Windo Nend

"I'm staying too. This is what my master would have wanted. It's what all of our masters would have wanted."

- Windo Nend

Windo Nend, called "Warble" by his friends, was a male Quara Aqualish Padawan and Jedi Commander during the Clone Wars. In 21 BBY, he was stationed on the planet Jabiim, where Republic and Jedi forces vied with the Separatist contingent under General Alto Stratus. Nend, having lost his master in the war, was part of a group of similar Jedi students known as the Padawan Pack; the theory of the Jedi leadership on the planet was that a group of Padawans acting in concert would have the combined abilities of a smaller number of Jedi Knights or Masters. As the rest of the Jedi on the planet were killed off, Nend and the Padawan Pack stood with the only line of defense against Separatist reinforcements as the Republic forces attempted to evacuate. On the forty-first day of the battle, Nend was killed when a Separatist Hailfire droid rolled over him, but not before he could set off explosives to disable the droid. Later, his colleague and fellow Padawan, Anakin Skywalker, whispered Nend's name to a memory moth in a Jedi monument on New Holstice, to be repeated alongside the names of other fallen Jedi for eternity.

Battle of Jabiim
Windo "Warble" Nend, a Quara Aqualish Jedi Padawan, had lost his master in the Clone Wars prior to 21 BBY, when Nend was assigned to Shelter Base on the contested planet Jabiim. The planet had been a member of the Galactic Republic until the outbreak of the Clone Wars, but had suffered much due to a lack of Republic response to local problems. A vocal Jabiimi leader known as Alto Stratus spoke out against the Republic and the Jedi, and Jabiim seceded. But before Stratus could make a deal with Confederacy of Independent Systems leader Count Dooku, in which he promised the Separatists Jabiim's rich supplies of ore in exchange for military hardware and support, the Grand Army of the Republic landed on the planet. Stratus and his Nimbus commandos, backed up by units from the CIS droid army, were locked into battle with the Jedi-led Republic clone forces.

A pack of Padawans
"Warble, if you talk the entire trip, I swear I'm going to use my rusty fingers to rip out your tusks."

- Zule Xiss

Several master-less Padawans were organized by the Jedi leadership on Jabiim into one unit, known colloquially as the Padawan Pack. The theory behind this was that a large group of Padawans would possess in their combined talents the same amount of resources as a smaller group of Jedi Knights and Masters. However, some, including ARC trooper Alpha-17, were of the opinion that this group posed more problems than they solved.

Nend was present in the Padawan Pack on the thirty-second day of the battle after it had been joined by Anakin Skywalker, a Padawan whose master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, was presumed dead. At this point, the Pack included, in addition to Nend and Skywalker, the Padawans Tae Diath, Mak Lotor, Elora Sund, Kass Tod, Vaabesh, Aubrie Wyn, and Zule Xiss. Jedi General Leska, the senior Jedi on the planet at that time, had ordered the group to guard the resupply lines, as she was loath to send more young Jedi to their deaths.

As they guarded a supply convoy including AT-AT and AT-XT walkers heading for the Republic stronghold of Cobalt Station, Nend and Aubrie Wyn, a Human female, stayed with the vehicles while Skywalker led the rest of the Padawans and a group of clones to intercept and destroy droid forces advancing upon the convoy. Later, Nend attempted to make conversation with the female Falleen Zule Xiss, only to be met with Xiss's frustration over their situation; the Gand male Vaabesh helped Nend to understand Xiss's history and reasons for defensiveness&mdash;a Padawan who had bounced from Master to Master, Xiss had seen her final and most effective mentor killed in the same battle in which she had been previously maimed.

Two days later, the convoy came under attack once again. An AT-XT walker unexpectedly activated a land mine, in the first Separatist use of mines known to the Republic in the Clone Wars. The explosion caught Nend off-guard, throwing him from his feet. The female Zabrak Padawan, Kass Tod, helped Nend up just as the convoy was assaulted by the Nimbus commandos, led in person by Stratus himself. Although surrounded by Stratus's forces and a field of Separatist mines, the Padawans were able to use their assortment of skills to lead the convoy out of the fray; Nend took the point, warning the others to watch for mines. His attempt to stop the convoy and kill the Jedi thwarted, Stratus ordered his forces to reorganize for an assault on Cobalt Station itself.

A last stand
"There is no fear, there is no pain, there is no death&mdash;''" "''There is only the Force."

- Vaabesh and Windo Nend, paraphrasing the Jedi Code

On the thirty-seventh day of the battle, the Padawan Pack reached Cobalt Station, one of two Republic strongholds left on Jabiim. Jedi General Leska had been killed earlier that day as she completed operations against Separatist forces on the planet's Razor Coast. The day saw a break in the storms that had plagued Jabiim for thirty-seven days, preventing the Republic forces from leaving the planet&mdash;and Separatist reinforcements from landing. As the break occurred, Vaabesh spotted an armada of Separatist C-9979 landing craft descending from the sky, bearing a fresh army at Stratus's disposal. The Padawan Pack, last of the Jedi left on Jabiim, and their forces took refuge in Cobalt Station, where they would be forced to wait until another break in the storms for an ordered Republic evacuation to begin. Captain Gillmunn, a Jabiimi loyalist, held the remaining Republic and loyalist forces on a mesa south of the station.

At that point, the Padawans were faced with a decision. They could stay at Cobalt Station, holding off Stratus's army of over 10,000 Nimbus commandos and battle droids, buying time for the Republic forces to evacuate, or they could flee to the mesa and hope to evacuate before the enemy forces arrived. Skywalker and Mak Lotor, a Human male, pointed out that their holding off of the Separatist units was the mission's last hope, and so all of the Padawans, including Nend, decided to stay at Cobalt Station. As they prepared for the coming battle, Nend strapped grenades to himself as additional weapons to his lightsaber.

On the forty-first day of the battle, Nend found himself face-to-face with the Separatist army. As he fought, he uttered assurances to himself, based on the Jedi Code. After being blasted backward by enemy fire, Nend noticed a Hailfire droid bearing down on him. Before it rolled over the Aqualish, killing him, Nend managed to trigger one of the explosives on his chest, vaporizing himself and disabling the droid.



Legacy
"There is no death&hellip;"

- Windo Nend, immediately before sacrificing himself

The Battle of Jabiim continued for two more days. The members of the Padawan Pack died one by one in defense of Cobalt Station, with Aubrie Wyn killing General Stratus before her own death, save Anakin Skywalker, who rode a swoop to the mesa evacuation point. Upon arrival, simultaneous with that of the Republic ships, Skywalker was forced to choose which forces would evacuate; he grudgingly chose his clone forces over the Jabiimi loyalists, thus earning the ire of Gillmunn and his men, but saving the clones to fight on other fronts. With Republic presence nonexistent, the battle for Jabiim was ultimately lost, but Windo Nend and the Padawan Pack managed to prevent the rout and deaths of many more.

Days later, on the Republic world of New Holstice, Skywalker added memory moths containing the names of all his fallen comrades from the Padawan Pack, including Windo "Warble" Nend, to a monument set up by the residents of that planet for all Jedi that had been killed in service to the Republic. There, Nend's name would be continually whispered by the moth's wings for eternity.

Personality and traits
"There is no fatigue&hellip;"

- Windo Nend, in the heat of battle

Nend, a Quara Aqualish, had greenish skin. He was quite talkative, trying to make conversation with his comrades, much to the ire of the distraught and jaded Zule Xiss. However, when apprised of Xiss's situation, Nend was sympathetic and compassionate. As he prepared for and fought in battle, Nend took comfort in the Jedi Code and its interpretations, uttering them as did his colleague, Vaabesh. He fought with a blue-bladed lightsaber, though in the last stand at Cobalt Station he strapped to himself eight grenades for additional firepower. Nend fought to the last, sacrificing himself to disable a powerful enemy headed for his friends' location.

Behind the scenes
Windo Nend's appearances all fall within the Last Stand on Jabiim story arc of the Star Wars: Republic comic books, which was written by Haden Blackman and drawn by Brian Ching. Although the Padawan Pack was first mentioned in Star Wars Republic 55: The Battle of Jabiim, Part 1, Windo Nend himself did not appear with the unit until the next issue. He died in the subsequent issue, and finally was given a brief mention at the Jedi monument in Star Wars Republic 58: The Battle of Jabiim, Part 4.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Republic 56: The Battle of Jabiim, Part 2
 * Star Wars Republic 57: The Battle of Jabiim, Part 3
 * Star Wars Republic 58: The Battle of Jabiim, Part 4