Coruscant
A lone figure stood on a balcony overlooking the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. His brown robe blew gently across him n the breeze. That afternoon, and what a pleasant afternoon it was, the man had an appointment. To any onlooker he was simply taking in the air, his robe concealing the most revealing article about him - the lightsaber that hung from his belt. It was time to get moving. The man spun quickly and re-entered the building, the hem of his robe leaving a swirl of dust in its wake.
"On this day the council confers upon you the rank of Jedi Knight;" Mace Windu started, "These are dark times, and we have no doubt that you will experience your first true trial very shortly. Mind what you have learned, for you are not the invincible soldier of the Light that many will believe you to be."
"I am ready if the council deems me so" I replied.
"You struggle to center yourself. You are not yet at peace with yourself, this part of your growth you shall undertake on your own" he said.
Master Windu was right, as always. I didn't feel ready. He laid a reassuring hand on my shoulder, saying "You are never alone. The Masters are always here. You have many peers to draw strength from, and to give of yourself to. You ARE ready. You must be."
"Master?"
"We are short on time, and short on Knights. The Separatist movement gains strength with each passing day. We must not allow further violence to be visited on the innocent peoples of the Republic. You, and your fellows will be tasked with leading a contingent of soldiers against the Separatists. The clone troopers are excellent in every way, and will serve you well. You need only the confidence to lead them. You will, of course, report to a Master - whom will be conferred the rank of General for these purposes."
"I understand, Master Windu. When do I leave?"
"Tomorrow morning, you'll be assigned to Master Kenobi's unit headed to Utapau. Everything you'll need has already been delivered to your apartment. See you soon."
I took a speeder back home, and collected the package from my drop box. "Everything". Some field rations, a blaster, a plasma cutter, and some body armor that vaguely resembled a troopers' chest-piece and shoulders. The helmet was a bit disorienting at first, but fit perfectly. The upper part of the armor would be easily concealed under my cloak, and was a dull beige. No one would notice. They'd never see this coming. I activated the helmet comm system, apparently it would link me to the troopers' tactical feed. Very nice. Giving in to my curiousity, I posed in front of my mirror and brandished my blaster. I was quite menacing, if I say so myself. How well am I going to be able to use my lightsaber in this armor? I suppose I could just use a blaster, it's just a bunch of droids. What hope could a bunch of droids have against the Force? And hundreds of elite troopers, of course? Talk about a blue milk run. Laughing to myself, I turned out the light.
Utapau, two days later
General Grievous went about making the final preparations and fortifications. Those fools in the Republic knew nothing of what they faced. In between breaths, he hacked and choked startling the few sentient soldiers around him. Everything was in place. Alerted to an incoming transmission, Grievous stole away to a conference room down a nearby hallway. A hologram of Darth Sidious awaited him. The door slammed shut behind him, and for a time the outside world ceased to be.
An alarm sounded on a panel, alerting whomever was listening that a large cadre of warships had just entered orbit. A closer look by a technician confirmed them to be Republic warships. Drop ships were entering the atmosphere already. The tech ran down the hall to alert the General, who somehow already knew. Several of the troop carriers were headed toward their location, and two others were dropping into an industrial exports sector on the outskirts of Pau city.
"Fools," Grievous rasped, "They'll never know what hit them."
Pau City Industrial Zone, Utapau
Our boarding ramp dropped to reveal a dusty, windy city of industry. This must be where they process their subterranean minerals and metals, I thought. Taking this place is kind of silly unless...that's it, there's a small spaceport here. A quick query into the comm confirmed it, one of our objectives was to hold the ports, trapping the fugitve General Grievous on world. Or at least preventing the scum from sneaking away on a commercial or passenger transport.
"Come on, people, lets hustle! We've got at least six points of entry to cover, not to mention the positions next door we need to set up for sharp shooters!" I shouted, forgetting to activate my comm. The clones silently carried out those instructions, though they couldn't have heard me too well. When everyone was in place the comm system came to life.
"Sir, we have positions, and your team is covered. You may proceed." I led 12 troopers into the spaceport, enountering minimal resistance comprised of battle droids and one deranged cargo-handler of some ancient and unknown make. We proceeded to take inventory of our surroundings. On the level below us, accessible by a ladder, was a circular chamber in the floor. A carbon freezing chamber. On the platform beside it were several opened crates of foodstuffs and one marked with a hazardous materials label. I approached a communications console and laid my blaster down. I had to find out about enemy troop movements, security reports, anything to reveal a threat to our position. It looked like we were just going to sit on this building, as there were no threats inbound. I turned and wandered toward the ladder down, stopping to lean on the rail.
Out of nowhere, my head was swimming. Something was wrong, but I couldn't quite see it. It was just...pressure manifesting itself in the back of my head. Stress?. The fighting had either intensified, or gone horribly wrong. As I turned to go back to my console again, my helmet comm crackled to life with a gravelly voice.
"Execute Order 66." I knew that voice, but who was it again and how'd they get on this channel?
"Order 66? What is that, I am unaware of..." I found myself cut off. Unthinking, my lightsaber exploded to life in my right hand and deflected two blaster bolts from the nearest trooper. I raised my left hand and shoved with the force, watching him sail backward over the console and into the wall. I deflected three more bolts, and one of them found its originator's chestplate. What the hell? Two down, ten more bearing down on me. Damn this helmet, I can't see far enough around me! I sensed it as much as felt it - a grenade of some sort lifted me off my feet and threw me sideways. Thankfully my body armor absorbed the heat and protected me from it. I swung my right arm out away from my body, extending my wrist and what? I dropped my lightsaber? Still dazed from the blast, I didn't have enough time to focus the force into any kind of defence. The blaster bolt seared through my hand, and another tore into my wrist. I was seeing white spots behind my eyes, screaming something one could be certain to be profane. I felt another impact in the chest, and another in my left hip. If I was still wearing armor, what was that searing pain and foul smell? I felt sick. Worse than sick. There was a ball of ice in the bottom of my stomach, and I was losing focus on the world in general. I felt like a child, as though the force was the balloon string I reached out for and could not touch in time. How can this be happening? I'm in charge here. I'm a Jedi Knight!
The bolts kept coming, and my screaming and cursing continued. For a moment I was able to reach out and grab at a dark spot off to the right. The blaster I'd laid down flew to my good hand, and I fired blindly - well almost blindly - at the white blurs advancing on me. I wasn't such a good shot, lying on the floor. I felt strange then, cold, but not the sick cold from before. I felt like I was falling from a bridge, or a rooftop. Falling? Falling from grace, or was that the force slipping away from me? Away from the fight, my mind's eye showed me falling into a chasm, into something icy and foreign at the bottom. Whatever it was it flooded my lungs, climbed into my nose, and pried its way into my sqeezed shut eyes. Relenting, I opened them and saw only blackness. "What was that about confidence and leadership?" a mocking voice whispered, "You are nothing. You can't even stand up to those weaklings and their puny rifles." Who's there? "You are. I don't see anyone here but you. And me. Don't ask any stupid questions, I am you. You could be so much more. You thought this was going to be easy, you thought your power was endless. The force is absolute power. Take it, and have your revenge!" How? Farther away now, "inhale and concentrate" it replied softly. The cold murk filled my lungs as I opened my mouth.
The world was off in the distance, like a holoscreen across an unlit room. It came rushing back at me. For a moment, the world around me was clear and silent. My intact hand was outstretched toward the troopers, and my ball of ice had been replaced by something much hotter. The lightning that poured from my fingertips into the three troopers closest to me was alien, but familiar at the same time. The smell of burning flesh - theirs - filled the air. Satisfaction. This is the dark side? My vision blurred out again and I lost my focus. Several more bolts were arcing toward me, drowned out by unintelligible comm chatter. Another bolt hit me square in the chest, shoving me backward. Must be one of their heavier rifles. How long has this fight lasted? I could see the next bolts coming, and one went right through me. Or did it? I looked down. I could look down? I sat up, and stood up, but the troopers kept firing toward the ground. I turned, and saw myself lying on the floor. A bolt struck the helmet I wore, right above the right eye. I watched as my head snapped back, and found I could see the helmet disintegrating. The flesh underneath was scorched and black. A good chunk of the right side of my face was burned down to the bone, and the eye was..destroyed. The troopers stopped firing and approached. One of them kicked me, that bastard, I'll ruin him if I ever get out of this. I couldn't hear them anymore, without the comm. After a few moments, two of them picked me up by my arms and tossed me down to the next level, skipping the ladder entirely. They climbed down after me and dumped me in the carbon freezing pit. Oh, no. Can't you bastards see I'm...I can't be dead, why am I still here? One of them threw my lightsaber into the pit after me, as the other one fiddled with some switches and turned some dials, and flooded the pit with carbonite. I started screaming at them, but it was no use. They walked serenly out of the building, leaving me there with myself. Things were blurry again, I think some droids were loading my private metal hell onto some sort of sled, but everything was fading out...and I was left alone in the dark and the cold.
A burst of static shattered the silence in the chamber, though there was no one left alive to hear it. Barely audible outside the helmets of the dead, a report came through afterward.
"Objective complete."