The Fourth Battle of Ruusan was fought at the height of the Ruusan campaign in the final phase of the New Sith Wars. Thanks to intelligence provided by the defecting padawan Githany, the Sith forces routed the Jedi Army of Light and temporarily drove them from the planet Ruusan.
Prelude
The planet Ruusan, located on the edge of the Republic's core territory, had already changed hands twice and acquired great symbolic importance for both the Republic and the Sith. The Jedi Lord Hoth had formed the Army of Light, amassing and organizing the Jedi Knights into a single powerful army rather than scattering them among the Republic's regular troops. In the Third Battle of Ruusan, Hoth brought this independent army to bear against the Brotherhood's fleet, overwhelming their ships and retaking the planet in the name of the Republic.[1]
To retaliate, the Dark Lord of the Sith Skere Kaan decided to oppose the Jedi with his own force of gathered Sith. The full might of the Brotherhood of Darkness came to Ruusan, though the students and masters of the Sith academy on Korriban were not summoned to the battle, as the Brotherhood considered their potential to be too valuable to put at risk. Regular army troops were also mostly left behind; Kaan assembled an army of Dark Side users to match the Army of Light.[1]
The battle
The first three battles of Ruusan had been fought entirely in space, and their firepower and debris had caused destruction on the planet's surface. This fourth battle was fought instead as a series of bloody and visceral ground operations, causing still greater devastation. The raw power of the Force raged like a storm across Ruusan, wiping out entire towns. Survivors were forced to live as uprooted refugees. As the battle wore on, Kaan realized that the Jedi had spread themselves thin in an effort to protect surviving civilian settlements. This left them vulnerable to the Sith, who cared nothing for civilian deaths. Still, the Jedi outnumbered the Sith two to one, and they could effectively conceal their positions, making it difficult to know where the Sith could most advantageously attack.[1]
Lord Kaan found a key source of intelligence in Githany, a Jedi padawan who had decided to defect to the Sith. Romantically involved with Kiel Charny, a fellow padawan responsible for coordinating the Jedi defensive placements, Githany possessed the knowledge that would allow the Sith to plan a devastating attack on the weakest point of the overextended Jedi lines. Githany clandestinely made contact with Kaan.[1]
Kaan called a meeting of other leading Sith Lords, including Kopecz, in his tent. He revealed the weakness of the Jedi lines and described his plan to throw the Brotherhood's entire strength at one weak point. This stirred loud opposition from the other lords. Kopecz pointed that out that without reliable intelligence, such an attack could lead the Sith directly to their slaughter. Just then, Kaan invited Githany to make a dramatic entrance. She revealed what she knew to the gathered strategists. Kopecz and the other Sith lords accepted Githany's information, sensing the Dark Side of the Force in her and knowing that her desire to defect was genuine. She returned to the Jedi lines before anyone noticed that she was missing.[1]
The intelligence provided by Githany allowed the Sith to smash through the Jedi lines and rout the Army of Light. Lord Hoth and the bulk of his Jedi managed to escape, but the battle ended with the Sith in control of the planet.[1]
Aftermath
The swift and decisive Sith victory stirred exaggerated rumors. Some claimed that the Jedi had been entirely wiped out, that Lord Hoth had been killed, and that the Sith were now preparing for an assault on the Republic capital world of Coruscant. In the Sith academy on Korriban, these rumors excited the apprentices and improved morale, such that their masters chose to let their pupils believe them. Even Bane, confined to a bacta tank following a disastrous duel against Sirak, heard the news. Githany soon arrived on Korriban to train as a Sith.[1]
In reality, Hoth and the Jedi regrouped, and the Sith did not have the strength to press their advantage beyond Ruusan, let alone contemplate an attack on Coruscant. Before long, the Jedi mounted a counterattack in the Fifth Battle of Ruusan, and the Ruusan campaign continued to drag on.[1]
Appearances
- Darth Bane: Path of Destruction (and audiobook) (First appearance, in book)
- Darth Bane: Rule of Two (and audiobook) (Mentioned only) (First identified as Fourth Battle of Ruusan, in book)
Sources
- The Dark Side Sourcebook (Indirect mention only)