In the year 3640 BBY, which falls during the Galactic War fought between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, the Imperial warship known as the Ascendant Spear, led by the Sith Lord Darth Karrid, launched an assault against the planet of Boranall. This assault involved obliterating a small fleet belonging to the Republic and then bombarding the surface of Boranall to crush a growing uprising on the other planets within the Boranall system.
Following the death of the Sith Emperor and the unsuccessful Battle of Corellia, the Sith Empire found itself in a defensive posture during the Galactic War against the Galactic Republic. In 3640 BBY, Darth Marr, a member of the Dark Councilor, tasked Davidge, who served as the Minister of Logistics, with assessing the state of affairs in the Boranall system. The purpose of this assessment was to determine if suppressing the recent rebellions on the star system's three inhabitable planets was a worthwhile endeavor. Davidge's analysis concluded that the Empire would be better served by abandoning their efforts in that region, as the cost of a prolonged campaign there would drain the Empire's military resources. Nevertheless, Marr determined that the Boranall system needed to be made an example of. Therefore, he instructed Davidge to contact Darth Karrid, a newly appointed Dark Councilor and the commander of the prototype warship Ascendant Spear, as she was still operating within the sector. Despite Davidge's reservations, he followed Marr's orders and successfully persuaded Karrid to deploy the Spear by exaggerating the Republic's threat in the area.
When Karrid arrived in the Boranall system, she immediately used the Spear to annihilate the Republic Navy ships present. Subsequently, she turned the ship's weaponry towards the planet of Boranall. The ensuing orbital bombardment caused widespread civilian deaths, reduced numerous cities to rubble, and effectively intimidated the inhabitants of the system's other two planets into submission.
The Imperial News Network presented the events of the battle as Imperial propaganda. They asserted that the Republic ships were responsible for the bombardment of Boranall and that the Imperial Navy had arrived too late to offer any assistance to the planet.
The attack on Boranall was first introduced in the 2012 novel titled The Old Republic: Annihilation, written by Drew Karpyshyn. In Chapter 11, Darth Marr orders Minister Davidge to get in touch with Darth Karrid regarding the Boranall system. The consequences of her visit are later shown on an Imperial news broadcast that Theron Shan and Gnost-Dural, the protagonists of the novel, watch while they are on the planet Ziost.