Mission to suspected Confederate space

In 22 BBY, the first year of the Clone Wars, the Confederacy of Independent Systems built Skytop Station, a listening post over the Ruusan moon. The station intercepted Galactic Republic transmissions, and the Confederacy began to use the information to ambush Republic forces.

After Jedi General Anakin Skywalker engaged in a successful defense of the strategically important planet of Bothawui, he and his Padawan, Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano, went with his fleet of three Venator-class Star Destroyers to the Allanteen Six shipyards where the cruisers had been manufactured, believing that the vessels could use modifications.

Eventually, High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi contacted Skywalker at the shipyards and reported that Republic Intelligence had confirmed the existence of a Confederate listening post that had been intercepting Republic transmissions. Kenobi gave Skywalker the new mission of finding the Confederate listening post. Skywalker elected to undertake the sweeps of outer corridors of space suspected of Confederate activity, while the rest of his forces concentrated on a more central path. Skywalker departed in his Delta-7B starfighter with a hyperspace docking ring, and was accompanied by astromech droid R3-S6, who had replaced R2-D2, Skywalker's original droid, after he had been lost during the Battle of Bothawui. Unbeknownst to the Jedi, R3-S6 was a spy working for the Confederate General Grievous, intent on removing Skywalker as an obstacle.

Arriving in an area of space suspected of Confederate activity, Skywalker ordered R3-S6 to activate the starfighter's scanners. However, the droid instead activated the fighter's homing beacon, intending to alert Grievous of Skywalker's presence. Back with the fleet, Tano picked up the signal. Alarmed, she ordered Clone Captain CT-7567, nicknamed "Rex," to gather clone troopers to rescue Skywalker with the G9 Rigger-class light freighter Twilight, Skywalker's personal ship. Grievous arrived in the system out of hyperspace with two Munificent-class frigates, which began to attack Skywalker with laser fire.

Skywalker ordered R3-S6 to plot a course out of the system and prep the hyperdrive booster engines, but the droid instead dropped the booster ring, not intending to allow the Jedi to escape. The engines were destroyed by laser fire, and Skywalker, unable to retreat, was forced to engage the frigates. Grievous ordered all of the frigates' vulture droids to be launched, and the droid fighters targeted missiles at the fleeing Jedi fighter. Ordering R3-S6 to cut his fighter's engines, Skywalker turned around to face his fighter at the droids, aiming laser blasts at the group of approaching missiles. The missiles were destroyed, and Grievous ordered the frigates to move into attack position.

As the Vulture droids approached, Skywalker was able to destroy several of the fighters, but under the cover of incapability, R3-S6 refused to activate the engines or fire the laser guns of Skywalker's fighter. The Twilight soon arrived out of hyperspace with Rex and Tano aboard, and, as the freighter engaged the droids, Skywalker was able to pilot his fighter into the freighter's hangar. The Twilight escaped by maneuvering between the wings of Grievous's frigate and its sister ship, and the droid fighters pursuing the freighter were destroyed. As the Twilight jumped to hyperspace, Grievous took his frustration out on a battle droid, swatting and destroying it.

Even though he had escaped, Skywalker was left frustrated with R3-S6, as the Jedi still longed for the return of his original astromech droid, R2-D2. The Twilight soon received a communication from R2-D2, who was being taken to Skytop Station by Gha Nachkt to be sold to Grievous. Tracking the droid and discovering the Confederate listening post over the Ruusan moon, Skywalker contacted Kenobi and reported the location of the droid. Despite the fact that R2-D2 was aboard the station, Kenobi ordered Skywalker to destroy the base; the droid had fallen into enemy hands, and it would prove fatal to the Republic if Grievous gained the information stored in his databanks. Skywalker and Tano led the clone troopers aboard the Twilight on a mission to destroy the station; however, against Kenobi's wishes, Skywalker decided to rescue R2-D2 as well.

The mission was created for "Downfall of a Droid," an episode that aired on November 7, 2008, as part of the first season of the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

The prelude to the mission—namely, the Battle of Bothawui and the search aboard the Vulture's Claw for R2-D2—was mentioned in the December 2008 novel The Clone Wars: Wild Space, written by Karen Miller. The novel introduced continuity problems, as it stated that Skywalker and Tano returned to the Alanteen Six shipyards after their search for R2-D2 aboard the Vulture's Claw. "Downfall of a Droid"—in which both the mission to the Vulture's Claw and Skywalker's sweeps of space were first featured—had stated that Skywalker's mission to suspected Confederate space took place directly after the mission to the Vulture's Claw. This article assumes that the novel's interpretation of events is correct.

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