Battle of Coruscant/Legends

"Now is the time to strike. Now is the time to launch our final offensive."

- Darth Sidious

The Second Battle of Coruscant, sometimes referred to as the Battle of Coruscant during the Clone Wars, was an attempt by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to kidnap Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and take the Republic capital.

The Separatist invasion of the planet
The Separatists, having been supplied a secret hyperspace passage through the Deep Core by Darth Sidious, launched an attack on Coruscant. Many of its defensive forces were tied up in the Outer Rim Sieges, giving the Separatists a further advantage. Their fleet managed to literally jump right on top of the Republic forces protecting the capital. Many ships were destroyed when unsuspecting Separatist warships exited hyperspace and crashed into Republic ships obstructing their way.

While a ferocious space battle began, Separatist landing craft were deployed onto the surface of the planet, unloading ground forces to create an elaborate diversion while General Grievous, accompanied by a small force, attempted to capture the Supreme Chancellor.

Jedi Masters Yoda, Saesee Tiin, and Mace Windu took command of the clone forces on the planet. Master Windu hopped into a purple Jedi interceptor and destroyed enemy starfighters all over the city. Saesee Tiin took a green Jedi interceptor and took command of the troops in space. It all went fairly well, until Mace Windu's starfighter got caught in Separatist reinforcements. His wings were rammed off and the fighter plunged down. Master Windu jumped out and landed on a Vulture droid that he took control of.



Yoda was Force throwing droidekas into enemy fighters, and pushing enemy landing craft into one another. Then, he went to help clone forces being overrun by Separatist super battle droids. Saesee Tiin had arrived in space and landed in the massive hangar of the Venator-class Star Destroyer Impavid. The vessel was doomed, and Master Tiin and his troops boarded the Providence-class carrier/destroyer Prosperous and took it over, using the ship's turrets to blast other enemy ships.

Master Yoda aided the clones in Sector Four, which was being overrun, and Mace Windu crash-landed his Vulture droid in the middle of the super battle droid force and aided Yoda and the clone troopers, led by ARC Captain Fordo. They were able to destroy many of the super battle droids and tri-droids, before discussing why the Separatists did not attempt to take the Jedi Temple or the Senate, and then, they knew it. Their target was Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

But Grievous had already arrived.

The capture of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine
While the battle raged far from his quarters, the Chancellor was ordered to evacuate his apartment and follow an escort, led by several Jedi to an underground bunker.

Before they could leave, Grievous crashed though the apartment window, intent on grabbing the Chancellor right in the midst of his security force. The Jedi managed to whisk him to (relative) safety, while a squad of clone troopers and a Senate Guard remained behind to deal with the General.

Disposing of this force with his four lightsabers, the General went after the Chancellor and his Jedi bodyguards, pulling off acrobatic maneuvers comparable to the Jedi themselves.



As the chase progressed through Coruscant, Grievous was joined by a squad of his elite IG-100 MagnaGuards. Palpatine's defenders boarded a mag-lev train, using it to reach Palpatine's fortified bunker. Shaak Ti was soon joined by Mace Windu&mdash;fresh from an aerial scuffle with droid starfighters and a battle against battle droids in Sector Four&mdash;and Kit Fisto. Battle droids were soon deployed on the train, followed by Grievous himself. Fisto took on the General's bodyguards while Mace duelled Grievous himself atop the train. After an intense duel and despite his magnetic feet, Grievous was thrown from the roof, but managed to commandeer a Republic gunship while his gunboat led his pursuers on a wild chase through the city.

After several duels and narrow escapes, the Chancellor and the Jedi arrived at a turboshaft leading to the bunker. Staying behind to deal with any hostiles, Shaak Ti sent the remaining two Jedi, Roron Corobb and Foul Moudama down with the Chancellor in case she failed. It was all in vain.



The captured gunship opened fire on Shaak Ti and Stass Allie, and Grievous emerged. Grievous and his IG-100 MagnaGuards cut a swathe through Palpatine's guards, killing more than forty clone troopers. While Shaak Ti fought off dozens of MagnaGuards, Grievous slaughtered both Jedi and seized the Chancellor. When Shaak Ti finally arrived, having sensed the set-up, she was quickly disarmed, and left trussed up by a force field wire in order to inform her rescuers that the Chancellor was gone.

Master Windu arrived and discovered the slaughter of the Jedi and Red guards. Though Windu was upset by their senseless loss, he and Kit Fisto were soon in hot pursuit, along with other Jedi pilots including Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar, and Pablo-Jill.

The mission of the 501st Legion
Meanwhile, the 501st Legion was immediately given mission objectives to board their starfighters in a Venator-class Star Destroyer's hangar and head out to counter the Separatist fighters. The pilots then proceeded to destroy a Munificent-class star frigate, as well as destroy the shields and the communications array of a Providence-class carrier/destroyer. Several 501st fighters then landed in the enemy cruiser hangar, exited their vehicles, and manually blew up the inner engine cooling tanks. Jumping back into their fighters, the pilots then circled the Providence cruiser, destroying its bridge and leaving it utterly defenseless for some Jedi to board. Grievous's shuttle sped into orbit, flying through the heart of the battle to reach Invisible Hand, another Providence.

A failed rescue
Two Jedi (Pablo-Jill and L'lacielo Sageon) managed to breach Invisible Hand's defenses, but were killed by Grievous upon leaving their fighters. Their bodies were ejected into space.

Safely aboard his command ship, General Grievous broadcast a fear-inspiring message across the HoloNet, revealing the capture of the Chancellor, and threatening to kill him while the citizens of the Republic watched. Meanwhile, on the Outer Rim planet Nelvaan, word reached Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker of the attack on Coruscant, who powered up their interceptors immediately, ready to join the battle.

Skywalker and Kenobi's intervention
"Oh, I have a bad feeling about this!"

- Obi-Wan Kenobi

After escaping Coruscant's planetary surface, Grievous headed for his fleet. Soon the Invisible Hand prepared for a hyperspace jump though the Deep Core. At that instant Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker arrived with a vanguard from the Fifth Fleet of the Open Circle Armada and Clone Flight Squad Seven. As they raced to save the Chancellor, Kenobi's astromech droid R4-P17 was destroyed by buzz droids. Soon, the buzz droids disabled Kenobi's Jedi interceptor as well. When Skywalker desperately tried to save his wingman, he smashed into Obi-Wan's starfighter, clipping his upper left stabilizer, and destroying the starboard dorsal radiator, but succeeded in knocking the buzz droids off his left engine compartment.

As they hurtled towards Grievous's flagship, Anakin destroyed the hangar bay ray shield generator, allowing the two to fly into the hangar where they fought two droid squads. After locating Palpatine, they headed towards the upper observation deck.



The Jedi were quickly surrounded by more droids in the hall but sliced their way free. R2-D2 saved Kenobi from falling to his doom as he accessed an elevator while Skywalker leaped through a doorway. The elevator then brought Kenobi back up the shaft to safety and he and Skywalker entered the nearby General's quarters together to find the bound Palpatine.

Before being released, however, Count Dooku arrived, flanked by two super battle droids. Leaping down from the balcony whence he came, he engaged the Jedi in a duel. Kenobi and Dooku seemed to tire as Skywalker furiously pushes on up the stairs. At the other staircase to the balcony, Kenobi took out the two super battle droids but eventually the Count threw him aside with a powerful Force push. Debris toppled over him, leaving the Jedi unconscious.

Now Skywalker faced the Sith Lord alone. As he and the Sith Lord duelled, Skywalker seems to make little progress in breaking Dooku's defenses. After some malicious taunting from the Sith, Skywalker tapped into the dark side, releasing his pent-up aggression. And all at once he spun his lightsaber, cutting off Dooku's hands.

Palpatine applauded Anakin's victory and encouraged him to kill Dooku. Anakin pleaded that Dooku was defenseless and it was "not the Jedi way" to kill an enemy like this. He soon gave in to his fury and sliced Dooku's head off with both lightsabers scissored around the former Jedi's neck.



At that point in the battle, the Venator-class Star Destroyer Guarlara and the Home Fleet Strike Group Five started to cause heavy damage to Invisible Hand.

Obi-Wan regained consciousness and the Jedi headed for the hangar with the Chancellor. Halfway to their fighters, they were captured by Grievous and his forces. As they were carried to the control room they met up with R2-D2. In the control room, Grievous took their lightsabers to add them to his collection. Obi-Wan soon retrieved them as he freed Anakin and himself. Grievous summoned his MagnaGuards to dispose of them, but they were soon defeated by the skilled Jedi. They went for Grievous, but the cyborg General broke through a damaged viewport. Grievous was sucked out of the ship and escaped to a nearby battleship, launching all of the escape pods in the process, foiling the Jedi and Chancellor's escape. Within the bridge, the safety systems quickly closed the breach in the viewport.

Anakin tried to pilot the crumbling ship to a runway on Coruscant. Despite losing half their ship, Obi-Wan and Anakin made a successful landing. With the loss of the flagship, the recovery of their commander, Grievous, the Separatist fleet retreated, depleted and disgraced, thus ending the battle.

It was later identified that the battle's only purpose was to get Darth Sidious off the capital to thwart the Jedi's attempts to track him down. Sidious also used the capture of his alter ego Palpatine to see if Anakin Skywalker could be the perfect apprentice for Sidious, and showed the true genius of the Sith Lord. He was able to create a ruse so effective that even the most focused of Jedi were fooled.

Galactic Republic

 * Stass Allie
 * Alpha-77
 * CC-4477
 * Roron Corobb
 * Davijaan
 * Dyne
 * Kit Fisto
 * Armand Isard
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Ki-Adi-Mundi
 * Agen Kolar
 * Plo Koon
 * Drake Lo'gaan
 * Roth-Del Masona
 * Foul Moudama
 * Lorth Needa
 * L'lacielo Sageon
 * Barrow Oicunn
 * Lari Oll
 * Pablo-Jill
 * R2-D2
 * R4-P17
 * Anakin Skywalker
 * Bultar Swan
 * Shaak Ti
 * Saesee Tiin
 * B'ink Utrila
 * Valiant
 * Mace Windu
 * Yoda

Confederacy of Independent Systems

 * Lushros Dofine
 * Dooku
 * Nas Ghent
 * Grievous
 * IG-101
 * IG-102

Galactic Republic

 * Guarlara
 * Impavid
 * Indomitable
 * Integrity
 * Mas Ramdar
 * Perseverance
 * Ro-ti-Mundi

Confederacy of Independent Systems

 * Invisible Hand
 * Patriot Fist
 * Prosperous
 * Tide of Progress XII

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * "Chapter 22"
 * "Chapter 23"
 * "Chapter 24"
 * "Chapter 25"
 * Evasive Action: Reversal of Fortune
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Battlefront II