Zyl charged forward with powerful momentum as the protoss exoskeleton propelled him. His attack was focused on the female humanoid warrior clothed in black garbs standing in between the two droids with two red ominously glowing energy blades, one in each hand.
Zyl saw the surprise in the woman's eyes, as she didn't expect to be attacked in such a ferocious way. However, the surprise that he saw, quickly morphed into excitement as she raised her blades and met them with one of his.
A foolish idea, thought Zyl, as he saw the weight of his blade supported by his charging momentum, he easily pushed back the woman's red saber. Zyl saw fear cross the eyes of the much weaker woman as her own blade was about to cut her neck.
It's over thought Zyl while pushing the blade with his entire momentum.
Then, just a fraction of a second later, when he leaned into the attack entirely. He saw the terror that contorted the woman's expression change into a joyful smirk. Zyl immediately realized that something was wrong, but there was no more time to act.
With surprising ease the female warrior twirled around in a crimson whirlwind stepping out of the way of his charge while hitting Zyl in the back with her other weapon as he stormed by her.
Zyl felt the heat from the red blade on his lower back, as it melted through the remaining energy of his shield, there was a searing pain that soon engulfed his whole body spreading from the injury, a flash of blueish flames bursted outward, and a painful roar left his burning throat, then silence. Only a few pieces of partly burnt armor fell on the ground with a metallic clink.
Rark just managed to stand up with the help of the stranger standing next to him, only to see the outcome of Zyl's attack... For a moment he didn't want to believe his eyes, only when a pair of overly satisfied yellow eyes focused on him did he come to his mind with a jolt.
-Fuck this...
Was the only thing he could say as the two droids charged at them.
Rark's face turned towards the jedi standing next to him. The cloak of the man was quite dirty covered with dust, and perspiration with a few added rips and scratches. No doubt he was fighting with the enemy for quite some time now, even so, his breathing wasn't that haggard anymore.
-I hope you have a plan, jedi...
Stated Rark, while tightening his fingers around his blaster pistol. The only weapon left in his arsenal beside a thermal detonator which wouldn't prove that much of a use from this distance...
-We must fight, until reinforcement arrives.
-Oh, right...
Answered Rark, as he saw four more shadows jump down through the broken roof. They were commando droids... Rark turned back towards the jedi while saying sarcastically.
-Happy now?
-...
Then all hell broke loose as a series of red laser beams were shot at Rark and Obi'Wan from many different angles. A blue saber was immediately ignited, as Obi'Wan did his best to deflect the shots.
While Rark after being hit two more times, shouting a load of curses have managed to stumble behind the half destroyed bar table. His armor at this moment was beyond broken, he could feel the melting metal burning his skin under the layers of armor and cloth. The inbuilt cooling system that was supposed to cool down the armor plates after the absorbed energy beams were converted into heat and disperse them harmlessly had been overheated themselves, and were now probably broken.
The temperature of his armor, was growing ever higher it was becoming hard to breathe.
In a moment of panic, he decided to pull off his helmet which had felt extremely suffocating for a while now. However, there seemed to be an issue, as the helmet wasn't coming off.
-What the hell, come off already! You piece of junk! Cough... cough!
While Rark was occupied trying to pull off his helmet, the battle in the bar continued.
There were at least four droids shooting from the distance, while two were fighting with him with vibroswords. It was needless to say, that Obi'Wan wasn't exactly in the right mind to joke around this time. He was far too occupied with staying alive at the moment as the force was constantly giving him a series of danger signals, he had to make hundreds of split second decisions continuously while staying on the defensive.
He has already fallen into a battle meditative stance, at this moment, he couldn't really feel tiredness or fear anymore. His mind could only focus on the familiar repetition of the many years ago learned and since then perfected steps, movements, parries and blocks that have already saved his life, many times. Doing all that while listening to the force speak to him, telling him of dangers, almost fusing with him entirely.
Soon, there were less and less time between the sense of incoming danger and his reaction to it. He has found his anchor in the light, and has become one with it in the face of death. Absolute focus, perfect personal battle meditation.
Ventress was watching the struggling Obi'Wan with great joy. She could see as he was slowly but surely getting cornered by the droids, the poor fool, was drenched in sweat already, it is only a matter of time, before he makes a mistake. Then she will be there to plunge her red blade into his chest. The annoying cursed bastard won't be an obstacle to her success anymore, and she is going to enjoy this moment to the fullest. Now, when his master finally decided to teach her true knowledge, true power! Now she was unstoppable.
She looked up at the ongoing battle with trepidation, she couldn't wait for her moment to come. As her eyes refocused on Obi'Wan, she sensed something strange, something changed in his presence... but she couldn't quite understand what the change was exactly...
She looked for his rigid and tired movement, only to see fluid and precise, almost energetic movements instead. She was stupified, what was going on? They were fighting for so long, while he had to watch out for the droids too. It couldn't be possible that he wasn't fatigued at all.
She saw as two laser beams were reflected back onto a single droid hitting it at the same place causing it to crumble and fall over lifelessly.
Then there were the two droids attacking him from different directions with vibroswords. He deflected another laser beam back to the droid that shot at him, then ducked under one's blade while cutting off it's legs in a single swing which strike ended up in a high guard deflecting the other droid's blade.
He stepped forcefully on the thin neck of the downed droid crunching it under his feet while using the force to raise up the other one, using it's body as a living shield while charging at the remaining two droids.
The droids of course didn't hold back their fire, seeing this, and effectively shot their comrade to pieces. The moment Obi'Wan reached one of the droids, he sent the dead carcass of the now burning droid in a forcepush towards the other one, which had already been injured thanks to a precisely reflected laser shot.
The moment the two collided, both fell on the ground broken, and burning as the burning oil and overheating energy cells began to blow up on top of each other.
At last, in two quick decisive strikes he cut off the head of the last droid, and cut in half its chest diagonally. Which resulted in the droid falling on the ground in three large molten pieces.
Then Obi'Wan straightened his back, and looked at Ventress with an emotionless slightly pitying gaze.
Ventress seeing this expression felt like a series of veins were popping in her head. Flooding her with such hatred that it could hardly be contained by anyone, and she wasn't even trying. She shook her blades with frustration as she charged towards her hateful opponent in a blind rage.
Obi'Wan sensing the danger moved to counter the red swords on instinct, still under the effect of the battle meditation. In the midst of the swirl of red and blue blades, he moved with a determination and precision that he otherwise lacked. It was his shame, which he long since realized, it was this lack of determination, that made him and his ex padawan, Anakin create such a well balanced team on the battlefield. For Anakin lacked patience which he had, while he lacked determination that Anakin had, this way they filled up each others weaknesses, or a part of it at least.
However Anakin wasn't here this time, now he needed to grow up and become a master of this weakness of his, alone.
A storm of wild animalistic strikes of red blades have been launched at him in the meantime, that were narrowly blocked by the agile and precise strikes of his own. His mind was focused, now he could do it, now he will do it.
He watched carefully as his opponent moved, his attacks at this moment lacked any elegance as she was overcome by blind hatred. There were more gaps in her guards then he could ever hope for. After a wild lunge that was meant to pierce his guard, and was deflected at the last second, forcefully braking her momentum, eventually causing her to stagger forward. He waited for this moment, as he used the force to slightly pull her body even closer at the right moment, that have resulted in Ventress falling foreward right on top of his raising upward cut.
There was a short sizzling sound, followed by the smell of burnt meat as the blue blade passed through the body of the, now motionless woman.
There was silence, as he looked down, onto the now dimming yellow eyes, of the old enemy. He knew it, the moment those eyes appeared on her face... He knew what he had to do, what he needed to do for the safety of his people, the jedi order and for the peace of the galaxy, that he was supposed to guard.
There shall be no more hesitation, the sith must be rid from the galaxy, one way or the other. They have taken too much from him already, his master, and now his padawan has also disappeared, it wasn't enough, now they want to kill a senator in daylight. This must not be allowed to happen, not on Coruscant, not on any other planet!
Even so, he did not feel joy, standing beside the dead body of this dark side user... No, he knew her name pretty well. She was Asajj Ventress a dark jedi, fallen from the path, a ghost of what she could have become. No, there was only sadness in him.
The deep buzzing of a Low Altitude Assault Transport ship appeared, he looked up and saw it hover over him. It's bright searching lights slowly focusing on him as he waved at them while turning of his lightsaber.
A platoon of clones began to descend from the ship via deployed cables that were connected to their belts slowly lowering them into the half destroyed building.
As the first few soldiers appeared they quickly began to search over the place, checking for survivors, and leading out the few civilians who were still hiding among the ruined pub.
-General, Kenobi, we have arrived as fast as we could after receiving your signal sir. Another platoon is following the signal emitter of Master Luminara.
Obi'Wan listened to the words of the clone commander while he tiredly stumbled behind the half destroyed bar, looking for the man he was fighting with.
-Are you alright sir? Should I send for a medic?
Obi'Wan only waved off the suggestion halfheartedly as he leaned against the counter feeling extremely dizzy from what he saw.
The clone commander looked at the motionless body laying on the floor along with many broken, half broken or still intact bottles of alcohol. He looked at the dead body, covered in durasteel, that was ridden with blackened spots of melted and broken armor parts.
The clone was clearly feeling a sense of respect towards the man.
-Did you know him, sir?
Asked the trooper, in a careful and respectable tone.
-I wouldn't say, but we fought on the same side, I believe.
The man looked at the body once more and said.
-He has suffered multiple deadly injuries, and was still going on. He got so many injuries, that would have been enough to kill three men. Look at his right arm, sir, he had his right arm entirely covered in beskar, but he didn't have any for his chest plate or other vital places. I can't understand why he made such a foolish decision, he could have survived if he used those for a chest armor.
Obi'Wan looked at the man, laying among the pile of bottles still grasping a half empty bottle of whisky. His helmet was taken off and placed in his lap while his body was slightly leaning against the wall, as lifeless green eyes stared into nothingness.
Kenobi, looked at the man's expression once more, and turned away while leaning even more on the counter behind him.
After some thought, he added.
-The man was a gunslinger commander... He used the beskar to protect his dominant arm, with a reason.
-What reason, could that be?
-Simple, for someone like him with no doubt a lot of enemies, what good he is for if his arm is useless? For someone like him, his right arm was the most crucial organ, after all... not many could get pricy implants to replace their missing limbs. The price of beskar might be high, but a new limb, that is as good as the original... now that is a different story.
-I understand, sir, thank you for the explanation.
-It's nothing... and commander.
-Yes, sir?
-Call over that medic... I have changed my mind...
-I already did, sir.
Obi'Wan shook his head amused.
-Such... insubordination. Now get out of my sight.
He stated with mock seriousness as the trooper saluted and walked away in haste.
Obi'Wan finally sat down on the top of a bar chair that was miraculously still standing mostly undisturbed, almost immediately after he managed to sat down on the chair, he heard an annoying ringing sound.
He groaned, but still reached for the communicator device that was hidden in one of the many pockets of his clothing. After some serious struggle he managed to grasp the chirping device and opened it.
To his surprise it was Grandmaster Yoda calling from a moving ship none the less. Sensing the grim atmosphere of Master Yoda, he immediately forced himself to straighten somewhat.
-Master? What happened?
Asked Obi'Wan, as he had no more energy for any extra courtesy.
-Master Kenobi, I see that your own share of trouble, you had.
He nodded silently.
-I have destroyed the Sith Assassin, called Asajj Ventress sent to assassinate the kidnapped senator. We are about to take the senator back under our protection.
Yoda, nodded curtly, as a shadow of sadness passed over his expression. Then he nodded once more with some relief.
-Another, failure of mine, that had to be resolved by you. I am sorry, Obi'Wan...
-Don't be, master... you did what you thought was right. Just as we all do... even she...
-Yes, you might be right. Besides, there is a more important matter, we have to discuss. Our shadows have been working diligently for the last two years. Now they have found substantial evidence which is based on the recently added information, leads us to suspect that the chancellor is the Sith master we have been looking for.
Obi'Wan's tired eyes widened as he asked in shock.
-The chancellor? You must be joking Master Yoda!
The green master's ears drooped slightly as he himself could not fully believe the suggestion just yet. Aside of the clear evidence.
-I am afraid, not, we have traced a coded communication sent from one of the chancellor's estates that contains orders for Darth Tyrannus, otherwise known as Count Dooku. Even if the chancellor isn't the Sith lord, we have to make sure to remove him from his position, as there is substantial other evidence in our hands that shows his curroption. Thanks to the shadows sacrifice...
-Impossible... I didn't like him at all, but I would never imagine...
-All of us have been fooled, I only hope that it is not too late. Now we are on our way to confront him about this, you should rest, I feel as the darkness moves, a cornered beast is the most dangerous of all. May the force guide us through this darkness.
Obi'Wan nodded, and said.
-May the force guide us.
Then the connection was cut. As Obi'Wan leaned against the counter once more, releasing a heavy sigh.
-I swear, this world is getting crazier by the seconds.
Not far behind master Obi'Wan, a platoon of clone troopers with a medic in toe were huddled over watching a holo-communicator held in the hands of the platoon commander.
-Execute order 66.
All of the clones nodded silently, then turned towards Obi'Wan.
Thanks for the chapter!
This escalated quickly, as you mentioned, I'm a bit lost where we are in canon, offhand I'd say it's about 6 months away from when order 66 was originally given in canon.
It's a bit more, around 10 months, some things have changed, like Ventress wasn't ordered to be killed by Dooku through Sidious (obviously) as things weren't going so smoothly, and he thought that he could use a trained assassin instead of killing her prematurely.
Rip Zyl and Rark you will be missed.
Also Ventress, I liked her in Clone Wars.
So Dooku lives during order 66 here. How much earlier than cannon was the order given? Does that means Separatists still major threat while Republic have this gigantic internal issue?
In which part does the Protoss die?
I mean, from what I understand he was teleported like normal, the question is where or if the pylons have that much range.
@_ciro_ Protoss disappear then they die his armor remained which means he wasn't teleported.
That is right, the only reason Sidious wasn't taking over the Republic already was, because he tried to lure Anakin over to his side. This I always found kind of stupid, yet perfectly in line with the thinking of a true sith. Their greed would not even be satisfied with having the entire galaxy under his flag, he would also want to turn a powerful jedi over to his side, to make it more challenging and risky.
Now that his connection with Anakin had been mostly destroyed, and the Jedi shadows had managed to find more then enough evidence to replace him, he had no other choice then drop the bomb, basically. Also, in his anger he ordered for the liquidation of Padme.
As powerful as he is, he could not hope to stand a chance against the jedi's persecution, he could, of course run away and hide, but would he really do such a thing without doing as much damage to the order as possible?
Also, there is the fact that the Republic army is not entirely made from clones now. As it should never have been, because there are simply not enough clones and why would they send away their already existing military personnel just because they learned about the clone army.
There are planets with trillions of souls, and many planets still had their own armies and technologies even in the series. It was simply ludicrous to depend on the about 200.000.000 clone troopers that were made at this time. Its a huge number of course, but if you spread that around the galaxy while in many battles they are literally shot down like weeds against numberless armies of droids...
Then you will see how unrealistic the situation is.
@Yokem I thought Sidious didn't quickly take over Republic because he was weakening Republic by draining it's resources in the prolonged war while gaining aproval from senate and consolidating his own position as supreme chancellor to prepare seamlessly transition it to the role of Emperor.
Mace Window attack on his life that has left him scarred and deformed gave him excellent excuse to get rid of pesky Jedi and unite the senate around himself letting Palpatine proclaim himself Emperor without much opposition from senate.
@vlodog01
Well, yes, but that is only the necessary drama for a good movie.
Two years into the war, most of that was done already, at this moment he could literally take over just as seamlessly. I mean, weakening the republic isn't really a true reason. Especially as he will be the one who takes over it anyway, so he wouldn't want to weaken it more then necessary. And honestly, from the very moment the clones were on active duty he could take over everything. As the separatist are basically under his thumb. His apprentice is the one leading the separatist coalition.
And the separatists are basically projected as extremely stupid and naive sheep waiting for the slaughter, which should not be the case with people that are so powerful and wealthy.
And I don't think that most people in the galaxy would realistically believe that all Jedi came together to betray him and create a coup. Even if a coup indeed happened, what would justify the extent of the retribution, that was committed against an entire order, against every individual even children.
They should have executed the few who tried to kill him, and leave the rest to be, as it was basically a prepared genocide, no man without extensive misinformation and brainwashing would belive such nonsense to be reasonable.
Everyone with a little smart could have figured out what happened, but nobody could oppose him openly because of the clone armies that were controlled by him.
@Yokem To be fair he was attacked by 4(?) Jedi Masters from Jedi Council so it is not a strech to believe that the Order as a whole was in on it. So he could reasonably at least disband and make Jedi illegal.
Also I don't believe every child was executed. Some of them were recruted into his Inquisition.
@vlodog01 Although you have to keep in mind that another of the reasons why Unlimited Powah wanted war was that they wanted people to know what war is and hate it, so that with it the people would be governed, they are very much opposed and let's be honest, it worked and it didn't I mean the senate, I mean the masses, scared waiting for the separatists or clones to decide to invade their planet...