Battle of Nadiem

The Battle of Nadiem occured during the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatists. In 22 BBY, five months after the Battle of Geonosis, the Separatist Droid Army, commanded by Confederacy General Grievous, invaded the Republic-controlled planet of Nadiem and was able to to grab a strong foothold on the planet. The Republic then sent a detachment of their own clone army to counter the invasion, along with several Jedi Generals including High Generals Luminara Unduli and Saesee Tiin, resulting in a full scale battle, with Nadiem's civilian populace caught in the middle.

During the fighting, Threadneedle Canyon became a poing of contention betweent the two sides, with Grievous and the Confederacy controlling on side of the canyon, and the Republic controlling the small valley on the other. Meanwhile, General Tiin set up a strong Republic blockade around Nadiem, preventing any Confederate reinforcements to make it planet-side. While General Unduli apprentice Barriss Offee were strengthening the Republic's defenses and evacuating a small town in the valley, Grievous ordered a large amount of his forces to go through the canyon and destroy the Republic troops on the other side, while he staid behind and commanded his soldiers from his command bunker deep inside Separatist territory. As the Separatist forces were moving through the canyon, Offee and several clonetroopers got stranded in the center of the canyon after giving up their transportation to a group of refugees. Realizing that engaging the droid forces directly would only result in their deaths, Offee ordered her troops to fire at the advancing Separatist column from far away, and after the battle droids returned fire, to lie down and pretend they were dead so that the enemy would pass them by without a second glance. Offee's plan worked, and after the droids passed them, her troops and herself climbed the canyon and prepared to ambush the Separatist forces from behind.

The Confederate column soon engaged Unduli and her troops on the other side of the canyon, and were about to break through the Republic's defenses when Offee and her troops began to fire on the droids from behind. With their rear support failing, the droid tried to retreat when Offee's clonetoopers detonated several explosives they had put into place beforehand. The resulting explosions caused a avalanche, cutting off the Separatists' only way of retreat, and any remaining battledroids were systematically neutralized. With most of their forces destroyed, the Separatists were forced to abandon Nadiem. However, while Grievous was fleeing Nadiem in his personal Belbullab-22 starfighter, he was attacked by Jedi Master B'dard Tone and his apprentice Zephata'ru'tor above the planet. Grievous managed to kill Zephata'ru'tor and seriously injure Tone before escaping into hyperspace.

Prelude
In 22 BBY&mdash;five months after the Battle of Geonosis and the start of the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems&mdash;the Confederacy Droid Army, under the command of the Separatist cyborg General Grievous, invaded the planet of Nadiem in the Baxel Sector. Even though Nadiem really had no strategic value to either side, the Separatists attacked the planet mainly because the Republic had chosen to defend it. In response to the invasion, the Republic reinforced their clone army on Nadiem, as well as several Jedi Generals. Among the Jedi dispatched were High Generals Saesee Tiin and Luminara Unduli, Unduli's apprentice/Jedi Commander Barriss Offee, and General B'dard Tone and his apprentice Zephata'ru'tor.

Grievous and his Confederate forces managed to grab a strong foothold on Nadiem before the Republic could respond, and landed a large amount of troops and tanks. When the Jedi-led support arrived, General Unduli, Commander Offee, and several other Jedi landed on the planet and began to reinforce the Republic's defenses, while General Tinn set up a strong Republic blockade around Nadiem. During the invasion, the citizens' of Nadiem had been caught in the middle of the fighting, killing many and displacing many more. As a result, the Jedi started an evacuation of the planet's residents, with General Unduli and her apprentice personally overseeing the evacuation themselves.

During the evacuation, Threadneedle Canyon became a point of contention between the two sides on the planet, with the Republic fortifying there defenses of a valley on one side of the canyon, while the Separatists' controlled the other. Grievous, from a command bunker deep inside Confederate territory, ordered the bulk of his droid soldier and heavy tanks to move through the canyon and sieze the valley on the other side, and ordered several droid starfighter squadrons to break through the Republic blockade over the planet and provide air support. Meanwhile, the Jedi continued to evacuate Nadiem's populace, with Unduli and Offee focusing her attention on evacuating a small town in the valley.

Evacuation
As the Separatist column moved closer to Republic's position, General Unduli allowed any civilian who wanted to abandon their homes a chance to board a Republic LAAT/i gunship to be transported to a safer location, hoping to get them clear before the Confederacy began their assualt on the town. However, space and time was limited, so Unduli told the refugees that they were prohibited to take personal possessions with them. While most did comply with this order, at least one man tried to smuggle a great amount of wealth onboard a gunship in his shirt, but Unduli stopped him from boarding the evacuation ship. Even with this rule, however, there were still to many refugees to move with so few gunships, and many had to wait in long lines for a chance to board a ship. In some cases, there were even mad scrambles to board gunships that were lifting off.

During the evacuation, Crys Taanzer and her son Kenann, both residents of Nadiem turned refugees by the invasion, managed to get to a Republic evacuation site, but were not able to board any ships due to the long lines. During the Separatist invasion, Cry's husband had been killed, her home destroyed, and her son's arm injured. While the two of them were waiting at the evacuation site, a Jedi Healer who was helping the refugees, noticed that Kenann was not crying, even though his arm was baly damaged. With Cry's permission, the Jedi had his padawan quickly test Kenann's blood, cofirming what the Jedi had originally suspected, that Kenann was Force-sensitive. With this information, The healer offered Crys a chance to let Kenann escape Nadiem, saying that her son could join the Jedi Order and that he would be given safe transport to the Jedi's temple on Coruscant within two days. Realizing that they would likely both die on Nadiem if she did not take the offer, Crys agreed with the healer and gave her son over to the Jedi.

A strike team led by Barriss attempted to set off explosives to block the droid army's path, but then she decided to play dead as the droid army walked past and attack them from the rear. Then they set off explosives, tumbling the canyon walls on top of the droids. An orbital blockade under Saesee Tiin prevented additional CIS reinforcements and air forces from reaching the planet.

Grievous' remaining forces were eventually defeated, and he fled the system in his starfighter, severely wounding B'dard Tone and killing Zephata'ru'tor, Tone's Padawan, before escaping into hyperspace.

It was during the Battle of Nadiem that Crys Taanzer's husband was killed and her son, Kennan, was taken into the Jedi Order.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: General Grievous
 * Star Wars Dark Times 7: Parallels, Part 2
 * Star Wars Dark Times 7: Parallels, Part 2

Notes and references
Schlacht von Nadiem Batalla de Nadiem