Battle of Peridea

The battle of Peridea was an event during the New Republic Era when Grand Admiral Thrawn launched an escape from the planet Peridea. The former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, the Bokken Jedi Ezra Bridger and the Mandalorian Jedi Padawan Sabine Wren entered the Great Mothers' Fortress in an attempt to stop Thrawn from escaping the planet but they were met with a legion of Night Troopers that were later reanimated via Nightsister Magick.
The trio eventually encountered the Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth, who had been given the Blade of Talzin, and used it against Tano while Bridger and Wren continued on their mission to stop Thrawn. As the battle raged on and two death troopers prevented Bridger and Wren from reaching the Chimaera in time as it began to take off, Bridger was able to get in with the help of Wren, but she chose to stay behind to help Tano on her fight with Elsbeth and the army of reanimated Night Troopers that were closing in on her.
Despite managing to kill Elsbeth and escape the fortress before Thrawn destroyed it from orbit, the Grand Admiral managed to escape into the main galaxy with his forces, leaving Tano and Wren stuck on Peridea but unknowingly also bringing Bridger with him, as he disguised himself as a Night Trooper and ultimately managed to escape the Chimaera, traveling to the New Republic to reunite with his old friends.
==Prelude==
===The gift of shadows===
Shortly after the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano was reunited with Bokken Jedi Ezra Bridger and Mandalorian Jedi Padawan Sabine Wren on the planet Peridea, Grand Admiral Thrawn was informed by Captain Enoch that they might have a fix on the location of Tano's shuttle. The Grand Admiral orderedhim to dispatch two TIE fighters, also indicating to bring the Eye of Sion so they may begin the interlocking procedure. While the Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth told Thrawn that there was little the Jedi could do to stop them, the Grand Admiral admitted that he fell victim to the heroics of a single Jedi before and that it would not happen again.
Thrawn's Nightsister allies, the Great Mothers, thanked both Thrawn and Elsbeth for their help, telling Morgan to come forward so they could reward her with a "gift of shadows." After Elsbeth agreed to pledge her life and loyalty to the sisterhood and the "old ways," the Great Mothers made her eyes glow and gifted her a sword called the "Blade of Talzin."
===Preparing for battle===
Meanwhile, Bridger began assembling a new lightsaber with the help of the droid Huyang aboard Tano's shuttle, though he also made clear that he gave his previous lightsaber to Wren during their fight with Thrawn's forces earlier. While Bridger and Huyang argued, Wren mentioned Bridger's former teacher, Kanan Jarrus, with Bridger confirming that he was his master. Realizing the importance of this for Ezra, Huyang gave Bridger the same type of blade emitter Jarrus's lightsaber had, explaining that he kept it as a spare for Jarrus. Bridger ignited his new blue bladed lightsaber after finishing it, ready for the incoming fight.
==The escape==
===A premeted attack===
Just after Bridger finished creating his new lightsaber, two Imperial TIE fighters approached the Jedi shuttle and shot the ship's hull, causing it to fall. While Bridger and Tano used the force to hold back the falling ship, Wren convinced Huyang to fire up the engines while TIE fighters returned for a second round. The shuttle rammed into the two starfighters, making them crash.
While Huyang stayed to try to repair the damaged shuttle, Tano along with Wren and Bridger rode on howlers to face Thrawn and his allies. Meanwhile, Thrawn was informed that they made have lost TIEs, but the Grand Admiral was satisfied with the fact that their attack may have hampered their enemy's ability to attack them or leave Peridea.
===Storming the fortress===
Deciding to enter the fortress through its front door, Thrawn's forces soon were informed of their targets getting close, with the Grand Admiral deciding to bombard the Jedi and Wren as they approached the hyperspace ring. The Chimaera turbolasers began to rain down laser fire on them, but the Jedi and Wren were able to evade them all and, in the midst of the chaos, opened the round stony gate of the fortress with the Force and enter, much to Thrawn's displeasure.
With their enemies now inside the fortress, Thrawn ordered Morgan to dispatch the Night Troopers to stall them while he informed the Great Mothers that it was time for the ritual. As the Night Troopers descended down the stairs and attacked the intruders, the Jedi and Wren deflected their blasts with their lightsabers before Wren switched to her blaster per Ahsoka's orders. Drawing out the Night Troopers, the three managed to cut all of them down. Unfortunately, the Great Mothers began their ritual and used their magick to reanimate the dead Night Troopers.
Despite Tano, Wren and Bridger deflecting their blasts and striking them multiple times, the undead Night Troopers kept advancing, forcing them to seal the blast doors to stop them. As the Eye of Sion extended clamps onto the Chimaera, Thrawn informed Elsbeth that the Jedi were advancing and may get aboard their ship when they escaped from Peridea, telling her that she needed to stall them so they could get more time. Meanwhile, the undead Night Troopers managed to break through the blast doors and rush at their targets, prompting Bridger to close another blast door with his lightsaber as the trio kept running upstairs.
===Separated during battle===
As the Jedi and Wren continued to run up the fortress, they encountered Elsbeth inside a large chamber, armed with the blade of Talzin and ready to fight them. Tano decided to deal with the Nightsister alone, telling Wren and Bridger to go as they needed to stop Thrawn. After Wren and Bridger slowly and silently went around Elsbeth, she and Tano engaged in a duel, quickly proving to be a match for each other as both of Tano's lightsaber clashed with Morgan's sword.
Reaching the top of the fortress, Bridger and Wren encountered two reanimated Death Troopers, belonging to Thrawn's old guard, who quickly began to blast at them. As they took cover, Bridger and Wren tried to attack each death trooper, but the reanimated soldiers gained the upper hand. Having lost their lightsabers, Bridger and Wren were unable to fight hand to hand with the troopers, making Wren try to use the force to reach her lightsaber, eventually succeeding and killing one of the death troopers with it, later distracting the second one for Bridger to behead it with his lightsaber.
On the bridge of the Eye of Sion with the Great Mothers, Thrawn ordered to depart. Despite their attempts, Bridger and Wren were unable to reach the Chimaera hangar in time and saw the ship leave. Meanwhile, Tano, who heard the Chimaera depart, struggled during her duel with Elsbeth, only for the undead Night Troopers to join the fight, forcing Tano to slowly retreat into the fortress' stairs and go to the top of the fortress.
===Thrawn's victory===
As two Night Troopers reached the Chimaera hangar and aimed their blasters at Bridger and Wren, the former did a Force jump and got Wren to successfully push him with her latent Force powers, reaching the hangar of the ship. Bridger threw one of troopers off the Chimaera while Wren shot the other one. While Bridger told Wren to Force jump so he could help her get into the ship, Wren became distracted by the sight of her master, who had now reached the top of the fortress during her duel with Elsbeth while the undead Night Troopers converged around them.
The Nightsister managed to damage one of Tano's white lightsabers and push her to the ground, telling Tano that her friends were dead and that she would now die alone, but Tano was saved by Wren, who decided to stay behind to help her master. They then engaged in a shootout with the Night Troopers while Tano resumed her duel with Morgan. While Sabine sliced and shot the legion of Night Troopers, a reinvigorated Tano got the upper hand on Elsbeth, stealing her blade, parrying and finally slicing the Nightsister across the waist with the blade and her remaining lightsaber and killing her.
Meanwhile at the Chimaera, Bridger stole the armor of the fallen Night Trooper LS-757 to impersonate him and the Great Mothers sense the death of their sister, with Thrawn saying that she did her duty. The Grand Admiral later ordered the bombardment the fortress as Tano and Wren jumped from the edge of a cliff to escape the Night Troopers, being saved by Huyang on Tano's Jedi shuttle. Hoping to catch up to Thrawn's ship, the three flew away from the crumbling fortress in pursuit of the Eye of Sion.
Thrawn ordered to open a channel to Tano, praising her for her efforts during their battle, calling her a worthy opponent and informing her that he knew her late Master, Anakin Skywalker. Explaining that he knew that her strategies would be similar to those of Skywalker, Thrawn wonders how similar she truly was to him. Saying goodbye to Tano by stating that today victory was his and that Peridea may be the place where a Ronin like her belonged, Thrawn says "Long live the Empire" before the Eye of Sion jumps with the Chimaera into the pathway back to the main galaxy, finally escaping his exile after nearly a decade.
==Aftermath==
===Left behind===
Disappointed at their failure to stop Thrawn, Tano and Wren were only able to witness the massive surge of energy left behind by the hyperspace jump after Thrawn escaped from Peridea. Tano, Wren, and Huyang later returned to the Noti convoy, with Tano seeing a Morai in the distance. Later at night, Tano and Wren discuss that while they failed to stop Thrawn, they managed to get Ezra where he needed to be, with the Force spirit of Anakin Skywalker watching over them.
Elsewhere, Shin Hati traveled to the camp of the Bandits of Peridea and ignites her lightsaber to draw their attention. Far away from where her former apprentice was, Baylan Skoll reached the statues of the Mortis gods, staring at the mountains towards whatever source of the power was calling to him.
===Arriving on Dathomir===
Finally back in the main galaxy, Thrawn and the Great Mothers watched from a balcony, with Enoch arriving to inform the Grand Admiral that the Eye of Sion and the Chimaera was approaching the planet Dathomir. Inside the Star Destroyer's hangar, various coffins from the catacombs of Peridea were being stored by some troopers.
===A family reunion===
By disguising himself as a Night Trooper, Bridger managed to steal the Eta-class shuttle used by Skoll and Hati and later escape the Chimaera undetected shortly after its return to the main galaxy, landing in the hangar of Home One. General Hera Syndulla, Chopper and several armed members of the New Republic surround the mysterious shuttle. Emerging from the shuttle with his hands raised, Bridger took his helmet off after being recognized by Chopper, telling a surprised Hera that he's home.
==Behind the scenes==
The battle of Peridea first appeared in "Part Eight: The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord", the eighth and final episode of the first season of the 2023 television series Ahsoka. The episode was released on 
October 3, 2023. It was first identified as the battle of Peridea in the video game Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, where the name was given as part of the resurrected death trooper's description.
==Appearances==
* 
*Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes 
==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Battles of Peridea
Category:Battles of the quest to find Ezra Bridger
Category:Duels
Category:Orbital bombardments