Battle of Mandalore

Prelude

In the year 20 BBY, the Shadow Collective, a criminal syndicate, invaded New Mandalorian territories, which were primarily located within the deserts of Mandalore, the homeland of the pacifistic New Mandalorians. Across Sundari, the New Mandalorians' capital city, gangsters from Black Sun, the spice-trafficking Pyke Syndicate, and the Hutt Cartels used blasters to shoot down police officers and civilians alike, aiming to incite widespread panic. As the people's desperation reached its peak, the Mandalorian splinter group known as the Death Watch stepped forward to defend the New Mandalorians against the offworld crime bosses. Unbeknownst to the public, Death Watch was secretly allied with the criminals besieging Sundari, having formed a pact with their leader, the Sith Lord Darth Maul, to overthrow the New Mandalorian government.

Throughout the city, Death Watch systematically defeated and apprehended the aggressors, gaining the favor of the New Mandalorian populace. With popular support on their side, Death Watch marched into the Sundari Royal Palace, where their leader, Pre Vizsla, deposed the ruler of the New Mandalorians, Duchess Satine Kryze. Kryze, Prime Minister Armatan, and other New Mandalorian leaders were incarcerated, while Vizsla succeeded the former duchess as Mand'alor, the traditional leader of the Mandalorians.

Vizsla's rule, however, was short-lived. Having achieved his objectives, Death Watch's commander betrayed his Sith ally and imprisoned both Darth Maul and his Sith apprentice Savage Opress. Maul had anticipated Vizsla's treachery and planned accordingly. Easily escaping their cell, the two Sith encountered the former New Mandalorian Prime Minister, Almec, within the prison's confines. Almec had been arrested on charges of corruption. Recognizing Almec as a suitable replacement for Vizsla in his schemes, Maul broke free from the prison and stormed the Royal Palace, challenging Vizsla to a duel for leadership. Bound by the ancient codes revered by Death Watch and Vizsla, the Mandalorian leader engaged the Sith Lord in a fierce battle throughout the throne room, but ultimately could not match Darth Maul's skill. Vizsla was killed, and Maul declared himself the Mand'alor and leader of Death Watch. However, his claim was not universally accepted. Vizsla's second-in-command, Bo-Katan Kryze, refused to follow a non-Mandalorian and fled the palace with a squad of like-minded soldiers amidst a barrage of blasterfire. Almec was installed as the new Prime Minister, a puppet ruler who would publicly govern in Darth Maul's stead, while the Sith Lord remained hidden, unknown to the populace.

The battle

Early skirmishes

Weeks following Darth Maul's ascent to power, Bo-Katan managed to infiltrate the prison where Satine—her estranged sister—was being held. Together with her nephew Korkie Kryze and a group of his close friends, Bo-Katan liberated Satine and hurried her to a waiting Buirk'alor-class airspeeder, intending to escape the city under the protection of Death Watch soldiers still loyal to Bo-Katan. However, not far from the prison complex, the airspeeder was spotted by a Mandalorian super commando loyal to Maul and quickly came under attack. A brief exchange of fire ensued between the two groups of Mandalorian warriors, with Bo-Katan staying behind to hold off the attackers while Korkie continued toward Sundari's outer docks. Despite Death Watch's efforts to delay the Maul loyalists, the speeder carrying the former Duchess Kryze was hit and damaged by blasterfire, forcing it to crash land at the docks. Amidst a firefight between her nephew's friends and the super commandos who had pursued her to the docks, Kryze transmitted a request for aid to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, hoping it would reach her friend and former lover, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kryze was soon surrounded and recaptured, taken back to her cell at the prison, but her message did indeed reach its intended recipient.

Upon hearing of the criminal takeover on Mandalore, Obi-Wan Kenobi departed for Mandalore. Acting alone and without support from the Galactic Republic due to Mandalore's neutral status, Kenobi arrived at Sundari aboard an old freighter borrowed from his former Padawan, Anakin Skywalker. Stealing a suit of Mandalorian armor from one of Maul's soldiers, Kenobi infiltrated the city and the prison where Satine Kryze was being held. He freed the deposed leader from her cell and stole a Balutar-class swoop bike, which they used to escape. Pursued by Maul-loyalist commandos, Kenobi and Kryze reached the docks and hastily boarded Kenobi's waiting starship, using its onboard laser cannons to defend against the Mandalorian attackers as they took off. However, once airborne, the ship was struck by a pair of missiles fired by the enemy soldiers, causing it to crash and violently ejecting both Kryze and Kenobi onto the docks as they attempted to jump clear of the wreckage. Subdued by Darth Maul's arrival at the docks, Kenobi and Kryze were taken back into custody and delivered to the Royal Palace. There, intending to make Kenobi suffer for the injuries he had received at the Jedi's hands nearly a decade prior, Maul killed Kenobi's former lover before his eyes and left the Jedi Master to mourn Kryze's death on his way to prison, preferring to let Kenobi live with his pain rather than kill him outright.

Conflict escalates

As Obi-Wan Kenobi was being transported to Sundari's prison, his guards were attacked by Bo-Katan Kryze and a unit of the Death Watch faction that refused to surrender to Darth Maul's authority. The Sith loyalists were killed one by one in a brief skirmish, and Kryze freed Kenobi, offering him a jetpack to use to escape Sundari. Shortly after taking off from the prison, Kenobi's escort was assaulted by a pursuing unit of Maul's soldiers, who had been alerted by Maul because he sensed Kenobi's escape. Kryze's troops formed a rear guard, firing backward at the attackers as the in-flight battle reached an egress to Sundari's outer docks. There, Kenobi, Kryze, and her soldiers decided to make a stand, landing and opening fire on the super commandos from solid ground. Several members of Kryze's Nite Owls—a unit of soldiers handpicked by the Death Watch lieutenant—primed gauntlet-mounted portable energy shields to defend themselves, while another struck at their foes with a jetpack-launched missile. Suffering losses as quickly as they inflicted them, Maul's warriors moved to close the gap between themselves and Kryze's troops, and the fight quickly turned into a close-quarters melee from which Kryze's soldiers emerged victorious.

Pushing out of the city and onto Sundari's docks, Kryze and Kenobi found themselves in the midst of a larger battle between the portion of the Death Watch that had sided with Bo-Katan and the others who had pledged their service to Darth Maul. Across the docks, Mandalorians clashed with blaster rifles and fists in equal measure, as Kom'rk-class fighters battled in the skies over Sundari. One of the Kom'rk fighters slowed to a halt over the docks, deploying Death Watch soldiers equipped with jetpacks from the ship's ventral drop bay to aid Kryze's ground forces, only for the vessel to be shot out of the air moments later by their former comrades. While Mandalorians on both sides flew overhead, trading blaster shots and striking their enemies with their armored bodies, Kryze rushed Obi-Wan Kenobi to the docks edge and a waiting Kom'rk fighter prepared to take the Jedi Master offworld. In their final moments together, Kenobi deduced Bo-Katan's familial relationship with his deceased former lover and offered his condolences. Kryze, in turn, advised Kenobi to inform the Republic of Maul's presence on Mandalore, preferring the prospects of a Republic invasion over allowing a Sith Lord to rule the New Mandalorians. With those last words, and his condolences for her sister's death, Kenobi boarded the transport and was taken from Sundari, leaving Kryze behind to continue the fight.

Showdown in the palace

Concurrently with Obi-Wan Kenobi's liberation from his captors by the Death Watch troops loyal to Bo-Katan Kryze, an Eta-class shuttle belonging to the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious, emerged from hyperspace above Mandalore and approached Sundari. The Dark Lord had sensed his former apprentice and tracked his location to Mandalore, intending to confront the rogue Sith, whom he deemed too dangerous due to his growing power. Landing at the docks, Sidious was confronted by two super commandos, whom he immediately choked telekinetically before taking a speeder to the Palace. In the throne room, Darth Maul sensed a familiar presence and realized it was Sidious. At that moment, the commandos flanking the door were suddenly lifted into the air and strangled as Sidious strode in. Maul knelt before him, claiming to have conquered the New Mandalorians to prove himself worthy of rejoining his former Sith Master. However, with an apprentice of his own in his brother Savage Opress and a burgeoning criminal empire in the form of the Shadow Collective, Maul was now a rival. Sidious pushed Maul and Opress into the vaulted windows with the Force, initiating a two-against-one lightsaber duel.

Sidious broke the saber lock by attacking Maul first, then Savage. The younger brother jumped back, while Savage slipped trying to defend himself. After a brief pause, Maul initiated an offensive on Sidious, but the more experienced Dark Lord of the Sith merely blocked his powerful strikes and attempted a sweeping slash, but Maul jumped back to his brother. Sidious strode through the throne room quietly. As Maul and Savage attempted to attack him, Sidious telekinetically threw the brothers back to the opposite wall, then unleashed a fierce barrage of Force lightning at them. Both Maul and Savage were able to hold back the lightning blast, but Maul broke the stalemate and retaliated telekinetically, forcing Sidious to drop his weapons. Savage, however, was temporarily paralyzed from his efforts to block the assault. With Sidious pinned down against the wall and Maul slowly advancing, Sidious cackled and used the Force to drop the chandelier Maul was walking underneath. He barely rolled out of the way in time before it collapsed on him. Savage recovered, jumped, and attempted the killing blow on Sidious, but Maul dropping his telekinesis allowed Sidious to drop in time. While Savage slid along the wall with his lightsaber, Sidious recovered his weapons and retreated, with Maul in close pursuit.

The duel progressed out onto the Palace balcony, where, as Sidious and Maul crossed blades, Opress charged into the former, sending him flying. However, as Sidious fell, he Force pulled the brothers from the balcony, and together they fell to the plaza below. As they landed, Opress ignited one end of his double-bladed weapon, stabbing it into the ground in a failed strike at Sidious. Sidious re-ignited his own blades and counter-struck, but Opress ignited his lightsaber's second blade, blocking the blow. Both brothers tried to outmaneuver Sidious by attacking from his front and flank, but Sidious merely kicked Opress away when the brothers attacked. With Savage momentarily down, Maul attempted to finish the duel with an overhead power blow, but Sidious used the Force to push Maul into a stone wall, which he struck with enough force to cause him to temporarily lose consciousness. Sidious was now free to focus on defeating the hulking Opress. Opress charged with his lightsaber, but Sidious, with lightsabers disengaged, merely toyed with the Zabrak as he dodged a few clumsy strikes. As Sidious activated his blades and locked with Savage, he struck at full velocity. As Maul awoke, Sidious paralyzed the Zabrak's arms with well-placed kicks before impaling him with both lightsabers, while sneering and cackling at a horrified Maul.

After mortally wounding Opress, Sidious threw him off the courtyard into the street below using the Force. He then allowed Maul to run past him to the fallen Opress. As the wounded Zabrak died, the enhancements provided by Mother Talzin dissipated in a green mist that swirled around the brothers. With his last breath, he communicated his regret that he was never worthy to be an apprentice to Maul, due to their differing personalities. As Maul knelt over the body of his fallen brother, Sidious spoke, reminding him of Darth Bane's millennium-old Rule of Two: there could only ever be two Sith Lords at a time. He revealed that Maul had been replaced after his defeat, before he jumped down to continue the duel.

Furious, Maul activated his darksaber and once again fought Sidious. Initially, his employment of Jar'Kai allowed him to challenge the more experienced Sith Lord, until their weapons became locked. Sidious proved too strong for Maul, forcing Maul's blades downwards towards their hilts, before separating them and pushing them aside. The duel concluded with Sidious using the Force to hurl Maul against a stone mural, leaving the broken Sith at his feet. Despite Maul's pleas for mercy, Sidious declared that mercy was absent among the Sith, and then began to torture Maul with Force lightning. As Maul cried out in agony, Sidious, wearing a triumphant smile, informed him that he would not be killed, as the Sith Lord had other plans for his former apprentice.

Aftermath

Kenobi managed to escape the planet and continued his service to the Republic for the remainder of the war. He later went into hiding after the Republic was transformed into the Galactic Empire and the subsequent Jedi purge began. With Darth Maul's defeat at the hands of Darth Sidious, the Sith's Rule of Two remained intact, although its application by the Sith would later diminish in favor of Sidious' Rule of One, which emphasized his own unique power over the Sith Order, and ultimately the philosophy of Darth Krayt's One Sith Order.

The New Mandalorian government was shattered, destroyed by the Mandalorian revanchists known as Death Watch. The power of the pacifist faction waned as the Mandalorian warrior clans and their traditional culture regained dominance in Mandalorian society. Sundari's importance as a major commercial center on Mandalore decreased, with most off-worlders preferring to conduct their business on Mandalore's moon of Concordia, or favoring the planet's original capital city of Keldabe.

The power vacuum created by the Collective's collapse was filled by the forces of Black Sun vigo Xizor. This criminal organization established a presence on both Mandalore and its moon, Concordia. These operations were overseen by Black Sun lieutenant Tyno Fabris, who operated from an office located at the Oyu'baat cantina in Keldabe. Maul's removal from Mandalorian politics also enabled Death Watch to manipulate Almec as their puppet in his position as Prime Minister of the New Mandalorians, though the New Mandalorians' influence declined as the Mandalorian warrior clans rose to prominence again under the leadership of Mandalore the Resurrector, and Death Watch's own influence expanded.

Behind the scenes

The battle of Sundari was first presented in Star Wars canon in The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy, a young-adult novel authored by Jason Fry and released by Scholastic on January 1, 2013. The novel is an adaptation of the events depicted in four episodes from the fifth season of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, specifically "Revival," "Eminence," "Shades of Reason," and "The Lawless."

The episode titled "The Lawless" portrays the events of the Sundari battle on screen. However, its conclusion differs significantly from the one presented in the Shadow Conspiracy novel in one key aspect: while the novel implies that Darth Sidious kills the defeated Darth Maul, the episode clearly shows that Maul is to be spared for Sidious' undisclosed purposes.