Arkatt Smythe didn't need to be a Jedi to feel the unease surrounding her and everyone else on the planet. Only a few days had passed since Coruscant had been invaded by the Separatists, abducting the Supreme Chancellor in spite of the efforts of Shaak Ti and others. While the Outer Rim Sieges were still carrying on, Arkatt and her battalion remained behind on Coruscant, should a second Separatist attack be successful. The Pantoran looked to her right, as she saw her clown commander, Trample, shooing away a probe droid as he approached her.
"It'll be sunset soon, General," he remarked. "Coruscant sunsets always look nice."
"Mm-hmm," responded Arkatt, half paying attention. "Sorry, Trample, I've just been thinking about recent events."
"You mean the attack? Yeah, I've had my own thoughts about it," responded Trample, taking a seat next to his Jedi. "Nothing like this has happened before. What if it means the war's nearly over?"
"I would caution your hope, Commander," the Jedi advised. "Hope for the future can be a powerful tool, but it can cloud your vision to the here and now. All the same, I've had similar thoughts. If the war ends soon, that means the Jedi can go back to keeping the peace, and not leading wars."
"I… I'm not sure what I'll do, General. All I've ever known is fighting, what'll I do after the war ends?"
Arkatt lifted a hand up, placing her thumb atop the stylized sun on Trample's helmet. "You have a way with paint, perhaps you could be an artist? I'm sure you'd be very skilled." They looked outward as a gunship flew towards the Senate Building. "Whatever happens, I'm sure the Force will lead us down the right path."
She nodded to the Commander before standing up, heading back into the Temple. The Force would guide her down the right path, she was certain of it.
Commander Tuo lifted his helmet, rubbing sleep from his eyes, before placing it back on and helping Eekar Oki aboard their gunship, Crait Expectations. They had to leave for Aerit Gamma by tomorrow morning, and Tuo wanted to be there early.
"We're running behind, General," he told the Mon Calamari as he climbed aboard. "I want to reach our ship by 0200 hours."
"Behind? We aren't to leave for another ten hours," retorted Eekar.
"I only want to ensure our mission is a success," said Tuo, he and the other clone troopers taking hold as the Crait Expectations set off. On the journey there, Tuo heard a beeping from his helmet comm, switching it on. "This is CC-2020."
"Commander Tuo, the time has come. Execute Order 66."
"Yes, my Lord."
Tuo switched off his comm, looking to the rest of his squad and giving them a nod. They all raised their weapons, when Eekar pulled out his lightsaber. First he sliced through one of the troopers, cut off the wrist of another, then pushed the commander out of the gunship. He managed to grab hold of one of the doors, making sure his grip was secure before grabbing one of his sidearms. Carefully aiming, he fired at the repulsorglobe on the wing, causing the vessel to lean rightward. Despite the gunship's lean, the Jedi was still inside.
Aiming straight up, he blasted at the missile rack, setting off the magazine and bringing the gunship down. As Tuo's scan confirmed that Eekar had jumped, the clone did the same, firing on the falling Mon Calamari. Most of his shots were deflected, but one managed to hit his hand, knocking the saber from his hands.
As the two hit the ground, Tuo landed on his leg with a sickening crunch, crying out from pain. Eekar landed relatively unscathed, not even looking to Tuo as he walked off. But the commander wouldn't give up, he would fulfill his duty, no matter what. Gripping his sidearm once more, he used his remaining strength to aim at the back of the Jedi's head, before firing.
As the body of Eekar Oki thumped forward, Tuo dropped his blaster and lay down. "Commander Tuo to command," he groaned. "My mission was a success, the traitor Eekar Oki has been executed. I had to crash my gunship, though. And my leg's broken."
"Very good, soldier," came the response. "Your sacrifice will be rewarded greatly."
The communication ended there, Tuo's vision beginning to go black. He lost consciousness right as he saw the gunship overhead, a feeling of pride coursing through his very being.
O'Mer couldn't sleep. It had been a habit ever since he was abducted by Trandoshans. So, he wandered down to the southern hangar, where starfighters were being stored. As he passed by an older Delta-7, one of the Temple Guard stopped him.
"The weather service is predicting a heavy storm in two hours," the guard warned, "so no flight services are permitted."
"I wasn't planning to fly, sir," the Cerean responded. "I was just wandering."
It was then the two realized they weren't alone, as a droid had come inside and was prepping one of the Actis fighters. The Temple Guard was about to go stop it, when the hangar door opened, two gunships hovering up to the platform. Their doors opened up, clone troopers stepping out. They moved almost mechanically, blasters drawn.
"Ignore Lord Vader's fighter," their apparent leader announced. "Kill all Jedi and defenders, download any information you can from the archives."
"Understood, Captain Jack," said the other troops, readying their weapons.
The Temple Guard activated his lightsaber as the clones began firing; he deflected some of their fire, urging O'Mer to escape while he was unnoticed. O'Mer understood, sneaking behind the Delta-7 and climbing into the cockpit. The integrated astromech had no power, so he would have to navigate on his own. However, we wouldn't get the chance to, as some of the clones noticed what he was doing and started firing in his direction.
"Blast that fighter!" they shouted, firing in enough places that the engines shut down, O'Mer having to leap from the cockpit to avoid any smoke.
With his own weapon having been left behind, the Cerean was quickly gunned down, finding a tragic irony in how he had escaped a group of hunters only to be slain by protectors.
Ollie joined the rest of his unit indoors, standing amongst the bodies of slain Jedi. Their captain stood by an astromech projecting a hologram of the Jedi Temple. "Magg, take your squad and reinforce Lord Vader, he's dueling Master Drallig. Spot, secure the Archives and start downloading data. Ollie, search the living quarters, execute any Jedi you find."
"Yes, sir!" the clones cried out, marching off to carry out their duties.
Ollie made it to the living quarters, opening up doors to see if anyone was inside. Thirty doors later, he hadn't seen anyone.
"This is CT-1436," he called in. "I've found no sign of Jedi here."
"Understood, keep looking until you find something."
Ollie ended the call, spotting a reflection of his helmet as he walked down the corridor. The black stripes decorating the forehead were a Mandalorian custom that meant justice. Very apt, he mused, as justice would be delivered to the Jedi traitors. After a few more opened doors and empty rooms, he finally happened upon an occupied space. A human lay in bed, a young girl, somehow sleeping through the carnage outside.
Ollie raised his blaster, programming prepared to eliminate the Jedi where she lay. But then his own sense of justice kicked in. What justice was there in shooting an unarmed girl?
She was a traitor to the Republic.
She was asleep.
All the more reason to fire now.
But it wouldn't be a fair fight.
Shoot her now.
No.
Shoot her now!
"No!" Ollie screamed, firing his blaster repeatedly at the window. The scream, combined with the sounds of glass breaking and blasterfire, woke the Jedi up. "Run. Run now! I said now!"
She didn't need any further prompting, rolling out of bed and diving through the window, Ollie continuing to fire until his blaster overheated. He peered through the window, finding no trace of the Jedi anywhere.
"CT-1436, I encountered a Jedi, but she managed to escape."
"Understood, Ollie. Continue your search, I'll have someone on the outside deal with the runaway."
Ollie let out a breath as he switched off his comm. He gave one more glance out the window, once again finding no trace of the Jedi, before heading back into the hall. If he saw another one on his search, he'd dispense justice-on his terms.
R3-J6 was a simple maintenance droid in the Jedi Temple, provided a few months after the end of the Clone Wars. His tasks were unglamorous, and his livery didn't stand out like other astromechs, but he carried out his duties without fuss.
As J6 finished installing a patch in the Archives, he turned his dome to a group of hushed voices and frightened whimpers. Spotting a Rodian boy peek out for just a moment, he trundled over, hearing the sounds of clone troopers marching nearby, blasters pointed at anything that moved in a way they didn't like. Looking down, he saw a group of at least seven frightened Jedi younglings.
What is going on? Why are you hiding? inquired J6.
"The clones are coming after us," sniffed a young human, wiping his eyes. "There are too many of them. What can we do?"
J6 peered around, checking to see if there were any clones about. Once he saw none, he quietly beeped Follow me. I can show you a way out of here.
J6 circled around, leading the younglings through the halls. The droid had downloaded the schematics for the Temple and its ventilation system, allowing him to guide the group to a storage closet, where a vent large enough for them to slip through was.
Take this path, he advised the younglings, projecting the ventilation system for the others to see. You can escape to the outside, where less clone troopers would be.
A Twi'lek girl scanned the hologram with her data pad, hugging the droid tightly. "Thank you," she whispered, pulling the vent cover away.
"Check every door," J6 heard a voice call, hearing a group of clone troopers walking towards the closet.
J6 shut the door, and when the last of the younglings stepped through the shaft, pulling the vent cover back up behind them, he welded it shut. As he heard the soldiers beginning to open the door, the droid backed into a corner and pretended to shut down. The door opened not long after, three clone troopers storming inside.
"Hey, droid!" one shouted, slamming a foot into J6's chassis and knocking him out of his "shutdown." "Care to explain why this door was closed?"
It was not closed when I entered recharge mode, fibbed J6.
"Sir, the vent's welded shut," the second clone pointed out.
"Where did the Jedi go?" demanded the first trooper, aiming his blaster at J6's dome.
Do you want a piece of me? challenged J6.
"Yeah, I'll take your head."
The first shot shattered the transparisteel of his dome, the second caught the droid brain alight. In the droid's last second of mental activity, R3-J6 felt satisfied that he had helped the younglings escape.
Fox had accompanied Commander Appo to the northern hangar landing platform, in case Jedi planned to escape that way. Four troops stood on the platform, as an XJ-2 airspeeder descended.
"Need me to blast it down?" asked one of the troopers.
"No need," responded Appo, stepping forward. "The driver must be confused by all the smoke."
The speeder's driver was the senator from Alderaan, who disembarked and started walking towards the Temple. "What's going on?" he demanded.
"There's been a rebellion, sir. Don't worry, the situation is under control," said Appo, raising his blaster as the Alderaanian continued walking. "I'm sorry, sir, it's time for you to leave."
"And so it is," conceded the senator, walking back to his speeder as more troops arrived.
Suddenly, the clone troopers were surprised by the arrival of a Jedi youngling, who used his lightsaber to take down most of the soldiers there. Appo was one of the first to be maimed, several others being chopped down or having their shots reflected before the remaining troopers were able to gun him down.
"No!" screamed the senator, leaping into his vehicle and speeding away.
"Forget about him, let him go!" yelled Fox. "Commander Appo and the others need immediate medical attention."
"Yes, Sergeant," responded a trooper, who called for a medic.
Fox lowered his blaster, looking at the scene that lay around him. In his nearly three years of service, it had been the most action he had ever seen. Analyzing the strikes across Appo and the other soldiers, the youngling had injured them, but he wasn't trying to kill them. And they had shot him down. Even as every part of the sergeant's mind screamed that it was deserved, a small part told him it was unjust. Fox let out a breath, his shoulders sagging and his blaster almost falling from his hands.
"Sergeant, are you alright?" The sergeant looked up to find the medic had arrived.
"Yeah, I'm alright," said Fox. "I'm alright, just… tired."
From her cell in the Republic military headquarters, Barriss Offee could feel the Dark Side consuming everything around her. She frowned, unsure of what it meant. Outside her cell, she could hear two beings converse. One sounded like a clone trooper, but the other was different… yet still familiar.
"How many Jedi have been dealt with?"
"We're still counting, sir. Our forces on Kashyyyk report both Master Unduli and Yoda have evaded execution." This caught Barriss' attention. Why would Luminara be executed? "We were about to deal with this one."
"No need, trooper. Lord Sidious has his own plans for her."
The door to her cell opened up, a Pau'an dressed in a dark uniform stepping inside. She could tell from his eyes he was corrupted by the Dark Side.
"What do you want?" the Mirialan demanded.
"You were right," was all the Pau'an said. "The Jedi have fallen. They attempted to overthrow the Republic, and as such, all Jedi are to be executed on sight."
"I suppose this includes me," said Barriss, watching a clone step in behind the Pau'an, blaster drawn.
"Not exactly, we have more use for you alive. If any remaining Jedi knew where you were, they would surely come to your rescue."
"I betrayed the Order, they won't go out of their way to rescue me," refuted Barriss. "Not even… no."
"Yes." Her visitor grinned darkly, watching the horrified realization cross the prisoner's face.
"No. No!" Barriss prepared to run, but was lifted off the ground by the Pau'an. She continued to struggle fruitlessly, as more troops arrived. "I won't let you harm her!"
"I'm afraid that isn't up to you, my dear. Stun her, trooper, then prepare a shuttle," ordered the Pau'an.
"Yes, Inquisitor," replied one of the clones, before Barriss' world went black.
She awoke on the shuttle, shackled under armed guard, an inescapable feeling of dread looking inside of her. With no other choice, Barriss closed her eyes once more, reaching out through the Force. With any luck, she could reach Luminara and warn her of the impending trap. And with any luck, her old master would heed the warning and survive.