Nevoota Bee

The Nevoota Bee was a Rothana Heavy Engineering Acclamator-class assault ship that served the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars against the Confederacy of Independent Systems. In 22 BBY, the vessel participated in the Battle of Muunilinst, where it served in the role of a starfighter carrier, loaded with 156 V-19 Torrent starfighters. The Jedi-led force won the engagement, capturing the planet for the Republic.

Description
The Nevoota Bee was an Acclamator-class assault ship constructed by Rothana Heavy Engineering for use in the Clone Wars. Measuring 752 meters from stem to stern, the vessel was armed with twelve quad turbolaser cannons, twenty-four anti-starfighter laser cannons, and four bow-mounted missile tubes. Equipped with a 0.6 Class hyperdrive, the Nevoota Bee, like its sister ships, was designed to travel swiftly to a battlefield and deploy a large number of soldiers. The Nevoota Bee carried at least twenty Low Altitude Assault Transports, mainly stored in overhead racks, but was optimized as a starfighter carrier, carrying 156 V-19 Torrent starfighters on its vehicle decks.

History
With the eruption of the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems in 22 BBY, Rothana Heavy Engineering&mdash;a subsidiary of Kuat Drive Yards&mdash;was responsible for manufacturing the warships and ground vehicles used by the Grand Army of the Republic, including Acclamator-class assault ships. Although designed primarily as troop transports, the Republic found the versatile ships able to conform to other mission profiles, including command ships, mobile depots, and commando insertion platforms. The Nevoota Bee was one such Acclamator that served a mission profile other than it was designed for, operating as a starfighter carrier with one hundred and fifty-six V-19 Torrents stationed aboard.

Four months after the Battle of Geonosis, the Republic authorized an assault on Muunilinst, the headquarters of the InterGalactic Banking Clan who were a major member state of the Confederacy. The Nevoota Bee, along with hundreds of other vessels, ferried the Republic's clone trooper army and starfighter forces to the planet. Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker, were aboard the Nevoota Bee, and both would be commanding elements of the Republic's assault force; Kenobi would lead the ground assault, while Skywalker would command the fleet's starfighter force. As the battle commenced, the Nevoota Bee complement of V-19's, led by Skywalker in his personal Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor, poured out of the Acclamator launch bay and engaged a force of Separatist gun platforms and droid starfighters defending the planet. The Jedi-led clone army won the battle, securing Muunilinst for the Republic.

Behind the scenes
The Nevoota Bee was first referenced in The Essential Guide to Warfare in 2012, and was linked to the Battle of Muunilinst, an engagement that featured prominently in the Star Wars: Clone Wars series. In endnotes for The Essential Guide to Warfare posted on his personal Tumblr, Fry states that the naming of the Nevoota Bee was both an homage to the World War Two aircraft carriers Hornet and Wasp, and a reference to an in-joke from the Star Wars online community in the 1990s.

The Nevoota Bee was confirmed by coauthor Paul Urquhart to be the same vessel that Anakin Skywalker and his pilots take off from in the second episode of the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. He stated that he envisioned the Torrent starfighters as being packed onto the hangar deck similar to B-25s during the Doolittle Raid in World War Two.

The "Nevoota Bee" joke
"It never ceases to bring a smile to my face&mdash;what started as a sarcastic comment from Tom, an April Fools' Day joke from me, and an in-joke from Mike has actually evolved into a long-lost chapter of Star Wars lore."

- Rich Handley

The term "Nevoota Bee" originated as an in-joke between Tom Veitch, author of several Star Wars comic series; Rich Handley, author of several Star Wars articles; and Mike Beidler, author of the Star Wars Literature Compendium fansite. Veitch reportedly was once asked "What is that buzzing noise in the background of A New Hope?," to which he replied, "The Nevoota Bee"&mdash;in reality, the noise was likely caused by a bad copy of the film. In an unrelated incident, Handley posted an April Fool's Day joke on rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc which announced that a sequel to Empire's End was being released which involved Emperor Palpatine being reborn inside an insane clone of Chewbacca named Palbacca. Beidler then took the two references and combined them, listing the fictional "Scourge of the Nevoota Bee" trilogy on his website. Accompanied by a fifty-part comic series, it was purported to be written by Veitch and Beidler, with the audiobook renditions read by Handley. The joke circulated throughout the online Star Wars fan community.

The planet Nevoota was introduced to Star Wars canon in 1998 in Daniel Wallace's The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons, while the Nevoota species were first introduced by Abel G. Peña in the article The History of the Mandalorians, published in Star Wars Insider 80 in 2005. The species, a race of intelligent insects, was confirmed to be a nod to the long-running "Nevoota Bee" joke by Peña in a post of the Jedi Council Forums.