Ch11 - The Plea
Galactic Naval Admiralty, Coruscant, 19 BBY
Perseus Jackson entered his office within the Admiralty to silence.
It was relieving, he supposed, not to have the burden of the entire Fifth Fleet to deal with as Phoebus Apollo took over the responsibility of the station on Anaxes. The Academy, for its part, had been transferred until the end of the war to an Alderaanian Noble by the name of Pallas Athena, a Republic Veteran of the Hyperspace Wars.
As a matter of fact, it had been the Noble herself who had offered to take over the posting, citing that Percy's youth and experience was required out in the field, instead of being posted to an office. The Mandalorian had moved over without much complaint, though he did insist on interviewing the woman in question.
Now that had been an interesting day.
From the moment she had walked in, Percy knew that he had made a mistake.
The blonde hair, startlingly grey eyes and face had him with his face in his hands, though her own words had sealed his fate.
"So, you're the one my daughter tells me so much about, Perseus Jackson of Clan Tritonis."
Today, he could look back on that moment, some six months prior, and chuckle, though there had been a period of a few weeks in which his colleagues in the 38th Task Force hadn't allowed him a moment's respite over it, the entire group having been placed with the 5th Fleet on Coruscant itself.
They were replaced on Anaxes for the moment by the 8th Fleet under his old mentor, Konik Chiron. The force had been stationed in the Mid Rim of late, dealing with several insurgencies, and Percy imagined that the more relaxed environment of Anaxes would be a happy change for the experienced old Admiral.
Coruscant, for its own part, had been placed under high alert, the Jedi Order having informed the Admiralty that they strongly suspected covert action to be taken against the Republic's infrastructure. There had been an attack carried out on the Jedi Temple by Rackham Sear, miraculously thwarted by the freshly returned Master Depa Billaba and her apprentice, Caleb Dume. Further, more decisive action was predicted, however, and in the case of the best strategists in the galaxy and the centre of its democratic governance, one could never take too many risks. Of course, there had also been the tragic expulsion of Commander Ahsoka Tano to contend with of late, Anaking Skywalker's plea for her to stay within the order not holding up for the Togruta, even after her innocence had been proven.
Rumours now appeared to suggest that they could expect a large-scale assault on the Galactic Core, though Percy couldn't fathom how exactly that could happen - only something truly seismic in magnitude would draw the massive home fleets of the Republic into battle over the centre of the realm, and it would be nothing short of miraculous for Grievous or Dooku to move either of their fleets through any known hyperspace lane to assault Coruscant.
"Admiral, message for you," said the young ensign, saluting as he entered the office. Percy beckoned him in, watching as the holodisk was placed in the corner of the table he currently occupied.
"From General Mundi," the younger man explained.
"Mygeeto?" Percy questioned absently. The ensign shrugged at the question, though, and Percy nodded his understanding as he waved him off.
The battle had been a long one, Separatist forces brutally contesting the planet against the clones of Mundi's 21st Nova Corps since he and the experienced old Jedi had parted ways following Percy's recall and promotion to the position he now held from the Second Battle of Geonosis.
"This is Jedi Master Ki Adi Mundi, requesting aid to the planet of Mygeeto," came the message, "We are cut off from extraplanetary transport, and all available spacecraft have been lost. I fear that defeat is inevitable if help is not sent at the first opportunity."
Percy sighed. If he had been sent the message, so had the Jedi Temple. He knew what would come next.
"Admiral," Greeted Jedi Master Windu. "It is good to see you back on Coruscant."
"General," Percy replied with a respectful nod of the head, "I assume you want troops on Mygeeto?"
The Jedi Master shook his head. "Troops, no. Master Billaba and her Battalion have been redeployed from Kardoa. What I need, Perseus, is starfighters."
"General, I'm not exactly in a position to be deploying 5th Fleet Assets to regions outside the Galactic Core," Percy replied, "If I were allowed to do that, you and I both know that we would have gone to Mygeeto long ago."
"And are you unable to deploy yourself?"
Percy paused, stumped. "General, what are you suggesting?"
"The last time that I called you like this, Perseus, we deployed a friendly force with whom we were on good terms, in order to provide aid in a sticky situation," Windu reminded him. After all, how could he forget that day, some two years ago, when he and Zoe Nightshade had found themselves responsible for the Grand Army of the Gungans?
"You have one in mind, General?"
"The wings under the command of the best fighter pilot outside of the Republic's Army."
Percy blanched. "You want Rau?"
"I want Rau," Windu confirmed. "He is currently in the service of the Republic. All you need to do is convince him and the Protectors of Concord Dawn to deploy with you."
"General?" Percy questioned, "You do know that I might not be the best man to convince a Protector into being friends?"
"I have faith, Perseus," The man replied with a smirk. "Believe me, I have faith."
Galactic Naval Admiralty, Coruscant, 19 BBY
"General," Percy greeted as the Jedi Knight entered his room, standing and saluting as the robed man strode in, "glad to have you here."
Nico groaned in response, shaking his head at the Mandalorian, whose lips currently twitched in amusement. The two hadn't met for quite some time, the Umbaran Jedi Knight having been deployed on a series of punishing missions throughout the Outer and Mid Rims following his discharge from hospital after his injuries on Umbara. He had seen action in Zygerrian territory, as well as through various other missions, the nature of which Percy was unaware by necessity.
It wasn't particularly as though Percy wanted to know, either.
"So then, Perce, I was told that you might want to see me - what are we up to?"
"I've been informed by General Windu that I need to take fighters out to aid Billaba's relief force on Mygeeto," the Mandalorian explained, gesturing for the Jedi to take a seat. "Want to come with?"
"I can't bring the usual guys, Percy, just like you aren't allowed to take your ships and you know that. Who exactly do you want to take?"
Percy sighed. "You Jedi are far too sharp for this."
Nico didn't budge, though his lip twitched in amusement.
"Rau."
Nico sat still for a moment further, before he laughed.
Percy, for his part, struggled to find the funny side, though he found himself smiling anyway at the young man who he had watched grow up over the past nearly three years of constant war. As much as the boy who had looked up to him as a pilot and mentor had gained the maturity and stoicism of those who he now called his equals, it was encouraging to the Mandalorian that the Knight still retained a sense of humour.
"You're recruiting the Protectors?" Nico asked, still wheezing, "if you're after Mandalorians who fly fighters, why not go for your Father's pilots?"
"Mandalore is in Civil War, Nico, and there are very few Republic-Aligned clans. My own family has decided to remain decidedly neutral following the assignment of blame for the death of Satine Kryze. Actions to disturb that peace are not wise, especially with the Mando'ade."
"Ah, leave your Mando'a out of it, Perce," Nico joked to the Admiral, "We were on Umbara for weeks, and planning for the campaign for months before that too, but you didn't see me speaking in Umbaran now, did you?"
Percy sighed, but nodded all the same. "The point stands though, Nico - General Billaba needs help, and Mundi can't give it. I consider it my duty to repay the debt I owe her."
"Debt?" Nico asked of the Mandalorian, brow furrowed.
"Without Master Depa Billaba, Nico, I would likely have never found myself here. Certainly wouldn't have found my family, and definitely wouldn't have known that I was who I am."
Nico paused. Percy hadn't spoken too much regarding his past, and neither had the others who worked with him. Most just accepted that he was who he was and moved on, though Nico knew that his master was one of the few people who really knew what the Mandalorian Officer had seen as a child.
"I was discarded as a child, Nico," Percy explained. "Chances are that my parents were from warring clans, or perhaps my mother had a child too early to be plausible for what would have been an arranged marriage. In any case, they didn't want me, so they just got rid of me."
Nico paused. This was new.
Percy, however, continued, eyes glazed over as he told a tale that he'd only ever told twice. The first time had been to the one who had found him, the other to the man that led him.
"I was a slave until I was about ten, moving from planet to planet as I was reared up, like a puffer pig for smuggling," he forged on, bitterness creeping into his tone. "I was about to be sold to the Hutts when the pirates hit us, and I was one of the few lucky enough not to die in the early phases of the raid. I hid away in their hold, living off scraps for weeks until they next showed up to clean it. There was a Mando among their crew. She understood who I was, and what I could be for them.
They were nice, you know? Taught me Mando'a and Basic, on top of the Huttese that I'd been raised on, and then they taught me how to fight, how to pilot a ship."
"What happened next?" Nico asked, not reacting to the turmoil in the force that surrounded his friend, "Why did you leave?"
"Why else, Nico?" he chuckled dryly, "They're dead."
Nico held in a sigh, though he could not hide the grimace on his face. "Do I even want to know?"
"Firefight," Percy explained simply. "Their enemies caught up to them. Selene protected me, got me to Coruscant and gave me a message to pass on to her own father. Gave me her armour to keep safe, and her name to give me the identity that I'd always wanted."
"So you're not actually related to Clan Tritonis?" Nico asked curiously.
"In every way that matters, Nico, I am," he replied softly. "My blood may be of some other clan, but Selene Tritonis is the one who I would call mother, and Poseidon is the one who gave me the formal acceptance of his name, without hesitation the moment that he saw that I was a Mandalorian, and when I told him of his cousin's decision. They took me in as a foundling, and over the course of that first summer I spent with them, on leave from the Academy, they allowed me to call them family."
"And now we have to recruit another clan of crazy Mandalorians, because they're all we have left," Nico summarised, recognising the passage of time.
"Sounds about right kiddo, sounds about right."
Nico huffed in amusement. Both of them knew that the Umbaran was no child. Not any more, at least, though he supposed that he could let it go for now.
Galactic Naval Admiralty, Coruscant, 19 BBY
"I'm going with you," she demanded.
"I'm not even going alone," Percy protested back, "Nico's coming with me."
"And we both know that you'll cave the moment that the kid decides to do something dumb," she deadpanned in return, leaning back against the wall and ignoring the Jedi's wide-eyed protest from the corner of the room.
"Well we're not exactly messing around with Capital Ships here, are we?" Percy grouched, "You're better off here where you can go around wrecking fleets for fun."
"And you're better off on Anaxes, where you're not constantly nearly dying!" Reyna retorted.
"Well, there was that one time…" Percy smirked over at his third-in-command.
"When some Separatists decided to invade?" the Anaxes-Born Commodore demanded, "And tell me, Jackson, what exactly you were doing then?"
"Exactly what you were doing after the first day on Umbara," Percy responded firmly. "Just you remember, I'm not the one who's had their ship sunk and burned to a crisp."
Reyna sighed.
"Just come back, yeah?"
"I'll-"
"-Don't you kriffing say you'll try, Perseus Jackson, You're coming back, and you're leading this defence of Coruscant."
"Yeah, yeah I will," Percy relented, placing a hand on her shoulder before he turned and left the office that the Commander of RSD Pegasus currently occupied, Jedi Knight Nico di Angelo in tow.
"You know, Perce," Nico began innocently, "Master Yoda would tell you that you must do or do not - there is no try."
Percy shoved the laughing Jedi in the shoulder, a small smile spreading across his face.
Republic Cruiser Adamant, Hyperspace Approaching Kamino, 19 BBY
"No, Admiral," Rau declared over the holocomm, "Not for you."
"For the Republic, then?" Percy pressed, "I will not ask you to throw in your lot with me, Rau, but something must be done, surely you see that?"
The Protector scowled. "There is no use in appealing to some inner conscience, Perseus Tritonis. My Protectors are not some playthings for a jumped up Kyr'tsad traitor to call on and command just because the Republic pays me enough to train its pilots."
"And yet it is you that the Jetii told me to call for help, Rau," Percy shot back. "It is not my fight either, and yet here I am, because I shall not be remembered as the man who did not pay his dues. What of you, Fenn Rau, greatest pilot to grace the galaxy?"
"And what do you owe to the Jetii, Tritonis?" Rau sneered over the communicator, "The great commander, backed to every extreme by his traitorous father?"
Percy laughed dryly.
"I owe to the Jetii exactly what you do, Rau. The non-involvement of Mandalore in this conflict, until the Darjetii Maul placed himself upon the throne and killed Lady Satine."
"And yet it was your people who brought the great peace to an end?"
"Says the man who prides himself on his martial ability."
"Touche."
"If Mygeeto falls, Rau, then it would mark a turn in the war," Percy pressed. "Come, bring your fighters, and let us destroy this enemy. Let us shorten this war by what little we can."
"You have your deal, Tritonis," Rau relented, "I will not have it said that I did not play my part, much less so by some Death Watch bastard and his Jetii pet. I will warn you, though, as much as you repay one favour today, you draw another, this time from the Protectors of Concord Dawn. We will not forget, just as you did not forget."
"And your favour will be repaid, Rau," Percy assured him. "Bring your pilots to the rendezvous point for pickup, sending coordinates now."
"I look forward to seeing your skill behind the yoke in person, Tritonis," Rau declared before he signed off, "My pilots will await you."
Republic Cruiser Adamant, Mygeeto System, Albarrio Sector, 19 BBY
Pilots rushed to their stations as the ship dropped out of hyperspace, the squadron of Fang Starfighters brought in by Fenn Rau's Protectors forming the entirety of the Republic's relief force to the raging conflict on Mygeeto.
The Captain responsible for the single Venator currently operating in the orbit of Mygeeto was one Jan Dodonna, a man from Commenor, and a veteran of their Judicial Force before he had joined the overarching Republic Navy. Percy had served with the man on more than one occasion, and he had distinguished himself well. He had also heard stories from Obi Wan and Nico about other battles that the man had commanded, while Percy had been fulfilling other duties on Anaxes or Coruscant in the time that he had spent outside of operations.
Percy knew him best, however, from the time the pair had shared together the last time that Anaxes had been attacked, some two years prior. Dodonna had held command of the defensive force as Separatist Admiral Dua Ningo had driven a punishing assault on the Core Worlds, and Coruscant had been thrown into a panic.
The decisive fight, however, had come over Anaxes, and Percy had been the one responsible for the safety of the station on the surface while Dodonna had fought valiantly in the air, with a brand new weapon.
He had taken command of the brand new Victory Fleet, made up of the mammoth Victory-Class Star Destroyer, which would eventually come to succeed the Venators that the Admirals of the Republic currently commanded. His colleague, Screed, had been brutally wounded, though he had destroyed the enemy flagship in a dauntless surprise attack from the side. The pair would receive the Holt Cross for their actions that day, Percy having been the one to present it to them at the College on Anaxes.
Today, however, Dodonna didn't have the most advanced ships that the Republic had to offer. He wouldn't even get the Cruiser which had brought his reinforcements to him. Just like the rest of the ships that Dodonna had once commanded, Adamant had been reassigned to the defence of Coruscant, and it had only been because Percy himself had demanded that it be rerouted that it was here at all.
What he would gain, however, was the full force of the Protectors of Concord Dawn, aided by Percy and Nico. The unit would number an impressive thirty, and each of the pilots could comfortably number themselves among the most feared in the galaxy. Percy and Nico, for their own parts, while not necessarily as famous in the air as Rau and his like, were experienced enough behind the yoke of a fighter to be able to keep up with the expert airmen that were the Protectors of Concord Dawn.
The trio of Jackson, di Angelo and Rau strode onto the Tactical Bridge together, and Jan Dodonna walked over to greet them.
"Admiral, General," he greeted the first two, before hesitating in front of the Protector.
"I won't pretend to hold a rank within your Navy, Captain," Rau dismissed, "Rau will do."
Dodonna nodded, engaging his tactical display before speaking again. "We have three armies on Mygeeto, Sir. Mundi's Nova Corps on the Eastern side, Billaba's troops operating towards the Southern Mesas, and the 501st are out here too, though they don't fall under my command - special mission for the Chancellor."
"Understood, Captain," Percy replied, "I have seen General Mundi's situation report - General Billaba was inserted into the city without air support?"
"She was, Sir," Dodonna replied. "She and her troops have secured ground —-."
"They were immediately redeployed, yes?" Rau asked from beside Nico where he had been observing the holomap.
"Yes, Mister Rau," Dodonna confirmed, "From Kardoa. Won a decisive victory with a battalion of nearly exclusively green troops. Grey and Styles are a good pair, though."
"Yes," Rau answered simply, "I remember them both from their time on Kamino. Grey proved to be an excellent shot."
"How do the numbers look, Captain?" Nico asked, interrupting the Protector's reminiscence.
"We're outnumbered, Sir," the Commenor-born man replied, "heavily."
"Then is it air support that the troops need, or troops on the ground? There are only three Jedi down there, and here I am, about to get into a starfighter!"
"There were five on the surface at one point, General di Angelo," Dodonna informed the Umbaran with a sorry shake of the head, "We've lost two in the last year alone."
Nico bowed his head briefly. "Then if their fate is to be mine, then let me be remembered as the man who did not listen to your warning, Captain. I came here with the intention of giving what I could to help. I will do all that I can, and nothing less."
"Then you are a better man than I am, General."
Nico strode out without a word, robes swishing about him as the sliding door shut behind him.
"We're going to have to follow him onto the surface, aren't we," Fenn Rau noted dryly.
Percy chuckled. "It's almost as though you know him already. Ten of your best fighters?"
"Done. I will keep the remaining men in the air. You will lead from here?" Rau asked of the Republic Admiral.
"Dodonna is good enough, Rau. I will fight."
"Then return, Tritonis," Rau demanded. "It is no use to your people if you find yourself dead at the whims of a Jetii."
"For most Jetii, Rau, I would agree. For this one, however? I could deal with that pain."
"So him and that girl from Anaxes, Tritonis?" the Protector dug, "My my, your father not be pleased with the Aruetii you call friends."
"Ah, go kriff yourself Rau," Percy grumbled. "Prepared to deploy in ten, we'll need a Komr'k to get the warriors on the ground."
"Elek Al'verde," Rau responded formally, though the smile remained on his face. "We'll be out there and ready for your Jetii friend to have his fun. Remember to tell the General on the ground that she's getting support; as amusing as it would be to see you shot to pieces as you drop in, I'm sending my warriors in there too."
"As I said, Rau, go Kriff yourself."
RSD Quellor, Mygeeto System, Albarrio Sector, 19 BBY
Twenty one Mandalorian-made ships left the top-sided hangar of Dodonna's ship, the Quellor. They flew in tight formation, shielding the largest of their number - a Komr'k-Class troop transport, carrying eleven Mandalorian Warriors, armed to the teeth, and the Jedi Knight who would lead them into battle.
As was expected, they met little to no resistance in the upper atmosphere of the war-torn planet, Separatist Air Support long having been shot to pieces by Dodonna's superior Torrent Starfighters. Their targets were on the ground, either huge swathes of droids like the hordes that currently advanced upon the Clones occupying the Southern Mesa, or the heavier opposition that General Mundi's troops were facing.
Either way, they would meet stiff resistance.
"Dropping in thirty seconds, Sir," the Pilot informed in his native Mando'a over the comm, "Tell the Jetii to prepare his sorcery so that he doesn't go splat on the ground."
Percy relayed the message to Nico, who laughed blandly. "Now that would be some way to go," he mused.
The doors opened up below them, and the carrier seats of the Komr'k were lowered , exposing Percy, Nico and the ten warriors who accompanied them to Mygeeto for the first time.
Percy switched on the closed channel communicator. "Heads up, men. Orders are to hold position until the transports get here to relieve us. We're expecting a counterattack of unknown strength, but we do know that they have no heavy capacity. We are the best soldiers on that shab'la mesa. We don't die today."
"Air support, Admiral?" one Protector asked.
"Rau will return once his first mission is complete. We do not foresee complications in that time. If we are set upon, we fight."
He glanced around, and, upon receiving nods of affirmation, he pushed off.
He let himself fall for some time as he hurtled towards the battle, and his troops followed his lead. A motion of his hand had his rangefinder slotting over his left eye, granting him a more detailed view of the battlefield in front of him.
It wasn't as though it was required, though as an explosion rocked the apparently clear portion of the mesa which the strike team had been requested at. The bridge connecting the spire to the one adjacent collapsed with a heaving groan, and the debris tumbled to the depths below.
Percy paused, engaging his Mitrinomon Transports Z-6 Jetpack, the steady whoosh of fuel slowing his descent and allowing him to get his bearings with what had quickly become a drastically different battlefield. Immediately, he switched to the open channel used by Republic troops, tuning his communicator to the one which he had been told that Commander Grey favoured for his troops.
"We're cut off!" a clone lamented on the Mesa, and Percy could appreciate the sentiment. Already, the Komr'k was too far gone to grant them an immediate extraction, and even then, there were too many of them to be removed from the top of the mesa immediately.
The grim voice of Styles, however, pointed out the more pressing issue.
Clambering up the metal pillars of the mesa was a horde of battle droids, unseen to those on top of the column as a result of the overhanging lip.
"Billaba to Grey," the Master spoke over the comm, "We need extraction, Fast."
"Roger that. Locked on your signal, General. ETA of Four Minutes."
Unfortunately, the Droids wouldn't give them that time. Already, a few began to clamber over the edge, and Nico wasn't all that far from joining the pair of Jedi and the two clones who accompanied them on the platform.
Percy sprung into action, diving towards the column, one WESTAR-35 Blaster Pistol already engaging the droids as they ascended the columns, and the second hand fiddling with the settings of his vambrace until he heard the soft click that he was looking for, paired with a flash in the corner of the Heads Up Display that occupied his helmet's visor.
When he squeezed, a stream of flame burst from the vambrace, the fire superheating electrical systems and sending droids tumbling down, considerably less functional than they had started the climb.
His fuel gauge, however, put an end to his fun. Already, he had expended twenty percent of his jetpack's range, and that was far too useful to deal with wasting further.
"Admiral Perseus Jackson," Depa Billaba greeted as she fought, "It has been quite some time."
Percy laughed behind his helmet as he picked off two more droids with his twin blasters, the flamethrower on his vambrace being saved for a more pressing time. "I never did get the chance to say thanks, and I didn't think that you'd particularly enjoy me showing up wherever it is that you Jedi go when you die."
Billaba laughed just as mirthlessly as her sabre decapitated a pair of droids. "My master has spoken highly of you for some time. Maybe the force willed it."
"I'll entertain the idea if we walk off this mesa, General," Percy bantered back to the Jedi Master as he sent off a sonic pulse at a B2 Super Battle Droid, knocking it and several others off the platform as it was thrown back.
On the opposite side of the Mesa platform, Nico was in very much the same situation, his green sabre slashing through the air as he laid waste to the enemy. On one side of him was Billaba's padawan, Caleb Dume, his own blue blade swinging with reckless abandon as he and the pair of clones that had been with the Jedi covered all that breached his ring of kyber.
On his right, however, were a group of people who he could never have imagined that he'd be on the same side as in a fight.
A group of Mandalorian Warriors made full use of their considerable arsenal as they defended the open sector of the mesa against the greatest portion of the droid force. The low roars of flamethrowers and the shrill screams of Whistling Bird guided light missiles pierced the air as they sought to do as they did best - wreak havoc among their enemy, and win the battle.
Nico, for his own part, found himself out of his comfort zone . Normally, he would have been able to fight as he loved to fight, making use of all the space he had available on flat ground.
Here, however, his task was far simpler, and yet it was so much more exhausting.
Again and again, he had to slash and hack at the seemingly unending horde of droids, no relief behind him so that he could take a rest from the mental exhaustion of the fight, and no sight of a victory.
If they were getting out of this fight, Rau needed to return, now.
"Time to extraction?" Billaba asked over the communicator, a hint of desperation in her voice.
"We're two minutes out, General," was Styles' reply.
"I'm not," another voice cut in, before the crackling of the radio was drowned out by the sound of Starfighter Engines.
Screaming in from the south side came a division of Fang Starfighters, Rau's own distinctive craft leading the pack. Laser bolts struck down swathes of droids, causing the fragile column that remained of what had once been a mesa to shudder at the level of ordnance striking it.
"Thank you, Rau, though I'll ask that you keep going with your fancy flying," Percy called back over the comm, eliciting a laugh from the Protector as he returned for a second pass.
On the third, the enemy line broke.
Precisely a minute later, the gunships arrived, ready to take the beleaguered Republic troops back to the Base Camp.
Percy would receive a call from High Command summoning him back to the Core that night, and he would bid farewell to Billaba and Dodonna immediately. He and the Jedi who had accompanied him there were taken on the shuttle that had brought the invasion force's supplies to take a ride back towards Outer Rim Command on Anaxes, before taking one of his own shuttles to his posting.
The meeting, as it turned out, would be one of huge magnitude.
Galactic Naval Admiralty, Coruscant, 19 BBY
"We have intelligence to suggest that General Grievous has discovered a previously undiscovered Hyperspace Lane, directly into the Galactic core," Master Obi Wan Kenobi informed the massed Council and Admiralty. "We are unsure of what kind of force he means to bring to the Core, and indeed, when, though we can be sure that it is significant."
"This is… most unsettling," Chancellor Palpatine noted thoughtfully, "How shall we counter this, Master Jedi?"
"With all respect, General Yoda," Admiral Pallas Athena cut in before the wizened Jedi could weigh in, "I would suggest that the Navy be placed in charge of the initial defence - our business is the use of and destruction of ships, while your Jedi are experts in combat."
"Right, you are, Admiral," Yoda conceded, "But lead the defence, who will?"
"You, of course, Master," Master Windu replied matter-of-factly. "Who else?"
The Grand Master considered this for a moment, before shaking his head slowly. "Sense darkness, I do, Master Windu," he murmured, "counter it, I must."
"And I have full faith that you will do so, Master Jedi," Palpatine encouraged.
"I nominate Jackson for the role," Admiral Hermes Dolios declared, a few of the other elder Fleet Admirals nodding along, though the Mandalorian in question was a notable absentee from his own supporters.
"This isn't my battle to fight from the ground, Hermes," he responded respectfully, "I've fought battles of the like, yes, but I couldn't possibly consider myself over veterans of both this war and the Hyperspace War. Your own ability to outmanoeuvre the enemy and excellent use of inner-unit communications would do us well in this battle."
The man nodded thoughtfully, though he made no comment on the nomination.
"Suppose a Jedi were to lead the battle?" Phoebe Artemis offered to the room, the second youngest of the Fleet Admirals of the Republic making herself heard, "Skywalker, for instance?"
The man from Tatooine, however, wasn't having any of it. "I'm good in the field, Admiral," he explained. "I'm certainly not the right sort to trust with a planetary defence. Point out Grievous' ship and I'll kill him, sure, but don't stick me in a control room."
Those present nodded once more, and the meeting fell silent once more.
"Or if each of you were to take a section of the battle?" Obi Wan prompted, drawing eyes back upwards to face him, "Would that work?"
"But then we would require a single coordinator, would we not?" Yularen pointed out. "None of us is quite good enough to command an entire armada, surely?"
"Then lead it, I will," Yoda decided with grim finality. "In charge of the protection of the Chancellor, Master Windu and Master Shaak Ti and Knight Skywalker will be."
Yularen bowed, and the meeting for the night was concluded.
Jedi Temple, Coruscant, 19 BBY
Nico had found himself somewhat out of the loop of late. Even more frustratingly, despite all the signs that he had noticed through the force that something was afoot, those around him seemed resolute in their lack of information given.
When he had been called to the roof of the Temple by his former Master, therefore, he had hoped for the information that he was lacking.
"Nico," his former Master began, slowly and gently, "I have felt something in the force."
Nico looked up from his meditation, head cocked to one side in curiosity, though the pair of them both knew that the Umbaran had felt it too. "What, Master? What have you seen?"
"There will be a wave of dark that overcomes the light, my Padawan. I fear that the Jedi Order will cease to exist."
The Umbaran breathed deeply, sinking back into his meditation, and yet continuing to speak.
"Your words are damning, Master, but I believe that I have felt it too. There is a cloud hanging over the Temple, and it has only grown over the course of this war. The Order has been my life since the age of three, and yet now I am resigned to its failure."
"You show a wisdom that I never taught you, Nico," Kenobi complimented, "it stands a testament to your strength in the Force, and of your ability to use it well."
The Fifteen-year-old made no comment, merely humming slightly as he considered the words.
"You told me once, Master, that it is through our actions that we are remembered, now our words. You may not have been given the time to teach me the lessons in wisdom that you had once wished to teach, but I learned them from you all the same, through your manner, and through your deeds."
Kenobi smiled.
A/N
Happy Birthday to a certain Perseus Jackson, technically using '05 as the year for TLT, he's thirty at this point, which is weird as hell, but hey, apparently he's not eighteen yet.
Shorter chapter this time, but equally there wasn't nearly enough to cover, with the small amount of content available. My choices were either to use Mygeeto, the prelude to Mandalore from S7 (early Bad Batch content and such) or just skip straight to the Battle of Coruscant, which I could use both the original 2003 miniseries and the movie to write.
I decided that I didn't want a huge gap in time (because even Mandalore is pretty close to Coruscant) so here we are, with Fenn Rau, who will obviously reappear, and a second throwaway reference to Caleb Dume.
Next up I'm throwing myself into the Battle of Coruscant and especially what I want to come after that. Not the end of the story, either - I'm looking at a few more chapters covering the decommissioning of the clones, a few of Percy's little projects along the way, and a few other things that I've not so subtly hinted at this chapter.
Thanks to Dudududhehe for his help in betaing and fact-checking me here, a great writer in his own right. Check out his stuff if you somehow haven't already.
Until next time then,
Sol
I don't own Star Wars, Percy Jackson or any related media.