		                                

                                                 The Story Behind the Story
						 The plan Of Darth Sidious


     Dooku and Sidious have had a partnership for some time.  During their careers in the Republic they both agreed that the current leadership was inadequate and corrupt, and that there should be one leader to dictate control and order with tyranny over the Republic.  But which one of them should be the leader?  This of course was never discussed since it would the Master who would take command.  But Sidious knew Dooku all too well, he could not be trusted. It was always the unspoken truth about the Sith order of the master and apprentice, the apprentice would only be under his master until he felt he was powerful enough to overthrow him and become the Master himself. Sidious knew of the Sith order being only of two, master and apprentice, but he adopted his own order having two agents.  One, the agent of the Sith, being of greater intelligence and holding a position of power.  Two, the apprentice, the warrior class, always obedient and easily controllable.  The two agents would compete and rival each other for the lone spot as apprentice leaving the Master undisturbed.  Thus enters Darth Athea.

     Athea was not a good apprentice, disloyal and deviant.  He was always trying to undermine his Masters efforts and was punished for it frequently.  Sidious devised a plan to do in his apprentice and start an alliance with the Mandalorian leader Jango Fett. Jango was deperate for help and reluctantly accepted.  Secretly, Sidious's plans for cloning an army would involve Jango. The Mandalorians were a powerful race and Fett's skills as a fighter were unmatched.  Their war with the Death Watch provided an opportunity. But he knew that only one would be necessary to clone an army and the Mandalorians were very independent and strong willed.  All of them might not agree and plus having only one would insure secrecy.   
     So our story begins...
     Sidious instructed Dooku to align himself with Athea and convince him to betray Sidious and steal his master's plan of cloning an army by forming a pact with the Death Watch.  Dooku would also use his influence on the Jedi to involve them in the war to further corner the Mandalorians onto Sidious's side.  Athea blindly agreed to Dooku's suggestion and confronted his master in his laboratory with the Death Watch to back him up.  Sidious was already prepared to leave having gathered his droids on a ship ready to depart.  But only after one last chance to discipline his apprentice.  Athea and Sidious fought visciously, but the Death Watch soldiers interfered and Sidious quickly fled to Galidraan.  There he had assembled a base with the Mandalorians and planned to gather them all there.

     Enter Darth Maul, still in his youth his anger and hatred for all who had turned on him made him a stout warrior. This impressed Sidious who was seeking another to replace Athea.  They met when Sidious was involved as Palpatine on a Senatorial envoy to Irdonia to investigate an incident between a Zabrak clan and the Jedi.  Maul was involved in the incident as a member of the clan.  As he stowed away on the ship carrying the envoy returning to Courasant, he attacked and killed everyone on board except for Sidious who revealed himself as a Sith and convinced Maul to join him to carry out his revenge on the Jedi.
  
     Later Maul met Sidious on Galidraan and was instructed to destroy his laboratory which Athea and the Death Watch now occupied.  Dooku provided Sidious with the code clearance of the Jedi vessel that was to arrive there a day later.  With Jango Fett's troops on hand this would provide the perfect incident to lure the Jedi into a full scale war, with the Jedi arriving the next day.  Plus Sidious thought it was wreckless for Athea to allow the Jedi and the Republic to be aware of any cloning process.  The droid collected the database of cloning procedures from the computer there so as not to be seen by the Jedi.

     Athea found out about Maul as did Dooku, who was not pleased.  Dooku was seeking the opportunity be rid of any other agent of interfering with his own plans of gaining power when he could overthrow Sidious.  The appearance of Maul did not sit well with him.  Dooku met with Sidious on Courasant and his master laid out his next plan.  He was to send Maul to Artus to free some soldiers there.  Dooku was to take Athea there as well to lure him into taking the droid with the location of the base in its databanks.  This would then entice Athea to plan a full scale attack on the Mandalorians and his former master.

     Maul confronted Athea and Dooku stealing the droid and Athea easily defeated Maul.  He spared his life after he could see Maul's thoughts.  Maul was humiliated and was thinking of a way to gain more power to defeat Athea.  His former master Garun Tuk had told him of a planet that had a fountain of power flowing from it, the Valley of the Jedi.  Maul quickly sought out the valley but was unaware of Athea trailing him.  After he left Athea tracked him to Galidraan and Dooku reluctantly protected his prescence.

     Sidious was not prepared for Maul to have visited the Valley of the Jedi.  He had knowledge of its existence and claimed it as strictly forbidden as not to alert the Jedi to the rise of the Sith.  He would have punished his new student but could see Maul was still impressionable and needed his full loyalty to the upcoming events.  Instead he prepared him a trial to test his emotions for which he would have died if he had failed.

     Also he was not prepared for the capture of Jango Fett.  Already Jango's troops were assembling to rescue their leader.  Sidious saw another opportunity to train his student.  Another test for his young apprentice, a way for him to prove himself to Sidious.

     As Maul and Jango escaped Narshadda they were to go to Bespin to rescue more ambushed troops.  Sidious knew that Maul could become a trusted ally to Jango which would help him capture Jango's loyalties in future events.  He told Maul to accompany him and once Jango was safe to meet him on the Death Watch base.

     But Dooku was there and despite his master's requests he was to find a way to destroy the rival apprentice.  He decided that he would confront Maul and kill him then telling Sidious Maul was dangerous and tried to betray them.  Dooku was defeated and Maul spared his life only because he did not want to fail his master again.

     Sidious was very pleased with his new apprentice, he had done all he requested and had the discipline to spare Dooku in care of his plans.  This was even better, now Maul and Dooku were bitter rivals.  Maul now would always keep Dooku in check and protect Sidious from ever being betrayed.  But Maul was disturbed that Sidious had not told him of Dooku before.  Of course Sidious played against Dooku as untrustworthy but very useful to his plans and played up Maul as his "right-hand_man".

     But now there was another problem, Athea found out there was more information and sought out the droid to provide evidence and expose the plans of Sidious to the Jedi.  Sidious knew he had to confront him while Maul retrieved the droid.

     In Sidious's confrontation with Athea, his former master told him how he had played right into his plan.  He told how Dooku had betrayed him and how he would never win the upcoming battle.  This infuriated Athea and a duel between the two insued.  Athea had gained much power from the Valley of the Jedi but still could not overcome his old master.  He fled and sought to turn Maul against Sidious and Dooku.

     Athea then confronted Dooku, who of course denied all and said he was acting in his own interest of destroying Sidious and Maul.  Dooku said that Sidious was sending Maul to destroy Athea and that he was to allow him passage through the battle.  Athea agreed to this but did not trust Dooku, so he was still to turn Maul and destroy Sidious and Dooku.  Dooku had other ideas as well.  His order of Jedi was to destroy Maul then he would corner Athea in the battle and kill him as well.  Then Dooku was to expose Sidious and pass this battle off as a huge Sith conspiracy to raise an army to destroy the Jedi.  But this mostly depended on Maul's defeat.

     As it turned out Maul and the Mandalorians defeated and destroyed nearly all of the Jedi and the Death Watch forces.  Then Maul faced Athea, who then exposed Sidious and Dooku as sharing a closer alliance than Maul would care for.  But Maul remained steadfast and loyal refusing to betray his master.

     The two clashed and Maul came out victorious.  But now he was troubled, how could his master have decieved him?  Then when he spoke to his master he realized that Sidious was expecting the Mandalorians to be destroyed when the remainder of the Jedi order finished the fight. Had this whole battle been for nothing?  What could Sidious possibly gain from all of this?

     Simple...Half of the Jedi order was to be wiped out, greatly diminishing their abilities to keep peace in the galaxy.  His candidate for cloning, Jango Fett, would survive and build a bitterness and hatred for the Jedi and the Republic over time thus making him another loyal servant.  Plus his rival Athea had been destroyed and Dooku would remain obedient as long as Maul lived to protect him.  Things could not have gone better for Sidious.  Now his plan to take over the galaxy was ready to commence.
