Chapter 1: Prologue

"We're coming out of hyperspace now, General."

Anakin seemed surprised at Admiral Yularen's statement, his eyes widening in what can only described as an ignorant curiosity. His mind had been blank, yet simultaneously active since the 501st left the surface of Rhen Var after cutting through battalion after battalion of separatist battle droids.

Casualties were heavy on each side. It was only after securing a landing zone and launching a two-pronged attack on the separatist command that the young Jedi, his padawan and the surviving clones could return to their cruiser and return to Coruscant.

Anakin looked through the viewing windows of the bridge and gazed at the planet below. The fleet that defended the seat of the Galactic Republic seemed to stretch around the planet itself like a web, waiting to catch whatever unfortunate vessel should dare try and launch an assault.

"V-very good Admiral." He said, stuttering through his words. The Togruta padawan learner that stood beside him clearly took notice and cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

"Master, are you alright? You've been… off ever since we left Rhen Var."

Anakin turned to Ahsoka and placed an arm on her shoulder, reassuringly.

"Relax Snips," He said calmly, chuckling lightly, "I'll be fine. It was just… a long fight."

Ahsoka looked to the floor before nodding lightly. She could not deny what he had said. Routing the CIS from Rhen Var was a strenuous but necessary mission. The listening outpost they had established had been responsible for the ambush of seven republic cruisers, and the destruction of at least three others. Both her and Anakin looked to Coruscant from the bridge of the Venator-class Star Destroyer that ferried them to and from the frozen wasteland. Both saw as the planet came closer and closer as they approached it. Both seemed to recall the battle that had almost broken them.

The council had sent them to capture or destroy a listening outpost being led by a super tactical droid named 'Terra'. Unfortunately, that was nearly all the intelligence they had on their target. Anakin's plan had been simple: If they wanted to keep the Rhen Var outpost secret, the planet would have to be lightly defended. Three cruisers would be enough to carry the full 501st legion, so three cruisers are what he brought.

That was his first mistake.

They jumped out of hyperspace and immediately came under fire by a force of four Munificent-class cruisers, a Providence-class dreadnought and a Lucrehulk-class battleship, and hundreds of fighters seemed to swarm them in a matter of minutes.

They fought valiantly. They fought smart and eventually, one by one, the separatist cruisers were turned to nothing more than debris as bomber squadrons cut the enemy down to size. It was nothing more than a pyrrhic victory it seemed, as two of the three republic cruisers were ripped apart by the opponents.

The Defiant had been left vulnerable as its main hangar opened to allow its complement of fighters to engage the enemy. Unfortunately, the numerous squads of republic fighters couldn't stop hyena bombers from decimating the hangar area, and nothing could stop the countless vulture drops from crashing into the hangar, tearing through the hull of the ship. It cracked under the pressure of the beating it had taken and split off into numerous directions. In a posthumous display of vengeance, part of the shattered hull crashed into a CIS frigate and disabled it, allowing republic Y-wings to remove it from the battle in glorious fashion, splitting it in two with proton torpedoes.

The Reclaimer managed to send out all its fighters before it truly came under attack, however its shields didn't last long enough to see the end of the battle and consequently – the ship didn't either. It managed to destroy two of the frigates, help disable the Providence-class dreadnought with barrages of turbolaser fire and even managed to neutralise one of the hangar bays of the Lucrehulk cruiser before it was overwhelmed and destroyed.

The Resolute managed to survive the ordeal and via concentrated fire on the command bridges of the CIS ships from both the Venator's turbolaser batteries and the fighters. The droid blockade went up in flames.

With two thirds of their forces gone, the mission to Rhen Var became less about victory and more about survival. They descended into the frozen abyss that was the planet Rhen Var.

The republic force found their staging area in the form of an abandoned citadel that lacked any droid presence. It seemed the separatists weren't interested in holding anything other than their listening post, which meant the post would be housing the bulk of their forces. Gathered intelligence dictated that the outpost was located at a docking harbour that was luckily not far from the citadel the republic had occupied.

They deployed AT-TE walkers, LAAT Gunships and TX-130 Tanks and made for the outpost. They had found a relatively secluded landing zone manned by a small force of droids and quickly overwhelmed them, securing the area. It was there that they ran into one of many difficulties as another battalion of droids marched on the weary clone troopers and their Jedi leaders. With Anakin, Ahsoka and Rex leading the charge the droids were eventually reduced to scrap metal and they realised they were closer to their target than they realised. A quick scout of the surrounding area confirmed this and revealed the presence of a network of ice caves. It was here that the plan was fully developed: Anakin would lead much of their remaining forces towards the outpost with walkers, tanks and gunships providing firing support while Ahsoka and Rex led the rest of the clones through the caves and attacked from the inside, with the forces regrouping at the entrance to the caves and launching a final attack.

Droid resistance was light at the beginning. Anakin's forces made their way through the blizzards of Rhen Var and came within viewing distance of the droid defence. Hundreds of droids awaited them at the entrance to the harbour being used as a fortification, and at least a dozen AATs supported them. Laser turrets mounted on the outpost were manned and turned in the Jedi Knight's direction and the beginning of the end of the mission to Rhen Var began.

Ahsoka and Rex had a much easier time physically, although they were anxious about what awaited them. The lack of droids patrolling the caves made the only hazard to the troopers the terrain itself. As the traversed the caves, the familiar sound of blaster fire became clearer and clearer as they realised Anakin had arrived at the post before they had, and had engaged the droid forces.

They finally arrived at the entrance to the caves and could see battle droids marching towards the source of the laser fire. Ahsoka activated the communication device on her wrist.

"Master," she whispered anxiously, so as not to attract attention, "You have a lot of droids heading your way. If you can get some of the gunships to drop troops in the base, we can outflank them."

The commlink blared static for what felt like an eternity before Anakin's voice came through. "No can do, Ahsoka. The tanks they have managed to shoot down two gunships already, and we aren't sure how many others they have in there."

Ahsoka sighed as Rex reluctantly gave the order to start shooting. The clones rushed out of the cave and quickly destroyed many of the marching droids. They cleared some of the fortifications and commandeered available turrets, using them to further hinder the droid forces.

The forces managed to regroup after destructive casualties on each side and launched their final charge on the outpost and eventually located and disassembled Terra. They boarded the Resolute with a fraction of the forces they had landed with and destroyed the base for good with an orbital strike.

At last, they landed on the surface of Coruscant and had an LAAT gunship take them to the Jedi Temple.