Edited as of August 10, 2006
Author's Note: Out of all the editions I've done, this is the episode that's getting an entire makeover. Much will be deleted and much added. The Wookiepedia online encyclopedia is going to be a huge help in this. Rock on guys!
The Lure of the Dark Side: Chronicle 1-The Turning of an Era
Episode IV: The Clone Wars
Dramatis Personae
Aayla Secura: Jedi Knight (female Twi'lek)
Anakin Skywalker: Jedi Padawan, Jedi Knight (male human)
Antellica Grievous: Handmaiden of Senator Amidala, Jedi Knight (female human)
Arabea Dod: Royal Lady of Deko Neimoidia (female neimoidian)
Arica Grievous: Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies of the Confederacy of the Independent Systems (female human)
Barris Offee: Jedi Knight (femaleMirialan)
C-3PO: Protocol Droid
Calasia Dod: Princess and Countess of the Neimoidia system (female neimoidian)
Count Dooku: Political Leader of the Confederacy of the Independent Systems (male human)
Darth Lady Baynetta: Dark Lady of the Sith (female human)
Darth Sidious: Dark Lord of the Sith (male human)
Darth Tyranus: Sith Apprentice (male human)
Foul Mudama: Jedi Master (male Tlaz)
Gregar Typho: Head of Naboo's Queen's Security (male human)
Ki-Adi-Mundi: Jedi Master (male Cerean)
Literia: Nelvaan warrior (female Nelvaanian)
Lott Dod: Senator of the Trade Federation (male neimoidian)
Luminara Unduli: Jedi Master (female Mirialan)
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Jedi Master, Commanding General of the Republic's Grand Army (male human)
Mace Windu: Jedi Master (male human)
Padme Amidala-Skywalker: Senator of the Chommel Sector, Representative of Naboo (female human)
Palpatine: Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic (male human)
R2-D2: Astromech droid
Roron Corobb: Jedi Master (male Ithorian)
Shaak Ti: Jedi Master (female Togruta)
Yoda: Jedi Master (male unknown tridactyl species)
Chapter 1: Year 1-Early Campaigns
Although the Battle of Geonosis was a victory for the New Galactic Republic, the prospect of war between the New Republic and the Confederacy of the Independent Systems was now inevitable. Millions of clone trooper units departed from Coruscant on missions to find and defeat the Confederacy. The clones were led in these missions by Jedi Knights, the first time that the Jedi Order had taken up arms since the Great Sith War over a thousand years previous.
Following the battle, Jedi Knights Sora Bulq and Tholme were sent to Count Dooku's hidden base on Bakura to confront him. Unfortunately for them, Dooku captured and seduced Sora Bulq to the dark side though Tholme managed to escape.
Seven days after the Battle of Geonosis, Jedi master Mace Windu sent two Jedi spies – Aayla Secura and Ylenic It'kla – on a mission to Coreilla to find the Techno Union scientist Ratri Tane, who possessed very valuable information. Unexpected help came from the Corellian Jedi Master Nejaa Halcyon, having just returned from a failed mission to halt the Freedom Sun's attempts in the Sluis Sector.
This was followed by a Separatist/Trandoshan invasion of the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk. There, the Trandoshans rounded up countless Wookie captives and imprisoned them in concentration camps. Though the Republic managed to drive the Trandoshans off, war would continue to take place on Kashyyyk.
Following this, the Chiss Commander Sev'rance Tann, led an assualt on Tatooine where her agents learned of a new Republic weapon known as the "Decimator" being built on Eredenn Prime. On Eredenn Prime, she captured several Decimators and then captured Alaris Prime, a Wookie colony world which had just recovered from the Dark Reaper Crisis. Tann than made a strike on Sarapin which generated enough geothermal energy to supply a significant amount of the power for the Core Worlds. This created massive blackouts that affected countless Core Worlds, including Coruscant. Later on the arctic world of Krant, Jedi General Echuu Shen-Jon slew Sev'rance Tann with his lightsaber after calling on the Dark Side.
Two weeks into the war, the Republic's Senators from all across the galaxy were called back to Coruscant to fulfill their duties in the crumpling government. One of these Senators, naturally, was Padme Amidala of Naboo.
Since the Senate was currently in uproar over the war and would be for as long as it lasted, the young Senator decided to officially move to the capital. Purchasing a large mass of land on the central outskirts of Galactic City, she had a mansion built named respectively after herself, The Amidala Mansion. Until it was finished, she would continue living in her apartment in one of the penthouse suite towers of the Five Hundred Republica building.
Not long after arriving back, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine told Amidala and her handmaiden, Antellica Grievous, about seeing Antellica's twin and former handmaiden, Arica Grievous, a few weeks previous. He made it quite clear that she wanted nothing more to do with them. Antellica had burst into tears at this, while the Senator asked, "Why?"
"She was tired of being overlooked and shadowed by Antellica," he explained. "And how you always favored Antellica over her, lifting her up on a pedestal while you kicked her to the ground."
"I never-"
"Oh, but you have. I've seen it myself, various times. Example: You accursed her of lying to the press about that scandal you were in a few years back. With that arrogant Prince fellow who wanted everyone to know you were 'so in love' with him, when it was actually Antellica who did it."
"I didn't lie to press," Antellica cut in. "I was joking around."
She was ignored as Palpatine continued. "You made her do all the chores in the house for a month, all the while jeering and making fun of her, kicking, and screaming and hollering at her."
Amidala lowered her head in defeat. "At least tell me where she is."
"I promised her I wouldn't tell," he plainly said, "and a promise is a promise. Just forget about Arica, all right. She's safe and happy, and that's all that matters."
"But where will she live?" Antellica sobbed. "What will she do?"
"That's all been arranged and taken care of."
"By whom?" Amidala asked with a suspicious raised eyebrow.
"I don't see why that really matters."
The next few weeks were spent with Antellica grieving her sister, while Amidala did countless jobs in the Senate. She tried time after time to get her Sith master to tell her where Arica was, but he stubbornly refused every time. The tenth time she asked, he struck her down with Force lightning and said that if she ever asked again he'd electrocute her to death, thus she stopped.
The first year of the Clone Wars, as it was being called, was marked with many crisis's and further campaigns.
The Republic sent Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to Raxus Prime where they discovered Separatist forces on the planet. Millennia earlier, during the Great Sith War, Sith Lord Ulic Qel-Droma had fought on Raxus Prime and unleashed the Dark Reaper on the struggling New Republic forces. However, the super weapon was apparently deactivated in a mysterious turn of fate and would remain on the planet for a millennia until Count Dooku and his Chistori mercenary Cydon Prax discovered an important component of the Reaper called the Force Harvester and unleashed a wave of energy that killed roughly half of the thriving forest on the Kashyyyk moon, along with its indigenous population.
The Sith Lord then took off and found the pieces of the Dark Reaper which was separated into the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Dooku went to Thule and activated it in an ancient Sith city on the planet. Meanwhile, on Rhen Var, Skywalker went to the grave of Ulic Qel-Droma for information on how to withstand the Dark Reaper and the Harvester. Shortly after the revival of the Dark Reaper, Skywalker led an attack on the city, destroying the planet, disobeying an order from his master to await Republic backup forces. Despite Anakin's almost single-handed defeat of the Reaper weapon, his feats in these battles served to fuel his ego and create an even greater personal rift between himself and his master. However, the Confederacy managed to conquer Bespin and Ossus with the Republic preoccupied with the Battle of Thule.
This was followed by another Separatist assault on Kamino where Separatist forces under the Corporate Alliance Magister Passel Argente and the Mon Calamari Merai assaulted Kamino in an attempt to destroy the Republic's cloning facilities. However, the Jedi learned of their plans and sent a defense fleet of Jedi starfighters to defend Kamino. Although the Jedi pilots battled bravely above, they could not stop the droid forces from landing in the planet's capital, Tipoca City. The arrival of the newly-activated ARC troopers and Jet Commandos served to turn the tide, and Merai was forced to launch a desperate strike at the supposed location of the city's shield generator.
However, the Jedi proved too wily for the Mon Calamari tactician; the data gathered by the Corporate Alliance was false, and Merai's attempts were in vain. In a last ditch attack, Merai flew into the Jedi hyperspace rings, destroying his flagship the Shark in the process, and giving his battle ships time to retreat. Though apparently a victory for the Republic, the battle was actually engineered by Darth Sidious and his apprentice Darth Tyranus to root out and destroy the traitors in the Confederacy. Following that, more clone troopers from Kamino were deployed, thus allowing the war to continue. The Republic also began research into other methods of cloning such as Spaarti cylinders and conscription was introduced throughout the Republic.
Despite losing the Dark Reaper, the Confederacy still continued research on developing weapons. On the Techno Union world of Queyta, researcher Dr. Jenna Zan Arbor had developed a bioweapon known as "swamp gas" which appeared as a green mist, caused blisters and eventually death in many humanoid races. The Separatist Commander Asajj Ventress decided to test the virus on the Gungan colony of Ohma-D'un, a moon of Naboo. This killed all the Gungans on the moon. In response, Jedi Knights Kenobi, Skywalker, Master Glaive and Zule Xiss were sent to investigate what had happened. To stay unnoticed, the team flew to the moon in a single LAAT/I gunship. The Jedi were soon attacked by battle droids fitted with swamp gas sprayers along with Ventress and the bounty hunter Durge. Their escort clone troopers, along with Glaive, were slain though Anakin, Obi-Wan and the ARC trooper Alpha-17 succeeded in defeating the Separatist duo for the time being. They then destroyed the capsules of the virus that were being loaded onto ships destined for Naboo and rescued the spice miners that were to be implicated in the diaster. Zule Xiss lost her arm to Ventress during the fight but survived to fight again thanks to Obi-Wan's intervention. Naboo was saved, but Ventress and Durge managed to escape.
This victory was later followed by the Battle of Pengalan IV which saw a full platoon of clone troopers sent to Pengalan IV to destroy a diamond boron missiles facility in the city of Tur Lorkin. These missiles were designed to shot down Republic starfighters. Later, a mission to Qiilura saw Omega Squad being deployed to capture a Separatist research facility on the planet where an anti-clone virus was being manufactured.
Later, Mace Windu was sent to Ruul to investigate reports of defecting Jedi. Ruul was the private estate of Sora Bulq, who called a meeting of the Jedi dissidents refused to fight in the so-called Clone Wars. Secretly, he hired dark assassin Ventress to kill the Jedi, but Windu was able to uncover Bulq's treachery and drove the assassin away.
On Coruscant, a group on of Korunnai terrorists took Mon Calamari Senator Meena Tills hostage as part of an attempt to turn the Corporate Sector against the Republic. However, their efforts were thwarted by Omega Squad. This followed by the Mission to Queyta to discover an antidote for swamp gas chemical weapon. Though the mission was successful, the Republic had not seen the last of the deadly chemical. Unknown to the Jedi, a second laboratory had been established on the far side of Queyta, the Separatists had loaded is creations aboard the Lucrehulk-class Core Ship Gahenna. This vessel would roam the galaxy for the next two years, modifying the swamp gas to become the TriHexalophine 1138 toxin that devastated Honoghr.