The Ritual and Pall's Confrontation
Circa. 6,906 BBY, or four years into the War of Darkness, the war entered its third stage. In this stage, the Black Legions unstoppable war machine, which had formerly been powerful enough to suck in both independent and Republic-held territory, was slowing down. In this stage, the Republic's economy was finally in wartime production mode. Citizens of the Galaxy were once again ready to be patriotic both because it gave them career options, and because a large percentage of the older generation had died off leaving the youth aspiring to take part in their own war. Already, the War of Darkness was being called the War to End All Wars- or at least the war to end galactic-scale war for the next few hundred years. Citizens of the Galaxy were hopeful that after almost a century of conflict and stagnation the Galaxy could head into a new era of peace.
But sentient bloodlust was not spent just yet, and the worst atrocities of the war were still to come. The battles of Yn and Chabosh were both some of the bloodiest and the two battles that cemented the destructive power of the dark side.
The Battle of Yn:
Circa. 6,906 BBY, Yn was under control of the Black Legions. However, as mentioned last chapter, it was one of the planets that had a strong Jedi saboteur presence. The planet had a variety of climates and temperate zones, but the overall population was low. Most lived on the outlying farms with large populations only being found in the numerous cities on the planet's coastlines. However, while it may not have produced much, Yn was a hub of trade, which made it a valuable target for the Jedi. The Jedi believed that since Yn was a complacent and peaceful world, it would be unlikely for the Legions to spend considerable effort hunting down the Jedi at the cost of possible civilian casualties. Additionally, if the planet did turn into a war zone, it would cause the Legions such an economic and logistical disruption due to its crucial location that it would hardly be worth it.
As a result, Yn was the site of a massive espionage campaign of Jedi vs Dark Jedi. Both parties would send in their trainees, disguised in civilian clothes, on missions throughout the cities. The Jedi would seek to plant charges to blow up shipping vessels, while the Dark Jedi sought to hunt down the Jedi interlopers. During espionage missions such as these, lightsaber duels were common. In fact, civilians could occasionally witness these duels breaking out abroad trains or in the streets right in front of their eyes. Many interesting stories and holos were written about these adventures.
However, these conflicts were often far from glamorous. Very often, gun violence would erupt in the streets as the illegal Jedi tried to fend off the police while supporting rebels launched their own guerrilla offensive. As the months turned to years, the cities grew more and more dangerous and tense. Police were able to keep large scale acts of violence from breaking out, but the overall atmosphere was one of incredible unreleased tension.
Tulak Hord was tasked with rooting out the Jedi and putting down any rebellions. The reason that he was here instead of serving as a general on the front lines was due to the machinations of the Dark Jedi high command, specifically Pall. Pall, as usual, did not trust him to lead armies into battle. When discussing with the other Dark Jedi about what to do with the situations at Yn and Chabosh, Pall greatly, and somewhat sarcastically, emphasized Hord's military expertise. He claimed that due to Hord's record, he would be the perfect agent to perform the impossible task of stopping the Jedi at Yn and Chabosh. The other Dark Jedi leaders seemed to agree. However, Pall, as usual, had an ulterior motive. He wanted to trap Hord in an impossible task so that Pall would not have to worry about Hord giving the rest of the Black Legions a bad name with his overly aggressive military tactics. (read: frequent massacres) The thinking was that not even Hord would be stupid enough to attack their own people.
The Massacre:
For over three months, Hord was content to play the espionage game. However, due to his rank and appearance, he could not partake in the investigations or conflicts himself. Instead, he sat in his desk chair and monitored the various comings and goings of both his agents and their targets. This, predictably, was extremely boring. As a result, when he finally found the location of the suspected clandestine Jedi academy, he led the attack himself.
The Jedi were meeting in a large house on the outskirts of Yn City, the capital. Hord was hesitant to surround the area with Dark Jedi or other special forces in fear of prematurely alerting the Jedi. Instead, he tasked Ortan Cela to infiltrate the house. Hord's reasoning was such a task was easy enough even for him to do, and he believed that his apprentice was so weak that he could not possibly be detected by the Jedi. Even so, he gave the instructions to Cela that if he failed to report back, he would be presumed dead and Hord would know the location of the Jedi.
Cela was able to sneak in, although the Jedi ironically thought that he was a lost padawan. The Jedi and Cela ended up chatting for a while, so long in fact, that Cela forgot to report back to Hord. He was presumed dead, and Hord ordered the house to be destroyed with turbolaser fire. However, since turbolasers from space are amazingly inaccurate, he ended up destroying most of the neighborhood. Ironically, the house was almost unscathed. Dozens of innocent civilians died. This incident caused a series of open rebellions to break out across the planet.
Cela was later found alive and well. Hord congratulated him on a job well done as now he could wage open war against the planet. When the rebellions broke out, at first they were small, but they grew. Hord responded with force which caused the rebellion to grow larger and larger. At first, some blamed the violence on Hord exclusively, and many tried to contact the Dark Jedi high command to explain the situation, but information traveled slowly in those days and the Dark Jedi were attending to the war effort on other fronts. They did not get back in time. Hord also barred civilian transports from leaving as such ships could contain Jedi. As a result, many citizens who once lived in the city were forced to hasilly evacuate to the plains.
The planetary government declared their independence, giving into the rebellions, but this just caused Hord to come down on the planet's official government just as hard. As violence consumed the once wealthy capital the Jedi fought on the front lines. Hord knew that he must find a way to defeat them all without the possibility of any escaping, so instead of destroying the city from orbit, he studied in depth Sith Sorcery and the Dark Jedi arts to come up with a ritual that could do so.
The Ritual:
As the death and destruction increased, the Force became tainted with echoes of the dead and dying. Hord, and his followers, were able to feel them. They devised a ritual that could consume these death-pulses and channel them into an ever increasing wave of destruction, thereby draining more and more life.
This ritual had very striking similarities to the one performed by Ku'ar Danar in the Nilrebmah system which raises some interesting questions as to where he learned of such a ritual. This is especially concerning as Hord was not known for his academic knowledge as to the history of the ancient Sith and their more obscure branches. Now while it is true that Hord was an accomplished Sith Sorcerer in his own right, it is doubtful that he could have developed such a ritual, even in the primitive form that he used, by himself. However, due to the vast aeons of time between the present and Hord's day, it is likely that historians will forever be left in the dark about this, unless new information is uncovered.
The ritual stated by melding the minds of the Dark Jedi participants together with the dark side. They then used a variation of the Consume Essence ability to feed off the death and dark side feelings of the city and the planet as a whole. Consume Essence is a common Sith ability which allows its user to draw the dark side of a person into the user's own Force potential. It is useful, but not that powerful. It, in essence, turns the user into a Force parasite who sucks the energy of others. This energy built up until it manifested in the Force Drain ability, which operates upon similar principles, but is much more energy-consuming on the user's part and has a shorter range. However, Force drain is powerful enough to kill its victims. With so many Dark Jedi performing the ritual in unison, the death field was wise. The entire city died and the Force energy of its citizens was channeled into an ever-widening pulse of death. Eventually, the death field ran out of energy and stopped, but not before hundreds of square kilometers was turned into a charnel field.
Everyone in the city and surrounding areas, including the Jedi, died. The only survivors were the Dark Jedi themselves. Hord then ordered other cities to be burned to the ground in demonstration. The aftermath was one of immediate shock, horror, and outrage. Public support turned against the Dark Jedi leadership. However, Hord was already on his way to Chabosh.
Chabosh:
Chabosh was a world very much like Yn. It had a variety of climates and was a central port planet that had become infested with Jedi. Hord traveled so fast that the news of the tragedy at Yn was just beginning to spread. Hord announced what he had done on Yn. He demanded that if the planet did not hand over its Jedi, he would do the same. A bounty was posted on the Jedi, but the Jedi leaders did not give in. Still, many knights and padawans turned themselves over in the hopes that Hord would leave. These Jedi were bound and put in electric cages in the middle of the city. However, because the Jedi did not comply completely, when the deadline began, Hord started the ritual.
They began in the middle of the city. The planet declared war upon the Dark Jedi in fear, but it was too late. An army of Star Forge combat droids guarded the perimeter, preventing the Dark Jedi from being interrupted. EVentually, the Jedi who had surrendered were put to the sword, and their dying life force was channeled into the rituals. The militants fought the droids in the street, but they were slowly drained of life until at last the death field expanded like a bomb wave with Hord standing on ground zero. Again, millions died, and Hord ordered other cities to be burnt.
Hord's Arrest:
When Pall received word of what happened at Yn, he was outraged. He sent his fleet to Chabosh immediately, but it was too late. Most of the cities had already been devastated. In the attacks and their aftermath, tens of millions died. However, some populations were able to survive in the rural farmland as these areas were not bombed as badly. Pall immediately ordered Hord's fleet to assume his command. They did so. He then went down to the planet's surface, and Pall confronted Hord upon the plains of Chabosh. Pall ordered Hord to surrender so that he could answer for his crimes.
In his latter years, Hord writes about the encounter. His record does not have any of his usual self-confidence and bluster. Instead, he writes as if it were one of his greatest failures. He says that Pall appeared to be a weathered old man, despite his youth. He could tell that Pall was one of those people who did not give into their inner savagery, but tried to contain their heart of darkness, and so he was wounded by the war. Hord did not have this weakness, and yet Pall was the only Dark Jedi that he ever feared- mainly because he was the only one able to fight both the war and his inner darkness at the same time. Hord confidently asserts that he could have beaten all other Dark Jedi, with the possible exception of Muur, but he did not want to fight Pall. Looking back, he admits that he was wise to do so. While he would have had an advantage when it came to lightsaber and physical combat, due to Pall's heightened precognition, Hord's unpredictable lightsaber style would be less effective. Regardless, Pall was much stronger in the Force anyway. Hord was intimidated and surrendered.
Hord writes that if only he had trained more, if only he had discovered more ancient artefacts and powers, if only he could have found a way to increase his own powers to the level of the most powerful Dark Jedi, he could have stood a chance, and had he defeated Pall, the Galaxy could have been his. He believed that Pall was just as powerful as his master had been in the Force, but far more able to handle his unpredictable lightsaber style. (This hints that his victory over Koo was due more to his unusual lightsaber form than it was pure skill.) And so he surrendered and was later exiled.
