Stark Hyperspace War

Iaco Stark was a smuggler operating in the Outer Rim. He made a practice of stealing goods from large commercial entities, selling them at prices that were profitable but lower than those charged by the Trade Federation. This made him a popular figure among the people of the Outer Rim. Stark, a charismatic leader with a clear vision, successfully recruited numerous smugglers, pirates, mercenaries, bounty hunters, and assassins to join his already substantial fleet. This aggregation formed the Stark Commercial Combine, also known as the Stark Collective. With the support of four co-directors (Boor-Daa, Tam Gozon, Lom Portom, and Trodos) and under the command of the flagship Raptor, Stark transformed the Collective into a formidable force capable of challenging the military and political dominance of both the Trade Federation and the Galactic Republic in the Outer Rim. The scale of this alliance of rogues was unprecedented.

Despite his rise to power being based on attacks against their commerce, Stark did not initially want to target the Trade Federation. Instead, he formed an alliance with Hask, the leader of the Federation, and Adol Bel, the head of Xucphra, a significant supplier of bacta. With his own strategic insight, their combined economic and military resources, and the Combine's newly developed navicomputer virus, Stark convinced Hask and Bel to support his plan: to destabilize the Republic by controlling its bacta supply and neutralizing its space forces.

Soon after, on the planet Thyferra, an alazhi processing facility owned by Xucphra, which was critical for bacta production, was destroyed in an explosion. Because Thyferra was the sole source of both the bacta healing gel and the alazhi bacteria needed to produce it, and Xucphra was the primary bacta producer on Thyferra, bacta suddenly became incredibly scarce and vital. The price of bacta soared, and continued to increase as hoarding became widespread.

The Stark Collective's ships began to "raid" Trade Federation cargo vessels, ostensibly stealing bacta in a scheme known only to themselves, and selling it to the people of the Outer Rim at a substantial profit. By standing up to the oppressive Federation and the ineffective Republic, and by providing essential bacta at significantly lower prices, Stark became even more of a hero to the marginalized people of the Outer Rim.

In the Galactic Senate, Minister Nute Gunray, the Trade Federation's representative (who was unaware of the alliance between the Federation and the Collective), requested that the Senate permit the Federation to expand its battle droid forces for self-defense. Senator Ranulph Tarkin, the leader of the Militarist faction, used this opportunity to advocate for the re-establishment of the Republic Army and Navy, which had been disbanded during the Ruusan Reformation.

However, Senator Finis Valorum, known for his level-headedness, proposed that the Republic, Federation, and Combine resolve their disputes through diplomatic means. Stark agreed, as did the Senate, which selected Valorum and Gunray as their representatives. The meeting was scheduled to take place on the Combine-controlled world of Troiken, although its location was kept secret except to the designated delegates.

The Senate asked for a team of Jedi protectors and diplomats to accompany its delegation to Troiken. Senator Valorum informed the Jedi Council of the mission, which led Master Tyvokka, known for his strong intuition and ability to foresee the future, to suspect the true nature of the "shortage." Valorum insisted on evidence before taking action against Xucphra or the Federation. Consequently, on Tyvokka's advice, the Council dispatched Jedi Knight Tholme and his Padawan, Quinlan Vos, to Thyferra, despite Grand Master Yoda's concerns about Vos's inner darkness. Tyvokka chose his former Padawan, Plo Koon, along with Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, to accompany him to Troiken. Adi Gallia also joined the team at Valorum's request, as they had a long and productive working relationship.

Meanwhile, on Coruscant, another meeting was underway. As part of his Militarist agenda, Senator Tarkin had gathered a paramilitary force from the regional defense forces of planets that supported his cause, and he had reached an agreement with Minister Gunray. Despite some initial hesitation, Gunray revealed the location of the conference world to Tarkin, but only after the senator threatened to disclose Gunray's various clandestine and questionable business dealings to the Senate.

Tarkin's objective in destroying the Combine was to weaken the position of anti-Militarists like Valorum and to elevate the Militarists as the dominant faction in the Senate. He also intended to have the Senate recognize his paramilitary force as the official Republic Army and Navy, hoping that this would lead to him becoming the leader of the Republic. However, Tarkin unknowingly lacked the element of surprise, as the Combine's spies, possibly through contacts within the Federation, had discovered the existence of Tarkin's fleet and his plans for its use.

As the Jedi and Senate diplomatic teams were dispatched to Thyferra and Troiken, Tarkin prepared his fleet for battle, and Stark planned the destruction of all three.

The Jedi and Republic negotiators arrived on Troiken and met with Stark and his Combine co-directors. Once the initial meeting commenced, Gunray activated a homing beacon on his mechno-chair, sending the coordinates of the meeting location to Tarkin's fleet. Tarkin ordered his ships to enter hyperspace, with the intention of attacking the summit and eliminating both the Combine's leadership and the Republic's delegation.

Almost as soon as the Combine's leaders were seated, Tyvokka suggested bypassing formalities and addressing Stark's true intentions. Stark agreed, and his men drew their weapons on the Republic negotiators, using Gunray's supposed treachery as a pretext. Stark revealed that he knew about Tarkin's fleet and that he had used Gunray's signal to transmit his navcomputer virus, disabling the navigational systems of Tarkin's ships. Consequently, many of Tarkin's ships emerged from hyperspace in destructive locations, such as near stars or black holes, while others arrived safely but far off course. Only a small fraction, including Tarkin's flagship Invincible, reached the Troiken system, where they were immediately attacked by the numerically superior Combine fleet.

Although Valorum protested his lack of knowledge about Tarkin's unauthorized plans, Stark refused to listen and demanded the Republic team's surrender. Tyvokka, realizing the truth of his suspicions, turned the tables on Stark's men, and the Jedi sprang into action. Under Qui-Gon Jinn's guidance, the panicked Gunray ordered his security droids to "kill them all." However, the droids opened fire on both Stark's men and the Jedi, fatally wounding Tyvokka and forcing the Jedi to destroy the droids while Stark and his co-directors escaped. The Jedi and their charges quickly retreated to their Consular cruiser while they still could (Gunray's transport having been destroyed just before their escape), and sought refuge at Mount Avos. Tyvokka died en route, instructing Adi Gallia to protect Valorum to ensure a peaceful resolution, Plo Koon to rally Tarkin's troops to prevent the Senate from surrendering (and to join the Jedi Council as Tyvokka had hoped), and Jinn to find a way to disable the computer virus. During the journey, Plo Koon used his telepathic abilities to deter a Stark fighter from following them. Upon arriving at Avos, their damaged Consular exploded.

Overhead, less than a quarter of Tarkin's fleet remained. After the Invincible sustained critical damage and Tarkin received a message from Valorum informing him of their retreat location, Tarkin ordered his crews to abandon their ships and head for Mount Avos in their escape pods. Tarkin's remaining ships provided cover while their crews evacuated, before being evacuated themselves. The Invincible was destroyed shortly after Tarkin and his staff evacuated, and the burning wreckage crashed near Avos, as the Jedi and soldiers began to regroup inside the mountain's abandoned spice mines.

As the disastrous summit on Troiken unfolded, Tholme and Quinlan Vos arrived on Thyferra to investigate the site of the Xucphra Plant explosion. There, they encountered security droids programmed to eliminate intruders. After destroying the droids, they discovered a secret meeting between Xucphra's Bel and the Federation's Hask, and learned of the secret agreement between them and Stark that had triggered the bacta shortage and the war. After evading hunter/killer droids and a sewer's tunnel grinder, Tholme and Vos boarded a Federation bacta freighter. The ship was "seized" by the Combine and rerouted to Troiken, where the Jedi, to prevent the enemy from gaining an advantage, detonated the freighter.

Following the regrouping inside Mount Avos, the Combine began bombarding the mountain with artillery fire. Inside the cave, an assessment by Jace Dallin, Tarkin's aide and second-in-command, revealed that while the cave had an abundance of water, the soldiers had only ten days' worth of food, limited medical supplies, and no bacta. Tarkin and Gunray advocated for surrender, while Valorum and Koon favored continued resistance.

Koon used his telepathic abilities to access Stark's mind while the Combine's co-directors were in a meeting, expressing their dissatisfaction with the outcome of the first battle. Stark assured them that the situation, while unexpected, was not unfavorable: Tarkin's forces were trapped in Mount Avos, the Republic still lacked bacta, and the navicomputer virus had spread throughout many of the Republic's ships, disrupting interstellar commerce and transport. Anticipating a swift surrender from both Tarkin's force and the Senate, Stark convinced his lieutenants to continue with the plan and prepared for a direct assault on the mountain. Koon overheard this and, armed with this information, the Republic force was able to mount a strong defense.

After the Jedi rescued Tarkin's troops at the last moment, Stark changed his strategy, opting to maintain a siege to starve the Republic soldiers. Koon again used his telepathy to learn of this strategy while tending to the wounded soldiers, which helped to convince many (Humans all, chosen by Tarkin, who was deeply prejudiced by [humanocentrism]) that there was no difference between aliens and Humans. Based on Koon's newly acquired information, it was decided that Gallia and the negotiators' Judicial Forces pilot would take Valorum and Gunray back to Coruscant to persuade the Senate not to surrender; Tarkin declined the offer to go, viewing it as an attempt by Koon to usurp his command.

As Dallin launched a diversionary attack, the pilot, Gallia, the senators, and Jinn and Kenobi left Mount Avos through a side tunnel, heading towards the Combine headquarters on a captured speeder. Reaching the spaceport just as Tholme and Vos destroyed the captured bacta freighter, the team returning to Coruscant stole one of the Combine's spacecraft and took off, while the four remaining Jedi met up and returned to Avos. There, Vos and Kenobi began a friendship that would last for years as they encountered a cavern containing thousands of challat eaters, carnivorous insects that would devour sentient beings. Initially evading the creatures by creating rounded Force shields through what Vos called a 'Force blow', the two boys were only saved thanks to the intervention of Tholme, Jinn and Koon, who, once the padawans were safely behind them, called upon the Force to seal off the challat eater cave from the rest of the encampment. At the same time, a native Xexto named Billibango joined the Republic force, providing crucial information about the mountain and its mines.

Meanwhile, upon arriving at Coruscant's outer fringes from hyperspace, a booby-trap suddenly activated in the Stark shuttle, killing the Judicial pilot and destroying the ship. The remaining three managed to escape in escape pods just in time. Rescued by Coruscant Security, Gallia briefed the Jedi Council while Valorum addressed the Senate. Although the senator single-handedly convinced the Senate not to surrender to Stark, it refused to send any aid to Troiken; the replacement of trade ships' navicomputers was prioritized, and Tarkin's fleet had been an unauthorized vigilante force.

Combine agents on Coruscant reported this to Troiken, where a second assault on Mount Avos had been repelled by Tarkin's men. Koon was able to learn of the Senate's decision through his telepathic link to Stark's mind. Tarkin again wanted to surrender, but Koon had another idea. Combining his powers with those of the other Jedi in a gathered meditation, he was able to reach his young niece, Sha Koon, a Jedi learner at the Temple on Coruscant. Through her, the Jedi Council was able to establish two-way communication with the Jedi on Troiken, who briefed them on the situation.

Koon and Oppo Rancisis, communicating telepathically from different parts of the galaxy, then developed a plan. Koon had entered Stark's mind and informed him of his precarious situation, offering him amnesty in exchange for cooperation in ending the war. Stark agreed. It was decided that a Jedi strike force would be dispatched to Troiken; Jinn and Tholme would obtain the patch for the navicomputer virus from the Combine's command vessel Raptor and broadcast it to the Jedi's ships. As the Senate refused to provide any Judicial Forces ships, Gallia and Mace Windu approached the Trade Federation minister Nute Gunray. Through a combination of pointing out that it was in the best interests of the Federation to destroy the pirate Collective, and threats of incriminating disclosures to the Senate (i.e., revealing the Federation's role in fomenting the bacta crisis) unless he complied, the Jedi persuaded the Federation minister to take action: Gunray managed to arrange for the Jedi's use of a large Trade Federation fleet. The stage was now set for the end of the Stark Hyperspace War.

Stark's co-directors were unwilling to continue to tolerate what they saw as his incompetent leadership, and were about to kill him, when he told them that he had an ally within the Republic stronghold of Mount Avos. He neglected to mention, however, the nature of that alliance: that his ally was Jedi Knight Plo Koon, who had convinced Stark via telepathy to defect.

Meanwhile, Nute Gunray and the Trade Federation had provided the Jedi Council with a fleet of freighters and C-9979 landing craft. Oppo Rancisis was stationed on the bridge of the command ship where his use of battle meditation would be most effective, while Saesee Tiin prepared to lead the two Jedi fighter groups, Red and Blue Squadrons. Windu, Gallia, and fellow Master Eeth Koth also accompanied the force. Although outnumbered by the Combine fleet, they were confident that their superior training, determination, and use of the Force would secure victory.

On Troiken, to prepare for the broadcast of the crippling navcomputer virus to the Combine, Tholme and Vos infiltrated the Combine's command vessel, known as the Raptor. Simultaneously, Jinn and Kenobi infiltrated the Combine's headquarters with the objective of securing the patch itself. However, Jinn and Kenobi ran into a problem: the protocol droid overseeing the patch demanded a password for its release. Stark himself soon provided the password, arriving with his two co-directors, Boor-Daa and Tam Gozon, both of whom he then murdered in the presence of the Jedi. Stark, having received a promise of amnesty from Jedi Knight Plo Koon via telepathic communication in exchange for his cooperation, and realizing the futility of his cause, gave them the password and assisted the two Jedi in subduing the command center. Above them, Tholme and Vos transmitted the patch to the Trade Federation fleet. In addition, Vos inverted the controls of the Raptor's shield generators, causing them to lower instead of raise when ordered to. Escaping the ship on one of its fighters, the Jedi departed as the main Jedi force arrived in the Troiken system en masse.

At Mount Avos, the Republic forces executed a retreat through a rear exit, while the Combine forces surged in through the primary entrance. Koon's strategy involved sealing both entrances after the Republic soldiers were clear, thus trapping the Combine soldiers harmlessly within the mine. However, this plan was thwarted by Tarkin, who, obsessed with eliminating both the Jedi who had overshadowed him and the enemy he couldn't defeat, seized the final detonator charge. He used it to breach the challat eater cave, unleashing a consuming force that annihilated all within the caves. Tarkin perished in the blast, yet secured a self-proclaimed immortality as the "Hero of Troiken," the individual who single-handedly destroyed the Stark Combine and won the war through a act of self-sacrifice. Koon narrowly escaped, employing the Force to seal the mine, tragically trapping the majority of the Combine soldiers inside, where they were devoured alive by insects. As the Raptor was destroyed in the skies above, the few surviving Combine ground forces surrendered, bringing an end to both the Fifth Battle of Qotile and the Stark Hyperspace War.

The Stark Hyperspace War occurred during a period of bacta shortage. Consequently, veterans of the war experienced higher mortality rates than anticipated, and many survivors carried the physical scars and injuries of their service for the remainder of their lives.

The Republic government authorized Tarkin's soldiers to wear a flag pin (presumably featuring the Republic insignia) on their attire, signifying their status as Stark veterans. The Stark Veteran Assembly was also established to serve as a support and advocacy group for Republic veterans of the conflict.

Furthermore, the war served as a training ground for individuals who would later become pirates, mercenaries, and terrorists. These individuals leveraged the combat skills they acquired during the war for their own purposes. Notable examples include the militant faction of the Nebula Front and the bounty hunter Bossk, who earned his first bounty by tracking down a deserter from the war.

The deaths of Tyvokka and Ranulph Tarkin created vacancies on the Jedi Council and Galactic Senate, respectively. Tyvokka's former apprentice, Plo Koon, filled the former role, being promoted to Jedi Master and assuming Tyvokka's position on the Jedi Council following his leadership in the Republic victory at the Fifth Battle of Qotile. In the Senate, Eriadu's new representative was Shayla Paige-Tarkin, a relative of Ranulph.

In 40 BBY, Valorum would become Supreme Chancellor, significantly aided by the support of the Tarkin family. In return, Valorum would officially declare Ranulph the "Hero of Troiken." This led to a widespread perception of Valorum's reliance on the Eriadu-based Tarkins, and a rapid ascent through the Republic's power structures for Ranulph's cousin, Wilhuff Tarkin.

Iaco Stark's Combine was dismantled, and he subsequently joined the Commerce Guild as an ostensibly legitimate businessman. Nute Gunray was appointed Viceroy of the Trade Federation, partly due to his perceived "foresight" in allocating Federation ships for Jedi use at the war's conclusion. However, he consistently denied ever witnessing a Jedi in action.

The war significantly propelled the arguments of those advocating for the establishment of a permanent Republic military and greater Republic oversight of outlying sectors and their trade, viewpoints subsequently championed by the SVA.

The Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Movie Scrapbook was where the Stark Hyperspace War was initially referenced. In it, Plo Koon was described as "a veteran of the Hyperspace Wars." Because the Great Hyperspace War of 5000 years prior was the only "Hyperspace War" known at the time, the Stark Hyperspace War was conceived to reconcile this inconsistency.

Initially, The New Essential Chronology from 2005 placed the Stark Hyperspace War in 44 BBY. Star Wars Omnibus: Quinlan Vos: Jedi in Darkness, published in 2010, also indicates that Star Wars: The Stark Hyperspace War unfolds in 30 BBY. Within the story itself, Mace Windu states that the events occurred "fourteen" years prior, pinpointing the flashbacks to the conflict in 44 BBY.

The Essential Atlas from 2009 mistakenly shifted the event two years earlier, to 46 BBY. This error was repeated in The Essential Guide to Warfare. Placing the events in 46 BBY is chronologically impossible because Obi-Wan Kenobi does not become Qui-Gon Jinn's apprentice until 44 BBY, as detailed in the Jedi Apprentice series. The timeline of this series was fixed at 44 BBY by 2012's The Essential Reader's Companion. Furthermore, Obi-Wan does not construct his lightsaber until 44 BBY. Given that The Essential Reader's Companion is the most recent publication, this article assumes that its dating, which aligns with the original in-story dating of the conflict, is accurate.