Ghorman project

"No notes. No records. None of you were here. Nobody puts this in their calendar. All service and transport droids will be data-wiped, once we're done. Your colleagues, superiors... if they're not in this room, they're not cleared for the project. Colonel Yularen, Governor Tarkin, all senior commanders will be notified by the Emperor, at the time of his choosing. Now, the group in this room is, of this moment, the tightest of closed circles. Any security violation will be brought to the Emperor's personal attention."

―Orson Krennic instructs discretion to the attendees at a secret Imperial meeting at the Maltheen Divide^[1]

The Ghorman project, also known as the Ghorman mission, was a clandestine working group within the Galactic Empire designed to carry out the suppression of the planet Ghorman. Operating under the Imperial Military Department of Advanced Weapons Research and composed of personnel from various Imperial branches, the project was concerned with claiming control over the Ghorman in order to secure its kalkite reserves for the Empire's "energy project."

Description

The Ghorman project,^[2] also known as the Ghorman mission,^[4] was a working group established by the Galactic Empire's Imperial Military Department of Advanced Weapons Research. The group consisted of members^[1] from the Imperial Army,^[3] the Imperial Navy, the Imperial Security Bureau, the Science and Engineering Division, and the Ministry of Enlightenment. It was established to prepare for the possibility of gouge mining the planet Ghorman for the key mineral kalkite and determine how to best forcefully relocate the Ghorman population.^[1]

History

The Ghorman project^[2] was created in 4 BBY and was responsible for the planned suppression of Ghorman and a subsequent mining operation for kalkite, a rich mineral under the surface of Ghorman that would be used to coat reactor lenses. Such a project would likely destabilize the planet's core, and as such, the population needed to be handled in methods created by the project. The project was highly secretive, with Director Krennic asserting that any security leaks in relation to the project would be brought to Emperor Palpatine's personal attention and informing the attendees at the project's introductory meeting at the Maltheen Divide that those not present in the room were thus not cleared for the project whilst all senior officials such as Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin and ISB Colonel Wullf Yularen would be notified by the Emperor at his discretion. While Krennic claimed at the meeting that the goal was ensuring Imperial energy independence,^[1] the truth was that its work was part of the Death Star program, Project Stardust.^[5]

Imperial Navy Admiral Daysar suggested creating a plague or feigning a natural disaster to relocate the Ghorman people, while Dee Shambo and Nisus Osar from Enlightenment proposed a continuation of their propaganda initiative. ISB Lieutenant Dedra Meero personally suggested to Director Krennic to create a false rebellion, thus ensuring the conditions to justify Imperial authority to subjugate the population.^[1] Directly after the meeting, Meero was tasked with overseeing the population of Ghorman^[2] and the Empire began constructing an armory in the Ghorman capital city Palmo to compensate for the minimal Imperial presence on the planet.^[1]

The armory, disguised as an annex, overshadowed the Monument to the Fallen, earning public outcry from the populace who correctly suspected its true nature. By 3 BBY, Meero had installed Syril Karn at the Imperial Bureau of Standards field office in Palmo, for the purpose of infiltrating the Ghorman Front, under the pretense that the planet would be used as bait for outside agitators. Karn was aware that the Front was monitoring him, hoping to court him as a sympathizer to get them the proof they needed.^[6] A subsequent ISB raid on Karn's office as well as the Front gaining access to his Preox-Morlana dossier solidified his cover. Karn then provided the Front with information on Imperial transports moving throughout Palmo.^[7] The Ghormans rebels, with the aid of the Axis network, raided a weapons shipment, unaware that this was what the ISB intended for them to do.^[8]

By 2 BBY, the Empire began committing terrorist attacks on the cities of Palmo, Corei and Jel-Novi, which were passed off by media reports as "inexplicable" Ghorman aggression. By this time, the scientists on Eadu had exhausted all possible alternatives for kalkite. Unwilling to wait any longer, Emperor Palpatine and Director Krennic gave Partagaz the orders to pacify Ghorman. To that end, Partagaz assigned Captain Kaido, a crisis specialist, and a team of inexperienced Imperial security troopers to the planet.^[9] Overnight, the Empire began landing their mining equipment all over the planet, confident that the Imperial narrative against Ghorman would cover the operation, even as their movements didn't go unnoticed by the Ghorman Front.^[10]

The next day, as hundreds of Ghormans gathered in Palmo Plaza in peaceful protest, Kaido ordered Sergeant Bloy' riot squad into the crowd, before secretly ordering one of his snipers to kill one of his men, leading Bloy to believed the Ghormans fired the first shot, sparking an all-out massacre resulting in thousands of civilian casualties.^[10]

With the Imperial operation on Ghorman a success and the local rebels successfully framed, the Empire commenced their mining operation to deliver the kalkite to Project Stardust while resettling the Ghorman population.^[9]