Invasion of Belsavis

The events that transpired on the planet Belsavis revolved around the Belsavis prison, a penal colony operated by the Galactic Republic. This prison was built atop an even older structure, the Tomb, which had been erected millennia prior by the Infinite Empire of the Rakata species. The Republic discovered the existence of the Tomb around 3691 BBY. Appalled by the horrors contained within the ancient Rakatan vaults, the Republic chose to establish its own prison atop the Tomb. During the Great Galactic War between the Republic and the Sith Empire, the Belsavis prison population swelled with captured Sith Lords, Mandalorians, and various criminals. Imperial Intelligence, the Sith Empire's intelligence agency, dedicated years to locating the prison, fueled by persistent rumors of its existence.

The Empire initially learned of the Belsavis prison's location around 3642 BBY, thanks to Ivory, a Rattataki inmate. Ivory had spent decades constructing a subspace transmitter using Rakata technology to contact the Empire. Approximately a year after learning about the prison, during the Galactic War, the Sith Emperor dispatched his agents across the galaxy to commit genocide. The Emperor intended to utilize a Sith ritual to consume all life in the galaxy, a ritual that required planetary-scale sacrifice. The Emperor's agents manipulated the Empire into attacking Belsavis, thereby creating a diversion for Executor Krannus and his death cult to execute their plan to destroy the planet.

The Republic was caught entirely off guard by the Empire's assault on Belsavis. They were unaware of Ivory's communication with the Empire and did not consider the facility a significant military target. The invasion commenced with the landing of a small team of Sith and elite [soldiers](/article/soldier-legends]. This strike force was tasked with freeing as many prisoners as possible to incite chaos within the prison. Some of the liberated prisoners, many of whom were Imperial prisoners of war, joined the Imperial forces, while others joined the riots, attacking everyone indiscriminately. As the Republic security forces struggled to respond, the Empire transformed the remnants of an early Republic explorer camp into an imperial_lodgement in the prison's Minimum Security Section. They also deployed a mobile battle platform, Proculus Station, into the planet's orbit. From their new ground base, Imperial forces conducted targeted strikes to breach cell blocks and demolish dividing walls. Explosives created massive holes in numerous barrier walls within the Minimum Security Section, and Imperial bombardment further exacerbated the damage. Imperial forces also blew open the prison armories, providing the rioters with weaponry that allowed them to challenge the guards.

The Republic withdrew many prison guards and their families to the complex's security and administrative centers. Focused on the prisoners rather than the invaders, the Republic was unable to repel the small Imperial force before reinforcements arrived. The Republic Military soon arrived to support the struggling prison security forces, led by Warden Playt, but it took time to mobilize significant forces to counter the Imperials. Many civilians were hidden in the Prisoner Intake yards. After Officer Mark Vempor secured transport to evacuate the guards' families and other civilians, Republic forces cleared a path for them to reach the Perimeter Patrol Command Post.

Simultaneously, the Empire began recruiting forces from the Belsavis prisoners, enlisting Imperial prisoners of war and violent criminals willing to serve. The Jedi Knight Enna Tabord arrived on Belsavis around the time of the invasion. She was tasked with scouting the area and locating Executor Krannus before the arrival of the Hero of Tython, a powerful Jedi Knight rushing to Belsavis to thwart Krannus's plans. However, she was overpowered and fatally wounded while scouting. She barely managed to reach a guardpost and inform Pak Taldine, a criminal-turned-guard, about spotting Krannus's forces near the Minimum Security power generators. Early in the invasion, Captain Rago's attempt to retrieve the Belsavis prison records from the Detainee Processing Center was thwarted when the New Men, a cult of cybernetic criminals, seized control of the facility. When Imperial reinforcements finally pushed through the New Men and a small group of Republic soldiers trying to prevent access to the records, the Empire downloaded the prison records and identified persons of interest throughout the complex.

The primary objective of the Imperial forces, led by Commander Calum of the Imperial Guard, was to liberate the Dread Masters, six powerful Sith Lords who had been captured during the previous war. Five Special Operations Groups were deployed to penetrate deeper into the prison. Special Operations Group Five, commanded by Lord Medechas, was tasked with securing the Minimum Security Section. However, Republic forces anticipated the Empire's target and relocated the Dread Masters to the Tomb. When Imperial forces breached the High Security Section to the west, Special Operations Group Four established an Imperial Command Post in the ruins of a damaged Republic watchtower. The three other groups continued into the Maximum Security Section. However, when the Imperial forces reached the Ancient Prison Caverns, the first level of the Rakatan prison beyond Maximum Security, their attempts to breach the Rakatan vaults had disastrous consequences. While Groups One and Two proceeded to locate the Dread Masters in the Tomb, Group Three cracked open several vaults and released the Esh-kha, a savage species of warriors entombed within Belsavis by the Rakata. The Esh-kha overwhelmed the Imperial forces and spilled into both Maximum Security and the Tomb. Colonel Grang withdrew the remnants of Group Three to the Imperial frontline camp in Maximum Security.

During this time, the Imperial agent Feldon contacted Nyranos, the Kaleesh leader of the prisoners known as the Condemned. The Condemned were the Belsavis-born descendants of earlier prisoners, but Warden Playt had refused to allow them to leave Belsavis despite never being sentenced there. Under Feldon's direction, the Condemned attacked the Prison Command Center and killed Warden Playt, though his assistant Graal survived and became the new warden. Republic forces restored the generators powering the command center's shields. When the Condemned raided a nearby armory for shield-disrupting magnetar rifles, military and security forces eliminated them before they could attack the command center again. A preemptive strike against the Condemned stopped their plan to use a neural disruptor against prison guards, but the Condemned overran the command center with Imperial aid.

However, Nyranos ended his agreement with Feldon upon taking the command center, as he only wanted to negotiate with Warden Graal. An angered Feldon and several Condemned traitors turned against Nyranos but were killed. Despite Graal's anger about Playt's death, Nyranos's requests for farmlands and supplies for his people were met by the Republic, and the Condemned withdrew from the command center.

Elsewhere in the Minimum Security Section, Marshal Ellis Ruger, an offworld enforcer brought in by Warden Playt, began to regain control in some areas. Consequently, Lord Medechas's forces attacked and destroyed many of Ruger's warden droids to reignite the rioters' enthusiasm. Medechas's forces also overran the Carbonite Prisoner Storage, killing the Crisis Response Unit guarding it and releasing numerous psychotic prisoners to fuel the riot. Ruger was protected by force fields in Republic Guardpost Delta, but the Empire recovered the key to Ruger's guard station from Gholan, the Devaronian prisoner who had stolen it from Ruger. After the force fields were deactivated, Imperial forces overran the guardpost and killed Ruger.

When Master Sergeant Korum's forces breached Vault K-66, a Rakatan vault in Minimum Security, they released ancient Rakatan war droids that resisted Imperial control. Korum lost thirty men trying to control the droids with computer spikes before Imperial forces succeeded. One of the prisoners released by the Empire was the Sith Lord Ferrid, captured during the previous war. He recruited Imperial forces to raid Republic Guardpost Alpha, suspecting they were hiding something valuable. The raid yielded information on prison schematics and hidden inmates.

A group of Mandalorian escapees raided the Republic supply depot in Minimum Security and stole a large number of supplies, including the motivator coils that Officer Brad Narong needed to repair damaged warden droids. Fortunately for Narong, he recruited Republic reinforcements who attacked the Mandalorian camps in the Mercenary Containment Cells, destroying the turrets using the stolen motivator coils. Amid the chaos, Agent Firehawk of the Republic Strategic Information Service, the Republic's intelligence agency, enlisted military aid to locate Agent Mynock, Firehawk's informant among the prisoners. Although Mynock was dead when Republic forces found him in the caves along the western cliffs of Minimum Security, his findings on Imperial traitors among the guards were retrieved from his body.

As the fighting spread to the High Security Section, the battle became a free-for-all. This section housed violent members of alien species and was the site of the illegal Domination Experiments. Pioneered by Senator Tudos, designed by Republic scientists unaware of the tests' purposes, and led by Doctor Neeya, the experiments, codenamed "Project Noble Focus," pitted alien inhabitants of High Security against each other to analyze their military capabilities in monitored combat scenarios. The aliens who participated were freed by Operations Group Four during the Imperial invasion and quickly seized large territories in High Security, attacking both the Empire and Republic and wiping out most of Operations Group Four.

Captain Vandorn ordered Imperial reinforcements to retaliate against the gangs. However, the Trandoshan prisoners refused to back down after the initial attacks, leading the Empire to invade the vault they had overtaken. When the Trandoshan leader Ssevrek was defeated and collared by the Imperials, the rest of the Trandoshans submitted.

Republic forces under Colonel Hauer at the Republic watchtower were attacked by Rattataki prisoners, who stole power cores from warden droids and tried to use them to build bombs and blast their way out of their holding cells. Republic forces stopped the Rattataki's efforts, but Senator Tudos's involvement in the Domination Experiments was exposed by a Weequay prisoner named Nah Vee. Under the leadership of a criminal named Sulkhaz, the Blood of Talath Rattataki tribe attacked the nearby detention compound holding Neimoidian prisoners, though Republic forces drove back the Blood of Talath and rescued the Neimoidians. His role in the Domination Experiments revealed, Senator Tudos was arrested.

The Empire seized control of the Power Generation Center in the northern High Security Section, wiping out Major Camren's unit in the process. Furious at his men's deaths, Camren planned to destroy the center's power relays with detonite charges, depriving the Empire of their prize. During the fighting against the Rattataki, the aliens captured several guard towers without communicating with each other. However, Officer Serik used the protocol droid C-5D1 to determine that the Rattataki were using bird calls, allowing the Republic to regain the advantage.