Battle of Skye

The Battle of Skye, also known as the Battle of Marat V, was a conflict during the Clone Wars on the planet Skye.

Prelude

During the early months of the Clone Wars, the mutant terrorist Zeta Magnus pledged his fealty to Darth Sidious and loaned his scientific expertise to the Separatist war machine. In 22 BBY, Sidious tasked Magnus with subjugating a neutral world in a plot to draw Anakin Skywalker closer to the Dark Side. Obi-Wan Kenobi would be killed by Magnus, leaving Anakin ripe for tutelage under Sidious. Magnus complied by dispatching a clone of himself to the neutral planet Marat V (known as Skye by its natives), but he planned to trick Sidious by returning an Anakin clone loyal only to him to the Dark Lord. The Zeta Magnus clone seduced the S’kytri of the Outland Clan with the promise of agricultural advancements and the reversal of their skin pigmentation to elevate their standing in the S’kytri’s discriminatory society. He instead unleashed a plague upon them, transforming the Outlanders into zombie-like mutants. Zeta Magnus used his newly enslaved army of mutants to subjugate the other clans and declare himself the Magister of Skye.^[2]

After Patriarch Klarymére transmitted a plea to the Republic requesting them to help free his people from the mutant tyrant, the Supreme Chancellor tasked a team of Jedi to arrest Zeta Magnus unharmed. Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Padawan Halagad Ventor, and a squad of Thyrsian clones disguised as clone commandos that had been secretly inserted into the Grand Army by Zeta Magnus were transported to Skye by the MedStar frigate Golandras under the guise of a mercy mission, sending medical supplies to the starving, plague-stricken natives. Upon exiting hyperspace, the ship entered a cloaked minefield and was critically damaged. The ship’s captain ejected the escape pods containing the task force just before the ship exploded. Once the team safely crash-landed, they were intercepted by Patriarch Klarymére and brought before the Supreme Council of the Highland Clans. While the Council was hesitant to accept help from the suspicious newcomers, the Jedi convinced them to mobilize for an assault against the Magnus’ citadel.^[2]

Not long after this meeting, Zeta Magnus broadcast his demands over the Republic HoloNet. He claimed the Jedi Council had invaded his sovereign territory to sabotage Marat’s petition to the Council of Neutral Systems, illegally depose him, and confiscate Marat V’s bloodstone as a war resource. He also claimed that the Golandras had unleashed a plague upon Marat V that turned two-thirds of the planet’s population against him. Zeta Magnus granted the Republic twenty-four standard hours to recognize his sovereignty, or he would release Jurr-5, brainrot, trihexalon-based rooze, or some other mutagenic pathogen on a random Republic world thereat and repeating every cycle thereafter.^[2]

The Jedi, Tark Squad, and a group of S’kytri nobles rushed to infiltrate Magnus’ citadel via the labyrinthine tunnels of Entyrmion underneath Canaitith Mountain before the twenty-four-hour deadline ended. They encountered his Oskan blood eaters which killed Patriarch Klarymére in the ensuing fighting. Once the team reached the base of the citadel, Klarymére’s daughter Kharys ordered Wing Commander Aragh to initiate attack plan Vozburk, an archaic term for all-out war between the Windborn and the ground-dwelling demons of Skye.^[2]

The battle

The united Highland and Lowland forces led by Wing Commander Aragh besieged Magnus’ citadel from the air. Swarms of biologically altered Outlanders spewed from the tower’s balconies while automated defense turrets fired on the flying invaders. The Windborn army engaged the mindless Outlander army like dueling eagles, with claws, swords, and spears. Amid the aerial fighting, the Jedi and their commandos scaled the Canaitith Mountain. They fended off attacks from flying Outlanders, but one penetrated Anakin’s defenses and raked his face, leaving a scar along his left eye. The Jedi reached the balcony and neutralized its automated defenses before cutting into the citadel’s walls. As they penetrated deeper into the citadel, the clones of Tark Squad turned on them and blasted them in the back with stun blasts.^[2]

When the Jedi awoke, they were detained by a man-trap in the laboratory dungeon of Zeta Magnus. The mad clone master revealed that he had cloned each of the Jedi and planned to upload their memories into the clones before killing them. As Zeta Magnus swung his halberd down to execute the Jedi, Kharys, who had been watching from the laboratory window, used the Force to guide the blade towards the droid that had been restraining the Jedi’s mind. The Jedi freed themselves from their captivity while the droid Blue-Tark and Tark Squad fired on Kharys. Padawan Ventor chased Zeta Magnus to his hangar while Obi-Wan and Anakin were pinned down by disruptor fire from the traitorous clone commandos. Ventor attempted to prevent Magnus from boarding his ship by impaling him with a spike launcher, but Magnus spun around and took a bite out of him. Before Magnus could eat Ventor, Blue-Tark betrayed him by taking off and igniting him with the thrusters. Ventor took advantage of the distraction to cut Magnus in two. Meanwhile, Anakin and Obi-Wan were flushed out from cover by flame projectors. They charged through the flames and engaged the Thyrsian troopers, taking them out one by one. The last clone, Nilo, held a Class-D detonator in his hand, prepared to disintegrate the Jedi. Before he could throw it, Ventor returned from his duel with Zeta Magnus and detonated the detonator with the Force, vaporizing the half of the laboratory containing the clones of the Jedi.^[2]

Aftermath

Following the battle, clone forces led by Captain Rex and Commander Cody arrived with the Resolute to secure the planet. Zeta Magnus' body was carried off to be placed in a stasis booth entropy field, while the rest of his equipment and experiments were loaded into Republic gunships.^[2]

The Highland and Lowland clans had suffered untold casulaties in the battle, while much of the Outland Clan had perished. The Ministry of Science had cultivated an antidote for the biologically altered survivors of the Outland Clan. Speaker Nebaél promised eternal fealty to the Jedi trio that freed them, but also declared that they would never again welcome ground walkers to their world.^[2]

Skywalker sensed that Kharys was still alive and wished to bring her to the Jedi Temple for training to pay her back for saving their lives. Kenobi and Ventor believed she was too old and unstable to start on the path of the Jedi and refused to take her. However, Skywalker promised Kharys that he would return one day to train her.^[2] Following the end of the Clone Wars, Skywalker kept his promise and came back to Skye to take Kharys as his student, except when he did, he was no longer Anakin Skywalker, but Darth Vader, a Sith Lord. After her training, she returned to rule her homeworld as Majestrix, taking Zeta Magnus' fortress as her own.

Behind the scenes

When this battle was first mentioned in Marvel Comics' Star Wars Annual (1977) 1, it was before The Empire Strikes Back had been released and the revelation of Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker being one in the same had yet to be revealed. As a result, the retelling of the battle during the comic referred to Vader and Skywalker as two separate apprentices of Kenobi who had come to Skye. However, this apparent inconsistency was retconned in 2007's Aliens in the Empire. The S'kytri in the story, while recognizing Luke Skywalker's last name as the same as one of the Jedi Knights who had saved them, also mention that Kenobi's "other" pupil besides Vader had been someone who had worn Luke's lightsaber. Using this as reference, Aliens in the Empire had Ventor and Skywalker trading Concordance of Fealty vows before this mission, effectively switching lightsabers before the battle. When Luke believes that they are referring to his father as the one who had wielded the lightsaber, the S'kytri are actually referring to Halagad Ventor, who was wearing Anakin's lightsaber while on the planet.

Appearances

• SkyeWalkers: A Clone Wars Story (First appearance)
• "CIS Shadowfeed Dispatch 15:01:15 Edition" — Star Wars Insider 73 (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars Annual (1977) 1 (colorized in Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 2: Dark Encounters) (First mentioned)

Sources

• The New Essential Chronology
• Aliens in the Empire - Part 2: To a Traitor Go the Spoils on Hyperspace (content obsolete and backup link not available)

Notes and references