Hey, everybody. Back with chapter 3.
Let's get to it.
Chapter 3- Gathering Clouds
At the Senate building, clones of the Coruscant Guard are gathering to help secure the building. Having received Order 66 from Palpatine, they are securing the building to ensure no Jedi can access the building, while most of the rest of the Guard is preparing for an assault on the Jedi Temple.
Among the speeders surrounding the building, one speeder moves in and sets down at one of the many landing pads. As it shuts down, Bail Organa climbs out of the speeder and immediately makes his way towards the doors into the building.
Bail is not wearing his more formal wear and robes. He's instead wearing his outfit more adapted for heavy physical activity, and he's carrying a pair of blasters concealed within his beltline. Bail is fully prepared to fight his way in or out of the Chancellor's Office in order to get this info to Jedi.
Bail opens the door and heads into the building. Immediately, Bail makes his way over to the lifts. Thankfully, the lifts are unguarded. Bail climbs into one of the lifts, presses the button, and breathes deeply as the door closes.
The ride up to the Chancellor's floor is quick. When the door opens, Bail quickly makes his way out of the lift and heads down the hall, headed for the Chancellor's Office.
As Bail rounds the corner leading right to the door to the Chancellor's Office, his optimism falls a bit. A pair of clone shock troopers from the Coruscant Guard are standing guard outside the office. Bail realizes that as part of the mobilization of the Guard, the troopers must have been stationed outside the office, either on direct orders from Palpatine or as part of orders from Commander Fox, probably for exactly this scenario, to prevent anyone from accessing the office and getting information that could implicate Palpatine.
Bail readies himself, knowing he may have to fight the clones in order to get into the office, but knowing it must be done. He has to succeed.
Bail approaches the office calmly. As he gets close, the two troopers step forward and a bit closer together to block his way. "You're not permitted here, sir. You must leave," one of the clones says, hefting his blaster a bit.
Bail, remaining calm, says, "I was asked by the Chancellor to retrieve something for him from his office."
"The Chancellor is not here at the moment, and we have orders not to allow anyone in here. We will remove you by force if necessary, sir," one of the clones says, raising his blaster and pointing it warningly at Bail.
Bail is quiet and still for a moment, then acts. Bail quickly lashes out with one arm and grabs the blaster. Bail yanks it towards him, pulling the trooper with it and clotheslining him. Bail then draws one of his blasters from his belt and fires at the second trooper, hitting him twice and killing him. Bail then turns his blaster to the first trooper as the trooper tries to stand up and fires, hitting him in the face. It pains Bail to have to do this, but he knows he can't fail to get his hands on any intel from the office, and that he can't allow the clones to let anyone else know that Bail is working against them.
Bail drags the clones' bodies out of sight, then walks back over to the door. Fiddling with the controls, Bail quickly gets the door into the office open.
As Bail enters, he is shocked a bit at the remnants of the duel that took place in the office not long ago. Wind is whipping through the office through the shattered window. As Bail makes his way towards the room where the duel began, he feels sorrow fill his heart as he sees the bodies of the three Jedi Masters that Palpatine had killed in the duel.
Bail makes his way to the console in the center of the room, sitting down in the seat. Bail knows this console probably has access into any security system here in the office. Now, he just hopes that he can get into the system.
Bail quickly gets to work, his fingers dancing across the keys as he tries to hack into thye security system. It's quickly apparent to him that Palpatine must have tried to prepare for this, as there are a number of safeguards on the systems this console has access to. However, Bail is also guessing that since Palpatine didn't have time to fully secure the systems when Mace and the others arrived, the strongest safeguards are not in his way.
Slowly, Bail begins to make progress, getting through some of the safeguards in place around the security system archives. Finally, after what seems like an eternity to Bail, he manages to break through the last firewalls protecting the archives.
"Yes," Bail mutters to himself as he realizes he's broken through the safeguards. He quickly begins going through the various records popping up on the screen. The records are a mix of audio and video recordings recorded by the security systems in the office. Bail sifts quickly through the records, and finally, with a surge of relief, he finds the records from today. He quickly isolates a series of audio and video recordings, showing everything that had happened in the office. Not just Mace's attempt to arrest Palpatine and the subsequent duel, but also earlier in the day when Palpatine revealed himself to Anakin. Bail is quickly able to download all of the recordings onto a data chip he brought, and, just to be safe, downloads the recordings again onto four more data chips, just to make sure he has enough copies in case something happens to one of them.
Once he's finished downloading everything, Bail returns everything to the way it was before he entered the office, then hurries out of the office, heading back to the lifts, knowing he has to hurry. Time is of the essence.
(Coruscant Orbit)
In orbit above Coruscant, several thousands of ships of the Coruscant Home Defense Fleet are maintaining their positions over the capital world. After the devastation in the Battle of Coruscant a short time ago, the Home Defense Fleet is much smaller than normal. However, with the losses the Confederacy had sustained, the Republic commanders don't feel so worried about having such a small fleet protecting the capitol.
Suddenly, a Venator class Star Destroyer drops out of hyperspace. This ship, the Tribunal, had just returned from the planet Mandalore. The rest of the Home Defense Fleet sees just a normal arrival of a ship into Coruscant's orbit. But they don't know that the crew of this ship has a very different mindset and goal.
On the bridge, Ahsoka, Rex, and Jesse look down at the planet below. Ahsoka's plan had worked. The entire crew of the ship had had their inhibitor chips removed thanks to Ahsoka's ruse. A handful of shock troopers from the Coruscant Guard that were aboard had not chosen to side with Ahsoka and the rest of the clones, and were locked up in the brig. The entire rest of the crew was now free of the chips' influence and ready to stand by Ahsoka and the Jedi.
"Coruscant," Ahsoka mutters. She then looks at the two clones beside her. "Rex, try and make contact with the Jedi Temple. Jesse, get the boys ready to go," she orders.
"Copy that, Commander," Jesse says with a nod before he hurries off of the bridge. Rex moves over to the holoprojector on the bridge to start trying to contact the Jedi Temple, while Ahsoka continues to look down at the planet below, hoping that they've arrived in time.
(Jedi Temple)
"Are you certain?" Anakin asks.
In front of him, Bail Organa is being projected by the holoprojector. Bail had called them mere moments ago with good news.
"Yes, I just reached my speeder and left the Senate building. I was able to obtain perfect audio and video recordings of everything that transpired implicating the Chancellor. I'm heading back to my apartment now. Senators Amidala and Mothma have gathered several of our closest allies in the Senate there, and we'll get to work on preparing our case to the Senate. I think we will want to have you, Skywalker, with us to testify to the Senate when the time comes," Bail says in response to Anakin's question.
"Good. That's fantastic news, Senator Organa. Keep us updated," Mace says.
Right then, Shaak Ti speaks up and says, "Master Windu, one of our destroyers is attempted to contact us from orbit. I believe it is the Tribunal."
"Senator, we must go," Anakin says.
"Of course. I will contact you soon," Bail responds before terminating the transmission.
Shaak Ti moves to connect them to the Tribunal. In a matter of moments, Rex appears on the holoprojector.
"Rex. Am I glad to see you," Anakin says with relief.
"Likewise, general," Rex says with a smile. He glances around at the other Masters present, then continues, "Our ship came out of hyperspace just a few minutes ago. We are currently in a very high orbit above Coruscant."
"Excellent, Rex," Anakin responds, a smile on his face.
Right then, Cin Drallig rushes into the chamber. "Masters! A scout has reported a massive force of clones from both the 501st Legion and the Coruscant Guard is approaching the Temple in battle formation. They fired at our scout as he escaped back to the Temple."
Anakin, Mace, and Shaak Ti all look at each other, then Anakin looks back at Rex, who had heard the whole thing. "Rex, I know you heard that. Is Ahsoka there?"
Ahsoka appears on the transmission only a second later. "I'm here, Master. And like Rex, I just heard that."
"Good. We need you guys down here. I'm not sure we're fully prepared for an assault of this magnitude. We need reinforcements," Anakin orders.
"Of course, Master," Ahsoka says.
"We're not going to be able to get the troops down to the Temple in time, though, General. You're going to have hold out for a while until we can get down there," Rex says in concern.
"Just get the division down here as quick as you can. We'll hold out until you can get here. Just be ready to fight," Anakin says seriously.
"We're always ready to fight, General," Rex says with a bit of a smile.
"We'll let you go, Ahsoka. Just be sure to get here as fast as you can," Anakin says.
"We won't let you down, Master," Ahsoka says before the transmission cuts out.
Anakin turns to Mace. "Alright, Master Windu. What now?"
Mace is very serious as he responds, "We prepare for battle."
And, I'll end the chapter there.
So, next chapter will be the battle for the Jedi Temple. You'll have to wait a few days to find out how that goes. Until then, please leave a review, and stay tuned!