Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaught

"Oh, excellent&hellip;"

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, upon seeing a Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaught

The Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaught was a huge, circular repulsorlift aerial attack platform utilized by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. Heavily armed with dozens of laser cannons and crewed by many battle droids, several Conqueror-class dreadnaughts were used by the Confederacy when they invaded the planet of Terra Sool. At least thirty-six dreadnaughts were deployed in Terra Sool's cloudy atmosphere, fighting against the local militia and a Galactic Republic detachment sent to aid Terra Sool. Although the Conqueror dreadnaughts easily destroyed countless amounts of the Terra Sool's militia fighters, the platforms were no match for Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, who were leading the Republics task force. Using their powers over the Force and their mastery of starfighter combat, Kenobi and Skywalker managed to hijack or destroy several Conqueror dreadnaughts during the battle, eventually defeating the Separatists and freeing Terra Sool.

Characteristics
"I'm on my way. If I can figure out how to pilot this thing&hellip;"

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, after commandeering a Conqueror dreadnaught, but having trouble piloting the ship

The Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaught was an extremely expensive, large, repulsorlift aerial attack platform used in the Confederacy of Independent Systems' droid army during the Clone Wars against the Galactic Republic. These dreadnaughts were roughly cylindrical shaped, having a flat top that could serve as both a landing pad and a troop transport area. The Conqueror dreadnaughts had a series of halls and rooms in their interior, including a cockpit on the perimeter of the dreadnaughts that housed a large control board that operated the entire aerial platform. The Conqueror platforms were heavily armed, being equipped with dozens of laser cannon batteries, including five single-barrel cannons on the dreadnaughts' roofs, as well as a number of dual-barrel laser batteries that lined the dreadnaughts' upper perimeter. During their service in Confederacy's army, these dreadnaughts were crewed by a number of B1 battle droids and B2 super battle droids and piloted by a pair of OOM pilot battle droids; however, the platforms could be piloted by single Human.

History
"Master, we have a slight problem."

- Anakin Skywalker, upon seeing a whole fleet of Conqueror dreadnaughts during the Battle of Terra Sool

In 22 BBY&mdash;five months after the Battle of Geonosis and the start of the Clone Wars&mdash;the Confederacy invaded the planet Terra Sool. The Confederacy dispatched a fleet of at least thirty-six Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaughts to crush the planet's opposition and raze Terra Sool's surface. When the Conqueror dreadnaught fleet entered Terra Sool's cloudy atmoshpere&mdash;along with a number of Confederate Vulture droid starfighters&mdash;they were engaged by a Grand Army of the Republic detachment that had come to Terra Sool to assist the planet, as well as starfighters of Terra Sool's local militia.

The Conqueror platforms easily dispatched dozens of the militia starfighters, but were outmatched when the dreadnaughts engaged Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker aboard their Delta-7 starfighters, who were in command of the Republic task force. During the battle, the Jedi first encountered a single Conqueror dreadnaught while fighting off Vulture starfighters over Terra Sool, and Kenobi&mdash;deciding to commandeer the Separatists ship&mdash;landed his starfigher on dreadnaught's roof, fending off the B1 and B2 battle droids stationed there. Making his way inside the Conqueror platform, Kenobi managed to fight his way to the cockpit and take control of the dreadnaught.

In the meantime, Skywalker's astromech droid informed the Padawan&mdash;still fighting off droid stafighters&mdash; that it was picking up more droid communications coming from farther away in the atmosphere. Following the Confederate communications to their source, Skywalker found the rest of the Conqueror dreadnaught fleet fighting the Terra Sool militia over a small farming town. Skywalker joined the battle, but his fighter was damaged during the engagement, forcing him to crash-land on a dreadnaught's roof. Stranded on the enemy warship, Skywalker fought the battle droids aboard that platform, while Kenobi piloted his captured Conqueror dreadnaught toward the main Confederate fleet. Using the weapons aboard his hijacked warship, Kenobi destroyed another dreadnaught aiming at the one Skywalker was aboard, while the Padawan cleared the remaining battle droids from his aerial platform.

Kenobi began to engage the other Separatists dreadnaughts and contacted Skywalker, informing his apprentice that the Separatist fleet had launched two waves of missiles to raze Terra Sool's surface. Seeing the oncoming missiles, Skywalker used his mastery of the Force and his skills with a lightsaber to dispatch the missiles, including grabbing another Conqueror attack platform using the Force and moving the helpless ship in the way of a wave of missiles, destroying both the Confederate warship and the missiles.

Skywalker and Kenobi continued to fight against the Confederacy and defeated the Conqueror dreadnaught fleet by the end of the Terra Sool day, freeing the planet from the invasion.

Behind the scenes
The Conqueror-class atmospheric dreadnaughts first appeared as unnamed Separatists war machines in Skywalker, a 40-page comic in the Clone Wars Adventures: Volume 2, published by Dark Horse Comics September 7, 2004. The Conqueror dreadnaughts were later given an entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia&mdash;released December 9, 2008&mdash;which identified the ship classes' name.

Notes and references
Conqueror-class Atmospheric Dreadnaught