Only the Jedi were not surprised For on Geono- sis Obi Wan Kenobi and his Padawan apprentice Anakin Skywalker had learned that Count Dooku had turned to the dark side of the Force and the of the dark side had been growing for years The Jedi knew that defeating the Separatists would be neither quick nor easy with a Dark Lord of the Sith aiding them power As soon as they recovered from the injuries they had received during their battle with Count Dooku Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi rejoined the war Together they became heroes of the Republic sometimes leading clone troopers in pitched battles sometimes making daring raids in secret For their work Anakin was made a full Jedi Knight and Obi-Wan Obi-Wan was given a seat on the Jedi Council and the title of Master No one not even the Jedi knew that one of the things driving Anakin was his desire to be back on Coruscant the home of the Galactic Senate In defiance of the Jedi Order he had secretly married Senator Padmé Amidala who spent most of her time working there As the fighting spread into the Outer Rim Worlds the moments Anakin could steal to be with his wife became fewer Then the Separatists struck a paralyzing blow straight at the heart of the Republic A fleet of ships commanded by the dreaded Separatist General 2
Grievous slipped through the outer line of defenses to attack Coruscant itself In the confusion the Separatists Separatists kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine the elected leader of the Republic But Coruscant was not only the heart of the government government and the location of the Galactic Senate It was also the home of the Jedi Temple As the Separatist attack began a message was beamed to the Outer Rim summoning the Jedi's greatest warriors home Before the Separatist fleet could leave the Coruscant star system with the Chancellor they found themselves under attack Waves of clone starfighters led by Obi Wan and Anakin stormed around their ships 3
CHAPTER 1 Laser beams flashed around Obi-Wan's Jedi Interceptor Interceptor as his fingers danced across the controls The small starfighter danced in response avoiding the beams Space is supposed to be empty Obi Wan thought as he wove through the swarm of droid tri fighters Not that the space around Coruscant had ever been empty The capital planet of the Galactic Republic attracted thousands of ships every day carrying diplomats diplomats and Senators tourists and refugees food and goods from strange and distant star systems The ships that filled the sky now however were fighters and cruisers and battleships not freighters and transports transports At least a lot of them are ours Obi Wan thought His ship rocked as a droid fighter exploded a little too close by Anakin had scored a hit Obi Wan grimaced He didn't enjoy this sort of flying not the
