The Nexus Route was a key hyperspace route that extended between the hearts of both Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems territory and became of seminal interest to the two governments during the Clone Wars. Control over the hyperspace route would have proven to be of major tactical advantage to either party as it would provide them the ability to launch strikes against each other's homeworlds, including the Republic capital world of Coruscant.
During the war, the coordinates for the Nexus Route were discovered by Jedi Master Even Piell and his captain, Wilhuff Tarkin, which led to the two of them being taken captive by the Confederacy, but not before dividing the information between each other. Later, following a struggle to rescue Piell and recover the information, the Jedi Master was killed and passed his half of the information to Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who was ordered to bring it directly to the Jedi High Council. However, Tarkin refused to share the information with the Jedi and was ordered to deliver it to his mentor Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine following his rescue.
Ahsoka Tano and Wilhuff Tarkin each held half of the coordinates to the Nexus Route.
In 20 BBY, during the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, Jedi Master Even Piell and his Republic forces managed to discover the coordinates for the Nexus Route. Later, Piell and his Venator-class Star Destroyer were ambushed and captured by the Separatists, who took the Jedi Master and several clone officers to the Citadel prison on the planet Lola Sayu shortly after. Before their capture, Piell and his Captain Wilhuff Tarkin deleted the information from their Star Destroyer and memorized half of the route's coordinates in order to prevent the Separatists from learning of its location.
Sometime after his imprisonment, a rescue team led by Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker were dispatched by the Republic to Lola Sayu in order to free Piell from the Citadel along with the Nexus Route's coordinates. However, despite the Republic's success in freeing Piell, the Jedi Master was killed amid their escape from the planet, forcing him to pass his half of the information on to Skywalker's Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who Piell ordered to bring to the Jedi Council alone. Upon their escape and return to the planet Coruscant, Tarkin refused to share his half of the information and explained that he was to bring it directly to his mentor Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, with whom Jedi Grand Master Yoda would confer to decide on the course of action as a result.
Towards the end of the war, it was believed that Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious, Chancellor Palpatine's true persona, provided the location of the Nexus Route to his pawns in the Separatist Alliance. As a result, the Kaleesh warlord and Supreme Martial Commander of the Separatist Droid Armies, General Grievous, utilized the hyperspace route in order to facilitate a massive, unprecedented assault on Coruscant.
The Nexus Route was first mentioned in "The Citadel," the eighteenth episode of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars' third season, which originally aired on February 18, 2011.
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