Battle of Muunilinst

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|conc=*Duel on FangornWar of the Ring Chapter 19
*Battle of Dantooine
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*Battle of Near HaradWar of the Ring Chapter 20
|next=*Battle of Brentaal IV
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|name=Battle of Muunilinst
|image=
|conflict=War of the Ring
|date=May 16th, 1981The Battle of Muunilinst is depicted in "Chapter 2" of Star Wars: War of the Ring, which features the Padawan Ringbearer, Frodo Baggins. The War of the Ring: Wild Space states that Frodo was promoted to Jedi Knight from the rank of Padawan seven weeks after the First Battle of Isengard, which occurred in March 25, 1981 as the beginning of the War of the Ring according to The New Essential Chronology. Additionally, The New Essential Chronology confirms one month after the battle to be 21.95 BBY. Therefore, the Battle of Muunilinst occurred by seven weeks after the Battle of Isengard, or by 21.95 BBY since Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded states that one month was seven weeks.
|place=Muunilinst
|result=Republic victory
|side1=*Galactic Republic
*Jedi Order
**Rohan
|side2=*Confederacy of Independent Systems
*InterGalactic Banking Clan
**Muunilinst Banking Clan
|commanders1=*General Sam Gamgee
*General Voolvif Monn
*King Theoden
*Commander Frodo Baggins
*Captain ARC-77War of the Ring Chapter 2
*Unidentified clone sergeantWar of the Ring Chapter 17
|commanders2=*San HillWar of the Ring Chapter 4
*Various Muuns
*Durge
*JinxWar of the Ring Chapter 10
|forces1=*Clone troopers
**Third Systems Army
**Lancer Battalion
**91st Reconnaissance CorpsGalaxy at War
***Lightning Squadron
*ARC troopers
**The Muunilinst 10
*3 Jedi
*16,000 Rohirrim cavalry
*105-K lancer bikesWar of the Ring Chapter 8
*AT-TE walkers
*SPHA walkers
*LAAT gunships
*V-19 Torrent starfighters
**Blue Squadron
**Gold Squadron
**Red Squadron
*Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptors
*At least 1 CR-20 troop carrierWar of the Ring Chapter 11
*200+ assault ships
**Acclamator-class assault ships
***Nevoota Bee, crammed with 156 V-19 Torrent starfightersThe Essential Guide to Warfare
|forces2=*B1-Series battle droids
*Battle droid assassins
*Assault battle droids
*B2 super battle droids
*IG lancer droids
*DroidekasWar of the Ring Chapter 9
*AAT tanksWar of the Ring Chapter 3
*Multi-Troop Transports
*DSD1 dwarf spider droids
*IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tanks
*OG-9 homing spider droids
*Harnaidan defensive cannon
*Nantex-class territorial defense starfighters
*1 Ginivex-class starfighter
*At least 14 InterGalactic Banking Clan gun platforms
|casual1=*Heavy
*Numerous clone troopers, starfighters Rohirrim and walkers
*Blue Squadron
*Very large number of lancer troopers
*Nearly all SPHA walkers
|casual2=*Majority of the Separatist force
*All other forces deactivated
*All gun platforms
}}
The Battle of Muunilinst was a major engagement that took place within seven weeks after the First Battle of Isengard in 1981, initiated by the Republic to put a curb on CIS funding and battle droid production. Storming the planet, the Republic assaulted the main city of Harnaidan, using a team of Advanced Recon Commandos to eliminate key enemy defenses within the city. Meanwhile, Frodo Baggins led the space assault, taking out various separatist orbital stations.
This was the first battle Durge was seen in, and caused major Republic casualties when he appeared. The IG lancer droids also made their first appearance, jousting with the similar clone lancer troopers of the Lancer Battalion. Despite heavy Separatist resistance, the Republic nonetheless succeeded in capturing the Separatist command, with the efforts of The Muunilinst 10 and other contributing to this. The battle would also signify the Jedi's first encounter with the minion of Saruman's known as Jinx.
==Background==
The battle was arranged in a meeting between Sam Gamgee, Ringbearer Frodo Baggins, his nephew Bilbo Baggins, and Chancellor Palpatine in the Chancellor's Suite, seven weeks after First Battle of Isengard. Frodo and Sam were enlisted by Palpatine to lead an assault on Muunilinst, home of the InterGalactic Banking Clan. The Intergalactic Banking Clan was a heavy monetary, warship, and battle droid contributor to the Separatists, and the Chancellor believed they could deal the Separatists a major blow by capturing the IGBC's headquarters. Despite concern from Bilbo and Sam, Frodo was made commander of the Republic spaceborne forces.
Immediately afterward, a large Republic and Rohan force was mustered for this task, and was loaded aboard a flotilla of Acclamator-class assault ships. Before leaving, Frodo took the opportunity to bid farewell to his wife Padmé Amidala.
==The battle==
===The surface battle===
The Republic fleet of Acclamator-I-class assault ships led by Frodo, Theoden King of Rohan and Sam, encountered resistance as it entered the orbit of the planet Muunilinst. Despite losing several gunships to enemy missile fire, the Republic's invasion force, including gunships and the assault ships carrying SPHA walkers, managed to land on the planet, where they engaged the Separatist Droid Army in front of the city of Harnaidan, while Frodo led the flight groups against Separatist fighter craft in orbit. Hundreds of assault ships landed throughout the heavily fortified world, with their hulls filled with troops and vehicles, even though they took losses. They proceeded to besiege the cities.
The Republic forces made considerable progress during the initial stage of the Harnaidan siege, with SPHA artillery pieces concentrating fire on the ground just before the clone front lines. Any units coming to the front lines on the Separatist side were almost instantaneously decimated by artillery barrage, forcing the droids to pull back. Buildings fell quickly to the amount of artillery firepower as the SPHA batteries were brought to the frontlines, which caused much collateral damage.
====Commando mission====
During the initial landing, the specialized landing craft of the ARC troopers of The Muunilinst 10 was deployed to go on a special mission within Harnaidan. These ARCs were led by Captain Fordo. Pulling away from the main force, it entered the city with little difficulty.
However, they were shot down by a missile launcher-wielding battle droid, and the gunship crashed into a street. After taking out surrounding droid snipers, taking one casualty in the process, the troops found they were cut off from their original drop zone, but still made their way to the enemy command center. Along the way, they faced off against an Armored Assault Tank, which they successfully destroyed with a ARC Trooper shooting it from inside, blowing it to pieces.
After reaching the Separatist command center, the commandos eliminated surrounding droids and proceeded to lay explosive charges on a large cannon that was bombarding the Republic forces. Once the cannon was destroyed, they rappelled up to the roof of the command center to await Gamgee. The destruction of the artillery gun contributed to CIS commander San Hill's fear about the battle, as he now believed that the Republic artillery reached far enough into the city to blow up the cannon.
====The joust====
The Republic's initial success panicked San Hill, and he turned to the bounty hunter Durge, who was present, and demanded to know why Saruman would dispatch him to the battle if all he was going to do was stand around. Durge responded by briefly grappling Hill, and then decided to move into action with a contingent of IG lancer droids. Leaving the CIS command post, Durge and his force of droids moved to the front lines and tore towards the heart of the Republic's forces, causing huge casualties in the Republic ranks and destroying nearly all the SPHA walkers.
Durge's success spurred General Gamgee to lead a team of clone lancer troopers and Rohirrim cavalry out to meet Durge's forces. The two bands of swoop riders entered into a vicious mass joust, both clone and droid alike being impaled or thrown aside like debris. Sam and Durge both slew a good share of the enemy. As both sides sustained massive casualties, the two commanders spotted one another and engaged in personal combat.
On the first jousting pass, Durge deprived Gamgee of both his lance and helmet. In response, Sam drew his lightsaber and on the second pass, sliced Durge's lance to pieces and destroyed his bike. As he charged in to skewer his dismounted opponent, Durge, in an incredible display of strength and reflex, caught Gamgee's swoop by the steering vanes and flipped the Hobbit off. Wielding the bike as a club, Durge then charged Gamgee. Sam sliced it to pieces and stabbed Durge through the chest. Durge merely laughed, surprising Gamgee.
Durge's decentralized Gen'Dai physique allowed him to easily survive the stabbing, and he proceeded to beat Sam with his fists. Gamgee, with his saber still lodged in Durge's chest, couldn't retaliate, and was lifted bodily off the ground by a solid punch to the gut. Durge proceeded to fire at Gamgee with a small rapid projectile launcher, but the Jedi Hobbit deflected the slugs with the Protego charm. Switching to a flamethrower, Durge's attacks were again deflected and the flamethrower was crushed with the Force.
Brandishing a massive flail, he prepared to finish off Sam, but the Hobbit used the Summoning Charm to summon his lightsaber back to him and severed the flail's chain. Though he drew his two blaster pistols, Durge was disarmed before he could use them. Switching on the energy shields built into his gauntlets, he deflected Sam's lightsaber slashes, but was unable to adequately counterattack.
Sam pressed his advantage, Durge barely blocking, until finally, Gamgee sliced of Durge's right arm and bisected him through the middle. After seemingly defeating Durge, he salvaged a remaining swoop on the field and proceeded to join the ARC troopers. As Sam jetted off into the city, he failed to notice Durge's body pulling itself back together.
====Infiltrating the command tower====
After the joust and battle with Durge, General Gamgee rushed through the city to the command tower, where he met up with the Muunilinst 10 and King Theoden. Blasting open the roof of the structure with explosives, the troops, led by Sam and Theoden, rappelled into the control room and quickly destroyed all the security droids.
Capturing San Hill, Theoden offered to spare his life in exchange for an unconditional surrender. Before Hill had a chance to answer, Durge smashed through the tower window into the room on a jetpack. However, he was quickly shot down by concentrated fire from the clone troopers and ARC's. Hill took the opportunity to take cover under the situation table.
Thinking Durge to be dead, the troopers approached the smoking crater they had made, only to be knocked aside by a massive fleshy arm. Durge climbed from the crater, all his armor save a few, small fragments along with his helmet and gloves blasted off, revealing his true Gen'Dai form. He quickly attacked Sam, driving the Hobbit atop the situation table, which Durge snapped in half with his fists. He was then attacked by clones rappelling down on grappling hooks which they attached to him.
The blaster fire had no effect, and Durge simply ripped the lines from the wall with his sheer strength, toppling the clones. Charging Sam, Durge disarmed him and almost literally absorbed him into his body, hoping to suffocate him, and then approached the ARC commander, Fordo. Fordo then fired a taser at Durge, electrocuting him. This only succeeded in enraging the Gen'Dai, who charged Fordo, knocking aside the clones in his way.
However, before Durge could kill him, he suddenly bloated to massive size and exploded. Sam had used the Force to push outward and destroy Durge's body from the inside out. Commenting on how much of a mess he had made, Sam turned back to Hill, who promptly surrendered.
===The space battle===
Meanwhile, Frodo Baggins was leading the clone navy in a fierce space battle above Muunilinst. Several Republic Acclamator-class assault ships engaged the Confederacy's gun platforms. The Republic's V-19 Torrents were engaged by large numbers of Nantex-class starfighters. Frodo ordered the clone pilots to disengage, and destroyed large numbers of the enemy fighters with his proton torpedoes.
Pursued by yet more enemy fighters, he ordered his clones to fire all their concussion missiles across the bow of Cruiser 8, much to the confusion of the clones. He flew past the ship as the missiles started arriving; the missiles hit the swarm of fighters pursuing him, destroying a large number of them. Trailed by missiles, Frodo flew through the hangar of one of the gun platforms. The missiles collided with various objects within the hangar and destroyed the gun platform from the inside. Sustained turbolaser fire from the Republic capital ships destroyed another one.
Only a few Separatist fighters remained, but a mysterious ship appeared engaged the Republic forces, annihilating Blue Squadron. Frodo personally engaged the fighter, pursuing it into the atmosphere and through the streets of Harnaidan. When the pilot, a mysterious Force-sensitive hex girl of Saruman Jinx, jumped into hyperspace, the impetuous young Hobbit followed, disobeying a direct order from Sam, leading to a fateful duel.
==Conclusion and aftermath==
Having surrendered, San Hill was taken into custody, although he later escaped. The majority of the battle droids were deactivated as Voolvif Monn and the Third Systems Army battled through the Droid Army in Harnaidan, and the battle was won for the Republic.
Meanwhile, Frodo tracked Jinx down to Fangorn of the planet Middle-Earth. There, Jinx killed the clone troopers accompanying Baggins and destroyed his ship.War of the Ring Chapter 17 Frodo and Jinx engaged in a lightsaber duel through the forestsWar of the Ring Chapter 18 and on top of the Misty Mountains. In the end, Jinx was defeated, though not killed. This event was of some significance, as in the process, Frodo was pushed a little closer to the dark side. Years down the road, he would fall completely and become Delightful Children from Down the Lane.
After the duel, Frodo returned to Muunilinst in Jinx's fighter and was scolded by Sam for his hotheadedness. Gamgee noted his concern in the Sith's interest in his apprentice. At that point, Gamgee received a transmission from General Daakman Barrek on Harad, a distress call, which would lead to another significant turn of events with the introduction of a new foe: The Mouth of Sauron, the Supreme Commander of the Mordor Armies.
==Behind the scenes==
The scene in which the Republic and Separatist forces fight in mounted combat on swoops is meant to resemble a futuristic version of a Medieval joust, further supporting George Lucas' ideas and plans for the Jedi that are related to things such as chivalry and knights.Star Wars: Clone Wars DVD commentary''
==Appearances==
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:War of the Rings battles