First Battle of Ruusan

By 1000 BBY, the ongoing war between the Sith and the Galactic Republic had spread across the entire galaxy. As the conflict neared its end, the forces of Dark Lord Skere Kaan's Brotherhood of Darkness had successfully captured the Republic-held planet of Kashyyyk. Nevertheless, Republic forces continued to weaken their armies through persistent guerrilla attacks. It was discovered that these attacks originated from Republic forces stationed on the planet Ruusan—a relatively insignificant world except for its strategic location. Besides launching offensive strikes, the Republic fleet also served a defensive role; if Kaan were to achieve victory at Ruusan, the Sith would gain a direct route to Coruscant, the heart of the Galactic Republic. Therefore, the Republic concentrated on maintaining control of Ruusan, preventing Kaan and his Brotherhood from establishing a base from which they could assault the Republic capital.

Given the number of Republic ships in orbit around Ruusan, Kaan resolved to personally lead the attack from his command ship, the Nightfall, confident that his mastery of Sith powers would be sufficient to overwhelm the Republic forces. His strategy involved using surprise to suppress the Republic fleet and limit their ability to respond, while simultaneously employing his dark side-enhanced battle meditation to weaken them and improve the coordination of the Sith fleet. Eschewing a defensive approach, Kaan was certain that a full-scale offensive would crush the Republic and their Jedi reinforcements.

The Sith armada emerged from hyperspace, encountering the Republic fleet above Ruusan. In the initial phase, Nightfall destroyed the Republic battleship on patrol, followed by directly bombarding the other two support ships, preventing them from assisting the larger and less agile Hammerhead-class capital ships that formed the core of the Republic's defense. A coordinated attack by the Sith's Buzzard fighters crippled two of the Hammerheads, rendering their deflector shields inoperable. Three Dreadnaught cruisers then targeted the two now-unshielded Hammerheads, while the Sith corsair battleships utilized their superior maneuverability to engage the other two in a tactic known as "slashing the deck." The Republic suffered rapid and heavy losses, and Kaan rejoiced in what appeared to be his imminent triumph.

However, the Sith's advantage vanished as quickly as it had appeared, due to the presence in the Force of a Jedi Master commanding the Republic fleet, who intervened with her superior command of battle meditation. Kaan's forces immediately fell into disarray. One of the corsairs, Fury, was destroyed by a sudden barrage of coordinated fire from the two Hammerheads it was attacking. Simultaneously, the Sith Dreadnaughts were surprised by four full squadrons of Aurek-class tactical fighters, launched from the cargo bays of the two Republic cruisers they were engaging.

The remaining Sith battleship, Rage, and the three flanking Dreadnaughts were forced to retreat and regroup as the Republic seized the initiative. Kaan had lost the element of surprise and found himself facing an enemy that outnumbered him, outgunned him, and was further strengthened by battle meditation skills that surpassed his own.

It was at this moment that the Sith Lord Kopecz entered the battle, also aware of Kaan's diminishing influence. He instead drew upon the dark side of the Force himself, and fought his way through the Republic starfighter blockade to board their flagship in his personal interceptor. After killing the troops in the hangar, Kopecz advanced on foot through the ship with a single objective: to locate and eliminate the source of the Republic's empowerment, the Jedi Master. Using the Force to track her, Kopecz encountered and defeated an elite security squad before confronting the two Selkath Padawans left to guard the unknown Master's location. Kopecz proceeded to choke one with the Force, and then eliminated the other with a burst of Force lightning. Kopecz then entered the Jedi Master's chamber and found her—an elderly female Cerean, who did not plead for her life or attempt to escape. He silently recognized her resolve as he killed her, satisfied with extinguishing the Republic's morale boost. The battle's momentum shifted once more, with the balance swinging entirely in favor of the Brotherhood of Darkness. Kaan's forces renewed their offensive, and all the defending Republic ships were subsequently destroyed, along with all the Republic troops aboard them. The first battle in the Ruusan campaign concluded with a hard-fought victory for Kaan and his dark Brotherhood.

Despite being initially repelled by the Republic, the Sith succeeded in eliminating the entire orbiting fleet. However, the presence of the Sith battleships, combined with Ruusan's strategic value, made it a prime target for a Republic counterattack. Following the battle, the wreckage of ships littered the space in orbit and began to fall through the atmosphere, colliding with the surface of Ruusan—scenes that would be repeated during the second and third battles on that same planet. The Republic's failure to retake the planet led to Ruusan becoming the first location where the Jedi's Army of Light, commanded by General Hoth, would reveal themselves, and the subsequent ground battles would cause widespread destruction across the planet's surface. The war would conclude on Ruusan during the seventh battle, when Kaan unleashed an ancient Sith weapon known as the thought bomb, which annihilated nearly every Force-sensitive being on the planet.

The seven battles of Ruusan were created by author William C. Dietz for the third and final installment of his Dark Forces trilogy of novellas, Jedi Knight, although the first battle was not explicitly mentioned in the novella. In a vision to Jedi Knight Kyle Katarn, Jedi Master Tal and Lord Hoth discuss the Ruusan Campaign, noting that the Sith had only won two of the seven battles.

The battle was later expanded upon in detail by author Drew Karpyshyn, and featured in his novel, Darth Bane: Path of Destruction. Karpyshyn used this battle to introduce readers to the final phase of the New Sith Wars, known as the Ruusan Campaign. This battle sets the stage for the eventual devastation of the planet, the destruction of the current incarnation of the Sith Order, and the rise of Darth Bane.