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 * '''This weeks Featured Article: Battle of Gand, by Jedi Master 76!

The Battle of Gand was the preliminary battle in the Galactic Civil War, and believed to be one of the first of many armed conflicts between the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The battle began with the capture of Gand by several Rebel assault groups who took the Imperial forces by surprise and captured the lightly garrisoned planet and its cities within twenty-four hours. The Empire responded by sending in a small scout fleet to discover their opponent's strengths and troop count, but the scout fleet was destroyed before it returned to the Imperial Capital.

Following the destruction of their fleet and their loss of Gand, the Emperor demanded that Darth Vader go to Gand personally with a large assault force and destroy any resistance on the planet. Vader complied with orders, and called upon Jerec, one of the Emperor's Emperor's Hand's and a loyal Dark Jedi, to assist him in leading the troops. His leading infantry battalion was Vader's Fist, who had once been the 501st Legion, powerful clones loyal to Vader and the Emperor. Jerec and Vader's Fist would assist Vader in leading the attack. They assembled a large strike force, comprised of the largest fleet the Empire had constructed in years, along with a sizable land-based attack force, consisting of the famed 501st Legion and the 671st Stormtrooper Platoon, both filled with veteran and fervently loyal stormtroopers.

The attack began in orbit kilometers above the planet. When the Imperials arrived over Gand, the Rebels engaged them immediately and were defeated several times by the better-equipped and larger Imperial fleet. Realizing they could no longer keep up with the Imperial Navy, the Rebel forces abandoned their position and retreated into more secure positions in Gand's sky. With the Rebellion force in a rout, Vader and his armada descended towards Gand's surface, and began to defeat enemy ships in the skies as they approached the largest floating city. Defeating several enemy bases and small skyhooks set up around the planet's gaseous skies, the bulk of the Imperial ground forces eventually made it to the main Rebel base on Gand Erx.

Once the Imperial infantry forces landed on Gand Erx, they were pinned down by Rebel sniper fire at their landing zones and unable to continue into the city. With the eventual arrival of air and mechanized support; however, they managed to remove the Rebel forces from their lofty locations and into their bunkers and outposts, which were subsequently destroyed by heavy Imperial walkers. As the Rebels abandoned their bases and fled, Vader himself landed on the surface to assist his men in rounding up the last few resistance fighters. However, a tremor in the Force caused him to travel to the depths of the Gand Megaplex; where he met the ringleader of the entire attack; an Order 66 survivor named Ra Blin.

In an intense duel between the two, Vader had the upper hand for most of the battle. However, with the arrival of Blin's apprentice, Cori Benn, the tide turned slightly in favor of the two Jedi. Managing to get a lucky shot, Blin temporarily incapacitated the Dark Lord, and was about to strike him down, if not for the timely arrival of Jerec, who had followed Vader into the Megaplex once he had wiped out a couple Rebel troops still lingering in the city's center. He struck Blin with dark side energy, killing him. After Jerec assisted Vader and they left the Gand Megaplex, Commander Jir informed them that the last of the Rebels had been driven from the planet.

Though the battle had been won for the Empire, it had been a costly victory. Nearly the entire Alliance force that attacked the planet had been killed, and the remainder of the forces that survived were either captured, or were hunted down by Bounty hunters hired after the battle. The Empire lost most of its infantry forces and that, coupled with other casualties, set back the Empire a few months in an attempt to regain their military prowess.