In the year 1032 BBY, which falls within the era of the Republic Dark Age, the dominion of Odion, a Sith Lord, known as the Odionate, launched an invasion of the planet Skarpos. The aim was to seize control of the planet from the forces of Lord Malakite, who held it as part of his personal domain, the Menagerie. A Sith invasion force, under the command of Novitiate lieutenant Yulan, engaged Malakite's fleet in space and subsequently landed troops on Skarpos. Among the landing party was Kerra Holt, a Jedi Knight operating undercover within the Novitiates under the assumed name Mercy. Yulan's troops suffered considerable losses during an ambush orchestrated by Lord Malakite's forces. Exploiting the resulting confusion, Malakite's forces executed a planned retreat, promising to reclaim their territory. Subsequently, the Odionate Claimer Wayman reassigned them to a new mission: locating the Helm of Ieldis, an ancient Sith artifact. In the meantime, Odion's invading forces took control of the planet.
As the New Sith Wars neared their end, the galaxy was experiencing a dark age. The Galactic Republic had been reduced to a defensive perimeter behind the Colonies, while significant portions of the Outer Rim were controlled by various warring Sith Lords. The collapse of the Chagras Hegemony had created a power vacuum in the Grumani sector of the Outer Rim, as Sith relatives battled for supremacy. Each Sith lord governed their own interstellar territories and maintained their own military forces. These internal conflicts caused widespread destruction and impacted the lives of billions of beings.
In the year 1032 BBY, the Hutt crime boss Zodoh briefly challenged the Sith Lords, attempting unsuccessfully to establish his own empire in the sector. Kerra Holt, a Jedi Knight, ultimately defeated Zodoh during the Battle of Darkknell and subsequently established contact with Daiman, a Sith Lord who ruled a princedom centered on the planet Darkknell. Kerra and Daiman shared a common adversary in Odion, albeit for different reasons, and both sought his demise. Kerra sought revenge for the devastation Odion had inflicted upon her home planet, Aquilaris Minor, while Daiman harbored resentment towards his estranged brother and foresaw a significant calamity originating from Odion's territory.
Through Daiman's assistance, Kerra successfully made contact with Wayman, an agent of the Odionate who served as a recruiting agent for Odion's elite Force-sensitive corps, the Novitiates. Adopting the alias "Mercy," Kerra joined the Novitiates. At that time, Odion was engaged in a war against Malakite, a rival Sith Lord who controlled an independent domain known as the Menagerie. Odion ordered an invasion of Skarpos, a desolate desert world populated by beings mutated through centuries of Sith experiments.
Odion's warships entered Skarpos's orbit, engaging Lord Malakite's defending starfighters and gunships in a fierce space battle. Odion's cargo liners and landing craft managed to penetrate Skarpos's atmosphere, deploying an invasion force comprising both Force-sensitive Novitiates and members of the Thunder Guard, an elite unit of Sith troopers. Lord Malakite countered with an army of Mutates, sentient beings transformed into violent savages through Sith experimentation over centuries. Malakite himself led his forces into battle, riding a purple, four-legged creature.
While the Novitiates engaged a group of Mutates in a minor skirmish, the Thunder Guard, acting under the orders of Yulan, Odion's favored lieutenant, advanced past the Novitiate lines. Although the Odionate military lacked formal field ranks, Yulan's privileged position within Odion's inner circle made him the de facto field commander. The Thunder Guard entered a swampy trench saturated with starfighter fuel, a trap set by Malakite. Once a significant number of Odion's troops were inside, Malakite ordered his archers to ignite the trench with flaming arrows. The resulting explosion engulfed the trench in flames, killing and wounding numerous Thunder Guard members and Novitiate acolytes. Mercy, anticipating Malakite's strategy, attempted to prevent her comrades from charging to their deaths. However, her warnings were ignored, as Odion's followers embraced death as salvation.
Meanwhile, Lord Malakite seized the opportunity presented by the enemy's disarray to execute a strategic withdrawal, vowing to return with reinforcements. Mercy's attempts to dissuade the Odionate forces drew the ire of her commanding officer, Yulan, who also reprimanded her for tending to a wounded comrade. When Mercy expressed concerns about their troops recklessly charging into the flames, Yulan asserted that survival was irrelevant to his followers, whose training as Novitiates emphasized a glorious death in Odion's name, viewing death as a release from suffering. However, their conversation was interrupted by Wayman, the Claimer who had recruited Mercy. He defended Kerra, arguing that Yulan's suicidal tactics were depleting the Odionate's manpower and expressing high hopes for her potential.
Following a private discussion with Mercy regarding adherence to Odion's military norms, Wayman announced that Lord Odion required a squad of Novitiates for a special assignment. He instructed them to assemble in Jubalene for a debriefing with Odion himself. Jubalene, recently annexed from the defeated Bactranate, had become Odion's temporary capital. Yulan's fleet was also ordered to rendezvous at Jubalene. Yulan complied, explaining that he needed to make a brief stop at Vanahame to replenish ammunition. Feigning interest in Odion's teachings, Kerra inquired about the presence of data centers on Jubalene, which Wayman confirmed, much to her satisfaction.
After the cohort of Novitiates had been reassigned, Odion's military forces occupied Skarpos. However, they were unaware that the ancient Sith artifact known as the Helm of Ieldis was secretly hidden on the planet. Lord Ieldis, a Sith Lord who lived before the Great Hyperspace War, had studied warfare and the motivations behind combat. The Helm of Ieldis possessed the ability to transform beings into mindless fighting machines. Following the Massacre of Aquilaris in 1042 BBY, Lord Odion had initiated a task force called Project Pandemonium to locate the Helm of Ieldis, but the trail had gone cold at Sarrassia.
The task force included Aron Holt and Mercia Holt, a diver and archaeologist who had been captured during the conquest of Aquilaris Minor. These two were the parents of Jedi Knight Kerra Holt, who was on a personal mission to find her parents and uncover their fate. Subsequently, the project was put on hold due to the internal family conflicts that engulfed the Grumani sector following the death of Chagras, the ruler of the Chagras Hegemony. In 1032 BBY, Odion reactivated the project after the Aquilaris campaign in an attempt to break the stalemate. He dispatched a cohort of Novitiates, including Kerra in disguise, to Sarrassia. There, she encountered the alien Grumani Hierophant Aunt Zoojoo, who revealed that her parents had discovered that the Helm of Ieldis was located on Skarpos. However, the pair misled Odion, concealing its true location.
Following a confrontation that resulted in Aunt Zoojoo's death, Kerra, using her Mercy persona, informed her commander Yulan that the artifact was on Skarpos. Yulan promptly assembled his fleet and returned to Skarpos. The Odionate garrison was stationed at the Morbollon Mesa. The next day, Lord Malakite launched a counter-attack with his forces, including an army of winged Stenaxes.