The Clone Wars erupted like wildfire, and at the centre of it stood a figure the galaxy had not yet learned to fear General Grievous, Supreme Commander of the Separatist Droid Armies.
But this was not the coughing, reckless beast the histories would one day mock.
This Grievous was controlled. Sharp. A tactician who studied every Jedi he killed.
A hunter.A strategist.A monster built for war.
Battle of Christophsis – Republic Line Broken
Crystals glittered across the smoked glass plains of Christophsis, reflecting the explosions from orbit. The Republic garrison thought they were entrenched, confident behind shield barriers and turret lines.
Then the bombardment stopped.
Silence unnerved the clone commanders.
And Grievous walked out of the fog.
Not running.Not roaring.Simply striding.
Four lightsabers ignited all taken from Jedi who would never speak again.
"Advance," Grievous commanded. His voice was calm enough to freeze blood.
The droid legions surged forward in formations not seen since ancient Mandalorian war doctrines. Precise. Layered. Efficient.
Republic forces responded but too slow.
Already predicted.
Already countered.
Jedi Master Ekrin Voss met Grievous at the frontline, blue blade raised.
They exchanged only five blows.
Five.
Grievous adapted to his form mid-strike, shifted his weight, and cut him down.
The clones watched their general fall in a heartbeat, and morale shattered.The shield generator was lost. The line collapsed.
Christophsis fell in a single day.
Battle of Cato Neimoidia – The Hanging City Burns
The Republic believed the sky bridges of Cato Neimoidia were unbreachable.Grievous did not attack them.
He collapsed them.
He boarded the planetary defense skyhook complex under the cover of a diplomatic surrender request, activated internal demolition nodes, and watched an entire city drop into the abyss.
"War is mathematics," he told the Neimoidian senators as they fled."I simply removed the variables."
Jedi Knight Seris Dalo tried to evacuate civilians.Grievous intercepted her skiff.Her blade style: Form V.Overpowering blocks.Linear counter pushes.
He broke her stance by shifting into inverted grips, then bisected her cleanly.
Her clone battalion died trying to avenge her.
The Republic Senate called it massacre.
Grievous called it efficiency.
Skirmish on Anaxes – Jedi Council Realization
At Anaxes, the clone logistical core world, three Jedi Masters fought to hold the command citadel.
Grievous didn't attack the citadel.
He attacked the food reserves.
He attacked the water purification works.
He attacked the oxygen processors.
Jedi can endure war.
But their armies cannot endure starvation.
Master Depa Billaba watched six Republic divisions surrender without firing a shot.
"He is not waging battles," Mace Windu said grimly when the reports reached Coruscant."He is waging war."
"Know the Jedi way, he has learned," Yoda murmured."Know how to break it, he now does."
They were starting to understand.Too late.
General Grievous – Sith-Forged
Count Dooku observed from the bridge of the Invisible Hand.
"You do not simply defeat them," Dooku noted."You humiliate them."
Grievous' reply was calm, analytical:
"Victory is not the destruction of the enemy.It is the destruction of their hope."
His cybernetics pulsed with Sith alchemical reinforcement bones replaced, nerves rewired, muscles layered in synth-fiber.Sith runes etched along his sternum pulsed when the Force touched him.
He could not use the Force but he could resist it.
Jedi who tried to crush him with telekinesis found only immovable iron.
Jedi who tried to sense his intent found nothing but cold purpose.
He was the perfect predator for Jedi.
The Republic Falters
Reports flooded the Senate:
Four Outer Rim sectors lost.
Nine Jedi confirmed dead.
Three task forces annihilated.
Morale collapsing.
Palpatine stood before the Senate, draped in concern like a shroud.
"We must expand the emergency powers," he said solemnly."The Republic is under threat unlike any in history."
The Senate roared approval.
More control.More authority.More war.
Just as he planned.
While the galaxy bled, Mandalore stood silent.Strong. Growing. Protected.
The Halo Array circled the system like steel gods.The shipyards forged carriers the galaxy did not yet know existed.Mandalorian Spartan soldiers trained in silence.
And Shepard watched the holomaps of the war unfold with cold calculation.
"Not yet," he murmured."Let the galaxy burn first. Then we arrive not as participants… but as conquerors."