The Tragedy of the Sith, and the Treachery of the Jedi

Episode III: The Return of the Sith

Peace! The Republic is reaching an agreement with the righteous Separatist Leader, Count Dooku. There are villains on both sides, but Evil is nowhere.

In a conciliatory move, the adroit Separatist leader, General Greebus, has swept into the Republic capital to meet with Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Galactic Senate.

As the Confederacy of Independent Systems attempts to parley in the besieged capital with their honoured opponent, two Jedi Assassins lead a desperate mission to capture the compliant Chancellor....

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The skies were afire. Ships rushing to death - theirs, and their enemy's - blasters and missiles crossing paths, thousands of souls lost to folly and war. Palpatine and Dooku sought to end all that aboard a confederacy flagship where a treaty was being drawn. The Jedi seemed to think that Clone lives do not matter, and the Republic was in a state to fund their savage cleanse of any independent-minded world or system indefinitely. It was time to end this conspiracy and the violence it spread across the world.

General Greebus, a disabled war veteran who lost but his whole self in this conflict, accompanied Chancellor Palpatine to a meeting chamber where Count Dooku would join him soon. Attacks by Jedi strafers occupied him, and to a fervent soldier and - in his own words - 'player of the Greatest Game', it would have been difficult to have him move away from it. The General, caring for the Chancellor's safety, asked him to secure his seatbelt as he waited, as the ship was being rocked by constant bombardment.

The Jedi seemed to throw clone bodies into the fray as if they were mind-less droids, a fact that was not lost on the rank and file in the Republic Army. Sooner or later, a mutiny would break out against the Jedi officers, and Palpatine would now allow more unnecessary bloodshed to happen. With each passing year of this conflict the damage that the democratic machinery of the Republic had taken had forced more and more emergency powers to be thrust upon his able shoulders, and the weight grew weary. Already, it seemed that Palpatine had aged a thousand years. It was only because of Coruscanti beauty standards - yes, even in the midst of a deadly galactic civil war - was he forced to keep up with appearances.

But the time for appearances and shows of might was over - it was time to end this war. Palpatine showed ready, in good faith, knowing his old friend - and, perhaps, in another life, someone more than a friend - would feel the same way and end this tragedy.

But sadly, that would not happen that day. A day that would have been the happiest the Free Republic has seen for many years, would in fact be the harshest, cast in the bright, burning light that the Jedi Radicals seem to worship. Two Jedi assassins - breaking ranks, protocol, war accords and the laws of human decency - burst into the ship, to disrupt any possible peace accords and possibly even worse - throw the conflict down a path-of-no-return by assassinating the leaders of both sides.

Palpatine would not put this duplicitous scheme past the Jedi. The two fought their way into the meeting chamber were Palpatine waited, alone, even as Dooku and Greebus rushed to defend him. The fight was brutal, slow, deliberate. Dooku fought like the grinning madman he was - resplendent, magnificent. The two Jedi fought like the brutish thugs they were - grunting, lunging, doing obnoxious somersaults like their Jedi masters had taught them to perform, no doubt part of their grooming.

One was the Jedi Kenobi - the same one that seemed to be behind this whole conspiracy from the start. From assisting the vandal Khygawnzhin to Naboo, to inspecting the clone army, and now, thwarting any attempts at peace. Mayce's pick of his secret assassin seemed perfect - this unassuming bearded loner could travel the galaxy holding secrets that could shake its very foundations - and still look like a nerf-herder on his way to market.