Battle of Coruscant

In the time leading up to the attack, the Outer Rim Sieges had drawn in a massive number of Republic and Separatist warships into extensive conflicts across the spiral arms of the galaxy. Consequently, the majority of the Republic's Jedi were engaged in battles far from the Core Worlds. Through carefully manipulated propaganda, the general population was led to believe that a complete Republic victory was imminent.

With the Republic fleets stretched thin across the Outer Rim Territories and the Coruscant Defense Fleet weakened and unprepared, the Confederacy identified an opportunity to deliver a significant blow to the Republic by launching an assault on Coruscant. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the leader of the Republic, was aware that the Jedi were actively searching for Darth Sidious, a shadowy Sith Lord believed to be orchestrating the war. Unbeknownst to them, Palpatine was Sidious himself, manipulating both sides of the conflict to achieve his ultimate goal: complete control of the galaxy. Palpatine devised a swift raid on the planet, to be led by General Grievous, the Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies. Grievous assembled a large fleet consisting of thousands of destroyers and frigates, spearheaded by the Providence-class destroyer Invisible Hand, for an assault on Coruscant.

In a parallel development, the Republic Group, an organization opposed to Palpatine and supportive of the Galactic Republic, made the decision to recover and reveal the Insignia of Unity, which they had previously stolen. They subsequently requested Tobb Jadak and Reeze Duurmun, two spacers, to come to Coruscant to discuss its retrieval.

General Grievous strategically timed the attack to coincide with Chancellor Palpatine's State of the Republic address. Thousands of delegates, including Padmé Amidala and Bail Organa, who otherwise would not have been present on Coruscant, remained on the planet for post-speech celebrations, placing them there when the Separatists launched their attack. Utilizing a concealed hyperspace passage through the Deep Core provided by Darth Sidious, the Separatists successfully jumped directly into the Coruscant Home Fleet's location, achieving complete surprise. The majority of the Republic ships, caught unawares with their shields deactivated, were immediately destroyed. However, approximately a thousand Venator-class Star Destroyers remained operational. Employing a jamming signal similar to that used during the Battle of Praesitlyn, the Confederate Navy disrupted all HoloNet transmissions across the planet.

Concurrently with the attack, an investigation led by Jedi Masters Mace Windu and Shaak Ti, Captain Dyne of Republic Intelligence, ARC commander Valiant, and his clone troopers was underway within Darth Sidious's hideout in the Works. Inside the building, they were able to track Sidious' path from the building by his footprints; following the trail, the team ended up in the sub-basements of 500 Republica, where they were temporarily halted by security. After being cleared by the building personnel, they continued to follow the trail, but found it to disappear in the middle of an unremarkable ferrocrete floor, and numerous other footprints covering the floor masked where it might have picked up again. At this point, a group of ships surrounding the Republica plummeted to the ground. Alarmed, Windu and Ti took half of Dyne's soldiers and left the building through one of its skydock tunnels. Outside, they realized that Coruscant was under attack, and Ti was dispatched to find Palpatine while Windu put the clones on crowd control and left to get backup.

Dyne and Valiant, meanwhile, remained in the Republica to continue the search. After scanning the basement, Dyne realized that transmissions on regular frequencies were jammed, and sent a group of probe droids to search for more unusual frequencies; they found one, emanating from the very spot Sidious' trail had disappeared. After discovering a hydraulic turbolift, the two rode it into the depths of 500 Republica. There, they discovered a large metal doorway, behind which, the probe droids said, was one organic and several droids. Dyne and Valiant moved to advance on the door, but upon hearing someone speaking Geonosian, they turned around to find a pair of Geonosian guards aiming at them with sonic blasters. The Geonosians opened fire instantly, and their blasts sent Valiant and his soldiers' mangled bodies flying into the door. Dyne slammed into a wall, his insides liquefied. As he lay there, the door opened and Sidious stepped through, observing the scene. In his dying moment, Dyne recognized him as Palpatine.

In the space surrounding the planet, the Republic fleet converged on the Confederate ships, establishing a defensive perimeter. Grievous attempted to project an image of desperation, randomly dispersing his warships to target communications satellites, orbital mirrors, and various surface targets. Due to the reassignment of half the home fleet to the Outer Rim Sieges, the Republic naval commanders, facing numerical inferiority, adopted a conservative approach while awaiting reinforcements from distant battlefields. Anticipating this, Grievous strategically positioned warships at key hyperspace reversion points and deployed mass-shadow mines to delay the arrival of any additional Republic vessels.

The Republic swiftly determined that the Confederacy was employing the same jamming technology used at Praesitlyn, eventually restoring normal transmissions. Thousands of newly constructed ships, secretly built by Kuat Drive Yards for Palpatine, along with numerous clone troops secretly bred on Centax-2, were deployed for the first time and entered the battle. They began inflicting losses on the CIS fleet, even destroying several battleships. In retaliation, Grievous ordered Vulture droid fighters to conduct suicide attacks on landing platforms, skyways, and pedestrian plazas within Coruscant's Senate District, resulting in significant military and civilian casualties. Separatist landing craft were deployed onto the planet's surface, unloading hundreds of thousands of battle droids to create a large-scale diversion while Grievous prepared a raiding party to capture the Supreme Chancellor. Chaos erupted throughout the city, with extensive collateral damage occurring during the fighting.

Driven to repel the Confederacy, the Jedi swiftly mobilized alongside the Grand Army of the Republic. After Windu informed Jedi Master Yoda about the attack, he joined fellow Jedi pilot Saesee Tiin in boarding their interceptors and engaging enemy starfighters above Galactic City. Windu's starfighter was eventually overwhelmed by a swarm of Separatist ships; though his wings were rammed off, sending his fighter plunging down, he managed to jump out and take control of an enemy Vulture droid, which he used to assist ARC-170 squadrons.

Elsewhere, Yoda, leading the clone security forces on the surface in the defense of the besieged Senate District, used the Force to throw droidekas into enemy fighters and pull enemy landing craft into one another. Afterward, he moved to help clone forces being overrun by Separatist battle droids and super battle droids in Sector Four. The clone troopers were aided by Windu, who crash-landed his Vulture droid in the middle of the battle droid formation. Hoping to gain reinforcements, Yoda contacted the Jedi Aayla Secura, located on the Outer Rim world of Felucia, but Secura determined that she was too far away and so instead put in motion a plan to capture Shu Mai, one of members of the Separatist Council.

The Republic's Special Operations Brigade began to mobilize and Yayax Squad was sent to defend HNE headquarters in support of an artillery division based near there, to ensure that it could continue to broadcast. Jedi Master Arligan Zey, the brigade commander, retreated to a secure command center and sent out a Code Five signal to all Special Operations Brigade personnel with the Mid Rim, recalling them to Coruscant. Omega Squad soon responded and arrived in a GAR rapid assault vessel. They contacted Zey, who ordered them to make their way to Coruscant's main utility stations and give ground support to mobile anti-aircraft batteries. However, before they could do this, they were attacked by a Separatist fightercraft and were forced to crash land. They received new orders to make their way to the tactical control center of GAR HQ and were able to hitch a ride there in a passing Coruscant Security Force assault ship.

The assault ship had been deployed as part of a Coruscant Security Force operation to keep civilians away from the battlefield. They were eventually deployed at HNE HQ and fought alongside Yayax Squad there, under the command of the ARC trooper, Lieutenant Aven. The Separatists were trying to capture it intact, so had sent in ground troops, which they had to fight off. A wave of super battle droids attacked them, but were easily defeated as some were weakened due to the sabotage of the factories where they were produced, to make them produce inferior droids. They also received air support, in the form of two Low Altitude Assault Transports, which finished off most of the droids. Afterward, the center's civilian staff prepared a mobile transmitter to move to a more safe location, while Aven received word over his comlink that the Separatist blocking of the system had been bypassed and thousands more Republic ships had joined the battle.

The Mandalorian Kal Skirata decided to use the battle as an opportunity to break the captured Separatist scientist Doctor Ovolot Qail Uthan out of the Valorum Center. Skirata wanted Uthan, because he believed that he wanted her help to develop a cure to stop the accelerated aging in clone troopers. He entered the center along with Bardan Jusik, Ordo Skirata and Fi Skirata; Kal and Jusik masqueraded as officials from the Chancellor's office, while Fi and Ordo dressed as regular clone troopers. They persuaded the center's staff that they had been authorized to take Uthan to a more secure location, to prevent the Separatists from freeing her. They also took with them Arla Fett, who they unexpectedly found in the facility. They left in an LAAT/i flown by Walon Vau and retreated to a safe house in the lower levels.

Meanwhile, on Coruscant, Amidala was leading the evacuation of the Senate Apartment Complex with Captain Typho and her droid C-3PO when she met up with fellow senators Bail Organa and Mon Mothma. On their way out, the three ran into the Jedi Shaak Ti and Stass Allie, who informed them that they were looking for the Supreme Chancellor. The Jedi lent the senators Allie's speeder to get them to a shelter. With Organa piloting, they fled for safety, but were shot down by Vulture droids and crash-landed in a public plaza. Unfortunately for them, the droids followed them and prepared to attack the three Humans. Amidala and Organa found blasters in a nearby crashed speeder and began to goad the droids into a position where Low Altitude Assault Transports could take them out. However, the droids suddenly stopped, and took off into the air.

In space, Jedi Master Saesee Tiin led a group of twenty-two Jedi in Eta-2 Actis-class interceptors past the Separatist blockade in order to relay a distress signal through the Jedi's emergency HoloNet beacon. Tiin then proceeded to help lead the orbital defense of Coruscant. He landed in the hangar of the Venator-class Star Destroyer Impavid. The vessel was critically damaged by enemy turbolaser fire, and Tiin and his troops boarded the Providence-class carrier/destroyer Prosperous, commandeering it and using the ship's turrets to blast other enemy ships.

Despite these successes, the Jedi realized too late that the Republic had been lured into a feint and that General Grievous had outmaneuvered them to reach his primary objective—Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

Before the Separatist attack, Palpatine was recognizing two Force-sensitive clone troopers, X1 and X2, for their brave actions during the recent Tatooine invasion. Upon hearing the initial sounds of the battle, the troopers departed to join the conflict. Simultaneously, Shaak Ti returned to 500 Republica with fellow Jedi Stass Allie, Roron Corobb, and Foul Moudama, this time to Palpatine's suite. They were initially denied entry by Palpatine's Red Guards, but when Palpatine completed his trip from the basement, the guards let the Jedi in just short of Ti forcing her way through. Palpatine, accompanied by his adviser Sate Pestage and Director of Republic Intelligence Armand Isard, met with the Jedi inside. The Chancellor refused to evacuate to a secure bunker, insisting that he set an example by not hiding away, though Isard, Pestage, and even the captain of Palpatine's guards agreed with the Jedi that he needed to leave. Sensing a perturbation in the Force, Ti and Allie tackled Palpatine to the ground as the gunships outside the suite's window exploded, and a Separatist craft carrying Grievous and a band of battle droids rose into view. Grievous blew open the window and, as the battle droids poured into the room, Allie and the Red Guards set up a defense while Ti hurried Palpatine deeper into the suite.

The skimmers, meanwhile, had taken up the attack on Grievous' ship, and soon enough the general and his droids were forced to withdraw. As Isard alerted Homeworld Security that Grievous had broken through Coruscant's defensive perimeter, Palpatine had decided it was indeed time to evacuate. Grievous, however, quickly returned, bursting through the window. Palpatine stood his ground, facing down Grievous, but Ti pulled him back with the Force and the group ran, with a squad of clone troopers and a Senate Guard remaining in an attempt to hold back Grievous. Suspecting that the prepared escape routes had been compromised, Ti had the party hurry to one of Republica's private turbo lifts. Having defeated the troopers blocking him, Grievous ambushed the Chancellor's party as they were waiting for the turbolift to arrive. Corobb, an Ithorian, used his four throats to emit a powerful blast that tore up the hallway and drove Grievous back long enough for them to enter the lift. Grievous attempted to catch up with the turbolift, but the Chancellor's clone trooper escort fired a rocket through the lift's wall, blowing Grievous off the side of the building. At the bottom, Ti saw no sign of Dyne and Valiant, and the group made their way through the tunnel to the east skydock. They had not escaped the Separatist forces yet, though; Grievous was waiting with an army of B2 super battle droids outside. Corobb used his trick yet again, buying them the time they needed to escape.

During the pursuit, a Magnaguard under Grievous's command engaged X2 in combat, resulting in the droid's destruction. The clone trooper then noticed the droid General and began to trail him through the war-torn landscape of Coruscant. X2 eventually located Grievous at a Skylane transport center. Annoyed by X2's relentless pursuit, Grievous set a trap for the trooper and launched an attack. X2 retaliated by using explosives against Grievous, which propelled him into the planet's traffic and inflicted injuries. Faced with a formidable opponent, Grievous chose to withdraw and resume his search for Palpatine. After reuniting with X1, X2 commandeered an ARC-170 starfighter and joined the ongoing space battle.

In a parallel sequence of events, the Jedi swiftly navigated the city, leaping across platforms while being closely pursued by two MagnaGuards. They landed on a floating barge, but were soon joined by four MagnaGuards and Grievous himself, who deactivated the barge's repulsorlift generators. The Jedi sought refuge in a subway station, jumping over trains and narrowly escaping death as they battled the MagnaGuards on the tracks. Shaak Ti successfully destroyed two of the droids, and Corobb eliminated another. As Grievous appeared and cornered the Jedi in a tunnel, Shaak Ti used the Force to entangle his cape around a pipe on a train carriage. She then activated the train, causing Grievous to be dragged down one of the tunnels. The Jedi determined that air vehicles were too risky and, after meeting with Windu and Fisto, boarded a maglev train that would transport them near the bunker.

However, Grievous's gunboat recovered the General, allowing him to intercept the Jedi's train. Battle droids stormed the train, followed by Grievous himself. Fisto engaged two of the General's MagnaGuards, while Windu dueled the cyborg on top of the train. The duel concluded with Grievous being knocked off the train, although he was rescued by a hijacked LAAT/i gunship, unbeknownst to the Jedi. Once the train reached a repulsorlift platform, Ti, Allie, and Palpatine, accompanied by Corobb, Moudama, Roth-Del Masona, and B'ink Utrila, boarded a gunboat to Sah'c Town, where the secure bunker awaited. Fisto and Windu separated from the group and pursued Grievous's droid gunboat. However, after destroying it, they discovered only a super battle droid and returned to the bunker, realizing that this had been a diversion to facilitate the Chancellor's kidnapping. Outside the bunker, Corobb, Moudama, Masona, and Utrila escorted the Chancellor inside, while Ti and Allie remained outside to provide defensive support. Grievous's hijacked LAAT/i gunship suddenly appeared, successfully breaching the bunker's shield and crashing in the process. He then entered the bunker, accompanied by six MagnaGuards. Shaak Ti, recognizing that the Chancellor's safety had been compromised, separated from Allie and joined the four Jedi Knights in protecting the Chancellor.

Within the bunker, Grievous and his bodyguards carved a path of destruction, overwhelming numerous clone troopers and security personnel. Utilizing a code provided by Sidious, he navigated to the central room of the bunker. Simultaneously, the Chancellor and the Jedi located a turbolift that would lead them to the central room. Ti insisted on staying behind to impede any pursuers. Palpatine and the Jedi hesitated to abandon Ti, but she asserted that it was essential to ensure the Chancellor's safety. As the turbolift departed, Ti engaged in combat with a large contingent of MagnaGuards that emerged from the shadows. She temporarily lost her lightsaber and was nearly defeated, but she managed to acquire an electrostaff from one of the MagnaGuards, reclaiming her lightsaber and employing both weapons to fend off her enemies.

Upon escorting the Chancellor to the center of the bunker, the four Jedi were confronted by Grievous, who initiated a lightsaber duel. Early in the battle, Corobb and Moudama managed to lock sabers with the General, at which point his arms split into four, seizing the lightsabers on his waist and enabling him to lunge forward at the Jedi. He toyed with his adversaries for a period before decapitating Masona. Corobb, who inadvertently kicked Masona's head across the room during the fight, lost his focus and was distracted long enough for Grievous to kill him with a stab to the heart. Moudama, summoning his remaining strength, charged the General but lost his lightsaber arm and then his left leg before being disemboweled. He then toyed with Utrila, allowing her to gain a slight advantage by striking the General in the arm. Ultimately, Grievous ended her suffering with a stab to the heart.

Meanwhile, Shaak Ti defeated the last of Grievous's MagnaGuards, just as the droids retreated back into the shadows. Realizing that they were a diversion to allow Grievous to reach the center of the bunker, she raced to the scene, just as Grievous was threatening Palpatine. As Shaak Ti entered the room, she witnessed Grievous holding the Chancellor by the neck collar, who remarked with irony that she had come to his rescue. She charged at Grievous, but she was too exhausted from her engagement with the MagnaGuards. Grievous, aware of her condition, swiftly subdued her by the neck with one split hand, confiscated her lightsaber for his "collection," and ensnared her in a stun-net to warn the Jedi of the Chancellor's capture.

As Grievous fled with his captive to a tri-wing shuttle stationed nearby, Windu and Fisto arrived in their gunship. The General, wielding his four lightsabers, prepared to confront the Jedi Master; however, Windu Force crushed the plates protecting Grievous's internal organ sac, damaging his lungs and exacerbating the General's existing wheezing and coughing issues, a consequence of his organic form's incompatibility with his cyborg implants. As the General coughed violently, his lungs lacerated by fragments of duranium, the shuttle took off. Windu leaped upward in an attempt to board it, but the shuttle's laser cannons fired at him, knocking him back down to the landing platform and leaving him enraged. Windu and Fisto, joined by Stass Allie and Corobb's Padawan Drake Lo'gaan, entered the bunker to search for the occupants. Upon reaching the central room, they found Shaak Ti incapacitated, with the four Jedi slain. Neither Grievous nor Palpatine were present, and Lo'gaan, devastated, cradled the body of his deceased master while Allie collapsed at the sight of the slain Jedi Knights. Shaak Ti, lamenting her failure, showed Windu and Fisto a security recording of Grievous's escape, while a clone trooper explained that the General had departed through the south tunnels. Although the two were astonished by the general's audacious move, Windu ordered the troopers to recall any Jedi pilots to assist in pursuing Grievous.

As Grievous piloted the tri-wing shuttle into orbit, a number of Jedi pilots, including Tiin, Kolar, L'lacielo Sageon, and Pablo-Jill, joined Mace Windu and Kit Fisto in their pursuit of the General. As the shuttle carrying Palpatine and Grievous approached the Invisible Hand, several Republic frigates and corvettes detached from the main battle and joined the Jedi in their pursuit. Windu and the Jedi were closing in on Grievous when a swarm of five hundred droid fighters, launched from a Trade Federation battleship, surrounded the shuttle in a defensive formation. As the shuttle neared its destination, the flagship opened fire on the pursuing Jedi fighters. While one of their comrades was killed, Pablo-Jill and Sageon were captured by the Invisible Hand's tractor beams and brought into the hangar bay. The two Jedi attempted to defeat Grievous and rescue the Chancellor, but they were killed by the droid general in a lightsaber duel. Their bodies were ejected into space for the Republic's citizens to witness.

Once safely aboard his command ship, Grievous transmitted a message across the HoloNet, announcing the capture of the Chancellor and proclaiming an end to the Republic's corrupt rule, causing panic and fear among the Republic populace. However, before he could escape, thousands of Republic warships from the Open Circle Fleet arrived in the system and engaged the Separatist fleet. The reinforcements and the beleaguered Home Fleet trapped the Separatist ships in Coruscant's upper atmosphere, beneath the planetary shields. Debris from both sides rained down on the planet's surface, with impacts destroying large areas of the city.

During the battle, the spacers Tobb Jadak and Reeze Duurmon arrived in their ship, the Stellar Envoy, during the most intense moments of the conflict to meet up with the Republic Group. Upon arriving at the planet, they were tasked with acquiring an object from an individual named Folee that would restore the Republic from Palpatine's near-dictatorial rule. However, the meeting was interrupted by the arrival of the Republic Director and ardent Palpatine supporter, Armand Isard, who dispatched a battalion of clone troopers to pursue the spacers, having learned of the Republic Group's plot against Palpatine.

Meanwhile, the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker had been searching for Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyranus, on the planet Tythe in the Outer Rim Territories. After exploring a ruined building where Dooku had been, the two returned to their Venator-class Star Destroyer, the Integrity, where they received news of the attack on Coruscant. The Jedi immediately prepared their interceptors and prepared for battle.

Unable to escape Coruscant, the Invisible Hand had suffered significant damage from the guns of Republic Star Destroyers over a full day of combat. A screen of Separatist battleships, destroyers, and frigates shielded the flagship from further harm, but after hours of sustained fighting, the craft's deflector shields were failing.

The 501st Legion was immediately assigned the task of boarding their starfighters in a Venator-class Star Destroyer's hangar and engaging the Separatist fighters in fierce dogfights. Their objective was to clear a path for Skywalker and Kenobi. The pilots proceeded to destroy a number of Vulture droids and a Munificent-class star frigate, as well as the shields and communications array of a Providence-class carrier/destroyer. Several 501st fighters then landed in the enemy cruiser's hangar, disembarked, and manually detonated the inner engine cooling tanks and auto turret defense system. Re-entering their fighters, the pilots circled the Providence cruiser, destroying its bridge.

At that moment, Kenobi and Skywalker emerged from hyperspace with a vanguard from the Fifth Fleet of the Open Circle Fleet. Capitalizing on the opportunity created by the 501st, they piloted their fighters towards Grievous's flagship. They were unable to communicate with the Jedi High Command due to heavy Separatist ECM jamming and were uncertain if any other Jedi were fighting to rescue Palpatine. As they approached, they encountered hundreds of Vulture fighters and tri-fighters swarming protectively around the general's command ship, and the Jedi engaged the fighters with the assistance of Clone Flight Squad Seven. The two Jedi were also supported by X2, who served as their escort and eliminated numerous Vulture droids. The clones sustained heavy casualties, and Skywalker was prepared to return and assist them.

However, Kenobi forbade him from doing so, insisting that they adhere to their mission. As the duo approached the Invisible Hand, they observed another destroyer moving to assist Grievous's flagship. Kenobi dispatched X2 to hijack that ship. When the clone infiltrated the destroyer, Kenobi sent two additional troopers to assist him. The clones successfully reached the starship's bridge and seized control of the vessel, and X2 used its weaponry to destroy the Invisible Hand's turbolaser defenses, as well as some Vulture droids that were attacking the approaching Jedi.

Soon, Kenobi and Skywalker were attacked by a swarm of Vulture droids. The droids launched missiles at them, but Skywalker managed to evade them by performing a barrel roll, causing the missiles' flight paths to intersect. Kenobi, however, was unable to avoid the missiles targeting him, and they detonated, releasing buzz droids that attached themselves to his ship's hull. His astromech droid R4-P17 was destroyed, and the droids were rapidly disabling Kenobi's Jedi interceptor. Skywalker rescued his friend by firing on the buzz droids and ramming Kenobi's ship, crushing them, but he also destroyed the port dorsal radiator on Kenobi's interceptor in the process. One surviving buzz droid managed to board Anakin's Jedi interceptor, although R2-D2, guided by Kenobi and Skywalker, managed to deactivate it by zapping it in the center eye with its lightning gun.

As they sped toward Grievous's flagship, Skywalker, after being reminded by Kenobi and R2 that the flagship's shields were still active, exploited the fact that the warship's main deflector shields had been partially compromised and destroyed the atmospheric containment shield protecting the hangar bay entrance. With Kenobi's ship's engines failing, the two fighters breached the vessel's defenses and crash-landed in the hangar, where the Jedi quickly eliminated all security droid resistance. After R2-D2 located Palpatine's homing beacon, they proceeded toward the signal emanating from the upper observation deck.

However, Grievous anticipated the Jedi's arrival on his flagship, as Dooku had predicted. He was summoned to the bridge by the ship's captain Lushros Dofine and informed that the Jedi were being tracked.

As the two Jedi advanced toward Palpatine, they encountered more droids in the halls, along with wreckage and locked doors, but they overcame these obstacles. At one point, the duo evaded several MagnaGuards by cutting a hole in the floor and dropping a fuel tank, narrowly escaping before it exploded. After boarding a turbolift upon evading destroyer droids, Kenobi and Skywalker were confronted by a battalion of B1-Series battle droids, although their demand that the Jedi Knights drop their weapons backfired when it caused them to lower their own guard, giving the Jedi Knights an opportunity to cut them all down. After a brief mishap when the lift they were using was stopped, Kenobi and Skywalker were assisted by R2-D2 in reaching the top of the Invisible Hand's conning tower—the location of the general's quarters—where Palpatine was being held captive. Likewise, R2-D2 was briefly captured by two patrolling B2 super battle droids shortly thereafter, although R2-D2 managed to escape by spraying them with oil and then igniting the oil when activating his thrusters to fly off, burning them.

Before the Jedi could free Palpatine, Dooku arrived, accompanied by two super battle droids and several security droids. Leaping down from the balcony, he engaged the Jedi. Referring to their earlier failure to stop him on Geonosis, Kenobi suggested to Skywalker that they fight him together, with Skywalker concurring. The two Jedi initiated the duel by employing basic attacks of the forms Ataru and Shien in an attempt to deceive Dooku. Initially, Dooku easily countered their attacks with his mastery of Makashi. However, he was caught off guard when they switched to their more advanced and preferred forms of Soresu and Djem So.

Dooku then used the Force to push Kenobi out of the way, allowing him to focus on Skywalker. Evading a fierce swing, Dooku led Skywalker up the stairs to the balcony. Meanwhile, Kenobi defeated the battle droids and moved to attack Dooku from behind. However, Dooku kicked Skywalker aside and quickly incapacitated Kenobi, slamming him into one of the walls with the Force. To prevent Kenobi from rejoining the fight, Dooku then used the Force to cause debris to fall on top of Kenobi, leaving him unconscious and pinned down. Enraged, Anakin kicked Dooku off the balcony and engaged him again. Dooku sensed through the Force that the situation had instilled fear in Skywalker. Seeking to exploit this, he taunted Skywalker, attempting to apply the Sith Dun Möch technique with the hope of disrupting Skywalker's concentration. However, he incorrectly assumed that Skywalker was afraid of facing Dooku alone, when in reality, the fear that Dooku had sensed stemmed from Skywalker's concern for Kenobi's safety. The attempt backfired, and Skywalker began to draw upon the Dark Side, unleashing fast, heavy power attacks against his opponent. Dooku was forced backward, and his overconfidence in his control of the situation and underestimation of Skywalker would prove to be his downfall. With his strength and aggressive lightsaber technique, Skywalker finally overwhelmed Dooku's defenses and cut off both his hands. Seizing Dooku's lightsaber, he held both blades in a scissor arc toward the Sith Lord's neck.

The shackled Palpatine commended Skywalker's victory and encouraged him to kill Dooku, thereby betraying his apprentice. Dooku was shocked and horrified by his master's command. Dooku finally realized that his master had never considered him a true Sith Apprentice, but rather a pawn to be used and discarded. Skywalker initially hesitated to kill Dooku, claiming that it was not the Jedi way to execute a defenseless enemy. Despite his reservations and with Palpatine goading him on, Skywalker succumbed to his anger and desire for revenge and beheaded Dooku, ending the Separatist firebrand's life. Nonetheless, Skywalker immediately regretted the decision, with Palpatine feigning sympathy regarding Skywalker's regret and acknowledging that it was not the first time Skywalker had given in to anger, alluding to Skywalker's slaughter of the Tusken Raiders after they tortured his mother, Shmi Skywalker Lars, to death.

As the confrontation between the Jedi and Sith concluded, the Invisible Hand engaged the Venator-class Star Destroyer Guarlara in direct combat, exchanging broadsides with the warship. Both sides unleashed heavy turbolaser fire. The Republic destroyer managed to damage the Invisible Hand's systems, causing it to lose control. Sustaining critical damage, the Separatist command ship temporarily plummeted toward Coruscant before regaining control. However, with artificial gravity, tensor fields, and inertial compensators failing, the ship was rapidly becoming a decaying space wreck.

Escape was now Skywalker's priority. He gathered the unconscious Kenobi, despite Palpatine's urging to abandon him, and headed back toward the turbolift bank. However, due to damage sustained during its battle with the Guarlara, the turbolift system was rendered non-functional. With the Invisible Hand accelerating its descent toward Coruscant, Skywalker and Palpatine were forced to travel directly down the shaft. Before they could reach their destination, the ship, due to the bridge crew activating the ship's emergency booster engines at Grievous's command, righted itself, causing Skywalker and Palpatine to cling to a ledge, the jolt of which also resulted in Kenobi regaining consciousness. To worsen matters, the turbolift Anakin had called for earlier also descended to their location due to miscommunication with R2-D2, nearly crushing them. Skywalker attempted to call R2-D2 to stop it, but Kenobi told him to jump, realizing there was no time. They eventually dove inside an open elevator door, narrowly avoiding the speeding elevator.

The Jedi then escorted the Chancellor to the hangar. As they headed back to the hangar, the Jedi were confronted by battle droids, which they dispatched. They then received word that a Republic cruiser was under attack by a Separatist cruiser, and its systems were failing rapidly. Anakin took control of a nearby laser turret and fired on the Separatist cruiser, ultimately destroying it. After this, the Jedi continued toward the main hangar bay. Before they could reach it, Grievous learned that they were in Hallway 328 of the Invisible Hand and ordered the activation of the ray shields. The shields dropped on the Jedi and Palpatine. Skywalker was confident that R2-D2 would arrive and release the shields, but as the astromech came screeching in, droidekas unfolded and aimed at him; a super battle droid even kicked him to the ground after being zapped in the blaster arm. The Jedi, along with the Chancellor and R2-D2, were captured and taken to the bridge, where they were brought before Grievous.

The droid general seized Kenobi and Skywalker's lightsabers, boasting about adding them to his collection, but the Jedi, after warning him that he wouldn't escape "this time," were able to recover them with the help of R2-D2, who used beams of electricity to distract the guards. The Jedi summoned their lightsabers back as Grievous ordered his MagnaGuards to eliminate the Jedi and ensure their suffering. After a brief battle, the Jedi defeated the droid warriors (with Obi-Wan initially struggling because beheading the droid did not destroy it) and closed in on Grievous, intending to capture him. Grievous, in his weakened state, grabbed an overloaded electrostaff wielded by one of his MagnaGuards and hurled it into the damaged bridge viewport, shattering it violently.

General Grievous ejected himself into the vacuum of space, only to later re-enter his ship through a hatch connected to an escape pod. Concurrently, the crew of the Invisible Hand abandoned the bridge as the Jedi Knights eliminated the remaining OOM pilot battle droids who had stayed behind. Grievous, in a bid to prevent the Jedi from escaping, launched all of his flagship's escape pods and escaped to a Trade Federation battleship nearby, taking with him some of the Invisible Hand's crew who had boarded the pods. Dofine was an exception, perishing when his pod was struck by random turbolaser fire. At the same time, a Republic communications failure resulted in Home Fleet Strike Group Five unleashing a devastating barrage on the Invisible Hand, inflicting critical damage to the ship's systems. As a result, the Separatist command ship began a rapid, uncontrolled descent toward Coruscant.

Skywalker seized control of the ship, desperately trying to guide the crippled vessel to a safe landing on Coruscant. Due to immense atmospheric pressure and structural failure, the entire rear section of the Invisible Hand was torn away. Nevertheless, Skywalker, determined to minimize further damage to Coruscant, which had already suffered greatly from the battle, managed to crash-land the ship on a rarely used landing platform in Galactic City's industrial sector with assistance from Fire Team Three (though two members of the team were lost in the process). The landing did result in the destruction of one of the platform's observation towers. The loss of their flagship, the failure of their primary objective, and the safe return of their Supreme Commander, Grievous, forced the surviving elements of the diminished Separatist fleet to retreat in disgrace to the Outer Rim territories. Pockets of resistance persisted among anti-Republic elements within Coruscant's population, who had revolted during the battle, but they were eventually suppressed. Unbeknownst to those above, a group of agents hailing from the Cularin system had been battling the Dark Jedi Garth Ezzar in the Undercity, finally succeeding in killing him shortly after the Invisible Hand's demise.

It was later discovered that the sole purpose of the battle was to draw Darth Sidious away from the capital, thereby disrupting the Jedi's efforts to locate him. Sidious also orchestrated the capture of his public persona, Palpatine, to test whether Skywalker could harness his anger to defeat Darth Tyranus and become Sidious's ideal apprentice. His deception proved so convincing that even the Jedi were deceived. Subsequently, Sidious contacted Grievous soon after the latter reached his base on Utapau, instructing him to move the Separatist Council to Mustafar. Following this order, Sidious informed the general that the war was nearing its conclusion. Despite Grievous's protest that Count Dooku's death likely meant defeat for the Separatists, Sidious reassured him that Dooku's demise was necessary, hinting that he would soon acquire a new Sith apprentice, one who would be far younger and more powerful.

With Dooku gone, Grievous took over as head of state of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, but this severely weakened the Separatists' power. The Separatist Council members, no longer confident in victory due to the Sith Lord's assurances, began to question their new leader's ability to protect them. Back on Coruscant, the Jedi Council prioritized tracking down Grievous and bringing him to justice.

Coruscant sustained considerable damage due to Separatist bombings, vulture droid attacks, crashing ships, and intense urban combat. Some of the large craters created during the battle remained even after the Clone Wars ended.

Elsewhere, the Stellar Envoy, while trying to escape Republic forces, made a haphazard hyperspace jump to Nal Hutta instead of Toprawa. The Stellar Envoy then collided with a bulk cruiser, causing significant damage and resulting in Duurmun's death and placing Jadak into a seventy-year coma. His legs were later amputated due to irreparable damage from the crash.

Twenty-nine years later, a similar event to the destruction and landing of the Invisible Hand would be replicated by Anakin Skywalker's son, Luke Skywalker, when he and Lando Calrissian were shot down by Imperial forces aboard the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer Liberator over Coruscant during a failed infiltration mission. Like his father, he successfully landed the remains of the Liberator on Coruscant with minimal casualties.

The Battle of Coruscant was conceived for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, serving as an expository element. It is also described in other works, such as the novel Labyrinth of Evil, where it first appeared, and the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. Select portions of the battle are playable in video games such as Star Wars: Battlefront II and the Revenge of the Sith video game.

In the DVD commentary for Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas stated that the Battle of Coruscant was intended to bridge the prequel and original trilogy, using ARC-170s as precursors to X-wings and including vulture droids from The Phantom Menace. The New Essential Chronology claims the battle spanned a week, while the Revenge of the Sith novelization says it lasted only a "long, long day."

Accounts of the battle are inconsistent, and the canonical version remains unclear. This discrepancy arises primarily because the Star Wars: Clone Wars series and the novel Labyrinth of Evil (released two months before the Clone Wars episodes aired) present differing accounts. In the animated series, Mace Windu and Yoda jointly defeated a large battle droid force, whereas Labyrinth of Evil does not depict Yoda's participation and shows Windu assisting in Palpatine's protection, engaging Grievous in a duel aboard a maglev train, as mentioned in the Revenge of the Sith novelization. In Labyrinth of Evil, the Jedi protecting Palpatine in the bunker (Roron Corobb, Foul Moudama, Roth-Del Masona, and B'ink Utrila) were quickly defeated by Grievous and only joined the protection effort later, whereas in the animated series, Corobb and Moudama assisted Ti from the start, engaging in a lengthy chase through the city before being defeated. Utrila and Masona were absent. Additionally, Stass Allie assisted Shaak Ti in protecting Palpatine in Labyrinth, while Allie does not appear in Clone Wars. The webstrip Reversal of Fortune made an attempt to reconcile these two accounts.

Another inconsistency concerns the location of Kenobi and Skywalker before their return to Coruscant. The novel places them on Tythe, while the series places them on Nelvaan (which Dooku only briefly visits in the novel). Initially, Leland Chee retconned this by stating that the Nelvaan events occurred after Tythe, but this was later overwritten by The New Essential Chronology, which reversed the order. Consequently, this article incorporates information from The New Essential Chronology, integrating details from both Labyrinth of Evil and Clone Wars.

In the GBA and DS versions of the video game adaptation of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin, shortly after learning about his secret mission to spy on Palpatine for the Jedi Council from Obi-Wan, had to eliminate several Confederacy droids and an AAT suspected of being secretly planted by the Separatists. Furthermore, in the DS version, just before Anakin arrived at the Jedi Temple, he had to destroy a squadron of Vulture Droids that had arrived to cause chaos throughout the city.

The battle was also featured in the video game Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron for the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS. The two versions of the game portray the battle very differently. This article currently describes the events as depicted in the Nintendo DS version. In the PSP edition, X1 and X2 participated in the battle, immediately engaging Separatist forces in orbit around Coruscant. Initially, they fought enemy droid fighters, and eventually X2 and some clone troopers boarded a Providence-class carrier/destroyer. Inside the ship, X2 commandeered its orbital strike cannon and used it against Separatist ground forces that had been deployed onto Coruscant's surface. This provided the Republic support by hampering the Confederacy's ground invasion. Once complete, X2 and his clone brothers departed the ship in escape pods and reached the planet's surface in order to support the Republic's forces against the Confederacy. X2 reached Jedi General Mace Windu's location, and Windu tasked him with repairing a defense turret in order to blast Separatist barricades surrounding the Senate building. After X2 has completed the task, he and Windu reached the building and faced off against Grievous and his Magnaguards. After a short battle, the droid General retreated.