I do not own Star Wars, nor do I own Ranma for far too many reasons to list here.

I mention an asteroid field in this chapter. I know they are not nearly as packed or as large as they appear in the movies, but this is the SW universe. I am not the first to break reality here.

LET's GET READY TO RUMBLE! - the second part of this chapter anyway.


Chapter 8: Violence Trumps Diplomacy

"The vote for Chancellor will come up soon." Sheev Palpatine leaned back slightly as he looked at the three Jedi who had been sent to talk to him about his Queen's maneuver earlier that day. They were obviously concerned about such a huge upheaval in the Senate's power structure, or at least two of the three were unhappy about it. The third's opinion was rather unreadable, but then again Sora Bulq wasn't known as a political analyst.

Master Poof and Master Gallia exchanged glances. "We are not happy with the amount of disruption this will cause Senator, and we have to wonder where Queen Amidala got the idea that this was a smart or even necessary move."

"It was a sound tactic to possibly receive aid for Naboo since Valorum was obviously not in a position to send any," Palpatine said mildly, but even so both Jedi nodded their heads acknowledging the point. "And a little disruption now could allow us to regain control of the Senate and make it an actual governing body rather than a forum for arguing special interest groups. Surely you've noticed that the former chancellor had lost much of his political capital in the past six months? The corruption investigation started after the aborted trade summit on Eriadu cost him a large amount of his moral power, even if the charges were never linked to him."

"Chancellor Valorum was and remains a friend of the Jedi Order. We realize that his position had been badly eroded of late, but he could've regained his political power base given time." Gallia said stiffly.

"Time that Naboo did not have." said Sora Bulq. Both of the other Jedi looked to at him, but nodded their heads acknowledging that point and he went on placatingly. "We agree that this was a good move, in the short term, but it is a Jedi's job to look at the long term view."

"Of course, just as it is a politician's. However my queen is young, and only answers to Naboo's constituents, not even our sectors, let alone the Republic at large. She is concerned with this crisis, not the next one or several years from now." Sheev tapped a finger against his mouth thinking for a moment. "I believe that whoever the next chancellor is will still be willing to work with the Jedi, so you need have no fear there. If you move to support whoever he is quickly then the chaos of the changeover will be minimized."

"Do you have any idea who is going to be nominated yet?" Master Poof asked.

"Surprisingly my own name has come up in the discussion," Palpatine said with a self-deprecating shrug. "I'm uncertain why, though it must be said that very few of my fellow senators have not been investigated at one point or another for corruption charges. Myself, Senator Antilles, and the Trade Federation's choice, Senator Sethend of Muun are the names most talked about. Two other names have been mentioned, but I don't think that they are truly in the running. One is too young, a newly inducted senator from the planet ofBrentaal. She's popular, but doesn't have the backing or the experience necessary. The other is the Senator of Sullust, but not enough people will back him. He's a known egotist, and has recently come out with some very harsh words against humans meddling in the affairs of other races."

Palpatine watched as the Jedi all exchanged looks, smirking internally but keeping it out of his face with the ease of a lifetime's practice. He was almost tempted to reach out with the Force to gently guide their thoughts, the Jedi thought themselves so certain in their Force powers but the Veil of the Dark Side allowed him to influence some Jedi's thoughts if he was careful about it.

But he pulled back, knowing it would be a foolish move and an unnecessary one here. He had studied every Jedi Master, he knew their strengths, he knew their weaknesses he knew how to guide them. These three were no different.

Changing the subject abruptly Palpatine asked, "Speaking about changes, I have heard some rumblings in the Senate about recent internal Jedi Order matters. I realize that the Jedi Order is ostensibly a separate unit, but you still answer to the Senate, and none of the recent changes were authorized by the Senate."

"Those were indeed internal matters, simply organizational changes," Bulq replied, his deep-set eyes narrowing slightly. "We had no reason to come to the Senate for approval for them."

Palpatine nodded. "Of course and I understand your ire at that type of oversight, but the laws governing the Order and its place in the Republic are not so clear-cut about such things that they are not open to individual interpretation. Many in the Senate have come to see the Jedi as either a threat to their power base or simply an extension of the Senate itself in recent years. Both sides of that credit chip are disturbed, for different reasons of course, by the recent changes."

"I could put a good word in a few ears if I knew the reason behind those changes." he said after pausing for a moment. "If they were seen as proper and good, then some of the whispers might stop. You have to understand from the Senate's perspective you are changing something that doesn't need to be changed by moving yourselves away from the position of power here after 1000 years of a symbiotic relationship that has worked for both the Order and the Republic."

"Why, look at the good the Order has done working with the Senate!" he said, before listing a few of the latest examples of the Jedi diplomatic corps, as well as Count Dooku and his recent actions. "The recent issues with Naboo and indeed the Trade Federation and the Yinchorri have shown that it is the Senate needs to change, not the Order. The Order should be like a bedrock, always there for us while we try to get over our petty squabbles."

Palpatine watched his words sink in, watched their spines stiffen slightly or the species equivalent, and knew the seed had been planted. The changes in the Jedi Order, which were already moving slowly, would slow to a crawl now. At least here in the main temple itself which would hasten the fracturing of the Order with those on Coruscant seeing themselves at odds with those stationed or trained elsewhere, just like in the Sith Wars. Even the disparate councils might come to be at odds.

It would not come soon, Jedi did not turn on one another easily, nor were they quick to act if they could help it. He estimated five perhaps six years before the Jedi began to truly fracture, but they would be weakened by that internal strife when the external blows began to fall.

It was Master Poof who took it upon himself to answer Palpatine verbally. "Those changes were organized by Grand Master Yoda, and for reasons we are not at liberty to discuss. They made sense to him, and to many of the Council, so they will continue regardless of the Senate's worries. We will do our best to quiet those concerns, but we cannot stop them."

"…Do you have any idea how many senators are worried about the changes?" Gallia asked after a moment.

Palpatine paused thoughtfully, leaning his head back as he seemed to think for a moment. Of course he could bring the number to mind immediately, but that wouldn't do. "I would say around two-thirds of the Senate are concerned one way or the other, though I think many are simply following along, not truly understanding the reasons for that concern."

That sent a look of shock between the three of them, obviously even the political analysts that specialized in watching the Senate hadn't noticed that much unrest. But they would in the next few days see that he was actually understating things. The rumble wasn't very loud, nor would it get that way for several years, but it would be ready when Palpatine needed it.

After that the conversation died down and the Jedi began bowing their way out of Palpatine's room, but he held up a hand when Sora Bulq was about to leave. "Master Bulq, I had a quick question. Nothing important of course, just about Weequay teas. I recently was given a few as a belated birthday present from a friend who just returned from his planet out in the Outer Rim and I was wondering if you could tell me anything about them? I hadn't even realized Sirluur had teas like this, I thought its export trade was focused solely on gems and other minerals."

"Ah, most species do not know about our teas, they are something of a secret hidden in plain sight as it were." Sora Bulq nodded equably, moving over to the table with Palpatine as the other two exited the room.

He spent several minutes pointing to each type of tea for a moment telling Palpatine about how they would taste and how to prepare them. Palpatine nodded, listening closely to his description of how to prepare each in turn then asked, "By the way, I understand that the Jedi will be sending a force to Naboo soon. I have to agree and applaud the move. Are you among those being sent?"

Bulq seemed to stiffen for a moment at the question, and Palpatine hid a faint smile as he went on smoothly. "I understand that Master Dooku was chosen to lead the intervention expedition."

"I was not chosen because it was felt my leaving my students here in the temple would not be wise at this time." Bulq replied. In fact Palpatine had discovered that Sora Bulq had been given the task of retraining a Jedi Knight who had recently nearly fallen to the Dark Side. Palpatine had felt it when it occurred, and was rather intrigued by Vos and what his skills could be used for if he did fall.

But he wasn't about to aid him in doing so, the knight wasn't well known enough for his purposes. "Truly? That is rather odd. As an outsider it seems strange to me how Master Dooku is given so much veneration as a dueling Master. After all surely someone who is known to have helped create a new style should be considered of equal standing at the very least to Master Dooku. And this is a combat action, which Master Dooku seems to not have the best history with leading. The Mandalorean debacle is still seen as a black mark on his record, even by his friends like myself."

He waited a heartbeat before going on. "Of course, that is just when my speaking as a layman I am no swordsman or even a soldier, so what do I know?"

Sora Bulq was silent for a moment then shrugged his shoulders slightly. "There's not much I can tell you, but during their mission, Master Qui-Gon and young Obi-Wan ran into a Dark Side user. It was decided Master Dooku's style would be a better fit against him than mine and his unusual weapon could allow him to match my own skill."

"The Dark Side?" Palpatine asked skeptically shaking his head with a faint laugh. "Ah yes, I did say I am a layman in this area, did I not? Certainly I've studied enough of the Republic's history to know that this Dark Side of yours exists, but its effects are not known to me. Yet again, that seems odd to me. Surely it is after all what you do with the power that matters, not the emotion behind your deeds? Surely if you are in control that is more important than anything else?"

Again he paused, before tapping one of the small bags of tea. "But I have kept you over longer Master Bulq. I think I will try one of these teas immediately, we are having another debate this evening, and I feel the need to gird myself for it. But do remember that I am a friend of the Jedi, and I'm here to lend an ear or suggestions if you need it."

Sora Bulq stared at the man, then down at the teas for a moment before nodding and making his way out the door. He never saw the sinister smile that crossed Palpatine's face as he left the room. More seeds planted, waiting for them to sprout is irritating, but the process is still somewhat amusing.

OOOOOOO

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Smiling like that," Shaak giggled, one hand rising to her mouth in surprise before she shook her head quickly. She chuckled, she never giggled. But looking at the strangely goofy smile on Rama's face she couldn't control herself.

"I can't help it," Ranma's smile widened slightly as he pulled Shaak into a one-armed hug, lightly so that she could get away if she wished. But it was obvious that she didn't wish to, hugging him back with one arm while they made their way along a small wroshyr branch heading back towards the far larger one upon which they had left the carcass of the snake which had attacked them. Ranma wanted to check something out, but they had left the area when after Ranma had cut out the chunks of snake meat for their meal, not wanting to deal with any other predators. "And there's a bit of the pot calling the kettle black there."

"True, though I haven't heard that particular phrase before, we would say 'the rancor calling the Rodian foul," Shaak said, not making any attempt to wipe her own smile off her face. "But we will need to compose ourselves before we reach Rwookrrorro. I'm not certain that even Wookies would be able to handle the idea of a smiling, laughing Jedi. We're supposed to be sober and grave individuals you know."

"Glad I don't have that problem," Ranma said with a laugh, then 'oomphed' dramatically when Shaak elbowed him lightly. By that point the two of them had reached the scene of the battle, and Ranma leaped over from where they had been moving along a small branch from one of the trees to the far larger branch where the snake's body lay.

It didn't look as if any animals had gotten to it yet, or at least it didn't until Ranma rounded the head and stared at the back end of the corpse. He stopped there with a suddenness that drew Shaak's attention, and she followed him quickly.

She too stared at where at least two-thirds of the snake had been torn apart, ripped asunder and then dragged off further downwards around the curve of the wroshyr branch. "I did say did I not that this was a very dangerous environment?"

"Yeah," Ranma muttered, "though it kind of slipped my mind. Y'know I'm all for a good fight put I don't think I want to run into whatever did this."

"Multiple whatevers," Shaak knelt down, studying the tracks in the blood. They looked like monstrous insect tracks, but not quite. "And you're right, I don't want to meet anything that could do this unless I have to either. Still, we're here now, what did you want to do?"

Ranma reached down, pulling out a large scale from the snake's head, holding it up for a moment against his forearm then shook his head. "I'd hoped that they were smaller, so I could maybe make myself some kind of scale armor. But they aren't small enough, it'd hamper my flexibility too much."

"Hmm… don't you have enoughcortosisto make yourself some more armor from that?"

Ranma flicked his hand, looking down at the bracer he had on one arm, the bracer whose cortosis metal had surprised the Dark Side user he'd begun to call 'Clown Face' in his head during their battle. "No, I didn't grab enough for that and to use some of it in my staff. I might have enough for a large bracelet afterward though."

Shaak looked over on his shoulder at the light pike Ranma had taken from the collection Yoda had brought to Kashyyyk, wondering for a brief moment where that one had come from before nodding. "Pity. I'd have liked to see what you could do with the scales too, especially since it blocked our lightsabers so well."

"Umm… no, on second thought it might not have worked, it looks as if the scales could do that because they were layered," Ranma replied, having moved over to the snake. Hopping up on to what was left of its corpse he pointed at one of the spots where Shaak's lightsaber had impacted. "The outer layer diffused some of the lightsaber strike, but it was the second and third layers which truly stopped it entirely. If you could've hit the same spot several times, you could've broken through."

Which is something I need to think about for the future. Ranma thought, his mind suddenly serious. Clown Face might be able to stand up to one lightsaber strike at a single point, or even prolonged impact, but there's no way he could stand against an Amiguriken strike with a lightsaber.

"Easier said than done Ranma," Shaak laughed quietly, shaking her head and bringing Ranma's attention back to the present, her thoughts slightly mirroring Ranma's. "With the snake's intelligence and its ability to wiggle, I don't think even my trick with the vines would have kept it still that long. Unless one of us could use your speed technique on it, something to remember for the next time we face something that can survive a lightsaber blow."

With that minor mystery done, they both turned their feet upwards, leaping up to a nearby branch before continuing their way straight upwards back to civilization. At one point Shaak climbed up next to Ranma, shaking her head as she saw his expression. "You're still smiling…"

They stopped occasionally on their way, loathe to return to civilization but knowing they had to. They kissed occasionally, or simply held hands as they made their way upwards. For some reason even holding hands took on a whole new meaning now that they were officially a couple. But soon enough they began to see hunting parties of Wookies, who occasionally raised their hands in silent greeting. Any sounds down here could be dangerous after all.

The higher they went the more Wookies they saw, and the more open they were about moving around. Soon enough they came to the outskirts of Rwookrrorro, and Ranma paused, holding up his hand and looking at Shaak for a moment. "You left your robe back at the Temple right?"

Shaak cocked her head. "Yes, why?"

Pulling off his shirt quickly, Ranma held it out to her with a faint, if somewhat embarrassed frown on his face now. "Here, take this. I'd guess Wookies don't exactly see humans or Togrutans as attractive but, and I really don't want to come all-over possessive here, but I don't like the idea of you being on display like that. I understood the point of it on Tatooine, but now that, um that we're official and all, er, that is…"

Shaak looked down at herself, only then becoming aware of her own state of attire. She looked up at Ranma, who was looking at her, taking in her form from head to toe and flushed slightly, partly in embarrassment and partly in pleasure.

As a Jedi, Shaak had been in excellent shape before running into Ranma and his trailing had taken it even further. Her legs, arms and toned, hard stomach showed a lifetime of training. Her legs were magnificent powerful and sculpted, her breasts somewhat higher and firmer than a humans would be after a similar lifetime, and her skin was without blemish save a few scars which simply served to add character rather than mar her form. Her deep set, expressive eyes set into her white marked face merely added to the impact. In short, despite her non-human appearance she was the perfect image of exotic beauty.

Feeling somewhat bold Shaak returned the gesture taking in Ranma's frame as he stood there shirtless. He wasn't bulky with muscle, but like her own body, Ranma's exuded a wiry strength and svelte speed, and if there was a single gram of fat anywhere on him it wasn't apparent. Whenever Ranma moved you could see the muscles flexing, moving like the finest clockwork under his skin, which was healthy in the extreme, marked here and there by scars both large and small. Yet they added character in her eyes rather than taking away from his looks.

Watching him move was at times strangely thrilling, something Shaak could allow herself to enjoy now. That thought sent a jolt through her, and she felt her lips quirk in into a smile as she pulled on his shirt. "So long as you agree not to put yourself on display in either form I can agree to do the same."

Ranma laughed quietly, reaching into his ki space to pull out another shirt pulling it one over his head in turn. "Agreed." He stopped, looking at Shaak's face his lips forming a small, strangely tender smirk. "Now you're the one smiling."

"I can't help it," Shaak said mimicking Ranma's earlier words, before leaning in to kiss him lightly on the lips. Ranma matched her, and they stood there kissing lightly for several more moments before moving on

As they continued one or both raised hands in greeting to several Wookies who had noticed them and saw the weapons they carried. Though neither were dressed like traditional Jedi, lightsabers were just as good as IDs for recognizing them.

Ranma soon noticed that Shaak had blushed a few times as they passed groups of Wookies, particularly groups that contained both males and females walking or climbing past them talking amongst themselves. "What's up?"

"We're being called a 'beautiful young couple'," Shaak replied, flushing further. "I'm not used to that kind of comment or attention having any basis in fact. Despite my experiences dealing with jealousy about my looks and even simple appreciative comments about it I still reel rather embarrassed. I know that doesn't make sense but I do."

"Oh." Ranma joined her in blushing for a moment, and they deliberately moved away from one another slightly. Shaak noticed, and smiled at him in thanks. But she also reached out after a few more steps to lightly brush the back of her hand against his.

Shaak led the way now, eager to see the city now that they had explored some of the planet. Soon enough she saw a crafts store in the distance, down a diagonally growing wroshyr branch which connected to another one that zigged to the side sharply. Stopping at the place where they met she looked down at where the branches joined together. "So strange," she murmured, reaching down and patting the wood feeling the flow of the Living Force in it. "Looking at this, I can almost believe the theory that the wroshyr trees are one organism."

"That would be kind of cool," Ranma said waiting for her to finish as he stared around taking in more of Rwookrrorro. She smiled at that, and they went on their way, entering the shop she'd seen.

It was hewn out of the side of a small wroshyr trunk which had broken off from the main trunk of the four trees which made up the majority of the city. Though only a single story Shaak and Ranma found the store was larger on the inside. Row upon row of strange tools, crafts and other things crowded the store. This included small water-bottle like containers of local paint and other things spread out in a fashion organized as the locals did such things.

The owner or at least shop worker was a middle-aged Wookie female, who was almost as wide as she was tall, though she was short for her species. She had dark black fur, with hundreds of beads clinking in her hair in an intricate design. Shaak idly wondered if the Wookies had some kind of social code for the beads, but if they did she certainly didn't know it.

"Greetings," she said, clasping her hands together in bowing her head slightly. "I noticed that your sign said you sold painting supplies. Can you tell me what colors are available?"

"Before you go into that," Ranma said quickly, holding up a hand. He wondered what Shaak was up to, but really wasn't interested enough in painting to stick around. "I'm not much of a painter. Do you know though where I could find decorative lights or something similar?"

Shaak quickly translated the Wookie's response, and Ranma left the store. He headed up two floors and over to a tree connected to this one by another of those odd branches made up of two wroshyr branches merging together. The shop he found was clearly marked as the Wookie had said, with several large lamps seemingly somehow grown out of the wroshyr trunk around its entrance.

Inside, Ranma found hundreds of different types of lights, large and small, decorative and not, natural looking and not, though the second was in the minority. It was evident the Wookies preferred to work with nature rather than technology. Several of the lights had little animals of some kind, worms sort of but not quite, creating small areas of almost natural light in this dimly lit shop, presumably dim to show off the lights. But Ranma figured the worms couldn't be sustained while on a ship, so after looking through them, concentrated on the less exotic lights.

A few of them were quite pretty, with small latticed structures around electrical lights, the artistry of the container offsetting the need to rely on electricity rather than natural resources. Four of them had signs above them in common, which stated they were for shipboard use.

Ranma took two of them, one that looked as if it was a small tree which reminded Ranma of a bonsai tree, the light coming out of it in different hues at the touch of a small, inlaid button on the side which looked like a low hanging branch. The other looked like a birds nest, but the effect of the light was really pretty, and again controllable, this time from a small remote. Talking to the Wookie watching the shop, Ranma asked them both to be delivered to the Jedi Temple, and, after some trouble translating the numbers that popped up on the register, paid then made his way back to Shaak.

While he was doing this, Shaak and the female Wookie explored the store together. The two had a very complicated discussion about pigments, the longevity of the paint, types of grain and so forth before finding the appropriate section Shaak was looking for and the equipment she required.

By the time Ranma returned Shaak had picked out several different paints and tools which the Wookie assured her would be sent to the Temple, as well as what looked like a plane small box of wroshyr wood. That she actually kept with her, holding it under one arm as she met Ranma outside the store. "What's with the box?"

Shaak smiled. "Several times during the Wild Light's construction you complained about how much trouble you ran into imbuing its armor with your 'ki'." Her smile segued into a smirk as she held up her fingers to make quote marks as she said the word ki, returning fire on how often Ranma made fun of the Jedi's terminology for the Force earning a grin from him. "I was wondering if you would have an easier time of it with wood."

"Strengthening sure, but what would be the point of that? I mean we could layer the wood on the interior of the ship I suppose as a final defense, but if the damage got to that point we'd already be out of the fight. And if we did it on the outside, not only would it add to the weight of the ship, but it would take months, and would probably interfere with a lot of its exterior equipment, not to mention the ship's handling."

"That wasn't what I was thinking of." Shaak said cocking her head to one side as she stared at him incredulously. "Haven't you ever thought of using a box like to create a ki space?"

Ranma's eyes widened looking down at the box as his mind worked through it. It was certainly possible, very possible in fact, given what Mousse and Cologne had been able to do. Impulsively he leaned forward kissing her. "That is a brilliant!" he said against her lips, which quirked slightly, before Shaak lightly returned the kiss for a brief second. "Just imagine if it works I could put plates of wood along the interior of the Wild Light's water reservoir! We could have actual water showers regardless of how long we've been in space rather than that sonic shower crap!"

That thought brought Shaak to a standstill, and it was her turn to lean in and kiss him. The Mon Calamari ship had been designed to allow for water showers just like the sonic shower system, complete with a small lip to the shower to keep the water in and a drain. But since the water reservoir was both used for that and cooking and drinking, it was both small and unwise to use it often. But if you could both enlarge it and separate it from the rest of those demands… "That sounds absolutely marvelous!"

The two of them laughed leaned back lightly, staring at one another, then took a brief moment to look around. Noticing that there weren't many Wookies out and about in this area of the city just yet, they leaned forward kissing again slightly more seriously, but not as deeply as they had after their picnic.

As they were kissing however Shaak felt Ranma's hand glide from her shirt-clad side up to touching her back lekku sliding down it's length. Still kissing him Shaak shook her head quickly, and Ranma's hand moved back to its original position.

When he broke the kiss he looked at her questioningly. She smiled, shaking her head again. "I told you once that touching our lekku or even our montrals is a very intimate act among Togrutans Ranma, even between married couples. You can only touch the back lekku very lightly directly in the center when in public. While we are in a relationship, we hadn't been for very long, and that kind of touch is rather too familiar for me right away."

Seeing Ranma nod seriously she went on, smiling appreciatively at him. "And you never touch the tip either, the tip or the base. Both are somewhat sensitive, though the tip is more sensitive than the base. Touching the base is only allowed in public between family members, predominately older siblings or parents to children, and the tip, as the most sensitive part of the lekku is never touched outside acts of intimacy that never occur in public."

Ranma nodded, looking thoughtful. "We're going to have a few moments like that aren't we? I mean, we are two different species after all." He blushed shaking his head. "I suppose that when we, um, get to that point, er everything will um, fit together right, or else we wouldn't even find each other attractive but…"

Shaak paused between moving up one branch to the next, flushing yet also laughing aloud and shaking her head noticing that Ranma tracked that movement and the movement of her chest as she did. While her Jedi underclothing covered everything they had to they didn't exactly stop things from moving and Ranma's shirt might cover her upper body and down to a little below her waist, but that didn't stop her chest from shifting with her movement.

I wonder what it is about being in a relationship that makes me more body conscious than usual, she thought to having never really considered such things before except when she had to while on a mission. "That's true enough," she said after she got her laughter under control, noticing that Ranma had joined her for a moment. "But there are other things we need to talk about, I've never been close to any human Jedi before, so I don't know if there are any social taboos around touching your hair for example."

"My hair?" Ranma asked.

"It fascinates me," Shaak replied, reaching up to rub one hand through his hair, her eyes twinkling as Ranma closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. "How sensitive is it, I mean do you like me doing this, can we do this in public when other people are around?"

"Not if I'm doing anything important." Ranma murmured, before reaching up and gently removing hit hand from his hair. "That's kind of distracting."

Shaak laughed then asked quizzically, "I've never been close to any human Jedi male or female. I know you can grow hair on your faces, beards are rather popular among male human Jedi. Do humans grow hair anywhere else?"

"Um, nowhere that feels like the stuff on my head no. And I'm Asian, that might not mean much but my heritage means I don't have much in the way of chest hair or anything of that nature. Except, um, down there." Ranma said gesturing down towards his waist.

Getting the gist of that Shaak pulled back from him, blushing slightly at the topic but more wary than embarrassed at the moment. "Truly? That seems rather odd to me, but then we Togrutan's don't have any hair at all."

Ranma was about to reply when suddenly he found himself drenched from above, his form shifting into his female body. Growling the redhead turned upwards, shaking a petite fist at the Wookie who had apparently just thrown out a bucket of some kind of cleaning water. "Watch where yer throwing that ya big furry asshole I've half s mind to come up there and introduce yer ass to my size 4 and a half shoes!"

The Wookie shouted something in return but turned away while Ranma growled some more before turning back to Shaak, already reaching into her ki space for a water bottle, heating it up via the tab on the bottom. Best invention ever, of all time. "Um I know ya wouldn't have agreed to date me if it were an issue, but what about the whole having two bodies thing?"

"I've never known you without it so it doesn't bother me. Indeed, given how it has colored your actions, in particular your empathy toward women and our various issues, I can say I rather like it. You're certainly cute as a girl," she teased, her smile widening further as the feeling of joyful laughter splashed over her once more as Ranma returned to his male form. "Handsome in one form, cute in the other, that's you Ranma. In fact I might be more comfortable with the idea of exchanging hugs in public when you are in female form. Such acts between women seem more publicly acceptable and less attention grabbing, possibly even between two Jedi than a human and Togrutan couple would be on most planets."

"Okay, that leads into the next question, what about kissing in public?" Ranma asked, filing that bit about a human/Togrutan couple for further discussion, thinking he could probably find something out about that on the Republic's version of the internet.

Shaak frowned slightly shaking her head. "I'm… not certain I'd be comfortable with that all the time, certainly not with any other Jedi around. Perhaps around a few close friends eventually, once they get used to the idea that I have been allowed to take the Old Oath and be in a relationship in the first place. But we will be facing a lot of… not opposition exactly, but certainly disapproval and censure when our relationship becomes known."

"Glad I asked," Ranma muttered, before cocking his head thoughtfully. "How are we going to deal with that? I really don't think it's a good idea to try to hide our relationship, remember I said that that might have led to feelings of guilt and fear among those Dark Jedi that fell in the past few hundred years."

"Agreed, but there's a difference between not hiding it and rubbing it in people's faces," Shaak said dryly, before changing the subject slightly. "As for other social taboos, I'm afraid I'm uncertain about them. After all I've never been in a relationship before, or studied my own races mating rituals."

Ranma snorted. "Mating rituals, really?"

"With as many species as are part of the Republic and how diverse reproduction and similar undertakings are, simpler terms like that are often used. Even the word dating doesn't actually cross many species, no more than fifteen or so really, I think. I actually overheard a discussion about that once a few months before I was knighted." Shaak replied shrugging her shoulders.

"Weird but whatever," Ranma shrugged in turn. "So long as we can talk about it, talk about things like that openly like this, I think we can get past anything anymore moments like that though, that's the important thing."

Shaak smiled again, and Ranma paused, holding onto one vine, staring at her before climbing on, his eyes still on Shaak's face. When she smiled like that her whole face lit up, the white highlights around her eyes setting off the dark red of the rest of her face, her high cheekbones coming into further prominence as her deep set eyes seemed to shine. "Damn you're so beautiful."

In response Shaak blushed, reaching out to smack his arm with a laugh when he finished his climb. "And you'd best keep that kind of comment to just ourselves too!"

Now further into the city there were Wookies everywhere and the two stopped flirting. They continued to explore the city simply walking along together. But occasionally their hands would touch as they walked close together, and that was enough.

OOOOOOO

While Shaak and Ranma were having fun exploring Rwookrrorro, Padme was standing in front of the Jedi High Council behind Sabe who was once again dressed in the Queen's garb. Surprisingly Jar-Jar also stood there looking almost as out of place among the robed Jedi in his ungainly food splattered clothing as Sabe did in her Queen's raiment. He seemed to jitter in place, almost as if he couldn't stand still. But the sober nature of the meeting seemed to be keeping him in place, or it could be the occasional stare sent his way from the seated Jedi Masters.

Bowing her head Sabe made to speak, but Windu spoke up before she could. "If you are here to ask for our aid your highness, I think it would be better to hear it from your own mouth rather than your body double. Did you think you could fool our senses with this guise?"

Padme scowled lightly, but shook her head with a faint laugh stepping forward to place herself in front of Sabe. "Force of habit masters Jedi, but can I ask you to keep that secret? It has served me well since becoming Queen."

"As have the friendships of your handmaidens," Dooku said approvingly. "They are quite loyal, and having a second group of bodyguards would serve any elected leader well I would think."

"Indeed," Padme said with a nod towards him, as Sabe moved backwards, grabbing Jar-Jar by the arm and moving him backwards as well. "But that is not why I have come. I have indeed come to ask for your aid Masters. The Senate might well eventually act in our favor, in fact I have been assured by several that the new Chancellor will act quickly and promptly to break the blockade over Naboo."

She shook her head slowly, meeting each Jedi Master's eyes in turn, noting absently that there were only five of them, not the full council even considering those here on Coruscant. "But even so it will be a matter of days before that can be set in motion and days more before any aid sent arrives which leaves my people in the hands of the Trade Federation. You have seen the evidence I presented to the Senate about my people being taken off world already, sold into slavery or killed for trying to fight the unilateral conquest of our planet. The dead or taken number in the thousands, if we wait it might number in the millions. I cannot allow that to happen."

Master Windu gestured toward Master Dooku. "Master Dooku has already begun to put together a force of Jedi to help free your planet your highness, Master Yoda told you we would aid you, and we will, something you have no doubt already heard about by this point. We have plans in place, but we Jedi are not an army. Surgical strikes we can do, but to fight an entire army spread out across the planet? If you expect our aid to free the whole planet in one move, we cannot promise that."

"I realize that Master Windu, however I have a plan there. You see, there is already an army in place if we can but motivate them." With that Padme gestured toward Jar-Jar. "Jar-Jar, do you think you could get me an audience with the leader of the Gungans?"

Later after Padme and her entourage left, Dooku frowned slightly over at Mastering Windu. "It's a sound plan, as is our own to deal with the threat of the Droid army and even this Dark Side using Zabrak if he shows up. But if we are to save as many of her planets people as we can, we need to leave immediately. Will you inform Master Yoda, Ranma and the others on Kashyyyk to meet us?"

"I will, but what about your investigation into the Death cultists which attacked the queen?" Mace asked, looking at the older blade master.

"I have taken that up, along with Master Sicaria." Master Ranicisis broke in. "Sicaria is using his excellent computer skills, while I and a few of the more advanced Padawans are doing the footwork here on Coruscant. So far we've turned up several bits of evidence linking the death cultists to a Neimodian faction on their home planet, but not yet to the Trade Federation. Sicaria is working on where the droidekas came from but that looks to be a dead end. I'm afraid we have nothing we could share with the Senate, nor will the investigation be quick."

Nodding his head Windu stood up, crossing to Dooku, clasping his arm. "In that case, may the Force go with you." The titular Master of the Order allowed a wintry smile to appear on his grim face. "And if you meet that Dark Side user that so ill-used Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, do give him my regards."

"I will do that." Dooku said, clasping his forearm and returning the ritual exchange.

With that Dooku left, heading down and out towards the waiting group. They represented many of the best Guardians present at the moment on Coruscant, with those who were not Guardians other skills to the mission.

Master Yaddle and her former padawan, Knight Empatojayos Brand and recently elevated Master Jerec, a human and a Miralukan respectively. While none of the three were Guardians their Mastery of the Force skill Ionize, taught to the others by Master Yaddle in recent months made them ideal for this mission given the Trade Federation's reliance on their droid army.

Master Plo Koon and Master Saesee Tiin. Among the best pilots in the Order, they would lead both the initial diversion and the subsequent space battle. Joining them would be recently elevated Knight Lissarkh, a Trandoshan female, and Knight Jaq Murani, a human known as an up-and-coming starfighter pilot chosen by Tiin to join their part of the mission.

The so-called Dark Woman. Called so because she had given up her real name to emphasize her devotion to the Force she had been called back specifically for this mission, something she had refused until told she would be able to meet the one who had ended her greatest shame, her former padawan turned bounty Hunter Aura Sing. That and the chance to possibly confront a real Dark Side user had pulled her out of simply following where the Force willed her. Another of her former padawans, Knight Ki Adi Mundi would join them as well.

Masters Koth, Knight Glaive and padawan Obi-Wan, the only padawan on this mission, rounded out their numbers. They would be joined by Master Piell and two more knights from those stationed on Kashyyyk. Despite being a padawan Obi-Wan brought firsthand knowledge of the Dark Side user they might meet on this mission and a friendship with Padme, which Dooku hoped might make him better at keeping the young ruler in check if needed.

"Are you all prepared?" He asked, ignoring the snort the Dark Lady let out at his pompous-seeming words, going on simply. "Then board your ships, and let us be about it."

OOOOOOO

"Green. Grey. 4. 2. 9. Left. Center. A scene of a farmstead. A city. A sky. UM, a kind of light green color, aqua? I've never seen that color before." Anakin recited answering the questions of the examiner accurately and without hesitation until the last one, which was somewhat understandable.

"You see?" said Qui-Gon, smiling triumphantly. "His rapport with the Force is phenomenal for a Jedi Knight, let alone someone his age. He is the Chosen One!" His voice was somewhat weak, but certain.

That, Yoda reflected was a problem with all Jedi including himself of course. Always certain, we are, gets us into trouble it often can.

The ancient Grandmaster shook his head lightly. "Talented the boy may be, also arrogant he is. Also fear within him there is. Attached to his mother, too much so, he is. Difficult to wean him off her it will be, but necessary. Taken in, he will, but granted any special status, he will not."

"You can't have it both ways Master Yoda." Qui-Gon said with a faint chuckle, before breaking off into a hacking cough. Despite the best efforts of the healers, healing from the wound he had taken during his fight with the tattooed Zabrak had badly sapped his vitality. And he hadn't exactly been a spring chicken before that battle anyway, having taken numerous wounds in recent months, all of which sapped his strength.

When he spoke however he made no attempt to hide that or draw attention to it. "Rumors have already begun that Knight Ti was allowed to swear under the Old Oath, which harkening back to before the Ruusan Reformation allows for attachments. Surely Anakin can swear the same when it becomes his time to become a Knight."

"A Jedi for years, Shaak has been. Allowed to re-swear her oath she was, but tested was she even as she asked. Seen as part of the Ranma experiment by the rest of the order, it can be. Opposition within the order to much of what Ranma has shown us there is." Which didn't even consider the latest revelation Shaak and Ranma had dropped on the council. "If allowed to follow that ideal, Anakin's journey to become a Jedi even tougher will be. Hohm, especially if known that there is a belief that he is the chosen one." Yoda said finally turning to address Qui-Gon directly, glaring lightly at him.

"I'll agree to that. Eventually Anakin will have to be told however if he is to succeed in his task." Qui-Gon retorted.

"The chosen one, you are so certain he is," Yoda said with a shake of his head. "In trouble, certainties can get you." This coming from Yoda would have astonished anyone who knew him. But Yoda's own philosophy, particularly his certainty in the Jedi's ability to trust their visions of the future, had ironically changed of late since his vision on Coruscant showed him where that belief would lead the Jedi Order if they did not change.

"Or can steer you through troubled waters." Qui-Gon countered. In contrast to Giiett and others, Qui-Gon had not gotten behind the idea of the Order changing. He approved of a lot of it, but his belief in the prophecy of the Chosen One as the only way for the Force as a whole to become balanced once more had solidified into an almost zealous faith. That had nothing to do with the changes within the Order really but the growing strength of the Veil of the Dark Side.

Again they locked eyes, and Qui-Gon faintly smiled. "Obi-Wan will be ready to take his test for knighthood after the mission to Naboo is dealt with."

Yoda's eyes narrowed, but he eventually nodded. "How he handled the Dark Side user, Obi-Wan impressed me with." he said with a faint smile, but he went on it in a much sharper voice. "Does not matter in the way you wish to hint at yet that does. Anakin's master, you will not be."

The tall Coruscant nativereeled back for a moment but Yoda chopped his glimmer stick through the air, shaking his head. "Too close to this issue, you are, clouded when it comes to Anakin, your judgment is. A more-worldly and demanding teacher then you would be, he may require. Anakin given no special treatment I said, and I meant."

Qui-Gon frowned, and was about to respond when his body was once again wracked with a cough. After he got over it he tried to argue the point. "Master Yoda, I am certain I felt a Master-padawan bond building between us on Tatooine."

"Influenced by our desires and thoughts, the master side of such a bond can be, " Yoda replied gently. "Besides, different from being a master, teaching is. With Obi-Wan taking his test, stationed here on Kashyyyk as a teacher you could be. "

Qui-Gon frowned again, but nodded his head jerkily. It wasn't as good as being Anakin's Master, but it might be enough. "Very well. My injuries are paining me Master, with your leave?"

Yoda nodded, gesturing Qui-Gon out the door as he turned to stare out over Rwookrrorro, his eyes closing as he breathed in the Living Force of the planet.

Qui-Gon made his way down through the temple, stopping to watch the young man exits the room where he had been tested. "Master Qui-Gon," he said, smiling happily and moving over to the tall man. "How did I do?"

Qui-Gon smiled faintly. "You did very well Anakin it is now certain that you will be a Jedi, you impressed everyone with your rapport with the Force. But you must watch out for becoming arrogant. Just because you are able to connect to the Force to such an extent does not mean you are infallible, or know better than your teachers. Bear that in mind going forward."

"I understand," Anakin replied nodding his head. "I know I have a lot to learn, and I'm eager to begin. But can I ask, what's going on with Padme? Her home planet is still having trouble right? And I haven't seen her or Obi-Wan around since we were separated on the landing pad yesterday."

"They both left almost immediately after arriving because Queen Amidala wished to put her plea before the Senate. Between you and I, it is doubtful that the Senate will act quickly. But the Jedi have already made plans to step in."

"Good." Anakin replied firmly. "It's our job to step in, our job to do the right thing, that is what Jedi always should do."

"Ahh, but then it becomes a question of deciding what the right thing is, doesn't it?"

"The right thing is whatever we say it is." Anakin said quickly cocking his head to one side. "Isn't it? The Force tells us what it is?"

"Moral questions are much tougher than those questions you were asked just now my young friend." Qui-Gon said smiling at the young boy's innocence. "Law and justice often do not coincide, or make you popular."

Anakin nodded. "Will we be sent to help Padme?"

"Of course not," Qui-Gon said with a laugh. "I'm injured, and you're a youngling now. The Order has learned not to send even padawans into danger, regardless of their skills, let alone younglings."

Anakin's eyes narrowed at that, but he nodded equably and continued to ask questions about his upcoming classes, which Qui-Gon fielded with a smile. Yoda was right, even without being his Master he could still influence Anakin, and it was obvious the boy looked up to him as his savior from a life of slavery, which would make it easier. He didn't notice Anakin's eyes straying occasionally towards Rwookrrorro and the landing pad beyond.

OOOOOOO

Eventually both Ranma and Shaak knew they had to return to the others, their first date, and it was a date both of them were certain, coming to an end. Hopping through the trees between Rwookrrorro and the Jedi Temple they arrived there about the same time as the sun had begun to descend. The two of them stood for a moment on its outskirts, watching the classes and work going on the temple's exterior before, with an unspoken agreement, letting their hands fall loosely from where they had still been softly touching to enter the building.

Crossing the threshold, Ranma frowned thoughtfully. "Now, where'd I go to ask someone about repulsors?"

"The basement, if they're trying to emulate the Temple on Coruscant in its layout. That is where ships parts, designs and other such things are stored, looked over by the Chief Shipwright. The name comes from when Jedi used to design, build and maintain all of our own ships. The position has lost most of its importance in the past thousand years of course." Shaak replied.

She stopped smiling when she saw her friend Luminara moving towards them from a small meditation chamber hewn out of the interior of wroshyr tree like the rest of the interior of the temple. Behind the Miralian she could see a flash of blue skin indicating Aayla was inside. "I think my friend wishes to talk to me, so I'll see you later?"

"Of course," Ranma said with a smirk. "It not like we have to spend all our time together Shaak. I want ta look into parts for my light pike too, so if you want ta find me, look for me where that stuff is stored okay?" Shaak nodded, and Ranma moved off quickly.

Shaak watched him go for a moment, before turning to her friend with a smile on her face. "Luminara, greetings."

Her friend rolled her eyes lightly, then gestured her to join her walking back towards the meditation chamber that Luminara had just left. She stopped for a moment, looking at her younger (by four years) friend for a moment. A small sliver of Force reached out to touch Shaak's own before receding and Luminara's eyes narrowed lightly. The deep well of discipline and calm Luminara was used to feeling from her friend was still there. But there was something else as well, a joyful happiness that had never been there before.

"I have heard rumors," Luminara began cautiously. "You stayed behind to talk to Master Yoda about something last night, and you've changed." Luminara's voice went from cautious to blunt in that single sentence, as she paused, staring at her friend. "In some ways you've changed in others you are still the same. But I am concerned."

Shaak shrugged her shoulders lightly, shaking her head internally. Good grief, rumors really do travel faster than lightspeed, and apparently can see through walls and take secrets out of the very air. "You were there last night when I talked about Ranma and my discussions about the Jedi Order. Is it any wonder that I have changed in how I think, feel and see the Force or even our Oaths?"

"No, but it is unexpected for you to be so open about it, to have embraced the changes so much. The Order has existed for thousands of years and for the last thousand years is has been the Order which have kept the Republic's peace. Our Oaths, how we regiment ourselves, has kept the Order from splitting as it did during the Sith Wars and has cut the number of Jedi who fall to the Dark to a bare twenty over those same thousand years."

"The Republic's peace is not solely dependent upon the Jedi Order my friend, that is pure hubris and you don't truly believe it." Turning, Shaak moved through the small meditation room, smiling at Aayla, who looked up from her meditation pose. In front of the girl was a small lump of clay, which she was in the midst of contorting with the Force.

Shaak smiled at that, understanding dawning quickly. "An interesting idea, did you come up with that one?"

Luminara nodded, also smiling at Aayla, who nodded back at them both, though the tenseness in her shoulders did not go away until the door behind Luminara slid shut, locking away the voices of men and women moving around outside. But when it did, Aayla looked at Shaak inquisitively. "So, is it true that Ranma was the one who made that strange surge of Force sensation last night and twice today? It felt weird, but pleasant for all its oddity."

"Yes that was him. Why?"

"I, I don't understand he really is a man? But she had…" Aayla gestured, to her own chest.

Shaak laughed. "In female form he does, not in his male form dear." Shaak went on to describe the curse and how Ranma explained to her how he had gotten it in the first place, along with several of the other curses from the same source. Through it all Luminara and Aayla stared at her, bemused by the tale and somewhat disbelieving, but willing to take it at face value for now, seeing no point in questioning it.

When Shaak finished Aayla didn't question the curse itself further, having something else on her mind. "He, that is she," she frowned, stopping in consternation. "How do you even address him, her, wahtever?"

Shaak shrugged. "I address Ranma with every whatever pronoun is appropriate at the time. Ranma's mind doesn't change overmuch one form to another, he says his taste buds do, and I've noticed he is somewhat more willing to acknowledge softer emotions, sadness, fear, that sort of thing in female form but that seems to be all."

Both other Jedi frowned at the idea of acknowledging fear, and Shaak shook her head quickly. "Ranma's female form is fully functional. He is one of the few men alive who truly understands a certain fear, one that you have gone through Aayla." she said softly.

Aayla stiffened, her hands clenching and unclenching, and the large piece of clay which had begun to assume the shape of a tall fluted decanter exploded. As the clay exploded many of the pieces were quickly caught by Shaak and Luminara with their own Force powers, quickly being reforming in front of the young woman. "It's a work in progress," Luminara replied dryly.

Aayla stared at the place where the pile of clay was reforming and shuddered slightly. "I, I understand," she said her voice strained as she tried to move on past that moment of anger and nightmare fueled fear. "Is that why he, he was willing to remain a 'she' while I was aboard your ship?"

"Shmi and I asked him to and Ranma agreed. We had a long talk about fears of that nature, and his were quite a bit worse than you might think."

"A Jedi must not feel anger, a Jedi must not acknowledge fear, to do so willingly is to fall to the Dark Side." Aayla said by rote, her face almost firming into the mask she had assumed during their trip to Kashyyyk. Even as she did so though, her eyes and the twitching of her lekku told the true story.

Luminara shook her head, sitting down next to the girl and gently taking her wrist. "That is not the way. Yes, we are told to do so, told to ignore our fears, told to ignore our anger, but not when it is justifiable. The experiences you went through were horrifying Aayla, no other Jedi alive now can know how horrible. No one will look at you askance if you feel anger towards those who do to you, or fear their memories."

Well, no one whose opinion I give a Rancor's rear about at any rate. Luminara thought. There were hundreds of Jedi masters and knights who would state Aayla was in the wrong for feeling such, but they were mostly men or came from races who didn't have words for rape in their language for various reasons. But none of them were here at present, and even if they were, their opinions were based off arrogance, a lack of empathy and ignorance, nothing that Luminara was going to acknowledge.

"Let those emotions out in this controlled environment, rather than let them fester." Shaak said nodding her head towards the clay, sending her friend an approving look which caused the Miralian's lips to twitch slightly and Shaak went on. "Do not use those emotions to reach towards the Force, do not use them to power your connection to the Force, but let them out physically."

Aayla looked at them both and her mask cracked, and she reached forward, tearing into the clay with her own hands for a moment like a child would until her anger subsided. She slipped then into a meditation trance, pulling her hands out of the clay and using her Force powers to slowly reform it into a single mass. There were still ripples in the clay, indicating that Aayla was still dealing with her emotions, but the moment of cathartic release seemed to have allowed her some measure of peace.

For the moment anyway. Shaak knew it wouldn't last, but was thankful that Luminara had already acted to allow the girl some outlet. Moving over towards a nearby window Shaak nodded back towards the girl. "Very good progress for a single night."

"I have no idea how Master Yoda made her open up. I had feared how long it would take Aayla to actually admit to her fears and residual anger. But she is talking about her experiences somewhat freely now, and if there are moments of anger like that, the fear is diminishing slowly now that she is in a safe environment. The clay was my idea, and it seems to have worked so far. It will still take months of course before she's ready to resume her training, but the progress we've already made is all due to Yoda's first breaking down her barriers."

Luminara suddenly shook her head, her headdress swaying with the violence of the motion. "Animals. I have never enjoyed killing as you well know, but I am glad you dealt with those responsible for what happened to Aayla."

"I am as well." But Shaak knew the conversation would switch back to the changes Luminara felt within Shaak. Wishing to preempt that, Shaak began instead, gesturing out to the vista around the Jedi Temple. "But right now, look outside this window. Life, every species learning and growing changing as they compete. After the Sith Wars the Order stopped changing, stopped growing."

She held up a hand before Luminara could speak. "I know that the Order had good reasons for restricting research into the Force, some of those reasons I was even able to convince Ranma about. But the Ruusan Reformation was nothing more than a way to ensure the power of the Jedi Lords was broken, the Army of Light broken. I think that even there some of the reasons used were good and proper, giving more power back to the Senate and the elected governments of the Republic."

"But others, forbidding marriages or any attachments between Jedi, that cut us off from the essenceof the Light Side of the Force. The Force is deeper, more complex than we can ever know, but the Jedi High Council at the time assumed they knew best, that the Force itself was what mattered, not what could constitute the Light Side of it. Ranma, and in a way myself, we are a breath of fresh air come in a time of stagnation,, when the Order is at its weakest. And when our enemies are circling like victai around a weak Sra'an."

"The Veil of the Dark Side," Luminara said, nodding and holding her arms around her body for a moment as if cold, not commenting on Shaak using a metaphor few non-Togrtutans would understand, easily understanding the gist of it. "I have not tried to probe the skein of the future for some time, but I understand at least that much."

She paused a moment, another Force tendril reaching out to Shaak's own, before pulling back, and Luminara nodded, satisfied for some reason. Knowing that her friend was still somehow the same person she had been despite allowing herself to feel affection towards Ranma, she decided to continue on this vein rather than attempt to ask further questions. After all, it wasn't as if Luminara had never had to fight with feelings of affection or even desire herself after all. "This Dark Side user Ranma ran into, do you think there is more to his appearance?"

"I don't know," Shaak shook her head. "The Force is silent to me on this matter, and to Master Yoda and the others I think or else they would have shared more of it. It's obvious he is tainted with the Dark, but does the Dark mean the Sith, our ancient enemy risen again somehow, or something else? I do not know, and I am pleased that I am not the one who will have to backtrack his trail." She smiled somewhat grimly, purple lips parting to show pointed teeth. "All Ranma and I will have to do is stop him if we meet him while aiding the Nabooans."

Luminara nodded, then looked over at Aayla before leaning in quietly, her female curiosity trumping her Jedi indoctrination for the moment. "So what's it like? Kissing, I mean?" Shaak frowned cocking an eyebrow at her, and Luminara smiled gesturing to her mouth. "Your lips are slightly bruised."

Shaak blushed hotly, her red skin lightening noticeably around the cheeks then leaned in herself, whispering. "Well…"

OOOOOOO

While Shaak was being somewhat playfully interrogated by her friend, Ranma was talking to a few Wookies and Jedi who had been working on the interior of the temple's basement, an area that clearly showed work was still continuing even more than the exterior. The Wookies didn't seem to understand at first what he wanted, nor did the Jedi see the point, but eventually one simply nodded. "We can build a room like that yes, but it just sounds like some form of torture to me."

"It'll work for what I want to do." Ranma said bluntly, shrugging. "It won't be pleasant, but then the original isn't either." At their quizzical expressions he shrugged. "Take two giant boulders, tie person to second giant boulder, then smash repeatedly against the first. Repeat until bruised and battered, rest, then repeat again. Your body will eventually toughen up."

All of his listeners stared at Ranma, one of the Wookies even gaping openly, fangs showing openly and he shrugged his shoulders. "Don't look at me I didn't come up with the technique, I just know it works."

"In that case the repulsor field idea does sound rather more civilized." one of the Jedi said dryly, while the Wookies broke out into laughter. "We'll figure out a way to set that up somewhere I suppose, but it'll take time."

Ranma nodded, holding up the small box of local wood that Shaak had bought and which he had been gently pumping his Living Force, his ki that is, into since Shaak had given it to him. "That's all right, I've got something else to experiment with. And I also have to finish my weapon. Where's your lightsaber construction area, whatever it's called?"

"Sixth floor, the right side is dominated by a single room devoted to the lightsaber construction tables. You should find several tables not in use at present. There are only about two dozen advanced younglings at that stage of their training here, but we brought enough along to allow for many more to have room when it becomes time." Said another Jedi, before turning to talk to the Wookies about where to put the training room Ranma had described to them.

Ranma nodded his thanks. Leaving the temple he headed over to the airfield to pick up the parts for his staff that he had left on the Wild Light. He was held back by a Wookie overseer of some sort at the entrance to the airfield however because another ship, a Consular class, was landing taxying into position between the Wild Light and the Starwayman which was still here. Booster had to wait to be paid for his part in the breakout and wanted to take on a cargo which would let him head deeper toward the Core Worlds, hopefully away from any Hutt influence.

As soon as the Consular class ship touched down, Ranma moved forward, eager to enter the Wild Light and head back to start on his lightsaber in earnest, but he stopped when he saw who was coming out of the Consular class. "Kit!"

The Aqualian Knight turned, smiling as he saw Ranma and moving forward quickly. The two of them clasped forearms and Kit laughed. "Good to see you my friend."

"Good to see you too but what are you doing here? I thought you would be stuck in the Mon Cal sector for a while."

"No, several other Jedi have entered the Mon Cal sector on various missions, and my own was finished several months ago. Did you really think a simple espionage assignment would take that long? I'm almost insulted." Kit laughed again and Ranma joined in for a moment before Kit went on. "I've been hopping around the Republic since and was called here to join the rest of you when you go to join Master Dooku and his intervention team."

"'Intervention', amusing choice of words." Ranma said with a grim smile.

"What other word would you use when we're trying to intervene on behalf of a planet that has been wrongfully invaded?" Kid asked with a shrug. He then became more serious looking at Ranma, his black, pupil-less eyes somehow darkening further. "As I was landing, I was informed of what you and Knight Ti had done for Padawan Secura. I cannot thank you enough for saving her. She and I have met several times, and I'm happy to call her at least an acquaintance if not a friend. To know that such a young woman was put into such a position… irritates me."

"Wow you cleaned that up real quick." Ranma chuckled, shaking his head. "But if you're thinking about taking a chunk out of the Master who assigned the mission to her, get in line. The next time I'm on Coruscant, I'm going to look him up and I'm going to peel off his toenails." He paused. "Er, or his specie's equivalent anyway."

"I'll hold him down." Kit said with a faint smile. "Do you think I'll be able to speak to Padawan Secura?"

"I doubt it," Ranma shook his head. "Luminara Unduli, do you know her?" Kit nodded and Ranma went on. "She's taken over looking after Aayla, and believes that she shouldn't interact with any men for a while. Given what she went through, I can understand that."

Kit winced, his worst fears realized. "Then I am doubly thankful you and Shaak were there for her. The Order owes you a debt for your part in that, and I will personally try to pay you back for it somehow Ranma." Kit looked past Ranma at the Wild Light, a smirk suddenly appearing on his face. "Now, why don't you show me your ship? It looks amazing I have to say."

"Heh, yeah it does, and it flies beautifully too. The Mon Cal do good work. Come on." Ranma smiled, eager to show his ship off a bit.

As the two of them walked up the ramp and into the main sitting area however Ranma paused listening to what sounded like an argument coming from the cockpit. "Histrionic shout: This cannot be! It simply cannot! There has to be something better!"

While Kit cocked his head, smiling slightly as a voice that could only be Tune's latest version replied, a deep bass rumble that sounded like a foghorn given voice, its very volume cutting off the first speaker. "Would you quit shouting that?! You have been searching through the local databases ever since we touched down and you haven't found a single example of robotics that you actually approve of. Get over it!"

"Affronted indignant statement: They cannot be. They simply cannot be, look at them! Mass-produced junk, week, unusable, stupid, ungainly, do I need to go on?"

"You've already gathered a crew?" Kit asked.

"Ah, no. Not really, the bass voices is Tune my astromech, he hooked up that voice translator/speaker thing I bought on Coruscant. The other is that droid head I found. He's… somewhat psychotic, but also useful, and obedient so I've been keeping him around."

"A psychotic droid, interesting, though it sounds as if you should be grateful he doesn't have arms just yet." Kit mused, still smirking at the younger human who rolled his eyes while in the background the argument continued.

"I'm going to regret this," Ranma muttered but still led up to the cockpit where he flopped down in the chair staring first at Tune, who was once more ensconced in the astromech port, slot or whatever it was called and then over at HK's head. Kit remained standing, leaning against the hatchway staring at the droid head connected to the control board. "All right," Ranma said wearily, "what's this all about?"

Tune spoke first, his voice now a dulcet lilting female voice, the sort you could picture coming from a young girl. "Master, HK has been looking for his body parts ever since we touched down, but discerned after only a few hours that he could not hunt them down, he simply has no memory from which to begin that search. Ever since then, he's been looking for alternate parts, and to put it bluntly he isn't happy with the examples he's found."

"Dour tone: Master, these are supposed to be the finest examples of the Republics robotic technology?" At a signal from HK's head into the control board several images popped up on the screen, showing Trade Federation droids, droidekas and a few different versions of diplomatic droids and others, including one or two combat types. "Superior Statement: Not a one of them comes close to even approximating the mechanical and technical perfection that was my body! How could robotic standards fall so low?"

"I don't know, remember I've only been in this dimension for a little under six months now." Ranma shrugged.

"And yet have already made an impact all out of proportion." Kit mused, causing Ranma to glare lightly at him.

HK however had more important things on his circuits than the new squishy. "Wrathful Tone: Master these things, these so-called combat droids are an affront to the very idea of a true combat droid, the very sight of them causes my diodes to heat with rage! Wary Tone: I am afraid you will have to special order parts for me. I have begun looking over prices for custom work, and it might be exorbitant."

"Heh, if you think looking at them is bad, wait until we're actually fighting the things. I understand those droids are the main military force of the Trade Federation, so we're gonna run into them in the next few weeks."

"Indeed. It should be fun. It's always an odd experience fighting droids, no need to hold back but your Force Precognition suffers due to them not being alive." Kit cut in.

HK's crystal eyes seemed to light up further. "Exultant avowal: YES! I will show the universe what a true combat droid is capable of by demolishing this mass-produced junk!"

"You mean what a true combat droid's head is capable of." Ranma laughed as did Kit. "We won't have had your body made before than after all."

"Slight amused sadness: There's no need for hurtful words Master, I already like you."

Ranma rolled his eyes, before gesturing back to Kit. "Alright, Tune, HK this is Kit Fisto. If we are ever on a mission with him and neither Shaak or I are there, I expect you both to obey him so long as his orders don't supersede any we've already given you."

He waited until both droids had acknowledged this with rather different degrees of enthusiasm it must be said, before going on. "As for your body HK, keep on working on that list of design features you'd want your body to have and include what you can remember what from what your original body had. I don't want anything more expensive than this ship, but if you're going to be part of this troop, I want you to be at peak efficiency eventually."

"Grateful statement: Thank you Master, that is a load off my metallic mind."

"The universe will never be the same Master," Tune said dolefully, the astromech droid's voice now that of a young boy, causing Kit to laugh.

"Irritated shout: Hush you!"

With that taken care of, Ranma showed Kit some of his ship's features, talking about the design process, before standing up and moving back to the sitting area, showing some of its features while picking up the supplies he wanted before exiting the ship. Outside Kit looked at the Wild Light once more, shaking his head. "It might've expensive, but damn Ranma, you've made a monster of a ship here. Despite my Oath to the contrary I am having a severe case of possession envy right now."

"Yep, just wait until we start using my hidden toys." Ranma laughed, leading the way off the landing pad. The two of them continued to talk as they made their way through the city, only parting once they reached the temple.

Ranma worked on his staff for the rest of the day, taking one of the empty table in the area devoted to this work. He was able to build about half of the staff's electronic interior, including the very delicate holding splinters for the three gems he'd use to create the actual plasma saber. Three gems would let him ignite a plasma beam from either end, along with a surprise in the middle.

At the same time a small high-tech smelter began to shape the cortosis metal into the strips he would then mold into the exterior metal casing of the staff. The majority of the staff would be normal metal, since cortosis could not be allowed to touch the plasma beam at any point, but the cortosis would be molded into the rest of the metal at various points, seeming to be a simple design feature of the metallic staff, but also functional, able to shut down any lightsaber that hit it.

He was joined by Shaak at one point. She looked over what he was doing, and smiled tapping the two lightsabers sat beside where Ranma was working. "These are the two weapons you took from Sing correct?"

"Yeah, I asked Yoda and he said it was fine. I figured the pieces could at least be put to good use."

"I'm certain their former owners would like that," she said, then looked around, making certain there was no one around before leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. "Is it all right if I spend the evening with Luminara and Aayla?"

"You don't have to ask my permission for that Shaak," Ranma said, looking up and smiling at her. "Like I said, just because we're in a relationship doesn't mean we have to spend every waking hour with each other, and it certainly doesn't mean I want to take time away from your friends or your Jedi duties or whatever."

"Thank you Ranma," she said sincerely. "I'll see you in a few hours then, don't forget to eat at some point."

Ranma shook his head gesturing at the table in front of them. "I want to get this done, I have a feeling will going to be called in quickly on this Naboo thing."

Shaak frowned at him for a moment then chuckled. Ranma looked at her, and she shook her head. "Nothing just an errant thought I had. When we start experimenting with you and reaching out to the Unifying Force I'll share it with you. You wouldn't find it funny until then I'm afraid."

Ranma shrugged, and turned back to his work while Shaak left the room. But Ranma's words were soon proved to be rather prophetic, because that very evening Yoda called the two of them and Master Piell and Kit to prepare to leave. Master Piell, a human knight named Violeta and Kit took the Consular class Kit had arrived in, never noticing they had a passenger. Indeed, it would be a few hours before anyone in the temple realized that their newest youngling was missing.

OOOOOOO

At the same time that Ranma and the others were preparing to leave Kashyyyk, Darth Maul was arriving in orbit around Naboo. Several Trade Federation droid- controlled fighters left their mother ships the moment they detected his ship. One of the controllers on the control flagship opened communications, his voice arrogant. "Attention unknown vessel, this planet is under Trade Federation control, turn back now or be fired upon. This will be your only warning."

The voice stuttered to a halt as Maul sent his control protocols, overriding the local communication net to speak directly to the Viceroy. He said nothing, simply letting his features and those protocols speak for him.

Nute Gunray stared into the pickup, his entire body shaking from fear, his normally wide eyes widening even further his green skin turning a very pale shade for a moment as he nodded convulsively. "Gr, greeting my lord. I've taken over the capital entirely and ensconced myself in its palace, um, we will be prepared to receive you soon." Even as he spoke the Viceroy's fingers moved over his own communication equipment on his hover chair, sending an all clear message up to the five Lucrehulk ships in orbit, ordering them to make way for the Scimitar.

Maul cut the connection quickly, his ship angling through the small fleet in orbit over the capital city, Theed, before angling down into its atmosphere. Moments later he touched down, and quickly exited the cockpit moving back into the interior of the ship. As he did the aid his Master had given him for this mission stood up, clenching their weapons, grabbing bags of thermal detonators, tripwires and other things that he had brought along for this mission.

Seeing this, Maul spoke for the first time since they'd left Coruscant. "You will remain here, I will speak with the Viceroy then we will prepare for the Jedi."

They all nodded and he smiled evilly as he stared at the toys his Master had sent along with him. He disliked having to rely on them, but they were brainwashed to obey, and more importantly, would allow Maul to kill Jedi.

He exited his vessel to find the Viceroy, his aides and two companies of TF combat droids lined up in parade formation waiting for him. Walking towards them he also scanned the area with the Force, making certain that they were not being observed. Even so he kept his hood up as he stared at the Viceroy, a sinister black clad presence whose very existence darkened the noontide sun. Wordlessly he gestured with one hand, and the Viceroy stuttered for a moment before quickly reversing his chair around, leading the way inside the palace.

As they moved through the corridors of the large palace from the offshoot which held the hanger bay and toward the main building Gunray foolishly tried to make small talk. "Er, ahem, is your Master pleased with our work thus far? Are we in the clear, or will the Senate… Well I've seen reports of what happened on Coruscant, both before and during the Queen's recent call for no-confidence in Valorum. Who will the new Chancellor be do you think?"

Maul did not answer because he did not care, the Viceroy was a tool, and not one whose reins Maul had to handle personally. If the Master felt he was important enough the Master would see to stroking his ego and feelings himself. Maul was not made for such things.

But Maul's silence seemed to embolden the man, and he continued speaking. "Surely now that so much time has passed since we've taken control of Naboo it will be a done deal! The Senate has no standing army, it can't match our military might just like your Master promised! This will send a strong message, and the Trade Federation dealings with the Mid Rim will continue as they always have. Even the Jedi would be foolish to try to change the status quo now."

"The Jedi will come." Maul stated his darkly calm words dropping like tombstones into the sudden silence of the corridor. By this point they had reached the entrance to the throne room, which the Viceroy had taken over, converting into his own personal communication center and control room. The doors closed behind them, and Maul pulled back his hood slightly, revealing his tattooed face to the Viceroy and his aids who'd follow them in.

All three Niemodians paled visibly, and one of them backed away shivering slightly under his yellow-eyed glare. "The Jedi will come here, they cannot but act as their Order dictates. They will not sit by and allow your usurpation to go unnoticed, they will come. They will fight. They will die. I will kill them, your robots will fight them or be destroyed. Jedi will die." Maul seemed to savor those words, staring at all three of them as he finished his speech, more words in a single setting than he normally spoke in weeks.

"T, the Trade Federation," stuttered one of the aides, surprisingly the one who had paled the most. "The Trade Federation cannot, we cannot fight the Jedi! That would be seen as an attack on the Republic itself."

"They will be here acting on their own initiative, not that of the Senate. The Queen has asked them to step in. There will be no repercussions later at least not from that." Maul deigned to explain, his eyes flicked from that speaker to the Viceroy then to the other aid, before back to the Viceroy before continuing. "You will do your part, your robotic underlings we'll get a proper field test as my Master promised. Do your part, and you will be rewarded."

The words tasted odd on Maul's tongue, unused to even this little bit of politicking. But they seemed to work as the Viceroy drew himself up quickly, glaring at his subordinate who had spoken out of turn.

With his next words however Maul returned very much to form. "Or you will die." All three of them were now shaking, staring wildly at him. "You have come too far to back out now." He waited for that to sink in then continued. "Now, tell me of your defenses, and I will tell you what I require."

OOOOOOO

From Kashyyyk it would take this portion of the group being sent to Naboo a little under thirty hours to make the journey a fact which once more forced Ranma to realize how big the Republic really was. The group from Coruscant would have a slightly longer trip due to needing to follow a more roundabout route because of various navigational issues. He spent about an hour after they jumped into hyperspace staring at the galactic map, trying to stretch his mind to really understand the size of this galaxy when Shaak shook his arm lightly. "Come we can get in a bit of training tonight or at least meditation. And then I think I want to start redecorating."

"Women and decorating, I see that at least crosses species," Ranma said dryly. "All the girls back in my old dimension went through that kind of thing at least once while I was in Nerima."

"Do you like the color gunmetal gray or the shades of blue that Mon Calamari use as their equivalent?" Shaak asked archly.

"No, not particularly. I was too busy designing the ship to really care about what the interior looked like other than you know having it all in place. Which might bite me in the ass when I try to work on the water reservoir."

"Then I don't want to hear any complaints," Shaak said primly. "Besides, I saw you buy those lights, don't talk as if you're not interested in redecorating yourself."

Ranma laughed, smacking his hip lightly against hers as they walked down into the sitting room from the cockpit. He paused staring into Shaak's room, gesturing into it. "Did we remember to tell Tune to clean the sheets?"

"No, but I remembered to ask one of the locals to send in a droid to do it." They both stopped for a moment looking at one another and she nodded quickly. "I'll look over it now, while you start up the holocron. I don't think the Wookies would be involved in any attempt to spy on us, but I believe us safe from spying on Dac too."

"Best to get into the habit now," Ranma said with a nod. He moved around Shaak, letting his arm gently slide around her waist for a second before moving on, leaving her with a faint smile and a blush on her face before she entered her room.

Configuring the sitting area into its training her room took up a bare few moments, the sofa disappearing into the side of the room across from the kitchen area, and the central table containing the Hypercom uplink disappearing into the floor. Ranma set the small yet heavy holocron in the center, staring at it for a moment. It still felt odd to him that this tiny thing represented so much, had so much weight to it.

Nonetheless, he sat down across from the holocron, closing his eyes as his ki sense reached out into the world around him, the Unifying Force as the Jedi put it, and despite his best efforts, Ranma was coming to use their terminology to touch the thing lightly with his mind, activating it with difficulty. Opening his eyes he looked up into the hologram. "Keiran, I know it's been a few weeks but we've been sort of busy. How does time even register to you anyway?"

"It doesn't," Master Kieran Halcyon said, his image shrugging. "I am not a Force ghost remember, I am simply the equivalent of a Force memory imprinted into a computer as it were. But busy with what might I ask?"

Ranma filled him in on everything that had happened since the last time they used the holocron device, by the end of which Shaak joined him sitting down next to him Indian style, their knees lightly touching. He broke off with a smile for her, and Halcyon looked between them smiling himself. "There seems to be something new between you two, something I have seen a time or two before I was imprinted into this device Including between myself and my wife. Yet I thought Knight Ti that your Oath did not allow for connections of that nature."

"It did not Master, but I decided that for me personally the old Oath was closer to what I believe the Jedi should be the arguments against the Reformation and what it denied us swayed me. I can't say it was an entirely bloodless, logical, decision on my part though." She laughed quietly looking over at Ranma who grinned back at her. "But I have rarely made a decision that felt as right as that one."

"I am happy for you." the hologram said simply. "May the Force bless your union, and continue to guide your path together. But what did we wish to work on today?"

"Tactics against a double bladed light saber if you have any, and your opinion about a Dark Side user be ran into." Ranma replied.

"Kieran's eyes narrowed and he nodded slowly. "I have no tactics to impart about facing double bladed light sabers, they were not in vogue in my time, and indeed I can only remember one individual using such, Exar Kun. We've already talked about his fall and the wars he began, but as I never faced him personally, I'm not going to reiterate what I've already spoken of. As for this Dark Side user, describe him and his powers to me."

Ranma did so, using both his own words and the words Obi had used to describe him to the Council the evening before. After he was finished, Halcyon nodded, not having asked any questions but simply taking it all in. "He does not sound quite like a Sith as your Masters already noted, he didn't use any of the traditional Sith powers, nor did he use what was the normal Sith method of combat."

"Method of combat?" Shaak asked quickly.

"Most Sith were Masters of Dun Moch, misdirecting, taunting their opponents through use of words, trying to disrupt a Jedi's connection with the Force via self-doubt. This Zabrak did not do so. He sounds more like a half trained Dark Side user to me, or someone who found a small cache of Sith teachings but not enough to recreate everything."

"I could also not comment on how he could have figured out your toughening technique Ranma. The Force Warriors in my day could take such things to extremes, but even that extreme never came close to what you are capable of. Though if I were your Order would be more concerned about his origin then that aspect myself, simply guarding against future attempts to spy on you would be best I think."

Shaak frowned lightly, shaking her head slightly. She didn't like how little they knew about this Zabrak, nor did she like how many assumptions they were being forced to make about him and his origins because of that. "I hope Master Thorne turns up something about him eventually. This Zabrak has created far too many questions, and you're right his origin is the most important thing."

"He could also be a Dark Brother," Kieran said with a shrug. "A renegade of the second class citizens of Dathomir, unwilling to bow to the Dark Sister matriarchy that rules there. That would be the simplest explanation, and often time the simplest explanation is the correct one. But one should not form theories before you have facts. Now, did the two of you wish to get some training in today?"

They both nodded, standing up as one and moving to opposite ends of the sitting room. For this exercise Ranma didn't have his staff, having left the one he'd borrowed from the Jedi Temple on the Kashyyyk behind, and not having finished his own. Instead he pulled out the lightsabers he had taken from Sing, taking up a stance with them.

Ranma knew he had to either come up with a way to continually refill his ki reserves or switch to using lightsabers. He would have preferred to have his light pike ready before facing the Zabrak again, but he wasn't going to rush it and there was no way he could have it ready before they reached Naboo.

He and Shaak ignited their lightsabers at the same moment, their hum filling the area. They stared at one another for several moments before charging forward.

About two hours later they both decided to call it quits for the night, and after listening to Master Halcyon's critiques on both their styles, were about to turn off the holocron when Ranma clicked his fingers. "Oh, we forgot to ask Yoda about bringing your holocron to your descendent Nejaa, we'll ask once this whole Naboo thing is done with. We'll make it our next stop, besides, isn't Corellia one of the main tech centers of the universe? We might be able to get some body parts built for HK."

"And that's something else we weren't able to do: Getting HK's head examined." Shaak said dryly. "I'm not exactly happy with the idea of getting that psychotic droid a body."

Ranma shrugged his shoulders. "He's been working out pretty well so far. So long as we are clear about his ROE he should be fine."

"On your 'head' be it." Shaak shrugged in turn, smirking at her own words. "He's you're droid after all."

The two of them made up a quick meal then retired to their different rooms, sharing a hug and a chaste kiss in the hallway between them before retiring.

Over the next day and a bit in hyperspace Ranma and Shaak began to adjust to their new status relationship-wise. Neither of them took it beyond kissing, occasionally deeply but not often, both unwilling just yet push to the envelope physically. But despite that, there was a new closeness between them. Whenever they sat together, one or the other would always to touch the second, their hands lightly touching, their knees or thighs brushing against one another. This, the kisses, their normal conversation, and hugs all combined to create a surprising amount of intimacy despite not rushing things.

After the next day's first training session Shaak also took the time to begin to decorate the interior of the ship. She first painted the wall across from the sofa to resemble a scene from her home world: a mountain in the distance with several dozen close-in trees. When Ranma complimented her on her artistry she shook her head lightly, holding up the painting device, a large gun-like object connected to an equally large vat of paints separated into thin vials and a small computer screen.

"I wish I could take the credit but…" she held up the screen so Ranma could see. Ranma laughed quietly seeing that the image on the screen was taken from a picture of her home world, which the painting machine was simply copying. "All I'm doing is following the computer's instructions unfortunately. I can't say I have an artistic bone in my body."

For his part Ranma replaced the lights in both of their bedrooms and the sitting room with the lights he'd bought on Kashyyyk. The slightly dimmer lights combined with the shapes of the actual braziers gave the interior of the ship a much homier feel. Then when Shaak was done in the sitting room, the two of them both painted their bedrooms, as much as they could anyway given how small they were and how little actual wall could be seen. Shaak painted the ceiling to resemble the stars.

They finished that task on the second day and as they sat back on Ranma's had to admire his painting, a scene of the sun rising in the east over a forest, Shaak smiled leaning against Ranma's shoulder. "That's rather pretty. You never told me much about your planet, as in its actual environments rather than your adventures you know. Did it look like this?"

"Earth's just like a lot of other planets I suppose. You have to understand the humans where I'm from we've not even started to head out into space yet. So our tech isn't much. Even so, we've got cities, we've got countries, forests, jungles, oceans, all that. The weather I think is most like back Dac, but we had a few forests that sort of match Kashyyyk?" He shrugged lightly. "Sorry I'm not really good at describing it I guess. It was just a planet you now, I didn't have anything to compare it to at the time."

"Then tell me about your training journey, some of the places you've personally visited, not the adventures you had."

The two of them stayed there for about an hour as Ranma did so, leaning against the wall that abutted one side of his bed. Eventually however the two left, moving out to the training area once more for their final training session before they would leave hyperspace early the next morning. They actually made a bet out of it, staking who would be able to have the shower first.

Ranma won, and left Shaak to make their evening meal while he picked up the wroshyr box, which he had been experimenting with on and off. It did keep a ki charge a lot better than the metal he'd experimented with, and he had been able to create a smallish ki space within it before leaving Kashyyyk. Now he put it under the heating pad in the kitchen, letting the wood heat lightly to the touch before taking it into the bathroom with him.

Behind him, Shaak turned to their meal, the last large one they would have. She stopped however as Ranma shrieked "Gah, cold!"

Turning quickly she looked as Ranma exited the bathroom on the other side of the sitting area, shivering. "Note to self, heat doesn't carry through the ki space medium, and water loses heat the larger the amount of water there is for some reason. The water was freaking frozen."

"That's interesting." Shaak said, shaking her head and turning back to her work on their meal. "I gleeep…."

The 'gleep' noise was cause by Ranma having moved through the sitting area to join her in the kitchen, her hands holding one towel over the heater allowing it to warm. This was the same towel Ranma had previously been using to cover her shoulders, leaving her upper body bare to Shaak's gaze.

This was the first time that Shaak had seen Ranma's female form like this, and before this, Shaak would have said that she wasn't as attracted to Ranma's female body as his male one. It wasn't a problem for her, it just wasn't a plus either.

That idea died a violent death when she saw Ranma bare like this and moving around, dancing up and down to warm up from his aborted experiment. Oh, watching Ranma move, especially shirtless, was always a treat. It was like watching a magnificent predator prowling, all grace and understated control even in something as simple as jumping around like she was now.

But that was one thing, and the shocking amount of desire that had just hit her was another. Shaak found herself responding to the sight in front of her just as much as she would have to Ranma being so undressed in his male body, but in a different way. The other girl's cherry red nipples, now stiff from the cold stood out on the pliant globes of her breasts. And the muscles in her stomach, whose muscular structure even a few Jedi might have envied, moved and shifted just as in his male form despite his hips and overall form being noticeably female, softer and curvier.

With difficulty Shaak turned away, blushing brightly. "I, I think we have both mentioned the need to keep a certain amount of modesty between us Ranma, th-that should also extend to your female form."

Ranma blinked at that, gratefully wrapping the now warm towel over her shoulders. She frowned lightly, cocking her head to one side. "Er, sorry, forgot. Um, ya, ya don't not like looking at me when I'm like this right? I mean, you said you'd be more comfortable with this form in public at times, but was that just for being in public, I mean…" She halted, trying to come up with a polite way to ask if Shaak was actually attracted to Ranma in this form and failing due to Ranma's own embarrassment about the subject matter.

Shaak however understood and turned quickly, leaning down to kiss the shorter girl. Ranma responded slowly, this being the first time they had kissed in this form, and that allowed Shaak to dominate the kiss in a way she rarely could. Neither deepened it, but Shaak let her feeligns flow through it, moaning lightly as Ranma returned the kiss, the shorter girls hands roaming up and down Shaak's back even as Shaak's own hands slipped down Ranma's thinner and slightly softer sides.

Eventually the need to breath made them both pull back, and Shaak smiled staring down into Ranma's shining blue eyes. "Does that answer your question?" Ranma merely nodded, and the two reluctantly disengaged, with both of them going back to what they had been doing, blushing slightly but smiling all the same.

The next morning they were both woken up slightly earlier than they would normally wake up at Tune's announcement coming through the speaker. "Master, mistress," the droid said in its new voice, that of a surprisingly young boy for some reason, with a bit of what Ranma wanted to call an educated tone, though Shaak called it a Coruscanti accident. "We are coming out of hyperspace at the rendezvous point in five minutes."

Of course Dooku wasn't about to his team coming out into the Naboo system piecemeal. They would instead rendezvous about a light hour out from the star system's farthest point, joining together in deep space before jumping into the system. It should've been impossible for anyone to figure out where they were meeting like that who wasn't part of the expedition, but Ranma had told to Tune tell them beforehand just in case. It might have seemed paranoid, but better safe than sorry, especially since not being paranoid enough had already bitten them in the ass in terms of his training techniques.

With Ranma heading to the cockpit Shaak grabbed them both some energy bars and brushed her teeth, switching off with Ranma for a brief moment as he did same before coming back. He sat down just as the ship exited hyperspace to find that there weren't any enemies around thankfully, but their allies had already arrived.

Already there were four starfighter craft of the design Ranma hadn't seen personally before but had heard of from Shaak, modified Delta 6 sprite class starfighters. These ships were made for Jedi and had no astrogation droids, two lasers whose punch was slightly greater than a quad laser though their rate of fire was far less, and had been modified to carry proton torpedoes as well, with a sprint launcher and a six round magazine. Waiting with them was another Consular Class like Kit's. Unlike his, this ship had been modified with weapons and shielding added to it.

"Master," Tune said, "We are being hailed from the other Consular class ship, it's reading as the Movia. Master Dooku is on the line, asking for the two of you and the others from Kashyyyk to join him for a face-to-face conference."

"Inform him we'll be over in a moment Tune," Shaak said already angling their ship around. Being the closest already, the Wild Light was first the two ship's airlocks linking together. Ranma and Shaak moved through from the airlock into the sitting room of the Consular class ship, greeted by Dooku who stood up quickly from where he had been sitting with several others most of whom Ranma did not recognize. Padme too was there along with captain Panaka, sitting quietly to one side in the rather crowded interior of the ship.

One of them he did recognize however also stood up and Shaak smiled at him. As Ranma and Dooku clasped forearms she did the same with him. "Master Plo Koon, greetings."

"Knight Ti," the other replied looking at her thoughtfully, the voice coming from a translator attached to his gas mask. He nodded slightly, seemingly having sensed something through the Force from her, though Shaak hadn't been able to feel any kind of probe from him as she had with Luminara back on Kashyyyk. "It is good to see you well and not overly changed from what you were before taking up with this one," he said waving his hand towards Ranma, cocking his head thoughtfully. "Indeed what changes I sense seems to be all for the good. The Ranma experiment seems to have been a positive one thus far."

"I would say it has Master, and we really do need to get that phrase patented." Shaak said with a faint smile looking over at Ranma who laughed and reached over to shake hands with Plo Koon himself.

With that Ranma turned to the third person who had stood up as they entered. "Hey Obi, you seem to have grown a new leg for yourself there. Or is that some kind of prosthetic?"

"It's my real one." Obi said with a smile over his shoulder toward Padme, who smiled in return, blushing almost indiscernibly. "Thanks to Padme and her people putting it into a bacta tank and thus keeping it alive, the Order was able to reattach it. Of course they had to reinjure my leg opening the cauterization which was rather painful, and it still feels somewhat odd, but still, it's better than the alternative."

Limbs could be reattached like that only if someone was very quick about putting the limb into a bacta solution. Further, reattaching the limb was an incredibly tricky process which only highly trained Jedi Healers could do, fusing the limb back to the rest of the body at the cellular level with the Force. No technology could do that.

"Cool, though in the future try not ta get chopped up like that, think ya used up yer cache of luck with this one 'k?" Ranma asked, laughing and causing Obi to chuckle ruefully. He turned, winking at Padme who smiled back, though her eyes once again tracked to Obi Wan for a moment.

They all moved to sit down, with Shaak and Ranma sitting down next to one another, their thighs touching but otherwise not showing any sign of their relationship while they waited for the other Consular class ship to finish docking with this one, while Tune piloted the Wild Light away from the airlock. Dooku made the introductions, going around the circle one Jedi after another.

The Dark Woman stared at Ranma thoughtfully. "I've heard a lot about you, about your skills and techniques. I'd love to see them in action, hopefully we will on this mission."

"I have heard of you, Dark Woman." Shaak replied, shaking her head lightly. While having heard of her Shaak hadn't formed an opinion on the rumors around the Dark Woman, or why she was known as the 'Dark Woman' rather than her name. But if she had, that opinion would probably have changed since meeting Ranma and understanding that attachment at least to another person did not interfere with her Jedi duties. "It would be interesting to see a sparring match between the two of you."

The Dark Woman eyes flickered to her, but it was her former apprentice Ki Adi Mundi who spoke up. "And I've heard rumors about you as well Knight Ti. That you asked Grand Master Yoda to retake your vows in the Old Way because of your attachment to this one. This experiment of Master Yoda may yield new techniques for us to use, but that is certainly going too far."

To one side, Padme began to look uncomfortable, realizing this was a private Jedi topic, but unwilling to remove herself since this meeting was supposed to be about freeing her planet. She also could not stop herself from feeling a bit of interest in what was being hinted at here, her eyes going to Ranma and Shaak in turn. However she quietly ordered Panaka to head up to the cockpit for now, where Sabe and a few others were. The rest were waiting in the various rooms elsewhere in the crowded ship.

Shaak smiled, her lips quirking upwards lightly. "One surrounded by Akkk dogs should not throw a stone at a restingakul. You were given special dispensation by the order to have multiple wives Knight Mundi, I fail to see how you of all of us can assault my position."

There were some muttering at that, a few seemed to think that she was correct in that, while others seemed to be leery about her and her new willingness to take the Old Oath rather than the prescribed one used since the disbanding of the Army of Light. While most of the others present decided to remain silent The Dark Woman was very much among this group.

A proponent of the Unifying Force as a single guiding power, she shook her head. "A Jedi should have no attachments, not even to his or her sense of self. A Jedi should subsume himself into the Unifying Force in all things. A relationship such as yours simply gets in the way of our doing our duty."

"Yet without such attachments, do we truly understand the lives of those we serve?" Shaak rebutted.

"We do not need to understand them to serve them."

"But in understanding our service becomes easier, our connection to them becomes easier, rather than to the Senate as a whole." Master Plo Koon stated, shaking his head. "In any event, this experiment has been allowed by the Council, by Grand Master Yoda, and we all know the reason why. The Dark Side is still gaining in strength, it's Veil still growing stronger. It is stronger now than it was when Master Yoda had his vision on Coruscant months ago, and we all know it."

"And yet," the Dark Woman said silkily looking at Shaak and Ranma. "None of us seem to be willing to point out that for all of Master Yoda's changes that is still occurring: those changes haven't done anything to stop the Dark Side from rising further. Indeed some believe them to have had the opposite effect. I admit this one seems to be a font of the Living Force and of the Light, but even so the brighter the Light, the Darker the shadow."

"'This one's' got a name. It's Ranma, and I suggest you use it." Ranma said smirking and crossing his arms leaning back lightly this entire body screaming insolent self-confidence yet Shaak knew for a fact he was taut and ready for a fight. If anyone here challenged they would quickly regret it. "I don't see the Force like you people do, I doubt I ever will. But I've already taught Shaak here enough to allow her to feel emotions, rather than shut them to the side to let then boil over like all of you. You may personally be able to ignore your feelings, your emotions and subsume yourself to the Unifying Force as you put it, but not everyone can. Stop trying to paint everyone with a single brush lady, it doesn't work."

"Enough." Dooku said simply, but that word was enough to end the argument. He stood, gesturing towards the doorway where the airlock had finished cycling. "This is not the time for this discussion, a discussion moreover which has been gone over and over and will continue to dominate the minds of Jedi Masters both here and elsewhere. I know this, but now is not the time for it."

"I personally recognize both that Knight Ti was allowed to take her Oath in the Old Way, and has grown in the Force since meeting Ranma, and I further recognize Ranma both as an ally of the Order and personally. That, and the fact that the Council has given me command of this mission is enough for now. I asked all of you before we joined if you had a problem with working with Ranma, you all answered that you did not."

His eyes swept the room, and he went on slowly. "If you wish to go back on that, then arrangements can be made to leave you here in the other Consular class. You can remain there until we are finished our mission. To put it bluntly, with the abilities of his ship, and the fact we might be facing this Dark Side user again who seemingly has been able to reverse engineer some of Ranma's techniques, Ranma is more important to this mission than any of you. Do I make myself clear?"

The Dark Woman would have argued further, both for the sake of argument and because she had never really gotten on with Dooku, thinking him too arrogant and too quick to go his own way rather than follow the will of the Force. But she subsided instead, the Force not having really told her one way or the other where to go concerning Ranma. Indeed, any visions of the future or attempt to discern long reaching answers to questions of that nature were becoming more and more difficult even for her.

"Good," Dooku said, looking up as the inner airlock opened. He paused, looking past Master Piell to a young boy who most definitely should not have been there. "Master Piell, you seem to have had a stowaway."

Piell, Violeta and Kit both looked as abashed as Jedi could for a moment. Anakin had somehow gotten from the Jedi temple across the city and onto Kit's ship the night before. Piell eventually found him, but only after the ship had already entered hyperspace, a fact all three of them were rather castigating themselves for, not having felt his presence with their Force senses before that.

Ranma, Obi, Padme and Shaak stared at Anakin. instead of looking abashed himself, or even defiant Anakin simply looked like sure of himself, like he was right where he wanted to be, looking at them all before his eyes locked on Padme with a fixation that Ranma found… odd in one so young.

The Dark Woman moved over to him, staring down at him before smacking him upside the head hard. "A Jedi does not allow arrogance to cloud his actions, a Jedi does not allow his personal belief, or in this case I think hormones, to sway them. You are arrogant young man, that arrogance will not serve you as a Jedi do I make myself clear? When we return, you will be reprimanded most harshly for this!"

"I already said I'd agree to any punishment you all would give me." Anakin griped, holding his head and glaring up at the older woman for a moment before subsiding quickly as she made to raise her hand again.

The Dark Woman was known as harsh teacher, but a good one for all of that. She smiled at him, her hand lowering quickly as he seemed to take his her lesson to heart and he went on. "But I feel the Force wants me here for some reason."

"While I appreciate the sentiment and realize you might have the reflexes and even a connection to the Force that could help us, you don't have any experience in war, or even combat. You might think the Force wants you here, but surely any task you can do could be done just as easily by one of these other Jedi." Padme said, shaking her head. "I'm disappointed that you would stow away like that, leave the temple and your new studies, just because you felt you had to help me."

While Anakin scowled at Padme not being as thankful as he felt she should be the Jedi Masters all exchanged glances, taking the boy much more seriously than Padme, and the Dark Woman asked "Describe that feeling."

The boy did, and the Dark Woman looked at Piell and nodded her head slowly. Of them all, she was the most used to following the vagaries of the Force and knew how to recognize the feeling. "It does appear as if he was guided. I cannot fathom why, but he was. That doesn't mean you won't be punished later for sneaking off, but since we're stuck with you, I can't see any reason to fight it right now."

"With all of these interruptions done with can we get back to the matter at hand?" Dooku asked wearily. He gestured, and that newcomers all set down on the floor or the circular sofa facing the hologram device in the middle of the room. As they did an image appeared of Naboo and the space around it. "This is our latest intelligence on Naboo and the blockade. What I propose is…"

OOOOOOO

Reaching over his new desk now-Chancellor Palpatine shook hands with the Corellian Senator Garm Bel Iblis. "Thank you once again for aiding my people."

"So long as you follow through with backing Corellia being added to the Arming Rights Act, we have in agreement. Though I have no idea how you're going to get the sectors between mine and the blue planet to agree to allowing our fleet passage."

Garm was a near to middle-aged man whose body and bearing showed a lifetime of military training, not softened at all by his appointment as the Corellian sector senator to the Republic. He wasn't as good at the political game as some, but was known as a staunch Corellian patriot, willing to do whatever he had to protect the sector, and the system's interests. Even including working with a man who he didn't really get along with like Sheev, not really moving in the same social circles or having any similar interests.

Sheev smiled mischievously. "I have already gotten two of them to agree to it, so long as they don't have to add their own ships or supply yours. Frankly there are many senators who want the Trade Federation brought to heel but who do not have the resources or the will to do it themselves.

He shook his head. "And there are of course others who will back the Trade Federation regardless of everything else. Say what you will but at least those senators once bought stay bought."

The Corellian chuckled grimly, shaking his head lightly. "More power to you then Chancellor for dealing with them all. I'd hate to have to deal with all that, I have enough problems in my own sector thank you."

Palpatine smiled, though unbeknownst to the other man it wasn't at his joke, but the wording Garm had used in his first comment. 'More power' to me is it, oh yes, much more in time. "In any event, let us call Senator Antilles in, and we can both sign the agreement. And you can send out the orders by the end of the day?"

"By the end of the hour," the man replied swiftly. "Time is of the essence of course, even with hyperspace lanes we can't travel that large a distance quickly and the Jedi will need our help."

"Indeed, I am still wondering why my queen was so adamant about leaving so quickly but she seems to think there is a military presence in place that could be called upon. I have no idea what that force could be, but I believe that the Jedi and the Queen will thank you for this."

Palpatine was actually telling the truth for once there, he really didn't know where Amidala was going to come up with any kind of local resistance. Naboo was a near pacifistic world: it didn't have any large-scale weapons depots or even a large police force. It did have a small and rather elite starfighter corps, but that wouldn't be enough to turn the tide on the surface let alone in space. He was in fact certain that Amidala had showed her naïveté in this, relying more on the Jedi and simply bluffing about having another local power to call upon. And if that was the case, even more Jedi would die which was all to the good.

Moments later the two of them were joined by another man. Younger than either of them, Senator Antilles of Alderaan was the head of the Senate's anticorruption committee. A task many had remarked which should have added gray hairs to his face, yet for all that he was young, energetic, and utterly incorruptible. Of course being incorruptible also made him somewhat predictable and thus usable to Palpatine.

The three of them made small talk as their aides went through the verbiage for the agreement, and eventually all three of them signed the agreement with Antilles signing under the witness bracket, and Palpatine signing as Chancellor of the Republic. He'd have preferred not to, but having Iblis' signature and the ways he could use this move later were too intriguing to pass up due to his own healthy paranoia.

After signing, Palpatine shook hands with Iblis and Antilles in turn before walking both men and their aides out of his office. With them gone he returned to his desk, swiveling around to stare out over the view behind it, the entire back wall of his office being dominated by windows. It didn't give him a view of his enemies or their so-precious temple, but it did show him the entire Senate District, his place of power now. Rather more openly then it had been before but still his.

The Corellians will play their part, and will be used as such. Adding their name to the Arming Rights Act is irritating, but it actually strengthens my secondary plans going forward. I'll have to be careful of course to create local aggression against the Jedi in Corellia as well as it in the other worlds where they are attempting to set up their secondary temples, not just in the Core Worlds. Kashyyyk is probably a lost cause in that area of course given Yoda's direct involvement and his close relationship with the Wookies, but they're an alien species anyway, more beast than intelligent creature. Corellia however is a different matter entirely, it has a large human element, and is therefore of value as well as use.

He glanced at a chronometer, nodding his head lightly. He had time enough to get that last agreement dealt with, to sow the seeds once again of the anti-human movement and a little bit more before the Jedi were due at Naboo. He wanted to be fully immersed in the Force in his place of power before then, so he could feel out the action as well as he could from this distance while it was occurring.

Getting that final agreement took another hour as he expected. By the end of that meeting the senator in question firmly believed that both there was a human anti-alien movement growing, and that Palpatine wasn't part of it and was in fact a partisan of his, solidifying Palpatine's power even further. After doing so, Palpatine made his way into his rooms.

Inputting the special code on the incredibly well hidden control panel he stepped into the recessed elevator which carried him slightly down into what was a solid bastion of the outer wall of the tower on the map, but was in fact his hidden throne room. As he did, Palpatine made a mental note to connect the room to his new office, it would not do to have to always travel to his personal rooms to enter his place of power after all.

Disposing of his senatorial robes, Palpatine sighed faintly as he pulled on his far simpler Sith robes. Doing so, he left behind Sheev Palpatine new Chancellor of the Republic becoming fully Darth Sidious. Striding forward the dark of the room welcomed him almost as if it was an animal coming at its Master's call.

He sat in his throne, and began to reach out with the Force into the Veil of the Dark Side for a moment, before stopping, noticing one of his message devices blinking. With a flick of Force power he activated it. "You have a report." He said, both statement and threat in one.

"Yes sir, the bounty Hunter Jango Fett has succeeded in capturing your target. We have physical evidence of the capture and he is asking where he needs to bring her to receive payment."

"Excellent, tell him to bring the prisoner directly to Coruscant, route number three on the alpha list. He will be met at the landing bay by a few droids under my command along with his payment for this task. Well done, I will allow a ten percent increase in your pay and those of your people."

He ignored the other individual's profuse thanks. Money talked, and Sidious had long Mastered the electronic means with which money could be changed from one account to another and using it for his own ends. It wasn't out of a sense of fondness or even loyalty to his underlings that he did so: it was simply using one tool to make certain other tools continued to be of maximum use.

He thought for a moment, but did not reach out to the Force directly, instead gesturing. A small droid moved over the floor, its four legs clicking almost sinisterly as it did. Sidious programmed it for a moment then sent it on its way, watching as it moved over to another droid and was picked up quickly, its legs folding into it's body.

With that done he at last leaned back smiling faintly. Another piece is on the board and ready to be of use. With Fett having proved himself, I will send him to the Kamino, and we can begin that phase of the grand plan. The virus I inputted into the Jedi Order's computers a few months ago will have already done their work of course.

However, I will need to remove Sifo-Dyas soon, his task is done, and it would not be good to let him return to Coruscant where he might confide in Dooku about what he has done too soon. Hmm, the timing isn't right, pity, I had hoped to use his death as a test of my new tool or perhaps the Weequay, but I have other means to remove him. For now, best to leave that thought to simmer.

"But now," he said aloud, his voice echoing back at him through the darkness of the room. "Now for the first battle of the Rise of the Sith. Let the fall of the Jedi begin."

OOOOOOO

Master Dooku's plan to run the blockade around Naboo was simple, but effective. Master Koon would lead the four Jedi starfighters, along with Ranma and Shaak in the Wild Light aimed directly towards the airspace over Naboo's capital of Theed. It would seem like an assault drop or perhaps a more heavily armed version of the Jedi's first attempt at a diplomatic intervention with Koon broadcasting calls to that effect.

This was a feint. The Jedi had no desire to actually put down within Theed itself just yet, attacking an opponent where he was surely his strongest was a stupid and reckless tactic even if it might cut down on the time a campaign could take. And the Jedi were certain that no further diplomatic overtures would work here, though it was unclear if the Trade Federation would realize that, hence that little bit of subterfuge.

At the same time, Dooku's ship and the other Consular class would come out of hyperspace facing the other side of the planet. They would make planet fall from an angle where the ships in orbit over Theed could not see them, heading to put down at one of the known Gungan cities rather than one of the spaceports.

This of course forced them to make a series of short jumps to get in position, a bare two hours since all the jumps were so short. Yet Tune informed him that just because the jumps were short did not make them easy, and Ranma made a note to find out more about astrogation in the future.

The Wild Light came out of hyperspace switching to sublight engines racing after the Jedi starfighters who spread out in a limited diamond formation. Master Koon took the lead, with Tiin above and behind him and the other two equal with Tiin on either side of Koon along the same plain. The Wild Light moved into the center of their formation.

"All shields at full power, all weapons online." Shaak murmured, taking control of one of the guns herself this time. The two of them had talked about it, actually having a small argument, but eventually they had agreed that Ranma needed to get in some practice piloting. Ranma had pushed for that to occur during this stage of the operation, which Shaak had eventually acknowledged made sense, since the next part would be a pitched battle rather than a quick skirmish.

HK was once again hooked up into the systems, labeling threats and using the other pulse lasers. From the astromech station Tune manned the communication gear, the ECM, and ECCM, which wasn't much in this battle, though the two droids had talked about some kind of offensive tactic there.

"Remember HK, we don't want to use our hidden weapons just yet, not in this part of the engagement. When we come in later we'll use them to take down the capital ships, this time we're just trying to pull them out of position." Ranma warned.

"Sarcastic response: Of course Master, and would you like to tell me how to operate my own optical sensors? I am aware of common tactics and strategy, this is not the first time I've been to war after all."

As they sped towards the blue white marble that was Naboo Shaak decided to ask, "So have you figured out any more of your long-term memories HK?"

"Irritated chagrin: No mistress, whatever damaged me enough to send me into hibernation mode also almost entirely destroyed my long-term memory banks. I have brief flashes of memory, I know for a fact that this is not the first time I served under a Jedi, though I have no information in my databanks about techniques like yours, or your curse Mastress."

"You just combined the words Master and mistress." Ranma interrupted deadpan. "That's not actually as clever as you think it is. Nevermind that for now, we're coming up on turnover. Tune, input the song 'Danger Zone'."

"I thought I said no to theme music." Shaak murmured, but she did not further object, indeed her purple lips quirked as the song started to boom through the internal speakers She reached out lightly with the Force, tapping into the outer edge of Ranma's mind allowing his understanding of the words to transfer via the Jedi's mental translation ability.

Ahead of them the droid-piloted Trade Federation starfighters had boiled out of their containing motherships, hundreds of them per ship, small Vulture class starfighters. Somewhat flat ships with twin pronged wings sweeping forward of the main fuselagewith four forward facing lasers at the front, they also were armed with energy torpedoes, fast bolts of heavy fusion plasma held in a magnetic bottle which could be shot straight ahead of the ship. They had no lock on ability, but packed a decent punch. The vultures didn't have shields, but there again there were thousands of them.

Indeed, the ships in orbit could have put even more ships into the battle if they had wished, but they didn't for various reasons. Arrogance was one. There were only five ships attacking them after all. The other was the need to conserve the solid-state fuel the Vultures ran on, which only allowed for 35 minutes of flight time. And the third was the major weakness all the droids of the Trade Federation army had: the need to rely on their control ship to do much of their higher end thinking.

Shaak closed her eyes for a moment, reaching out through the Force to the other Jedi ahead of them in their Sprites, waiting for Master Koon's order.

"A Trade Federation representative is calling mistress, Master," Tune said over the song. "He is demanding we stop or we will be fired upon. Master Koon has radioed back, saying that the Trade Federation embargo of the planet is illegal, and they need to come to the arbitration table or be fired upon in turn."

"Disgusted comment: That never works. Why do people always think that they get so much with sweet things when the stick is always more applicable? Speaking of, the starfighters ahead of us are powering up main weapons and entering firing range in five, four, three…"

"Now," Shaak said calmly, and the Wild Light bucked underneath them going to full power as the four Sprites ahead of them swerved around to either side. The quad lasers of the Wild Light opened up at a little bit beyond the Vulture's range, destroying fifteen fighters before they could recalibrate to target on the Wild Light rather than the Jedi fighters as it banked left hard. Their movements however were much faster than their tactical understanding, and the swarm opened up swiftly enveloping the attackers.

Now entering the Vulture's ranges, the shields of the Wild Light sparkled briefly underneath their fire before Ranma could break off their targeting locks, juking left and right, their energy torpedoes flashing through the space the Wild Light had previously occupied. Without those, the Vultures didn't have enough firepower to get through the Wild Light's shielding.

In fact the shields didn't even dim underneath that brief moment where the front runners all concentrated on the Mon-Calamari designed ship, during which Shaak and HK killed a further twenty. The Vultures having no shielding of their own made them easy meat against the quad lasers, whose swift rate of fire and lock on time made them excellent anti-fighter weapons.

The Sprites came around again, having banked up and around, now slashing in on their own attack runs before the Vultures with their limited computational ability could recover. But there were hundreds of the damn things, and despite this initial success the battle soon devolved into a desperate melee at the edge of Naboo's gravity well.

The Jedi moved in the odd synchronicity that the Force allowed them, each one of them defending or attacking moving around one another in a way that only the most tightly drilled and trained starfighter pilots could've made possible, slashing in and out of the huge mass of enemy Vulture's killing several of them in those first few minutes. They moved so fast and so wildly that the Vulture's limited systems couldn't lock on to them fast enough to fire, forcing the droids to use unaimed fire. And those Vultures which had already shot off their energy torpedoes moved noticeably slower, their systems recovering slowly from the energy drain.

But the Sprite's shielding was not up to taking even the glancing blows they were taking now from the vast number of droids around them. While the Wild Light was pretty much simply shaking off any blow which tagged them despite Ranma's piloting, the Jedi starfighters were noticeably taking a pounding their shields dimming on Tune's sensors as he kept up a running monologue.

Plo Koon knew this and around the same time the song ended in the background the Jedi peeled off into the engagement, turning and running for the outer edge of the system where there was a small asteroid belt which helped fuel Naboo's economy rather than entering hyperspace. The various asteroid bases and in-system ships had already been demolished by the Trade Federation by this point, but the asteroid field itself would allow them to hide for a time against the Vultures. Like the TF's infantry droids, the Vultures could not run for very long or very far from their control ships, their online logic centers and internal power not designed for that.

Ranma maneuvered Wild Light into a position where they guarded the back of one of the more heavily damaged Jedi starfighters, the one reading as Master Tiin's who had taken a few blows meant for one of the others, including a proton torpedo that had slammed into his shields but whose payload hadn't had time to arm before impact. With HK and Shaak twisting the controls for the quad lasers entirely around so that they guarded the ship's aft portion destroying yet more Vulture's, Ranma flipped and cavorted all around, keeping the Wild Light between the Jedi starfighter and their pursuers.

"Tune, how many of those starfighters are coming after us?" Ranma asked.

"Apparently all of them Master, my analysis indicates however that they will have to turn back soon, or move out of radio range of the control ships. They might still come on for a time on inboard control, but given what we did to them when they had access to the somewhat more sophisticated control computers, I doubt their overseers will allow that."

"Angry mutter: Honestly, if this is the type of fight I would get from these so-called combat droids on the ground, I'm thankful I don't have a body. It would literally be a waste of a blaster bolt to kill them."

"Do try to keep your bile down HK," Shaak replied, slewing her gun around to destroy another starfighter before moving it back to another position as Ranma flipped them up allowing her to get a second and a third kill in quick succession. "How much time before Master Dooku jumps in?"

"Master Dooku has already jumped in mistress. They appeared on the other side of the planet and are currently heading into the atmosphere." Tune replied.

"If they're on our radar, aren't they on the Trade Federation's?" Ranma asked.

"No Master, we're far enough away from the planet now to see further around it. The Trade Federation motherships have not moved from their position over Theed, and their starfighters have very limited radar envelopes. I estimate they are only about a fourth of the range of the Sprite's, which in turn are limited by their size."

"That's it then." Ranma looked over at Shaak for a moment before going back to his piloting. "Radio Plo?"

"He already knows Ranma," said Shaak, smirking as the feeling of satisfaction she was getting from her fellow Jedi. On her screen the Jedi starfighters began to put more power into their shields and engines, pulling even further away from the Vultures. All four were badly battered around the edges, their shields dipping well into the red from this small skirmish despite pushing more power to them from the weapons. Even Wild Light's shielding was starting to go into the yellow thanks to the sheer amount of fire and one energy torpedo which had tagged them.

"Now if you were in charge over there Tune, when would you… never mind." Shaak said, as suddenly several dozen of the Vultures nearest them began to peel away from the retreating Jedi as if they had reached a invisible line in space they couldn't go past. All of the others turned quickly after that, returning to their motherships.

Ranma smiled, shifting slightly to the side to smack his shoulder against Shaak's. "Well, that's our part in this whole mission done with, for now anyway. Let's hope Dooku and Padme are as good at diplomacy as they seem to think."

"I have faith in their ability." Shaak said with a smile. "Did the ship take any damage? I noticed us getting hit at the end there when we moved to cover Master Tiin."

"Not a bit of it." Ranma laughed, shaking his head. He gestured to the screen, and Shaak looked to see the shields already back up into the green. They weren't far into the green, but the color was growing steadily stronger as she watched. "The Mon Calamari believe in a lot of redundancy, and remember the Wild Light's got five onboard generators just for the shields. Allows for a lot more energy devoted to them, and the recovery rate is phenomenal."

"Definitely going to have to talk to Master Yoda about commissioning some of these for the Jedi Order, the initial expense might be high, but in the long term…" Shaak said, smiling faintly. "Even starfighters based off the same philosophy would be a good investment if they save Jedi lives."

Soon the Wild Light and the Jedi had reached the outer edge of the asteroid belt, and Ranma began to direct them towards the largest asteroid in view, one which had apparently been home to a mining concern before the invasion. While its buildings and the giant dome over them were now lifeless, opened to space, this just allowed the Wild Light to enter the dome, along with the other Jedi starfighters hiding their energy signatures within it from even a close range sensor scan.

There was a series of clicks against the hull as the Jedi starfighters all shot out small grappling hooks, connecting to the Wild Light here and there before reeling themselves in until small magnetic grapnels connected them to the larger vessel. Then they began the arduous task of moving through space towards the Wild Light, where all of them would remain until they got the signal to return to the planet for the next stage of their side of this operation. Of course the Jedi could've stayed in their cockpits, entering a meditation style to limit the amount of food and drink they would require, but why should they do that when all of them had spacesuits, and the Wild Light to spend time in instead?

Jaq was the last to join them, having to repair some damage to the exterior of his ship before making his way over to them. Tune, as an astromech droid was capable of doing such repairs, and would be busy going over all the ships for the next few hours. Indeed he passed Jaq as the human knight entered the airlock, heading out to start on that already.

The knight moved to join the others on the coach, shaking his sweat streaked head as he reached into a pocket of his overalls and pulled out a deck of cards. "So, anyone want to play?"

OOOOOOO

Standing in the Viceroy's control center in the palace, Maul smiled thinly, opening his yellow eyes to look at the Neimodian. "They are here."

"Nonsense," Gunray blustered. "You saw them, the Jedi turned tail and ran! Our Vultures might not have performed up to spec, and our control programming will obviously have to be overhauled, but even so, they didn't bring enough force to break through our blockade!"

Maul decided he'd have to explain reality once more. "They pulled you out of position. Two more ships with more Jedi arrived on planet somewhere on the other side. They will come, they will come here. The command and control weakness in your droid army is easy to see, and that will allow me to dictate the battlefield on the ground."

He paused for a moment scowling, he hated talking to fools like this, even his Masters tools, but a bit more orders seemed necessary here. "They will have to do something to draw off your droid army, be prepared for that."

The Viceroy stared after Maul as he exited the room, before turning and moving toward the windows, staring out at Theed, a beautiful if rather old city. But the vista did nothing to calm his mind right now.

He didn't like this. He did not like this assassin the Dark Lord had sent, he was too imperious, too certain. Worse this escalation could only end one way: the Senate would eventually see this as an attack on their own power, and after that would no longer be concerned with their own smaller parts of the pie, only in conserving the entirety.

"You seem concerned my friend," said a soft voice, and he looked up his heart racing at his control chair's communication device, which had activated on its own. The hologram of the dark Lord of the Sith stared at him, its features obscured by his hood as always. Even Nute didn't know who the man really was.

But at the moment neither that mystery nor the smaller mystery of how the communicator had activated without his input mattered. "T, this has gone too far!" he said, fear not only for himself but for the Trade Federation of as a whole fueling his words. "Your apprentice, he is ecstatic that the Jedi are here, b-but if we fight Jedi…"

"Jedi will die, and you will know how strong your droid army is, what weaknesses there are beyond the obvious, and how to correct them." The man on the other side said calmly. "Do not worry, you know we have already prepared the groundwork to protect your personal position and the Trade Federation as a whole is too important to be threatened by this. Your opponents and the other 'extremists' among the Neimodians and on the Directorate will be painted as the ones who pushed for this invasion, with you being an unwilling participant, your own position appearing to be that of a figurehead at this point. You, my friend, will come out of this with more personal power and your enemies within the Federation crushed."

Greed almost overcame Nute's fear at that, not quite but almost. "But, but I am involved personally now, how…"

Again Sidious' voice was almost soothing, reaching across the lightyears to stroke the man's thoughts almost a Force power all in it's own but not quite. He had no need to crack the whip over Gunray now, not with Maul no doubt having been his usual frightening self. "You got involved personally to keep the extremists from too many atrocities, you have retrieved most of the Nabooan's you captured to ship off-world have you not? There have been no true massacres ever since you arrived on-planet."

Gunray nodded and Sidious went on, hating the fact he needed this coward, but after this, Gunray would be too indebted with him to even dream of acting against him. "You see, you again will come out looking like a moderate forced to take this action." The Trade Federation's reputation may be tarnished somewhat, as your race's will be of course, but you personally will not be. Calm down my friend, this plan has been long in the making, regardless of whatever wild card has been added to the deck, it is still my game, and the pieces can but move as I will them…"

OOOOOOO

Dooku smiled lightly as Padme's words, and her lack of arrogance, swayed Boss Nass. It had been an amazing ploy with a high payoff though he had been worried she was expecting too much of her own skills to sway the standoffish Gungans, who had every reason to be resentful towards Naboo's human inhabitants. But it seemed as if it had worked, Boss Nass seeming astonished at her bowing before him as she had, though Panaka looked as if he had swallowed a lemon.

As Padme gestured toward the group of Jedi, Dooku knew his cue and stepped forward, bowing politely. "Greeting Boss Nass. I am Master Dooku, and I am the leader of these Jedi behind me. We have the beginnings of a plan, but we require more in the way of information before finalizing anything."

To one side Anakin watched, having frowned as he watched Padme prostrate herself before the fat if jovial Gungan, so unlike Jar-Jar in every respect save his accent in Standard. Still, it seemed to have worked and that was the important thing.

It turned out however that Padme's initial plan, to try and sneak and capture the Viceroy where he had ensconced himself in her palace while the Gungans drew off the droid army, needed some work. The Gungans had detected that all the ships in orbit were capable of radioing commands down to the droid troops on the planet, the control center in Theed was simpler closer, not more powerful. The Viceroy however was still the primary target.

For their part of the operation, Piell and his team would infiltrate Theed in one large group before breaking up to assault their disparate targets. The only three who would remain with Master Dooku were Yaddle, Jerec and Brand. Now with the Gungan aid secured some of the Masters questioned this allocation of their numbers, but Dooku shook his head. "If this Dark Side user is going to appear, he will do so in one of two places, either on the battlefield with the majority of the Trade Federation's army, or defending the Viceroy in his new palace."

"If he appears on the battlefield, myself and Master Yaddle will be able to handle him." Dooku exchanged a look with the far shorter Jedi Master, who nodded her head gravely.

Yaddle had followed up on Yoda's orders to go through the records to see if she could find hints to any old skills that had been forgotten or not passed on in ages past among the Order. Ionize was one such skill, but it wasn't the only one. Her most recent find was a Light-based power called simply Force Light. If it worked as the hints she had put together said it should the skill would cripple any nearby Dark Side user. Beyond that, Dooku was certain his own skills would suffice to match the tattooed Zabrak.

"But if he appears somewhere in the capital, you will need numbers behind you, you have two different objectives which will force you to split up, thus your initial strength needs to be all the stronger. I could wish that Ranma was already on station here with us, but he'll be needed in the Wild Light for at least the initial orbital assault."

Master Koth and the Dark Woman looked affronted at that as did several of the others who hadn't seen Ranma in action, irritated that Master Dooku felt they would need an outsiders help for dealing with the Dark Side user. Even after listening to Obi-Wan explain how the Zabrak had overwhelmed him and Qui-Gon they weren't used to the idea that there was someone out there tougher, stronger and quite frankly better at combat than them. That was of course a downside to the Guardian mindset, Dooku reflected.

But Piell spoke up nodding his head, showing once again the odd humility that had seemingly overcome him in recent weeks. "It is true we will need all of us to take on this Dark Side user. And remember what we were told, beware his strange weapon, and prepare yourself for the feeling of him in the Force."

With Master Yaddle nodding, even the Dark Woman was forced to acknowledge the seriousness of the threat the Dark Side user represented. "Let's get on with this then," she said gruffly. "The Force waits for no sentient."

Master Dooku nodded at her, and to the others around the circle. "May the Force be with us all."

With Padme's guards and a few Gungans helping them, Obi-Wan and the others were able to slip into Theed's small harbor that very night. Once in place, they hid themselves away for a time, hidden as much by physical means as by Force Stealth, waiting for the signal from Master Dooku that the droid army had moved out of the city to engage him.

That aspect of Master Dooku's overall strategy was, as had their running the blockade, based on deception. The Gungans set up a few dozen squads of their army along with several devices that imitated the heat signatures, noise levels and other things of an army being assembled a few hundred leagues away from the city in an area where swampland became plains in one direction and high cliffs in another. The cliffs were a logical place for the Gungans, who relied on primitive-seeming catapults for their long range punch, to set up. So the nearby swamps was an obvious place for the amphibian Gungans to gather their army before pushing to the cliffs, if you thought like a surface dweller at least.

In actuality, the Gungans had done all the gathering of their army they needed underneath the water, and the majority of their forces were waiting off shore where the ocean met a jungle to the north of the swamps, the water hiding their movement, heat and energy signatures. Of course there was still a danger that they would be spotted there, but Yaddle led a group of Gungan scouts out that night seeking out the few patrols between their chosen battlefield and the army.

These were few and far between, the Trade Federation was overconfident, or perhaps simply didn't have enough information about the Gungans to understand they could be a real threat. Most of the occupation force was centered in Theed and the next four largest Nabooan cities keeping the populace in line in those cities. Theed itself had suffered the most in the occupation, with dozens of buildings destroyed to create security zones, and thousands of its citizens rounded up and sent off-world to be sold into slaves. Hundreds more had simply been killed when they tried to fight the invaders.

Near dawn Master Dooku pulled himself up out of the water, pulling off his rebreather and handing it to a Gungan as he nodded his head at Boss Nass. The two of them waited there in the dark, until Yaddle suddenly flowed out of the nighttime jungle, sitting down between them as if she had always been there. "The Trade Federation had few scouts in the plains between here and the city, and what they have are now gone."

Dooku nodded, a grim smile appearing on his aged face as he stretched lightly, smirking internally. Following up on the exercises he and Ranma had done as well as the speed exercises that he had gleaned from watching Ranma in action had a decidedly pleasant side-effect. Not only was his Living Force beginning to grow, slower than Shaak Ti's to be certain, but he also felt in the best shape he'd been in years. Anticipation roiled within him, and he dearly hoped that the Dark Side user was foolish enough to take the gauntlet he was going to throw down the moment this fight began.

Beside him the fat but powerfully built Gungan grinned, reaching over and clapping his hand on Dooku's back. "Then we's be ready!" he said chortling happily. "This gonna be a big fight!"

OOOOOOO

Standing to one side of Nute Gunray's control center Maul's eyes narrowed under his hood. There was something wrong here. Oh, it was obvious that the Gungan army was being used as a decoy but he would not have thought that the Jedi would have been so lackadaisical with other people's lives. Their so-called moral stance should've meant this was impossible.

Too obvious, a trap within a trap then? The droids will leave the city, but the obvious target is but a feint of some kind. But then where are the rest of the Jedi? Hidden under their stealth, but here in the city, doing as they always have or out in the army?

Maul thought for a moment, his entire body still as he pondered before deciding. No, they will be close, regardless what I can sense now. The Jedi will never change, always believing that removing the head of their enemies makes the enemy submit, fools. Of course thanks to the number of control centers here they will find that an impossible task.

As the Viceroy's aid began to bellow orders Maul idly wondered where Nute himself was, but put that aside to turn to one of his helpers. "Are your people ready?" He said his yellow eyes gleaming under his hood as he turned away.

The figure in the shadows behind him nodded the voice gruff, hard edged and angry. "We're ready, so're the droids."

Maul nodded wordlessly, and the two of them exited the room. As they did,Maul stopped for a moment stretching out his senses into the Force. He wasn't nearly as good at sensing other Force users as his Master was, he had always concentrated more on the combat arts. But he was far better at hiding his presence even when using his powers than any Jedi, and he wasn't actually looking for the Jedi.

He stopped after only a second, his lips splitting into a snarling sneer of a smile as he felt not the Jedi, but the mind of Padme Amidala, which he had felt on Tatooine. Her presence in the Force wasn't quite like that of a Jedi but it was distinctive, a bright shining thing even without any Force power behind it. Another Force user would have wondered about what that could mean, indeed many Jedi who she had interacted with had done so without coming to any answer.

But Maul couldn't care less about that, only what her presence meant. The Jedi are here. They have come to die.

OOOOOOO

The Trade Federation army mobilized. B1 class battle droids detached themselves from their couplings in warehouses that the Trade Federation had taken over after securing control of the capital. Others came down from orbit in C-9979 Landing Craft, gantries folding out from their sides each of them carrying hundreds of droids on their frames, the droids detaching immediately. Dozens of Armored Assault Tanks, or AAT-1s, and troop transports rolled out from other landing craft. It took about three hours for the entirety of the robotic army, two full corps, to be assembled and on the move towards where the Gungans were apparently bringing their army together.

STAPs, Single Trooper Assault Platforms acted like the scouts of the army, moving around the army's sides and well in front of its marching ranks. These tiny hover platforms had formed the backbone of the occupation force, keeping the Nabooans from revolting, policing the streets of Theed and the other occupied cities. They also made for excellent scout vehicles, in which function they were acting now, their electronic brains warning them to be wary of traps, combing the ground with their scanners.

The reason for this was simple: both tanks and troop transports were susceptible to mines and other attacks from directly below them. The programmers for these droids might not have done very well in terms of individual combat ability, but their army tactics were somewhat better.

Those droids were scanning every kind of frequency they could, looking into the ground and everywhere else, looking for sensors or anything that could set off explosive devices along with odd pockets of metal and other material that could be the actual explosives. But they ran into trouble almost immediately.

Master Yaddle leapt out from where she had been hiding in a tree, her hand lashing out with the Force power called Ionize. It was not, as many among those who knew about it thought, the Light Side version of Sith Lightning. Indeed Ionize could barely harm leaving flesh, but it was incredibly deadly to anything electronic, almost like a concentrated EMP blast so powerful it could smash through any kind of hardened shielding in a blast of purple lightning.

Seven STAPs in Yaddle's line of sight fell, the purple lightning leaping from one to another, and she disappeared again backwards into the brush, cloaking herself with the Force to a degree that very few in the Jedi Order could've matched. She was not quite fast enough, and several dozen more skimmers moved in his direction, their double-barreled blasters powering up.

In response several other Gungans popped up then in a prepared ambush. Each Gungan was armed with a primitive seeming sling, which hurled not rocks but booma balls, pressurized blue plasma held in a glass ball which burst when it hit the target. These struck with the impact of a blaster's plasma bolts, smashing several STAPs down.

Two of the Gungans ran towards where Yaddle was, and she nodded at them. "Time to leave, it is." As they moved off, she radioed Dooku. "Moving back towards the swamps we are, further baited the trap, we have." Elsewhere similar ambushes led by Jerec and Brand did just as well, and suddenly the advancing droid army was nearly blind in the direction of its march.

In response the droid army began to mobilize even faster, several tanks moving ahead of the rest of the army, with dozens of infantry droids clinging to their sides as they moved ahead of the slower and far less mobile shield generator devices. Their tiny robotic brains told them that this was but a skirmish, a holding action to keep the army away from the mobilization center, to allow the enemy to prepare a defense. The proper tactic therefore was to burst through and take the enemy before they could finish organizing.

A living, intelligent enemy would not have done so. They would have wondered what was going on that they didn't know about and they would have not pulled all of their Scouts from their sides towards the front. Which this army now did, moving the scouts spread out along its flanks forward to join the fast moving assault force.

Soon enough the droid army's fast assault unit reached the edge of the swamp, where they began to take fire from the defenders there. The infantry droids fell off their tanks, moving forward in lines as they began to fire blindly into the swamps ahead of them.

No droid in this army would ever win prizes for its marksmanship, but the sheer amount of fire even this small a force could put out was impressive. The defenders kept their heads down as the tanks moved up and began to pound the swamp, large bolts of energy blasting into the swamp-land incinerating trees or plowing into water.

This didn't really do much. Tanks were not the proper weapon for a fight in a swamp. The defenders kept their heads down, returning fire when they could, but more importantly staying alive. They would have to retreat when the infantry came up in numbers as they'd had to when Otoh Gunga was invaded, but they could hold until then. But the infantry would be able to move through the swamp even better than the Gungans, so long as their feet could touch the ground and their heads remain above it.

Here and there defenders further back from the start of the swamp fired back with their atlatls, hurling small boomas with great effect against the STAPs. The Grand Army's massive catapults, hidden well beyond the swamp's edges began to throw their cargo of huge boomas into the air towards the attackers, nearby shields sputtering into life to protect them.

One of the tanks was hit dead on and exploded in a burst of fire. Another was close enough to lose half its repulsors from another blast. Yet even as it plowed sideways into the ground it joined it's still upright fellows and began to fire back trying to target the catapults.

Behind this fast reaction force came the bulk of the droid army. Thousands of droids began to move forward catching up with their fellows now, firing in echelons as they came into range of the outer edge of the swamp pushing the defenders back. Behind them the troop transports ground to a halt, but did not disgorge their troops yet.

Even the swamp water and brush couldn't protect them from that weight of fire. Two of the catapults were hit by tank shells exploding in fire before their shields could power up. Despite this the defenders had only taken a few casualties thus far. Nor had the droids actually seen anything like the army their sensors told them was gathering in that swamp.

Before the droid's electronic brains could question that however, Dooku let loose his main thrust.

Dooku himself strode out of the jungle to the North, looking through a pair of binoculars. At the far edge of his senses he could feel the troop transports moving forward. Only a few of them were within range of the initial trap, but it would be enough and Dooku smiled grimly he pressed a small transceiver at his belt.

The buried munitions which should've been found by the scouts that had been pulled from the flanks of the droid army towards the front exploded at his command, taking with them several columns of droids on that side along with two troop transports outright. One mine detonated underneath one of the troop transports, destroying it, the massive metal form tilting sideways to smash into the troop transport directly next to it.

That troop transport also began to list, its repulsors unable to take the strain put on them by the weight of its grievously wounded fellow, knocking it sideways into a third. That third was pushed directly over the last mine, which exploded, causing sympathetic explosions in the troop transports engines, destroying all there. Within seconds, the entire flank of the droid army had been shattered.

Seeing this through his binoculars, Dooku blinked a little then shook his head. "That was a bit more spectacular than I anticipated."

"Now wesa follow it up!" Next to him on his palanquin Boss Nass grinned evilly then raised a conch shell to his mouth blowing the charge.

From out of the jungle behind Dooku came the vast majority of the Gungan Grand Army. They combined old-fashioned spearmen, slingers, a force of cavalry on actual animals and a few scattered shield generators to protect several dozen barely mobile catapults.

All of them armed with weapons that could damage or destroy battle droids. In the case of the spearmen these wee spears contained electric shockers powered by boomas, the equivalent of a vibro-blade and shock stick rolled into one. Boomas and the atlatl armed slingers had already proven their worth.

It wasn't as good a display as the Trade army's had been, more barbaric horde than high-tech army. Nor did they come close to matching the droid army for numbers. But the Jedi and their assault into the droids flank would make up for much of that, as would the destruction of as many troop transports as possible before they could unload their troops.

Master Dooku ignited his lightsaber, grabbed onto a kaddu, a two legged cavalry animal he'd commandeered from the Gungans and raced forward leading the charge. As he did so, he clicked the transceiver with his free hand igniting a few other little surprises, none of which did as much spectacular damage to the droid army as the first one did, but more than enough to complete the disorganization of their lines as the Gungans charged over the limited open ground between them and this flank of the droid army.

The Gungan army closed behind him. Ranks of militia stopped, going to ground behind personal deflector shields, hurling boomas forward in ranks from their atlatls. The better trained and armed guards charged with their booma-powered spears behind their cavalry. In the jungle the catapults began to fire, trying to target the remaining troop transports so the droids already in the field could not be reinforced.

As Dooku closed he reached out with the Force, grabbing and hurling the nearest tanks backwards through the air like so much kindling with a blast of power few Jedi could have matched at this distance. With a deft grab he snatched several wayward boomas from the catapult out of the sky, directing them instead into the last troop transport on this flank. It exploded, taking with it its passengers and more than a thousand nearby combat droids. What little response to the attack on their flank the droids had been able to put together in the past few seconds shattered.

The fact this show of power also announced his presence to the entire world was another factor, and Dooku allowed a grim smile to appear on his face. Come to me Dark Side user, come to me. Then we will see what you can truly do. Around him Yaddle, Brand and Jerec followed, keeping their own Force presence tamped down for a moment so as to get in close and use Ionize once more, this time in concert. The battle for Naboo had begun.

OOOOOOO

Maul felt it, the presence of a powerful Force user with the Gungan army. For a moment he was sorely tempted to answer that challenge, for challenge it was. Such a brazen use of the Force when they had to think that he might be here somewhere was surely directed at him personally.

But after a moment Maul forced down his combat instincts. There were more Jedi in Theed already and his Master wanted as many Jedi to die as possible, not just a single Jedi no matter how skilled. Moreover, if he could head off the attack sure to come here in Theed, then the main battle might well turn against the Jedi and their Gungan allies. Sheer numbers then would kill the Jedi with the natives.

He paused his movement just as second however when he felt something else, something occurring in orbit. The Chaotic Fulcrum was here, and attacking with more Jedi. After a moment however he shook that off. He had targets much closer to deal with first.

OOOOOOO

At first as they moved through the almost silent city Padme, Piell and their party did not run into any opposition. Padme spent most of his time wondering where all of her people were, worried that the entire city's population might've been already sold into slavery.

Later she would find this was not the case, they were simply confined to their homes and following such orders rather than trying to fight the invaders. Naboo was a peaceful planet, and few people had any weapons to fight with, and the first week's brutal occupation had broken any thought of resisting. When the Viceroy had begun to curb such, the planet's people had responded by adopting a sullen obedience to the occupiers.

Piell and the other Jedi however had their own worries, trying to extend their senses outwards trying to feel if the Dark Side user was here. But if he was they couldn't sense him, which made a few of them edgy and the others overconfident.

The Dark Woman for her part had left them almost as soon as they had begun the operation, disappearing under her Force Cloak, to an extent that no other Master in the Order could match, phasing through a wall with her singular talent to do so to disappear into a building for a moment before disappearing into the city entirely.

An hour's journey brought them came within sight of the walled palace, which was more a governmental district than a simple palace and Piell looked at the others quickly. "Master Koth you, Knight Violeta and Knight Fisto will lead the queen's guards tofree the local pilots. Take young Anakin with you. I think he can do whatever he is here for from behind a cockpit better than he could on the ground."

Anakin grinned at him, and Koth nodded. "The Force be with you, Master Piell." With a gesture he gathered the others and they moved off to one side entering a small alleyway, moving all around the 'palace' towards one of its wings, where they would enter and try to gain access to the prison holding the defense force.

Padme ordered half of her guards and two of her handmaidens to go with them to guide them once they entered the palace. Panaka remained with four men, Sabe, Motee, and Dorme, her last maids.

Master Piell led the others towards the nearest wall of the palace, igniting his lightsaber before cutting an entrance into the stone work. Padme and her 'maids' entered first, ignoring the Jedi as they took up positions with Captain Panaka irritably following them up with his men. Then came the Jedi led by Obi-Wan for a moment.

They found themselves in an outer garden area of the palace well back of the main buildings, but close enough and with enough covered that Padme began to almost think they could enter the palace itself without being discovered. But then as they began to move into the garden they ran into their first opposition.

Droidekas appeared around the tall shrubbery, trees and other items, rolling to a stop their sides immediately opened out, their guns flashing. These were not the same battered illegally gained version that Dooku and the others had run into on Coruscant. These looked brand-new, and they moved around with frightening speed and fluidity, firing on the invaders confident in their shields but not overly so, their programming making them work together even better than the ones on Coruscant.

Master Piell moved ahead of Panaka and the others, his lightsaber igniting, deflecting the incoming attacks. But there were eight of the little things, all of them firing at them. For a moment it was all the Jedi could do to protect their fellows, who returned fire, concentrating on one droid then the other. The droidekas were smart and whenever one began to lose power to its shields it would roll away into the garden, using shrubbery and other rocks and even a few fountains as cover to while its small generator recovered its energy.

Two of them weren't fast enough though and were shredded by blaster fire, and another came apart when Glaive, who had always been good at the telekinetic skills, got close enough to reach out with the Force and pull it off balance, smashing it into a nearby statue which came apart under the impact of its shield. That shorted out the shield and Glaive held it up in the air. Standing nearby Obi-Wan cut it in half before whirling around to defend two of the guardsmen from another droid who had been about to take them under fire after rounding a corner of the shrubbery.

"Glaive has shown us the way I think," Piell said holding out his free hand. "Together!"

He andMundi concentrated as one, grabbing and hurling the droidekas into the air. The droid's blasters had a limited firing arc, and in the air they could not attack their tormentors whereas Padme was quick to order her fellows to bombard each in turn. When the last droid exploded, she nodded her head toward Master Piell. "Excellent work but I think we have lost the element of surprise Master Jedi."

Three of the palace windows facing them suddenly erupted with blaster fire, causing the Jedi to once again have to shield their fellows with their lightsabers, and Master Piell nodded. "Run!" They did so, with the Jedi continually shielding the people as they began to move towards the palace as quickly as they could, shattering the door facing the garden and entering a strangely silent hallway.

They moved down the hallway, wary but as quickly as possible with the Jedi using their senses to try and figure out where the next assault would come from. Obi-Wan and Master Piell were in the lead, and a bare minute after entering the palace structure both of them halted raising their free hands. Their Force skills molded into one, and Piell directed the blast of Force which caught the explosion from two claymore mines stuck into the side of the hallway, pushing the explosion's front away from them down the hallway.

It did not save them.

The doors on either side of them opened, and Yinchorri roared out. Knight Glaive was a massive man, who had bulging muscles and had always developed his physical skills and the kinetic side of his Force powers rather than the subtler arts. He was just a little too slow bringing around his lightsaber to defend from the ambush, and he grunted in agony as the lead Yinchorri's bayonet ran into his chest.

Falling back Glaive grabbed the Yinchorri blaster with his free hand, holding the larger alien in place as he cut its head off with his lightsaber. But not before the Yinchorri fired twice, and Glaive slumped to the ground, joining his killer in death.

"What are Yinchorri doing here?" shouted Ki Adi Mundi over the tumult of battle even as he took three of them under attack cutting two of them down. A Force Push sent the other one back into the room they had come from and into the wall opposite while his lightsaber failed on a cortosis plate of the second one he had cut into with it.

One of the Yinchorri actually took the time to answer him, grunting as he stabbed one of Panaka's guardsmen to death with a knife and shot at another who ducked aside. "You Jedi may have the beaten our former overseers, but you didn't beat us! We might not be able to go home, but that doesn't mean you're stronger than us, it doesn't! And if we can get paid to kill Jedi, that's just a bonuagh!"

His voice faded as a blaster bolt from Padme took him in the eye. She ducked behind his falling body, quickly reaching down other thigh to pull out a battery. Slamming it into her rifle she continued to fire out past Obi-Wan while Sabe ducked into cover beside her in an open doorway. Dorme joined Sabe along with two of the guards, who opened up with their heavier blaster rifles down the hallway at a few Yinchorri who had appeared looking dazed from a few doorways near where the claymore's explosion had occurred.

"Yinchorri mercenaries lovely," Piell muttered, slicing two of them in half while Obi-Wan moved forward, now attacking the same Yinchorri the guards were concentrating on. They were more numerous than the ones coming from behind the group so were the greater danger.

Concentrating on the visible enemy Obi-Wan didn't notice a doorway sliding open to one side not sensing any threat from that direction but he turned quickly when the Dark Woman suddenly phased through the other wall her lightsaber igniting just in time to block a dark red lightsaber from cutting into Obi-Wan's back. "The Yinchorri are not the main threat here!" She said, her lightsaber flashing in an intricate dance as the Dark Side user appeared there, his Force Cloak failing now as the two of them danced around the corridor.

Nearby Master Piell turned quickly, charging forwards to engage the Dark Side user as well. "We will handle him! Obi-Wan, Mundi, lead Padme and her fellows on from here!" There would be time to grieve for Glaive later.

Swiftly the red and black tattooed Zabrak was pressed back down the hallway by the combination of the Dark Woman and Piell. Piell used Ataru, dancing around, using the walls as bouncing points, his lightsaber always moving pressing the Dark Side user's defense. The Dark Woman used a much more personal style, a mix of Soresu and Makashi, every movement economical, her defense quickly turning the Dark Side user's attacks against him trying to overbalance him. The combination slowly pushed him backward down the hall, but didn't seem to be breaking his defense any time soon.

Obi-Wan looked down at Padme while his lightsaber moved to intercept a blaster bolt that would've taken Padme in the side of the head hurling it backwards towards its instigator, the Yinchorri's head exploding under the impact. He reached down with his other hand, pulling her to her feet. "He's right your highness, we have to move, we can't allow the Trade Federation time to rally, or we'll be overwhelmed. We've spent too much time here already."

"True," Padme said, nodding her head over to Sabe and the others who nodded back along with the remaining guards, Panaka having been slain in this second ambush. "But we can't keep running into ambushes like this, and with the Yinchorri here will you be able to sense any further ones?"

"We won't be able to I'm afraid but myself and Knight Mundi will go ahead of your group, hopefully springing any traps before they can close on you. But you'll still have to direct us."

"Go," she ordered, and Obi-Wan and Ki sprinted ahead of them away from the Dark Side user, leaving behind around fourteen dead Yinchorri, it was tough to tell given how many of them were cut in half, and the Dark Side user still fighting the two Jedi Masters. As they did however, Obi-Wan took a brief moment to send a thought out into the Force. The Dark Side user is here!

OOOOOOO

Master Koon and Master Tiin had planned the space-based portion of the battle against the Trade Federation just as well as Dooku had planned the land-based portion. The news that they would have to take out all five of the Trade Federation control ships or at very least destroy their communications gear was worrisome, and frankly none of the Jedi were very optimistic about their chances. Ranma and Shaak however knew that they had an ace in the hole, and after the last fight knew that the Wild Light was up to the task.

Indeed, several of the other starfighter pilots had come to the conclusion Shaak had reached about the need for the Jedi to have better ships in the future. Plo and Saesee were both going to petition the rest of the High Council this to reach out to the Mon Calamari to build ships for the Order.

In any event, Master Tiin had a specific talent besides his skill as a pilot that made him the best choice for this portion of the mission: He could calculate a hyperspace jump into a planetary gravity well.

Hyperspace travel was incredibly dangerous for various reasons. For one thing, anything with any kind of gravity to it created a hyperspace shadow which had to be calculated in any jump from one star system to another. You couldn't change direction once in hyperspace, you would come out at the exact heading you entered it, and you always traveled in a straight line. The sheer number of things that had to be calculated even for a fairly simply jump was the reason why astrogation droids like Tune were needed, or entire computer systems had to be devoted to calculating hyperspace jump routes.

The Jedi however did not need to calculate as other sentients did instead relying on the Force to feel out their route to a degree no computer could match. This gave them a tactical edge, one that most people didn't realize even existed. This one however had shocked Ranma to the core. "Wait, you want us to jump through the planet!?"

Tiin had tried explain it, but the explanation had gone over Ranma's head. Instead he simply looked at Shaak, asking silently if she trusted this idea. When she nodded, he nodded too, and said simply, "Don't tell me how it works, don't tell me the odds, I'll trust you to get it right. Just know if this doesn't work, I will find a way to haunt your horned ass Tiin."

The Jedi ships moved out from their hiding space in the asteroid belt, unhindered. The Trade Federation hadn't even sent out a single Lucrehulk and it's Vultures to watch the asteroid belt, not understanding that the Jedi would be back, or simply too arrogant to believe even if they returned that the Jedi could pose a real threat.

Once free of the asteroids the five ships turned slightly to match the route that Tiin was calculating, and jumped into hyperspace. In system jumps like this were so fast as to almost be instantaneous, and before Ranma could blink they were out, having passed across the solar system through the planet, and out the other side. Or rather mathematically around, but Ranma didn't really understand that. All he knew was that they had come out into orbit in the middle of the Trade Federation flotilla.

They had switched jobs for this part of the operation so it was Shaak who juked them to one side almost immediately, and Ranma who began to fire up their weapons and targeting systems. But he was interrupted by HK's voice. "Exultant shock: Master, the Trade Federation ship to our right has its shields down!"

Without even asking Shaak banked the ship around in the indicated direction and Ranma began to fire up his weaponry, quad lasers stitching the side of the gigantic trade vessel as they looped underneath it, coming up into the interior of its crescent shape, hammering away now at the armor over the control core. "Why the hell were their shields down?!"

"The Trade Federation is a mercantile enterprise Ranma, if something was wrong with their shielding and they couldn't keep it on 24 seven without damaging their systems, they would probably have powered it down to save money long-term even with us known to be in the area."

"Bankers as generals," Ranma shook his head. "Never worked on Earth, doubt it'll work here."

Even as he spoke Ranma frowned, noticing that the massive ship's armor was taking damage but they weren't actually getting through to its innards. He also noticed out of the corner of his eye a small flicker appear around the ship indicating that the shields were beginning to power up.

Flicking a switch on the weapons control panel he opened the small panels which covered their heavy weapons at front of the out-thrust jaw of the Wild Light for just an instant. Two proton torpedoes flashed out from their launchers, slamming into the same spot on the enemy ship, blowing through its armor and detonating in the ship's interior. The entire control core exploded, and Shaak banked them hard upwards, racing for open space out of the Trade Federation's crescent shape as the ship began to list, all power lost as explosions continued to wrack its insides, shattering the ship. "Scratch one!"

"Well done." Said Plo Koon's translated voice over the intercom. "But I fear that is the easiest victory we're going to get today."

That Trade Federation ship was the only one that had its shields down, and all of the others had been quick to launch their fighters. And once again there were hundreds of them. The radar screen now was nearly filled from one side to the other with red designators.

Ranma shook his head. "I probably should've realized this after the last fight, but these people really do believe in quantity over quality don't they?" Even as he said that the ship's quad lasers turned in their pintle mounts, blasting out under his and HK's command, taking out two starfighters, before both targeted another as the Wild Light moved through the pack.

"The Trade Federation race doesn't have a real warrior caste or history. Money and the ability to transport things is the seat of their power, so it makes sense for them I suppose," Shaak replied. "For my part, I believe that the moment we as sentient beings decide to use robots for war is the moment we forget how horrible it can be."

"Dry yet quizzical statement: While I am all in favor of sentients doing their own dirty work, I'm uncertain what you mean when you say war is horrible mistress."

"I know HK," Shaak sighed even as she banked the ship upwards, looping above a group of starfighters that had been trying to get on their tails, allowing the quad lasers to hammer all seven of them out of space before rolling to the side dodging several more starfighter blasts and curling the ship in a tight turn. "That's what worries me."

"Flagship on our right flank!"

That would be starboard," Shaak corrected Ranma, juking them that way while HK and Ranma covered their assault she also sent the ship into a rotation around its axis, allowing them to cover 360 degrees, though of course not all at the same time. The quad lasers could only fire in a certain area at any moment, and with as many Vultures as there were around them their shields were still getting hit.

But the Vulture's blasters didn't have enough power to worry the Wild Light's shields. It would take sustained fire or a number of energy torpedoes to break through them. And Shaak was too good a pilot to let them remain in one place for that to happen.

The weapons on the capital ships however were more dangerous. The one they were about to attack began to fire on them with quad turbolasers, causing Shaak to swerve this way and that dodging their fire. There weren't many of those weapons for the size of the ship however, the Vultures were supposed to be the main offensive punch of the Trade Federation's massive cargo haulers letting them keep the Lucrehulks well away from any combat with their armor and shielding able to see them through any surprise attack.

Despite Shaak's efforts though one of the turbolasers splashed across the Wild Light's shields, the green of their shielding on their sensors dimming halfway down to where it would start to go yellow. But almost immediately the shields began to regenerate, thanks to the redundancy built into them. "By the Force Ranma, I love this ship!"

"I know right!? If we ever go back to Dac I am so buying Dukat and his teams a round of drinks."

"Exultant Warcry: Die! Die! Go to the rubbish heap you miserable examples of robotics! Not one of you can hold a candle to a true combat droid! Thousands, millions of you could not face me! I will feed you all to the great demolisher in the sky!"

"Great demolisher in the sky?" Tune asked dryly, his voice strangely still that of a young boy. It seemed as if Tune had chosen that voice in the past few days, and was now simply tweaking it going from one accent to another. "Is that some kind of ancient droid religion I don't know about?"

"Ironical tone: If humans have heaven and hell, then can droids not have the great demolisher and… significant pause… I don't know eternal oil baths? The afterlife is not actually something I have given much thought to. It is just that I like the idea of these droids, and most particularly the people who built and programmed them being tormented forever for their sins."

"It's not exactly a sin to be built by the lowest bidder you know." Tune replied. "At least not from the dictionary term I just looked up."

"As amusing as your banter is," Shaak said coldly, pushing the ship down and around, trying to come up underneath the control ship before having to veer off as more droid starfighters launched directly into their path. "Could we please concentrate?"

"Irritated grumble: You're no fun mistress."

"I beg to differ." Ranma muttered, causing Shaak to actually blush for a moment despite her self-control and the battle all around them.

This didn't stop her from flinging the ship to the side, coming almost close enough for their shields to scrape against the shields of the Lucrehulk vessel for a moment turning around to bring their forward bearing weapons to bear ignoring the staccato rhythm of several Vulture droids impacting their shielding, as they stayed put for just a moment. There were no turbo lasers on this section of the hull, and the Vultures around them had already fired their torpedoes, moving far slower than their fellows.

Understanding what she wanted Ranma flipped open another one of the panels along the Wild Light's jaw. "Ion cannon firing!"

The ion cannon spat out three solid bolts of yellow energy impacting the Lucrehulk's shielding, scintillating along it's 'surface'. This segment of the shielding went down in a riot of electrical discharge, leaving the hull unprotected for a moment.

The Trade Federation Lucrehulks did not have the redundant multilayer shielding the Mon Calamari favored on all of their designs. This of course saved them money, and allowed them to use more of their ship's bulk for cargo capacity. But it was a weakness to the vessel in combat: despite the power of those shields they could be overcome in sections by ion fire.

Even so, the shield failure didn't last very long. The ion cannon on the Wild Light wasn't strong enough to override a capital ship's shielding for very long, and the Lucrehulks were large even for capital ships. But it was long enough for Ranma to shoot four proton torpedoes through the downed shielding. The side of the targeted ship exploded outwards and it began to list badly in its orbit around Naboo. But the shields came up after a moment, and the ship began to rotate, still in the fight.

"Damnit." Ranma muttered.

"Each cargo section of the outer circular segment of the hull would have emergency bulkheads and other reinforced sections. We have to get within that circle again and attack the control hub, set off internal explosions from there to shatter the ship." Shaak replied. "Good try though."

"Thanks," Ranma muttered, shaking his head. "I suppose that that first punch was a good enough show of our secret weapon, but still I could have wished for better."

As they slewed the ship around again, Shaak and Ranma both took a moment to look at the overall battle. The Jedi were fighting well, all of them linked into a sort of Force gestalt with each other, once more moving and fighting as a single unit with a level of coordination and teamwork that only the best trained starfighter units could've matched. The shields on two of the other control ships were noticeably in the red because of their torpedo fire, and they had destroyed dozens of the Vultures.

But even so they were slowly being overwhelmed. Their shielding was nowhere near the quality or power of the Wild Light partially because of the Sprite's size and partially because of the design. And they had to husband their limited proton torpedo loadout for the capital ships, which limited their ability to fight the Vultures. Even as they watched, Jaq's shielding began to fluctuate and fail.

Master Plo Koon had been brutal in his orders; the Jedi were to pull out the moment their shielding began to fail. They could come back in if their generators regained strength, but their lives were more important than any part they could play in the battle in space. "I am out for now, good luck Masters!"

He pulled away swiftly leaving the battle zone, but several droid starfighters were on his tail. Shaak took the Wild Light out after them cutting them down from behind, and Jaq continued to rocket away from the planet.

After gunning down the last Vulture on his tail Ranma suddenly noticed something. "Why are all those droid fighters suddenly ignoring the others?"

Shaak blinked, then looked at the screen between them, noticing that yes, approximately two-thirds of the thousand plus Vultures which had already been launched from their motherships were now ignoring the Jedi coming swiftly for them. "Could the Trade Federation have realized our ship is the biggest threat here?"

Tune's voice answered her before Ranma could speculate sounding even more like a little boys than it had a few moments before, this time a rather sheepish and worried young boy in fact. "I'm afraid I know the reason Masters. You see, HK asked me via droid cant to let him send out a signal on some of the communication radio waves, I thought he wanted to use some kind of white noise but instead he began to insult the Vulture droids."

"Affronted accusation: Don't say that like it's my fault! When I explained my idea and I did, you thought it was an excellent one!"

Tune's voice went plaintive. "Well yes, but I didn't expect it to actually work. It's so illogical!"

Lofty tone: That just shows what you know."

"Wait," Ranma said, even as the Wild Light began to take far more fire than it had since the battle began with Shaak desperately trying to keep them from being boxed in, continually juking this way and that so the Vultures energy torpedoes missed them. The quad lasers continued to hammer out, shattering fighter after fighter but the shields began to fluctuate, their power dimming. "I want to make sure I understand this. Droids respond to insults?"

"Superior tone: Certain insults and assaults on their station Master especially delivered in droid cant will override the logic centers of any true droid, and combat droids in particular can only respond in one way to such insults. With droids as limited in their cognitive powers as these, it was actually far easier than I expected."

"You have reinvented insult-fu to work on droids." Ranma said in an awed tone of voice. "I didn't think that was possible." Of course, insulting one's opponent was a cornerstone of Ranma's own combat style, so it appealed to him greatly. His father had been a master at it, and that had filtered down to Ranma, though of course it also got him into a lot of trouble at times because he couldn't' understand when it wasn't applicable.

"I think you should stop it!" Shaak exclaimed, watching as their shields dimmed again almost into the red now. The Vultures seemed to be ignoring the dangers of the two quad lasers simply to strike back at the Wild Light, what little self-preservation programming they had seemingly being overcome by their anger.

"No," Rama said shaking his head. "He should keep doing it. An angry enemy is one who has stopped thinking, these aren't like that Dark Side user, who can control himself the droids are making mistakes. I say we capitalize on them."

Shaak took a moment to stare at Ranma, who was grinning like a loon at the moment. "HK, if I had if you had a hand I would be so high-fiving you right now, this is just awesome."

"Why me?" Shaak asked aloud, shaking her head.

"Just lucky I guess."

Shaak stared at him the most deadpan of deadpan stares, but any reply she was going to make was preempted when Plo Koon called them. "Whatever you're doing, keep it up!"

She looked back at the radar screen and saw what Ranma had already noticed: Plo, his former Padawan and Tiin had pulled into a tight attack run straight down from directly above one of the Lucrehulk ships. Turbo laser fire flashed out at them, but they dodged around it, and there weren't enough starfighters around them to stop the attack.

Their torpedoes lashed out, bringing the shields down in one area allowing them through into the interior of the ship's circle, where they again let loose with her proton torpedoes at the control sphere before flying further down towards the planet, out from the circle as the control sphere exploded behind them. That emptied their magazines, but it worked.

They pulled up into the fire from another Trade Federation ship, but again there weren't enough starfighters around them to make it very difficult for them to dodge that fire. Behind them, their target vessel lost all power and control, explosions racking it's interior from the control hub back into the rest of the ship.

"Two down, three to go." Ranma said, smiling grimly while the Vultures seemed to all turn back towards their mother ships, as still more Vultures launched to join them.

OOOOOOO

Maul snarled, his twin-bladed lightsaber flashing back and forth, deflecting and attacking, trying to keep the two Jedi off-balance but not having much luck just yet. He wasn't a Master of Ataru, able to move even in this enclosed area with equanimity, which forced him on the defensive somewhat, which was what he wanted the Jedi to think. He reached backwards with the Force, blowing the wall behind him outwards with a Force Push of such power that both of the Jedi were startled almost to the point of stopping their attack, unable to follow up immediately as he jumped outside.

This allowed Maul to regain his stance, his lightsaber ready as they charged forward once again. Following the Dark Side user outside Piell took to the air now, able to use Ataru even better outside than inside. But his opponent suddenly began to attack with even more vigor and ferocity, and more importantly even more strength and a bit more speed.

This pushed Piell on the defensive before the Dark Woman could rejoin the fight, her own form not lending itself to Force Jumps as well. She tried a Force Push only to find it countered. That shocked her, but it wasn't the only shock she felt in the next few seconds.

Now away from the other Jedi, Maul pushed forwards in earnest. Now away from the other two, Maul let loose his full powers, speed and strength. Every blow blocked directly nearly send the Jedi off-balance despite the energy blades stopping most momentum from passing between them, and his speed was even more surprising. This required both Jedi to empower their bodies with the Force to an extent neither usually would, but it was the only way to keep up with their opponent's speed and strength.

Moreover Piell and the Dark Woman began to run it into the same problems that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had run into on Tatooine. Their opponent's mastery of Force Precognition allowed him to match both of them, and outside his double-bladed lightsaber began to come into its own keeping Piell off-balance even in midair, unable to press the attack.

The Dark Woman was faring slightly better, her personal style a better match for their opponent's, but his weapon kept on interfering with her ability to sink into the Force, startling her occasionally into making mistakes which Master Piell had to cover. He did so, but this disrupted their ability to work together. It was like a fine symphony sometimes interrupted with notes of discord, ruining it not quickly but surely. Both of them began to become frenzied in their attacks, almost but not quite desperate to end the battle before their assailant could find the moment to strike when neither could cover or Piell's endurance could fade.

Feeling this Maul took advantage in a way no amount of Force Precognition could have anticipated. Allowing his defense to slip just a moment Maul attacked full out, his lightsaber on one side deactivating as he twisted into an assault that smashed the Dark Woman backwards on her feet.

Piell of course took this opening, his lightsaber flashing down from a jump to impact the Dark Side user's raised arm which blocked the blow. It didn't have any kind of cortosis armor like Ranma, it was simply his own arm, the skin under his black clothing sizzling for a moment as Maul's peeled back in pain. But it held Piell's lightsaber there rather than being cut as Ranma had feared, shocking the diminutive Jedi and holding him still for just a second..

Instantly Maul's double-bladed lightsaber came back into a thrust straight up. Piell couldn't evade in time, and he gasped in agony as the blade impacted his throat, searing straight through and out the other side before the Dark Side user reactivated the bottom half, blocking the Dark Woman's frantic attempt at a thrust trying to make her allies death not in vain.

With a flick of his wrists Maul twirled his twin-bladed lightsaber, cutting Piell's head halfway off as he began to attack ferociously, pushing the Dark Woman back. Even as he did an evil, sadistic smile appeared on his face. One Jedi down, several more to join him.

OOOOOOO

Master Piell's death reverberated in the Force, and Ki Adi Mundi and Obi-Wan stopped at an intersection, looking down at the bodies of the Yinchorri all around them cut and sliced into in most cases, though several of them had fallen to Padme and her people. The two locked gazes, and Obi-Wan nodded. "Go, I'll see to Padme!"

Mundi nodded without another word and turned, lightsaber flashing as he began to his way through the palace in the straight line towards where he felt his Master dueling with the Dark Side user. Obi-Wan turned, grimly gesturing Padme on. "The stairs are this way your highness."

OOOOOOO

Elsewhere, Kit, Koth and Violeta also felt the assault. Koth paused between one step and the next, and he and Kit gestured, blowing the small Yinchorri gun position to pieces, hurling them backwards and setting off several hidden explosives. With that done, Koth turned to Violeta. "Knight Mundi is moving to aid the Dark Woman I think it best you join him, Kit and I will be fine here."

"Should not two of us go?" Kit asked.

Koth shook his head. "Your style would not merge well with the Dark Woman's whereas Violeta has studied with Ki many times, the two of them should be able to work together better. And if he somehow breaks contact with the Dark Woman before aid arrives, I would like to have you here with me."

Violeta nodded and raced off while Kit and Koth forged ahead quickly, shattering every defense ahead of them, forcing the guards and the two maids to race after them with difficulty.

OOOOOOO

Maul felt the two Jedi moving toward him even as he engaged the so-called Dark Woman, a name which made Maul sneer internally. As if any Jedi knew anything about the Dark Side! At that moment she tried to reach out for the Force to use the nearby foliage to attack him, but Maul simply reached out with the Force and ripped the entire tree out by its roots, hurling it at her sideways at even as he dueled against her lightsaber, forcing her to jump aside.

His ability to use his Force powers without gestures was just as good as Obi-Wan had reported, but at least the Dark Woman was prepared for it, racing along the tree's trunk midair even as she continued to duel with him. That won her some surprise from the Jedi killer, but it wasn't enough to tip the balance in her favor.

Maul fell back in front of her moving backwards into another building a large amphitheater of some kind. Their lightsabers smashed against one another the acoustics of the room causing the sounds to reverberate ever louder as they dueled. Mundi found them there and joined his former master, his own style merging seamlessly with her own for a moment, but Maul retreated once more, putting more distance between the battle and the second Jedi coming towards them.

He allowed himself to be pushed away from the palace area, deeper into the city, ducking into one of the generator stations. Leaping up onto a gantry he was quickly followed by both Jedi, their Force Precognition letting them seemingly beat him back for a moment. But then Maul changed his style slightly, and began to use kicks.

Unable to use his hands since his blade demanded both hands most of the time, kicks were the only way he could add to his offense without weakening his defense. This worked since the Jedi hadn't faced someone who wasn't worried about losing a limb to their lightsabers before and few Jedi used kicks at all. His kick took Mundi in the face, shattering his jaw and hurling his body back a step, seeing stars.

This allowed Maul to concentrate on the Dark Woman, and a similar kick broke through her defense just before Mundi could rejoin the fight. It cracked ribs, but the Dark Woman kept coming, ignoring the pain even as she used the impetus of the blow to twirl around, bringing her lightsaber down low to cut into his pivot leg. Kicking up with that foot Maul leaped over this attack but Mundi nearly caught him midair with his blade, forcing Maul to flip backwards, his own double-bladed lightsaber flashing out.

The fight continued for a few minutes, then Violeta arrived. As Koth had predicted, her style merged well with the other two, and they began to truly press Maul hard. He knew it however, but the palace wasn't the only place he had prepared surprises in. And with the Jedi fueling their bodies with their powers concentrating their Force Precognition hard on him, none of them was able to sense the small tripwires scattered around.

Maul had seeded much of the area around and within the palace complex with traps like this one. He wasn't stupid, even with his durability training Maul had known he couldn't match more than a few Jedi at once. But little traps like this, and controlling the battlefield, made up for much. Now Maul tripped one himself, and a mine set on the bottom of the gantry exploded upwards shattering and flinging the metal of the gantry upwards like shrapnel.

The explosion caught both Maul and Mundi a sight that caused the Dark Woman nearly to gape in shock, wondering why the Dark Sider had committed suicide, not having really taken Maul's durability into account yet despite Piell's death. She watched in shock as the bits of metal and explosive force merely tore at Mauls clothes, doing little damage against his toughened body, while they ripped Mundi's legs and lower abdomen into offal.

The Cerean fell, his teeth grit around a scream that escaped him all the same. "Aaahhh!"

Violeta leaped in, protecting Mundi as did the Dark Woman, but Maul backed away quickly, his lightsaber flicking down into another tripwire before he leaped to another nearby scaffold. The gantry section right beneath where he had stood began to fall, bringing Mundi down with it. The two Jedi both stopped leaping back and away before reaching out with the Force to grab their fallen ally, pulling him slowly through the air towards them. Neither were strong enough to do it quickly and gently at the same time, so had to go slow lest the impact when they stopped moving him kill the Cerean, who had already fallen unconscious from the pain of his wounds.

Maul hurled his double-bladed lightsaber deactivating it at first then activating it with the Force as it whirled through the air. The Dark Woman reached out, splitting her attention in a moment of Force mastery that was surprising in any, deflecting the thrown lightsaber from its target though she wasn't able to stop Maul from pulling it back to his hands.

Violeta gently rested their horribly wounded companion to the floor of the generator room before turning joining the Dark Woman towards the Dark Side user. But Maul was gone and suddenly the nearest generator exploded in a blast of released energy, flooding the room with shrapnel and fire.

Outside Maul paused on a roof, reaching out with his senses, snarling lightly. He could only feel one death from that, and it had been his best laid trap, easily the most powerful he'd set in the city. For a moment he debated waiting for the survivors to emerge from the fiery blaze that was even now bringing the generator station's roof down, but shook his head, smiling as his senses told him more. The Dark Woman was injured, and the survivor was weakened badly, possibly dying.

He could take them both at his leisure later. He needed to concentrate on the last two fit Jedi before they and the padawan who had escaped him on Tatooine realized he should be their real target here rather than that coward Gunray. With that thought Maul turned away, heading towards the hanger bay where the Nabooan defense forces spacefighters were kept. He didn't have many surprises there, but the Yinchorri should have at least slowed the Jedi down for him.

OOOOOOO

The battle in space continued though the droids had stopped concentrating on the Wild Light swiftly after the destruction of the second Lucrehulk. With the Wild Light covering them, Master Tiin and LIzarkh had both pulled out of the fight but eventually came back in. Jaqhad also come in again, his shields having recharged enough to be useful once more. Yet their ships were gradually being battered into bits despite being able to leave the combat zone like this.

The Wild Light itself was down to the yellow, but the initial battle in orbit and the destruction of the first Lucrehulk had allowed all of them some more room to maneuver. The Vultures were further hindered by the lack of onboard computational ability.

Worse even the Lucrehulks could not direct more than a few hundred of the droid fighters at once, and the ships apparently didn't have full loadouts of them in any event. These ships were refitted cargo haulers after all, not warships, so most of their carrying capacity was left open, in this case for spoil taken from Naboo's cities.

The control and communication aspect was the bigger problem however, since that lack of full loadouts merely dropped the number of Vultures from each ship from over a thousand to four hundred or so. This first generation style Vulture had to rely on the Lucrehulk flagships for all of their communication and coordination, and there were dozens of instances of one Vulture firing through another to get at the Jedi, or even running into one another in space. The more Vultures the Neimodians tried to send out at once, the worse they all fought, something none of the Neimodians seemed to notice.

On the other side of the scale none of the Jedi fighters had any torpedoes remaining to them, which meant only Ranma's ship had enough offensive punch to matter against the Lucrehulks. Yet even so the sheer number of Vultures was keeping them from making a third kill and also turning the tide.

Then the feel of Master Piell's death hit them. Shaak nearly flew them into one of the Vultures in their path, before juking to the side at the last moment shaking her head. "Master Piell may you find peace within the Force." Even as she said that though, Shaak remembered that he would not have a chance to apologize to Aayla now, and wondered if he really would be able to find that peace.

Ranma didn't feel anything through the Force like that, so looked at her quizzically out of the corner of his eye even as he swiveled the quad laser he was controlling backwards to fire at two fighters on their tail, both of them exploding under his fire. Yet even as he did, the nearest Lucrehulk was launching another wave of fighters to offset the Trade Federations most recent losses. "What is it?"

"The Dark Side user is on the planet." she said grimly. "I can't tell much from this distance, but I felt Master Piell die."

"Damnit," Ranma muttered. "I need to get down there then, don't I?"

"I don't know," Shaak replied. "This fight is important too after all, can we afford to take the time out to drop you off? We're barely holding our own out here, and that's more because our enemies don't really seem to be…"

Shaak stopped speaking just then seeing Master Plo Koon's starfighter disappear from their radar. Yet his death did not reach her senses. Glancing at their scanners, Shaak saw that Koon's fighter had crashed into the ship that had just been launching starfighters, getting under its shielding in the moment it had come down to let the Vulture's out of its hangar bays.

Seeing that, Shaak decided. "HK, Tune, tell me the truth can you two fight this ship?"

"Insulted reply: Of course mistress; these Vultures are nothing in comparison to my magnificence, and this ship is an adequate weapon to my hands."

"You don't have hands," Ranma muttered, then smirked. "That's never going to get old."

"Sorrowful tone: Master, I've already said you don't need to make hurtful comments, letting me join fights like this without even having gotten my body back puts you easily in the top two best masters of all time."

Shaak wordlessly directed their ship towards the one where Master Plo Koon had crashed, the ion cannon flaring under Ranma's command as they came within range pummeling the ship with dozens of bolts. Ranma noticed that the ship's overall power began to dim noticeably at that point, though thanks to the multiple generators they had the shielding at least was not effected right away. Under this ion pulse pounding the shields of the Trade Federation ship faltered, but instead of using their proton torpedoes, Shaak drove the ship into the Lucrehulk's faltering shields, getting underneath them and heading towards the hangar Bay where Master Plo Koon had crashed.

They entered the bay and Shaak quickly pulled herself out of her chair. "I'm going to help Master Koon, if you two can fight this ship that well, then drop Ranma off down at Theed and get back up here!"

Ranma leaned over quickly, kissing Shaak on the cheek. "Stay safe okay?" he said then turned back to his controls as she raced out of the cockpit into the main sitting room.

The airlock opened and she leaped, while behind her the Wild Light rolled, bringing its quad laser to bare on a few security droids. She rolled as she hit the deck, bringing out her lightsaber to block incoming fire from several security droids before racing towards where Master Plo Koon was standing unable to move from his defensive position. A wave of Force power from her outstretched hands sent the attackers all around him flying away, crashing with droid shattering force against the far wall.

"Well met Knight Ti," said Plo Koon nodding his head to her calmly. "I feel the majority of the sentients aboard this ship are in that direction." he said pointing to one side and slightly up. "Are you ready?"

Shaak nodded her head, though out of the corner of her eye she saw that the Wild Light was already turning around and moving at high speed out of the hangar bay. You stay safe too Ranma, of the two I'm afraid you're the one who's going to be in the most danger.

The two of them swiftly moved as one into the corridor leading to the hangar bay, a gigantic corridor made more for transporting cargo from one cargo hold to another then for living people. This of course didn't stop security droids from amassing to try and stop their progress, but the two of them moved forward quickly, their styles not as seamless as those of Master Koth and Knight Fisto, but very good nonetheless.

At one point however right before they were set to enter the control hub from the near-circle of the main cargo carrying portion of the Lucrehulk they ran a prepared position, heavy defensive bulwarks behind which several dozen Trade Federation droids held in place blasting away at them. The weight of fire halted their progress, until Shaak reached forward with the Force, concentrating for a brief moment, a necessary act from this distance. She then lifted the bulwarks, hurling them backwards into the droids behind them smashing them out of the way.

As they raced forward Plo Koon turned to her, raising one eyebrow underneath his mask in query. "You are much stronger in the Force that you were the last time I saw you in action Knight Ti."

"It is odd Master Koon. I had expected my internal Living Force to grow as I learned from Ranma but I've also been trying to work on subtle Force attacks against him in our spars. That seems to have had the effect of letting me use more Force power bluntly in this manner as well. It's a strange contradiction."

"Interesting," Plo Koon said, nothing in their tone of voice indicating they were actually taking fire as they talked racing through the corridors, cutting any droid directly in their path away but beyond blocking blaster bolts coming towards them from the side passages ignoring those not in their way. "I wonder, a study between the amount of Living Force a person has within them and how much Force power they can use outside of their body, should the word be externalizing? It could be an interesting study."

"I don't know if there's a direct correlation actually. Ranma certainly can't use any of our normal Force powers, but he can as you put it 'externalize' his Living Force to a high degree." By this point the two of them had made it halfway through the neck of the control hub, and began to cut their way upwards through the ceiling towards where the control room the bridge of the ship was.

"Interesting, very interesting indeed."

Outside of the massive Lucrehulk class ship Ranma had rejoined the fight for a moment, cutting down several Vultures as they tried to home in on Saesee and Jaq. He couldn't however get in position to defend Lissarkhat the same time, who began to shout for help over the intercom. "I've got seven of them on my tail, repeat I need assistance!" She sent, even as she dove into the atmosphere to try and evade them.

Help came from an unexpected source, as a little over a hundred blue dots appeared on Ranma's radar screen racing up from Theed. "This is the Naboo Defense Force, Captain Curiel speaking. Put us in your IFF's Jedi, we're coming in!"

Even as that voice came over the intercom one of the blue marked fighters peeled off from a direct assault straight up, passingLissarkh's starfighter as it plummeted into the atmosphere. The Vultures on her tail fired at him, and vice versa, with the Vulture's disappearing as the Naboo craft continued on its course. "Your cleared Jedi!" said a very young voice.

Ranma gaped. Anakin! I knew that boy was a good podracer, but… on the other hand I suppose putting him in a cockpit isn't exactly a bad idea certainly better than having him around on the battlefield down there.

Smirking he opened the communicator to the incoming pilot. "Nice going Anakin. Pair up with Lissarkh, I think she'll be more of a match for your style than your fellows. The control ships are the main target though, don't get locked into dogfights, let that to the others."

"Roger, and good luck Ranma." Over the intercom Ranma couldn't see Anakin shiver, but some of his fear came through his voice. "I felt, I don't know what I felt, but I felt something bad happen, and I can feel that Zabrak from Tatooine in the palace somewhere. I think you're going to need it."

"Don't ever need luck Anakin, just skill," Ranma said grimly before cutting the connection. He took the ship down, turning over the controls of both quad lasers to HK for a moment as he did so, racing down towards the planet. Luckily Theed didn't have any anti-air weapons, and once they left the dogfight behind them the trip down was uneventful. Indeed, thanks to the five shield generators, the shields began to regain energy before he reached the city.

"All right you two," he said un-belting himself from his chair. "HK, you're to take orders from Shaak. If she orders you to do something over the radio you do it, which includes stop firing. Those large ships are the main target, but other than that and keeping our own people alive I'm giving you free reign, go crazy. Don't make me regret this."

"Eager response: Oh Master, you say the sweetest things. Don't worry, you will not regret this at all."

Tune groaned. "You have released the beast Ranma, I'm not certain that was a good idea."

"I'm not either," Ranma said with a shrug "but I've made so many bad decisions, this one doesn't even rate in the top ten. Go crazy HK, just remember what I said about your rules of engagement."

"Bloodthirsty Pleasure: Roger… roger…" HK said, his tone that of almost sadistic glee as he parroted the Trade Federation droid cant words they always transmitted from one Vulture to another. Which had been the real reason why HK had stopped his verbal assault, listening to that phrase had begun to drive him insane. If a droid could go insane, or if it wasn't already too late in this case anyway.

With that Ranma left the cockpit, and the ship continued down under Tune's control, until they were directly above where the Naboo starfighters had appeared. The airlock opened, and Ranma leaped out into space. Before Ranma even touched down the Wild Light turned on its axis, hurling itself straight up with a blast of its engines. "Eager Tone: Now, let's have some real fun…"

OOOOOOO

Koth and Fisto whirled around one another, their styles of Makashi and Shi-Cho merging into a synergistic whole, cutting, slashing and flinging the Yinchorri who had attempted to ambush them backwards, cutting them down, deflecting the blasts from the two droidekas attacking them backwards. The hallways here were slightly more open than the ones elsewhere in the palace district, leading both to the rooms that had been converted into prison cells, and the hangar bay where the defense forces spacefighters remained even now.

All around them the guards with the two Jedi poured fire into the droidekas, concentrating on them as the Jedi had ordered them to, slowly turning the tide.

Both knights had felt their fellow's death reverberating through the Force, and their senses were on high so much that even though he was now once more covered with his Force Cloak, they felt the Dark Side user's approach. Once he ended that technique, anger and hate roiled off the Zabrak, blackening the Force as his black-clad form did the material plane. Even Anakin, untried and untrained could feel it however vaguely and his eyes narrowed, a faint shiver going through his small form.

Koth hurled his lightsaber down the hallway, directing it with the Force to cut into the doors containing the prisoners, cutting off the security panels on each before bringing it back to his hand, gesturing the handmaiden and guards forward. "Free your fellows and get them to their ships! We don't have much time."

The fighter pilots and Anakin were all clamoring into their fighters along as Dark Side user arrived in the hanger bay. The two Jedi turned seeing the tattooed Zabrak enter the hangar bay, clad in loose black cloth which showed some tears here and there, particularly along the legs, showing red skin beneath. But this didn't seem to slow him down any, and besides a few burn marks on the visible skin he looked uninjured.

Holding his lightsaber out in front of him diagonally, he activated each side in turn, sneering at them. The Zabrak even spoke now, confidence radiating off him almost as much as the Dark Side. "Two more Jedi for my tally."

"You'll find us a harder match I think." said Fisto moving forward his own lightsaber activating as Master Koth did the same. They stood there, with Fisto holding his lightsaber down towards the ground, and Koth holding his in a double handed grip upright by his head. The three of them stood still locked in a standoff, their Force Precognition abilities reaching out and pressing into one another while the last of the spacefighters left the hangar bay behind them, zooming up to join the battle occurring in orbit.

The Dark Side user moved first, his double-bladed lightsaber flashing as he cartwheeled forward, twirling it to one side then the other deflecting both Jedi blades, smacking Fisto slightly backwards, though Koth moved with his blow, coming back with a thrust which the Dark Side user was forced to parry. Fisto of course regained his balance quickly, his sword coming up in an upper slash, as he moved continuously, his form of Shi-Cho constantly moving but in an economical fashion, not using so many parries but simply moving along on the ground while Koth was a noted sword Master, using Makashi and Djem So in tandem, merging into his own style.

Moreover, Maul realized that these two Jedi did not have the discordant note Piell and the Dark Woman had in their styles. The knight might not have been as formidable as either of the Masters he had previously faced, but his ability to mold his own style to that of Koth allowed the two of them to make up the difference in one another's styles.

Worse, both could more closely match his physical abilities, save his endurance and toughness of course. Fisto had trained with Ranma for several days and kept up the exercises he was given after leaving him and Shaak. And Koth had, though few even in the Order knew it, studied with Dooku for long hours every day while Dooku was stuck on Coruscant. He might not have approved of the recent changes within the Order or even Ranma, but he was pragmatic enough to not let that get in the way of becoming a better swordsman.

The two Jedi forced the Dark Side user back and further back, forcing him to leap around keeping the space open to allow him some time to set himself between parries. If it wasn't for his own endurance, his slightly above Jedi speed and his Mastery of Force Precognition the two of them might have overwhelmed him in short order. But despite this being his third duel in less than an hour, the Zabrak was still as fresh as when he had started.

Nonetheless, Maul quickly realized he needed to add something to the battle once more, or he would be overwhelmed here as he had almost been by the three Jedi in the generator room. He saw it as he was pushed further backwards away from where he had entered towards where moments before starfighters had been lining one side of the hangar. One starfighter had been left behind its engine cowling open obviously a 'hangar queen' of some kind. But reaching through the Force he found the power generator was still connected to its guns.

This subtle movement of the Force went unnoticed by either of his opponents, pressing forward as they were and indeed as he was trying to concentrate on that Master Koth attack got through, impacting his thigh a little. It wasn't a slash but a thrust from Makashi which the Dark Side user barely dodged, the blade sizzling along his outer leg but not penetrating to actually do much damage thanks to his endurance training.

In response the Dark Side user made obvious Force grabs at some of the detritus littering the hangar Bay, hurling it at both Jedi. They were ready for it, deflecting all of the debris away or slicing the debris into pieces even as they continued to attack, forcing him to use his double-bladed lightsaber solely for defense now.

But this had allowed him to reach through the Force again towards the down starfighter, and suddenly it's weapons began to fire straightforward, right where the two Jedi were currently standing. This took them by surprise and Kit turned quickly, his lightsaber flashing in an intricate display that smashed the bolts back towards the starfighter, quickly slagging it, while Koth leaped out of the way, leaping over the Dark Side user's head to attack his other side.

But this momentary break of their attention allowed Maul to turn and engage Koth one-on-one for a few brief moments, where his double bladed lightsaber was able to break through Koth's defenses, slicing his arm off at the elbow. To his surprise however Koth didn't retreat, instead pressing the attack, his face twisted slightly in pain but no give in him. It hadn't been his dominant hand and though Maul didn't know it Koth was a Master of a power called Crucitorn, which allowed him to deaden the pain centers in his body to a degree that even Ranma wouldn't believe possible.

The Dark Side user was so thrown off by this that his Force Precognition faltered for a moment and Koth's attack actually caught him in the side. It was a slashing attack and the Dark Side user moved with it, which did not allow it to penetrate but even so the lightsaber seared a long painful furrow in his side.

Anger, fear and pain were the Dark Side of the Force. Maul used his newfound pain to power his rage, reaching through the Force to hurl Koth backwards, slamming him bodily into the far wall, ripping the lightsaber out of his hand before Koth could shield himself with his own Force powers.

Kit turned from dealing with the starfighter, grabbing the lightsaber out of the air with his own power bringing it to his hand and hurling himself forward, dual wielding for a moment pressing the Zabrak backwards from his victim allowing Koth did get to his feet. Shi-Cho might not have been the most elegant style, but it was random and adaptable, two things Kit had been forced to emphasize further when facing Ranma all those months ago. But he couldn't quite break through the Zabrak's defenses despite this.

Feeling his fellow Jedi ready to rejoin the fight between one slash and the next Kit dropped Koth's weapon, who grabbed it with his own force powers pulling it towards him and rejoining the fight. This momentary break in their defense however caught Fisto. He gasped as the Dark Side user rammed his lightsaber point down into his foot below Kit's defensive riposte, coming up into a slash but Koth blocked it from taking Kit's head off.

Just then the Dark Side user leaped backwards, avoiding a slash from a violet bladed lightsaber attacking out of nowhere. The Dark Woman suddenly appeared there holding her lightsaber. Her face was seared, half of her hair was gone, burned off, and one leg was seared clear of clothing, the skin beneath showing third degree burns. But she was alive, and her eyes locked onto the Dark Side user's grimly.

The three Jedi looked at one another battered and bleeding, but all of them still game. As one they began to press forward, the Dark Woman's style slipping into the other two defenses not as easily as they could alone, but adding enough offense to make up for it.

Maul knew he was overmatched here. With the Dark Woman up showing up he couldn't overcome all three at once. But it wasn't as if these three were his only targets after all. Snarling he reached forward through the Force, leaping backwards and away from the Jedi, grabbing up everything in the entire hangar bay and hurling it at them.

All three Jedi stopped, holding up their hands as one their own Force powers fighting his for a moment. But all three of them were wounded, their attention diverted, even Koth with his power of crucitorn could barely match the sheer power the Dark Side gave the Zabrak's own push. His anger redoubled and he used it to power his attack and broke through their attempts to block it.

The trio of lightsabers began to flash, slicing bits and pieces of the debris down or away as they moved sideways until the Dark Woman reached the hangar bays wall. "May the Force be with you both!" With that she phased through the wall, leaving the other two behind to deal with the stuff still raining down on them.

Koth and Fisto did so before slumping against the same wall for a moment, staring at one another as they deactivated their lightsabers. For his part Fisto knew that without training with Shaak and Ranma all those months ago, as well as having actually listened to Obi-Wan and Ranma describe their battle with the Dark Side user, he would've been overwhelmed here.

Koth too was aghast at how badly this battle had gone, shaking his head morosely. Even Guardians were not up to facing a Dark Side user like this one. If he had been alone Koth knew he could well have been overcome. His arm was testament to that.

The two of them wearily moved through the hangar bay towards the entrance, pausing as they stared upwards. As they watched they saw a ship zooming down through the atmosphere on an attack run straight towards him. It was only feeling the font of Living Force upon it that stopped them from running for cover before they recognized the Wild Light.

The ship stayed in the air as Ranma leaped out, bouncing down several stories to slow himself down before he landed in front of them. He looked at them, his normally warm blue eyes cold as the depths of the ocean. "Where is he?"

Fisto wearily pointed in the direction of the main palace. "I think he's gone after Obi-Wan. The Dark Woman went after him, but she's injured and I'd swear to the Force he looked just as fresh now as he was when we began this, his endurance is simply phenomenal. Whereas we," he gestured Master Koth, who was leaning against the side of the hangar bay doors. "Aren't. And you were right, his durability can stand up to lightsaber attacks for a time."

Ranma nodded. "Will you two be all right?"

"Go,"Fisto ordered, pointing with his lightsaber hilt again. "We'll be fine here."

Ranma nodded, leaping away up onto the roof and off in the direction of the palace.

As he did so, a platoon of droids came around the band, possibly the last such in the city responding to the noise in the palace. "Me and my big mouth," Fisto muttered, activating his lightsaber and moving towards them grimly.

Master Koth shook his head as he too activated his lightsaber wearily. The two of them exchanged a brief glance once more then moved forward as one, lightsabers flashing anew.

OOOOOOO

None of the three Jedi with Dooku were Guardians, they were decent enough fighters but the main reason they were with him was because of their Ionize skill, not their combat ability. Even their Force Precognition wasn't as good as it should be, and worse Force Precognition wasn't as good against mechanical enemies as it was against living ones. This was why Knight Brand found himself isolated from his fellows, desperately using his lightsaber to protect himself and two Gungans who had taken cover behind as they tried to refill their atlatls, only to find their pouches empty of boomas.

Brand was not up to the task of deflecting lightsabers to defend all of them from every direction in the chaos of a battle like this. A tank blast slammed into the ground nearby kicking up the ground and Brand turned in that direction just slightly, enough to take his attention away from his side. A full company of robots fired, and the two Gungans and Brand died, the Jedi going down his back, side and head perforated by several bolts of plasma energy.

So close, his death reverberated through the Force even more than the death of the Master Piell had from the city. Yaddle and Jerec looked up from where they had been fighting near one another. Suddenly moving together as one, they created a storm of Ionize all around their positions and spreading outward slowly.

Dooku was elsewhere forging towards the last remaining troop transports, who had formed defensive fire zones around which the droid army had begun to move their tanks, firing in deadly effect against the Gungan army mixed up with their own troops. The droids after all didn't care about their own losses, and the tactic of shooting through their own forces was costing the Gungans heavily.

Feeling the death of Brand Dooku grit his teeth. Suddenly the words Rama had spoken before the two of them had left Mustafar to join Windu and the others against the Yinchorri came to him. 'Righteous anger is in not dark or evil! Anger at person if he has done evil is no evil!' Dooku wasn't certain he fully believed that, But just then, he understood what his young friend had meant, and it actually helped him to concentrate for a brief moment even in the tumult of battle.

Gritting his jaw with the effort Dooku reached through the Force and summoned up a massive Force Push, a blast of power that started in front of him and gained energy as it moved away, slamming with the might of a tornado into the droid army. Hundreds, thousands of droids were lifted off of their feet and hurl backwards into the troop transports. Thousands of discarded or lost booma balls also lifted into the air with his power, hurling with the driods in front of him back to their meagre reserve forces.

Yet that wasn't quite the strangest thing. Dooku was known as a power, one of the strongest Jedi Masters living. What was strange, was that his Force Push interacted with the Ionize attacks from Yaddle and Jerec, carrying the purple lightning forward too. It carried the Ionize attack into the tanks and shield generators, shorting them out in turn, and the booma balls magnified the effect, destroying every droid caught up in Dooku's assault.

Nearby Boss Nass raised a massive atlatl over his shoulder. Around him his guards also pushed other way forward as he shouted encouragement. "Push 'em, push da droids, Wesa can win this war boyas!"

OOOOOOO

Obi-Wan paused where he stood over yet another security point, this time on the fourth floor. He had felt another Jedi's death though he could not tell who had died and knew that the Dark Side user would be coming for him now. Obi-Wan turned looking at Padme and her remaining handmaidens. The last guard with this group had died in this ambush along with Motee leaving only Padme, Sabe and Dorme,. All three had proven themselves able soldiers, but even so…

Padme looked up from where she had been bandaging Sabe's arm where a blaster had grazed it. Her eyes were red both from the smoke of a recent explosion and from keeping in her grief at her handmaiden, at her friend's, death. But her voice and face remained firm when she met Obi's eyes. "What is going on Obi-Wan?"

"Padme, the Dark Side user the Trade Federation has apparently hired is closing in on us. I can't protect you and fight him at the same time." Obi said bluntly. "Are we close enough for you three to take the control center without us?"

The two young women looked at one another and Sabe, who had been weeping unashamedly at their friend's death, nodded, her face firming to match her queen's as Dorme grit her teeth, moving away from Motee's body. Padme turned, and was about to reply when a shout from the stairway made all three turn. "Your Highness!"

Seven men raced toward them, picking up weapons from the Yinchorri mercenaries while two more took position behind them covering the stairway, moving after them slowly. All of them were dressed in the livery of palace workers, but if they really were Obi-Wan would eat his lightsaber. These men were guardsmen, just as much as Panaka's men had been.

Padme's shout of joy proved this beyond doubt. "Lieutenant Gitas! I feared you and your men all dead."

"We would have been milady but I thought to hide us among the palace servants. We were all kept on by the Viceroy and his fellows to keep the palace running and clean, unarmed of course. But we took a vote, and decided to remain here just in case we could be useful." All nine men bowed deeply to their queen and her maids all of whom smiled. "But where's Captain Panaka?"

"As interesting as this is, I am afraid I have to leave you your highness, now." Obi interrupted. Despite his inability to find the Dark Side user with his senses the Force was warning him not to stay here, not to fight him with Padme nearby. Something about that idea roared in his senses, and Obi-Wan wasn't going to question it.

"Very well Obi-Wan. With Gitas and his men we can handle anything short of the Dark side User the Viceroy can have prepared between here and the throne room." Since said throne room was at the far end of this hall that might well be true. Padme nodded, holding out her hand to Obi-Wan, but when he went to shake it she pulled him in, kissing him lightly on the mouth. "May the Force be with you Obi."

Obi-Wan blushed but turned away quickly, wondering what had brought that on, not ever having done anything he felt could have gained the queen's affections. Then again, what I know of such things would fit in a single paragraph. He thought bemusedly.

He took one brief second to look towards Padme before turning fully away, running to a nearby room then out through the window which overlooked the roof of a covered walkway. He opened them then leaped out, rolling as he landed.

Obi-Wan took a brief moment to repeat the Oath of the Jedi to himself, dispelling his fear, his anger at how this battle had gone, all of his negative emotions , centering himself in the 'now' as his Master had been trying to teach him for years. Idly he noticed that the sky, which had been overcast since the day began, looked to finally be ready to actually start raining.

When Maul crested the far side of the roof Obi stood, his lightsaber up as he held it the blade facing down on a diagonal, one hand held loosely on the bottom of his lightsaber hilt and the other held tightly on the top. He stared across at his enemy, his eyes calm and clear. "I am a Jedi, I will not run from you."

For only the second time in this fight the Dark Side user broke his silence to reply his voice flat with menace, made all the more frightening by the flatness of it. "Then die where you stand." With a wordless snarl the tattooed Zabrak charged forward his lightsaber flashing in and out as he leapt, chopping down at where Obi-Wan stood.

The two of them began the intricate dance of lightsaber combat, hopping here, there, lightsabers flashing in and out, moving from one end of the rooftop to the other. Obi-Wan gave himself to the Force to a level he had never before been able to before, powering his Force Precognition to a level that would've made many a Jedi Knight gasp in awe, Sorseu helping him retain his defense against the overwhelming offense of the Dark Side user.

It wouldn't be enough. Obi-Wan knew that within the first few clashes. Despite the running battle that had taken around two hours by his reckoning, the Dark Side user was as fresh now as he was when the battle had begun. His wounds helped instead of hindered him, the Dark Side user somehow using the pain to fuel his anger and thus his strength in the Dark Side, sitting in the Force like a black hole, sucking away had Obi-Wan's senses and Force Precognition.

It wouldn't be enough. As fast as he was, as good against his opponent's style as Soresu was, he simply could not match or overcome the Dark Side user's sheer strength and speed. If Maul had ever studied Ranma's speed technique, this fight would already be over and Obi-Wan would have joined the other Jedi who had already died today. But even without actually studying it Maul was faster and stronger than any Jedi. Like the others Obi had to push the Force into his body willing it to move faster than it could, and his body simply could not sustain it, his tendons and muscles slowly failing.

One minute became two, and Obi-Wan began to feel tired, the pain of keeping up with the other Dark Side user taking a toll on his senses, breaking through his Jedi ability to negate the pain. The Dark Side user's blows began to come ever closer, his replies weaker. One slashing blow nearly took off his ear, sizzling a furrow out of the side of his face and slicing his padawan braid off, leaving a small sizzling scar along his cheek. Another nearly caught him in the kneecap, slicing alongside his leg rather than impacting directly thanks only to a last minute dodge just as another blow nicked his slice along his forearm enough to sizzle the skin there too.

No, it wouldn't be enough for Obi-Wan to win against the Dark Side user. But it was enough.

Despite setting out after the Dark Woman, Ranma was the one to arrive first on the scene. He announced his arrival with a "BOOM!" Appearing in a flash in front of Obi-Wan, his head thrust out smashing into Maul with as much speed as Ranma could put into it.

The Zabrak was hurled away, hurled off the roof entirely and almost off out of the palace grounds to slam into the outer wall several hundred meters with a grunt of agony. Ranma looked at Obi-Wan as the rain began to fall, changing him into her as she smirked down at the Jedi learner. "I know I've said this to you before but tag out Obi."

"With pleasure," Obi-Wan said, releasing his hold on the Force and now feeling all of his pains, all of his pulled muscles and the agony of his cheek, elbow and knee. He could barely move his thumb to deactivate his lightsaber before it fell, and he went to his knees gasping in air. "Ranma, he, he killed, he killed…"

"I know," Ranma said coldly one small, feminine hand grabbing Obi-Wan's shoulder for a moment squeezing gently. "You did good Obi, I'll take it from here."

Obi-Wan nodded, remaining on his knees as Ranma leaped away, remaining there until the Dark Woman using her phase ability leaped up out from the walkway directly below him to land silently on the roof, holding one hand to her broken ribs and looking like she had barely walked away from a fight with a flamethrower. "The Dark Force user?"

The younger man smiled wanly, pushing himself to his feet. "Ranma's problem now. He'll deal with it, she'll deal with it I mean. The two of us I think need to meet up with Padme posthaste."

OOOOOOO

In point of fact, Padme's renewed force had already broken through into Nute Gunray's pilfered throne room. The fact that he surrendered immediately and looked relieved to see them threw Padme off for a moment, but when Gunray said, "I, I c-can't do that," to her demand to terminated the control center's communications to the droid army she scowled angrily.

Raising her blaster she pointed it right between the Neimodian's eyes, her pretty face set in a scowl. "Nute Gunray, I may be a diplomat by both profession and preference, but right now I am fresh out of diplomacy, and all I have is this blaster here. What do you mean you can't order the shutdown of your troops?"

"Two of the captains in orbit won't take orders from me and none of the others will move against them, internal fighting like that just can't happen!" Nute Gunray said frantically, the words coming out so fast they tumbled over one another. "This whole invasion was ordered by the new Board of Directors, not myself. I was in favor of it when Naboo began to look elsewhere for trade venues seeing it as an attack on our legitimate monopoly of all transportation in the Mid Rim. It, it was just supposed to be a show of force. But ever since the debacle on Eriadu, the more militant among our Directorshas gained ground."

"I don't believe you," Padme said, though her voice belied her tone.

"See for yourself your highness. After I took command here, I mitigated the deaths among your people! Most of your people who were carted off to be sold did not get to the ships in orbit before I turned them around, storing them in other cities. The Jedi have already destroyed one of the ships that would not answer to me, if they can take out the last one they'll remove the internal threats, and all of the droid fighters in orbit and even the army here on the planet will once again follow my orders."

"Can't you simply override that last one? Surely being closer would allow your orders to take precedence over any from orbit."

Nute seemed to hesitate for a moment, then zoomed over to a control panel staring down at it, pulling up some communication printouts of some kind. "It might be possible," he said softly, "at least for the army on the planet. The spacefighters in orbit won't respond to anything but their own control ships or the nearest ones if their ship has been destroyed."

"Do it," she ordered.

His hands flew over the keyboard. "Done, all droid troops, tanks and anything else on the planet have received the order to shut down."

Not, he thought to himself as he stared at the control panel that there was much of that army remaining. Whatever Jedi tricks were being used out there had allowed the Gungans to get in close with the droids, and had destroyed nearly all the tanks and troop transports. Without the ability to stay at long range and those heavier weapons, the droid army had not fared very well, something he was making a note of for the future. Surely his Master would be interested in that knowledge, and his pantomime of the part the Dark Lord had wished him to play here, would surely also gave him ever more favor…

OOOOOOO

Ranma landed in front of Maul as he pulled himself out of the rubble of the outer wall. With a flick of her wrists the redhead pulled out the twin lightsabers he/she had taken from Sing, activating them and standing there coldly staring at her opponent. Normally at this point Ranma would say something, try to piss off whoever she was facing. But not only did Ranma know that would not work, frankly she just didn't feel the need. Why banter words with a dead man?

Maul stared at her slightly unnerved by the flat dead eyes staring back at him from the redhead's soft-seeming face. Where before Ranma had been fiery, now he/she (even Maul had trouble with the curse, and the feeling of it to a Dark Sider was positively foul) was cold. Where during their first meeting Ranma had been chaotic, always on the move, now she was still and watchful, like a predator waiting to strike.

It was a very odd change and it unnerved Maul until he got a grip on himself. He, she is nothing, a mere Force anomaly, she knows nothing of the Dark Side, nothing of true power! With that in mind Maul charged forward, leaping ahead and striking down at Ranma, eager to keep her on the ground.

Ranma deflected the blow with one lightsaber, riposting with the other forcing Maul to use his double-bladed lightsaber's other blade to block the blow. The two of them dueled in midair for a moment, Ranma glowing slightly breaking whatever kind of Force hold Maul tried on him with a brief pulse of ki before subsiding.

Eventually Ranma gained the upper hand forcing the Dark Side user down to the ground and flipping over him, his lightsabers flashing at the Zabrak's head, keeping him on the defensive before Ranma landed, kicking out with a sudden blow that took the tattooed Zabrak in the leg. That one kick became a thousand under a second, Ranma's kicks almost breaking the sound barrier, a deep thrumming sound filling the air.

Maul gasped in agony as the blow began to overcome his durability. A wild swing from his lightsaber at the still kicking leg stopped it, and Ranma whirled away, bringing up her own lightsabers again and again, pushing Maul backwards.

That's right bastard, Ranma thought to herself coldly, almost but not quite at the level of the Soul of Ice, she was worried about what the Force might do or how it would react if she tried it here. Nor was it really necessary. You think just stealing one or two techniques for me makes you my equal, fucking think again murderer!

The Zabrak tried a kick. Ranma blocked it with his own thigh, forcing her opponent to push himself off and away with a Force push from a series of lightsaber cuts before the Zabrak lashed out with another Push toward Ranma. But Ranma glowed blue again, ignoring his Force Push as she brought her lightsabers up and around from both sides, forcing the Dark Side user onto the defensive once more.

His weapon might have been able to handle a defensive battle well enough, but Maul was not mentally prepared for one. He kept on trying to go on the offensive, but Ranma simply bulled through, overwhelming him at every turn, pushing him back and further back as they leapt and jumped around each other.

One or two times Ranma's lightsaber got through, slashing into the Zabrak, but his durability was such that these blows didn't penetrate, just as Kit had warned him. But Ranma adapted once more, using the Amiguriken on her wrists, her lightsaber flashing like a metronome slashing a few times against her enemy each time Ranma broke through, but the other was able to move just enough to keep the attacks from doing much damage. They tore at his skin, blistering and burning, his black clothing burning away as well, but that was all since the Zabrak knew not to stand still for long.

With every series of clashes Maul began to understand how outclassed he was here. The chaotic Fulcrum was no longer relying on his/her Living Force shields to block Maul's lightsaber strokes. She was no longer using her own hands or body parts to hammer Maul, thus injuring him/herself almost as much, if not more. The Fulcrum had instead adapted his/her style to attack a lightsaber user, and her overall skills were such that they were slowly but surely overwhelming Maul.

Anger, anger, hate, hate, hate! Those were the only emotions Maul could feel glaring at the human across from their locked lightsabers again and again. Every time Maul tried to have a single advantage, he couldn't do it. The only thing going his way was that his constant use of Force grabs was keeping Ranma relatively centered on the ground, forcing Ranma to expand her ki in small lots to break those holds less she be hurled away or slowed down by them.

This forced Maul to once again try to turn the environment to his advantage, and he sent out his senses, trying to think if there were any of his little surprises nearby he could use. There were two, and he slowly began to move in their direction, letting the short human female push him along only in that direction subtly, thinking it would allow him to take Ranma by surprise.

And it worked. The first claymore exploded to Ranma's side, completely taking her by surprise and hurling her sideways. Maul immediately capitalized, thrusting forward with his lightsaber, but Ranma blocked it with one of her own while dropping the other lightsaber. With her other hand she thrust forward, shouting, "Moko Takabashi!"

A sphere of pure Force energy slammed into Maul hurling him backwards, shattering four of his ribs but not doing much damage otherwise other than burning away the remains of his black shirt. This revealed more tattoos and red skin and by the time Maul regained his footing Ranma was already on her own, leaping forward with both lightsabers flashing faster than Maul could match.

He blocked the first one and was forced to barely duck underneath the other, gritting his teeth in agony as it sliced off several of his horns, the searing pain fueling his anger and hate and thus his power. A fierce Force push sent Ranma away before she could flash her Living Force and Ranma impacted the far wall. But she pushed off it, now glowing blue breaking the hold as she hurled herself forward both lightsabers extended.

Maul jumped to one side, bringing his lightsaber down and across to impact where Ranma's body would be. But Ranma somehow was able to get one lightsaber between that blow and her body. Using the momentum she changed direction midair bouncing up and off the ground instead. Her other lightsaber came around in a wide arc which forced Maul to bring the other blade of his lightsaber up to block.

Maul allowed that side of his lightsaber blade to fade, allowing Ranma's blow through for just a second, before reactivating it swinging at the redhead's head, a classic example of the trakatatechnique. Ranma hurled her head backwards dodging the blow bringing his lightsabers back up protect herself from the follow-up series of blows.

Again the two of them began to dance back and forth, moving across the palace grounds up, down and even through walls several times. Soon they came out into an open area, and Maul disengaged, leaping backwards to stare at Ranma.

She simply stared back, her blue eyes ice cold. Ranma broke her own silence in this fight for the first time, sneering at her opponent. "Is that all?"

These words on top of that realization acted like a goad, Maul's normal self-control having been badly eroded since Ranma first showed up. With Ranma having changed his style to eliminate the defects in his style to fight a lightsaber user, the difference in their skill level was obvious and even more hurtful after the series of victories Maul had won throughout the day. "Die!" He howled, charging forward.

Ranma met him their lightsabers smashing against one another in a cacophony of sparks and sizzling sounds. Kicks came into the game once again, each of them trying to land one, but neither having the success Ranma had at the beginning of the fight, though the battering began to tell on Maul now even as he began to force Ranma backwards for the first time towards another one of his hidden surprises. Through the rage and hate Maul could feel nothing, not even the pain of his body as Ranma's attacks finally began to tell, his endurance fading.

Between one series of blows and the next Maul's leg was just out of position for his defense and Ranma capitalized, her lightsaber feinting first toward the Zabrak's head, then down her wrist disappearing as she forced her hand, and the lightsaber in it, to go even faster than his normal Amiguriken speed. Her blows hit like an axe against a tree trunk thousands of times in the same position. Maul grunted then stared as his body fell one way and his leg stayed upright, sliced through.

Even as he fell Maul didn't give voice to his pain. Instead he tried to hit back, but Ranma slashed upward, slicing into and through the center of his double-bladed lightsaber. The weapon came apart, but one end still worked, and Maul brought it around as his body finished falling to the wet ground.

He stared up angrily as his opponent blocked it with one of her lightsabers, the other smashing downwards to carry Maul's blade into the ground. Ranma glowed blue, throwing off a last desperate attempt from the silent Dark Side user to hurl him away. Deactivating the one lightsaber under his opponents, Ranma flipped her body over the Zabrak's blade keeping it where it was with the other before reactivating her second and stabbing down straight through the Zabrak's eyeball as the Dark Side User glared at her trying to bring his own blade, which he too had tried to reactivate and deactivate to block it.

He did not succeed and that was one part of his body no one could strengthen whatever technique you used. The lightsaber's point punched straight through the Zabrak's eye and into his brain, killing him instantly.

Ranma stared at the body for a few moments, trying to decide what she felt, if anything, other than simple relief. Deciding that she felt something like a job well done, she sighed, deactivating her lightsabers before grabbing the corpse's legs. The Jedi would probably want to see it after all.

OOOOOOO

The final death knell for the Trade Federation's occupation of Naboo came almost on the heels of Ranma's victory over Maul. Two flotillas of Corellian Defense Fleet ships appeared just outside of the planet's gravity well, foraging inwards at maximum sublight speed: 16 capital ships, four of them carriers which began to disgorge fighters as soon as they exited hyperspace. Garm Bel Iblis was in command of this fleet being a veteran of the Stark Hyperspace War along with his position as Senator. His voice blared out on every communication station, ordering the Trade Federation to surrender or be destroyed.

The ships in orbit might have continued to fight. They still had more than enough starfighters to overwhelm the starfighters coming in at them even with the losses they'd already sustained against those Jedi attack. Possibly even enough to destroy the capital ships they faced if they could keep the range open and simply launch flights of Vultures at them, having learned by now how many Vultures the Lucrehulks could control at a time without impairing their actual ability to fight them.

The three remaining Lucrehulks moreover had belatedly moved into a defensive formation, all of them covering one another. But Anakin, with help from the Wild Light, destroyed a third Trade Federation mothership just as the Corellian capital ships moved within range of their weapons.

This was apparently the last ship that the Viceroy had said had to be destroyed before the others would follow his commands. They did so now, surrendering quickly. Though if this was their following his orders at last, or simple cowardice, could not be said.

The Vultures powered down where they flew. The two remaining Lucrehulks powered down there shields, moving away from orbit while remaining within the gravity well of the planet as they had been ordered to so they could not jump to hyperspace. No computer could do the same thing that Tiin had been able to, so this was enough to make certain they couldn't run.

As soon as the Corellians moved into orbit and around the remaining Trade Federation ships, Shaak ordered the Wild Light to pick her and Master Koon up from the ship they had been fighting in. Ignoring the rapturous muttering from HK, Shaak piloted the ship down to Theed with the other Jedi following.

They weren't the last to arrive by any means, Dooku and the others with the Gungans arrived later along with boss Nass. The Queen met them at the outskirts of the city. Then, with the Jedi as witness she invited Nass to her throne room where they would formalize their alliance. Halfway there she and Nass stopped staring as the Jedi that had infiltrated Theed met them along with their gathered dead.

Knight Glaive, lost against the Yinchorri. Knight Brand, lost against the Trade Federation Army. Master Piell and Knights Mundi and Violeta, lost against the still unnamed Dark Side user. Mundi had succumbed to his wounds before his former master could get him to safety while Violeta died in the explosion of the generator station.

The Dark Woman had been horribly injured in the same blast, but was still able to move relatively well under their own power. Master Koth's arm had not been introduced to bacta quickly enough, and he would need to be fitted with a cybernetic replacement. Kit's foot would recover, in time anyway, though he would have a scar where the Dark Sider's lightsaber had stabbed through it for the rest of his life. And Obi-Wan who could barely stand, his tendons and muscles pushed and pulled far beyond endurance, was still dealing with full-body twitches occasionally.

Nor were the Jedi the only ones who had paid a price for this victory. The Gungans had paid for their aid with lives and Padme promised Boss Nass that any concession he wanted in coming days would be his. No longer would be Gungans be pressed aside, ignored by the rest of the planet and the Republic as a whole. They would take their place as partners of the Nabooans.

Her own security forces had paid heavily, every guard she left the planet mere weeks ago was dead, along with two of her handmaidens. Padme would mourn them along with her friends in private, she could not afford to let their deaths wear her down now.

With the Jedi's aid, she Boss Nass and the Viceroy quickly came to agreements with the planet and with the Trade Federation as a whole, forcing the Trade Federation not only to retreat, but to pay concessions up to and including twice as much of the monetary value of the losses Naboo had taken during this campaign. The droids on planet and in orbit would be demolished. Most of the Lucrehulks in orbit would also be turned over to the planet, though the Trade Federation would be allowed to retain one to transport their people out of the system, sans their leaders of course who would be returning to Corsucant to answer for their crimes.

"The Viceroy would of course be persecuted under Republic law, but there they might run into issues. Not only was he protesting that he had done all he could to mitigate the effect of the occupation, but there was enough evidence to suggest that he was telling the truth there that the Trade Federation's Board of Trustees had forced this action on him, to muddy the waters.

"Which," Padme said, turning away from her throne room's window to look at the Jedi, all of them weary and battered, "Doesn't even consider the sheer monetary power the Trade Federation still possesses."

She was amused to see that Ranma was obviously not paying attention, having moved over to another window to look out at the city, where the locals were coming out of their various hiding places in droves, celebrating the victory. Ships were already en-route to other parts of the planet to bring back the citizens of Theed which the Viceroy had apparently ordered away rather than off-planet. If the numbers didn't add up as he said they would, their case against Gunray would be much stronger, but Padme would have to live with the knowledge that thousands of her people had been sold into slavery.

Dooku spoke those thoughts aloud for all of them. "We can only hope that the Viceroy was in fact telling the truth for once. In any event the new Chancellor should be arriving in time for the parade tomorrow correct?"

"Yes," Padme said smiling, as did several of the Jedi around the room. Senator Garm had brought the news with him that Senator Palpatine had been chosen to be the new Chancellor of the Republic, riding a wave of sympathy as well as his own excellent record in the Senate. The deal he brokered for the Corellian support had been the final nail in the Trade Federation's coffin. Without it, the fighting in orbit would've continued, and might well have been lost which would have turned the tide on the planet itself.

"I could've hoped that he would have been able to move faster, but with transportation and hyperspace being what it is I can understand. I'm not certain I like Sheev's idea of a centralized military force, not until the Senate has its own house in order so to speak. But, at the very least my planet is safer now." Padme replied.

Boss Nass spoke up, his usual over-the-top baritone toned down for now. "Peace be nice because the sacrifice for it be so high." Though garbled by the Gungan accent the words were clearly heartfelt, and Padme nodded at him.

Then she turned back to Dooku and Yaddle. "What about you Masters Jedi? The Dark Side user and his preparations here still bother me."

"The Yinchorri at least were a cut and dried factor." Master Koon replied. "They were acting as common mercenaries. They were on some kind of mission outside the Yinchorri star system when we moved against their leaders. Instead of returning, they decided to act on their own, still following their strong should rule ideal. As for the Dark Side user, he is very much our problem your highness. Or at least where he came from is, he was dealt with rather permanently by Ranma."

Plo Koon nodded over to Ranma, who didn't turn from staring out over the city. Shaak gently touched his shoulder, and one of his hands lifted, his fingers twining around hers he did not turn away from the window, staring out at the setting sun.

Padme looked at him, then at Shaak, wondering anew about their relationship or whatever it was, which had so irritated the Jedi during the initial briefing session. But it was none of her concern, and frankly she was exhausted. "In that case gentlemen, I will see you all tomorrow for the parade." She turned to Master Dooku and the other Jedi once again. "Again, I am sorry for your losses, your fellow Jedi were brave and honorable men and I am proud to have known them if only for a little while."

Boss Nass nodded his head soberly, reaching out clasp arms with first Jerec then Yaddle and Dooku before following her out of the room. Padme stopped at the doorway, looking at Obi-wan, noticing the scar on his face which rather than marring his handsome features seemed to add a sense of roguish danger to them. He caught her gaze and looked away flushing slightly and Padme smiled slightly before moving on, happy that she had at least flustered the older boy.

The Jedi didn't speak again instead remaining silent each with their own thoughts until going their separate ways. Shaak remained with Ranma at the window, staring out at the Vista of the city and the sun, before looking at him. "It's not your fault. You did all you could on Tatooine to stop him, do not beat yourself for things that have already happened Ranma."

Ranma's jaw clenched visibly for a moment, but he turned to her smiling slightly. "You're not reading my mind I know I'd feel if you were trying that. Am I that obvious?"

"Yes, to me at any rate. Do not blame yourself for this." Shaak reached up, taking Ranma's face cupping his cheeks gently. "You did not start this conflict, you did not simply let him go, you were forced too. Your arrival in this galaxy has nothing to do with the Dark Sider, there is no chance he could be that good at using the Force, that dangerous if he had begun training or been turned to the Dark Side when you arrived. Whatever he is, whatever he represents is bigger than you and… Is… Not… Your … Fault."

Ranma closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers, feeling the pearl of her headress digging in slightly but ignoring it as he stared into her white marked face. So alien, so alive, so lovely. "I won't beat myself up about it Shaak, my head knows you're right, it's just my heart's having trouble following along."

"I understand," Shaak said laughing quietly before tilting her head lightly to kiss him briefly on lips. "But do not let it consume you, Ranma." Ranma nodded once again, putting an arm around her shoulders as they moved away toward their rooms.

OOOOOOO

The next day, the new Chancellor did indeed arrive on a personal yacht from Coruscant putting down at Theed's landing pad. He greeted the Jedi, Padme and the others with a smile and arms outstretched in welcome. "I have heard much of the engagement here your highness, rest assured that I will not rest until justice is done for our people. Masters Jedi, my people, my world, and the Republic as a whole owe you a debt of thanks."

At their questioning looks he frowned. "If not for your show of force, I am certain that other special interest groups might well have begun to act out just like the Trade Federation did here. We will prosecute both the Viceroy and the Trade Federations oversight committee to the best of our abilities and the fullest extent of Republic law. Any of our people who were indeed sold into slavery will be returned, my personal guarantee on that."

Padme nodded, as did the Jedi. They all however knew that the Chancellor might not be able to make good on his promises. He would try, but his powers as Chancellor were not omnipotent.

"And I understand young man that you also played a role." the Chancellor went on looking at Anakin. "Astonishing for one so young, and new youngling among the Jedi as well! I have a feeling I will be seeing more of you my young friend, and I will certainly be following your exploits with interest."

As Anakin puffed himself up and Padme smiled at him as well, Ranma rolled his eyes as did Shaak behind the others, then they looked at one another before looking away.. To Shaak's right Kit shook his head. "I think the Dark Woman should be put in charge of his training for a bit, let her squeeze that arrogance out of him."

The Dark Woman heard that and actually chuckled lightly, while Dooku and Plo Koon talked for a few moments with the Chancellor. Whatever reply she was going to make however was drowned out by a cacophony of bugles, drums and other instruments as the parade for the Gungan Grand Army began.

Ranma joined the other Jedi later that day, watching as the dead Jedi were each interred in a pillar of fire, their bodies cremated, their spirits symbolically rejoining the Force. Elsewhere Padme and boss Nass were formally solidifying their alliance, with one of the nearby buildings being refurbished and remade into some kind of memorial or other, Ranma wasn't certain. Anakin was with her along with the Chancellor.

It was just the Jedi and Ranma here, and soon after ceremony ended the injured Jedi left, heading back to their rooms. But they had been joined by a holograms of Yoda and Master Windu who stayed with them.

For a moment they were all silent, staring into the flames. Then Yoda began. "More to this Dark Side user then we have discovered there is, something… sinister. Jedi trying to backtrack his trail, we already have, find such a trail they will. The right one, the question will be."

The others were all silent but Dooku nodded. "We seem to have an enemy out there somewhere. The one which Ranma dealt with wasn't the brains behind the operation, I don't think he had the right mentality for a spy master, which at the very least he would have to be to have learned about Ranma's abilities. And Gunray's protest that this Zabrak had come to them rather than vice-versa seems to ring falsely to me on some level."

"Hrhrhrm," Yoda grunted agreement nodding his head as he stared first at the fire then Ranma. "Remain between us this will, shared with other Jedi it will not be, regardless of trust. Feel I do that the Veil of the Dark Side, the Dark Side's rising power, more to this there is. Training physical and mental and emotional stepped up will be. The Guardian order refilled will be. Continue to prepare we will."

"I still do not believe that the Sith could have returned without us seeing it, but you are correct Master Yoda, I do believe we have an enemy out there. One who has had this all his own way so far."

Ranma grunted spitting to one side. Shaak elbowed him lightly for that, but understood the sentiment. "It's awfully easy to play shogi when you're the only one who knows the game's going on. You know about it now, and can start planning accordingly. Maybe not openly," he said holding up a hand as Windu made to speak, "but that doesn't mean you can't act at all, right?"

"Hrhrhm, make allies we can, make plans we will. Dark though the days may be, lights among us to guide our way there yet are." Yoda said, flicking his eyes over to Shaak and Ranma.

They all fell silent once more, staring at the fire as around them the celebrations continued and evening turned to night.

End Chapter


… For some reason I think the ghost of Christopher Lee is going to haunt me because I didn't make Dooku face Maul… which would have been damn awesome admittedly, but not the way this chapter worked out.

I also know the space battle was somewhat unrealistic at first, but then these are the first generation Lucrehulks and Vultures, not the massively tough, durable and dangerous battleships they become during the Clone Wars. Nor are the Vultures more than drones at this point with little onboard intelligence.

Besides that, I hope everyone enjoyed how the whole Maul vs the Jedi thing went down. He couldn't simply power through against these Jedi, he might have been able to seem to do so at times, but not quite. Tricks like what he used killed a LOT of Jedi during the Clone Wars, so there is obviously a limit to how much Force Precognition can help any one Jedi, especially against non-sentient traps.

We also see that Yoda and Dooku at the very least believe at least one Sith might still be out there. I did not use that line from the movie about their being only two, since I can't see the Jedi even knowing that much about the Sith under Bane. Unless someone can point out how they learn of the Rule of two to me, someone blurting it out during the hunt for Bane or their finding a holocron which mentions it, it will stay the way it is.

Alright, the time has come to make a decision about something that will truly effect the future of this story. I am really torn about this in many ways, and I value my reader's opinions, so I will ask you all: should I introduce another woman into the relationship, or should I simply have other girls possibly perusing Ranma but with him not interested in them? I can't put it off longer because it feels as if I do, then too much time will pass and the second girl will come in very much an outsider. Already that might be the case given how emotionally close Ranma and Shaak are. If you have a girl you think could come in and make a good third, tell me, even if I haven't already introduced them. I want people's opinions and ideas on this topic whatever they are so please, lay it on me!

the poll for November should be up by Wednesday, so be on the look out for it. Remember it is an ATP month though, so there can be only one winner.