Battle of the Sith Star

The Battle of the Sith Star was a ship boarding and subsequent melee in the midst of the larger Battle of Dolomir, the final engagement of the Nightmare War.

Boarding party
As the Prime Fleet engaged the Reawakened battle group commanded by Ador Hentral and Breek Zagrev led her strike team toward Hentral's flagship, the enemy fleet surged toward the Sith Star. The Empire's flagship took a beating and rotated to bring its starboard guns to bear on the enemy. The enemy ships concentrated fire on some of the Star's shields, which briefly faltered.

Aboard the enemy ships, the Dark Jedi Voara Culee launched a series of projectile boarding craft, designed to bore through a ship's hull and disgorge its passengers into the ship's interior. The first few projectiles disintegrated against the Star's s, but a burst of fire finally got through the ray shields and damaged the particle shield generator. While the ship struggled to repair the shields, Culee and her hundreds of boarding pods smashed into the Star.

Mustering defense
Aware of the enemy incursion as soon as she sensed the deaths of those detonating against the failing particle shields, Queen Rin Sakaros ordered Eskol Kaartinen to deploy all Centurions in the Citadel against the boarding parties. Kieran Sapphire, Praetor-Blademaster of the Order of Keltrayu, volunteered to lead the defense and began organizing his siblings into response teams. The largest team was deployed toward the hangar bay; Sapphire meant to lead them there personally, but detoured to confront the Dark Jedi Vev Nar and put Selish Anteran in command instead.

Most of the Royal Navy personnel aboard the Sith Star carried no personal weapons and sealed off their work areas. Rin directed her friend Jadian Star, Jade's husband Tekk, and her apprentice Kyriel Windrunner to take refuge in the Citadel, where she dispatched a group of Massassi warriors. Rin also commanded that Elrabin Ralvik, held in detention in a after experiencing the violent psychic effects of using  on the severed head of Karshi Saan, be given back his lightsabers and allowed to join the fray.

The Massassi Cohort and the Royal Marines aboard the Star prepared to conduct most of the battle, but were joined by some Royal Navy spacemen who could not find shelter in the ship, as well as the mechanics and maintenance crews of the hard-hit hangar bay. Captain Meerk Hozzit orchestrated the defense of his ship from the bridge, re-routing companies and regiments to badly hit areas while trying to keep the ship in fighting trim. Sorrik conducted the ship's offensive operations, fighting off attacking capital ships even though he could no longer communicate with the rest of his fleet, where Legate Salin Tesshir had assumed command.

Blademasters
"Fancy a real challenge, mate?"

- Kieran Sapphire to Vev Nar

Taking a trio of Centurions with him (and eventually picking up several stranded Royal Marines and a small group of Massassi), Kieran Sapphire made his way through the Star's corridors until he found Vev Nar at the head of a column of Skavik. The Centurions came to the aid of the beleagured Massassi, and Sapphire challenged Nar directly. The two met in the no man's land between their forces. The Skavik initially watched, but eventually Ador Hentral's spurred them to violence, and both sides tried to shoot around their champions.

Sapphire and Nar were well-matched, trading as well as blows, though when the Weequay insulted Rin, Kieran gouged him across the face with his claws. In a quick exchange, each burned the other's abdomen. One Centurion was startled to see Sapphire hit, if only glancingly, but the Nei merely grinned and called, "I needed that scratch to awaken me!" Sapphire came back in hard, mixing styles and forms and succeeding in one of Nar's lightsabers. He pushed his enemy back, faked an guard, and, when Nar, charged during the second of lull, dropped into a blind 360 slash. The move worked and Vev Nar at the waist, killing him.

The fall of Tekk
En route to the Citadel, Jade, Tekk, and Kyriel were attacked by a mixed group of Veracht, Skavik, and Anzati clones. Jade and Tekk cut quickly through the insectoids, but were pressed in by the Veracht and the Vyrak Legionnaires. While Kyriel tried to find a weapon to use, Jade and Tekk were separated by their enemies. Though he stood his ground bravely against the clones, Tekk was no match for their Force-powered Anzat reflexes and lightsabers, and he was struck down. As he lay on the ground, injured, an Anzat pounced on him and consumed his, killing him.

Consumed with grief and rage, Jade launched herself into the attackers with reckless abandon. Unable to distinguish friend from foe, Jade first wounded a Navy spaceman in the area before turning on Kyriel, though the younger Drakonus was able to knock her master out. On the bridge, Rin could sense the sudden danger to Kyriel, and sent her, Nightmare and Nocturne, to the girl's aid. Both Kyriel and the tuk'ata suffered mild injuries, but the tuk'ata had summoned some of the ship's loosed Anzat hounds on the way, and the made short work of the clones.

Death's door
"Selkee! Danger is coming!"

- Azalyn Kass`l warns Selkee telepathically of the coming onslaught

Running late, the Centurion Vos'elk'eetash was trying to shove her way through the Novices taking refuge in the Citadel when she came upon Azalyn Kass`l, who was screaming her name. Pushing her way through the crowd, Selkee allowed Azalyn to touch her hand and was beset by the image of a possible future the girl had just foreseen: Dark Jedi and Anzati loose in the Citadel, massacring the Novices, including Azalyn herself. Intuiting that the Dark Jedi were going to attack, Selkee called Eskol Kaartinen to warn him, then went to defend the Citadel's door.

Voara Culee and Charg had indeed landed in the hangar bay and were en route to the Citadel. Culee could sense the fear of the youngest Novices and desired to strike at the Order of Keltrayu's heart, massacring its younglings. The two Dark Jedi were accompanied by a squad of their Vyrak clones. When Kaartinen called the bridge to inform Rin of the impending attack, Rin allowed Jira Zaffrod to go to their aid, and Tariun Sakaros volunteered to go as well. Kaartinen vowed to hold the door or die in the attempt and signed off the comlink.

Activating the defensive s inside the Citadel, Kaartinen and Selkee stepped into the hall, preparing to force the enemy into a bottleneck. Kaartinen offered the Massassi sanctuary inside the Citadel, but they both refused, insisting on staying to fight. Shortly before the enemy arrived, a still-ailing Te`net Organi forced himself out of the Citadel's medbay to aid his Prefect and his Chiss sister.

Voara, Charg, and their Anzati force arrived a moment later and the battle for the Citadel erupted. Armed with his own lightsaber and Selkee's, Organi and darted among the Anzati, using the two blades to cut at their weak points. The two Massassi and the Citadel's guard droids aided him, trying to fire into the Anzati ranks around their own defenders. Meanwhile, Selkee squared off against Charg (who threatened to make her into a hat) while Kaartinen engaged Voara Culee.

The battle was violent, and both Massassi were killed, along with several Anzati slain by Organi. When all the battle droids had been destroyed and Organi was reeling from numerous injuries, Selkee finally forced an opening and performed a sai cha vault on Charg, flipping over him and taking off his head. She attempted to reach Te`net, battling against the massed Anzati, as Kaartinen and Culee dueled back and forth. Intuiting in the Force that Culee's defeat was tied to Organi and Selkee's survival, and that help would not arrive in time, Kaartinen sacrificed a clean victory, allowing the Miraluka to run him through the shoulder in order to simultaneously stab her through one lung. At nearly the same moment, Zahyr succeeded in assassinating Ador Hentral, and for a brief moment Culee achieved lucidity, remembering her early life as a Jedi and begging Kaartinen to put her out of her misery. The Vuul complied, killing her instantly with a second stab through the heart.

A moment later, Tariun and Jira arrived and started cleaving their way through the Anzati; Jira ran one through before it even realized she was there, and Tariun launched himself into their midst with both blades blazing. Unable to get through the Anzati to the badly outnumbered Organi, Selkee, on Tariun's urging, unleashed a rain of on every living being in the area. Barely able to even lift his lightsaber, Te`net was struck by the blast, but so were most of the Anzati, while the other Centurions and Sakaros managed to protect themselves. Selkee slumped, drained, but Jira, Tariun, and Kaartinen quickly slew the remaining Anzati clones.

Battle for the hangar bay
The Sith Star's main hangar was a war zone. Several boarding craft had forced their way in and disgorged hundreds of Skavik, Veracht, and Anzati. Deployed against this melee were the team of Centurions led by Selish Anteran, numerous Massassi and Marines, and the hangar's team of mechanics, who had been unable to take shelter. They were joined by Aria Nikina and a pack of Anzat hounds released from their containment crates elsewhere in the hangar.

The melee in the hangar was utter chaos, and numerous soldiers on both sides succumbed to friendly fire. Between the Anzati and the Centurions, anything which was not bolted down was likely to become a projectile; Anteran himself toppled an entire starfighter in for maintenance onto a group of Veracht. The Anzat hounds pursued the clones throughout the hangar, often as the clones themselves were pursuing other units. In the midst of the battle, Anteran and Nikina fought briefly back-to-back, and the Curh asked Aria for romantic tips in his nascent pursuit of Luna Raquelsei. The two also united their telekinetic powers to topple a damaged transport onto a nest of Veracht, squashing them beneath; the lone survivor was quickly gunned down by a fireteam of Massassi.

The hangar bay crowd witnessed the largest reversal of fortunes when, with Hentral dead, the Skavik panicked and tried to surrender. Authorized by Sorrik to accept, Selish Anteran started rounding them up as prisoners, though he and his team continued to massacre the Veracht and the Anzati.

Aftermath
It took several hours for all the Skavik aboard the Star to be captured and rounded up. Shadow Massassi from the Vengeance boarded the flagship and helped to hunt down the remaining Veracht, while the Anzat hounds were allowed to roam free in the ship, hunting the clones of Sacco Vyrak. It was nearly a full day, and hours after the Battle of Dolomir had been won, when Captain Meerk Hozzit finally declared the ship secure.

Ravaged inside and out, the Sith Star limped to Mir Kaldu`uz, where it spent a month in drydock being repaired. Most internal systems had suffered at least some damage, lights malfunctioned regularly, and nothing which had been left in the hangar bay was remotely flyable. Thousands of spacemen and Massassi, along with most of the Centurions and Novices attached to the Citadel, combed through the ship, helping to collect debris.

Behind the scenes
Kieran Sapphire's taunt to Vev Nar ("I needed that scratch to awaken me!") is a quote from ; Diego de la Vega delivers the line while dueling Captain Esteban Pasquale.