"What now?"
"Now we make contact with the Temple and get further orders plus tell them about the execution if they don't already know"
"Okay then let's go"
And that's exactly what they do, they go to the only place they knew of that they could communicate and quickly initiated contact with the Temple
"What's the problem?"
We've lost three more people General Windu, one of them is Commander Tano"
"What happened?"
"She was captured as well General and since you don't know about her capture I can safely assume that you don't know about the execution plans either"
"No we don't, tell us everything you know"
And that's exactly what the clones do knowing that the Jedi needed all the information they could get
"Okay, for now focus on the droid factory, we'll find a way to signal you when the rescue team arrives, once they do meet up and obey their orders but until then we're giving you permission to act as you see fit in regards to that factory and gaining public support"
"Understood General Koon"
"Be on your guard you must, a trap this could be for you, want you to attack them openly they might"
"Understood General Yoda, we'll be careful"
"And remember, while we're giving you permission to act as you see fit you are trained soldiers and as such know better than to act recklessly, that means keep a low profile whenever possible"
"Yes General Windu we understand"
"Then may the Force be with you"
"Generals, about how soon until the rescue team comes?"
"Three days"
"Understood Generals"
Communication is cut and since the day before Waxer had been named default leader they looked to him for their next orders
"Come on, I have an idea about where the factory might be, let's simply scout the area first before we do anything to it"
"Okay, civilian clothing?"
"Yes, but bring your blasters just in case, the small ones"
"Sir, why not wear even a little armor underneath our clothing?"
"With what I've got planed in mind it'll be too obvious"
They actually find the droid factory that day and simply observe for several hours before going back to their current base of operations and were very glad they didn't need their blasters or armor
"Waxer next time you pick a disguise don't pick one that forces us to forgo our armor because that makes me feel very exposed"
"Not much choice in the matter Coil"
"What makes you say that?"
"Simple, we have to blend in as much as possible until our new commanding officers arrive, those were the orders of Commander Tano before her capture and you know that, what you don't know is that she was going to try and find the military or security people of this planet and ask them to help hide us, unfortunately she was captured before she succeeded in her goal. It's why she left us for the day actually"
"So she was going to try and keep us under the radar by making us more visible?"
"If we were in the security forces our skills wouldn't be questioned"
"Oh, and we could wear some sort of armor as well until we were allowed to wear ours again"
"Exactly, but now that won't happen unless our new Generals make the same decision Commander Tano did"
"Exactly, plus this low profile protects the civilians because the enemy doesn't know it's us"
"So about what we observed today at the factory"
"We have to wait for our new Generals to show up and give our report to them, they'll make the decision on what to do afterwords"
"But..."
"What can we do with no Jedi and our current numbers?"
"You win"
"Thought I might"
"So we simply have to wait now"
"Exactly"
Meanwhile Anakin and Obi-wan were not happy about seeing Ashoka in the same cell as them and let her know via the bond
*What were you thinking going out and getting yourself captured?*
*I was thinking that if my men were in the security forces they could act a little bit more like themselves and not have to hide who they were*
*So you were trying to get them undercover as security forces so that they could be visible yet not visible?*
*Exactly Master, unfortunately things happened and we got caught*
*Okay then, that's an acceptable reason for getting caught, did you at least find the droid factory before getting caught?*
*No but I left orders for the men at our base of operations about finding it after a few days of hiding. The mission was to be a scouting mission only. I also hope they got in contact with either the ship or the Temple to receive further orders*
*Do you know if help is coming?*
*Yes, I contacted the Temple to receive orders and guidance myself and they said help was being sent our way. They should have left immediately but the Council did also mention we had at least three weeks and they were right*
*Basically all we can do is sit and wait for things to happen*
*Exactly, I just hope the team that's on it's way doesn't do anything to provoke the enemy into executing us faster*
*That's just something we're going to have to wait and see on*
*Bail is not going to like this once he finds out*
*Who says he hasn't already Master?*
*The fact that since he can only sense emotions means we can hide most of our pain from him and that means that unless he was told immediately he doesn't know about our current predicament*
*What about his security chief? Couldn't he help keep the Senator under control if he's back by now?*
*John has a good chance of keeping Bail on Coruscant with Yoda's help but this is Bail we're talking about, he formed the Rebel Alliance that eventually took down the Empire which means he's stubborn*
*Has John and Master Yoda ever actually tag teamed the Senator before?*
*Actually yes they have, it was shortly after I was taken to Rattatak for a month, Bail was being a stubborn idiot apparently by refusing to sleep during an important time, he was also refusing to eat apparently, Anakin tried to get him to at least eat with him and Padme one day and possibly get some sleep but that didn't work out. John went to Yoda and then they not only drugged Bail's tea Yoda also used a mild Force suggestion to sleep. The way they got him to the Temple was a partial truth in the fact that Yoda did want to discuss some security things with Bail but it was going to originally be after I came back he simply stepped up the timing to allow Bail some rest*
*Which means they might stand a chance*
*Exactly*
All of this was happening while the clones were spying on the factory that day and waiting for more Jedi to show up and give them instructions. Three days later the clones had their new temporary commanding officers and were glad for it
"So what can you tell us?"
The clones gave a detailed report about the factory and what they knew about the execution site but unfortunately it wasn't as much as they'd hoped for
"Sorry Generals I wish we had more information for you"
"It's okay Waxer, you did what you could without a commanding officer and obeying your last known orders from them, to be honest it's surprising that Padawan Tano thought ahead enough for such a situation, though I don't know if it's because of a vision or not"
"About the factory should we take care of that first or the execution?"
"The factory, that will mean the Separatists will no longer have support here, it's going to be risky I'll admit that, but hopefully this won't escalate plans and we'll still have plenty of time to figure out just what to do in the execution area, but remember the plans have to be flexible enough that we can change things at a moments notice but solid enough that we can actually call it a plan"
"General, there's something you should know first, Commander Tano was trying to get us clones a job with the security force on this planet so that we could be visible yet hidden, we don't know the results of her attempt are you going to find that out?"
"Yes we will because that was actually a solid plan Padawan Tano had. She wasn't given many orders except not to attack until we arrived which means she was still mainly in charge of the planning of any operations you would have undertaken and would have debriefed us before we took over"
"That might give us access to any and all places of execution that the Separatists might be using"
"General the rightful leaders are still in hiding Commander Tano mentioned finding them before making any rescue plans though everything else she was going to do without their permission technically speaking"
"Actually the rightful leaders gave her permission the moment they asked for Republic aid, she would have been within her right to make you guys visible yet hidden and also making plans to rescue those under threat of execution and taking down the droid factory"
"Generals, I know this isn't my place but since it is starting to get late maybe we should wait until morning before we made any more plans"
"Sorry but this time that's not an option, night operations would work best against the factory so any details you have would be helpful"
"Generals you should know that we only did one day of observation, and none of it at night, that's part of the reason why I suggested we wait until tomorrow so that you can decide who goes on a night time scouting mission. Commander Tano mentioned wanting at least one nighttime scouting mission on the factory in her orders left to us, we should have done it sooner but we figured it was better to wait on the nighttime scouting mission until there was more man power"
One of the Jedi looks at the orders Ashoka left behind and finds that Waxer was correct in his orders
"Knight Vos, you're in charge this time what should we do? Do we follow the Padawan's plans or make our own?"
"We follow Tano's plan first, except instead of one night observation we'll have two days of continuous observation with rotating shifts. Ashoka's men are to have tonight off though"
"What about finding the leaders that are in hiding?"
(Sighs) "I'm afraid that's going to have to wait at least until after the factory, we do want them there when we finally take the Separatists down but for right now we don't need to search for them"
"Why not General?"
"Wherever they are they're safe, besides we don't want them near the factory if we can help it because even if they can fight like Senator Organa can we don't want to risk them getting captured, if they're not like the Senator they'll be next to useless in a fight"
"Understood General, so factory first and then Commander Tano's hiding plan?"
"Exactly"
"What I'm wondering is how the Padawan managed to find the right people"
"Who knows, but that might be due to the training her Master puts her through"
"Uh I just had a thought, who's going to tell Senator Organa that his friends are prisoners and slated for execution?"
"Forget Senator Organa, Senator Amidala is going to be a problem seeing as how she's known Master Kenobi and Knight Skywalker technically for over ten years, though they didn't meet each other until her life was in danger after their initial meeting when she was queen of Naboo"
"Oh that won't end pretty"
All of the Jedi knew that it was also going to be a problem because of the fact that Knight Skywalker was married to Senator Amidala, but for the moment the clones couldn't know that