The Battle of Brentaal IV
The Battle of Brentaal IV, happening on 86 ABY was a combination of several events. The Republic Military had a training center that secretly held a division of Special Forces. Darth Telarius did not know the secret, but brought his legion of of followers to attack the installation and spread chaos across the planet. Preferring ground combat over naval might, his ships were more “transport” than “battleship.” This would prove to be problematice landing outside the Rand pass.
His staging area was large, and a contingent of four teams of Republic soldiers and two Commando teams threw caution to the wind, and, lead by Jedi Master Kayla Angellus, attacked the encampments. This was not a move that would prove ultimately successful and would not only cost the lives of the Republic soldiers, but Kayla herself. In turn though, almost a third of the encamped forces were killed in the process.
First day
On the fifth day after the Sith arrival at the Rand pass of Brentaal IV and the first day of the battle, Darth Telarius finally resolved to attack the Republic Installation. First, he ordered 1,000 energy-bow archers to shoot a barrage of arrows, but they were ineffective; they shot from at least 300 yards away, according to scholars and known documentation, yet the Republic shield generators held and deflected the arrows. After that, Telarius sent a force of 2,500 troops, led by several of his assassins to take the defenders prisoner and bring them before him. The Sith troops soon launched a frontal assault, in waves of around 1,000 men and women, on the Republic position, headed up by Jedi Master, and twin brother of Kayla, Kameron Angellus, assisted by the surviving Commando team, and the rest of the Special Forces contingent. The specialists fought in front of the Plerian wall, at the narrowest part of the Rand pass, which enabled them to use as few soldiers as possible. Details of the tactics are scant, but their “funnel” tactic forced the superior numbers of the Sith army to be rendered useless.
This probably describes the standard Republic phalanx, in which the men formed a wall of overlapping fields of fire and layered shots protruding out from the sides of the shields, which would have been highly effective as long as it spanned the width of the pass. The weaker shields, and shorter rifles and carbines of the Sith prevented them from effectively engaging the Republic.
History says that the units for each city were kept together; units were rotated in and out of the battle to prevent fatigue, which implies the Republic had more men than necessary to block the pass. Angellus and Republic Special Forces killed so many troops that Darth Telarius is said to have stood up three times from the seat from which he was watching the battle. According to Commander Talbot of the Republic cruiser “Shining Light”, the first wave was "cut to ribbons", with only two or three Special Forces killed in return.
According to scholars, Angellus, having taken the measure of the enemy, drew the best operators into a second assault the same day, Sith Acolytes, under the competitive tutelage of Darth Telarius assaulting the force. However, the Acolytes fared no better than the troops, and failed to make any headway against the Republic. Nidas apparently used a tactic of feigning retreat, and then turning and killing the enemy troops when they ran after them, a “false flag”.
Second day
On the second day, Darth Telarius again sent in the infantry to attack the pass, "supposing that their enemies, being so few, were now disabled by wounds and could no longer resist." However, the Sith had no more success on the second day than on the first. Telarius at last stopped the assault and withdrew to his camp, "totally perplexed, not to mention furious at the failures of those under him". Later that day, however, as the Sith Lord was pondering what to do next, he received a windfall; a Brentaal native by name of Deniside Anacindel informed him of the mountain path around Rand Pass and offered to guide the Sith army. Anacindel was motivated by the desire for a reward. For this act, the name Anacindel received a lasting stigma; it came to mean "scum" in the Brentaal lore and language and to symbolize the archetypal traitor in Brentaal culture.
History reports that Telarius sent his Apprentice Darth Hytheria that evening, with the men under her command, the Assassins, to encircle the Republic via the path. However, it is not known who those men and women were. The Assassins had been bloodied on the first day, so it is possible that Hytheria may have been given overall command of an enhanced force including what was left of the Assassins; according to history, Hytheria had a force of 2,500 for the mission. The path led from east of the Sith camp along the ridge of Mt. Mnadnock behind the cliffs that flanked the pass. It branched, with one path leading to Randia and the other down to the Phlanxian Gulf at Deklynius, the first town of Bryun.
Third day
At daybreak on the third day, the Brentaal guarding the path above Rand Pass became aware of the outflanking Sith column by the rustling of oak leaves. History says they jumped up and were greatly amazed. Hytheria was perhaps just as amazed to see them hastily arming themselves as they were to see him and his forces. She feared they were Special Forces but was informed by Anacindel that they were nothing more than local militia. The Brentaal retreated to a nearby hill to make their stand (assuming the Sith had come to attack them). However, not wishing to be delayed, the Assassins merely shot a volley of arrows at them, before bypassing them to continue with their encirclement of the main Republic Forces.
Learning from a runner that the Brentaal had not held the path, Kameron called a meet at dawn. Upon discovering that his army had been encircled, Kameron told his allies that they could leave if they wanted to. While many of the Brentaal took him up on his offer and fled, around two thousand soldiers stayed behind to fight and die. Knowing that the end was near, the Republic marched into the open field and met the Sith head-on. Many of the Republic contingents then either chose to withdraw (without orders) or were ordered to leave by Angellus. “The Devil Dogs” “The Yellowjackets”, “The Betio Bastards”, “Armageddon”, “Chaos Squad”, they all refused to leave and committed themselves to the fight. Also present were the 400 cadets and trainees and probably the security who had accompanied the Republic.
Many details of this part of the battle are sketchy, but it is believed that Angellus chose to form a rearguard so that the Brentaal militia and less experienced contingents could get away. If all the troops had retreated, the open ground beyond the pass would have allowed the Sith cavalry to run the Republic down. If they had all remained at the pass, they would have been encircled and would eventually have all been killed. By covering the retreat and continuing to block the pass, Angellus saved close to 3,000 men, who would be able to, and would indeed fight again.
At dawn, Telarius stalled even more, allowing his remaining assassins sufficient time to descend the mountain, and then began his advance. A Sith force of 7,000 men, comprising light infantry and cavalry, charged at the front of the Republic formation. The operators this time sallied forth from the wall to meet the enemy troops in the wider part of the pass, in an attempt to slaughter as many Sith as they could. They fought with rifles, until every powerpack was spent or weapon was destroyed, and then switched to vibroblades and wrist-blasters. In this struggle, two of Telarius' brothers fell: Darth Abercr and Darth OmbeNfitch. Kameron fought valiantly, but ultimately also died in the assault, shot down by over three dozen Sith archers.
Ultimately the surviving Republic Operators were able to save a large contingent of innocents that day, much to the fury of Telarius. This was so much so, that when his troops recovered Angellus’ body, the Sith Lord, in a rage, ordered that the body be decaptitated and his head put on a pike for all to see. A sign of “power”.
After the Sith departure, the Brentaal collected the dead and buried them on the hill. The Republic though were able to call in reinforcements, Angellus knew they could do this and bought them the time they needed to call and for the reinforcements to show. Show they did as no less than twenty Republic warships of all sizes soon dropped out of orbit and legion after legion of Republic Forces went to ground. The Sith forces were obliterated and Darth Telarius barely escaped with his life.
So almost immediately, contemporary military historians and scholars saw Brentaal IV as a critical moral and culture lesson. In universal terms, a small, free people had willingly outfought huge numbers of imperial subjects who advanced under the lash. More specifically, the Western idea that soldiers themselves decide where, how, and against whom they will fight was contrasted against the Eastern notion of despotism and monarchy—freedom proving the stronger idea as the more courageous fighting of the Jedi and Republic forces at Brentaal IV, and their later victories at Corellia and Commenor attested.
Militarily, although the battle was actually not decisive in the context of the Imperial invasion, Brentaal IV is of some significance on the basis of the first two days of fighting. The performance of the defenders is used as an example of the advantages of training, equipment, and good use of terrain as force multipliers.
What happened to Darth Telarius? He would learn twenty years later just how heavy a mistake he made, running into Admiral Owen Angellus and his battlegroup. The Republic officer tracked, followed and chased him throughout wildspace and the outer regions, coincidentally mapping a lot of uncharted galaxy.
