Skytop Station/Legends

"Most honored Count, Skytop Station is fully active! Only my contacts in the communications cartel could make such a marvel possible."

- Po Nudo to Count Dooku

Skytop Station was a Confederate listening post during the Clone Wars. A modified Lucrehulk-class Core Ship, the station was designed to monitor Republic communications, thereby providing the Confederate Droid Army with vital intelligence on the movement of enemy fleets. Skytop Station was built and crewed by the Hyper-Communications Cartel, and was stationed in the upper atmosphere of one of the moons of Ruusan.

Once construction was completed, Skytop Station intercepted many Republic HoloNet transmissions, giving the Confederacy the ability to ambush Republic fleets. Following the Battle of Bothwui, High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi tasked Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano, with finding and destroying the station. The two discovered Skytop Station's location after receiving a distress call from the captured Republic droid R2-D2, who was en route to the station to be delivered to the Confederacy's General Grievous. Skywalker and Tano traveled to the station and infiltrated it alongside members of the Grand Army of the Republic's 501st Legion with the intent to rescue R2-D2 and destroy the listening post. Despite Grievous's efforts to thwart the Republic forces, Skywalker and his companions were able to disable Skytop Station's reactor and repulsorlift generators, causing the core ship to fall from the sky.

Characteristics
"We can intercept and analyze countless HoloNet transmissions. We are the ultimate listening post for this entire quadrant."

- Po Nudo

Originally a Trade Federation Lucrehulk-class Core Ship, Skytop Station was heavily modified by the time it was utilized as a listening post. Unlike a standard core ship, the station possessed large antennae protruding from both the top and bottom of the vessel. Additionally, massive sensor dishes crowned the station's upper hemisphere.

Internally, the station contained a disassembly chamber for the dismantling of droids, as well as landing bays that were capable of accommodating Vulture droid starfighters and Porax-38 starfighters. The doors to the landing bays were controlled by astromech droid interface terminals, both within the bays and on the exterior of the station. Skytop Station also had at least one room filled with battle droid components for storage. Aqualish technicians monitored the information collected by Skytop Station in darkened rooms near the disassembly chamber. The station was kept aloft by repulsorlift generators that were powered by reactors; the reactors themselves were protected by a ray shielded door.

Skytop Station had a complement of battle droids to protect it. In addition to B1 battle droids and B2 super battle droids, the station was also protected by at least four IG-100 MagnaGuards during General Grievous's command of the listening post.

Confederate service


Skytop Station was brought online around 22 BBY after the Hyper-Communications Cartel completed extensive modifications to its original core ship frame. Shortly after the station was fully activated, the Confederate Head of State Count Dooku traveled to it alongside his Dark Acolyte apprentice, Asajj Ventress. Dooku and Ventress were given a tour of the new station by Cartel leader Po Nudo, who proclaimed that Skytop Station would be capable of picking up countless Republic transmissions from throughout the quadrant. Although Ventress detested the principals of covert eavesdropping that were embodied in the listening post, Dooku was impressed with Skytop Station.

The technicians at Skytop Station later intercepted a communication between Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic and King Katuunko of Toydaria. The two discussed a possible alliance between the Republic and Toydaria, and planned for negotiations to take place on Rugosa. With this information, Dooku was able to dispatch Ventress to Rugosa in order to make an offer of alliance to Katuunko on behalf of the Confederacy. The station later came under the command of the Confederate General Grievous, who used the intercepted transmissions in order to ambush Republic fleets. Shortly after the Battle of Bothawui, Republic Intelligence was able to confirm that a Confederate listening post was the source of the ambushes. High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi charged Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan, Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano, with locating the station and destroying it.

During a scouting mission in an area of suspected Confederate-held space, Skywalker was attacked by two Confederate frigates after his location was revealed by the Confederacy's spy droid R3-S6, who was serving as Skywalker's astromech droid. Skywalker's previous astromech, R2-D2 was captured by the Trandoshan scavenger Gha Nachkt following the conflict at Bothawui. Nachkt had arranged for the Republic droid to be sold to General Grievous, and traveled to Skytop Station in his ship, the Vulture's Claw, to deliver R2-D2 and collect his fee. Unbeknownst to both Nachkt and Grievous, R2-D2 was never issued a memory wipe, and therefore still retained information on Republic bases and strategies. While en route to Skytop Station, R2-D2 was able to alert Skywalker to his position by connecting to the Vulture's Claw ' s communication system. Skywalker, who was still searching for both Skytop Station and his astromech droid, followed R2-D2's signal to the Hoth's Brand system where the listening post was located.

Destruction


After the Vulture's Claw landed on Skytop Station, Nachkt led R2-D2 to a room filled with surveillance posts manned by Aqualish technicians. There, Nachkt met with Grievous, who demanded that R2-D2 be taken to the disassembly chamber to be dismantled and searched for information. While Nacht dissected the astromech, Skywalker, Tano, and a contingent of clone troopers from the Grand Army of the Republic's 501st Legion arrived above Ruusan in their ship, the Twilight, and followed R2-D2's signal into the upper atmosphere of one of the planet's three moons. The group, along with R3-S6, free fell from the Twilight onto the station, where Skywalker used his lightsaber to cut an opening in the station's roof. The Republic forces entered Skytop Station and split up; Skywalker searched for R2-D2, while Tano and the clones set off to plant explosives in the station's reactors.

In the disassembly chamber, Nacht was able to crack R2-D2's memory banks, revealing that the droid had never had its mission memory erased. The Trandoshan expected extra payment for the discovery; however, Grievous opted to kill him and forgo payment at all. The general was then informed by his spy, R3-S6, that Republic forces had infiltrated the station. Grievous put Skytop Station on high alert and ordered several IG-100 MagnaGuards to move the dismantled R2 unit to his ship while he confronted the intruders himself. The alert status triggered a ray-shielded security door to be lowered over the entrance to the reactor room, preventing Tano and the clones from planting the explosives. Although R3-S6 appeared to be attempting to lower the shield, the droid was instead stalling until battle droids arrived to combat the Republic forces. Although Clone Captain CC-7567, nicknamed Rex, was able to disable the droids, all but two of the clones and Tano were killed by Grievous when he arrived. In order to save Rex and Denal, the two surviving clones, Tano engaged Grievous and led him into a storage room filled with spare battle droid parts.

Elsewhere within the station, Skywalker caught up with the MagnaGuards that were escorting R2-D2 to Grievous's ship. Skywalker defeated the droids, and together with R2-D2, he escaped to the south landing bay, where he contacted the Twilight for an immediate evacuation from Skytop Station. Meanwhile, Rex and Denal continued with the mission's primary objective and planted explosives within the reactor room before rendezvousing with Skywalker in the landing bay. As Skywalker attempted to leave the bay to locate Tano, R3-S6, who had been sent by Grievous to delay the Republic forces, sealed all exits from the bay and activated several Vulture droids that had been hanging from ceiling mounted recharge racks. As the droids opened fire, Skywalker and his clones took cover near several docked Porax-38 starfighters, while R2-D2 attempted to open the hangar bay doors from an external control port on a maintenance catwalk.

As the fight in the hangar continued, Skywalker ordered Captain Rex to activate the explosives, despite the fact that the entire Republic squad still remained in the station. Rex complied, and the resulting explosion crippled the repulsorlift generators and shook the entire structure as flames erupted from Skytop Station's lower hemisphere. Tano, who had been momentarily captured by Grievous, used the explosion as a distraction and escaped by running into one of Skytop Station's air ducts. She joined the Republic forces in the hangar bay while Grievous fled the doomed battlesphere in his starship, Soulless One. As Skytop Station plummeted from the upper atmosphere of the Ruusan moon, R2-D2 was able to open the hangar doors for the south docking bay, allowing Tano, Rex, Denal, Skywalker, and their clone pilot to escape on the Twilight. Skywalker briefly returned to the crumbling station in his starfighter to rescue R2-D2 from the external maintenance catwalk, shortly before Skytop Station met its end.

Commanders and crew
"Those 631s are not the brightest lights on the ship."

- OOM command battle droid on the inferior capabilites of the 631 model B1 battle droid

As a Confederate listening post, Skytop Station was heavily staffed and protected by droids. Several different models of battle droids served as guards aboard the battlesphere, and it was noted that the 631 model B1 battle droids that served aboard the station were less intelligent than other droid models. The droids also suffered from servomotor corrosion as a result of the atmospheric moisture on the Ruusan moon.

The station's extensive sensor systems were monitored and controlled by Aqualish technicians. At some point during the war, the station was placed under the command of the cyborg General Grievous, the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies. Utilizing the information gathered by the station for surprise attacks, Grievous was able to repeatedly ambush Republic forces. However, Skytop Station was destroyed while under the command of Grievous. This, in conjunction with his loss of the Malevolence, greatly shook Count Dooku's faith in the general.



Behind the scenes
Skytop Station was designed and created for the 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. The station first appeared in the online Clone Wars comic Prelude, and was referenced to in the series' episode "Downfall of a Droid." It finally made its series debut in the following episode, "Duel of the Droids," where it served as both the setting and a major plot point.

Appearances

 * The Clone Wars: Prelude

Notes and references
Skytop-Station