Hello, everybody! Jack of Knaves here, and welcome back to The Prodigal Knight Returns!
Before we kick things off for this chapter, I thought I'd talk a bit about my plans for how Revan's war machine works once she enters The Clone Wars. Originally, my plan was for the Foundry to be able to remotely operate several Star Forges to produce her army and call it a day. But, playing through the Old Republic MMORPG has given me a few ideas for different ways to provide Revan with a powerful Rakatan-technology-made droid army and fleet. Here's what I have in mind.
The Foundry will produce Revan's soldiers, with an upgraded and refurbished HK-47 and his heroic comedic homicidal tendencies as their commander. Meanwhile, another Star Forge will provide Revan with her fleet and space combat droids once again (before I forget, I should probably mention that, in the flashpoint mission where the Sith Warrior/Sith Inquisitor/Imperial Agent/Bounty Hunter strikes down Revan, Malgus and the Grand Moff guy mention the Star Forges in the plural, which seems to indicate to me that there are in fact multiple Star Forge shipyards out there, hidden throughout the galaxy, and that, aside from the one that was destroyed by the Jedi and the Republic in the Light Side ending of KOTOR 1, with Revan having found a few of them, keeping their locations in his, or in this case her, back pocket, just in case.)
As for equipment, gear, and whatnot, that will be provided by the Infinite Engine. Or perhaps, the Infinite Engines. You see, odds are very likely that the engine Revan made was either taken by the Sith Empire, or had a seed taken from it, and THEN was taken by the Sith Empire, which presents an opportunity for storytelling by allowing me to create an arc where Revan has to run around the galaxy with the Jedi, Sith, and who-knows-who-else hot on her heels trying to find and recover the Infinite Engine or Infinite Engines, as well as facing the revelation that those slaves she'd brought there or their descendants had waited for her to return for centuries. Also, the Infinite Engine could be used as a bargaining chip to get planets that were caught in the crossfire between the Republic and the CIS on her side by using it to basically reset everything to the way it was before the war came along and destroyed everything. That being said, I'm still fine-tuning the details of this arc, so it might take some time before I can perfect it.
Well, I've gone on for long enough. Let's get started!
Chapter Five: The Ultimate Jedi Trap
While it had taken a bit of work to get out of Florum's orbit and make the jump to lightspeed do to the lack of a co-pilot, something she needed to look into correcting, Revan was ultimately able to get the coordinates to her intended destination punched in thanks to the Force.
As she sat at the dejarik table in the passenger bay of the newly christened Millenium Falcon, looking over the more recent history of the galaxy, Revan smelled a rat, one that had seemingly gone completely unnoticed by the Jedi. Then again, she had perfected killing Jedi and turning them to both the Dark Side and her cause to a science, so maybe they weren't entirely to blame for this massive oversight. But, all the same, that was no excuse for how lax and ultimately stagnant the Jedi had been.
What in the Force's name are the Masters of this age even teaching younglings and Padawans? thought Revan, unmasked once again, as she looked over the information she'd taken from the Jedi Archives.
From what she could tell, until the blockade and subsequent invasion of the sovereign system of Naboo by an organization known as the Trade Federation over taxation of trade routes (which struck Revan as odd, considering that Naboo could easily withstand a blockade as Naboo was very similar to Dantooine in several respects) and the revelation that a separatist movement known as the Confederacy of Independent Systems had been building a droid army with which to overrun the Republic, the Jedi had been all but resting on their laurels for generations, during which time the Sith had been presumed to be all but extinct, only to pop up again as the masterminds behind the Naboo blockade and the ones pulling the separatists' strings.
But, that wasn't the half of it. For some reason, some idiot politician thought it was a good idea for the Republic to dissolve its army, only for a completely unknown individual called Tyrannus, which sounded suspiciously like a Sith pseudonym to Revan, to swoop in and hire a Mandalorian bounty hunter called Jango Fett to be the original host for a clone army that was to be the Grand Army of the Republic to fight the separatist droid armies, and thus began the Clone Wars, during which the Jedi had transitioned remarkably well from their roles as peacekeepers to frontline generals, which admittedly did not do much for Revan's impression of them in this era, though at least they weren't sticking their heads in the sand like the Jedi of her era had, so there was that.
While on the surface, nothing seemed suspicious outside of the whole mystery man whose name sounded suspiciously Sith-like ordering a clone army for the Republic bit, but Revan couldn't help but notice the mention in the data she'd taken from the Jedi Archives that ever since he'd gotten his emergency powers, the Supreme Chancellor, a old man named Palpatine that Revan vaguely recognized as having been among those present when she'd arrived in this era, had not only been in office far longer than his term would normally allow, but had been taking more and more power and authority away from the Senate and consolidating that power for himself, which raised more than a few red flags in Revan's book, especially considering how much Palpatine professed his love for democracy. Plus, Palpatine was a Naboo native and had first been elected into office during the Trade Federation's blockade and invasion of Naboo, which struck Revan as a bit too convenient.
Revan closed her eyes and thought about this information. Admittedly, she didn't trust these Clone Troopers. Apart from the guy who ordered the army sounding suspiciously like a Sith, there were simply too many unknowns where they were concerned, though using a Mandalorian as the original host was a good call, considering the Mandalorians she had fought against and alongside.
As for the Republic… While it still resembled the Republic of Revan's era on the surface, the sheer amount of power the Supreme Chancellor was amassing was making it seem increasingly less of a democracy and more of an autocracy akin to the Vitiate's Sith Empire that she'd made it her life's work to burn to the ground.
If the picture that this data Revan had obtained from the Archives was correct, then that meant these Clone Wars were in truth two Sith Lords smashing their toys together in a proxy war that would likely end with the destruction of the Jedi Order.
Master Kreia was right, thought Revan. The death of the Republic is indeed such a quiet thing… no one has even realized it's already happened…
Indeed, from where Revan was sitting, the Republic and Jedi Order were already lost in what Revan could safely say was the ultimate Jedi trap. By fighting at all, the Jedi had doomed the Republic and sealed their fates. The best Revan could do at this point was salvage and save who and what she could, so that the Republic and its keepers of the peace could be reborn from ashes.
In order to do that, however, she would need to enter the Clone Wars as a third contender, which would put her into conflict with not only the CIS, but regrettably, the Republic and the Jedi, or at least, what passed for the Republic and Jedi in this era. Such a thing would need resources, an army, a fleet, a power base, and a multitude of other things that Revan didn't have right now. Thankfully, Revan had something of a remedy for some of those discrepancies.
Revan's eyes opened as she heard the familiar alarm coming from the cockpit of the Falcon, indicating that she would need to pull out of light speed shortly, as the ship was nearing its destination.
It was time to get to work.
Jedi Temple-Briefing Room
"And we should believe this 'intel' you have regarding the fugitive we're after, because why, exactly?" Anakin said with a stoney expression and his arms crossed as he looked upon the holographic form Hondo Ohnaka. With him were Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Barris, and Adi Gallia, while Chancellor Palpatine was listening in via a three-way conference transmission.
"Oh, come now, Skywalker, I know we've had our problems, no thanks to your sidekick-" Hondo said as he shot Ahsoka an irritated glare, to which Ahsoka scoffed and rolled her eyes, before continuing. "-but in truth, I want to bring this maniac down as much as any of you do. She wipes out my crew on Coruscant and takes the sole survivor hostage, breaks into my base, slaughters more of my men, and steals my new top-of-the-line Corellian Freighter? Oh, you bet I wanna make her pay! But, as I'm more of an information broker, I thought it best to alert the proper authorities better suited to deal with such problems."
"Speaking of dealing… I assume you want some form of reward for bringing us this information?" asked Palpatine.
"Oh, you wound me, your Chancellorness!" said Hondo. "Tell you what, my price for this information is… absolutely nothing! Simply take her down, and I'll call it square."
The surprise among the Jedi was palpable.
"I… I think the stress from the war is finally getting to me," said Anakin. "Because I could swear I just heard Hondo Ohnaka actually turn down a reward for giving us information on a fugitive."
"I believe I might be in that delirium with you, Anakin," said Obi-Wan.
"Ha ha, very funny," said Hondo. "Now then, let's get right to it. Thanks to my foresight in installing a cleverly hidden tracker on my new freighter, I can tell you exactly where that masked maniac is heading. Let's see here… huh… now what in green blazes does she want on that ice block of a world?"
"So, where's she going? Hoth? Illium? Corellia?" asked Barris.
"None of the above, actually," said Hondo. "She's headed to Rekkiad."
The Jedi frowned in confusion as they glanced among themselves.
"That's puzzling. Rekkiad's about as barren as Hoth, so why is Revan going there?" asked Obi-Wan.
"Regardless, we know where she's heading next. We need to get to Rekkiad before Revan gets away again. Let's move out!" said Anakin.
Chancellor Palpatine's Office-A Few Moments Later
Palpatine frowned in thought as the transmission ended. From what information he'd perused through his personal archive, he knew that Revan had stopped on the planet Rekkiad a number of times, though he lacked the information as to why she'd go there.
A sinister thought weaved its way through Palpatine's mind. He knew that Revan had been working on several projects that pushed the limits of what the Force could do. Perhaps she'd hidden one of these projects somewhere on Rekkiad? Anything that Revan had been working on would undoubtedly be a huge boon for him and his designs.
Regardless, he now knew where Revan was heading, and he needed to be sure this was the true Lord of Revenge, rather than some exceptionally powerful pretender wearing her robes and mask.
Palpatine began typing on a message on his personal terminal.
Revan has been located. Planet Rekkiad. Deploy Ventress and a strike force of battle droids, commando droids, and droidekas. Search the planet for anything of note. I want to know what Revan is doing on that ice block.
Palpatine read through the message, then sent it to Count Dooku.
Padmè Amidala's Apartment
As she sat in the living room of her luxurious apartment as darkness began to fall on Coruscant, Padmè found herself facing a daunting challenge of a puzzle as to the identity of her attacker.
She couldn't even imagine the stress Ani was under, with a break-in at the Jedi Temple that saw his padawan getting hurt, on top of the culprit of both said break-in and the attack on the Chancellor's office getting away, all this on top of the war and keeping their marriage a secret. She knew her husband was strong in more than just the Force, but still…
Padmè frowned as she looked at the report that one of her contacts had forwarded to her. This was supposed to be the uncensored version of the report, filed before it hit the public servers. And yet, there was an awful lot of redacted information in it regardless.
Padmè frowned at this. Who could possibly have enough clout to redact information from a report before it hit the servers?
And that's a bingo! If you liked what you saw here, be sure to fave, follow, review, and join us next time as Revan goes toe-to-toe with the strike team sent to bring her in, only for the situation to get real complicated real fast! See you then!