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The Liberation of the Batuuan settlement of Tabanna was not an event of significant impact to the galaxy at large, except as one more example of revolt against Imperial oppression which, together with tens of thousands of others, spelled the collapse of widespread Imperial control, and the rebirth of hope for the galaxy.
But while it may have been one small part of a whole when viewed through the lens of galactic consequence, the successful efforts of Tabanna's citizens to throw off the yoke of the Empire mattered very much to the many farmers, refugees, and pilgrims who occupy this obscure city at the edge of the Galaxy. Collected here is a short account of the Empire's defeat at the hands of these average people.
A Holy Site on a Remote World
Unlike the larger and more bustling Black Spire Outpost, or even the villages of Peka or Galma, the settlement of Tabanna remained fairly small for much of its history. Originally founded around a temple complex built along the coast of Batuu's continent of Faaba, its early growth was bolstered by merchants who established themselves nearby to meet the needs of pilgrims. Over time, the settlement's primary demographics became farmers, merchants, and religious devotees from a variety of orders, all of whom appreciated the obscurity and safety granted by their out-of-the-way home.
Tabanna began to change during the upheaval of the Clone Wars, when people and groups displaced by the war were cast floating among the worlds of the Outer Rim in search of a new start. When Black Spire Outpost could no longer hold the influx of new arrivals, the newcomers spread out to nearby settlements, with Tabanna's ancient infrastructure and generous religious culture creating the perfect set of variables for a population boom.
Not everyone who settled on Batuu were refugees in need of new homes: mercenaries, warbands, and syndicate cast-offs arrived on Batuu and retreated into the wilderness, where they formed small bandit gangs and preyed on the growing settlements.
Growth continued well into the Galactic Civil War, to the degree that Tabanna's population, which was recorded in 44 BBY as no more than 50 beings, had ballooned by 0 ABY to an approximated 323.
Another growth factor was the sudden and ominous interest of the Galactic Empire. In 1 BBY, an Imperial garrison arrived and took control of Tabanna, claiming an archeological interest in the ancient religious structures in and around the city. This quickly translated to complete authoritarian control of the city. Impatient with relying on travel to and from Black Spire Outpost for their exports and imports, Imperial construction of a rudimentary spaceport turned Tabanna for the first time into a kind of trade hub, although trade was so tightly controlled by the Imperial garrison that the benefits never reached the city's citizens.
A Spiritual Movement
“Value, dignity, honor, peace, compassion. These things are threats to power, you know this well. And you know why you are teaching them to the people. If the people can trust in the will of the Force, they cannot be manipulated with fear. If they are joyful in little, they are not threatened by loss. Most dangerous of all; if the Force is the true power in the galaxy, then the Emperor is not.”
--Anonymous Sage
As an agrarian settlement, Tabanna had been self-sufficient for hundreds of years, but the days of plenty were now relegated to oral history and fairy tales. Plentiful harvests attracted the attention of local governors. Harsh taxes and unjust seizures soon followed. House raids conducted under the pretense of rooting out rebellion saw innocent men and women sent to Imperial work prisons, fathers and mothers separated from their families. Brute squads created widows and orphans across the galaxy. In time, there began in many young people to appear a familiar edge in their eyes, anger and suspicion fueled by grief, loss, and hurt. In turn, the old lost their light, increasingly cooling and slowing, becoming hollow and unresponsive. They did not grow up in conditions like these. Violence and deception did not come naturally. This galaxy was not made for them. The Outer Rim had been a harsh place before, but the cruelty and greed of the Empire further degraded the already-broken galaxy. In only a few years, survival became the prevailing moral law. As more and more died to starvation, desperation, and weapon fire, there were few who could remember a different time. The old days were not perfect. The overcrowding of the Core meant that the people of Tabanna often accepted refugees, and this meant finding solutions to complex problems. The Outer Rim was a largely lawless place, and the Old Republic did little to curb the influence of the small bands of raiders who sometimes preyed on the outlander villages. But bandits were fair targets, and violence can drive them off. The Empire, on the other hand, had the backing of the law. There was no recourse against brutality or corruption. Town Hall meetings organized for locals to voice their concerns were a sham. If you summoned the courage to speak up against the raids and seizures or voice a complaint about the burning of your fields during a ‘training exercise’, you became another target for the local garrison. If one of the Empire’s soldiers knocked your child bleeding to the ground for the crime of jostling them in a crowd, and you dared raise a hand in their defense, you would be swiftly branded a traitor, subject to a life sentence withering away in a work camp. No one could help you; your neighbors, colleagues, cousins, and friends, all knew what they had to lose. The difference between guilty and innocent was arbitrary in the Galactic Empire. Your friends would stare at the ground as the tribunal ended your life with a stamp on your record, and the troopers processed you for transport to one of hundreds of hellworlds. You would never be seen again. Rather than become prey for the powerful, many chose to become predators themselves. Choosing corruption was, for some, the only rational option in an irrational, unjust galaxy. Escalation works both ways; under the law and order of the Empire the galaxy became a more depraved place. The actual criminals—syndicates and spice runners and corporate authorities—had a better chance than a farmer standing up to a stormtrooper. Brutalization, separation, desperation. Head down, eyes low. Next job, next meal. Get yours, stay alive. These were the days of the Empire.SpoilerDays of the Empire, by Webel Koinn Life was brutal under the Empire, and people adapted in kind. There was a time, only a few decades ago, when the markets of the town of Tabanna were lively and peaceful places, where the shadows cast by the tarps overhead meant relief from Batuu’s hot summer suns, rather than danger from hands made desperate by scarcity. A time when a farmer from the hills did not know anyone sold into Syndicate slavery for their debts in the Core. When the people enjoyed respect and abundance.
In 3 ABY, Tabanna experienced a moment of relief from the depression of military occupation. A local metal craftswoman, Jarrah Lor Aam, began to preach in the city courtyard about her belief in the Living Force, and its implications for equality, connection, compassion, strength amidst suffering, and the inherent worth of all beings.
Her sermons began to draw increasingly large crowds, as the people of Tabanna, desperate for hope, found light in her lessons. Many of the religious orders in the city began to study The Force, and many determined that it might form a unifying point for their disparate beliefs. Those who found hope in Lor Aam's teachings began to call themselves Followers of the Force, and made it their purpose to help their neighbors and endure the injustices of Imperial rule with peace and strength.
When first made aware of the movement, the local Imperial commander dismissed it as an irrelevant spiritual movement, which turned out to be a fatal strategic error. By the time the Imperial Garrison realized the degree to which this movement eroded the effectiveness of their regime, it was too late.
In a crucial misstep, the Garrison commander received news of the possible death of the Emperor, and decided to quickly take control of the city before the news spread to the populace. Seeing the Followers as the largest threat to security, the commander sent troops to storm the Undercroft courtyard and seize the leaders of the Followers movement, including Lor Aam. The teacher went peacefully, and was taken to the Imperial garrison at the cliffs above the city.
This was the match that lit the powder keg.
The Long Night of Freedom
Able-bodied members of Followers of the Force organized in the streets with the goal of destroying Imperial checkpoints and other security infrastructure, and freeing captive prisoners. Many Followers were pledged to non-violence, and took on the responsibility of caring for those injured during the fighting. Others stormed the checkpoints; though in each case, managing to disable the security gates without any violence whatsoever.
The Imperial commander responded by sending troops down from the garrison to clear the streets, and though the Followers met them with nonviolent resistance, stormtroopers soon opened fire indiscriminately into the crowds.
Now acting in self-defense, and joined by non-religious citizens of the city, the rebel crowds began to fight back in earnest, pushing their way up the city streets towards the garrison. Many Imperial soldiers laid down their arms willingly, even joining the revolt, while others were killed or routed in the fighting, fleeing into the wilderness.
The rebels encountered their most significant obstacle when they reached the Ghora quarter, home to a gang of hunters who had been paid by the Empire to fight on their behalf. A tense standoff between the rebels and the Ghora ensued, and became the site of some of the most brutal fighting of the night, while the Imperial garrison commander fled via shuttle and left their second behind to secure the city.
The Imperial garrison, low on resources thanks to the escalation of the war and the obscurity of the outpost, had no armor support. Their only heavy weapons were two E-Web cannons, which they quickly deployed to defend the upper streets against the encroaching crowds.
The rebel goal became to capture both cannons; the first was relatively simple, as the garrison had placed the cannon hastily in the portcullis of a temple structure, a structure they were unaware was riddled with hidden entrances well-known to the citizens.
The second proved to be more of a problem, and for over an hour created a stalemate at the city's summit. The quick-thinking of a group of pestcatchers saw three rebels crawl 300 yards through a sewer smaller than an average human. One of the tunnelers did not finish the journey, suffocating in the sewage before reaching the end. The two survivors managed to emerge behind the emplacement, but found their blasters had been rendered nonfunctioning. They procured improvised weapons, and using the poor visibility of the evening, bluffed a hold-up of the emplacement. Their gambit succeeded, and their comrades took control of the E-Web.
Utilizing both cannons, the rebels breached the Garrison security gates, entering the barracks yard, before halting in horror, for they discovered that Jarrah Lor Aam had been hanged by the Empire.
The rest of the revolt happened very quickly; the remaining Imperials were taken prisoner or exiled into the wilderness (at the urging of the revolt leaders, the rebels did not take revenge for the death of their teacher), and the garrison was burned to the ground. Lor Aam's body was taken back to the Undercroft.
With Imperial control well and truly broken, dawn rose on a free Tabanna. The people immediately formed a coordinated effort to care for the wounded, both ally and enemy, and repair damage caused by the fighting. In the weeks that followed, the spaceport was opened to the public, many had been nursed back to health, and a formal memorial was held for Jarrah Lor Aam, a somber-but-grateful event that provided peace and catharsis to the community bruised by tumult of revolution.
Aftermath
Despite a wide variety of groups and interests, Tabanna's citizens voted to establish their own governing council and created formal solutions to support the displaced and injured. Various malicious forces, like the exiled Ghora gang, proved to be a threat to the wellbeing of the city's people, but things in Tabanna began to slowly stabilize into a functional status quo. The Followers of the Force made it their goal to care for the needs of the displaced and refugees, assisting in securing medical supplies. Others sought to carry on Lor Aam's legacy by expanding the knowledge of the Followers, searching local records and religious writings to collect enlightened truth for those still searching for greater meaning and purpose in the galaxy.
Tabanna flourishes today as a self-sufficient community that, like so many others, is charting its destiny in a new galaxy.
This topic was modified 5 months ago 8 times by RocketBoy
Leader of the New Jedi Order | SWFactions GM
Posted : 22/07/2024 2:39 am
