Disclaimer: All rights to the Star Wars Saga and its universe are owned by Disney.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
STAR WARS
EPISODE I:
THE PHANTOM MENACE
Turmoil has engulfed the galaxy. Led by the illustrious Count Dooku of Serenno, various planetary and sectorial governments, as well as some mega-corporations and commerce guilds, have declared their intentions to leave the Galactic Republic, refusing to comply with its excessive taxation and corruption in the Galactic Senate and have joined together to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
However the Trade Federation of Cato Neimoidia, lead by Viceroy Nute Gunray, is now outraged with the sudden taxations placed on their trade routes in the Outer Rim Territories. The powerful trade cartel now blockades the peaceful world of Naboo in an attempt to cripple the Republic's economy and demands the Senate for the removal of the taxations.
Responding to the pleas of the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, Finis Valorum, the Jedi Order has assigned Jedi Guardians, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, to negotiate with the greedy Viceroy in order to stop war from erupting in the Republic once again, unaware that this entire event is being manipulated from their sworn blood-enemy from within the shadows of the Republic: The Sith...
27 years before the Battle of Yavin:
Emerging from the swirling vortex of hyperspace at last with a sound that rivals that of a loud thunderclap, the G9 Rigger freigther Twilight gave Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi his first look at the world of Naboo.
Or rather his first look at the menacing armada of the Confederate warships that blockaded it.
Like maggots, they were spread out throughout the deep blackness of space. His eyes wandered around as he identified and counted the amount of each warship he saw. So far, he had counted 12 Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ships, 19 Munificent-class star frigates, 1 Rescusant-class light destroyer, and 1 Providence-class carrier/destroyer.
Obi-Wan was not impressed. During his Padawan years under the tutelage of the esteemed Grand Master of the Jedi Order, Master Yoda, he had learned that no matter how big the size of opponent or the threat was, it didn't matter.
"They're really not holding back this time." his companion piloting the ship beside him said dryly, making the corners of Obi-Wan's lips curl up into a smile. Leave it to Anakin to always make the atmosphere lighter no matter how perilous the situation was.
"Oh, what would you have suspected from the Trade Federation, my young padawan?" Obi-Wan joked. "After all, out of all the members of the Separatist Council, Viceroy Gunray is a coward."
Suddenly, the communications array started to beep and ended all types of humor for this mission. 'Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.' Obi-Wan thought, as Anakin pushed the button and the view screen above them lit up into the form of a Neimoidian with greyish-tan skin and dull orange eyes, wearing the hat of a Trade Federation captain and dark-grey robes.
"Unidentified vessel, you are entering a restricted area." the Neimoidian captain snapped at the screen, earning blank stares from the Jedi. "State your purpose or you will be destroyed."
"We are the ambassadors of the Supreme Chancellor and we requesting an audience with the esteemed Viceroy of this blockade," Anakin answered coolly. "We would wish to board immediately."
Suddenly, a harsh whisper drew the captain's view away from the screen, as he had a brief, yet harsh conversation with the unknown figure that he was talking to. When he came back to the screen, all hostile tensions vanished immediately with a slightly vexed look on the Neimoidian's face.
"Ah, yes. Of course," he muttered sourly, most of it to himself. "You now have permission to dock, as we are honored to be graced in the presence of the ambassadors of the esteemed chancellor himself."
And with that, the view screen flickered off sending the small cockpit into a deep silence. Slowly, Anakin piloted the Twilight towards the flagship of the blockade fleet and Viceroy Gunray's personal warship itself, the Saak'ak.
Entering the left hanger of the battleship, the small freigther settled down on the dock of the hanger, gaining the sudden attention of both Neimoidian workers and Battle Droid units stationed in the particular location.
Rising from his seat, Obi-Wan stretched his arms out. He'd really should have taken Anakin's advice and rest before they arrived. "Well, I do believe it's time we met the good viceroy?" he said, gaining a chuckle from his young pupil.
"I take it that we leave Artoo in here as always?" Anakin asked with a quirked eyebrow.
The chirping of an small astromech droid made the two men turn their heads to the direction of where it was coming from, as a blue R2-series astromech droid appear in the cockpit of the friegther, asking his master what to do.
"Well, my little friend," Obi-Wan said, rubbing the dome of the droid affectionately. "We need you to remain on the ship in case the negotiations go sour. Can you do that for us?" Despite the question, he knew that Artoo can do it seeing how he's done it several times in the past already.
Artoo's trilling response was the only conformation that the two men needed.
Obi-Wan stood up and pulled the hood of the brown cloak, that hid his Jedi outfit, over his head. He turned his head and saw that Anakin's already done the same thing.
"Let's go." Anakin said and the two left the ship, adjusting their lightsabers to their own respective belts under the protection of their dark-brown cloaks.
The hull of the ship lowered down to the ground, as the silver TC-series protocol droid, TC-14, approached the ship to wait for the Viceroy's esteemed guests. She watched as two hooded figures walked down the ramp of the vessel and stop a few centimeters from her, eyeing the droid curiously with a small bit of suspicion in their eyes.
Using her sockets to enhance her sight of vision, she was able to get a good look at the two men from behind their hoods. The older one had an orange beard with wise, yet hardened eyes and looked to be in his late 30's, possibly nearing the age of 40 himself.
The second one was what put her on alert. He looked to be in his mid 20's with intense blue eyes and short-cropped dirty blonde hair and a face that held no nonsense in a situation such as this. The thing that caught her attention, however, was the braid with a blue gem tucked behind his ear.
Her master's programming of the enemies of the Confederacy returned to her, as she realized that the two men standing before her were Jedi.
Glad that her face had no registration of human facial expressions, the droid did her best to hide the shock and fear from her voice. "Welcome ambassadors of Supreme Chancellor Valorum to my master's vessel, the Saak'ak. Allow me to introduce myself, I am TC-14," she identified herself to the Jedi. "If you follow me, I shall guide you to the room that my masters has laid out to meet you in."
Spinning on her heel, the droid began to guide the two to the ship's observation room, hoping to stall the Jedi long enough to inform her master of this new update.
The protocol droid led the two Jedi into a large room equipped with a round conference table. The wall at the end of the room held three windows, providing a view of the planet Naboo and the fleet of warships that blockaded it.
"I hope that your honored sirs will be most comfortable here," the protocol droid said. "My master will be with you shortly." After bowing to the Jedi, the droid left and the door closed with a heavy thud.
As soon as the droid left, both Anakin and Obi-Wan finally pulled back the hoods of their dark cloaks.
"Thank the Force that droid left," Anakin grunted. "If I spent anymore time with this hood on, I swear that I'd look like a frakkin' Jawa."
When Obi-Wan didn't make a response to his joke, Anakin turned his head to see his friend's head staring into empty space with an intense look on his face, making Anakin grow concern for his friend. "Master?"
After a moment of silence, Obi-Wan finally spoke. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Anakin blinked in surprise, stretching his senses out, he didn't feel anything. "I don't sense anything."
"This is supposed to a simple trade dispute, and yet there's something elsewhere... elusive." he mused in a tone that Anakin couldn't quite identify. "Learn to listen the living Force, Anakin, and it will tell you things that are not readily apparent."
Anakin stared. "You've been hanging around with Master Yoda, lately, haven't you?" It was more of a statement rather than a question.
"Yes, well... Master Yoda and I have been talking more frequently nowadays." Obi-Wan replied softly, a look in his eyes that made Anakin frown with suspicion, but doesn't question his friend any further.
The two walked over to the window and looked at the assembled fleet of ships orbiting the planet. After a while, Anakin spoke at last. "How do you think this Viceroy Gunray fellow will react to the Chancellor's demands?"
Obi-Wan snorted. "Like I said, Gunray's the biggest coward out of all the Separatist Council, not adding the fact that these Trade Federation types lack the backbone that the Techno Union and Geonosis have. Blockading a planet with minimal defenses is one thing, but defying two ambassadors of the Chancellor himself? The negotiations will be short."
But there was an odd feeling circling around the two. Like the Force itself was telling the two of them that this would be a day long remembered for the both of them.
"What! What did you say?" the furious hiss of the Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray echoed throughout the bridge.
"I believe that the ambassadors of the Chancellor are Jedi Knights, master." TC-14 replied, her metallic voice taking a nervous edge to it.
Nute's skin paled. He knew that TC-14's programming was to never lie to whoever her master, but this was a rare time that he wished that she did.
Daultay Dofine, the Captain of the Saak'ak, gaped like a rollerfish on land and wheeled onto Gunray in dismay. "I knew it! They've come to force us to end the blockade," he shook his head in terror. "Our plans are ruined! We're doomed, doomed I say!"
Gunray made a placating gesture. "Stay calm! We still have a chance," he turned to TC-14. "Go. Distract them," he waved the droid off, who made the electronic equivalent of an agitated splutter, but complied nonetheless. She marched off the bridge with a electronic huff.
"That won't stall them for long." Dofine whimpered, earning a glare from Gunray.
"It doesn't matter," the Viceroy growled at Dofine. "Go get Rune, while I contact Count Dooku."
Dofine rushed off the bridge in a hurry to find Rune Haako, the Trade Federation's Settlement Officer and Gunray's second-in-command, while Gunray took in a deep breath. Things were not going as the Count had planned.
And now he feared that everything that they've worked for is about to be undone.
In the room that the droid left the two Jedi in, Anakin and Obi-Wan sat at the table, tapping their fingers in annoyance.
"Is it customary for any of the Separatist leaders to make their guests this long?" Anakin asked.
Obi-Wan frowned. "I sense an odd amount of maneuvering and fear for something as trivial as this trade dispute."
It was then that the door reopened and TC-14 entered the room, carrying a plate filled with food that lower-class families couldn't afford with cups filled with Corellian Whiskey. The droid strode over to the table and set the plate on the table. It stepped back and waited for the two to dine in on their course.
'Don't drink anything.' Obi-Wan's voice rang through his head thanks to their Force-bond.
Nodding, Anakin gave a false smile to the droid. "Sorry, but I'm feeling a bit under the weather."
"And I ate before we arrived." Obi-Wan said, much to the annoyance of the droid who took up the plate and left, grumbling to herself.
When the doors closed again, Obi-Wan turned to give Anakin a pointed look. "Stay on your guard, they may attempt to try something."
Anakin nodded in agreement, not doubting his master for a single moment
It took a moment for the image to appear, but once it did, the hologram of Count Dooku himself appeared before Gunray and his lackies, wearing the robes of House Dooku as he always did.
"I instructed you not to contact me except in the event of an emergency, Viceroy." the grave and powerful voice of the leader of Serenno said impatiently.
Nute swallowed hard, a cold shiver of fear running up his spine. "Forgive me, Count Dooku, but the Chancellor's ambassadors have arrived, and they are Jedi Knights." he told Dooku.
Dooku arched an eyebrow. "The Chancellor involved the Jedi? This is... unexpected."
Sitting through the conversation impatiently, Dofine couldn't help but voice his opinion in the conversation. "This plan of yours has failed, Count Dooku," Dofine snapped at the hologram. "We dare not and certainly cannot go up against these Jedi."
Dooku slowly inched his head to stare at Dofine, making the Neimoidian captain lose all the confidence that he had previously held. "You fear two Jedi more than you fear me, Dofine? I am amused." his tone suggested that he actually was amused, before he turned back to the Viceroy again. "Viceroy!"
Nute felt the back of his skull ridges freeze with terror. He stepped foward quickly. "Yes, my lord?"
Dooku's eyes hardened further than before. "I do not want to see this disgusting creature in my sight again!" he said with a voice of ice. "Do you understand?"
Nute nodded frantically and turned around to glare at Dofine, who immediately slinked away from the group and left the bridge as fast as his stubby legs could let him.
Turning back to face the hologram, Nute asked. "What do we do now, my lord?"
"Nothing has changed," Dooku replied. "A confrontation with the Jedi was inevitable, so we must act now. Begin landing your troops on Naboo. At once."
Nute froze, his face contorted in an appearance of shock and he could feel Rune make a similar face from behind him. "Invasion? So soon," he asked hesitantly. "Is that... legal?"
"My master shall make it legal." Dooku said in a no nonsense tone of voice.
Nute took a deep breath. "And the Jedi?"
Dooku's neutral visage suddenly grew darker at the reminder of the Jedi. "The Chancellor should have never brought them into this. Kill them immediately."
The hologram faded before Gunray even had a chance to respond. Nute grimly realized that at this moment that there was no turning back.
Steeling himself with a deep breath, he turned to the comm officer, Sil Unch, with a face carved of stone. "Begin jamming the communications from the planet, and prepare the armies for invasion." he commanded to Sil Unch, who nodded in reply and turned back to his console.
"Do you even know how to kill Jedi?" Rune asked incredulously.
"Droids. Lots of droids."
Unlike most of his kind created everyday, R2-D2 was always keen on his surroundings and as such, he was alarmed at the amount of Neimoidian guards approaching the vessel.
He manage to see the leader of the group, a Neimoidian captain, pull out his holocommunicator which had began to beep. Activating it, the image of a Neimoidian in blood-red robes with a three-pronged headdress appeared.
R2's calculations suggested that this was Viceroy Nute Gunray.
"Search the Jedi's ship for anything that looks valuable or of importance. Once it's been entirely cleared, destroy it. Do not fail me, Captain Nox." the Viceroy commanded and signed out when the captain nodded.
"All right, you heard him!" Nox shouted to the group, who immediately straightened up in a military position. "Open this door!" he ordered his lieutenant, Fame Drimal, who nodded and began to approach the ship.
Not wanting the soldiers to enter the ship that his master and friend told him to protect, R2 connected himself the Twilight's main power grid and activated the ship, alerting the Neimoidian Gunnery Batalion that now lifted their firearms at the ship.
"Sir," an unidentified Neimodian guard said nervously to his superior. "That ship's activating!"
"I can see that!" Nox snapped back, an overtone of fear in his voice.
They watched with astonished horror as the ship slowly began to rise on its own. The last thing Nox saw was the laser cannon on the top open fire on him, as the world disappeared in a bright light before darkness forever claimed his vision
Anakin was staring out the view-window when he'd heard the explosion. "Master, did you hear that?" he asked, trying to ignore the growing migraine pulsing from within his head.
Obi-Wan nodded grimly. "Yes." he said, before he pulled out a comlink and put it up to his mouth. "Artoo, are you there? What's happening?"
The frantic beeps from the comlink made Obi-Wan's eyes widen with shock, putting Anakin on alert.
"What? What did he say?"
Obi-Wan turned to face his apprentice, dread growing in his features. "He says a Neimoidian patrol tried to break into the Twilight."
Anakin grimaced. "Did he say where he was now?"
They then heard the faint sound of turbolaser fire in the coldness of space, as the two turned their heads in time to see the Twilight flying at high speeds to the planet below, the droid doing his best to avoid the turbolasers.
"If that little droid gets one scratch on my ship, I swear I'll have its head!" Anakin growled, watching the small freigther he's had since the uprising on Ord Mantell all those years back try to avoid the turbolasers.
To both his and Obi-Wan's relief, Artoo managed to pilot the ship out of the dangers of the Saak'ak and began to make its way down to the planet below.
The two released a breath they didn't know they were holding in, only to freeze when they heard a small hissing noise begin to enter the room. They spun around to see a greenhouse gas begin to enter the room through the vent, slowly clouding the room with its poisonous fumes.
"Gas!" Obi-Wan said, as the two fumbled through their belts for their respirators to conceal their breath from the poisonous air.
While putting on his respirator, Obi-Wan used the Force to enhance his hearing and could hear the sound of mechanical feet hitting the cold, durasteel floor of the ship.
'Droids.' he warned Anakin, reaching for his lightsaber with his padawan mimicking his exact move, as the two waited for the battle droids to spring the trap.
With his squad consisting of several OOM security droids behind him, the OOM command battle droid, OWO-1, approached the door of the conference room and stopped when a hologram of Viceroy Gunray appeared on his communicator.
"They must be dead, by now. But make certain of it." he commanded before the hologram faded. With his new order, he had unit OWO-5 open the door and have both him and the rest of the squad raise their blasters to open fire on any living being in the room.
Suddenly, an unknown force made the dioxide gas blast directly through them and within the other levels of the ship, without taking them with it due to their magnetized feet connected to the ship's floor.
However, the sudden act blinded their optics long enough for two blue blades of pure plasma wielded by two men and jump towards them immediately slicing them to pieces of scrap metal, despite their best attempts to blast the two of them.
The last thing that OWO-1's sensors were able to pick up before his destruction was the younger of the two humans commenting. "Offhand, I'd say that this mission is past the negotiation phase."
When the communications for Commander OWO-1 was no longer active, Nute was instantly alarmed. "Commander OWO-1, are you there? What in blazes is going on down there?!" he practically shouted into his comlink for a response.
"Sir," the mechanized voice of the cyborg communications officer, Tey How, spoke up from her console. "The Jedi have left the room and they are now onroute to the bridge, right now."
"Then seal off the bridge, you fool!" he yelled at the female Neimoidian, who instantly went to work to close the doors to the bridge with the other two blast doors casting a triple-shelled barrier between them and the Jedi.
"That should hold them." Nute muttered to himself. He then rounded onto Sil Unch, yelling at the terrified Neimoidian. "I want droideka units, P-59 & 60, up here at once!"
Rune frowned at his superior. "That won't be enough." he whispered to himself of the sounds of klaxons blaring throughout the bridge and the interior of the ship. "We will not survive this."
Deflecting the blaster fire and slicing through their opponents with impressive grace, Obi-Wan and Anakin had finally arrived at the part of the ship that held the door that led straight into the battleship's bridge.
Obi-Wan walked up to the door and began to cut a hole into it, only for him to pull it out and frown once he realized that there was more than one door protecting the bridge.
So, using all the muscle in his arms, he stabbed the center door with the lightsaber and saw that it was slowly melting the durasteel away like soft butter. Behind the door, he could sense the feelings of awe, astonishment, anger, and surprise.
But the most overwhelming emotion was that of fear.
A red spot started to grow more and more, as orange sparks showered off the door due to the lightsaber buried into it almost from its hilt.
Inside the bridge, the center of the door's metal began to turn molten and drop away.
"They are still coming through," Rune whimpered, as he slowly began to slink back away from the door and his frozen leader, who stood transfixed in the same spot with his eyes wider than before and his mouth agape.
Rune would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious.
Obi-Wan smiled when he felt the molten metal fall off the door. He was almost through! But suddenly, he felt another disturbance in the Force.
And just at the right time, as Anakin shouted out. "Master, destroyer droids!"
Obi-Wan cursed silently as he pulled out his lightsaber, just as the Droidekas came rolling around the corner of where the Jedi had fought their way through.
The two droidekas unfolded from their bipedal state and rose into a standing position with both units twin built-in blaster cannons armed and firing upon the duo, forcing them back a little. To make the situation even worse was another squad of OOM security droids appearing right behind the two superior droids.
"There's too many of them," Anakin managed to get out over the sounds of the blasterfire.
"It's a standoff, let's go!" Obi-Wan commanded, as Anakin responded with a nod of agreement.
And so, with adrenaline coursing through their veins and calling on the Force for guidance, the two Jedi dashed off with speed that not even a droid could keep up with and disappeared within the corridors of the ship.
Rune opened his eyes to see, to his relief, no presence of any Jedi within the bridge. "We drove them off," he said breathlessly, astonished at their good fortune today.
Of course, Nute had to rub this in, laughing arrogantly. "See? They are no match for the might of the Trade Federation Droid Army." he commented in a pleased tone.
"Sir," Tey How's voice interrupted, causing the duo to turn around. "They've gone up the ventilation shaft."
Dropping from the ventilation shaft they used to escape the pursuing the droids, Obi-Wan and Anakin drop down onto the cold, durasteel floor in the right hanger, and make their way towards a pile of crates, careful not to be seen.
They see, to their shock, several platoons of B1 battle droids, B2 super battle droids, droidekas, DSD1 dwarf spider droids with dozens of PACs, AATs, MTTs, IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tanks, and OG-9 homing spider droids slowly make their way up the catwalks of a C-9979 Landing Craft.
"Battle droids?" Anakin whispered in confusion.
"It's an entire army," Obi-Wan said grimly. "They're invading Naboo."
"I don't understand," Anakin voiced his baffled thoughts. "From a simple dispute over trade routes to a full-scale planet invasion. Not even Viceroy Gunray would risk starting a war."
"No, he wouldn't. There's a darker force at play here." he turned to look at Anakin. "I suspect that R2 is onroute the planet's capital to inform the Queen, so we'll have to stow away aboard on of these ships and get to the planet below."
Anakin nodded, before he gave a small smile. "You were right about one thing, master. The negotiations were short."
Obi-Wan gave a chuckle before the two Jedi darted with speed enhanced by the Force and disappeared within the confines of the transport.
Note: The reason why I'm writing this story is to write MY version of the prequels. Now I don't hate the Star Wars Prequels, in fact, I love them! But I had this idea stuck in my head for awhile and thought 'Eh, what the hell?'
So enjoy the story and try not to leave any flames! See ya next time!