Sith Crusade

"Like a firestorm across the galaxy, they'll wipe out all before them."

- Luke Skywalker

The Sith Crusade was a devestating galaxy wide conflict between the New Jedi Order, the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances and their allies; and the Sith Order of Decreto and the Mando'ade Alliance that took place during the late 50's, early 60's ABY.

The decade long war that began in 56 ABY would see the total destruction of the Galactic Alliance, the decimation of the Jedi Order at Ossus and the civil strife that constantly plagued the Sith throughout their history.

Named after the "Sith Crusade" of ancient legend, the war began with an invasion of the Chiss Ascendancy at Csilia and ended with the occupation of Coruscant in 74 ABY.

Origins of the Sith Crusade
In the year 36 ABY a Jedi Knight–turned Sith Lord named Darth Abeonis wreaked havoc through-out the Outer rim. His fleet devestated hundreds of worlds both without, and within, the Galactic Alliance that had already been devestated by the Yuuzhan Vong War.

For a year the Dark Lord's fleet (formerly the 39th GA Fleet) plagued the Outer rim destroying all who resisted them until the New Jedi Order managed to locate The Soiyo, the flagship of the Sith Armada and board it.

A Jedi taskforce lead by Luke Skywalker, Kyle Katarn and Katae-muri confonted the Dark Lord and his apprentice on the bridge of The Soiyo and; after a long and intense duel managed to overpower the two Sith Lords and return them to the light.

However, even though the Dark Lord&mdash;Jasca Ducato, had returned to the light the populous of the Galactic Alliance wouldn't forget the fear and suffering they had gone though in the last year and Jasca soon became a way for the people of the galaxy to vent their frustration about the Jedi, and the galactic government as a whole. Within a year it became apparent that Jasca couldn't hold his ground any longer; he was becoming paranoid and isolated. So it was decided to remove him from the galactic theatre but still keep him busy.

So, three years after his return to the light, Jasca and the crew of The Soiyo left the Galactic Alliance to explore the Unknown Regions.

Discovery of the Sith
"These ruins, they look like they've been here for thousands of years."

- Unknown Jedi Knight on Nerezza

It would not be long before the Jedi under Jasca Ducato discovered something the didn't want to find; the Sith.

Unknown the the Galactic Alliance, or the Jedi, a long lost Sith Order had been in hiding within the Unknown Regions for over 5,000 years. These Sith were the direct successors to the first Dark lords of the Original Sith Empire and, following the defeat of their masters during the Great Hyperspace War had fled into the Unknown Regions. Once here they had slowly built up their power and influence to become a formidable military force; all the mean-time remaining hidden from the galaxy as a whole, until the year 41 ABY.

After a sudden battle which saw the capture of several hundred Jedi the Sith found themselves on the run. For two years the Dark Lord of the Decreton Empire Lord Guerreiro was chased by the Jedi whilst holding their commanding officer&mdash;Jasca Ducato&mdash;prisoner.

Eventually the Dark Lord was defeated and Ducato escaped, but not before he once again turned to the dark side of the Force. Returning to his vessel he succedded in corrupting the entire crew and once again made The Soiyo a Sith vessel.

Conquering the Sith
How they acheived this is unknown, but over the next thirteen years the crew of The Soiyo slowly managed to absorb the entire Decreton Empire under the command of the reborn Darth Abeonis.

Start of hostilities
"It's war then&hellip;"

- Darth Micail

In the year 56 ABY, with the entire Decreton Empire under his control, Darth Abeonis invaded the Chiss Ascendancy and after just six months they had conquered its capital and fractured the Chiss government. Despite pleas for help to the Galactic Alliance the Chiss surrendered, but maintained armed rebellion amongst the conquered worlds.

Two years later came the turn of the Imperial Remnant. Once again, quickly and swiftly the enemies of the Sith fell and the planets of Yaga Minor, Bastion and Muunilist were conquered. It was now the turn of the Galactic Alliance.

Appeasement
Desperate to avoid another war the Galactic Alliance ignored the warnings of the Jedi order and procceded to attempt to appease the Sith in the hopes it would avoid an all-out war. A treaty was drawn up which saw several hundred worlds including Er'kit, Agamar, Morishim, Ord Biniir, Bimmiel, Dantooine, Dubrillion, Adumar, Telos, Dorin, Reecee and Anobis change hands and become Sith planets.

At first this seemed to work and the Galactic Alliance soon became hopeful that an all out war would become unlikely. All that prevented the Alliance from retreating its miltary from its borders was the warnings of the Jedi Council. But, by 61 ABY it became clear to Cal Omas, Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Alliance, that the Jedi had been right all along.

Invasion
"A Sith Crusade has begun. Nothing shall stand in their way; we shall unite, or we shall fall."

- Luke Skywalker at Ossus

At the beginning of 61 ABY the Sith Empire attacked eight Alliance sectors simultaneously and conquered each one within a day. The Alliance was caught completely by surprise and many lives were lost.

Devestated by the sudden loss of life Cal Omas suddenly found himself "under the spotlight" and being criticised not only for allowing the Sith to invade unchallenged but for the Treaty of Secessions, and the Jedi being praised for their accurate predictions of the future.

Cal Omas found himself being bombarded with senators declaring the open opposition of Omas' reign, but thanks to Presidential Order 0114/F his position was safe and secure.

However, due to the death of Admiral Argos, who had died at the battle of Belkadan, and their victory at Helska the Sith invaders found themselves with a clear run straight into the heart of the Corporate sector.

Taking full advantage of this the Sith struck hard and decimated the Alliance's rather dismal rearguard action, killing hundreds-of-thousands of the Galactic Alliance's defence force.

Ruuria and beyond
Once on Ruuria the Sith found themselves stalled by the native Ruurians who, ironically, through their lack of resistance took longer to eliminate then they would have during a battle. Why the Sith invaded Ruuria was unknown until a few months later.

During the second month of the war, Darth Abeonis found himself being personally needed on the frontline. The Alliance garrison on Ord Radama, though cut off from reinforcments, was refusing to surrender and inflicting heavy casualties upon the Sith attackers. In order for the Sith advance to continue unchanged Ord Radama had to fall; which, eventually, with heavy Sith casualties, it did. Ord Radama was the first time the Galactic Alliance encountered the Sith Knights, and it would not be the last.

For two months later, after a brief period of rest, the Sith invaded Korriban. Determined to hold the ancient Sith burial world Cal Omas and Luke Skywalker both agreed that the Jedi should be brought into the war, and so they were.

For a long time Korriban had been under Galactic Alliance control and the Sith Knights knew that if the planet were to fall to the invaders it would be a massive morale booster to not only the Sith military, but its population hidden away in the Unknown Regions.

And so Korriban was attacked, and for the first time during the war Jedi met Sith. The losses were terrible and eventually, as Skywalker had predicted, Korriban fell to the invading Sith Knights.

Next came the invasion of the Meridian Confederation, which, despite Alliance assistance was decimated by the Sith invaders. So determined to "set an example" to any other galactic organization that opposed the Sith Rhen Var, capital of the Meridian Confederation was literally destroyed by the Sith forces under the command of the learner, Darth Dimicatio. Not only did this have the desired affect, several hundred worlds that had previously been allied to the Galactic Alliance switched sides and join the Sith, it also destroyed the morale of the Alliance population.

This astounding victory was welcome news amongst the Sith Council which had recently been formed under Abeonis' rule, and plans for a series of devestating attacks against the Jedi were planned for the year following. But first, the Jedi Academy on Dathomir was to be destroyed. And so, Darth Micail and a squadron of 200 Sith Knights were secretly transported to Dathomir with instructions to wipe out all Jedi on the planet and destroy the academy. This they did, with astonishing prowess. All 190 Jedi on the planet (including their commanding officer, Jaina Solo) were eliminated. Following the battle, Nathaniel Kenobi Solo would declare his "rights to vengence" against the Sith; time and again leading his forces against the Sith constantly causing immense casualties on both sides.

Following the stunning Sith victory at Dathomir the Jedi found themselves in serious trouble. With Dathomir, a key strategically placed planet, under Sith control the Jedi no longer had to the Corporate Sector which, although under Sith control, had been supplying the Jedi and the Alliance as a whole with Intelligence and tactical information. on top of that, almost 200 Jedi had been killed on Dathomir; severely demoralising the Jedi and limiting their effectiveness on that part of the front.

The death of Jaina Solo also served to further demoralise the Alliance because of her relationship to the famed General Han Solo.

Slaughter
Within days however the Jedi were once again causing havoc for the Sith. Yavin IV, which had been claimed by the Sith days previously was attacked by the Jedi in an attempt to capture the ex-Jedi Darth Micail and to convert him. Micail predicted the ambush though and proceded to slaughter the Alliance garrison on the planet and kill many of the Jedi who had come after him. It was then that the Sith realised that the Jedi were not as weak as previously beleived, and that they would do almost anything to acheive their goals.

With this new knowledge the Sith Council realised that prudence must be taken in this war, or else the Sith would fail. Some Sith disagreed, saying that the war should be finished as quickly as possible and that they should head straight for Coruscant. Darth Abeonis immediately rejected this idea knowing that the Alliance Core World fleet was too strong even for the Sith fleet to ouster.

Enraged, Darth Cannae (then a member of the Sith Council) disobeyed the Dark Lord's orders and ordered his forces to invade Coruscant. At first their successes belayed the Dark Lord's anger, but when Darth Cannae's fleet was defeated at the battles of Empress Teta and Bilbringi by the Jedi Jacen Solo and the Alliance Core World fleet Cannae was removed from the Sith Council and stationed far from the frontline.

Taking advantage of their success in the galactic core, the Jedi decided upon launching another attack on Yavin IV; this time to investigate reports of increasing Sith attention to the planet. Wedge Antilles was tasked with securing control of the system in preperation for an Alliance invasion force, however things did not go to plan.

By pure chance another Sith Lord, Darth Dimicatio had taken up position on Yavin IV, with her fleet in orbit of the planet. When Antilles fleet arrived they were shocked to discover this Sith fleet but quickly realised that the Sith had no-more expected them. Taking advantage of this Antilles' fleet swarmed the ill prepared Sith warships, inflicting massive damage. Eventually though the Sith began to push the Alliance fleet back, in turn inflicting heavy losses. By the time Antilles ordered a retreat over two-thirds of his fleet had been destroyed.

In turn, taking full advantage of this victory the Sith invaded the Ssi-ruuk star cluster and slaughtered the entire Ssi-ruuvi population. Admiral Strasbourg, the commanding officer of this operation would become infamous amongst both his allies and enemies for his ruthlessness and ferocity. The Ssi-ruuvi xenocide as it became known left only 500,000 Ssi-ruuk remained galaxy-wide.

Greatly shocked by this action the Senate ordered the Galactic Alliance garrison on Bakura to retreat to Bespin and leave the planet to the Sith. Bakura quickly fell, as did the planet-state of Anoth. Determined not to lose the entire quadrant the Senate ordered Admiral Ema and the 4th Alliance Fleet to secure control of the Corellian Trade Spine and defend it from Sith incursions. Likewise, Abeonis had ordered Admiral Strasbourg to take the Trade Spine and cut off the Senex/Juvex Sectors. After six months of stalemate neither side had come out on top and both withdrew, only a fraction of the previous strengths.

For the next few months the Sith continued to push the Alliance back although at a much slower rate. First Gala fell, followed by Belderone and it soon became clear what the Sith's intentions were. But before the Sith would continue their attack the Jedi saw yet another chance to discover the Sith intentions of Yavin IV. This time a small force of six Jedi including Ben Skywalker, the son of Luke Skywalker, would infiltrate the Sith facility on Yavin IV and discover it purpose. Although they returned with no knowledge as to the Sith intreast of the planet they did discover that it was of great importance to Darth Abeonis; and that it had also become the staging area for a new type of Sith troop.

With this new revelation the Jedi realised that the Senate had to be warned of this new threat. But before they could get word of these "SpecOps" to the Senate they must first survive a more immediate Sith threat.

The Battle of Ossus
The Battle of Ossus was the most devestating battle in terms of Jedi casualties in the entire war. Following the Battle of the Cron Drift the Jedi found themselves on the very edge of Sith space. Fearing for the population of Ossus Luke Skywalker ordered an immediate evacuation of the planet and sent a request for the Galactic Alliance to send a relief force to their aid. The Alliance acknowledged this order but it would take time for the relief force to arrive.

Whilst the Jedi waited for the releif force to arrive they were shocked to discover that the Sith wanted peace, or so they said. Darth Abeonis himself requested permission to head down to the planet and discuss terms. But when he arrived surrender was not on his mind, all he wished to do was to inform Luke Skywalker of his true intentions. He gave Luke a choice. The Jedi could leave Ossus without fear of Sith attack and travel to Coruscant, Once there they were to remove Cal Omas from power and secure control of the Galactic Alliance; only then would peace between the Sith and the Jedi be possible. The other choice was that the Sith attack Ossus before the releif fleet arrived and kill as many Jedi as possible. Once the releif fleet arrived the Sith would leave and the Jedi would be shown as heros

Skywalker rather surprisingly refused this other saying that he would defend Cal Omas despite his previous attempts to overthrow the Jedi.

Enraged, Darth Abeonis withdrew himself and ordered the attack. After a day and a half of combat the Alliance relief force finally arrived and the Sith fleet withdrew. With his mission complete Darth Abeonis ordered the fleet to attack Dac and secure control of the Alliance 4th fleet which was stationed at the orbital shipyards.

The third year
After several years of war the Galactic Alliance found itself in need of allies desperately. Using the Jedi as their ambassadors the Alliance found itself faced with many new problems. Many of those who had dispised the Alliance saw this as their chance to show their distrust, simply by refusing their request. Although many governments did accept the offers of alliance. One such organizationwas the Ottiumigos Centrality.

Abeonis quickly realised that the Ottiumigon were, in fact, in a highly strategic position wrom which to launch attacks, and that this threat had to be eliminated.

Darth Micail, who's forces had only just recovered from the battle at Ossus, was tasked with conquering the sector, and defeating its Jedi Guardian, Nathaniel Kenobi Solo.

Battle of Novus Kamino Prime
Novus Kamino Prime, homeworld to the Kaminoan species and a member planet of the Ottiumigos Centrality was chosen as the launch platform for the invasion. The planet, much unlike its parent-world Kamino had a large diversity of climate zones, and several large continents; making land assault all the more easier. But first the defenders of Novus Kamino Prime had to be drawn away for the invasion to be succesful, so Ottiumigos Prime was attacked.

With the vast majority of the Ottiumigon fleet battle over Ottiumigos Prime, Nathaniel, his family and the few legions left to defend the planet found themselves being slaughtered by Micail's forces. Fortunately for Nathaniel and his forces however, Brashus, an associate of Nathaniel realised that the invasion of Ottiumigos Prime was a decoy, and he withdrew what forces he could and lead them to Novus Kamino Prime.

As the Ottiumigos fleet arrived at Novus Kamino Prime Nathaniel decided that in order to "scare" the Sith away he would have to ghost aboard the Sith flagship. He slaughtered many Sith before confronting Darth Micail, the murderer of his wife. At first he attempted to convince Micail to return to the light side of the Force, but soon realised that Micail would not sway. As the duel continued the ship shock from the internal pressures of the force-weilders combat. Nathaniel soon decided that it would be better to fight another day than to die aboard a Sith warship, and fled.

Although the battle ended with the xenocide of the Ottiumigons, Nathaniel and his family managed to escape. Taun We, Prime Minister of Novus Kamino Prime was killed during the battle, securing Sith control over the planet. This, coupled with the conquest of Ottiumigos Prime saw the entire sector fall into Micail's hands.

But the battle at Novus Kamino Prime was, in Abeonis' eyes, an unnecessary one at best, and that in order to avoid future battles of such sorts, allies were needed.

New ally?
Abeonis decided upon the Mando'ade Alliance to become this ally the Sith required, and began preperations for an invasion of Mandalore. Abeonis knew that the new Mandalore, Mandalore the Wise, would not let his people be wiped out like the Ottiumigos, even if it meant becoming an ally to his conquerors.

Te Dral Mand'alor, as he was known to his own people had spent many years preparing Mandalore for an invasion, but when it finally came it quickly became apparent that not even the Mando'ade Alliance could hold against the Sith Order of Decreto.

But Te Dral was saved the dishonor of surrendering when Abeonis offered him terms of peace. Te Dral accepted and the Mando'ade Alliance was allowed to keep its independance, but become an ally of the Sith.

Hero's of enemies
Recounting back to his offer of peace on Ossus not a year ago, Abeonis beleived that the time had finally come for Cal Omas, Chief of State of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances to be removed from office permanently. He choose a little known Sith Knight named Darth Wyyrlok for the job. A proven assassin and a deadly strike, Wyyrlok came highly recommended for the mission.

Wyyrlok made his way to Coruscant, but with no knowledge of where his target was, he would have to find an alternate means. He spent the next few days discretely making inquiries as the Cal Omas' location, finally picking up on a lead. An arms dealer from The Works area of Coruscant that Wyyrlok easily "persuaded" finally gave up the information he required.

Wyyrlok made his way to the remains of the Manarai Mountains where Cal Omas was reputed to be hiding. Concealing himself from Omas' Jedi guardians, Wyyrlok killed the Chief of State; but the death of someone so close to some of the galaxies most powerful Jedi was sensed instantly. Wyyrlok made his escape, cutting down waves of Jedi and Coruscant Guard who were now aware of his presence. Eventually finding himself a transport that could take him off Coruscant, Wyyrlok was disheartened to discover the way being blocked by a Jedi Master &mdash; Luke Skywalker.

A duel ensued, but Wyyrlok soon came to the realization that his skills with the lightsaber were infantile to those of his Jedi combatant. He managed to knock Skywalker of balance long enough to escape to the transport and flee Coruscant.

Darth Abeonis' plan worked, the Jedi were seen as heros for attempting to keep the Chief of State alive, although the ultimately failed. It was made known publically (by the Sith) that Cal Omas had died in Skywalker's arms, thanking the Jedi Master for all that he had done over the years.

Striking back
Just hours after the death of Cal Omas the Galactic Senate unanimously agreed to a full-scale strike against the Sith in retaliation for the assassination. Although against the wishes of the Jedo, the Jedi found themselves compelled to participate or risk being branded enemies of the GFFA.

Luke Skywalker made his way to Ossus and rallied to Jedi on the planet to arms. Kyle Katarn accompanied Luke on his mission and assisted him when they attacked a Decreto-class Super Star Destroyer.

Having snuck aboard the warship, both Skywalker and Katarn were faced with a seemingly impossible mission. Although they had been tasked with destroying the vessel, the information in the computer banks could have been invaluable and securing it became a top priority.

Making their way to the main computer terminal at the centre of the vessel, Luke and Kyle were ambushed by three Sith Knights, determined to kill the invading Jedi. The battle was brief, but it had drawn the attention of the entire vessel to the Jedi. The mission had become one of survival, rather than destruction. Kyle and Luke agreed it was best that they split up, so that they could each make their own way of the warship.

Turncoat
In the midst of war, the GFFA suffered the gravest news. Jacen Solo had been captured by the Sith, and corrupted to the dark side of the Force. Luke Skywalker, shocked by the news that his own nephew had been captured and corrupted once again isolated himself from all his fellow Jedi save his wife, his son and his grandson.

He sought solace in the presence of the Jedi-past, his fellow companions that had died during the Galactic Civil War and later conflicts and the aura of his father. Going into a deep slumber, Luke found himself on the Second Death Star, in the exact same position he had been almost 60 years before hand. Infront of him lay his dying father, still bearing the armor of the long dead Sith Lord Darth Vader; but what his father said was starkly different from sixty years before hand. Luke soon realised that he was in fact still asleep, on Ossus, and that this illusion was infact a manifestation of his greatest wanting.

His father told him that in order to survive this war, Luke would have to confront his greatest enemy, the Dark Lord himself. Anakin told his son that Jasca's reasons for war were not evil, and that he did infact want to save the galaxy from a threat which was yet to be revealed.

Luke would have to confront Abeonis and attempt to convince him to stem the tide of his advance, if not reverse it, and allow diplomacy to resume. If this failed than the galaxy could face a century of continuous warfare; and come out greatly weakened. He then found himself being sucked out of the Second Death Star and being among the clouds, high above Coruscant. Before him stood the short, solitary figure of the ancient Jedi Master – Yoda.

The Force apparition told Luke, much like the ghost of his father, that he must confront the Sith Lord Abeonis and convince him to stem his advance. He told Luke to focus not only physically forcing the Dark Lord to surrender, because his powers had grown to much even for Luke; but to emotionally drain the Sith. Only then would he be able to succesfully defeat the Dark Lord. Should he fail, then the Galactic Alliance, and the Jedi; were doomed.

Duel on Gand
Within days of his Solo's capture, Abeonis' attention was drawn to the gas giant Gand, where a single human life sign was detected – Luke Skywalker's. Darth Abeonis knew that he was not the only Sith to have detected the Jedi Master's presence on gand, and that the Sth Council would be fully aware aswell. If Abeonis were to travel to gand and confront the Jedi Master without informing the Council, then he could risk losing their support; something that he needed desperately. So, having informed the Council of his mission to kill, or possibly even corrupt Skywalker, Abeonis travelled to Gand and confronted the ageing Jedi Master.

Even despite Skywalker being twent-five years older than Abeonis, he still managed to hold himself against the Sith Lord, inflicting numerous wounds upon the Dark Lord before finally being forced to retreat. Leaving Abeonis on the planet, having to use SpecOps to search for Skywalker.

Abeonis knew what Skywalker's escape meant; that civil war could be coming.

Known battles
TO BE CONTINUED
 * Battle of Csilla
 * Battle of Ansion
 * Battle of Yaga Minor
 * Battle of Bastion
 * Battle of Rakata Prime
 * Battle of Balamak
 * Battle of Belkadan
 * Battle of Helska
 * Battle of Ruuria
 * Mission to Ord Radama
 * Battle of Korriban
 * The Meridian campaign
 * Battle of Elom
 * Battle of Troiken
 * Battle of Toola
 * Battle of Rhen Var
 * Battle of Dathomir
 * First Battle of Yavin
 * Battle of Empress Teta
 * Battle of Bilbringi
 * Second Battle of Yavin IV
 * The Second Campaign
 * Invasion of the Ssi-ruuk Star cluster
 * Battle of Bakura
 * Battle of Anoth
 * The Trade Spine campaign
 * First Battle of Belderone
 * Battle of Gala
 * Second Battle of Belderone
 * Third Battle of Yavin
 * Battle of the Cron Drift
 * Battle of Ossus
 * Seige of Dac
 * The Third Campaign
 * Battle of Novus Kamino Prime
 * Battle of Mandalore
 * Mission to Coruscant
 * Operation Strike back
 * Battle of Toong'l
 * Duel on Gand
 * Battle of Tund
 * Battle of Kubindi
 * Battle of Kessel
 * Battle of Thyferra
 * Mission to Kashyyyk
 * Mission to Tatooine
 * Mission to Sleheyron
 * Mission to Corellia
 * Mission to Drall