The Rhen Var Evacuation happened during the opening month of the Clone Wars. Despite the fact that the planet was not considered strategically important to the Republic military at the time, this event represented a major loss for the Galactic Republic. The Jedi High Council only came to understand later that seizing Rhen Var was the initial move in what became known as the Dark Reaper crisis.
While positioned within the Tion Cluster, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker detected a Separatist battle group consisting of multiple Lucrehulk-class battleships materializing from hyperspace. Possessing only their individual Delta-7 starfighters, the two Jedi were unable to engage the enemy fleet directly. Instead, they opted to alert the fleet's intended target, charting a course for Rhen Var in the Tobali system.
Rhen Var housed a small Republic installation known as Bravo Base, situated relatively close to the Separatist invasion's landing zone. Unable to mount a defense against such a large-scale assault, Kenobi requested transports to evacuate the base's personnel. Upon arriving, he assisted in preparing the base for the withdrawal, assigning his Padawan and a clone trooper squad in an LAAT/i gunship to rescue the workers from a nearby communications facility that was already under attack when Skywalker got there. After eliminating the CIS Armored Assault Tanks and Hailfire droids, the workers were quickly loaded onto the gunship and safely transported to Bravo Base. An approaching convoy of Republic Troop Transports carrying clone troopers from the planet's garrison then became Skywalker's next objective. He escorted them to the base, engaging Separatist fighter and mortar tanks from the air. When the convoy reached the base, Kenobi told Skywalker about a small Jedi sanctuary located between the Separatist forces and the base, instructing him to extract the five Jedi stationed there. Once the Jedi were rescued and brought to the base, Skywalker joined the fight to defend Bravo Base as the evacuation transports began to depart.
After a difficult battle against overwhelmingly superior forces that grew even larger as more CIS landing craft arrived, the transports successfully escaped the planet, with Kenobi and Skywalker following soon after as Bravo Base was overrun and subsequently destroyed. The two Jedi, responsible for saving the base's personnel, could only inform the Jedi Council that the planet had fallen to the Separatists.
Even though the outpost was destroyed during this conflict, the Republic later returned to search for the ancient Jedi Ulic Qel-Droma's tomb. Unfortunately, Count Dooku had already located Qel-Droma's burial site and, through guidance from his spirit, had discovered the location of the Force Harvester's burial place—Raxus Prime.