Sullust

"What of the reports of the Rebel fleet massing near Sullust?"
"It is of no concern."

Sullust was a planet located in the Sullust system of the Outer Rim Territories that was home to the Sullustan species.

Description

NienNunb-ChromeBlack2023 — Sullustans were the native inhabitant of Sullust.

Sullust was a barren, obsidian world of lava streams and turquoise lakes. Native fauna such as ash angels foraged during the day and returned to nest at night, while rockrenders prowled the planet's underground.^[10] Because the planet's atmosphere was highly toxic, native Sullustans lived in technologically advanced subterranean cities that were highly regarded for their beauty.^[25] They commuted to work by lifts and shuttles that carried them to the factories on the planet's surface, alternating between day and night shifts.^[7] The SoroSuub Corporation employed roughly half the population of Sullust^[22] and the world was the center of the company's industrial empire, with famous factories manufacturing starships.^[26] Indeed, shipyards existed at Sullust.^[14]

Sullust lay on the Rimma Trade Route, which connected it to Vondarc and Eriadu.^[5] It also acted as a junction onto the Incisor Sidestep route, which connected it to Anoat^[8] and the secret Sanctuary Pipeline, which connected it to Endor.^[9] Sullust's capital city was Pinyumb,^[18] a cavern city based at the bottom of the volcanic mountain Inyusu Tor.^[7]

History

During the Republic

In its earliest days, Sullust was a proud and influential member of the Galactic Republic.^[3] During the High Republic Era, Republic Pathfinders attempted to chart hyperspace routes near Sullust during the Great Hyperspace Rush. They discovered the nearby world of Tunguray, which the team helped evacuate amid a volcanic cataclysm.^[27] Sullust also formed a joint task force with the Mid Rim world Malastare. With officers like Hedda Casset among the membership of their joint fleet, they kept order in their small portion of the Mid Rim, fighting threats like pirates.^[20] Starfighters from Sullust were deployed to join the Second Battle of Cyclor.^[28]

BattleOfSullustSystem Nightsisters — The Battle of Sullust during the Clone Wars.

Sullust was also host to the Sullust Sector Spacefarers Academy. During the later Republic Era, young Wilhuff Tarkin attended that academy.^[3] After the Battle of Naboo, Dooku, on the orders of his Sith Master, came to Sullust on a secret mission and met with Kap Klyp. Meanwhile, on a secret mission, Jak'Zin, the Jedi Knight, recognized Dooku and came to his side. After Dooku fused with Jak'Zin, the two revealed to each other their secret mission. Later, they were surrounded by armed men, but the duo killed them all. However, Dooku also killed Jak'Zin.^[19] In the years following the Invasion of Naboo, the rogue Jedi Count Dooku spread political turmoil on worlds such as Kashyyyk, Onderon, and Sullust,^[3] and Sullust would secede to the CIS^[21] during the Separatist Crisis.^[29] During the Clone Wars, it hosted a battle between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems.^[4]

Imperial reorganization

The planet eventually came under the jurisdiction of the nascent Galactic Empire following the proclamation of the New Order, and was reduced to vassal status and a source of fuel for the Imperial Military, becoming an essential mining and manufacturing center for the Empire.^[7] By 18 BBY, the Empire already had an established presence on Sullust.^[30] For years, Sullust remained relatively peaceful as workers accepted the stability offered under the Empire's reign. However, the Cobalt Laborers' Reformation Front steadily began to increase in numbers, sending letters to the Imperial governor demanding better working conditions and increased local autonomy. In response, the Empire detained roughly eighty percent of those in the organization and those it deemed most radical.^[7]

During the early rebellion against the Galactic Empire, the Alliance to Restore the Republic listed Sullust as a safe world. Sullust was included in a map of the galaxy with a legend listing the various Alliance safe worlds, starfighter hubs at level five or higher, rebel operations sectors and regional headquarters, and shadow planets with deep space caches. The map would be incorporated into The Rebel Files.^[31]

Imperial occupation

In 0 ABY,^[32] shortly after the Disaster, an enclave of Alderaanian refugees took up shelter on Sullust, hoping to escape Imperial reprisals against the remaining population of Alderaan.^[10]

Sullust hovering TIEs — TIE fighters in flight over Sullust

After the Battle of Hoth^[7] in 3 ABY,^[33] the Imperial Security Bureau began to suspect the Cobalt Laborers' Reformation Front of harboring rebel sympathizers and material for a possible resistance movement. The group claimed to have no connection to the local Sullustan resistance on the planet, but that did not stop the Empire from locking down the Sullustan capital of Pinyumb following a pipe bomb explosion in a nearby manufacturing facility.^[7]

Weeks later and shortly following the Battle of Hoth, the Rebel Alliance initiated Operation Ringbreaker, which sought to force Imperial redeployments from the shipbuilding world of Kuat by assaulting worlds such as Obumubo, Naator, Xagobah and the asteroid mines of the Kuliquo belt, thus allowing for the Alliance to assault its ultimate goal. When the Alliance 61st Mobile Infantry jumped out of hyperspace a mere half million kilometers from the planet in an effort to rapidly deploy drop ships to assault the Inyusu Tor mineral processing facility, the attack ultimately went awry the following day when the Imperial Vixus Squadron ambushed their troop transports, stranding the company on the planet. The next three days would result in the bloody Siege of Inyusu Tor, initially being in the Empire's favor as the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Herald arrived in the system and the Imperial Army utilized overwhelming force to surround the rebels on the mountainside facility. However, after receiving aid from the local resistance as well as finally convincing the Cobalt Front to rise up in Pinyumb, the Imperials were overwhelmed, while subsequent uprisings across the planet ultimately liberated it from Imperial rule.^[7]

Push towards total liberation

"Sullust is an opportunity for us—we have contacts with its underground. Our armada will gather there. The commando team will go first, to bring down the battle station's shields. Then the fleet will travel down the Sanctuary Pipeline to Endor."

―Admiral Gial Ackbar, explaining the plan to destroy the DS-2 Death Star II Mobile Battle Station on Zastiga^[9]

T47Airspeeder-SWL2024update — A trio of T-47 airspeeders cripple an AT-AT on Sullust

In the following days, an interim government was installed in Pinyumb, while heavy losses sustained by the Sixty-First ultimately canceled Operation Ringbreaker, allowing the company to act as a temporary police force for the Sullustan people. Subsequent pirate broadcasts and intercepted Imperial signals indicated further insurrections across the planet, delaying the inevitable Imperial counterattack.^[7]

In 4 ABY,^[33] the Rebel Alliance took advantage of the contacts it had established with the Sullustan underground^[9] and used the planet as the staging area for its fleet prior to the Battle of Endor.^[23] The Liberation of Sullust marked the final end to the Empire's control over the planet,^[31] with Shriv Suurgav taking part in the battle. Nonetheless, a seemingly abandoned Imperial factory existed on world. Sometime after the liberation of Sullust, Imperial forces taking advantage of the factory were discovered by General Landonis Balthazar Calrissian and Suurgav. Both men managed to infiltrate and destroy the factory.^[13]

The New Republic

"And we did, though it may have taken months rather than days. When the fighting ended, Mon Mothma and I escorted Sian Tevv into the government center for his ceremonial inauguration."

―Gial Ackbar, in The Rebel Files^[31]

By 28 ABY,^[34] Sullust was represented in the New Republic Senate by the Populist senator Anib Ney.^[24]

Behind the scenes

Origins

"But we can't turn back, fear is their greatest defense, I doubt if the actual security there is any greater than it was on Aquilae or Sullust and what there is is most likely directed towards a large-scale assault."

―Luke Skywalker speaks to Han Solo during the approach to the Death Star in a cut line from A New Hope^[35]

Sullust dates as far back as development for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The second draft, Adventures of the Starkiller, Episode I: The Star Wars, makes reference to the Bomerwrights of Sullest.^[36] All the way past casting, Sullust remained in the screenplay via a mention, where it was noted, in past tense, to be a world where the Empire had maintained a security force that Luke Skywalker believed to be about the same level of power as what was on the Death Star. Mark Hamill was mortified of the line and begged George Lucas to remove it.^[35]

After that line's removal,^[35] Sullust would finally receive a mention in the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, where it was mentioned in dialogue as the rebel rallying point.^[23] Before the film's release, Sullust's mention was carried over into its novelization, which, therefore, marked the first finalized story material to mention Sullust.^[37] Afterward, Sullust made its first appearance in the short story comic Bungo n' Rusti Get Carry-Out.^[38] With the Star Wars canon reset of 2014,^[39] works like Bungo n' Rusti Get Carry-Out^[38] and the original Return of the Jedi novelization^[37] were brought into the newly branded Star Wars Legends continuity.^[39] Canonically speaking, Sullust was first mentioned in Return of the Jedi the film^[23] and made its first appearance in "Nightsisters," a 2011 episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.^[4]

In the revised rough draft of the script for The Phantom Menace, Clegg Holdfast is said to be from Sullust.^[40]

Development in canon

"[We wanted] to come up with something that could really complement what the other planets are. We knew in Battlefront that we were going to have a snow planet, a desert planet, and a forest planet. [sic] What else could we put in there to make it texturally more interesting? Iceland turned out to be a great candidate — the Icelandic lava flows. And that feel was very unique."

―Doug Chiang^[41]

Icelandic Sullust — *Star Wars Battlefront* team member on Iceland, which served as a template for Sullust

Its surface as depicted in Star Wars Battlefront was based on Iceland.^[42] DICE's Audio Director Ben Minto recorded various sounds in Iceland, including bubbling mud pools, shrimp and cod grunts; or huge steel guy-wires from the Longwave radio mast Hellissandur.^[43]

In the 2018 reference book Star Wars: The Rebel Files, Sullust is mispelled as "Sollust" on page 146.^[31] In the initial hardcover and audiobook release of The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness, the list of planets brought under Nihil control by the expansion of the Stormwall includes Sullust. The digital release edits the list and instead places Triton behind the new Stormwall border.^[44]