"Blast him."
With those two words, with that two-fingered gesture from his gloved, orange-marked left hand, it began.
Behind the armored man, the turret gun of the six-legged walking war machine swiveled and aimed up at the cliff face, where high above, a green-skinned, draconic reptile was scrabbling up the almost-sheer face. The lizard wasn't their target; no, it was the small splotch of browns riding on its back.
With a whang! that had become all too familiar over the last three years, the recoil of the turret rocked the armored vehicle to the side as a blue pulse of energy shot out, arcing through the air before crashing into the rocks near the scrabbling creature. A huge cloud of dust shot up from the impact sight, and then, from the bottom of the debris cloud, Clone Commander Cody watched his closest friend fall.
As Jedi general Obi-Wan Kenobi fell separately from the lizard, its shrieking cries took on an almost-melodic tone, seemingly setting the tune of a mournful song. A song of betrayal and death.
---
Light-years across the galaxy. The crystalline planet of Mygeeto.
Blasterfire criss-crossed over the span of a damaged bridge, creating a deadly maze of laser energy against which both sides were advancing. A spherical missile turret mounted on spindly legs fired a proton projectile over the heads of the advancing troopers, detonating beneath a boxy armored vehicle and pitching the vehicle over the side of the bridge, with troopers streaming from its access ports.
A blue shaft of energy twisted and spun in the midst of the crossfire, deflecting one, two, three red bolts of energy back where they had come from, creating an opening for a Galactic Marine sniper to move behind a stack of debris and begin lining up shots.
Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi stepped out from behind the wreck of a destroyed Unstable-Terrain Armored Transport, his lightsaber reflecting the blaster bolt of a super battle droid back into its own face. He turned back to face the men he led, braving the hailstorm of the Separatists' fire zone to give his troopers inspiration.
"Come on!" he shouted above the din, then raised his lightsaber over his head and charged.
The Marines did not follow.
Ki-Adi-Mundi halted as he heard their thick boots scratching up debris on the surface of the bridge. Lowering his lightsaber, the general turned back, watching as nine of the deadliest infantry troopers in the galaxy leveled their blaster rifles on him, the weapons clicking and whirring as they were recalibrated for rapid, less-powerful fire at close range.
In an infinite moment as time stood still, he met eyes with the black T-visor of Commander Bacara, but it was as if the commander had never known him.
Then he was momentarily blinded as the Marines opened fire. Out of instinct, his lightsaber reflected the first blast, sending the deadly energy bolt lancing into the gut armor of a Marine on his far right. Fire and pain exploded in his chest as two, then three bolts hit him. Another blaster bolt bounced off his lightsaber, shooting to the left of Commander Bacara, and the Marine that had been in its path deftly sidestepped the incoming fire.
The world spun around him as more hot fire burned through his body. The pain of his back and head hitting the dusty bridge was a distant, dull pain, vastly overwhelmed by the fire ripping through him that, even now, was beginning to fade out as things became black.
Commander Bacara's T-visored helmet wavered in his field of vision, and the last thing he saw was a blue glow beginning to manifest in the barrel of the clone's blaster rifle.
---
Deep in the infinities of the Force, two pairs of haunted eyes watched the clone commander put down Ki-Adi-Mundi. They watched as the Jedi Master's essence became another facet of the Force. Despite the fact that it was the nature of all things, a hard knife of pain shot through their hearts at what they witnessed.
The taller, male figure slipped an arm around his companion's waist even as she huddled close to him, pain evident in her voice as she said, "We are dying, Revan. The Jedi are dying."
---
Felucia, in the Outer Rim.
An All-Terrain Open Transport marched through the strange fungal jungles, flanked front and back by the heavily-armed Tactical Enforcers. In the unprotected back of the AT-OT, clone troopers kept their heads down and their eyes to the skies, watching for any Separatist ambush.
A dozen meters away, Jedi Knight Aayla Secura turned a glance to her left as one of Commander Bly's lieutenants trotted to catch up with the group. The trooper looked left and right as he rejoined the group, surveying for droids, and then nodded at Bly. Bly, the only clone in the group to have the rangefinder macrobinoculars mounted to his helmet, returned the nod.
Aayla paused the group at the overlook of a small valley, staring around suspiciously, noting that the incessant chirping and tweeting of the native life forms had died down.
"It's quiet," she said. "Bly, do you think it's droids?"
"No," the commander replied, calmly raising his blaster rifle and shooting her in the back.
As she pitched forward, her face betraying her shock, the other clones stepped forward, riddling her back with blasterfire. The tardy clone circled her body warily, pouring more bolts into her than his fellows.
In another part of Felucia, Jedi Knight Barris Offee ducked beneath the swinging arm of a super battle droid, her lightsaber arcing around to sever the droid's right leg from its body. As the metallic construct hopped away comically, she heard an AT-TE lumber up behind her, its forward quad guns whirring as they swiveled into firing position.
Turning her attention to the remaining super battle droid, Barris' world suddenly vanished in a fireball as the AT-TE's forward gunner fired all four turret-mounted turbolasers, directly on her position.
---
Pain tore through the pair as they watched their brothers and sisters, mercilessly cut down by the troops they led. The woman sank to her knees, a choked sob escaping her, as she watched the same events repeat themselves again and again, across the galaxy.
"Bastila…" Revan breathed, himself on the verge of tears, as he held her tightly.
---
Kashyyyk, homeworld of the Wookies, Mid-Rim.
Dozens of Corporate Alliance snail tanks rolled out of the inlet's waters, firing laser blasts and concussion grenades indiscriminately into the massed Republic and Wookie lines. Infantry droids jumped from the sides of the vehicles, advancing with mechanical precision up the beach, heedless of the losses they took.
In the skies above, sending rockets and laser fire streaking through the hazy early morning air, dozens more MAF gunships swooped and spiraled over the beach. They traded fire with turrets in the command centers attached to the sides of the massive wroshyr trees, and with Wookie flying gunships that were vaguely reminiscent of oversized dragonflies.
In one of those command centers, Jedi Master Luminara Unduli stared at the battle unfolding before her, listening to reports from eight clone advisors and giving orders to be relayed to the beachfront units.
Suddenly, a terrible pain tore into her heart and she knew, without doubt, that her former Padawan Barris was dead. She stumbled back, and one of the camouflage-armored clones caught her arm, holding her upright.
It took her a moment to realize that his other hand was holding a snub-nosed blaster pistol, aimed at her chest. She looked from his weapon, to the seven other clones surrounding her. All were armed, all their weapons aimed. But not one of them were pointed at the treasonous clone who held her by the arm, his grip tightening to ensure that she could not draw her lightsaber.
They were all aimed at her.
Further back in the station, none of the clone technicians even looked in the direction of the rapid succession of pistol blasts that bathed the command center in blue light.
On the beach, Quinlan Vos stood atop his Juggernaut turbo tank, the lead unit of over a dozen of the Republic's largest ground-based weapons systems. Arms crossed over his barrel chest, he watched the flashes and explosions of the battle unfolding before him, waiting for the appropriate time to give his Juggernauts the order to charge.
The three turbo tanks on the flanks and rear of his vehicle all shifted the aim vectors of every weapon they could, orienting the massive, starship-cracking weapons on his tank, heedless of the clone officers still within it. As one, the three other tanks opened fire, the massive concussion of the single tank exploding drowning out all the other sounds on the battlefield, including the flash of blaster pistols in one of the lower command centers, and the strobe of green light in the highest command center.
As the fire engulfed him, Quinlan's last thoughts were not of surprise or betrayal. They were of Khaleen, hiding somewhere on the perimeter of the galaxy, and their child that he would never get to hold.
---
Hot tears stung Revan's eyes as Quinlan's last thoughts reached him through the Force. Grief so powerful that he almost couldn't maintain his essence within the Force wracked him. He could feel every death, every clone blaster bolt that found a Jedi host. He could feel them all as if they were all occurring to him.
He held Bastila even closer, fearing for a moment that the treachery of the clones could even reach them, safe within the Force for over four thousand years.
---
The skies of Cato Neimoidia, further toward the core on the Mid-Rim.
Jedi Master Plo Koon led a recon flight of ARC-170 starfighters over the recently-pacified planet, the air whistling over the foil of his Delta-7 Aethersprite Jedi starfighter. He did not limit his flying in any way; knowing that the clone pilots behind him were among the best, capable of keeping up with him.
Behind him, in the cockpit of the lead ARC-170, a holographic figure appeared over the communications panel of Clone Commander Jag, pilot of the split-foiled starfighter.
"Execute Order 66."
Automatically, instinctively, the words "It will be done, my Lord," issued from his mouth, just before the hologram winked out. Just as instinctively, his finger tightened on the firing stud of the forward laser cannons.
Green fire shot out from all three clone fighters, racing toward the Jedi starfighter ahead of them. Demonstrating his piloting skill, Plo Koon managed to avoid the first bursts. But with the other two fighters hemming him in above and below, the Jedi only had so far to run.
Finally, a bolt connected with the starfighter's port engine, instantly causing it to flame out into a flat spin. The rapidly-spinning starfighter sheered through a structure on the side of the canyon, shredding its port and rear surfaces, and then it arced down into a building, where the fuel and weapons cylinders detonated, filling the cockpit with an all-consuming fire as the clone fighters roared past, continuing on their recon flight as if nothing had happened.
---
Saleucami, barren desert world in the Outer Rim.
Fighting over the planet had ended with the Republic as the victor, as scattered corpses of clone troopers and destroyed vehicles testified.
The hum of speeder bikes broke the silence as three vehicles cruised over the treacherous terrain. In the lead was a light, military-reconnaissance model Aratech 74-Z speeder bike, painted in the crimson and white colors of the Republic. Its rider, Jedi Knight Stass Allie.
Behind her, riding on the heavier-armored, heavily-armed BARC speeders best suited for running engagements, Clone Commander Neyo lifted his right hand from the acceleration control of his bike, pressing it to the side of his helmet. After a moment, he turned his helmeted head to another trooper of the 92nd Reconnaissance Corps and nodded. The two clones immediately hit their braking thrusters.
Ahead of them, Allie continued onward, unconcerned by the sudden change in their formation, assuming that they had spotted something and were moving to shield her from it. It wasn't until the first paired red blasts started shooting past her sides did she realize how wrong she was.
A dozen meters ahead, two native mammals looked up as a bright light flashed, then a flaming speeder bike slammed into a rock formation, killing its rider instantly. The mammals scattered as the bike's directional vanes, likewise in flames, spun away to crash into the pool of water they had been investigating.
The two BARC speeders roared past, paying no heed to the rapidly-retreating scene of carnage.
---
Coruscant. The very heart of the Republic, center of the Core Worlds.
In the dimly-lit Jedi Temple, blasters screamed and lightsabers hummed. On an upper balcony, a 501st Legion trooper leapt back, allowing a Padawan's lightsaber to cut through the air where he had been standing a moment ago. Taking advantage of the young human's distraction, another trooper behind him shot him in the small of the back, permanently paralyzing his lower body. The other troopers leveled their rifles as, down below, green and blue lightsabers fell by countless numbers, their wielders overwhelmed by the skill and numbers of the attacking troopers.
The doors of the Jedi Council chamber hissed open silently. Anakin Skywalker stopped just inside the room, his face shrouded by his hood, lightsaber in his left hand. As he stood there, a young face peeked out from behind Master Yoda's council seat, followed by another, until there were at least a dozen children standing before him.
One of them, a boy of about five or six, stepped out from behind a council chair, holding his training lightsaber fearfully. "Master Skywalker, there are too many of them," the boy woefully reported. "What are we going to do?"
As Anakin stared down at the child, grief and guilt tore at his soul. For several long moments, he did not answer.
Then the hissing blade of his lightsaber answered the boy's question.
---
Across the galaxy, Jedi fell by the hundreds, betrayed and summarily murdered by the clone troopers they had commanded. The shock and pain of their deaths sent shockwaves through the Force, like a raging sea whipped up by the tempestuous winds of a Nautolan hurricane.
On Coruscant, the Jedi Temple burned.
And within the Force two Jedi Knights, their essences sustained for over four thousand years, cried as the Jedi Order died.