The Battle of Coruscant was the climax of the
Clone Wars, and one of the largest battles in galactic history. As the galaxy held its
breath, a vast armada of Separatist warships poured into orbit above the galactic capital,
unleashing fear and destruction on Galactic City and kidnapping Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. As
fleets of Republic Star Destroyers moved to box the Separatists in, the Jedi mounted a desperate
mission to rescue the captive chancellor, but the battle’s outcome was anyone’s guess.
We all know the rough story, but most Star Wars fans know surprisingly little about some major
details of this climactic battle. In this video, we’re going to set the record straight with
a deep dive into the Battle of Coruscant. Three years into the Clone Wars, the
Republic had gotten the upper hand. For six months, the Grand Army of the Republic
had been committed to the Outer Rim Sieges, pushing Separatist forces out to their
strongholds on the fringes of the galaxy. The CIS had been completely driven
from the Core Worlds and the Colonies. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine seemingly felt
confident enough about the Core’s security that he sent large portions of Coruscant’s
defense fleet out to Saleucami, Felucia, and Mygeeto to assist Republic units there. Few
Loyalists could have imagined what was to come. Unbeknownst to the galaxy, Separatist
leadership was planning to attack Coruscant. On orders from Darth Sidious and Count Dooku,
General Grievous had requisitioned a whole sixth of the CIS Navy for the campaign, all
but stripping the Yag’Dhul Theater of assets. From his flagship, the Invisible Hand, Grievous
assembled the largest fleet the CIS had ever fielded, composed of thousands
of Munificent-class Star Frigates, thousands of Recusant-class Light Destroyers
and Providence-class Carrier/Destroyers, and several dozen Lucrehulk-class Battleships.
This colossal armada carried millions of Vulture Droids, Tri-Fighters, and landing craft, as
well as hundreds of millions of battle droids, among them B1s, B2s, Droidekas, and MagnaGuards.
Millions of armored units, including crab droids, Octuptarra droids, Hailfire droids, AATs, and
MTTs, were also part of this invasion force. The Coruscant Defense Fleet was at reduced
strength due to the Outer Rim Sieges, but Coruscant was still far from an easy target.
Thousands of Venator-class and Victory-class Star Destroyers were in position in orbit, together
with substantial numbers of Dreadnaught-class Heavy Cruisers and Carrack-class Light
Cruisers. These vessels were supported by hundreds of thousands of ARC-170s, V-Wings,
LAAT/i Gunships, and Eta-2 Interceptors. Millions of clone troopers were stationed on the
ground, including the entire Coruscant Guard, as were the Senate Guard, several clone commando
squads, several ARC Trooper teams, and several non-clone Republic infantry units. Republic
ground units were supported by AT-RTs, AT-TEs, AT-APs, AT-XTs, Juggernauts, fighter tanks, and
SPHA-T artillery, not to mention scores of Jedi. Grievous timed the invasion to take place
right after Supreme Chancellor Palpatine’s annual State of the Republic speech, when most of
the Republic’s major government officials would be planetside. Using secret routes through the
Deep Core supplied by Darth Sidious, Grievous led his armada from Yag’Dhul to Coruscant and caught
the Coruscant Defense Fleet with its pants down. The Separatists jumped in right on top of the
Defense Fleet, allowing them to vaporize most of the Republic’s orbiting warships before they could
scramble their fighters or raise their shields. Nonetheless, over a thousand Republic Star
Destroyers and their complement survived, and a fearsome orbital battle began. Initially, Grievous made the attack on
Coruscant seem like a desperate final strike, ordering his warships to spread out, attack
targets of opportunity, and cause as much chaos as possible. Using a battleship-borne communications
jammer, he cut off all communications in the Coruscant system, preventing Republic forces from
coordinating a defense. While he still had the element of surprise, Grievous sent flotillas to
interdict key hyperspace reversion points and lay mass-shadow mines. As Separatist frigates
and destroyers fired on orbital mirrors, communications satellites, and random surface
targets, Grievous’s battleships disgorged swarms of starfighters and flotillas of landing
craft, bringing the battle to Galactic City. The battle in orbit was pure chaos. The
tattered remnants of the Coruscant Defense Fleet struggled to coordinate with communications
cut, while the Separatists were deliberately acting disorganized and shooting at
whatever seemed a convenient target. Unaware that the system was being
interdicted, many Republic captains chose to fight conservatively, hoping to hold out until
reinforcements arrived from the Outer Rim Sieges. All the while, new Separatist ships
continued to pour in from the Deep Core. So many ships were crowded into the skies
above Coruscant that some of the Separatist stragglers ended up crashing into Republic
vessels as they came out of hyperspace. Meanwhile, hell broke loose on the surface.
Hundreds of millions of battle droids marched into Galactic City, causing mass panic.
Due to the communications blackout, local forces were unable to coordinate
evacuations, riot control, or emergency response, and General Grievous wasn’t keen on making it
any easier for them. Vulture Droids rained from the sky, carrying out waves of kamikaze attacks
against civilian targets. Separatist fighters slammed into buildings, strafed crowded plazas,
and destroyed transport infrastructure. For the wealthy citizens of Coruscant’s upper city,
it must have seemed like the world was ending. Fortunately for Coruscant, the
Republic’s first lucky break came early in the battle. Loyalist analysts
discovered that the communications jammer deployed by the Separatists was based on one the
CIS had used during the Battle of Praesitlyn, allowing them to break through the encyption
codes and restore communications for the Republic Military and municipal authorities.
As local authorities coordinated evacuations, the Jedi set about rallying the Grand
Army of the Republic to defend the planet. Mace Windu, Saesee Tiin, and 22 other Jedi pilots
took to the skies in their interceptors, intending to join the orbital battle. Windu was shot down
and ended up linking up with Yoda to coordinate Republic forces on the ground, but Tiin and the
other Jedi managed to break through to orbit. After passing beyond Separatist lines and relaying
a recall message to Jedi all over the galaxy, the Jedi pilots split to bring order to Republic
naval forces. Saesee Tiin led the clone troopers of the Republic Star Destroyer Impavid in
capturing the Separatist destroyer Prosperous, while other pilots aided clone fighter
squadrons against Separatist fighter swarms. As Yoda and Windu made significant progress
against droid forces on the ground, they realized that Separatist forces
weren’t making a serious attempt to capture the Senate or the Jedi Temple.
Far too late, they realized that the invasion was a diversion - the Separatists’ true
objective was Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Four Jedi - Shaak Ti, Stass Allie, Roron Corobb,
and Foul Moudama - were sent to get Palpatine to safety. They arrived just in time to prevent
Grievous from snatching Palpatine straight out of his office. As Ti, Corobb, and Moudama ushered
Palpatine away, Stass Allie and Palpatine’s guards managed to delay Grievous, though not for
long. The droid general and his MagnaGuards soon broke away and pursued the Jedi through
the streets of Coruscant, chasing them all the way to a maglev train station, where Shaak Ti
finally managed to lose Grievous, for a time. After linking up with Stass Allie, Mace Windu,
and Kit Fisto, Shaak Ti and the others shepherded Palpatine onto a train bound for another district,
where Palpatine had a bunker. Grievous pursued, but he was unsuccessful in stopping the train.
At the bunker, they met up with two more Jedi: Roth-Del Masona and B’ink Utrila. Masona, Utrila,
Corobb, and Moudama accompanied Palpatine into the bunker, while Ti and Allie waited outside
and Windu and Fisto went to rejoin the battle. Grievous outmaneuvered them all,
however. Using a stolen Republic gunship, he penetrated the bunker and slaughtered nearly
everyone inside, including all four Jedi. As Stass Allie went to alert Windu and Fisto,
Shaak Ti tried to stop Grievous from escaping, only to be quickly defeated by the
droid general. Grievous left her alive but restrained in the bunker, using her to
leave a message to Windu and the other Jedi. Windu arrived just as Grievous was
escorting Palpatine into a tri-wing shuttle. He wounded Grievous with the Force, but was
ultimately unable to stop him from getting Palpatine aboard and taking off. Windu and Fisto,
together with Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar, Pablo-Jill, L’lacielo Sageon, and many other Jedi pilots,
pursued Grievous’s shuttle in a last-ditch attempt to save the Chancellor. They were unsuccessful,
however, and Grievous, with the captive Palpatine, made it safely to the Invisible Hand.
Pablo-Jill and L’lacielo Sageon were caught in the warship’s tractor beams and engaged
Grievous in the Invisible Hand’s hangar bay, but both were slain. Grievous ordered his
droids to dump their bodies out into space, in a spot where their comrades could see them. From the conning tower of the Invisible Hand,
Grievous announced his capture of Palpatine in a live HoloNet transmission to the entire galaxy,
proclaiming that the Republic would soon burn. Panic broke out across Loyalist space, but
even as Grievous delivered his message, the tide of battle began to turn.
Unbeknownst to Grievous or the Jedi, Palpatine had secret fleets and armies waiting
in reserve. A massive army of Spaarti clones from Centax-2 deployed on the ground, helping
the Jedi mop up the remains of Separatist ground forces, while fleets of Republic
reinforcements poured out of hyperspace. These included fleets from the Open
Circle Armada and secret fleets of new Imperator-class Star Destroyers commissioned
by Palpatine. These reinforcements linked up with the Home Defense Fleet and cut off the
Separatist armada’s retreat, forcing Grievous into a battle in Coruscant’s upper atmosphere. At
the same time, Coruscant’s municipal authorities finally activated the planet’s orbital
shield, trapping the Separatists within. As the battle in orbit continued, Anakin
Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi entered the fray in their starfighters. Unable to make contact with
Jedi High Command from the midst of the battle, they proceeded straight to the Invisible Hand,
battling their way through Separatist fighter squadrons as they went. In short order, they
infiltrated the ship and rescued Palpatine. All the while, the battle turned against the
Separatists, who began losing ships rapidly. The burnt-out hulks of downed warships rained onto
Galactic City, causing massive amounts of damage. However, in the confusion, not all Republic
warships had gotten the message that Palpatine and the Jedi were aboard the Invisible Hand;
as a result, one Star Destroyer, the Guarlara, attacked and severely damaged the Separatist
flagship. The Invisible Hand took serious damage to its internal gravity, tensor fields, and
inertial compensators, not to mention its shields, hull, and weapons systems. Even as
Grievous captured Palpatine and the Jedi and brought them to the ship’s bridge,
the Invisible Hand was rapidly falling apart. In a battle aboard the warship’s bridge, Skywalker
and Kenobi freed themselves and Palpatine, with Anakin beheading Count Dooku in the process.
As Grievous and the remaining crew began to abandon ship, Skywalker took control of what was
left of the Invisible Hand, which was plummeting into Coruscant’s lower atmosphere. Against
all odds, he landed the vessel - well, half of it - safely. Meanwhile, Coruscant’s planetary
shield temporarily fell, allowing Grievous and the tattered remnants of the Separatist armada to flee
the system in disgrace. For the next few hours, scattered holdouts of Coruscant Separatist
insurgents in the underworld continued to resist Republic forces, but for the most part,
the Republic had won the Battle of Coruscant. The Battle of Coruscant saw immense casualties
for both the Republic and the Separatists, but ultimately the Separatists suffered worse.
With the death of Count Dooku and the loss of so many ships, the CIS was all but defeated
after the battle. The Republic, meanwhile, rapidly recovered, at least militarily.
Coruscant itself suffered grievous damage; deliberate acts of terrorism and warship crashes
destroyed a staggering amount of Galactic City, starting fires that still burned several
days after the end of the battle. The damage took years to repair, and
civilian casualties were alarming. Stay tuned for another video this
week about the Battle of Coruscant, in which we’ll discuss the battle's
effects on ordinary galactic citizens. For now, what do you think?
Have you read Labyrinth of Evil, the novel that much of this story comes from? Feel
free to post your thoughts in the comments below.
