Star Wars: The Hero's Descent

Chapter 8: Order 66

Chancellor Palpatine glowered under his cowl, watching the Coruscanti skyline as the people of this world and the galaxy it controlled went about their business, oblivious to what was about to happen. What he was going to make happen.

A knock on the door.

'Enter.'

'Your Excellency, we have received word from Utapau. Grievous is dead.' Mas Amedda entered the room, watching closely for his Chancellor's reaction.

A little soon... He needed more time...

The Chancellor nodded. 'How?'

Amedda paused. 'He was killed by the Jedi, my Lord.'

'Which one?'

'Master Skywalker, I believe, though the reports are giving Master Kenobi the credit.'

Excellent.

'Then perhaps this exercise has yielded results after all,' the Chancellor mused. He finally turned to face his adviser. 'Contact Lama Su. Tell him to put the contingency in place. The Jedi have deviated from the plan. I will not leave anything to chance.'

Amedda bowed low. 'As you wish.' He exited quietly, obeying the dismissal. After a moment, the Chancellor followed. He would not give up the emergency powers given to him by the Senate and the Jedi would come to arrest him. The old man smiled.

He would be waiting.

'Master Yoda, you wished to speak with me?'

'Master Windu, heard the news, have you?' the holo of Jedi Grandmaster Yoda looked pensive, elsewhere.

Mace nodded. 'Yes, Master. Grievous is dead. There is nothing left of the Separatist leadership. The war is all but over.'

'Careful we must be now,' Yoda instructed. 'Dangerous times lie ahead. Surrounds the Chancellor the Dark Side does. Discussed this before, we have. Decide our next move, his actions will.'

'I understand, Master,' Mace agreed. 'Is this why you kept me here on Coruscant?'

Yoda nodded. 'Necessary was removing Skywalker from the Chancellor's proximity, and trust this task to no one else, I do.'

'Master?'

'Go to the Senate, you must. Find out if under the influence of the Sith, the Chancellor is.'

Mace frowned. 'The Dark Side has clouded our judgement. What makes you think we can sense the Sith now?'

'Sense the Sith, we cannot. But monitor the Chancellor's actions we can,' Yoda replied.

Mace nodded. 'And if the Chancellor does not immediately give back his emergency powers, then we know we are correct,' he finished.

'If give back the emergency powers, the Chancellor does not, arrest him, you must.'

Palpatine surveyed the damage done to his office with a grimace of satisfaction. The Jedi had walked right into his trap. Unfortunately, one Jedi still remained out of his reach. Decades of planning had gone into this moment, and he was determined to see it through.

'Your Excellency?' Amedda queried. 'What do you wish to do now?'

'We proceed as planned,' the Chancellor replied, pulling his hood over his now deformed face. His true face. 'The Jedi will be labelled traitors, hunted down and exterminated.'

'But, Your Excellency!' Amedda protested. 'Skywalker was not there to-'

'I will come up with some other explanation for the deaths of the Jedi, do not concern yourself with that. However, we mustn't waste any time.' The Chancellor called on the Force and a lightsaber flew into his palm. It wasn't his own, this one was a Jedi's weapon, the crystal inside, a Jedi's, aligned with the light, but perhaps it was fitting for what he planned to do with it. At any rate, it would serve his purpose until his own could be retrieved.

Ideally, he would have no need of it until later, and a new Sith would move against the Jedi whilst he stayed under the guise of Palpatine, turning the public view in their favour. However, he had no new Sith, yet, and he had no time to waste. As soon as the Jedi found out the proximity of Darth Sidious, the Temple would be swarming with the Jedi scum.

'See that no one disturbs my office until I return,' the Chancellor ordered.

Amedda nodded and, not for the first time, the Chancellor was amused by the slime's selfish ability to not ask unpleasant questions. 'Yes, my Lord.'

'Has the contingency been put in place?'

'Just as you requested, my Lord.'

'Good. I have no more need of you tonight. Leave me.'

As the advisor took his leave, the Chancellor opened up a communications channel.

'Commander Cody. The time has come. Execute Order 66.'

'Anakin, we need to talk.'

Anakin looked down at his former master with his signature smirk. It belied the fact that he'd rather never have the conversation Obi-Wan was so obviously wanting to. 'Can this wait until after we win?' he asked, dismounting from the varactyl and allowing Obi-Wan to take his place.

Obi-Wan had been discussing strategy with Commander Cody, who now stood silently between the two Jedi Masters, while Anakin, astride his mount, weaved about the battle raging around them, mobilising the local Utapauan warriors against the Confederate army. A mortar explosion punctuated Anakin's question and Obi-Wan conceded the point for now.

'Fine,' he sighed. 'But we do need to talk. And you're following me,' he added as a clone trooper lead another veractyl towards them. This one seemed to be a little more skittish than Obi-Wan's, but it was transport. 'Come on!'

Anakin mounted his veractyl and grinned. 'Yes master.'

They rode upwards, the veractyls' ability to climb the small tracks that criss-crossed the sheer rock face of the sinkholes that housed the Utapauan city far surpassing any Republic - or Seperatist - transport their engineers had to offer. With every round of cannon fire Anakin's veractyl shuddered, but never once were they close to falling so Anakin just decided to enjoy the ride.

They were heading towards the main battle, which was taking place a few levels up, and then Anakin was going to assist the space battle that would be occurring in a few minutes when the Seperatist back up surely arrived. Or didn't. Either way, Anakin would be needed in flight soon enough.

Anakin glanced down at the platform they had left, hundreds of metres below. Clones were rushing back and forth in a frenzy that was too chaotic to make out at this distance. Tanks were being aimed, weapons readied, cannons fired at the swarms of battle droids and... them?

'Master!' Anakin yelled, grabbing Obi-Wan's attention. The older Jedi was ahead of him, focused on the cliff-face and the climb, lightsaber safely clipped to his belt where it had stayed since Cody had returned it to him. Obi-Wan turned a little in the saddle, but he was still facing directly away from Anakin when the rock wall in front of them exploded.

Obi-Wan and his veractyl were launched from the cliff face to a haze of dust, fire and white-noise. Anakin was barely aware that he, too, was falling, the shockwave from the blast hitting him squarely in the chest and then he was going down down down down.

He tried to scream Obi-Wan's name but either no sound was coming out of his mouth or he was dying because he couldn't hear a thing over the intense ringing in his ears and the strangely distant rush of air as he plummeted through empty space. His throat was raw already and amongst all the confusion one thought seemed to rise above the others and it had nothing to do with the water rushing up to swallow him and everything to do with how he'd promised Padmé that he'd come back to her.

Then he hit the water and nothing mattered but the cold.