Invasion of Belsavis The invasion of Belsavis , also known as the Belsavis prison break , was a battle that occurred during the Galactic War between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire in 3641 BBY after the Empire discovered the location of the Belsavis prison , a top - secret Republic penal colony on the planet Belsavis . A small strike team followed by orbital bombardment saw the Republic prison heavily damaged , and the Empire incited riots throughout the complex as they worked to free important prisoners such as the Sith Lords known as the Dread Masters . Unbeknownst to the Empire , the attack on Belsavis was a distraction to hide the efforts of Executor Krannus , who sought to destroy the entire world for the Sith Emperor but was stopped by the Jedi Knight known as the Hero of Tython . Chaos raged in the Minimum , High , and Maximum Security Section s of the prison colony , but as Imperial forces penetrated the Tomb — the ancient prison complex upon which the Republic facility was built — the battle changed . In their search for the Dread Masters and their efforts to sow chaos , Imperial forces broke open a number of sealed vaults , unleashing horrors that had been locked away by the Rakata who had built the Tomb . The violent Esh - kha species overwhelmed much of the Imperial forces in the Tomb , though the Dread Masters were successfully extracted and the Republic stopped the Esh - kha from releasing an entity known as the World Razer . Prelude . The conflict on the planet Belsavis centered around the Belsavis prison , a prison colony run by the Galactic Republic that was constructed atop an even older prison — the Tomb , built thousands of years before by the Infinite Empire of the Rakata species . The existence of the Tomb was discovered by the Republic around 3691 BBY , and upon discovering the horrors contained within the ancient Rakatan vaults , the Republic established their own prison atop the Tomb . During the Great Galactic War between the Republic and the Sith Empire , the population of Belsavis prison swelled with captured Sith Lords , Mandalorians , and criminals . Imperial Intelligence , the intelligence arm of the Sith Empire , spent years searching for the prison as rumors of its existence spread . The Empire first learned of the Belsavis prison ' s location around 3642 BBY , when the Rattataki inmate Ivory used a subspace transmitter , one that he had built over the last few decades using Rakata technology , to contact the Empire . IvoryAround a year after the Empire learned about the complex , during the Galactic War between the Empire and the Republic , the Sith Emperor dispatched his agents throughout the galaxy to commit genocide — the Emperor planned to use a Sith ritual to consume all life in the galaxy , and his ritual required a sacrifice on a planetary scale . The Emperor ' s servants influenced the Empire to attack Belsavis , thus providing a distraction for Executor Krannus and his death cult to carry out their plans to destroy the planet . The battle . Initial strikes . The Empire ' s attack on Belsavis came as a complete surprise to the Republic , which were unaware of Ivory ' s message to the Empire and also believed that the facility was not a prime military target . The Empire began their invasion by landing a small team of Sith and elite soldiers onto the surface , and the strike force was tasked with freeing as many prisoners as possible to throw the prison into chaos . Some of the freed prisoners , a large number of whom were Imperial prisoners of war , joined tghe Imperial forces , while the remainder joined the riots and attacked everyone . As the Republic security forces struggled to respond , the Empire converted the remains of a camp used by early Republic explorers into a fortified lodgement in the prison ' s Minimum Security Section . and brought in a mobile battle platform , Proculus Station , into the planet ' s orbit . From their new ground base , Imperial forces made surgical strikes to breach cell blocks and destroy dividing walls ; numerous barrier walls in the Minimum Security Section had massive holes torn in to them by explosives , and Imperial bombardment wreaked further havoc . The prison armories were also blown open by Imperial forces , allowing the rioters access to weaponry that put them on equal footing with the guards . The Republic withdrew many of the prison guards and their families to the complex ' s security and administrative centers ; due to their focus on the prisoners and not the invaders , the Republic was unable to drive off the small number of Imperial forces before enemy reinforcements arrived . The Republic Military soon arrived to support the prison security forces , which were struggling to contain the prisoners under the leadership of Warden Playt , but it was some time before the Republic could mobilize significant forces to counter the Imperials . Many of the civilians were hidden in the Prisoner Intake yards , and after Officer Mark Vempor was able to acquire transport to evacuate the guards ' families and the other civilians , Republic forces were able to clear a path for the civilians to reach the Perimeter Patrol Command Post . Meanwhile , the Empire began recruiting forces from the Belsavis prisoners , taking Imperial prisoners of war as well as violent criminals willing to serve . The Jedi Knight Enna Tabord arrived on Belsavis around the time of the invasion ; she had been tasked with scouting the area and locating Executor Krannus in advance of the arrival of the Hero of Tython , a powerful Jedi Knight who was rushing to Belsavis to stop Krannus ' s plans . However , she was overpowered and fatally injured while out scouting , and barely managed to reach a guardpost and inform the criminal - turned - guard Pak Taldine about spotting Krannus ' s forces near the Minimum Security power generators . Early in the invasion , Captain Rago ' s attempts to retrieve the Belsavis prison records from the Detainee Processing Center was foiled when the New Men , a cult of cybernetic criminals , took control of the facility . When Imperial reinforcements finally pushed through the New Men and a small group of Republic soldiers who sought to stop the Imperials from accessing the records , the Empire was able to download the prison records and locate persons of interest throughout the complex . The primary objective of the Imperial forces , under the leadership of Commander Calum of the Imperial Guard , was to free the Dread Masters — six powerful Sith Lords who were captured during the last war . Five Special Operations Group s were deployed to penetrate deeper into the prison ; Special Operations Group Five , under the command of Lord Medechas , was tasked with securing the Minimum Security Section . However , Republic forces anticipated the Empire ' s target and relocated the Dread Masters to the Tomb . When Imperial forces breached the High Security Section to the west , Special Operations Group Four established an Imperial Command Post in the ruins of a damaged Republic watchtower , and the three other groups continued onward into the Maximum Security Section . However , when the Imperial forces reached the Ancient Prison Caverns — the first level of the Rakatan prison — beyond Maximum Security , their efforts to breach the Rakatan vaults had dire consequences . While Groups One and Two moved onward to locate the Dread Masters in the Tomb , Group Three cracked open a number of vaults and released the Esh - kha , a violent species of warriors that had been entombed within Belsavis by the Rakata . The Esh - kha overran the Imperial forces and spilled out into both Maximum Security and the Tomb , and Colonel Grang withdrew the remains of Group Three to the Imperial frontline camp in Maximum Security . Riots and chaos . During this time , the Imperial agent Feldon made contact with Nyranos , the Kaleesh leader of the prisoners known as the Condemned . The Condemned were the Belsavis - born descendants of earlier prisoners , but Warden Playt had refused to allow them to leave Belsavis despite never being sentenced there . Under Feldon ' s direction , the Condemned attacked the Prison Command Center and killed Warden Playt , though his assistant Graal survived and became the new warden . Republic forces were able to restore the generators powering the command center ' s shields , and when the Condemned raided a nearby armory for shield - disrupting magnetar rifle s , military and security forces eliminated the Condemned there before they could attack the command center again . A pre - emptory strike against the Condemned stopped the criminals ' plans to use a neural disruptor against prison guards , but the Condemned overran the command center with Imperial aid . However , Nyranos ended his agreement with Feldon upon taking the command center , as he only wished to negotiate with Warden Graal ; an angered Feldon and several Condemned traitors turned against Nyranos but were killed . Despite Graal ' s anger about Playt ' s death , Nyranos ' s requests of farmlands and supplies for his people were met by the Republic , and the Condemned withdrew from the command center . Elsewhere in the Minimum Security , the efforts of Marshal Ellis Ruger , an offworld enforcer brought in by Warden Playt , began to regain a semblance of control in areas of the Minimum Security Section . As a result , Lord Medechas ' s forces attacked and destroyed many of Ruger ' s warden droids in order to rally the rioters ' enthusiasm . Medechas ' s forces also overran the Carbonite Prisoner Storage , killing the Crisis Response Unit guarding it and releasing numerous psychotic prisoners to fuel the riot . Ruger was protected by force fields in Republic Guardpost Delta , but the Empire recovered the key to Ruger ' s guard station from Gholan , the Devaronian prisoner who had stolen the key from Ruger . After the force fields were deactivated , Imperial forces overran the guardpost and killed Ruger . When Master Sergeant Korum ' s forces breached Vault K - 66 , a Rakatan vault in Minimum Security , they released ancient Rakatan war droids that resisted Imperial attempts to control them ; Korum lost thirty men trying to take control of the droids with computer spikes before Imperial forces were successful . One of the prisoners released by the Empire was the Sith Lord Ferrid , who had been captured during the previous war . He recruited Imperial forces to raid Republic Guardpost Alpha , as he suspected they were hiding something valuable ; the raid yielded information on the prison schematics and hidden inmates . A group of Mandalorian escapees raided the Republic supply depot in Minimum Security and made off with a large number of supplies , including the motivator coils that Officer Brad Narong needed to fix a host of damaged warden droids . Fortunately for Narong , he was able to recruit Republic reinforcements that attacked the Mandalorian camps in the Mercenary Containment Cells , destroying the turrets that used the stolen motivator coils . Amid the chaos , Agent Firehawk of the Republic Strategic Information Service , the Republic ' s intelligence agency , enlisted military aid in locating Agent Mynock , Firehawk ' s informant among the prisoners . Though Mynock was dead by the time that the Republic forces found him in the caves along the western cliffs of Minimum Security , Mynock ' s findings on Imperial traitors among the guards were retrieved from his body . As the fighting spread to the High Security Section , the battle became a veritable free - for - all — the High Security Section was populated by violent members of alien species , and was the site of the illegal Domination Experiments . Pioneered by Senator Tudos , designed by a number of Republic scientists who were unaware of the tests ' purposes , and led by Doctor Neeya , the experiments — codenamed " Project Noble Focus " — saw the alien inhabitants of High Security pitted against each other in order to analyze the military capabilities of the species in monitored combat scenarios . The aliens who participated were freed by Operations Group Four during the Imperial invasion , and quickly took controls of swaths of territory in High Security , attacking both the Empire and Republic and wiping out most of Operations Group Four . Captain Vandorn ordered Imperial reinforcements to strike back at the gangs ; however , the Trandoshan prisoners refused to back down after the initial attacks , leading the Empire to invade the vault that they had overtaken . When the Trandoshan leader Ssevrek was defeated and collared by the Imperials , the rest of the Trandoshans fell into line . Republic forces under the command of Colonel Hauer at the Republic watchtower found themselves under attack by Rattataki prisoners , who stole power core s from warden droids and tried to use them to build bombs and blast their way out of their holding cells . Republic forces put a stop to the Rattataki ' s efforts , but Senator Tudos ' s involvement in the Domination Experiments was exposed by a Weequay prisoner named Nah Vee . Under the leadership of a criminal named Sulkhaz , the Blood of Talath Rattataki tribe attacked the nearby detention compound that held Neimoidian prisoners , though Republic forces drove back the Blood of Talath and rescued the Neimoidians . His role in the Domination Experiments revealed , Senator Tudos was arrested . The Empire managed to seize control of the Power Generation Center in the northern High Security Section , wiping out Major Camren ' s unit in the process . Furious at the death of his men , Camren came up with a plan to destroy the center ' s power relays with detonite charges , robbing the Empire of their prize . During the fighting against the Rattataki , the aliens were able to capture a number of guard towers without communicating amongst themselves ; however , Officer Serik used the protocol droid C - 5D1 to determine that the Rattataki were using bird calls , allowing the Republic to regain the advantage .