The Nadiem conflict unfolded during the Clone Wars, pitting the forces of the Republic against the Separatists. It was in 22 BBY, specifically five months following the Battle of Geonosis, that General Grievous, leading the Separatist Droid Army, launched an invasion of the planet Nadiem, a world under Republic control, successfully establishing a significant presence. Reacting to this, the Republic dispatched a contingent of [their own clone army](/article/grand_army_of_the_republic/legends] along with several Jedi Generals, including Senior General Luminara Unduli and High General Saesee Tiin, setting the stage for a large-scale engagement that engulfed Nadiem, with the civilian population caught amidst the conflict.
During this intense period, Threadneedle Canyon became a crucial battleground. Grievous and the Separatist forces held one side, while the Republic maintained control over a small valley on the opposite end. Simultaneously, General Tiin established a robust Republic blockade encircling Nadiem, effectively cutting off any potential Separatist reinforcements. While General Unduli and her apprentice Barriss Offee focused on fortifying the Republic's defenses and evacuating a small town located in the valley, Grievous issued orders for a substantial portion of his forces to advance through the canyon, aiming to eliminate the Republic troops on the other side, while he oversaw operations from his command bunker. As the Separatist forces moved through Threadneedle, Offee and a number of clone troopers found themselves isolated in the canyon's center, having relinquished their transportation to a group of refugees. Recognizing that a direct confrontation with the droid forces would only lead to their deaths, Offee instructed her troops to engage the advancing Separatist column from a distance, and after the battle droids returned fire, to feign death by remaining motionless on the ground, in an attempt to deceive the enemy into believing they were eliminated. Offee's strategy proved successful, and once the droids had moved past, she and her troops ascended the canyon walls, preparing to launch an ambush on the Separatist forces from the rear.
The Separatist column soon clashed with Unduli and her troops on the opposite side of the canyon, coming close to breaching the Republic's defensive lines, when Offee and her troops initiated an attack on the droids from behind. With their rear compromised, the droids attempted to retreat, only to be met with explosives detonated by Offee's clone troopers, which they had strategically placed beforehand. The resulting explosion triggered an avalanche, effectively blocking the Separatists' only escape route, leading to the systematic elimination of any remaining battledroids. With the majority of their forces decimated, the Separatists were compelled to abandon Nadiem. However, as Grievous was fleeing Nadiem in his personal Belbullab-22 starfighter, he was intercepted above the planet by Jedi Master B'dard Tone and his apprentice Zephata'ru'tor. Grievous succeeded in killing Zephata'ru'tor and inflicting severe injuries on Tone before escaping into hyperspace.
Occurring in 22 BBY—specifically, five months after the Battle of Geonosis, marking the commencement of the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems—the Droid Army of the Confederacy, under the command of the Separatist cyborg General Grievous, undertook an invasion of the planet Nadiem, situated within the Baxel sector. Despite Nadiem lacking strategic value for either faction, the Separatists' assault was primarily motivated by the Republic's decision to defend it. In response to this aggressive action, the Republic augmented Nadiem's defenses with their clone army, and also deployed several Jedi Generals to assume command of the unfolding situation. Among the Jedi dispatched to Nadiem were High General Saesee Tiin and Senior General Luminara Unduli, along with Unduli's apprentice/Jedi Commander Barriss Offee.
Before the Republic could effectively respond, Grievous and his Confederate forces managed to establish a strong foothold on Nadiem, successfully deploying a significant number of battle droids and tanks. Upon the arrival of the Jedi-led reinforcements, General Unduli, Commander Offee, and additional Jedi landed on the planet, immediately beginning to reinforce the Republic's defensive positions, while General Tiin initiated a strong Republic blockade around Nadiem. During the invasion, the citizens' of Nadiem found themselves in a terrible position, killing many and displacing many more. Consequently, the Jedi initiated an evacuation of the planet's inhabitants, with General Unduli and her apprentice taking personal charge of overseeing the evacuation efforts.
During the invasion, Threadneedle Canyon became a hotly contested area between the opposing forces on the planet, with the Republic reinforcing their defenses in a valley on one side of the canyon, while the Separatists maintained control over the other. From a command bunker located deep within Confederate territory, Grievous issued orders for the majority of his battle droids and heavy tanks to advance through the canyon and seize the valley on the opposite side, and also directed several droid starfighter squadrons to breach the Republic blockade above the planet and provide crucial air support. Concurrently, the Jedi continued their efforts to evacuate Nadiem's population, with Unduli and Offee focusing their attention on evacuating a small town situated in the valley.
While General Unduli and Commander Offee were coordinating the evacuation of the planet, an advance squad of clone troopers positioned in Threadneedle Canyon, monitoring the approaching Separatist column from a distance, reported to Unduli that the battle droids were accelerating their advance and were expected to reach the valley within the next hour. As the Separatist column drew nearer to the Republic's position, Unduli offered any civilian wishing to leave their homes the opportunity to board a Republic LAAT/i gunship for transportation to a safer location, hoping to clear the noncombatants before the Confederacy initiated their assault on the village. However, due to limitations in space and time, Unduli informed the refugees that they were prohibited from bringing any personal belongings with them. While most people complied with these rules, at least one man attempted to smuggle a large sum of wealth concealed in his shirt onto a gunship. Unduli noticed the man and prevented him from boarding the evacuation vessel. Despite this regulation, there were still too many refugees to transport with the limited number of gunships available, resulting in long waiting lines for a chance to board a ship. In some instances, there were even desperate scrambles to board gunships as they prepared to take off.
Elsewhere on the planet, Crys Taanzer and her son Kennan, both Nadiem residents who had become refugees due to the invasion, managed to reach a separate Republic evacuation site, but were unable to board any ships due to the extensive waiting lines. During the Separatist invasion, Cry's husband had been killed, her home destroyed, and her son's arm injured. Meanwhile, a large contingent of Separatist droids were attacking the Republic's outer defense lines at the evacuation site, attempting to overrun the Republic outpost. The droids also directed their fire at the landing LAAT gunships, shooting down several of them.
As the Taanzers waited at the boarding site, a Ho'Din Jedi healer assisting the refugees noticed that Kennan was not crying, despite the severity of his arm injury. With Cry's approval, the Jedi healer had his Human padawan quickly analyze Kennan's blood, confirming the Jedi's initial suspicion that Kennan was Force-sensitive. Based on this discovery, the healer offered Crys the chance to allow Kennan to leave Nadiem, explaining that her son could join the Jedi Order and would be provided with safe transportation to the Jedi's temple on Coruscant within two days. Recognizing that Kennan and herself would likely perish on Nadiem if she declined the offer, Crys agreed to the Ho'Din's request and entrusted her son to the Jedi.
As Kennan was quickly escorted to a waiting gunship, the nearby Separatist forces finally breached the Republic's lines and began to assault the evacuation site. The Ho'Din Jedi attempted to rally the remaining clone troopers and repel the Separatists, but he too was eventually killed by the overwhelming number of battle droids. With the area compromised, Crys Taanzer and the remaining surviving civilians fled the site in search of shelter elsewhere.
Back at Threadneedle Canyon, the advance squad encountered a group of civilians from a remote settlement in the canyon who were attempting to reach Unduli's evacuation point. An elderly refugee in the group was severely ill, which had slowed the others' progress towards the valley. The clone squad's ARC trooper commander contacted General Unduli, informed her of their situation, and requested a gunship to pick up the squad and the refugees. Upon hearing this, Offee requested permission from her master to accompany the gunship, believing she could expedite the loading of the refugees. Unduli granted Offee's request, but only if she brought a squad of clone commandos with her for protection.
As Offee's gunship departed to airlift the stranded refugees and clones, the Confederate column reached a designated point in the canyon known as sector five, with a droid reporting their progress back to Grievous via hologram. Grievous, from his bunker, informed his column that the Republic was likely to ambush them further ahead, at the narrowest part of the canyon, designated as sector seven. The cyborg general instructed the column to move their heaviest tanks to the front, ordering them to break through the ambush when it occurred.
Meanwhile, above Nadiem, General Tiin's fleet engaged Separatist Fighter Wing Zero-Zero as the Confederate vessels attempted to breach the Republic blockade. The Republic fleet proved too strong for the droid starfighters, forcing the Separatists to retreat. Grievous was angered by this news, realizing that he would lack air support for the upcoming battle.
In the canyon, Commander Offee and her gunship arrived to pick up the stranded clones and civilians. However, Offee discovered that the number of refugees was greater than anticipated, and there was insufficient space for both her troopers and the refugees aboard the gunship. After the civilians were loaded onto the ship, Offee, unwilling to abandon her own soldiers, decided to remain with them. Offee planned to have herself and her troops hold off the Separatist droids in the canyon for as long as possible, in order to buy more time for Unduli to evacuate the civilians in the valley.
When General Unduli was informed of General Tiin's success above the planet, she contacted her apprentice via their comlinks to share the news. Pleased to hear the news, Offee informed her master about being stranded in the canyon and her plan to delay the Separatists. She also requested that Unduli not send another gunship to retrieve Offee's squad, believing that the Separatist column would arrive before it could. Unduli was deeply saddened by this news, knowing that Offee would almost certainly die fighting the Confederacy army, but recognized the validity of her apprentice's assessment.
As Offee disconnected her comlink, the advance squad's ARC trooper informed the Jedi Padawan that his squad had already been planning an ambush for the Separatist column. The squad had planted explosives at the narrowest point of the canyon and intended to detonate them as the enemy column approached, hoping to delay the droids' advance and make a stand. Commander Offee understood that this plan would only slow the Separatists temporarily and would likely result in their deaths. However, she had a different strategy, one that might save their lives.
As the Separatist column approached sector seven, Grievous ordered his droids to prepare for the expected Republic ambush. Commander Offee's troops began to fire on the droid forces from a distance, destroying a few B1-Series battle droids. The Confederate battle droids and their Armored Assault Tanks returned fire indiscriminately, and after a brief pause during which the clone troopers ceased firing, they continued their advance. Meanwhile, the Republic forces back in the valley lost contact with Offee's men, leading Unduli to fear that her apprentice had been killed. As the droid column moved through sector seven, they passed Offee and her clone troopers, who were lying motionless on the ground. Believing the Jedi and clones to be dead, the droids moved past and continued towards the valley.
However, Offee and her troops were not dead; they were merely feigning death. Offee had realized that engaging the Confederate army directly would lead to their demise and instead deceived the droids into believing they were dead. Once all the droids had passed the squad, Offee ordered her men to get up and retrieve the explosives they had originally planned to use for the ambush.
By the time the Separatist army arrived at the Republic-controlled town, Offee and her troops had climbed to the top of the canyon's right wall and positioned themselves towards the rear of the Confederate column. Meanwhile, the droid forces emerged from the mouth of Threadneedle Canyon and engaged Unduli's forces. The Republic was well-entrenched and prepared for the Confederacy, utilizing their Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery tanks to target the droids' flanks. However, the Separatist's own Hailfire droid tanks returned fire with deadly accuracy, destroying at least one Republic AT-TE tank and killing several clones. The droid forces began to overwhelm the Republic's position with their superior numbers, making it appear that the Separatists would win the battle.
However, as one of the battle droids was reporting the column's progress back to Grievous, Offee's squad began firing down on the Separatist's tanks from behind. The droids were confused by this, believing they had left no one alive back in the canyon, and were unable to return fire at Offee's men, being too preoccupied with fighting the main Republic forces in front of them. Commander Offee's squad destroyed the column's rear Hailfire tanks and dwarf spider droids one by one, thinning the Separatists' ranks. Meanwhile, Unduli's troops continued to fire on the Separatists' frontward rows, mowing down the column from both sides. With their front and rear guards eliminated, the droids' progress was halted, forcing them into a frantic retreat. With the Confederate army now in disarray, Unduli and her clone troopers launched a charge against the withdrawing droids.
The Confederate retreat played directly into Offee's plan, who had her squad place their explosives at the top of the canyon, further behind the Separatists' column. As the droids passed under the location where the explosives were planted, Offee's troops detonated them, loosening the rocks in the canyon wall and causing an avalanche that crushed many of the battle droids, leaving the remaining Separatists trapped between a wall of rubble and the charging Republic clones. Back in his bunker, Grievous watched his hologram of the battle, witnessing his army being trapped and destroyed. The cyborg general, enraged, smashed his hologram projector, knowing that the Separatists had lost Nadiem.
Unduli and her soldiers destroyed the remaining battle droids when Commander Offee and her squad emerged from the smoke and dust created by the avalanche. Unduli was both glad and surprised to see her apprentice alive, asking Offee how she had survived. Offee explained her plan to her master, joking that she and her troops had hidden in plain sight from the Separatists as they passed by.
With the majority of their army destroyed, the Confederacy was forced to abandon Nadiem and cede it to the Republic. Grievous chose to depart Nadiem in his personal Belbullab-22 starfighter, the Soulless One, attempting to bypass the Republic blockade on the far side of the planet. However, as he entered space, Grievous was intercepted by Jedi Master B'dard Tone and his apprentice Zephata'ru'tor—a Duinuogwuin capable of surviving in the vacuum of space—who sought to prevent the cyborg's escape.
Following a brief space battle above the planet, Grievous managed to defeat Tone, inflicting serious injuries on the Jedi Master. Shortly thereafter, Grievous killed Zephata'ru'tor and jumped into hyperspace, fleeing Nadiem.
B'dard Tone was subsequently rescued by the Republic and was required to undergo multiple cybernetic replacements as a result of the injuries he sustained at the hands of Grievous over Nadiem. These replacements included a metal plating covering the left side of his face, as well as a robotic right arm. Due to the death of his Padawan at Nadiem, as well as the injuries he suffered, Tone harbored a personal vendetta against Grievous, desiring the Jedi Order to track and kill the cyborg. This desire for revenge led Tone, his new apprentice Codi Ty, and fellow Jedi Flynn Kybo to desert the Order in order to personally hunt down the Separatist general in 20 BBY. Tone and his companions tracked Grievous to the moon of Belsus, where Grievous killed Tone and Kybo in a lightsaber duel.
Following the conclusion of the battle, Nadiem was liberated from the Confederate invasion, but a significant portion of the planet's infrastructure and housing was left in ruins. Despite the fact that most of Nadiem's surviving civilians were now homeless, the planet was abandoned by the Republic and the Jedi, who were unable to assist Nadiem's population due to being occupied with fighting the Clone Wars across the galaxy. Crys Taanzer, who survived the fighting, developed a strong animosity towards both the Republic and the Confederacy, blaming both factions equally for the destruction that occurred across Nadiem.
Kennan was safely evacuated from the planet and inducted into the Jedi Order, becoming a member of the Soaring Hawkbat youngling clan during his initial training in the Force. In 19 BBY, Kennan and the Soaring Hawkbat Clan were residing at a Jedi chapter house on the planet Bogden 3, awaiting transport to Coruscant, when Order 66—a Republic contingency order that designated the entire Jedi Order as enemies of the state—was issued. With Order 66 in effect, the clone troopers stationed at the training facility were ordered to kill all of the Jedi present, including the younglings. Although many of the clan's members were killed in the resulting skirmish, Kennan and the remaining younglings were rescued by Jedi Master K'Kruhk and Padawan Chase Piru, who escaped the carnage on Bogden 3 and safely transported Kennan and the other surviving younglings to a moon. When Crys—who had since left Nadiem and was working as a pilot for the smuggling freighter Uhumele—heard about the destruction of the Jedi, and unaware that Kennan had survived, presumed that her son had been killed. This news devastated her and caused her to regret her decision to entrust Kennan to the Jedi on Nadiem.