Holocron:Featured Articles/2013/November
The Battle of Beta was a major flashpoint in the ongoing Galactic Civil War in which Emperor Uebles' Galactic Empire grappled with King Kuraine's Falleen Federation for control of the Beta system. Occurring between Year 4 Day 338 and Year 5 Day 8, the engagement was one of the largest invasions in the recorded annals of warfare with a number of famous military leaders involved in the fray. Circa Year 4, Kuraine enticed Vir Calder, a dissatisfied Imperial Moff, to defect to the Falleen kingdom and to abscond with the Imperial Star Destroyer Shadowstone. This incident provoked the Imperial High Command to mobilize their forces and to invade the Beta system with a colossal strike-force commanded by Grand Admiral Black Lodge. Prior to this invasion, they were contacted by Prince Tholin Dur'aak, a disgruntled Fallen noble, who offered to betray Kuraine. Thus, shortly before the battle occurred, Kuraine and his consort were slain by Sith assassins — notably Adric Simms and Thraken Solo — while aboard the Shadowstone's bridge due to clandestine assistance from Dur'aak. With Kuraine assassinated, the Empire moved to secure the Beta system. Ultimately, Lord Admiral Bisz Aldaris of the Falleen Navy could not stem the tide of invading Imperial vessels and undertook a strategic withdrawal from the system. In the battle's aftermath, in which the Empire conducted a systematic extermination of life-forms on the Falleen planets Ul Yanin and Ulrike, resulted in disputed casualties ranging from 103 million to 1.5 billion sentient beings. Overall, the demise of the Falleen monarch, the Imperial conquest of the Beta system, the fiery destruction of the prized Libra battle station, and the genocide of defenseless Falleen colonists made the conflict a defining moment in the early years of the galactic civil war. (Full article...)
