Star Wars 2.0
Episode 5: Rise of the Clones
Chapter 1
The golden vessel lowered out of the cloud layer of Coruscant toward the high towers below. It dropped with the lightness of a body sinking into a cushion. Its vacuum engines had disengaged and its twelve rotary blades had taken over, as had the copper escort ships. They sounded like a massive, loud group of insects flapping toward the city. This was the entourage of the Geonosian queen.
They had come on important business. With the galaxy's worlds spiraling into conflict, resources were in high demand, and no one was as efficient with utilizing materials and forming them into something useful than the Geonosians. The separatists were particularly keen on drawing the Geonsians to their side, especially with their armies comprising of robots. However, the Geonosians had always been loyal to the Republic, and Queen Lenoye Noc had come to reassure the council of that; but she also wanted to utilize her current position to build the standing of their people; a task better performed in person.
The escort ships split away as the queen's large vessel fluttered to a landing on the primary pad; an oval platform which stood suspended high above the city's massively tall buildings. Waiting near the lift structure stood the Geonosian senators, an ambassador, and other local representatives, as well as the two Jedi escorts, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The queen's royal escort floated out of the hatches of the ship, their wings fluttering to keep them aloft while they studied their welcoming party. Soon the queen emerged with her entourage, all adorned in the lavishness one would expect from a race of master craftspeople.
"Greetings, your highness. Welcome to Coruscant." Obi-Wan said as they approached. He introduced himself and Anakin, who bowed respectfully.
The queen returned a nod respectfully and studied them carefully. "You are the Jedi assigned to protect me," she observed.
"We are to protect you with our lives," Anakin said confidently.
"A task at which you will likely be tested," Queen Noc said. "There are those among my own people who do not wish for me to meet with the Republic."
"We will be with you wherever you go, my lady," Obi-Wan assured her.
"And our own security has proven itself to be more than reliable," said Gykvuy Hok, the Geonosian ambassador. "We have secured a suite for you in the Galactic Senate Tower where your protection can be assured."
"Between the Jedi and the best guards of my people, I should be very safe," the queen said. "Lead on." They all began away from the ship toward the lift.
Obi-Wan stole a glance at Anakin. He sensed the young man's boredom; likely his annoyance at being assigned to something he considered menial. He was well aware that a war was going on and he was on bodyguard duty. Looking at his friend's face, however, Obi-Wan didn't need to reach into the force to understand his feelings. He bore an air of aloofness that separated himself not only from their charge, but from his colleague.
The war that Anakin felt distant from was visible on the hologram in the middle of the room where a council was watching in horror. Prince Organa, Senator Palpatine, and Jedi Master Yoda were among the council that helplessly looked on as a Republic garrison was overrun by a hoard of droids. It looked like a flood crashing over a wall, drowning its protesting victims. They had turned off the sound. There was nothing they could do and therefore the cries for help and suffering would be for naught.
When it was all but over, Prince Organa spoke up. "This is happening on many of our worlds?"
"Easy to destroy, the droids are, on a one to one basis," Yoda answered. "But easier still they are to manufacture in large numbers."
"They can out-build us by leaps and bounds!" someone in the group said with fear in his voice.
One of them, a general who had seen combat against the Separatists, said, "Our soldiers can take out ten of them for every one casualty we sustain, but their numbers…" She paused a moment, as though seeing it all again in her mind's eye; then the general continued. "And obstacles don't slow them. When they reach a barrier they simply crawl over it; even when it's a sheer surface."
"What about our navy?" Organa asked.
A representative of the navy explained, "They don't even need pilots. Droids turn into drones and fly or land at will; sometimes latching to your hull and burrowing through. They can turn into suicide pilots without any concern for their own deaths."
"They are formidable," Palpatine cut in. "More so than we expected. The Trade Federation seemed to be nothing but a menace of a few worlds, but now they have the strength to challenge the very core of our existence."
"Turned, the tables have," Yoda said. "The Jedi will have to stretch their resources."
"There aren't enough of you," Organa said.
"Stretched thin, we are; but still we must try," Yoda said. "There is no other alternative."
"But there might be," Palpatine said. All eyes turned to him with hope. "My clone factory built and trained enough troops to defend my planet. I have an excess of them; more than I need. And we could develop more clones to fill our ranks. If we can at least come close to matching their numbers, we should be able to stem their tide."
Everyone considered, though most were nodding their heads in approval almost immediately. Yoda was not so easily swayed, however. "Many ethical questions, this idea brings up."
"How so?" Palpatine asked.
Organa, who was concerned as Yoda was, said, "What about individuality? Questions of their free will?"
Palpatine tightened his face as though forcing himself to be patient. "They are cloned with an innate desire to fight, and to serve."
"Dangerous, that could be," Yoda said, looking away, concentrating on the force and thinking of the future.
Palpatine interrupted these thoughts, saying, "They would be entirely under my control." The senator noticed Organa's face grow even more concerned. "Under the control of the Senate. With local commanders answering to the Jedi." Palpatine looked at Yoda as he said this last statement.
Yoda was still deep in thought, but distracted from going too far. He felt the hope regrouping in the room. Those officers present who a moment ago felt as though all was lost now believed they might have a chance.
Beside him, Organa was relenting. "To stem the tide; and to take out their robot building facilities so they don't keep coming back. Then we'll need to cease the program."
"Of course," Senator Palpatine said.
Every aspect of the guest chambers in the Senate building was lavish. Anakin had more than enough room to pace the length of the private lounge while Obi-Wan meditated on the plush sofa-seat.
Their charge was in the bedroom of the chamber just past the doorway. A droid was inside with her, its sensors on and ready to sound the alarm if needed. Her escort was in another bedroom past a door on the opposite side of the lounge.
The two Jedi were alert and prepared for anything that might happen in either room. They would get their sleep the following day after the queen arrived at her meeting where other Jedi would watch over her.
"Waste of manpower," Anakin muttered as he continued to pace anxiously; almost hoping something would happen to justify his presence here rather than somewhere more useful.
Obi-Wan heard what he said, but chose not to engage with that line of thinking. Instead he said, "If you're hoping to strike up a conversation with the furniture, I would wager them to be good listeners, but they give bad advice. Though to be fair, I'd wager they're less tedious than the Ortolans we escorted last week…"
"They would make great Jedi I'd imagine, since tedium's our way of life," Anakin said. Then he stopped briefly and added, "Oh, forgot. We call it patience."
Obi-Wan pulled out of his meditation and tried to make eye contact with his friend. Not getting it, he said, "I know you're upset at still being a padawan. You want…"
"Your padawan. Don't forget that; you never let me forget it."
"I'm sorry if I've made you feel that way, Anakin. I truly am. But I believe you will achieve Jedi Knight soon, and you must prove you have the discipline they seek."
Anakin stopped and finally looked over at his master. He knew he was right, but he had never come to terms with the fact that they were so close in age, yet Obi-Wan had moved up in the council far faster than himself. He approached a chair saying, "Let's see if the furniture is as comfortable as that of the Ortolans."
"You sat on one of their wives…" Obi-Wan laughed.
"That's why it was so uncomfortable," Anakin said smiling. Obi-Wan was suppressing a laugh and shaking his head. "You tell me they don't look…" Anakin cut himself off.
Obi-Wan simultaneously stopped laughing. "You feel that?" Obi-Wan asked. Anakin nodded. Neither said a word; they both knew to trust their danger sense through the force. They rushed the door to the queen's quarters with their lightsabers drawn. They hurried past the threshold just as a laser blast fired into the room from the direction of the window. A cut had been made through the plasti-glass and the blinds.
Obi-Wan leaped onto the bed, the blue blade now lit. Just as he did, shots raced in his direction. Obi-Wan deflected each one away from the queen, who was now sitting up in wide-eyed fear.
Anakin hurried toward the window. A couple blasts came at him, and he deflected them away. Obi-Wan noticed that his partner was not slowing down. He was rushing the window at full speed. "Anakin! Where are you…" Obi-Wan began, but his words went unheeded.
Anakin crashed through the window and grabbed onto the droid, more than a hundred stories above the ground. Hover cars whizzed by along his level and in lines above and below him. Anakin had no fear of this, however. He was fully focused on the droid from which he was dangling.
The droid was wiggling and shaking, trying to knock Anakin off. Anakin held his grip, and used the Force to guide the assassin droid toward the roof of a nearby building. As soon as his feet touched the roof, Anakin smashed the floating robot against a cement statue, destroying it. He then smashed it a few more times to open it up. Inside he saw the mechanism's weaponry, and also its guidance system. He began moving the wires around.
Obi-Wan pulled up next to Anakin in a speeder he had commandeered. "What are you doing?" Obi-Wan asked as Anakin got into the passenger seat.
"Rewiring it to return to its owner. We can follow it then…" Anakin barely had the words out of his mouth when the droid began tugging in a certain direction. Unable to fly, it remained in Anakin's lap as Obi-Wan took off in that direction.
They weaved among the buildings, turning one way, then another to make their way toward the droid's destination about a mile away. There, a masked person stood on a balcony, watching them come. It looked surprised when it realized the two Jedi were on board, and it hurried toward its speeder. As it did, it pressed a button on a remote.
Anakin felt the droid begin to vibrate. Heat started to radiate from it. He tossed it in the air and shouted, "Get down!" Obi-Wan pressed downward and the probe exploded over their heads, raining debris. This distraction gave the other person enough time to jump into its vehicle and speed away.
"Get back on its tail!" Anakin shouted as Obi-Wan straightened the car. Once he had it smooth enough to look, he saw where the assassin was going, and he sped after it. "Let me drive!" Anakin shouted. Obi-Wan didn't answer. All of his concentration was on keeping the car from smashing into a building or getting tangled in oncoming traffic. So Anakin shouted, "I'm the better driver! Let me…"
"Speeding at a couple hundred miles an hour thousands of feet above the ground is not the time to switch places!" Obi-Wan shouted back.
The car ahead of them swerved the long way around a building. Anakin saw a way to cut through it and gain on their target. So he reached out with the force and moved the steering column, yanking it out of Obi-Wan's grasp. The car smashed through a large window pane and flew over an indoor park. The people inside looked up shocked as the car zipped by and smashed out the window on the other side.
"Don't do that!" Obi-Wan objected, getting hold of the steering column again. Despite his protestation, they had gained on the other car and it was now nearby in front of them. Anakin searched for the next most likely spot where a turn would happen and they could do something to get closer. Obi-Wan had a different idea. "Take the wheel. And keep it steady!" Obi-Wan said.
Anakin reached over with his hand and held the steering column while Obi-Wan climbed off his chair, over the windshield and onto the hood. Anakin slid into the driver's seat, and as he did the car swerved a little to one side. Obi-Wan slipped, but grabbed onto a vent on the hood, keeping him on board. "I said keep it steady!" he shouted.
"Yes, master!" Anakin said, steadying it out.
Obi-Wan got to his feet, measured the distance with his eyes, then leaped forward, increasing the distance with the force. As he landed, he lit his lightsaber. The surprised driver turned and fired its gun. Obi-Wan deflected the shots back into the dashboard, damaging it severely. As he twisted his lightsaber he effortlessly sliced away one of the rear thrusters. The car began to go down. The driver grabbed the wheel, desperately trying to keep the car from crashing. Obi-Wan let him think he had control as he used the force to steer the car safely to a rooftop.
As soon as they were down, the driver grabbed his lightsaber again and began to turn toward Obi-Wan. The gun was sliced in half and he was kicked across the face, laying him down across the seat. Obi-Wan planted one foot on the windshield and one on the back of the seat and held the lightsaber to his opponent. The blue glow illuminated his face. It was Gykvuy Hok, the Geonosian ambassador who had greeted the queen at the platform and arranged her quarters.
Fear gripped the ambassador's face. But there was more than that. Obi-Wan detected a fear not just of him, but of something else. "Why did you do this?" Obi-Wan asked.
"There is no escape," the Geonosian said. "They are playing both s…"
"Look out!" Anakin shouted. He had just landed next to them, and he leaped through the air, deflecting a hail of laser bolts flying at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan turned just in time to spot the shooter flying away on a jetpack. At least it seemed to be a jetpack; the assassin had fired from a long distance and was hard to see against the night sky.
The Jedi wanted to take chase, but they had their prisoner. However, when they turned to the Geonosian, they saw that a shot had gotten through to him, and he was dead.
To be continued…
