Clone Wars

The Clone Wars have roots tracing back to the era of the Old Republic, existing over a millennium before the Clone Wars. That period was a dark age for the galaxy, with the Sith and their ancient adversaries, the Jedi, battling for control of the galaxy. Internal conflicts weakened the Sith, leading to their defeat by the Jedi. Although the Jedi believed they had eliminated the Sith, they had simply retreated into hiding. Darth Bane, the last surviving Dark Lord of the Sith, established the Rule of Two, stipulating that the Sith Order would consist only of a master and an apprentice. Operating secretly, the Sith amassed power and influence, preparing to execute their grand plan: galactic domination and revenge against the Jedi.

From the remains of the Old Republic, the Galactic Republic was established. For the first time, the Galactic Senate provided political representation to hundreds of worlds and star systems. The armed forces of the Old Republic were dissolved, leading the Jedi Order to take on a peacekeeping role within the Republic, serving under the authority of the Senate and its Supreme Chancellor. Over time, the Senate became known for its slow bureaucracy and corruption. Divisions arose as the central Core Worlds—including the Republic's capital, Coruscant—became notorious for exploiting the resources of the outlying Outer Rim Territories. Contributing to the bureaucratic mess and inaction was the granting of Senate representation to corporate entities like the Trade Federation, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, and the Techno Union, alongside the Republic's member worlds.

Nearly a thousand years into the Republic's existence, Darth Sidious became the ruling Dark Lord of the Sith after betraying and killing his master, Darth Plagueis. Sidious intended to continue the Sith's revenge plot, using both his Sith identity and his alter ego, Sheev Palpatine. This dual identity would allow him to deceive and ultimately destroy the Galactic Republic and the Jedi. To infiltrate the Republic, Palpatine became the senator representing his home planet, Naboo. As senator, he devised a complex plan to remove the current Supreme Chancellor, Finis Valorum, and install himself as the Republic's new leader. As the Republic became embroiled in a dispute over trade route taxation, Sidious secretly allied himself with Nute Gunray, the Viceroy of the Trade Federation, and ordered the Trade Federation to blockade his homeworld of Naboo. When the Senate's characteristic stagnation proved ineffective in resolving the Invasion of Naboo, Palpatine manipulated and deceived Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo into calling for a Vote of No Confidence in Valorum's leadership.

The Senate then elected Palpatine as Valorum's successor, and the Jedi Order assisted the Royal Naboo Security Forces in ending the blockade. However, the Sith revealed themselves in the form of Darth Maul, Sidious's current apprentice. Maul was defeated by the Jedi Knights and presumed dead, leading the Jedi High Council to suspect the existence of a second Sith Lord. Now Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine was viewed as a reforming leader addressing the Republic's shortcomings. Three major failings—bureaucracy, the lack of a formal military, and weak central power—were highlighted to the galaxy. Additionally, the Invasion of Naboo allowed Palpatine to demonize galactic corporations, which helped lead to the Separatist government. Although open war was still a decade away, the battle for Naboo served as the initial spark for the Clone Wars in several ways.

Sidious found a replacement for Maul in Count Dooku, a former Jedi Master who had left the Order and became crucial to the Sith's plan for galactic conquest. Sidious and Dooku, who adopted the name Darth Tyranus, plotted to manipulate the Republic into a false war with an opposing state. The Jedi would be forced to serve as generals for a Republic army of soldiers, who would eventually execute them. Furthermore, the conflict would destabilize the Republic, making it vulnerable to a Sith takeover.

Before the Invasion of Naboo, the Jedi High Council dismissed Master Sifo-Dyas for his belief that the Republic needed an army for a full-scale conflict he had foreseen. Undeterred, Sifo-Dyas contacted the Kaminoans, a species known for their cloning capabilities, and commissioned the production of a clone army on behalf of the Republic. In doing so, Sifo-Dyas bypassed both the Senate and the High Council, claiming to have the former's support. When the Sith discovered the clone army's existence, they took extreme measures to seize control of the project. At that time, Chancellor Valorum tasked Sifo-Dyas with overseeing confidential negotiations between the Republic and the Pyke Syndicate, a growing spice cartel dominating the Coruscant Underworld. Unaware of Valorum's request, the High Council separately dispatched Sifo-Dyas to resolve a tribal dispute on Felucia.

Sifo-Dyas never reached Felucia, and the subsequent events became entangled in a web of deceit that took the Jedi Order years to unravel. Dooku, as Tyranus, betrayed his friend by hiring the Pykes to assassinate Sifo-Dyas. His T-6 shuttle was shot down over the moon of their homeworld, Oba Diah, killing Sifo-Dyas in the crash, while Valorum's personal attaché Silman, who had accompanied him, survived the attack. The Pykes delivered Sifo-Dyas's body to Tyranus but secretly held Silman hostage as potential leverage. The Jedi Order believed Sifo-Dyas had died on Felucia after failing to negotiate peace between the local tribes.

After taking control of the cloning project, the Sith chose the renowned bounty hunter Jango Fett as the genetic template for their army. Chief Medical Scientist Nala Se was one of the project's main engineers. On the Kaminoan homeworld of Kamino, Fett provided genetic samples and training for his clone troopers, who underwent growth acceleration, aging at twice the normal human rate. As a result, the first generation of troops was ready within a decade of Sifo-Dyas's original order.

Sifo-Dyas wanted an inhibitor chip implanted in each Clone's brain as a safeguard against rogue Jedi. However, Dooku and Sidious retooled the chips to ensure the Jedi's destruction. Posing as a Jedi, Dooku presented the chip to the Kaminoan scientists and deceived them into believing the chips were designed to prevent aggression and that Sifo-Dyas had ordered their installation as a countermeasure against betrayal from rogue Jedi. In reality, the chips would force each clone to comply with Protocol 66, a directive for the soldiers to execute their Jedi commanders for being perceived traitors. Thus, the Sith could massacre the entire Jedi Order through their subordinate soldiers.

Eight years after the Invasion of Naboo, a pan-galactic Confederacy of Independent Systems began to form when Count Dooku seized a HoloNet relay station in the Raxus system and condemned the Republic. Over the next two years, a Separatist Crisis emerged as thousands of star systems seceded from the Republic and joined the Confederacy. The crisis threw the Republic into turmoil, especially as Dooku repeatedly rejected Palpatine's requests for negotiation. The Republic Senate became divided over the Military Creation Act. Supporters argued that the Republic needed a military to defend itself from the Separatists, while others, like Senator Padmé Amidala, believed it would provoke a full-scale civil war. Such a war became increasingly likely, with the Sith Lords poised to lead both sides of the approaching conflict that would devastate the galaxy.

Fearing that such meetings would legitimize the CIS, the Republic Senate also made it illegal for Republic representatives to meet with Separatists in formal talks under the Republic Senate non-communication law. By 22 BBY, the Sith had nearly completed preparations for open conflict between the Republic and the Confederacy. Nominally, the Confederacy functioned as a democracy, with delegates from its member worlds forming a Separatist Senate, but it was truly ruled by the Sith. Simultaneously, major corporations pledged their support and resources to the Confederacy, and their leaders earned seats on Dooku's Separatist Council. Its members included Chairman San Hill of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, Foreman Wat Tambor of the Techno Union, Magistrate Passel Argente of the Corporate Alliance, Presidente Shu Mai of the Commerce Guild, and Archduke Poggle the Lesser of the Geonosian hives, as well as Senators Po Nudo of Ando and Tikkes of Mon Cala.

Nute Gunray's condition for joining the Separatist Council was the death of Amidala in revenge for her defeat of him at the Battle of Naboo. Jango Fett and his associate, Zam Wesell, took on the bounty that Gunray issued on Amidala. Just before the Senate's vote on the Military Creation Act, Wesell made an unsuccessful attempt on Amidala's life. The High Council assigned Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan, Anakin Skywalker—both of whom were key to the Republic's victory at Naboo—as Amidala's personal bodyguards. Wesell's second attempt on Amidala's life also failed, and Fett used a Kamino saberdart to kill Wesell before Kenobi and Skywalker could extract information from her. However, Kenobi identified the saberdart's connection to Kamino and was alarmed to find that the planet had been erased from the Jedi Archives. With Grand Master Yoda's help, he located Kamino above the galactic plane, south of the Rishi Maze, and traveled there to investigate Amidala's assailant.

Upon Kenobi's arrival in Tipoca City, the capital of Kamino, he was met by Lama Su, the Prime Minister, who revealed the existence of a clone army. At that point in time, 200,000 troopers stood ready for deployment, while another million soldiers were in the final stages of training. Kenobi, taken aback by this revelation, communicated his findings to the High Council. The council then gave him the order to apprehend Fett and transport him to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant for interrogation. However, Fett, along with his unaltered clone son named Boba, managed to escape Tipoca City and sought refuge in Geonosis, the Confederate capital. Kenobi pursued the Fetts, and after a starfighter dogfight that gave the illusion of his demise, he tracked them to the planet's surface. It was there that he discovered the Geonosians were in the process of mass-producing millions of battle droids within their droid foundries. Furthermore, he observed a meeting between Dooku and the Separatist Council, revealing their plans to consolidate their resources into a Separatist Droid Army. Subsequently, the Geonosians captured Kenobi, but not before he managed to send a message to Skywalker.

Skywalker, who was with Amidala on Tatooine, a nearby world, relayed Kenobi's message to Coruscant. There, Palpatine and the High Council received the information that the commerce guilds had aligned themselves with the Confederacy. Defying the Council's instructions, Amidala and Skywalker hastened to Geonosis to rescue Kenobi. During Kenobi's custody, Dooku asserted that the entire Republic was under the influence of a Dark Lord of the Sith known as Darth Sidious. He attempted to convince Kenobi to join him in destroying the Sith. Kenobi refused, and after Amidala and Skywalker were also captured, the Geonosians condemned all three to execution within the Petranaki Arena.

Despite Kenobi's report regarding the Confederacy's army, Senator Bail Organa from Alderaan, along with other Senate members, remained skeptical that the Military Creation Act would pass in time to effectively counter the Separatists. As a result, Jar Jar Binks, the Junior Representative of Naboo, proposed that the Senate grant emergency powers to Palpatine. This would allow Palpatine to formally approve the creation of a Grand Army of the Republic using his newfound authority. Palpatine assured that he would relinquish these powers once the crisis subsided, but this never came to pass. While Master Yoda journeyed to Kamino to mobilize the clone troopers for the Grand Army, Master Mace Windu assembled an assault team consisting of 212 Jedi, selected from the Masters of the High Council and the Order's Knights and Padawans, to liberate Kenobi from imprisonment on Geonosis. The galaxy was now on the precipice of civil war.

The Battle of Geonosis began when Windu and his Jedi strike force infiltrated the Petranaki Arena. Their mission was to rescue Amidala, Kenobi, and Skywalker from a gladiatorial fight against three creatures: an acklay, a nexu, and a reek. As the Geonosian spectators fled the arena, Dooku unleashed a massive infantry force of B1 battle droids, B2 super battle droids, and droidekas to confront the Jedi. During the resulting ground battle, Coleman Trebor, a Council member, nearly brought the conflict to an end by almost killing Dooku. However, Jango Fett intervened and shot him down before he could succeed. Windu then beheaded Fett, an act that would later fuel the anger of Fett's son, Boba. Soon after, only a small number of Jedi, including Amidala, Kenobi, Skywalker, and Windu, remained standing. With his battle droids surrounding the survivors, Dooku demanded their unconditional surrender. Windu, however, refused to allow himself and his comrades to be taken as hostages.

Just as Windu and the other survivors were about to be executed, Yoda arrived with reinforcements: the Grand Army of the Republic. This force consisted of 192,000 clone troopers aboard Acclamator-class transgalactic military assault ships, with LAAT/i gunships transporting them into the Petranaki Arena to protect and extract the surviving Jedi. Amidala, Kenobi, Skywalker, Windu, and the other surviving Jedi retreated from the arena aboard Yoda's gunships and advanced to Geonosis's red sand plains, where a ground campaign was developing. Jedi such as Aayla Secura and Kit Fisto, among many others, immediately assumed command positions. They led the clone troopers into battle against the Separatist Droid Army, working to eliminate the enemy infantry and prevent the Techno Union's Hardcell transports from escaping. While Yoda proceeded to the Republic's forward command center, Windu oversaw an assembly area. There, Clone Commander Ponds placed him in command of five special commando units. Colonel Meebur Gascon and other key strategists from Republic High Command advised the Grand Army on its battlefield tactics.

A fierce offensive followed, with the Republic's All Terrain Tactical Enforcers engaging in direct combat with the Separatists' IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tanks and OG-9 homing spider droids. Yoda commanded the Grand Army's Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery Turbolaser walkers to ground several Trade Federation core ships before they could escape. On the ground, the Jedi and their clone troopers faced enemy battle droids and DSD1 dwarf spider droids, but they gradually gained ground against the Separatists. Overwhelmed by the Republic's assault, Dooku and the Separatist Council ordered a retreat. Poggle the Lesser entrusted Dooku with the Geonosians' plans for the Ultimate Weapon, and Dooku made his way to a remote hangar where his Punworcca 116-class interstellar sloop was docked. On his way to the hangar, Dooku encountered Amidala, Kenobi, and Skywalker, who pursued him aboard their LAAT/i gunship. When Dooku's escort of Nantex-class territorial defense starfighters retaliated, Amidala was thrown from the gunship, while Kenobi and Skywalker continued their pursuit of the Count.

Upon reaching the hangar, Dooku defeated Kenobi and Skywalker in a lightsaber duel, injuring Kenobi and severing Skywalker's right forearm. The duel continued with the arrival of Yoda, Dooku's former Jedi Master, who proved to be a formidable challenge for the Sith Lord. Dooku managed to escape only by collapsing a pillar on top of Kenobi and Skywalker, forcing Yoda to choose between continuing his attack and saving his fellow Jedi. Amidala arrived at the hangar with another gunship, but she and her squad of clone troopers were unable to shoot down Dooku's solar sailer. Despite Dooku and the Separatist Council escaping with their forces, the Republic declared victory in the Battle of Geonosis.

The onset of the Clone Wars altered the balance of the Force. Dooku secretly traveled to Coruscant, where he met with Darth Sidious and reported that the intergalactic conflict they had orchestrated was finally underway. While Kenobi believed that the clone troopers had been crucial to the Republic's victory on Geonosis, Yoda recognized it was not a true victory, as the Clone Wars had only just begun. From Coruscant, the Republic deployed tens of thousands of clone troopers and a fleet of warships and assault craft, forming the Republic Navy as part of its war machine. Meanwhile, the Confederacy relocated its capital from Geonosis to Raxus Secundus, which became the headquarters of the Separatist Senate.

As the Clone Wars rapidly spread to numerous worlds across the galaxy, Dormé, Amidala's handmaiden, suspected that the Confederacy had its forces poised for action. They likely anticipated that the events on Geonosis would result in a Separatist victory, allowing the Republic's forces to confront the CIS. Windu also suspected that the Separatists were attempting to establish a stronghold in the Outer Rim, with the intention of moving inward towards the Core. This would eventually give them enough strength to strike at Coruscant itself. Consequently, the Republic was compelled to deploy forces into the Rim to prevent the Confederacy from securing a foothold from which they could launch an invasion. Furthermore, the Separatists understood that they did not need to win every battle. Instead, they believed that victory could be achieved by making the conflict too costly for the Republic to sustain, both financially and in terms of personnel.

The Jedi were forced to abandon their traditional role as peacekeepers and instead assume military commands within the Grand Army of the Republic. Knights and Masters accepted the new rank of Jedi General. Even Padawans contributed to the Republic's war effort, serving as Jedi Commanders on the battlefield, a suggestion made by Palpatine. Among the newly promoted Jedi Generals was Anakin Skywalker, who was elevated to Knighthood by the Jedi High Council. Unbeknownst to his colleagues, Skywalker had secretly married Padmé Amidala after the Battle of Geonosis, a relationship that would have significant repercussions for the entire war.

Amidala and Skywalker were also involved in a mission to Nooroyo between the Battle of Geonosis and their wedding. During this mission, they evaded Gunray's forces when the Viceroy arrived for negotiations regarding Nooroyo's spice export. To meet the Republic's increasing demand for troops, Kamino continued its production and training of clone troopers. In response, the Republic Navy blockaded Kamino, and the Grand Army established a network of listening posts to monitor Separatist activity in the area. Due to the death of Jango Fett, the Kaminoan scientists stretched the existing samples of his DNA to decant more clones. The Jedi High Council selected Master Shaak Ti to oversee the training of clone cadets in Kamino's Tipoca City. She was assisted by contracted mercenaries such as Bric and El-Les to help supervise the clones' combat instruction. The clones quickly began to exhibit signs of individuality, which enhanced their effectiveness.

The Republic faced criticism, both internally and externally, for its use of clone troopers, whom some considered to be slaves to the Jedi. One trooper deserted from the Grand Army after the Confederacy annihilated his unit. He fled to Saleucami, where he adopted the name Cut Lawquane and started a family. Conversely, the Separatist citizenry took pride in the fact that officers in the Confederacy military were willing participants, while its armed forces primarily sacrificed expendable battle droids for their cause. At the same time, the Confederate populace was shielded from reports of war crimes committed in its name. The primary cause of the carnage was General Grievous, a cyborg warlord from Kalee who commanded the Droid Army.

In addition to Grievous, Dooku recruited Asajj Ventress as his lieutenant and emissary. Ventress was a former slave-turned-Jedi from Dathomir who had fallen to the dark side of the Force and become Dooku's apprentice. Although Grievous and Ventress developed a long-standing rivalry, both were driven by a deep-seated hatred for the Jedi Order. Grievous and Ventress often claimed the lightsabers of their fallen Jedi victims as trophies, and Dooku kept these stolen weapons in his palace on Serenno. Ventress obtained one such lightsaber from Jedi Master Tholme, whom she defeated in combat during a major campaign. She chose to kill Tholme rather than accept his surrender.

The Clone Wars' outbreak altered the balance of power on many worlds. Since the Separatist Crisis, a schism had divided the Gotal population of Antar 4. The Confederacy supported terrorist groups to fight against the [moon]'s Republic loyalists. The loyalists remained in power until after the Battle of Geonosis, when the Confederacy conquered Antar 4, which briefly served as a headquarters for Dooku. While millions of Gotal refugees fled to their colony world of Atzerri, an influx of Koorivar, Gossams, and other Confederate-aligned species immigrated to Antar 4. The resulting political crisis on the moon led to the formation of one of the Republic's first resistance cells. Gotal and Koorivar loyalists carried out numerous acts of sabotage against the Separatist regime, with the Republic secretly sponsoring their guerrilla campaign. Despite their efforts, the Confederacy maintained control of Antar 4 throughout the war.

Early in the Clone Wars, the Confederacy seized Lola Sayu, an Outer Rim world that housed the notorious Republic prison known as the Citadel. The Citadel had been built five centuries prior to hold Jedi who had turned against the Republic. The Separatists repurposed the facility into a prisoner-of-war camp for Republic captives. The Separatists also invaded Millius Prime, one of the thousand moons of the distant planet Iego, and drove away its inhabitants, the peaceful Angels. The Separatists established military sites on both Iego and Millius Prime, but later withdrew from the system. Before leaving, they filled Iego's asteroid field with a security grid of laser emitters, trapping the residents on the surface.

As the war spread across the galaxy, many planets and regions of space became battlegrounds, creating multiple fronts. Due to the conflict's nature as a galaxy-wide war, numerous fronts could be active simultaneously. During the Clone Wars, planets caught up in the conflict included Akiva, where a Confederate droid factory transformed the planet into a battlefield between the Jedi and the Separatists, and Sedratis, which was the site of the Battle of Sedratis. During the latter campaign, Jedi ace pilots Skywalker and Huulik were instrumental in securing a Republic victory over the Confederacy's droid starfighter forces. Throughout the war, several manufacturers converted freighters and transports into combat vessels. New vehicles equipped with weapons were also produced. During the conflict, repair facilities were often heavily damaged in battles, so Nomad starships would arrive in star systems after the fleets had departed and the fighting had ended. The Nomads would assist the local population with repairs to compensate for the damaged facilities. The Wookiees fought for the Republic in several systems.

At one point, a battle occurred in the Crombach Nebula, during which Jedi Master Wom-Nii Gnaden's NTB-630 naval bomber collided with a Munificent-class star frigate. One Confederate officer, the husband of Separatist Senator Mina Bonteri, was killed while defending a new base on the planet Aargonar from Republic forces. During a space battle, clone pilot Sicko piloted a LAAT/i gunship towards a force of vulture droid starfighters, enabling the gunship's crew to eliminate many of the droids. Under the command of General Darrus Jeht, the Maelstrom-class battle cruiser named the Maelstrom served with distinction at the Battle of Kromus and later the Battle of Cularin. The Humbarine sector experienced intense fighting during the war, with its capital planet Humbarine suffering a Separatist bombardment that completely scorched the world's surface.

In the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Geonosis, Grievous and the Separatist Droid Army seized control of the galaxy's major hyperspace lanes, isolating the Republic from the majority of its Grand Army. Surrounded by the Confederacy and with their forces stretched thin, the Jedi Generals struggled to gain ground in the Outer Rim Territories, especially as more worlds continued to join the Confederacy. As the next phase of the Clone Wars commenced, the Hutt Clan, which controlled Hutt Space with its network of supply routes extending to the Outer Rim, became a highly sought-after ally for both the Republic and the Confederacy.

In an effort to guarantee the Separatists' access to the Hutts' vital supply lines, Count Dooku devised a scheme to abduct Rotta, the offspring of the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, and falsely accuse the Jedi Order of the act. Dooku collaborated with Ziro, Jabba's uncle, who sought to overthrow his nephew and seize control of the Hutt Clan. The initial phase of Dooku's strategy necessitated diverting the Jedi's attention; consequently, Dooku instructed his forces to seize Christophsis, an Outer Rim world known for its crystalline structures, strategic location, and valuable resources. This planet was also the site of a Republic relief mission overseen by Senator Bail Organa. Confederate Admiral Trench established a blockade around Christophsis, utilizing a substantial portion of the Confederacy navy, while Separatist ground forces subjugated the planet's inhabitants. Following a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful defense of their homeworld by a number of native Christophsians, they appealed to the Jedi High Council for assistance.

Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, accompanied by Admiral Wullf Yularen, were dispatched with a military force to rescue Organa and the besieged Christophsians. Despite the fact that their fleet of Venator-class Star Destroyers was unable to break through Trench's formidable blockade of warships, Skywalker and Yularen employed an experimental stealth ship to outmaneuver Trench and destroy his flagship, the Invincible. Trench, however, managed to survive the destruction of his dreadnought's vaporization and later resumed his duties. After successfully breaching the blockade, Skywalker and Yularen delivered the much-needed supplies to Organa's refugee camp on the planet's surface. Meanwhile, Kenobi exploited the opening in the Confederate armada to overwhelm the opposing fleet long enough to land a Republic invasion force on the planet. The Separatists also bolstered their ground troops with reinforcements, concealing their actual numbers from the Republic forces.

Around this time, Dooku sent Asajj Ventress to Christophsis to further impede the Republic's progress. As Kenobi and Skywalker planned to ambush the battle droid forces in a central city plaza, a spy within the Republic ranks, Clone Sergeant Slick, informed the Separatists of the Jedi's strategy. Slick's betrayal transformed a potential Republic victory into a retreat, causing Kenobi and Skywalker to withdraw their troops to the Republic's base. Suspecting the presence of an informant, Kenobi and Skywalker left to gather intelligence behind enemy lines, while Clone Commander Cody and Clone Captain Rex personally initiated an investigation to uncover the source of the leak. After exposing Slick as the spy, he detonated explosives at the Republic's weapons depot, prompting Rex and Cody to launch an immediate manhunt. They apprehended Slick and imprisoned him, but the damage had already been done. The majority of the Republic's arsenal was destroyed, leaving only four AV-7 Anti-vehicle Artillery Cannons intact after his sabotage.

At the Confederate headquarters, Kenobi and Skywalker encountered Ventress and engaged her in a lightsaber duel, which she used to create a window for Slick's sabotage. Both Jedi ceased their attack upon witnessing the magnitude of the Separatists' landing force. After Kenobi and Skywalker retreated to their base, General Whorm Loathsom took command of the droid infantry and initiated an assault on the city, while Ventress departed to carry out the next stage of Dooku's plan: the abduction of Rotta the Huttlet. She traveled to Tatooine aboard her personal starship, the Trident, and secretly transported Rotta from his homeworld.

In addition to Slick's sabotage of their weapons depot, the Republic forces lost their naval support when the Separatists' orbital defenses forced Yularen and his fleet out of the Christoph system. Despite being significantly outnumbered, Kenobi, Skywalker, and their clone troopers successfully repelled Loathsom's infantry from the city. Octuptarra tri-droids provided support to the Separatists' second wave, but the AV-7 Anti-vehicle Cannons halted the advance of Loathsom's rearguard of Armored Assault Tanks. In the meantime, Jabba, believing that renegades had kidnapped Rotta, contacted Sheev Palpatine to request the Republic's assistance in rescuing his son. Since Kenobi and Skywalker were the only Jedi available for the task, Yoda dispatched a messenger to Christophsis to recall the two Jedi Generals from the battlefront. The messenger was Skywalker's new Padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano.

Yularen briefly returned to Christophsis aboard his flagship, the Resolute, to send Tano to the planet's surface aboard a shuttle, before withdrawing to meet with reinforcements from the Republic Navy. Tano reached Kenobi and Skywalker just as they were preparing defenses for the next droid attack. Due to the ongoing lack of support from the Republic Navy, Kenobi and Skywalker remained trapped on the planet with their troops, unable to comply with Yoda's order to return to Coruscant. Loathsom launched another attack on the Republic forces, this time employing a mobile deflector shield to maintain a perimeter just beyond his advancing droid troops. The shield rendered the AV-7 Anti-vehicle Cannons ineffective, forcing the Jedi and clones to devise a new strategy.

While Kenobi and Rex mobilized their men in a final defense of the city, Kenobi feigned surrender to buy time for Skywalker and Tano to infiltrate the Separatist lines and destroy the shield generator. This action exposed the droids to renewed barrages from the AV-7 Anti-Vehicle Cannons, compelling Loathsom to surrender. The Republic's victory coincided with the arrival of naval reinforcements led by Yularen and Yoda, who shattered the Separatist blockade and forced it to retreat. Even as Yularen's fleet deployed infantry reinforcements to assist the invasion force in securing Christophsis, much of the planet remained devastated. Meanwhile, the Republic imprisoned Loathsom on Coruscant for treason.

Ventress transported the captive Rotta to an abandoned B'omarr Order Monastery on the jungle planet Teth, situated in Wild Space, and fortified the site with two full battalions of battle droids. After a scouting team of Republic Advanced Recon Force Scout Troopers tracked Rotta to Teth, Skywalker and Tano traveled there with Captain Rex and Torrent Company, Rex's command unit within the Grand Army's renowned 501st Legion, to rescue the Huttlet. Concurrently, Kenobi engaged in negotiations with Jabba, who granted the Republic a single planetary rotation to rescue Rotta and safely return him to Tatooine.

Because the monastery was perched atop a cliff, Skywalker, Tano, and Torrent Company were forced to undertake a vertical assault, utilizing ascension cables and a pair of AT-TE walkers to reach the fortress at the summit. Despite losing one of their AT-TE walkers and suffering numerous casualties, the Jedi and clones breached the Separatist droid defenses and retrieved Rotta from the monastery's detention level. However, Tano discovered that Rotta was severely ill, jeopardizing their chances of delivering him to Tatooine alive. Skywalker suspected Dooku's involvement in the kidnapping, considering that both the Republic and the Confederacy sought an alliance with the Hutt Clan.

Without the Jedi's knowledge, Ventress used the protocol droid 4-A7 to record Skywalker and Tano as they rescued Rotta. Ventress transmitted the holorecording to Dooku, who presented it to Jabba as proof that the Jedi were responsible for Rotta's abduction. After convincing Jabba to consider joining the Confederacy, Dooku ordered Ventress to recover Rotta so that they could claim credit for his rescue. Marshaling her assault force of battle droids, Ventress launched a counter-attack on the monastery, quickly destroying the Republic's last AT-TE walker and remaining assault craft. With no means of escape, Rex, Skywalker, and Tano barricaded themselves inside the monastery's antechamber with Rotta and Torrent Company. While Rex remained behind with Torrent Company to hold off Ventress and her droid infantry, Skywalker and Tano departed with Rotta to find a secondary exit from the monastery.

Despite their valiant efforts, Rex and his men were significantly outnumbered, and the battle droids killed all of them except for Rex and five other troopers. The droids held the clone survivors prisoner in the compound's eastern courtyard. Nevertheless, it was not long before Kenobi arrived at Teth with Commander Cody and a detachment of reinforcements. After breaking through the Separatists' aerial squadrons of vulture droid starfighters, Cody and his soldiers reached the monastery aboard LAAT/i gunships. They and Kenobi provided support for Rex and the survivors of Torrent Company, while Skywalker and Tano narrowly evaded Ventress and escaped with Rotta on board an old spice freighter called the Twilight.

When Kenobi entered the monastery in search of Skywalker, he instead engaged in a lightsaber duel with Ventress. Upon learning that Skywalker had escaped with Rotta, Ventress disengaged from her duel with Kenobi and fled the battlefield. Meanwhile, Skywalker and Tano piloted the Twilight into orbit of Teth, where Wullf Yularen and his Venator-class Star Destroyer were battling a Confederate armada of Munificent-class star frigates. As the Jedi attempted to board Yularen's Star Destroyer, a trio of vulture droids firebombed the cruiser's main hangar. Unable to dock with Yularen's flagship, Skywalker and Tano headed directly to Tatooine aboard the Twilight.

Dooku was displeased to learn from Ventress that the Jedi had extracted Rotta from Teth, but he persisted in manipulating Jabba and the Hutt Clan to join the Confederacy. During a holographic report to Dooku, Ventress falsely claimed that Skywalker had murdered Rotta before departing for Tatooine. Utilizing this deception, Dooku convinced Jabba that the Jedi Order intended to eradicate the Hutt Clan. Dooku then departed from Jabba's Palace to personally assassinate Rotta, ensuring that he would never be reunited with his father.

On Coruscant, Padmé Amidala received news of the Jedi's ongoing efforts to return Rotta to Tatooine. Consequently, she resolved to convince Jabba of the truth and broker the Republic's treaty with the Hutt Clan. Because Jabba was refusing all communication with the Republic, Amidala visited Ziro the Hutt, who resided in a palace on Coruscant. After Ziro rejected her attempt to reopen dialogue between the Hutts and the Republic, Amidala remained at the palace and witnessed Ziro contact Dooku via hologram. Dooku informed Ziro that, thanks to the Sith's elaborate deception, Jabba would kill the Jedi upon their arrival at his palace on Tatooine, after which the Republic would be compelled to arrest Jabba. Consequently, Ziro would be able to seize his nephew's control of the Hutt Clan. However, Ziro discovered Amidala eavesdropping on the conversation, and on Dooku's advice, he imprisoned Amidala within his palace.

As Skywalker and Tano arrived over Tatooine with Rotta aboard the Twilight, a pair of Confederate Rogue-class Porax-38 starfighters assaulted their freighter, causing them to crash-land in the Dune Sea. While Skywalker diverted Dooku's attention by engaging him in a lightsaber duel, Tano proceeded with Rotta to Jabba's Palace, but a trio of IG-100 MagnaGuards intercepted her outside the compound. Skywalker abandoned his confrontation with Dooku to rescue Tano, but he mistakenly assumed that she was already at Jabba's Palace. Skywalker thus arrived there ahead of his Padawan—much to the anger of Jabba, who still believed that Skywalker had murdered his son. With assistance from Skywalker's astromech droid R2-D2, Tano defeated her MagnaGuard assailants and reunited Rotta with his father. Despite the Jedi's efforts, Jabba remained determined to execute Skywalker and Tano, and he ordered his bounty hunters to carry out the executions.

Back on Coruscant, Amidala was able to send word of her capture to the Republic via her protocol droid, C-3PO. Clone Commander Fox immediately responded with a squad of clone shock troopers from the Coruscant Guard, and they raided Ziro's Palace to rescue her. Once Fox and his soldiers had arrested Ziro, Amidala used Ziro's personal holoprojector to contact Jabba, who received her message just as he was about to have Skywalker and Tano killed. Jabba was enraged to learn of Dooku and Ziro's conspiracy to overthrow him, but he agreed to end all hostilities with the Jedi. Jabba subsequently signed a treaty with the Republic and granted the Grand Army its exclusive, long-awaited access to Hutt Space's supply routes. Simultaneously, Kenobi finished securing the Republic's victory on Teth and traveled to Tatooine with Yoda, so that they could formalize the treaty with Jabba.

The Republic's alliance with the Hutt Clan resulted in a significant setback for the Confederacy. However, Darth Sidious remained unconcerned, minimizing the impact of the Jedi's victory after Dooku informed him of the news. Nevertheless, the treaty also presented challenges for the Republic, as formalizing agreements with the Hutts legitimized their businesses, which the treaty also allowed to expand into the Mid Rim. Beyond the cartel lawyers skillfully manipulating the proposed treaties to grant the Hutts unrestricted access to Republic intelligence, the treaty also saw the Hutts confirm that their organizations would remain neutral in the war and only operate as non-combatants, while the Republic was forced to promise it would not bring the fighting into Hutt territory despite having secured their cooperation and hyperlanes. The Republic imprisoned Ziro within the Judiciary Central Detention Center on Coruscant, and his lengthy sentence fostered a deep resentment toward Amidala.

The Twi'lek homeworld of Ryloth became the next major battleground of the Clone Wars when the Techno Union invaded the planet, intending to plunder its wealth and resources. The Separatist navy established a blockade of battleships in orbit of Ryloth, while the Separatist Droid Army subjected the civilian population to a brutal occupation. In addition to losing several cities and transport hubs, the Twi'leks were cut off from food and relief supplies, leading to widespread starvation. In response, political activist Cham Syndulla established a Twi'lek Resistance to combat the Confederate occupation. Jedi General Ima-Gun Di, Clone Captain Keeli, and their unit of soldiers provided assistance to Syndulla and his freedom fighters. As open warfare engulfed Ryloth, the Separatist blockade destroyed Admiral Dao's Republic fleet, severing the Republic's supply lines to Ryloth and trapping Di, Syndulla, and their men in a canyon alongside numerous Twi'lek families.

With Ryloth in desperate need of aid, the Jedi High Council prepared a shipment of food and medical supplies for the Twi'leks. However, because the Republic's Pelta-class frigates lacked the necessary range to reach Ryloth, the High Council selected the planet Toydaria as a suitable staging area for the blockade runners. Complicating the situation was Toydaria's declaration of neutrality in the war. Consequently, the High Council requested Senator Bail Organa to oversee negotiations on Toydaria, alongside Jar Jar Binks. However, the Separatist navy intercepted the transmission between Organa and the High Council. Dooku then dispatched Senator Lott Dod of the Trade Federation to thwart Organa's diplomatic efforts with King Katuunko, the monarch of the Toydarians.

Due to Dod's intervention, Katuunko publicly declined to allow Toydaria to sponsor the Republic's humanitarian shipment to Ryloth. However, Katuunko privately agreed to allow Organa to transfer his supplies from Toydaria to Ryloth. To prevent the Trade Federation from discovering the subterfuge, Binks distracted Dod and his staff at a formal banquet that night, while Organa oversaw the shipment's departure from Toydaria. By that time, the Separatist Droid Army had nearly overwhelmed the Republic's defenses on Ryloth. Di, Keeli, and their men sacrificed their lives so that Syndulla and his comrades could escape from the canyon with their families. Shortly thereafter, the Republic's trio of Pelta-class frigates penetrated the Confederate blockade and deployed their relief supplies to the Twi'leks. Nevertheless, the Grand Army's inability to provide further military support to the Twi'lek Resistance eroded Syndulla's faith in the Republic.

Without reinforcements from the Republic, only Syndulla and his Twi'lek Resistance stood against the Separatist occupation of Ryloth. The Twi'leks suffered heavy losses in a confrontation with the Droid Army, and the Separatists forced the freedom fighters to surrender and disarm themselves. Still, the droid infantry continued to massacre the Twi'lek fighters, leading them to establish hideouts in the wreckage of downed Confederate C-9979 landing craft. Syndulla and his rebels resorted to conducting a guerrilla campaign, periodically eliminating battle droid patrols in the region. For the moment, the Twi'leks were left to wage the ongoing Battle of Ryloth on their own.

Organa and Binks's commitment to helping the Twi'leks of Ryloth convinced Katuunko to consider bringing Toydaria into the Republic. Since the Jedi Order hoped to establish a supply base in the Toydaria system, Master Yoda sought a meeting with Katuunko on the coral moon of Rugosa. However, Dooku learned of the rendezvous and sent Asajj Ventress to negotiate with the Toydarian Royal Delegation on behalf of the Confederacy. After a pair of Confederate Munificent-class star frigates intercepted his Republic frigate, Yoda reached the surface of Rugosa in an escape pod alongside his three-man detail from the Coruscant Guard: Lieutenant Thire and troopers Jek and Rys.

To avoid a political debate with Yoda, Ventress proposed a challenge. She would send her best troops to capture Yoda, who would face the task of evading capture. Katuunko, in turn, would consider aligning Toydaria with the side of the victor. Although Katuunko was reluctant to subject Yoda to such a trial, Yoda accepted Ventress's terms and promised to arrive at their location by nightfall. Despite being severely outnumbered, Yoda and his troopers triumphed over Ventress's battalion of battle droids, even after she violated her agreement with Katuunko—first by ordering her droids to shoot to kill, and later by deploying droidekas as reinforcements.

When Katuunko informed Dooku of his intention to join the Republic, Dooku ordered his apprentice to assassinate Katuunko. Yoda and his men arrived just in time to save Katuunko, with Yoda using the Force to halt Ventress's lightsabers in mid-air, just centimeters from Katuunko's throat. Instead of surrendering, Ventress distracted Yoda by detonating pre-planted explosives near Katuunko's starship, the Thief's Eye. While Yoda's focus was consumed with telekinetically redirecting the incoming rubble, Ventress seized the opportunity to escape aboard her solar sailer. Following Yoda's victory, Katuunko formally pledged Toydaria's support to the Republic and agreed to host a base in his system. He and his delegation then departed from Rugosa alongside Yoda and his soldiers.

The military forces of the Confederacy quickly began creating innovative projects to bolster their war efforts. One such project was the Malevolence, a massive Subjugator-class heavy cruiser that became General Grievous's highly valued command ship. The Malevolence's initial deployment saw it carve a path of destruction through Republic territories, attacking several star systems and obliterating every Republic vessel it encountered. The battleship's effectiveness stemmed from its two ion cannons, which deactivated enemy starships' shields and other systems, leaving them open to devastating turbolaser attacks. The Malevolence left no survivors, leading the Republic populace to fearfully call the unknown threat Grievous's "mystery weapon."

The Jedi High Council soon tasked General Plo Koon, one of their members, with locating and neutralizing Grievous's weapon. Koon, accompanied by his fleet of three Venator-class Star Destroyers, tracked the Malevolence to the Abregado system, where Dooku and Grievous were overseeing the heavy cruiser's operational tests. The resulting battle mirrored the previous encounters: the Malevolence used an ion wave to disable Koon's cruisers, then destroyed the helpless ships with its turbolaser batteries. Grievous then dispatched teams of B1-series rocket battle droids aboard Droch-class boarding ships to eliminate most of the surviving personnel who had escaped in life pods.

Chancellor Palpatine and the Jedi Council were hesitant to dedicate resources to searching for survivors from Koon's fleet. However, Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano—whose fleet was positioned in the neighboring Bith system—decided to undertake the mission themselves. Arriving in the Abregado system aboard the Twilight, they found only Koon and Clone Commander Wolffe, along with Clone Sergeant Sinker and trooper Boost from the 104th Battalion's Wolfpack squad. Skywalker and Tano rescued Koon and the clones, escaping the system aboard the Twilight and narrowly avoiding becoming victims of the Malevolence. Grievous's failure to prevent their escape greatly displeased Dooku.

With the nature of Grievous's mystery weapon revealed, the Senate authorized Skywalker and the Republic Navy's Shadow Squadron of Y-wing starfighter pilots to destroy the Malevolence. After the Malevolence attacked a Republic medical convoy in the Ryndellia system, Skywalker correctly predicted that Grievous's next target would be the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center, a secret Outer Rim facility providing care for over 60,000 injured clone troopers. Using a smugglers' route known as the Balmorra Run, Skywalker, Tano, Koon, and Shadow Squadron barely arrived at the Republic medcenter, located on the edge of the Kaliida Nebula, before the Malevolence. As Shadow Squadron began its assault on the Malevolence, Doctor Nala Se and her staff, assisted by the Naboo, started evacuating the medcenter. However, they couldn't evacuate all patients before the Malevolence locked onto its target.

The initial assault by Shadow Squadron on the Malevolence resulted in the loss of nearly half of the unit's twelve pilots. Given these losses, Skywalker followed Tano and Koon's advice to shift their focus from the Malevolence's bridge and instead concentrate on the heavy cruiser's starboard ion cannon. Their proton torpedoes caused enough damage to overload the ion cannon when Grievous attempted to fire it at the medcenter. Shortly after, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Wullf Yularen arrived with a three-cruiser fleet of Star Destroyers and immediately engaged the Malevolence. With both the ion cannons and the hyperdrive disabled, Grievous was forced to order the Malevolence to retreat towards Confederate space.

The Separatists dispatched a fleet of reinforcements to assist the struggling Malevolence, but Jedi General Luminara Unduli and her fleet intercepted them before they could reach the Kaliida Nebula. Despite lacking reinforcements, the Malevolence held its own, its immense size allowing it to withstand the Republic fleet's heavy fire. However, Dooku and Darth Sidious set a trap for Padmé Amidala, sending her to the Kaliida Nebula under the guise of negotiating a treaty between the Republic and the InterGalactic Banking Clan. Upon Amidala's arrival, Grievous used a tractor beam to pull her H-type Nubian yacht aboard the Malevolence, intending to hold the senator hostage to ensure the Malevolence's safe passage. The tactic worked as Dooku had predicted, with Skywalker ordering the Republic fleet's gunnery crews to cease firing to protect his wife.

While Koon, Tano, and Yularen stayed behind to command the fleet, Skywalker and Kenobi launched a rescue mission to save Amidala. After docking the Twilight with the Malevolence, they met up with Amidala, who had destroyed her yacht to buy time. Amidala and Skywalker made their way to the bridge, where they bypassed the Malevolence's navigation computer and secretly programmed in a new destination. Kenobi tried to sabotage the battleship's hyperdrive, but Grievous intercepted him and chased him to the ship's internal rail jet, where Kenobi ended their duel. He, Amidala, and Skywalker escaped from the Malevolence aboard the Twilight, but Grievous pursued them with a squadron of vulture droids.

Skywalker's sabotage was soon discovered. Instead of entering hyperspace, the Malevolence collided with a nearby moon. Disgraced, Grievous fled the battlefield aboard his personal starship, the Soulless One. As a result, the Republic claimed victory in the Battle of the Kaliida Nebula, eliminating the threat of the Malevolence. A few months later, Unduli would encounter Grievous on Nadiem in the Outer Rim. In the intervening period, Grievous largely avoided the Republic's attention, being briefly spotted in the Balmorra system before disappearing from the Republic's sensors for several weeks.

As the conflict dragged on, it became clear that the Clone Wars were also a struggle for resources, given the financial burden of using clone troopers and battle droids. Consequently, worlds of economic significance became battlegrounds. The planet Ukio had seceded from the Republic during the Separatist Crisis, but the Republic reclaimed it during the war; its value as a granary made Ukio desirable to both sides. Similarly, Atraken and [Khorm](/article/khorm], both rich in natural mineral resources, were targets for both the Republic and the CIS.

The Battle of Khorm occurred sometime after the Battle of Abregado. General Skywalker and Clone Commander Wolffe led the Republic forces, while Asajj Ventress represented the Separatists. During a confrontation between Skywalker and Ventress, Wolffe lost his right eye to Ventress, necessitating a cybernetic replacement.

In the following weeks, the Republic and Confederate intelligence-gathering operations became points of contention. When Grievous targeted Kamino, he recognized that the Grand Army's network of listening posts in the area could hinder his plans. Therefore, Grievous sent a stealth team of BX-series droid commandos to silence Rishi Station, a Republic outpost on a barren moon in the Rishi system. Under the cover of a meteor shower, the droid commandos landed on the moon and attacked Rishi Station, killing most of the garrison. Sergeant O'Niner, the station's commanding officer, was among the casualties. The droids then manipulated the station's all-clear signal, preventing the Republic Navy from detecting Grievous and his fleet approaching Kamino through the Rishi system. Furthermore, Asajj Ventress infiltrated Kamino's defenses, acting as a spy for Grievous and finalizing the preparations for his invasion. All this occurred while the Mud Jumpers of the Republic's 224th were engaged in a separate campaign on Mimban.

Following the Separatist takeover of Rishi Station, Commander Cody and Captain Rex arrived for a scheduled inspection and were alerted to the danger by a flare fired by the remaining clones. After the droid commandos destroyed their shuttle, the Obex, Cody and Rex fled the outpost. They soon encountered the surviving clones from the initial attack: troopers Echo, Hevy, and Fives. Despite their lack of combat experience, Cody and Rex rallied the rookie soldiers to retake Rishi Station, and they successfully defeated the droid commando squad. However, their victory was short-lived. Upon losing contact with the droid commandos, Grievous deployed troop reinforcements to ensure the station remained under his control.

With time running out, Rex decided to destroy Rishi Station instead of trying to disable the all-clear signal. While a drastic measure, disabling the beacon would alert the Republic fleet to Grievous's invasion. To destroy Rishi Station, Echo suggested using the outpost's supply of liquid tibanna, a highly explosive fuel used as a heat source during the moon's long winter. While Cody, Fives, and Hevy defended the station's main entrance from the incoming battle droids, Rex and Echo connected three PLNK-series power droids, containing the liquid tibanna, to a detonation system. When Rex encountered problems with the detonator's handset, Hevy stayed behind to repair it while his comrades escaped to the lower levels of the station. However, Hevy was unable to fix the remote, so he manually activated the explosives.

Hevy's sacrifice resulted in the destruction of Rishi Station and the disabling of the alert beacon. Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Wullf Yularen subsequently arrived in the Rishi system with a Republic fleet. Realizing his forces lacked a tactical advantage, Grievous conceded defeat and withdrew. After the battle, Kenobi and Skywalker commended Echo and Fives for their efforts, as well as the late Hevy for his sacrifice. Rex then inducted Echo and Fives into the 501st Legion.

The Separatists eventually constructed Skytop Station, a converted core ship serving as a listening post in the Ruusan system. Skytop Station compromised the Republic's intelligence network by intercepting transmissions and acquiring vital data for the Confederacy military. During this period of espionage, Grievous achieved a series of victories that threatened the Republic's position in the Outer Rim. He eliminated a Republic battle group at Falleen before moving on to conquer Bothawui, a strategic world in the Mid Rim. Rex, Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano then mobilized a Republic task force to defend Bothawui.

During the Battle of Bothawui, Rex outmaneuvered Grievous's fleet by using a squad of AT-TE walkers hidden within Bothawui's asteroid field. Skywalker and Gold Squadron, a unit of V-19 Torrent starfighters, quickly exploited this advantage and crippled Grievous's frigates, shifting the battle's momentum in the Republic's favor. However, while trying to prevent Grievous from escaping aboard the Soulless One, Skywalker lost his astromech droid, R2-D2, when debris struck his Delta-7B interceptor. Despite Grievous's escape, the Republic forces were victorious at Bothawui.

The loss of R2-D2 posed a significant threat to the Republic. Because Skywalker had never wiped R2-D2's memory, the droid contained a wealth of classified Republic Military data. Unbeknownst to the Republic, the scavenger Gha Nachkt found R2-D2 and promised the droid to Grievous. When Skywalker and Tano searched Nachkt's freighter, the Vulture's Claw, they failed to locate R2-D2 among Nachkt's goods. Adding to Skywalker's problems was the fact that his replacement astromech, R3-S6, was a spy droid working for Grievous.

Once Republic intelligence confirmed the existence of the Confederacy's new listening post, Skywalker received orders from Kenobi to locate and destroy the base. While his fleet searched a specific area of space, Skywalker chose to conduct a solo scouting mission to sweep the area's outer perimeter. However, once Skywalker and R3-S6 were alone in Skywalker's Delta-7B interceptor, R3-S6 activated the starfighter's homing beacon, leading Grievous and two warships directly to their location. Only the timely arrival of Rex and Tano, who quickly assembled a squad of soldiers and arrived aboard the Twilight, prevented Skywalker from being killed by Grievous.

As Nachkt delivered R2-D2 to Skytop Station, the Twilight intercepted a transmission from the missing droid. Rex traced the signal to Skytop Station's location in the upper atmosphere of one of Ruusan's three moons. Although Kenobi ordered him to destroy Skytop Station without rescuing R2-D2, Skywalker made retrieving his droid a top priority for the mission. While Rex, Tano, and their strike team planted thermal detonators at the facility's reactor, Skywalker recovered R2-D2 before Grievous's IG-100 MagnaGuards could escape with the droid. However, R3-S6 delayed Rex, Tano, and their squad of troopers at the reactor room long enough for Skytop Station's security patrols to engage them.

Although Tano and her allies defeated the battle droids, their troubles were far from over. Grievous ambushed them, killing most of the clone troopers. Tano then engaged Grievous in a lightsaber duel, allowing Rex and the other surviving soldier, Denal, to finish installing the explosives at the reactor. Once they were done, Denal and Rex met up with Skywalker, R2-D2, and the Twilight in Skytop Station's main hangar. There, R3-S6 revealed his true allegiance by sealing the exits and activating three vulture droids, preventing Rex and Skywalker from assisting Tano in her fight with Grievous.

At Skywalker's urging, Rex activated the explosives at the reactor, causing Skytop Station to fall into the moon's lower atmosphere. Once R2-D2 opened the hangar door from an external terminal, Tano arrived—having broken off her duel with Grievous—and escaped with Denal, Rex, and Skywalker aboard the Twilight. Before leaving the Ruusan system, Skywalker personally retrieved R2-D2, who had destroyed R3-S6. Grievous also escaped, but the loss of Skytop Station added another failure to his record.

As the Clone Wars reached a stalemate, several key members of the Confederacy became targets for the Republic. One such leader was Nute Gunray, who briefly allied himself with Senator Onaconda Farr of Rodia. Despite Rodia's membership in the Republic, the Senate was too slow to assist the Rodian people after pirate attacks destroyed Rodia's incoming supply ships. As a result, Farr lost faith in the Republic and accepted Gunray's offer to provide relief supplies to Rodia. In return, Farr helped Gunray capture Padmé Amidala, against whom Gunray still held a grudge, when she visited Rodia on a diplomatic mission. Though Farr was conflicted about betraying Amidala, he imprisoned his old friend in a local detention tower until Gunray arrived. However, when Gunray came to collect Amidala, Farr was shocked to learn that Gunray intended to execute her.

Although Amidala escaped from the detention tower, complications arose when Gunray's battle droids targeted her and Jar Jar Binks, who had accompanied her to Rodia. Binks enlisted the help of a large Kwazel Maw, which destroyed most of Gunray's droids and his Sheathipede-class transport shuttle. Furthermore, Gunray's indifference to the Rodians' suffering and his brutal treatment of Amidala convinced Farr that joining the Confederacy had been a mistake. Farr helped Amidala arrest Gunray on behalf of the Republic, ending Rodia's brief alliance with the Separatists. Sheev Palpatine then sent the Rodians a shipment of much-needed supplies.

Under the command of Clone Commander Gree, the 41st Elite Corps arrived on Rodia to take Gunray into Republic custody. The Jedi High Council dispatched Jedi General Luminara Unduli, along with Ahsoka Tano, to provide additional security for Gunray's transfer to Coruscant, where the viceroy would be put on trial. Because Darth Sidious believed that Gunray would not be able to withstand the Jedi's interrogation, Dooku tasked Asajj Ventress with rescuing Gunray. Dooku also bribed Captain Faro Argyus, the leader of the Senate Commando unit assigned to Gunray's transfer, to assist in the operation.

Ventress launched her attack just as Argyus, Gree, Tano, and Unduli were leaving Rodia with Gunray aboard the Star Destroyer Tranquility. Three Droch-class boarding ships penetrated the Tranquility's hull, releasing a droid boarding party that eliminated most of the Elite Corps' Green Company. Ventress proceeded to the Tranquility's detention level, where she briefly fought Tano, their second encounter since the Battle of Teth. Though Argyus, Gree, and Unduli came to Tano's aid and prevented Ventress from escaping with Gunray, Ventress used explosives planted in the Tranquility's engine room to disable the cruiser's systems. When Unduli pursued Ventress to the engine room, Ventress nearly defeated her, and only Tano's assistance allowed Unduli to continue their lightsaber duel.

As Ventress distracted the Jedi, she signaled Argyus to act. Argyus shot down two of his fellow Senate Commandos guarding Gunray and freed Gunray from his cell. Argyus and Gunray resisted Gree's attempts to stop them and hijacked the Consular-class frigate that had transported Gunray to the Tranquility. Ventress similarly stole an escape pod and joined them aboard the frigate, though she killed Argyus when he suggested he would take credit for the rescue. However, Unduli transmitted the tracking data for Gunray's frigate to Jedi General Kit Fisto, whose fleet was near Gunray's last known location.

As Gunray's recapture was the focus of Fisto's hunt, Dooku perceived a chance to assess one of his operatives. Dooku, whose confidence in Grievous had waned due to recent setbacks, orchestrated a test for his foremost general. By exploiting the homing beacon emanating from Gunray's frigate, Dooku strategically directed Fisto and his forces toward Grievous's private fortress, situated on Vassek's third moon. Simultaneously, the Republic's Outer Rim Command Center kept tabs on Clone Commander Fil and Jedi Knight Nahdar Vebb, Fisto's former apprentice, as they spearheaded a squad of troopers to bolster the search for Gunray. Unbeknownst to Grievous, Dooku intended to evaluate his capabilities.

Fisto, Vebb, and their troops entered Grievous's fortress, taking out a security detail of battle droids which they mistakenly believed guarded Gunray. Instead of finding the viceroy, Dooku communicated with Fisto and Vebb via hologram, presenting them with an alternate reward. Upon realizing the fortress's true owner, Fisto and Vebb decided to apprehend Grievous, understanding that his capture would significantly aid the Republic's war efforts. However, Grievous's return to his fortress revealed him to be a formidable adversary. He initially eluded the intruders within his stronghold, but was subsequently compelled to seek repairs from his medical droid, EV-A4-D.

After instructing his IG-100 MagnaGuards to secure the perimeter, Grievous began to regain control over his would-be captors. He employed the fortress's integrated defenses—including an incinerator pit and his pet roggwart, Gor—to attack Fisto, Vebb, and their soldiers. While Fil and his men were killed, Fisto successfully eliminated the dangerous roggwart. Throughout the ordeal, Vebb increasingly displayed a willingness to employ excessive force in response to Grievous's tactics. The situation reached a critical point when Fisto infiltrated Grievous's control room, and Vebb refused to accompany his former Master. Instead, Vebb chose to confront Grievous alone. Powerless to assist his former Padawan, Fisto could only observe Grievous's slaughter of Vebb through the surveillance system. Before fleeing the moon aboard his Delta-7B interceptor, Fisto engaged Grievous in a duel and managed to recover Vebb's lightsaber, which Grievous had taken as a prize. Although Grievous had defeated Vebb and the clone troopers, Dooku had anticipated this outcome and was displeased by Grievous's inability to defeat Fisto.

Dooku himself became the Republic's next target. As part of a search for the Sith Lord, Anakin Skywalker infiltrated Dooku's current flagship, a Munificent-class star frigate, as it patrolled the Outer Rim. Skywalker allowed himself to be captured, intending to guide his forces to the frigate's location. While Obi-Wan Kenobi freed Skywalker and assisted in detaining Dooku, Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex attacked Dooku's frigate from the Resolute. However, Dooku escaped the ongoing battle in his solar sailer, pursued closely by Kenobi and Skywalker aboard a stolen Sheathipede-class transport shuttle. All three crash-landed on the planet Vanqor. Dooku secured safe passage to the nearby world of Florrum from the Ohnaka Gang, a pirate group, while Kenobi and Skywalker were stranded on Vanqor, requiring Tano to rescue them from the planet's surface.

Despite this, Dooku's safety remained elusive. The Ohnaka Gang captured Dooku on Florrum, and their leader, Hondo Ohnaka, offered him to the Republic in exchange for a substantial sum of one million credits, payable in spice. Before Sheev Palpatine approved the deal, the Jedi High Council dispatched Kenobi and Skywalker to Florrum to verify that Ohnaka and his crew were indeed holding Dooku. However, upon the Jedi's arrival, Ohnaka drugged and imprisoned them as well, intending to demand an even larger ransom from the Republic. Unaware of Kenobi and Skywalker's predicament, Palpatine sent Senator Kharrus and a Coruscant Guard escort team to deliver the spice ransom to Florrum and secure Dooku's release.

Internal strife within the Ohnaka Gang further complicated matters for the Republic. Turk Falso, Ohnaka's lieutenant, led a faction of pirates who downed Kharrus's shuttle over Florrum, hoping to seize the ransom. Kharrus and the shuttle's crew perished in the crash, leaving Jar Jar Binks, a member of the delegation, as the senior commander for Commander Stone and his soldiers. By the time Binks, Stone, and their squad reached Ohnaka's base of operations, Dooku had already escaped. He fled by killing Falso and commandeering his Flarestar-class attack shuttle. Rather than arresting Ohnaka, Kenobi and Skywalker allowed Ohnaka and his pirates to remain free. The Jedi departed with Binks and the clones aboard the Twilight, the vessel they had used to reach Florrum. While Ohnaka and the Jedi parted amicably, Dooku held a grudge against Ohnaka.

The Quell system became another focal point of the Clone Wars when a Confederate armada intercepted Jedi General Aayla Secura's fleet of warships. During the ensuing Battle of Quell, Separatist frigates heavily bombarded Secura's cruisers. Soon, only Secura's flagship remained operational above the planet Quell. Skywalker, Tano, Captain Rex, and Wullf Yularen arrived on the Resolute to rescue Secura, Clone Commander Bly, and their crew from their doomed vessel. Rex, Skywalker, and Tano transported Secura, Bly, and several of their troops aboard a Consular-class cruiser. Before they could reach the Resolute, a vulture droid attack inadvertently activated their frigate's hyperdrive. The Jedi and clones found themselves on an unexpected journey, crash-landing on the remote planet Maridun. Yularen remained behind to oversee the Republic's campaign over Quell.

Stranded on Maridun, Bly, Rex, Secura, and Tano sought medical assistance for Skywalker, who had sustained serious injuries during the escape from Secura's flagship. They brought Skywalker to a village of Lurmen pacifists, who treated his wounds. Just as Skywalker's condition improved, Separatist General Lok Durd chose Maridun as a testing ground for the Confederacy's latest weapon. Durd had developed the Defoliator, a cannon designed to eliminate organic matter while leaving inorganic materials, such as battle droids, unharmed. Durd decided to use the Lurmen colonists as test subjects for his Defoliator Deployment Tank.

When Durd arrived to subjugate the Lurmen, the village elder, Tee Watt Kaa, urged Bly, Rex, Secura, Skywalker, and Tano to leave to avoid potential conflict. However, the Jedi and clones returned upon realizing Durd's plan to test the Defoliator on the Lurmen village. In the subsequent skirmish, the Jedi and clones utilized a pair of stolen Separatist shield generators to protect the Lurmen from the Defoliator's incendiary capsules. However, after Durd's droid infantry breached the Jedi and clones' defenses, Wag Too—the village healer and Watt Kaa's son—convinced other young members of the colony to help defend their home. They succeeded, while Skywalker managed to disable the Defoliator and capture Durd. Nevertheless, Watt Kaa questioned whether Too and his friends' sacrifice of their pacifism for the victory had been worthwhile.

Shortly thereafter, a brief but intense conflict erupted on the glacial world of Orto Plutonia. Both the Republic and the Confederacy maintained bases on Orto Plutonia, attracting the attention of a local settlement of Talz. In an attempt to protect their isolation, the Talz destroyed both the Republic and Separatist outposts on their world. The Pantorans, who inhabited Orto Plutonia's moon, Pantora, claimed Orto Plutonia as a protectorate. Consequently, Pantoran Chairman Chi Cho and Senator Riyo Chuchi requested a detachment of soldiers to investigate the loss of contact with Glid Station, the Republic base on Orto Plutonia. Rex, Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi oversaw a platoon of Rex's troops, equipped as cold assault troopers for the mission.

When Kenobi and Skywalker contacted Chieftain Thi-Sen of the Talz, he expressed his desire for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. However, Cho dismissed the Talz as savages, arguing that the Convention of Civilized Systems did not apply to them. Despite efforts from Chuchi, Skywalker, and Kenobi to find a diplomatic solution, the stubborn Cho insisted on declaring war on the Talz, aiming to eliminate them. Open warfare began when the Talz ambushed Cho, Rex, and their troops. Many Talz and clone troopers died before Chuchi secured approval from the Pantoran Assembly to negotiate an end to the bloodshed.

Despite her youth and inexperience, Chuchi bravely established a peaceful agreement with Thi-Sen. While Cho succumbed to his injuries, Chuchi agreed to cede complete jurisdiction of Orto Plutonia to Thi-Sen and the Talz. Chuchi then departed from Orto Plutonia with Kenobi, Rex, Skywalker, and their troops, leaving the Talz in peace. Following Cho's death, the Pantorans eventually elected Baron Papanoida as their new chairman. Other icy worlds, such as Toola and Rhen Var, also saw Republic operations and the deployment of clone cold assault troopers. At some point, Unduli and Secura partnered in a confrontation against Ventress on the frozen planet Alzoc III. Ventress was defeated and left in an ice cave that the two Jedi collapsed, but she escaped and continued to threaten the Republic for some time. Unduli and Ventress had many more encounters over the course of the conflict.

The Techno Union continued its oppression of Ryloth, with Wat Tambor appointed as the emir of the occupied world. The Republic Senate finally authorized a Grand Army invasion to liberate the Twi'lek homeworld, reopening Ryloth as a Republic battlefront. Skywalker, Tano, and Wullf Yularen were tasked with eliminating Confederate Captain Mar Tuuk's orbital blockade of Ryloth. The Republic's initial assault on the blockade failed, as Tuuk's fleet destroyed the Star Destroyer Redeemer and forced Skywalker's other warships, the Defender and the Resolute, to retreat from the Ryloth system. Tano also suffered a significant blow to her confidence when she lost an entire unit of clone pilots, Blue Squadron, during her first command.

Skywalker and Tano's subsequent strategy proved more effective. With the Defender heavily damaged, Skywalker sacrificed the cruiser by ramming it into Tuuk's Lucrehulk-class Battleship. Tuuk abandoned his command ship before its destruction, ceding command of the blockade to the six frigates' OOM command battle droids. The resulting chaos allowed the Resolute to return to the Ryloth system. Tano positioned the Resolute's ventral hull toward the enemy blockade to lure its droid commanders into a trap. Once the frigates approached, Tano launched several squadrons of starfighters from the Resolute and bombarded the frigates, disrupting the blockade.

Skywalker and Tano's success allowed Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu to safely enter Ryloth's atmosphere with a force of three Acclamator-class transgalactic military assault ships carrying the invasion force. However, a Separatist encampment in the city of Nabat prevented Kenobi and Windu from landing their forces. From Nabat, the T-series tactical droid TX-20 targeted the Republic assault ships with aerial barrages from ground-based J-1 proton cannons. Windu withdrew the transports to a higher altitude until Kenobi, Commander Cody, and the 212th Attack Battalion's Ghost Company could eliminate the proton cannons in Nabat. There, troopers Boil and Waxer befriended Numa, a young Twi'lek orphan who had lost her parents when the Separatists attacked Nabat. With Numa's help, Kenobi and Ghost Company disabled the proton cannons and rescued Nabat's Twi'lek residents, whom TX-20 had used as human shields to protect his encampment. Once freed, the Twi'leks overwhelmed TX-20 and destroyed him in retaliation for his oppression.

Ghost Company's liberation of Nabat enabled Windu and his transports to use the city as a landing zone. While Skywalker and Tano defeated the remaining Confederate blockade and secured the airspace around Ryloth, Kenobi liberated more Twi'lek villages from the Techno Union's control. Kenobi soon reclaimed the Jixuan desert, bringing Ryloth's southern hemisphere under Republic control. In response, Wat Tambor concentrated the majority of his droid infantry within the capital of Lessu. Windu and Commander Ponds were tasked with securing Lessu and capturing Tambor. However, a unit of Armored Assault Tanks inflicted heavy casualties on Windu's Lightning Squadron during an ambush in a canyon outside Lessu. Unable to obtain reinforcements, Windu decided to enlist the help of Cham Syndulla and his Twi'lek Resistance.

When Windu approached him, Syndulla remained hesitant to collaborate with the Republic, as the Grand Army had previously failed to support the Twi'lek Resistance. Syndulla also distrusted Ryloth's senator, Orn Free Taa, due to their pre-war political rivalry. However, Syndulla changed his mind when Dooku ordered Tambor to plunder the Twi'lek villages and then destroy everything else. Dooku intended to use Ryloth's destruction as a political statement about the consequences of a Republic victory.

Ponds and Lightning Squadron witnessed Tambor's firebombing campaign firsthand, as Hyena-class Droid Bombers targeted all villages within range of Lessu, including those with civilian populations. Skywalker and Tano focused on eliminating the bombers, but their numbers were overwhelming. Tambor's ruthlessness reminded Syndulla and Taa of their shared goal: Ryloth's liberation. Under Windu's mediation, Syndulla pledged not to exploit the situation for political gain. Taa, in turn, agreed to Syndulla's condition of preserving Ryloth's independence by preventing a post-invasion occupation by the Grand Army. With that, Syndulla joined forces with Windu, and the new allies launched a joint assault on Lessu.

Despite Dooku's order to withdraw from Ryloth, Tambor delayed his departure to maximize his plunder from the Twi'leks. Consequently, Windu and Advanced Recon Force troopers Razor and Stak infiltrated one of Tambor's inbound Multi-Troop Transports to cross Lessu's plasma bridge, the only way to reach the capital. Once Razor and Stak reactivated the bridge, Syndulla led his Twi'lek freedom fighters and the Republic clone troopers—riding blurrgs and All Terrain Reconnaissance Transports, respectively—in a charge into Lessu. While Syndulla directed the ground campaign, Windu arrested Tambor, who had lingered too long and was abandoned by his own tactical droid, TA-175, aboard his shuttle. Despite Tambor's presence in Lessu, Dooku ordered TA-175 to have their Hyena-class bombers destroy the capital. However, Skywalker and Tano intercepted the bombers in their Delta-7B interceptors and destroyed them before they reached Lessu. Afterward, Tambor unconditionally surrendered to Syndulla and Windu.

The Battle of Lessu marked the end of the long Battle of Ryloth. Now free, the Twi'leks held a parade in Lessu to celebrate their victory, attended by Syndulla, Taa, and Windu. Syndulla and Windu's accomplishments at Lessu became Twi'lek folklore, with songs calling their attack the Hammer of Ryloth.

In the Mid Rim, Naboo became the site of the Confederacy's biological warfare initiative. Operating from a secret Trade Federation laboratory beneath Naboo's eastern swamps, Doctor Nuvo Vindi successfully weaponized the Blue Shadow Virus, a deadly waterborne disease with no known cure, into an airborne form. He also created viral bombs to spread the plague to critical Republic star systems. When the Royal Naboo Security Forces discovered a patrol of Vindi's battle droids, Padmé Amidala and Jar Jar Binks returned to assist Queen Neeyutnee and Captain Gregar Typho in investigating the potential incursion. Amidala and Binks tracked the battle droids to the eastern swamps, where Vindi's forces captured them.

In response, Kenobi, Skywalker, and Tano led a raid on Vindi's laboratory to rescue Amidala and Binks and prevent Vindi from escaping with his bombs. Captain Rex and the clone units Calm Tree, Snow Wolves, and Wildfire provided tactical support. After rescuing Amidala and Binks, Skywalker helped Kenobi apprehend Vindi. Additionally, the Republic task force's clone ordnance specialists disarmed Vindi's viral bombs before he could release the plague on Naboo. Kenobi and Skywalker then escorted Vindi to Naboo's capital, Theed, for trial.

However, the crisis continued. Vindi's LEP-series service droid secretly stole a vial of the Blue Shadow Virus and used a viral bomb to release the plague within the laboratory. While Kenobi and Skywalker traveled to Iego for a potential cure, Amidala and Binks worked with Rex, Tano, and their men to eliminate the remaining battle droids. If the droids escaped, they would spread the outbreak to Naboo. Although the Blue Shadow Virus infected everyone except Binks, the Republic personnel eradicated the battle droids.

During their journey to Iego, Kenobi and Skywalker deactivated the Separatists' laser web, freeing the inhabitants. The Jedi also obtained a sample of reeksa root, which cured Amidala, Rex, Tano, and their men, ending the incident.

Felucia, a jungle-covered planet situated in the Outer Rim Territories, saw frequent combat throughout the Clone Wars. Its crucial position along the Perlemian Trade Route made Felucia an early target, resulting in a campaign fought between the Separatist Confederacy and the Galactic Republic. Kenobi, Skywalker, and Tano led an effort to drive out the Separatist military forces, but their detachment of clone troopers, under the command of Commander Cody and Captain Rex, was overwhelmed by battle droids. Commander Wolffe's arrival with a squadron of Star Destroyers broke through the Confederate orbital blockade, allowing Plo Koon and the clone pilot Warthog to lead a squadron of LAAT/i gunships through the breach.

Koon and Warthog escorted the gunships from their starfighters to the planet's surface, where they extracted Cody, Kenobi, Rex, Skywalker, and their troops from the Republic's primary staging area. Before departing Felucia, the gunships also retrieved Tano and her patrol of soldiers from another location in the jungle. Despite her initial reluctance to retreat, Tano and her soldiers boarded the gunships just before droid reinforcements jeopardized their position. The Republic's defeat on Felucia hindered the Grand Army's operations in the surrounding sector of space. Furthermore, Tano faced disciplinary action from the Jedi High Council for disobeying evacuation orders.

Devaron, another planet covered in forests, quickly became a key battleground. Cad Bane, a bounty hunter in service to Darth Sidious, partnered with fellow mercenary Cato Parasitti to steal a holocron from the Holocron Vault within the Jedi Archives on Coruscant. Bane then set his sights on Jedi Master Bolla Ropal, the guardian of the Jedi Order's Kyber memory crystal, a device that contained records of all known Force-sensitive younglings across the galaxy. At Sidious's command, Nute Gunray provided Bane with the Trade Federation's fleet of Munificent-class star frigates, which Bane then used to besiege Ropal's Republic outpost on Devaron. By the time Rex, Skywalker, Tano, and Wullf Yularen arrived in the Devaron system aboard the Resolute, Bane had already seized the Republic base and kidnapped Ropal, taking him aboard his command ship. The Resolute decimated most of Bane's frigates and disabled the hyperdrive on his command ship, trapping him within the system. However, when Ropal refused to use the holocron to access the memory crystal, Bane ordered his droid crew to torture him to death.

Facing a shortage of resources, Rex, Skywalker, and Tano converted three AT-TE walkers into makeshift boarding vehicles for their assault force, which included the Execute Battalion and Carnivore Battalion. After the Jedi and clones infiltrated Bane's command ship, Bane ambushed them with his droid forces on the frigate's gunnery deck. Bane further isolated Tano from her allies and took her as a hostage, using her to coerce Skywalker into opening the Kyber memory crystal. With the frigate's self-destruct sequence activated, Rex, Skywalker, Tano, and their detachment seized a shuttle and escaped the doomed vessel. Bane, still in possession of the holocron and the memory crystal, hid on their shuttle by killing trooper Denal and stealing his armor. Once aboard the Resolute, Bane hijacked a V-19 Torrent starfighter and jumped to hyperspace before Skywalker and Tano could capture him.

Following his triumph on Devaron, Bane continued his work for Sidious, embarking on a mission to abduct four Force-sensitive children identified in the Kyber memory crystal. After kidnapping the Nautolan Zinn Toa on Glee Anselm, Bane captured Wee Dunn in Kay-Tap square on Rodia, eluding Kenobi's attempts to stop him. However, Skywalker and Tano intercepted Bane before he could capture a third child, Roo-Roo Page of the Gungans, in Jan-gwa city on Naboo. Bane was briefly held in Republic custody, but he orchestrated a trap for Kenobi and Mace Windu at his base of operations, Black Stall Station. Although Bane escaped, Kenobi and Windu retrieved the stolen holocron from him. Furthermore, Skywalker and Tano rescued Dunn and Toa from Sidious's secret facility on the volcanic planet Mustafar. Despite these events, the Jedi Order remained unaware of Sidious's involvement.

Despite their earlier setback on Felucia, the Republic maintained a presence in the Felucia system through the Felucia Medical Station HCTFF2, a Haven-class medical station. However, it lacked defensive capabilities, making it an easy target for a small Separatist flotilla. When Kenobi, Skywalker, and Tano investigated the loss of communication with Felucia Medical Station HCTFF2, a Separatist automated vulture droid deployment station launched a squadron of vulture droids. The droid starfighters attacked the Jedi's T-6 shuttle, forcing them to crash-land on Felucia. While stranded, the Jedi aided the mercenaries Sugi, Embo, Seripas, and Rumi Paramita in defending a Felucian farming village from extortion by the Ohnaka Gang, who sought to steal the farmers' nysillin crops.

Simultaneous with a Republic offensive, one of the Clone Wars' most protracted and intense campaigns was the Battle of Malastare. Skywalker and Mace Windu, in conjunction with Doge Nakha Urus and his Dug forces, led a battle group to protect the planet Malastare—whose fuel production was essential to the Republic's war effort and the continuation of their offensive—from a Separatist invasion. A massive force from the Separatist Droid Army nearly succeeded in conquering Malastare. To secure a Republic victory, Sheev Palpatine authorized the use of the electro-proton bomb, an experimental weapon developed by Doctor Sionver Boll designed to disable mechanical targets. The electro-proton bomb generated an electromagnetic pulse that rendered all of the Confederacy's battle droids inactive. The bomb's detonation also created a large sinkhole that swallowed some of the Republic's AT-TE walkers and command crews, necessitating a rescue operation.

The electro-proton bomb also had another consequence: it awakened a Zillo Beast, a member of a massive species believed to be extinct. The Zillo Beast proved impervious to all attacks, from blaster fire to Skywalker's lightsaber. Due to a long-standing animosity between the Dugs and the Zillo Beasts, Urus and his Dug Council demanded that the Republic assist in exterminating the creature. However, Windu refused, arguing that the creature might be the last of its kind. Windu's decision strained the Republic's diplomatic ties with the Dugs, as the Grand Army still required access to Malastare's fuel. To appease Urus, Skywalker and Windu used Republic RX-200 Falchion-class assault tanks to non-lethally immobilize the Zillo Beast, making it appear dead. Consequently, Urus and his council signed a treaty granting the Republic exclusive access to Malastare's fuel reserves.

Following the Battle of Malastare, Palpatine instructed Skywalker and Windu to transport the Zillo Beast to Coruscant for research. Palpatine tasked Boll with synthesizing the creature's highly resistant scales to improve the design of clone trooper armor. However, the Zillo Beast escaped from the Republic Science and Technical Center and caused widespread destruction across Coruscant, inflicting significant property damage and instilling fear among the population. Unable to contain the creature, the Jedi and their clone troopers were forced to kill the Zillo Beast.

The Clone Wars soon returned to Geonosis. Although the Republic had occupied the desert planet since the war's beginning, the Grand Army's widespread war efforts required that much of Geonosis's occupying forces be redeployed. Taking advantage of the Republic's reduced presence, the Confederacy re-established a significant presence on Geonosis. Archduke Poggle the Lesser oversaw the construction of new battle droid factories to bolster the Separatist Droid Army. Poggle's primary foundry received substantial investments from the Trade Federation and the InterGalactic Banking Clan. During a visit to Lott Dod's palace on Cato Neimoidia, Padmé Amidala discovered a hologram disc containing the factory's coordinates and stole it from the Banking Clan's senator, Rush Clovis. The Republic and the Jedi High Council subsequently learned of the existence of Poggle's new droid foundries.

The Confederacy's total number of battle droids already far exceeded the Republic's clone troopers; Count Dooku claimed the ratio was as high as one hundred to one. To halt the Geonosians' production of new battle droids, the Grand Army launched a massive Jedi-led invasion to retake Geonosis. With Poggle barricaded in his primary foundry, the Jedi launched a three-pronged assault on the facility's ray shield generator. Jedi General Ki-Adi-Mundi and Clone Commander Jet led the northern strike, while Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commander Cody commanded the central assault. Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano—fresh from defeating Confederate forces near Dorin—led the southern strike with Captain Rex. Wullf Yularen oversaw the Republic Navy's efforts, including other areas of the planet-wide campaign.

As the Second Battle of Geonosis commenced, the Geonosian defenses intercepted most of the Republic's LAAT/i gunships. Only Cody and his detachment of AT-TE walkers reached Point Rain, the Republic's staging area near the ray shield generator, where Cody organized his walkers in a defensive perimeter. The Geonosians' LR1K sonic cannons and Nantex-class starfighters grounded the remaining Republic gunships. Kenobi was seriously wounded when his gunship crashed, and Cody dispatched troopers Waxer and Boil to rescue him and trooper Trapper, the transport's only other survivor. Mundi was also injured when his gunship crashed, but he and Jet fought through a cave of Geonosian soldiers, where their squad of clone flametroopers used flamethrowers to overwhelm the Geonosians. Rex, Skywalker, Tano, and their troops destroyed a massive barricade of battle droids in a canyon and linked up with Jet, Mundi, and their forces.

While Cody and Kenobi continued to defend Point Rain from waves of Geonosian soldiers, Mundi and Skywalker combined their forces and advanced to reinforce their comrades. Yularen managed to allocate a squadron of Y-wing starfighters to provide aerial support for Mundi and Skywalker's advance. As a result, the Jedi and clones secured Point Rain. For the final stage of their operation, Skywalker and Tano led a small squad of troopers through the ray shield, using Electro Magnetic Pulse grenades to disable the Geonosians' J-1 proton cannons. Once this was done, Cody moved in with a detail of AT-TE walkers and destroyed the shield generator. The ray shield dissipated, allowing Rex, Mundi, and the main force to land aboard their gunships. The remaining Geonosians surrendered, ending the first phase of the Republic's invasion.

While Kenobi, Mundi, and the other wounded troops returned to the Republic fleet for medical attention, Rex, Skywalker, and Tano initiated the next phase of the invasion: disabling Poggle's main droid foundry. Luminara Unduli; her Padawan, Barriss Offee; and Commander Gree brought in infantry reinforcements to support Skywalker's assault. However, a single bridge was the only way to cross the chasm separating Poggle's factory from the surrounding area. The bridge formed a natural bottleneck, leaving the Republic's clone troopers vulnerable during their advance on the foundry. Therefore, Unduli had Offee memorize the labyrinth of catacombs beneath the facility. While Offee and Tano infiltrated the foundry from the catacombs, Unduli and Skywalker, with Gree and Rex, led a frontal assault on the facility as a diversion. Although the droid factory was operating at half-capacity, Poggle and his tactical droid, TX-21, had assembled ten garrisons of new troops ready for deployment.

As Unduli, Skywalker, and their soldiers advanced against the foundry's droid defenses, Poggle authorized TX-21 to deploy twenty units of their newest creation: the super tank. The super tanks' ray shields allowed them to withstand barrages from the Republic's AV-7 Anti-Vehicle Cannons. In response, the super tanks launched a barrage of missiles, inflicting heavy casualties on the Republic troops. Gree and Rex led their soldiers in retreat, drawing the super tanks onto the bridge across the chasm. Skywalker and Unduli climbed beneath the bridge, planting thermal detonators along the way. Upon reaching the factory, Skywalker and Unduli used the explosives to collapse the bridge, sending the super tanks into the abyss.

Meanwhile, Offee and Tano reached the foundry's reactor through the catacombs, but TX-21 intercepted them with a super tank and a squad of Geonosian soldiers. Although Tano destroyed TX-21, the Geonosians stole her and Offee's thermal detonators. Unable to find another way to destroy the reactor, Offee and Tano commandeered the super tank and fired on the reactor. Their attack triggered a chain of explosions that destroyed the foundry's internal structure, causing it to collapse.

Unduli accepted Offee's presumed death, but Skywalker refused to give up on his own Padawan, and he joined his troops in searching for the lost Padawans. Trapped with Offee in the wreckage of their super tank, Tano used a power cell to amplify her comlink's signal, guiding their Masters to their location. As a result, Unduli and Skywalker rescued Offee and Tano from the debris. While the main force continued their cleanup operations, Offee and Tano returned to the fleet to recover.

As part of their ongoing campaign on Geonosis, the Grand Army destroyed other key Geonosian droid factories. However, Poggle remained at large, having escaped from his main foundry before its destruction. Kenobi, recovered from his earlier injuries, joined Unduli in leading the search for Poggle. As a sandstorm approached, Unduli and trooper Buzz tracked Poggle to the Progate Temple, the headquarters of the Geonosians' secret queen, Karina the Great. Karina's minions—undead Geonosians reanimated by her brain worms—killed Buzz and abducted Unduli, dragging her into the catacombs beneath the temple. Once the sandstorm subsided, Commander Cody, Kenobi, and Skywalker led a squad of troopers into the catacombs to rescue Unduli. However, the undead Geonosians used the tunnels' labyrinthine layout to inflict casualties on Kenobi and Skywalker's search party.

Eventually, Cody, Kenobi, Skywalker, and their remaining soldiers reached Karina's throne room, where Poggle had imprisoned Unduli. Despite Kenobi's attempt at negotiation, Karina refused to submit to Republic law. Instead, Karina had Poggle give Unduli a brain worm to control her mind. Before the brain worm could infect Unduli, Cody and his soldiers turned their headlamps on Karina and the Geonosians, temporarily blinding them. Skywalker freed Unduli, and together they handcuffed Poggle and retreated with their comrades. Cody and his men destroyed the tunnel's supports on their way out, burying Karina under rubble and killing her. Cody, Unduli, Kenobi, Skywalker, and their soldiers escaped from the Progate Temple with Poggle just before it collapsed. With that, the Second Battle of Geonosis concluded with a Republic victory, initiating the second occupation of Geonosis.

Following the Republic's successful recapture of Geonosis, Mace Windu oversaw a campaign on Dantooine. His soldiers suffered numerous injuries, requiring relief supplies from a medical station near Ord Cestus. As it was crucial to escort Poggle to Coruscant, Offee and Tano were assigned to pick up the medical shipment from the Ord Cestus medcenter. Kenobi, Mundi, Skywalker, and Unduli separately departed aboard a Venator-class Star Destroyer to transport Poggle to Coruscant. A complication arose when a Geonosian brain worm infected trooper Scythe of Tango Company, the troop detail escorting Offee and Tano aboard their Pelta-class frigate, TB-73.

Scythe soon infected most of his fellow soldiers with brain worms. Under the parasites' control, the clone troopers killed TB-73's clone pilots and activated the bridge's security shields, seizing control of the frigate. Offee and Tano discovered the infection when troopers Edge and Ox attacked them in the ship's mess hall. Lieutenant Trap, Tango Company's commanding officer, also opened fire on the Padawans, and Offee killed him in self-defense. To contain the parasites aboard their frigate, Offee went to disable the engines, while Tano contacted Kit Fisto, who was overseeing the Ord Cestus medcenter, to warn him of the outbreak. However, Scythe and his comrades intercepted Offee near the reactor room and infected her with a brain worm. With Offee infected, Tano was the only uninfected person aboard TB-73.

When Offee confronted her, Tano briefly fought her friend before escaping into the frigate's ventilation shafts. Meanwhile, after learning of the outbreak from Tano, Skywalker violently interrogated Poggle and learned that the brain worms were vulnerable to subzero temperatures. Consequently, Tano ruptured TB-73's coolant system, and the extreme cold neutralized the brain worms controlling the clone troopers. Tano acted just in time, as TB-73 arrived out of hyperspace near the medcenter. Although Offee attacked Tano before she could reverse TB-73's engines, a pair of Republic tugboats used their tractor beams to slow the frigate, narrowly preventing a collision with the medcenter. With the brain worms contained, Fisto and his staff provided treatment to Offee, Tano, and the surviving members of Tango Company, ensuring their full recovery.

Despite the Republic's greater number of victories compared to defeats, the Separatist Droid Army persisted in their territorial gains within the Outer Rim. The Second Battle of Geonosis marked a turning point, after which both sides engaged in a strategic "cat and mouse" game. Soon after, Grievous prioritized targeting Jedi High Council members, including General Eeth Koth. In the depths of the Outer Rim, while Koth and his fleet investigated attacks on hyperspace routes, Grievous, aboard his Recusant-class Commerce Guild destroyer, launched an assault on Koth's flagship, the Steadfast. Grievous then boarded the Steadfast with a specialized strike team of BX-series droid commandos, who quickly overwhelmed the clone trooper detachment stationed on the Star Destroyer. Koth ordered Captain Lock and his troops to evacuate the Steadfast, while Koth himself engaged Grievous in a duel on the bridge. Despite an arm injury, Koth nearly defeated Grievous in lightsaber combat. However, Grievous's IG-100 MagnaGuards incapacitated Koth with electrocution, allowing Grievous to capture the Jedi Master.

Grievous broadcast Koth's capture to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, but Koth subtly used hand signals to relay his location: the Saleucami system. Jedi Generals Adi Gallia, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker volunteered to spearhead the operation to capture Grievous and rescue Koth. While Wullf Yularen and a Republic armada assailed Grievous's fleet above Saleucami, Kenobi and Commander Cody devised a plan to lure Grievous onto their Arquitens-class light cruiser. While Kenobi dueled Grievous as a distraction, Gallia, Skywalker, Captain Rex, and a squad of clone troopers arrived aboard an Eta-class shuttle and boarded Grievous's light destroyer to rescue Koth. Grievous, anticipating the Republic's tactics, delegated command of his flagship to his tactical droid, TV-94. Despite this, Gallia and Skywalker successfully destroyed TV-94 and his droid commandos on the bridge, freeing Koth from his containment field.

Events on Kenobi's light cruiser took an unexpected turn. Kenobi defeated Grievous's MagnaGuards, but neither duelist could gain a decisive advantage. Grievous retreated to the light cruiser's airlock, where Cody and three of his men attempted to intercept him. Grievous evaded their capture attempts and ordered his destroyer's crew to target the light cruiser's engines. The resulting barrage destabilized the cruiser just as Kenobi, Cody, and their soldiers pursued Grievous into the airlock. Grievous briefly engaged in a rematch with Kenobi and also briefly fought Gallia, who had arrived to assist Kenobi. The sudden rupture of the airlock forced all combatants to contend with the vacuum of space. Grievous managed to escape, while Gallia assisted Cody, Kenobi, and the remaining trooper in climbing onto the enemy destroyer.

Grievous boarded a C-9979 troopship to reach Saleucami's surface, forcing Cody, Gallia, and Kenobi to abandon their pursuit. Instead, they joined Koth, Rex, and Skywalker aboard their shuttle to retreat from Grievous's destroyer. Grievous's decision to target Kenobi's light cruiser, despite its proximity to his flagship, had unforeseen consequences. The exploding cruiser's debris collided with Grievous's landing craft, causing it to crash on Saleucami and forcing Grievous and his crew to evacuate in escape pods. This turn of events allowed the Republic task force to refocus its objectives. Gallia escorted Koth to a medical frigate for treatment, while Skywalker and Yularen remained to complete the fleet's efforts against the remnants of the Confederate armada. Meanwhile, Kenobi, accompanied by Cody, Rex, and a contingent of troops, headed to Saleucami's surface to track down the elusive Grievous.

Upon landing on Saleucami, Grievous and his battle droids discovered that their escape pod's transmitter had been destroyed in the crash, preventing them from contacting their fleet in orbit. With only one other escape pod intact, Grievous and his crew journeyed across Saleucami's farmlands to reach it. After inspecting the C-9979 landing craft's crash site, Kenobi divided his forces. Rex led a small squad—including 501st troopers Hardcase, Jesse, and Kix—aboard BARC speeders to search Saleucami's wetlands for Grievous, while Cody and Kenobi remained with the main force of AT-TE walkers to continue the search in the drier regions.

During Rex's patrol, a pair of droid commandos attempted to assassinate him, narrowly missing his heart by two inches. Hardcase and Jesse eliminated the droid [snipers](/article/sniper], and they, along with Kix, escorted Rex to a nearby farmstead owned by the Lawquane family. Suu Lawquane allowed Rex to recuperate in their barn overnight. After Kix, the squad's medic, treated his wound with a bacta bandage, Rex reluctantly permitted his men to resume the search without him, placing Jesse in command. As night fell, Rex encountered Suu's husband, Cut Lawquane, a clone trooper who had deserted from the Grand Army. Despite their differing viewpoints, Rex and Lawquane found common ground in their dedication to protecting their loved ones. For Rex, this meant his comrades in the Grand Army; for Lawquane, it meant his and Suu's two children, Jek and Shaeeah.

Meanwhile, Hardcase, Jesse, and Kix proceeded towards the C-9979 troopship's final escape pod, where they converged with Cody, Kenobi, and their forces. Both groups arrived at the site simultaneously with Grievous and his squad of battle droids. After ordering the escape pod's crew to signal his fleet for extraction, Grievous organized his battle droids to defend their position. Kenobi engaged Grievous in another duel, but he failed to prevent Grievous from boarding a Sheathipede-class shuttle and escaping to his fleet in orbit of Saleucami. The Republic fleet also failed to intercept Grievous before he left the system. Kenobi's repeated attempts to capture Grievous ended in frustration.

Back at the Lawquane farmstead, another escape pod from the C-9979 landing craft caused trouble for Lawquane and his family. A unit of droid commandos crashed near the homestead, and Jek and Shaeeah inadvertently activated all twenty of the deadly droids. Suu took the children upstairs for safety, while Lawquane entrusted Rex with defending his family. Lawquane engaged the droid commandos in direct combat as they approached his homestead. Through their combined efforts, Lawquane and Rex defeated the droids. The following morning, Rex rejoined Kenobi and the main troop contingent before their departure from Saleucami. Before leaving, Rex promised not to report Lawquane's location to his superiors, having gained a deeper understanding of the former soldier.

Beyond sparking civil unrest within the Republic, the Clone Wars also fueled a rise in galactic crime, especially as the Jedi Order focused its efforts on the Republic's war campaign. Numerous star systems resolved to maintain neutrality between the Republic and the Confederacy. Consequently, over 1,500 systems formed the Council of Neutral Systems, advocating for their continued neutrality. Duchess Satine Kryze, the ruler of Mandalore and proponent of the pacifistic New Mandalorians, eventually became the council's leader. However, Kryze faced criticism due to rumors of her assembling an army for the Confederacy. In reality, Dooku and Darth Sidious were the true conspirators, having allied with the Death Watch, a Mandalorian splinter group seeking to revive Mandalore's warrior traditions. The Death Watch's leader, Pre Vizsla, the governor of Mandalore's moon, Concordia, feigned loyalty to Kryze while secretly plotting with Dooku to overthrow her rule.

The Death Watch attracted the Republic's attention when one of its members attacked a Republic cruiser and then committed suicide to avoid interrogation. In response, the Jedi High Council dispatched Kenobi to investigate Mandalore's potential Separatist ties. Kryze, a longtime friend of Kenobi, assisted his investigation, as did Mandalore's prime minister, Almec. After a Death Watch bomber destroyed the Memorial Shrine in Mandalore's capital city of Sundari, the bomber jumped from a balcony to evade capture by Kenobi. Kenobi and Kryze then accompanied the bomber's body to Concordia, where Vizsla greeted them.

Kenobi's investigation led him to the Death Watch's secret base within the Concordian mines, where two Death Watch soldiers overpowered him. Kryze's intervention saved Kenobi from a rock crusher. While attempting to escape the base, Kenobi and Kryze encountered Vizsla, who revealed himself as the Death Watch leader. Vizsla wielded the Darksaber, an ancient weapon from the Old Republic, to engage Kenobi in a lightsaber duel. However, Vizsla could not defeat the Jedi Master, and Kenobi escaped Concordia with Kryze. Kryze resolved to present her case to the Galactic Senate, and Kenobi joined Skywalker, Commander Cody, Captain Rex, and a squad of clone soldiers in protecting her journey to Coruscant.

Unbeknownst to Kryze, a Death Watch agent infiltrated her inner circle of advisors. Senator Tal Merrik, representing Kalevala in the Mandalore system, smuggled three deadly assassin probes onto Kryze's star liner, the Coronet. During the skirmish, Cody, Rex, and Skywalker destroyed the first assassin probe in the Coronet's cargo hold, but a second one reached the dining chambers, where Kenobi protected Kryze and her retinue. Even after their destruction, both probes deployed miniature SD-K4a mini-assassin droids, which caused chaos for the Jedi, clones, and Kryze's Mandalorian Protectors. After eliminating most of the probe killers, Skywalker learned from the Coronet's cargo manifest that a Republic senator had approved the shipment containing the assassin probes. Merrik's Death Watch ties were revealed when Kenobi questioned him and the other senators—Onaconda Farr, Orn Free Taa, and Kin Robb—who were Kryze's guests aboard the Coronet.

Although Rex destroyed the third assassin probe, Merrik remained at large. He took Kryze hostage, killed the Coronet's bridge crew, and requested reinforcements from Vizsla. When the Coronet exited hyperspace, three Droch-class boarding ships arrived to aid Merrik's escape. The boarding craft breached the Coronet's hull and deployed B2 super battle droids, which clashed with the clone troopers and royal guards in the star liner's hallways. Merrik had rigged the Coronet's engines with explosives and used both the explosives and Kryze as leverage to reach a boarding ship, even as Kenobi pursued him and the captive Kryze. Kryze disarmed Merrik and took his blaster, but neither she nor Kenobi were willing to kill him with so many lives at stake. Skywalker intervened, killing Merrik and recovering the detonator. Cody, Rex, and their men defeated the Separatist boarding party, ensuring a safe conclusion to the Coronet's eventful journey.

Despite Kryze's safe arrival on Coruscant, Vizsla continued to collaborate with the Confederacy to seize control of Mandalore. The Republic Senate was preparing to vote on whether to send a military force to stabilize Mandalore. Vizsla and Dooku believed that a Republic occupation would lead the Mandalorian population to view the Death Watch as heroic liberators. Palpatine had his agents alter a holographic recording of New Mandalorian Deputy Minister Jerec, a close ally of Kryze. When Kryze addressed the Senate, Palpatine presented Jerec's doctored testimony, which criticized Kryze's pacifist policies and advocated for Republic intervention in Mandalore's affairs. Jerec died in a Death Watch bombing on Kalevala on the same day as the Senate session, preventing Kryze from verifying her friend's claims.

Adding to Kryze's difficulties, Vizsla dispatched a Death Watch assassin to kill her on Coruscant. The assassin's public attempt on Kryze's life accelerated the Senate's vote on the occupation of Mandalore, resulting in the Senate authorizing the invasion. Despite this setback, Kryze persisted. She sought a meeting with Davu Golec, a Mandalorian contact within the Republic Ministry of Intelligence. Golec provided Kryze with a disc containing Jerec's original message, but the Death Watch assassin fatally shot Golec before he could reveal more information. Now pursued by the Coruscant Security Force, Kryze finally contacted Kenobi for assistance.

As Senate Vice Chair Mas Amedda demanded Kryze's surrender to Republic authorities, Kenobi and Kryze realized that the conspiracy surrounding Jerec's message originated from the highest levels of the Republic. After defeating the Death Watch assassin and forcing him to flee, Kenobi escorted Kryze to the Senate Building. Kryze surrendered to the Senate Guard, while Kenobi gave the disc containing Jerec's original message to Padmé Amidala. Amidala presented the recording at a subsequent Senate session, convincing the Republic to rescind its occupation of Mandalore. Kryze successfully preserved her people's neutrality and prevented a major expansion of the Republic's war effort.

After Kryze's victory in the Senate, Vizsla's alliance with Dooku dissolved, and Dooku withdrew his support for the Death Watch. During their meeting, Dooku scarred Vizsla's face with his lightsaber. Without the backing of the Mandalorian populace, the Death Watch abandoned its plan to conquer Mandalore. Vizsla and his allies became vagabonds, eventually establishing a presence on the planet Carlac. Despite the New Mandalorians' neutrality, some Mandalorians chose to participate in the Clone Wars. Warriors from Concord Dawn provided training to the Republic Grand Army. Among them was Fenn Rau of the Mandalorian Protectors, who served as a flight instructor for the Republic Navy. Rau also commanded Skull Squadron, a Mandalorian unit that supported Republic campaigns.

As crime continued to spread throughout the war-ravaged galaxy, Mace Windu became the target of numerous assassination attempts. Boba Fett, seeking vengeance for Windu's killing of his father, Jango, at the First Battle of Geonosis, allied with bounty hunters Aurra Sing, Bossk, and Castas. Fett posed as a cadet in Clone Sergeant Crasher's Clone Youth Brigade as the unit embarked on a training mission aboard Admiral Kilian's flagship, the Endurance. Windu and Anakin Skywalker boarded the Star Destroyer for a respite from the war. After failing to kill Windu in his quarters, Fett sabotaged the cruiser's reactor, forcing Kilian to crash-land on Vanqor. Fett and his crew then abducted Kilian, Commander Ponds, and a clone navigation officer, hoping to receive a reward from the Confederacy for their hostages.

When Skywalker and Windu investigated the Endurance's crash site, Fett set another trap. He detonated an explosive in the Endurance's bridge, trapping Skywalker and Windu under rubble. Both Jedi survived, though barely. The Confederacy had begun offering bounties on Jedi, some reaching a million credits. Fett and his allies sought evidence of Skywalker's and Windu's deaths to profit from the situation. However, Skywalker's astromech droid, R2-D2, repelled the bounty hunters and alerted Plo Koon and Ahsoka Tano at the Jedi Temple. Koon and Tano traveled with Commander Wolffe and his Wolfpack to Vanqor, rescuing Skywalker and Windu before the Endurance completely collapsed.

Having failed twice to kill Windu, Fett and his crew tried other methods to lure him out. In a holotransmission to the Jedi Temple, Sing killed Ponds and threatened to execute Killian and the navigation officer to provoke Windu. However, as Windu was still recovering from his injuries, Koon and Tano pursued Fett and his team. They tracked the bounty hunters to Florrum, where they had sought refuge with Hondo Ohnaka and his pirate gang. Ohnaka remained neutral in Sing's plot against Windu, even after Sing murdered Castas for attempting to betray her. A deadly confrontation occurred when Koon and Tano clashed with Fett and Sing. When Koon captured Fett, Sing abandoned him and met with Bossk, who was guarding Kilian and the navigation officer.

Koon convinced Fett, who was already uneasy about Sing's treatment of the hostages, to reveal the prisoners' location. Tano arrived in time to prevent Bossk from executing Kilian and the clone officer. Tano also prevented Sing from escaping aboard her crew's starship, Slave I, by severing the craft's port stabilizer mid-flight. Slave I crashed, seemingly killing Sing. However, Ohnaka later rescued her from the wreckage, and she resumed her bounty hunting career. The Jedi Order imprisoned Bossk and Fett at the Judiciary Central Detention Center on Coruscant, where they remained for some time.

The Mandalorians realized that their neutrality came at a cost. The Clone Wars disrupted intergalactic trade, depriving many systems of essential supplies. Mandalore was forced to rely on the black market for food and other necessities. In Sundari, Tee Va and his Moogan smugglers exploited corruption within the Mandalorian Guard, as well as the city's customs and education systems, to distribute slabin-diluted tea to local schools. While visiting Mandalore, Padmé Amidala helped Satine Kryze dismantle the Moogans' operation because the tea and slabin mixture was lethal to Sundari's youth.

A crisis emerged when Prime Minister Almec used the black market to monopolize the planet's supply imports. Ahsoka Tano, a guest instructor at Mandalore's Royal Academy of Government, helped Kryze and a group of young cadets—Amis, Lagos, Soniee, and Kryze's nephew [Korkie](/article/korkie_kryze]—expose and arrest Almec. The Clone Wars continued to transform the galaxy, fostering greed and corruption within the Republic and beyond. The bounty hunter Durge was employed by the Separatists during the Clone Wars, but also took on freelance work. An assassin named Ochi began his career during this time, specializing in hunting Jedi.

Although Palpatine assured the Senate of the Republic's success in the war, other sources indicated otherwise. While the Republic reinforced its fleet on the Hydian Way to counter Grievous's efforts and deployed the Third Legion into a major civil war on Balith, another crisis emerged. The war displaced countless civilians, prompting Bail Organa, Padmé Amidala, and Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila to host the Alderaan Refugee Conference. Amidala delivered the keynote address at the summit, discussing the Republic's efforts to aid refugees. The conference was interrupted when Ziro the Hutt hired Aurra Sing to assassinate Amidala in retaliation for his imprisonment on Coruscant. Ahsoka Tano and Gregar Typho helped Amidala subdue Sing, who was later freed and resumed her bounty hunting career.

Nine standard months into the Clone Wars, the Separatist Alliance chose the planet Murkhana, a significant stronghold located in the Outer Rim, as the location for a critical operation. A group of Separatist scientists, operating from Murkhana City, implemented a network of hyperwave transceiver nodes to infiltrate the HoloNet, the Galactic Republic's communications and news network. Instead of merely gathering intelligence on Republic military actions, Count Dooku leveraged this HoloNet access to initiate an unprecedented information warfare campaign. The Separatists seized control of the HoloNet and broadcasted Shadowfeeds, which consisted of fabricated Republic war crimes and Separatist accounts of victories in the war. Consequently, the citizens of the Republic's Core Worlds started to believe that the Confederacy was close to winning the war.

To counteract the Separatist Shadowfeeds, the Republic dispatched Captain Wilhuff Tarkin with several platoons from the 12th Sector Army to invade Murkhana. During the ensuing conflict, Tarkin spearheaded the initial wave of clone troopers into Murkhana City. After defeating the Separatist ground forces, Tarkin's troops apprehended the scientists responsible for running the Shadowfeeds. Tarkin then employed torture tactics on the captured scientists to extract information about their jamming and steganography techniques, which enabled Republic cryptanalysts to dismantle the Shadowfeeds. Additionally, Republic forces destroyed Murkhana's only HoloNet relay station, preventing the Shadowfeeds from reaching planets along the Perlemian Trade Route. Despite retaining its allegiance to the Separatists, Murkhana City was left in a state of disrepair due to the battle.

Following his triumph on Murkhana, Tarkin ordered the execution of thousands of individuals who had assisted Dooku in seizing control of the HoloNet, thus preventing future communication breaches. The Republic Navy's actions on Murkhana also prompted the establishment of the Commission for the Protection of the Republic. Subsequently, Tarkin spent the following year working covertly for Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. Tarkin achieved several similar victories for the Republic, eventually earning the position of captain of a Star Destroyer under Jedi General Even Piell.

Despite the initial failure of General Grievous and Asajj Ventress to conquer Kamino, the clone homeworld remained a strategically important target for the Separatist Alliance. Consequently, Dooku authorized a second invasion of Kamino, placing Grievous in overall command and deploying Ventress ahead of the main force to infiltrate Kamino's defenses aboard her starship, the Trident. However, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker intercepted a transmission between Grievous and Ventress, alerting them to the impending invasion. Reacting swiftly, Kenobi and Skywalker traveled to Kamino aboard the Resolute, accompanied by Commander Cody, Captain Rex, and elements of the 501st Legion, to reinforce Tipoca City's defenses. Shaak Ti, who oversaw clone cadet training in Tipoca City, also dedicated her efforts to assisting Lama Su in fortifying the Republic's cloning facilities.

As Grievous's fleet of warships entered the Kamino system, Admiral Wullf Yularen and the Republic's blockade were prepared for battle. Grievous initiated combat against Yularen's fleet, employing attack formation Echo-3. Under Ti's command, Skywalker launched the Republic Navy's air strike, leading clone pilots in ARC-170, V-19, and Y-wing starfighters into orbit to disrupt Grievous's warships. Amidst the space battle, Grievous directed a contingent of battle droids towards Kamino's oceans. To circumvent the Republic blockade, Grievous disguised his landing craft as debris from his destroyed warships. Ventress awaited Grievous deep beneath Kamino's waves, accompanied by the Trident and her detachment of AQ-series battle droids. Upon Grievous's arrival, Ventress deployed her aqua droids to reassemble the fragments of Trident-class assault ships that Grievous had transported with him.

While Skywalker continued his assault on the Separatist armada, both Kenobi and Ti sensed an anomaly. Grievous's willingness to sacrifice his transports to protect his flagship indicated a departure from his usual tactics. Suspecting Grievous's strategy, Kenobi ventured into the oceans in a Kamino sub to investigate the wreckage of the downed Separatist vessels. Near the ocean floor, Kenobi discovered the aqua droids preparing the Separatist assault craft. When the aqua droids attacked his starship, Kenobi escaped back to sea level with assistance from an aiwha.

Having diverted the Republic's attention to the space battle, Grievous and Ventress initiated their primary assault: the ground campaign. They launched from the oceans aboard their Trident-class assault ships, which latched onto the Tipoca City Military Complex and created entry points for their troops. This assault caused significant structural damage to the Military Complex and its cloning facilities. Kenobi promptly recalled Skywalker from the battle above Kamino, and together with Ti, they mobilized their clone trooper units to defend Tipoca City. Lacking sufficient battle droids to seize control of the city, Grievous and Ventress deployed their main force to distract the Jedi and clones. After meeting for the first time, Grievous and Ventress separated to pursue distinct objectives. Grievous attacked the Military Complex's troop barracks, while Ventress sought to acquire the last remaining sample of Jango Fett's DNA. The Separatists intended to utilize Fett's DNA to develop new tactical advantages against the Grand Army.

Before reaching the clone DNA room, Ventress killed Commander Colt of the Advanced Recon Commandos. However, Skywalker intercepted Ventress at the DNA chamber before she could escape with the sample of Fett's DNA, leading to a lightsaber duel. Simultaneously, Kenobi confronted Grievous outside the barracks, renewing their ongoing rivalry. Meanwhile, 501st troopers Fives and Echo rallied a group of young clone cadets to defend their home. After Cody, Rex, and maintenance clone 99 provided them with DC-15A blaster carbines and thermal detonators from the armory, the cadets assisted their commanding officers in defending the barracks from Grievous's B1 battle droids, trapping the droids in a classic pincer movement. Although the cadets and troopers successfully drove back the droids, 99 was killed by enemy blasterfire while attempting to resupply his comrades. Cody, Echo, Fives, and Rex mourned 99's death, recognizing him as a true soldier despite his cloning malformation preventing him from active duty.

When aqua droids breached Tipoca City's command center, Shaak Ti left Lama Su at the command post and personally led the front-line offensive against the invading troops. Ti and her clone troopers successfully pushed the aqua droids back to the Military Complex's main hangar, where the clone soldiers unleashed barrages of blasterfire upon the enemy droids using their Z-6 rotary blaster cannons. The clones also employed RPS-6 rocket launchers to dislodge the Trident-class assault ships from the exterior walls of the Military Complex. As a result, the Grand Army made significant progress in reclaiming Tipoca City.

Ultimately, both Grievous and Ventress failed to achieve their objectives. Kenobi pursued Grievous to Tipoca City's exterior platforms, where Grievous evaded him and commandeered a Kaminoan flight pod. Similarly, Skywalker's duel with Ventress moved to the outer platforms, where Skywalker retrieved the sample of Fett's DNA from her. A squad of nearly twenty clone troopers arrived to assist Skywalker and surrounded Ventress. Although Skywalker intended to allow his soldiers to execute Ventress, she escaped with Grievous in his stolen flight pod. Despite their efforts, the Separatists failed to win the Battle of Kamino, and the Republic emerged victorious.

Several Republic personnel received commendations for their performance during the Battle of Kamino. Cody and Rex promoted Echo and Fives to the prestigious rank of Advanced Recon Commando, while Wilhuff Tarkin was recognized for his involvement in the campaign. The Kaminoans resumed their production of clone troopers for the Republic, and Ti continued to collaborate with Kamino's cloners to train and expand the Grand Army for the remainder of the war. At a later time, Kit Fisto participated in a battle on Kamino, fighting against Separatist droids.

Not all battles of the Clone Wars involved direct combat between clone troopers and battle droids. On occasion, Dooku utilized his contacts within the trade guilds to orchestrate schemes that coerced planets into joining the Confederacy. One such scheme targeted the moon Pantora, a member of the Republic. Under the guise of outstanding debts owed by the Pantorans, the Trade Federation suspended all trade with the Pantora system and established a blockade around Pantora. When the Republic Senate appeared indifferent to their situation, the Pantorans began to oppose the Republic. Adding to the complexity, Dooku offered assistance to the Pantorans on the condition that they join the Confederacy. This incident occurred early in Baron Papanoida's tenure as chairman of Pantora. In response to the escalating crisis, Papanoida dispatched Senator Riyo Chuchi to Coruscant to persuade the Senate to support Pantora.

Lott Dod, seeking to legitimize the blockade of Pantora, reiterated the Trade Federation's claims of neutrality, which were guaranteed by the Commerce Treaty of 1647. However, Chuchi remained steadfast in her rebuttals of Dod's claims, gaining support from colleagues such as Padmé Amidala. Undeterred, Dooku employed alternative tactics to convince the Pantorans to join the Confederacy. After Papanoida and his family arrived on Coruscant to meet with Chuchi, the Separatists hired Greedo and another bounty hunter to abduct Papanoida's two daughters, Chi Eekway and Che Amanwe, from the family's apartment. Concurrently, Dooku personally offered to assist Papanoida in finding his daughters.

Ahsoka Tano, a close friend of Chuchi, volunteered to aid Papanoida in his search for his daughters. Papanoida and his son, Ion, tracked down Greedo to Jabba's Palace on Tatooine. Addressing Jabba, Papanoida invoked the Hutt Clan's treaty with the Republic and convinced Jabba to allow him to confirm Greedo's involvement in the kidnapping by comparing Greedo's blood to a blood sample from the crime scene. After Greedo confessed to abducting Amanwe and Eekway, he led Papanoida and his son to Mos Eisley's cantina, where Amanwe was being held. Following a brief shootout with Greedo's associates, Papanoida and Ion successfully rescued Amanwe.

Meanwhile, Chuchi and Tano conducted a diplomatic visit to the Trade Federation's Droid Control Ship that was blockading Pantora. Aboard the vessel, they located and freed Eekway from a holding cell. Chuchi also persuaded the battleship's officer, Sib Canay, and a fellow envoy to end the blockade due to their illegal involvement in the abduction of Papanoida's daughters. Canay took responsibility for the entire incident, with Dod publicly claiming that the influence of Viceroy Nute Gunray—whom Dod characterized as an extremist due to his membership in the Separatist Council—extended to misguided officers like Canay. Ultimately, the Trade Federation lifted its blockade of Pantora and resumed trade with the Pantorans.

A potential conflict later arose between the Republic and the Hutt Clan, who had been allies since Dooku and Ziro the Hutt's plot to overthrow Jabba. As Ziro possessed a holodiary that documented the Grand Hutt Council's illicit activities, Jabba and the Hutt Council resolved to forcefully retrieve Ziro from the Republic. To achieve this, the Hutts hired Cad Bane to break Ziro out of the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center. Bane accomplished this by collaborating with fellow bounty hunters Aurra Sing, Shahan Alama, and Robonino to stage a hostage crisis in the Republic Senate. Bane's high-profile breach of Coruscant's security compelled Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine to release Ziro from prison. Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Quinlan Vos attempted to recapture Ziro, but Ziro's former lover, the renowned singer Sy Snootles, killed him on Teth and retrieved the Hutt Council records as part of a prior agreement with Jabba. Due to the Separatist Alliance's million-credit bounties on Jedi, Bane—who had also pursued Ziro to Teth—attacked Kenobi and Vos, but their skirmish ended in a stalemate.

More than a year into the Clone Wars, individuals on both sides of the conflict nearly succeeded in ending the bloodshed. Their pursuit of peace stemmed from the Republic Senate's ongoing debates about escalating its campaign against the Confederacy. Many of the Republic's social programs—including education, infrastructure, health care, and basic services—had suffered from budget cuts in favor of military spending. Furthermore, the war effort's financial burden plunged the Republic into debt, bringing it to the brink of bankruptcy. Additionally, with no end to the fighting in sight and the Confederacy gaining ground, a significant number of clones were being killed. In response, Senator Gume Saam proposed a bill to establish new lines of credit with the InterGalactic Banking Clan, which would facilitate future loans for the Grand Army's expenses. In reality, Saam's proposal was a war profiteering scheme, as the legislation would deregulate the banks, enabling the Banking Clan, the Trade Federation, and the Techno Union to amass substantial profits from the war.

Although Bail Organa convinced the Senate to postpone Saam's bill, Padmé Amidala remained concerned about the war's pervasive violence. Consequently, she sought a private meeting with her longtime friend Mina Bonteri, who represented her homeworld of Onderon in the Separatist Senate. By doing so, Amidala circumvented the Republic's law against communicating with Confederate officials, a policy that prevented the Republic from recognizing the Confederacy as a legitimate state. Amidala and Ahsoka Tano utilized the latter's special Jedi clearance to smuggle themselves onto Raxus, where Amidala persuaded Bonteri to introduce a proposal to the Separatist Senate to initiate diplomatic negotiations with the Republic. Bonteri's measure passed, raising the possibility of ending the war.

A potential resolution to the Clone Wars threatened the Sith's plans for galactic domination, as their ultimate goal had not yet been achieved. Furthermore, Saam and other Confederate-leaning members of the Republic Senate, including Lott Dod and Nix Card of the Banking Clan, were determined to pass the financial deregulation bill at any cost. Card suggested orchestrating a Separatist assault on Coruscant, which had not experienced a large-scale attack in over a millennium. Dooku approved of Card's idea, as it would instill fear in the Republic capital and motivate the Senate to approve Saam's bill. Subsequently, Grievous dispatched a six-member team of demolition droids to sabotage Coruscant's central power distribution grid. Their bombing coincided with the Separatist Senate's offer for peace talks, casting doubt on the sincerity of Bonteri's significant peace initiative.

As Grievous's bombing plunged Coruscant into a planet-wide blackout, Dod and Saam condemned the Confederacy for its unprovoked attack. As Card had predicted, the Senate voted to deregulate the Banking Clan, with numerous senators calling for an expansion of the Grand Army. Despite Amidala and her allies advocating for reductions in military spending, the Sith thwarted her and Bonteri's joint initiative for peace. Dooku had his agents assassinate Bonteri, then claimed that Bonteri had died in a Republic assault, which he used as justification to withdraw the Separatist Senate's offer for negotiations. Bonteri was survived by her son, Lux, who embarked on a quest to kill Dooku in retaliation for his mother's death.

In the absence of the peace initiative, both sides of the conflict escalated their war efforts, further prolonging the Clone Wars. The Confederacy secured a loan from the Banking Clan to finance three million new battle droids for the Separatist Droid Army. Concurrently, Republic Senator Halle Burtoni of Kamino introduced an emergency appropriations bill to produce five million more clone troopers for the Grand Army, using funding from the Banking Clan. However, the Banking Clan raised interest rates on all loans due to its newfound deregulation. Furthermore, Dooku employed scare tactics by hiring the bounty hunters Robonino and Chata Hyoki to intimidate numerous senators into supporting Burtoni's pro-military proposal. Even though Amidala convinced the Senate to reject Burtoni's resolution, the assassinations of Senators Onaconda Farr of Rodia and Mee Deechi of Umbara destabilized the situation once more. Ultimately, the Senate's militarist faction prevailed, rejecting Amidala's proposal to reduce military spending in favor of a scheduled increase in clone trooper production.

Sometime during the second year of the war, a squad of B1 battle droids, commanded by a T-series tactical droid and a B1 lieutenant, was dispatched to the astronomical object Opop Hibbedit. There, they searched a designated area until the T-1 droid declared it uninhabited. As the squad prepared to move on, securing themselves aboard their flying MTT variant, the restraints holding B1 unit Q5-7070 in place failed, causing the droid to fall to the ground below. Activating his homing protocol to rejoin his squad, Q5-7070 faced a series of challenges from the local flora and fauna, including encounters with sentient carnivorous plants, magnetic rock chimps, and eventually a large bird that consumed him. Unable to digest the droid, the bird regurgitated Q5-7070 near his squad, which had just completed another area and was preparing to move on. After being ordered by the lieutenant to double-check his restraints, Q5-7070 rejoined his squad on the MTT, only to fall out in the same manner as it took off. Q5-7070's story became a widely known tale of the most unfortunate droid of the entire war.

As the war's second year progressed, a pattern of betrayals and vengeance emerged within the Sith hierarchy, influencing various campaigns between the Confederacy and the Republic. During the Battle of Sullust, Asajj Ventress led the Separatist navy's assault on a Republic fleet. Piloting her personal Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter, Ventress commanded the droid tri-fighters of Trident groups one and two in overwhelming the Resolute. Admiral Wullf Yularen narrowly escaped from his flagship before it was destroyed. Following her success, Ventress pursued Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in their Delta-7B interceptors. However, both Kenobi and Ventress crashed in the hangar of the Separatist command ship, with Skywalker following them.

From a distance, Darth Sidious sensed Ventress's growing power in the Force and recognized her as a potential threat. Suspecting that Dooku was training Ventress to eventually replace him, Sidious demanded that Dooku prove his loyalty by eliminating Ventress. Despite his reluctance, Dooku complied with his Master's demand. Dooku recalled Confederate reinforcements that were en route to the Sullust system, then informed Ventress that she was no longer his apprentice and that she would be killed. Devastated by Dooku's betrayal, Ventress engaged Kenobi and Skywalker in a duel until Dooku ordered TJ-912, the tactical droid overseeing the Separatist armada over Sullust, to sacrifice their flagship and destroy it.

Having escaped the enemy flagship, Kenobi and Skywalker, along with Dooku, believed Ventress perished when the Providence-class Dreadnought was inadvertently destroyed by their own forces. Subsequently, Dooku commanded TJ-912 to withdraw their forces from the Sullust system, ceding the battle to the Republic. However, Ventress had actually survived, though barely. Captain Ratch and his scavenger crew discovered her amidst the wreckage of her starfighter, rescuing her aboard their freighter, the Raider. Ventress subsequently eliminated Ratch and his crew, returning to her home on Dathomir, where the Nightsisters nursed her back to health. After Ventress and her fellow Nightsisters Naa'leth and Karis were unsuccessful in their assassination attempt on Dooku at his Serenno palace, Ventress collaborated with Mother Talzin, the leader of the Nightsisters, to seek revenge on Dooku through alternative means.

From the Dathomir village inhabited by the subservient Nightbrothers, Ventress obtained a powerful warrior to take her place as Dooku's apprentice: Savage Opress. Before presenting Opress to Dooku, Talzin and her Nightsister witches imbued Opress with their magicks, effectively controlling him. Officially, Talzin rejected Dooku's offer of an alliance between the Nightsisters and the Confederacy, as her clan had no interest in participating in the Clone Wars; while some Nightsisters were observed fighting for the Separatist cause during the conflict, a formal alliance never materialized. Regardless, Dooku chose to assess Opress's capabilities by deploying him to an active battlefront on Devaron. There, the Separatist Droid Army was besieging the Temple of Eedit, a Jedi temple serving as an outpost for the Grand Army. Opress emerged as the battle's sole survivor, having slaughtered Clone Commander Trauma and his clone troopers, as well as Jedi Master Halsey and his Padawan, Knox.

Impressed by Opress's skills, Dooku began training his new apprentice in the ways of the Sith, intending to overthrow Sidious in accordance with the Rule of Two. Opress's subsequent mission involved kidnapping King Katuunko of Toydaria, as Dooku still resented Katuunko's refusal to align Toydaria with the Confederacy. However, Opress's massacre on Devaron had attracted the attention of the Jedi High Council. After Delta Squad, a clone commando unit consisting of Sergeant Boss, Fixer, Sev, and Scorch, recovered the bodies of Halsey and Knox from the Temple of Eedit, Kenobi and Skywalker initiated an investigation into Opress's connection to Dathomir. Learning from Talzin that Opress was on Toydaria, the two Jedi traveled there.

The situation culminated on Toydaria. Opress fought his way through the Toydarian Royal Palace's royal guards, but when Kenobi and Skywalker intervened, Opress used the Force to choke Katuunko to death. Upon bringing Katuunko's body aboard Dooku's Providence-class Dreadnought orbiting Toydaria, Dooku was enraged by Opress's disobedience in failing to keep Katuunko alive. At that moment, Ventress entered Dooku's chambers and activated the spell that ensured Opress's loyalty to her. A fierce duel ensued as Opress and Ventress attempted to eliminate Dooku, but it escalated into a three-way battle when Opress broke free from Ventress's control and turned against both of his former masters. Evading Opress, Ventress pursued Dooku to the lower levels. However, even in single combat, she was unable to defeat the Sith Lord. Ventress narrowly escaped in an escape pod, departing from Dooku's dreadnought with an uncertain future.

In the meantime, Opress encountered Kenobi and Skywalker again after they boarded Dooku's dreadnought aboard the Thief's Eye, the personal yacht of the deceased Katuunko. When Dooku's battle droids opened fire on them in the main hangar, Opress and his Jedi adversaries separately fled the cruiser, bringing the showdown to a close. Opress returned to Dathomir, where Talzin dispatched him on a mission to rescue his long-lost brother Maul, who had once been Sidious's apprentice and was, in fact, Talzin's son.

The challenging Battle of Sarrish also occurred in 20 BBY, taking place between Ventress's failed assassination attempt on Serenno and Talzin's offering of Savage Oppress to Dooku.

The battle became one of the Republic's most significant defeats, with numerous clone troopers killed in action. The elite clone commandos of Foxtrot Group, meanwhile, were reported as missing in action. Commando captain Gregor survived the battle but suffered amnesia following a shuttle crash, finding himself on the remote planet Abafar with no recollection of his past as a soldier.

Nineteen months into the Clone Wars, the Nexus Route—a relatively unknown hyperspace lane linking Coruscant to the heart of Separatist territory—became crucially important to both the Republic and the Confederacy. After Jedi General Even Piell and his crew discovered the Nexus Route's coordinates, the Confederacy targeted him for capture. As a Confederate flotilla overwhelmed his Star Destroyer, Piell divided the Nexus Route's coordinates with his naval captain, Wilhuff Tarkin. Each memorized half of the information as a precaution against torture. Subsequently, the Separatists abducted Piell, Tarkin, and their clone navigation officers, imprisoning them in the infamous Citadel prison on Lola Sayu, overseen by Warden Osi Sobeck.

Upon learning of Piell's capture, the Jedi High Council assembled an infiltration team to rescue him and his crew from the Citadel. Kenobi and Skywalker were placed in command of a squad of clone troopers, with support from Commander Cody, Captain Rex, and ARC troopers Echo and Fives. Much to Skywalker's later dismay, Ahsoka Tano joined the mission despite his orders for her not to do so. At the Jedi Temple, the Jedi and clones encased themselves in carbonite to conceal their life signatures from the Confederacy's blockade of Lola Sayu. The perilous operation commenced when R2-D2 and a squad of reprogrammed B1 battle droids transported the Jedi and clones to the Lola Sayu system aboard a stolen Sheathipede-class shuttle. Once they bypassed the blockade and reached Lola Sayu's surface, R2-D2 unfroze his comrades from their carbonite blocks.

Despite Tano's uninvited presence, Kenobi and Skywalker allowed her to participate in the operation. After scaling a cliff to reach the Citadel, the infiltration team rescued Piell, along with Tarkin and their clone officers. Along the way, they evaded Sobeck's countermeasures, which included wall-mounted blaster cannons and electrical emitters, as well as elite BX-series droid commandos. Nevertheless, the squad suffered casualties from Sobeck's traps. As the next phase of their plan, Kenobi and Skywalker divided their forces. While Skywalker and Tano led Tarkin, Rex, Fives, Echo, and several troopers into the caverns beneath the Citadel, Kenobi, Piell, Cody, and the remaining soldiers created a diversion by detonating one of the Citadel's upper decks. However, complications arose as both squads proceeded to their separate extraction points. R2-D2 and his reprogrammed droids landed the shuttle at the Citadel's rear landing pad, but Sobeck's tactical droid, K2-B4, intercepted them there. Furthermore, Sobeck recaptured Cody, Kenobi, Piell, and their men, but R2-D2 and his battle droids freed them from Sobeck's droid security teams.

To reach their extraction point at the Citadel's external fuel pipeline, Skywalker, Tano, Tarkin, and their soldiers used thermal detonators to breach a blocked cavern and a pursuing squad of battle droids. However, when R2-D2 and the shuttle missed their scheduled rendezvous, Skywalker and Tano resorted to their backup plan. After using more explosives to detonate the fuel in the exterior pipeline, Skywalker, Tano, Tarkin, and their men proceeded to the prison's main landing pad. They arrived at the airfield just as Kenobi, Piell, and their squad launched a desperate offensive to eliminate the battle droids that had separated them from their shuttle. While Kenobi, Piell, Skywalker, and Tano focused on destroying an approaching squad of battle droids aboard Single Trooper Aerial Platforms, Echo and Fives concentrated on the ground-level enemy infantry. However, just as Echo attempted to board the shuttle, a droid commando fired a turret blast at the craft, triggering a fiery explosion that consumed the shuttle and, presumably, Echo.

Without their shuttle, the four Jedi escaped from the Citadel's airfield with Tarkin, as well as Cody, Rex, Fives, and their remaining troopers. As they traversed Lola Sayu's inhospitable terrain, Kenobi and Skywalker informed the Jedi High Council that they required extraction from Lola Sayu. Consequently, the Council dispatched four of its members—Kit Fisto, Adi Gallia, Plo Koon, and Saesee Tiin—to the Lola Sayu system with a battle group of four Star Destroyers. In the meantime, Piell and his allies headed for an island designated by the Council as their extraction point. En route, they were pursued by countless squads of battle droids, leading R2-D2 to sacrifice his reprogrammed battle droids to delay the enemy forces as much as possible.

Before long, Sobeck personally took charge of the effort to recapture his prisoners. Under pressure from Dooku to recover the Nexus Route intelligence, Sobeck deployed a hunting party of ravenous anoobas to locate the Jedi and clones, followed by a squad of droid commandos. Although the Jedi and clones defeated Sobeck's anoobas and LM-432 crab droids, their momentary victory came at a significant cost. Piell succumbed to fatal wounds inflicted by one of the anoobas, using his last breaths to pass his half of the Nexus Route coordinates to Tano. She and her comrades briefly paused the battle to lay Piell to rest, cremating his body in one of Lola Sayu's rivers of sulfurous lava.

Shortly thereafter, Fisto, Gallia, Koon, and Tiin arrived in the Lola Sayu system with their fleet of Star Destroyers. While Admiral Barton Coburn commanded the Republic fleet's assault on K2-B4's blockade of warships, Fisto, Gallia, and Tiin served as wing commanders and, in their Delta-7B interceptors, escorted Koon and Commander Wolffe's space gunship to extract their comrades from the surface. Koon and Wolffe reached the designated rendezvous point just after Sobeck arrived with his battle droids to recapture Kenobi, Skywalker, Tano, Tarkin, and their soldiers. Frustrated by his prisoners' repeated evasion of recapture, Sobeck decided to simply kill Tarkin to ensure that his half of the Nexus Route intelligence died with him. However, Tano saved Tarkin by igniting her shoto lightsaber through Sobeck, killing him. Tano and her allies then escaped with Koon and Wolffe aboard their gunship, and all of them safely returned to Coburn's fleet with Fisto, Gallia, and Tiin. The Republic armada jumped to hyperspace, marking a major defeat for the Confederacy.

On Coruscant, the Jedi Council was saddened by Piell's sacrifice. Furthermore, the Jedi encountered difficulties before they could debrief the Nexus Route coordinates. While Tarkin had orders to provide his half of the information directly to Sheev Palpatine, Tano remained committed to Piell's dying wish that she deliver her share of the coordinates only to the High Council. Master Yoda subsequently met with Palpatine to devise a solution to the matter. The entire incident also led Skywalker and Tarkin to find common ground based on their similar criticisms of the Jedi Code and the Jedi Order's role as generals. In addition, though Echo was presumed dead during the escape from the Citadel, he had actually survived. The Techno Union acquired Echo from the Separatists and subjected him to extensive reconstructive surgery, integrating him with a significant amount of cybernetics as part of a research project.

Later in the war, the Grand Army reopened Felucia as a battlefront against the Separatist Droid Army. As part of the Second Battle of Felucia, Rex, Skywalker, and Tano led divisions of AT-TE walkers and HAVw A6 Juggernauts deep into Confederate-controlled territory. To maintain his control over the Felucia system, General Grievous dispatched a C-9979 landing craft with droid reinforcements to tactical droid TZ-33's outpost on Felucia. Aided by Plo Koon, Skywalker and Tano launched a three-pronged offensive on TZ-33's base. After their AT-TE walkers unleashed a volley of fire at the outpost, baiting TZ-33 to deploy his droid infantry through the facility's front gate, Rex and Skywalker led a squad to breach the front gate's defenses. While Koon, Commander Wolffe, and their jetpack-equipped troopers charged the outpost's left flank, Tano collaborated with Sergeant Sinker, Corporal Comet, Boost, and other soldiers to scale the rear wall. All three teams converged at the outpost's central command post, where they eliminated TZ-33 and his remaining infantry.

However, Tano was unable to assist her allies in seizing TZ-33's outpost. She was declared missing in action after Trandoshan hunters captured her and transported her to the moon Wasskah, where the Trandoshans hunted her and other captives for sport. Despite numerous perimeter sweeps of TZ-33's outpost, Koon and Skywalker failed to locate Tano, and they withdrew their forces from Felucia the following morning. Nevertheless, Tano returned to active duty after escaping from Wasskah with several Jedi younglings, who had also been stranded there for an extended period.

Following the assassination of Mon Calamari King Yos Kolina, both the Separatists and the Republic dispatched representatives to facilitate the selection of a new king. The Quarren Isolation League, led by Chieftain Nossor Ri, advocated for a Quarren king, rather than Kolina's son, Prince Lee-Char, to assume the throne. The Separatist observer Commander Riff Tamson incited the Quarren against the Republic, the Mon Calamari, and the Prince. The Prince's military leader, Captain Gial Ackbar, along with Senators Padmé Amidala and Meena Tills, attempted to negotiate with the Quarren, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The Jedi Council then sent Master Kit Fisto and Commander Ahsoka Tano to reinforce Anakin Skywalker and the Mon Calamari Guard against the Quarren's and Tamson's forces.

Initially, the Republic and the Mon Calamari held their ground against the Separatist forces after Commander Monnk's SCUBA troopers provided reinforcements. However, the Republic forces were compelled to retreat with the prince to the depths below when Tamson destroyed their ship.

Meanwhile, the Jedi High Council summoned the Gungan Grand Army to reinforce the prince and his forces. Tamson countered this by deploying his Trident ships to create whirlpools around the battle sites. Tamson attempted to personally eliminate the prince, but Kit Fisto engaged him long enough for Lee-Char and Ahsoka Tano to escape.

Skywalker, Amidala, Fisto, and Binks were eventually captured by Tamson, who subjected them to torture using Mon Calamari eels in an attempt to extract information, though without success. To expedite the process, Tamson punctured Amidala's helmet. However, he soon rushed back to the throne room upon learning that Lee-Char had been apprehended. With Tamson gone, Fisto and Skywalker employed the Force to remove the water from Amidala's helmet, and Binks sealed the puncture with his saliva.

Meanwhile, Tamson sentenced Lee-Char to public execution while proclaiming his leadership over both the Quarren and Mon Calamari. This caused Nossir Ri to question Tamson's initial promises. As the prisoners were brought to witness the execution, Ri communicated the Quarren's support to Ackbar, who united all the prisoners. Just before the prince was executed, the Quarren, Mon Calamari, Jedi, Gungans, and clones re-engaged the droids in battle. Tamson taunted Lee-Char with the revelation that he was responsible for the death of Lee-Char's father. The prince pursued him as he attempted to escape by throwing explosive knives at the Mon Calamari. Lee-Char stabbed Tamson with one of the knives and detonated it, killing the Separatist warlord and causing his remains to sink.

Following the battle and the defeat of the CIS forces, Lee-Char was crowned the new king of the Quarren and Mon Calamari.

In an attempt to bring an end to the Clone Wars, the Republic and Separatists convened their first-ever sanctioned peace conference on Mandalore, as the planet maintained neutrality. Many held hope for the meeting, including Senator Amidala, who was accompanied by Padawan Tano as one of the Republic's representatives. During the conference, after Confederate Senator Voe Atell insisted, Amidala hesitated to recognize the CIS as a legitimate government. However, their meeting was interrupted by the uninvited Lux Bonteri, who informed the assembly that his mother Mina had been killed by Count Dooku. Separatist Congress Leader Bec Lawise immediately dismissed the claim and ordered their commando droids to apprehend the alleged traitor.

Subsequently, while Lawise expressed a willingness to continue the meeting, Amidala secretly permitted Tano, who had previously met Bonteri during Amidala and Mina's earlier peace initiative, to follow the droids, as the Jedi Padawan believed her friend's life was in danger. Unbeknownst to her, Bonteri had intentionally arranged his capture, hoping to attract Dooku's attention. Believing they were a noble group, Bonteri had allied himself with Death Watch, who also sought revenge on the Count, and planned to use a holotrace device to locate Dooku, enabling Death Watch to launch an attack.

Transported to a C-9979 landing craft by the pair of commandos, Bonteri was presented before a hologram of the Count. While Bonteri managed to activate his holotrace device, Dooku ordered the droids to eliminate the young man, but after the Count's hologram deactivated, Tano entered the room and neutralized the commandos. During their escape, Tano contacted R2-D2, instructing him to activate the engines on their GX1 short hauler, the Phoenix, and she and Bonteri were pursued by a force of commando droids. Staying ahead of the droids, they reached the starship and received covering fire from Captain Taggart's Senate Commandos.

Aboard the GX1 with R2, they spoke with General Skywalker via hologram, who revealed that the peace conference had essentially collapsed. Although Tano intended to bring Bonteri to safety on Coruscant, where she and Skywalker could discuss granting the former Separatist amnesty, he stunned her unconscious and took the Phoenix to Death Watch on Carlac. During their time there, Bonteri provided the holotrace to Pre Vizsla, but he also witnessed the group's true nature when they burned a Ming Po Town. With assistance from a group of droids that Death Watch had been using for target practice, he, Tano, and R2 escaped the terrorists. Believing he could not accompany her, Bonteri still refused to go to the Republic and, after promising Tano that he would see her again, departed the Phoenix aboard an escape pod.

One month prior to the mission to Batuu, R2-D2 was struck by a B2-RP super battle droid when he attempted to investigate an unfolding situation; it subsequently took technicians three days to repair R2. Meanwhile, the Chiss Ascendancy, an empire governing a portion of the Unknown Regions, monitored the rest of the galaxy and discovered that a massive war was being waged. Although their reports were unconfirmed, the Chiss also learned that one side primarily utilized droids in combat. During the Nikardun conquests they faced concurrently with the Clone Wars, Chiss Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo, also known by his core name of "Thrawn," and Force-sensitive sky-walker navigator Che'ri ventured into the galaxy in search of allies against the Nikardun. Che'ri's caregiver, Mitth'ali'astov "Thalias," was initially slated to accompany them, although she remained in the Ascendancy to complete her Mitth family Trials.

After their initial four expeditions yielded no results, Thrawn and Che'ri discovered a Separatist droid starfighter squadron stationed on the planet Mokivj. The Confederacy's takeover of Mokivj was facilitated by intelligence provided to Dooku by the Grysks, a previously unknown species, who revealed that the metal cortosis could neutralize lightsaber attacks. Consequently, Dooku deployed Duke Solha, along with the Duke's sibling and sibling, to oversee both a cortosis mine and a droid factory. The latter produced B2-series super battle droids equipped with cortosis to defend against blasters and lightsabers. Confusing the Grysks, the factory also manufactured clone trooper armor using cortosis, a measure Darth Sidious planned to exploit during the execution of Order 66. Thrawn noticed the deflector shield protecting the factory, recognizing its potential value to the Ascendancy.

Shortly thereafter, Thrawn and Che'ri observed another vessel monitoring the droid starfighters. The Senior Captain then instructed Che'ri to pilot their ship back to the initial planet they had explored, aiming to arrive there before the other ship. His rationale was that the most populous planet was the most probable destination for the other ship to either rendezvous or transmit a message. Upon arriving first at the Outer Rim world of Batuu, Thrawn initiated communication with the other ship in several trade languages after its emergence from hyperspace. He identified himself as a Senior Captain of the Ascendancy and received a response in Meese Caulf, the second-to-last trade language he had employed. The pilot of the other vessel was Duja, a former handmaiden to Padmé Amidala who had discovered the Separatist plot unfolding on Mokivj. She promptly relayed this information to Amidala.

However, while subtly positioning her ship to potentially engage the Chiss, she disclosed only her name before inquiring whether the Chiss supported the Republic or the Confederacy. Upon Thrawn's clarification that their government was neutral, she deemed further conversation unnecessary, merely asking if he had observed the arrival of a Nubian ship. After Thrawn confirmed they had not, Duja terminated the exchange, leaving Thrawn with the impression that she was a scout or spy. As he explained to Che'ri, who had anticipated him recalling Duja, her armed vessel and slight rotation indicated training, yet he discerned she was not a combatant. Consequently, he deduced they should await the arrival of a warrior.

Republic High Command, having received Duja's ambiguous report of Separatist activity around Batuu, deemed the information too vague to warrant action. Amidala, therefore, decided to personally investigate. Although she informed Skywalker of her intentions, emphasizing that she would not be alone due to Duja's presence on Batuu, her husband was unable to accompany her, as he was scheduled to lead an upcoming battle. Skywalker also expressed his belief that the Clone Wars would eventually conclude, though he acknowledged widespread doubt about the conflict's end, with only the Chancellor maintaining the Republic's cohesion. After promising to spend time with him upon her return, Amidala departed, and Skywalker proceeded to lead the battle; like many others, the engagement resulted in minor gains and losses amidst widespread destruction and fatalities. Skywalker's forces were exhausted following the battle, returning to Coruscant, where Skywalker discovered that Amidala had neither returned nor sent any communications.

As Dooku launched another offensive, the Jedi Council denied Skywalker's request to search for her, instead assigning him to another, albeit brief, battle. Upon his subsequent return to Coruscant, still without any messages, Skywalker discovered her abandoned Nubian ship on Batuu. From orbit, Thrawn and Che'ri had observed Amidala's ship approaching, arriving three days after their encounter with Duja. Amidala had attempted to contact her husband, but Skywalker had not received her messages. After learning of Duja's death, Amidala recovered a beacon signal from her deceased friend's brooch, revealing the Separatist operation to be a factory. She departed Batuu, which was merely being used by Separatist smugglers to supply the factory, aboard Duja's ship, the Possibility, a few hours after her arrival. Thrawn and Che'ri witnessed the ship's departure, with the navigator anticipating a Nubian ship to follow, only to find it remained concealed on the planet below. Days later, Skywalker arrived from hyperspace, piloting his Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptor accompanied by R2-D2.

Observing the hyperspace transport ring utilized by the Eta-2 for exiting hyperspace, Thrawn maneuvered his ship closer to examine it, drawing the attention of R2-D2 and Skywalker. Keen not to misplace his route out of the system, Skywalker transmitted a message in Galactic Basic Standard before repeating it in Meese Caulf, requesting the crew's identification and identifying himself. While Thrawn responded, he was skeptical of Skywalker's claim of being on a mission, reasoning that a nation at war would not dispatch a lone starfighter. Fabricating a story, Skywalker asserted that Palpatine, who was actually unaware of Skywalker's presence on Batuu, had assigned him the mission, assuming that his interlocutor would likely be familiar with the Chancellor given his knowledge of the war. When Thrawn revealed his awareness of the Nubian ship's location, having deduced Skywalker's search, he proposed an alliance, claiming to be alone before Skywalker sensed Che'ri's presence through the Force. Nonetheless, Thrawn proceeded to mention his "pilot" before learning R2 would be joining their mission. After the Chiss explained his desire to understand the Clone Wars before they could impact the Ascendancy's territories, he finally introduced himself.

However, Thrawn misrepresented his rank as commander, omitting his actual title of Senior Captain, and omitted his intention to seize the shield generator from Mokivj. Skywalker consented to the alliance, hoping that the Ascendancy, now known to him, might become an ally of the Republic. While Skywalker opted to fly down to Batuu in his Eta-2, Thrawn chose to take a shuttle to guide the way to the Nubian's location, instructing Che'ri to return their ship to the Mokivj system so she could retrieve the shield generator upon his signal. He directed her to deploy as many decoys as necessary to divert the droid starfighters once he signaled. Upon landing, after engaging a group of smugglers who had discovered the ship, Skywalker inspected the Nubian while Thrawn and R2 remained outside to seek clues. Subsequently, all three journeyed to Black Spire Outpost aboard Thrawn's shuttle.

Eventually, Skywalker and Thrawn uncovered the smuggling operation for Mokivj, which they discovered was overseen by Solha, and that a ring of thieves was pilfering from the operation. Before departing Batuu, Skywalker briefed Thrawn about Dooku, Grievous, and Palpatine, and Thrawn advised him to prioritize victory over revenge in war. On Mokivj, Amidala, having crash-landed the Possibility after being attacked by a vulture droid, bribed three locals named Cimy, Huga, and LebJau to conceal her presence. Thrawn, Skywalker, and R2 then landed at the Separatist factory aboard the captured CIS freighter Larkrer, initially posing as its crew before being apprehended. The Chiss and Jedi ultimately escaped their makeshift cells. Joined by Huga and Cimy, Amidala, who had witnessed the arrest of her husband and his allies, and her allies disguised themselves as maintenance workers to proceed to the detention block, with the Senator eliminating two B1 battle droids guarding it. Upon entering, she reunited with Skywalker and Thrawn. As Skywalker created a diversion, Amidala and Thrawn set out to recover the Jedi's lightsaber.

Amidala also persuaded Lebjau to evacuate the workers in anticipation of their plan to destroy the factory. Skywalker found himself in the B2 assembly line, where he observed Solha, his brother, and his sister clad in clone trooper armor. As Skywalker distracted the duke and his forces in the assembly room, Thrawn and Amidala located Skywalker's lightsaber, but the Chiss used it to sever the shield generator core, asserting that he had been tasked with retrieving the generator. While Amidala protested his departure, Thrawn remained resolute in his commitment to the Chiss and also questioned why the Republic had not permitted the Confederacy to secede peacefully. After she explained that the Confederacy had initiated hostilities, Thrawn advised her to use the south end's door before she left his sight.

Nonetheless, Thrawn made sure to return to assist shortly thereafter, employing a lightning gun to neutralize the cortosis B2s. He also elucidated the nature of the metal, which Skywalker had discerned—during his battle against the droids—could withstand lightsaber strikes, and its rarity. Furthermore, the team decided to investigate the northern wing of the factory. After R2 reprogrammed the B2 factory, Amidala was confronted by Solha, while Skywalker and Thrawn discovered the north wing was producing cortosis-woven clone armor; Skywalker promptly surmised that Dooku was planning a mass-Serennian infiltration of the clone army as a surprise attack. After Amidala incapacitated Sophla, Skywalker ensured the factory's destruction, but he also sought to destroy the Cortosis mine. Thrawn confided in Amidala that he considered the Jedi General's plan reckless, contending that it would be preferable for the CIS to expend resources on Mokivj than to divert them elsewhere.

Although she concurred, the Senator recognized that her husband could not be dissuaded from his plan, even though Thrawn cautioned her that it could pose a threat to Mokivj. He also declined her invitation to return to Coruscant with them to establish a more formal Chiss—Republic alliance, stating that he had other obligations and was not assigned such a role. Before departing, Thrawn also suggested that the clone armor might not have been intended for infiltration, as such operations carried a high risk of failure. Despite Thrawn's reservations, Skywalker was confident that they need not worry about the plan. Skywalker's scheme to collapse the mining tunnels would indeed have unintended consequences; as he, Amidala, and LebJau, who had requested to accompany them to begin a new life on Batuu, observed from their ship, the cortosis redirected the explosives' heat, triggering a catastrophe that, while not directly impacting the people of Mokivj, would devastate the world's environment. While Amidala pledged to advocate for aid in the Senate, all three understood it would be futile, and they departed from the planet.

Upon his return to the Republic, Skywalker informed Palpatine about Thrawn and commended the tactician. Thrawn, in turn, held Skywalker in high regard, although he had concluded that the Republic was an unsuitable ally for his people. Furthermore, he effectively utilized the shielding technology from Mokivj in the battle over Primea, deflecting blasts from the Nikardun Battle Dreadnought Deathless to board its bridge. Following the Chiss victory in that battle, the Nikardun Destiny and its conquests were brought to an end. Rumors of a blue alien forming an alliance with Skywalker also circulated throughout the galaxy, eventually reaching at least as far as the Thrugii asteroid belt.

Due to the Emergency Powers Act enacted at the onset of the Separatist Crisis, Palpatine remained in power throughout the Clone Wars. However, his extended tenure began to arouse suspicion among the Jedi as the war neared its conclusion and relations between the Jedi and the Chancellor deteriorated. In accordance with his scheme to transform the Republic into an autocracy with himself at its helm, Palpatine exploited the Clone Wars to further solidify his political authority and undermine the democracy he purported to represent. By the war's end, Maul had come to believe that the Republic was beyond salvation and the Jedi were powerless to save it.

Palpatine repeatedly amended the Galactic Constitution, invariably citing the war as justification for acquiring greater power. Although the Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill was defeated in the Senate, numerous other emergency war powers were enacted, making Palpatine the most influential chancellor since the Ruusan Reformations. Notably, four constitutional amendments were codified into law: one of these was the Reflex Amendment, which granted Palpatine extensive authority by transferring near-total control over the Republic Military to him, thereby enabling him to bypass the Senate on military matters. The Sector Governance Decree was an amendment passed towards the war's end under the pretext that it would foster unity and strengthen the supply chain; this decree empowered Palpatine to appoint regional governors, who would then consolidate neighboring star systems and focus their resources on the production of war materiel.

However, in practice, the establishment of regional governors served to circumvent the Senate's authority by creating a new cadre of officials, appointed by Palpatine himself, with jurisdiction over star systems. Despite Palpatine's efforts to consolidate power drawing criticism from some senators, most defended it as a necessary evil to defeat the Confederacy, over which Dooku wielded near-total control. Dooku's own war powers faced opposition from his senate's Peace Faction, but he continued to enjoy widespread support within the Confederacy overall. Nevertheless, the Sector Governance Decree proved to be the final straw for a group of like-minded senators who became known as the Delegation of 2,000. Led by Senators Organa, Amidala, and Mothma, who specifically identified Palpatine as a threat to democracy but underestimated the scope of his ambitions, the group drafted a formal petition known as the Petition of 2,000 in protest of the Chancellor's conduct and acquired powers.

In essence, the petition contained three demands: Palpatine was to relinquish his emergency powers by restoring them to the Senate at the war's end, abolish the Sector Governance Decree in particular, and initiate a cease-fire with the Confederacy. During what would become the war's final month, the three leaders of the delegation commenced the Cantham House meetings by assembling a select group of like-minded senators to deliberate and finalize their petition, which they intended to present once it had garnered two thousand signatures. By this point, the Clone War was losing public support. The conflict caused widespread suffering, war taxes, and rationing, even affecting the Core Worlds. Although the war remained popular in the Senex sector, whose inhabitants viewed a Republic victory as inevitable, numerous other senators faced considerable pressure from their constituents to advocate for peace. However, influential lobbyists in the Senate managed to defeat these efforts to safeguard their war profits.

While indeed concerned about Palpatine's increasing power, Senator Terr Taneel of the Senex sector expressed reservations about pushing for an end to the war, citing her sector's support for the conflict during a Cantham House meeting. Amidala, however, defended it as necessary to halt both the bloodshed and Palpatine's justification for creating amendments. The delegation supported public calls for Palpatine to relinquish his augmented power as their public strategy. The group secretly prepared to move beyond the Senate and form a resistance movement if necessary.

Despite the super tactical droid General Kalani asserting that his calculations indicated the Separatists were on the verge of victory at the war's end, while the war's third year led others to believe that the Republic now held all the momentum, both sides were in crisis by the war's end. The Republic was faltering due to Separatist attacks ordered by Dooku, while the Separatists had been pushed back to the galaxy's spiral arms. A campaign known as the Outer Rim Sieges resulted in most of the Republic's Jedi and military forces fighting on these outer worlds. However, another aspect of the sieges occurred when Grievous launched a massive assault that pushed the Republic Military to the brink, so Jedi Generals were also dispatched far from the Core Worlds to assist the clone army due to that offensive.

Ultimately, while the Republic had begun to overwhelm the Separatist armies and the Confederacy had lost much of its territory, with what remained being targeted in the sieges, Grievous's overwhelming offensive remained a threat, and the Republic Army was also engaged in desperate campaigns across the galaxy, while the Separatists were encircling the Republic, moving ever closer to the Core systems. Nevertheless, despite being a bitter stalemate for a time, the sieges would ultimately shift the conflict's tide in the Republic's favor.

During the Outer Rim sieges, Kenobi, Skywalker, and their troops captured Yerbana from the Confederacy. Following the victory, one of their "Fulcrum" contacts reached out to them. Initially, Skywalker assumed it was Gerrara requesting Republic aid due to the Siege at Onderon. It was revealed that Fulcrum was Skywalker's former apprentice, Ahsoka Tano. She was collaborating with Lady Bo-Katan Kryze and the Mandalorian resistance to track down Maul, following his brief capture and escape from Lord Sidious on Dathomir. Kryze informed Kenobi and Skywalker that Maul was in Sundari based on transmissions between the Pykes and Maul. Kenobi and Skywalker were willing to discuss this matter with the Jedi Council and assist her.

During the conflict's final days, the Republic space station Sentinel Flare was attacked by the Confederacy, leaving the station severely damaged. Prior to the war's end, Jedi General Weren Dal was shot down over Dathomir by an elite Separatist group. With most Jedi and clones fighting in the Outer Rim, the Republic's capital of Coruscant was left relatively undefended. However, Republic strategists were not concerned. They believed the Separatists would not dare attack the capital, but Grievous and Dooku launched a massive assault on Coruscant. The inexperienced Coruscant Home Defense Fleet was caught off guard, and Grievous managed to infiltrate the planet's surface.

Grievous eventually succeeded in capturing Palpatine and holding him hostage. Palpatine's capture was actually orchestrated by Sidious, who desired Anakin to kill Dooku in order to seduce the young Jedi to the dark side and eventually replace Dooku as Sidious's apprentice, though both Dooku and Grievous were unaware of the Sith Lords' true intention. Grievous brought the Chancellor back to his flagship, the Invisible Hand. After dispatching the 332nd Division under Commanders Rex and Tano to assist Lady Kryze in hunting Maul down on Mandalore, Kenobi and Skywalker led their forces to Coruscant. The large-scale naval battle between Separatist and Republic forces continued, and during this attack, Kenobi and Skywalker raced to rescue the Chancellor. Dooku was defeated by Anakin and subsequently betrayed by Sidious, who had him killed by Anakin. Dooku's death was a major setback for the Separatists, leaving Grievous as their new Head of State. The Separatists, however, were unaware that Sidious had orchestrated Dooku's death. The Jedi managed to escape the ship along with the Chancellor. Grievous also escaped and fled to the planet Utapau.

During the Siege of Mandalore, Tano, Kryze, and their force of clone troopers and Mandalorians launched their attack against the Mandalorian super commandos under Prime Minister Almec and Gar Saxon. Tano and Kryze were successful in capturing Almec, but Maul and Saxon remained hidden in the undercity.

Maul and Saxon managed to evade Tano, her troops, and Kryze's Mandalorians. During this time, Kenobi informed Tano and Kryze about Darth Sidious, the mastermind behind the events leading up to and during the Clone Wars.

On Utapau, Grievous, along with the other leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, awaited instructions from Sidious, who soon sent the Confederacy to the Mustafar system before Republic forces arrived. Shortly thereafter, Republic forces led by Obi-Wan Kenobi attacked the base. Kenobi confronted Grievous, and the two engaged in combat. During the struggle, Kenobi managed to rip open the armor covering Grievous's gut sack. The Jedi then shot it several times with the General's blaster, killing the cyborg. Grievous's death placed Nute Gunray in charge. Meanwhile, on Coruscant, Palpatine revealed his true identity as the Dark Lord of the Sith to Skywalker, prompting him to inform Jedi Master Windu. Shortly thereafter, Windu, along with Fisto, Tiin, and Agen Kolar, attacked the Chancellor. Palpatine quickly admitted to this and killed Windu's team. Despite being disarmed and nearly killed by Windu, a desperate Anakin Skywalker, who needed Sidious to save his wife Padmé from death, betrayed Windu, allowing Sidious to kill the Jedi. The Sith quickly declared the Jedi enemies of the Republic and issued Order 66, which activated the biochips and brainwashed the clones into betraying and turning on their Jedi generals.

Skywalker betrayed the Jedi and surrendered to Sidious, who then dubbed him Darth Vader. Vader was sent to the Jedi Temple, where he killed every Jedi remaining there. On Utapau, after Clone Commander Cody received Order 66 from Sidious, which immediately brainwashed him into believing that Kenobi was a traitor to the Republic, he ordered his men to fire upon Kenobi, but the Jedi survived. On Kashyyyk, Commander Gree and another clone attempted to assassinate Grand Master Yoda; however, the master beheaded the two with his lightsaber before they could fire. Many other Jedi were killed during Order 66, including Ki-Adi-Mundi, Aayla Secura, Plo Koon, Stass Allie, etc.

Following his brutal slaughter of the Jedi on Coruscant, Darth Vader obeyed the subsequent directive from Darth Sidious. He journeyed to Mustafar to execute Viceroy Gunray alongside the remaining Separatist leaders, who were in hiding there. Unbeknownst to them, Sidious had earlier deceived the council, making them believe Vader would offer protection. After the council's demise at Vader's hand, the newly christened Sith Lord was instructed by Sidious to transmit a signal that would deactivate all Separatist droids, effectively concluding the war.

The tumultuous Clone Wars, a conflict spanning nearly four years, ultimately achieved Palpatine's intended outcome: the Jedi Order's annihilation, the Republic's transformation into the Galactic Empire, and the Galactic Senate's evolution into the Imperial Senate, with Palpatine assuming the mantle of Emperor. Nevertheless, in the initial months of the Imperial Era, the Clone Wars lingered, with scattered pockets of resistance, including a rebel force on Umbara, continuing their fight against the newly established state. Consequently, the Imperial Military, recently formed, was deployed to suppress these remaining pockets of resistance, enforcing the Empire's vision of peace.

Those last vestiges of the Confederacy, the so-called Separatist holdouts, continued their resistance against the Empire. The Imperial Navy justified its continued existence by asserting the ongoing conflict against these holdouts and a growing rebellion against Imperial rule. Stormtroopers of the Empire were sent to bring former Confederate planets under Imperial control; even Raxus Secundus, the former capital of the CIS, was placed under occupation during the Empire's early years. A single day into the Imperial Era, sixty-three members of the Delegation of 2,000 were arrested by clone troopers, accused of aiding the Jedi rebellion. Among those arrested were Organa and Mothma, who were later released after publicly declaring their loyalty to the Empire, continuing their service as senators. Secretly, they used their senatorial positions as a cover for their rebellious activities. Amidala's death, on the other hand, was attributed to the Jedi rebellion.

In the Empire's nascent years, the future Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin orchestrated a brutal purge on the moon Antar 4, an event known as the Antar Atrocity. Imperial forces rounded up and executed numerous Koorivar and Gotals, including those loyal to the Republic. The extensive media coverage of the Antar Atrocity sparked considerable outrage in the Core Worlds, leading the Emperor to reassign Tarkin to oversee pacification operations in the Western Reaches. The sheer brutality of the Antar Atrocity prompted other former Separatist worlds, such as Kooriva, Murkhana, and Raxus, to surrender former Separatists to the Empire, hoping to avoid a similar fate as Antar 4. Tarkin's actions also earned him the enmity of Berch Teller and Knotts, former Republic Intelligence operatives, who established an insurgent group composed of survivors and witnesses of the Antar Atrocity. In 14 BBY, Berch Teller's cell launched a campaign against Tarkin and the Empire, but it ultimately failed.

In 2 BBY, a final, unofficial skirmish transpired when the Spectres rebel cell encountered a Separatist holdout consisting of still-operational battle droids, led by a super tactical droid self-named Kalani, while attempting to salvage a Separatist supply ship's wreckage. Kalani captured the Spectres and, upon discovering that the group included Rex, Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus, and his padawan Ezra Bridger, forced them to participate in a tactical simulation, aiming to demonstrate that the Separatists had a higher probability of victory and could have won the Clone Wars.

During the simulation, Ezra Bridger noticed that their ally Rex was behaving almost like a droid himself, and he was struck by the futility of the exercise. As Rex and Kalani debated the simulation's outcome, Bridger interrupted them. The young man convincingly argued that the Clone Wars were never intended to be won but were merely a means to an end for the faction that would become the Empire; therefore, their goals in opposing the Empire aligned. After escaping an Imperial capture attempt, both Rex and Kanan Jarrus observed that Bridger had accomplished what a galaxy of senators and soldiers had failed to do: unite representatives of opposing factions on common ground, bringing a peaceful resolution to the Clone Wars.

In the years leading up to the Battle of Yavin, the Empire expanded its influence throughout the galaxy, exploiting the memory of the Clone Wars by promising order to a war-weary galaxy. However, as the Empire's oppressive nature became evident, the Rebel Alliance emerged to challenge its rule. The Alliance's origins can be traced back to the Clone Wars: it grew from the local resistance cells established by the Jedi on Confederate worlds and from the Delegation of 2,000, fulfilling that group's fears that armed resistance would be necessary to restore democracy. Palpatine's triumph in the Clone Wars lasted just over two decades, as the Galactic Civil War resulted in the downfall of Palpatine and his Empire, as well as Anakin Skywalker's redemption, who rejected the Vader persona before passing away peacefully.

In the wake of its establishment, the Galactic Empire sought to erase the memories of the Clone Wars' troubled era. Many Imperials, such as the ambitious Imperial Navy officer Thrawn, the very same Chiss who had encountered Anakin Skywalker during the conflict, viewed the Clone Wars as the cause of billions of deaths, the destruction of hundreds of worlds, and the devastation of thousands more. He considered secessionist movements, such as the one on Botajef, as a potential repeat of that horror. His colleague Eli Vanto believed that the Clone Wars had fostered animosity between humans and aliens, as numerous alien species had sided with the Separatists. Although some aliens had fought for the Republic, this sentiment fueled a degree of xenophobia within the human-dominated Empire. Thrawn was even reprimanded by his superior, Filia Rossi, captain of the Blood Crow ship, for possessing equipment used by the Separatists. Droids were also viewed with suspicion by some; Din Djarin, for example, harbored a hatred for all droids because Separatist battle droids had caused the deaths of his family.

The Empire also relegated veterans of the conflict to poorly maintained areas like Crispus Commons, where they were forced to endure substandard living conditions and low-paying jobs. The conspiracy behind the conflict was never publicly revealed, and the galaxy's population largely believed the war to have been exactly as it appeared: a rebellion instigated by numerous worlds in the Mid and Outer Rims seeking independence from a corrupt and decadent central government. Despite this prevailing narrative, some individuals, such as Skelly, managed to piece together the truth about the Clone Wars. Some people participated in historical reenactments of the Clone Wars, and there was also a section dedicated to the Clone Wars in the Emperor's Museum on Coruscant. Although they used real footage, they presented a false history, which was witnessed by the Apprentice Legislature during a tour in 3 BBY.

Wilhuff Tarkin, even after the war's conclusion, remained skeptical about its true cause, suspecting that a group of elite outsiders had engineered the conflict for their own purposes. Individuals like Bail Organa remembered the bravery of figures like the Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars and passed this knowledge on to his daughter, Princess Leia Organa, along with stories such as that of the Senate hostage crisis and several about Obi-Wan Kenobi. Leia would later send a holographic message to Kenobi, appealing to him based on his service alongside her father during the Clone Wars. A few months after the Battle of Endor, a Separatist droid factory beneath the city of Myrra on Akiva still bore the marks of Jedi lightsabers. It remained one of the most devastating conflicts in galactic history, resulting in billions of casualties on both sides.

The Clone Wars were initially mentioned in canon in the 1977 original Star Wars film, Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. The canon details of the conflict were first revealed in the prequel trilogy films Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.

The initial reference to the Clone Wars can be traced back to George Lucas' third draft for Episode IV, which included a mention of the battle-hardened cyborg General Kenobi's "diary of the Clone Wars." These brief mentions of the Clone Wars in A New Hope were the only references to the conflict in the original trilogy. While developing the script for the 1980 sequel Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas entertained the idea of introducing a clone character who had participated in the conflict. In Leigh Brackett's first draft for Episode V, Lando Calrissian was depicted as a clone from a clone planet that had been nearly destroyed in the Clone Wars, with Boba Fett being a member of a group of shocktroopers almost entirely wiped out by Jedi Knights during the conflict.

The year 2008 marked the debut of an animated television series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as well as a film of the same title. Both The Clone Wars film and the television series are considered part of the Star Wars canon, as they reflected Lucas's creative vision.

Journalist Chris Taylor, in his book How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise, described the Clone Wars as "a major part of Star Wars lore." In an effort to sustain the Star Wars toy line after the release of the final film in the original trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, Kenner Products conceived a toy extension titled The Epic Continues, which would have involved the return of an exiled "genetic terrorist" known as Atha Prime, one of the architects of the Clone Wars, and his Clone Warriors. In Attack of the Clones, Darth Sidious and Count Dooku were seen to fill that role.