The Kaminoan Prime Minister smiled evilly at the tiny ship approaching Kamino. 'You need two hundred stormtroopers ready', blah, blah, blah. Darth Maul was so stupid. To actually think that he, the Prime Minister of Kamino, wasn't powerful enough to blow a tiny, pathetic ship out of the sky? There must be something wrong with his brain! How dare he pay him such an insult, even if it was because he had the brain and IQ of a shaak! It was infuriating! Well, he would show him. The Jedi's ship would be blown apart before it even entered the planet's atmosphere. The Jedi himself, well, he wouldn't even be able to land on the planet's surface with his heart still beating.
He activated the small hologram projector in his palm. "Admiral Lucas, prepare a dozen star ships," he commanded. "Immediately. Load each with a dozen of your troops. Make sure that that ship does not land! I don't care how you do it- set it on fire, blow it out of the sky! Do you understand me, Captain?"
"Yes, sir."
Anakin smirked at the incoming star ships headed his way. "Oh, you poor, ignorant prime minister," he said in mock sadness. "Why in the world would you attempt this, of all things? I wish I could spare you this humiliation to come, but . . . nah, there's just no way. I'm much too good at flying. And living is much too fun." He smiled. "Here comes the airplane!"
The small ship swooped towards the main military base. It would know the stupidity of that move later. After Lucas was done with him.
"Fire!"
The ships fired at him unceasingly, but although each shot hit its intended location, it was much too quick for them. It dodged each and every shot, speeding towards Kamino.
Admiral Lucas stared at the tiny ship, mouth agape in incredulity. He had never in his entire life seen a pilot with that much skill. Usually, this would be an easy job, to wipe out a single starfighter. It seemed that it would not be the case in this situation. He huffed, annoyed. Why couldn't any of the Jedi be average? Why was it that all the ones remaining just needed to be extraordinary? In desperation, the ships shot across the sky towards him, trying to get closer, in the hopes that their shots would actually meet their mark. It was in vain, however. Their target was always out of their reach, tantalizingly close, but somehow able to evade every single shot fired at it. Some bold but foolish ships decided to try and intercept it, zooming towards it instead of after it. Their folly was realized soon enough. Apparently, not only was the Jedi a fantastic pilot, it was also a dead shot.
The sky turned orange, lighting up with an ear-shattering boom as four star ships exploded before the small starfighter. Dodging pieces of the wreckage with apparent ease, it steadily made its way towards Kamino, blasting away everything in its path. Everywhere he looked, Admiral Lucas could see destruction; remnants of once great ships drifted about him, yet the Jedi's ship had not suffered one single casualty!
He growled under his breath, marching over to pilot and shoving the man out of his chair. "Useless scum!" he barked. "Get out before I blow your sorry ass out of here!"
The man scrambled to his feet, looking terrified. "S-Sorry, sir."
"Don't say sorry! Do better! Now leave!" Admiral Lucas seized the controls, zooming closer to the starfighter than any of the others had, until he was right on its tail. Gritting his teeth in concentration, he aimed, firing a missile at the tiny ship. It hit the left wing, setting it ablaze and causing the starfighter to tip and veer slightly off track. He smiled grimly. "Now to finish off this little piece of bantha fodder."
Anakin swore loudly, doing his best to maneuver the ship back on track. "I forgot how good those clones were! How unfortunate . . . I thought I'd only have to deal with those untalented Imperial and Kaminoan idiots."
He swooped towards the planet, his jaw set. Star ships dived closer for a better shot, firing over and over again. It was to no avail. They could not deter the small ship.
Anakin hurled towards the surface of Kamino, barely able to control the ship and dodge the shots with the left wing out of commission. "Almost there . . . " he murmured, his eyes fixed on the landing port. "You can burn up all you want to, but after I land . . . "
He winced as the ship hit the port with the force of a couple thousand tons, jerking him into the dashboard. It slid a hundred feet before stopping just before the building, a smoldering pile of wreckage with one bruised Jedi knight in the center. Anakin groaned. "Another happy landing," he muttered before climbing out, grabbing his cloak and pulling the thick black cloth securing over his body.
The doors of the building burst open, endless lines of stormtroopers filing out until the whole deck seemed to be full of them. Anakin's eyebrows creased. "So many of them? I'm honored I'm worth all this trouble."
Without delay, he ignited his lightsaber, launching himself at the first line of stormtroopers. They fired at him unceasingly, but man after man fell to his furious onslaught, not one meeting its mark.
The Captain quickly took out his comm, realizing the danger that maybe two hundred of his men might not be enough for this particular enemy. "Prime minister? I believe we need a few more men to subdue the Jedi . . . "
"More men?!" came a screech at the other end. "Didn't I send two hundred over with you?"
"Yes, prime minister."
"And that's not enough?" he asked in a deadly tone.
"No, prime minister."
"Where the kriff is Admiral Lucas? How did the Jedi make it past him?"
"I don't know, prime minister. It's possible he got killed in space; if not, he may be on his way."
"Useless scum! I can't spare any more for your pathetic cause- they'll be waiting for him inside."
"Yes, prime minister."
The Captain flipped off his comm, only to see the Jedi himself standing before him, the hem of his cloak ablaze, but otherwise unharmed.
"Sorry. Good night." Anakin took his head off. He stomped on the hem of his cloak, cursing. "Stupid thing. I can't do anything in it."
He turned as no less than five star ships landed on the platform. More men climbed out, Admiral Lucas at the head. "There he is! Fire!"
Anakin ran.
He sprinted into the building, dodging shoots from guards and ignoring the shouts of Kaminoan officials, heading for the main lab. Bursting through the doors, he almost stopped, surprised at the sheer enormity of the place. The ceiling towered a few stories high, balconies lining either side of the huge room. Hundreds of stormtroopers gathered helmets and armor from huge conveyor belts circling the room, hundreds more ate in the left corner, and hundreds of tanks containing what looked like the exact same dark baby lined the back of the room. Anakin cursed. "No one told me killing hundreds of ugly babies was part of this assignment!"
Reluctant to kill even creepy baby versions of Jango Fett, Anakin sprinted past the curious and slightly alarmed stormtroopers over to the biggest threat: the room at the back that contained the huge complex of computers containing the data needed to create the clones. Before the stupefied guards could react, Anakin was upon them. They crumpled to the ground. Quickly slashing the locks, he swiped his fingers in the air, causing the door to slide open and the inner locks to instantly deactivate. Anakin dashed inside, bringing his lightsaber down on the nearest system and using the Force to launch the others at the steel walls. The glass shattered, pieces flying all about the room.
"How dare you!"
Anakin turned to see the Kaminoan prime minister standing in the doorway of the large room, Admiral Lucas at his side and rows of stormtroopers lined behind them.
He snarled at Anakin, advancing towards him threateningly. "The information stored in those databases are the product of hundreds of years. How dare-"
"Oh, sorry." Anakin interrupted, shrugging offhandedly. "Too bad there's no alternative."
He stepped out of the doorway and thrust his hand towards the tanks, crushing them. Water poured out onto the glassy floors, flooding the area.
"NO!" The prime minister looked around at him, outraged to the point of insanity. "What are you idiots waiting for?! GET HIM!"
The troops ran towards him without hesitation, only to slip on the water covering the floor. With the cracking of my glass came even more water, causing the stormtroopers not fallen yet to stumble with the current. Anakin thrust his hand towards a metal bar at the side of the room, using it to impale the prime minister. The troops only stepped around the body, heading towards him relentlessly.
Knowing there was no way he would be able to escape the way he entered, Anakin activated an explosive, throwing it far into the room behind him. The explosion shook the room, blasting a hole in the back wall. He bolted through the opening, heading for the ship hanger, the troops struggling after him, the prime minister screaming in rage. He cut down anything and everything in his path, flinging objects at the army now behind him. Finally, he reached the open deck, going directly to the nearest starship. He entered it quickly, flinging himself into the pilot chair and taking off, stormtroopers firing unceasingly at his ship, to no avail. Anakin swooped up to hover about the building he had just exited, shooting at it until it erupted into flames. He smiled in satisfaction. With the only people knowledgeable about the creation of clones dead, the greatest threat of the empire was eliminated. Now he just had to get back and take care of Maul.
Anakin burst into Maul's room, the cloak abandoned on the floor of the starship he had landed in, his lightsaber in hand. Maul turned around, saying angrily, "Vader . . . " He stopped, shocked. "Who are you?"
Anakin smirked. "Anakin Skywalker, the pre-Darth Vader, at your service."
Maul's jaw dropped. "What . . . ?! How . . . ?!" Suddenly he smiled evilly. "That'll only make you more easy to destroy, Jedi." He stretched out his fingers, cackling, Sith lightning flashing towards Anakin. He raised his lightsaber, barely holding it off. "The . . . Light . . . Side . . . will . . . always . . . prevail!" He sprang towards Maul, stabbing him. Maul fell to the floor, his shocked eyes following Anakin as he stepped back, breathing heavily from the effort of blocking the Sith lightning. "The Jedi will always prevail over the Sith." He smiled sadly. "I should know."
Padme sat at the table, slowly spooning soup into her mouth. It had only been a little under two weeks without Anakin, yet it felt like ages. She barely made it through the day, wandering restlessly from room to room in her apartment, trying to distract herself. Nothing worked. Day after day, all she could think of was her Ani. He consumed her thoughts, such that she couldn't even focus on simple tasks anymore.
Leia was worried. She would walk into the room, only to find her mother gazing off into space, that familiar look on her face, like she missed her husband so much that she didn't know what to do without him. And then she'd see Leia, and try to put a cheerful smile on her face. Even with all Padme's experience with acting in the Senate, Leia could see through it.
She didn't know what to do. No matter what she did, nothing could lift her mother's spirits. The fact that she was trying, so hard, made it worst.
The stalker man hadn't struck in almost a week, and the Maxiass dude had disappeared from their lives after the last incident. Luke was still worried about the identity of the man and the mystery surrounding him, but to be honest, Leia was more worried about the problem on hand. Though she refused to admit it out loud, the absence of contact from the two men had unexpectedly worsened it. Padme's spirit seemed to be gone. Leia could only hope that her father would be home soon. The lack of communication was killing her.
Her ruminations were interrupted by an huge explosion below, shaking the walls of the apartment. Padme's bowl fell from the table, shattering on the marble floor. Leftover soup spread across the ground, staining the rich carpet. The sound of shattering glass pierced the air, as did screams and muffled yells from several floors below. The initial shock of the moment wearing off, Leia leapt to her feet, the panick emanating from the Force scaring her. "Mom, you okay here? I'm going to go help downstairs."
Padme's brow was creased with anxiety and surprise. "Of course! Go!"
Leia sprinted down flights of stairs until she reached floor nine hundred and seventeen, where a grave sight met her. Two apartments had been blown up. Cold air rushed in through a hole the size of a fighter plane in the glass, and horrified faces floor the floor above peered through another in the ceiling. Chunks of ceramic, marble, granite, blocks of wood, and glass covered the floor, in some places up to a person's chest. Security guards were hunting through the debris, desperately trying to shift pieces to find the people beneath as well as valuable possessions. A woman was in tears, her shoulders and neck bloody. Luke was pulling a man out from under a crystal chandelier, his leg and left arm rendered useless. Children were crying. Officials picked through the wreckage, hunting for the openings to safes containing millions of credits. White dust filled the air, and people cried out as pieces fell from the ceiling. She ran quickly over to Luke, helping him lift the man and carry him out of the danger zone.
No one noticed as a hooded man entered 500 Republica, calmly taking the elevator up to the top floor. No one noticed as he strode up to the door of Senator Padme Amidala. Just as Senator Stonk had never discovered the bomb planted on the hem of his cloak while he had been out getting drunk that night.
The doorbell rang. Luke's muffled voice sounded from behind the door. "Mom! You okay?"
Padme hurried to the door, quickly unlocking it. "Luke! What hap-?"
In the doorway was standing a hooded man in a dark cloak.
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