The Battle of Coruscant

The Battle of Coruscant (circa. 6907 BBY) was perhaps the single greatest military victory for the Black Legions during the war. By the time of the battle, the war had been raging on for almost three years, and the Republic was finally getting its war machine into gear. Leading up to the war, the Republic's economy was in a depression and the military was thinly spread. Additionally, the government received little support from member planets or their citizens, and reforms were constantly being implemented to fix the Republic's numerous problems. This was, as mentioned previously, one of the reasons why the Black Legions were so successful early on.

However, with a clear and present threat, more effort was put into maintaining the military. This created more jobs as sentients enlisted in the armed forces or were hired at newly opened, or in most cases reopened, wartime factories. This was enough to jumpstart the economy, albeit at the cost of an unfathomable amount of credits paid at the Republic's expense. However, most politicians, or at least the ones trying to get the war going, were willing to sacrifice this money in the hopes that the stimulated economy after the war would make up for the deficit. Still, after three years, the Republic was still nowhere near the industrial powerhouse that it once was.

The navy was spread thin. Since the Black Legions were bearing down on the Rim and Core worlds, most ships were moved to the front lines. They patrolled these fortress worlds to prevent any feigns into the interior. Nobody expected an attack from within as navigating the Core was said to be impossible. However, Pall was able to do the impossible and black ships appeared above the skies of Coruscant in droves overwhelming Coruscant's meager defenses.

During the battle, the three Dark Jedi commanders, Pall, Syn, and Dreypa, would stay on different ships to coordinate the attack. Hord meanwhile was chosen to lead the landing craft once a hole opened up in Coruscant's shield defense grid. The Dark Jedi's abilities would serve as perfect complements, Pall would provide battle precognition, Dreypa would provide battle meditation, and Syn would use her fear ability to disorganize Coruscant's defenses.

When the battle started, this strategy worked. Within minutes, Coruscant's defense stations were pinned down under heavy turbolaser fire and the fleet was organized as to minimize the possibility of Coruscant launching a counteroffensive. However, right as they were drilling a hole in the shield array, Coruscant's defenses began to reorganize. All of a sudden, it seemed that Syn's fear attacks were blocked by a massive psychic wall and Dreypa's battle mediation was being countered by an even more powerful practitioner of the art.

At his moment, Pall knew the cause. It was his former master, the Jedi grandmaster emeritus Uro Koo. The powerful Neti was using his own considerable power to sway the battle in favor of Coruscant by countering the powers of both Dark Jedi and by using his own battle meditation to coordinate the defense of Coruscant. Suddenly, it seemed that the battle was not going to go as well as they planned. Additionally, Pall writes, in an unusually erratic script, that his former master had reached out to him through the Force. He begged Pall to cease the attack and come back to the light. Pall protested that he had never 'fell' to the dark side. To this, Koo mentally sent thousands of images and borrowed memories from dozens of battles in the War of Darkness to Pall. Pall collapsed, semi-conscious, blasted and haunted by these images of the pain and death that he had inflicted upon the galaxy. In anger, Pall launches a psychic attack of his own. He tries to show Koo his vision of the galaxy in flames hoping that it would trigger a reaction. This did not work, and Koo simply pressed his attack harder.

Pall managed to shut out the psychic attack for a few minutes. In that time, he was able to locate Koo on the surface of Coruscant. He sent a message to begin the land assault on Koo's coordinates. Pall knew, of course, that Hord was the one chosen to lead the attack. Pall was under no illusions that Hord could actually defeat his old master, in fact, Pall hoped that Hord would get himself killed, but he simply intended Hord to distract the former grandmaster long enough for them to win the battle.

The landing craft were deployed through the hole in the shields. Koo was meditating on an ancient mountain that had been the headquarters of the last generation of Dark Jedi who had held Coruscant almost a century previously. Waves of landing craft and Star Forge droids descended on this place, almost bombing it to oblivion, but Koo was able to escape into its depths. Hord anticipated this and entered through the bottom. Koo and Hord confronted each other in a large underground chamber. This chamber would one day become part of the future Coruscant Jedi Temple in which it would be used as a training area for younglings who would occasionally whisper legends about this fateful duel.

Hord's Lightsaber:

Leading up to the fight, Hord had constructed a new lightsaber, but first some background is needed. Remember that during the Hundred Year Darkness, Force-imbued steel blades and vibroswords were still very common Jedi weapons. Lightsabers did exist, but they had to be connected to a battery pack for sustained use. This made them not as flexible in most fights. Pall used Star Forge technology to work to get around this problem. He developed a longer-lasting crystalline power cell that could sustain a lightsaber for a short time without using an extension cord. However, these new power cells did not last very long, so Jedi continued to use the extension cord on most occasions. However, they did provide an edge in fast-paced lightsaber duels. Lightsaber duels are usually quick affairs, rarely lasting more than a few minutes. Because of this, the new power cell could be used without too much risk to the user of it shorting out in the middle of a fight. By the end of the war, the Jedi had reverse-engineered this technology and both sides could use it.

Tulak Hord took this to the logical extreme. He welded two lightsabers together, but did so in such a way that they shared most of their systems. He then inserted a single power cell. Therefore, he could wield two lightsabers as a staff without leaving open a huge, vulnerable hilt for an enemy to strike at. Instead, his double, bladed lightsaber was very efficient and not much larger than an average lightsaber. This, of course, cut the amount of time that he could use such a weapon nearly in half, but due to its benefits, the fight was often over in under a minute. Not only could he use a single lightsaber, but he could ignite the opposite blade at a random time and wield it as a staff weapon, changing up his attack style to catch his opponents off guard. He could also toggle these blades on and off and even adjust their length to further confuse any enemies. When the other Dark Jedi first saw this weapon, they thought it looked idiotic. However, over the years, this weapon would give him the reputation of being one of the greatest lightsaber duelists of all time. Few opponents were known to have lasted thirty seconds in a fight with him. The blueprints for this weapon were later discovered by Exar Kun, who became an unparalleled dualist in his own day.

The Duel of the Fates:

(The following summary is composed based primarily off of Tulak Hord's battlefield report. It may be subject to some degree of a bias.)

Hord ignited both ends of his lightsaber. He did not want to use only one blade, then turn on the other catching Koo off guard. Instead, he wanted an honorable duel, so he showed Koo his new lightsaber, thereby giving away his primary advantage.

Koo wielded a green blade, but instead attacked with the Force. He blasted Hord back, throwing him straight through a marble column, but Hord's Force rage allowed him to remain conscious. Three lesser Jedi knights moved in to attack his prone form, but Hord sprang up and drew upon his hatred. He blasted the Jedi with Force lightning, turning them to ash despite their desperate attempt to block the blast with their lightsabers, then sent the lightning arcing towards Koo who absorbed it with the Force. Koo sent the lightning arching back at Hord, but he tanked the damage 'like a true Sith Warrior.' (The term 'Sith' is not uses anachronistically here. Hord was a Sith Pureblood and was always eager to boast about his species superiority.)

Koo then tried to use his Force Light ability on Hord. This attack, had it succeeded, would have severed him from the Force. However, Hord resisted it by using the ability Consume Essence to draw upon the death wrought on Coruscant, draining the planet's energy to fight off Koo's attack. Hord then rushed at Koo and they engaged in a lightsaber duel. Hord reports that Koo's attacks were so fast that they appeared to be fading in and out of existence, then Koo redoubled his attack speed, and he appeared to be striking so fast that he was traveling backwards in time. However, Hord was able to counter this storm of blows and launch his own, even faster attack.

Hord forced Koo back. Koo drew upon the power of the life around him and sent vines to whip and ensnare Hord. However, Hord sliced through them with his lightsaber, and they continued to fight. Hord then used lightning to ignite the parched ground, causing flames to rise up and dance around them. Koo desperately launched a telepathic attack, trying to turn Hord's fears against him and to turn him back to the light. However, Hord reports that he had no fear and therefore he was too powerful to be weakened by the light. Hord then lashed at Koo and severed his arm. Despite this, Koo continued to fight until at last Hord struck him down.

In the aftermath, Hord stood in the flaming cavern. Then, no less than two dozen Jedi, including at least four Jedi Council members arrived at both ends of the cavern to arrest him. They demanded that in the name of the Republic, he surrender. However, Hord responded that he was the new Emperor of Coruscant and therefore the Jedi would be committing treason to attack him. The Jedi didn't buy it. Hord reports that he drew upon the dark side and unleashed a massive Force scream that blasted the Jedi back. He then Force lept into the air, did a 10,365-degree multi-dimensional corkscrew spin while holding his double-bladed lightsaber out and gyrating it around in the air, and cut down a dozen Jedi within the first second of their fight. He then unleashed a Force wave that kept the other Jedi on the defensive, then reached up and used the Force to bring down the cavern ceiling, killing the rest of the Jedi.

Hord walked out of the cavern and made his way to the Republic Senate building where he led his troops to a further glorious victory.

The Aftermath:

The most iconic photo of this battle is a picture taken by an unknown Black Legions soldier of his commanding officer, Tulak Hord. In this photo, Hord is sitting back with his legs up, boots resting on the Supreme Chancellor's desk. In it, he is smoking a large cigar and holding a glass of champagne out as if making a toast. In the background, one can see several half-naked female Twi'leks, who appear to be trying to get as far away from Hord as possible, and further in the background, one can see the Senate building burning. In front of the desk, one can see a bloodstained Republic flag, and on the floor in front of the flag is the dead body of Supreme Chancellor Soren Ductavis III. The caption reads, 'The old king is dead, long live the king.'

This photo was attached to Hord's battle report, and later leaked to the general public to be distributed across every major communication channel in the Republic. Pall writes, in a script that is barely legible, that he reacted to Koo's death by going into a nightmare-induced coma. This page in his journal is bloodstained.

The Black Fleet laid waste to the Republic administrative buildings and Coruscant's defensive grid before jumping to hyperspace and carving a trail of destruction through Alsakan, Anaxes, and Brentaal before finally jumping to the Black Legions held Uvluy Exen. Hord comanded these attacks as Pall was in a coma at the time. This caused a large percent of still neutral systems to pitch in with the Legions as they saw the Republic as rotting from within. However, instead of dying a quick death, these attacks enraged the Republic. Now the war was truly underway and everything was put into it, despite the Republic being much smaller than it was at the onset of the war. The industrial behemoth of the Republic was finally awoken.

The body of Uro Koo, being a plantlike Neti, was found to be still partially alive. While he left no descendants, these clippings were carried back to his homeworld of Vaklin, where they were preserved in a garden. Thousands of years later, when the Jedi Temple arose over the place of his death, a small Force-sensitive tree grown from his body was taken to the central courtyard of the Temple and planted in his memory.

This daring strike into the Core, as well as the massacres at Yn and Chabosh, are remembered as some of the worst atrocities of the war.