Battle over Korriban

The Great Galactic War, which began in 3681 BBY, was a protracted and brutal interstellar struggle in which the Sith Empire's military forces consistently and effectively overwhelmed those of the Galactic Republic. Under the leadership of the mysterious Sith Emperor and the Sith Lords of the Dark Council, the Empire secured numerous significant victories during the early stages of the conflict. This placed the Republic and its Jedi warriors in a prolonged state of disorganized defense. This trend persisted until approximately 3678 BBY, when Exal Kressh, the Emperor's Sith apprentice, discovered her Master's scheme to create a legion of sleeper agents. These agents would be enslaved to his dark side Force abilities and transformed into extensions of his will. These individuals, known as the Children of the Emperor, were intended to possess a powerful connection to the Dark Lord of the Sith. This connection would enable him to transfer his essence into their bodies, thereby assuming direct control over them for a limited duration. By doing so, the Sith Emperor aimed to secure his immortality and omnipotence by perpetually inhabiting new bodies.

Shortly after this revelation, Kressh uncovered another alarming truth: the Emperor was secretly transforming her into the initial member of his Children. This was to be done before initiating the program on a massive scale through the use of Sith sorcery. Repulsed by the prospect of becoming a mere puppet rather than an apprentice, Kressh defected from the Empire in 3678 BBY and began leaking confidential Imperial Military secrets to the Republic Strategic Information Service. Although the Jedi High Council was hesitant to trust a purported Sith defector, the exigencies of the war compelled them to accept Kressh's assistance. Nevertheless, they assigned Jerbhen Hulis, a Jedi Master, and his Padawan to track her down. Meanwhile, the Republic Navy prepared to utilize her information. The data she provided specifically concerned the defense forces guarding Korriban, the reclaimed Sith holy planet located in the Esstran sector. It was here that new generations of Sith Lords were trained in the ancient academy situated on the surface. Also located deep within the academy was a ritual chamber being prepared by the Emperor to receive and create his new Children.

While Kressh awaited the Republic Navy's preparations for an assault on Korriban, she sought refuge to evade both the Jedi tracking her and the Sith assassins dispatched by the Emperor. Due to her incomplete connection to her former Master, she was plagued by his thoughts and temptations, knowing that he could perceive her location through her senses. To diminish his influence, Kressh fled to the Lenico system, where she entered a stasis pod on Lenico Colony Blue. Although this tactic provided temporary respite, the rogue Sith was soon discovered by Teneb Kel, an ambitious but masterless Sith apprentice tasked by the Dark Council with killing Kressh. Following a brief duel, Kressh escaped with her life, while Kel was stranded on Lenico IV with his slave, Maggot, and the Jedi pursuers. It was on Lenico IV that Kel discovered the Emperor's closely guarded plans to create the Children. He then repaired his starship and resumed his pursuit of Kressh. Meanwhile, the defector had traveled to Korriban and reached its surface undetected, allowing her to signal the amassed Republic naval force and initiate the battle for the Sith holy land.

Although Korriban's defense force had detected the approaching enemy ships, the warning arrived too late to effectively organize a substantial counterattack. Instead, a formidable Republic fleet, comprising at least two Valor-class cruisers and numerous Thranta-class corvettes, entered hyperspace into the Horuset system and engaged the Empire's warships at a distance of four hundred and eighty-three light minutes from Korriban itself. Despite the Empire's deployment of numerous Harrower-class dreadnoughts and Terminus-class destroyers, the Republic commodore in command of the operation leveraged Kressh's intelligence to exploit the Imperial Navy's patrol vessel rotation schedule. The commodore also successfully navigated twelve of her ships past the Empire's ion mine field surrounding Korriban. This allowed for the deployment of several drop ships carrying Republic soldiers and Jedi Knights destined for the planet's surface. Their mission was to seize the academy and rendezvous with Kressh within.

The battle in the Horuset system intensified as the Valor and Thranta cruisers engaged Harrower and Terminus destroyers at close range. Simultaneously, squadrons of Republic Liberator-class starfighters and Imperial Mark VI Supremacy-class starfighters engaged in explosive dogfights between the capital ships. Teneb Kel and Maggot arrived on the scene in their Fury-class interceptor to witness the intense combat. However, Kel declined to assist the captain of the Imperial fleet, as his objective lay on the surface and Kressh was already advancing toward her goal. Maggot skillfully piloted the interceptor through the chaos, evading the Valor cruiser's turbolasers. However, they were pursued by three Liberator starfighters. As the Sith and his slave approached the planet, their vessel sustained a significant blast from one of the _Liberator_s but maintained flight and survived the encounter after anti-aircraft emplacements on the surface eliminated the squadron of Republic ships.

After promising Maggot his eventual freedom and bidding his slave farewell, Kel used the Force to jump from his vessel as it hurtled over the Valley of the Dark Lords. At the valley's base, Republic strike teams and Jedi Knights clashed with the Academy's Dark Honor Guard on the steps of the ancient institution. This caused damage to the facade and diverting the Sith defenders' attention from the true threat, Exal Kressh. Realizing that his quarry would be utilizing the labyrinthine Sith tombs beneath the valley to access the Academy while the Guard was occupied, Kel set out to intercept her before she reached the Emperor's Children.

Within the maze of crypts beneath the valley, Kel discovered several dead k'lor'slugs and a recently deceased Sith defender. He then encountered Kressh, who was in the process of executing a second Sith before proceeding to disrupt the Emperor's ritual and destroy his Children. The two engaged in a fierce lightsaber battle during which Kressh began to undermine the foundations of the tombs and academy, while Kel desperately attempted to defend himself and neutralize the rogue Sith's threat. After revealing to his opponent that he too was aware of the Children of the Emperor, Kel enraged Kressh by demanding to know why she had abandoned her Master. Admitting that her vendetta against the Empire was purely personal, Kressh launched a vicious assault against Kel, nearly killing him. Her victory was thwarted by Maggot's intervention, who had disobeyed his master's orders and followed him into the crypts. The Abyssin slave fired explosive rounds from a blaster cannon at Kressh, distracting her long enough for Kel to strike her with a fatal blow. Unfortunately for Maggot, the plan backfired when Kel found himself unable to retaliate against Kressh, leaving her open to unleash arcs of Force lightning upon the intervening slave.

Turning her attention back to Kel, Kressh unleashed another barrage of lightning. Although the young Sith assassin managed to deflect some of the energy with his double-bladed lightsaber, the intensity of the electrical discharge was sufficient to burn the gloves from his hands and disintegrate his weapon. Severely wounded and on the verge of death, Kel struggled to remain standing but succumbed to Kressh's telekinetic abilities. His opponent levitated him into the air and approached to end his life, but her attack was interrupted when Kel used the Force to lift the lightsaber of a slain academy defender from the ground and plunge it into Kressh's back. The Sith traitor collapsed to the ground, admitting to hearing the Emperor's voice in her head once more as she died.

With his mission accomplished, Kel retrieved Maggot, and together they began their journey back to the surface. However, upon realizing that his slave may have overheard Kressh's conversation regarding the Children of the Emperor, Kel decided that the secret was more important than the Abyssin's life. Kel killed his companion and left the body in the tombs while he continued outward to rejoin the battle and report to the Dark Council. On the surface and in space, Republic forces quickly began losing ground and retreating. The loss of their ally and the failed attempt to destroy the academy had completely undermined the Republic's chances of victory. The drop teams in the Valley of the Dark Lords were swiftly captured or killed, and the decimated Republic fleet quickly fled the Horuset system to preserve its remaining vessels.

The conclusion of the battle marked the end of the galaxy-wide manhunt for Exal Kressh and the Republic's fleeting hopes of seizing one of the Empire's most prized worlds. The Republic forces captured on Korriban were promptly integrated into Imperial slave labor pools and forced to assist in the reconstruction of the Sith's damaged academy. Meanwhile, Teneb Kel returned to the Empire's capital on Dromund Kaas to meet with the Dark Council and learn of his reward and fate. Although the members of the Council anticipated the young Sith's submission, Kel instead approached them with newfound confidence and inner power stemming from his exposure to the Emperor's secrets. Rather than accepting a new Master and reverting to the role of a subservient apprentice, Kel stood before the Dark Lords of the Council and declared that he would provide them with information regarding the Emperor's immortality and plans for his Children in exchange for further empowerment. The Council acquiesced, elevating Kel to the rank of Dark Lord and bestowing upon him the title of Darth Thanaton.

Despite their significant losses, the Sith's victory on Korriban ensured the security of that world for years to come, until the Jedi launched another unsuccessful assault on the world in 3660 BBY. Kressh's defeat also marked the end of the known Kressh lineage and prompted the Emperor to demand the erasure of the Kressh name from Imperial history. The order, which included the destruction of all monuments to the venerable Kressh family on Dromund Kaas, was so thorough that knowledge of the Emperor's apprentice was virtually nonexistent by 3643 BBY.

The Battle over Korriban was initially introduced to Star Wars lore through the 2010 webcomic series, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire, authored by Alexander Freed. The battle, depicted throughout most of Act 3: Burn the Future, served as the series' climax. While the conflict is not explicitly named in the issue, this article refers to it as the "second battle of Korriban," considering that it is the second battle on Korriban during the Great Galactic War, the first being the Empire's reclamation of the world in 3681 BBY. Burn the Future was reissued as a physical issue in December of 2010 as The Old Republic 6: Blood of the Empire, Part 3. The event and the entirety of the Blood of the Empire comic series were created as a tie-in to LucasArts' and BioWare's online video game, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Although Kel appears in the game as Darth Thanaton, Kressh and their duel are only mentioned. The battle on Korriban and the duel in the tombs are referenced in the game's companion source book, Star Wars: The Old Republic Encyclopedia.