Chapter 95
Coruscant, Coruscant System
Corusca Sector
It was a brand new day in Republic City. The skies were clear and blue, the light of Coruscant Prime’s azure gleam reflected off the resplendent orbital mirrors that hung like blooming zeillas in the heavens. From the spires of the Senate District to the neon-drenched depths of the Uscru Entertainment Sector, the city hummed with the familiar rhythms of daily life. The great skylanes of the ecumenopolis thrummed with the endless stream of airspeeders, the great durasteel arteries of the Republic’s heart.
It was a brand new day in Republic City. And life marched forth as usual, for it had always appeared neither war nor strife ever putting but a misstep in the ever tenacious capital of the galaxy.
But this time, there was something wrong. A distortion in the flow of the morning rush.
Holo-displays flickered between the usual corporate advertisements and something far more jarring–urgent bulletins issued by the Senate Emergency Response, a scarlet banner scrolling across the bottom of every screen:
STATE OF MARTIAL LAW DECLARED. TEMPLE PRECINCT UNDER LOCKDOWN. REPORTS OF A JEDI REBELLION CONFIRMED.
A Jedi rebellion?
The words struck like a bolt of static through the consciousness of the city. Some dismissed it outright–a preposterous fabrication, an absurdity. The Jedi? The guardians of the Republic, the living symbol of peace and justice? But others hesitated, uncertainty gnawing at the edges of their disbelief. The Jedi had grown distant in recent years, ensnared in the machinery of war. In these times, their failures were as widely reported as their successes. And there had been rumours of a disaster on the Hydian front…