Battle of Nelvaan

The Battle of Nelvaan took place on the Outer Rim world Nelvaan in 19 BBY, just before the Battle of Coruscant of the Clone Wars.

After enduring a painful Nelvaanian ceremony, Anakin Skywalker embarked on a quest to discover what was keeping Nelvaan in an eternal winter and to find the missing Nelvaanian warriors. Prior to this, all the Nelvaanian males in the village had embarked on the same quest and never returned.

By following the Force, he went into a cave that led him deep beneath the surface. There, the Earth Mother of the Nelvaanians of the Force revealed to Anakin in a vision that he would become Darth Vader. Then, he awoke and discovered a siphon generator that was powered by a captured geothermal crystal. This machine kept the Rokrul region in its wintery state by draining all the thermal energy from the land.

He also saw that there was a base above him and climbed up to investigate. There, he discovered a B-1 battle droid on guard duty, indicating a Separatist presence on Nelvaan. Continuing his investigation, he discovered a pair of Skakoan combat engineers in their pressure suits conversing with each other. From their conversation, he learned that the Techno Union was creating mutant cyborgs from Nelvaanian captives for General Grievous and that there was only one unaltered Nelvaanian captive left - Harvos.

Turning around, a horrified Anakin discovered a mutant Nelvaanian floating in a glass tank immersed in a green liquid. The unfortunate Nelvaanian had been chemically enlargened and one of his arms had been replaced with a blaster arm. Continuing, he saw more Nelvaanian captives. At the end of the chamber, he discovered the unaltered Nelvaanian Harvos in a glass case being gradually filled up with green liquid. Surrounding the cylinder, was a squad of B-1 battle droids. Above the chamber were a few Skakoan combat engineers. One of them pressed a button on a remote that activated the transformation process of Harvos. Slowly, the transformation began.

An enraged Skywalker then intervened and disposed of the squad, though the transformation still continued. The Skakoans then unleashed the mutant Nelvaanians. They were controlled by control collars though Anakin did not notice them. He tried to plead with the mutant Nelvaanians saying that they had been altered and had to regain control of themselves. However, they attacked him with their blaster arms and the young Jedi Knight was forced to defend himself. Suddenly, the Harvos&mdash;who had been altered&mdash;managed to burst free of his restraints and smashed the tank. He then ripped the cybernetic chestplates off two of the Nelvannians&mdash;Anakin soon got the idea and cut the rest off using his lightsaber. After that, Harvos spoke to his brethren, reminding them of their heritage and that they had been altered, and then telling them to attack the Techno Union engineers. After dispatching his fellow Nelvaanians, he spoke to Skywalker and pointed to the siphon generator, telling him that he had to free the trapped crystal in order to end the eternal winter.

The enraged Nelvaanian warriors then rampaged through the facility, tearing battle droids apart with their bare hands, and freeing their comrades from captivity. Because they had been chemically enlarged, they had a significant advantage in the battle. The Skakoan combat engineers at the base fled for the safety of their Hardcell-class Interstellar Transports, which had been parked above the base on the surface.



Meanwhile, Anakin leaped to the top of the siphon generator and then lowered himself into the crystal chamber. Screaming in agony, he reaches his prosthetic arm into the energy sphere, uses the Force to pull the crystal from its socket, and then shatters it into a thousand shards. The energy surge causes the generator to explode, and Anakin leaps to safety, his arm destroyed. As a result, the weather began to change dramatically and the snow began to melt.

The Nelvaan warriors reached the planet's surface, where the waiting battle droids were destroyed as the planet's ice age came to an end. An enraged Skywalker clambered to the surface, where he killed the Skakoan engineers trying to flee in their ship. First, he blew up a ramp with Skakoans on it with the Force and then threw more down to the Nelvaanians who finished them off. However, one of the Skakoans survived and tried to shoot Anakin Skywalker. Unfortunately, the Jedi sensed him and used the Force to decompress him. Since Skakoans evolved on a high pressure world, without their pressure suits they would decompress and die on a low pressure world. Unfortunately, Nelvaan was one such planet and the Skakoan died.

Seeing Anakin's ravaged arm, the Nelvaan mutants worshiped him as "Holt Kazed" - "ghost hand" - their saviour, and in solidarity they tear the implated weapons from their own arms. Anakin and the Nelvaans return to the village. The women are at first horrified by the mutants, but when Harvos's child recognises her father Harvos, the familial bonds are restored. There would be celebrations in the Nelvaanian village. After that, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker returned to their Venator-class Star Destroyer and after hearing reports of a Separatist assault on Coruscant, departed back to the capital.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * Chapter 24
 * Chapter 25