Vukar Tag (planet)
Vukar Tag is the main planet of the Vukar Tag System in the Vukar Tag Sector. It is a territory of the former Kilrathi Empire.
Vukar Tag, described by Terran and Kilrathi alike as a "dusty world", is a barren and largely unpopulated planet far from the frontlines of the Terran-Kilrathi War. It was by most terms a strategically-worthless world, hosting only a single Kilrathi base: An orbital facility that hosted a portion of the Kilrathi fleet. Vukar Tag's only point of interest on the surface was a large castle, the ancestral home of the Empress Graknala. Described by Terran observers as a "fairy-tale castle" reminiscent of those spoken of on Earth, it was a grand structure that held great cultural significance to the Kilrathi, and thus was kept under the watchful eyes of the fleet in orbit.
In 2667, Vukar Tag became a primary target of the Terran Confederation, which was in the midst of planning Operation Back Lash, an operation with the aim of crippling the Kilrathi's vast carrier fleet. Noting an unusually high level of activity on the planet, Confed sent three separate missions to investigate the planet. The first two were lost to the Kilrathi while the third, led by the TCS Johnny Greene successfully gathered a full report on the planet's strategic value. Through intelligence agent Ramona Chekhova, the Terrans discovered Graknala's ancestral home on the surface. Noting its high importance to the Empire, the Confederation moved to lure out a portion of the Kilrathi Home Fleet to Vukar Tag by staging an invasion of the planet, in the hopes of demolishing the Kilrathi's intercepting carriers and evening the odds in the ongoing war.
When Operation Back Lash commenced, the Terran Confederation attacked Vukar Tag in full force. While the Navy engaged the Kilrathi in outer space, nine marine transports initiated a ground invasion of the planet, immediately raiding the castle of its treasures and then destroying the estate. The Marines then set up defensive positions on the planet to make it look like a full occupation, luring in a huge portion of the Kilrathi carrier fleet. The subsequent ambush by the orbiting Terran strike force above demolished the fleet and the orbiting space station, and the Marines soon afterward abandoned the planet before the Kilrathi could intervene any more.
The Battle of Vukar Tag destroyed the planet's high cultural value to the Kilrathi and proved a disastrous loss for the Empire.
