First Battle of Skarpos The First Battle of Skarpos was a campaign during the Republic Dark Age in 1032 BBY which pitted Sith Lord Odion ' s principality the Odionate against Lord Malakite ' s forces in the Menagerie , his personal realm . A Sith invasion force led by the Novitiate lieutenant Yulan engaged Malakite ' s space forces and landed on Skarpos , a barren desert world in Malakite ' s Menagerie . The landing force included a disguised Jedi Knight Kerra Holt who had infiltrated the Novitiates under the pseudonym Mercy . Yulan ' s forces sustained substantial casualties during an ambush by Lord Malakite ' s forces . Malakite ' s forces took advantage of the enemy ' s chaos to organize a strategic retreat but he vowed to return to his territory . They were subsequently reassigned by the Odionate Claimer Wayman for a new assignment to locate the Helm of Ieldis , an ancient Sith relic . Meanwhile , Odion ' s invasion force occupied the planet . History . Background . By the last century of the New Sith Wars , the galaxy was in the throes of a dark age . The Galactic Republic had shrunken to a defensive cordon behind the Colonies and large areas of the Outer Rim were under the sway of various feuding Sith Lords . Following the collapse of the Chagras Hegemony , the Grumani sector in the Outer Rim had descended into a power vacuum as his Sith relatives fought each other for dominance . Each of these Sith lords ruled their own interstellar fiefdoms and had their own military forces . These internecine conflicts devastated large areas of the sector and affected the lives of billions of sentients . In 1032 BBY , the Sith Lords were briefly usurped by the Hutt crimelord Zodoh who tried unsuccessfully to carve up his own empire in the sector . Zodoh was ultimately defeated during the Battle of Darkknell by the Jedi Knight Kerra Holt who subsequently established contact with the Sith Lord Daiman , the ruler of a princedom centered around the planet Darkknell . Both Kerra and Daiman shared a common enemy in the form of the Sith Lord Odion for different reasons and sought to eliminate him . Kerra wanted revenge for the terror Odion inflicted on her homeworld of Aquilaris Minor while Daiman hated his estranged brother and had foreseen a great tribulation emanating from within Odion ' s domain . With Daiman ' s connivance , Kerra managed to establish contact with the Odionate agent Wayman , who worked as a recruiting agent for Odion ' s elite Force - wielding corps known as the Novitiate s . Using the pseudonym " Mercy " , Kerra joined the Novitiates . At that point , Odion was waging a war against Lord Malakite , a rival Sith Lord who ruled an independent realm known as the Menagerie . Odion ordered an invasion of Skarpos , a barren desert world home to sentients that had been mutated through Sith experiments over the past centuries . Invasion . Odion ' s warships entered the space surrounding Skarpos and fought a fierce space battle against Lord Malakite ' s defending starfighters and gunships . Odion ' s cargo liner s and landing ships were able to enter Skarpos ' atmosphere and deploy a planetary invasion force consisting of both Force - wielding Novitiates and members of the Thunder Guard , an elite military unit of Sith trooper s . Lord Malakite deployed an army of Mutate s , sentient beings who had been mutated into violent savages through Sith experiments over the previous centuries . Malakite himself led his cohort into battle riding on the back of a purple four - legged beast . While the Novitiates fought a skirmish against a band of Mutates , the Thunder Guard moved past the Novitiate ' s lines under the orders of Yulan , Odion ' s favorite lieutenant . The Odionate military did not have field ranks but Yulan ' s favored position in Odion ' s inner circle meant that he was the de - facto field commander . The Thunder Guards entered a boggy trench which was soaked in starfighter fuel as part of a trap set up by Malakite . When a large portion of Odion ' s troops were inside the trench , Malakite ordered his archers to set the trench alight with flaming arrows . The trench subsequently exploded in a firestorm which killed and wounded many Thunderers and Novitiate acolytes alike . Mercy foresaw Malakite ' s tactic and attempted to stop her comrades from charging to their deaths . However , her cries for caution were in vain since Odion ' s followers saw their salvation in mortal death . Meanwhile , Lord Malakite took advantage of the chaos in the enemy ' s ranks to organize a strategic withdrawal , but vowed to return with reinforcements . Mercy ' s efforts to turn back the Odionate forces drew the ire of her commanding officer Yulan who also chastised her for tending to a wounded comrade . When Mercy expressed her concerns about their troops charging to their deaths in the flames , Yulan responded that she was training to be a member of the Novitiates and survival meant nothing to his followers . He also reiterated that Novitiates were supposed to die a glorious death in Odion ' s name since death was seen as a release from pain . However , Yulan ' s chastisement session was interrupted by Wayman , the Claimer who had recruited Mercy . He defended Kerra by arguing that Yulan ' s suicide wave tactics drained the Odionate ' s manpower resources and claiming that he had high opes for her . Following a personal conversation with Mercy about adhering to the appropriate norms in Odion ' s armed forces , Wayman announced that Lord Odion wanted a squad of Novitiates for a special assignment . He ordered them to assemble in Jubalene for a debriefing with Odion himself . Jubalene had recently been annexed from the defeated Bactranate and had become Odion ' s new temporary capital . Yulan ' s fleet was also to rendezvous at Jubalene . Yulan complied but explained that he had to do a quick stop at Vanahame to replenish his ammunition . Feigning interest in Odion ' s teachings , Kerra inquired about the presence of data center s on Jubalene which Wayman confirmed to her delight . Aftermath . Following the reassignment of the cohort of Novitiates , Odion ' s military forces occupied Skarpos . However , they were unaware that the ancient Sith artefact known as the Helm of Ieldis was secretly hidden on Skarpos . Lord Ieldis was a Sith Lord who lived before the Great Hyperspace War who studied war and what made people fight . The Helm of Ieldis was capable of turning sentients into mindless fighting machines . Following the Massacre of Aquilaris in 1042 BBY , Lord Odion had commissioned a task force called Project Pandemonium to locate the Helm of Ieldis but the trail dried up at Sarrassia . The task force included Aron Holt and Mercia Holt , a diver and archaeologist who had been captured during the conquest of Aquilaris Minor . These two were the parents of Jedi Knight Kerra Holt who was on a personal quest to find her parents and learn about that fate . Subsequently , the project was suspended during the internecine family struggle that consumed the Grumani sector following the death of Chagras , ruler of the Chagras Hegemony . In 1032 BBY , Odion reopened the project following the Aquilaris campaign in an attempt to break this stalemate . He dispatched a cohort of Novitiates including a disguised Kerra to Sarrassia . There , she encountered the alien Grumani Hierophant Aunt Zoojoo who informed her that her parents had learnt that the Helm of Ieldis was located on Skarpos . However , the pair misled Odion , keeping its true location hidden . Following a confrontation which killed Aunt Zoojoo , Kerra , through her pseudonym Mercy , revealed to her commander Yulan that the artefact was located on Skarpos . Yulan quickly assembled his fleet and returned to Skarpos . The Odionate garrison was based at the Morbollon Mesa . The following day , Lord Malakite launched a counter - attack with his forces including an army of winged Stenax es .