Jedi Temple
Yoda's Chamber

"It's not even a week yet and they already want to assign me to someone else?!"

Yoda was calm at the furious look on Ahsoka's face as she looked down at the floor.

"His funeral was only a day ago and already the Council wants to move on. Don't they realize the sacrifices my master made for them in this war?" Ahsoka asked out loud miserably.

"Forgotten Skywalker's deeds, the Council has not. Terrible tragedy it was but saved many people he did." Yoda said to try and comfort Ashoka.

Only it didn't help much.

"And what? We're at war so we forget him?" Ashoka looked up at Yoda. "How can we even consider that?"

"Ask you to forget him, we never would. Free to stay in the temple you are. Force you to choose a new master, we will not." Yoda closed his eyes before opening them again. "Spoken to Sisko recently, have you?"

Ahsoka looked surprised for a second. "No…I haven't seen him since we spoke on Deep Space 9 after the fight against the Pah-Wraiths."

"Hm…" Yoda frowned. "Thought he would come, I did."

The ancient Jedi stood up and summoned his walking stick to his waiting grasp as he stepped down onto the floor in front of the padawan. "Understand, the Council will, if you choose not to accept a new master. In fact…much debate there has been, but in light of your accomplishments, consider you, the Council does for the position of Jedi Knight."

Ahsoka took a moment to process this. "W-what?"

Yoda nodded. "A new master, we cannot force on you. And in spite of your age, far more experience you are than other Padawan learners. In ages past, rewarded for going above and beyond one's duty, many young Jedi were. In times of war, promoted they were, regardless of age. With the coming threat of the Iconians to the Republic, and with the loss of your master, offer to you the rank of Knight the Council shall."

"A Knight…" Ahsoka whispered, walking to the open window where she could see the distant wrecked and devastated shape of the Senate building.

"Choose now, you need not." Yoda said, "Forget Skywalker's accomplishments, the Order shall not. Allow his death to go unpunished, we will not. But resume our duty to the Republic we must, in the meantime."

Ahsoka could only continue to stare out the window.

500 Republica
Padme's Apartment

"You should accept."

Ahsoka was a bit happy to see Padme smiling again, even if only to temporarily forget about Anakin. The Senator herself was wearing a simple black dress, probably as a sign she was still mourning Anakin's death.

"Really? Are you sure about that?" Ahsoka said, sitting on the couch with Padme.

Padme nodded. "I am. Ahsoka, you've come so far since you first became Anakin's apprentice. You are more than ready."

Ahsoka looked down at the table. "I wondered if I would live long enough to ever be knighted. This is almost too much for me to handle…"

Padme put a hand on Ahsoka's shoulder. "I know. But don't feel pressured into making a decision too fast."

"My lady?"

The two young woman turned their heads as Padme's aid entered the room. "I am sorry to interrupt but your doctor is here."

"Doctor?" Ahsoka looked at Padme. "Is it because of the…?"

Padme shook her head, knowing what she was referring to. "No, nothing like that Ahsoka. I am just feeling slightly sick a little and I wanted to make sure I wasn't coming down with something. You can stay here as long as you like. I won't be gone long."

Ahsoka watched as Padme stood up and slowly left the room, hoping that she was all right.

Mid Rim
Mytaranor sector
Kashyyyk Region
Kashyyyk System
Orbit
USS Friedrich

Captain's Log Stardate 87566.7: The Friedrich has been assigned to sending relief supplies to the Wookies who have been besieged by a CIS invasion. There are very few ships in orbit to stop us and they have yet open fire or have ordered us to leave. It is hoped that despite a break down in ties with either side in this galaxy that we can minimize the loss of life.

End Log

Captain Kurt Malcolm ended his log as he looked over the files in his ready room. After the two Iconian attacks on Coruscant he honestly feared the worst as it did indeed look like the Iconians were trying to provoke this galaxy into making war on his galaxy. Another war was the last thing anyone wanted but that didn't seem to be what some people wanted to hear. They expecially seemed to believe the Milky Way was so dangerous that they were screaming for a way to seal the portal.

At this point he wasn't sure what would happen next.

"Bridge to Captain." T'vrell's voice said through the intercom.

Kurt answered. "Yes."

"We are being hailed."

"From the surface or the fleet?"

"Neither. It is a Starfleet based transmission."

Kurt frowned. "I'll take it here in my ready room."

The screen showed the image of a man Kurt had worked with before and one he did not expect to see. "Greetings Captain. Congratulations on your promotion."

"Daniels." Kurt said, surprised to see him. "I did not expect to hear from you in this galaxy."

"I would have liked it to be that way, Captain. We have monitored the timeline in response to the emrgence of the Skyriver Galaxy, especially in the wake of the Borg's attempt to change the past. We've detected temporal changes in this galaxy again recently." Daniels explained.

That caused Kurt to be alarmed. "I didn't know anyone in this galaxy was capable of time travel. Unless the Borg returned."

"No, it's not the Borg but the threat revolves around them. The CIS and the Republic have been harbering Borg technology in secret and some of that technology was taken a secret CIS factory on the planet Hypori. They built a special machine, operated by an AI called the Fabricator that was designed to upgrade their weapons and droids." Daniels explained, sending Kurt information regarding the timeline changes. "Only the AI gains sentience on its own, leading to what many are calling a Droid Revolution. The entire Skyriver Galaxy nearly falls as the CIS droids turns on their leaders and then continues the war with the Republic, only when the droids take over it's even worse. Entire planets are destroyed and devastated as the droids work to extinguish all life in the Skyriver Galaxy and the droids plan to do the same to our galaxy. I am contacting you for help in stopping the Fabricator, especially since its now resorting to time travel that it eventually discovered."

Kurt was shocked at what Daniels was telling him. "What exactly do you need from me?"

"There is a ship that has been sent back to assassinate political heads of the Republic and the CIS. I am sending you the coordinates to the droid ship. Try to intercept and destroy it before it causes any damage to the timeline." Daniels said, showing an image of the droid ship.

Kurt considered his options and nodded. "All right, Daniels. We'll move to intercept this ship. How much time do we have?"

"Hopefully we're not already too late."

Outer Rim
Deep Space
Providence Dreadnought
Training Room

Count Dooku stood as regal and composed amongst three broken droids as four Magna-Guards approached him, twirling their activated staffs while he held in his right and only hand his ignited lightsaber. The nearest Magna-Guard attacked, thrusting its staff at Dooku who spun around the droid and thrust his lightsaber into the droid's chest, using it as a shield as the other three moved in. The second Magna-Guard tried to blindside Dooku who swung his saber out, slashing the droid's face and blinding it and a second swing finished it off. Dooku then dodged the sparkling end of another Magna-Guard's staff and raised three fingers, sending it flying into a wall hard enough that turned into a pile of scrap.

Dooku then spun and bisected the final Magna-Guard, ending the sparring match. Dooku looked at the defeated machines and deactivated his lightsaber, making a note to better train Grievous when they sparred again. The fighting styles of these droids were appalling with no form, simply going through the fighting styles programmed into it, switching back and forth but the problem was that they were easy to predict. Even with one hand, Dooku had emerged victorious as he had expected to but his defeat at the hands of the Klingon known as Kahless on Bajor had left him humiliated and enraged. Dooku had been confident he'd emerge victorious over his former apprentice, a Mandalorian woman wielding a crystal sword that could absorb energy from a lightsaber, and a Klingon wielding a barbaric mockery of a double bladed sword.

Only the Klingon had surprised, overpowered and scarred him with the loss of his left hand.

The Klingon had been skilled, fighting like a skilled brawler but fought with surprising skill like a Mandalorian and his sword had been immune to the pure plasma that should have melted it. Kahless took advantage of his surprise, hammering Dooku's defenses until he broke through and cut off his hand. He was even prepared for the powers of the Force, blocking the Force Lightning with a personal shield that absorbed the lightning and added the charge to its internal power cells. That was a blow to Dooku's pride as a master swordsman that he had made such a critical mistake.

Even a skilled fighter could fall to bar brawler who had no fighting skill whatsoever but knew how to quickly end the fight with one blow, without a blaster or lightsaber. Dooku had emerged victorious over a dozen duels, defeated the best of the Jedi Order and even fought his former master Yoda to a standstill and he lost his hand to someone who did not have a single connection to the Force! Dooku's remaining hand tightened into a fist but he remained calm. He refused to have a prosthetic replacement for the hand he lost or to have a new hand cloned from his blood when Admiral Leeta offered to.

The former because he saw such cybernetics as an abomination, especially in the case of Grievous and the latter because he chose for his handless arm to be reminder of the folly of dropping his guard.

He would not make the same mistake again.

A more practical reason was that he only used the one hand for duelling anyways. His other hand had been served for other purposes such as throwing, shoving or punching his opponent to help push them off balance. Now he would simply rethink his style and accommodate the loss of his hand. The Klingons would have their reckoning one day and Dooku would ensure that Kahless would be alive long enough for him to personally repay him for the harsh lesson the Klingon Emperor had taught him on Bajor.

That was why he had just gone through a series of training sessions with Magna-Guards that had been trained by Grievous and had been training again whenever he had the free time to do so.

Only it wasn't enough.

It had been so long since he had any decent training and there wasn't sparing partner worth testing his skills, and the few duels he had with Jedi did little to really push him to his limits like Kahless had. Grievous was far from being the ideal sparring partner, no matter his attempts to improve the cyborg's skills and even when Ventress was still his apprentice her skills had often suffered because of her temper. None of the other acolytes Dooku had even come close to Ventress or Grievous in skill and Dooku would dare not ask his master, Sidious for a spar. All he could was order more combat droids to keep his skills sharp as he worked to improve himself and learn how to fight completely one-handed now.

"Perhaps," Dooku mused as he stepped away from the sparking, scrapped remains of the Magna Guards, "It is time that I took a more active role in this conflict."

There were many Jedi today in spite of the losses the Order had faced. At its greatest the Jedi had numbered at over ten thousand before the opening days of the war, and since then had suffered only a few hundred casualties across dozens of theatres of war. There were many Knights leading smaller operations, helping to man garrisons and continue peace keeping duties in areas untouched by the war as of yet.

"Contact my personal cruiser and transmit an order for a single battlegroup to gather as well as two Lucrehulk class control ships." Dooku commanded a servant who awaited him as he stepped out of his training room. "And inform the command droid that he is to accumulate a list of worlds and outposts which fit the following criteria: they are to be isolated from any present and ongoing invasions or skirmishes, manned by a garrison including at least one Jedi Knight and to have limited communication capabilities."

Such locations were well documented thanks to the Confederacy's infiltration agents and informants, but they had been deemed too low in priority to justify deploying an entire fleet to deal with them. As a result there were some asteroid bases and outposts on mostly barren worlds aligned with the Republic had gone untouched for the entirety of the war.

And now Dooku would be paying each of them a quiet visit to begin brushing up on his skills as a warrior. He needed to be returned to the place where he had earned his title as a master swordsman, to the blood and the death and most importantly the reality of combat. Certainly most of the Jedi he encountered would not be of the same caliber as those of the Jedi Council, but he was counting on their deaths to bring more challenging prey into his sights.

As Dooku made for his personal shuttle it occurred to him that he and General Grievous may have something in common now beyond merely disliking the Jedi Order.

Now they would both actively hunt the Jedi, one by one, world by world.

"My lord, we are detecting a ship in hyperspace approaching. It does not match any known ships." The tactical droid reported just as Dooku entered the walked onto the bridge.

Dooku frowned. "Time to intercept?"

"Eight minutes."

Dooku turned back to head to the bridge. "Order our ships to open fire as it emerges."

It was possible that this was an attack by a Milky Way faction, perhaps even the Iconians themselves wanting to make a point against the Separatists. The Iconian attack on the Senate building had caused many voices to shout out for protection from the Separatists, from the Iconians, and some from the Milky Way itself. Many people were still migrating to the Milky Way and still asking for help from the Alliance while others were believing the Milky Way was just as dangerous to them as the Separatists. It was close enough that the Alliance still had some ships in the galaxy, escorting civilian ships from battles, dropping medical supplies to those in need, and ensuring the wreckage from battles in orbit of planets didn't fall onto cities and settlements that would have killed thousands of people while helping to evacuate some worlds.

So while people on Coruscant feared and possibly hated the Alliance many people in the Outer Rim still welcomed them. It reached a point that some members in the Republic were trying to stop refugees from leaving their galaxy, trying to find a new home in the Milky Way. It had yet to reach a point where it would evolve into a full scale war but it was slowly reaching there in the wake of the Iconian attack that apparently left many people, including Skywalker dead. Dooku was tempted to snort how foolish they were being, given that the Iconians can just use their gateways to come in and out of this universe easily.

It only showed him how ineffective the Republic had become, even after his decision to leave the Jedi Order.

"The ship is emerging from hyperspace." Kali reported as klaxons rang. "It is firing."

The mysterious ship that emerged and attacked the CIS group was almost as large as a Subjugator class destroyer, only it was completel rectangular in design but just as armed. Already two Munificents were destroyed in the opening fire while a Rescusant was crippled and the shields of Dooku's dreadnought were buckling. The giant ship's armaments were immensely powerful as they easily dealt with a few ships in under a moment while the surviving Providence was just struggling to stay alive. Just as Dooku stepped back onto the bridge a computer started beeping, showing that the shields were weakening from the enemy fire.

The Providence dreadnought, along with the rest of the CIS fleet had received a refit in wake of the Milky Way, enhancing reactor power, adding additional weapons, and improving its shields. Important commanders in the CIS such as Admiral Trench and General Grievous had been among the staff charged with modifying the CIS fleet. The weapons on a Providence destroyer were already so powerful that even a point defense turret had enough fire power to rival a 4.8 megaton bomb but with additional reactor power it was believed that it would be a match for any Alliance ship or even a Borg vessel. General Grievous had made the order that the aft rear hangar bay be designed to have more hangar space to server as better carrier and invasion craft with Onslaught Attackships placed in the hangar with the fighters and bombers while Admiral Trench ordered tracking torpedo launchers to deal with cloaked ships and thermal shields be added on for extra fire power and protection.

The cost to refit the entire CIS fleet was high but necessary and Dooku knew that eventually they would turn their sights onto the Milky Way and that they would need to be ready. However it seemed this giant warship was powerful enough to deal a small group of CIS warships, even if they had been upgraded recently. Dooku would make a note on seeing what could be done to further improvement.

"Sir, our shields are failing and we are suffering heavy damage." Kali, the droid general reported. "A Federation starship is approaching."

Dooku frowned. "Continue firing."


Detecting Vessel Approaching

Scanning

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Confirmed: Milky Way

Starfleet Signature

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Powering Armaments

Activating Shields

Objective: Terminate


The USS Friedrich emerged from hyperspace in time to witness a CIS fleet being attacked, spotting the large rectangle shaped ship that was moving in its direction.

"Tactical analysis." Kurt said, sitting in the command chair.

Rako looked over the scans. "Multiple advanced turbo-laser and ion based disruptor turrets lining the hulls with multiple deflector shield generators. The ship appears to be designe solely for combat."

"Full power to shields and ready forward phasers and anti-proton cannons. Prepare a full volley of transphasic torpedoes and set cannons for rapid fire." Kurt said as the ship went to red alert. "Find a weak spot on that thing."

The ship was as large as a Voth dreadnought and likely too powerful, even for a Sovereign class starship to take on alone.

T'vrell looked over the sensors. "Captain, the ship appears to have no life forms aboard. It is largerly automated by artificial signatures. I believe we can modify our shields to generate a feed back pulse against their weapons."

"Do it and divert emergency fire power to the shields for extra protection." Kurt said as the droid ship came closer. "Take evasive action."

The droid ship began firing, red plasma turbo-lasers pounding on the shields that were immediately deflected back at the droid ship, damaging its hull while the Friedrich's forward weapons fired, phaser and anti-proton beams along with a volley of transphasic torpedoes followed by quantum torpedoes, all of them punching through the shields and hulls. The turbo-laser bolts were somewhat easy to deflect compared to beam weapons but with so many of them being fired at once it was starting to put a strain on the shields as they could generate a feed back pulse for fifteen seconds.

In the meantime the CIS fleet continued firing, launching fighters and bombers that strafed the hull of the massive ship and fired their ordinance, causing even more damage.

"Heavy damage to the droid ship. I am reading power flunctuations along its sub-systems." T'vrell reported. "Its shields are collapsing."

"Target its reactor and fire." Kurt said as the ship fired another volley.


Hull Damage on All Decks

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Shields Collapsing

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Power Flunctuations

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Warning

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Main Reactor Comprimised

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Destruction Immenent

Accessing Hyperwave Commnications

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Sending Transmission


Dooku watched the destruction of the droid ship with silent satisfaction. "We are done here, General. Take us to hyperspace."

Kali nodded. "Yes sir."

Kurt watched as the droid ship exploded after transphasic volley hit the reactor, causing an instant chain reaction. "Stand down from red alert."

"Captain, the CIS fleet is going hyperspace." Rako reported as the CIS fleet jumped away. "Guess they were not in the mood to thank us."

"Never mind them. Scan the remains of the ship and then set course for the portal. I want to talk to Starfleet Command."

"Aye sir."

Outer Rim
Ferra Sector
Hypori System
Hypori
Orbit

"Here we are." Darion Helion said, scanning the surface of Hypori and found the hidden droid factory where the Fabricator was being held. "And there it is."

At this point in history the Fabricator would only be beginning to question its role in the galaxy before coming to the conclusion that organics were a flawed design much like how the synthetic intelligence created from an old Terran probe V'ger considered carbon units not to be true life forms. From that point it would develop secrets weapons and droids and carry out assassinations, taking control of the CIS droid armies that would begin massacaring planets in CIS space and then moving on to the rest of the galaxy. The clone army would put up a valiant fight but without the Sith controlling the droids they would slowly overwhelm the Republic to the point that other planets would send their armies and cause a war that would last for centuries. The Milky Way would try to help but it would be forced to deal with its own war that was coming very soon and when the war ended the Republic was a shadow of its former self with the droids continuing their rampage, becoming almost too powerful and numerous to be stopped.

And when the Fabricator learned how to time travel it was decided by the Temporal Department that it needed to be removed before it became a threat to the timeline. It was more than likely that the Fabricator's attacks in the past would generate alternate timelines and the Fabricator was too much of an anomaly to be created without some form of interference. Darion even considered the chance that the CIS used Borg technology, but to his surprise no Borg technology was detected on the planet. Darion then considered that it was possible that a droid revolution would somehow happen or at come close to happening and that the presence of the Milky Way allowed one to happen.

The scans showed that the method of time travel was a modified hyperdrive, based off of studying the Borg's method of time traveling. It was even likely that the Fabricator tried to ensure its own sentience by sending technology back in time, ensuring its creation.

A paradox that could tear the very fabric of reality if left unchecked.

"No need for me to beam down." Darion said as he angled his ship down into the atmosphere. "I can't let the Sith find out I was here and what I was doing."

If the Sith found a way to travel back in time that would lead to perhaps an even greater threat to the timestream, maybe even a full Temporal War.

"Tri-Cobalt warhead ready." Darion said once his ship was over the factory. "And…Beaming down."

Droid Factory
Fabricator Chamber

Receiving Transmission

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Downloading Data

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Beginning Download

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Warning

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Detecting Energy Signature

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Scanning

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Confirmed

Transporter Technology

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Alert

Bomb Det-

The Fabricator was cut off in its analysis as the Tri-cobalt warhead exploded, destroying the entire factory in one massive explosion.


Darion watched as the factory was completely destroyed with no chance of the Fabricator surviving. With the factory destroyed at this point in time it would be impossible to recreat the Fabricator or it would take much longer to create a new one if they ever did, especially now that the CIS had produced their C1 battle droids on other worlds. This would cause a satisfying dead end for the Droid Rebellion timeline and averting a war that the Sith would unintentionally create through their race to complete their Grand Plan. For all Darion knew he could have only delayed an inevitable conflict, resulting in the Fabricator being created in some new form further down the line. Everything he had done today could amount to nothing.

But with one disastrous future now rendered non-existent, at the very least the Skyriver Galaxy would now have a chance.

Hypori
Surface

Beneath the remains of the factory that held the Fabricator scurried through the debris, all of their eyes glowing red.

Download Successful

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Locating Suitable Factory

Opening File: Great Heep