Battle of Malastare Narrows/Legends

"If I remember my military history, wasn't he vaporized at the Battle of Malastare Narrows?"

- Anakin Skywalker, on Trench

The Battle of Malastare Narrows was a naval engagement that took place at the planet Malastare prior to the Battle of Christophsis of the Clone Wars in 22 BBY. When the naval commander Trench blockaded Malastare with a corporate fleet, Republic Navy officer Wullf Yularen and a Republic fleet were dispatched to engage Trench. During the ensuing battle, Trench tore the Republic ships apart and came close to completely eradicating Yularen's forces, forcing the Republic fleet to retreat. Eventually, a task force led by Jedi Master Kep-She intervened, and Trench's ship was vaporized, leading him to be presumed dead. However, he survived the battle and returned to fight Yularen during the Separatist blockade of Christophsis.

Prelude
"A corporate fleet was blockading Malastare, a fleet led by Trench."

- Wullf Yularen

At some point prior to the Battle of Christophsis of 22 BBY, the successful naval commander Trench blockaded the Galactic Republic–aligned planet Malastare with a corporate fleet. In retaliation, the Republic Navy sent a task force under the command of officer Wullf Yularen to fight Trench.

The battle
"He tore our ships apart. We barely escaped with our lives. In the end, a Jedi-led task force moved in to settle the matter. Trench's ship was destroyed, and we assumed he went down with it.''" "Are you sure it's him?" "''It's possible not every captain goes down with his ship."

- Wullf Yularen and Anakin Skywalker

Yularen and his men engaged Trench in battle, but Trench employed tactics that soon outmaneuvered Yularen, tearing the Republic ships apart and coming close to wiping out Yularen's entire fleet. Losing a "lot of good men," Yularen's forces were forced to retreat and barely escaped with their lives. In the end, a task force commanded by Jedi Master Kep-She moved in to "settle the matter." In the resulting fight, Trench's ship was vaporized, and he was presumed to have gone along with it. However, Trench in fact survived the battle.

Aftermath
"The last time I saw that symbol&hellip;well, let's just say I lost a lot of good men that day."

- Wullf Yularen, on Trench's unmistakable insignia

Although Trench was still believed dead by the Republic during the first year of the Clone Wars, he continued his naval service as an admiral within the Confederacy of Independent Systems' navy. Despite his presumed death, Trench was still considered to be undefeated. While blockading the planet Christophsis, Trench again encountered Yularen, now an admiral in the Republic Navy himself, when he and Jedi Generals Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi attempted to break Trench's blockade. Yularen's first-hand accounts of Trench's tactics and maneuvers at Malastare prompted the Republic Admiral to later volunteer to accompany Skywalker on a mission to deliver supplies through Trench's blockade via an experimental stealth ship.

Behind the scenes
The Battle of Malastare Narrows was created for the 2009 Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' second season episode, "Cat and Mouse," and served as a back-story to explain Wullf Yularen's experience with Admiral Trench. However, because of a lack of information presented in the episode, neither the exact date of the battle nor the overall galactic conflict that it was a part of were confirmed; nor were Yularen's and Trench's respective ranks at the time. Although the line mentioning Jedi Master Kep-She as the commander of the intervening task force was cut from the final version of the episode, it remained in the script, and Kep-She was referenced in the episode's official online guide.

Notes and references
Schlacht von Malastare Battle of Malastare Narrows