Battle of Kaller

During the Clone Wars, the insulated and resource rich world of Kaller, despite also being based at the intersection of three hyperspace lanes, proved to be of little strategic importance. Nevertheless, it eventually became a target for the Confederacy of Independent Systems, with Count Dooku ordering General Kleeve to oversee the takeover. Commanded to expel the CIS from the Kaller system, Jedi General Depa Billaba's battalion of the 41st Elite Corps was dispatched after the Third Battle of Mygeeto. Nevertheless, the Confederacy had managed to take control of the planet from the Galactic Republic. With the world under Confederate occupation, the Separatists forced the native Kallerans, including those of Gamut Key's village, to give them supplies and labor. While the Kallerans were accordingly unhappy with the military occupation, the Separatists remained in power and were given intelligence that Billaba was unstable, making Kleeve underestimate the Jedi General.

Fought in 19 BBY towards the end of the Clone Wars, the Battle of Kaller was also considered part of the Outer Rim Sieges, which would come to be the last campaign of the conflict. Billaba and her Padawan, Jedi Commander Caleb Dume, attended a strategy conference via hologram with other officers involved in the sieges. Even though Billaba's battalion was ordered to Kaller in the aftermath of the Third Battle of Mygeeto, the Republic's campaign to liberate the Kaller system was only launched in the final days of the war.

The battle for Kaller eventually reached a point where the Republic had nearly won. Leading their battalion with Clone Captains Grey and Styles, Billaba and Dume fought Kleeve's army of B1-series battle droid alongside their clone troopers in a push to liberate a compound Kleeve was using as his base of operations. As he and the others fought past the droids, Dume reflected on the Clone Wars and his role in it. Amid the fighting, Billaba ordered him to assume the defensive pose using the third form of lightsaber combat before giving orders to her clone trooper officers; she ordered Styles to lead his troops to overwhelm the left flank and commanded Grey to lead his men to attack the right. As their ultimate push to finally liberate Kaller, she concluded her orders by yelling for all of her battalion to attack the compound.

As the Jedi and clones fought past the battle droids, Kleeve overlooked the battle, telling his B1 guards that Billaba's leadership was more effective than anticipated. With his forces being routed, Kleeve ordered one of his B1s to prepare his Separatist command shuttle for departure before turning to Kalleran Gamut Key. Kleeve stated the Confederacy currently needed to abandon their control of Kaller, claiming that the Republic would bring its own form of tyranny. Then, Kleeve fled aboard his shuttle. Both Dume and Billaba saw the starship leave, which they took to mean Kleeve had surrendered Kaller. Thus, standing amid the remains of B1s and some of her clones, Billaba declared that the battle was over as one of her troopers killed a surviving B1.

With the Separatist Army having fled, ensuring the liberation of Kaller despite Kleeve's threat to return, Billaba spoke with Key, although he and Janus Kasmir explained the Kallerans saw little difference between military generals. Although Dume, Styles, and Grey were angered at the lack of respect Kasmir showed, Billaba, having been told the planet's climate was currently mild, attempted to calm the Kallerans by informing them her troops would not remain stationed at the compound, instead informing Key they would rest in a field. She then left with Dume, who was surprised at her lack of annoyance.

Traveling to the mountains, Billaba resumed Dume's Jedi training until the suns set, asking him to explain his feelings. Dume confided in her that, even though the galaxy was at war, he had never been happier, but his mentor understood that his joy came from how he had finally found his place in the galaxy. Even so, she told him that the universe would still change and that the conflict and his apprenticeship would one day end, meaning he could not grow too attached to his present. After her lesson, they departed down the mountain to their campsite to join the clones.

While sitting beside their campfire, Dume asked his master why she had not responded to Kasmir's claim that the Confederacy and Republic were the same; she stated that, in part, she believed their actions would speak louder than words before admitting she felt the Jedi made a mistake by becoming generals. Styles and Grey instantly disagreed, feeling the war would have been lost without Jedi leadership, although Billaba clarified her concern came from the Jedi taking on military positions specifically. Dume, meanwhile, was surprised his master was questioning the orders of the Jedi High Council, but Billaba recalled Dume himself was infamous for asking too many questions, which the clone officers found humorous. Nevertheless, Dume explained he had never questioned the decisions themselves, only why the decisions had been made, and his master revealed she had taken him on as her apprentice entirely because of his questioning, giving him a Jedi holocron to aid in his studies. Afterward, Styles continued to tease Dume for being "infamous" at the Jedi Temple.

In spite of Kleeve's surrender, Kaller would find its star system besieged in the aftermath of the Battle of Coruscant; General Grievous launched a counterstrategy to combat recent losses by attacking multiple star systems with what remained of the Separatist Droid Army. Thus, the Separatists attacked Kaller and took control of its capital city. Billaba and her forces moved to fight the Separatists in a snowy area.

While nearby a cliff, Billaba and a force of her battalion, made up of Grey and other troopers who had known her for years, found themselves overwhelmed by a battalion of B1 battle droids, which were aided by a trio of Armored Assault Tank Mk Is. The Jedi General dispatched Dume to bring them back reinforcements, but that force was instead rerouted to help protect the capital. Instead, Dume found Clone Force 99, a group of five irregular clone commandos who were also known as "the Bad Batch". The elite squad was the only reinforcement that could be sent. As the battle against the droids and their tanks continued, more clone troopers and an All Terrain Tactical Enforcer were taken out. As Grey, who grew concerned with their lack of progress, Billaba, and other clones hid from tank fire in a trench, Dume returned, sliding down one of the snowy hills and promising that the reinforcements were coming, but Grey was concerned when he revealed only five soldiers would arrive. Nevertheless, Dume promised the team was different from what they would expect and Grey say it was true as realized Clone Force 99 came to the rescue.

Clone Force 99 suddenly entered the engagement by rolling a bolder down the hill, which caught the attention of the advancing B1s. However, their blaster bolts failed to stop the rock, which rolled into their formation before the Bad Batch themselves rushed in. As Billaba and the others watched, the commandos quickly took down every B1 they came across before turning their attention to the AATs; Clone Sergeant "Hunter" ordered his team sniper, CT-9904 "Crosshair," to fire grabble lines between the tanks, allowing their strongest member, "Wrecker," to push the three vehicles off the cliff. As his fellow commandos took out any remaining B1s, technology specialist "Tech" threw a Electro Magnetic Pulse grenade at an AAT Driver Battle Droid, who had been attempting to order his tank crew to adjust stabilizers. With the tanks defeated, only a few B1 units remained standing, one of which attempted to take command of the Separatist force before being shot by Hunter. The final four B1s standing were taken out by Tech, who placed and detonated a bomb on one of the battle droids, creating an explosion that could be seen from Billaba's position.

Having destroyed every threat in their path, Hunter and his commandos approached Billaba and her troops. During their walk, Wrecker, holding the droid over his arm, took out the last battle droid by decapacitating an OOM command battle droid after the captured automaton ordered them to surrender. Reaching the Jedi and clones, Hunter suggested the battalion launch a counterattack, as another battle droid battalion was approaching their position. Although Grey objected to the plan, as Hunter held no authority over Billaba's forces, she agreed with the idea and ordered Grey to move their troops forward. As the clones moved from their trenches to their new front, the Bad Batch reunited with Dume, who introduced the squad to his master. After she praised their exploits, Hunter informed her of the actual reinforcements' new path to the capital and that his squad was the only additional help she could get.

However, Tech then spoke up, revealing Clone Intelligence had reported Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi had engaged General Grievous on Utapau, meaning the war could soon be over. Echo realized that if General Kenobi captured or killed Grievous then the Separatist command structure will collapse along with the droid army since he recently became the new Head of State after Dooku was killed during the Battle of Coruscant. Nevertheless, Billaba recognized that such news did not currently help them, so she allowed her Padawan and the Bad Batch to go on their own to confront the Droid Army.

As Dume and the commandos began to depart, however, Grey received a transmission from Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, and Billaba sensed something was wrong. As she turned to face her Clone Captain, Palpatine ordered via hologram to follow Clone Protocol 66, branding the Jedi as traitors who needed to be executed. In spite of his loyalty and admiration for his Jedi General, Grey, like all clone troopers, had been implanted with a control chip that forced him to obey the command, so he did not question the order when he turned his DC-15A blaster carbine on Billaba.

Styles also received the order, forcing him to also believe Billaba was a traitor. Overhearing the blaster fire, Dume turned to see his master forced to defend against her own soldiers, cutting Grey's blaster before kicking him down. Nevertheless, Order 66 was repeating throughout the clone communication channels, turning more troopers against their Jedi officer. The execution of Order 66 had been a long planned part of Palpatine's design, as he was truly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and had engineered the war from the beginning, having wanted to destroy the Jedi and take control of the galaxy.

As Dume ran back to help his master, the Bad Batch took notice of what the regular clones were doing, and Billaba ordered her Padawan to run as she fended off her troops, ultimately succumbing and being killed by their blaster fire as Dume fled. When the Bad Batch approached him, Dume, not realizing they were unaffected by the order, ordered them to stay back before fleeing into the woods. Left to question what Order 66 was, Hunter told Tech and CT-1409 "Echo" to talk to Grey, ordered Crosshair to come with him to find and help Dume, and had Wrecker stay in position to stall anyone who tried to follow them. Using his skill in tracking, Hunter followed Dume, and Crosshair spotted him while he was hiding in a tree. However, unlike his fellow irregular commandos, the sniper's control chip had activated, so he fired upon the young Jedi, making Dume flee. Angered, Hunter ordered the sniper to stand down until they understood what the Jedi had been accused of, but, as a result of his chip, Crosshair remained steadfast in his desire to kill Dume.

After Wrecker failed to stall three troopers from going into the woods, Tech reported to his fellow commandos that the clones had been told the entire Jedi Order had committed treason, which confused Hunter but was accepted by Crosshair. After Tech requested they regroup, Crosshair spotted and again tried to shoot Dume, taking out the tree branch he was standing on. Although the Padawan fell and lost his Jedi cloak, he ignited his lightsaber and rushed at the commando, who ignored Hunter's orders to stand down. After knocking out Crosshair by kicking him into a tree, he turned his attention to Hunter, who tried to talk and threw away his DC-17 hand blaster to prove he was not interested in attacking.

Keeping his lightsaber ignited and running to a ravine, Dume refused to believe the Clone Sergeant and told him to stay back. Although Hunter removed his helmet and said he was also confused as to what had happened, noting he had not taken part in the execution of Billaba, Dume refused to go with the commando and, upon hearing other clones approach, jumped to the other side of the ravine before fleeing into the forest. Having awoken, Crosshair approached his sergeant and asked what had happened; lying to his fellow commando, Hunter claimed to have stunned the Jedi, making the Padawan fall to his death. Nevertheless, Crosshair felt the need to check with his rangefinder, departing as three regular clones arrived to the scene.

The Conquest of Kaller ended with a Republic victory, becoming one of the battles fought in the conflict's final days; as Tech had predicted, the war reached its end after the death of Grievous. While Grey and Styles remained stationed on Kaller, the Bad Batch returned to Kamino. As they approached the water world, Crosshair questioned Hunter if Dume had really died, noting that he had been looking across the ravine instead of down. Hunter, however, claimed he simply had not wanted to watch a death. Crosshair refused to believe his sergeant and filled a counter-report about the Conquest of Kaller, informing the Republic that Dume was alive.

After entering their personal barracks, Crosshair told his squad-mates that Dume had escaped. Looking out their window, Hunter stated he simply did not want to think executing their officers was one of their missions before noticing how loyal Crosshair had suddenly become. When Echo questioned how the troopers could have executed General Billaba after fighting alongside her for years, Tech explained it was a result of the regular troopers' programming; the Bad Batch was, with the exception of Crosshair, too different to be impacted. When Admiral and Governor Wilhuff Tarkin came to Kamino to observe the clones and deliberate on their role in the new Empire, he assigned the Bad Batch to eliminate supposed insurgents on the Inner Rim Territories planet Onderon.

When the group realized the "insurgents" were actually civilians, they returned to Kamino despite Crosshair's protests, resulting in them being detained for their failure. While in the cell, Crosshair argued with Hunter, claiming that every decision he had made since Order 66 had been wrong. Afterward, he was taken away from his squadmates to have his inhibitor chip enhanced. After breaking out of their cell, the rest of the squad, joined by the young clone Omega, escaped Kamino. After failing to prevent their escape, Crosshair remained on-planet, becoming a commander in the Imperial Military.

Meanwhile on Kaller, having regained his cloak, Dume spent the night after Order 66 hiding in the forest before escaping into Plateau City aboard a transport. Although he had been presumed dead, Crosshair's counter-report made it known that Dume was alive, so Grey's clone troopers searched the city in order to kill him. Additionally, the Empire took control of Kaller, establishing an Imperial Garrison in Plateau City; as Gamut Key later recalled, the Republic had only regained Kaller for a short time before the government was reformed into the Empire. Thus, Dume spent days without sleep, hiding from his former friends without any idea how to survive on his own. One night, he was found by Janus Kasmir, who gave him a meiloorun fruit, the chance to rest in his ship, the Kasmiri, and a new cloak so he looked less like a Jedi.

After walking out of the Kasmiri, Kasmir was spotted by Styles, forcing him to try to talk the soldier out of searching his craft by reminding him he was not a supporter of the Jedi. As he recalled, several days prior, he had disrespected Billaba in front of him after the defeat of Kleeve. Suddenly, Dume took control of the Kasmiri to travel to Coruscant, having received what he thought was a genuine transmission from the Jedi Temple. Ultimately, he received a new signal from Obi-Wan Kenobi that revealed the previous message was fake and returned to Kaller, knowing the clones would not expect him to return to where his Jedi Master had been killed. Dume continued to stick with Kasmir and the two eventually became smuggling partners.

Grey and Styles continued their hunt for the escaped Padawan. After a number of smuggling jobs, Dume and Kasmir arrived on the planet Lahn. As Kasmir went to steal what they needed, Dume went to visit "Jondo," the man with whom they would trade the stolen goods, but realized he was in fact General Kleeve. Though he was unaware of who Dume really was, Kleeve stated they were no longer enemies before saying he had a ship for Kasmir in exchange for spice. Returning to the Kasmiri, he found Grey holding a blaster to Kasmir's head, as the clone officer did not believe the smuggler's claims that he had left Dume on Kaller. Leaving his only friend behind, telling himself he fled to make Grey believe Kasmir, Dume returned to Kleeve's building.

After Kleeve took Dume to the ship he was offering, which the former Padawan named the Escape, Styles and his clones captured them. After Styles reported he had Dume, Grey ordered them to reunite at their Gozanti-class cruiser, leaving Kasmir and telling the smuggler he needed to follow Order 66. Upon entering the cruiser's hold, Grey was angered to see Dume was not yet dead, yet Styles, who had brought him back so Grey could watch the execution, insisted he would enjoy killing the supposed traitor. Before Styles could shoot him, Dume reminded them of their history with Billaba, telling them Palpatine had betrayed the Republic. When their ship entered the Kaller system, with it appearing as though his words had no effect on his former friends, he used the Force to push them back. After the Kasmiri and the Escape appeared out of hyperspace, he used the Force to activate the airlock. He was rescued from space by Kasmir, but Styles ordered their pilots to target the two enemy craft.

Having realized that Dume was right, Grey tried to tell Styles of how his actions on Kaller had not made sense, as he followed Order 66 without question, but Styles remained focused on killing Dume. As the Escape and the Kasmiri prepared to launch a coordinated strike, Grey fired at their cruiser's controls to take out their ship's shielding, meaning the two ships' attack was successful. With Grey and Styles dead in the explosion, the Escape and the Kasmiri landed back on Kaller, where Dume broke his ties with Kasmir. Before leaving aboard the Escape with the holocron Billaba had given him and his lightsaber, he told his former partner and Kleeve that "Caleb Dume" had died on Kaller with his master; upon landing on the jungle world of Moraga, he told the first person he met that his name was "Kanan Jarrus."

When the Graf Archive restored the journal of an unidentified artist, who may have been Gammit Chond, the text's section on the Kallerans mentioned the battle for the planet, further noting that many the Kallerans themselves saw little difference between Republic and Separatist rule. The artist's notes discussed how every Kalleran he knew appeared resigned to the fact that their world was constantly occupied, making him question if the Kallerans even knew what side they were technically on in any war they became involved in.

The Battle of Kaller first appeared in the 2015 comic Kanan 1 and was first identified in Star Wars Helmet Collection 5. The battle also later appeared in Star Wars: The Bad Batch premiere episode "Aftermath" in 2021. The animated battle had first appeared in the opening newsreel of the The Clone Wars: Season Seven episode "Old Friends Not Forgotten," although the planet was not identified and the footage was mirrored.

However, the depiction of events on Kaller is different between Star Wars: Kanan and The Bad Batch. In the comic, Grey, who is identified as a Clone Commander, receives Order 66 at night, and Dume receives a Force vision of Jedi falling across the galaxy before the attack begins. After Billaba is killed, Grey orders the troops, including a unit called Rostu Squad, into the woods to find the Padawan. In "Aftermath", Grey, now wearing green armor and identified as a Clone Captain, receives it during the day, remaining silent as he and his clones attack Billaba. Clone Force 99 are also present, with Hunter and Crosshair chasing Dume into the woods. During his struggle with Crosshair, Dume also loses his cloak, which this article assumes he somehow regained later due to its role in helping him avoid the Empire in Kanan 2.

When discussing contradictions in canon after the difference in Order 66 between Kanan and The Bad Batch, Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group noted that the broad idea of the storyline remained the same; the same characters did the same actions at the same location, stating that the different versions of events can be seen a result of storytellers embellishing the tale. Hidalgo stated such differences need to occur when storylines are adapted between mediums, again noting that the overall storyline remains the same. Given that the story group has therefore ruled that both versions of the story are valid, and that the 2021 Star Wars Encyclopedia "Mace Windu and Other Users of the Force" presented a combined version of events between the comic and episode, this article also presents a combined version of events, having "Aftermath" take precedence in moments of contradiction.

The French edition of Mace Windu and Other Users also uses the name "liberation of Kaller" for the brief Republic victory, while the English edition uses the term "victory on Kaller." The 2021 Star Wars Encyclopedia "The Clone Wars" stated that the CIS occupied Kaller for most of the Clone Wars. However, Kanan 9 instead established that the Separatists needed to take control of the planet around the time of the skirmish on Kardoa, and Kanan 6 had established the Separatists needed to capture Kaller from the Republic.

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