A/N: This story is an AU where the Yuuzhan Vong arrive in the Galaxy during the end of Episode II. What will be the consequences? The Clone Wars will play out differently. Dooku's agenda will be more shrouded in mystery than ever. Palpatine may have to revise his plans for the future. And one thing is for sure: the Galaxy will never be the same again.
Ch. 1 Geonosis
Warmaster Czulkang Lah watched with pride as his five-year-old son, Tsavong Lah, held the lobster-like yanskac in the boiling water with his own bare hands. This was his son's first kill, an occasion to be remembered indeed. Then he returned his attention to the Intendant before him, Chastae Anor. Czulkang Lah had heard that the mate of this Intendant had recently given birth to the couple's child, a male who had been named Nom Anor. The Warmaster replied, "Continue with your report."
Chastae Anor bowed and continued. "I have obtained information that the political faction among the infidels known as the Separatists is building a fleet on a sort of foundry world called Geonosis and that the established government of this Galaxy, known as the Galactic Republic, is sending a fleet to this world to make war. Therefore I have instructed my agents to place a dovin basal on this planet to perform…Yo'gand's Core.
Warmaster Lah's eyebrows raised in amusement. Yo'gand's Core was a tactic that involved using a dovin basal, a powerful creature that could control gravity, to pull the moon of a planet down into it's atmosphere, thus destroying the world. This Intendant was quite clever indeed.
***
Explosions roared across the ground as the Battle of Geonosis unfolded as the Separatists and the Republic's Clone Army faced off for the first time. Anakin gazed down from the Republic gunship in amazement. The galaxy hadn't had a full scale war for over a thousand years. Suddenly, he felt something unusual in the Force, as if…
A large burning object crashed into the battlefield, obliterating a mesa and bringing up a cloud of ash. The object was followed by another and another. It suddenly seemed as if burning rocks were raining down out of the sky. "Master, what's going on?!" yelled Anakin as he grabbed Padme Amidala around her waist to keep her from falling out of the gunship.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was listening intently to a comlink. Apparently, he was communicating with Master Yoda. Then he looked at Anakin with shock on his face. "Anakin…Geonosis' moon is falling from its orbit. Those objects falling from the sky must be fragments of it! The moon itself should be crashing into the planet shortly! We've been ordered to evacuate!"
"But Master, what about Dooku?!" yelped Anakin. Obi-Wan shook his head and replied, "We don't have time, young Padawan. We must leave immediately or we will die." The clones piloting the gunship were already sealing the bay doors at the sides and ascending higher into the sky. Anakin looked out a viewport, his arm still about Padme's waist, and watched as all the forces, both Republic and Separatist, scrambled toward their ships, hustling to leave the doomed world of Geonosis. For many units, the struggle was made futile by the meteor showed and by tremendous quakes that were shaking the planet's buckling surface. Then he looked up and gasped. The moon was in flames and descending through the atmosphere.
***
Yoda, Mace Windu, Plo Koon, and Aayla Secura gazed out their viewports in shock as their gunship rose into the sky, swerving to avoid fragments of the moon. One of the clones shouted, "We're leaving the upper atmosphere! But the gunship carrying Luminara Unduli and Barriss Offee has crashed onto a mountaintop!"
Yoda and the others looked at each other in alarm. They reached out to the two Jedi. They could feel that they were still alive, but in terrible pain. Then, they felt an unbelievably huge ripple in the Force as the moon of Geonosis crashed into the planet and the presences of Luminara and Barriss were torn away.
***
Anakin and Padme shared their first kiss as husband and wife. Then they gazed at each other with tears in their eyes. They were married, but they knew something terrible was about to happen to the Galaxy. Moons didn't just fall for no reason. Anakin tried to push it to the back of his mind as he held Padme to his chest. He didn't want to ever let her go.
***
Darth Sidious listened intently to Dooku's report. Something was going on. He didn't know exactly what, but he would soon. Nothing would stop his vision from coming true.