Battle of Ahara (Cruentusian War)

"Ahara has fond memories for me. Firstly, I got to live out my fantasies of busting Rakata ass. Secondly, I got to go near Sravvies without shooting their faces in. Good times."

- A Necasian soldier reminscing on the battle following the war

The Battle of Ahara was a battle of the Cruentusian War. It occured when the elite commando group the Lost Ones, cut off from their civilisation, arrived on the desert world of Ahara to activate a secret cadre of Infinite Empire droids, having obtained the powerful artifact known as the Hand of Darkness several months before. However, in the process they destroyed a spy outpost on the world belonging to the Necasian Military, which managed to send off a distress call. Both an elite Necasian squad led by Necasian hero Haveer Jarn and a group of Srav Hammer Division troops led by Jarn's counterpart Nataska Vergulva picked up the distress call and arrived on the planet, and both had to reluctantly work with each other against the Ratakan droid legions. Meanwhile, the Zayre heroine Storm Ironwings would also participate in the battle, engaging the Lost Ones leader Ravyr in a violent duel. Nonetheless, with the combined efforts of the two commando groups, Ravyr was defeated and the Lost Ones were forced to flee, with their temple on the planet being razed by a Srav nuclear strike.

Prelude
"Ultimate power is within our grasp, and ours alone! So our former slaves are a bigger threat than expected! So what! By the end of this day, they shall kneel before us once more!"

- Ravyr

Months before, the Lost Ones group had gained a powerful artifact, the Hand of Darkness, during a raid on Kopalnia. The artifact functioned in a similar way to a miniature, drawing Force energy from around to empower the user, increasing said user's durability, reflexes and strength. Ravyr also believed that it could be also used to access leftover remnants of Infinite Empire technology. He announced his plan to his followers: locate a cadre of the Infinite Empire's military droids, and along with the Hand of Darkness, use it to re-conquer the galaxy. Some of the other Lost Ones expressed doubt over this privately, not willing to cross Ravyr while he had still had access to the Hand of Darkness.

Ravyr himself had been somewhat destabilized by realization of the power that was now granted to him, and was now increasingly prone to what his followers saw as megalomaniacal impulses. Meanwhile, he worked on accessing former Infinite Empire intelligence networks to gain the location of the most convenient droid cadre. Already, he was concocting fantasies of what he would do as ruler of the galaxy, and his own comrades by now were increasingly disturbed by his mania. Soon, however, Ravyr had gained what he wanted: co-ordinates to a nearby droid storage vault on the desert world of Ahara.

An advance Lost Ones scout made a quick reconnaissance operation over Ahara, and detected a spy outpost belonging to the Necasian Military on the planet, near the location of the Rakata facility. Ravyr decided to eliminate it, not because he considered it to be a threat, but because he wanted to get 'warmed up for war', in his own words. Unbeknownst to the Lost Ones, the outpost had been placed there to intercept Srav signals, and was equipped with some of the most advanced Necasian spy technology available. Also unknown to Ravyr was the presence of a Necasian transport with Necasian hero Haveer Jarn and the elite commando squad known as Greyfox Squad aboard passing nearby. Despite this, Ravyr initiated his attack plan immediately.

Eliminating the outpost
"Hah! These insects think they can stand against us! Crush them!"

- A Lost Ones commando

The Lost Ones ship was detected by the sensor array at the outpost as it entered the planet's orbit. As the personnel manning the base could not identify it, they simply assumed it was a lost merchant ship or some travelers stopping off at the planet. However, as the cruiser began a sharp atmospheric descent towards the outpost, the commander there immediately realized that something was wrong, and ordered the defenses online. To his horror, they were taken out in seconds by the cruiser's weapons as it descended.

Descending into the outpost via drop pods, the Lost One commandos immediately began to systematically slaughter the staff there, who were surprised, outnumbered and inadequately armed. However, the base commander managed to send off a distress call on maximum bandwidth, before he too was finally taken out. Satisfied that all present were dead, Ravyr returned to the cruiser and triangulated the location of the Infinite Empire base on the planet, which was about fifty miles away. Arriving there, he found, as he expected, a large army of Rakata droids in storage beneath the complex. He also discovered that the army required a code to activate, to his frustration. However, after experimentation, he bypassed this by inserting the Hand of Darkness into the security system. As the droid army slowly started up, Ravyr made a grandiose speech about the Infinite Empire reasserting its control, and then headed over to the main control area of the complex from where he intended to control the army.

However, Ravyr had failed to realise that passing through the system was a SkyBull-class transport, with Necasian hero Haveer Jarn and the elite Necasian squad of veterans known as Greyfox Squad aboard. Picking up the distress signal, Jarn was alarmed by its strength and the level of the alert, and so he ordered the transport to change course for Ahara, instructing his men that they would investigate the call and discover the attacks, assuming that they were possibly pirates or bandits.

Even as the Greyfox transport was changing course for Ahara, a Srav Federation transport passing by the system boundry also picked up the signal. Conicidentally, Srav heroine Nataska Vergulva and the a group of Hammer Division troops were aboard, heading to reinforce Srav outer holdings. Intrigued by the signal, Vergulva also ordered her transport to head for Ahara, wondering why such an insignificant outpost would be taken out. Nevertheless, the Necasian transport arrived just ahead of the Sravs on the planet. Orbital scans of the area produced negligible results, so Jarn ordered his men to gear up.

Taken by suprise
"You know, Jarn, I kinda think that reports of the Rakatan's demise were greatly exagerrated." "You think?"

- Jarn and Snaipes Horgan

Entering the atmosphere, the transport deposited Jarn and Greyfox squad in the sky a short distance away from the outpost remains. Parachuting down, the squad viewed the ruins of the outpost from afar, and saw it largely wrecked. Jarn ordered the squad to move out and investigate the area, and possibly head to the nearby settlement to interrogate locals. Suddenly, his motion sensor started to beep rapidly.

Then, a Rakatan heavy droid erupted out of the sand behind them, killing one member with a combination of kinetic fire and razor blades. Firing back, the squad temporarily disabled it. Jarn then noticed that his motion sensor was picking up identical signatures under the sand all around. He then ordered the squad to follow him and head as quickly as possible to the settlement, throwing mortar grenades into the sand around him to try and repel the droids.

Arriving at the settlement, surprising the timid locals, Jarn ordered his men to spread out in a circle around the perimeter of the buildings. Repelling the nearest droids with a combination of explosive bullets and grenades, the squad members reported that they had insufficient numbers and ammunition to repel the droids in the immediate area alone.

It was then that Jarn noticed a familiar ship type fly overhead, peppered with fire from below. The transport landed near the village but out of sight, and Jarn quickly switched his attention elsewhere as infantry droids began to swarm towards the village. Although a single bullet to the head was all it took to disable one of them, their sheer numbers seemed overwhelming. As Jarn was on the verge of losing help, he suddenly found himself literally bumping into a well-known figure.

Surrounded
"Why the hell we helping these Sravvies for, sir? That shouldn't be!" "Soldier, what should be and is be is often very different! I should be at home kriffing hot babes, and look at me! But if we wanna get out of this with our asses intact, we ain't got no choice but to help the Reds!"

- A Greyfox soldier and Jarn

Suprised to see each other, both Jarn and Vergulva demanded what the other was doing here. Then, as they came under further fire, Vergulva proposed a temporary ceasefire, in light of the situation. Jarn quickly agreed, and both ordered their respective troops not to attack one another.

Partly relieved by the addition of the Sravs and their firepower into the equations, confidence amongst the Greyfox squad increased. The nuclear-tipped rocket propelled grenades and missiles of the Srav Hammer troops proved very effective against the heavy droids, and combinations of shrapnel and mortar grenades proved highly effective at eliminating concentrations of the regular droids. However, they kept on coming regardless of their losses, and Jarn expressed concern to Vergulva over ammunition. Vergulva replied that she had managed to call for reinforcements, but that they would take time to arrive.

Meanwhile, Ravyr had noticed the two commando groups holed up in the settlement. His subordinates advised him to simply eliminate them with their cruiser, but Ravyr replied that he wanted to witness the effectiveness of his droid legions, and he also retorted that in any case they would run out of ammunition long before they could run out of droids. In any case, he expressed a desire to witness the 'slave scum' crumble.

As they began facing increasingly larger waves of droids, some of the Greyfox and Hammer troops demanded why they could not simply escape in the Srav transport. Vergulva informed them that the sheer amount of droids would result in it being shot down. Meanwhile, some droids had penetrated the settlement perimeter, but Vergulva dispatched them quickly with a combination of her sniper rifle and her personalized VLOK-19 combat pistol. Jarn, wanting to show off his own skills, took out some droids with his bare hands. However, by now, ammunition for both the Hammer and Greyfox troops was dwindling, and the situation was looking increasingly desperate.

Extraction
"Comrade Vergulva! Why are we helping this foul Necasians? No doubt they will stab us in the back as soon as they get opportunity!" "I am not liking this any more than you, comrade! But to guarantee our victory and survival, we must tolerate their existence, as much as it pains me!"

- A Hammer soldier and Vergulva

As the last clips of ammunition were used up, however, and the commandos prepared for the worst, Srav Yukel fighters swooped overhead and launched several small-scale tactical nuclear weapons into the sands around the settlement. The resulting explosions and blast cleared the area of a large portion of the swarming droids. Drapeznik-class assault gunships then moved in and mopped up survivors. One Drapeznik modified with a troop bay landed in the middle of the settlement, and the pilot informed Vergulva that her signal had been received and a reinforcement transport was now in orbit. He also told her that the signal controlling the droids had been traced to a large complex sixty miles away of Rakatan design.

Vergulva announced that they would head there immediately. When the pilot pointed out that the desert between there and the settlement was infested with droids, Vergulva simply replied that they would have to be culled from the air. Noting the Necasian troops, the pilot asked what to do with them. Vergulva responded that for now, they would accompany she and her troops.

Nervously, the Necasian troops boarded the gunship along with the Sravs, and there, both groups had their ammo replenished. Taking off, the Drapeznik headed into the desert, which was indeed crawling with Rakatan droids that threatened to shoot it down. Vergulva gave orders for the gunship, along with accompanying fighters and other gunships, to clear the desert segment by segment. Using a combination of heavy machineguns and missiles, the gunships began to sweep areas of the desert in front of them, with the troops inside the lead one mopping up remaining droids from above. Angrily noticing this, Ravyr ordered some of the droids to pull back, intending to lure the airborne forces to the Rakatan complex where the defences would eliminate them.

However, neither side failed to notice a battered and stealth-equipped SkyBull-class transport, emblazoned with Zayre insignias rather than Necasian, enter the higher atmosphere, and release several smaller objects, which immediately began a vertical dive for the complex.

The Duel
"I am Storm Ironwings of the Zayre! Take up your weapon and fight!" "Who in the name of the gods are you? No matter. I will break you regardless!"

- Irownings and Ravyr

Unbeknownst to the other parties, the SOS signal had been heard at Ankarr, adopted homeworld of the Zayre species, which was not far away cosmically. As such, Storm Ironwings, heroine of the Zayre, had decided that she wanted to take part in whatever action was taking place on Ahara. Accompanied by her consort and former Necasian leader Carsal Redharn, Ironwings and several of her warriorwomen boarded a SkyBull that they had acquired in Ilatas months before and headed at maximum speed to Ahara.

Arriving in orbit, Redharn performed an orbital scan and quickly deduced the situation, and then triangulated the droid signal to the Rakatan complex. Despite reservations by Redharn, Ironwings decided to literally dive right into the Rakatan base. Exiting the transport at high altitude, Ironwings and her warriorwomen dived down, reaching almost sonic speeds as they descended. Timing her impact, Ironwings smashed right through the roof of the complex, surprising Ravyr and his cronies, and challenged him to a duel. Laughing, Ravyr accepted her challenge, and ordered his subordinates to take out her accomplices.

Moving forward, Ironwings was surprised by Ravyr's power and reflexes as they engaged each other with blades, unaware that the Hand of Darkness was supercharging his already comparatively potent abilities. Bringing her elemental powers to brunt, Ironwings attempted to electrocute him with lightning, but was shocked when he merely laughed in response. Then, moving far more quickly than she had expected, Ravyr furiously engaged her directly, almost knocking her weapons out of her hands. Meanwhile, Ironwing's accomplices were having difficulty with Ravyr's less skilled but still nonetheless dangerous Rakatan henchmen. As droids cut off her escape routes, Ironwings began to wonder whether her venture had been a mistake.

Intervention
"Stop! You shall go no further, or you will face the cold metal of my--"

- A Rakatan before being gunned down by Vergulva

However, with Ravyr distracted by the duel, the Rakatan droids had fallen in disarray. Vergulva ordered the gunships to take advantage of this and press on. Heading over to the Rakatan complex, the gunship deposited both commando troops in front of the place via parachute to avoid being taken out by the anti-air defenses there. Entering the relatively unguarded entrance, and dispatching the few droid guards there, the commandos made their way inside.

Within the temple, Ravyr was briefly distracted in the duel as the temple's security systems sounded an alarm. He ordered some of his subordinates and droids to stop the intruders, while he continued his fight with Ironwings. Although Ironwings was still holding her ground, Ravyr had the advantage of being powered with the Hand of Darkness, and was gradually wearing her down.

In the corridors of the temple, the Necasian/Srav commando team encountered one of Ravyr's subordinates, who attempted to intimidate them with a display of swordsmanship. Vergulva replied by shooting his head off. Moving on, they deftly took out any droids or sentry guns they encountered on the way, before finally entering the command hall, where Ravyr was finally getting the upper hand with Ironwings. However, before he could deal the final blow, he was distracted by being hit by several dozen rounds from the guns of the commando group. Although his armour and the healing propeties bestowed on him by the Hand made sure that the barrage was not lethal, Ravyr still found it painful and dropped his guard for a moment, allowing Ironwings to deal several blows. Meanwhile, the other Rakatans were coming under fire from some of the commandos, and coupled with the renewed vigor of the Zayre warriorwomen, were starting to be taken out. Eventually, they fled, with Ravyr blasting them as cowards and traitors as they fled.

By now, Ravyr's armor was almost ruined by the volleys of bullets and rocket propelled grenades it had taken. Even with the Hand of Darkness embedded in his flesh, he was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of punishment he was taken. Within a few moments, however, Ironwings knocked the Hand out of his skin with a deft blow, and then apparently finished him off with a stab to the stomach. Picking up the Hand, she and the other Zayre made their escape.



Vergulva contacted the gunship wing commanders and was told that the droid army had deactivated itself, and that an unidentified cruiser was escaping at high speed from the temple. Vergulva announced that the temple was to be razed with a nuclear blast, and left a homing beacon on the floor to that end. Heading outside, she announced to the Necasians that in light of their assistance they would be allowed to leave without intervention. Jarn expressed his approval of Vergulva's combat skills, and vice versa. With that, both Srav and Necasian commando groups packed up and left.

In the now empty temple, Ravyr was still alive, albeit heavily wounded. Getting up with difficulty, he announced to nobody in particular that he had lost a battle, but not the war, and that he would establish an empire of his own and exact revenge on the Lost Ones "traitors" and the "slave scum". Moments later, a Srav nuclear weapon detonated over the temple, incinerating it and Ravyr.

Aftermath
"If the Rakatans are back after all, I don't think the people need to know. And congradulations, Jarn. A pity you had to rely on the crims, but we can't get all what we want."

- Invado

With the battle over, the Rakatans having been defeated and made demoralized and despondent, the troops of the Lost Ones that remained fled to Malachor V to recuperate their troops before even attempting to launch another sort of attack upon any of the factions they'd encountered on Ahara. The Zayre, led by Storm Ironwings, avoided contact with the Necasian Military, despite their enmity with them after their outcast of Carsal Redharn, the new consort of Storm Ironwings, as well as the Srav Federation, those who they also were at disagreements with after many skirmishes and battles with the Sravs. Choosing not to pursue the Rakatans, the Zayre returned to Ankarr immediately after the battle, in order to continue the fortifications of Ankarr in case of any enemy attack in future. However, in terms of the planet Ahara, the area where the fighting had been focused was now littered with debris from the battle, including ruined droids, weaponry and corpses.

Due to this fact, the clean-up operation of Ahara soon began, with both the Necasian Military and Srav Federation working out of their own motives, and not in order to clean up the planet itself. The Necasians began scavenging for parts to the Rakatan droids, in order to develop machinery to combat them, should the Rakatans reappear, and to further their own for use against other factions. In addition, both factions started moving the pieces from their weapons away, in order to keep them from falling into the hands of their enemies, meaning that weapons could be devised to combat their own. Within twenty-four hours, both factions had reclaimed all they felt they could, and had chosen to depart the planet, as the Rakatans and Zayre had already done, leaving Ahara to it's own control once more, unlike some battles, where they had fought for control over the planet.

However, before departing the planet, spy drones were dispatched by both factions to survey the planet and make sure of no remaining Rakatan presence on the planet and, if so, to alert the commanders to it so it could be eliminated once more, as the rest had. In under twelve hours, the entire planet had been surveyed and declared clear of Rakatan forces, and so the Necasian Military and Srav Federation followed the suit of the Zayre, and left the planet. In terms of Ahara, with the various weapons left on the planet having been cleaned up by the majority, the casualties following the battle were relatively low, with only a few unused weapons being discovered by the natives, and the nuclear fallout from the bombing of the Rakatan compound being situated over a small, localized area, meaning very few were affected by that, in both the short and long term.

Legacy
"Never again will we listen to foolishness of reclaiming our power! Today's events have shown that we have been consigned to history! Our only choice now is to make sure we survive it!"

- A Lost Ones commando following the battle

The Legacy of the battle was one considered to have had a large effect on the Lost Ones, predominantly, as it marked their exit from the war, the Rakatan caste having been beaten enough to realize that this war was no place for them, and so to withdraw, on the most part, from any sort of conflict of their own. They returned to Malachor V, and, from there, made sure as to avoid all sort of conflict, for fear of their caste going extinct, unless provoked into it. The Necasian and Srav forces, however, refrained from publicising the battle to the extent they had done with some of the other battles they'd fought, due to the fact that both factions felt many of the people under their jurisdiction may panic from the fact that a new faction of Rakatans were at large in the Galaxy; at this point in time, neither faction knew that the Lost Ones wouldn't be rejoining the war.

Although the battle was not considered to have a massive legacy, it would later be regarded as having a larger impact on history then first seemed. Observers commentated that had the Lost Ones succeeded, they could have re-started a new Infinite Empire, drastically changing the balance of power. Meanwhile, most of the Rakata droids had been destroyed by the Srav nuclear strike, but a few would be discovered centuries later by explorers, opening up much of previously lost history regarding the Infinite Empire and the Cruentusian War to historians of later eras. Although one of the reasons the battle was not largly publicised by the Sravs and the Necasians was because both factions did not want accusations of hypocrism after the co-operation of their commando teams, both Jarn and Vergulva were commended by their superiors for their conduct.

Although both were commended for their cooperation in the battle, both Jarn and Vergulva were affected by the cooperation much more than in the way that they received praise; both began to realize to a further extent that the respective opposing faction, although an enemy, weren't the animalistic barbarians they were being portrayed as by the superiors in the two respective militaries. This would lead to events that would later end with Jarn's quitting of the Necasian Military and fleeing to find Carsal Redharn, as well as thinking about Vergulva as a person, instead of an enemy. In terms of the planet, very little of it was damaged upon a permanent basis, and most of the damage caused was easily repairable; very little of it took years to heal, due to restoration efforts from the planet's inhabitants, who were few in population and were not damaged massively due to the localized nature of the battle.

Behind the scenes
The battle was mainly created on the behest of Darth Mavoc, who desired a device to remove the Lost Ones faction from the war. Parts of the actual battle were vaguely inspired by scenes from Transformers, specifically the segment were the commando squads are besieged by the droids, echoing a scene in said film were a group of US Army troops are attacked by one of the titular machines in a Middle Eastern village. However, the rest of the article was not written with inspiration from other sources, although the very basic concepts of it were originally laid out by Mavoc on the Ravyr page following an IRC discussion with Darth tom, which Unit 8311 developed on, and thought the rest of the article's content off the top of his head. The battle also served to further the relationship between Jarn and Vergulva, which 8311 considers an important plot point in the Cruentus storyline, as it would pave the way for the final stages of the war, which have not yet been planned.