It took destroying two of the Separatist cruisers, multiple gunships runs to Windu's cruiser, and more than a few reckless stunts, but Obi-Wan managed to salvage about two hundred clones as well as Master Windu before they had to retreat. His medical unit got to work on the injured, but it wasn't the injuries that were tragic but the casualties. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done about that.

Not long into the hyperspace jump back to Coruscant, Obi-Wan found Windu sitting by himself one of the hangars. He knocked on the wall so as to not surprise him, but Windu hardly acknowledged his presence. Obi-Wan decided not to take it personally.

"I've told the rest of the Council about what happened," he said quietly, approaching him. "They don't think it would be wise to send more troops to Corellia until the Separatists leave."

"If they leave," Windu corrected him darkly, still recovering from the trauma.

Well, I wasn't planning on including the worst case scenario, but yes, he thought to himself. "If the coast clears, we'll send out a search team to see if we can find their bodies. Until then, we have orders to return to stay away from the Corellian system." Obi-Wan didn't need to specify which bodies.

Windu nodded, but still didn't look at him. The younger Jedi Master took that as a cue that the conversation was over, and he turned to leave the hangar. Windu didn't stop him, but just kept staring out into space.

He felt entirely responsible for their deaths. He knew of a common saying, not encouraged by the Jedi but not unknown either: 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' Windu indeed felt shame. This wasn't the first time the Separatists had employed this tactic, even if they had doubled their forces this time. Last time, it had lead to the loss of their hyperdrives and a significant portion of their troops. Now it had lead to the loss of two Jedi, a Knight and a Master, and all but a fraction of their forces. Not to mention, they were currently down three cruisers.

The smart thing to do would have been to start thinking of ways to avoid it happening again, but how could they prevent themselves from falling into traps like this? They couldn't just not go on missions, or send out scouts to every battlefield, hoping that the delay wouldn't cost them the fight. If Dooku could accurately predict the Republic's movements, then how did they counter that? Just...send more cruisers on every mission? That was too impractical.

No, there had to be a better way to minimize casualties and get back ahead of the Separatists. If they kept doing this, and the Jedi kept failing to counter it successfully, they would lose the Clone War after four years of managing to sustain.

...or was this a tactic? Windu thought hard, wracking his memory for anything he could recollect from the first time. The Inquisitor had led that particular mission for the Separatists and she was dead. From what Windu had seen on the night she died, she and Dooku weren't exactly friends, so the reemployment of the ambush wasn't out of sentiment.

The one thing that had come out of that fight was Skywalker's change in mentality. He had gone from skeptical about the Inquisitor being Tano to absolutely sure that she wasn't, unless Windu had read him wrong. While it was a great Separatist victory, that day had been more about sending a message than the fight.

If that was the case, then what message was Dooku sending now? What hidden threat was underlying this attack? As he tried to come up with an answer, though, the ship lurched, jumping out of hyperspace. They were already back.

Windu sighed, knowing he needed to board a gunship so he could go back to the surface. He walked away, intending to find Kenobi but stopping dead in his tracks when it hit him.

They were back already. Corellia wasn't that far away from Coruscant, especially compared to some of the other places Dooku could have attacked. In face, Corellia was a Core World and a significantly close neighbor to Coruscant.

If Dooku wasn't afraid to hit a Core World so close to Coruscant, Windu wondered horrifically, what's stopping him from attacking Coruscant itself? What's stopping him from wiping out the heart of the Republic?

That was the message. The war was officially back on from its hiatus. The Separatists were out for victory, and Dooku had every intention of securing it. His armies were prepared to make some risky and very critical attacks. Corellia was a start of something terrifying. Dooku had just risen the stakes for the Republic. If they didn't start making some progress with the war, their capital was at risk.

Lightyears away, the 501st were protecting a system in the Inner Rim. Despite needing to take it seriously, no one was putting much effort into it. Nothing had happened yet and they were almost done with their assignment. A few more rotations and they would be released to go back to Coruscant. Unless something spontaneous happened, which was definitely possible, it was smooth sailing from here.

The Corellia ambush happened on the second rotation they were deployed. The whole assignment was five rotations long, and on the last day, while Anakin and Rex were half heartedly studying the layout of the area (again), a call came from the Temple. Temporarily shutting down the landscape projection, Anakin answered the call.

A grim Obi-Wan appeared in front of them. It barely took Anakin half a second to recognize this. "Bad news?" He guessed.

"How closely have you been tracking the rest of the war?" He began, his voice much more devoid of emotion than it usually was.

"Not very," he answered, shrugging. "I thought we weren't supposed to, with the whole 'compartmentalization' thing the Republic wants."

The faintest trace of a smirk crossed Obi-Wan's face, but even that couldn't better his mood. "We sent three cruisers to Corellia a few days ago to respond to a Separatist attack. It.."

"Didn't end well?" Rex finished for him, dismayed.

"We lost almost three battalions of clone troopers," he reported sullenly, "as well as Rig Nema and Adi Gallia."

Silence followed for a very long while after that. No one made eye contact with another, and even the other people in the command center hushed as they worked. Three battalions. How many brothers had they lost without even knowing it?

Eventually, Obi-Wan broke the silence. "I called to inform you that the service for the Jedi is being held in a few minutes. Since you couldn't be here, I assumed you would want to know."

"I appreciate the call," Anakin said, his voice now the same monotone drone that Obi-Wan had. "We should be heading back after this rotation. I'll see you then."

The call ended without so much as a 'goodbye'. Bystanders quickly got back to work before General Skywalker realized they had been paying attention.

Rex saw Anakin looking down at the table, and ventured to ask, "You alright, sir?"

Anakin shook his head, but looked up at his captain. "Now that I try, I can't feel either of those Jedi in the Force. There's two holes where there should be people, but it's just...empty. And the battalion..." he rubbed his head. "I can't even imagine what it would have felt like to be there. That much death, all at once, that doesn't happen often."

It was certainly taking a tole on Windu. During the service, he didn't say a word, didn't even pay attention to the words Yoda was saying. He knew the speech well enough, and he had been to enough funerals in the past four years to sustain him for the rest of his life.

Instead he was watching Jinx Majal, Adi's apprentice. Or he was, while she was still alive. He had been assigned to take a group of Younglings to Illum to find their kyber crystals, as it were. The mission was smooth and he was pleased at the performance of the Younglings, but he returned expecting his master to be waiting for him. That wasn't the case. Instead, all that was waiting for him was Windu, who had dreaded to give him the news.

Caleb and O-Mer stood beside him, trying to be a comfort without being able to speak or move. Jinx was grateful, but he couldn't help but feel hopeless. First Kalifa had died, then Ahsoka had left, and now his master, whom he had only studied under for two years or so, was gone too. It felt like all of the people he was used to depending on were slipping away from him. If everyone was taken from him, what solid ground would there be to stand on? He couldn't help but wonder in fear as the casket, supposed to represent Adi Gallia, sat in front of him. It took all of his self-control to hide his emotions, but he didn't know how long he could hold it.

His friends kept exchanging glances throughout the funeral. They knew that they had no frame of reference for what he was going through but they could tell it was hitting him hard. The closest thing O-Mer had to this was loosing Kalifa and Caleb had only ever lost Ahsoka, and she was still alive. They didn't know how to help, other than to stay close and remind him that not everybody was gone. Silently, they agreed to keep an extra close eye on him for the next few days, probably weeks.

The worst part about it all, though, was that there was no body to perform the traditional Jedi rituals for. To the Republic's horror, the Separatists took control of Corellia, overrunning it and forcing what was left of its government to join the Separatist alliance. There was no way to get to Corellia safely to look for the bodies without risking more losses. Instead, they had to do the service with empty caskets, and the only things inside of them were the very, very few personal items like extra clothes or accessories that each of the late Jedi possessed. It just wasn't the same.

At the conclusion of the service, everyone headed to their rooms, but Windu didn't stay for long. Instead, he grabbed a robe, slipped the hood over his head and grabbed a speeder from the hangar in the Temple. He shot out into the afternoon and headed straight for the Lower Levels.

It was time to get some answers, and he didn't care what he had to do to get them.