The Clone Wars

Ep 11. Dooku Captured

A while before the Skirmish at Vanqor, Anakin Skywalker allowed himself to be captured by a Munificent-class star frigate, commanded by Count Dooku in an ice field near Vanqor. Once in the ship's hangar, he put up a fight in order to make his capture look convincing. He was defeated and taken to the prison cell. Obi-Wan then infiltrates the ship to release him in order to help apprehend the Count. Dooku escapes in his solar sailer with the two Jedi on his tail in a Sheathipede-class transport shuttle. Direct hits on the solar sailor force the Count to make an emergency landing in a wilderness on the nearest planet. When the Jedi suffer a hit from a droid fighter, they are forced to crash land, as well.

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The two Jedi begin to hunt for Dooku in a nearby cave, but the Dark Lord of the Sith ambushes them by causing a sudden collapse in the cave ceiling, causing Anakin to lose his lightsaber, which Dooku retrieves. This distraction allows Dooku an opportunity to exit and seal the cave with Anakin and Obi-Wan still inside. While the Jedi try to find a way out, Dooku comes upon Hondo Ohnaka's pirate gang salvaging his ship. Outnumbered and stranded, the Count considers his options and chooses to accompany the pirate gang on their ship off the planet. Upon arrival, Dooku discovers that both lightsabers have been removed from his belt. The pirates take him, prisoner, hoping to get a ransom from either the Separatist or the Republic.

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Meanwhile, the Jedi inadvertently disturb "the mother of all gundarks" in the cave as they are trying to find their way out. Finding the gundark leads them to conclude that they are on Vanqor. After rendering the gundark unconscious, they nearly succumb to poison gas released from a trapped pocket in the cave just as Ahsoka Tano and a detachment of clone troopers uncover the cave entrance.

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After Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and representatives receive a message from Hondo Ohnaka concerning a reward for the capture of Count Dooku, at the suggestion of Senator Padmé Amidala, the Jedi High Council assigns Anakin and Obi-Wan to meet with the pirates to verify that they do indeed have the Count in custody, agreeing to the condition that they must arrive unharmed. Upon arriving in the Twilight, the Jedi are met at gunpoint and escorted to Hondo, who arranges a meeting with their prisoner.

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After Anakin and Obi-Wan enter Dooku's cell and subtly mock his current imprisonment, Dooku relishes in the thought that the Jedi would soon join him in captivity. The Count warns that the Weequay are "devious and deceitful, and most importantly...stupid" and that the Jedi "underestimated them at their own peril."

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Upon leaving Dooku's cell, the Jedi are "invited" to attend a banquet in the pirate gang's grand hall, which the Weequay had no intention of letting the Jedi miss. Informing Mace Windu and Palpatine that Dooku was indeed being securely held by the pirates, Palpatine told them that he was sending Senator Kharrus and Representative Blinks with the ransom in exchange for the Sith Lord.

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The Jedi take their seat at the banquet and are provided with refreshments: drugged beverages. As Hondo made a toast to a successful transaction, the two Jedi switch their drinks with those of the Weequay and Nikto sitting next to them, returning the toast to an "alliance" with "powerful pirates and... new friends." As their Weequay neighbors pass out from the drugged drinks that were switched on them, Anakin reflects on how drunken pirates were able to capture the Count when the Jedi could not. Obi-Wan tells him not to be too proud to accept the gift that came their way, whereupon Anakin made a toast to unexpected gifts.