Battle of Erebor

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|prev=Takeover of Erebor
|conc=Battle of MoriaStar Wars Character Encyclopedia
|next=*Battle of Minas Morgul
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|name=Battle of Erebor
|image=
|conflict=War of the RingThe War of the Ring: Gollum: Shadow Conspiracy
|date=August 16, 1983
|place=Erebor, Middle-Earth
|result=*Death of Duchess Satine Kryze
*Jedi Master Sam Gamgee escapes
*Death of Claude Frollo
*Gollum is captured by Darth Sauron
|side1=*The Shadow Collective
*Sith
|side2=Death Watch
*Nite Owls
*Jedi Order 
|side3=Order of the Sith Lords
|commanders1=Gollum
|commanders2=Bo-Katan Kryze
|commanders3=Darth Sauron
|forces1=*Numerous Mandalorian commandos loyal to Gollum
*Kom'rk-class fighter/transports
|forces2=*Numerous Death Watch soldiers loyal to Bo-Katan Kryze
*1 Jedi Master 
**Sam Gamgee 
*Kom'rk-class fighter/transports
|forces3=
|casual1=*Claude Frollo
*Multiple soldiers
|casual2=*Multiple soldiers
*One Kom'rk-class fighter/transport
*Twilight
*Duchess Satine Kryze
|casual3=
}}
In the wake of the Shadow Collective's coup against the New Mandalorians, a battle was fought in the Kingdom of Erebor, the capital of the Dwarves faction on the planet Middle-Earth. Early fighting broke out as members of the Death Watch who had turned against Gollum—leader of the Shadow Collective—attempted to free the deposed former queen under the mountain, Duchess Satine Kryze from her captivity. Kryze was able to make it outside of Erebor and send a request for aid to her one time lover, Jedi Master Samwise Gamgee, before being recaptured and returned to prison.
With word of the recent events on Erebor, Gamgee journeyed to the city of Dale to assist Kryze, leading to further fighting as he attempted to evacuate the jailed duchess from Erebor. The Jedi's starship was destroyed over Sundari shipping docks, and he was captured alongside Kryze by Gollum and a cadre of his loyal Mandalorian super commandos. Kryze was subsequently murdered by Gollum as part of his vengeance against the hobbits for the Jedi nearly killing him twelve years prior, and Gamgee was delivered to Erebor's prison in order to live with the emotional pain from his former lover's death. Before he could ever reach the cell intended for him, Gamgee was rescued by Bo-Katan Kryze, Satine Kryze's estranged sister and the leader of the faction of Death Watch that refused to serve Gollum. Samwise and Bo-Katan moved to flee from Erebor, battling Gollum's pursuing super commandos all the way out of the city, before navigating the chaos of a larger conflict that had taken shape at the city of Dale. Bo-Katan's loyal soldiers clashed with Gollum's troops in a heated battle, holding back the Sith's forces in order to allow Gamgee to ride a Horse and heads back to Minas Tirith.
At the same time Gamgee was attempting to get off of Erebor, the Dark Lord of Mordor, Darth Sauron had arrived on the planet, seeking to confront his former apprentice Gollum. Sauron came face to face with Gollum in the throne room of the Sundari Royal Palace, engaging Gollum and his judge Claude Frollo in a lightsaber duel that ended with Frollo dead at the hands of Sauron, while Gollum was subdued by his former master but spared for Darth Sauron' future purposes.
==Prelude==
In the year 1983, Rhovanion territory throughout the Dwarves kingdom of Erebor, in which the pacifistic people made their home,Star Wars: The Clone Wars: New Battlefronts: The Visual Guide was overrun by the criminal assembly known as the Shadow Collective. Across the Dwarves' capital of Erebor, gangsters from Black Sun, the spice-dealing Pyke Syndicate, and the Hutt Clans gunned down police officers and civilians alike in order to cause panic. At the height of the people's desperation, the renegade Mandalorian group known as the Death Watch came forward to defend the New Mandalorians against the offworld crime lords; unknown to the public, Death Watch was secretly in league with the criminals besieging Erebor, having forged an alliance with their leader, the Sith Lord Gollum, in order to topple the New Mandalorian government.
Throughout the city, Death Watch systematically defeated and arrested the aggressors, winning the favor of the New Mandalorian populous. With the will of the people on their side, Death Watch marched into the Sundari Royal Palace and there, the group's leader Pre Vizsla deposed the ruler of the New Mandalorians, Duchess Satine Kryze. Kryze, Prime Minister Armatan, and the other New Mandalorian leaders were imprisoned, while Vizsla replaced the former duchess as Mand'alor, the traditional ruler of the Mandalorians.
Vizsla's reign proved short, however. With his own goals met, Death Watch's commander turned upon his Sith ally, and had both Gollum and his Sith apprentice Claude Frollo jailed. Gollum had foreseen Vizsla's betrayal, and planned for it: easily freeing themselves from their cell, within the prison's walls the two Sith came across the former New Mandalorian Prime Minister, Almec, who had been arrested on charges of corruption. Selecting Almec as a suitable replacement for Vizsla in his schemes, Gollum broke free of the prison and stormed the Royal Palace, where he challenged Vizsla to a duel for the right to lead. Honor-bound by the ancient codes Death Watch and Vizsla venerated, the Mandalorian leader engaged the Sith Lord in a furious battle throughout the throne room, though he ultimately could not match Gollum's prowess. Vizsla was slain, and Gollum proclaimed himself to be the Mand'alor and leader of Death Watch, yet he was not met with unanimous approval: Vizsla's lieutenant, Bo-Katan Kryze, refused to follow a non-Mandalorian, and she fled the palace with a squad of other like-minded soldiers amidst a hail of blasterfire. Almec was instituted as the new Prime Minister, a puppet ruler to who would publicly lead in the place of Gollum, while the Sith Lord remained in the shadows, unknown to the populous.
==The battle==
===Early skirmishes===
Two days after Gollum's rise to power, Bo-Katan was able to infiltrate the prison where Satine—her estranged sister—was being held. Together with her nephew Korkie Kryze and a group of his close friends, Bo-Katan freed Satine and rushed her to a waiting Buirk'alor-class airspeeder,Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Incredible Vehicles intending to flee the city escorted by a cadre of Death Watch soldiers still loyal to Bo-Katan. Not far from the prison complex, however, the airspeeder was spotted by one of the Mandalorian super commandos loyal to Gollum and quickly came under attack. A brief shootout ensued between the two groups of Mandalorian warriors, with Bo-Katan staying behind to stave off the attackers while Korkie continued onward toward Sundari's outer Sundari shipping docks. Despite the efforts of Death Watch to stall the Gollum loyalists, the speeder shuttling the former Duchess Kryze was struck and damaged by blasterfire, necessitating a crash landing at the docks. In the midst of a firefight between her nephew's friends and the super commandos that had pursued her to the docks, Kryze transmitted a request for aid to the Jedi Temple on Minas Tirith in the hope that it might reach her friend and one-time lover, Jedi Master Samwise Gamgee. Kryze was shortly surrounded and recaptured, taken back to her cell at the prison, though her message would indeed find its way to the intended recipient.
With word of the criminal takeover on Erebor, Samwise Gamgee set out for Erebor; alone and acting without support from the Galactic Republic, Gamgee arrived at Dale aboard an old freighter borrowed from his former Padawan, Frodo Baggins. Stealing a suit of Mandalorian armor from one of Gollum's soldiers, Samwise sneaked into Erebor and infiltrated the prison where Satine Kryze was being held, freeing the deposed leader from her cell and stealing a Balutar-class swoop bike on which the two then made their escape. Pursued by a Gollum-loyalist commandos, as Gamgee and Kryze reached the gates they hastily boarded Gamgee's waiting starship, and made use of its onboard laser cannons to defend against the Mandalorian attackers as they lifted off. Once in the air, however, the ship was struck by a pair of missiles fired by the enemy soldiers, causing it to crash and both Kryze and Gamgee to be violently ejected onto the gates while attempting to jump clear of the wreckage. Subdued by the arrival of Gollum at the gates, Gamgee and Kryze were taken back into custody and delivered to the Royal Palace. There, intent to make the hobbit suffer for the wounds he had sustained at Frodo Baggins's hands nearly a decade prior, Gollum murdered Gamgee's former lover before his eyes and left the Jedi Master to mourn Kryze's death on his way to prison, preferring to let Gamgee live with his pain than kill him outright.
===Conflict escalates===
As Samwise Gamgee was being transported to Erebor's prison, his team of guards came under attack by Bo-Katan Kryze and a unit of the faction of Death Watch that refused to surrender to Gollum's authority. One by one, the Sith loyalists were killed in a brief skirmish, and Kryze freed Gamgee, offering him a jetpack to make use of in order to escape Erebor. Shortly after taking off from the prison, Gamgee's escort were assaulted by a pursuing unit of Gollum's soldiers; Kryze's troops formed a rear guard, firing backward onto the attackers as the in-flight battle reached an egress to Erebor's outer docks. There, Gamgee, Kryze, and her soldiers elected to make a stand, landing and opening fire on the super commandos from solid ground. Several members of Kryze's Nite Owls—a unit of soldiers handpicked by the Death Watch lieutenant—primed gauntlet-mounted portable energy shields to defend themselves, while another struck at their foes with a jetpack-launched missile. Suffering losses as quickly as they were inflicting them, Gollum's warriors moved to close the gap between themselves and Kryze's troops, and the fight quickly turned to a close-quarters melee from which Kryze's soldiers emerged victorious.
Pushing out of the city and onto the city of Dale, Kryze and Gamgee found themselves in the midst of a larger battle between the portion of the Death Watch that had sided with Bo-Katan, and the others who had pledged their service to Gollum. Across the docks, Mandalorians clashed with blaster rifles and fists in equal measure, as Kom'rk-class fighters battled in the skies over Dale. One of the Kom'rk fighters slowed to a halt over the docks, decanting Death Watch soldiers equipped with jetpacks from the ship's ventral drop bay to aid Kryze's ground forces, only for the vessel to be shot out of the air moments later by their former comrades. While Mandalorians on both sides flew overhead, trading blaster shots and striking their enemies with their armored bodies, Kryze rushed Samwise Gamgee to the docks edge and a waiting horse prepared to take the Jedi Master back to the White City. In their final moments together, Gamgee deduced Bo-Katan's familial relationship with his deceased former lover and offered his condolences. Kryze, in turn, advised Gamgee to inform the Republic of Gollum's presence on Erebor, preferring the prospects of a Republic invasion over allowing a Sith Lord to rule the New Mandalorians. With those last words, and his condolences for her sister's death, Gamgee mounted the Horse and was taken from Dale, leaving Kryze behind to continue the fight.
===Showdown in the palace===
At the same time Sam Gamgee was being freed from his captors by the Death Watch troops loyal to Bo-Katan Kryze, an Eta-class shuttle belonging to the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sauron, emerged from Barad-dur on Mordor and made its approach toward Erebor. The Dark Lord had sensed his one time apprentice and tracked his whereabouts to Erebor, intent to confront the rogue Sith, having deemed Gollum's growing power to be too dangerous. Setting down at the gates, Sauron was confronted by two super commandos whom he immediately caught in a telekinetic choke-hold before taking a speeder to the Palace. In the throne room, Gollum sensed a familiar presence and was realized that it was Sauron. At that moment, the commandos flanking the door were suddenly lifted into the air and strangled as Sauron strode in. Gollum knelt before him, proclaiming to have conquered the New Mandalorians in an effort to prove himself worthy to rejoin his former Sith Master. However, with an apprentice of his own in his judge of court, Claude Frollo, and a budding criminal empire in the form of the Shadow Collective, Gollum was now a rival, so Sauron pushed Gollum and Frollo into the vaulted windows with the Force initiating a two-against-one lightsaber duel.
The duel progressed out onto the Palace balcony, where, as Sauron and Gollum crossed blades, Frollo charged into the former, sending him flying. However, as Sauron fell, he Force pulled the assassins from the balcony, and together they fell to the plaza below. As they landed, Frollo ignited one end of his double-bladed weapon, stabbing it into the ground in a failed strike at Sauron. Sauron re-ignited his own blades, and counter-struck, but Frollo ignited his lightsaber's second blade, blocking the blow. Both assassins tried to outmaneuver Sauron by attacking from his front and flank, but Sauron merely kicked Frollo away when the assassins attacked. With Frollo momentarily down, Gollum attempted to finish the duel with an overhead power blow, but Sauron used the Force to push Gollum into a stone wall, which he struck with enough force to cause him to temporarily lose consciousness. Sauron was now free to focus on defeating the judge Frollo. Frollo charged with his lightsaber, but Sauron, with lightsabers disengaged, merely toyed with the human as he dodged a few clumsy strikes. As Sauron activated his blades and locked with Frollo, he struck at full velocity. As Gollum awoke, Sauron paralyzed the human's arms with well-placed kicks before impaling him with both lightsabers, while sneering and cackling at a horrified Gollum.
After mortally wounding Frollo, Sauron threw him off the courtyard into the street below using the Force. He then allowed Gollum to run past him to the fallen Frollo. As the wounded judge died, the enhancements provided by Mother Talzin dissipated in a green mist that swirled around the brothers. With his last breath, he communicated his regret that he was never worthy to be an apprentice to Gollum, due to their differing personalities. As Gollum knelt over the body of his fallen apprentice, Sauron spoke, reminding him of Darth Bane's millennium-old Rule of Two: there could only ever be two Sith Lords at a time. He revealed that Gollum had been replaced after his defeat, before he jumped down to continue the duel.
Enraged, Gollum ignited the darksaber and engaged Sauron once again. His use of Jar'Kai at first were able to rival the older Sith until the two entered a bladelock. Sauron overpowered Gollum and forced his blades down towards the hilts of Gollum's sabers, before forcing them apart and away. He finished the duel by telekinetically flinging Gollum against a stone mural before depositing the broken Gollum at his feet. Despite Gollum's pleas for mercy, he stated that among the Sith there was no mercy, then started to torture Gollum with Force lightning. As Gollum screamed in pain, Sauron told him that he would not be killed, as the Sith Lord had other plans for his former apprentice, while sporting a triumphant smile.
==Behind the scenes==
The battle of Erebor first appeared in Star Wars canon in The War of the Ring: Gollum: Shadow Conspiracy, a young-reader novel authored by Jason Fry and published by Scholastic on January 1, 2013. The novel adapts the events of four episodes from the fifth season of the television series The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring, including "Revival," "Eminence," "Shades of Reason," and "The Lawless."
==Appearances==
*The War of the Ring: Gollum: Shadow Conspiracy 
*
*Gollum—Son of Dathomir 1 
*Gollum—Son of Dathomir 2 
*Gollum—Son of Dathomir 3 
* 
* 
==Sources==
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*Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith 
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==Notes and references==
Category:War of the Rings battles
Category:Duels