[17 BBY]

[House of Wisdom, Personal Deck of Moff Daron Stormcrow, Eriadu Authority Capital-class Warship Stormcrow, Strikeforce Templar, Republic 5th Fleet, unnamed system, Wildspace Border Regions]

Ahsoka Tano told herself she was not pouting. No, she was not. No matter what Master Secura now said with a teasing chuckle, before the twi'lek, and Eriadu allied, Jedi turned her attention back to Stormy "Keeping secrets as always oh glorious Moff?"

"Yes, because, as some put it, I'm paranoid apparently" Bariss's…lover…and sort-of-warlord replied with tired amusement "But considering the Jedi text records I gave over I assumed certain people guessed at it"

Ahsoka watched the now Master, and according to Obi-Wan she had to still call her a Knight, give a shrug, lekku bouncing as she looked around in a faux dramatic manner "Records, yes, this…no. Why did you leave the Temple when you recreated on a giant warship?"

"I did not recreate the Temple Aayla"

Master-Knight Secura rolled her eyes, arms folding across her chest "Daron Stormcrow. You have a mediation garden out there….with a calming pool in it for Force sake!"

"Yes, it is very calming" Barriss teased in that polite barely noticed way of hers as Ahsoka gave her friend the stink eye as Bariss pretended to read a book "He was very good to show me this place and the library here. I prefer the library actually"

"Sure, you do!" Ahsoka huffed arms across her chest, glaring at Stormy "Now you show me this? Now! I'll only be here weeks more at most!"

Bariss looked up from her book and gave Ahsoka a look, while Master-Knight Secura looked teasingly at her instead "Padawan Tano, I heard stories about your not being fond of the Library in the Temple…"

Ahsoka, of course defended herself "I went to the Temple Library lots of times!"

"Lightsaber battles with thieves does not count Soka!"

She did not pout back at Bariss. No, she gave her a glare. Yes. That second one "Sure it does! I was there! There were books and…"

"…and there will be no lightsaber duels in my Library Jedi Knight Tano, are we clear?"

And suddenly Stormy was Jocasta Nu, and Ahsoka fidgeted flushing in embarrassment with a small 'Yessir' in response as he shook his head, sighed "Anyway, back to what I was saying before, apparently, having to state the obvious. Since my Battle Meditation is, well, out in the open as it were, I'm less inclined to be as restrained as one had been till now"

Ahsoka looked up, trying not to be mad but asking the question that came to mind "Ventress has access?"

"For months now, yes, along with Naa'leth and Karis, though neither of them are much interested, instead spending free time either training with lightsabers or sunning themselves on the R decks" came back the blunt statement as Ahsoka glared, Master-Knight Secura gave a nod as she frowned deeply, and Bariss looked back into her book "I cut a deal with Asajj after all, and that deal was for knowledge, in this case Jedi knowledge, even if much of it is very old. She helped me recover it from an old Jedi site after all"

Aayla Secura sighed deeply, looking back up at Stormy "I'm not even going to bother with telling you how dangerous such things are. I only hope that they are secure"

"That, they are, and being catalogued. I've already destroyed a few Sith artefacts as Celeste Morne will confirm if you ask" Stormy stated as Ahsoka looked about nervously, then he looked at her "You can tell Kenobi and his little band about that too by the way. Along with my willingness to trade records as I suspect they too have only a fraction of the Temple Library…"

He sighed, closing his eyes as if in pain "So much lost"

"You're only telling me now!" Ahsoka repeated again, glaring. The….'Battle Meditation' had been strange, unnerving, like she'd been standing naked in an artic blizzard, then suddenly thrust in the eye of a storm. One that was just as cold, but also serene and focused, as if she was part of a greater whole "And…letting me read about it instead of explaining it…"

"Ahsoka" Aayla Secura said glancing at her "It's Daron, it's rarely that easy, also he's rather busy to try and explain something that is very complex and uncommon. You are, remember…sort of enemies, you know?"

The twi'lek woman shrugged "And it's rude to start training another Master's Padawan without permission, and Daron here has very different interpretations of the Force than many in the Temple. Especially those around Obi-wan and Skywalker. It would be best if you didn't return home sounding off words like our lovely Force using rogue here"

Stormy frowned but nodded "I wouldn't put it that way exactly, but sort of, even time for this little meeting is harder than I'd like. So, rather than tell you what it is, and why I believe I'm right, I'm letting you access to the texts here, which have explanations and theories that I'm comfortable with, and letting you come to your own conclusions on them. Also show you, physically, that these records exist"

"And keep you distracted while all the fighting is on" Bariss offered without looking up from her book "We can be study buddies again….meaning I'll study and you can stare blankly at the pages"

She had to defend herself as that was…mostly…not true "Hey!"

"Ehem" Stormy interrupted with a fake cough "The other reasons is the agreement between the Senators, between our governments that don't quite recognise each, in that our respective civilian leaderships are not actively at war now. It is the same reason that Commander Rex and the good Senator now have access to expanded systems themselves. Oh, and turning over the records of this Grysk Hegemony in the interests of peace"

'And because they are a threat to everyone' Ahsoka thought, even if the current ones were only a 'vanguard' or 'scouting force' according to Stormy. But that was for later, and she had Jedi books to study no matter how boring it might be…

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[17 BBY]

[Confederacy of Independent Systems Warship Invulnerable, Providence-class Dreadnaught, Confederate 2nd Fleet, Combined Fleet Operation's Dooku's Justice, in orbit Chardaan, Chardaan System, Inner Rim, intersection of: Hydian Way, Itani Run, and Shipwright's Trace Hyperlanes]

'So, this is what it means it appears to mine eyes' Admiral Trench wondered unhappily, the Harch clicking his mandibles in agitation as the grinding battle continued. Watching as the Chardaan Shipyards were systematically wrecked by his fleet, watching as a prize they wanted had to be ruined due to the suicidal defence taking place in this system. Damaged Republic vessels were near and within the orbital shipyards, their shields overlapping with yards, and with what looked to theatre shields and even city shield, along with bizarre things like ground tanks and turbolaster batteries mixed in.

The planet itself was even worse, the planetary shield up and masses of ion canons, turbolasers, and even railguns of all things dug in and opening up at anything that came into reach. Theatre and city shields shone down there as well, along with the capital city of the world, and the groundside shipyards, ringed by half a dozen Lucrehulks sans they hyperspace core modules. Instead, they looked to have extra power generators in their place, along with kriffing grav projectors that might have dated back the Sith Wars he imagined. This whole system had been turned into insanity; - grav-well projectors, hyperspace mines, mines at the edge of every hyperspace exit, and ground vehicles in kriffin space.

'To the Bitter End. Well, it seems those intercepts were correct on Republic plans' he watched slamming his metallic hand on an armrest as another of his assault ships was wrecked as the charged under the shields of the shipyards to try disgorging yet more droid forces to seize it. Though it was more the Tarkin Eriadu Warlord Military plans Trech knew, watching it all on the displays as his fleet continued its fire support as his droid army was met with the local droid army. Itself backed up by suicidal organic lunatics consumed with hatred of the CIS.

'I'd kriffing use every blaster I own on Grievous right now if I could get him back from the dead, the wretched kriffer' was his immediate thoughts as the current band of murderous, suicidal, lunatics defending the system seemed to be drawn from people with a personal grudge against the Separatist cause. From the madman they'd appointed as Military Governor whose family had died in some Grievous preformed atrocity or another, down to the Republic troopers blowing themselves up instead of surrendering like normal sentients!

Not that there was a vast number of organics leading the critical defence areas as best the Harch could tell so far – they didn't trust the locals not to surrender so the 'defenders' were surprisingly large in non-human numbers all in all. What's worse the Tarkinists had had control of many, many, Techno Union and Trade Federation droid facilities that they'd captured over the early war, and they were showing that now. Backing up those fanatical divisions of suicidal organics were Legions of droids of every type, all modified, but all similar to Trech's own command. Even worse there were raider-craft down there, so he would either have to batter down the defences and neutralise the location or leave a strong picket he'd prefer to have for the next phase of the Operation.

"But first…these damn grav projectors and mine fields" he growled to no-one in particular, then command the various droids "Send in the fifth wave of the assault. Break through the defences there no matter the cost! Fourth squadron to move up and concentrate turbolaser fire. Bring down the shields in that section even if you have to blast those hangers to pieces!"

In the end it took another eleven hours of relentless assaults with his own droid force, and even then, it took throwing in thousands of his elite Morgukai Shadow Army clone shock troopers to finally break the back of defence of just the orbital shipyards. It had been a brutal, relentless, contest that seemed to have a clash for every room, every inch of the now smoking yards as internal hangers burned out into the smoke and final assaults were prepared. The turbolaser defences of the yards were down, and grav-projector was flickering in and out on his sensors as the stations power fluctuated badly as the planet waited beyond that for Trench's forces to assault.

Twice small raiding forces had risen up to probe at his defences, each time organic starfighters backed up by local droid-fighters and bombers, and both times they'd been easily driven off. But it was an annoying reminder that such things would have to be dealt with and couldn't be left in their rear even as the fleet advance. Sieging the planet, along with direct ground assault, looked to be the only viable option….and that was going to take weeks or even months he worried. Republic forces there were well entrenched and prepared for just that option, and he had the forces to do it and continue the advance…

'But the Council are not going to be happy about this, nor the rest of the General Staff' he admitted to himself when he returned on shift after a long rest to find the fighting still ongoing. Chardaan was a particular problematic and simply couldn't be bypassed with its strategic location on the hyperlanes. Not with the Republic remnants growing ever more insane, and ever more willing to commit war crimes. War crimes like actively mining the hyperlanes like the dark times before Ruusan or attempting to cause grav-disturbances on the hyperlanes like they were here on Chardaan.

"Transmission from the shipyards Admiral Sir" one of the B-1s said "What do I do?"

'Oh, someone sees sense at the end' he thought darkly "Well put them through then"

"Roger, Roger"

…and it wasn't a voice on the other end. It was…

Music?

Trench frowned "Is that the anthem of the Galactic Republic?"

"Roger, Roger, it is a pre-Ruusan variant according to…"

…and the B-1 got no further, or at least Trench stopped listening, instead jolting up to stand from his command chair as explosions began to rip through large parts of the wrecked shipyards. Then watched as a massive explosion ripped apart the remaining holdout sections as some insane sentient caused the hardened hyperfuel and munitions storage depots to detonate…

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