Two weeks earlier...
Jeori Teebo stared out the window of his personal flagship, the
Viscount, at the massive Calamari shipyards. Thousands of tiny ships flirted about, completing the framework of another of the massive Mon Calamari Star Defenders, one of the largest and most powerful ships in the galaxy.
The entire framework of this one had already been completed, and construction crews were working on attaching the durasteel panels the would make up the hull. Calamarian engineers took great pride in their work, and went to extreme ends to ensure that no two Calamari cruisers were alike. This one was going to have a dark green hull, covered with hundreds of the lumps and bumps that were unique to Calamari cruisers.
He watched the crews for some time, proud that this cruiser would soon be a part of the Mon Calamari Republic's glorious fleet. He would name this cruiser
Pride of the Calamari. That would be an adequate name.
As he stood watching, he was dimly aware of someone approaching from the hallway behind him. He heard them key the door open and step in. He turned around to see who his visitor was.
"Lieutenant," he said, recognizing the young Calamarian officer he had recently hand picked to be one of the crew on his flagship, "Is there a problem?"
The Lieutenant brought both his eyes to bare on the Admiral. "Sir, we've just recieved a transmission from the colony on Da Soocha." The young Lieutenant gulped.
Jeori straightened himself, preparing for the worst. "And?"
"The Commander there, Captain Agbar, reported that several Star Destroyers came out of hyperspace, and were moving into attack position on the shipyards."
Jeori swore silently to himself. "What happened?"
"We don't know, Admiral. We lost contact several minutes ago."
Jeori locked both his large eyes onto the Lieutenant. "Lost contact?"
"Yes, sir. The Captain reported that the Star Destroyers commenced fire on the Shipyards, and that one was moving into position to fire upon the base." He paused for a moment, and bowed his large domed head. "We fear the worst, Admiral."
"Prepare the ship for hyperspace. Inform the Captain that we will be leaving for Da Soocha immidiately."
"Yes, sir."
"And tell him I'm coming up to the bridge. I want to review that transmission."
* * *
Jeori felt his chest tighten as he watched the transmission. He could see the tension in Captain Agbar's body tone as he reported what was happening. He could hear the fear in the Captain's voice.
Jeori had made a mistake. He had left Da Soocha extremely lightly defended, leaving her only a Light Cruiser. He had thought that she would be safe.
He was wrong. As he watched the transmission, he cocked his other eye around to look at the other inhabitants of the room. He could see the anger in his officers, especially those of his race. It was more difficult to tell with the others, like the Bothan and the humans, but he could feel it radiating from them.
He knew it was there because he felt it too. He wanted to charge in there and rip off the heads of alll of those responsible for their atrocities. They had gone and senselessly and ruthlessly slaughtered thousands of innocent civilians.
But anger was not the way of the Jedi. He calmed himself, and looked about the room. "We must go there. We must see if there are any survivors. Da Soocha will not be the end of this. Soon they will come here. We must go and find out what we can, before they attack." He paused and met each of their eyes in turn. "We must protect the planet."
He activated his comlink. "Set course for Da Soocha."