The Clone Wars rage to their bloody climax. Treachery reigns. Treason takes courage. Commandos, Jedi, and the entire Galactic Republic must face the end of life as they know it . . . and the dreaded dawn of a new empire. Even as the Clone Wars are about to reach an explosive climax, no one knows whether victory will favor the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) or the Separatists. But no matter who wins, the stakes are highest for elite Special Ops clones like the Republic Commandos in Omega and Delta squadsand the notorious renegade Advance Recon Commando troopers known as Null ARCs. And now even the deadliest weapon may not be powerful enough to defeat the realmenace: the apocalyptic horror to be unleashed when Palpatine utters the chilling words The time has come. Execute Order 66. Translation: The Jedi have tried to stage a coup, and all must be shot on sight. With their faith in the Republic and their loyalty to their Jedi allies put to the ultimate test, how will the men of Omega and Delta squads react to the most infamous command in galactic history?

Karen Traviss is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of three previous Star Wars: Republic Commando novels: Hard Contact, Triple Zero, and True Colors; three Star Wars: Legacy of the Force novels: Bloodlines, Revelation, and Sacrifice; as well as City of Pearl, Crossing the Line, The World Before, Matriarch, Ally, and Judge. A former defense correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist, Traviss has also worked as a police press officer, an advertising copywriter, and a journalism lecturer. Her short stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Realms of Fantasy, On Spec, and Star Wars Insider. She lives in Devizes, England.

Prologue


So that’sme. 

So that’s howIonce looked. We should all see ourselves from a stranger’s perspective at least once in our lives. There’s a Jedi walking toward me, all brown robes and earnest piety; no braid, so despite his youth he’s not a Padawan any longer. He’ll be commanding troops. At the very least, he’ll be on active service on his own. The war makes us veterans before our time. 

I want to grab him by the shoulders and ask if he thinks this is a just war, a war fought honorably, but he’ll panic if a Mandalorian in full armor accosts him–especially one he’ll sense is a Force-user like himself. Nobody else is taking much notice of me. Mandalorians on Coruscant are just foreigners, bounty hunters, one more bunch of economic migrants out of the many thousands of species who flock to the galaxy’s capital. 

Ah, the Jedi’s looking around the crowd. He can sense me. I’m lost in the crowd of shoppers and sightseers. It’s very strange–obscene, even–to see everyone going about their business on Coruscant as if we’re not in the second year of an ugly war. And for them, of course, they’re not. It’s someone else’s war in every sense–fought on other worlds, fought by other beings, fought by men who aren’t Coruscant citizens. Clone troopers aren’tanyone’scitizens. They have no legal rights. They’re objects. Chattel. Military assets. 

Nobody should stand back and let that happen, least of all a Jedi. 

I’m just a few meters from the Jedi now. He’s so serious, socommitted.Yes, thatwasme, just months ago. 

A passerby glances his way and I sense her unease. When I walked around the city in my robes, I thought that others saw me as someone there to help them. Now I know different; they probably saw someone they didn’t trust, with powers they didn’t understand, someone they didn’t elect but who shaped their lives behind the scenes anyway. 

If they’d known how much I could shape their thoughts, too, they’d have fled from me. 

The Jedi passes close by, but I still don’t recognize him. He stares into the T-slit of my helmet as if I’ve grabbed him. I can feel his confusion as I walk on by–no, not just confusion: fear.A Force-using Mandalorian has to be on his list of worst nightmares.

 There was a time when it was on mine, too. Funny, that. Then I sense him turn. I feel him working his way back through the crowd toward me, burning with questions. Before he reaches out to tap my shoulder–and I have to give him credit for even trying–I turn to face him. 

He flinches. What he sees doesn’t match what he canfeel. 

“Whatareyou?” 

“A man who drew the line,” I say. “How about you?” 

“You’re General Jusik . . .” 

Is it that obvious? To a Jedi, yes, it is. I used to be Bardan Jusik. Everyone in the Jedi Order knows I finally went native. It’s the only response I know; complete surrender to a way of life–first Jedi, now Mandalorian–with every fiber of my being. My Jedi Masters didn’t raise me to live my life by halves. 

“Not any longer,” I say at last. 

“You walked out on us in the middle of a war–a war we haveto fight.” He’s puzzled, resentful–scared. “How could you betray us like that?” 

I

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Excerpted from Order 66 by Karen Traviss
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