During the Clone Wars, specifically in the year 20 BBY, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi General leading a task force of the Galactic Republic, found his forces under attack. The aggressor was a fleet of warships belonging to the Confederacy of Independent Systems, with the Kaleesh Separatist General Grievous in command. As soon as Grievous showed up, his fleet rapidly gained an edge, unleashing a barrage of turbolaser fire upon the Republic's vessels. This assault decimated several of Kenobi's light cruisers and frigates providing support, along with starfighter squadrons. While the larger capital ships continued their engagement, Grievous's forces, including droid gunships, droid starfighters, and bombers, boarded the Republic's flagship, the Negotiator, a _Venator_-class Star Destroyer. They deployed numerous battle droids with the intention of assassinating Kenobi. Amidst the chaos on the Negotiator, the two opposing generals clashed in lightsaber combat.
Despite Kenobi's attempts to defend his vessel from Grievous's incursion, the clone troopers of the 212th Attack Battalion, including Clone Marshal Commander CC-2224, also known as "Cody," were unable to effectively counter the droid forces. Consequently, they lost control of the flagship. Recognizing that the Negotiator was beyond saving, the Jedi Master instructed his crew and troopers to evacuate. He and the Clone Commander then set the Star Destroyer to self-detonate, preventing its capture by Grievous. After Kenobi's escape, Grievous boarded the command bridge, seeking to extract data from its databanks. However, upon discovering the impending self-destruction, the Separatist general quickly abandoned the ship before the explosion.
The failure of the Republic Navy detachment to maintain its position dashed any hopes of a rescue operation aimed at saving several Jedi younglings aboard the Crucible. These younglings had lost their leader, Padawan Ahsoka Tano, to the Ohnaka Gang during a raid on their vessel. Simultaneously, the Separatist Navy flotilla's triumph granted General Grievous unchecked access to nearby space, including the Florrum system. This allowed him to subsequently seize the headquarters of the Ohnaka Gang located on the planet Florrum.
Back in 20 BBY amidst the backdrop of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi General, was on patrol with his fleet when his command ship, the Negotiator, received a distress signal originating from the Jedi starship Crucible. The Crucible was on its way back from Ilum after its youngling passengers had undergone the Gathering ritual, a rite of passage to obtain their kyber crystals. However, the pirates of the Ohnaka Gang attacked the Crucible to steal the younglings' crystals.
Ahsoka Tano, a Padawan supervising the six younglings, successfully defended against the pirates. However, she was accidentally pulled onto the Acushnet and taken prisoner. The younglings only realized this after the Crucible escaped through a hyperspace jump. Upon hearing the young Jedi's desperate situation, Kenobi instructed them to refrain from attempting a rescue mission. He assured them that he would dispatch Clone Commander Cody to retrieve them from the damaged Crucible, after which he would personally confront Hondo Ohnaka and rescue Tano.
However, immediately after concluding his communication with the Crucible, a Separatist fleet emerged from hyperspace directly in the path of Kenobi's forces, forcing them into an immediate battle. This Separatist fleet, under the command of General Grievous, Kenobi's long time foe, consisted of three Munificent-class star frigates, two Providence-class dreadnoughts, and one Recusant-class light destroyer. This Separatist Navy detachment outnumbered the three Republic Venator-class capital ships and their accompanying sub-capital vessels. Vulture droids were immediately deployed as the Separatist ships opened fire on the Republic fleet. At the start of the battle, an Arquitens-class light cruiser advanced towards the Separatist fleet, passing a severely damaged Consular-class frigate which promptly exploded. Republic Z-95 headhunters and BTL-B Y-wing starfighter/bombers engaged the Separatist starfighters.
A trio of Republic starfighters, pursued by vulture droids, flew past the Recusant-class light destroyer while a smoking, damaged Arquitens-class light cruiser drifted by, and explosions erupted on the hull of the light destroyer. As this Arquitens-class light cruiser was destroyed, one of the clone Z-95s was shot down and crashed into the light destroyer near one of its hangars. Vulture droids continued to chase the retreating Z-95 and Y-wing, piloted by "Engle," flying towards the Republic ships. The gunner of Engle's Y-wing destroyed one of the vulture droids.
Clone pilot "Killer," flying the Z-95, slowed his fighter and fell behind the vulture droids, just as Separatist turbolaser fire damaged the starboard hull trench of one of the Republic Venator-class cruisers; Killer persisted to shoot down the vulture droids. By this point, one of the Munificent-class star frigates had moved closer to engage the Republic cruisers at close range, though the Separatist frigate itself was also hit.
On the bridge of Kenobi's flagship, the Negotiator, a clone naval officer informed the Jedi General that the Republic forces were being overwhelmed and that Grievous was launching a boarding party, as the ship shook under attack. Kenobi went to his ship's main hangar to defend against the Separatist boarding party. Soon, Killer's starfighter was destroyed by Separatist laser fire, and not long after, Engle's Y-wing was hit by enemy fire and spun violently towards the main hangar of the Negotiator.
While the Separatist boarding forces, consisting of Grievous' Sheathipede-class transport shuttle and six HMP droid gunships, guarded by vulture droids, droid tri-fighters, and Hyena-class bombers, followed closely behind, Engle's Y-wing crashed in the central takeoff passage of the Negotiator, its wreckage grinding against the metal plating.
General Kenobi arrived at the right-side hangar and rushed to defend against the Separatist battle droids deployed from the droid gunships. While Grievous disembarked his shuttle with two IG-100 MagnaGuards, Kenobi pulled Engle away from the burning Y-wing as two astromech droids tried to extinguish the flames. Scores of B1-series battle droids advanced across the airtight fields of the hangar, as a firefight erupted in the hangar spaces of the Negotiator. Clone troopers of Kenobi's 212th Attack Battalion took positions behind parked starfighters and crates, firing their blasters and blaster cannons. Grievous, assisted by vulture droids in walk mode, advanced towards Kenobi. Despite the efforts of several clone troopers, the cyborg general knocked some of them down and slashed others with his lightsaber.
A standoff began with General Kenobi, Commander Cody, and the clone troopers facing General Grievous and his droid forces. Grievous, holding a clone trooper under his leg, killed him by crushing his neck, to which Kenobi remarked that he would regret doing so. As the two leaders engaged in lightsaber combat, blaster fire erupted again. Grievous kicked Kenobi into the door of an LAAT/i gunship, where Cody had taken up a position. The clone commander pointed out the fuel barrels nearby as a way to strike General Grievous; the Jedi General hurled one of these barrels at Grievous using the Force, which Cody then shot, causing an explosion that left Grievous recoiling and his armor charred. Having bought some time, Kenobi and the clones retreated.
In the hallways of the Negotiator, the Separatist droids pushed back the Republic clones. Several members of the clone trooper flight crew took up arms and fought alongside General Kenobi and the other clone troopers. But Kenobi ordered his men to fall back and abandon ship, having judged that his flagship was already lost; he resolved to instead give Grievous a parting gift by activating the Negotiator's self-destruct mechanism.
In space, several Separatist starfighters bombed the starboard side of the Negotiator, tearing breaches in the hull as the stricken vessel's DBY-827 turrets unleashed turbolaser fire. The droid starfighters also made a run past an Arquitens-class light cruiser and a Consular-class frigate, the latter of which was cruising above one of the other Venator-class Star Destroyers and, damaged by the Separatists, exploded. The wreckage of another Arquitens-class light cruiser, in front of this Venator-class, was smouldering and breaking up.
General Grievous, flanked by his two MagnaGuards, arrived at the command bridge of the Negotiator, where two of the clone naval officers had been killed. A B1 battle droid notified Grievous that the Separatists had secured the ship while another operated the controls of the central holotable. Just as Grievous finished his command that the droids should retrieve all information from Kenobi's vessel, a hologram of the Jedi General appeared, in which he conceded defeat and the loss of his ship. In the hologram, Kenobi also communicated that he was boarding an escape pod and would be at a safe distance from the ship, which was about to explode; Kenobi had activated the Negotiator's self-destruct system. Grievous, groaning at this message, quickly departed the bridge, much to the dismay of his droids.
The Jedi and his clone troopers, including Cody, rushed aboard escape pods and jettisoned towards a battle-damaged Munificent-class star frigate. Meanwhile, Grievous dashed to his Sheathipede-class shuttle, knocking over two B1 battle droids guarding it and abandoning them to their demise. His shuttle safely fled the Negotiator as its hangar was rocked by an explosion. Numerous other explosions soon tore through the ship, scattering debris everywhere as the Negotiator was reduced to a burning hulk. Kenobi, observing through the viewport of his escape pod, witnessed his flagship ripped apart by several more explosions, before being completely destroyed in a massive fireball. He admitted that the Jedi younglings whom he was planning to rescue were now on their own.
The Galactic Republic's defeat forced General Kenobi and Commander Cody to abandon the plan to rescue the Jedi younglings. These younglings landed the Crucible on Florrum due to engine problems. Despite lacking the Republic's help, the Jedi younglings tried to rescue Ahsoka Tano from the Ohnaka gang by joining Preigo's Traveling World of Wonder and performing at a circus at the pirate compound. This mission failed when the younglings and Tano, fleeing from pirate forces, were captured.
Now without Republic forces in the areas around the Florrum system, General Grievous landed on the planet Florrum. By order of Count Dooku, who had previously been imprisoned and held for ransom to the Republic by Hondo Ohnaka, Grievous seized the pirate compound, capturing Ohnaka and several other pirates for their past transgressions against Dooku. To escape Florrum, the pirates and the Jedi teamed up to break out of the pirate base. A skirmish and a chase followed, with Grievous pursuing the Jedi. Ohnaka, several pirates, and all Jedi, along with their droids, fled to Republic-controlled space.
Kenobi and Ohnaka reunited on another Venator-class Star Destroyer when the latter returned the Jedi to Republic protection. Grievous demolished the pirate base and melted down much of the equipment there for the Separatist war machine. The remaining pirates eventually returned to Florrum and lived in the ruins of their base.
The attack on Obi-Wan Kenobi's fleet was featured in "Bound for Rescue," the eighth episode of the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. For this scene, the clone trooper pilots with nicknames "Killer" and "Engle" were created as starfighter pilots serving in the Galactic Republic Navy. Both pilots had unique markings on their Phase II armor.
There are some inconsistencies in this battle sequence, including those pertaining to the damage visible to the warships during the battle, the positioning of the ships, and the number of particular ships. One instance involves the Separatist Munificent-class frigates. Although the scene where the Separatist fleet comes out of hyperspace only shows two Munificent-class frigates, the holotable on the Negotiator depicts three, and in one frame near the end of the battle, three Munificent-class frigates can be seen. Hence, this article accounts for three star frigates.
The positioning of one of the ships in space during the earlier part of the battle also contradicts what appears on the hologram, and this article refers to the scenes in space. Additionally, when Grievous and his boarding party are approaching the Negotiator, the Venator-class Star Destroyer to the left of it can be seen exploding. However, a few frames later, when Killer is shot down, this Venator-class does not appear to be destroyed. This article thus does not count that cruiser as a destroyed ship.
Footage for the Separatist fleet exiting hyperspace and launching droid starfighters at the beginning of this battle was reused during the introduction of "Aftermath," the first episode of the first season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the successor animated television show to Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Although this scene was intended to accompany the narration that Grievous had launched "a desperate and brutal counterattack across several star systems" after losing the Battle of Coruscant, the battle between the fleets of Kenobi and Grievous did not occur during the final days of the Clone Wars, which were portrayed by the episode "Aftermath."