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Nute Gunray

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this Neimoidian worked as the Viceroy for the Trade Federation, but was primarily under the command of Darth Sidious. Gunray himself was a minor Viceroy until the Trade Federation Directorate was targeted for assassination by the Nebula Front, during the taxation summit on the planet Eriadu, about a year before the Battle of Naboo. When Gunray and Lott Dod were the only two Neimoidians to survive the assassintation, he was promoted to a position in which he was the commanding Viceroy over the entire Trade Federation. Sidious placed Gunray in charge of blockading the planet Naboo and capturing Queen Amidala if she should try to escape. However, Gunray was unable to control the Queen, and she fled the planet. Darth Sidious then sent Darth Maul to recover her. Meanwhile, Gunray was ordered to invade Naboo and take control of the world, which the Niemoidians did with the help of their vasr droid army. However, Gunray and his comrades were unable to foresee the resourcefulness of Queen Amidala, who returned to the planet and managed to capture Gunray and his assistants during the Battle of Naboo. The Niemoidians were returned to Coruscant to stand trial for their actions. However, through political machination, Gunray was allowed to maintain a modicum of control over the Trade Federation, provided that he dismantle the Federation's droid army. Seeing the opportunity that freedom afforded him, Gunray agreed to the deal. However, in the background, he continued to work toward re-establishing the Trade Federation's protective droids. He later supported the Separatists by throwing the Federation's political and financial strength behind Count Dooku's Separatist movement. He also paid Dooku quite heavily for the services of Jango Fett, in an effort to assassinate Padme' Amidala, as a pre-condition to the deal and as a measure of revenge for the loss of Naboo. The plans for the battle droids were provided to the Geonosians, who turned out huge numbers of the droids in their factories. When the Jedi arrived on Geonosis, and the Battle of Geonosis raged on, Gunray and his subordinates saw another disaster looming in their future. Rather than assist in the war effort, they boarded their starships and fled into space to plan the next phase of the Separatist assault. Gunray himself chose to return to the Neimoidian purse-world of Cato Neimoidia, where he maintained a fortified palace and a fungus farm. He was nearly trapped there, some thirty months after escaping from Geonosis, and was forced to leave behind his wealth in order to survive. Among the things Gunray left behind was his custom-build mechno-chair, which was captured by the Republic before Gunray could destroy it. The technology in the mechno-chair, combined with the information stored in its computer systems, allowed the Republic to finally verify the existence of Darth Sidious, and laid bare much of the Separatists' plans for the upcoming war. Gunray, along with the other leaders of the Confederacy on Independent Systems, were secreted away to Utapau just before the First Battle of Coruscant. After hiding on Utapau under the protection of General Grievous, the Separatists were taken to Mustafar. It was there, after Darth Sidious finally lured Anakin Skywalker to the Darth Side of the Force, that the Separatist leaders met their deaths. Skywalker was dispatched to Mustafar by Sidious himself, with orders to eliminate them. Skywalker was forced to hunt down Gunray, who had fled their hiding place when Skywalker began killing the rest of the Separatist leaders. Gunray tried to plead for his life, but Skywalker simply cut him down in mid-sentence.