Wookieepedia:Featured article queue/June 30, 2010

The Defender was a Venator-class Star Destroyer that served in the Grand Army of the Republic's navy during the Clone Wars. Around 22 BBY, the planet of Ryloth was seized by the Separatists, and a large Confederate fleet, under the command of the Neimoidian Captain Mar Tuuk, blockaded the world. The Defender was dispatched in a Republic task force under the command of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano, to eliminate the Confederate blockade.

Upon the arrival of the Defender and its fellow Star Destroyers, the Resolute and the Redeemer, in the Ryloth system, Tuuk was able to lure the Republic forces into a trap. The Confederate captain's summoning of reinforcements forced the cruisers to retreat, but not before the Resolute and the Defender had sustained damage and the Redeemer was destroyed altogether. Regrouping, Skywalker devised a plan to pilot the heavily damaged Defender into Tuuk's lead ship, leaving Tano to command the Resolute and eliminate the remaining frigates in the blockade. Skywalker and his astromech droid, R2-D2, piloted the Defender into the system and put it on course before fleeing in an escape pod, and the cruiser destroyed Tuuk's ship.