chewbacca, Shoran, Attichitcuk, or Jinn, are defeated.