Jump 170: Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Jump 170: Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Location: Onderon (Inner Rim)
Age: 22
Identity: [-200] Force Sensitive Independent
Drawbacks: [+600] Legacy Character, The Prequel Trilogy, Movie Marathon, Rip Off Darth Vader: Left Arm, Head Made Out Of Gold, Help Me Anon You're My Only Hope

[300/1400]  Midichlorian Detector
[Free]      Melee Training
[Free]      Starting Powers
[400/1400]  Force Heal
[500/1400]  Ionize
[600/1400]  Force Stasis
[1000/1400] Battle Meditation
[1400/1400] Drain Knowledge
[Free]      Lightsaber

Every action brings an equal and opposite reaction.

The Sith Terminarch no longer being in hiding means there are a massive number of interested parties in his existence, or the ending thereof. Bounty hunters travel the galaxy for mere tens of thousands of credits - when confronted with the opportunity to be paid a BILLION credits for his successful capture or death, it's little surprise that there was a small army of opportunists after his head.

To spite them, he put out a broadcast stating he would fight them with only one arm. Oh, it wasn't sent out openly on the holonet, but those who were chasing him found it and it was recirculated. Those who unwisely continued to pursue him usually met their ends - whether stranded on a planet, convinced to give up their mission, or a more final consequence. And he treated them as if they were no problem, barely an inconvenience.

Then again, a Sith who has lived for thousands of years has likely seen it all and is remarkably difficult to pin down. Much to his hunters' chagrin.

Oh, but there was a great deal that he did to disrupt the Republic in its final days. The most notably thing that he had done involved the Clone Wars - it is well known that one of the bounty hunters that was in pursuit of him was one Jango Fett, a disgraced Mandalorian, and he was to be the template for the Republic's army of clones. Yet somehow this went wrong. Oh, the clones were produced, but looked nothing like him. All were identical, all were human, but none shared so much as a single gene in common with him - save for one that he was given as payment, one he took as a son and named Boba. The rest? No matter how many times samples were taken, they produced the same result.

It's well known how the clones functioned, naturally. The top percentile that any human or near-human species had. Not active in the Force, but with reflexes and a seemingly innate sense of the dangers around them. Assigned to work under the Jedi during the hostilities with the Trade Federation, until Palpatine's ascent from chancellor to self-crowned emperor.

Under other circumstances, Order 66 might have been issued later, but for luck or the will of the Force itself. Much of the blame can likely be placed on Darth Sidious' apprentice, the turncoat Dooku, being confronted and slain by a trio of Jedi. Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Knight-Apprentice Anakin Skywalker, and Grand Master Yoda himself. The Separatists' great triumph turned into a rout, even though it was a pyrrhic victory for the Jedi. The Grand Army proved to be remarkably able and consistently won victories even when circumstances seemed to guarantee their loss.

This of course is when things went far further wrong than anyone could have imagined. The Grand Army of the Republic had its ranks boosted by lower quality flash-grown clones made in Spaarti cloning facilities. But the samples from Kamino-grown clones did not work, and so those clones were grown from Fett's DNA directly - that is, Fett the Younger, after Fett the Older met his end at the hands of a Jedi who would later become infamous.

Most of the clones working under the Jedi were quietly rotated out in the months before the event, but when Order 66 was issued the Spaarti clones absolutely did their best to ensure the end of their commanders. But not all the clones in those batallions were Spaarti. The Kaminoan clones countermanded Order 66 with what they called Order 0 - something that was not written, but that they later said anyone should know to be self-evident. With the issuance of Order 66, they declared that the Republic had fallen, and so they would continue to fight for the ideals of the Republic against that which had destroyed it - a power-mad chancellor who seized total control.

Thus, the Clone Wars. Kamoinoan pitted against Spaathi and a dozen smaller clone providers.

While the Jedi were reeling from their losses, the Grand Army saw to it that they were given worlds to recover at and did their utmost to defend them, ensuring they were kept secret while the fight continued. But the galaxy fell under the grip of the Empire. Propaganda fooled some people into joining of their own free will, and others were press-ganged and conscripted into Imperial service.

Time and attrition did damage, and even the most inventive clone tactics weren't enough to stand up to the Imperial Navy in open combat as newer and stronger ships outclassed those possessed by the clones, to say nothing of their logistics suffering the death of a thousand cuts. Acclimator class ships were simply unable to stand up to what became the standard template for the larger, more powerful, and more efficient Imperial Star Destroyer.

And then there was the matter of Darth Vader, the Emperor's enforcer, who seemingly appeared from nowhere. A one man army in his own right, clad in black armor, wielding a red lightsaber. Who could punch through a plasteel wall when properly motivated, could choke a man without touching him from the other side of a holonet call. Who was rabidly loyal to Palpatine.

The Grand Army of the Republic eventually faced its end at his hands, the last vestiges of what had come before wiped away by the Empire, and even those clones who still survived were aging rapidly; had Vader not taken a direct hand at Kamino in the end, after a certain point they would simply no longer be able to fight due to being elderly and infirm.

Fortunately, they were able to plant the seeds that germinated in the Grand Alliance to Restore the Republic. And that would be sorely needed in the years to come, with the advent of such terror weapons as the Death Star.

Alas, the Sith Terminarch was captured in the interim. Frozen in carbonite and seemingly dead, displayed on the wall of a crime lord's den in some dusty corner of space.

Palpatine let the Hutt keep his decoration, as it amused him in a twisted way to see such a disgrace come to his enemy.