Siege of Otoh Gunga

Back in 32 BBY, the Trade Federation of Planets initiated a blockade against the world of Naboo as a demonstration against Senate Resolution BR-0371. This was done under the orders of Sith Lord Darth Sidious, who was secretly Senator Palpatine representing Naboo. After a failed mission to end the blockade by Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Trade Federation turned the blockade into a full-blown invasion of Naboo. Initially, they focused on the surface-dwelling Human Naboo population, ignoring the native Gungan species who resided under the sea. Jinn and Kenobi went to the Gungan leader Boss Rugor Nass in their capital Otoh Gunga to warn him that the Trade Federation would come after the Gungans once they had conquered the Humans. Nass, however, believed the Trade Federation would leave the Gungans alone. As the invasion continued, many Gungans grew anxious, leading Nass to start planning for a potential evacuation of their cities.

Soon after the Droid Army landed on Naboo, Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray began hearing rumors about Gungan sightings. At first, the company dismissed these rumors, but after they captured the Human capital city of Theed, they felt they could no longer ignore them. A sailor from the captured city Harte Secur told the B1-Series battle droid OOM-9 about the Gungan bubble city Rellias and its leader, Boss Ganne. OOM-9 then organized the Droid Army to search the swamps for the Gungans, reporting directly to Gunray in Theed Royal Palace when they were ready to start the search. Gunray was confident that the Gungans would be quickly defeated, believing he already controlled the planet.

OOM-9's initial searches failed to locate any Gungan villages or capture any Gungans. After a Trade Federation plasma mining camp was destroyed, Sith apprentice Darth Maul was sent to Naboo by Sidious to help the Neimoidians of the Trade Federation eliminate the remaining resistance, which included the Gungans. Maul's attempt to abduct Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo on Tatooine had failed, and while Maul was away, Sidious revised his plans.

When Maul met with Gunray and his advisor, Rune Haako, he asked about the Gungans. Gunray and Haako tried to downplay the fact that they hadn't found any Gungan settlements, which disgusted Maul. Maul caught Gunray in a lie about having disposed of thousands of Gungan bodies in the sea. Gunray tried to argue that the Gungans weren't a threat, but Maul informed him that they possessed their own Grand Army and enough plasma weapons to pose a significant danger. The Neimoidians then told Maul that OOM-9 was in charge of the Gungan search, and Maul ordered Gunray to inform the battle droid that he would be taking over the search. Maul then departed on his speeder, Bloodfin, heading to OOM-9's forward observation post located next to a marsh teeming with insects.

By the time Maul arrived, OOM-9's droids had already shot and killed four Gungans who were caught trading with outsiders near the city of Moenia, while the traders were held in Camp Six. Upon arriving, the Sith apprentice asked OOM-9 how many Gungans had been captured. The battle droid lied, claiming forty-seven had been captured, as instructed by computers on the orbiting Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship, the Vuutun Paala. Maul chose not to expose OOM-9's lie and instead asked to see the four Gungan corpses, using the opportunity to inquire further about the search. OOM-9 admitted they hadn't found any sign of Rellias, suggesting that the Gungans were jamming their scanners. Maul worried that the Gungans would interfere with his mission to capture Amidala and eliminate Jinn and Kenobi, who were protecting her. Consequently, he ordered OOM-9 to poison the nearby waters and, if that failed, to drain the entire marsh to expose any Gungans.

Maul then rode his speeder to Summit Farm Blossom Winery to find Maris Magneta, the former security chief for Naboo's late king, Ars Veruna. Sidious had suggested that she might be able to help locate the Gungan cities. Magneta invited Maul in, offering him a drink, but then admitted she didn't know how to find the cities. She did, however, offer the name Leika, a Bothan surveyor who had been hired by Veruna to analyze Gungan territory. Leika had been stranded on Naboo when the Trade Federation's blockade began, so Magneta suggested Maul could find her at a Trade Federation detention camp.

As Maul was about to leave, Magneta revealed her past involvement in schemes involving the Neimoidians, Palpatine, and Hego Demask—Palpatine's Sith Master, Darth Plagueis. Maul had never heard of Demask, who Magneta claimed had been controlling Palpatine. Knowing he couldn't allow any connection between Palpatine and the Neimoidians to be discovered, Maul realized he was being ambushed as he heard Magneta reach for a blaster hidden under her apron and several armed farmers approaching the building. The Sith used the Force to break Magneta's neck and kicked her bodyguard as he entered the room. The farmers fired blasters at the door, but Maul dove out the window in a somersault, landing among them and killing them one by one.

The Sith apprentice then went to Camp Six and found Leika, who feared Maul had come to kill him. Relieved to learn otherwise, the Bothan agreed to help Maul in exchange for passage off Naboo. Leika inserted a data crystal into a reader, revealing a 3D map of Naboo's swamps. At Maul's request, she provided the coordinates of Rellias. Leika also explained how the Trade Federation could enter the Gungan's hydrostatic bubbles and gave information about a fortified plasma channel leading to Otoh Gunga and other major Gungan cities, as well as their Sacred Place. Maul took the data crystal and reader from Leika, promising to honor their agreement.

OOM-9's attempt to poison the marsh had darkened the water and killed many gooberfish. However, when the droids tried to drain the marsh, they discovered that the water was being replenished by vast underground systems. Upon Maul's return, OOM-9 reported the situation. Maul then gave the data crystal to the droid, ordering him to transmit the data to their Single Trooper Aerial Platform patrols. Maul instructed the STAPs to bombard Rellias's location with depth charges. Maul and OOM-9 then traveled to Rellias aboard an S-DST, an aquatic destroyer, accompanied by half a company of B1 battle droids and a full contingent of droidekas. By mid-afternoon, the S-DST had navigated through a series of channels to reach a large lake.

The STAPs continued to detonate depth charges on the water as Maul prepared for combat. As the STAPs approached Rellias, they were devastated by Otolla Gungan militiagungs wielding plasma boomas and energy lances while positioned on nearby stone fortifications. A fleet of Gungan submersibles then emerged from the water and began firing on the S-DST. The droids landed their destroyer on the beach to disembark, where they were met with a kaadu-mounted cavalry charge led by Ganne and an Ankura general. Behind the cavalry, the droids were attacked by catapults strapped to the backs of fambaas. The battle droids marched directly towards the charging Gungans, firing their blasters.

Maul jumped off the S-DST and leapt into the air, grabbing onto the footrest of one of the few remaining STAPs. Several Gungans fired at Maul, who dodged their shots and blocked others with his lightsaber. When he was within twenty meters of Ganne, the Sith apprentice used the Force to propel himself through the crowd of mounted Gungans, cutting them down efficiently. Maul noticed that the Gungans were surprised by his presence, as a Sith hadn't wielded a lightsaber in open battle for almost a thousand years. Gungan body parts were scattered everywhere as Maul approached Ganne, cutting the legs from under some of the kaadu. Five meters from Ganne, Maul leapt into the air, decapitating the general and knocking Ganne off his kaadu with his left hand.

Ganne scrambled to grab an electropole, but Maul disarmed him and dragged him to the treeline at the edge of the battlefield. Recognizing Ganne's weak will, Maul chose not to use force. Instead, he deactivated his lightsaber and used a mind trick to overpower Ganne's will, forcing him to lead the way to Otoh Gunga. Ganne told Maul that they would need to pass through the Rellias Straits to reach the capital and agreed to open the Gates of Rellias along the way. Maul then dragged Ganne back to the S-DST.

A Gungan scout spotted a group of STAPs and B1 battle droids and reported it to Otoh Gunga. News of Rellias's fall quickly reached the capital. Boss Nass met with the Gungan High Council and warned them that they needed to evacuate before the Trade Federation arrived. Many council members wanted to stay, but Representative Been convinced them to seek shelter at the Sacred Place. The Gungans of Otoh Gunga struggled to pack their belongings but knew their lives were at risk if they remained. Captain Roos Tarpals oversaw the evacuation of thousands of Gungans from Otoh Gunga. Almost all of the city's one million inhabitants managed to escape due to the vastness of the Gungan Swamp. Nass led the Gungans to the Sacred Place, where they prayed to their deities, the guds, for protection.

As the droids reached the Gates of Rellias, Ganne tried to resist Maul's command to open them, not wanting to betray Otoh Gunga. Maul repeated his command, and the boss obeyed, opening the gates. The droids traveled on the destroyer through the straits to Lake Paonga, where Otoh Gunga was located. Groups of militiagungs on the shore fired boomas at the droids. Maul stopped the attacks by securing Ganne to the S-DST's bow as a figurehead. The Gungans refused to attack their boss, instead brandishing their electropoles and shouting war cries. With their STAPs destroyed, OOM-9 ordered his battle droids to detonate explosives in the lake. Maul realized that the city must have been evacuated when no bodies surfaced. This was confirmed when OOM-9's drone submersibles returned from their scouting missions.

Maul hauled Ganne onto the deck to find out where Nass was hiding, but the boss resisted Maul's mind control. Maul drew his lightsaber and tortured Ganne, who eventually revealed that Nass had gone to the Sacred Place, which Maul found somewhat honorable. After Ganne died, Maul threw his blistered body into the lake. OOM-9 then informed Maul that he had received a communication from Gunray stating that Queen Amidala and the Jedi had returned to Naboo. Maul returned to Theed to discuss strategy with the Neimoidians.

In the days following the siege, the Gungans at the Sacred Place grew anxious. As supplies dwindled, fights broke out. They were divided on whether to return to Otoh Gunga or retaliate against the Trade Federation. Captain Tarpals fought several skirmishes against droid patrols to keep the Sacred Place hidden. He and General Tobler Ceel began planning a guerilla warfare campaign involving hit-and-run attacks on the Trade Federation, followed by quick retreats into the swamps. However, Nass urged his people to be patient. Queen Amidala had returned to Naboo to fight against the Trade Federation and planned an alliance with the Gungans. She hoped to use her Gungan companion Jar Jar Binks to meet with Boss Nass, but Binks found Otoh Gunga deserted, with many buildings scorched by blaster fire. The Gungan returned to the surface to report his findings, leading Kenobi and Amidala's Head of Security Quarsh Panaka to believe that the Gungans had been killed or captured. Binks correctly guessed that they had evacuated to the Sacred Place and led the Queen's entourage there, risking his life due to his unpopularity among the Gungans.

As the group approached the Sacred Place, Tarpals and several Gungan guards met the queen. Amidala initially feared that they blamed her for the invasion as much as the Trade Federation. Tarpals took the group to meet with Nass, where Amidala begged for his help in retaking Naboo. Impressed by Amidala's humility, Nass agreed, overcoming centuries of distrust between Humans and Gungans. Together, they devised a plan where the Gungan Grand Army would distract the majority of the Trade Federation Droid Army on the Great Grass Plains near Theed. Meanwhile, Amidala would infiltrate Theed Palace to capture Gunray, and pilots from the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps would destroy the orbiting droid control ship to deactivate the Trade Federation's army. Maul, having used the information gained from torturing Boss Ganne, spied on some of the planning at the Sacred Place.

The Siege of Otoh Gunga was created for the prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, written and directed by George Lucas. The siege was absent from the revised rough draft of the film, which instead described the Trade Federation as not having discovered Otoh Gunga. In that version, Amidala and her group meet with Nass inside the city and convince him to join them because they have no other allies. The siege was added to the story by the final draft, and a brief scene was included where Binks enters Otoh Gunga after the siege and sees signs of a battle, such as buildings marked by blaster fire.

The first published mention of the siege was in the novelization of The Phantom Menace, published on April 21, 1999, before the film's premiere on May 19, 1999. The first narrative source to depict the evacuation of Otoh Gunga was the 2000 picture book Gungan Trouble!, written by Liza Baker and illustrated by Jerry Vanderstelt. The 2001 LucasArts video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds was the first source to show the violence between the Trade Federation and the Gungans, rather than just its aftermath. The game depicted the siege in the fifth and sixth levels of the Trade Federation campaign, titled "The Search for an Underwater Kingdom" and "The Siege of Otoh Gunga," which named the event. The former level shows the breach of the Rellias Straits, while the latter involves the attack on Otoh Gunga.

The short story "End Game," written by James Luceno and published in the 2012 rerelease of The Phantom Menace novelization, portrayed the initial stage of the siege as taking place on a river bank leading into Lake Paonga, which contradicts the portrayal in "The Search for an Underwater Kingdom" from Galactic Battlegrounds, where the abduction of Boss Ganne takes place entirely on land. This article follows the short story's version of events, incorporating details from Galactic Battlegrounds and the Prima guide that don't contradict it. The remaining details are included below.

Darth Maul is present at the beginning of the level with the stealth ship Scimitar, rather than the Bloodfin as described in "End Game." Also present are six beetle droids, four Heavy Battle Droids, two droidekas, two Armored Assault Tanks, and two energy pummels. The strategy guide recommends that the player send Maul ahead of the rest of their units because of his ability to defeat any unit in the level. The guide suggests that the player take a hidden path through a forest to find hidden Gungan farms, where Maul can destroy four kaadu troopers, the worker Glurrgs who are tending the farms, and the farms themselves. Destroying the farms and the Gungans is not required to complete the level and can be skipped. Afterwards, the guide suggests sending the other droids through the farms and onto Ganne's compound, where they will encounter Gungan forces including troopers, kaadu troopers, catapaults, and Booma Troopers. After defeating them, the player can proceed east to the compound's command center, noting that Maul could destroy it alone if the player is patient, but that they should send their pummels instead. Once the building is destroyed, the player can access a short path to find Ganne on a kaadu.

When the player moves Maul into proximity of Ganne, the Gungan becomes an ally, brought under Maul's control through the Force. The lines exchanged between the two differ from those in "End Game," with Ganne at first putting up resistance to Maul's influence. Ganne then instructs the Trade Federation to proceed southwest towards the Rellias Channel. En route, the player will find four Heavy Battle Droids and a pair of droidekas – documented as a group of four in the official strategy guide – who join the player's forces as reinforcements. As the player presses southward, they will face additional Gungan forces; the strategy guide suggests the player can overcome these forces, and that Maul should use his mind trick ability to sway some of them to their side.

Ultimately, the player arrives at the Rellias Gates, which the guide indicates can be destroyed using the player's pummels. However, instead of destruction, a dialogue sequence begins where Ganne struggles against betraying his own people by opening the gates, but is forced to comply by Maul's command. The level's concluding section is defended by a pair of turrets, along with Gungan soldiers, including heavily armed militiagungs and weaponized Lerraas riding fambaas. The strategy guide advises using the droidekas to eliminate the Gungans, while the pummels should be used to take out the turrets. Once the player has accomplished this, they can advance their forces through the final gate, reaching the entrance to Lake Paonga. The level concludes with Darth Sidious's voice celebrating the Trade Federation's victory. The guide points out that the primary condition for losing the level is if Ganne is eliminated.