OOM-9/Legends

OOM-9 was a B1-series battle droid created by Baktoid Combat Automata prior to the invasion of the planet Naboo in 32 BBY. OOM-9 was selected to serve as a command battle droid for the invasion, leading Trade Federation forces into battle and achieving great success in the early stages of the campaign. Under the droid's command, Trade Federation troops defeated the forces of the Naboo at Harte Secur and Spinnaker before capturing the capital city of Theed.
When news of a primitive species residing in the planet's swamps—the Gungans—reached the Trade Federation, OOM-9 was charged with hunting them down but had limited success. When the Sith Lord Darth Maul arrived to take control of the Federation forces, he personally recovered information that led to OOM-9 forcing the evacuation of the underwater city of Otoh Gunga.
The invasion ultimately turned against the Trade Federation when the Gungan Grand Army rallied to the cause of Naboo Queen Padmé Amidala and moved to engage the Trade Federation Droid Army on the Great Grass Plains. OOM-9 was once again charged with leading the battle droids to victory and soon overwhelmed the Gungan forces. However, the concurrent space battle went against the Trade Federation, seeing the destruction of a Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship. With the loss of the control ship, OOM-9 and his troops powered down, halting on the verge of victory.
==Biography==
===Blockade of Naboo===
OOM-9 was created by Baktoid Combat Automata for the Trade Federation by 32 BBYThe New Essential Chronology places the Invasion of Naboo as depicted in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds in 32 BBY. to serve in their Droid Army under the Neimoidian Viceroy Nute Gunray, along with his senior staff Rune Haako and Lott Dod. Although otherwise a standard B1-series battle droid, OOM-9's production group was designated to command duties and received some supplementary programming. Since the B1 battle droid did not have a standard alphanumeric series designation, the name "OOM-9" was selected for the unit from a shortened version of the unique identification code assigned to the battle droid.
In 32 BBY, Gunray, having led the Trade Federation into a pact with the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, initiated a blockade of the planet Naboo in the Chommell sector of the Mid RimThe Essential Atlas as a protest to the new taxation of trade routes and began making plans for an invasion. OOM-9 was one of several command droids that would lead Trade Federation forces against the Naboo and Gungan population. In order to ensure simple communication between the Neimoidians and their forces, OOM-9 was arbitrarily designated as the senior command droid and chosen to act as a single point of contact, for which he received some additional programming.
Sidious, who was secretly Senator Palpatine of Naboo, had an ulterior motive for the invasion, intending to use it to undermine the leadership of Galactic Republic Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum and allow him to advance his own position. Valorum, hoping to resolve the crisis, sent two Jedi—Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi—to settle the dispute. The arrival of the Jedi forced Sidious to accelerate the timeline for his plan's execution; the Dark Lord ordered Gunray to kill the Jedi and begin landing his forces. OOM-9's first assignment as a commander was to organize the Trade Federation forces for the invasion.
===Communications disruption===
Fearing that the Naboo would try to contact the Republic capital world of Coruscant to plead for help, Gunray promptly ordered the destruction of Naboo's offworld communication capabilities, with OOM-9 being selected to lead the mission ahead of the main invasion force. Gunray gave the droid commander his orders personally: to occupy the Naboo settlements of Parrlay, New Centrif, and Vis and to raze their communications buildings to the ground. Landing just north of New CentrifStar Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Prima's Official Strategy Guide in a C-9979 landing craft, his small force of Single Trooper Aerial Platforms (STAP), beetle droids, battle droids, and his personal Heavy Armored Assault Tank was unprepared for a major fight and was ordered to avoid direct confrontations with the Naboo until reinforcements could arrive. Since the Trade Federation could not afford to alert the Naboo to their presence on the ground they could not risk conducting long-range scans, leaving OOM-9's forces to locate the settlements without reconnaissance data.
The Federation forces proceeded south to New Centrif, but the settlement was too heavily defended, prompting OOM-9 to seek reinforcements before returning to attack it. Turning east, the droid led his force toward the smaller settlement of Vis. Upon arriving, Gunray contacted OOM-9 to alert him to the arrival of the promised reinforcements led by the battle droid EEK-176, which consisted of droidekas and additional battle droids and beetle droids. With EEK-176's unit approaching from the east, OOM-9 moved into Vis from the west. The two forces converged on the city, killing the Naboo forces they encountered and destroying its communication transmitter.
Proceeding out of Vis along a country road, OOM-9 took his combined forces to the less-defended south entrance to New Centrif, where they engaged workers and soldiers guarding a number of nova crystal deposits. The attack drew the attention of the Naboo forces in New Centrif, and the majority of the city's population descended upon the Trade Federation troops. OOM-9's droids defeated them before proceeding into the city to eliminate the last surviving defenders, while his beetle droids razed the city.
OOM-9 next moved south toward his final goal, the larger city of Parrlay, encountering several Naboo patrols along the way. After locating Parrlay, the OOM commander was once more contacted by Gunray, who instructed him to destroy its transmitter before the inhabitants could contact their capital city, Theed. To assist OOM-9 in his task, Gunray dispatched further reinforcements, consisting of additional beetle droids and droidekas, along with energy pummels and AATs. Proceeding into Parrlay, the Trade Federation forces advanced south until reaching the wall surrounding the city's spaceport. OOM-9 placed his troopers along the wall to engage Naboo defenders, while his heavy units blasted through the wall, allowing them to proceed inside and destroy the spaceport and transmitter.
===Jedi escape===
The victory at Parrlay was just the beginning of the Trade Federation's plans, and they began landing their main invasion force on Naboo. As OOM-9 oversaw the disembarkation of his forces from their landing craft, he was contacted by Gunray and Haako. Their attempt to kill Jinn and Kenobi had failed, and a thorough search of the flagship had failed to find any trace of them. The Neimoidians had correctly concluded that the Jedi had escaped to the surface of the planet by stowing away aboard a C-9979 landing craft.
OOM-9 assured his superiors that if the Jedi were on the planet, his forces would find them. The droid commander ordered that both the patrol grid for STAPs and the number of ground battle droids be doubled. Despite his effort, the Jedi were able to elude capture by his forces; the Trade Federation nevertheless remained unconcerned by this failure and continued to push ahead with the invasion.
===Harte Secur===
Soon after the full-scale invasion began, one of the five droid control programs sent to Naboo with the initial landing force was captured from the command droid OOM-14 by Naboo troops and taken to a research center near the city of Harte Secur. The loss of the control program rendered OOM-14's forces immobile. Furthermore, Gunray knew that if the Naboo could replicate the program, they could take control of the Trade Federation's own battle droids.
With the control program in enemy hands, the Trade Federation could not risk a large force to retrieve it. Using communications jamming to prevent the Naboo from spreading the program, Gunray contacted OOM-9 and told him to escort a Neimoidian technician to the research center, retrieve the program, and use it to reactivate OOM-14's forces and their command center. He was assigned a group of droidekas to assist in the attack along with a bio cannon.
Rendezvousing with the technician at OOM-14's camp, OOM-9 set out toward the research center, taking the road east around a large forest and eliminating the Naboo forces they encountered along the way. After arriving at the research center, the droid commander had the bio cannon destroy the defensive turrets and main gate, allowing his forces to move into the facility and retrieve the control program. Returning to OOM-14's camp, the technician soon reactivated the disabled forces, giving OOM-9 command of a large number of battle droids and missile battle droids with which he was ordered by Gunray to destroy Harte Secur.
Despite the threat of the Naboo Airforce operating out of the nearby Harte Secur Airbase, along with a neighboring Gungan settlement, OOM-9 was able to gather his forces and sweep into Harte Secur, destroying much of the city's architecture and obliterating its town center. Gunray complimented the droid on the impressive nature of the victory and announced that he had been selected to spearhead the attack on the coastal town of Spinnaker.
===Spoils of Spinnaker===
Spinnaker was Naboo's chief supply center, and most goods being transported between Naboo and other worlds passed through the town's spaceports. With the Trade Federation's blockade in place, the spaceports were fully loaded with valuable materials, including nova crystals, which could be used to fund the invasion. Gunray wished to see direct evidence of Naboo's wealth, so he ordered OOM-9 to lead an attack on Spinnaker, occupy the town, and collect its supplies of nova crystals to present to him.
A small Trade Federation presence had already been established near Spinnaker and was under the command of the battle droid officer YIN-762. OOM-9, however, led his force of droidekas, AATs, Multi-Troop Transports (MTT), Heavy Battle Droids, STAPs, and grenade droids to a lightly defended village outside the town. The pacifist villagers, following Queen Padmé Amidala's lead, offered little resistance, and the village quickly surrendered to the battle droids, relinquishing their resources and personnel to OOM-9's command. Positioning his forces to defend the village, the OOM commander set about forcing the scared population to work, gathering resources to assist the Trade Federation invasion and fortifying the village.
The invaders faced counterattacks by the Royal Naboo Security Forces based in Spinnaker to the north and a Naboo Royal Navy base to the west. Summoning air support, OOM-9 took control of the road between the village and Spinnaker, allowing him to direct the bulk of his forces in an attack on the naval base. After using his ground forces to destroy its anti-air turrets, the command droid launched a combined ground and air attack, destroying the facility.
Turning his attention to Spinnaker itself, OOM-9 massed his forces at the town's southwestern gate. Using pummels to cut through the outer wall, he moved into the town, eliminating the anti-air defenses before sending in air support to eliminate any resistance. After pacifying the city and capturing its resources, OOM-9 sent a detachment to a small Naboo settlement to the north, forcing the settlers to supply their nova crystals to the Trade Federation. With the nova crystals secured, the Trade Federation forces began preparing to take Theed and end the campaign, using Spinnaker as a launching point for the impending Capture of Theed.
===Fall of Theed===
With the surrounding countryside occupied, Federation forces approached the capital city. Queen Amidala ordered the Royal Naboo Security Forces to stand down, but a signal jammer in the city prevented the approach of the Federation's droid starfighters and transports. Gunray ordered OOM-9 to lead a battalion of elite AATs, Heavy Battle Droids, STAPs, and pummels into Theed to eliminate the jammer and allow reinforcements to be sent in. He was also instructed to eliminate any military facilities they encountered and to avoid civilian casualties so as to prevent full-scale resistance.
With OOM-9 leading the way from his AAT, the Trade Federation forces destroyed the city gates and entered the capital, only to find that the Naboo had destroyed one of the bridges leading to the heart of the city, forcing them to take a longer route. Despite Amidala's orders, the battle droids encountered scattered resistance from the Naboo military forces as they made their way through the city to the signal jammer. After destroying a Naboo fortress, OOM-9 led his forces over another bridge deeper into the city, where his pummels made short work of a second fortress, clearing the way to the jamming device.
Once the forces had destroyed the jammer, Gunray ordered OOM-9 to proceed to the Theed Royal Palace, capture it, and prepare for the viceroy's arrival. To assist him, the Trade Federation sent reinforcements in the form of additional AATs and pummels along with droidekas, MTTs and OX9 labor droids. Landing in another part of the city, far from OOM-9's strike force, the reinforcements moved toward his location, and the two groups came together for the final push on the palace. Destroying fortresses and barracks along the way, the droid commander led the combined force into the palace grounds. With assistance from air support, the battle droids fended off heavy counterattacks from Naboo forces until the palace was secured.
===Occupation===
By the time of Gunray's and Haako's arrival, the capital was firmly under Trade Federation control. OOM-9 remained in Theed, serving as personal guard to the viceroy. He was present in this capacity when Gunray met with Amidala and her senior aides. Gunray required Amidala to sign a treaty legitimizing the occupation, but when she proved uncooperative, he instructed OOM-9 to take her for processing.
With rumors passing through Federation-controlled Theed about an amphibious species residing in the outer swamps, OOM-9 computed that finding and eliminating the threat should be his top priority. He therefore delegated a squad of his troopers with the task of escorting the queen to Camp Four. The command droid monitored the operation on a secure channel while remaining in the palace with the Neimoidians to remotely control the search for the Gungans. The escort operation to the detention camp, however, did not go as planned when Amidala was rescued by the two previously missing Jedi, who escorted her safely off Naboo.
===Search for the Gungans===
OOM-9 received a lead on the Gungans' location when a captured mariner from Harte Secur informed his captors of a Gungan city called Rellias, which was connected to the Gungan capital Otoh Gunga via the Rellias channel. Unaware of the city's exact location, the droid commander's forces established a forward observation base on the shore of a nearby marsh and had begun to scout the area when they were joined by Sidious's apprentice Darth Maul, who had recently arrived on Naboo. OOM-9 greeted the Sith Lord and showed him to a group of Gungan prisoners captured while meeting with Naboo traders outside the city of Moenia. Seeking to end the search for the Gungans quickly, Maul ordered the command droid to begin poisoning the marsh to force the Gungans to the surface and to drain the water if that proved unsuccessful.
When Maul departed soon after, OOM-9 did as instructed, but the droids discovered that the marsh was linked to vast reserves of underground water, and they had made little progress in draining it by the time Maul returned. However, while he was away, the Sith Lord had learned of Rellias's location from a Bothan surveyor named Leika and the name of its governor, a Gungan named Boss Ganne.
OOM-9 had his full contingent of droidekas and half of the droid troopers join him and Maul aboard an S-DST, dispatching his STAP patrols ahead of the destroyer to saturate the area with depth charges. As the Trade Federation forces approached Rellias, they came under fire from Gungan boomas and submersibles. OOM-9's troopers quickly disembarked on the shore, where they were met by Gungan cavalry led by Boss Ganne. In the ensuing battle, Maul captured Boss Ganne and used the Force to manipulate Ganne into opening the Gates of Rellias, the only obstacle preventing Federation forces from accessing the Rellias channel. After eliminating all resistance from the Gungan defenders, the troops proceeded to the channel.
===Siege of Otoh Gunga===
The Rellias channel led to Lake Paonga, the location of Otoh Gunga. Upon arriving, the S-DST carrying OOM-9 and Maul was attacked by Gungans armed with boomas, but Maul had Ganne secured to the front of a vehicle like a figurehead, discouraging further attacks. With most of the STAPs destroyed during the capture of Ganne, OOM-9 had only a handful at his disposal. As his battle droids and droidekas provided cover, Trade Federation labor droids established an outpost on the shore of the lake, fortifying it against Gungan attacks with turrets.
OOM-9 sent patrols to locate any Gungan settlements on the mainland and the islands located in the lake. Resources collected on the land were being used to supply Otoh Gunga, so the Trade Federation forces destroyed the settlements and secured the resources, cutting the supply lines to the underwater city. The Gungans retaliated by sending their naval forces to attack the Trade Federation outpost, but OOM-9 repelled the counterattack, and his forces soon located Otoh Gunga itself.
Located under the surface of the lake, Otoh Gunga was protected by a series of turrets on the surface. Bringing in additional naval vessels, OOM-9 directed them to destroy the turrets, which left the city vulnerable to attack. The command droid ordered his forces to deploy depth charges; when no Gungan bodies surfaced after the resulting explosions, he dispatched drone submersibles to scout the lake, confirming that the city had been virtually abandoned.
While Maul interrogated Ganne as to his people's likely location, OOM-9 proceeded to eliminate the remaining resistance and laid waste to Otoh Gunga's High Tower Boardroom and much of the city. With the apparent defeat of the Gungans, Naboo was firmly under Trade Federation control. Even so, OOM-9 was soon contacted by Gunray, and the droid commander relayed news to Maul that Amidala and the Jedi were returning to the planet.
===Battle of the Great Grass Plains===
OOM-9 returned to TheedStar Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace novelization but was soon called into action once more. Amidala's J-type 327 Nubian royal starship was detected landing in the swamps, but a battle droid patrol found the ship abandoned, and Gunray ordered OOM-9 to make the queen's arrest his top priority. Having failed to secure help from the Galactic Senate, Amidala united the scattered Naboo forces with the Gungan Grand Army.
The Gungans started recapturing city after city and were gathering at their sacred place in preparation for an assault on Theed. In response to the new threat, the battle droid commander increased security at the Naboo detention camps before preparing to meet the approaching Grand Army. However, the terrain thwarted his initial attempts to locate the Gungan forces, with long range battle droid patrols becoming mired in soft ground.
OOM-9 led the Trade Federation forces that finally engaged the Grand Army on the Great Grass Plains. Upon receiving the command from the Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship in orbit, the droid commander ordered his AATs to open fire on the Gungan forces, but the Gungans' deflector shield successfully absorbed the barrage. Emotionlessly observing the ineffectiveness of the attackThe Phantom Menace Mighty Chronicles adaptation through his macrobinoculars, OOM-9 ordered his forces to at last cease fire and deployed his battle droids, knowing that they could walk through the shield to engage the Gungans.
As OOM-9 looked on, his forces proceeded to demolish the outgunned Gungans, sending them into a retreat after their shield finally fell to the onslaught. The commander contacted his command ship to report the Gungan retreat and received orders to send his AATs in pursuit. OOM-9 later deployed droidekas into the battle, which allowed the army to continue advancing further into the Gungan's shields. Before long, the surviving Gungans were forced to surrender to the advancing battle droids. Only the actions of Anakin Skywalker, the young pilot of one of the Naboo N-1 starfighters in the space battle that was raging above, cost OOM-9 this final victory. Skywalker unintentionally managed to destroy the Trade Federation's droid control ship, deactivating OOM-9's army as well as the commander himself. By 27 BBY,The Essential Reader's Companion dates the events of Jedi Quest: The Way of the Apprentice to 27 BBY. a manual regarding OOM-9 was written.Jedi Quest: The Way of the Apprentice
==Characteristics==
Starting out as a regular B1-Series battle droid, OOM-9 stood 1.91 meters tall and had masculine programming. Like all battle droids, OOM-9 was created solely to wage war. OOM-9's legs were powered by high-torque motors and featured dried cartilage-shaped shin plates. The droid's feet could be replaced with claws or pads when required.
OOM-9 was retrofitted following his promotion before the invasion of Naboo. He wore markings painted a dull mustard yellow, designating him as a commander. His original back plating was removed and replaced with the standard command backpack, including an advanced power supply to increase operational range and recharge intervals and several antennae to allow him to communicate with the Central Control Computer located in planetary orbit.
OOM-9's additional programming, with the asssistance of the droid control ship, enabled him to collect tactical information, process reports, and make appropriate plans for battle. The droid had bone-white plating, black optical sensors, and a vocoder to allow him to communicate verbally with his superiors. However, his personality was limited, with no expression on his metallic face and no inflection in his voice.
==Equipment==
In battle, OOM-9 coordinated the Trade Federation forces from his personal Heavy Armored Assault Tank, which was fitted with additional weaponry and enhanced armor. OOM-9 was armed with an E-5 blaster rifle and carried macrobinoculars with a stereo image rangefinder and readings for enemy charge and mass. The macrobinoculars additionally transmitted images to the central droid control ship.
==Behind the scenes==
OOM-9 was created for George Lucas's film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, in which he commands the battle droid army at the climactic Battle of the Great Grass Plains. The film was released on May 19, 1999,Star Wars: The Ultimate Visual Guide but the character first appeared in Terry Brooks's novelization, published on April 21 of that year. The novelization mentions OOM-9's presence at a conversation between Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, and the senior Neimoidians, during which the droid reports on his response to the threat of the Gungan Grand Army. However, he was omitted from the film's depiction of the scene.
In The Phantom Menace, OOM-9 is contacted by Gunray and Haako while he oversees the arrival of Trade Federation of landing craft on Naboo. During the conversation, Haako refers to OOM-9 as "captain." The droid is referred to as "commander" by Gunray later in the movie, and this rank is also used in the novelization and James Luceno's short story "End Game," which was published in the 2012 re-release of The Phantom Menace novel. The reference to the lower rank of captain is not present in the version of the same scene in the finished screenplay, as printed in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace Illustrated Screenplay.Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace Illustrated Screenplay
The character's background was expanded in the 2001 LucasArts video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, in which he was voiced by Charles Martinet. The game presents a biography of the character, and the player controls OOM-9's forces in its first campaign, which depicts the early battles of the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo. The game also features a "what if" scenario in which Anakin Skywalker does not destroy the droid control ship. In the scenario, the player can lead OOM-9's forces to victory over the Gungans on the Great Grass Plains.
==Appearances==
*Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
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*Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace novelization 
*Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace junior novelization
*Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace script facsimile
*The Phantom Menace Mighty Chronicles adaptation
*Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace Movie Storybook
*Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Cine-Manga
*Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace 4
*
*Jedi Quest: The Way of the Apprentice 
*Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns
*The Wrath of Darth Maul 
===Non-canon appearances===
*LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
*LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Droids of the Trade Federation
Category:OOM command battle droids