Battle of Nadiem

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|name=Battle of Nadiem
|image=
|conflict=War of the RingHide in Plain Sight
|date=May 24th, 1981,The New Essential Chronology 2 months after the First Battle of Isengard
|place=Nadiem
|result=Republic victory
|side1=*Galactic Republic
*Jedi Order
|side2=Confederacy of Independent Systems
*Mordor
|commanders1=*High General Saesee Tiin
*General Luminara Unduli
*General B'dard ToneUnknown Soldier: The Story of General Grievous
*Commander Barriss Offee
*Commander Zephata'ru'tor †
|commanders2=General The Mouth of Sauron
|forces1=*At least 5 Jedi
*Clone troopers
*Clone commandos
*Advanced Recon Commandos
*AT-TE walkers
*SPHA-T walkers
*LAAT gunships
|forces2=*B1-Series battle droids
*Orcs
*B2 super battle droids
*Armored Assault Tanks
*Mumakil
*IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tanks
*DSD1 dwarf spider droids
*Several Separatist fighter squadrons
**Fighter Wing Zero-Zero
*1 Belbullab-22 starfighter
**Soulless One
|casual1=*Moderate
**Many clone troopers
**At least one AT-TE walker
**Several LAAT gunships
**Commander Zephata'ru'tor
|casual2=*Most of the Separatist and Mordor forces
|civilian=Most of the Nadiem's populace either displaced or killed
}}
The battle occurred during the War of the Ring between the Republic and the Separatists. In 1981, two months after the First Battle of Isengard, the Separatist Droid Army and Mordor army, commanded by General The Mouth of Sauron, invaded the Republic-controlled planet of Nadiem and was able to to grab a strong foothold on the planet. The Republic then sent a detachment of their own clone army to counter the invasion, along with several Jedi Generals including Senior General Luminara Unduli and High General Saesee Tiin, resulting in a full scale battle, with Nadiem's civilian populace caught in the middle.
During the fighting, Threadneedle Canyon became a point of contention between the two sides, with The Mouth of Sauron and the Confederacy controlling one side of the canyon, and the Republic controlling the small valley on the other. Meanwhile, General Tiin set up a strong Republic blockade around Nadiem, preventing any Confederate reinforcements to make it through. While General Unduli and her apprentice Barriss Offee were strengthening the Republic's defenses and evacuating a small town in the valley, The Mouth of Sauron ordered a large amount of his forces to go through the canyon and destroy the Republic troops on the other side, while he stayed behind and commanded his troops and orcs from his command bunker. As the Separatist forces were moving through Threadneedle, Offee and several clone troopers got stranded in the center of the canyon after giving up their transportation to a group of refugees. Realizing that engaging the droid forces directly would only result in their deaths, Offee ordered her troops to fire at the advancing Separatist column from a distance, and after the battle droids returned fire, to lie motionless on the ground so that the enemy would believe they were dead and pass them by. Offee's plan worked, and once the droids moved on, her troops and herself climbed the canyon and prepared to ambush the Separatist forces from behind.
The Confederate column soon engaged Unduli and her troops on the other side of the canyon, and were about to break through the Republic's defenses when Offee and her troops began to fire on the droids from behind. With their rear support failing, the droids tried to retreat when Offee's clonetoopers detonated several explosives they had put into place beforehand. The resulting explosion caused an avalanche, cutting off the Separatists' only route of retreat, and any remaining battledroids were systematically neutralized. With most of their forces destroyed, the Separatists were forced to abandon Nadiem. However, while The Mouth of Sauron was fleeing Nadiem in his personal Belbullab-22 starfighter, he was attacked by Jedi Master B'dard Tone and his apprentice Zephata'ru'tor above the planet. The Mouth of Sauron managed to kill Zephata'ru'tor and seriously injure Tone before escaping into hyperspace.
==Prelude==
In May 24th, 1981—two months after the First Battle of Isengard and the start of the War of the Ring between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems—the Confederacy Droid Army, under the command of the Separatist and Mordor General The Mouth of Sauron, invaded the planet of Nadiem in the Baxel sector. Even though Nadiem really had no strategic value to either side, the Separatists attacked the planet mainly because the Republic had chosen to defend it. In response to the invasion, the Republic reinforced Nadiem with their clone army, as well as dispatched five Jedi Generals to take command of the situation. Among the Jedi sent to Nadiem were High General Saesee Tiin and Senior General Luminara Unduli, as well as Unduli's apprentice/Jedi Commander Barriss Offee,
The Mouth of Sauron and his Confederate and Mordor forces managed to grab a strong foothold on Nadiem before the Republic could respond, and landed a large amount of battle droids, Orcs, Mumakil, and tanks. When the Jedi-led support arrived, General Unduli, Commander Offee, and several other Jedi landed on the planet and began to reinforce the Republic's defenses, while General Tinn set up a strong Republic blockade around Nadiem. During the invasion, the Jedi started an evacuation of the planet's residents, with General Unduli and her apprentice personally overseeing the evacuation themselves.
During the invasion, Threadneedle Canyon became a point of contention between the two sides on the planet, with the Republic fortifying their defenses in a valley on one side of the canyon, while the Separatists' controlled the other. The Mouth of Sauron, from a command bunker deep inside Confederate territory, ordered the bulk of his battle droids and heavy tanks to move through the canyon and seize the valley on the other side, and ordered several droid starfighter squadrons to break through the Republic blockade over the planet and provide air support. Meanwhile, the Jedi continued to evacuate Nadiem's populace, with Unduli and Offee focusing her attention on evacuating a small town in the valley.
==The battle==
===Evacuation===
While General Unduli and Commander Offee were organizing the evacuation of the planet, Advance Squad—a clone trooper squad stationed in Threadneedle Canyon that were monitoring the advancing Separatist column from afar—reported to Unduli that the battle droids were quickening their pace and would arrive in the valley within an hour. As the Separatist column moved closer to the Republic's position, Unduli allowed any civilian who wanted to abandon their homes a chance to board a Republic LAAT/i gunship and to be transported to a safer location, hoping to get the noncombatants clear before the Confederacy began their assault on the village. However, space and time was limited, so Unduli told the refugees that they were prohibited from taking any personal possessions with them. While most did comply with these order, at least one man tried to smuggle a great amount of wealth in his shirt onto a gunship. Unduli managed to spot the man, and stopped him from boarding an evacuation ship. Even with this rule, however, there were still too many refugees to move with so few gunships, and several had to wait in long lines for a chance to board a ship.
Back at Threadneedle canyon, Advance Squad came across a group of civilians from an outlying settlement in the canyon that been trying to reach Unduli's evacuation point. An elder refugee in the group was very ill, and had delayed the others' progress to the valley. The clone squad's ARC trooper commander contacted General Unduli and informed her of their situation and requested for a gunship to pick the squad and the refugees up. When Offee heard about this, she asked her master to let her go along with the gunship, believing she could help load the refugees in faster. Unduli permitted Offee to go, but only if she took a squad of clone commandos along with her for protection.
As Offee's gunship left to airlift the stranded refugees and clones, the Confederate column reached a point in the canyon which they had designated as sector five, with the a droid reporting back to The Mouth of Sauron about their progress via hologram. The Mouth of Sauron, from his bunker, told his column that the Republic would likely ambush them later on, at the narrowest part of the canyon, designated as sector seven. The Mordor general told the column to move their heaviest tanks to the front, ordering them to smash through the ambush when it happened.
Meanwhile, above Nadiem, General Tiin's fleet was engaged by Separatist Fighter Wing Zero-Zero as the Confederate vessels tried to break through the Republic blockade. The Republic fleet was too strong for the droid starfighters though, and the Separatists were forced to turn back. The Mouth of Sauron was angered upon hearing this news, knowing that he would not have air support for the upcoming battle.
===Playing dead===
In the canyon, Commander Offee and her gunship arrived to pick up the marooned clones and civilians. However, Offee discovered that there were more refugees than she had anticipated and there was not enough room for both her troopers and the refugees aboard the gunship. The civilians were loaded into the ship, and, realizing that she could not abandon her own soldiers, Offee decided to stay with Advanced Squad. Offee planned that she and her troops would try to hold off the Separatist droids from the canyon as long as possible, so to buy more time for Unduli to evacuate the civilians in the valley.
When General Unduli was informed about General Tiin's success over the planet, she contacted her apprentice about the development over their comlinks. Glad to hear the news, Offee told her master about her being stranded in the canyon and about her plan to hold back the Separatists. She also asked that Unduli not send another gunship to pick Offee's squad up, believing the Separatist column would be upon them before it would arrive. Unduli was heavily disappointed by this news, knowing that Offee would almost certainly die fighting the Confederacy army, but knew that her apprentice was correct in her assertion.
Ase Offee closed her comlink the Advance Squad's ARC trooper told the Jedi Padawan that his squad had been planning an ambush for the Separatist column already. Advance Squad had set up explosives at the narrowest part of the canyon, and had been going to detonate them as the enemy column approached, hoping to delay the droids' advance and make a stand. Commander Offee knew that the plan would only slow the Separatists for a short time, and would result in their own deaths. However, she had a different plan, one that would possibly preserve their lives.
As the Separatist column approached sector seven, The Mouth of Sauron ordered his droids to be prepared for the predicted Republic ambush. Commander Offee's troops began to fire on the droid forces from farther afar, destroying a few B1-Series battle droids and Orcs. The Confederate battle droids and their Armored Assault Tanks began to fire back blindly, and after a short pause where the clone troopers did not return fire, continued marching forward. Meanwhile, the Republic forces back in the valley lost contact with Offee's men, with Unduli fearing that her apprentice had been killed. As the droid column moved through sector seven, they passed Offee and her clone troopers, lying motionless on the ground. Believing the Jedi and clones to be dead, the droids moved past and continued on towards the valley.
However, Offee and her troops were not dead, but just pretending to be so. Offee had realized that she and her troops would be killed if they engaged the Confederate army directly, and instead fooled the droids into thinking they were dead. Once all the droid had passed the squad, Offee ordered her men to get up and grab the explosives they had originally planned for the ambush.
===The trap===
By the time the Separatist army arrived at the Republic controlled town, Offee and Advance squad had climbed to the top of the canyon's right wall, and had positioned themselves towards the back of the Confederate column. Meanwhile, the droid forces emerged from the mouth of Threadneedle Canyon and engaged Unduli's forces. The Republic were well dug in and prepared for the Confederacy, using their Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery tanks to cut into the droids' flanks. However, the Separatist's own Hailfire droid tanks fired back with deadly accuracy, destroying at least one Republic AT-TE tank and killing several clones. The droid forces began to overwhelm the Republic's position with their superior numbers, and it seemed that the Separatists would win the battle.
However, as one of the battle droids was reporting the column's progress back to The Mouth of Sauron, Offee's squad began to fire down on the Separatist's tanks from behind. The droids were confused by this, having thought they had left no one alive back in the canyon, and were not able to fire back at Offee's men, too preoccupied with fighting the main Republic forces in front of them. Commander Offee's squad destroyed the column's rear Hailfire tanks and dwarf spider droids one by one, thinning the Separatists' ranks. Meanwhile, Unduli's troops continued to fire on the Separatists' frontward rows, mowing down the column from both sides. With their front and rear guards gone, the droids' progress was stopped, forcing them into a frantic retreat. With the Confederate army now in disarray, Unduli and her clone troopers launched a charge against the withdrawing droids.
The Confederate retreate played right into Offee's plan, who had her squad place their explosives at the top of the canyon, farther behind the Separatists column. As the droids passed under where the explosives were planted, Offee's troops detonated them, loosening the rocks in the canyon wall and causing an avalanche that crushed many of the battle droids, leaving the remaining Separatists trapped between a wall of rubble and the charging Republic clones. Back in his bunker, The Mouth of Sauron watched his hologram of the battle, seeing as his army was trapped and destroyed. The Mordor general smashed his hologram projector in anger, knowing that the Separatists and Mordor had lost Nadiem.
Unduli and her soldiers destroyed the remaining battle droids when Commander Offee and her squad emerged from the smoke and dust created by the avalanche. Unduli was glad and surprised to see her apprentice alive, asking Offee how she had survived. Offee told her master about her plan, joking that she and her troops had hid in plain sight from the Separatists as they passed by.
===Separatist withdrawal===
With the majority of their army destroyed, the Confederacy was forced to abandon Nadiem and leave it to the Republic. The Mouth of Sauron chose to leave Nadiem in his personal Belbullad-22 starfighter, the Soulless One, trying to clear the Republic blockade on the far side of the planet. However, as he entered space, The Mouth of Sauron was attacked by Jedi Master B'dard Tone and his apprentice Zephata'ru'tor—a Duinuogwuin who was able to survive in the vacuum of space—attempting to prevent the general's escape.
After a short space battle above the planet, The Mouth of Sauron was able to dispatch Tone, seriously injuring the Jedi Master. Shortly afterwards, The Mouth of Sauron killed Zephata'ru'tor, and jumped into hyperspace, fleeing Nadiem.
==Aftermath==
B'dard Tone was later rescued by the Republic, and was forced to undergo several cybernetic replacements due to the injuries he had sustained at the hands of The Mouth of Sauron over Nadiem. This included a metal plating covering the left side of his face, as wells as a robotic right arm. For the death of his Padawan at Nadiem, as well as the injuries he received, Tone held a personal vendetta against The Mouth of Sauron, desiring the Jedi Order to track and kill the general. This feeling of revenge would lead Tone, his new apprentice Codi Ty, and fellow Jedi Flynn Kybo to desert the Order to personally hunt down the Separatist and Mordor general.The Mouth of Sauron 1 in 1983. Tone and his companions tracked The Mouth of Sauron to the moon of Belsus, where The Mouth of Sauron killed Tone and Kybo in a lightsaber duel.The Mouth of Sauron 4
==Appearances==
* 
*Star Wars: The Mouth of Sauron 
==Sources==
*The New Essential Chronology 
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*Star Wars Character Encyclopedia 
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==Notes and references==
Category:War of the Rings battles