Ambush on Ilum

|width=
|prev=Battle of AxionThe New Essential Chronology
|conc=*Battle of Muunilinst
*Duel on Fangorn
*Battle of Dantooine
*Battle of Mirkwood
*Battle of Near Harad
|next=*Battle of Brentaal IV
*Battle of Esseles
|name=Ambush on Ilum
|image=
|conflict=War of the Ring
|date=May 16th, 1981, 2 months after the First Battle of Isengard
|place=Ilum
|result=*Jedi victory
**Barriss Offee and Luminara Unduli are successfully rescued
**The Jedi learn that Saruman the White revealed the location of the Ilum Jedi Temple
|side1=*Galactic Republic
*Jedi Order
|side2=Confederacy of Independent Systems
|commanders1=*General Luminara Unduli
*Commander Barriss Offee
*Grand Master Bilbo Baggins
*Senator Padmé Amidala
|commanders2=*Saruman 
|forces1=*3 Jedi
**Barriss Offee
**Luminara Unduli
**Bilbo Baggins
*1 Senator
**Padmé Amidala
*1 Captain
**Gregar Typho
*1 protocol droid
**C-3PO
*1 astromech droid
**R2-D2
|forces2=Chameleon droids
|casual1=None
|casual2=At least 50 Chameleon droids
}}
The Ambush on Ilum was a small-scale battle occurred during the War of the Ring two months after the First Battle of Isengard.
==Background==
Following the start of the Muunilinst campaign, Saruman ordered an attack on the Crystal Caves on Ilum, sending a force of chameleon droids to destroy the temple and the lightsaber crystals housed within. As these battle droids began landing on the snow-covered surface of Ilum, Barriss Offee was completing construction of a lightsaber within the temple itself, supervised by Luminara Unduli.
==The skirmish==
Both Jedi felt the approach of the chameleon droids, and began the counterattack. The droids, using camouflage to hide from the Jedi, had already began laying mines within the temple, causing explosions that caused the caves to collapse.
Though they fought valiantly, the Jedi were unable to stop the detonation, and became trapped under a pile of rubble held aloft by the weakening Luminara's Force power.
Meanwhile, traveling aboard Senator Padmé Amidala's H-type Nubian yacht, Jedi Master Bilbo Baggins sensed trouble on Ilum, and convinced Amidala to divert her course for the planet. Her bodyguard, Gregar Typho, was less easily persuaded, though a Jedi mind trick soon brought him around to Bilbo's point-of-view. The yacht arrived at Ilum, and Bilbo immediately set out for the Crystal Caves alone, asking his companions to remain with the ship. Amidala, however, braved the dangers of Ilum—both natural and otherwise—with C-3PO and R2-D2 in tow, believing Bilbo would require her help.
Both Bilbo and Amidala soon encountered the cloaked chameleon droids, though while they proved little match for Bilbo's lightsaber, Padmé was forced to rely on her wits to survive their attack. She used her cloak as a decoy, sighting and destroying one of her attackers as they opened fire. Using the same trick with Threepio, she destroyed the last two droids.
==Aftermath==
C-3PO emerged from the firefight unscathed, and the team continued on its way. Presently, they encountered Bilbo, who had by now rescued Unduli and Offee from the ruined temple. Though Bilbo had completed his mission, he still did not know who had sent the chameleon droids. Artoo, plugging into a damaged chameleon droid's head, uncovered a hologram of Saruman ordering the temple's attack.
==Appearances==
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==Sources==
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*The New Essential Chronology
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*The Essential Atlas
*Star Wars Character Encyclopedia 
==Notes and references==
==External links==
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Category:War of the Rings battles