16
Despite a warning screech from R4, Anakin spun his starfighter into a tight triple-loop. He jerked the controls and made the ship come out of the spin harshly. His targets sensors locked onto the other fighter ahead of him and without thinking he fired all his laser cannons at it. The craft exploded in a burst of flame.
With deadly precision, Anakin turned sharply to the right and another fighter came into his sights. Instinctively he fired at it.
It too exploded into oblivion.
Anakin no longer looked at his display consol for the distinction of red blips or blue ones. The Force guided him to the enemies. And there were only enemies out there before him.
His forehead knotted into a scowl of concentration. The only thing driving him forward was his anger. Everyone out here was an enemy to the Republic. They all had to pay before they could commit more atrocious crimes.
Slavery would not be tolerated.
If the Jedi were not strong enough to prevent it from happening, then he would do it himself. He no longer needed the Jedi.
The Force flowed through Anakin, boosting his every sense in a way he had never known. His control and power were unmatched. His anger gave him the focus to make impossible attacks against the enemy without getting himself killed. He did not even have to try to figure out what the enemy would do when he came up behind them.
Anakin flew up behind another ship, this time deciding to toy with the pilot some. He flew beside the craft, shooting ahead and then dropping behind it. He could feel the confusion of the pilot. Locking onto that confusion to boost his power, Anakin suddenly killed the engines to his fighter and fell in behind the enemy. With deadly accuracy he aimed at the fighter in front of him, and within seconds it was no more. One last blast of surprise and betrayal from the pilot hit Anakin through the Force. He paid it no mind.
They were all enemies.
Even the Jedi.
Flying on, he searched for his next victim. The Force guided him to them with ease. To Anakin, it was clear cut. Anyone who would not fight for the security of Kashyyyk was an enemy. That meant if Republic forces would not defend it, then they were on the side of the Separatists. The power of the Force made that perfectly clear.
Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Anakin knew that if the Masters ever found out what he did out here, he would be banished from the Order. That was why he had to make his kills so swiftly, so they would not find out. Granted, he had only killed a couple Jedi; the Republic was so outnumbered that most anything he shot at was likely to be a clone.
For now, though, he focused on taking out the enemy. That meant another Jedi had to be dispatched. The other pilot tried to hail Anakin on his comlink, but Anakin ignored it.
Then the Jedi tried to reach him through the Force. Anakin could feel his shock as the other sensed the darkness radiating from him.
This Jedi knew his secret.
Since the other Jedi had been willing to fight with Anakin against the clones, which was obvious since he tried to contact Anakin, he might have spared him. But when the pilot found out the truth behind what drove him, Anakin knew that his survival depended on this Jedi not living to tell the truth to the Masters.
In a daring move, Anakin pulled his starfighter up above the other Jedi. Just at that moment, one of the clones came up behind both of them, firing at them. Anakin reached out through the Force and found the clone's weakness. No longer able to control himself, the clone fired his proton torpedoes – straight at the Jedi below Anakin. He took control of the torpedoes with the Force and drove them straight at the Jedi pilot. They hurtled towards the fighter faster than they could have gone under their own power.
"Jedi Pilot, this is Green Two, why haven't you responded? Are your communications systems out?"
The torpedoes were just about to hit the fighter.
"Help me! I have torpedoes coming for me –"
The Jedi let out a strangled scream as his craft blew apart.
That scream hit Anakin so loud he thought his eardrums would burst. It came from his own lungs; he could feel the sound stop as the Jedi ceased to exist. But it was more than that, the death of the Jedi echoed in the Force with such a sense of betrayal that it rocked Anakin.
The Force ripped through him, and then just as soon as it came, the Force dropped away from Anakin for the second time that battle. His eyes suddenly saw the world as it truly was, not the red soaked vision of anger. He stared out of his cockpit. The remains of the fighter belonging to his fellow Jedi floated before his eyes.
The Jedi he killed.
"Oh, what in the blazes have I done?" Anakin wailed; anguish overcoming him as he realized what he did. His entire body shook uncontrollably. "What have I done? What have I done?"
The words echoed hollowly in his cockpit.
I've killed a Jedi. A Jedi. One of my family. I killed one of my family. The thought raced through Anakin's head, only to have him realize that this was not the only Jedi he slain here.
"Republic craft, retreat immediately. Repeat: all Republic craft, retreat immediately." Mace's voice came over the comsystem.
R4 beeped a question at Anakin.
"I….I don't know…do whatever he says…you take it from here, R4…" Anakin stuttered.
He was unable to make a decision right now. In fact, retreating sounded good to him. He knew he had to get away from this place. Immediately.
The Jedi craft turned around under R4's control. Anakin powered down all the communications systems on board, he did not want to talk to any Jedi. He did not know what he would say, what he could say. There was no excuse for his actions and he knew it.
As the small fighter flew back to the assault ship, Anakin broke down. Tears started streaming from his eyes as he thought about all the people he killed in cold blood – the scream of that last Jedi echoing in his mind. Something was very wrong with him, if he could loose control like that.
The Force had betrayed him.
The smile on General Hill's face grew. The holodisplay showed the Republic forces scrambling to fend off the new attack from the Trandoshans. Turning to his left, he gazed out the transparisteel.
Down below he could see the shipyards busy at work, repairing damaged Star Destroyers. In the distance, a new one was under the beginning stages of construction.
"Captain."
"Yes sir?"
"The time has come. Bring our fleet out from under the cloaking devices."
"Yes, sir."
Hill wished he could have been down on the surface of the planet. What he would have given to see the looks on the faces of the people as they realized most of the Separatist fleet was orbiting their home.
"Captain, begin the attack."
The captain's response was quite enthusiastic – even Hill could not help but feel excited. They all were ready to see the Republic fall under this final blow. After all, no navy could sustain itself if it main production yards were destroyed. Ultimately, Hill hoped to demolish the shipyards beyond repair, but he would be satisfied with crippling the Republic feet just enough to ensure a Separatist victory.
Hill watched as the attack began; the system's defenses were completely unorganized. The Republic had been caught completely off guard. Patiently he made himself wait to give his final order to the crew out at Kashyyyk. He wanted to give the Republic enough time to realize they were under attack elsewhere.
Satisfied that the proper moment had come, Hill hailed the Major in charge of Kashyyyk assault.
"Major Peran, activate the gravity well generators."
"Understood, sir," the Major answered.
"Most starfighters have docked," Tarkin turned to the Jedi. "Shall we depart?"
"Yes, immediately," Mace told him.
Tarkin turned back to his crew, and belayed the order to the pilot. Deep within the ship, Obi-Wan could feel the hyperdrives begin to power up. The pilot increased the power to the drives, any second now they would make the jump to hyperspace.
And nothing happened.
"Sir!" the pilot called out, panicked. "We can't make the jump!"
"What?"
"There's something preventing us from jumping into hyperspace!"
Tarkin looked around the bridge, searching for some answer. He glanced at the Jedi, who merely shrugged their shoulders at him.
"Wait…" Obi-Wan muttered, thinking back to what Organa told him about the seemingly fake ships. "Commander Tarkin, what's the reading of the gravity levels in the local area?"
Silence ensued as one of the crew took the reading. "Sir, according to the computer, there are more planets out there."
"That can't be possible." Tarkin stepped over to the man's computer station, wanting to see the readouts for himself. The blood drained from his face.
"Those gravity wells weren't merely to fool us into thinking they were Separatist ships," Obi-Wan cut in. "They figured out how to make a gravity well strong enough to keep us from jumping to hyperspace."
"That's impossble."
Obi-Wan shrugged. "It doesn't seem that way, unless you have a better explanation of our situation."
Tarkin's eyes narrowed. "Since you seem to know so much about this, Master Kenobi, perhaps you have a solution to get us out."
"Unfortunately, I don't. We're stuck."
For a second Tarkin glared at Obi-Wan then let out a heavy sigh and turned back to his crew.
"Sir! We have a transmission coming in from Kuat!"
Tarkin mumbled something akin to a curse. "What is it?"
"They're under attack and requesting immediate backup!"
"What?"
Everyone on the bridge stared at the young man stationed at the communications terminal.
"So that was the full deception," Mace breathed. "And now we're trapped."
Mace never spoke so plainly in his life. Any other words could not have fully explained the situation.
The rest of the battle was simple: it was merely cleanup work for the Separatists. General Hill delivered the victory he promised to Lord Sidious. The Wookiees faced a full-scale invasion and with it, slavery. The shipyards at Kuat were ruined – all ships under construction were destroyed.
Coruscant dispatched what it could of the rest of the Republic fleet to defend Kuat, but they arrived too late to be of any aide. At Kashyyyk, the Jedi could only watch as troop transport after troop transport flew to the surface of the planet.
Finally, after a miserable time watching the invasion continue the Jedi pulled out of the Kashyyyk system. On Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine managed to arrange a truce with the Separatist leaders – they wanted to keep their prize of two assault cruisers packed with Jedi.
Despite the fact that the Jedi failed, Palaptine said, he would not abandon them the way they abandoned the Republic.
These words infuriated the Jedi. They infuriated the people of the Republic.
Both were now set against each other.