It was almost nightfall on Coruscant before Yoda had completed his objective. For the past few minutes, he had been blasting every encrypted Jedi communications channel with the same message: The clones have been compromised by their inhibitor chips. They will be forced to attack and kill us all tonight. Palpatine is the Dark Lord of the Sith.
Now, in a dark communication room aboard a Jedi light cruiser that was readying itself for a hyperspace jump; Yoda stood in front of a holographic display of all the Jedi Council members he could get a hold of. He lost valuable time in trying to ratify the claims of the confusingly helpful Sith. For the first time in his life, it was a mistake not to take a Dark lord at his word. It took most of the day to decode the chips. That was time he'd never get back.
With him were two inhibitor chips and behind him were the very first clones who he managed to save. Master Luminara sat in deep meditation in a chair near the door. She was the only other Jedi assigned to Kashyyk with him.
It was a paltry few who answered his call. Obi-Wan stood as a hologram to the right. Plo Koon answered from his cockpit in the middle of a dogfight. That was it. Probably due to the Galactic surge of separatist forces, just about every other active Master couldn’t answer the call or quite possibly didn’t receive any transmissions. The most disconcerting thing was that none of the members on Coruscant answered.
The pieces of the puzzle were all falling together, and they didn’t seem to have enough time to stop it.
“…to Coruscant, I go. Confront Sidious I will.” The ancient grandmaster of the Jedi finished explaining the situation. “Upon us is our greatest failure. Too late to save the Republic it may be,” he continued.
“I am making preparations to leave, I have already gotten Commander Cody’s chip removed,” replied Obi-Wan. “At the earliest, I can be on Coruscant in a few hours. Cody will stay to try and bring the rest of the 212th back into the fold.”
“Many mistakes; many wrong choices brought us to this…” Koon pondered for a moment. He was undoubtedly thinking back on all the warning signs they had dismissed in the past few years. “I will be entering hyperspace post haste to meet you there."
“May the force be with you,” the three of them repeated to each other before cutting off the comms.
Yoda sighed and then sat back, exhausted from the day’s events.
Removing and analyzing the chips took away the precious few hours that he wished to get back. After uncovering their sinister nature, it proved incredibly hard to get the word out. As if the separatists knew Yoda had important news to disperse, they began blocking long-range comms early in the day. Then they reopened a space theatre when more separatist ships poured out of hyperspace into the atmosphere of Kashyyk. Yoda was given a terrible choice or rather terrible lack of choice. Abandon his Wookie allies to this greater separatist force and return to Coruscant or stay and abandon his students on Coruscant.
It was never a choice though. Yoda was currently on that small cruiser with a handpicked group of around 100 clone soldiers. They broke through the Separatist fleet outside Kashyyk and made way to jump onto the straightest route towards Coruscant. Even on this ship, the free clones were outnumbered by the clones with chips. Though they worked round the clock to remove them from everyone on board, there was a chance that this mysterious order 66 would go out before enough of his men were cured and he would be faced with their unwilling mutiny.
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The Albedo Brave, a Venator-class cruiser hung silently in orbit around Bracca. Inside the ship’s medical bay was a massive seven-foot-tall Lasat. Around him, over a hundred medical droids were busy performing brain surgery.
Earlier in the day, Grandmaster Yoda sent out a call for all Jedi to be especially vigilant tonight. It was an almost laughably cryptic message. Be on alert? We’re in the middle of a planetary invasion, of course, we’re staying vigilant. And yet…it came from the most respected Jedi in the galaxy. Thus, it had set him on edge for some oncoming ambush by separatist forces.
Less than an hour ago, he learned that the reason for such a message was far worse than any droid ambush. Now he was surrounded by a ticking time bomb. His entire fleet could turn at any moment.
The current plan was to inoculate every high-ranking officer first. Then even without having removed all the chips, those men would hopefully be able to order the removal of the rest even after the chips took over.
He pulled out his com unit and hailed the bridge. A holograph of a clone commander with a noticeable bandage on his head appeared. “How are you feeling Onner?” the Jedi master asked. His trusted Commander’s original designation was CT-1117 but everyone that wasn't a Kaminoan referred to him as “Onner.”
“We’re still a little groggy General Tapal, but nothing we haven’t faced before. Right boys?" the commander said. A chorus of cheers came from behind him. "Compared to the gas attacks from the Salvagers this is nothing. We should have everything under control for your departure,” the commander explained.
“Thank you, I’ll make my way to the hangars. I’m sorry to leave you with so many responsibilities,” the knight replied before exiting the med bay. Outside were lines of unarmed clones waiting to be processed. They saluted the general as he walked by. Only small contingents of the clones could be processed at a time. It wasn't an easy or quick operation. Furthermore, there was still ongoing hostilities. Many were still needed to man the vessel, more were armed and running various missions in the sector to route out any remaining separatists. Recalling them all would have completely undone the work they were sent to do and left them open to an outside attack.
“You’ve shoulder so much for us, I think it’s high time we start paying you back, sir,” the clone responded.
“It…it’s been an honor, may the force be with you,” the knight said.
“May the force be with you, general,” the clone replied before the two ended their communications.
It didn’t take long for him to make it to the Hangars. From the door, he could see his trusty R3 astromechs were scrambling around the two Jedi Interceptors making last minute preps. He had sustained minor damage in the assault on the planetary forces, but the droids had more than enough time to finish repairs. His small red headed padawan was there too, currently fueling up his own fighter.
Just as he made to step into the hangar, he staggered and almost fell over. Visions were invading his mind. At the same time, his com unit pinged. He could just make out the words of Onner alerting him of communications from Palpatine as he recovered.
“Cal! Get in the ship, we’re leaving now!” the knight ordered.
“Yes, master!” the dutiful padawan said before removing the hose and jumping into the cockpit.
Tapal sprinted over to his own ship and leaped impossibly far and landed impossibly gracefully into the cockpit. His R3 unit clambered in and started launch preparations.
Onner pinged his comms again and his holographic representation appeared before Tapal. “Sir! It’s worse than we expected. The men won’t listen to our orders!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“What do you mean they aren’t following orders?” Tapal asked incredulously. Clones never disobeyed without good reason.
“We’re being called traitors to the Republic for commanding them to stand down. In their eyes I’ve already been removed from the chain of command. The medbay has already been cleared...it was a slaughter. We’ve remotely locked down the armory, but plenty of clones are still armed,” the commander explained. By this point, the two Jedi fighters were ready to take off. “You must leave, or we won’t be able to seal the Hangars.”
“And leave you to die?” Tapal snapped back.
“They’re already trying to burn through the blast doors, sir! You have to go, or you’ll get locked in,” he argued.
“…I’m sorry Onner, it shouldn’t have come to this,” the knight said as the two ships began taking off.
“Just get out of here, a number of pilots have already made it to the other hangars and are trying to release their own ships,” came his reply.
The two starfighters took off and exited the hangars. Behind them, the blast shields slowly closed, locking down the ships contingent of fighters for the time being.
“Don’t look back Cal, just get connected to your hyperspace ring and go!” Tapal ordered. The rings were close to the edge of the system and were one of the major flaws of using Jedi starfighters as transport. The sleek and optimal design didn’t have room for an onboard hyperdrive, which meant any jumps required the clunky apparatus to be connected from the outside.
Behind them, an explosion seared through the bridge of the Albedo. Before long fighters were pouring out of the ships hangars heading straight for the two Jedi.
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On the Venator-class cruiser, The Tribunal, there was a particularly well-defended prison cell. Two lone clone troopers made their way over to this cell. Their orders were to execute the force wielder inside. The two men didn’t think much of the assignment. After this assignment was over, they had to hunt and kill a Jedi on board. For some reason that future objective didn’t bring with it the same feelings of relief and even joy they felt when they were ordered to kill this prisoner.
They opened the outer blast doors and stepped into the dark room. In front of them, completely immobilized was Darth Maul, the former ruler of Mandalore and underworld crime boss. The clone on the right pressed a few buttons on the wall-pad and the outer shell of his containment unit was released.
They raised their blasters and fired! But just before doing so, an almost imperceptibly small amount of the force shifted their aim. Their shots didn’t connect with Maul’s body. Instead, they hit the restraints keeping his hands locked down.
They went to fire again, but in a flash Maul's hands were balled into fists and the two clones found their necks constricted while they were lifted off the floor. Maul made another small movement, and the force around their necks increased until it was too much and shattered their bones. Then with another small flourish, he pressed the buttons on the wall-pad, which released the rest of his body from their restraints.
He stepped out of his containment unit, stretched his legs, and then cracked his neck from side to side. “Well Sidious, never send a nexu to do a Rankor’s job. He stretched his arms out to either to their full length before pulling them back towards his body. Metal wall panels were torn asunder and began floating around him. With his new shields, he calmly walked out of the prison and entered the hallways. Screams of pained and dying 501st clones could soon be heard as he made his way over to the hyperdrives.
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Ahsoka, Rex, Jesse, and half a dozen arc troopers were huddled in a storage closet near the Hangars of that same venator.
Communicating with ships traveling through hyperspace was notoriously finicky. When Yoda’s transmission finally came in, Ahsoka rushed as many of her men as she could into the med bay for immediate surgery. She barely had enough time to save this group before Palpatine’s call went out across the galaxy. The med-bay quickly turned into a warzone as she and her men were forced to fight their way out. They lost more than a few trusted allies along the way.
The room was cramped and pitch-black but otherwise safe. R7, who had probably been the MVP of this whole operation had scrambled the ship’s security systems which allowed them to make their way here. Now he was standing guard outside the closet, lest any clones try to come in.
“Have you been able to get through to anyone, Rex?” Ahsoka asked. She was nervously pacing in what little space she had. Rex was kneeling on the floor with a datapad in his hands. A cord ran from it into a wall socket connecting him to the ship’s computers.
“No. Once they took the bridge they locked down all long-range communications. We’re flying dark unless we take the bridge or get to a shuttle,” the grizzled veteran replied.
“We will just have to grab one once we exit hyperspace,” she replied. “R7 will stay behind to override the hangar doors for us. It’ll be close but we should have enough time to make it out.”
“I can’t believe we’ve been forced to abandon our brothers like this,” lamented Jesse. He was basically spitting the words out.
“In this state, they aren’t our brothers,” replied Rex. “Those bastards on Kamino… they’ve tried to make us no better than droids!” Rex cried the last half of his sentence before punching the wall.
“There’s nothing we can do for them now. We are just putting them all in danger the longer we stay. If we can meet up with Anakin... I know he’ll have a way to bring everyone back. I’m sure of it,” Ahsoka said while trying to reassure both her men and herself.
“…I’m picking up some weird chatter on the shipboard comms…its almost like…Maul’s loose! And he’s made it to-“ Rex began saying but was cut off when explosions rocked the ship. The entire cruiser shook from the blast and then everyone was thrown from their feet. Rex’s datapad went flying across the floor.
When he finally grabbed it, he couldn’t contain the shock on his face. “We’ve exited hyperspace!” he said.
“We’re already back at Coruscant?” Asoka asked.
“No, the hyperdrive exploded, the rear half of the ship is in shreds…we have to get out of here!”
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A lone attack shuttle was flying low through the forested canyons on the planet of Kaller. Inside were five men who barely resembled their reg. clone counterparts and the two Jedi they had just saved from being hunted down by those regs.
“Haha, things got a little hairy back there, I’m not gonna lie,” said Wrecker.
About half an hour ago, every republic force on the planet was preparing for a final push against the separatist droids. Then Billaba and her Padawan went AWOL after receiving some type of secret communication. Things got even crazier a few minutes later, as just about every reg. in the army started claiming she and the padawan turned traitor. Luckily, using Hunter’s tracking skills along with the Marauder, Clone force 99 was able to catch up with the duo long before anyone else did.
“Sorry about almost cutting your head off… I couldn’t be sure you weren’t…” The female Jedi said as she put her hand on the small shoulder cut she had given the massive clone. Even with the force, running from roving bands of clones had left the woman exhausted. She could barely hold herself up at this point. Caleb was in even worse of a condition. Yet, it was her duty to heal the man. So she began to concentrate and pull the force around them into his cut. With how weak she was at the moment, it took all of her concentration.
“Like the others?” Hunter said, finishing her sentence. “We don’t share a lot of similarities with the regs, as you’ve no doubt noticed.”
“What is our next course of action Hunter? General Billaba?” asked Tech from the cockpit.
“I’m not sure. Master Yoda didn’t indicate a rendezvous in his message,” she replied. “I do know that this goes all the way to the top. Palpatine has ordered every clone to turn on the Jedi,” she explained.
“Well…if you don’t have business elsewhere, we may need to make a pitstop, though I doubt you’ll want to be with us when it happens,” Hunter said cautiously.
“A pitstop?” asked the young padawan.
“If what you say about the Kaminoans and the Chip is true, then we need to go save the last member of our squad. She’s currently on Kamino,” he replied.
“You think there are more irregulars back on Kamino?” Billaba asked.
“Just one as far as we- CROSSHAIR NO!” yelled Hunter.
Unbeknownst to everyone aboard the Marauder, Crosshair had silently made his way behind the Jedi Master. Like the expert killer he was, he didn’t make his intentions known until the last moment. While everyone was deep in discussion, he raised the blaster to the back of Billaba’s head to kill her execution-style.
“Good soldiers follow orders,” he whispered.
Just as he took the shot, Wrecker spun into action. He was the closest to the two of them. With his massive bear claw, he grabbed the gun forcing it out of position.
The blaster fired but Wrecker's intervention managed to stop it from blowing through the Jedi’s skull.
Billaba still slumped to the ground. A hole was blown into the right side of her chest.
“Master no!” cried her padawan Caleb. In a fit of rage he activated his lightsaber and slashed through Crosshair’s wrist, severing it from his body and dropping the blaster to the floor. The blow also connected with Wrecker who was trying to restrain the man and his massive hand fell to the floor with a thump.
“Echo, take the wheel; Tech, I need first aid back here immediately!” ordered Hunter. He ran back into the hold and helped the injured Wrecker restrain Crosshair. “And you, put that damned laser sword away kid!” he yelled at the stricken Padawan.
The words were lost on the boy though. He had already picked up his master into his arms and began sobbing.