On the shuttle heading for Naboo, Sidious sat immersed in the Dark Side of the Force. He was pleased with his new apprentice. Darth Aella had arranged that simple,naïve fool Binks "accident" with precision. And no one would ever be the wiser. A small push with the Force, and he had his excuse to go to Naboo. Sate Pestage and Mas Amedda had made sure the news was spread far and wide. They had also made it known that the funeral was to be a quiet affair, no great crowds, no masses of Stormtroopers. A perfect opportunity for the Jedi to strike. Or so it would seem.
He had put his plan in motion when it was reported that there was a possible sighting of the Jedi on Alderaan. What's more, the report indicated that it was Anakin Skywalker who was seen. The boy never could keep a low profile. Neither could Amidala. A separate report had come in from one of his spies in House Organa. The man could have sworn he heard Bail and Padme talking together. The spy felt that it was likely one of Amidala's numerous body doubles, since she was obviously dead, but had forwarded it in the belief that Alderaan and Naboo may be planning an insurrection. Unlike the spy, Sidious knew very well that Amidala was still alive. And if she was meeting with Bail, she would also be meeting with the Naboo. The opportunity was just too good to pass up.
Though he had long since given up hope of turning Skywalker to the Dark Side, Sidious had no intention of allowing the boy to reach his full potential with the Jedi. He had to strike, and strike now. Removing what would be the galaxy's most powerful Force user would deal a tremendous blow to the Jedi. He had no doubt in his mind that Skywalker would try and stop him. But what Skywalker didn't know is that he would not be facing Sidious alone.
"The Emperor is what?!" asked Anakin?
"The Emperor is coming to Naboo. Now. He is already on his way. His shuttle will be landing here in less than an hour. He has ordered all ship's grounded until after his departure," the Queen informed them.
Looking at Padme, Anakin told her, "I knew we pushed it on Alderaan. My fault."
"It's ok, we'll figure it out," Padme said. "Your Majesty, is it possible to delay sending that order to our spaceport till we depart?"
"I'm afraid not. The Emperor had the order transmitted directly to every spaceport on Naboo," the Queen told her.
"Stang. Ok. Huulik, Nuhj, Zubain. We need to figure out a way to get out of here before Sidious gets here," Anakin told the other Knights.
"Hold on Anakin," Huulik said. "There are eight of us. And you're the Battlemaster of the Order. This is a perfect time to strike! When will we ever get odds this good again?"
"I agree Master Skywalker," said Zubain. "We have an opportunity here to wipe out the Sith once and for all. I say we take it."
"As do I, Master Skywalker," offered Nuhj. "The Sith has made a fatal error, we should take it."
"What did you just say, Nuhj? 'A fatal error'?" Anakin asked the Nikto Jedi.
"Yes, why?"
"We need to go, now! Sidious wouldn't make a mistake like this. He knows he'd be a tempting target. And he knows we're still out here. He's deliberately opened himself up to tempt us into an attack. He's not that stupid."
Unsurprisingly, Padme grasped it first. "It's a trap, isn't it?" she asked.
Nodding, Anakin replied, "I believe so. If Obi-wan was here, I'd say, 'lets spring it.' But he's not. And we have a more important duty. We have sixty younglings we need to think about." Turning to the other Jedi he said, "You haven't seen what he did at the Temple. I was there. I watched on the security holos as he cut down over a dozen Jedi in less than two minutes. We need to go."
Understanding dawning on the Jedi's faces, they all quickly now agreed. Leaving the palace, the Jedi and Padme raced for the hanger where their ships were waiting. Comming ahead to their Padawans, they told them to get the ships warmed up and ready to launch the minute they got there, then wait outside and be ready to defend them. That done, all four Jedi quickly checked that their lightsabers were ready at hand while Padme made sure she had a full charge on her blaster. This was going to be close.
Deep in the Forests of Kashyyyk, Master Yoda sat meditating. He and his strike force of sixty Jedi had made a noticeable impact on the Empire's slaving operations. They had managed to free thousands of Wookies who had been captured and lead numerous "hunting parties" of Trandoshans into traps that few escaped from. Among those that they had rescued were his friends Chewbacca and Tarfful. The two Wookies were busy organizing a resistance force to stop the Empire "harvesting" more Wookies.
One consequence of their arrival on Kashyyyk was finding two more Jedi. Or rather, former Jedi. Kento and Mallie Marek had resigned from the Order midway through the Clone Wars to marry. After leaving the Order, the two had decided to live in the shadowlands on Kashyyyk, away from the Galaxy, away from the Jedi, away from the War. Unfortunately, the War, the Jedi and the Galaxy had come to them. At Master Yoda's urging, the two former Jedi agreed to take up their lightsabers once again and help defend the Wookies. Their young son, Galen, was in the camp, being watched over by Mallatobuck and Lumpawaroo, Chewbacca's wife and son. The boy was incredibly strong with the Force. And he had an inquisitive mind. He proved that when he called Yoda's lightsaber to his hand without any training what so ever. Apparently just because it was shiny and he wanted to see it. It was no wonder why his parents didn't wear their lightsabers around him. Much training, would that one take. When the Jedi returned to Tython, both Galen and Waroo would accompany them as both were to be trained as Jedi.
Yoda had also offered Tarfful that any of his people who wished to flee the Empire, the Jedi would help. While there was nowhere else in the galaxy with anything like the wroshyr trees that the Wookies built their homes in, they were welcome to settle on Tython or one of the other planets in the system. Where they would be safe. Several hundred of the Wookies agreed to go with the Jedi, mainly those with families or those too old or wounded to continue the fight. Thinking of that offer, perhaps he and the rest of the Council had erred by not offering the same to the families of the children they were taking for training. Talk with the Council about it, he would have to.
Another few weeks and he and the majority of the Jedi would be heading back to Tython, once Tarfful got his resistance group organized. When the time came to openly fight against the Empire, the Wookies and Kashyyyk would be invaluable allies.
On Ryloth, Jedi Master Aayla Secura was also busy. Like the Jedi on Kashyyyk, she and her team had also freed thousands of Twi'leks from a life of bondage. Fortunately, she had had a great deal of help in Cham Syndulla. Once she had convinced him that they actually were there to help, anyway. Being betrayed by the GAR had left it's mark on him. The fact that it was a fellow Twi'lek who was leading the team did make it easier though. And really, all it took was the Jedi rescuing a number of his people. Including his daughter, Hera, who had been captured in an attempt to force his cooperation with the Empire.
For Master Secura, her task was much easier than Master Yoda's. Cham Syndulla had been leading a resistance for years. First against the CIS, now against the Empire. And with the Jedi actively helping him, his movement began to have a real effect on the course of his war. He was taking fewer casualties now that the Jedi could warn him of possible ambushes, and more Twi'leks were willing to join him once they saw that they weren't alone. That the Jedi still cared about them and were willing to fight for them. While no one believed they could entirely throw the Empire off Ryloth, at least not yet, it still gave them hope.
Then, of course, there was Master Secura's other mission. Finding Force Sensitives. Unlike on Alderaan or Naboo, where they could count on the government's cooperation and turning a blind eye to altered records, on Ryloth, they had to be much more covert. Over the course of several weeks, Master Secura and the Jedi with her had managed to find roughly a dozen younglings that could be trained. Their families were only too happy to give them to the Jedi and thus save them from a life of slavery. Fortunately for her, Cham had a very talented slicer in his group who hacked into the Empire's records and listed the children of these families as having already been taken for slaves and sold to various crime syndicates. Where they would eventually be "killed." In another week, Master Secura, the younglings and forty of the sixty Jedi she had brought with her would return to Tython. The other twenty would stay behind to help lead the resistance.
A'Sharad Hett huddled in a cave on Jedha. From space, the moon reminded the Jedi Master of Tatooine. Once he had actually landed on the planet however, he realized just how wrong that assumption had been. Though both were deserts, Jedha was locked in a permanent winter. Wrapping his cloak tighter around him, he watched through a set of macrobinoculars as Imperial Forces guarded the Kyber Temple and others dug mines. A little discrete questioning had provided the information that the Empire was after the Kyber Crystals. Hett could only wonder why. Outside of being used in a lightsaber, they really didn't have much use. At least, not to anyone who wasn't Force Sensitive. But they weren't here to wonder why they were being used. They were here to stop the Empire. If they dug up any associated intelligence, well, that would just be a bonus.
He and the nineteen other Jedi with him were about to make their presence known in a big way. In two standard hours, he would lead four of his Jedi to the Kyber Temple. There, they and the Guardians of the Whills would assault the Empire, throw them from the Temple, remove the Kyber Crystals and other valuable artifacts, then race back to the shuttles and get the Force out of there.
The fifteen other Jedi, led by Master K'Kruhk, would go after the mines. Overpower the guards, get the miners out, then blow the mine shafts. As soon as they did that, they were to head back into the hills and wait for more Imperials to show up and try to reopen the mines, take them out again, then get to their ships and head for home. All in all, it was a solid plan. Hett had also given Master K'Kruhk the option of hitting the Imperial base here if he wanted to try and gather as much intelligence as he could on what the Empire was planning to do with the Crystal once they had it. It felt good to be striking back.
"Why do I always get the tough missions?" Obi-wan Kenobi thought to himself. Out of all the Jedi on Tython, he got stuck leading the mission to take out the Imperial Academy on Carida. Carida wasn't even that important. Oh, he understood why in the long run it made sense to hit the Academy. Interrupt and disrupt the pipeline for Imperial Officers, make life more difficult for Palpatine. Well, they also had the job of securing the new encryption gear the Empire was using, securing as many codes as they could and slicing into the Imperial database for anything else that might be of use. He just wished someone else had gotten the job.
And on top of all that, he also had to watch out for his new Padawan. Master Yoda had assigned him the boy right before he left for Kashyyyk. Zett Jukassa was an eager young man who, while very good with his lightsaber, wasn't anywhere near as good as he thought he was. In that regard, he reminded him very much of Anakin. With a groan, Obi-wan realized that's probably why Yoda had assigned Zett to him. He had experience training Padawans like that. Still, the boy was gifted with the rare ability of farsight. Actually, that seemed to be another trait he shared with Anakin. Shaking his head, Obi-wan got back to work planning their assault.