Second Battle of Bakura (Dark Order War)

The Second Battle of Bakura was one of the most pivotal battles in the Dark Order War, in which Dark Jedi Jaden Korr was betrayed and killed by Darth Persia and his apprentice, Darth Imperious. After the monumental failure of Operation Dark Disease, Jaden had lost most of the influence he had in his loosely-built organization. His Order was beginning to unravel, with less and less communication between him and his underlings.

After their victory near Byss, the New Republic decided that it was their turn to attack. During the short battle on Bakura a few weeks earlier, the Republic troops managed to verify that Jaden Korr was on Bakura, overseeing the production of the Dark Trooper Factories there. Hoping to kill Jaden and break his forces apart, the Republic dispatched a fleet to Bakura. Although the battle was from the beginning undoubtedly going to be a pivotal one, it wasn't in the way that either Jaden or the Republic suspected.

Prelude
"The general populace of the Republic called for blood. And blood was what they would get."

- Dagmar Morlev's thoughts

Origins
The supposed defeat of the faction known as the  in the Battle of Korriban was initially believed to be a mere footnote in the history of the . With the death of their  leader,, the relatively small organization was expected by the  to implode with the core of their leadership gone. However, it soon was revealed that rather than collapsing, the cult had reformed into a similar faction, led by fallen Jedi Jaden Korr. Although initially obscure compared to the larger Imperial factions, the Dark Order of Korr rapidly rose to be one of the largest external threats to the New Republic. Using other, much larger Imperial insurgent fleets as a cover, Jaden's forces attacked and captured the , which was home to one of the galaxy's largest shipyards in existence. During their occupation, the Dark Order took control of a large number of starships that had previously been completed at the shipyards, significantly boosting their fleet strength.

Although the shipyards were eventually destroyed and the system was lost to the New Republic, the Order had benefited in the long run. With their fleet strength greatly increased, Jaden's subordinates attacked Republic fleets and planets in the Outer Rim. Despite several successful campaigns, the Order faced internal leadership problems. Jaden's underlings were poorly coordinated in their operations, and as a result, Jaden acted more as a mediator between the organization's generals in order to keep them from fighting each other for resources. Due to Korr's lack of administrative talent, the Order was overall poorly commanded and coordinated, with many of the higher-ranking military leaders being who possessed little or no strategic or tactical command ability.

Because of these factors, Jaden Korr steadily began to lose the confidence of his subordinates as the accomplishments of the more legitimate military commanders began to surpass his own. Hoping to win back lost support, Jaden engineered a terror campaign against the New Republic, targeting heavily populated worlds such as and. This campaign, code-named Operation Dark Disease, was brought about with the use of a special factory ship to rapidly deploy Imperial s, known as s, onto target planet surfaces. Although initially a success, the destruction of the factory ship which the operation centered around brought a swift end to Korr's plan and diminished the support which he had gained in its first engagements. A short time after this costly failure, Jaden fled to, one of the major bases of operations for the Dark Order, where he started to plan his next course of action.

Many s in the New Republic were outraged by the Dark Order's acts of terrorism and strongly encouraged the military to take immediate action. As a result, Supreme Commander Dagmar Morlev personally led a fleet to Bakura in order to kill Jaden, shattering his coalition apart.

Background
Bakura had been occupied by the Disciples of Ragnos during their campaign against the New Republic. When the cult was reformed into the Dark Order of Korr, the planet remained under the Imperial Remnant's control. When Operation Dark Disease began, Jaden Korr ordered the establishment of a planetwide quarantine, preventing all residents from leaving, but allowing traders and businesspeople to come and go as necessary. Taxes were also raised dramatically, to provide additional funds for Operation Dark Disease. These new laws provoked a series of protests and riots which rapidly increased in violence, despite brutal retaliations by Imperial troops.

Intelligence information gathered in the First Battle of Bakura pinpointed Jaden Korr's presence on Bakura. After the failure of Operation Dark Disease, the Dark Jedi stayed on the planet inside the main Imperial stronghold, Salis Omega, where he planned his next move against the Republic. After his Battle of Bakura (Dark Order War)defeat at, he expected an attack aimed at Bakura, and ordered a fleet to the planet's orbit. Jaden put one of his most capable strategists, General Persia, in command of Bakura's defense. The General was actually Darth Persia, a self-proclaimed who had infiltrated the Dark Order and used his tactical and strategic prowess to score several impressive victories against the Republic, eventually hoping to replace Jaden as leader of the Order. He was placed in overall command of the Bakura fleet, and was to be assisted by the Dark Jedi Jorus Kuun, who was in reality Persia's, Darth Imperious.

The New Republic assault force was personally commanded by Dagmar Morlev. Their primary objective was to kill Jaden Korr. Morlev had studied Jaden's background as well as what was known of his subordinates, and concluded that Jaden's death would cause his loosely-organized faction to break apart in short order. Therefore, he planned to initially use the orbital battle an a diversion to land a ground force on the planet, which would assault Salis Omega, kill Jaden, and destroy the fortress before pulling out. After the Imperial fleet was routed, additional ground troops would be sent to systematically eliminate Imperial armies, which were expected to be in disarray with the loss of their primary base of operations in the system.