Battle of Nexus Ortai

"It's not right, master. The people of this world will suffer for no other reason than their planet is in the wrong place at the wrong time."

- Anakin Skywalker to Obi-Wan Kenobi, before their retreat

A battle was fought around 22 BBY during the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. When Confederate forces tried to invade the strategically situated planet of Nexus Ortai, they were confronted by a Republic fleet commanded by Admiral Wullf Yularen, High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, and Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano. The Republic forces were successful in repelling the initial Separatist attack, but took heavy damage while doing so. After Separatist reinforcements led by General Grievous had arrived, the Republic was forced to retreat back to its territory.

The battle
"It was a tough fight, but this system is safe from tyranny.''" "General Skywalker!'' We have another problem&mdash;Separatist reinforcements have just arrived!"

- Anakin Skywalker and Admiral Yularen

Early in the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems initiated an invasion against the peaceful world of Nexus Ortai, hoping to conquer the planet because of its strategic position at the crossroads of hyperspace lines. In order to defend the planet, a Galactic Republic fleet&mdash;commanded by Admiral Wullf Yularen, High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jedi General Anakin Skywalker&mdash;engaged Confederate Munificent-class star frigates and Vulture droid starfighters above Nexus Ortai. Kenobi and Skywalker, flying Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptors, led V-19 Torrent starfighters of Ghost Squadron against the Vulture droids. Skywalker's Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, was willing to fight alongside her master, but the latter forbid her to do so, ordering Tano to stay aboard one of the Republic's Venator-class Star Destroyers and learn from Admiral Yularen.

After both sides had sustained heavy damage, Skywalker ordered Ghost Squadron to attack the Separatist command ship, while he and Kenobi took care of the droid starfighters. Despite Kenobi's protests, Skywalker took many droids all by himself and demonstrated his exceptional piloting skills by destroying them. Soon, Ghost Squadron succeeded in destroying the command ship, and the Republic considered the Separatists to be finished. At that point, however, more Separatist starships arrived, commanded by General Grievous. Realizing that their forces could not hold off against the Confederate reinforcements, Kenobi ordered Admiral Yularen to prepare the fleet for retreat, much to Skywalker's dismay. After picking up the two Jedi and remaining pilots of Ghost Squadron, the Star Destroyers jumped to hyperspace and retreated to Republic territory.

Aftermath
"Our problem is simple&mdash;the Separatist navy has four times the number of ships we do. We must slow down their ship production or this war will end quickly, and not in our favor."

- Mace Windu

The loss of Nexus Ortai marked nearly two dozen worlds that the Republic had to pull back from in the Mid Rim region of the galaxy. The main reason for this was revealed to be the Confederate Navy's advantage in size, giving them four times as many ships as the Republic. To this end, Jedi Master Mace Windu proposed to strike at one of the InterGalactic Banking Clan's shipyards producing warships for the Confederacy. Skywalker then formulated a plan to infiltrate the Separatist-controlled Gwori system and destroy the shipyards located there.

Behind the scenes
The battle of Nexus Ortai was featured in the graphic-novella Star Wars: The Clone Wars Volume 1: Shipyards of Doom, written by Henry Gilroy and illustrated by the Fillbach Brothers, which serves as a tie-in to The Clone Wars TV series.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars Volume 1: Shipyards of Doom