Yuuzhan Vong invasion

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Yuuzhan Vong Invasion
date=25 - 30 ABY
place=Galaxy-wide conflict; primary locations include Coruscant, Borleias, Ithor, Dubrillion, Helska IV, and many more.
result=formation of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, Defeat of the Yuuzhan Vong army forces, Zonama Sekot moves to the Unknown Regions with the remnants of the Yuuzhan Vong
combatant1=New Republic/Galactic Alliance
The New Jedi Order
Imperial Remnant
Chiss Asendancy
Hapes Consortium
Mandalorian Protectors
Hutts
combatant2=Yuuzhan Vong
Peace Brigade
Red Knights of Life
commander1=Luke Skywalker
Leia Organa Solo
Han Solo
Borsk Fey'lya†
Cal Omas
Wedge Antilles
Admiral Ackbar†
Traest Kre'fey
Gilad Pellaeon
Boba Fett
commander2=Supreme Overlord Shimrra†
Nom Anor†
Prefect Da'Gara†
Shedao Shai†
Nas Choka
Onimi†
Tsavong Lah†
strength1=Jedi Knights
Alliances
Favor of the Shamed One caste (in the later part of the war)
strength2=Force Immunity
Biologically-produced war machines
Large armies
casualties1=Almost 365 trillion beings
At least 20 devastated worlds
casualties2=Loss of many worldships
Deaths of at least half the Yuuzhan Vong Warrior Caste

The Yuuzhan Vong invasion ("also":Yuuzhan Vong War) is a conflict in the fictional Star Wars Expanded Universe. In the "Star Wars" universe timeline, the conflict occurs between twenty-five and thirty years after "" and the Battle of Yavin. It appeared and was chronicled in the New Jedi Order series of books. The conflict involves the invasion of the main Star Wars galaxy by the extragalactic alien race of Yuuzhan Vong. The invasion began approximately 25 galactic standard years after the Battle of Yavin, although there is evidence that the initial stages of the invasion had been underway for almost 4,000 years. The war ended five years later, the retreat of the defeated Yuuzhan Vong largely due to the ongoing efforts of the Galactic Alliance. The invasion has been chronicled as one of the most costly wars in the galaxy, due to the death toll it produced. It also saw the deaths of many of the major characters, including, but not limited to, Chewbacca, Anakin Solo, and Admiral Ackbar, as well as 365 trillion sentient beings. The series also saw the introduction of many minor characters, such as Ben Skywalker, son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade.

History

Beginnings of the war

Unannounced, the Yuuzhan Vong began their invasion with the poisoning of the outer-rim planet Belkadan, headquarters of the Exgal-4 society, killing all its members save for Danni Quee. They then destroyed the planet Sernpidal, after which a group of Jedi Knights successfully destroyed the first Yuuzhan Vong reconnaissance team on Helska IV. Afterwards, former Chief of State Leia Organa Solo described the happenings on the Outer Rim by the then unknown alien species, but was scorned by Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya (and several other congregations in the New Republic Senate) as being power-hungry and using the alleged alien invaders as a way to get back in office as well as accusing the government from being inept, from which this "new" government played that role perfectly. Facing disbelief by the council, and having no power to authorize the dispatch of a defense fleet, Leia Organa Solo and the rest of the New Republic heroes watched as the Yuuzhan Vong sent ever increasing back-up, and the invasion steadily moved southward towards the main Core. Lacking military support, the Outer Rim worlds tried to organize evacuation campaigns for civilians, but their lack of a substantial budget hindered their efforts. Complicating their situation, the Yuuzhan Vong sent agents disguised as humans, who claimed in front of the crowds of civilians that the New Republic would not evacuate those who once supported the Galactic Empire. Because of this, the Yuuzhan Vong succeeded in causing heavy casualties in all the worlds they invaded; they also succeeded in destroying hundreds of planets and most of the refugee transports due to the inefficiency of the New Republic inept government in dealing with the threat in its beginning.

The New Republic's Retaliation

As the Yuuzhan Vong invasion moved to the Inner Rim worlds, the New Republic government, and prominently Borsk Fey'lya, finally recognized the Yuuzhan Vong as a threat to be dealt with, although the military force they supplied was usually either too little to mark up a defense, or it would arrive too late, and sometimes it was both. Clear examples in this are the Battle of Ithor and the Battle of Ord Mantell. During the Battle of Ithor, the New Republic sent a defense fleet, but the Vong still managed to infiltrate the defenses, and, though Corran Horn was successful in a duel for the planet against Shedao Shai, the Vong still unleashed a bio-engineered poison which killed the whole eco-system of the planet, rendering it uninhabitable. At the Battle of Ord Mantell, the New Republic sent a defense flotilla consisting of several Dreadnaughts and a squadron of snubfighters, but reached their destination while the surface invasion was well underway, and the flotilla was destroyed with little consequence to the outcome of the battle. All New Republic ground troops, when faced with Vong warriors, would initiate a 'strategic' retreat where they'd close in on the New Republic evacuation centers, giving little time for those few people who'd actually board the ships, and ensuing chaos in the evacuation centers, causing more casualties that could have been lessened had the military held its ground against the Vong warriors. Although at this stage of the war the New Republic government affirmed the existence of the invading force, it failed to provide proper fleets to defend invaded worlds and in sending adequate defenses for the worlds that were under threat, preferring the short-sighted strategy of organizing 'strategic' retreats of its troops into the Core worlds. This deficient strategy gave way for the Yuuzhan Vong into invading Borleias, Bilbringi, Yag'Dhul, and Gyndine, which were all worlds that offered important strategic locations for the future invasion of key Core planets of the New Republic, most notably Coruscant.

Fall of Coruscant

The Yuuzhan Vong eventually staged a massive attack on the former Imperial capital world of Coruscant in the Fall of Coruscant, a conflict depicted in "Star by Star". It was a devastating defeat for the New Republic, and many were killed including Chief of State Borsk Fey'lya. However, the death toll for the Yuuzhan Vong was also remarkably high due to Fey'lya's detonation of a bomb that killed 25,000 invading troops in the Imperial Palace, as well as himself. It was later stated that total Yuuzhan Vong casualties during the invasion up to that point had reached one third of its warrior caste. For a time, both sides paused to regroup, during which the Yuuzhan Vong began terraforming Coruscant into an imitation of their old homeworld, renaming it "Yuuzhan'tar" and making it the new capital world of the Yuuzhan Vong. By this point the Vong controlled around half of the galaxy.

Imperial Remnant and Ebaq 9

Leia Organa Solo and Han Solo were sent at the request of Chief of State Cal Omas on a mission to the Imperial Remnant. Eventually, they were allowed an audience with Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon. Pellaeon decided that an alliance with the New Republic would not be beneficial at that time, and instead gave the New Republic the Imperial Remnant's maps of hyperspace routes through the Deep Core. Specifically, one seemingly worthless system in the deep core, Ebaq, had so much interference in hyperspace around it that there was only one publicly known narrow hyperspace route to go in or out of the system; this would provide for an excellent bottleneck effect, and a corresponding rout of the Yuuzhan Vong, as the Republic, thanks to Pellaeon's maps, knew several alternate routes the Yuuzhan Vong could not use to escape but their own forces could use for an ambush.

Admiral Ackbar then came out of retirement to devise a plan to lure the Vong into a trap. At the Battle of Ebaq 9, a massive Vong fleet was lured into the system under Warmaster Tsavong Lah himself, fed false information by spies on Mon Calamari that the ninth moon of Ebaq was the hideout planet that the Jedi and the Chief of State Cal Omas had retreated to. Secretly, the Alliance had heavily planted mines in the only escape route. The Vong fleet was taken by surprise, and when many tried to retreat they ran into the minefield and were blown into oblivion. Tsavong Lah himself, in an effort to retain some honour after he knew he had lost the battle, landed thousands of troops into an abandoned mining complex, using voxyn and grutchins to find the Jedi. Vergere, in an effort to save Jacen Solo, who in turn sought to save his twin sister Jaina and the rest of the trapped Jedi, crashed an A-Wing into the tunnels, blowing out all of the oxygen and killing almost all of the troops. Tsavong Lah, however, survived using a respirator and proceeded to engage Jaina Solo in combat. Jaina succeeded in killing Tsavong Lah in the duel, thus dealing a crippling blow to the Yuuzhan Vong hierarchy. Virtually no Vong survivors escaped the battle except for a handful of fighters and scouts, who then reported the massive defeat. Supreme Overlord Shimrra privately informed his forces that the war could no longer be won.

Birth of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances

Realizing that the New Republic's failings, (excessive bureaucracy, weak and inept leadership not least among them), had made it too weak and inefficient to confront the Yuuzhan Vong, it was reorganized by Cal Omas into the "Galactic Federation of Free Alliances", or "Galactic Alliance" for short, with its provisional capital on Mon Calamari. The newly-formed Galactic Alliance wasn't going to die quietly, and staged several counterattacks and feints, such as that on Borealis, to show that they had not stopped fighting.

The Vong then attacked the Imperial Remnant, whose territory was much smaller than the New Republic's, but which had a proportionately stronger military and defense fleet. At first the Vong achieved great success in their attack on the Imperial Capital on Bastion. However, the Imperial fleet, under an injured Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, soon rallied, and rather than achieving an easy conquest the Vong had opened up another front in the war.

Final Stage

The Galactic Alliance's plan had been that a smashing victory over the Vong at Ebaq 9 would force the Vong to retreat into the space they already held and stop their advance on all fronts, giving the Alliance time to prepare a full scale counter-attack to claim the galaxy. However, almost like a wounded animal the devastating defeat just sent the Vong fleets into a berserker rage; the Vong now made brutal, near suicidal attacks on all fronts. Although strategically putting themselves in a far worse position by doing so and pushing their casualties beyond the breaking point, the sheer ferocity of this attack threatened to push back the Alliance.

Upon learning that the Vong were making a final massive strike against Mon Calamari, the Galactic Alliance split their forces into two. One would stage a daring defense of Mon Calamari, leaving the other force free to attack Coruscant/Yuuzhan'tar itself. As combined Alliance and Imperial forces attacked the planet, along with the living planet Zonama Sekot, a Jedi strike team attacked the fortress of Supreme Overlord Shimrra itself, which turned out to be capable of spaceflight and lifted off into orbit. Shimrra was killed, but it was then revealed that his jester, Onimi, had been the "real" Supreme Overlord all along, being the last of the Yuuzhan Vong who maintained a connection to the Force, effectively making Shimrra a puppet. In a showdown with Jacen Solo, Onimi was killed after the poisons his body produced were used against him.

The Vong were defeated. Zonama Sekot was a descendant of the Vong's original homeworld, the living planet Yuuzhan'tar. The highest ranking surviving Vong leader, Nas Choka, surrendered and led most of the Vong onto the planet, which then jumped in hyperspace to parts unknown.After the surrender, it was agreed the remaining Vong would live on the 'Planet Seed' of the original Yuuzhan'tar, stripped of their remaining implements of war.

New Jedi Order entries

*"Vector Prime" (1999)
*"" (2000)
*"" (2000)
*"" (2000)
*"" (2000)
*"Balance Point" (2000)
*"Recovery" (e-book) (2001)
*"" (2001)
*"" (2001)
*"Emissaries of the Void" (short story)
*"Star by Star" (2001)
*"Dark Journey" (2002)
*"The Apprentice" (short story) (2002)
*"" (2002)
*"" (2002)
*"Traitor" (2002)
*"Destiny's Way" (2002)
*"Ylesia" (e-book) (2002)
*"" (2003)
*"" (2003)
*"Or Die Trying" by Sean Williams & Shane Dix (2003)
*"" (2003)
*"Equals and Opposites" by Nathan Butler (2003)
*"The Final Prophecy" (2003)
*"The Unifying Force" (2003)

External links

* [http://www.njoe.com/ New Jedi Order Encyclopedia]
* [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yuuzhan_Vong_War/ Yuuzhan Vong War (Wookieepedia)]