Ch. 2 Incursion

      THREE MONTHS LATER…

   "I am hereby announcing to the public, that the construction of the Death Star is underway right here in the Coruscant system," proclaimed Chancellor Palpatine. The Senate was in an uproar. This whole "Death Star" project had been seen as controversial from the moment it was proposed, almost immediately following the destruction of Geonosis.

      A little while later, after Palpatine left the Senate chamber, leaving the Senators to endlessly debate his speech over their lunchbreaks, he sat down in his office and breathed in heavily. These Yuuzhan Vong were proving to be a challenge even for him. He had secretly contacted their Warmaster once, as Darth Sidious, and asked him to consider an alliance with the Sith. Czulkang Lah had refused.

     By now, the Vong had conquered Wild Space, Alzoc III and several other planets in the Geonosis region. They'd also pushed into Hutt Space and destroyed Gamorr along the way. They were currently engaged with Republic forces over Mon Calamari, but from recent reports, Palpatine knew the Republic troops were not faring well.

     Suddenly, Mas Amedda, one of Palpatine's aides, rushed in, breaking the silence. "Chancellor, the Yuuzhan Vong are attacking Tatooine! A group of clones and Jedi has been deployed to the planet." Palpatine quickly sat up in his high-backed chair and hurriedly asked, "Is Anakin Skywalker one of the Jedi there?" Mas Amedda looked at him with a bewildered expression on his face before consulting his datapad and replying, "Yes…Yes he is."

   Palpatine relaxed in his chair. "You may leave," he said lazily. Mas Amedda stared at him one more moment before reluctantly turning around and leaving the Supreme Chancellor to his meditations once more.

***

       "Anakin, no!!!" "Let me go, Master!!!" yelled Anakin, struggling to break out of Obi-Wan's arms and rush towards the flaming ruins of Mos Espa. "All my friends were there!" he yelled. "Anakin, you know as well as I do that it's too late. They may have escaped, though," replied Obi-Wan.

       Anakin paid his master no heed and broke free and rushed into the blaze. He stumbled around through the smoke-filled streets, tripping over corpses that were burned beyond all recognition. He finally saw someone he recognized, lying prone in front of the burning remains of his workshop. Anakin rushed up to Watto and kneeled down and shook him. Anakin had never really liked the Toydarian, but deep down, he didn't hate his former master.

    "Watto, Watto, are you awake?" he asked. The Toydarian slowly opened his eyelids and muttered, "Ani…little Ani…" then shut his eyes again. Anakin checked Watto's pulse and moaned. Watto was gone.

        He looked around some more before emerging from the ruins, walking slowly back to Obi-Wan. Anakin's face was blackened and his robes were torn by this time. Obi-Wan put a comforting hand on his Padawan's shoulder and said, "Anakin, I'm sorry."

     Anakin, staring at the ground, muttered, "Don't worry, Master. It's not your fault that my hometown is in flames, that Watto is dead and that most of my old friends are probably dead too." Then he moaned and continued, "I just think I should've been here to protect them all. I mean I wasn't here and now…now the slave quarters where my mom and I lived is nothing more than a crater, the Arena where I won my freedom in that Podrace looks like a mountain of ash…"

    Obi-Wan's comlink beeped and he picked it up, listened for a moment, and told Anakin, "Come. The order's been given to evacuate. Let's get back to our starfighters." Anakin silently nodded and he and Obi-Wan slowly walked back to their Jedi Starfighters, to start the painful journey back to Coruscant.

***

       After much deliberation, Czulkang Lah had decided which two planets he would target next. He motioned for his friend, the priestess Falung and her pet, a feathery creature known as Vergere. Falung bowed and said, "How may I be of service, Warmaster?" Czulkang Lah replied, "Tell your fellow priests to prepare to make the appropriate sacrifices, for I am about to strike two worlds that will impact the Republic quite psychologically." Falung bowed and left, motioning Vergere to follow her.

   Czulkang Lah leaned back in his cognition thrown and stroked a villip, an organic communications device that was psychicly linked to another of it's kind, allowing communication. The villip changed into the form of the head of one of Czulkang Lah's commanders. The Warmaster said, "Prepare to attack Kamino and Naboo."