Yes, my Lord, the enemy fleet will be dealt with momentarily. You may begin your approach.
—Grand Admiral Grunger to Darth Revan
Hasek Grunger was a Human Grand Admiral in the navy of Revan's Sith Empire. Originally a commander in the Republic Navy, Grunger fought alongside Revan during the Mandalorian Wars, and came to despise the Jedi Order and the government of the Galactic Republic, as he thought they abandoned the military. Following the Battle of Malachor V, upon the return of Darth Revan and Darth Malak as Sith Lords from the Unknown Regions, he joined forces with them. As an admiral, Grunger commanded Sith forces during their early victories, and was promoted by Revan to Grand Admiral. He led a fleet of Interdictor-class cruisers, and had the Oppressor, a Centurion-class battlecruiser, as his flagship.
As the war went on, Grunger became known as a skilled tactician due to his victories. However, when Revan was captured by Jedi and redeemed in 3,957 BBY, leaving Malak as the leader of the Empire, the Grand Admiral was shaken. But nonetheless, he continued serving the new Dark Lord of the Sith. During that time, Grunger became a rival of Admiral Saul Karath, another prominent Sith admiral. His relationship with Malak became strained due to their dislike of each other. So when the Republic found the location of the Star Forge (a massive space station factory in orbit of a star), Malak placed another one of his rivals, Admiral Varko, in command of the defenses instead of him. The Grand Admiral fought in defense of the Star Forge against the Republic fleet. However, a starfighter crashed into the bridge of his ship, killing Grunger.
Biography[]
Early career[]
The Republic that abandoned us, or Revan, who saved us?
—Grunger contemplates his loyalties
Grunger was a Human male who served the Galactic Republic as a naval commander. When the Mandalorian Wars began, Grunger fought alongside his fellow officers and crewmen against the attacking Mandalorians. During this time, he developed a hatred for the Jedi Order due to their unwillingness to help fight the attackers. Since many of his comrades were killed, Grunger felt that the Republic betrayed them. When the Jedi Knight Revan and his Revanchist Jedi began aiding them, Grunger fought with them, and grew to like and respect their leader. Feeling more loyalty to Revan than the Republic by the end of the conflict, he decided to join forces with Revan and his apprentice Malak, after the Battle of Malachor V. The two Jedi had visited the Unknown Regions and met with the Sith Emperor, who converted them to the dark side of the Force. Upon their return to the galaxy they created a new Sith empire to fight the Republic. Grunger felt obliged to join them.
War against the Republic[]
We are on the brink of a new age!
—Admiral Grunger to Captain Thax
.jpg){kind=link}
The Oppressor and the flotilla.
Promoted to the rank of admiral in the Sith Navy, Grunger quickly made himself known to the leadership of the Empire. It was his idea to attack the Republic shipyards at Foerost, using his inside knowledge of the facilities. The battle was a success for the Empire, as some three hundred vessels were captured and put into service of the Sith fleet. Not too long after that, Grunger led an assault on the Republic planet of Iridonia. There, initially, a Dark Jedi and a team of Mandalorians attempted to sabotage the planet's defenses, but the plan failed. Admiral Grunger went ahead and attacked anyway, as planned in the case of the mission's failure. His fleet destroyed the Republic defense force, which was in some confusion due to the attempted attack by saboteurs earlier. The world of Iridonia fell and was under control of the Sith Empire. As a result of his military successes, he was summoned by Darth Revan shortly after the admiral's conquest of Iridonia. The Dark Lord of the Sith thanked him for his service and promoted him to the rank of Grand Admiral (though he never established a clear position of the rank in the naval hierarchy). Along with the rank, Grunger received a flotilla of warships to command.
Captain Thax, his second-in-command.
His new flotilla consisted of several Interdictor-class cruisers, and had the Oppressor, a Centurion-class battlecruiser, as his personal flagship. Commanding the Oppressor was a Human female captain named Zasha Thax, who became his aide and second-in-command of the armada (rumors among the crew claimed that they are romantically involved, though that was unproven). With these new forces under his command, Grand Admiral Grunger decided to make a strike at Axxila, a Core World. Using the element of surprise, in combination with Sith interceptors armed with special proton torpedoes, the Grand Admiral's forces decimated a Republic fleet larger than theirs. Some ships were destroyed, but many chose to defect to the Sith. This added to Grunger's reputation as a good tactician. Two attacks were carried out as well under his command, on Allanteen and Yag'Dhul. Both battles gave similar results for the Empire, and Grand Admiral Grunger began feeling that a Sith victory was imminent. Around that time, he became a rival of Admiral Saul Karath, another notable commander in the Sith navy. Karath carried out a brutal massacre on Telos IV, which disgusted Grunger. Though the Grand Admiral did not mind killing people, he was against the idea of devastating entire planets to get his way.
When Revan was captured and redeemed in 3,957 BBY, becoming a Jedi once again, Grunger swore loyalty to his successor, Darth Malak. The new Dark Lord of the Sith did not fully trust Grunger, since he assumed that the Grand Admiral and the former Sith were friends, due to the fact that Revan promoted him to that high rank. Malak was worried that Grunger might betray him or defect to the Republic, as though Revan was captured, Malak first turned his guns on his master's flagship before he knew that had occurred. He assumed Grunger would be aware of that fact and be outraged. And he was to some extent, though the Grand Admiral did not feel any particular friendship with Revan. But Grunger did look up to him as a good leader and respected his abilities as a military commander, which Grunger found surprising from a former Jedi. However, Malak still viewed him as one of his top officers, and declined a request by Admiral Karath to demote him from Grand Admiral, or give Karath that rank as well. Grunger was shaken by Revan's capture, and his morale for the Sith cause started dropping.
Over the next year, Admiral Karath served as Darth Malak's naval commander and adjutant. However, after Karath's death, to Grunger's annoyance, Malak chose a low ranking admiral named Varko to succeed him as the commander-in-chief of the Sith navy. This worsened relations between the two. Grand Admiral Grunger seriously considered committing a military coup when then forces under Varko's command failed to defend Basilisk and Devaron from Republic assaults, because, despite these defeats, Malak did not punish the admiral. However, he decided against it, due to the Dark Jedi protecting Malak, and due to the fact that the Empire could not afford any instability at the time. When Malak informed them that the Jedi Order had found the location of the Star Forge—a massive space station factory built tens of thousands of years ago by the Rakata Infinite Empire, and then used by the Sith as a military headquarters—Grunger and Varko prepared for a defense of the facility.
Death and legacy[]
Sir, our deflector shields have been destroyed!"
"Divert all power to the forward batteries, make sure nothing gets through!"
Too late!
—Captain Thax and Admiral Grunger
The Republic and Sith battle at the Star Forge.
As expected, in 3,956 BBY, the Republic launched an assault on the Star Forge, which was using the power of the star of the Lehon system to produce weaponry. It outraged Grand Admiral Grunger when he found out that Admiral Varko was under the overall command of the defense fleet. Though he did not have anything personal against the officer, he viewed Varko to be a poor tactician and often incompetent. He led his full flotilla at the Star Forge, from the Oppressor, and prepared to mount a defense against the Republic Navy. The Republic attacked, in what became know as the Battle of Rakata Prime, with a large fleet engaging Sith ships while a Jedi strike team boarded the Star Forge to face Malak. Initially, everything was going as planned, though Grunger and Varko frequently clashed and argued over what course of action to take. The Republic was not able to break through their defense, and the Star Forge churned out more ships that entered the fray.
However, the tide changed when the Republic commanding officer ordered his vessels to target the Oppressor. As the largest ship present, Grunger's vessel was assumed to be the flagship of the Sith navy. As the Republic cruisers increased their fire on the Oppressor, it was at first not damaging as his shields were still functional. However, Republic fighters destroyed them and soon the battlecruiser was vulnerable. But that was not what resulted in the loss of the Oppressor. A fighter that took damage and was spinning out of control crashed into the bridge of the battlecruiser, killing Grunger, Thax, and his bridge crew instantly. Losing control, the doomed battlecruiser was caught in the gravitational pull of the Star Forge, and fell into the station, being obliterated. Malak was slain by Revan, the Star Forge collapsed into the star soon after that, and the battle was a decisive Republic victory.
The Oppressor and its crew meet their demise.
With the deaths of Malak and Grunger, the destruction of the Star Forge and the bulk of the Sith navy at the Battle of Rakata Prime, the Sith Empire splintered and the Republic was triumphant. No Sith officer was appointed to the rank of Grand Admiral until hundreds of years later, when Harridax Kirill became a Grand Admiral in the armada of the Sith Emperor's military during the Cold War.
Personality and traits[]
Grunger was viewed by his allies and enemies alike to be a skilled tactician and good naval commander, achieving the high rank of Grand Admiral. Though he was initially a loyal Republic officer, Grunger quickly became disillusioned with the Republic, and especially with the Jedi Order, during the Mandalorian Wars, when they provided no help to the military. He looked up to and respected Revan, one of the few Jedi who decided to help push back the Mandalorians. For this, Grunger became more loyal to his cause than the Republic, and was willing to join him when Revan founded his Sith Empire. He genuinely believed that the Empire was a good government for the galaxy, and worked to defeat the Republic. He had no problem destroying Republic ships and taking Republic lives to achieve this goal. Grunger was loyal to the Sith cause to the bitter end, fighting until he was killed aboard his flagship. However, he was not willing to commit genocide, as he was disgusted when Admiral Karath (his rival) did just that at Telos IV.
His belief in the cause was shaken after the capture and redemption of Revan, and the ascension of Malak to the leadership of the Sith Empire. The new Dark Lord and the Grand Admiral had a shaky relationship at best, because of Malak's distrust of Grunger due to him being a close follower of Revan. This worry resulted in Malak often overlooking Grunger and openly favoring his rivals over him, going as far as to appoint a less capable admiral to oversee the defense of the Star Forge rather than give the Grand Admiral full command. He also developed a rivalry with first Admiral Karath, Malak's naval chief, and his successor, Varko, whom he viewed to be incompotent and a poor tactician. During his time in service of the Sith Navy, the Grand Admiral got a considerable following of loyal officers, crewmen, and pilots who respected his abilities as a commander. Among them was his second-in-command, the captain of his flagship, a Human woman named Zasha Thax. It was rumored by the crew that they were romantically involved, but this was never proven.
Behind the scenes[]
The character was created on 16 December 2014 by the user PrivateAttorney. Hearing about the video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and becoming interested in the Jedi Civil War period, he decided to create a character on the Star Wars Fanon Wiki living in that time. Not really liking the Republic and being a supporter of Revan, he decided to create a character serving in the military of Revan's Sith Empire. The author got the idea of making him a Grand Admiral after reading about the character Harridax Kirill, who became a Grand Admiral in the Sith Empire during the Cold War. The name he got from the canonical characters Hasek and Josef Grunger. He based the death of Grunger on the death of Admiral Firmus Piett from the Original Trilogy, in which he is killed when a fighter crashes into the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer Executor, causing the vessel to fall into the Death Star II and explode. Images in the article are from Knights of the Old Republic video game (as well as its sequel) and The Old Republic computer game.