Chapter Ten – A New War Begins
The plan was simple and easy but most of all, it was effective. The effects would be devastating to the Emperor. The Empire would never see it coming until it was too late. It had been almost three months since Yoda and Obi-Wan had told Anakin of their plan to destroy the Empire. Those three months consisted of very little sleep, lots of hard work and many hours of negotiations.
Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin were exhausted. After three months of careful planning, they were finally ready to put their plan into action. The hard work had left them all with aching bodies which cried out for sleep. The negotiations had drained them of most of the energy they had left, and pushed their patience to the very limits. And now, they were finally ready to deliver the ultimate devastating blow to Sidious' Empire.
The initial plan involved freeing all of the major Outer Rim planets to begin with; Aeten II, Alzoc III, Bakura, Bespin, Dantooine, Endor, Kamino, Kashyyyk, Mon Calamari, Ryloth, Telos, Tatooine and Yavin. To free these planets meant to free them from the Empire's rule, and to do that they had to eliminate the clones. Without the clones, these planets had no law enforcement that represented the Empire.
The first stage of the plan involved lots of negotiations. This involved bringing all the most influential senators from each of these planets together to sort out an agreement with each other. The plan was to get them to agree to work together after the clones were eliminated. After the clones were eliminated, the freed planets were to gather a large army together, arm themselves with whatever weapons they could salvage from the clones, and liberate all the other planets in the Outer Rim.
After much debate, the Jedi managed to ensure that the senators came to an agreement that they would help each other when the time came. They were united by their hate of the Empire. They had agreed to join forces to create the Alliance, and a huge army to go with it.
The plan had been broken up into four phases. Phase one involved the negotiations, which would theoretically prove over time to be the phase which took up the least amount of time of the four. Now that phase one was complete, phase two had to be put into action. Phase two involved the first attack on the Empire and the liberation of the main Outer Rim planets. Should everything go to plan in phases one and two, phase three would focus mainly on the Alliance and its liberation of the other Outer Rim planets and some of the Core planets. Finally, phase four involved the Alliance gaining the upper hand over the Empire and taking over more and more of the Core planets. Once this happened, the Jedi would attempt to eliminate the Emperor, which would prove to be the last part of phase four.
The three Jedi Masters sat in a circle outside Yoda's hut.
"Complete, phase one is. About to begin phase two is. Ready are we for phase two?"
"Yes Master," Obi-Wan replied. "We can give the order now."
"The order, you will give Anakin. On your comlink you must contact all the leaders."
"Yes Master." Anakin unhooked his comlink from his belt and selected numerous frequencies. He started the communication and waited several minutes for all the senators to reply. Once they were all present Anakin spoke.
"The time has come senators. Are you all ready?" He heard several positive replies.
"Excellent. Execute phase two." He heard some more positive replies and within a few seconds the communication ended. Anakin hooked the comlink back onto his belt. Obi-Wan placed his hands on his knees and straightened up.
"Now we must wait," he said simply.
On Kashyyyk two wookie Alliance soldiers watched through some binoculars from a long distance as the last of the clones arrived back at their base. There were two Alliance soldiers stationed outside every clone base on Kashyyyk, waiting for the clones to arrive back at base. The clones switched shifts at midnight local time. That was the time to strike. One of the wookies spoke into his comlink in his native tongue.
"Once the clones are all back into their base, attack them before they switch shifts. That is the vital time to strike. You know what to do comrades." The wookie ended the communication and took a small detonator out of his pouch. He armed the detonator and a beep told him it was activated. He placed his thumb over the button. He applied pressure on it until he heard a click. That click was followed by a massive explosion.
The clone base turned into a burning fireball, and the clones were eaten up by the fire. The smoke billowed up into the night sky blocking out the stars and clouds. Debris fell from the night sky and crashed down onto the ground. Nobody would have survived such a blast. The clones had effectively been eliminated, and the wookie's job was complete.
The same happened to every base all over Kashyyyk. The clones had not seen it coming. The plan had succeeded on Kashyyyk with no problems whatsoever. Kashyyyk was now free of the Empire.
Obi-Wan closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. Anakin nodded, sensing the exact same thing Obi-Wan had.
"Worked on Kashyyyk, the plan has. Going well things are." Obi-Wan opened his eyes and exhaled.
"One planet down. Twelve more planets to go."
"The only irritating thing is the fact that all of the twelve other planets have different time zones. By my calculations it will take at least six hours for all the bombs to go off." Anakin sighed inwardly as he relayed those words to Yoda and Obi-Wan.
"Pass quicker than you think, those six hours will. Sleep we cannot, but meditate we can. All in favour?" Yoda and Obi-Wan raised their hands immediately. Anakin realise he could not argue over meditation, and so decided to raise his hand too, if reluctantly.
"Lovely," Anakin sarcastically muttered before he took on his usual meditation pose.
On Telos, the last of the clone soldiers entered the base unaware of the two Alliance soldiers watching them. As on Kashyyyk, there were two Alliance soldiers watching every clone base over the planet. The second soldier's comlink began to buzz. He unhooked it from his belt and answered it.
"Do we have a green light commander?"
"I am just in the process of notifying everyone that yes; you do have a green light. Blow the place to pieces," spoke the voice from the comlink.
"Yes commander." He ended the communication and placed his comlink back onto his belt. Next to the comlink was a detonator, which he unhooked.
"Enjoy these seconds' clones, for they will be you last." He took a deep breath and placed his thumb on the button.
Five and a half hours had passed. Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin were still meditating. Their breathing was steady as they allowed their minds to be fully immersed in the Force. Over the last five and a half hours, they had experienced twelve tremors in the Force. That left only one planet left to go. Kamino.
On Kamino two Alliance soldiers watched the clones' base from a building in the distance. One of the soldiers had binoculars and the other carried a sniper rifle. The detonator would not work from this range, so the bomb would have to be shot for it to blow up. Kamino had selected their best sniper to take on this task.
The Kaminoan wiped some dripping sweat and rain from his forehead and took on his sniping position. He was lying on the cold edge of a landing platform in the pouring rain, holding his rifle in two hands. His right hand was on the trigger, and his left held the barrel.
The rain lashed down onto his back, soaking his clothes. He didn't care. All he cared about was getting his own back on the Empire. He hated the Empire for what it had done to his fellow Kaminoans after it had taken power. The Kaminoans were subjected to slavery and manual labour. They were forced to keep building clones for the Empire. Once the clones' base was destroyed, another two man team would destroy the cloning facility which housed all of the developing clones.
The Kaminoan with the binoculars took his comlink from a pouch on the floor and started a communication.
"We are in position commander."
"Excellent work. Fire when ready. And don't miss."
"Of course commander. He wouldn't miss this shot in a billion years." The communication ended and the sniper looked up at the spotter. The spotter gave him a nod, and the sniper looked towards the base. He shuffled his body along the landing platform to make himself completely comfortable. He looked through the scope and adjusted it slightly. He didn't want to miss his one shot at freedom. He lined up the shot carefully.
He closed his left eye, and looked through the scope with his right. He moved the sniper rifle slightly, putting the cross hair directly in the middle of the bomb. The bomb had been placed on the leg of the base which held it up above sea level. The leg was strong, but the bomb blast would destroy it, bringing the whole base down to sea level in seconds.
He focused and steadied his arm. He didn't want to slip and fire the shot wide. He tensed the muscles in both arms. He placed his index finger on the trigger. The cold metal felt smooth in his hand. There were no ridges in the trigger, just smooth metal. He took a few deep breaths before taking one final one. He exhaled and as he did so, squeezed the trigger.
The shot was perfect. It hit the target. The sniper looked on through the sniper scope as the bomb blew up. He heard the bang even at this distance. The leg began to crumble, and the base toppled. As it began to tip, all the aircraft and vehicles slid off the platform and into the violent waves of the sea. The platform soon followed. Their work here was complete.
Yoda opened his eyes. A smile appeared on his face as Obi-Wan and Anakin also opened their eyes.
"A success the plan was on Kamino. Now complete, phase two is. Caught off guard the clones were." The aged Jedi Master chuckled. Anakin rubbed his eyes as they adjusted to the early morning light.
"Master, when shall we give the order to begin phase three?" Obi-Wan asked.
"I think we should begin phase three almost immediately. After we get a good night's sleep!" Anakin grinned like a schoolboy as he eyed Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow sarcastically.
"I agree. There's no point in starting phase three if we haven't slept in nearly thirty six standard hours."
"Agree I do. Sleep first we will. Then, a Galactic War we shall fight."
Authors' Note: Whew, now that this part is over, we can get down to the business of war! Be prepared for lots of fighting, death and destruction as the new Alliance stands up to the might and terror of the Galactic Empire.
I must say thanks to everyone who has taken time out of their schedule to read Redemption. I must also thank all of you who have added this story to your favourites list or your alerts list. I must thank everyone who has added my to your author alerts list. And finally, a massive thank you to everyone who has submitted a review. It really is appreciated. Please keep reading, please keep adding this story or me to your lists and please keep the reviews coming.
I've decided that I should try and reply to some of your comments you have submitted in your reviews, so here goes.
general-joseph-dickson: Yeah, three hours of meditation would make me ready to kill someone. Haha. Thanks for your comments.
mystere23: Awesome stuff. Enjoy chapter ten and thanks for your comments.
PadawanMom: I am a big fan of twists. Good ones though, not the horrible "it was all a dream" kind of twists. Thanks for your comments.
sweetchica55: Wait no longer, chapter ten is here! Thanks for your comments.
DarthKenObi-Wan: Yes, lots of death coming up. You'll love it. Thanks for your comments.
Alien Roxi: Well, I can't reveal who is going to die, but at least one major character will die, you can be sure if that. Thanks for your comments.
Anthony Van Luevan: Haha, your wait for chapter ten is over. Thanks for your comments.
ILDV: Thanks for your comment.