The Invisible Hand

The Invisible Hand is a combat and cargo starship in the fictional Star Wars universe owned by the Trade Federation and commanded by General Grievous.

Features

Made by Quarren exiled from the planet Mon Calamari grouped into the Free Dac Volunteers Engineering Corps along with the Pammant Docks organization

The ship was decked out with powerful weapons, including quad turbolaser turrets, dual laser cannons, ion cannons, proton torpedo tubes, and flak cannons. Each shot from the ion cannons released 4.8 megaton bombs.

It was extensively modified by the Confederacy of Independent Systems to serve as the flagship for Count Dooku and General Grievous.

History

Originally created for the service of the Trade Federation when it began to use force not only to defend its fleet. Nute Gunray used this ship as his flagship.

Later, upon joining the Confederacy of Independent Systems, they assigned their ships of this "Providence Carrier and Destroyer" type, including the Invisible Hand, to the Confederate navy. Including the crew originally from Cato Neimoidia, and Captain Lushros Dofine.

Count Dooku at the beginning of the Separatist Crisis was in charge of attracting systems diplomatically. When the War began, diplomacy ended and the Invisible Hand was the ship assigned to General Grievous to take planets by force, those located on the outer edge or other planets poorly protected by the forces of the Republic.

Then special modifications were made so that as the flagship of the Confederacy it would stand out from other ships of this type. The reactor bay was modified to provide more hangar space, so it could better serve cargo warships and invasion vessels.

The dorsal fin where communications and sensors are carried was modified (redesigning a tower at the rear) to give rise to spacious barracks that were used by Count Dooku, -from where he could prepare his separatist campaign- and also by General Grievous -where he had a command center that displayed tactical information-.

It was there that Palpatine was taken captive during the Battle of Coruscant.

The bridge of the ship was located at the front of the ship on a platform with large panoramic windows from which the captain's chair had a very good view

The Invisible Hand saw action in many major battles including Belderone, Humbarine, Duro, and of course Coruscant.

Soon his fame spread for having been the executioner of several Republic ships (Venator-type ships). Taking advantage of this situation, other similar ships such as Lucid Voice and Colicoid Swuarm were used to confuse other worlds of the Republic and terrorize them.

The Battle of Coruscant

With the fall of the planet Duro, the fleet was located very close to Corellia, the next notable war action was to enter and attack the central part of the galaxy, The Republic prepared itself but with the support of Darth Sidious, which somehow gave him the secret shipping lanes used by the Galactic Republic and the Jedi. Thus the Separatist fleet passed smoothly through the interior of the galaxy until it unexpectedly arrived at the planet Coruscant and attacked the defenses which were not prepared.

The Separatists invaded the planet, but it was a decoy, the real intent was to capture then-Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, which was successfully accomplished by General Grievous and his droid bodyguards.

Palpatine was taken to the command tower located in the back of the Invisible Hand. Then Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were commissioned to rescue them.

But before they had to escape the onslaught of vulture-like droid fighter ships that surrounded the ship to protect it, Anakin had to shoot the controls of the hangar's protective shield, which they managed to enter just as the main hangar door was closing..

After destroying the droid soldiers inside, R2-D2 logged into the ship's computer and obtained the route to Palpatine. They went up the tower elevators to where they came to rescue the Chancellor (several problems occur along the way), first facing Count Dooku who was waiting for them, but was defeated and killed by Skywalker at the suggestion of Palpatine himself.

After rescuing him they confronted battle droids and finding themselves surrounded they were taken captive to the Bridge where General Grievous awaited them. In a surprising move, they broke free and battled their droid bodyguards and the General, who escaped by breaking the bridge glass and fleeing in one of the multiple escape pods.

During the Battle of Coruscant the Separatists damaged the planet's communications in such a way that the Republic Navy already in space off Coruscant was unaware of the Jedi Knights' mission to rescue the Chancellor. They blocked the escape of the Invisible Hand and continued the attack as they did with all other Confederate ships.

Thus the ship of the Guarlara Republic ended up giving the cannon shot that permanently damaged the ship. At this time Grievous had escaped and the Neimoidian crew had already escaped, there were R2-D2, Palpatine, Obi-Wan and Anakin, who took control of the ship and against all odds managed to bring everyone safe and sound with just the half of the ship, landing in the industrial zone of Coruscant, where it was completely reduced to scrap.

Behind the scenes

• The control tower reminds the Tower of the Magi Saruman in the movie The Lord of the Rings where Christopher Lee acted, so in both films the character that this played ended his participation in his corresponding tower.
• There were several scenes in the Episode III film that finally didn't come out and others that come out in the video game.

Appearances

• Labyrinth of Evil
• Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith
• The Revenge of the Sith
• Novelization of The Revenge of the Sith
• Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith (videogame)
• LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
• Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader

Fonts

• The invisible Hand at starwars.com
• Star Wars: Sith Revenge - Views in Vehicles and Ships Section. ISBN 84-666-2439-2
• Revenge of the Sith: Incredible Cross-Sections
• Star Wars: Complete Cross-Sections
• The Starships of Episode III