Clone Wars
The Clone Wars is a conflict that features in Star Wars.
Contents |
History
The Clone Wars was an intergalactic conflict that erupted in the waning days of the Galactic Republic. It occurred in the years after the Battle of Naboo where the Trade Federation had attempted to illegal conquer the planet. This brought the matter to the Galactic Senate where tensions had arise among a number of worlds. Unknown to anyone, these tensions were secretly the machinations of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious who looked to bring about the downfall of the Jedi Order. Through his agent, Count Dooku these dissenting worlds resented Republic rule and came to gather them alongside a number of corporations at Geonosis in order to herald the rise of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Meanwhile, Darth Sidious's influence had led to an expansion of the Republic's military in the form of the Grand Army of the Republic. This force was bolstered by the creation of Clone Troopers born and bred from the planet Kamino. This force was dispatched to Geonosis to stop the nascent Separatists but its leaders managed to escape the planet leading to the start of the Clone Wars that ravaged the galaxy.
In the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Geonosis, Grievous and the Separatist Droid Army wrested control of the galaxy's major hyperspace lanes, isolating the Republic from the bulk of its Grand Army. Encircled by the Confederacy and with their forces spread thin, the Jedi Generals were unable to gain traction in the Outer Rim Territories, especially as worlds continued to flock to the Confederacy. As the next phase of the Clone Wars began, the Hutt Clan—which controlled Hutt Space with its network of supply routes reaching to the Outer Rim—became a coveted ally for both the Republic and the Confederacy. In a bid to secure the Hutts' supply routes for the Separatists, Dooku hatched a plot to kidnap Rotta, the son of Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, and frame the Jedi Order for the crime. Dooku collaborated with Jabba's uncle Ziro, who hoped to depose his nephew as leader of the Hutt Clan. The first stage of Dooku's plan required that the Jedi's attention be diverted elsewhere; to that end, Dooku ordered his forces to conquer Christophsis, a crystalline Outer Rim world valued for its location and resources, and also the site of a Republic relief effort overseen by Senator Bail Organa. The Confederate Admiral Trench blockaded Christophsis with a massive detachment from the Confederacy navy, while Separatist ground forces subjugated the planet's inhabitants. After a number of native Christophsians mounted a futile defense of their homeworld, they requested aid from the Jedi High Council. Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, alongside Admiral Wullf Yularen, were dispatched with a task force to rescue Organa and the besieged Christophsians. Although their fleet of Venator-class Star Destroyers was unable to penetrate Trench's immense blockade of warships, Skywalker and Yularen used an experimental stealth ship to outmaneuver Trench and obliterate his flagship, the Invincible. Having broken through the blockade, Skywalker and Yularen delivered the much-needed relief supplies to Organa's refugee camp on the surface, while Kenobi exploited the hole in the Confederate armada to overwhelm the opposing fleet long enough to land a Republic invasion force on the planet. The Separatists likewise fortified their ground troops with reinforcements, concealing their true numbers from the Republic.
By this time, Dooku had dispatched Asajj Ventress to Christophsis to further hamper the Republic's progress. As Kenobi and Skywalker planned to ambush the battle droid forces in a major city plaza, a spy within the Republic ranks, Clone Sergeant Slick, apprised the Separatists of the Jedi's attack plan. Slick's actions transformed a potential Republic victory into a retreat, and Kenobi and Skywalker withdrew their men to the Republic's base. Suspecting the existence of an informant, Kenobi and Skywalker departed to gather information behind enemy lines, while Clone Commander Cody and Clone Captain Rex personally launched an investigation into the source of the intelligence leak. After they exposed Slick as the spy, he bombed the Republic's weapons depot, leading Rex and Cody to mobilize a swift manhunt. They arrested Slick and sent him to lock-up, though the damage was already done. Most of the Republic's arsenal was reduced to wreckage, with only a quartet of AV-7 Anti-vehicle Artillery Cannons surviving his sabotage. At the Confederate headquarters, Kenobi and Skywalker encountered Ventress and engaged her in a lightsaber duel, which she used to buy time for Slick's sabotage. Both Jedi halted their attack once they witnessed the sheer size of the Separatists' landing force. After Kenobi and Skywalker escaped back to their base, General Whorm Loathsom assumed command of the droid infantry and commenced an assault on the city, while Ventress left to execute the next phase of Dooku's plan: kidnapping Rotta the Huttlet. She travelled to Tatooine aboard her personal starship, the Trident, and spirited Rotta away from his homeworld. In addition to Slick's sabotage of their weapons depot, the Republic forces lost their naval support when the Separatists' orbital defenses ousted Yularen and his fleet from the Christoph system. Though they were severely outnumbered, Kenobi, Skywalker, and their clone soldiers managed to repel Loathsom's infantry from the city. Octuptarra tri-droids lent their support to the Separatists' second wave, but the AV-7 Anti-vehicle Cannons halted the advance of Loathsom's rearguard of Armored Assault Tanks. Meanwhile, believing that renegades had kidnapped Rotta, Jabba contacted Sheev Palpatine to request the Republic's assistance in rescuing his son. Since Kenobi and Skywalker were the only Jedi available for such a task, Yoda dispatched a messenger to Christophsis to recall the two Jedi Generals from the battlefront. The messenger was Skywalker's new Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano.
At the conflicts height, the Separatists would stage an assault on the galactic capital of Coruscant itself with this being headed by General Grievous. He would succeed in capturing Chancellor Palpatine and taking him hostage only for him to be rescued by Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. By this point, the Republic forces had turned back the CIS fleet with the Chancellor being returned to Coruscant though Grievous had managed to escape. Clone Intelligence later came to place the Separatist leader on the world of Utapau with General Kenobi being sent to that front. Meanwhile, Grandmaster Yoda was dispatched to Kashyyyk to aid the Wookiees who were under attack from Separatist forces. Meanwhile, the Jedi Council had suspicions of Chancellor Palpatine and attempted to remove him from office. It was then revealed that Palpatine was actually the secret Sith Lord known as Darth Sidious. With the aid of Anakin Skywalker, he managed to kill off his attackers and turned the young Jedi to his cause where he made him a Sith Lord called Darth Vader. Palpatine then enacted Order 66 that was a hidden program amongst the Clone Troopers that declared all Jedi to be traitors to the Republic. This saw Jedi across the galaxy being turned on by their former allies with Anakin Skywalker leading Clone Troopers in a purge of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.
With the Clone Wars over, Palpatine came to re-organise the Republic into the First Galactic Empire with himself as its ruling Emperor.
Overview
In appearance, the Clone Wars was a galactic conflict that was fought all across the galaxy.
Participants
- Anakin Skywalker :
- Obi-Wan Kenobi :
- Count Dooku :
- Nute Gunray :
- Wat Tambor :
- Admiral Trench :
- Commander Cody :
- Captain Rex :
- Yoda : Jedi Grandmaster who helped lead the order and served as a general in a number of engagements. He came to survive Order 66 on Kashyyyk where he went into exile to Dagobah following his failed attempt at stopping Chancellor Palpatine.
Notes
- The Clone Wars were first mentioned in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope but were depicted in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.
Alternate Versions
- In Star Wars Legends, an alternate version of the Clone Wars was depicted in the former Star Wars Expanded Universe.
In other media
Video games
- In Star Wars: Battlefront, the Clone Wars were depicted in the campaign mode of the video game.
- In Star Wars: Battlefront II, the Clone Wars were depicted in the campaign mode of the video game. Players took the role as members of the 501st Legion as they battled during the Clone Wars.
Appearances
- Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones:
- Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith:
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
- Star Wars: Clone Wars:
External Links
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