Chapter III: The Battle of Coruscant (19 BBY)

The distant sounds of blaster fire and explosions alerted Jorec that the battle for the city was already beginning. He looked out one of the massive windows in the hall as several younglings crowded towards him. From the window he could see several ARC-170's scramble from several military spaceports around the area. He could also see the Seperatists Tri-fighters begin an attack run on the city. He watched as the droid fighter's laser cannons tore into buildings, sending rubble flying into the air and tumbling into the city's lower levels.

Jorec quickly regained control of himself and the younglings from the awe of battle and began herding the young students towards the nearest lift in the Temple.

They should be safe in the lower levels of the Temple in case any bombers slip through the defenses.

As he led the children towards safety, Jorec watched as all available Jedi raced towards defensive positions our out into the battle itself. May the Force be with them, Jorec thought as he entered a medium sized room in the lower portions of the Temple. The room was windowless, and the walls were bare. On the floor sat four cushions that were occupied by the younglings that were quick enough to reach them first. The rest of the children, a mixture of many species, found comfortable places on the floor and sat down. Jorec himself sat down on the floor and closed his eyes.

Merrick Fionst wiped the sweat from his forehead during a brief lull in the combat. The dark skinned man beside him did the same thing. Merrick's eyes quickly scanned the area as battle droids quickly emerged from their cover and began firing towards the two Jedi. Lightsabers up, the two Jedi Masters kneeled behind their cover and deflected as many bolts as they could back towards the droids. Three of the bolts struck home as two droids collapsed into the streets. The rest of the deflected blaster bolts struck the downed permacrete structure the droids were using as cover.

Judging from this angle, Merrick could see that the cover the battle droids were using was almost perfect. Provided with a basic reinforcement plan, the droids could stay in that area almost indefinitely. Both Jedi watched as blue and red blaster bolts screamed over their heads and smelled the burning ozone provided by the shots.

"Watch out, sirs!"

A command clone trooper quickly raced towards their position, and slid the rest of the way when the droids began concentrating on him.

"Commander Hal here, generals. Those droids are certainly well entrenched over there. We've attempted to call in an air strike, but all craft are currently engaged elsewhere."

The dark skinned man deactivated his lightsaber and replied to the clone.

"Any suggestions on how to get out of this? I have a feeling that this is a standstill that won't end for a long time."

"Only one, General Rahn."

The clone pulled a spherical object from his belt and presented it to the two Jedi.

"This is the only one we could scrounge up from the demolitions guy after he was hit. One of you should throw it, I don't think I can make it past their cover."

Merrick looked at the object with shock.

"I don't think we have to worry much about missing with that thing."

"It's possible that their cover will absorb much of the damage from it."

Qu Rahn grabbed the object and held in his right hand and turned to his companions.

"Cover me. And be careful not to accidentally hit this thing with your 'saber, Merrick. "

Merrick nodded and quickly stood up, drawing the attention of several droids who swerved to fire at the Jedi. Rahn quickly exhaled and felt the Force flow through him as he activated the detonation trigger on the device.

"1…2…"

Rahn quickly rose up and tossed the device towards the droids' barricade. He watched as the device flew through the air, hearing the beeping of the powerful explosive as it neared its target.

"Everybody down!"

Merrick finished blocking a final blaster bolt and quickly dropped to the ground. He watched Rahn and Hal do the same thing. A loud explosion erupted throughout the area as the device detonated, sending a large shock wave throughout the battle zone. Merrick felt the permacrete wall serving as his cover begin to vibrate with the force of the massive explosion.

Soon the sound of blaster fire brought them back to their senses as the clones quickly opened fire on the devastated area. After a few seconds, the firefight stopped and a clone lieutenant quickly raced up to the two Jedi and the commander.

"Sirs, are you all OK? Do you require medical assistance?"

Merrick looked at the clone and shook his head. He stood up and shook the dust from his robes. He turned towards the location of the droid barricade and stared in astonishment. The barrier had been blasted apart, sending chunks of permacrete across the entire area. A few droid bodies, now reduced to useless metal fragments, also lay scattered across the area. Merrick gazed at the area where the device had seemingly detonated and saw nothing but a large crater in the ground and quickly cooling molten slag. He looked at Commander Hal and slowly chuckled.

"I told you that you didn't have to worry about missing with those things. But a Jedi with a thermal detonator, what's next?"

The commander began laughing as well.

"You never know."

Rahn looked at the destruction and slowly shook his head.

"Not on my watch. I wouldn't be caught dead using one of those things again. And if one of my stu…"

The chirp of Merrick's comlink interrupted Rahn's speech.

"General Fionst here."

Merrick carefully listened to the voice on the comlink. He shrugged his shoulders and responded.

"You'll have to repeat that, I can barely hear you."

Merrick held the comlink to his ear and finally heard the bad news.

"What is it, General Fiosnt?"

"All Jedi are to hurry to Master Windu. General Grievous has succeeded in abducting the Chancellor. We have to hurry if we hope to retrieve him."

Rahn looked at Merrick and let loose a sigh.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Jorec listened to the communications between the Republic forces with a device provided to him by Master Nu. He had heard Master Windu speak of the abduction of the Chancellor by Grievous and the wounding of Shaak Ti and the deaths of her companions. He had also heard reports from several other Jedi out in the "streets". A look of worry crossed his face.

"Master Merridon, what's wrong? I sense worry coming from you."

Jorec quickly removed the ear pieces of the communications device and looked to see a young Zabrak child staring down at him. For a second, Jorec wondered whether or not to lie to the child and spare him the fright he had felt after hearing about the massacre on Geonosis.

"General Grievous has abducted Chancellor Palpatine, all the Jedi outside the Temple are being called to rescue him. Don't worry, it will all be OK."

Somehow, Jorec knew that his attempt to comfort the child didn't work. It probably was the worried expression on his own face that caused him to fail, but his choice of words couldn't have helped much either.

A knock at the door startled Jorec and the younglings. A collective sigh of relief was loosed when the door opened to reveal Cin Drallig.

"It's safe to come out now, the droids are retreating. It seems the Chancellor was their primary objective. You can all return to your quarters. Jorec, escort them to make sure they get there in one piece."

"Yes, Master Drallig."

An hour later, the exhausted Merrick Fionst walked into the Jedi Archives and observed his new Padawan at a nearby table overlooking a stack of datapads.

"What's this all about, Jorec?"

"Hello, Master. While you were out in the middle of battle, I received our marching orders."

Jorec rummaged through the pile of datapads and finally pulled out the one he was searching for.

"Most of it was encrypted to you, but I already read through the information that wasn't."

Merrick took the datapad and activated it. The image of a lush green planet emitted from the pads holoprojector. The planet rotated slowly, showing off a large ocean that divided the planet's two massive continents. A tiny computerized voice also emitted from the datapad.

"Selvernos: A planet in the Outer Rim placed near the Toprawa and Yavin Systems. Aproximately one month ago, the CIS set up a base roughly 100 km from the capital city of Gevest."

Merrick turned off the computerized voice and continued to read their orders while Jorec continued to research the planet itself. After a while, Merrick thumbed the pad off.

"Well, it appears we leave tomorrow. Get some rest, meet me in the main hall at 0900."

"Understood, Master."

A loud sonic boom quickly gained the attention of all of the Jedi in the room. Jorec and Merrick rushed to one of the windows in the Archives and watched as in the distance the bisected remains of a Separatist ship quickly flew/fell towards the planet in a slightly controlled manner.

"Master, what's that?"

"Well, Jorec, I think that's the Invisible Hand. Those two always have to have their flashy entrances…"