There’s something going on in the Temple today. The minds of your fellow Jedi are usually quiescent, releasing merely a subtle hum in the back of your mind. Certain events, such as the near assassination of Senator Amidala, are the only times when that sound spikes. Today is such a day.

Even before you’d gained your Telepathy, you’d had a feel for others’ minds due to a mix of your Force sense and your witchsight. You’d not truly understood why back then, and thus were ill prepared for such events.

The day started out quiet, but something has set people off. You’d not even registered that something was going on at first as there weren’t nearly so many disturbed minds. But, as the day moves on, that sound grows exponentially like a living wildfire.

Now, as the drone of minds thrums louder and louder, you focus in on yourself, suppressing your child-borne fears and cocooning your mind within itself. You’re no expert at this, though. It’s almost an instinctual act, but now that you know of why you feel such pain, you at least have a sense of what you need to do to make your efforts more effective. Master Nu’s lessons in Force Cleanse continue to show their worth too. As the day wears on, you intermittently stop what you’re doing and Cleanse yourself, giving yourself a brief break from the rising storm.

What is going on?

Something is about to give. It’s going to snap. It’ll shear. It’s disintegrating.

It’s not you. Something terrible is about to happen. You hold up your hand, stopping your assistant droid mid sentence, then cock your head to the side and listen.

Nothing. There’s too many minds. It’s disorganized chaos and all you can hear is a series of shuffling feet so you look around instead.

Someone has kicked the anthill. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of people rush through the halls of the Temple. As you watch, you start to see a pattern: all of them are Knights and Masters, and most of them ultimately head to the hangar.

You stand up, startling the droid. It staggers to the side, dropping the books it has been reading to you over the past couple days. You mutter an apology — while it is a droid, perhaps it’s earned at least a bit of respect from you. Your lack of real sight has foiled your plans once again, requiring you to request a helper to read to you. This droid has patiently done so, and thus you’ll give it some modicum of respect.

The topic is interesting. You have focused on the ships and tactics of the Republic’s ancient foes, reasoning that this would be more useful than learning about the Republic’s anti-pirate activities for the past few centuries.

However, something important has happened. Something critical is going to happen; you can feel it. And so, you run, leaving behind a forlorn droid and a pile of lonely tomes.

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

“What’s going on? Where’s everyone going?” you ask, catching a passing Knight’s attention as he runs past.

He turns to look at you, then recoils at the sight of your mask. You scramble to pull it off, showing him your “normal face,” then put it back on.

“Ah, er. Sorry about that, Youngling. There’s no time, though. Master Windu is calling for as many volunteers as possible. There’s an emergency.”

With that, he rushes off again, leaving you confused and nervous. That wasn’t very informative. You already knew there was an emergency. Why else would you be asking? The security office is nearby though, and you can sense a few people still there. You’ll go ask them for more detail.

The proximity sensor rings as you approach and the door slides open when you reach to knock on it. Master Drallig looks down at you then ushers you inside. Here, you see several men and women manning the various consoles, and a few of them are staring at one particular screen. You skim the surface of one of their memories to get a bit more detail. The screen depicts Master Windu standing in front of a crowd of Jedi. There’s no sound, but you can tell by the arrangement of people that he is giving a briefing. A briefing for what operation, you do not know, and so you ask.

“Master Drallig, what’s happening? There’s so many people heading to the hangar.”

He looks past you, thinking, then turns back to you, decision made.

“There’s a threat of war, and Master Windu is going to stop it. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Then why are you worrying?”

Silence greets your question, so you hasten to ask something else.

“Why does he need so many people for this? Is it that serious?”

“Yes. The Separatist problem is growing. It’s reached a turning point. Just before being captured, a Jedi Knight doing some investigating on the planet, Geonosis, discovered that the Geonosians have been manufacturing armies of battle-rated droids for the Trade Federation. Viceroy Nute Gunray has also been found to be behind the assassination attempts on Senator Amidala.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“So, what are we going to do?”

“We aren’t doing anything. Windu and his strike force will simply put a stop to this nonsense, bring Gunray to justice, and deal with that blasted Count Dooku.”

“You’re not going?”

“This many Jedi should be more than enough. Even a few of the Guards around here have joined up with the group. Their martial skills will be greatly valued. Some of us must remain, though. I’m sure you don’t need explanations of why.”

“Yes, Master.”

You stand and think for a moment. There truly are a great deal more Jedi in this strike force than usual. Typically, only a couple Jedi at most would be assigned to any task. Jedi are peacekeepers now; not warriors.

And yet, over two hundred Jedi are assembled in the hangar, finishing their briefing and boarding transports. This problem is far greater than anything seen in a long, long time. Even you, an Initiate, can tell.

You let your sight wander, touching on the Guards you know, then comparing who's here and who’s in the hangar at the moment. Quite a few of them have volunteered.

Your sight lands on an empty room with a familiar desk. It’s cleaned out now and still unclaimed. Would Master Masbau have volunteered? Most likely, yes.

A surge of guilt starts to rise before you quash it back down. What’s done is done. He’d likely have been a useful addition to Master Windu’s force. If things go wrong, he would be invaluable. His martial skills are very well suited to such things. He’s not here though, so you let the idea go.

“Master, things will be alright, right?”

“Yes, everything will be fine. Don’t worry, Youngling. Don’t worry.”

But, even with his assurances, you can’t shake the feeling in your gut. Something is going to happen. You feel it, and he feels it too judging from the apprehension roiling through his true-self.

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

You haven’t had any more dreams over the past couple days, but you’re sure it’s not over. The story is only just beginning, after all.

You’re back in the Archives again, retrieving the books from the droid and helping to return them to the shelves. Some are from rows high up above you, and you’re not confident enough in your telekinesis to accurately slot the books back in, so you leave it to the droid to handle those ones for you.

As you work, you think back to the last dream you had and begin to make comparisons with what you have been reading. The ships in your dream were so much larger than the typical ships seen in the history of the Republic; even the smallest dream-sourced ships of the line were at least a kilometer long. The largest ship, your ship, utterly dwarfed those ships. You can’t be sure exactly how long it is, but your best guess is around a dozen kilometers.

The ships you have read about widely varied in size, even just the capital ships. These could range from mere hundreds of meters to several kilometers in length, but still you could not find any that would match up to the Doctrine.

Strangely, it seems that many of the Republic’s foes, such as the various Sith Empires that have sprung up, had a propensity for building “superweapons.” Big ships with big lasers call to people with big egos apparently. Perhaps it’s a bit ironic that you too, seem to have a big appreciation for such things, though you lean more toward projectile weapons rather than lasers.

You reach down, picking up a book on starfighters — as dictated by the droid — smaller craft meant to engage in close engagements. The capability of these craft have evolved slightly over millennia, though not much. Every time someone builds a better one, an arms race is started to one-up it as quickly as possible. The tactics actually employed stay roughly the same, though the execution of such is not fully detailed in these books. Specific maneuvers for starfighters seem to be outside the scope here, though that makes some sense since each vehicle has its own capabilities and limitations. Thus, the available maneuvers will be heavily dependent on what starfighter you look at.

Your readings have covered a great many different kinds of ships, from corvettes to cruisers to battleships. You’ve not had much time to go into extensive detail on each, but you’re now familiar with what defines one ship from another aside from size.

Another thing you’ve looked at is weaponry. The most popular kinds of weaponry you’ve found are lasers, plasma-based weapons, and ion weapons. These require a significant investment of energy to operate and generate dangerous amounts of heat, but they can be devastating at close range.

That’s another thing you’ve found to be rather odd: the range of engagement tends to be very short. Massive ships, kilometers long, close in on one another and trade shots from practically spitting distance. You can understand why a starfighter might do this, but larger ships with giant guns and large torpedo armaments getting so close is confusing. Perhaps the use of such short ranged weapons has simply driven combat in this direction.

Although, the ships in your dream had no such compunctions against closing in either. Many would even attempt to ram with their purpose-built prows in such cases. Even more would perform boarding actions as often as possible — something that doesn’t seem to be as common in known Republic history.

Finally, you slot the last book back into place, leaving a gapless wall of holobooks. You’ll come back again another time to read more. Right now, you’ve got something else to worry about. Something is coming, and you can’t help but think it might be war.

Perhaps it’s a good thing you’ve been reading up on naval tactics. Hopefully you won’t need them, but if you do, this knowledge will be useful.

Well, a mere Initiate, or even just a Padawan wouldn’t be even near such conflict, right? Things will be fine.

At least, that’s what you hope.

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

Jedi Master Mace Windu leads a strike force of 212 Jedi in an attempt to rescue Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, but finds much more than expected. The droid factories of Geonosis, confirmed by Kenobi to be manufacturing droids for the Separatists, have produced many deadly foes. The deployment of these droids against the Jedi leads to the deaths of over eighty percent of Windu’s strike force. Only the timely aid of Jedi Grandmaster Yoda and the new Clone Army, soon to be known as the Grand Army of the Republic, prevents the slaughter of the remaining Jedi.

The First Battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY is the first major conflict between the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) and the Galactic Republic. The Jedi, once fearsome warriors, but held to be merely peacekeepers ever since the Ruusan Reformation, are once again thrust into a leadership position. However, their lack of experience leads to the deaths of many clone soldiers and what amounts to a pyrrhic victory for the Republic.

You, however, are just an Initiate. You have no responsibility just yet, but you are still a part of this tragedy.