Battle of Sith'ika

The Battle of Sith'ika was an important battle of the Zao tenj War. It saw the Sith Lords Darth Nihilus and Darth Raith confront the Zao tenj commander Omia Creia.

Sith'ika, being an ancient Sith holy world, had been a prime target for the Zao tenj fleet four years previously, but with the Sith counter strike gaining momentum Darth Wyyrlok had decided that the time had come to retake the planet.

The battle was divided into two seperate parts; the space battle, and the land assault.

Space battle
The Space battle above Sith'ika was a massive confrontation between the Sith fleet of Darth Nihilus and the Zao tenj Sith'ika defence force under the command of Omia Creia.

As the Sith fleet exited hyperspace above Sith'ika they were met with a massive barrage of fire from the Zao tenj Cruisers and Destroyers in orbit of the planet. At first the battle seemed to be going badly for the Sith and the quickly lost a Decreto-class Super Star Destroyer to the overwhelming Zao tenj fire until Nihilus' secret weapon arrived &mdash; his Ultima-class Super Star Destroyer.

With the arrival of the only warship in the galaxy capable of destroying an entire Zao tenj fleet, the battle quickly turned to Nihilus' favor. Omia Creia did what he could to defend against the Sith supership, to no avail. He lost four of his six Zao tenj Destroyers in the first volley of fire alone, and the remaing two were soon destroyed afterwards.

Omia Creia himself retreated to the planet below just seconds before his flagship was destroyed, and the remainder of the Zao tenj fleet was routed.

With the space battle over and the system secure, the Sith could begin landing their forces.

Land battle
With the space battle over, the Sith had began landing their troops on Sith'ika. Darth Raith, a member of the Hand was chosen by Nihilus to lead the land assault and to remove the Zao tenj forces.

Raith, determind to prove his worth to Wyyrlok set about systimatically slaughtering garrison after garrison of Zao tenj troopers until only those in the capital city remained.

Battle of Sith'ika city
With most of the planet now under Sith control the time had come for Darth Raith to retake Sith'ika city itself, which was still under Zao tenj control.

Raith realized that the defences around Sith'ika made the city almost impenetrable and as such he spent many hours meditating on the matter, even going so far as contemplating destroying the city altogether, an action which would have undoubtedly meant his execution. After several hours Raith finally happened upon the idea of entering the city from beneath, using the ancient Sith tunnel system created by the former Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Revan.

Raith ordered all of his SpecOps forces to infiltrate the city during the dead of night and to open the city gates, so that the remainder of his forces could enter unopposed. In the meantime Raith's Sith entourage would slowly make there way around to the far side of the city and enter from behind, effectively putting the Zao tenj commander Omia Creia between a rock and a hard place.

Unfortunately for the Sith, Omia Creia had predicted this strategy of encirclement and put in place a counter strike, moving half of his forces out of the city, he would wait for the Sith to launch their attack, and then surround the Sith attackers.

Retaking the city
With the Sith encircling the city, and the SpecOps ready to open the main gates, the time had come to launch the assault. Raith ordered his SpecOps to open the city gates and the Sith troopers to launch an attack. With his Sith troopers invading the city, Raith ordered his Sith Knights to launch a secondary assault. Just as he did this he was shocked to discover the planet being fired upon by the Sith fleet in orbit. Although confused, Raith was determind to retake the city despite the distractions and launched a third and final assault.

Great swathes of the city fell within the first hour, and by the third the Sith were at the gates of the Temple of the Sith'ari, where Omia Creia had set up his Command & Control post. This sacrilege, in Raith's eyes, had to be met with swift and utter destruction.

With his forces swarming the Temple Raith made his way to Creia's own personal quarters, with a mission of revenge against the Zao tenj. Surging through the door, engrossed in the dark side of the Force, Raith struck down the Zao tenj commander, severly wounding him.

With the battle over and the city retaken, Omia Creia was taken to Darth Nihilus as a prisoner of war.

A secret weapon?
With Omia Creia safely aboard the Ravager and Nihilus on his way back to Coruscant Raith was left to clean up" the remaining Zao tenj forces.

Whilst searching through Omia Creia's personal files Raith happened upon a refernce to a "monument" on Sith'ika; and a subsequent expedition to uncover it, with exact coordinates.

Having informed Darth Wyyrlok of this discovery, he instantly received a go ahead to begin digging at the coordinates provided. Over the next few months the monument slowly emerged until, one day, when it was completely uncovered it suddenly activated.