SNEAK PEEK AT THE SEQUEL!!

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1421 hrs, August 28th 2557 (Military Calendar)/
500 Republica, Galactic City
Coruscant System, Coruscant

Lieutenant JG Sean Kirkpatrick was one of an army of field agents from Section I, the information gathering branch of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He was relatively new to the job; field agent training had been almost abandoned during the Covenant War, because a human doesn't blend in well amongst aliens that don't even look human. However, on a planet like Coruscant, a human could disappear easily. And Kirkpatrick, dressed up in material normally found in Coruscanti shops and carrying a custom KYD-22 blaster in a nicely hidden shoulder holster, seemed to be just like any other Coruscanti native minding his own business. Of course, he was no ordinary citizen.

The KYD was actually a silent and deadly Verpine pistol modified to look like a KYD. As the clone troopers and CSF (Coruscant Security Force) officers patrolled the area, an ONI AI searched for any image of Kirkpatrick and erased it from the recording devices' memories, both from the officers' and troopers' HUDs and the numerous cameras placed all over the city. A special addition to his gadgets was a device that emitted a field similar to the ysalamiri creatures from Myrkr, creatures that repelled the Force. Kirkpatrick was essentially invisible to both normal beings and Force-users, which would enable him to carry out the main part of his mission: reconnaissance of the office and living quarters of Chancellor Palpatine, leader of the Republic.

Kirkpatrick didn't know why he was doing this, and he was encouraged by his superiors to keep it that way. But he had a shrewd idea. Although the war was going extremely well, Palpatine refused to acknowledge that it was high time to offer the CIS leadership some surrender options, and insisted on dragging the whole thing out until the Seperatists were totally defeated. "Unconditional surrender, or nothing," he had said. It was strange behavior for a man reputed to be both pragmatic and open to advice. Also, the 'accidental' death of the former Chancellor, Valorum, was fishy. This and other minute observations, most interesting of which was his 'friendship' with Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, had finally convinced the ONI brass that something was definitely out of place.

Kirkpatrick easily gained access to the Chancellor's office. The man was abroad, giving victory speeches at some damned hell-hole or another, and he wouldn't be back for another week. The ONI agent had all the time he needed to reconnoiter.

It looked like the typical office of a multi-millionaire, filled with priceless artifacts. The carpet was blood-red; ironic, considering the amount of blood shed by the Chancellor's policies. The office had a wide window overlooking much of the expanse of the planet-city, and immediately below was a landing pad. It struck Kirkpatrick as too convenient for any assassin; simply shoot the Chancellor, jump out the window, get picked up by his partner and escape.

Or maybe, he thought, it's for the Chancellor's escape. But how would an old raisin like him handle jumping out a window?

Mind back on the job, Kirkpatrick checked everything in the computers, but found nothing. Frustrated, he flicked absent-mindedly at a black obelisk on the edge of the table.

To his horror, the object teetered and fell. Thankfully, the soft carpet eliminated any sound, and the obelisk was fine. But it was the object that had fallen out of a secret opening in the obelisk that caught his attention.

Kirkpatrick had seen enough lightsabers to recognize one by sight. This gold-plated hilt he was holding in his hands was definitely one. Praising God for his luck—and the fact he had remembered to put on his gloves—Kirkpatrick pressed the emitter button. What he saw next shocked the agent so much that he nearly dropped the thing.

Instead of the usual green or blue, or even the less-seen purple and yellow blades normally carried by Jedi, this blade glowed crimson-red. Kirkpatrick knew enough of Jedi history and seen enough of Count Dooku in action that he knew this was a Sith blade. Why, then, was this thing in the office of the Chancellor?

Kirkpatrick quickly put the lightsaber where it had been before, and even placed the obelisk back in its original position so that no one would know he had been there. He left quickly, avoiding guards and patrols, all the way back to a ship that would take him to a point in deep space where the ONI mega-prowler Point of No Return waited.

Chancellor Palpatine returned a week later, secretly savoring the revenge against the Jedi that would soon be his, not noticing the subtle changes in the Force that were even now shifting around. His overconfidence was his weakness; his enemies would soon know his plan, and there was nothing he could do about it.