The landspeeders repulsorlift roared as it zipped towards Theed. Obi-Wan went over the data disc another time, just to be sure he had all of the facts straight. As he did, he glanced over at Qui-Gon. His face was grim; Obi-Wan could tell by the look on his face that he knew they would already be too late.
"There was nothing more we could have done," Obi-Wan offered.
"Yes, there was," Qui-Gon sighed. "If we had only had set up a better comm. system to contact Amidala, before we had left, we might have gotten off a warning before it was too late."
Kenobi, didn't know how to answer that one, he felt his mentor was probably once again correct with his assessment.
"But that is how things go in the field," Qui-Gon continued. "Nothing goes as planned, and there was always another option that could have worked better. That's something many of you Padawans at the Temples don't realize, when you are at the temple you have the luxury of time, second guessing and hindsight. In the real world, even with the aid of the Force we are still limited. We still may yet salvage this mess; the key is not to lose hope."
"The senior council foresaw trouble in the Naboo sector," Obi-Wan agreed. "They will be watching it closely."
"Let us hope that they will move while we still have time."
The landspeeder now had approached the city limits of Theed, and Qui-Gon slowed his speed, but not by too much. With the aid of his Jedi abilities he would be able to avoid colliding with anyone. It didn't take long before even Kenobi sensed that something wasn't right in the capital.
"There is much fear here," he commented.
Qui-Gon pointed his hand off into the distance, Obi-Wan allowed his gaze to wander over in that direction.
"You see those MTTs setting up a perimeter? Those carry a whole company of troops. It looks like they are launching STAPs as well. We will have to be careful."
Qui-Gon slowed the speeder down to coincide with the city mandated limits, like he said; they needed to blend in more, and following speed limits was a part of it. Even if it did slow their progress down. Luckily neither Jedi needed to stop back at their quarters, they had brought all of their necessary gear with them to meet their contact. They soon departed from the speeder. The square in front of the capital building, the whole plaza in fact was crawling with battle droids. They couldn't just go charging in there, lightsabers blazing. Sure they might take a few dozen droids with them, but they would be quickly overwhelmed. A battle droid is not match for a Jedi, but a couple hundred of them, are more than enough. Hey, Jedi are people too.
Obi-Wan fondled his lightsaber, removing it from his belt. He wanted it at hand, if anything was going to go down. Qui-Gon motioned to the skyways, they seemed less heavily patrolled, and with their awnings restricting the view of anyone flying by on a STAP. As Kenobi ascended the stairs, he noticed that what few people he did see were fleeing back to their homes, at least fleeing away from the plaza. He did note that a few people were being rounded up, for what purpose he couldn't yet fathom, but he was sure he didn't want to know.
The Jedi continued towards the eastern side of the palace, where it sat upon the edge of a cliff. The planetary architect, who designed the landscape for the capital building, had placed a water fall that ran off the cliff on the eastern side. It made the capital building look even more majestic, giving it an almost divine appearance.
Qui-Gon noticed a young man, who must have been around Obi-Wan's age that was sneaking towards the eastern gate as well. This man was toting a blaster, and had an air of confidence about him, that suggested that he knew how to use it. Qui-Gon suggested that they approach him and ask him for his help. Since he seemed to be aware of the secret entrance the Queen had told them about when they had arrived earlier.
"I don't know if we can trust him," Obi-Wan stated.
"Nonsense, the Force is strong with this one, and I sense that we can trust him. My instincts tell me that he has a larger role to play, one I think we can aid him in."
It was at times like this that Obi-Wan wondered if there was a certain age that you reached that you started getting these 'feelings' that Qui-Gon talked about, or if it was a deeper connection to the Force that Obi-Wan hadn't yet achieved. Either way, Obi-Wan had doubts that he would ever reach that point.
The two Jedi approached the young man, who was crouched down, and appeared to have pulled a panel off the seamless wall that was the capital building.
"Hey you, where are you going?" Qui-Gon called in a hushed tone.
The young man dropped the hydrospanner than he had used to access the door controls and started to go for his blaster. He hesitated when he noticed that these were men and not battle droids, and when he noticed what he assumed to be an unlit lightsaber.
"You two, you're the Jedi's from Coruscant, aren't you." Anakin stated.
"I'm Qui-Gon Jinn, and this is Obi-Wan Kenobi," Qui-Gon stated. "It seems we are in need of your assistance, you appear to know the back passages of this palace and we don't."
"I don't much believe in coincidences, but we should get moving if we're going to get the Queen out of here."
"The Queen told us about this entrance, if we ever needed to secret her away. But we saw this as more of a rendezvous point rather than a way in," Obi-Wan began. "And with the Trade Federation army patrolling the whole palace …"
"Yeah, yeah, I heard the other one." Anakin snapped. "Just follow me and keep your mouths shut."
Anakin led the two Jedi through the secret entrance way, and down the hidden hallways. The hallways were actually inside certain sections of the palaces walls. Very few members of the royal family even knew where they were all located. Even Anakin and some of the other trusted guards only had limited idea of where anything was. Only Amidala knew the whole floor plan. It seemed that paranoia might have paid off in the long run.
"I think this doorway here leads to the Queen's Chambers," Anakin explained. "I think that this is where she would be held if she was being held. There is only the 'one' entrance. I warn you though, the chamber is rather large, and itself is broken up into several rooms."
Qui-Gon unclipped his lightsaber from his belt, as Anakin upholstered his blaster. The hidden door gave a slight creak as it slowly swung open. Obviously years of neglect had warn on the hinges. Anakin had been correct this was the Queen's Chambers. They had appeared in one of the smaller quarters that attached to the larger center chamber where the Queen's bed would be.
Obi-Wan reached out with the Force scanning his surroundings. He knew this would have little effect in helping him detect the lifeless droids, or even battle harden soldiers who were more skilled at hiding their thoughts. It is true that one can sense the presence of life through the Force, it is like a candle burning in the dark. The candles luminescence reflects the life form, lower life forms, non-sentient ones, have dimmer 'lights', and Force users have ones that are 'brighter' still. Through the Force you could get glimpses of surface thoughts, if the subject was experiencing an overwhelming emotion, whether it is love, happiness or in this case fear. While this would easily allow him to sense other Force users in the area or anyone in a heightened emotional state, it was hard to see anything through the bonfire of emotions given off by the hostages.
Qui-Gon's senses also picked up on the half dozen distressed being in the central chamber. He knew that they must have posted guards in the room; it would explain the high levels of emotion that they were reading. Usually when captors aren't present there is a background wash of emotions such as hope, and calm. Neither Jedi sensed these things, so they knew that they were going to have a fight on their hands.
They wanted to maximize their success by relying on the element of surprise for as long as they could. This meant not charging in with lightsabers blazing and blasters roaring. All that would do is draw even more troops to their location. The three crept towards the opening to the Queen's Room, when their silent approach was interrupted by Anakin yelling
"Look out!"
Before Obi-Wan could even react, or activate his lightsaber, Anakin had pushed him down and brought his blaster to bear on a battle droid that was hidden away in the corner of the room. The blaster bolt sailed harmlessly between Kenobi and Skywalker, as Anakin's return fire landed square in the droids torso causing it to erupt into a shower of molten parts.
"So much for the element of surprise," muttered Qui-Gon.
Obi-Wan turned the momentum provided by Anakin's push into a forward roll, slinging him into the Queen's Bedroom. He noted the dozen battle droids standing around the chamber. Several of them were clustered near the hostages. It was a foolish part of their programming, aimed to intimidate their captives. They had no reason for such proximity; they could have easily blasted them if they had been clear across the room. All this accomplished was placing them in close enough quarters with Obi-Wan that he should be able to dispatch half of their squad in no time flat. It was really stupid of the Neimoidians to have put in such commands, but Obi-Wan wasn't one to complain.
Obi-Wan converted his somersault into a front hand spring as he lit his lightsaber. It emitted a low hum, and bathed the chamber with a soothing blue light. With one arching swing Kenobi's lightsaber downed several battle droids.
"Run! This way," called Anakin, who still was in the other room. From his vantage point he could lay down cover fire with out exposing himself.
Qui-Gon burst into the chamber with his green blade blazing. He made his way towards the troops guarding the only known entrance to the Chambers. Simultaneously drawing their fire, and closing in to striking distance. Jinn reflected a blaster shot back into an unsuspecting droid.
Amidala took advantage of the situation, and scooped up a blaster that had been discarded by one of the droids Kenobi had downed. Firing off a few distracting shots, she waved the rest of her entourage towards Anakin.
"Go on," Obi-Wan called. "We'll hold them off as long as we can."
Though he knew it wouldn't be much longer. He could hear the foot falls of more approaching battle droids, along with the metallic rolling sound of their shield sporting cousins, droidekas were approaching. The droidekas weren't invisible, but they added another degree of difficulty, one had to get much close to those droids, than the B1's. What really mattered was the numbers. It didn't matter how good you were, there were only so many blaster shots you could deflect at once. If the battle droids programmers had any sense they would know to shoot at the Jedi in a spread fashion, instead of having them all focus on their center of mass.
"Well, I think it is time we take our leave," Qui-Gon stated.
Obi-Wan nodded in agreement as they made their way back towards the secret exit. Qui-Gon had barely time to seal the doors before he heard the sirens beginning to sounds.
"It appears that they know you have escaped your highness." Obi-Wan remarked.
"I was afraid of this," Qui-Gon mussed. "How far down do the falls go?"
"I don't know," Anakin stammered. "70, maybe 80 meters."
"Screw that," a handmaiden piped.
"It is either that or, stay here and get captured," Amidala stated. "And I for one am taking my chances with the falls."
Anakin glanced down at his blaster "this is what I get for bring my new blaster," he muttered, as he leapt out into the nothingness.