Subjugation of Parrlay

In 32 BBY, the planet Naboo was blockaded by the Trade Federation in response to Senate Resolution BR-0371, a Galactic Senate ruling that placed a tariff on Free Trade Zones. The blockade was orchestrated by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, whose public identity was that of Naboo's senator Palpatine. In preparation for an invasion, the Trade Federation executed several covert operations to block Naboo's communications, including the disabling of a sensor array near the city Kwilaan in order to allow jamming satellites to be placed undetected. Following a failed ambush on Jedi ambassadors sent to resolve the blockade, Sidious ordered Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray to begin landing the Federation's Droid Army on the planet. The Sith Lord gave the Trade Federation two primary objectives, the first being to block Naboo's ability to communicate with the Senate, and the second to capture Naboo's Queen Amidala and force her to sign a treaty of surrender.

Following a hostile conversation via transmission with Amidala, Gunray's legal advisor Rune Haako asked him if the queen suspected an attack, to which Gunray responded that he was unsure if she did but knew that they had to move to disrupt the Naboo's ability to report the invasion to the Galactic Republic capital planet Coruscant. To that end, Gunray delegated to the B1-Series battle droid OOM-9 the responsibility of destroying three transmitters in the Naboo cities of New Centrif, Vis, and Parrlay. The droid landed north of New Centrif aboard a C-9979 landing craft with a force that included his personal Heavy Armored Assault Tank, eight B1-Series battle droids, four heavy beetle droids, and two Single Trooper Aerial Platforms.

The Droid Army approached New Centrif first, but OOM-9 observed that the city was too well-defended and would require reinforcements to attack. He directed his battle droids to Vis, a short distance east of New Centrif. Upon their arrival, Gunray dispatched another force commanded by the B1 battle droid EEK-176, which included three droidekas, four heavy beetle droids, and four B1 battle droids. EEK-176's forces flanked Vis from the south while OOM-9's forces entered from the west. The droids killed the Royal Naboo Security Forces there, which included four royal troopers, nine trooper recruits, a V-19 landspeeder, and four Tuskcat Troopers. Afterward, they destroyed the rest of the city and its transmitter, and EEK-176 declared the capture of Vis.

OOM-9 marched the Droid Army toward New Centrif next, accessing it through its southern entrance rather than the more heavily defended north. The Federation force killed a group containing three trooper recruits and one royal trooper on the path before entering the city, where it eliminated five PKN-49 worker droids, who were gathering nova crystals and working as farmers there, as well as their defenders. Subsequently, the vast majority of New Centrif's population, which included ten troopers, three trooper recruits, six Tuskcat Troopers, and three V-19 landspeeders, descended on the invaders. OOM-9 kept his beetle droids in reserve while gunning down the Naboo, with his forces suffering minimal casualties in the process. Afterward, OOM-9 sent his droids further into the city to clear out any stragglers and used the beetle droids to burn New Centrif and its transmitter to the ground. EEK-176 then declared the outcome again.

The droids encountered and dispatched two separate groups of three Parrlayan royal troopers on the road leading to the last transmitter. As OOM-9's army entered Parrlay, Gunray sent another landing craft to reinforce the droids from the north of the city: two heavy beetle droids, two droidekas, two energy pummels, and three Armored Assault Tanks. The combined droid forces pressed through Parrlay's defenders, which included ten royal troopers, seven Tuskcat Troopers, four V-19 landspeeders, and two champion repulsorcraft. They eventually reached the walled area of Parrlay that contained the transmitter. A troop center was located behind the wall, from which royal troopers began emerging. OOM-9 placed his battle droids along the wall in order to open fire on the troopers while his beetle droids burned through the wall and destroyed the transmitter, completing the destruction of Parrlay.

The destruction of the transmitters allowed the Trade Federation to continue the invasion without alerting the Galactic Republic. Gunray reported the subjugation of Parrlay to Sidious, acknowledging that it was merely the beginning of the invasion. At the time of the communications disruption, Queen Amidala and the Naboo Royal Advisory Council were in Naboo's capital Theed, in a holographic meeting with Palpatine, who was offworld. Palpatine's hologram was cut off unexpectedly, leading Royal Naboo Security Forces Captain Quarsh Panaka to speculate that the Trade Federation was jamming their communications, while Governor Sio Bibble concluded that an invasion had begun. OOM-9 proceeded to conquer the Naboo cities of Harte Secur and Spinnaker, and captured Theed the morning after the Army had landed on the planet. The Royal Advisory Council peacefully surrendered to the Trade Federation, at which point Bibble chastized Gunray for interrupting their communications with Palpatine while arguments were still underway in the Senate.

During the Fall of Theed, the Jedi ambassadors Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi snuck into Theed to rescue Amidala from her droid captors, planning to make contact with the Republic and report the invasion. When strategizing with the rest of the queen's entourage, Panaka responded that their communications were still disrupted, leading the Jedi to decide on acquiring transportation offworld in order to allow Amidala to share word of Naboo's strife with the Galactic Senate. OOM-9 was credited for destroying the communications capabilities of New Centrif and Vis, of which word later reached Sidious's Sith apprentice Darth Maul. In an interview eventually recorded in the Royal Archives of Naboo, Vol. 2453, Royal Naboo Security Forces veteran Pars Varqom recalled the loss of communications as marking the beginning of the invasion.

The disruption of Naboo's communications was created for the plot of the prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, written and directed by George Lucas. The event was first mentioned in the film's novelization by Terry Brooks, released on April 21, 1999, before the film's premiere on May 19 of that year. In the 2001 LucasArts video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, the events concerning the disruption were depicted as a battle in the first level of the Trade Federation campaign, "Beachhead." The battle's name was given in the introductory cutscene of the following level, "Behind the Lines." Unused audio files from the game depict an attack by the droid OOM-14 on the city Pontel and a Naboo trooper declaring that Parrlay has to be warned of the upcoming attack. The accompanying strategy guide by Steven L. Kent describes several differences in the subjugation's portrayal from the finished game. It depicts spaceports, rather than transmitters, as the targets in each city. The guide also states that the player would receive two droidekas when attacking Vis, while in the game, the player instead receives three.

In the original version of Galactic Battlegrounds, the Naboo mounted troopers rode kaadu; they were changed to tusk cats in the 2002 expansion Clone Campaigns. The number of enemy units faced by the player in Galactic Battlegrounds changes depending on the difficulty level. In Vis, the four royal troopers and the V-19 landspeeder are only present in hard difficulty. The turrets at the entrance to New Centrif are not present in easy difficulty, and three royal troopers and two landspeeders are added in hard difficulty. On easy mode in Parrlay, there are three fewer troopers, two fewer V-19 landspeeders, and one less turret, and royal troopers do not spawn from the southern troop center. All of those units, aside from the initial three troopers, appear in medium and hard difficulty. This article follows the units portrayed in hard difficulty.

• Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace: The Official Souvenir Annual 2000
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace promotional book
• Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Episode I
• Star Wars Customizable Card Game — Coruscant Limited
• Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
• The Official Star Wars Fact File21
• The Official Star Wars Fact File34
• Star Wars: Complete Locations
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Vol. III
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Expanded Visual Dictionary
• Star Wars in 100 Scenes