Coruscant

Anakin Skywalker

"I'm sorry, General, but the orders come from the CDS," Rex said, walking along with Anakin in the shadow of one of the Republic Navy's massive Venator-class star destroyers, landed on the surface of Coruscant to take on the 501st and its equipment.

Anakin was incensed. "How could they do this?"

Rex looked apologetic. "I dunno, sir, but I can't disobey an order from the Chief of Defense Staff."

"Who?" Anakin asked, before giving it a moment's thought and remembering the name who'd rubber-stamped most of the orders he'd given and got. A political appointee, some old former-retiree- General Kadrash Rac, a native of Rendili. Apparently he'd begun flexing real muscle, with the Senate's help.

Rex kept walking after Anakin stopped, spinning to face him.

"I'm going to go talk to General Rac," Anakin declared. "Do what you can to stall, okay?"

A sly grin crossed Rex's face. "Yes, sir."

The two parted ways, and Anakin returned back towards the great complex of hangars and barracks he and Rex had departed. A long line of 501st troopers watched him go in the opposite direction, some looking on quizzically. From his pocket, Anakin produced a commlink and attempted to raise Master Windu.

"Skywalker?" Windu responded. "I assume you've heard."

"Yeah, not before I got down to the docks and saw the 501st getting ready to take off without me," Anakin replied. "I'm going to go talk to General Rac."

"Good luck," Windu said cryptically.

"What?" Anakin asked, a bit sharply.

The connection broke, and Anakin sighed. Several minutes later he returned to the landing pad and leapt into his transport, tearing into Coruscant's morning sky. He steered a direct course for the Senate District, and immediately was denied priority parking.

"What the-?" he hissed as the console flashed red. He pinged the traffic controllers. "This is General Anakin Skywalker."

"Parking on diplomatic levels has been revoked, I'm afraid," the female on the other side of the line said, having been the one to deny him. "You'll have to park in general access. My apologies, sir."

There was silence on Anakin's end of the line before he broke the connection, steering for the general access parking levels and landing close to the turbolifts. Never before had he been subject to the Republic's bureaucratic approach to things to this extent- overnight the Senate was wrenching control from the Jedi. He would need to talk to Padme, to try and understand why the Republic was turning on them so rapidly.

The exterior of the Chief of Defense Staff's office was in a section of the Senate building facing south, a sprawling area dominating nearly half a floor. Intelligence units had their secretive corner, hidden beneath another layer of security. The rest of the space was a lot of map tables and rooms dedicated to specific campaigns as they went. The office was busier than usual as the Outer Rim sieges progressed- he passed the Saleucami room, the Boz Pity room, the Mygeeto room. Clones in each worked heedless of him, noting new deployments of droids as they were reported in.

A pair of armored troopers stood on either side of the door between him and General Rac's office, standing at attention as he approached. "General Skywalker," one of them said.

Anakin nodded. "Here to see General Rac," he replied.

The one on the left triggered his helmet's commlink, putting a finger roughly where his ear would be on the surface of the helmet. "General Skywalker is here to see General Rac."

Silence, again, as some unseen figure relayed the CDS's reply. At last, the clone trooper looked up. "General Rac can see you in one hour, sir."

He's making me wait? Anakin nearly belted out, but he sighed and nodded. He sat in a chair in some corner of the hallway, stewing. After three years of fighting, to be treated like this? It angered him. What had General Rac done except sit in his office and collect a paycheck while Palpatine and the Jedi ran the war?

"General Skywalker?" his commlink crackled to life.

Anakin's ears perked up. "Rex?"

"There's been an accident with the loading of an AT-TE. I don't know how long they'll need to put it back together, but I thought I'd keep you in the loop," Rex reported.

At least he could always count on Rex.

"Bad news, Rex, hopefully we'll be underway soon. Skywalker out."

After an interminable wait, one of the clone troopers approached him. "General Skywalker, the General will see you now."

Anakin all but leapt to his feet, striding purposefully into the General's office.

General Kadrash Rac looked exactly as Anakin might've expected a retiree called back to service to look. Admiral Yularen was the same class of officer, he had been retired too, but Yularen had a degree of vitality to him that Rac clearly lacked. The aged, tired looking man behind the desk wore a dress uniform that fit poorly over his hunched frame. "General Skywalker," Rac greeted, though there was little warmth in his voice.

"I want to know why the 501st is being deployed to Saleucami," Anakin said, stopping just shy of the old general's desk. "We had tasked them to Mintooine."

General Rac shook his head slowly. "The 91st Mobile Reconaissance Corps is understrength, and the front on Saleucami has stalled. They need reinforcements more than the Republic needs to open another front in the war."

"Why didn't anyone consult Rex or myself?" Anakin asked. "I only heard of this as we were about to set off."

"The Chief of Defense Staff does not develop plans in concert with clone troopers," Rac said dismissively. "We issue orders and they act on them, the same as any military in the galaxy."

Anakin shook his head in disbelief. How had things changed so totally that he was being cut out of the loop and Rex was just another clone? "What…?"

Rac tapped something out slowly on a datapad. "Last night," he said, sliding the datapad across the table. "The 'Reorganization Act', they called it. Narrow margin, but it seems the assassination of the Chancellor changed enough minds that the war effort has been placed in my own hands, as opposed to those of the Jedi Council. At least until the Senate investigates the Chancellor's death."

What Rac had given to him was astonishing to read. The Loyalist Committee proposed a bill suspending the commands of many Jedi. Some of the names on the list shocked him. It surprised him less to see his own name on the list, and that of Master Windu, but Taron Malicos? Master Luminara? Bultar Swan? What had any of them done? Why hadn't Padme said anything?

"When was someone going to tell me I was relieved of command?" Anakin asked, slamming the datapad back onto the desk.

"You aren't relieved of your command," Rac replied. "You just aren't going to be leading any troops for the time being."

"What is the difference?" Anakin spat.

Rac pulled his datapad back into his lap. "The difference, General Skywalker, is that you retain your rank and you may soon be called back to service, if the Senate sees fit."

"When will that be? After the commanders in the Outer Rim getting pulled back to Coruscant gives the Separatists room to break out?" Anakin retorted, growing increasingly annoyed with this desk-bound general.

"We aren't pulling anyone out of an active combat zone, don't be ridiculous," General Rac said. "The interruption in command would be catastrophic, especially in these drawn out battles."

The Chancellor had been dead for a day and the bureaucrats had begun to reassert themselves. Reorganization Act? It sounds like something out of a nightmare. The Grand Army of the Republic was reorganizing, alright. Reorganizing towards being inefficient, led on by Senators and political appointees like General Rac.

"I want to leave with the 501st," Anakin stated, staring straight at the bureaucrat opposite him. "They'll need me."

Rac shuffled around his desk before producing another datapad. On it was a personnel file, a young looking officer named Crisdan Parneig and his information displayed. "General Parneig is a graduate of Corulag Academy, and has served ably in the war so far. He will be assuming command of the 501st Clone Battalion until you're cleared of wrongdoing."

"You're putting some academy graduate in charge of my clones?" Anakin asked, aghast.

Again, Rac shook his head in that infuriating slow way. "Read his file, you will see he is more than capable."

Not for a single moment did Anakin entertain the idea of sitting in that office and reading the young officer's file. He returned the datapad to General Rac's desk and turned on his heel. "This is a bad decision. A lot of good men are going to die because of this."

"It's a war, General. Soldiers die," General Rac responded. "It's our job to make sure that as few die as is necessary, and not a man more. That's what we learn in the Academy."

The old General's shot was not subtle, and Anakin knew it was targeted at his pride. The Jedi had no military academy, but had produced some truly gifted leaders. Perhaps the same could be said for the Academy system, which produced some good officers- Yularen was the name that sprung to mind first, even when they had clashed in the past. That equivalence just embittered him.

"Whatever you think is best, General," Anakin hissed. He turned and left the room, striding by the two clones and back out of the Chief of Defense Staff's floor. On the long, winding walk he passed numerous campaigns and paused only briefly outside of the Saleucami room. Clones still moved pieces across the map, relaying information from officer to officer.

Once outside he raised Rex again. "What's the status on that AT-TE, Rex?"

"Looking better, sir. It looks like a locking pin in one of the leg actuators broke, or fell out. We've found a replacement and are reinstalling the actuator. Quick fix, really," Rex explained. "Are you on your way back?"

For a split second he considered saying that he was, but he only sighed. Stowing away aboard the Venator would only make things worse for him- by extension for the Jedi Order. Whenever he was discovered he'd just be detained, and he'd spend the trip there in the brig. "I can't make it this time, Rex. Do me a favor and keep the 501st in one piece, alright?"

"I can do that, sir," Rex responded, his voice a little more solemn. "I'll see you in the field."

"See you then," Anakin said, sullen. "Skywalker out."


Utapau

Obi-wan Kenobi

"The droids are dug in on the upper levels, General," Cody reported, removing his helmet. "I lost three LAATs scouting them out. They've got AATs in hull-down positions facing outward, any ship that breaches over the floor below is immediately under fire."

"What about landing topside and coming down?" Obi-wan asked, stroking his chin in a thoughtful gesture.

"It's a long way down from the rim of the crater," Cody replied. "Might be too long."

Obi-wan looked up from their landing pad, many levels below. A Separatist core ship had been set into the wall, adorned with all manner of antennae. It was there that he'd confronted General Grievous, but in the ensuing chase he had left it and the droids had moved back in, evicting the few clones who'd arrived there. He had to get back inside of it, if there was any trace of the Separatist Council it would be there.

"We could bring the Vigilance into low orbit and blast it off the wall," Cody suggested. "But…."

"... the collateral damage would be catastrophic," Obi-wan said, waving a hand. "We can't do that."

Cody shook his head. "The only other option I can think of is a frontal assault, uphill… we'd lose half the battalion."

"We can't do that either," Obi-wan said. "We need to get men into the command ship again, but they're ready for us to fly in. It's too far to rappel down."

The clones stepped back as Obi-wan stroked the beak of his varactyl mount, which hummed appreciatively. He looked back up at the core ship again, clearly thinking. "Do we have any scout units that aren't engaged?"

"Second squad, First Recon has been held in reserve," Cody replied. "They're at full strength."

"What equipment do they have?" Obi-wan asked, turning his attention from the varactyl to Cody.

His clone commander was well familiar with the 212th. "Heavy recon loadout, they're on AT-RTs."

"Perfect," Obi-wan said. "Prepare those scouts to move on my signal. They'll rush the AAT positions."

"AT-RTs don't stack up against AATs, General. What's the other half of the plan?" Cody asked.

Kenobi grinned. "I'm going to distract them."

Cody smirked now. "A bold plan, General. I like it. We won't leave you in the wind for too long."

"We'll have to think of another word than 'bold.' Not to worry," Obi-wan retorted. He stepped up into the saddle on the varactyl's back, and it gave a loud chirp. "Onward and upward, then!"

The scout troopers lay in wait just outside of the line of fire of the AATs guarding the lowest level with access to the core ship. Their mechanical mounts whirred as they maintained their balance under the weight of the clones shifting on their back, keeping an eye out for droids. A few had dismounted, and covertly examined the Separatist defenses. They were weak on the ground, only a handful of B-1 battle droids patrolled between the tanks- but the tanks were a force to be reckoned with. Covered as they were, they'd be difficult to hit.

As they waited in relative silence but for the electrical crackling of the destroyed AT-TE that marked the furthest advance until then, they suddenly heard that bizarre chirping noise that the varactyl made- but they didn't know that. The clones exchanged a confused glance before the creature dropped into view, landing directly atop the turret of the second-nearest AAT. The turrets slowly began turning to face the new threat, but the creature moved quickly to dart by the clones. A few droids halfheartedly gave chase, but turned around when the sound of a lightsaber igniting rang out across the open ground.

A shock of blue light swung out from behind the tank as General Kenobi leapt atop the turret, leaping in time to avoid the first shot as the two bordering AATs fired in tandem, utterly destroying the tank Obi-wan had been standing on. He landed on one of their turrets and sliced it off with a heavy blow with his lightsaber, rolling off of it in time to avoid the B-1s blaster bolts.

"Two tanks down, let's go!" the scout commander said, leaping back aboard his AT-RT. One-by-one the AT-RTs exploded from their cover, bounding towards the Separatist position while all the tanks were focused on the General. Their chin-mounted turrets opened fire on the droids caught out in the open, blasting them into scrap metal.

One of the tanks lined up a good shot against the onrushing clone scouts, blasting an AT-RT that clattered to the ground a charred wreck. The rest were much luckier, moving quickly enough the tank turrets couldn't turn to attack them in time. From the depths of the core ship lanced more red blaster bolts, and another squad of battle droids emerged. The AT-RTs returned fire, and Obi-wan deflected a good number of the bolts back at them- but the distraction pinned the clones down and the surviving AATs claimed two more AT-RTs. Their powerful shots ripped through the air and shook the ground as they hit.

"Keep moving!" Obi-wan commanded the clone scouts, who quickly obliged. They deftly stepped out of the way of several more shots, but still suffered losses. Obi-wan followed, deflecting another bolt as he leapt atop another tank turret, crouching low and blocking more fire. As soon as there was a break in it he used his blade to cut open the turret access hatch, pulling the command droid from within with the Force.

Once inside the AAT he took a moment to cover from the increasing volume of blaster fire, relatively safe for the moment. The tank's armor was strong enough to withstand any handheld blaster, it was only explosives he would have to worry about.

"I saw you dive into that tank, General! Things getting a little too hot outside?" a voice called through his commlink.

Obi-wan chuckled. "Not hardly, Cody! Where are you now?"

"Pop the hatch and have a look, sir!" Cody responded.

Outside, the 212th had arrived in force. With the AATs out of the way, they'd arrived by land and air and were cleaning up the remaining droids. The hum of multiple LAATs droned over the last few droids' dying groans.

"Well done," Obi-wan said, dropping out of the tank. Commander Cody stood before him, flanked by a couple lieutenants. "I need a network uplink."

"I'll have my men keep an eye out as we clear the ship," Cody confirmed, turning to issue his orders to the lieutenants.

Obi-wan keyed his commlink again and raised his astromech droid, R4-G9. "R4? I need you to make your way to the droid command ship's lower level."

A series of beeps and a whistle came back to him, and he nodded. "Thank you, R4. Do hurry if you can."

Some time later R4 arrived, though whether or not he hurried was a matter of debate. A couple clones of the 212th escorted the astromech droid, saluting their general. "General Kenobi, sir. We found him wandering around the lower levels, didn't want him to fall into Separatist hands."

"Well done, well done," Obi-wan said, dismissing the two clones with a laugh. He and R4 entered the superstructure, navigating around and over broken droids on their way to a room Cody had identified as a communications center. It certainly looked like one, with half a dozen consoles and maps of various quadrants dotting their screens. A gentle whirring sound accompanied the many computers, a welcome change from the noise of the battle far overhead.

R4 plugged into the network port, beeping as he worked.

The screen above the terminal blinked to life, rows and rows of unintelligible numbers and letters- R4 had evidently found what they were looking for, though it was all encoded. "What are we looking at?" Obi-wan asked.

The droid beeped again, confirming he needed time to break the encryption on the data. There was no danger aboard the ship that couldn't be dealt with swiftly, so Obi-wan took a seat and waited.

Half an hour later, or just shy of it, R4 gave a triumphant trill and spun to look at Obi-wan. "You've got it?" he asked, sitting up and leaning forward. The screen now showed a clearer picture of the galaxy, with a warren of lines extending from Utapau. Thousands of messages had been sent from this command ship, which would seem to indicate it had played an important part in the war effort. With each pulse the lines changed, denoting another day's worth of messages. Then, suddenly, they dropped in number drastically. With the final flash- yesterday, Obi-wan guessed- they stopped altogether.

"Copy all of that data and prepare to send it back to Coruscant for analysis," Obi-wan instructed. He flipped on his commlink. "Cody, we've got what we came for."

"We've cleared all but the highest levels, General," Cody responded. "Another hour, and we'll have scrapped the last droids on Utapau."

"Well done, Commander," Obi-wan replied. "I'll meet you at base. We've got a rather important message to send home."