Siege of Otoh Gunga

In 32 BBY, the Trade Federation of Planets launched a blockade of the planet Naboo in protest of Senate Resolution BR-0371 on the orders of the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, the secret identity of Senator Palpatine of Naboo. Following a failed attempt by the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi to resolve the blockade, the Trade Federation escalated its blockade into a full-scale invasion of Naboo, initially targeting the surface-dwelling Human Naboo population rather than the indigenous Gungan species, who lived underwater. Jinn and Kenobi met with the Gungan leader Boss Rugor Nass in the Gungan capital Otoh Gunga and tried to warn him that the Trade Federation would target the Gungans after conquering the Humans, but Nass believed that the Trade Federation would ignore the Gungans. However, many of the Gungans were growing nervous as the invasion continued, and so Nass made plans for a possible evacuation of the Gungan cities.

Rumors of Gungan sightings reached Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray soon after their Droid Army landed on Naboo. The company initially ignored the rumors but felt that they could not continue doing so after they captured the Human capital city of Theed. A mariner from the captured city Harte Secur told the B1-Series battle droid OOM-9 about the Gungan bubble city Rellias and its leader, Boss Ganne. OOM-9 organized for the Droid Army to search the swamps for the Gungans, and reported directly to Gunray in Theed Royal Palace when they were ready to begin the search. Gunray believed that the Gungans would be crushed shortly, and regarded the planet as already under his control.

OOM-9's initial searches did not lead to any Gungan villages or to the capture of any Gungans. Sometime after a Trade Federation plasma mining camp was destroyed, the Sith apprentice Darth Maul was ordered by Sidious to go to Naboo to assist the Neimoidians of the Trade Federation root out the remaining resistance, including the Gungans. Maul had failed in his attempt to kidnap Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo on the planet Tatooine, and while Maul was away Sidious worked on modifying his plans.

When Maul met with Gunray and his advisor, Rune Haako, he inquired about the Gungans. To Maul's disgust, Gunray and Haako attempted to minimize the truth that they had not located any of the Gungan settlements. Maul caught Gunray lying that they had discarded thousands of atomized bodies of Gungans into the sea. Gunray attempted to deflect by stating that the Gungans were not a threat to their invasion, but Maul informed him that they had their own Grand Army and sufficient plasma weaponry to be a threat. The Neimoidians then informed Maul that OOM-9 was in charge of the search for the Gungans, and Maul ordered Gunray to inform the battle droid that he would assume command of the search. Maul departed on his speeder, Bloodfin to OOM-9's forward observation post next to an insect-filled marsh.

By the time Maul arrived, OOM-9's droids had shot and killed four Gungans who had been caught exchanging goods with traders outside the city Moenia, while the traders were interred in Camp Six. When the Sith apprentice arrived, he asked OOM-9 how many Gungans had been captured, to which the battle droid lied that forty-seven had been captured after being ordered to say so by computers aboard the orbiting Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship, the Vuutun Paala. Maul decided not to call out OOM-9 on the lie and instead had the droid take him to see the four Gungan corpses, at which point he made further inquires about the search. OOM-9 revealed that they were yet to find any trace of Rellias and speculated that the Gungans were jamming their scanners. Maul was paranoid that the Gungans would interfere with his personal objective to capture Amidala and kill Jinn and Kenobi, who were now serving as her protectors. Therefore, he ordered OOM-9 to poison the nearby waters and drain the whole marsh if that failed to expose any Gungans.

Maul rode his speeder to Summit Farm Blossom Winery to find Maris Magneta, the former head of security for Naboo's previous king, the deceased Ars Veruna. Sidious had told Maul that she would potentially be able to help locate the Gungan cities. Magneta invited Maul in and offered him a beverage, only to acknowledge that she did not know how to find the cities. She offered him the name Leika, a Bothan surveyor for an offworld mining company that had been contracted by Veruna to analyse Gungan territory. Leika had been trapped on Naboo when the Trade Federation's blockade started, so Magneta suggested that Maul could find the Bothan at a Trade Federation detention camp. Just as Maul was about to leave, Magneta acknowledged her involvement in the past schemes of the Neimoidians, Palpatine, and Hego Demask—Palpatine's Sith Master, Darth Plagueis. Maul could not allow any links between Palpatine and the Neimoidians to be uncovered, and so he executed Magneta, her bodyguard, and a group of fieldworkers who came to their defense.

The Sith apprentice travelled to Camp Six and located Leika, who feared that Maul had come to kill him. The Bothan was relieved to learn otherwise, and agreed to help Maul in the hope that he could arrange for passage off Naboo. Leika inserted a data crystal into a reader that revealed a 3D map of Naboo's swamps, and at Maul's request gave him the coordinates of Rellias. Leika also described how the Trade Federation could enter the Gungan's hydrostatic bubbles and gave information about a fortified plasma channel that led to Otoh Gunga and other major Gungan cities and their Sacred Place. Maul took the data crystal and reader from Leika and acknowledged that their terms would be honoured.

OOM-9's effort to poison the marsh had darkened the waters and killed many gooberfish, but when the droids attempted to drain it they discovered that the marsh waters replenished themselves due to a connection between vast systems of underground water. When Maul returned, OOM-9 reported the conditions, after which Maul handed the data crystal to the droid and ordered him to transmit the data to their Single Trooper Aerial Platform patrols. Maul instructed the STAPS to cover Rellias's location with depth charges. Maul and OOM-9 travelled to Rellias aboard an S-DST, an aquatic destroyer, along with half a company of B1 battle droids, a full contingent of droidekas. By mid-afternoon, the S-DST had maneuvered through a series of channels to an enormous lake.

The STAPS continued detonating their depth charges on the water as Maul prepared himself for combat. As the STAPs drew close to Rellias, they were decimated by Otolla Gungan militiagungs wielding plasma boomas and energy lances while standing on nearby stone fortifications. Then, a fleet of Gungan submersibles rose out of the water and began firing on the S-DST. The droids landed their destroyer on the beach so that they could disembark, where they were met with a kaadu-mount cavalry charge, led by Ganne and an Ankura general. Behind the cavalry, the droids were assaulted by catapults strapped to the backs of fambaas. The battle droids marched directly towards the charging Gungans, firing at them with their blasters.

Maul jumped off the S-DST and leapt into the air to hang from the footrest of one of the few remaining STAPs. Several Gungans fired at Maul, who moved around to evade their aim and blocked some shots with his lightsaber. As he came within twenty meters from Ganne, the Sith apprentice used the Force to launched himself through a crowd of mounted Gungans, cutting through them efficiently. Maul recognized that the Gungans were surprised at his presence, as a Sith had not wielded a lightsaber in open battle in nearly one thousand years. Gungan body parts were strewn in all directions as Maul drew closer to Ganne and cut the legs out from some of the kaadu. At five meters from Ganne, Maul leapt into the air, decapitating the general and knocking Ganne from his kaadu with his left hand.

Ganne scrambled to grab an electropole, but Maul disarmed him and dragged him to the treeline on the edge of the battlefield. Maul identified Ganne as weak-willed and elected not to use force, deactivating his lightsaber and instead using a mind trick to overpower Ganne's will and get him to lead the way to Otoh Gunga. Ganne told Maul that they would need to pass through the Rellias Straits to reach the capital, and agreed to open the gates on the route. Maul then dragged Ganne to the S-DST.

A Gungan scout witnessed a group of STAPs and B1 battle droids and reported it to Otoh Gunga, and word of the fall of Rellias quickly reached the capital. Boss Nass met with the Gungan High Council and warned them that they needed to evacuate before the Trade Federation arrived. Many of the council members wanted to remain, but Representative Been convinced them to leave for shelter at the Sacred Place. The Gungans of Otoh Gunga found it difficult to pack their belongings but knew their lives were at risk if they remained. Captain Roos Tarpals supervised the evacuation of thousands of Gungans from Otoh Gunga, and almost all of the one million inhabitants of the city were able to escape due to the massive size of the Gungan Swamp. Nass led the Gungans to the Sacred Place, where they prayed to their deities, the guds, for protection.

The droids travelled on the destroyer through the straits and reached Lake Paonga, the site of Otoh Gunga, and groups of militiagungs on the shore fired at the droids with their boomas. Maul ceased the attacks by securing Ganne to the S-DST's bow as a figurehead, the Gungans were unwilling to attack the boss and instead brandished their electropoles and made war cries. With their STAPs destroyed, OOM-9 ordered his battle droids to set off explosives in the lake, and Maul realized that the city must have been evacuated as no bodies emerged from the turmoiled lake surface. That fact was confirmed when OOM-9's drone submersibles returned from scouting missions.

Maul hauled Ganne onto the deck to find out where Nass would be hiding, but the boss was able to resist Maul's mind control powers. Maul drew out his lightsaber and tortured Ganne, who slowly revealed that Nass had gone to the Sacred Place, which Maul felt showed a degree of honor. Once Ganne was dead, Maul rolled his blistered body into the lake, at which point OOM-9 informed him that he had received a communication from Gunray that Queen Amidala and the Jedi had returned to Naboo. Maul returned to Theed to discuss strategy with the Neimoidians.

The Gungans at the Sacred Place grew anxious in the days following the siege, and as supplies dwindled fights broke out. There was division over whether they should return to Otoh Gunga or to retaliate against the Trade Federation. Captain Tarpals fought several skirmishes against droid patrols to keep the Sacred Place hidden,` and he and General Tobler Ceel began planning a guerilla warfare campaign that involved hit and run strikes on the Trade Federation followed by swift retreats into the swamps. However, Nass urged his people to be patient. Queen Amidala had returned to Naboo with the intention of fighting against the Trade Federation, and planned an alliance with the Gungans to do so. She hoped to use her Gungan companion Jar Jar Binks to meet with Boss Nass, but Binks found Otoh Gunga deserted and many of its buildings scorched with blaster-fire. The Gungan returned to the surface to report his findings, leading Kenobi and Amidala's Head of Security Quarsh Panaka to believe that the Gungans had been killed or interned. Binks accurately guessed that they had instead evacuated to the Sacred Place and lead the Queen's entourage there, risking his own life due to his severe unpopularity amongst the Gungans.

Tarpals and several Gungan guards met the queen as the group neared the Sacred Place, and Amidala initially feared that they blamed her for the invasion as much as the Trade Federation. Tarpals took the group to meet with Nass, where Amidala begged for Nass's help in retaking Naboo. Nass was impressed by Amidala's show of humility and accepted, overcoming centuries of distrust between Humans and Gungans. Together, they created a plan where the Gungan Grand Army would divert the bulk of the Trade Federation Droid Army on the Great Grass Plains near Theed while Amidala infiltrated Theed Palace to capture Gunray and pilots from the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps would eliminate the orbiting droid control ship to deactivate the Trade Federation's army.

The Siege of Otoh Gunga was created for the prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, written and directed by George Lucas. The siege did not take place in the revised rough draft of the film, instead the Trade Federation is described as not having discovered Otoh Gunga. Amidala and her entourage meet with Nass inside the city and persuade him to join them on account of having no other allies to call on. The siege was added to the story by the time the final draft was written, and a brief scene was included where Binks enters Otoh Gunga after the siege and sees signs of a battle such as blaster-marked buildings.

The first published mention of the siege was in the novelization of The Phantom Menace, published on April 21, 1999, prior to the film's premiere on May 19, 1999. The first narrative source to depict the evacuation of Otoh Gunga was the 2000 picture book Gungan Trouble!, written by Liza Baker and illustrated by Jerry Vanderstelt. The 2001 LucasArts video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds was the first source to depict the violence between the Trade Federation and the Gungans, rather than just its aftermath. The game depicted the siege in the fifth and sixth levels of the Trade Federation campaign. These were titled "The Search for an Underwater Kingdom" and "The Siege of Otoh Gunga," the latter of which named the event. The former level depicts the breach of the Rellias Straits, while the latter involves the attack on Otoh Gunga.

The short story "End Game," written by James Luceno and published in the 2012 rerelease of The Phantom Menace novelization, portrayed the siege with notable differences to the events to "The Search for an Underwater Kingdom" from Galactic Battlegrounds. This article follows the short stories version of events and the details from Galactic Battlegrounds that do not contradict it. The remaining details are included below.

Darth Maul is present at the beginning of the level with the stealth ship Scimitar, rather than the Bloodfin as described in "End Game." Also present are six beetle droids, four Heavy Battle Droids, two droidekas, two Armored Assault Tanks, and two energy pummels.

• Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide
• Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Episode I
• Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
• "State of the Arts" — Star Wars Gamer 8
• The Official Star Wars Fact File8
• The New Essential Guide to Characters
• The Official Star Wars Fact File54
• The Official Star Wars Fact File59
• The Official Star Wars Fact File65
• The Official Star Wars Fact File137
• Star Wars Chronicles: The Prequels
• Star Wars: Complete Locations
• Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide
• Star Wars Character Encyclopedia
• The Essential Reader's Companion
• Star Wars: Force Collection
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Expanded Visual Dictionary