Salhaine sat in quiet contemplation, having recently completed her studies for the evening. She had been focusing on troop movements and deployment of large-scale forces, after the previous day's efforts to understand synergies between differing units. It was a slow process, even with assistance from Jedi Knights and Padawans such as herself who visited the archives as she did. But the apprentice was patient and disciplined, as she most often was. Understanding would come in time. [i]There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.[/i]

The chamber was silent save for faint hints of breathing, and the occasional rustle of fabric. Salhaine was at peace, reaching out to the Force and feeling it wrap around her. A smile played on the corner of her lips as she sensed the currents and their movements.

Then something shifted. An abrupt change, as if a switch had been flipped and inverted the flow. Her eyes flew open; she could no longer feel the peaceful tides that usually gathered about the Temple and its halls. Salhaine sprang to her feet to investigate, reaching out to the Force to see what had replaced the serenity. Instead of the previous sense of calm, death and pain sliced across her as a lightsaber would tear through wood. Salhaine recoiled from its touch. Intent on finding its source, the Padawan hurried from her chamber. The intensity of the Dark Side - for that was the only source she could think of that could cause such a drastic shift in the Force - strengthened as she paced the hall.

"Salhaine!" A voice called her name from further down the hall. She sped up to find its owner, a black-haired Human she recognised as a fellow Padawan. A green-hued lightsaber was readied in his hands. Two bodies were sprawled on the floor, their armour - [i]clone trooper[/i] armour - bearing the clear signs of damage from a lightsaber's blade. "Jorath? What is this, what's going on?"

"The Temple is under attack. The clones, the Army of the Republic... they're here. And they're killing any Jedi they find. Younglings, Padawans, it doesn't matter. I saw them cut some down without hesitation... or mercy." Jorath was short of breath. "I don't know how this happened, Salhaine, but they've turned on us. We have to leave. Now." Already he was hurrying past her in the direction of the closest hangar bay. Stunned, Salhaine didn't move. She couldn't believe this. It didn't make any sense.

"Salhaine! We don't have time - "

"More of them! Open fire!" The voice of a clone trooper, recognised by Salhaine from her time in the war, interrupted Jorath. The Echani spun to face the speaker, her lightsaber in hand and ignited almost on instinct. Six clones, rifles up and aimed at the two Padawans. Blaster fire erupted through the hall, and Salhaine slipped into her tried and true Shien-style deflection of the shots. One rebounded back into a clone and he fell: Jorath moved in to close the distance, cutting down two more.

Then one of the remaining troopers turned from Salhaine and fired three shots into Jorath while his back was turned. At that range he couldn't miss. Salhaine rushed forward as her fellow Padawan crumpled, engaging the clones in close quarters. The first dropped with his right arm severed, the second took a diagonal slash across the torso, and Salhaine staggered the third with a Force-assisted shove before killing him. The threat eliminated, she rushed to Jorath and turned him over. "Jorath?"

"Go, Salhaine... run while you can." Jorath coughed up a glob of blood, but spoke no more. Salhaine felt his death add to the unease and pain within the Temple, but he was right. She had to escape. Giving her fellow Jedi a final courtesy by closing his eyes, she took a deep breath, then got to her feet and continued through the Temple, intending to make her way to a hangar bay within the Spires.