After Geonosis – Galactic Tensions Snap
The war had begun.
World after world fell into open conflict as systems declared loyalty to either the Republic or the Separatists. Trade routes became war zones. Ancient star lanes turned into chokepoints of fire and death.
The Jedi, once keepers of peace, were now generals.
Their light-sabers no longer symbolized diplomacy. They became symbols of command.
But the Jedi were not bred for war.
And their enemies knew it.
Battle of Christophis – A Cold Victory
Among the first major battles, the Republic deployed a sizable force to Christophis, a crystal-covered world under siege.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker led clone divisions through blaster-choked streets and fortified Separatist lines.
Clone losses were heavy.
Air support was delayed due to interference from CIS jamming stations.
The Separatists had set traps collapse zones, snare tanks, and seismic charges beneath the city's crust.
For every hundred meters the clones pushed, twenty died.
It took ten days of blood and attrition to secure the surface. The Separatist command ship fled, but Christophis was free.
Publicly, it was a victory.
Privately, it was a massacre.
The Outer Rim Front – Fragmented Flames
The war expanded in all directions. The Republic scrambled to react.
Muunilinst: Banking Clan stronghold. Republic forces led by Jedi General Ki-Adi-Mundi launched an orbital assault. Victory was achieved, but at the cost of nearly every gunship in the first wave.
Ryloth: Under blockade by the Trade Federation. Republic clones landed on the surface to break the siege. Twi'lek resistance fighters aided them, but hundreds of civilians perished before relief came.
Rattatak: Rumors of gladiator arenas and Sith worship surfaced—Jedi sent to investigate vanished.
Every battle won was met with another one lost, another system slipping away.
Anakin's Descent, Obi-Wan's Worry
After Christophis, Anakin was promoted to Jedi Knight.
His recklessness was no longer a flaw—it was a weapon. Commanders admired his results. Generals feared his methods.
He led orbital raids. Spearheaded brutal attacks. No prisoners. No retreat.
Obi-Wan saw the change.
"He fights like he's chasing something," he told Master Windu."Or running from it."
Padmé watched from the Senate with rising dread.
The Jedi Begin to Fracture
The High Council struggled to adapt. They began distrusting their own ranks.
War changed Jedi.
Master Depa Billaba fell to madness after Haruun Kal.Quinlan Vos went dark, lost behind enemy lines.Barriss Offee began to question the war's purpose.Count Dooku released holovids accusing the Jedi of becoming warlords.And some of it… wasn't false.
Yoda meditated in silence, but even he felt the wound deepening.
"Victory, we may find," he said one night, "but at the cost of ourselves, it may come."
From Overan, Shepard observed.
He did not act.He recorded.Every battle's data. Every clone's death. Every Jedi casualty. Every Separatist reaction.
He watched how resources were consumed. How ships were deployed. How both sides adapted.
The Republic was strong—but slow.The Separatists were vast—but predictable.
"A storm is rising," Shepard said, standing before the skeletal frame of the fourth Omega-class flagship, "and they're building walls of sand."
He had not revealed his fleets yet.
His clone army had crossed 100 million active units, nearly half fully trained.
And yet he remained still.
Because this was only Phase One.
Republic Morale Fractures
Back on Coruscant, the war caused panic in the markets, protests in the lower levels, and growing pressure on Chancellor Palpatine to do more.
He requested emergency powers be extended.
Few objected.
Behind closed doors, he funded black ops teams, accelerated clone production on Kamino, and began covert operations in Neutral Space to destabilize systems before they chose a side.
And still, his investigators chased whispers.
Whispers of missing ships, of entire colonies that vanished, of battlefield anomalies—where Separatists and Republic forces were wiped out… but no survivors could explain what hit them.
He suspected sabotage.
But he hadn't yet found Shepard.
A Galaxy at War
In three short months, the galaxy had changed.
The Jedi had become weapons.The Senate had become a machine.The people had become afraid.
And somewhere in the dark corners of the stars…an unseen hand had begun to shape it all.