"Is everyone ready to leave yet?" Mace asked another person, that person being Obi-Wan Kenobi as he had come back with that other woman and rejoined the current Jedi tasked on a mission.
A very special and important mission that is.
"I think so. I dont think I have seen Master Yoda around however..." Obi-Wan said out loud his thoughts to Mace, given that Yoda is important to everything happening right now.
Or at least that is what the Jedi still believed, for Yoda at this point of time only has but a few more years to live. His physical body may be able to go against the old and decaying Palpatine, however Yoda would never win in that conflict.
Even if the Jedi took Yoda with them, there are doubts about what Yoda would do exactly.
"We have no time to wait around for Master Yoda. What we are about to embark on will hopefully be an end all mission to Darth Sidious. Hopefully by taking him down, we also take down all of his plans as well." Mace replied.
"What about the rest of the people that actually agreed with Palpatine and went along with his goals and desires? His allies in the matter are also important, dont you think?" Obi-Wan questioned back, taking into account that just taking the head off of the snake wont work in this context.
Palpatine is more of a Hydra than a snake, thus meaning he could make a return in spirit through his successors, no matter how unstable everything is now. Going off of other things and events that have happened, it would only make sense that Palpatine has someone planned some sort of plan for every contingent circumstance.
"We can only hope that Palpatine is not well prepared for such a scenario. And this is also why we have allied ourselves with Anakin." Mace continued, assuring the doubts that Obi-Wan had.
Those going on this mission were alot of people, considering that Palpatine has alot of forces behind him. 'Hopefully, with the aid of Dooku we will be able to hold back the militaristic forces of Palpatine and go straight for the source of this conflict...' Mace thought to himself.
"Right... I guess that we can only trust in the Force and its plan then." Obi-Wan was still his old self, and his new self in that he trusted the Jedi code alot more with time. Personality wise, Obi-Wan is kind of like Qui-Gon in his stubborn nature but their thoughts differ on the Force.
Even with Qui-Gon having brought up many times balance and stuff like that, even going so far as to be influenced by Anakin in the ways of the Force and what is taught.
"Hurry up then. Head onboard, and we will be leaving immediately. Communication lines has been opened up between Dooku and ourselves, patched through thanks to the advanced tech here on Tatooine." Mace was slightly impressed with this transformation, where upon it is influenced by Anakin.
While Anakin may only be supporting the Jedi and remainders of the Republic very loosely, it was still more than enough. Especially indirectly as well, by upgrading their devices, and even allowing them to get some rather useful upgrades.
Of course, Anakin didn't just allow stuff like this for free after all.
"Ok. I am assuming that there will be some command-" Obi-Wan started, only be interrupted and then physically pushed by Mace into the star ship.
"Enough. Just get onboard already and we will head off." Mace didn't want to speak more in this instance and would instead lay out the plan as they travel discreetly as possible into the Core World Territories.
The people chosen for this mission really just consisted of every single adult Jedi possible, excluding everyone under a certain age. This was not really the Jedi's decision, but more like a forceful demand made by Anakin in that he would stop supporting them if they allowed children to go out and join the war.
Of course, there needed to be some sort of cut off point, so the arbitrary number of 18 years of age was chosen. This really only applied to more short lived races like humans, wile with other races that mature differently had to be taken into account as well.
Anakin didn't want to be sending children off into war, of course some would also point towards the fact that Anakin's Empyrean Synths are in fact younger than the age that he set for they have only existed for a certain timeframe.
Again, that is why the age of consent to sign contracts, join the military and other such things is considered arbitrary. There is no perfect number, but a certain level of maturity in terms of physicality was taken into consideration.
"Ok! Ok! Ok! You dont need to push me!" Obi-Wan said, finally having Mace let go and stop pushing him.
"Good, now get your head in the game, for what we discuss next is going to be important." Mace replied, making sure that Obi-Wan turn on his serious thought process.
Jedi Initiates, Younglings and Padawans excluded, well, Padawans that are not of a certain age were excluded and those that are on their way were Jedi Knights and Masters. With Yoda being strangely missing from their time of departure, the leadership role defaulted towards Mace Windu.
With Mace in charge, there should be some progress made especially in a context like this. War, battle. Blood and fire and if the Jedi have any say in the matter, it would end in the death of Palpatine but alot of them had a feeling that things were not going to end as easily.
There was this undercurrent within the Force that foretold and predicted a massive change within the galaxy, representing something on a larger scale is also taking place as well. Like some sort of divine precedence was happening and the will of the Force was being executed in this manner.
For all of those involved, with the Jedi going off towards to fight Palpatine, it is very likely they would die due to a many number of reasons.
"We're often called a militant Order, but do you know one of the principal differences between the military and the Jedi Order?" Mace started as he started to speak to everyone, trying to increase their morale.
There was silence as everyone was expecting for Mace to continue.
"The military are expected to follow orders, even when they feel those orders are not what's right. The Jedi are expected to do what's right, even when the course of action runs contrary to orders." Mace continued and finished here. "The right course of action is what we are doing today. We will head into the core of this new Galactic Empire and put an end to the Sith uprising!"
Mace's words seem to have had an effect as the Jedi had their spirits rejuvenated, if only a little bit making the overall mood and morale better.
In times of war, especially when Sith forces were involved, Jedi would sometimes assume military ranks and govern armies of Republic military units, as was seen in the Mandalorian Wars, the Jedi Civil War, the New Sith Wars, and the Clone Wars.
So Jedi indeed became soldiers, not just keepers of the peace. During the New Sith Wars, the Order created the Army of Light, a massive military branch that consisted of the majority of active Jedi.
Jedi Commanders. A Padawan serving as a Commander in the Grand Army of the Republic, the Jedi Commander was assigned to a Jedi General until knighted. Once a full Jedi, the Padawan was then referred to as General.
Jedi Generals. Jedi Knights or Masters who had been placed in command of a Republic army were dubbed Generals. Jedi Masters could become Senior Jedi General, leading one of the twenty Sector Armies. Out of the twelve High Council members, some became High Jedi Generals not only commanding their own Systems Army, but also supervising all other ranking Jedi.
The last but not least, the Jedi Lords. A Jedi who served as a commander in the Army of Light during the New Sith Wars. The Jedi Lord assumed this title mainly out of political motivation. The rank was abolished after the war.
Right now everyone has their assumed roles and are heading off into a war that is most certainly their own. Maybe even a war of their own making, brought upon them through some level of complacency and their own incompetence.
"We are going to start here..."
[]
Grievous couldn't be anymore happier than he was now, with everything that has been done and accomplished. Of course, there are things... regrets that he would have liked to change in a previous lifetime, but he could only do so much then and only do so much now as well.
Everything is going well for him now and he had learned some time ago that lingering on the past, an unchanging thing was not good for him. It is also not good for those around himself as well, meaning that he needed to be prepared and ready for stuff that could happen outside of his control.
No matter how much power he had received and how much power he had developed himself. There is still a limit, even with being given a brand new body with which he could now indulge himself properly with the now new love of his life.
Talzin was not the first woman he had loved. No, there was another during a time that he would look back upon as bad or negative.
He had done alot of bad things, with alot of bad things also being done to himself as well.
Grievous is built for war, and rebuilt for it many times over through many of his transformations throughout his lifespan. Right from his birth, to his installation in a mechanical body and then towards his rebirth within his new but still dying and old body.
Because of this, one could say that he is a perfect general, especially when it comes to learning tactics or strategies. Anakin didn't want him to be some flimsy general with no ability to logical lead troops within an army as he would be.
It would seem that his skills and training would be tested as well, given that he needs to teleport to Hutt space due to a little sign of an oncoming star fleet.
"What the hell is going on now..." Grievous grumbled to himself, having gotten used to his new body now with some intense and some not-so-intense but still relevant exercise.
"G-General, sir! We have a massive fleet of unknown origins heading in this direction! It would seem that they have already taken out a few stations already and are heading directly towards Nal Hutta! Sir!" An Empyrean soldier said as Grievous arrived on base.
Not much could be done to immediately reverse the damage done to the places inhabited by the Hutts, but there are people working on it. People especially passionate in their work to restore planets and or moons to some greater level of healthiness.
"Status report?" Grievous replied with a question, wanting the soldier to give him information on the armies approaching. 'When I had woken up today, I didn't think the Empyrean would be getting attacked now... Even if Hutt space isn't really a part of the Empyrean...' Grievous thought to himself.
The soldier would tell Grievous of how many fleets were coming their way and information extracted through the stations destroyed. 'The Yuuzhan Vong are coming now... Why are they coming after the Empyrean now? Do they think they can do anything...?' Grievous was puzzled, for it was not within his expectations for these beings to come after the Empyrean.
Maybe Anakin had an idea of what was coming or happening, but he had not told anyone else about this. Either Anakin did know and didn't tell anyone, or he didn't because of a multitude of factors...
There were actually quite a lot of ships coming their way, and they needed to start getting some militaristic armies together to fight off this attack and then start other operations. Stuff like espionage and intrigue related things to discover just what is going on.
Thankfully, Anakin had made use of his abilities and stored the Yuuzhan Vongs language into the database so they would be able to extract information from captives if need be.
"Sir! What is really strange about these Yuuzhan Vong are their ships!" The soldier said.
"What is strange?" Grievous would admit that he didn't have alot of knowledge about these beings, so he would immediately read up on any and all information possible.
"A massive assault force of dark ships, shadowy figures, and weapons of great power, based on organic technology of a sort we've never seen before. We believe these Far Outsiders, as we call them, already have a foothold at the far edge of the galaxy, and even now have scouting parties seeking information on worlds and peoples to conquer..." The soldier said some basic information about this situation.
"Great... Not only is there the Emperor and his genetic fascination, but also these beings as well. I dont have a good feeling about this..." Grievous said more to himself rather than this soldier and surrounding men at arms. "Prepare for battle!" Grievous ordered.