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Battle of Coruscant
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The Battle of Coruscant is a fictional conflict in the Star Wars saga, taking place during the end of the Cartoon Network microseries and the novel Labyrinth of Evil and during the opening scene of . In the timeline of battles, it took place immediately before the Battle of Kashyyyk and the Battle of Utapau, and after the Battle of Nelvaan.
The Battle of Coruscant during the Clone Wars was an attempt by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine.
The Separatists, having found a secret hyperspace passage through the Deep Core, managed to literally jump right on top of the Republic forces protecting the capital. Thousands of Separatist ships jumped out of hyperspace, taking the Republic fleet completely by surprise. Many ships were destroyed this way, when unsuspecting Separatist warships exited hyperspace only to crash right into Republic ships obstructing their way.
While a ferocious space battle began, in which both sides took heavy losses, Separatist landing craft were deployed onto the surface of the planet, unloading ground forces to create an elaborate diversion while Count Dooku's second-in-command, General Grievous, accompanied by a small force, attempted to capture the Chancellor.
Jedi Masters Mace Windu and Yoda performed incredible feats while commanding clone armies tasked with defending the city. Due to the enormous amount of fighting, they were oblivious to the true reason behind the attack, and were unable to stop the abduction of the Chancellor.
Capture of Chancellor PalpatineWhile the battle raged far from his quarters, the Chancellor was ordered to evacuate his apartment and follow an escort led by several Jedi to an underground bunker.
Before they could leave, Grievous crashed though the apartment window, intent on grabbing the Chancellor right in the midst of his security force. While Palpatine gave Grievous a piece of his mind, the Jedi managed to whisk him to (relative) safety, while a squad of clone troopers and a Senate Guard remained behind to deal with the General.
Disposing of this force easily with his lightsabers and metallic claws, the General went after the Chancellor and his Jedi bodyguards, pulling off acrobatic maneuvers comparable to the Jedi themselves.
As the chase progressed through Coruscant, Grievous was joined by a large squad of his elite IG-100 MagnaGuards. Palpatine's defenders boarded a mag-lev train, using it to reach Palpatine's fortified bunker. Shaak Ti was soon joined by Mace Windu - fresh from an aerial battle with droid starfighters which he started by literally hijacking/hiwiring a droid starfighter - and Kit Fisto. Battle droids were soon deployed on the train, followed by Grievous himself. Fisto took on the General's bodyguards while Mace dueled Grievous himself atop the train. After an intense duel, Grievous was thrown from the roof, but managed to commandeer a LAAT while his gunboat led his pursuers on a wild chase through the city.
After several duels and narrow escapes, the Chancellor and the Jedi arrived at a turboshaft leading to the bunker. Staying behind to deal with any hostiles, Shaak Ti sent the remaining two Jedi, Roron Corobb and Foul Moudama down with the Chancellor in case she failed. It was all in vain.
The captured gunship opened fire on Shaak Ti and Stass Allie, and Grievous emerged. Grievous and his MagnaGuards cut a swathe through Palpatine's guards, killing more than forty clone troopers. While Shaak Ti fought off dozens of MagnaGuards, Grievous slaughtered both the other Jedi and seized the Chancellor. When Shaak Ti finally arrived, having sensed the set-up, she was quickly disarmed, and left trussed up by a force-field wire in order to inform her rescuers that the Chancellor was gone.
Just as Grievous was boarding his shuttle with the Chancellor, Master Windu arrived and confronted the General. Thinking a brief display of power would make the Jedi back off, Grievous miscalculated and got his internal organs telekinetically crushed by Windu. Despite this, he escaped with Palpatine, though Windu and Kit Fisto were soon in hot pursuit, along with other Jedi pilots including Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar and Pablo-Jill.
Grievous' shuttle sped into orbit, flying through the heart of the battle to reach the Separatist flagship, Invisible Hand. Two Jedi managed to breach the Hands defences, but were killed by Grievous upon leaving their fighters. Their bodies were ejected into space.
Safely aboard his command ship, General Grievous broadcast a fear-inspiring message across the HoloNet, revealing the capture of the Chancellor, and threatening to kill him while the citizens of the Republic watched. Meanwhile, in the Outer Rim, word reached Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker of the attack on Coruscant, who powered up their interceptors immediately, ready to join the battle.
Rescue mission Battle erupted in the upper atmosphere of Coruscant and in nearby space. Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were called back from the Outer Rim to assist in the rescue of Palpatine, leading their own legion of fighters into the battle. The Jedi flew advanced Jedi starfighters while the Clones led by "Odd Ball" flew in ARC-170 ships, serving to keep the Droid Forces (among them Droid starfighters, Tri-Droid Fighters, and Buzz droids) busy while the Jedi flew directly for the Invisible Hand, where Palpatine was being held.
The Jedi were able to enter the Cruiser's hangar bay and with the help of R2-D2, find the location of Palpatine, who was alone in a viewing tower on the ship. As Skywalker and Kenobi went to free him, the Separatist leader and Sith Lord Count Dooku appeared and fought both Kenobi and Skywalker in a lightsaber duel. Using the Force, Count Dooku incapacitated Kenobi, leaving Skywalker to fight him alone.
What Anakin didn't realize what that the duel was a trap. Count Dooku and Palpatine, secretly the Sith master Darth Sidious, had conspired to turn Anakin to the dark side. Taunted by Dooku and egged on by Palpatine, Anakin used his anger to defeat Dooku, first by cutting off both of his hands and then hold two lightsabers (his own as well as Dooku's) at his throat. Impressed, Palpatine commanded Anakin to execute Dooku, much to the Count's surprise. Palpatine had previously agreed to intervene and spare Dooku, and only then did Dooku realize that he had no intention of doing so. On Palpatine's command, Anakin executed Count Dooku.
Taking an unconscious Obi-Wan with them (despite Palpatine's protests that he would only hold them back), Anakin and Palpatine proceeded to leave.
Unfortunately, partly due to the Separatist sabotage of the Republic communications grid and partly due to other circumstances, Republic forces had no idea that a rescue operation was taking place aboard the Invisible Hand and one vital ship-to-ship transmission was disregarded, resulting in the ship being fired upon by the Venator-class Star Destroyer Guarlara. This action heavily damaged the ship and made it difficult for the Jedi and Palpatine to escape easily. As the pilots stabilized the ship, Skywalker, the awakened Kenobi, and Palpatine were all captured and taken to the bridge, where General Grievous met and taunted them. R2-D2 provided a distraction, allowing the Jedi to fight off the security forces on the bridge and confront Grievous. Before he could be captured or killed, Grievous broke through a window and allowed himself to be sucked out of the bridge (an automatic panel soon covered the gaping hole). With the help of a grappling hook, Grievous made it back onto another portion of the ship and fled in an escape pod, sending out all the other escape pods to spite the Jedi and strand them on the damaged ship.
As the ship began to break apart, Anakin took the controls and safely landed what was left of the Invisible Hand on Coruscant, while the Republic fleet was defeated. However, Grievous knew they had no reason to stay, so the CIS fleet left. With the death of Count Dooku, the Republic hoped that the war would soon end, but Palpatine felt that with General Grievous at large, they were still in danger. This quickly led to the Battle of Utapau.
Star Wars III note- When showing the film visuals of the battle to production teams, one of the supervisors noted that "it had everything except the kitchen sink." A scene was then added of some debris crashing into the hull of a Star Destroyer. This apparently is a kitchen sink.
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