Everyone was silent for a few moments, digesting the full horror of the picture Mandy had painted. Stux suddenly cried, watch out Gram, your close to the planetary Maw, there.' the Maw was a cloud of impassable space clouds above some of Naboo's atmosphere and stretching into the Solar System. In fact a flare from it hit the ship.
'Oops,' said Gram sleeplessly, but it was too late. The ship had already come into some rough treatment and this was the last straw. It lurched out of control and headed towards the planetary surface. Gram, Matt, and annoyingly for Gram, 124, had all landed together.
'Now that hurt,' complained Matt.
'Never mind that, look at those,' advised Gram.
Nearby them, a squad of Stormtroopers where marching towards the two.
'Well, I suppose we could just let them walk by, they could just ignore us,' suggested Matt.
'Doubt it. Besides, I have done one or two dealings they might want to investigate. I haven't had time to switch ID's and besides…….'
Gram was interrupted by a volley of shots from the Stormtroopers. Gram and Matt ducked under some rocks, but 124 was hit square in the chest. It would have destroyed any living organism, but of course 124 was a Droid. Gram whispered to Matt, 'Well, it would appear that they are shooting on sight. Reckon we should take them on? Looks good!' Gram touched his blaster with a smile.
'Lets do it,' cried Matt.
'Afraid,' suggested Gram as the Stormtroopers moved closer.
'No chance,' answered Matt with a heroic, but possibly not very wise grin.
Well, there was about 30 Stormtroopers. But Gram and Matt made short work of them. They shot, dived, jumped, dashed and before long most of the Stormtroopers were dead and those that weren't where betting a hasty retreat. 'Thought it would be easy,' said Matt with a toothy, white-cleaned smile. Matt did think that whatever the dangers of the situation he always had a Galactic teeth-cleaning gum with him. Gram to be fair, was not so fortunate, his teeth did have a slightly beaten up look. In fact, come to think of it, his entire body had a slightly beaten up look. He might have looked vaguely attractive, but anyone getting close to him would have noticed a rather pungent smell! Anyway, Gram replied with a rather stupid little swivel of the hips.
Then cried, 'Oh, look out,' as both turned around. Well, all of their fighting had taken place on a slightly uppish hill near to some mountains. Gram and Matt only now noticed a few stronger-looking Stormtroopers climbing up towards them. Followed by a hovering craft, well-armed, armoured, drifting upwards, pointing it's guns. Matt and Gram might have wondered how it was that between them they managed to defeat so many Stormtroopers, why it was the soldiers where so lightly armed or why none of them thought of throwing a stun-grenade at them, but they obviously didn't.
'Oh, boy,' was Matt's only comment.
Meantime, Gungan Senator Jarjar Binks was worried too. He was standing in chains on the bridge of the Imperial attack-force mother-ship in front of several smartly uniformed officers of the Imperial navy. In fact, if anything, Tarkin's uniform was the one which was slightly more worn than the rest, but as Supreme Commander he was allowed a little leeway in the manner of dress. Whitesnake had been invited along too for some, 'Education,' as Tarkin had put it, but really, Whitesnake just wanted to witness Jarjar at his most vulnerable. He could be quite a vindictive person, could Captain Whitesnake.
Tarkin was spelling out to Jarjar the events of the past few days. 'Well, as you see we have made a landing upon Naboo. We didn't experience much resistance at first. Not sure what we where up to I guess. But look at what we have achieved. We have destroyed your weather satellite systems, poured flaming fire over the Bushy agricultural lands and obliterated your planetary power. And the extermination program is making good progress. A million Gungans dead already,'
Jarjar shuddered at the pain which the Imperial policies were obviously causing. He spoke unclear as he had been beaten up a little and his throat hurt. 'Why? Why do you hurt us so? We mean no harm to anyone. We just want to live as ourselves on Naboo. We are loyal citizens to the Republic…' Jarjar's words where cut off by a thump to his nose from an extremely large Tarkin bodyguard's blaster.
'That's the problem. This is the Empire, not the Republic. We think that you as a Senator have been engaging in secret anti-Imperial propaganda for too long. As a Senator, you relfect your constituents. Time to wipe you both out. Which reminds me!'
Tarkin snapped his fingers. The bodyguard, who also doubled as a general prison guard and torturer grabbed Jarjar by the neck. Chained, Jarjar could offer no resistance. He backhanded a slap at Jarjar. Then whacked him on the back of the neck and kicked him in the ankles, painfully. Jarjar fell down. 'Howww rude,' he spluttered to himself. 'Take him away!' commanded Tarkin.
Jarjar found himself in the nearest prison cell. He was chained, accompanied by Whitesnake, Tarkin, a guard, a couple of very strong looking prison guards and a Wookiee. Wookiee's where 2 metre high, fury, powerful, bipeds. This one was employed by Tarkin as a basic muscle man. Tarkin snapped his fingers and Whitesnake asked Jarjar, 'Now, what are the code commands to the Naboo defensive systems,' Jarjar had no idea which was odd as he thought the Imperials knew that, 'Don't know?' Whitesnake raised his hand. The two guards hit Jarjar in the chest and back. Ohhhhhh, then in the face. One grabbed Jarjar by the nose and banged it on the table hard. Bang, bang, bang. 'Want to reply?' Jarjar was in no position to reply, having his nose swollen and coughing blood. The guards punched and kicked Jarjar. Bosh, crack, whack, scratch, thump 'take that, and that, and some more of that,' The wookiee cuddled Jarjar in a painful bear hug, crushing his ribs, then he elbowed Jarjar's forehead grabbed Jarjar's long Gungan tongue and pulled it, dragging Jarjar along by it. Jarjar was kicked on the floor a few times. This was no way to treat a respected Imperial Senator! Kick, kick, thump, whack, 'how rude do you think that is you muppet?' Bosh, bosh, bosh, bosh. The session ended with the wookiee giving a slap to Jarjar's nose, breaking it.
'I think that will do for now,' smiled Tarkin. Jarjar was left, bleeding, with broken bones, a broken rib, fractured hips, broken tabular, one of his knees was chipped, a broken nose countless brushes and scratches. Oh, dear! As they walked away, Tarkin asked Whitesnake, 'What do you think of my torture methods?'
'A little old fashioned. Some of the more modern electronic techniques are more effective. Plus a few of the mental ones.'
'True. But then I like the old-fashioned approached. It's more personnel!'
Back on Naboo Gram and Matt looked at each other. The two where hopelessly outnumbered. Gram said to Matt grimly, 'To death then,' and Matt smiled back. Suddenly, then by some miracle, the hovercraft turned around and started shooting at the Stormtroopers. It's top opened to reveal a few Gungans and above all of them, Mugwort. The stormtroopers stopped in amazement that their craft should be full of their enemies. They fled in a hurry.
'Come on,' he called to the two who both jumped upon the craft.
'How did you pull that one of?' Matt asked to Mugwort.
Mugwort smiled, 'well, it turns out that as part of their attack force consists of these x45 spray-craft. I've encountered them before. And I know of their little weak spot. So we managed to capture a few. Your Droid Okay?' he finished, looking at 124 who was just staggering to his feet. The droid wasn't hit with a strong enough blaster bolt to inflict serious damage, but had become a little quiter. To everyone's relief. Mugwort continued, 'Some of us have made a stand a little to the East. The ford of Darrowdale. It's a strong place and the site of an ancient Naboo victory. We can hold out their for a while. It's not that far, we should hurry.' Which they did. The Hovercraft whirled upwards and sped on it's way in the sky. Mugwort's guidance was sufficient for it to avoid any Imperials. But they did see signs of battle on the way. Some of the villages on the ground used to be quite populated. But looking down, it was something of a lunar landscape. Many villages where destroyed some still on fire or bellowing smoke. Also large numbers of Gungans corpses where littering the country, some of them tied or hanged, obviously mercilessly murdered.
