Part I: The Weight of Doctrine
The walls of the inner Sanctum were carved with countless symbols—some ancient, some forbidden, all chosen. Taliya stood in silence as the room's gravity shifted. Not in mass, but in meaning.
Serion stood at its center, robe flowing like shadow.
"Leadership is not dominance. It is framing. You will not command through strength. You will command through necessity."
Taliya stood straight. "And when necessity contradicts compassion?"
Serion's eyes narrowed.
"Then compassion is postponed. Until it is useful."
He circled her, voice coiling like smoke.
"The Jedi chained themselves to sentiment. Their love of peace became cowardice. Their mercy, blindness. You are not bound by their illusions."
He stopped.
"You are bound only by result."
Before she could answer, a chime blinked red—a Spartan detachment on the world of Threxin had disobeyed silence protocol.
Her breath tightened.
"Who gave the override?" she asked.
The data feed shimmered. A name surfaced: Lieutenant Calen Vos.
"He claimed necessity," Serion said. "Now prove yours."
Taliya arrived at Threxin aboard a sleek stealth cutter. The planet, draped in ash and dying flora, housed a hidden outpost once loyal to Serion's covert allies. Now, a civilian resistance group had taken shelter inside, protected by an unaffiliated planetary governor who publicly aligned with the Republic but privately flirted with neutrality.
Lieutenant Vos stood at attention—young, brilliant, and visibly rattled.
"They were transmitting Republic distress signals," he said. "I believed delay would compromise the op."
"And you believed command was optional?" Taliya's tone was iron.
Vos clenched his jaw. "We've spent years teaching the Republic to underestimate us. Silence wasn't strength anymore—it was suspicion. I made a call."
She paused. Weighing.
Behind them, the fugitives remained hidden in the outpost. The governor had not yet responded. If they struck now—eliminating the resistance and pinning the chaos on a false Jedi raid—the governor would panic, sever ties with the Republic, and turn to Serion's "security division" for help.
But the cost would be high.
Taliya issued the order.
"Extract Vos. Quietly. Wipe his records. He is to be reassigned to KESHL intelligence under observation."
"And the outpost?" her comms officer asked.
She stared at the datafeed for a long moment.
Then:
"Burn it. But let two survivors escape. No more. No less. Their story will do more damage than our weapons."
No applause followed. No fanfare.
Only fire.
Part II: Fracture in Ivory
On Coruscant, the Jedi High Council stood beneath looming clouds—both real and metaphorical.
"The blockade is no longer rumor," Mace Windu said. "It's action. Naboo is under siege."
"The Senate must respond," Ki-Adi-Mundi added. "We are not warriors. Not without their sanction."
"But they won't sanction it," said Depa Billaba. "They fear escalation. The Chancellor has already stalled the motion twice."
Plo Koon's voice rumbled beneath his mask. "And what of the people?"
Silence.
Obi-Wan stood quietly at the edge of the chamber, watching.
Yoda finally stirred.
"Premature to act, it may be. Clouds this blockade are. Seen clearly, we do not."
"And if we wait?" Windu challenged. "If we hesitate until more systems fall? Until more Dookus leave?"
The word cut the air.
Dooku. The apostate. The warning unheeded.
Yoda's silence lingered.
A few in the room began to shift, to doubt.
Part III: Eclipse Rising
Within the void of Carthan's orbit, the dreadnought hull darkened as power conduits activated—each system humming to life like veins in a beast waking from slumber.
Taliya returned in silence, boots echoing on black alloy.
Serion awaited her in the observation tier.
"You chose misdirection," he said.
"I chose momentum," she replied.
He nodded slowly.
"Then you are no longer my weapon. You are my whisper."
She said nothing, but her eyes shone with something not yet spoken.
Far across the galaxy, the blockade tightened.
And in a room beneath the Senate, Sidious watched Naboo's plea for help stall.
"All is proceeding," he whispered, "as they blindly allow."