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Star Wars AU The Triumph of Darth Plagueis: Episode Nine – Clones Wars Prologue
By
Celgress
Following the controversy surrounding the events on Geonosis the Confederacy of Independent Systems or CIS, with Sith Lord Tyranus aka Count Dooku as head of state alongside his enforcer the cruel Darth Maul, formally declared war on the Republic thus initiating the most widespread and destructive conflict the galaxy had known in over a millennium. The driod armies of the Confederacy, led by the mysterious & ruthless, force sensitive, cyborg, General Darth Grievous and the beautiful but deadly Darth Avengia (Asajj Ventress), wreaked havoc upon many worlds which had remained loyal to the Republic. Within less than a standard solar year, or by 21 BBY, nearly half the former worlds of the Republic had joined the Confederacy.
The stunning recruitment success of the Confederacy owed much to the concentrated propaganda campaign launched by Lords Tyranus & Maul against the Republic in general and the Jedi Order in particular. A strategy which had turned the populations of many worlds against both the Order and the Republic, by the second year of the Clone Wars the Sith unveiled their latest master stroke in their war of words against the Jedi. Tyranus granted yet another interview along with him was his new apprentice Darth Avengia. Tyranus went on to explain how the Sith Order was ethically superior to the Jedi in that they did not recruit children. Tyranus and Avengia went on to tell how they both had been recruited into the Jedi Order as younglings. How devastated they were at the loss of their respective families. How they were forcibly indoctrinated into the dogmatic galactic view of the Jedi Order. How the Order sometimes callously abandoned those in has no further use for. Finally the two told how the Jedi turned their collective back on members who became physically or especially mentally ill, using the excuse that the members in question had 'fallen' to the Dark Side. Furthermore the functioning members of the Jedi Order were then obligated to hunt down and slaughter like animals those so called 'fallen Jedi' so the Order was protected from their 'pollution'.
After the interview aired several well-meaning, but misguided, civilian action groups started up a campaign denouncing the Jedi recruitment of younglings. A group of senators forced a vote to place a moratorium on the further recruitment of children under the age of legal maturity into the Jedi order until the Clone Wars ended. The vote passed but was suspended from taking effect until the current conflict was concluded by Supreme Chancellor Hego Damask, using the emergency powers which had been granted to his office following the assassination of Co- Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, much to the chagrin of the Senate as a whole. Once again it was a public relations disaster for the Republic causing the secession of several more worlds.
A further propaganda blow was struck by the Confederacy when General Darth Grievous announced he would be returning the crystals from the lightsabers of each Jedi he slayed in battle to the nearest inhabited world to where the crystal originated. Dooku, who accompanied Grievous while the latter made his announcement, used the opportunity to point out that the Sith only used synthesized red crystals in their own lightsabers. Dooku & Grievous both went on to accuse the Jedi of for centuries looting the crystals they used and as a result causing the chronic impoverishment of several star systems.
Meanwhile every month more and more clone troops were pumped out of the breeding facilities on Kamino. Soon even relatively peaceful worlds of the Republic possessed large standing garrisons. While the military presence was so high on worlds that had experienced unrest, such as Alderaan, Mygeeto the home world of the Supreme Chancellor and even the galactic capital itself Coruscant, they resembled occupied planets. Many political leaders, secretly including several members of the Jedi Council, feared their beloved Republic was rapidly slipping towards naked authoritarianism.
This is where galactic events currently stand in the closing months of 21 BBY. Jedi Knights Obi-wan Kenobi, Siri Tachi, Anakin Skywalker along with Skywalker's newly assigned Padawan Ahsoka Tano are about to be sent on an important mission by the Council. Their secret objective is to shut down, by any means necessary, the primary driod factory on Geonosis.
To Be Continued