Jace Bont: “With all the mayhem that SMERSH has caused, you dare call us terrorists?”
Stavro: “Then what would you call yourselves?”
Jace Bont: “Defenders of the Republic.”
The decade-long confrontation that became known as the MI5–SMERSH War was an on-again-off-again battle between the anti-terrorist peace-keeping agency MI5, also known as the Secret Galactic Intelligence Service, and SMERSH, a criminal organization bent on galactic domination. It occurred in the decade leading up to the Invasion of Naboo and ranged from Coruscant to the far reaches of the Outer Rim Territories.
Prelude[]
In 42 BBY, an MI5 agent stumbled upon The Baron's drug trafficking operation on Ryloth. One of The Baron's henchmen, Wootsa, killed the agent and sent the body back to Coruscant warning MI5 to stay out of their business. MI5 had no choice but to investigate the matter further.
The battles[]
42 BBY[]
Drug trafficking on Ryloth[]
And Wootsa was the one who actually killed your agent. I'm the one that sent him back to you.
—The Baron addressing the MI5 agents
In an examination of the dead body The Baron sent them in 42 BBY, MI5 discovered traces of both ryll and rycrit. So a team headed to Ryloth to investigate.
Soon after their arrival, they followed a lead to a structure which happened to be The Baron's castle. While there, they discovered Wootsa, the man that killed the MI5 agent, was a Sith who had gone rogue. Venturing deeper into the lair, they reached underground tunnels where they discovered The Baron was running a drug trafficking operation but disguising it with rycrit pens.
The Baron
It was then that the team had to face The Baron's bodyguard Froza Klebb. After the fight, The Baron explained that it was all about the money. MI5 didn't know it at the time, but The Baron was actually working for SMERSH and the money he was taking in was funding the criminal organization.
When it all seemed to be over, The Baron attempted a surprise attack so Gruu Funkistann was forced to kill him in order to save his fellow MI5 operatives.
Battle on Naboo[]
There is a higher criminal organization at work here. And you fools don't even have a clue.
—Urma Boont addressing the MI5 agents
Six months after the drug trafficking situation on Ryloth, Queen Teresaa of Naboo requested the assistance of MI5. She had received word that there may be an assassination attempt on her life, so she wanted MI5 to act as her security.
Gruu and Hawk during the battle to protect the Queen
Even though MI5 had traveled to Naboo and cleared the area for the Queen, an attack still happened. Some of the agents whisked her away to safety, others stayed to fight the battle with the on-coming army. They knew this was more than just a simple assassination attempt.
Being Gungan, Gruu Funkistann headed to Otoh Gunga to see if the Gungan Grand Army would help, only to end up captured when he got there and found the other Gungans enslaved by the same army that was invading Theed.
Some of the agents took a submersible to the underwater cities to rescue Gruu and help the Gungan people. While there, they were contacted by Digika who revealed that this was all a plan to get revenge against MI5 for what they did to The Baron on Ryloth months prior. And they planned to kill Queen Teresaa since she was one of MI5's biggest supporters.
While the battle raged in Otoh Gunga, one of the assassins that was hired to kill the Queen and ended up getting captured by MI5, Pots Putnyocus, was freed by Urma Boont. There was an explosion and Pots was injured, but survived.
Meanwhile, the agents traced Digika's transmission back to the Mystery Moon near Naboo. The agents soon traveled to that moon and were able to capture both Digika and Urma Boont. As it turned out, Urma was the mastermind behind everything and Digika was only a replica droid meant to be a decoy.
Urma mentioned there was a "higher organization" at work, which was SMERSH, but MI5 had no knowledge of it at the time.
Enter CarbonEye[]
We do have one piece of information about our mysterious criminal. He goes by the name of CarbonEye.
—M briefing the agents
One month after the capture of Urma Boont and Digika, MI5 was called back into action to investigate three crimes on three different planets that seemed to have a connection. Weapons were stolen from a Czerka warehouse on Dantooine, blue-prints were stolen from a small company on Alderaan, and a portion of Jabba the Hutt's fortune was stolen on Tatooine. The agents were split into teams and headed out.
Minister of Defense Frederick Gray
The trips to the locations of the crimes seemed to bring nothing but fights with beings who were trying to kill the agents. With the agents scattered, an attack occurred at MI5 Headquarters back on Coruscant. Head of MI5, M, became incapacitated, so the Minister of Defense, Frederick Gray, stepped in to take over temporarily. His first order of business was to get the agents to regroup.
MI5 agent Gruu Funkistann decided to search the ship of one of the MI5 Headquarters attackers and found Manaan in the flight log. Meanwhile, some agents had followed another enemy to Mytus VII where the mysterious villain called "CarbonEye" happened to show up. CarbonEye revealed himself to be Pots Putnyocus, the assassin that was injured during the battle in Theed months earlier. During the fight, CarbonEye's cybernetics, a device known as the "carbon-eye", had been damaged. So he headed back to Manaan for repairs by his scientist Dr. Noah.
Upon arriving on Manaan, the MI5 agents spoke to the Selkath and found out that CarbonEye had a submersible vessel called Octopus. As it turned out, the blue-prints that were stolen on Alderaan were for a submersible. They surmised that Jabba's fortune was used to fund the construction and the Czerka weapons were used to arm the soldiers. CarbonEye was working for SMERSH and bent on revenge for what happened to him in Theed.
A couple agents disguised as SMERSH soldiers had infiltrated the underwater base. While inside, they hacked the security systems to set off alarms, causing everyone onboard to flee, including Dr. Noah. That allowed the rest of the agents to board easily.
A battle aboard the ship left MI5 agent Hawk dead. The remaining agents were able to defeat CarbonEye. Before he died, he mentioned that he was part of a criminal organization known as SMERSH, and that he was supposed to eliminate MI5 for the organization. So SMERSH remained on everyone's mind at the end of the mission. MI5 had a newly discovered enemy in the galaxy.
The hunt for Dr. Noah[]
Dr. Noah
A few weeks after CarbonEye's demise, the MI5 agents began the hunt for his scientist Dr. Noah. Teams of agents were sent to Cato Neimoidia, Alderaan and Corellia to search laboratories that were known to be owned or used by Noah.
The Corellia team discovered plans to blow up a prison facility on Kiffex while the Alderaan team discovered information regarding a space station named Noah's Ark. The Cato Neimoidia team, on the other hand, uncovered information regarding a mutant army Noah was creating.
Some of the agent converged on Kiffu where they experienced a power surge. Following an energy signal, it appeared the power generated by the electrical storms was being sucked toward a spot between the sister planets. Figuring it might be Noah's Ark, the agents headed up in that direction. Noah was harnessing that energy to power a superweapon he had aboard his space station. He had defected from SMERSH and planned on using the weapon to destroy both MI5 and SMERSH.
The MI5 agents eventually infiltrated the Ark, fought off the army of mutant creatures and captured Noah, taking him into custody along with a few of his henchmen. The space station was also taken over by the Galactic Republic.
41 BBY[]
Droid reprogramming attempt[]
A year after MI5 captured and deactivated the SMERSH replica droid Digika, Q'u Branch was granted permission to reprogram it. As soon as Q'u and his subordinates attempted the reprogramming, a fail-safe built into the droid was activated. It was set to activate in case it's memory was ever tampered with.
Once it activated, the droid went on a rampage through Q'u Branch and almost killed the technicians. Q'u used one of his gadgets, the Invisi-Belt, to sneak up on Digika and shut it down before it did any more damage. The reprogramming project was shelved for several years after that.
38 BBY[]
Muunraker[]
Jordo Drax
SMERSH's activities had been pretty quiet for a few years. During that time, Jordo Drax had taken over the job of funding SMERSH since The Baron's drug-trafficking operation had been thwarted. Drax had plans to destroy the InterGalactic Banking Clan on Muunilinst and replace it with his small financial institution, eventually making him one of the wealthiest and most powerful beings in the galaxy. And he planned to blame the Banking Clan attack on the Yam'rii, accusing them of the attack being part of their Huk War.
An arms deal on Bakura in 38 BBY caught the attention of MI5. The arms dealer, Klay, had connections with Drax, so MI5 agents Jace Bont and Europa Kapanen traveled to Drax's estate on Dantooine to investigate. More discoveries lead the agents to Drax's compound on Kalee.
The team of agents followed the fleeing Drax to his space station where they learned of his plans to wipe out the Banking Clan. In order to destroy the space station, the MI5 agents turned Drax' own Muunraker ion cannon against him, crippling the station. Drax was sucked out into the vacuum of space while the MI5 agents escaped safely in a ship.
32 BBY[]
Final confrontation[]
I have to admit you've got quite an impressive organization going...even if you are galactic terrorists.
—Jace Bont addressing Stavro
Stavro, leader of SMERSH
For six years, SMERSH seemed to have gone dormant. But in 32 BBY, just prior to the Invasion of Naboo, Jasper Fondorball successfully infiltrated MI5 Headquarters and took it over from within the building. The security systems were deactivated, the communications were down and the personnel had all been taken hostage. Many MI5 agents had been attacked by SMERSH men across the galaxy. A few who survived managed to make it back to Headquarters on Coruscant and sneak in to the building to fight back against Jasper and his goons, retaking MI5 HQ.
During the interrogation of Jasper, he revealed SMERSH's hideout to be The Temple of The Great One on the ice planet Rinnk. So the agents headed to the planet, calling in some assistance from their friends. They all stormed the Temple, discovering SMERSH's leader Stavro had plans to drop a missile on MI5 Headquarters, obliterating the organization. After a fierce battle, Stavro was killed, putting an end to his organization. MI5 agents Pandolfo Taproot and Ainslé Vos also lost their lives in the battle.
Aftermath[]
After the battle on the ice planet Rinnk, SMERSH was put to an end.
A few years before the Clone Wars, Q'u Branch made yet another attempt to reprogram the SMERSH replica droid Digika. That second attempt turned out to be successful and Digika became a Technical Advisor for MI5.
Behind the scenes[]
This decade-long "war" that began in 2005 in the RPG From Ryloth With Love wasn't given an actual name until the final fanfic of the war, Fondorball, was written in 2020.
Appearances[]
- From Ryloth With Love (First appearance)
- On Her Majesty's Security Service
- CarbonEye
- Dr. Noah
- A Few Kinks
- Muunraker
- Fondorball