Battle of Coruscant

Following the beginning of the Clone Wars at the First Battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY, Jedi Master Mace Windu suspected that the Confederacy of Independent Systems deeply desired to reach Coruscant, the Galactic Republic's capital world, situated within the Core Worlds of the galaxy. Early in the war, observing the Confederacy's continuous expansion throughout the vast Outer Rim Territories, Windu recalled how power often spread concentrically. He theorized that after securing a foothold in the Outer Rim, the Confederacy would pursue their intentions and advance into the interior regions, including Coruscant.

By 19 BBY, as the war approached its conclusion and the Republic's victory seemed inevitable, the Confederacy launched a significant offensive across the Outer Rim under the direct command of General Grievous, the Supreme Martial Commander of the Separatist Droid Armies. With the Republic and its military stretched thin, the Jedi High Council responded by deploying seasoned forces, including experienced Jedi Generals and officers, to reinforce struggling clone troopers and confront the Confederacy. While the Outer Rim Sieges proved attritional for the Confederacy, leading to their apparent entrapment, the Republic gained momentum through increased military spending, requisition bills passed by the Galactic Senate, and a rise in clone troopers.

Despite numerous Republic victories, the deployment of experienced forces left the Interior, including Coruscant, with relatively weak defenses, such as the underprepared Coruscant Home Defense Fleet led by Commander Honor Salima, who lacked training for large-scale attacks on the planet. Republic strategists minimized concerns, believing the Confederacy wouldn't risk such a desperate assault, allowing them to focus on the Outer Rim Sieges while leaving the capital sparsely defended. Furthermore, Coruscant's citizens felt little anxiety about potential attacks, anticipating the Confederacy's imminent surrender.

Before the assault, after losing the Subjugator-class heavy cruiser Malevolence during the battle_of_the_kaliida_nebula, Grievous demanded command of the Providence-class Dreadnought Invisible Hand from Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray. Gunray initially refused but later received direct orders from Darth Sidious, the Confederacy's shadow leader and Dark Lord of the Sith, to transfer command to Grievous, pleasing the general. Subsequently, as Grievous used the Invisible Hand in skirmishes, Sidious instructed Grievous and Confederate Head of State Count Dooku to launch a major assault on the Republic's capital. The goal was to capture Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, the Sith Lord's public identity. Sidious hoped the battle would lure Dooku's nemesis, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, to the conflict and encourage him to kill Dooku, pushing him closer to the dark side of the Force. Dooku believed the battle was arranged for him to defeat Skywalker and jointly turn him to the dark side.

Dooku and Grievous also aimed to secure a decisive victory for the Confederacy. Capturing the Chancellor would force Republic High Command to negotiate with the Confederacy, granting them significant concessions and a major propagandic advantage. It's believed Sidious provided Grievous with the coordinates for the strategically important Nexus Route to facilitate the assault, with the Invisible Hand as his flagship.

Upon arriving with a massive Separatist fleet of over 1,000 warships led by the Invisible Hand, Grievous launched a large and unexpected assault on the Republic capital. The inhabitants of the planet realized the Kaleesh general was leading the attack when the Invisible Hand emerged from hyperspace. His command ship engaged the capital ships and Star Destroyers of the Republic Navy's planetary defense fleet. The unprepared Coruscant Home Defense Fleet was caught off guard and overwhelmed, with the Separatist fleet quickly destroying many defending Star Destroyers. The dreadnought claimed multiple kills within minutes of the assault's start. Droid fighters supported battle droids on the surface, suppressing Yoda and Mace Windu to allow Grievous to act.

However, Yoda used the Force to cause attacking ships to collide. As the two fleets clashed in orbit, Grievous proceeded with his mission to capture the Supreme Chancellor. He evaded the planet's defense forces and landed in Coruscant's Federal District with a strike force. During the battle, the Galactic Senate Building and surrounding areas were engulfed in flames. An Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing starfighter piloted by clone trooper pilot Contrail flew over the burning district.

The battle above caused disastrous impacts on the vast Galactic City on the surface. Each battleship collision created ten-kilometer craters, with shockwaves leveling nearby structures. Coruscant Rescue Ops pilots worked tirelessly in civil emergency vehicles, rescuing crewmembers from doomed starships and guiding falling hulks to minimize civilian casualties and city damage. Due to the extensive damage to the planet's shields from constant Separatist bombardment, Coruscant Rescue Ops were on twenty-four-hour alert. Fire teams in F-143 emergency speeders patrolled the skies, using tractor beams to divert burning vessels or operating service and refueling stations.

After landing in the Galactic City, Grievous advanced on the Chancellor's location, heavily guarded by Republic security forces and Jedi, including Jedi Master Roron Corobb. Palpatine's apartment was guarded by Shaak Ti, Roron Corobb, and clone troopers, who urged him to leave. Palpatine ignored their concerns, refusing to flee the Separatist attack. Grievous appeared, accompanied by his MagnaGuards. Despite Republic efforts, Grievous overcame several layers of security and Corobb. He briefly encountered Shaak Ti, who engaged his IG-100 MagnaGuards with an electrostaff and her lightsaber. Grievous triumphed over Ti, taking her lightsaber after incapacitating her with electrical cables.

Grievous captured the Chancellor and returned to the Invisible Hand in orbit. Republic High Command feared that if the Separatists escaped with Palpatine, it would cause immense psychological fallout and expose Coruscant's vulnerability. The Chancellor could face a public show trial and subsequent execution. Alternatively, the Confederacy could force High Command to negotiate, demanding significant concessions for Palpatine's release. To prevent this, the Invisible Hand became the Republic's primary target.

Despite being close to victory, Grievous received orders from Dooku to remain in orbit and continue engaging the Republic defense fleet at close range. The battle above Coruscant became increasingly chaotic, with blurred battle lines in three dimensions as thousands of capital ships tried to gain elevation using the planet's atmosphere. The close proximity of warships allowed weapon systems like the Invisible Hand's mass-driver cannons to be used effectively during broadside engagements.

After Grievous's return, Commander Honor Salima ordered the Coruscant Home Defense Fleet to close the Confederacy's hyperspace jump point and blockade the Invisible Hand to prevent its escape and allow Republic reinforcements to arrive. With reinforcements arriving, including hundreds of warships from the Open Circle Fleet, Grievous rallied his remaining capital ships and exchanged fire with Venator-class Star Destroyers. He employed a Brawl tactic to exploit the limited reactions of droid crews and commanders, maximizing Confederate casualties and resulting in a free-for-all. The Republic fleet sought to destroy as many warships as possible and prevent their withdrawal, forcing Separatist capital ships like Lucrehulk-class Battleships, Munificent-class star frigates, and Recusant-class light destroyers, including the Patriot Fist, to fight for survival, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides. Starfighter squadrons exploited openings to damage vessels with weakened or damaged shields.

While the fleets engaged, Jedi General Saesee Tiin and clone troopers launched from the Star Destroyer Impavid to capture the Confederacy's Providence-class Dreadnought Prosperous. As the Republic fought to prevent the Confederacy's withdrawal, the Confederate battle plan became less clear, appearing to focus on crippling the Republic fleet. Space above the planet was filled with wreckage. Despite the fleets' strategies, the chaotic engagement devolved into local battles between nearby warships and starfighters, with coherent control collapsing and targets of military worth being neglected as warships fired on targets of convenience or proximity.

Skywalker met with his former Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, who was preparing an assault against Darth Sidious's former apprentice, Darth Maul, and his forces on Mandalore. Skywalker learned the Separatists had kidnapped Palpatine, so he and Obi-Wan Kenobi came to Coruscant with their fleet. They flew out in their Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptors but divided their forces so Tano could defeat Maul and save Mandalore. To aid the Jedi Generals, elite clone trooper pilots of Clone Flight Squad Seven under Davijaan, "Oddball," launched from the Venator-class Star Destroyer Ro-ti-Mundi. Oddball ordered his squad's V-19 Torrent starfighters to take point, punching through Separatist tri-fighters. Despite two pilots being lost, the squad continued.

Oddball brought his Aggressive ReConnaissance-170 starfighters to tail the Jedi. They found hundreds of vulture droids and tri-fighters swarming the Invisible Hand. The Jedi engaged the enemy fighters with the clone fighter squad. Support frigates defended the Invisible Hand, and Recusant-class light destroyers, Lucrehulk-class Battleships, and Munificent-class star frigates battled Republic ships. The Republic craft tried to trap enemy capital ships, but the fighting became a slugging match with heavy casualties. Starships made close passes, and larger ships vented atmosphere. Smaller frigates broke apart, creating hazards in space. Small groups of vacuum-suited clone jetpack troopers boarded damaged Separatist vessels to take their bridges.

During Skywalker's and Kenobi's struggle toward the Separatist flagship, the clones took casualties, and Skywalker wanted to help. Kenobi insisted they stick to the mission. Flight Squad Seven used their afterburners to keep up with the Jedi, and Oddball guessed Skywalker was causing the speed. The Jedi and clones were attacked by a swarm of Vulture droids, which fired missiles at them. Skywalker evaded them by rolling, causing the missiles to intersect.

Kenobi couldn't avoid the missiles, which exploded, releasing buzz droids that attached to his ship. They destroyed his astromech droid R4-P17 and rapidly disabled Kenobi's interceptor. Skywalker saved Kenobi by firing on the buzz droids and smashing into Kenobi's ship, crushing them, heavily damaging Kenobi's interceptor. A surviving buzz droid boarded Anakin's interceptor, but his astromech R2-D2, guided by Kenobi and Skywalker, deactivated it with an electrical tool. Flight Squad Seven had trouble with buzz droids, with one ARC-170 losing its engines and another losing its weapons, forcing it to return to Ro-Ti-Mundi. Oddball noticed the Jedi's buzz droid problems, but the Jedi had dealt with them by the time the squad caught up.

As they sped towards Grievous' command ship, Skywalker, after Kenobi and R2 reminded him that the shields of the flagship were still active, obliterated the protective atmospheric field around the hangar bay entrance. With Kenobi's starfighter experiencing engine failure, the duo of ships penetrated the defenses of the vessel and crash-landed within the hangar, where the Jedi swiftly dispatched the security droid opposition. The arrival of the Jedi on the ship signified the successful completion of Flight Squad Seven's assignment. Oddball instructed his team to neutralize key targets and maintain close proximity should the Jedi require assistance during their departure from the ship.

Meanwhile, back with the Jedi, Artoo pinpointed Palpatine's homing signal, and they proceeded towards the location of the signal originating from the upper observation deck. Grievous, however, was aware of the Jedi's impending arrival on his flagship, as Count Dooku had foreseen it in advance. He was summoned to the bridge by the ship's captain and informed that the Jedi were now being monitored.

As the two Jedi made their way towards Palpatine, they entered a turbolift following a narrow escape from a group of three destroyer droids, where Kenobi and Skywalker encountered a contingent of security battle droids. The droids demanded that the Jedi Knights surrender their weapons; however, this action backfired, causing the droids to lower their own defenses, thus providing the Jedi Knights with an opportunity to eliminate them all. After a brief setback when the lift they were occupying came to an abrupt halt, Kenobi and Skywalker received assistance from Artoo in reaching the top of the Invisible Hand, where they discovered Palpatine being held captive. Similarly, Artoo was momentarily captured by a pair of patrolling B2-series super battle droids shortly thereafter, though Artoo managed to break free by spraying them with oil, subsequently igniting the oil by activating his thrusters for flight, rendering them inoperable due to the resulting fire. This incident served as yet another illustration of the astromech's valor, as any failure on his part during the battle could have led to a disastrous outcome for the Republic.

Before the Jedi could free Palpatine, Darth Tyranus, known to the public as Count Dooku, appeared accompanied by two B2 super battle droids. He descended from the balcony and engaged the Jedi in a heated confrontation. However, due to his aging body, he realized he could not effectively combat both Skywalker and Kenobi simultaneously, so he used the Force pushed to separate Kenobi from the duel, allowing him to concentrate on fighting Skywalker. Nevertheless, Dooku began to weaken as Skywalker pushed him back up the stairs towards the balcony. Kenobi, quickly recovering, defeated the Sith Lord's guards and attempted to attack him from behind.

Dooku, in response, simply kicked Skywalker aside and incapacitated Kenobi more severely by using the Force to slam him into a railing, causing debris to fall upon him. Enraged, Skywalker kicked Dooku off the balcony and re-engaged him in combat. Sensing that Skywalker was suppressing his anger and hatred, Dooku taunted him, hoping to disrupt his focus. However, this tactic had the opposite effect. It fueled Skywalker's anger to the point where he tapped into the dark side. He launched attacks against Dooku with his rage and hatred, delivering rapid, forceful blows against the Sith Lord. Dooku struggled to deflect his opponent's attacks, let alone retaliate, and was even burned by his own lightsaber at one point. Ultimately, Skywalker managed to overcome Dooku's defenses and severed his hands. Seizing Dooku's lightsaber with his free hand, he positioned both blades in a scissor-like manner around the now defenseless Sith Lord's neck.

Still restrained in his chair, Palpatine praised Skywalker's triumph before commanding the Jedi Knight to execute Dooku, thereby betraying his apprentice. Shocked by his master's order and betrayal, Dooku gazed at Palpatine with an expression of disbelief, only to be met with a more sinister smile from his master. Skywalker hesitated initially, as killing a defenseless opponent—which Dooku had become—violated the Jedi code. However, with Sidious urging him on and repeatedly saying do it, he succumbed to his hatred and decapitated Count Dooku. This act deprived the Confederacy of Independent Systems of its leader, founder, and primary political figure.

As the duel concluded, the Invisible Hand was intercepted by the Venator-class Star Destroyer Guarlara, which engaged it in a brief exchange of fire, resulting in extensive damage to the Invisible Hand and causing the ship to momentarily descend towards the planet below before its crew regained control. With numerous critical systems failing, the Invisible Hand had transformed into a decaying space wreck, and Skywalker's primary objective now was to escape. He gathered the unconscious Kenobi, disregarding Palpatine's request to abandon him, and they proceeded towards the turbolifts. Skywalker discovered that the elevator was non-operational and instructed R2-D2 to reactivate it.

Subsequently, the Invisible Hand found itself trapped by Home Fleet Strike Group Five under the command of Republic Lieutenant Commander Lorth Needa, who demanded Grievous's surrender. However, the Kaleesh informed the lieutenant that the Chancellor was currently aboard his ship, but Needa dismissed Grievous's claims and gave the general ten minutes to substantiate his statement before the massed ships of Strike Group Five would commence firing upon the dreadnought.

Kenobi regained consciousness shortly thereafter, and the trio made their way towards the hangar. However, before they could reach it, Grievous learned of their location in hallway 328. The cyborg ordered the activation of the ray shields; consequently, the shields descended upon the Jedi and Palpatine, trapping them. Skywalker expressed confidence that R2-D2 would arrive to deactivate the shields, but as the astromech approached, droidekas deployed and aimed at him, and a super battle droid even kicked him onto his back after being struck in the wrist blaster. Surrounded and outnumbered, Kenobi jokingly inquired whether Skywalker had a backup plan. The Jedi, along with the Chancellor and R2-D2, were captured and escorted to the bridge, where they were brought before Grievous.

Amidst the space battle, Republic officers employed a Brawl tactic against the enemy fleet, which proved effective in exploiting the vulnerabilities of the droid captains aboard Separatist vessels. After the Jedi, Palpatine, and Artoo were brought onto the Invisible Hand's bridge, the cyborg general taunted Skywalker and his nemesis regarding their failed rescue attempt and confiscated their lightsabers from an OOM command battle droid, recognizing Anakin Skywalker before him, finally meeting him in person, both exchanging taunts, with Skywalker provoking Grievous in the process. Boasting about adding their lightsabers to his collection, Kenobi assured Grievous that he would not escape this time. R2 suddenly diverted the attention of the guards at Skywalker's command using his tools, enabling Skywalker and Kenobi to summon their lightsabers back as Grievous instructed his MagnaGuards, IG-101 and IG-102, to eliminate the Jedi. Following a brief skirmish, the Jedi easily overcame the droids and freed Palpatine from the grasp of two security droids. Grievous ordered the crew to maintain the ship's orbit, but soon the Jedi pair closed in on the cyborg, intending to capture him. Grievous, however, seized an electrostaff dropped by one of his MagnaGuards and hurled it into the damaged bridge viewport, shattering it.

Grievous intentionally allowed himself to be expelled into space to evade the Jedi and later re-entered the ship through a hatch. The Neimoidians and OOM pilot battle droids promptly abandoned the bridge, and some of the pilot droids were cut down by the Jedi. In an attempt to thwart the Jedi's escape, Grievous launched all of the escape pods on his flagship, fleeing in one himself, and his pod was retrieved by the Lucrehulk-class Battleship Profusion. The Invisible Hand's hull buckled under the pressure of Coruscant's gravity well, and it began a rapid descent towards Coruscant.

The ship's internal gravity rapidly reversed due to the gravity well, but despite the circumstances, Skywalker assumed control of the helm and attempted to pilot the wreck towards a safe landing on Coruscant. Experiencing a rapid loss of structural integrity, the entire rear section of the Invisible Hand detached due to atmospheric stress and the failure of the ship's tensor fields. Oddball witnessed the ship plummet and break apart, and he later stated that he did not anticipate the Jedi surviving. Despite the extensive damage, Skywalker, Kenobi, and Artoo successfully crash-landed the ship on an emergency runway within Galactic City. With the loss of their flagship, the failure of their primary objective, and the death of Count Dooku, Grievous and the remaining elements of the depleted Separatist armada retreated in disgrace. However, not all ships were able to follow, as a third of the armada deployed to Coruscant had been lost, either due to engine damage, critical ship malfunctions, or outright destruction. More ships under the command of organics like Neimoidians or Muuns surrendered, but droid starfighters did not. It required hours for clone pilots to eliminate the remaining vulture droids, tri-fighters, and Hyena bombers.

Palpatine was promptly returned to the Republic, where he was greeted by numerous senators and Master Windu. After landing on the capital, Obi-Wan returned to the Jedi Temple, and Skywalker accompanied the group of politicians. Palpatine commended the heroism of the Jedi who had rescued him and mentioned their killing of Count Dooku, but also noted that Grievous had once again escaped. Palpatine informed Windu that the Senate would continue the war as long as Grievous remained alive, as he had now assumed Count Dooku's role as the leader of the Separatist Alliance. Consequently, Windu ensured that the Jedi's top priority would be locating the General. Skywalker briefly conversed with Senator Bail Organa, as Artoo reunited with C-3PO. Skywalker then secretly met with his wife, Padmé Amidala, marking their first meeting in some time, as the Jedi Knight had been away fighting the Outer Rim Sieges. There, Padmé revealed that she was pregnant and expressed concerns about their future, knowing that Skywalker was a Jedi and marriage was against the Jedi Order's rules. However, her husband reassured her not to worry about it for now, as this was the happiest moment of his life.

Dooku's demise at the hands of Skywalker prevented the Jedi from acquiring further information about Darth Sidious. When Tano informed Kenobi during the Siege of Mandalore that Maul possessed knowledge about his former master, Kenobi requested that they capture Maul so that he could reveal Sidious's public identity to the Jedi Council.

Sometime after the battle, Oddball provided a post-mission summary of flight squad seven's operation. The pilot recounted their launch to the destruction of the Invisible Hand. The pilot mentioned that after he witnessed the CIS flagship break apart that he believed that the Jedi would not escape.

The Separatists suffered a significant setback from Coruscant, losing a third of the fleet they had deployed in the battle. More significantly, they lost their leader, Count Dooku. Following his death, Grievous became the Confederacy's new Head of State, but it substantially destabilized the Separatist control structure. Without Dooku's assurances of victory, the members of the Separatist Council, particularly Viceroy Nute Gunray, began to question their new leader's ability to ensure their safety for much longer. Meanwhile, the Jedi High Council prioritized tracking down Grievous and bringing him to justice in the hope of finally ending the war. The Jedi Order eventually tracked him to Utapau, where they launched an assault in which Kenobi confronted and killed Grievous only a few days after the Battle of Coruscant.

During the Battle of Utapau, Palpatine successfully achieved his objective of converting Skywalker to the dark side of the Force and took the fallen Jedi Knight as his new and last apprentice, thus replacing Count Dooku, in return for saving his wife from her death. The Chancellor renamed Skywalker "Darth Vader" and initiated Order 66, labeling the Jedi as traitors and fabricating media portraying the Jedi as the masterminds behind the Clone Wars. With the Jedi Order eradicated, Palpatine transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire and declared himself its Galactic Emperor.

The Battle of Coruscant revealed that dangers existed close to Coruscant, and this meant Palpatine faced almost no opposition to expanding the military and making a central authority. The Clone Wars had finally concluded, and while the galaxy had technically achieved peace, it came at the expense of freedom. As detailed in Hondo Ohnaka's Galactic Explorer's Guide, falling debris from the orbital combat left scars that marred Coruscant's cityscape for decades.

The Battle of Coruscant was created for the 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, which served as the concluding chapter of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

In the DVD commentary for Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas stated that he envisioned the Battle of Coruscant as a bridge connecting the prequel and original trilogy, incorporating ARC-170s as the precursor to X-wings and including vulture droids from Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. The fraternal bond between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi throughout the battle is unmistakably inspired by the 1939 classic film Gunga Din.

Initially, the Battle of Coruscant was conceived as one of a montage of planets, as the original narrative of Episode III was intended to commence with a series of Clone Wars battles spanning the galaxy. Another discarded concept involved Shaak Ti's intended death during the battle, impaled through the heart by General Grievous aboard the Invisible Hand. While this scene was present in the storyboards and early drafts for the film, it was ultimately removed from the final cut. Similarly, an idea abandoned in the early stages of writing involved Palpatine revealing to Anakin that Dooku had paid the Tusken Raiders to murder his mother, with the intention of fueling Skywalker's hatred in order to motivate him to kill Dooku.