Peace is a Lie

A happy boy plays with his siblings as smiling parents watch them.

Armed scary creatures with animal faces attack them, kill their parents in front of their children, causing them to cry, being in the agony of primal fear.

There is only Passion

A wave of Force bursts out of the child, which throws everyone around for several meters, bringing severe injuries, killing some.

Through passion I gain Strength

The whips fall out of the hands of the Zygerrians as they rise several meters into the air, trying to brush away the invisible grip on their throats that prevents them from breathing. The child squeezes his fingers, and the bodies of his tormentors fall to the ground.

Through strength I gain Power

The village of Zygerrians is strewn with lifeless bodies, houses are burning, the surviving women and children are desperately trying to escape, but a young guy blocks their way. His eyes are burning with hatred.

Through power I gain Victory

The dismembered overseer of the Zygerian village lies in an agony of pain and torment when the guy revels in his suffering. Everyone in the village is dead, houses are burning down, blood is pouring in streams.

Through victory, my chains are broken

The dark silhouette leaves behind the destroyed, burning villages of Tusken raiders, Zygerrian, Correlian slavers, where there is not a single living soul.

The Force shall free me

The silhouette feels the power, the power gained through all the murders committed by him. Multi-ton sculptures, works of art made of stone rise several meters into the air, hovering next to the person commanding them.

The beeping of the comlink disrupted the man's meditation, he put the sculptures in their places and accepted the incoming call.

"Arius," Count Dooku said with a slight smile, "I sense a strong anger in you. It's nice to see that you're not wasting your time."

"My Lord," the young, in his opinion, Sith nodded respectfully. "I was meditating. How can I serve you?"

"You will go to the planet Ord Radama, you will find Dr. Roidd there, who will be at our secret facility. You will protect her. Perhaps you will encounter Republican forces, deal with them, show what you are worth, in that case, bring Dr. Roidd to me alive."

"As you wish, my Lord. But what about my..."

"I remember," Dooku interrupted him, "I'm working on it, kid. We are all working."

The streets of New Raido were practically empty as the young Sith headed towards the castle. Despite the fact that this planet has always had a gloomy atmosphere bordering on darkness, which Arius enjoyed, at the moment it was daytime - the time for trading. However, the locals hardly met on his way, except for drunks and beggars.

Arius noted for himself the majestic architecture of the city. Ancient, stone houses, elaborate state buildings, statues depicting, perhaps, previous rulers - all this struck the young Sith.

An ancient castle standing on a hill, gray stone walls, massive columns with chiseled patterns, bars on narrow windows all attracted Arius. The young Sith liked this kind of castles; mysterious, dangerous, romantic, you never know what awaits you inside. They contained many inconvenient secrets, the knowledge of which brought pleasure from exclusivity and their own uniqueness.

"Doctor Roidd?" asked Arius, pulling off his black hood, he combed his black wavy hair.

"And you must be my protector, sent by Count Dooku," Ruana exclaimed with a cheerful smile, throwing up her hands.

"In the flesh," the young Sith replied dryly, "Call me Arius."

"In that case, you can call me Ruana," she smiled briefly.

"I prefer formality," he snorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"As you wish," the Doctor shrugged. "Well, follow me, I'll show you my workplace," she waved a mechanical hand in the direction of the spiral staircase, which probably led to the basement.

"I am here to protect you, not to help you," Arius said, following the woman.

"And how are you going to protect me?" Ruana grinned. "It would be safer for me to be in your company than with these stupid B1."

The young Sith rolled his eyes and remained silent on this. "It is a little empty in the city."

"Exactly!" the Doctor exclaimed. "All because of their ruler, who oppresses the people and suppresses their will with brute force. An unpleasant person, I didn't like him right away," she frowned.

"With the help of brute force, you can achieve respect and obedience."

"Absolutely. But talking in a rude tone with the person who designed the prosthesis for you is very rude!" pouted Ruana. "By the way, if you ever need a prosthesis, feel free to contact me. Look at me, I have half of my body made of metal and everything is fine."

"No thanks," Arius muttered.

"Well, this is where I work," the Doctor threw up her hands, describing the space around them. Bacta tanks containing bodies, durasteel parts, knives and much more. "You can sit here when I'm working. Don't worry, the droids are closely monitoring the situation around the castle. They informed me of your arrival when you landed."

"Are you always this talkative?" Arius asked in a low voice.

"Only when I'm nervous," Ruana intoned.

"They don't have such a big army there," Anakin said thoughtfully, studying the separatist fleet guarding Ord Radama. "I propose to attack from three sides, so we will deprive them of escape routes. None of the separatists will be able to leave the planet."

"I agree with Anakin," Obi Wan said. "Most likely, one of the important people of the CIS is in the laboratory that we managed to find out about."

Luminara cleared her throat. "If Skywalker hadn't made a mistake, we would have known more. And now we are going into the unknown."

"Master Luminara, let me remind you that I was busy with an important threat when my soldiers were retreating," Anakin replied, barely restraining his anger.

"You made the wrong decision, Skywalker," Luminara retorted, "Your troopers, one of whom had all the data, this is who should have been your priority. You were supposed to leave together, not start a fight. You knew that the charges were set, time was running out, but you still stayed to fight."

The Jedi Knight frowned, feeling his anger wanting to come out. She wasn't there, she didn't see the whole situation with her own eyes and had no right to judge him. What would she do if she were in his place, feeling the pressure from the opponent? When there is no time to decide.

"Don't take my words as belittling your virtues, Skywalker. I'm just pointing out your mistake so that you don't make it next time," continued Luminara.

"All right, Master Luminara," Anakin replied almost through his teeth. "I accept your words and will try not to repeat such a mistake again."

"I think we've had enough arguments for today," Obi Wan announced. "If none of you have forgotten, we are going to liberate the planet from the power of the Separatists." The Jedi Master fixed a condescending gaze on Anakin, who noticed this and, sighing, shook his head. As the Jedi knight knew, that look meant something like, don't take her words too personally, but consider what she said.

"As Anakin said, we will attack from three sides, thereby depriving them of the opportunity to retreat. As soon as we take control of the space of the planet, we will land on the surface in small groups for exploration. As far as we know, their ruler, Fulto Kleti, sympathizes with the Separatists, which means he has an army of battle droids at his disposal."

The generals were distributed according to the plan on their fronts. As Resolute and the other Venators emerged from hyperspace, the hangar deck doors of each of them slowly opened, releasing squadrons of fighters and bombers. All the ships lined up according to the battle pattern, approaching the enemy fleet. Anakin took command of the squadron, his padawan flying alongside him on her ship.

"Siren tight formation. Check in," Anakin said with a smile, watching the vultures flying out of the hangars in front of him.

"Siren 2 standing by."

"Siren 3 standing by."

The remaining 9 star fighters in the Siren squadron announced their readiness for combat. Anakin, frowning, glared at the vultures approaching them and only waited for the right moment to engage in battle. He was determined to defeat the Separatist Fleet on this front faster than the others, still wanting to make amends for his mistake.

"Let's go, boys!" with these words, the first blaster bolts of Anakin's fighter rushed into the first enemy.

When the battle broke out, blue and red lasers pierced the darkness, the fighters exploded frighteningly silently in space. The Venators' turbolasers aimed at their targets, causing serious damage to the separatist frigates. Admiral Yularen, whose throat was already dry, was giving orders to the clones, glaring at the enemy fleet. He was standing right on the bridge, clenching his fists, his thoughts were in constant motion.

Anakin's blood flowed from his head every now and then, causing darkness to thicken in his eyes, only the Force guided him at such moments, and he completely surrendered to it will. It seems that he has already lost count of the downed vultures when time for him became one smeared line.

But, finally, it was over. He managed to keep most of the squadron, and most importantly, his padawan. The hangar of Resolute accepted them, providing a sense of security. Anakin had left the bridge and was heading to his cabin, intending to call his wife, when Rex intercepted him in the corridor.

"General, I'm sorry to address this to you, but I can't find Laxe," the clone said. "Could you fix my comlink?"

Anakin pressed his lips into a line. The Captain's request could serve the Jedi knight well. "Sure, Rex. Give it here, I'll see what's wrong. Wait here."

The clone handed the comlink to Anakin, and he disappeared behind the door of his cabin. The Jedi Knight quickly disassembled the device, identified the problem and twisted the wiring; the comlink was working again. Anakin placed his holoprojector in front of him, activating it, the room was illuminated by the soft blue light of Padmé's hologram.

"Ani," his wife said tenderly. "I'm so glad to see you."

"It's good to see you too, my Angel," Anakin smiled. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Tonight, Senator Organa and I are drawing up a plan for a charity evening in support of families affected by the war. You're doing well?"

Anakin felt something dark prick him inside, causing images of his wife and Organa to float before his eyes. No, Senator Organa was a married man and certainly a faithful husband; he gave that impression. "We are going to land on the planet to liberate it from the Separatists. And I miss you so much, Angel."

"Oh, Ani, I miss you so much too," Padmé said lovingly. "I miss you so much, not only in our bed, but also your presence at home. Our apartment seems so lifeless without you. Every day it becomes more difficult to bear the feeling of emptiness. When are you coming?"

"Soon, my love. I will try very hard to finish here as soon as possible so that I can finally return home."

Padmé's skin crawled at the last word. She liked to think that Anakin considered their apartment home because he was comfortable enough. In addition, it meant that she looked like a good hostess in his eyes, and, of course, Padmé tried to maintain this opinion constantly. She liked taking care of her husband. "I love you," she said, looking at him significantly.

"I love..."

Suddenly, the door behind Anakin hissed open, and the Jedi Knight looked around sharply, seeing Rex frozen in shock, whose eyes moved between Senator Amidala and General Skywalker. His lower jaw was trembling slightly, probably in an attempt to say at least a word. "Sorry, General!" the clone said after a few seconds. "I'll be outside the door." The captain stormed out of the cabin, closing the door.

Padmé's eyebrows rose, and her eyes widened in shock. Her heart started pounding when she heard someone enter the room and see something that couldn't be seen. Thoughts raced feverishly in her mind, terrifying Padmé that this someone might give away their secret. "Was it Rex?"

"It was," Anakin sighed, shaking his head. What the Captain saw could have serious consequences for the couple in love. "I'll persuade him not to tell anyone about us."

"That would be great," Padmé said numbly.

"I love you, Angel."

"I do love you. Be careful."

Anakin was standing in a dark room when he slapped his forehead. How could he not have foreseen this?! The Jedi Knight calmed down after a few seconds. It was just Rex, who would surely listen to his General's words.

"Rex, come in, please." Anakin was peeking out from behind the wall.

"S-sir? Are you s-sure?"

"Absolutely. Come in." The Captain's face was slightly pale, expressed deep thoughtfulness and feverish thoughts. Apparently, he himself did not want to witness what he saw and would prefer to erase those few seconds of his life from his memory.

They found themselves face to face in the cabin of Anakin, the Jedi knight. The light came only from a desk lamp, which made General Skywalker's face look mysterious. "I fixed your comlink," Anakin's tone of voice didn't radiate malice or anything else that Rex had assumed.

The captain accepted the com. He exhaled, calming down slightly, letting his thoughts flow as usual. "Thank you, sir."

"Listen, Rex, I know you just saw something you shouldn't have seen," Anakin began, "But since you witnessed my conversation with my wife, can I please ask you not to tell anyone about us?"

Wife. General Skywalker was married to Senator Amidala, contrary to the Jedi code. Rex had never known what love was between a man and a woman, but he could definitely say that he read it in the Senator's eyes. The captain loved his brothers, took care of them when it was necessary, in a sense, General Skywalker also became his brother, who needed help right now.

"Whoever Senator Amidala is to you, General, it's your own business. I perfectly understand the consequences if I talk about it, and I don't want to take responsibility for it," Rex replied. Skywalker was an outstanding General, if the 501st had lost him, probably all the soldiers of the legion would have been waiting for certain death.

"Thank you, Rex," Anakin nodded, smiling, "You're a real friend." He was a loyal, executive Captain, responsible for his words, so the Jedi knight did not doubt Rex.

"You... are wonderful together," the clone muttered, shifting from one foot to the other. He sometimes noticed special glances between the two, but it seemed to him that it was just a game of imagination.

"Thanks," Anakin smiled brightly. He didn't expect to hear a compliment about their couple to be so pleasant, he had never heard any opinion about them before; not that he was interested in it, but the Captain's words left a pleasant warmth in Anakin's chest.

"I stopped by to tell you that General Kenobi is waiting for you to land on the planet."

"Great, if there are no questions, then it's time for us to move out," said the Jedi knight.

Several reconnaissance detachments were sent to cities all over the planet while troops were being deployed and preparing for the offensive. Anakin, Obi Wan and Ahsoka landed in the city of New Raido.

"I can sense the Dark Side," Anakin said, sensing a disturbance in the Force, "It doesn't look like Dooku or Ventress," he frowned.

"I can sense it too," Obi Wan confirmed, "It's someone else. I'm not familiar with this signature. We should be careful."

"Why don't I feel anything but cold?" pouted Ahsoka, folding her arms over her chest.

"This is the Dark Side," Anakin replied, "Perhaps you don't sense much anger and hatred yet. By studying the ways of the Force, you'll come to this one day."

"Is there any way to track the exact location of the source?"

"To do this, you need to have great the Force, devote a lot of time to training," Obi Wan said. "It looks like you haven't reached the book about Dark Side radiation yet?"

"No, Master Kenobi, I need to read another one first," Ahsoka chuckled.

Arius felt a strong presence of Light, which was getting closer to them by the minute. It meant only one thing, and he didn't like it. The young Sith immediately called Dooku on the holoprojector, the Count answered a few seconds later.

"I need your help, my lord. The Jedi are coming. Probably, it is not possible to leave the planet. I ask you to attack the Republican Fleet at my coordinates so that Doctor Roidd and I can slip past them," Arius said.

"Fine. I will grant your request. Expect reinforcements in 2 hours." The small hologram of the Count disappeared, and Arius smiled slightly. The young Sith will do everything to avoid falling into the hands of the Jedi. Such a prospect seemed to him one of the most terrible.

Arius went down to the basement where Ruana was working, muttering something to herself. He went up to the upper floors to spare himself for a few minutes from her endless conversations, which tired him. "Doctor Roidd, the Jedi have landed on the planet. We're leaving right now."

"What?" she stared at the man next to her. "But I haven't finished the experiment yet, which can bring us considerable success," Ruana pouted.

"You're coming with me right now, and it's not up for discussion!" growled Arius, slamming his fist on the table so that the stands with the flasks fell, smashing on the floor.

"Hey, those were my experiments! You're lucky that I put all the data on the server," the Doctor was indignant, looking at several puddles on the floor. If the Sith was behaving like this right now, then the matter was really serious.

Massaging her temples with mechanical hands, Ruana calmed down, inhaling and exhaling. "Okay, but we have to destroy everything here. We cannot allow this data to fall into the hands of the Republic."

"I'll do the destruction, you do the rest." While Dr. Roidd was erasing all the data from the computers at one end of the room, Arius focused on destroying the bacta tanks, causing the glass of each of them to burst, and a warm, transparent liquid flooded the floor. All the flasks filled with liquid cracked, spilling onto the floor, shelves, drawers crumpled into pieces of metal.

Ruana looked with sadness at all the destruction caused by Arius. The place where she had just worked, where she had almost come to the desired result, was dying before her eyes. She muttered to herself how terrible the Republic was, not allowing her to work, how unbearable the Jedi were, who had already approached her several times.

"Done. We can go," the Doctor said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"In 2 hours, the CIS fleet will hit the Republican Defense. During this time, we are must to find a ship and slip to our reinforcements," Arius explained.

"Alas, I am not a strategist, but a doctor and a mechanic."

"That's why I'm here. Follow me, do as I tell you and the most important thing is to keep your mouth shut, your chatter distracts me."

"Okay, okay, Mister Tough Defender," Ruana rolled her eyes, "I accept the rules of your game."

As the couple approached the city, Arius felt the presence of Light getting closer and brighter. It was a strong disturbance in the Force that he had never met before and was even surprised by such power. The young Sith led the Doctor through the forest adjacent to the city, in which he felt a semblance of security.

Arius knew that secrecy was the best way out, because if he really got angry, let anger feed him, all the clones would die, and his mission, his main mission, would be threatened. He could have gone into a rage, broken all the chains, left mountains of corpses, as he did with the slavers, but something prevented him from doing it. Was it a semblance of honor? Is unknown. Can a man like him have any honor at all? Unlikely. All this was for the sake of his main mission.

It looks like the clones were deploying troops to attack the government. In this, the Sith saw only bad news, because with the start of their operation, all the ships would fly away, and they would miss their chance to leave the planet, also, it will be too long. Arius remembered the vital task that he had sworn to fulfill, discarding all doubts, the Sith began to reason clearly.

"I need you to stay here," he whispered to Ruana. "I'll be back as soon as I get us a ship. You must sit here quietly and motionless."

A silent nod was her answer, and Arius smiled imperceptibly for her; when she wasn't chatting, she was much nicer.

Through the forest, the young Sith imperceptibly bypassed the Nu-class shuttle he had noticed, from where the clones were carrying boxes of equipment. When one of them passed by, Arius took off his helmet and grabbed him tightly with a choke hold, holding his mouth. The trooper managed to reach the ramp with his feet and hit it several times, attracting his brother's attention.

The clone could never have expected to see such a picture. He was about to scream, but his throat tightened, the air left his lungs. Arius let the anger flow through him. Strangling two people was damn uncomfortable, in the end, both gave up. No one seems to have noticed this.

The young Sith looked around in the shuttle, checking for the absence of troopers inside. There were a few minutes left before the attack. When Arius was about to get off the ship, he heard footsteps approaching him.

"Where the hell are they?" Captain Rex was indignant. "Dronx, Nerdinx, where are you?!" He decided to go to the shuttle to check there, his shoes rattled on the metal ramp. The captain held his helmet under his arm and headed inside, frowning with displeasure. Suddenly something grabbed him, an unknown the Force was squeezing his throat, darkness was gathering in Rex's eyes, his movements became weaker and weaker until they completely subsided.

Arius moved the clone's body to where the other two were lying. The young Sith and Dr. Roidd were already in the pilot's seats when voices began to be heard from the radio station, anxiously shouting about the Separatist attack.

"This is Skywalker. Admiral Yularen come in! Report the number of the enemy."

"Wow, my good friend Jedi Skywalker," Ruana commented, launching the systems.

"General, I count 5 Munificent-class star frigates. This is too little to attack. We'll manage."

"Copy, Admiral," Anakin replied, "Report back, as soon as you're done with them, we're going to the local castle."

"Don't you think that's suspicious?" asked Obi Wan, running his fingers through his beard. "Why send 5 frigates, knowing that we have a numerical and fire advantage? Any droid understands that this fight is a losing one."

Anakin frowned. "You have a point. Besides, the battle droids have their own database, they can easily find out our number. In that case, why are they here?"

"I feel like we're one step behind," Obi Wan mused.

"Attention! A Nu-type shuttle has made an unauthorized takeoff and is heading for the separatist fleet!" a voice came from the comlink.

Anakin and Obi Wan looked at each other. "They're taking someone or something away!" the Jedi knight announced, about to run to his star fighter, but the Jedi master's hand stopped him.

"You won't have time, Anakin," Obi Wan said, "Let's do a scan of the castle and examine it."

The Jedi Knight cast only a disapproving glance at his Master and, throwing back his hand, rushed to his star fighter, ordering R2 to start all systems at that time. Anakin jumped into the star fighter as soon as it flew up to him, and headed up, putting all the energy into the boosters. "Admiral Yularen, delay the shuttle at all costs!" the Jedi Knight ordered.

"We'll have to destroy the frigate to get it, General."

It was a risk, but the shuttle was too important. Anakin sensed the reason for the disturbance in the Force on this particular ship, which means that there were many answers to questions there. "Destroy the frigate, Admiral. We need this shuttle."

Anakin could already see the unfolding battle in space, only two minutes separated him from the goal, the capture of which would have reanimated the Jedi knight in Obi Wan's eyes. The mission will be completed, the Republic will be one step closer to victory. However, after a few seconds, the separatist fleet completed the rebuilding and jumped into hyperspace. "Missed!" the Jedi Knight growled, hitting the cockpit with a mechanical hand.

"Anakin, go back to the castle. You'll be interested in what we found," Obi Wan's calm voice came from the comlink.

"I'm on my way, Master."