Coruscant, night cycle.
Palpatine was not having the best of times as he was hit again and again by multiple, various curve balls that would come out of left field. He would be lying if he said he saw any of these things happening at all and he had believed that Skywalker was nothing but a pawn.
Someone that could be used for his own purposes and goals.
Then there was the fact that he connected some dots that seemingly connected Vader and Skywalker together, but the thing was, they were completely two different people. He had overtly felt it, or at least he believed he did anyway.
There were many things for him to keep an eye on and the surprise military rising from out of nowhere was certainly not on his plans. Then there was the lose of the 501 elite unit, having no idea where they went.
From reports they had just disappeared and people assumed they had died in some horrible way, while Obi-Wan was somehow incompetent. Sidious knew better however, as there was no way Obi-Wan, one of the most patient Jedi ever would not be so reckless as to lose an entire battalion.
He had checked with the Kaminoans and his fears had sort of been confirmed, the chips that were seen as active had gone offline, either meaning they had died, or someone was plotting behind the scenes. Much like he has been doing and things were starting to unravel more and more for him.
"Master." Darth Tyranus had patched through to him on his communication device.
"My apprentice, is there something you need, information with which is vital perhaps?" Palpatine spoke and asked the man.
Here is a fun fact, Dooku is actually older than Palpatine. That is right, Palpatine had managed to successfully get an apprentice older than himself and sway him over to the dark side.
It was one of his more weird factoids, included in his long list of facts or achievements about himself, including the eventual downfall of the Republic, only for his Galactic Empire to rise from the ashes.
"Master, I dont know if you have noticed, but it would seem that the Empyrean is making moves on the Hutt empires owned star systems." Dooku said.
"Yes, I have noticed this." Sidious replied.
"I have it on good word that they have been expanding rapidly. This expansion should come at a price that we could make use of, but..."
"But, there is no use in trying to exploit something that is not exploitable." Sidious finished for him. "There is many more things to focus on, tell me more about your side on the war efforts..."
Dooku when then go on to tell Sidious about the progress of the C.I.S. and that he has been successfully in some endeavors while failing in others. What was probably the biggest blow to their plans was the lose of the Dark Reaper, which could of been used and taken for themselves.
Unfortunately, it just wasn't meant to be.
Since they had no access to some be all, end all weapon like the Death Star because of Anakin's actions they were starting to take on a much more stealthy approach to their situation. Instead of outright war, which they would still engage in, they would try and look for things that would enable them to turn the plot around.
Challenging and changing the course of their actions would help them divert the Jedi's attention and the attention of the rest of the Republic as well.
How could they not take advantage of the Republics lack of agency and placing all of their hopes and desires to win the war on the clones and the Jedi. It was quite pathetic when Sidious thought about it and he would much rather prefer people that wouldn't be so weak.
He desires weakness just enough so he could control someone, but not so much that they would be completely incompetent.
The Battle of Muunilinst was a major engagement that took place within four weeks after the Battle of Geonosis, initiated by the Republic to put a curb on CIS funding and battle droid production.
Storming the planet, the Republic assaulted the main city of Harridan, using a team of Advanced Recon Commandos to eliminate key enemy defenses within the city. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi led the space assault, taking out various separatist orbital stations.
This was the first battle Durge was seen in, and caused major Republic casualties when he appeared. The IG lancer droids also made their first appearance, jousting with the similar clone lancer troopers of the Lancer Battalion.
Despite heavy Separatist resistance, the Republic nonetheless succeeded in capturing the Separatist command, with the efforts of The Muunilinst 10 and other contributing to this. The battle would also signify the Jedi's first encounter with the minion of Dooku's known as Asajj Ventress.
"That is all."
"So the Jedi have come across you acolyte..." Sidious wasn't all that happy with Tyranus training assassins and other acolytes himself. He recognized their use of course but he would much prefer if Dooku wouldn't taint him with this idea of unity within the Sith.
He rather liked the idea of the rule of two as it served his purposes rather well, that was until he was unable to gain an apprentice in Skywalker...
"Yes, master. But I can assure you that Ventress is capable enough and has successfully put a calm to the Jedi. They believe that she has died in battle, while she actually hasn't." Dooku said. "There was also something interesting the Ventress has come across."
"Oh? Something interesting you say?" Sidious' attention was grabbed as he could feel the emotions within Tyranus are in conflict.
"Yes, the current Emperor of the Empyrean was also seen on Yavin 4. It was there that Ventress came across him and another person that was presumably a part of Skywalker's group that had left from the Jedi temple." Dooku explained.
"And what could they possibly be doing there?" This peaked Sidious' interest immensely so, because it was possible it could help him in some form.
"Well..."
[]
"Failure!" A voice was heard.
A voice that was angry, and a large, huge amount of venom and vitriol could be heard spewing from this person mouth. "Absolute failure! Useless swine, useless trash, Bantha fodder and everything else there is that would explain all of your intelligence!"
"Not one simple task of keeping the Empyrean preoccupied could happen." It was King, the current leader of the F.V. "All of you, what were you supposed to do?" He asked not so calmly.
"W-We w-were sup-p-p-p-" A person tried to talk was was practically shivering within his boots. Quivering as he tried to own up to his mistakes, but his boss was currently not making it all too easy on him.
"SUP-P-P-P, WHAT!?" Kind nearly screamed aloud, causing some slight echoes to happen within the chamber they were in.
"I-I am SORRY!" The man got down on his knees and crawled towards King, who just watched in mild amusement at the mans display of subservience.
"Your apology is not accepted." King stood up and kicked the man over and over, nonstop. He didn't let up as the man cried, and pleaded but nothing would stop King from releasing his pent up frustration.
This display was because a task hadn't been done properly and they were successfully thwarted in their plans.
Their operation to take down the Empyrean's plans of expansion had failed and as a result the Empyrean was able to take over the Pii system. It is of some constellation that Anakin had not attacked the system that he has through a choke hold, but that only made them lose out on Pii.
It was all for naught, and everything they had planned out to forestall the Empyrean had come down, crashing and it wasn't a pretty crash as well, it was ugly.
King having had enough stopped absolutely destroying the man on the ground and decided that his life is not worth keeping. He picked up his blaster and fired.
In the room King is staying in, there are some other people, mostly girls as they were having a good time. King was a man that enjoyed himself in these situations, but it seemed like he had shown an ugly face to the working girls inside.
It was silent.
They didn't talk, as they were scared. In fact, they are slaves that work in the establishment that King was spending his money in, and it was a very common theme for stuff like this to happen. However, what King had done was something these girls had never, ever, seen before.
Not with any of the clients they had gotten before and it was extremely... disturbing.
"Sorry, ladies." King turned around and didn't care about the small amount of blood that was on himself from having beat the now dead subordinate. "Where were we?" Smiling King went back to the woman, but this time instead of trying to enjoy himself, these girls had seen too much.
He didn't even have the money to pay for them anyway, so it would be best if he just killed them all.
And that is what he did. Screams were heard from within the room, but no one was going to go in, assuming that something else was taking place, and King wasn't a kind man at all. How does anyone think he got his now new position of a fringe group way out in the Outer Rims? By being a good guy or being some neutral citizen that didn't do anything and followed every single law there was, even when there are no laws in the Outer Rim, specifically within the Hutts space?
He is a man of a simple mindset.
A mindset that determines who will and who will not die. He had come to a decision, a decision with which the Empyrean must pay for making him lose his job, by destroying and dismantling the Trade Federation.
There were many others like him in this corporation that felt the same and he was just a simple man, a simple man with a simple job to pay for his families well being. A simple twisted man who had lost his family the moment he lost his job, sending him into financial and mental ruin.
There is a reason why he had turned so radical, and it in fact involved his sick daughter living on medical treatment he couldn't really pay for. Now that he had lost his job, his daughter had died and his wife... she left him for another man, saying he was crazy.
A crazy, twisted, normal man that was upset at the galaxy. Upset at the entirety of the Republic and the C.I.S., but most importantly he was upset at the Empyrean.
They are and were the main culprit in the grand scheme of things, which lead to everyone's downfall from within the Trade Federation.
King walked out of the room, having finished his business within and walked past the person in charge that had guards of their own.
"S-Sir! Wait! You haven't-" The manager was cut off as King just killed him, no mercy and not willing to listen to the other mans spiel. He quickly got out of their.
'They are all whores, the lot of them. Would be snitches as well... I have heard the Empyrean loves freedom and these slaves would have no doubt snitched on me...' King thought to himself as he left, going to cause some more trouble.
[]
"What do you mean? Anakin has done what?" A voice was heard and that was came from one Jedi Master known as Qui-Gon Jinn.
One of Anakin's previous Jedi Masters while he was a Jedi and their were multiple people within the room he was within. Other Jedi Masters that had been welcomed onto the Council, all discussing many, many things.
Especially to do with the current war and the state of everything to do with it. Then there is them keeping an eye out on what their stray student has become and what he is doing.
"Young Skywalker, gotten married, he has." Yoda said.
"Married to who?" Qui-Gon asked.
"Many, many people. Like I had seen in him, he is a ladies man..." Mace Windu, the other Jedi Master of Anakin, spoke up from his holographic position.
"Previous other Jedi, Aayla Secura, Shaak Ti, Barriss Offee and the Senator from Naboo, Senator Amidala, Padme Amidala." Yaddle, one of the more mysterious species, spoke.
"Why are you saying their last names like that? Now that it is official, they should all be called Skywalker instead of their previous last names." Mace interjected with a joke, which only went to show just how much Anakin had influenced him, at least in the tiniest amounts.
"Still think he is the 'Chosen One' now, Master Qui-Gon?" Mundi, Ki-Adi-Mundi spoke here and he said so with a snide tone.
"Of course I do. I stand by what I have said." Qui-Gon replied.
"Quiet now." Yoda interrupted everyone's talks as it was incredibly surprising to them, well, it was incredibly surprising to alot of them but not everyone. Yoda, may even Mace and Qui-Gon had an indistinct feeling that the 'Chosen One' wouldn't be staying with the Jedi for very long anyway.
"Master Yoda, I would just like to question about the other new Order within the Empyrean..." Adi Gallia asked.
"New Order, there is, yes. Leader of this Order? Skywalker probably is." Yoda continued.
This lead to another round of discussion, some talking about betrayal, some referencing to some of the more obscure Orders that had popped up and split off from the Jedi. Then a variety of other things came into the topic, like what they were going to do about the situation.
"Do nothing we will. Skywalker at fault, he is not." Yoda said which did silence the room. Some of the masters had received invitations to the reception and actual wedding of these Jedi that were once a part of their Order.
They didn't, wouldn't and couldn't come because of the war effort, than there was their further investigations about the Empyrean. With Anakin now as the Emperor, Qui-Gon and Mace knew that he would probably keep that position and to even bother to come back to the Order.
"The war effort, going strangely it is." Yoda was referring to the events that took place, he even had a student that was in exile, self-imposed back back to the Order. This lead to some Jedi reaffirming their beliefs of the Jedi and some wanting to leave and join with Anakin within the Empyrean.
It was certainly a very contested topic and it hampered their abilities to control and go to war. Something that Yoda detested but knew that it was too late to not follow the plans and actions of the Republic, because they had become so integrated into the system...