Battle of Christophsis

The Battle of Christophsis, also known as the Siege of Christophsis, took place for control of the planet Christophsis early during the Clone Wars. Seeking to gain control of the planet's strategic resources, the Separatist Droid Army led by General Whorm Loathsom invaded and captured Christophsis. Responding to an urgent plea from the world's inhabitants, the Galactic Republic and the Jedi High Council dispatched High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi General Anakin Skywalker with Admiral Wullf Yularen and a clone trooper contingent from the Grand Army of the Republic to liberate the planet. After managing to break Confederate Admiral Trench's massive blockade around the planet as well as deliver the supplies to Senator Bail Prestor Organa's refugee camp on the surface via an experimental stealth ship, the IPV-2C Stealth Corvette prototype, Republic forces attempted to ambush the Confederate droid army from a business center in one of the plazas of Chaleydonia, the planet's capital city. Acting on information from one of its spies, Clone Sergeant Slick, the Separatists foiled the Republic's attack. Despite this turn of events, the Jedi and the clone troopers managed to escape and retreat back to their base.
Alerted to the possibility of a spy within their ranks, Skywalker and Kenobi went in search of more information behind enemy lines, while Clone Marshal Commander Cody and Clone Captain Rex remained on base to ascertain the identity of the mole. Kenobi and Skywalker confronted Sith acolyte Asajj Ventress at the Separatist base, and discovered the presence of an invasion force far greater in strength than they originally believed. Back at the Republic base, Slick was revealed to be the turncoat, but still managed to sabotage the Republic's weapons depot, destroying most of the Republic's supplies before Rex and Cody could apprehend him. Raising the stakes with its full strength, the main body of Confederate troops launched an assault on the Republic forces. After several days, the Republic managed to push the Separatist forces into a retreat, and when Loathsom mounted a second assault, his forces' advance was halted by the Republic's AV-7 Anti-vehicle Artillery Cannons, and he and his droids pulled back to their base behind a deflector shield to counter the Republic's artillery.
The renewed Separatist blockade of Christophsis drove Yularen and the Republic fleet away from the planet, but Skywalker's newly assigned Jedi Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, was able to land on the planet. Loathsom and the Confederacy mounted yet another assault, this time advancing behind their shield, effectively neutralizing the clones' artillery. While Kenobi, Rex, and the 501st Legion defended the artillery cannons, Skywalker and Tano sabotaged the Confederacy's shield generator. Kenobi surrendered to Loathsom, buying time for his comrades to complete their mission, and Yularen returned to the system with Jedi Grand Master Yoda and a reinforced fleet to break the blockade, driving the Separatists away from Christophsis. In addition, the Republic's renewed artillery usage proved instrumental in annihilating the Separatists in the capital. Kenobi captured Loathsom, and the Republic emerged victorious and landed further reinforcements to secure the victory.
==Prelude==
Several months after the First Battle of Geonosis, Count Dooku and his Separatist Alliance sent an army under General Whorm Loathsom and assassin Asajj Ventress to capture the planet Christophsis, due to its resources and strategic position on the Corellian Run, while Admiral Trench blockaded the planet with a fleet of thirty warships to prevent Galactic Republic forces from intervening.
The Republic responded to the invasion by sending a relief force under Senator Bail Prestor Organa to aid the people of Christophsis, but they became trapped with Republic troops in the eastern exurbs during the invasion. While Christophsian rebels fought the Separatists, the Christophsians eventually pled for Republic help, due to worsening conditions and depleting supplies. The Republic dispatched High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi General Anakin Skywalker to disrupt the blockade and deliver Senator Organa's relief supplies. The Battle of Christophsis, as it came to be known, was one of the opening salvos of the war. It occurred not long after Skywalker led a revolt on Kudo III.
Skywalker was sent in advance with a fleet of Star Destroyers, while Kenobi and Clone Marshal Commander Cody followed behind in Kenobi's flagship, the Negotiator, which carried in its secret cargo an experimental stealth ship with cloaking abilities. Trouble beset the Republic forces as the Separatists possessed a much larger army than anticipated; in addition, one of the clone troopers dispatched to Christophsis, Clone Sergeant Slick, had grown disillusioned with the Jedi and the Republic, believing the clones' lives as soldiers to be little more than enslavement, so he passed vital intelligence to Ventress in exchange for payment.
==The battle==
===Republic arrival===
====Attack on the blockade====
Upon arriving in Christophsian space, Skywalker and Yularen engaged the Separatist blockade with three Venator-class Star Destroyers against Kenobi's orders not to. Trench's forces, consisting of at least twenty-three Munificent-class star frigates, at least six Lucrehulk-class Battleships, and Trench's Providence-class Dreadnought, the Invincible, quickly overpowered the smaller Republic fleet. Joined with Yularen on the bridge of his flagship, the Resolute, Skywalker made several attempts during the assault to break the blockade, only for his efforts to end each time with high causalities. Additionally, Skywalker and Yularen made contact with Senator Organa on the surface as his position was being overrun by Separatist forces, and they were running low on food, water, and munitions. He and his men were close to being overwhelmed by the army on the surface when the transmission cut off, as one of Skywalker's cruisers was hit by enemy fire. As the two sides exchanged heavy fire, the Invincible advanced on the Resolute unopposed. Yularen ordered the Resolute forward deflector shields to activate just before the Separatist command ship released a barrage of laser fire at the whole task force. Trench also attacked the Pelta-class frigatess, separating them from their escort cruisers.
The left supply ship was then hit by the increased fire, being completely torn apart. In response, Skywalker ordered all reactors to be overfired, intending to charge past the Separatist Commander, though he was still unaware of his identity. At that point, Kenobi and Cody arrived on board the Negotiator behind Skywalker's ships, staying close to Leesis,Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia Christophsis' moon. Though his tactical droid, TI-99, informed him that the Resolute was not breaking off its attack, Trench held his ships in line and had his bridge crew intensify forward shields. As their ship took more fire, Skywalker and Yularen holographically counselled with Kenobi. At his friends' request, Skywalker decided to regroup behind the moon, ordering the supply ships to break away first, with the Star Destroyers covering their escape. His cruisers managed to maneuver around and have their hulls take most of the enemy fire, protecting the supply ships and the fleet behind them. Knowing his orders were to simply blockade the planet, Trench, in the belief that he had won the first round of the battle, decided against pursuing the retreating fleet and remained in orbit to wait for the Republic's inevitable second attack. To ready his ships for this, he had his command ship's shields recycled and forward cannons reset to a full charge.
With the Republic fleet recuperating and waiting for the next attack, Skywalker took a Nu-class transports to the Negotiator, where he met Kenobi to see the ship the General had brought. After he had shown Skywalker the IPV-2C Stealth Corvette prototype ship and its stealth capabilities, Kenobi said the ship was completely undetectable to scanners as far as they could tell, but this was its first true field test. Skywalker, despite the ship's size, believed he could use it to take out the blockade from behind; Kenobi instead instructed him to use it to run a mercy mission to drop off supplies at Organa's refugee camp. Though he wished to attack and destroy the blockade instead, Skywalker agreed to carry out the mission. Meanwhile, onboard the Resolute, Yularen researched the markings on the Invincible, having noticed a familiarity with the tactics of the earlier battle. He found that it did indeed belong to Admiral Trench, a foe he had previously faced and presumed to be vaporized in the Battle of Malastare Narrows. Concerned, he requested that Skywalker delay his mission and meet with the General aboard the Negotiator, reporting his findings to him while the stealth ship was being loaded. Because he had engaged the admiral previously, Yularen volunteered himself as consort on Skywalker's mission, believing it would be beneficial in the inevitable encounter with Trench's wit. Skywalker accepted and welcomed him to the mission.
====Stealth mission====
With one stealth clone pilot, Clone Commander Blackout, and trooper Spark—the last of the stealth ship's crew— on board, at their stations and ready for takeoff, the stealth ship powered up and prepared to depart. Skywalker piloted the ship out of the Negotiator main hangar bay and toward the heavily armored Separatist blockade, activating his craft's cloaking shield just as it came out from behind the moon. Remaining undetected by Trench and the rest of his fleet, Skywalker and Yularen slipped right past an unaware Munificent-class frigate—close enough to leave Yularen worried about alerting the enemy to their presence. Conferring with his tactical droid aboard the Invincible, Trench found that the Christophsian resistance was crumbling, and the droid offered his estimation that it would be a half rotation more before it was completely over. Intending to add some pressure on those who had been sent to rescue Senator Organa, Trench dispatched his Hyena-class Droid Bombers to attack the Senator's camp on the surface in order to draw his enemies out from behind the moon. The squadron of bombers, accompanied by fighter escort, launched from the Separatist fleet, and their path to the surface inadvertently lead them straight to Skywalker's stealth ship, despite Trench's continued unawareness of the spacecraft.
The approaching bombers presented Skywalker with a tough decision to make: because he did not know if the Separatists had learned of their presence, he was uncertain if the bombers were targeting the stealth ship or not. The Republic craft itself was armed with proton torpedoes and anti-aircraft cannons, but would have to deactivate the cloaking device to use either—and doing so would allow the Separatists to know of their ship's presence. Yularen noted that an offensive had to be mounted soon if Skywalker decided to do so. As the diving bombers entered within range, Skywalker elected to chance that the blockade was unaware of the stealth ship and thereby ordered his crew to keep the ship cloaked, power it down, and let it drift. Despite Yularen's contrary to belief, the bombers did not attack the stealth ship, zooming right by and rattling it but otherwise leaving it unscathed. However, Yularen pushed away the comforting revelation that the Separatists were oblivious to their presence and voiced his realization that the bombers were heading to bomb Organa's command center. The bombers did just that, releasing their explosives on the Senator's camp in the city. With the Separatists approaching both by air and by ground, Organa opened a transmission to Kenobi and told him that without reinforcements, there was not much chance for survival. Kenobi then contacted Skywalker and told him to continue with his mission while he himself engaged Trench's fleet with the remaining ships of the task force. Both Yularen and Skywalker disagreed with this course of action; Yularen stated that Kenobi did not have the proper resources to openly engage Trench and asserted that it was a trap, while Skywalker affirmed that the proposed tactic simply would not be successful.
Believing that their ship was in the best position to attack Trench, Skywalker, to the surprise of Yularen, had four of the stealth craft's proton torpedoes prepped, intending to go on the offensive and divert Trench's attention from the Christopsians and back to the Republic fleet. He then cut off Kenobi's transmission before he could continue to order Skywalker to deliver the supplies to the surface. Trench, meanwhile, found the Republic fleet's silence odd and mused to himself about their intentions. He soon found out as Skywalker brought the stealth ship around to get a clear shot at Trench's ship. After disengaging the ships cloaking shields, Skywalker had his crew fire the four prepped torpedoes at the Invincible bridge. Trench managed to put up his ship's thermal shield, rendering the attack unsuccessful. When the stealth ship began to re-cloak, Trench had his ship fire four missiles at the stealth craft. Skywalker decided to have his pilot launch decoy flares to intercept the missiles, and then re-cloaked the ship. Not to be deterred, Trench then ordered a large spread of lasers fired at the ship's last known position, believing he would be able to hit the craft with the sheer number of blasts. In spite of this, Skywalker managed to avoid the laser spread. This did not go unnoticed, as Trench surmised that since no clone pilot would have been able to avoid that many lasers, he must be dealing with a Jedi.
Deciding to speak with his adversary, Trench patched himself over an open frequency and called out to his unseen enemy. Skywalker picked up the transmission and unhesitatingly accessed it, witnessing Trench goading the Republic forces into attacking him and boasting that he had dealt with cloaked ships before. After he had terminated his transmission, Trench was not surprised with his tactical droid's calculation that the Jedi would not turn back as he requested and theorized that the Jedi would attack again. Meanwhile, Skywalker and Yularen were left puzzled with the revelation of Trench's experience with cloaked ships until Kenobi obtained records of Trench's past battles. Kenobi reported that Trench had indeed faced such technology and had successfully hit them with tracking torpedoes, though nothing as small as the stealth ship. Skywalker correctly theorized that Trench had homed in on the ship's magnetic signature as a means of targeting the cloaked ships. Skywalker requested that Kenobi hold off his attack until Trench had been destroyed before ending the transmission. After completing the necessary preparations, the stealth ship de-cloaked once more and fired four more torpedoes at the Invincible. While the torpedoes hit the Invincible thermal shields and failed to do any damage, the bridge's crew locked onto the stealth ship's magnetic signature and was able to track it. Having to lower his shields in order to fire tracking torpedoes, Trench had his tactical droid do just that and released the four-torpedo volley. With the bait taken, Skywalker began to pilot the stealth ship toward the Invincible.
With the torpedoes following closely, Skywalker deactivated his ship's cloaking device and diverted all the ships power to its engines. He then steered the ship straight towards the Invincible bridge. Realizing his error, Trench attempted to raise the thermal shields, but could not because they were still charging. Skywalker piloted the ship across the Invincible hull, grazing it and leading the tracking torpedoes straight towards the bridge. As the Invincible exploded behind him, Skywalker made for the planet's surface. Giving Skywalker a grudging congratulations, Kenobi engaged the remainder of the blockade with the Negotiator, while the stealth ship continued to the surface to deliver it's supplies. Skywalker and Yularen landed at the refugee camp and unloaded their supplies. Organa thanked the General for the lives he saved, and Yularen expressed his impressed view of Skywalker's unusual tactics.
With Trench out of the way, the Separatist fleet was in disarray, and Kenobi pushed his fleet of Venator-class Star Destroyers forward to break the enemy blockade, which—in the absence of the Invincible—was now comprised of Munificent-class frigates and Lucrehulk-class Battleships. Skywalker temporarily returned with Kenobi to pilot their respective Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptors against the remnants of the blockade. On the ground, Skywalker and Kenobi captured the western district in the capital city of Chaleydonia. The Republic eventually set up a base on the ground for their artillery, LAAT/i gunships, and All Terrain Tactical Enforcers.
===Traitor in the ranks===
====Failed ambush====
Kenobi, Cody, Skywalker, and Clone Captain Rex were stationed on the surface while Yularen eventually returned to the fleet as its acting Commander in the continuing struggle against the Separatist blockade.
Kenobi, Skywalker, Cody, Rex, and their men then planned an ambush on a column of battle droids and Armored Assault Tanks from two towers. Kenobi, Cody, and Sergeant Slick stationed their men in the south tower, while Skywalker and Rex were based in the parallel north tower. While Separatist battle droids and AATs passed through the plaza below, Kenobi's men set up several blaster cannons, ready to ambush the advancing enemy forces. As the clones kept watch on the droids, however, the column of droids unexpectedly split into two. B1 battle droids took a turbolift up to the level of the south tower where Kenobi's forces were positioned and ambushed them, surrounding and converging on the clones. The backfired ambush made it apparent to Kenobi that their tactic had been compromised. Watching the transpiring events from the north tower and confirming the situation over comlink with Kenobi, Skywalker contacted clone trooper pilot Hawk and ordered an evacuation from the south tower. Skywalker then cut through the window overlooking the plaza with his lightsaber and used the Force to blast a hole through it, enabling his men to fire their blaster rifles' ascension cables across to the south tower. Skywalker, Rex, and the clone troopers crossed the divide and sustained minimal casualties from the battle droids that opened fire on them from the plaza below.
Rex, Skywalker, and their men met up with Kenobi in the south tower and cut off battle droids attempting to assault him from behind, and Kenobi telekinetically threw one of the blaster cannons at the droids, momentarily halting their advance. The Jedi and their respective forces entered a turbolift in order to evacuate from the roof of the tower, while the droids pursued them in other lifts. After reaching the roof, the clone troopers provided cover fire so the Jedi could attack the droids at close range. Soon after, the tactical droid TJ-55 came to the roof with droid reinforcements. Just then, Hawk's gunship arrived and hovered close to the roof of the tower. Continuing to fire at the droids, the troopers began to back into the craft. Before retreating, trooper Gus charged TJ-55 and broke the droid's head off, taking it into the gunship. Republic forces then left the failed ambush site and returned to the base, where Rex and Cody performed a robolobotomy on the tactical droid's head, managing to access its memory banks. The droid's head confirmed that the Separatist forces had known of the Republic's strategy and position, but shut down before revealing anything else.
When the clones reported their findings to their Generals, Skywalker thought that a breach in security systems had been the source for the Confederacy's acquisition of the plans. Kenobi went as far as to suspect that their was a spy in their midst, thinking that they needed to act behind enemy lines to find any relevant intel. Before leaving with Skywalker to investigate, Kenobi told Cody and Rex to keep the mission a secret, and to stay to track down and arrest the spy. As Kenobi and Skywalker left, Cody then saw that someone-Slick, though he did not know it at the time-had left their comlink on in the room and had been listening to the whole conversation. Rex and Cody then spotted Slick in the hallway, but he was too far away for them to identify him. Slick ran, and Rex and Cody tried to chase them down, but they lost him. Because of the spy's path, they were able to deduce that he must have gone into the mess hall. After realizing that all the people in the mess hall were clones, they were forced to conclude that the spy was one of their brothers. Cody then tried to contact Kenobi and Skywalker to no avail, as the droids were jamming transmissions. Deciding to continue investigating, they returned to the communications center, where, thanks to the R2-series astromech droid R2-D2, they discovered several external communications. The communications had taken place every few days, in a pattern irregular enough to avoid detection. The wavelengths were ultimately traced to a terminal in the barracks used by Slick's squad. Deducing that one of Slick's men was the spy, they decided to interrogate them in hopes of apprehending the individual.
====Revealed deception====
Under the cover of night, Skywalker and Kenobi neared the Separatist base—where the primary Separatist invasion army was landing and preparing to march on the city—on BARC speeders through the streets of the ruined city. The two Jedi noticed an increasing number of battle droids spying them, but because the droids were not attempting to stop them or engage them, the pair realized that they were heading into a trap, but continued anyway. Upon arriving at the base, Skywalker and Kenobi were greeted by the hooded figure of Ventress. Upon sight of each other, all three adversaries ignited their lightsabers. Taunting her attackers with the knowledge of the spy, Ventress nimbly climbed to the top of the base's stairs. A lightsaber duel ensued when Skywalker slashed at Ventress, who drove him down to the bottom of the stairs. Kenobi joined the fight and engaged Ventress as well. Ventress fought Skywalker and Kenobi simultaneously with her dual lightsabers and used the Force to telekinetically throw a piece of crystal rubble at the duo. Kenobi sliced the projectile in half, and he and Skywalker gradually managed to drive Ventress back up the stairs.
Ventress fled into another room and the Jedi pursued her. She summoned numerous books off their shelves and hurtled them at her pursuers; Kenobi stopped them with the Force, and Skywalker's added telekinetic assistance forced the books back at Ventress. As the Dark Acolyte assumed a submissive seated position, the two Jedi approached her with their lightsabers ignited. However, Ventress suddenly activated her own lightsabers into the floor and opened up a hole, causing Skywalker and Kenobi to fall into the room below. Ventress mocked the two before fleeing, and the two Jedi jumped back up into the room above and followed Ventress as she broke a window and hurtled out of it. While Ventress landed on the head of an Octuptarra tri-droid attached to the side of the building, Skywalker and Kenobi walked onto the balcony and discovered the full scale of the Separatist invasion force: numerous C-9979 landing crafts were landing, bringing more battle droids to the surface, and many troops had already been deployed from their racks and were marching in formation on the ground far below. Despite the revelation of the enormous invasion force, Skywalker and Kenobi continued the duel and jumped onto the legs of the tri-droid, cutting off two of its legs and breaking its hold on the building. Ventress jumped off the droid's head and briefly engaged Skywalker upon one of the droid's remaining legs. As the droid plummeted to the ground, Skywalker Force-pushed Ventress away, and he and Kenobi each commandeered a Single Trooper Aerial Platform from the battle droids piloting them.
Ventress reached the ground while the tri-droid crashed behind her. She then gave orders to General Loathsom through a tactical droid, ordering them to attack the city in order to keep the Jedi occupied while she carried out the next part of her master's plan: turning Jabba the Hutt against the Jedi and the Republic by kidnapping his son, Rotta the Huttlet. She then left in her Trident-class assault ship, leaving Loathsom and the tactical droid in command of the attack. Back at the Republic base, Rex and Cody, despite Slick's objections that it would demoralize his men, interrogated his squad: Jester, Gus, Punch, Sketch, and Chopper. All them had clean alibis except Chopper, who admitted that he was making a necklace out of battle droid fingers, against wartime protocol. Wanting to avoid suspicion, Slick put Chopper's authenticity in question. However, while telling Chopper that he did not have to say anything, he accidentally revealed that he knew the Jedi were gone. Chopper then lashed out, questioning why he had turned left, towards the command center, after returning, when everyone else went right, towards the mess hall and barracks. Cody then realized that he had said that the Jedi were gone, something Slick could not have known unless he was the spy. Found out, Slick punched Cody and dashed for the exit. Rex and Cody tracked him to the gunships and tanks, but encountered a primed thermal detonator.
Rex and Cody took cover moments before numerous explosives went off and completely destroyed the landing pad, the AT-TE walkers, and the weapon supply depot. Slick ran into the command center and hid in the vents above the room, and Cody and Rex pursued him there. The two officers engaged in a ploy to bait Slick out of the vents—while Cody left his DC-15A blaster carbine on the table and secretly removed the ammunition from his weapon, Rex appeared to leave for the south exit to restart the generators. Slick left his hiding spot, stole Cody's blaster, and pointed the weapon at Cody, at which point the Commander revealed that it was empty. Rex re-entered the room, and the officers surrounded Slick. The Sergeant stole Rex's blaster, and Cody lost his own blaster while disarming the Separatist agent. Cody knocked Slick down as the latter headed for the exit, and the two engaged in close combat before Rex pulled the clone traitor off Cody. Slick head-butted Rex and employed the "groin popper" maneuver to dislocate his leg. As Slick revealed the reasons behind his treason, Cody knocked him out and locked him in handcuffs. Once the Jedi returned to the base, the apprehended Slick accused them of enslaving the clones before he was taken to lock-up. Kenobi and Skywalker then sent Yularen's fleet back to Republic space for resupplying.
===Loathsom's assault===
====Battle at the capital====
Skywalker's and Kenobi's forces were only able to save the AV-7 Anti-vehicle Artillery Cannons, but they set them up in anticipation of an assault. Loathsom then launched an attack, with his army consisting of B1 and B2 battle droids and three Octuptarra tri-droids on the front lines, with AATs following behind in large numbers. In response, Kenobi and Cody led the main force of clone troopers—some mounted on All Terrain Reconnaissance Transports—in a head-on charge against the droids in the main lane, while Rex, Skywalker, and a squad of clone troopers headed to the top of a nearby tower. The clones used jetpacks to land on the street and attack the Octuptarra droids, and Skywalker landed on one of the droids. The team succeeded in taking out all three Octuptarra droids and proceeded to attack the advancing droid forces from behind. Seeing no other choices due to the Republic's heavy cannons, Loathsom was forced to pull back his forces in order to set up a deflector shield, and had an OOM command battle droid relay his orders to the front lines. The droid forces pulled back to regroup in the Separatist-controlled area of the city, though the battle over Christophsis continued to rage on.
With squadrons of starfighters waging dogfights across the space over the planet with the Separatists, Admiral Yularen quickly sent the young Padawan Ahsoka Tano to the surface aboard a Nu-class transport from the Resolute as a messenger from the Jedi High Council with important orders for the Jedi, since disruptions in the star system had led to a communications blackout between Christophsis and the Jedi Temple. Upon seeing the shuttle, Kenobi hoped it would bring help. Afterward, Skywalker looked over the battlefield from above a number of times and reflected on himself. After ordering his clone commandos to stay in position, he left to meet Kenobi, unable to shake the feeling his life would soon change. Tano landed in the city and was greeted by a surprised Skywalker and Kenobi, who had expected Republic reinforcements instead of her. Tano revealed to Skywalker that Jedi Grand Master Yoda had assigned her to be his Padawan, much to Skywalker's surprise and alarm.
In the City Plaza, Skywalker, Tano, and Kenobi managed to contact Yoda at the Jedi Temple through the Resolute—which was being battered by intense turbolaser fire from several Munificent-class frigates of the renewed Confederate blockade, itself numbering less than Admiral Trench's original fleet but still posing a significant threat—and, with all of their support ships already destroyed, requested reinforcements for the battle. Skywalker and Kenobi found that the Jedi Council had been unaware that the Republic forces had engaged the Separatists but managed to get the request for assistance across to Yoda. Before the conversation could continue, increasing enemy fire caused the Resolute to drop the transmission. More Separatist ships arrived and Yularen and the Resolute were forced to retreat from the system to avoid further damage. Without the Republic armada to provide support or transportation away from the planet, the Jedi were left trapped on Christophsis with limited supplies against the large droid army.
====Separatist counterattack====
While the Republic watched the Separatist forces by using several towers throughout the city as lookout posts, Loathsom finished setting up a deflector shield generator and launched another attack. The Separatist force advanced behind its deflector shield, which negated the Republic's use of long-ranged artillery. The Separatist battle droids and AATs advanced through the city, followed by several lines of NR-N99 Persuader-class tanks. Meanwhile, Skywalker, Kenobi, Tano, and Rex meet at the command center and created an attack plan: Skywalker and Tano would infiltrate the Separatist-held area of the city and shut down the shield generator, while Kenobi and Rex buy them time by defending the base. With Kenobi and Rex rallying their men to defend the Republic's position, Skywalker and Tano proceeded with explosives to the advancing Separatist lines. The pair hid underneath a large box to pass the droid lines. Once the shield and the droid troops had passed over them, Skywalker and Tano made their way to the generator, but bumped into a droideka along the way. Forced to abandon their cover, Skywalker and Tano drew their lightsabers and managed to cut the enemy droid to pieces. At some other point, they encountered two more droidekas they needed to deal with.
They then reached the generator site, which, unknown to them, was being guarded by numerous LR-57 combat/retail droids. Meanwhile, Kenobi and Rex attempted to use the base's heavy cannons to defend their position in the city but were only able to verify that the weaponry was indeed useless against the droids' deflector shield. Loathsom, meanwhile, ordered his troops to target the heavy cannons. As soon as the deflector shield swallowed them, Kenobi led a charge against the droids while Rex began to lure the enemy into the buildings, where his forces would have the advantage. As the Separatist forces overwhelmed their own, Rex had to order his men to fall back. He and Kenobi met at the command station where the General had Rex organize a defense of the cannons while Kenobi delayed the droids. Reluctantly, Rex agreed and fell back as Kenobi battled the droids by himself. However, he was soon surrounded by a squad of B2 battle droids, DSD1 dwarf spider droids, and Loathsom's personal AAT. Meanwhile, at the shield generator, Tano, against Skywalker's advice, ran towards the generator, accidentally activating buried LR-57 combat droids. As the droids emerged, Skywalker attacked them in order to give Tano time to plant the charges on the generator. However, while avoiding one of the retail droids, Tano cut off it's 'head' and Force pushed it away, accidentally activating more droids.
As Skywalker was being surrounded by the combat droids, Tano noticed a wall behind her Master with a hole in the middle. Tano carefully brought the wall down with the Force, managing to crush the droids around Skywalker without hurting him. Despite the fact that Tano had saved his life, Skywalker was infuriated with her recklessness and thought that he could have been killed. Meanwhile, Kenobi used his capture to gain time for Skywalker and Tano to destroy the shield generator by dragging out negotiations. Kenobi was brought to a crystal table and, while held at blaster point, patiently discussed the "terms of surrender" with Loathsom over a cup of Tarine tea, to the Confederate General's increasing impatience. Continuing to defend the heavy cannons with his men from their cover behind some fallen rubble at the end of the city's main street, Rex discovered that Kenobi had been captured but rallied his men to continue fighting. Loathsom, frustrated by Kenobi's continued refusal to stand down his troops, angrily overturned the table. Loathsom ordered two B2 super battle droids to seize Kenobi and demanded that the Jedi General call off his troops immediately under the threat of being killed. At that moment, Skywalker and Tano detonated their charges and destroyed the shield generator, causing the shield to recede. Seeing the dissipating shield, Kenobi broke the droid's hold on him and grabbed Loathsom around the neck. As the battle droids took aim, Loathsom ordered his troops not to attack and surrendered to Kenobi.
Back at the heavy cannons, Rex saw the shield dissipating and ordered the cannons to fire on the exposed battle droids. Just then, Yularen, accompanied by Jedi Master Yoda, came out of hyperspace with a reinvigorated fleet of Venator-class Star Destroyers and Acclamator-class transgalactic military assault ships borrowed from Admiral Wurtz's fleet. Ordering the cruisers to protect the transports, Yularen's forces engaged the blockade, managing to break through the Separatist defenses and forcing the enemy armada to retreat from the planet. Gunships were then deployed from the fleet to assist the heavy cannons in bombarding the remaining droid forces. One of the assault ships landed in the city, unloading clone reinforcements to further secure the Republic's victory on the planet.
==Aftermath==
In defeating Loathsom, the Republic had managed to turn what would have been a Separatist victory into a gain for the Republic.
Rex took an LAAT/i gunship to retrieve Skywalker and Tano from the generator site and brought them back to the Republic's base. Meeting with Skywalker, Tano, and Kenobi, Yoda told them that the son of crime lord Jabba the Hutt, Rotta the Huttlet, had been kidnapped by a group of renegades. Because rescuing Rotta was necessary to gain Jabba's favor, due to ongoing efforts for the Republic to gain access to hyperspace lanes in Hutt-controlled space, Skywalker and Tano's mission would be to rescue the captive Huttlet, while Kenobi would enter into negotiations with Jabba on his home planet of Tatooine. Based on clone intelligence reports, Skywalker, Tano, and Rex departed to the Wild Space planet of Teth to rescue Rotta from a monastery with the 501st detachment of Torrent Company. However, they were unaware that they were heading straight into a trap set by Count Dooku and his assassin Asajj Ventress, who were intent on claiming the hyperlanes for the Separatist Alliance and had orchestrated Rotta's capture with help from Jabba's own uncle, Ziro the Hutt, in order to manipulate Jabba into turning against the Jedi.
The Republic High Command used the victory as an example of what Clones and Jedi, when together, were capable of. The battle had shown that a single Jedi and an armed squad of clone troopers could take out an entire column of battle droids. The Separatists realized this as well and began to research Jedi-proof biological weapons. Examples of this project were the Defoliator and the Blue Shadow Virus. These two weapons would see use as soon as later in the first year of the war. Despite this boost to the Republic, the CIS received a propaganda boost as well in Kenobi's stalling. While no flag of truce was established as Kenobi did not surrender his forces, with both armies continuing to battle, Separatist-controlled media was able to spin his successful ruse of war as a false surrender and a clear sign of Republic duplicity. Conditional surrenders were seldom offered by either side throughout the remainder of the Clone Wars.
The Republic was able to cover up all evidence of Slick's betrayal, and his motivations were kept a secret from all except Republic High Command in order to make sure that the knowledge that clones weren't entirely obedient stayed secret to stop any possible similar sentiments throughout the trooper ranks. While before the Jedi had viewed their leadership of organics to be more noble than the Separatists use of droids, they now realized they would have to deal with the factor of free will.
Admiral Trench managed to escape the destruction of his flagship, though he was forced to undergo cybernetic reconstruction to replace several limbs and a part of his head. Loathsom was held in the prison of the Republic Center for Military Operations. A Republic soldier that talked about "cracking that crystal" identified themselves as a veteran of Christophsis and the assault on Crystal City.
==Behind the scenes==
The Battle of Christophsis first appeared in canon in the 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars film. As the film led into the 2008 television series of the same name, the battle was the first to be featured in the series. The battle introduced both the planet Christophsis and Anakin Skywalker's new Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, both subjects of which were expanded upon in the series. The series' January 2009 first season episode "The Hidden Enemy," was created as a prequel to the film at series producer George Lucas's request for Christophsis's backstory to be expanded upon. In March 2010, the battle made an appearance once more in The Clone Wars television series, this time in the second season episode "Cat and Mouse," which occurred chronologically before "The Hidden Enemy," and detailed Admiral Trench's blockade of Christophsis. Including the portion of the battle featured in The Clone Wars film, the episode marked the third such one to expand upon the Battle of Christophsis, stretching it out over a three-part story arc throughout the television series.
The battle was originally to appear in a "flashback" episode, entitled "The New Padawan," that was produced in the television series' first season. After Lucas decided to merge several episodes together for a theatrical release of The Clone Wars, the episode was moved to its correct chronological placement with other episodes from the first season, and became the film's opening act. The reference magazine "The Clone Wars Begin" stated that the battle occurred seven weeks into the Clone Wars, while the magazine "Boba Fett and Other Characters of the Underworld" and reference book Collapse of the Republic state the battle was a few months into the war.Collapse of the Republic
==Appearances==
*Star Wars Battlefront II 
*Star Wars Adventures: The Clone Wars – Battle Tales 1 
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*Star Wars: The Clone Wars film 
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*Dark Disciple 
*Ahsoka 
*Tarkin 
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*Obi-Wan 3 
*Battlefront: Twilight Company 
===Non-canon appearances===
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==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Battles of Christophsis
Category:Battles of the Clone Wars
Category:Blockades
Category:Duels
Category:Invasions