Star Wars - Darth Plagueis

Confederacy worlds.
    Arranged like the spokes of a wheel, four ten-kilometer-long bridges linked the city to an enormous offshore landing platform. Hexagonal in shape and supported on thick columns anchored in the seabed, the platform was the prize the Republic needed to secure before a full assault could be mounted. For that to happen, the Grand Army needed to penetrate the defensive umbrellas and take out the generators that sustained them. But with nearly all rooftop and repulsorlift landing platforms shielded, Murkhana’s arc of black-sand beach was the only place where the gunships could insert their payloads of clone troopers and Jedi.
    Shryne was gazing at the landing platform when he felt someone begin to edge between him and Commander Salvo, set on getting a better look through the open hatch. Even before he saw the headful of long black curls, he knew it was Olee Starstone. Planting his left hand firmly on the top of her head, he propelled her back into the troop bay.
    “If you’re determined to make yourself a target, Padawan, at least wait until we hit the beach.”
    Rubbing her head, the petite, blue-eyed young woman glanced over her shoulder at the tall female Jedi standing behind her. “You see, Master. He does care.”
    “Despite all evidence to the contrary,” the female Jedi said.
    “I only meant that it’ll be easier for me to bury you in the sand,” Shryne said.
    Starstone scowled, folded her arms across her chest, and swung away from both of them.
    Bol Chatak threw Shryne a look of mild reprimand. The raised cowl of her black robe hid her short vestigial horns. An Iridonian Zabrak, she was nothing if not tolerant, and had never taken Shryne to task for his irascible behavior or interfered with his teasing relationship with her Padawan, who had joined Chatak in the Murkhana system only a standard week earlier, arriving with Master Loorne and two Jedi Knights. The demands of the Outer Rim Sieges had drawn so many Jedi from Coruscant that the Temple was practically deserted.
    Until recently, Shryne, too, had had a Padawan learner …
    For the Jedi’s benefit, the gunship pilot announced that they were closing on the jump site.
    “Weapons check!” Salvo said to the platoon. “Gas and packs!”
    As the troop bay filled with the sound of activating weapons, Chatak placed her hand on Starstone’s quivering shoulder.
    “Use your unease to sharpen your senses, Padawan.”
    “I will, Master.”
    “The Force will be with you.”
    “We’re all dying,” Salvo told the troopers. “Promise yourselves you’ll be the last to go!”
    Access panels opened in the ceiling, dropping more than a dozen polyplast cables to within reach of the troopers.
    “Secure to lines!” Salvo said. “Room for three more, General,” he added while armored, body-gloved hands took tight hold of the cables.
    Calculating that the jump wouldn’t exceed ten meters,Shryne shook his head at Salvo. “No need. We’ll see you below.”
    Unexpectedly, the gunship gained altitude as it approached the shoreline, then pulled up short of the beach, as if being reined in. Repulsorlifts engaged, the gunship hovered. At the same time, hundreds of Separatist battle droids marched onto the beach, firing their blasters in unison.
    The intercom squawked, and the pilot said, “Droid buster away!”
    A concussion-feedback weapon, the droid buster detonated at five meters above ground zero, flattening every droid within a radius of fifty meters. Similar explosions underscored the ingress of a dozen other gunships.
    “Where were these weapons three years ago?” one of the troopers asked Salvo.
    “Progress,” the commander said. “All of a sudden we’re winning the war in a week.”
    The gunship hovered lower, and Shryne leapt into the air. Using the Force to oversee his fall, he landed in a crouch on the compacted sand, as did Chatak and Starstone, if less expertly.
    Salvo and the clone troopers followed, descending one-handed on individual cables, triggering their rifles as they slid to the beach. When the final trooper was on the ground, the gunship lifted its nose and began to veer away from shore. Up and down the beach the same scenario was playing out. Several gunships failed to escape artillery fire and crashed in flames before they had turned about.
    Others were blown apart before they had even offloaded.
    With projectiles and blaster bolts whizzing past their heads, the Jedi and troopers scurried forward,