An Abridged History of the Great Galactic War

by Kaiser Chris

After centuries in exile, the Sith Empire returned to the galaxy. Upon their entrance a great and terrible war was raged for 28 years, ending in the Sith's victory and changing the course of galactic history. This is the story of the Great Galactic War, of the victors, of the losers, and how the war transformed the galaxy forever. GGW Expanded narrative, mostly canon compliant.

6. Battle of Sluis Van

Chapter 3 Battle of Sluis Van

"Any proper spacefaring nation should only attempt to wage war within a maximum distance of 10 light years for every light year that encompasses their border. Any offensives over this limit will only lead to an overextension and death behind enemy lines."- The Art of Galactic Warfare by Sun Solo 5,092 AGC
"Burn this image into your eyes men. For this shall be the fate of Coruscant at the end of the war." -Admiral Lucius Delaz 62 BNO
"Due to their ability to strike at any time and place and the ability to subvert significant portions of the Outer Rim to their control, we cannot ignore any possibility of the Imperial Core. From the Deep Core to the galactic fringe, all areas of space must be accounted for."- SIS Internal Memo 21,375 AGC

Any competent military historian worth their degree will tell you that the Battle of Sluis Van by traditional military strategy was a fluke that in any other war should not have happened or occurred in a victory for the Sith Empire considering that the battle took place within the first two months of the war. For most of recorded history the Galactic Republic has been the only state who has had the ability to conduct a war across the known galaxy. While Exar Kun and Revan's Sith could claim the ability, Exar Kun's Sith along with his Krath and Mandalorian allies could only truly wage war on the great hyperlanes with a lack of ability to hold territory beyond them. Revan's Empire is a special case due to the Star Forge being able to produce limitless materials through the force and Revan's Empire having been built upon the defection of a third of the Republic military. The only other groups who could claim to wage a galactic war are the Rakata and Hutts, both of whom could never match the Republic. While the Infiite Empire was spread across the galaxy, it could only claim 500 worlds due to their force-reliant hyperdrive only being able to take them to force nexuses. While the Hutts could wage a galactic war, they would mostly be limited to the Outer and Mid Rim with limited strikes at the core, something that could never materialize due to the Hutt's evolution from a warlike species to a mercantile one since their journey to space. The only nation who would become to this day the Republic's equal in waging galactic war is the Sith Empire, though unlike the Fourth Sith who control 40% of the known modern galaxy, the Third Sith at the dawn of the Great Galactic War did not have tens of millions of systems under their name.

The Third Sith Empire at the start of the war was spread out over the volatile unkown regions that were located on the northern and galactic west. Most of their systems were located tens of thousands of miles away from the civilized galaxy with only the Dromund sector being close enough to act as an insertion point for their war on the Republic. According to the plan created by both Vitiate and the Dark Council, the first phase of the war would be spent almost exclusively on the conquest and consolidation of the Outer Rim, with an estimated 5 to 6 years of fighting before they could begin their southward expansion against the in the Galactic East. With their demographic and resource inferiority, it should have been impossible for the Empire to wage any kind of war east of the Northern Hydian. Yet, the Sith did the impossible and manage to cripple the Southern Outer Rim with the battle of Sluis Van while launching a decade long hit and run war which crippled most of the Outer Rim before their conquest by the Sith and bogged down significant portions of the Republic fleet.

What took place in the Battle of Sluis Van and larger Operation Javelin was an event that should never be attempted by another rising power with the same strength as the pre-war Sith. It is only thanks to the centuries of preparation and infiltration into the greater galaxy thanks to the power and unique composition of Imperial Intellegence, a grand plan that required generations of participation from sleeper families that no normal espionage ring could possibly replicate, that the Imperial Navy was able to travel to the other side of the galaxy and eliminate the largest shipyard of the Outer Rim. This is the story of the Battle of Sluis Van, how the Sith managed to do the impossible.

Road to Sluis Van

When creating the strategy for their conquest of the galaxy the Dark Council ran into a significant issue. While they were wise not to overextend their forces across the galaxy and weaken their Empire to where the Republic could decapitate them in one fatal stroke such as in the Great Hyperspace War, their plan of caution presented the issue of keeping their forces in one space for too long a period of time. While Imperial Intelligence was present in all facets of the Republic government, they were not an all-powerful organization who had the Republic as their puppets to do precisely as they pleased. If pushed too far the Republic could take significant action to arm themselves on a level that surpassed their industrial mobilization in the Jedi Civil War. If most of their territory was to be left unmolested with the slow advance of the Imperial Armada, the industrial centers of the Republic could raise grand fleets to encircle and trap the Sith with a repeat of the Holocaust. There was no guarantee that their masquerade of the Republic being attacked by an unknown yet weak enough alien species that could be contained in the Outer Rim would last forever. If the Republic were to awaken without the Empire finishing their conquest of the Outer Rim, then defeat would be a very real possibility.

In order to make sure that the Republic could never effectively concentrate their forces and that they would have to spread their resources across the galaxy, the Empire needed to launch diversionary campaigns which would do significant damage to the Republic to necessitate them to spread their forces out to protect every light year of their territory while at the same time not being too costly to draw significant manpower and materials away from their primary objectives. With this goal in mind, Imperial Intelligence as part of their infiltration focused on not only subverting the Republic but establishing outposts within the Outer Rim that would give the Imperial Navy an opportunity to wage war across the galaxy. The aftermath of the Jedi Civil War gave Imperial Intelligence the perfect environment to accomplish their objective due to the withdrawal of the Republic from the Outer Rim with its galactic descent into anarchy and underdevelopment thanks to the extensive damage done by Malak and the Triumvirate. Imperial Intelligence also found an unlikely benefactor in the GSOC with their brushfire wars. The Republic's goal of keeping the Outer Rim divided and stagnate allowed Imperial Intelligence to operate under their nose so long as their operations were not a direct and present threat to the Republic or created any significant development that the Republic could take notice of. Additionally, the Imperial Intelligence was fortuante enough that the Republic's primary method of expansion was along the newly created Hydian way and colonization/further development of the major hyperlanes of the Rim. So long as the Empire stayed away from any potential hyperlanes then they were free to do as they pleased.

What would later become known as Operation Beacon was divided into two phases. The first and majority of Beacon was the subversion of Hutt Space and the creation of secret bases which would act as the majority of logistical support for Operation Javelin and the main launching pad through which the Hutt-Imperial War would take place. This portion of Operation Beacon took over five hundred years from around 21,100 AGC with the network being created due to the intention of using it around the original invasion date of the Jedi Civil War. Due to the long lifespans of the Hutts, many of the Imperial puppets who were first contacted by the Empire were still alive by the Great Galactic War. Over the next five centuries Imperial Intelligence spent a plethora of resources raising certain Hutt clans from nothing into major players of the Hutt Consortium with over a third of Hutt space falling within Imperial influence by the start of the war along with a single seat on the Hutt Grand Council. In the decades leading up to the war, the Sphere of Expansion and Diplomacy alongside Imperial Intellegence houses created several spaceports and supply depots in backwater systems of Imperial-aligned Hutts. These port systems were on the fringe of the Outer Rim and with the Consortium's lack of oversight or regulations into each clan's business, were hidden from the rest of the galaxy as not even the Republic would risk infringing on the sovereignty of the Hutts. The spaceports would be maintained for several years by millions of droids along with millions of human colonists who were sent on a public mission of servitude for the Hutts, though in reality they were all devoted servants of the Empire who would live and die in these systems until the war came to be. All of these systems would either fall into direct Imperial hands with the Treaty of Nar Shadda or be leased to the Empire as enclaves.

The second stage of Operation Beacon dealt with the creation of outposts in the Southern Outer Rim. While these systems lacked the public protection of the Hutts, they were able to be protected from the Republic due to their anonymity. Unlike modern day where a majority of the Southern Outer Rim has been explored thanks to the Great Game between the Republic and Empire, almost the entirety of the region was devoid of civilization save for systems near the great hyperlanes. Imperial agents in the Republic Bureau of Colonization would block any attempts to explore or settle regions with Imperial bases and the Empire would hire pirates through the Hutts as middlemen to ward off any expansion near the ports. In total there were 75 systems that were colonized by the Empire in the Southern Outer Rim as outposts for Operation Beacon. All of whom would play a major role in supplying Southern Operations for the first six years until the conclusion of the Hutt-Imperial War, tying down thousands of Republic vessels that could have been used in the Galactic North.

When the first shots were fired at the Battle of Camodai, the Empire began its move. Under Fleet Admiral Lucius Delaz, a grand fleet of 1300 vessels would travel from Sith Space to the Southern Rim. Half of the ships would settle within Hutt Space, from which they would harass the Mid Rim fleets and conduct multiple raids or strategic bombardments on critical planets. The other half under Lucius Delaz made for the Southern Rim with a ship heading for each outpost while 575 under the direct command of Delaz journeyed to their target of Sluis Van.

The Sluis system was chosen as a target to cripple ship production on the Outer Rim as well as to drive a deep psychological strike against the Republic. While the reclamation of Sith Space would be a monumental victory for the Empire, it was of little strategic consequence to the Republic with most Republic citizens not being able to point to Korriban on a star map or even be aware of its existence. In order to show the Republic that the Sith could strike anywhere at any time, and that no fortress was seemingly safe, they would need to take out a world critical both militarily and economically, thus demanding the destruction of the Sluis Van shipyards.

The journey to Sluis took four months of travel due to the necessity of avoiding the major hyperlanes of the galaxy to keep the trip secret. By the time they reached Sluis the Republic were now truly aware of the Sith's existence thanks to Satele Shan having arrived on Coruscant and delivering her famous "Return of the Sith" address before the Galactic Senate. By this point in time however the Republic believed that the war would be concentrated entirely on the Galactic North along with a popular belief that the Sith they were fighting were remnants of Revan's Sith instead of descendants of the Second Sith Empire. With the Republic's mobilization for war, large shifts were called with 200 ships being called from the 69th Fleet that guarded the southern end of the Rimma Trade route along with the Sluis sector, leaving the 69th to only 434 ships with 152 guarding the Sluis system, leaving them to be outnumbered by Delaz's fleet with the complete element of surprise.

Ringfall

On 12.7 the Battle of Sluis Van took place with the Imperial Fleet jumping next to Sluis Van and catching the 69th completely off guard. Due to the fleet coming in outside of the Rimma, their drop point was several hundred thousand kilometers away from the Republic fleet, allowing Delaz to act quickly without immediate retaliation. Delaz split his fleet with 500 ships taking on the Republic fleet while the remaining 75 began their objective of destroying the Sluis shipyard. By the time the two fleets engaged in combat, the Empire had already destroyed 3% of the shipyard with the first portions of the planetary ring falling onto the planet and beginning the Sluis Devastation.

While the Republic fleet was relatively close numerically to their Imperial counterparts in comparison to the absolute one-sided numbers domination of earlier battles, the battle favored the Empire from the beginning. There were several major differences of quality with Delaz's fleet composing of the latest models that had been built within the past decade while the Sluis portion of the 69th Fleet was several decades old with ships and starfighters in some cases being more than a century old. This was due to sector and the greater Rimma Trade route being a relatively quiet portion of the Outer Rim in comparison to the Perlemian, Corellian Run, and newly established Hydian Way. While parts of the 69th Fleet had been upgraded, these modern ships were concentrated into Eriadu and Sullust with the former quickly becoming a major trade spot for the Outer Rim. With Sluis Van completely being isolated from the Old Sith Wars, there was no need to place special emphasis on its defense. Officers and sailors who were posted to Sluis Van regarded it as a quiet backwater post where one could just relax with the quality of performance being among the lowest in the Republic Navy. In addition to this sheer disparity in quality, the Imperial fleet had four Sith with them who were practitioners of Battle Meditaiton, while there were no Jedi within the system for the battle.

At the start of the battle Delaz divided his forces main portion of the fleet into three parts. One would act as a barrier between the Republic fleet and the shipyards, another would guard the jump point to prevent any Republic vessels from retreating, while the main portion of 201 ships would engage the fleet directly. While this division did give the Republic fleet some immediate breathing ground due to their nearest enemy being roughly numerically equal, the addition of half of the starfighters from the two flanking fleets gave the Empire the greater tactical advantage.

For the first two hours of the battle both sides would be equal in firepower exchange and numbers lost with data showing the Imperials having slightly better casualty rates though a breakout could still occur. The main factor that would cause a collapse of the Republic formation would be the Empire's near unmolested destruction of the shipyards. With only two heavily aged Czerka platforms and a couple hundred starfighters from the planet to defend against the Empire's approach, the Imperial fleet suffered only light casualties and were able to make quick work of the platforms with the help of the planetary flank, allowing them to destroy the shipyards with relative ease. After two hours of combat the percentage of the shipyard that had been destroyed was 30% with hundreds of millions of tons of durasteel raining down upon the planet, causing the planet's atmosphere to enter into a chaotic state with several natural disasters rising that killed large numbers of Slusi if the debris didn't kill them first. The sight of such a genocide, with such intense feelings of suffering being directed at the Republic fleet by the Sith present according to Imperial after action reports, caused the Republic's formation to descend into panic while the Imperial lines stayed calm and orderly. Tired of seeing the destruction, about 40 ships along with hundreds of starfighters attempted to play hero and stop the bombardment. The breaking of lines gave the advantage fully to the Empire and soon a majority of the jump flank joined the main fleet to decimate their opponents. The planetary flank held firm against their aggressors, and by the seventh hour of the battle the Republic fleet was nearly wiped out with five ships narrowly limping out of the system to escape to Sullust and warn them of the Sith attack.

Now free from any potential damage, the Imperial fleet concentrated its strength in full against the shipyard ring. By the 17th hour the Battle of Sluis Van was over with the shipyards being completely destroyed as stardust, orbital debris, or meteors that rained down upon the planet. Having accomplished their objective, the Imperial Fleet then spent the next two hours searching for as many of their stranded personnel as possible along with scrapping any disabled ships, and then jumping towards Hutt space before reinforcements from Sullust and Eriadu could arrive. Before they left, Delaz sent a transmission to Sluis Van, warning them that this would be the fate of all who dared to defy the will of the Emperor. Republic reinforcements would arrive 26 hours after the battle began, unfortunately for them they found a graveyard near Sluis Van's orbit with the planet in the midst of a climate disaster from which it would take years to recover.

The Battle of Sluis Van was a major Imperial victory with 147 Republic vessels being destroyed while the Empire suffered 89 ships lost, with 66 being destroyed in the battle and 23 having to be destroyed in the aftermath as they were unable to make the long jump out of the system. The Sluis Van Shipyard was completely destroyed with 54.3 Billion Credits lost in the Shipyard. Sluis Van would not be able to produce ships for the next 21 years, at which point it would only be able to produce 430 in its first year of new operation versus the 500,000 during 21,371. By far the greatest casualty was the Sluissi people and the planet of Sluis Van itself. In the month after the battle 178 million beings on Sluis Van, most of them being the native Sluissi, would die from the resulting meteorigcal damage and environmental collapse. Whole cities on Sluis Van were wiped out in seconds while new seas, great lakes, and canyons were formed across the planet. Hundreds of native plant and animal species were rendered extinct. The resulting Ash Winter that was caused by the massive rise in CO2 would last for nine years with a further 130 million beings dying in the dark age. Due to the environmental and economic collapse, a massive exodus of the Sluissi began with the population of the planet by the end of the war being 185 million from its pre-war population of 3.1 billion. While the planet would return to pre-war conditions of living on the century anniversary of the war, it's population was still far from its height with only 1.2 billion beings. It would take a further two centuries for Sluis Van to return to its position as a major player in the Outer Rim. However, as disturbing as the battle's effect on the planet and Sluissi people were, some have considered it to be a dark blessing as the Sluis system was left untouched by the Empire from the rest of the war, saving it from Imperial occupation and the Sluissi from enslavement as many non-human worlds on the Outer Rim would suffer.

When word spread across the greater Republic of the battle, an intense feeling of shock and despair spread across every Republic system. While the losses until that point were great, they were minor in comparison to the Jedi Civil War and the worlds that had been lost were backwaters of the Galactic North. If the Republic kept the Sith contained and defeated them within a couple of years then the conquered systems could be easily restored and the memory of this terrible conflict quickly fade away. This time however, the victim was a planet that was considered to be a major and respected point of civilization in the Outer Rim, one with the largest and highest quality shipyard within the Galactic South. For the first two years of the war the Battle of Sluis Van and 12.7 would be a day of infamy, though it would soon be eclipsed by countless other days of infamy. Of even greater significance to the tragic loss of life was the deep psychological scar inflicted upon the Republic. For the first couple of months the Republic believed they were dealing with a minor power in the Galactic North that they could easily contain with quick reaction thanks to the lessons learned of the Old Sith Wars. With Sluis Van they suffered a catastrophic defeat on the opposite end of the galaxy from a great Sith fleet. If the Sith could conquer the North and destroy one of the jewels of the Galactic South then they could be anywhere. Questions began popping up in the minds of the Republic's leaders. Just where did the Sith originate from? How are they able to launch campaigns across the galaxy with little presence in the known regions. Who have they infiltrated and how far? Is this all the Sith can do, or merely a shadow of their true might?

A/N: With this chapter I cover the Battle of Sluis Van which I expanded from a one line as a total Sith victory to a combination of Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid, and Operation Stardust from Gundam (points for those who get why). My objectives with the chapter were threefold, explain just how the hell the Sith attacked Sluis Van when its almost as far as possible from Dromund Kaas and the Sith portion of the Unknown Regions, setting up Sith operations in the Southern Outer Rim at the start of the war, and showing the devastation of the ring planetary shipyards falling on Sluis Van during an era with no planetary shields. Gnost-Dural's lore videos are heavily flawed in terms of astropography with a complete lack of clear borders that match the established lore along with battles taking place in multiple parts of the galaxy where it just shouldn't happen. So instead of retconning Sluis Van I decided to make it a mix of the Doolittle Raid and Pearl Harbor if the attackers had nukes. This ties into how the Sith have operations in the Southern Galaxy in the first years of the war, though the Minos Cluster campaign won't occur for another year instead of being right after Sluis Van. Finally I wanted to show the sheer devastation of the battle since as I said before, planetary shields didn't come into effect and they showed giant pieces of the ring fall onto Sluis Van yet completely ignore the casualties. While Sluis Van will recover, it's a long and difficult rode with the Empire continuing to rack up victories in the war.

The next chapter will cover the Republic and Empire's respective mobilization to the start of the conflict and how the home front is doing in the first months while also delving a little bit into how Satele was handled after escaping Korriban. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!