Battle of the Red Reaper

The Battle for the Red Reaper was a flashpoint during the Cold War between the resurgent Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. The Sith Dreadnaught Red Reaper was the flagship of the fanatical racist Darth Ikoral, a prestigous and honored member of Sith society during a time before the Sith Empire's reappearance. Believing his own race's superiority was based upon its purity, Ikoral ventured to find remnants of the pure-blooded Sith race left behind after the culmination of the Great Hyperspace War. Upon his return to the known galaxy, the Sith Lord began his fanatical crusade against the impure. Striking at both Imperial and Republic settlements, he earned the ire of the Dark Council and the attention of the Jedi Order. This prompted the two galactic powers to send their respective strike teams to the planet Chandrila, Ikoral's intended next target.
==Prelude==
A century before the battle, Darth Ikoral was a prominent citizen of the Sith Empire. A member of the Order of Ragnos and recipient of the Emperor's Blessing, many of the Empire's citizens considered him to be a hero. As a pureblood Sith, Ikoral's pedigree was known to have extended as far back as the era of King Adas. Pride for his heritage made the Sith Lord a fervent believer that his species represented an ideal and pure version of sentient life in the galaxy and the only race worthy to ascend in power within the Sith Order.
Seventy years before the battle, Ikoral balked at the racial hygiene of the Empire, the citizenry freely intermingling with the alien scum of the galaxy. Seeking a way to purify the Empire, he convinced the Dark Council to send him on an expedition to find remnants of the pureblooded Sith species who were either left behind during the Emperor's retreat from the preceding Empire's space or those that fled Korriban long ago before the Republic massacre during the Great Hyperspace War. The council agreed and Ikoral left on the Red Reaper. Following many years of absence, Ikoral was thought dead. He was honored as a martyr and celebrated throughout the Empire. Returning to the known galaxy in a sector of space containing the planet Rhinnal, Ikoral would start his crusade against the impure with raiding the Jedi Enclave on the planet's surface.
Nineteen hours before the battle, the Jedi Council lost communications with the enclave on Rhinnal. Sending the Republic patrol frigate Toron Voq to investigate, the crew found that the residents of enclave suffered a violent massacre. As the captain of the ship was reporting his crew's findings, a massive Sith warship appeared and destroyed the Toron Voq. A calculated move, as noted by Master Satele Shan, to lure the Republic into war.
Three hours before the battle, the Red Reaper would reappear in the Bormea sector. On the footsteps of Lord Senu's fortress, Ikoral sent his new army of pureblood Sith to eradicate the alien Sith Lord, proclaiming that such beings were unfit for the Sith Order. It seemed that Ikoral succeeded in his quest to find remnants of his people, as was noted by Lord Senu's last words, the army who was attacking was made of mainly purebloods that wore antiquated and savage armor from the Sith's past.
The Dark Council distanced themselves from Ikoral's unprovoked attack, seeking to preserve the Treaty of Coruscant they quickly branded the long lost Sith Lord a heretic, and moved to call upon their elite strike team to quell his crusade to cleanse the galaxy by fire. The Republic noticed that the Red Reaper was headed towards Chandrila, an agricultural world vital to the Republic's supply production, moved to intercept with their own elite strike force to save the world and the billions that relied on its massive food production centers.
==Battle==
Having arrived at Chandrila, the strike team found the Red Reaper already docked with the planet's orbital station. With the dreadnaught engaged with three Ajuur-class heavy cruisers and an unidentified class of warship, the strike team was able to sneak aboard the station using a Plug-6 heavy fighter.
Upon landing, the strike team found an already ongoing battle between Chandrilan Security Forces and the crew of the Reaper. The battered Chandrilans were unable to hold back the onslaught of Sith warriors and reapers entering through the primary airlock. Only with the strike team's assistance were they able to push back against the enemy forces and secure the planetary orbital station.
With the primary airlock secured, the strike team moved to enter the Red Reaper. As they stepped unto the ancient warship, they were met with the amethyst bloom of two lightsabers. Lord Kherus, a male pureblood Sith Lord found by Darth Ikoral, had taken six hostages from the occupants of the orbital station and had them kneeling before the entrance of the ship. The strike team engaged Kherus amidst the glow of the crimson shielded cages of the cargo deck. As a disciple of Komok-Da, a weapon master of the ancient Sith Empire, Kherus' skill as a swordsman was exceptional and when unleashed in full against his foes, devastating. As the fight continued, the presence of the hostages would prove not only as a display of ruthlessness but also a source of power for the embattled Sith Lord. Even though Kherus was empowered by the soul drained hostages, the strike team proved to be victorious, ending the fight and rescuing the surviving hostages from a soulless death.
As the strike team moved deeper into the dreadnaught, they encountered heavy resistance from Ikoral's army of purification and reaper droids. Undeterred they resumed their trek through the cargo bays of the ship, moving about the maze of munition stockpiles, towering Imperial walkers, Sith artifacts and narrow tunnels. At the end of the dizzying collection of corridors, the strike team found and used an elevator that would take them to the command deck. As their ascension slowed and the doors opened they found their intended target. The bridge of the ship was sighted, the command console where they could take control of the ancient dreadnaught lay behind a massive war droid, defense turrets and the entire bridge crew.
Guarded by the massive prototype war droid SV-3 Eradicator, the bridge and its crew were out of reach to the strike team. The droid was surrounded by six mysterious and indestructible Sith power sources that augmented its weapons when properly aligned. Encouraged by their previous victory, the strike team brawled with the prototype droid, while making sure that its power sources were misaligned. The team successfully destroyed the droid and moved on to the crew of the bridge, who they made quick work of. As they were using the command console to commandeer the Red Reaper, Darth Ikoral overrode their attempt and took the reigns of his flagship through a console located in his meditation chamber.
Resolute to finish their mission, the strike team ventured deeper into the bowels of the ship to uncover the location of Ikoral's meditation chamber. Once again they found themselves navigating through the tight hallways of the ship, while entering into brief skirmishes with Ikoral's staunch crusaders, they would find the Sith Sanctum. Decorated with Sith artifacts and emblazoned Sith imagery everywhere, the sanctum was home to mystics and disciples of Ikoral's crusade. The sanctum was also the location of a cryogenics lab where enclosed within hundreds of cryotubes were the pureblooded race Ikoral hoped and actually found through out his endeavors.
Further along the sanctum, after crossing an imposing cliff of metal, the strike team found themselves within the Sith Lord's meditation chamber. At the center of the cylindrical, crimson tinged room waited the Sith Lord Ikoral. As the strike team moved past ancient columns and Sith banners of the entrance way, Ikoral engaged. Outnumbered and embattled, Ikoral set off a wave of concussive force which scattered the strike team. The isolated Sith Lord called forth his sleeping chosen, pureblooded Sith whose purity was unquestioned, to him while raining a barrage of force lightning upon his attackers. The strike team retreated, using Ikoral's chosen as shields against his unrelenting attack. As the last of Ikoral's chosen died off from their master's own attack, the strike team continued their offensive. Once again alone, Ikoral channeled the Sith knowledge he had gathered in his quests and strengthened himself repeatedly throughout the ensuing fight. But this was to no avail as the strike team quickly rallied their best to down him before he could gather enough power to defeat them.
With the Sith Lord defeated, the strike team took control of the ship and sent it to their capitol world.
==Aftermath==
The death of Darth Ikoral and his branding as a heretic strengthened the views of Imperial citizens who believed that racial purity was an obsolete notion and that in order for the Empire to survive the coming war, every being with the skill and devotion to serve the Order would need to be treated equally without prejudice against their race.
Meanwhile, the Republic was able to preserve its status quo, maintaining the food production centers on Chandrila and suffering only light casualties.
==Behind the scenes==
The Battle for the Red Reaper appears as the Flashpoint: Red Reaper in the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic. During the flashpoint the player has a choice to leave the cryogenic tanks and its contents alone (light side option), to release the contents of cryogenic tanks (light side option) or destroy the contents of the cryogenic tanks (dark side option).
The flashpoint is available to both factions in the game, as such, the victory conditions are not set in canon and thus the aftermath of the battle is limited to secondary observations. If an Imperial player finishes the flashpoint, the Empire's policy of xenophobia is weakened, the wealth of knowledge aboard the Reaper is captured and the Treaty of Coruscant remains unbroken. If a Republic player finishes the flashpoint, the Galactic Republic captures the Red Reaper and decades of knowledge contained within.
The in-game map when inside the flashpoint, indicates the name of the instance is Crimson Vengeance. Whether this was the original title of the flashpoint is not known and subject to assumption.
==Appearances==
*Star Wars: The Old Republic 
==Sources==
*
*Strongholds of Resistance 
==Notes and references==
Category:Battles of Chandrila
Category:Battles of the Galactic War