Raid on Ziro the Hutt's Coruscant club

"Threepio, get help! I'm being held by Ziro the Hutt!"

- Senator Padmé Amidala

The Raid on Ziro's Palace was a conflict that took place on the galactic capital of Coruscant during the Clone Wars, between Ziro the Hutt's droid security forces and a team of Coruscant Guards led by Commander Fox. The primary objective of the raid was to rescue Senator Padmé Amidala from the crime lord's palace after she had been captured and detained for discovering Ziro's affiliation with Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The raid saw the successful rescue of Senator Amidala and the capture of Ziro, and was directly responsible for saving the lives of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano. It also allowed the forging of an agreement between the Republic and Hutt clan allowing Republic forces safe passage through Hutt Space.

Prelude
After Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta, was kidnapped, the Hutt gangster sent a call for help to the Galactic Republic and the Jedi. Needing the space lanes though Hutt Space to access the Outer Rim Territories, which had been cut off by the Separatists, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine agreed to send Jedi aide to rescue Jabba's son. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi was sent to negotiate a treaty for safe passage with Jabba, while Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his new Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, were sent to find and rescue Rotta. Jabba dictated that the Jedi had one planetary rotation to find and return Rotta, unharmed, to his home planet of Tatooine, or there would be no treaty.

Watching Kenobi leave Jabba's Palace, Count Dooku, leader of the Separatists, entered the palace and by way of misleading evidence, convinced Jabba it was the Jedi who had kidnapped his son and were conspiring to destroy him along with his entire clan. After Dooku had convinced the Hutt, Jabba cut off all communication with the Republic, refusing to take any communication from the Office of the Supreme Chancellor. After learning of Skywalker's involvement in rescuing Jabba's son, Senator Padme Amidala went to Ziro's Palace to convince him to contact his nephew, Jabba. She hoped to explain that the Jedi were in fact trying to help, not harm, Jabba and his son so that the treaty with the Hutt clan could be established.

Ziro rejected Amidala's plea for aide, claiming there would be no treaty, and had her escorted out of the palace. In a caged lift tube, Amidala managed to distract and elude her IG-86 sentinel droid escort and infiltrated Ziro's throne room where she overheard a communication between Ziro and leader of the Separatists. Now knowing that Ziro was behind the kidnapping and in league with Count Dooku, the Senator attempted to sneak out with the information.

As she was backing away from her hiding place, Amidala ran into one of Ziro's sentinel droids. She managed to disable it with a shot from her blaster, but was apprehended by second droid. When Dooku told Ziro that members of the CIS leadership would pay handsomely for her, the Hutt had her thrown in the dungeon. From her cell, Amidala was able to trick her captors into activating her comlink, allowing her to inform her protocol droid, C-3PO, that she was being held captive and where.

Storming the palace
"Is anybody home?"

- C-3PO, after Coruscant Guards blast open the door

C-3PO contacted the Coruscant Guard about the abduction, and piloted the Senator's H-type Nubian yacht to Ziro's Palace, accompanied by Commander Fox and five other Coruscant Guards. Meanwhile, Amidala was escorted back to the throne room to face her captor. Ziro felt she was too dangerous to be kept alive after her call for help in the dungeon. Amidala was incredulous that Ziro would be so bold as to kill a Senator on Coruscant itself. Ziro boastfully claimed to be unafraid due to friends he held in the Galactic Senate.

At that moment, the rescue team blasted their way into the palace, destroying the B1 battle droids guarding the entrance in the process. In the ensuing commotion, Amidala managed to free herself and destroy the IG-86 droid guarding her with an appropriated E-5 blaster rifle. After a blaster bolt flew by his head and hit the wall behind him, Ziro slithered off his dais making for the exit. Taking cover from return fire, the Coruscant Guards made quick work of the remaining security. As the last two battle droids were destroyed, the clone troopers surrounded the fleeing Ziro, cutting off his escape. The Hutt begged his captors to believe that he was merely an innocent pawn of Count Dooku, professing to love his grandnephew. With a great deal of sarcasm, Senator Amidala told Ziro she did believe him.

Aftermath


Using Ziro's personal holocomm unit, Senator Amidala was able to contact Jabba the Hutt and inform him of his uncle's treachery, forcing Ziro to confess to his nephew of his part in Rotta's kidnapping. Furious at his uncle's treachery, Jabba vowed to have him punished severely.

Unknown to Amidala until she made the call, her timely intervention saved the life of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, who had just returned Jabba's son safely to him. Jabba, who until that point believed the Jedi meant to destroy him and his clan, had them surrounded and about to be executed were it not for the information provided by the Senator. Amidala was also able to forge a treaty between the Galactic Republic and the Hutt clan, which would allow Republic forces free and safe passage through Hutt Space, providing them desperately access to the Outer Rim Territories.

Some time later, the Duros bounty hunter Cad Bane and his team infiltrated the Senate Building on Coruscant and took a group of Senators hostage, including Padmé Amidala. In order to secure the safety of the captive Senators, Chancellor Palpatine was forced to issue a pardon for Ziro, releasing him from the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center.

Behind the scenes
The actual raid is only seen in the film version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and is mentioned in the novelization. A flashback to the scene of Ziro's capture can be seen during the opening narration in the season finale of the first season of the television series.

Though it is never shown in the film, it is assumed that Commander Fox and the Coruscant Guards arrived with C-3PO aboard Amidala's yacht. This would make the most sense as their arriving separately in an official Republic vehicle would have thrown up some kind of alert to Ziro's security and also because no other vehicles were present outside the palace as the yacht arrived.

It is interesting to note that Padmé Amidala was instrumental in Ziro's capture and his subsequent imprisonment, as well as playing a key role is his release from prison, as she was one of the hostages used to secure his freedom.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars film
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars novel