It was the end of the Great Hyperspace War, and the Sith Empire was in its twilight. Their ill-fated campaign against the Republic and the Jedi Order failed, the Sith found themselves under Jedi and Republic occupation. Jedi Master Tallas Mohr'sas and twenty-two Jedi Knights took up residence on Ziost. Along with them came a small Republic task force for policing as well as for the rebuilding efforts. Mohr'sas and his Knights hunted down the remaining Sith Lords and severed their connections to the Force. Those five individuals were then exiled to a small moon that would sustain life. They were encouraged by the Jedi to meditate on their actions and to find a peaceful existence there, and a watch was laid over the moon in question so that none might enter its space.

With the war finally over, the Jedi Knights along with Republic specialists spread out through out Sithspace moving amongst the former slaves of the Sith Lords and assisting them in rebuilding their civilization which had languished under centuries of brutal slavery. New agricultural methods and new technology were introduced to help improve the infrastructure. Small industry began to spring up, as the Republic technicians taught the Sith peoples new methods of manufacturing and mining. For the Jedi's part, they taught the people their skills as healers, and instructed those with a connection to the Force in its proper uses.

The Sith people's began to prosper once more. As they had done with their previous Dark Jedi masters, they exalted their new teachers and allies, treating them as almost as deities. This the Jedi discouraged, seeking to change the mindset of a people who had willing enslaved themselves to the Dark Jedi. But the people's gratitude at being freed from the yoke of the Dark Lords as well as all the aid that the Republic forces brought could not be minimized. In time, the Jedi grew to accept it albeit somewhat reluctantly. But if the Jedi were unfavorable to such attention, the Republic soldiers were not. They had fought a difficult war and considered such attention as well as various spoils to be theirs as a part of victory. They were cautioned by the Jedi not to attempt to take advantage of the people, but the requests often fell on deaf ears.

Meanwhile, a brisk trade opened up along the hyperspace corridor Jori and Gav Daragon had discovered to the Sith Empire quite by accident. Soon transports carrying minerals and rare ores were traveling to the Republic and returning with foodstuffs, medical supplies and technology.

In the Republic, however, there were more important problems than the conquered Sith Empire to consider. The war had left it's mark in many systems including on the central system of Coruscant. The Republic sustained significant damage and taken many casualties. Large sections of Coruscant lay in ruins, and there was the fallout from Primus Goluud to be considered as well. The Sith Lord Naga Sadow had caused the enormous red giant to explode to cover his retreat from Republic space, and the shock wave had affected nearby systems.

But the most devastating development was the discovery of an alien pathogen in the Koros system that had apparently been brought either on purpose or unwittingly from Sith space. In either event, the virus quickly spread via merchants and travelers alike to other systems, and soon the Republic found itself with epidemic of hemorrhagic fever throughout known space. It would take years to contain the virus and find a cure, and in that time millions of lives across the Republic would be lost as Jedi and Galactic Senate threw virtually all their resources into stopping it. A quarantine was put in place for all of the former Sith-held systems, and trade was cut off.

That in turn proved to be the end of the Republic's great prosperity, as the losses in manpower to both industry and science proved difficult to replace. The eyes of the Republic were turned inward then, and its defeated enemy far off forgotten for the moment as it struggled to cope with its own problems.

Meanwhile, the Jedi in Sith space were now effectively cut off from the Republic, left to fend for themselves. Master Mohr'sas called a meeting of all the Jedi on Ziost. Out of twenty-two Jedi Knights, one did not answer the summons. Jedi Knight Saeon Olin responsible for overseeing the world of Ch'hodos. A team of 4 Jedi were dispatched to the planet to find the reason for his absence, but they also went missing. No word was ever received from either them or Saeon Olin. It was then that Mohr'sas declared the planet off limits, and two Republic ships were dispatched to enforce a blockade on it.

Even as he did so, however, Mohr'sas had to contend with the disease which had afflicted the Republic and now had also attacked Republic occupation force. Ships were quickly reduced to skeleton crews as the ships' surgeons fought to get it under control. One ship in the fleet had to be field de-commissioned as the crews of various vessels were combined to bring them up to acceptable complements. The native Sith were unaffected by the malady.

Unbeknownst to the Jedi and Republic forces, one Sith Lord had survived the battle between the Empress Teta's forces and the remnants of Naga Sadow's fleet.  Shar Dakhan had evaded the Massassi sent to assassinate him by Naga Sadow before the Dark Lord made his own escape. Dakhan had then disappeared in the confusion aboard his private shuttle and returned to his world of Ch'hodos. There he hid in a secret underground vault he had prepared long ago, knowing he was betrayed by Sadow and would soon be playing host to Republic forces. He also managed to avoid the teams of Jedi hunting for remaining Sith Lords.

Ironically, before the war, Dakhan had been one of the lesser Sith Lords possessing neither the control over the Force nor the weapons skills of the others. It was for such shortcomings that he had often been disregarded by the other Sith Lords, and it was that very unremarkable nature that made it easier for him to avoid the Jedi hunting for him. That coupled with his powers of illusion which, while not on par with Naga Sadow's, were substantial enough to begin to affect the mind of Saeon Olin.  Thus did he come under the sway of Shar Dakhan.

Olin thought he was being visited by the ghost of his former Master. Such is the nature of despair when one loses their Master while still a padawan and are unable to leave the past behind. It is such traits that make the Jedi 'human' where the Sith are not, but also may be a weakness. Clearly Shar Dakhan thought it so, and sensing the loss within the Jedi Knight, he turned it to his own advantage. With Dakhan's encouragement, Olin began to re-organize the Sith underneath him, with he as a virtual monarch. Mohr'sas, Dakhan suggested, was attempting to control the Sith for himself in a mad quest for power and did not have the interests of the people at heart. Olin, he said, would make a far more capable leader and lead the people to form a Republic of their ow if only he were not afraid to use the powers at his disposal. When he received word that Jedi had arrived on Ch'hodos looking for him, fear overcame him. He was convinced that they had come to kill him. But his most loyal slave who unknown to him was the Sith Lord in disguise, offered his assistance against Olin's enemies.

With the help of his new assistant, Olin set traps for the visiting Jedi Knight which, coupled with Dakhan's illusions, proved fatal to the team. As he collected the lightsabers of the fallen Knights, his journey to the Dark Side was nearly complete. It was then that Dakhan revealed himself to the Jedi, and, feigning humility, begged to allowed to be his apprentice. From there it was a small matter to delve into the ancient Sith secrets which Dakhan was able to show him, and an even smaller matter to seize control of the two Republic ships in orbit. Assuring the captains of both ships that he remaining Jedi were on the planet below putting down a small uprising, he quickly gained first their confidence, then their obedience and then their fear.

It was by the strangest chance that I encountered Jedi Master Kreia on Korriban shortly after the end of the Jedi Civil War. She was on the trail of Darth Revan, a former student of hers. I was stranded on that world after we had a conflict at the Sith Academy there. It all but wiped out the Sith in Republic space, or so I thought at the time. In fact, with my help, Master Kreia had discovered the existence of a world called Malachor V. It was there that Master Kreia was headed, while I was to return to Coruscant and brief the Jedi Council on her discovery along with a scavenger named Sazzle Glovan that she had rescued from the tomb of Ludo Kressh. But I realized then I could be of more use elsewhere, so I gave the coordinates for Malachor to Sazzle and instructed him to get ready to make the jump to hyperspace. Meanwhile, I recorded a message and sent it via the ship's holocomm system to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

Upon coming out of hyperspace, we were treated to a most unusual sight. A planetoid rippling with green waves of energy and surrounded by the wreckage of a great many warships. Of Master Kreia's ship, there was no sign and our sensors detected no other ships. At the sight of so many potential credits, Sazzle began to speak of pulling out the atmospheric suits, but a brief reminder that we were no doubt in Sith territory and a quick description of Sith interrogation techniques was enough to dissuade him. "We are probably already in sensor range," I told him. Still I was mesmerized at the site of Malachor V. It seemed impossible that it could possibly sustain life, but a quick scan confirmed the presence of an atmosphere. My intuition told me that we had uncovered something of enormous importance.  Unfortunately for me, I would never come any closer to it than I was at that moment, and I would never learn what secrets it held.

Even as I offering a warning to Sazzle, a ship appeared on our own sensors leaving the atmosphere of the planet. I was certain we would be detained, and I felt my grip on the armrest tighten until it became painful. But to our immense surprise and relief it ignored us completely. The ship, a passenger shuttle by the looks of it, wound its way through the mass of wrecked ships until it'd cleared the planet,  then it made the jump to hyperspace.

"Get a lock on those jump coordinates for the sake of reference," I told Sazzle, turning my attention back towards Malachor. It was clear we would have to get down there somehow, or at least I thought it was clear, but what Sazzle said next changed our course for good.

"This is strange," he said. "These coordinates don't seem to go any known systems nor do they seem to link up to any known hyperspace routes."

And if the situation needed extra urgency, it came in the form of a small group of Sith fighters leaving the planetoid and clearly headed our way.

"They're powering up their weapons!" Sazzle said, the tension rising in his voice.

"Then I think we'd best follow that shuttle," I told him, strapping myself in. We could hear the laser cannon fire behind us as we made our jump, and that was how we reached the planet Ch'hodos...