AN: I really need to work faster… Anyway, I have an encyclopedia of Triangulum in the works, but I'm not sure if I can post it on FF or not since it's not really a full story. Tell me if I can/if you want it in reviews.

PS: I was in Tahoe with no wi-fi when I finished this chapter, so please forgive me for the extreme lateness.

When the four Jedi arrived at the top floor of the tower, they saw the source of the noise. The unknown destroyers had begun to fire turbolasers and literally kick down the front door, the initial effect being the near-obliteration of the main entrance. Several smaller ships, which the four recognized as Acclamator-class assault ships, descended from the clouds above the city and began dispersing small gunships. The tiny craft shot through the air, birdlike, until they all finally reached the front of the Temple. Well, all but one.

Aboard this lone gunship was Captain Rex. Rex's mind, at that moment, was highly conflicted, with programmed orders from the Emperor on one side and his own conscience on the other. The orders insisted that he strike the Jedi down with extreme prejudice, while the conscience urged him to do the opposite- help the Jedi to defend against his clone brothers. As the Acclamator's bays opened and the gunships began streaming out, it seemed as if the orders would shut down his independent thoughts. Then, as the ships descended to the pavilion, Rex remembered the successful battles fought with Jedi by his men's side. His conscience began to win over his mind. Finally, just as his battlecraft reached the Jedi Pavilion, he turned to his pilot, a rookie named Sparks.

"Sparks, hail the Jedi inside the Temple."
"Sir, that's direct disobeying of Palpatine's-"
"Do it, soldier."
"Yes sir, Captain."

The holotank in the cockpit flickered to life, and Sparks pulled away from the Temple and the rest of the squadron.

"Captain Rex," Master Yoda began, "come to kill us, you have?"
"No, Master. The rest of us have, but not my squad. I've fought too many times alongside you and your kind to follow these orders."
"Very well. Great defiance, you show. On the roof, land your gunship. Now!"

The dropship pulled up to the flattest section of roof it could find, and the clones disembarked.

"Men, do not fire on any of the Jedi. The orders are hereby scrapped."
"Yes, sir!"

The squad made their way to the Jedi Archives, where many of the younglings, padawans, and Knights were holed up, with a defensive perimeter around the door.

"Freeze where you are. We know what you've come here to do."
"General Ti, if we were here to follow Palpatine's orders, we would have started shooting already."

A figure came out of the shadows in front of the Archives, that of Jedi General Shaak Ti. She beckoned for the rogue troopers to come inside, with weapons holstered. They did so, and Rex begins to speak.

"For all the young ones in here: we do not mean to harm you. We've realized that our fellow clones are blind fools, chained to the order of one man. We've-we hope-broke free of that chain and are going to help defend the next generation of this Order, even if we're killed protecting you all. For the others: that army is right on your doorstep, and they number in the thousands. The only real solution is to evacuate the temple before everyone inside is blasted to atoms. I have a UNSC comms set from the gunship-don't ask-and I'm going to get some ships down here to help us escape."

He opened the mobile radio set, tuned it to the UNSC E-Band, and spoke.

"Mayday, mayday, this is Captain Rex in the Jedi Temple. All of the other clones have had their minds wiped by Palpatine's order and are advancing toward the Jedi Archives. Requesting backup at the Temple's coordinates."

A brief pause, and then: "Captain, this is the UNSC Kandahar, FFG-797. We'll do everything in our power to get you and the Jedi aboard and out of the system. An ODST battalion is being prepared right now, sit tight."

On the Kandahar, Eighth Squad of Whipray Company, in the 97th Orbital Drop Shock Battalion, was prepping their guns and getting into their pods. After five minutes, the squad leader, the Russian Lt. Dima Rezhnov, gave the go-ahead to enter the pods and drop. Just before the clamps released, he gave a final morale booster.

"Forward into death, troopers, and do not yield! The svolochi will fall by the hundreds to our guns!"

The pods were released, and the soldiers plunged feet-first into hell.

On the ground, a squad of clones was sprinting toward the sizable hole torn in the Temple's façade by the turbolaser fire. In the lead was an ARC trooper nicknamed Hunter.

"Alright, men. Those rogues are protecting the Jedi in the Archive chamber. Our objective is to breach the Archives and kill everyone in there. Are we clear?"
"Yes, sir!"

A rookie in the back of the squad looked up, then back to Hunter.

"Sir, what are those things in the sky?
"What thing- oh."

Hunter gestured to his squad to run.

"Get out of there! Before they-"

He was cut off rather abruptly by an oblong chunk of metal slamming down on his head. The front of the pod burst open, and a black-clad ODST jumped out and began shooting.

"Fire!"

Dima leveled his BR85 and began blasting away at the clones' ranks. Eighth Squad made short work of the late Hunter's squad, then sprinted into the broken façade, following a waypoint set by Rex. They fought their way through several more clone squads without losing any of their own, and finally reached the Archives.

"Lieutenant?"
"Da. I am here; the rest of my company should be landing soon."
"Excellent. We're going to need backup in order to move the Jedi onto your ship."
"You most certainly will. There are thousands of them near the pavilion, with gunships in the skies above. An AC-220 is being sent from the Kandahar, but I fear that it is too slow."
"We'll make the most of it. Everyone, be prepared to move once the rest of the ODSTs arrive."

In fifteen agonizing minutes, the rest of Whipray Company's one hundred members made their way down into the Archives.

"Everyone move! The troopers will give us cover!"

The nearly two hundred remaining Jedi, along with Rex's squad and Whipray Company, moved sluggishly through the halls of the Temple. It took twenty minutes to reach the hole in the wall, where the AC-220 Vulture ultra-heavy gunship was hovering. In the distance, large Pod-class transports were entering the airspace.

"This is Transport Flight Ursa Major, standing by to retrieve the high-value individuals from the Jedi Temple. We'll try and get all of you in one go."

Whipray Company set up a large barricade in front of the evacuees, with HMG turrets at the ready.

"Stand by to repel enemy attacks!"

The bulk of the clones finally entered formation and leveled their guns.

"Energy shields up!"

A large shield dome generator was activated, encircling the ODSTs, rogue clones, and Jedi with a protective bubble. Just as the shield was activated, the clones opened fire. In just ten seconds, the dome collapsed under the stress of a thousand bolts of crackling plasma. But those ten seconds were enough.

"FIRE!"

Dima, along with several other troopers, spun up their turrets and unleashed a torrent of hot lead. Fifty clones fell to the ODSTs' guns in the first minute, while the Vulture blasted away dozens of enemies in seconds.

"Die, you scum-sucking animals! Raaaaagh!"

The transports grew ever-closer. Twenty ODSTs fell in ten minutes, and the clones marched like clockwork toward the barricade. Finally, the transports landed.

"Everyone on! These crates can't take much fire!"

The younglings crowded on first, followed by the Knights and padawans. Soon, only the Masters remained.

"Go, soldiers! We'll cover you!"
"Master Koon, tell the others to get aboard the transports! We need every Jedi we can get!"
"No, I will stay!"
"Go!"

Plo sighed, and hastily boarded one of the few transports left. Only one remained, with enough room to evacuate the forty remaining ODSTs as well as Rex's squad.

"Go, my friends! To salvation!"

The soldiers dashed onto the final transport, and the lumbering Pod lifted off with the Vulture in tow.

"Yes!"

Suddenly, one of the ships turned away from the Temple and left. The rest focused fire on the transports. Several went down in a hail of turbolaser fire.

"Chyort! The transports are being fired upon! Regulus, can't you do anything?"
"Negative, unless you want one tiny aircraft to charge a capital ship."

Transport after transport was damaged or destroyed.

"All units, speed up and spread out! We can't lose any more!"

In five minutes, the Pods were in suborbit around Coruscant, on an intercept course for the Kandahar.

"Kandahar, this is Ursa Major. Twenty-one of fifty transports made it out."
"Roger, Ursa. It's a shame we couldn't get any more home."

The brick-like spacecraft and their lone AC-220 escort entered the frigate's hangar bays.

Obi-Wan, who hadn't spoken since he was down in the Archives, suddenly realized something.

"Where's Anakin?"