Battle of Muunilinst

"The Banking Clan has hidden huge factories on Muunilinst, building huge droid armies and massive warships. We must act quickly!"

- Obi-Wan Kenobi

The Battle of Muunilinst was a battle that took place four months after the Battle of Geonosis.

Prelude
The battle was arranged in a meeting between Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, and Chancellor Palpatine. Anakin and Obi-Wan were enlisted by Palpatine to lead an assault on Muunilinst, home of the Intergalactic Banking Clan. The Intergalactic Banking Clan was a heavy monetary, warship, and battle droid contributor to the Separatists.

The battle
The Republic fleet of Acclamator-I-class cruisers led by Anakin and Obi-Wan, encountered resistance as it entered the orbit of the planet Muunilinst. The Republic's attack gunships managed to land on the planet, where they encountered the Droid Army of the Separatists.

The main battle
The CIS was taken off-guard when the Republic attacked so quickly. The Clone forces gained momentum, firing all their weapons in a wall of ammunition. Any forces coming to the front lines on the Separatist side were almost instantaneously decimated. Entire buildings fell quickly to the amount of artillery and firepower.

The Republic's initial success panicked San Hill, the CIS commander. The CIS army's fortunes were improved when Count Dooku's bounty hunter, Durge, arrived on Muunilinst with reinforcements. Their plans were enacted, and Durge led a band of IG lancer droids toward the heart of the Republic's forces, causing huge casualties in the Republic ranks and destroying nearly all the SPHA-M walkers.

The joust


General Kenobi led a team of Lancer troopers out to meet Durge's forces. The swoop riders got into vicious combat, both clone and droid alike being thrown aside like dolls. Obi-Wan and Durge both slew a good share of the enemy. The two commanders got into personal combat. Their swoops were discarded during the fighting, and Durge used his entire arsenal to try to defeat the Jedi. However, it was to no avail. Kenobi pressed the advantage, Durge barely blocking with his energy shields, until finally, he was bisected through the middle and his arm sliced off. After defeating Durge, he proceeded to join the ARC troopers. Meanwhile, Voolvif Monn and the Third Army battled through the Droid Army in Harnaidan.

Commando mission


During the initial landing, the specialized landing craft of the ARC troopers of the Muunilinst 10 was deployed. On a special mission within the city of Harnaidan, these ARCs were led by Captain Fordo. Unfortunately, they were shot down with missile-fire. They were cut off from their original drop zone, but still made their way to the enemy command center. Along the way, they faced off against the Droid Army in the urban battleground, fully utilizing their technical and dexterous advantages over the enemy. These commandos were highly influential in the battle on all fronts. They destroyed the massive cannon at the place of the Separatist command tower, preventing it from attacking the space forces of the Republic side. This also contributed to San Hill's scare about the battle, thinking that the Republic artillery reached far enough in the city to blow up the cannon. The Muunilinst 10's mission also layed the way for General Kenobi to infiltrate the tower with them, capturing the Muun leaders and finally defeating the CIS forces.

The battle in space


Meanwhile, Anakin Skywalker was leading the clone navy in a fierce space battle above Muunilinst. Several Republic Acclamator-class Assault Ships engaged the Confederacy's gun platforms. The Republic's V-19 Torrents were engaged by hundreds of Nantex-class starfighters. Skywalker ordered the clone pilots to disengage, and destroyed large numbers of the enemy fighters with his proton torpedoes. Pursued by yet more enemy fighters, he ordered his clones to fire all their concussion missiles across the bow of Cruiser 8. He flew past the ship as the missiles started arriving; the missiles hit the swarm of fighters pursuing him, destroying hundreds. Trailed by missiles, Skywalker flew through the hangar of one of the gun platforms. The missiles destroyed the gun platform from the inside. Sustained turbolaser fire from the Republic ships destroyed another one.

Only a few Separatist fighters remained, but a mysterious ship engaged the Republic forces, destroying Blue Squadron. Skywalker personally engaged the fighter. When the pilot, a mysterious Force-sensitive protégé of Dooku, Asajj Ventress, jumped into hyperspace, the impetuous young Jedi followed, disobeying a direct order from Obi-Wan.

Conclusion and aftermath


Obi-Wan and the remaining members of the Muunilinst 10 raided the InterGalactic Banking Clan's Command Center, taking San Hill into custody, which broke the CIS army. The battle was won. Anakin tracked Asajj Ventress down to the fourth moon of Yavin. There, Ventress killed the clone troopers accompanying Skywalker and destroyed his ship. Anakin and Ventress engaged in a lightsaber duel through the jungles and on top of a Massassi temple. In the end, Ventress was defeated, though not killed. This was important, as in the process, Anakin was pushed a little more to the dark side and becoming Darth Vader.

Galactic Republic

 * ARC-77
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Voolvif Monn
 * Anakin Skywalker

Confederacy of Independent Systems

 * Durge
 * Asajj Ventress
 * San Hill

Behind the scenes

 * The scene in which the Republic and Separatist forces fight in mounted combat on swoops is meant to resemble a futuristic version of a Medieval joust, further supporting George Lucas' ideas and plans for the Jedi that are related to things such as chivalry and knights.


 * Although no explicit figure has been given of the size of the Republic assault force, a passage in The New Essential Chronology, describes the Republic besieging the "unassailable castle keep" of the planet Muunilinst with "sheer numbers... hundreds of assault ships, each one groaning from the weight of troopers and war machines".

If these ships were Acclamator-class assault ships and were filled above their specifications, at least 3.2 million clone troopers would have been deployed to the battle. No distinction between the Acclamators seen in Star Wars: Clone Wars and the assault ships mentioned in the NEC were given, and any inference that there were, is not shown in any canon source. It should be pointed out that the NEC is written from an in-universe perspective, so the validilty of some of the statements made there is questionable.

As minimal figures, it can be noted that eleven Acclamator-class warships are seen together on Muunilinst in Clone Wars, which even at full load might have carried less than two hundred thousand ground troops.

The debate over numbers at Muunilinst is part of a wider disagreement among fans as to the size of the Grand Army of the Republic and the scale of forces involved in the Clone Wars: a number of canon sources state explicitly that the GAR could deploy only 1.2 million clone troopers in total at this stage in the war, rising later to a total muster strength of three million; but while these numbers are accepted by some fans, others believe that they are unworkable, and they argue that other evidence indicates clone forces numbering in millions of Divisions. For fuller discussion, see here.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Clone Wars