Defense of Kamino (battle)

The Defense of Kamino was a battle during the Clone Wars. The battle itself marked the third time the planet was attacked during the Clone Wars.

Prelude
Around 22 BBY, during the Clone Wars, the Confederate General Grievous and Dark Acolyte Asajj Ventress planned to attack the Wild Space planet Kamino in order to end the Republic's production of clone troopers based there. To relay this intelligence and prepare for the attack, Skywalker and Kenobi resolved to head straight for Kamino. The Jedi, Typhuss, Rex, Cody, and some members of the 501st Legion—including Fives and Echo—were transferred to an Acclamator-class assault ship and landed at the Military Complex of Kamino's capital, Tipoca City, where Skywalker, Kenobi, Rex, Typhuss and Cody met with Jedi General Shaak Ti and Prime Minister Lama Su and reported the news of the Separatists planned incursion.

Battle
It was not long before Grievous arrived at Kamino with a large Separatist fleet to challenge the Republic's massive blockade of Kamino. While Skywalker led the Republic starfighters into battle against Grievous's forces, Rex joined Cody, Typhuss, Kenobi, Ti, and Su in Tipoca City's command center to monitor the battle from afar. However, the space engagement proved to only be a diversionary assault when the debris from several Separatist cruisers that had fallen into Kamino's oceans turned out to be a set of disguised assault ships. The enemy craft rose out of the seas and deployed a battle droid army led by Grievous and Ventress to beleaguer Tipoca City. As the invading droids marched through and damaged the Military Complex, Rex, Typhuss and Cody found Echo, Fives, and the maintenance clone 99 with several young clone cadets at the facility's barracks; the cadets had been separated from their group and had required the troopers' assistance to return to the barracks. Although the cadets did not believe that they could help to repel the Separatists, as their training had not yet been completed, Fives and Echo underlined the fact that it was their home that they were defending. With the droids about to reach the barracks, 99 took Rex and Cody to the nearby armory to retrieve weapons for the rest of the clones so that they could mount a defense of the barracks. The cadets hid in the raised retractable sleeping chambers along the corridor wall to provide extra firepower at the right moment. When a battle droid squad led by Grievous broke into the barracks, Rex, Cody, Echo, and Fives immediately gunned down the initial forces at the entrance. They were unable to drive back all of the droids, however, and the clones were forced to retreat into the barracks, stampeding back along the barracks' main corridor with the battle droids in close pursuit. Rex, Typhuss, Cody, Fives, and Echo quickly took up cover positions behind several crates to return the approaching droids fire. As the droids pushed Echo, Fives, Typhuss and Cody back toward Rex's position, 99 tossed Rex a thermal detonator, which the Captain launched at the approaching B1 battle droids. He missed, however, hitting an adjacent crate instead. Just after the droids had passed the cadets' hiding places, Rex radioed the young trainees to open fire on the droids, which they did to great effect. While the clones continued to gun down the surrounded droids, Cody used up the last of the thermal detonators. Although 99 opted to get more explosives from the armory, his decision to forsake his cover—despite Rex's and the others' shouted warnings—cost him his life, as he fell to droid fire. Cody shortly thereafter received word from Ti that the droids had been pushed back to the Military Complex's main hangar, and the Republic forces were eventually able to defeat the remainder of the droids, forcing Grievous and Ventress to retreat.

Aftermath
However, the damage had been done, and Rex, Typhuss, Cody, Fives, and Echo all lamented the loss of 99, whom they believed, despite the challenges of his natural malformations, had been a true soldier. Following the presentation of a medal, Rex inducted Typhuss into the 501st Legion for his part in helping the Republic defend Kamino from the Separatist attack.