On the bridge, one of the automata looked up from its scrying table. "General, I've located the Jedi. They're in corridor three-two-eight."
"Activate a prison ward. Take them captive." He coughed. "Use the Chancellor as leverage against them if they resist." Kenobi and Skywalker had long been thorns in his side and Dooku had obviously failed to stop them. He couldn't risk them escaping with the Chancellor, Lord Sidious wouldn't allow it.
The Jedi and the Chancellor hurried down the corridor. Suddenly Anakin skidded to a halt, holding out his arm to stop Obi-Wan and Chancellor Palpatine. He had sensed the subtle static of a ward activating around them just before it appeared.
Obi-Wan sighed. "A prison ward... How did we blunder into this? We're smarter than that."
Anakin growled. "Apparently not. I say we should be patient."
Obi-Wan's eyebrows shot up and he folded his arms. "You? Patience?"
"Yes. Artu will be along in a few moments... He should be able to deactivate the ward."
From one of the offshoot hallways a ways up the corridor came the rising sound of what could only be described as a mechanical scream. It crescendoed as the unmistakable form of a nautical automaton rounded the corner faster than either of the Jedi had ever seen. Perhaps too fast, as the squat automaton lost control during the turn and slammed into a wall.
"See, Master?" Anakin gestured to Artu. "No problem."
Two automekas rolled into the corridor from the same hallway that Artu had come from. They unfolded themselves while several juggernauts came from the opposite hallway. Chancellor Palpatine turned and jumped slightly upon seeing an uncomfortably large number of automata, juggernauts and otherwise, coming up behind them.
One of the juggernauts pointed its arm gun at Artu. "Don't move."
Artu looked up at the juggernaut and blew a raspberry. The door on his chassis opened and the pneumatic punch shot out, hitting the juggernaut in its knee.
The juggernaut looked down at the dent that Artu had left, then to Artu himself. It then kicked the nautomaton onto his back.
Obi-Wan leaned over to Anakin. "Do you have a Plan B?"
After relieving the Jedi of their weapons, the automata marched their captives up to the Invisible Hand's bridge. No less than four juggernauts kept their guns trained on the Chancellor for the duration of the trip to discourage any resistance. Admittedly, there wasn't much they could have done if they had tried as their wrists had been shackled behind their backs.
Outside the doors to the bridge stood a pair of intimidating automata. These Magnaguards were the bodyguards for General Grievous. Wherever he went, they followed. Each stood as tall as a juggernaut, but had the proportions of a human. Both of them were stark white with heads that bore more than a passing resemblance to human skulls with circular glowing red eyes. Their left arms were concealed by ash gray capes, while their right hands each held a metal staff. Obi-Wan almost immediately recognized the pinkish metal of the staves as being phrik, expensive and nigh-indestructible.
The guards nodded to the escort simultaneously and opened the doors to the bridge. The war automaton captain at the head of the detail entered first along with a few of his subordinates. Anakin and Obi-Wan followed, then the Chancellor and Artu. The guards fell in behind, leaving all juggernauts outside the bridge.
General Grievous watched eagerly as his prisoners were brought before him. "Ah, yes. The negotiator. General Kenobi, I've been looking forward to seeing you again."
Grievous slowly strode over to the Jedi as he spoke, his metal claws tapping as he walked. The automaton captain held out the Lightblades it had taken during the capture. Grievous grabbed them and looked them over as he continued to address his unwilling guests. "That wasn't much of a rescue. And-" He coughed as he turned to address Anakin. "Anakin Skywalker! I was expecting someone of your reputation to be... older."
Anakin scoffed. "General Grievous. You're shorter than I expected."
Grievous glared. "Insolent whelp." He turned and walked away.
Obi-Wan sighed. "We have a job to do, Anakin. Try not to upset him."
Artu gave a quiet whistle. Anakin turned enough to look at him and noticed that the little nautomaton had positioned his chassis door close to the cape of one of the Magnaguards. Anakin winked in acknowledgment before turning back to the Separatist general.
Grievous turned and rolled the Lightblade hilts back and forth in his six-fingered hand. "Your Lightblades will make fine additions to my collection." He opened his cape and revealed several pockets stitched into the lining. Many of them held Lightblade hilts already. "I think that for all the trouble you two have caused me, I will make these the centerpieces." He tucked the two Lightblades pommel first into a pair of pockets.
Obi-Wan smirked. "I'm afraid you won't have them for long. And you won't be escaping either."
Amakin turned. "Artu! Now!"
The door on his chassis opened and a flame shot out from his welding torch. The Magnaguard's cape lit up, alarming the mechanical soldiers. Taking advantage of the distraction, Obi-Wan spun and pulled his Lightblade into his hand with the Force, tearing Grievous' stitched pockets in the process. Obi-Wan caught his Lightblade in such a way that he was able to cut off his shackles when he ignited it. Anakin presented his own shackles to Obi-Wan who swiftly cut them off.
General Grievous roared in anger. "Crush them! Make them suffer!"
The Magnaguards, now finished extinguishing the burning cape turned their attentions to the Jedi. Anakin held out his hand towards his Lightblade which lay on the floor after it had fallen from Grievous' torn pocket. It flew into Anakin's hand already activated and ready to combat the approaching Magnaguards.
While the Jedi clashed with the skeletal automata, the automaton captain and his detail tried to drag the Chancellor out of the bridge. Palpatine resisted, kicking the captain in the shin, to little effect.
Grievous walked to the front of the bridge, avoiding fighting on account of his pain. "Stay at your stations," he told the bridge crew as he moved past them.
The Magnaguards, despite being automata, were very skilled with their phrik staves. Both ends of the staves crackled with a pink lightning and sparks flew every time they came in contact with the Lightblades. Obi-Wan's opponent drove him into the middle of the bridge floor, while Anakin's pushed him towards the bridge doors.
Obi-Wan was the first to land a blow on the Magnaguards. He deflected a thrust from the staff with his Lightblade and the staff lodged into one of the bridge control stations. The Jedi spun and beheaded the Magnaguard as it tried to free its weapon. Satisfied that he had defeated his opponent, Obi-Wan took a step towards Anakin to help him but stopped as he noticed that the Magnaguard was still moving. Obi-Wan jumped back and felt his moustache stand on end as the electrified staff narrowly missed his face.
Anakin, on the other hand, after nearly being pushed through the now opened bridge doors ducked under a wide sweeping swing and cut his Magnaguard opponent in half at the waist. It tried crawling after him, reaching out with a skeletal hand. Anakin cut it up the middle, and it ceased its movements.
Without a head and the eyes contained therein, it didn't take long for the Magnaguard attacking Obi-Wan to suffer a similar fate. Obi-Wan next turned his attention to the Separatist general. The ship's Nemoidian Captain curled up in his chair, trying to avoid getting caught up in the fight. Grievous moved around the bridge's perimeter, watching the Jedi closely.
Anakin rushed out of the bridge after the war automata that were trying to drag the Chancellor away. Thanks to his resisting, they hadn't made it very far. In just a few quick slashes, not only had Anakin cut down the automata, he had also cut the Chancellor's shackles.
General Grievous ordered the bridge crew to stay at their stations as he ran over to where Obi-Wan had cut down the Magnaguard. He picked up the phrik staff. Obi-Wan ran to confront him while Anakin moved in from behind.
Grievous hurled the staff at the bridge window, sending a spiderweb of cracks through thick glass. "Not this time, General Kenobi!" He jumped at the window, smashing through it.
Anakin and Obi-Wan rushed to the opening and watched as Grievous dug his clawed feet into the ship's sharply sloped iron armor some distance below. There was no way they be able to pursue him. They looked up and noticed that they were still heading straight towards the city of Coruscant.
With the Jedi distracted, the Captain ordered the crew to abandon ship. The ship shuddered as the shield wards finally gave out under the Republic's broadsides and the Invisible Hand's guns fell silent.
Obi-Wan rushed over to the communication font and hailed the fleet admiral. "This is General Kenobi! We are aboard the Separatist flagship and have the Chancellor! The Captain has ordered abandon ship and all batteries have ceased fire. Hold your fire on the flagship!"
"Acknowledged, General Kenobi," said the silver form of Admiral Yularen. "Please confirm your authorization code."
"T-H-X one-one-three-eight."
A few more cannonballs hit the ship before Admiral Yularen responded. "Confirmed. See you on shore, General."
Obi-Wan stared out at Coruscant. The Invisible Hand was heading towards the Grand Harbor. Obi-Wan looked to Anakin. "Can you pilot this thing?"
"I can pilot anything," Anakin replied with a cocksure smile. He rushed to the helm and turned the wheel hard to starboard. It spun freely. His smile vanished. "Um, I can't pilot this. The rudder chain is broken."
On the hull, General Grievous had clawed his way over to a hatch near the aft of the ship that opened onto his secret hangar. He turned the handle and climbed inside, hanging onto the rim of the hatch for a moment before dropping to the floor below.
In the middle of the small hanger was Grievous' belbullab, a large feathered flying reptile from his homeland of Kalee. Like Grievous himself, the belbullab had been through countless battles and required body reconstruction. One of its wings and three of its four legs had been replaced with mechanical prosthetics, as had its tail. One of its three eyes had been replaced after it had been taken out by an errant bullet.
Grievous stroked the belbullab's feathered mane lovingly. It was the only pet that he had left from his time as a Kaleesh warlord. The last connection to the time before he had been saved by Lord Sidious from the near-fatal Jedi assassination attempt so long ago. Grievous adjusted the belbullab's saddle and made sure that the Hyperion Ring was properly seated before he climbed atop.
The small hanger doors opened after Grievous tapped one of the runes on the saddle horn. Once clear of the ship, he headed in the direction of his now retreating fleet. The battle may have been lost, but there was no doubt that it had dealt a major blow to Republic morale.
The Invisible Hand continued on its collision course with Coruscant. Anakin had tried dropping the dreadnought's enormous anchors, but their chains had snapped from the speed. There was nobody left in the engine rooms to disconnect them from the propeller drive shafts.
The Chancellor looked to his rescuers with visible concern as they approached the city with alarming speed. "Is there anything else we can do?"
Anakin looked down at his nautical automaton. "Artu, did they equip the ship with any means of scuttling?"
Artu connected to the ship's internals and input the combination to check.
Obi-Wan looked to Anakin. "What are you doing?"
"If there are means of scuttling the ship, we could activate them and the water flooding in will slow the ship. I hope."
"And what is your plan if we sink before we get to the city?"
"Hope that the water is shallow."
Artu chirped that he had found scuttling charges.
Anakin nodded. "Blow them."
The dreadnought rocked as the charges went off. The center of the behemoth lifted almost out of the water as the ship tore in half. Secondary explosions ripped through the gun decks and water flooded into the hull.
"We lost something," said Anakin to his rattled compatriots.
Obi-Wan looked at him with annoyance. "Well don't worry, Anakin. Now you only need to stop half a ship."
The bow of the Invisible Hand continued onwards, listing to one side. To the credit of its builders, it didn't take on water very fast, but with the rear half and the propellers gone, it started slowing immediately. Something that big still needed quite some distance to stop though, and none of the three men were sure if it had enough.
In the bowels of the severed stern, water quickly made its way into the boiler rooms. Seawater flashed to steam as it touched the hot fireboxes and the coal fires within. So much steam built up in such a short span of time that the hull couldn't withstand the pressure. The stern exploded spectacularly, an even larger blast than the scuttling charges. Pieces of twisted iron rained down as the shattered remains of the stern capsized and slipped below the waves.
"Er, what was that?"
"Nothing to worry about, your Excellency," said Obi-Wan, trying to conceal his nervousness.
"We're slowing," said Anakin, changing the subject. "But we're still coming in too fast."
The ship closed in on the harbor, gunning straight for one of the monumental lighthouses. Even though it had slowed considerably, it was obvious that the Invisible Hand was going to collide with ancient structure.
"Brace for impact," Anakin called a moment before the beaked prow crashed into the lighthouse's white stones. Metal screamed and sparks flew.
The lighthouse shuddered and then slowly began to topple. Stone blocks that had stood for thousands of years tumbled to the docks below. The mighty chain that stretched across the harbor's mouth groaned then went slack as the huge winch broke free from the lighthouse's base. The ever-burning white flames that had guided countless ships scattered as the titanic brazier crashed to the ground. Dozens of ships and a few stone docks were crushed before the dreadnought finally came to a halt.
Had the military police not cleared the harbor of civilians for the ease of naval actions when the Separatists fleet appeared that morning, the number of casualties would have been unthinkable. Homunculus fire crews arrived on the scene within minutes of the crash to extinguish the handful of scattered fires that had cropped up.
The Invisible Hand itself fared no better than the lighthouse it had struck. The hull buckled and bent on impact. Rivets popped and iron plates peeled away from the twisted frame. Cannons tumbled out of the ship's gun decks and shattered on hitting the docks. The pride of the Separatist fleet had been reduced to scrap, much of which littered the sea floor.
Anakin pulled himself to his feet and helped Chancellor Palpatine up afterwards. Obi-Wan stood shaking with adrenaline and braced himself against one of the control stations. "Another happy voyage concluded."