Chapter word count (for reference):
Prologue: 292
Monarchs: 660
Senators: 289
Bounty Hunters: 591
Kids: 762
Jedi: 1509
Counts: 1663
Kaminoians: 1428
Separatists: 3788 (extra lonk)
Hey guys! New chapter posted here for y'all to read! I will also, from now on, keep a list at the start of each chapter telling me the word count, mostly so I can know what I'm working with. Anyways, enjoy the writing!
Chapter 8: Separatists
After recording his transmission, Obi-Wan flies his ship up to the base of the mound, with the hangar at the top. He lands his ship around a bulge at the base, out of view from the external pad. He instructs R4 to stay with the ship, and to try and repair anything he can, considering they have no spare parts to work with.
He gets underneath the landing pad, up to the side of the cliff, and starts to climb. It will be a long climb, but he is more than capable. After some time, he reaches and grabs onto the side of the landing pad, making sure nobody has spotted him before pulling himself up and running in. However, he is unaware of the Separatist ship dropping off several squads of battle droids at the base of the cliff, with them moving towards his ship.
He comes across a squad of battle droids, but quickly slices through them and continues running. He reaches the back and opens the door on his left. The young girl on the ground scrambles up from her position lying on the floor, before recognizing the person she's looking at.
"Kenobi?" She asks.
"Princess Tara," he says, squatting down to get at her level. "Are you alright?"
"I-yeah, I'm alright," she replies. "Just hungry."
"What, you don't care for-" he pauses, looking at the plates of food in the far corner. "Jesseny worm larvae? Bit deadly, isn't it?"
"I've been told otherwise. How are we escaping?"
"I have a starfighter near the base of the pad," he answers, standing up and helping her stand up too.
"You brought a one person ship for a rescue mission?"
"Better than no ship."
He takes her hand and runs out of the cell, down the hallway, and through the hangar before making it onto the external pad.
"How do we get down?" Tara asks.
"I have a cable gun that can get us part of the way down," Obi-Wan replies, shooting it into the floor of the landing pad.
"Here, climb on my back."
Tara does so. Obi-Wan steps off the edge and uses his legs to push off the side of the cliff to get them to go down as far as the cable reaches. The cable gun goes until they are only about 30 feet from the ground.
"I'm letting go," Obi-Wan says. "Hold on."
"Wait, you're just letting go-OOOOH!" Tara tries to ask him, but she freaks out when he does let go and squeezes tighter.
Obi-Wan grabs Tara and pulls her into a bridal carry as he lands on the ground. He gently sets her down at her feet.
"That was your warning?" She asks.
"Well, it seemed to work," he replies. "If that was Anakin, you wouldn't have gotten one, Your Highness."
"Please call me Tara," she says, sounding rather annoyed. "Where's your ship?"
"This way," he responds pointing with one hand and taking Tara's with the other.
They run around the mound for some distance before stopping suddenly. In front of them is the remains of Obi-Wan's ship. "Blast," he mutters.
"How do we escape the planet now?" Tara asks.
Suddenly, a droid tank comes into view, being followed by several squids of battle droids and a few droidekas. They move to take position around Tara and Obi-Wan, who draws his lightsaber. He puts his arm around Tara in a protective manner.
"Do you have a plan?"
Obi-Wan sighs. "No, Tara. I'm sorry." He drops his lightsaber.
A droid commander pops its head out of the top of the tank. "Take the girl back to the hangar. We'll take the Jedi, to our main facility, and inform the Count of the new prisoner."
"No," Tara says as 2 droids come up and grab her upper arms. "Please, don't separate us!" She pleads, but to no avail as the rest of the droid army stays put with weapons pointed on Obi-Wan while she is taken back up to the hangar.
R2-D2 comes up to Anakin outside his family's homestead on Tatooine, and alerts him to Obi-Wan's transmission. Anakin runs towards the ship, with Padmé following close behind.
"Anakin, do you copy?" Obi-Wan's voice comes through the hologram, showing him seated in his starfighter. "My long range transmitter has been knocked out, please retransmit this message to Coruscant."
Padmé activates the long range transmitter, and sends Obi-Wan's message through it to Coruscant, for the Chancellor's office.
Inside the Chancellor's office, a group comprised of King Eric, Queen G'yaté, Chancellor Palpatine, Mas Amedda, Yoda, Mace Windu, Luminara Unduli, Plo Koon, Jar Jar Binks, along with several other Senators; have gathered to watch the transmission.
"I have tracked the bounty hunter Jango Fett to the droid foundries on Geonosis," Obi-Wan states. "The Trade Federation is to take delivery of a droid army here, and it is clear that Viceroy Gunray is behind the assassination attempts on Senator Amidala. The Corporate Alliance and Commerce Guild have both pledged their armies to Count Dooku, and are forming an army that would prove to be formidable."
"Additionally, Count Dooku mentioned an ambassador that he wishes to introduce to his allies. I see reason to believe that this ambassador is Princess Tara, and I am currently on my way towards an area I suspect she could be held at. If I do find her, I will take her back to Coruscant and give an update if I am successful."
The transmission ends. The hologram changes to show Anakin, who says, "The transmission came through 3 hours ago. We have not received any additional messages, and his transmitter is not being picked up on Geonosis."
"So it's likely that he failed," Windu replies.
King Eric sighs. "So my daughter is on Geonosis?"
"It would seem so, or at least Master Kenobi is," Windu replies.
"More happening on Geonosis, I feel, than has been revealed," Yoda says.
"I agree," Windu responds to Yoda before turning towards Anakin's hologram. "Anakin, we will deal with Count Dooku. The most important thing for you to do is to stay where you are. Protect the Senator at all costs. That is your first priority."
"Understood, Master," Anakin says before turning off the transmission.
"They'll never get there in time to save him," Padmé says. "They'll have to come halfway across the galaxy." She pulls up a map of the galaxy and continues, "Look, Geonosis is less than a parsec away."
"If he's still alive," Anakin replies. "And we don't know for sure if that's where Princess Tara is."
"Ani," she pleads, "Are you just going to sit here and let him die? I care for Tara, and Obi-Wan's your friend, your mentor-"
"He's like my father!" Anakin yells at her, "But you heard Master Windu, he gave me strict orders to stay here!"
Padmé thinks quickly. "He gave you strict orders to protect me. And I'm going to help our friends. If you want to protect me, you'll just have to come along."
She starts powering up the engines. Anakin smirks, before taking a seat. The ship takes off, headed for Geonosis.
"The Commerce Guild is preparing for war, there can be no doubt of that," Senator Mon Mothma says.
"Count Dooku must have made a treaty with them," Chancellor Palpatine says in response.
"The debate is over. We need this Clone Army that Master Kenobi mentioned if we are ever to stand a chance," Senator Orn Free Taa says.
"Unfortunately, the debate is not over," Senator Lexi Rio of Stewjon replies. "The Senate will never approve the use of clones before the Separatists attack."
"This is a crisis," Mas Amedda states. "The Senate must vote the Chancellor emergency powers. He can then approve the creation of a clone army."
Palpatine sighs. "But what Senator would have the courage to propose such a radical amendment?"
"If only Senator Amidala were here."
"It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling," Palpatine states to the Senate after Representative Bink's speech. "I love democracy. I love the Republic. The powers you give me, I will lay down once this crisis has ended. But for now, we are dealing with a group that sees no issue with taking hostages in Princess Tara, so, with my first act with this new authority, I will create a grand army of the Republic to counter the increasing threat of the Separatists."
"So it is done," Windu says to Yoda, the two of them having seen the announcement. "I will take what Jedi we have available and go to Geonosis to help Obi-Wan."
"Visit, I will," Yoda replies, "The cloners on Kamino, and see this army they have created for the Republic."
Windu nods, before leaving to head to the Jedi Temple to gather the Jedi forces.
Dooku walks through the halls of the Geonosian Hive Center, down to the detention section. He passes a guard standing at a door to a cell, and opens the door, and steps in to see Obi-Wan in a ray shield, suspended in the air.
"Traitor," Obi-Wan accuses.
"Oh no, my friend," Dooku defends himself, "This is a mistake, a terrible mistake, they have gone too far, this is madness!"
"I thought you were the leader here, Dooku."
"This had nothing to do with me, I assure you. I will petition immediately to have you set free."
"Well, I hope it doesn't take too long. I have work to do."
"May I ask why a Jedi Knight is all the way out here on Geonosis?"
"I have been tracking a bounty hunter named Jango Fett, do you know him? He is the man who kidnapped Princess Tara, who I found here."
"There are no bounty hunters here that I am aware of, the Geonosians don't trust them."
"Well who can blame them, but he is here, I can assure you. And Princess Tara is here, and I know you must be aware of that."
"She is my honored guest here, Obi-Wan," Dooku says to avoid the question. "It is a great pity our paths never crossed. Qui-Gon always spoke very highly of you." He pauses before adding, "I wish he were still alive, I could use his help right now."
"Qui-Gon Jinn would never join you."
"Don't be so sure, my young Jedi. You forget that he was once my apprentice just as you were once his. He knew all about the corruption in the Senate, but he would have never gone along with it, if he knew the truth as I have."
"The truth?"
"What if I told you that the Republic was under control of the Dark Lord of the Sith?"
"No, that's not possible, the Jedi would be aware of it."
"The Dark Side of the force has clouded their vision, my friend. Hundreds of Senators are now under the influence of a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious."
"I don't believe you."
"The Viceroy of the Trade Federation was once in league with this Darth Sidious, but he was betrayed 10 years ago by the Dark Lord, and came to me for help, telling me everything. You must join me, Obi-Wan, and together, we will destroy the Sith!"
"I will never join you, Dooku."
"It may be difficult to secure your release," Dooku says coldly. "Now, my friends have signed my treaty are to attend a special dinner, one that me being the host cannot miss."
He leaves the cell, leaving Obi-Wan to reflect on this.
The shuttle lands at the hangar, on the external pad. Dooku exits, and makes his way through the hangar towards the holding cell in the back. Following him is a droid carrying some fancy robes. He opens the door, and sees Tara, who again scrambles into the far corner.
"Now, young lady, I am here to invite you to a dinner, with some of my allies," he says. "Earlier today, several more groups and corporations have pledged their forces to the Separatist cause."
"Where is Kenobi?" Tara pleads with Dooku. "Is he alright?"
"He is, however he will not be attending this dinner, unlike you."
"If they're your allies, I don't want to go," she replies, trying to sound brave.
"It isn't a choice. Now, I brought you a gift. Robes, made from fine material of Serenno. It would be more suitable for you to wear than what you currently have."
He motions for the droid to enter, who does and gives the robes to Tara. Dooku smirks, and leaves the cell with the droid following. The robes are a cream color, with a brown cloak to go over them. They are much better than the sleeveless light blue nightgown she still has on, covered in smudges of dirt. She realizes she has no choice, so she walks over to the basin on the side and for the first time, washes her hands, face, lekku and does what she can for her hair. She then puts the robes on in preparation for the dinner, adjusting the long sleeves to cover the tattoos.
She thinks about what is going to be happening at this dinner, and who she's going to meet. If these are members of the CIS, then most of the people she is likely to meet are people like Viceroy Gunray of the Trade Federation and Poggle the Lesser of Geonosis. She ultimately decides that, no matter what, she would have to hold her head high and not let herself be pushed around by Dooku's allies.
A knock at the door is heard a few minutes later. "Are you ready, my dear?" Dooku's voice is heard through the door.
"Yeah, I'm ready," Tara replies.
"Good, now we best be on our way," he says as the door opens to let Tara out. He reaches out his arm for her to take so he can escort her, but she ignores it and passes him, heading towards the ship. He sighs, opting to closely follow her instead. They both board the ship, which takes off, headed for the Geonosian Hive Center.
The shuttle lands, and Dooku stands up. "Follow me," he says, which Tara does, the two of them getting off the shuttle and entering the center.
As they go through the door, 2 droids approach Tara and grab her by the upper arms, but Dooku waves them off. "That won't be necessary. Back to your posts."
"Roger, Roger," one of them responds and they both let go of Tara, who is shooting glares at Dooku. The two of them keep walking through the halls until they reach the hall where the dinner is being held, with a tactical droid standing at the doorway.
"Commander," he says to the tactical droid, "Have the girl wait here until I announce for her to enter."
"Yes, my lord," the tactical droid responds. He opens the door and allows Dooku to enter, while holding back Tara.
As Dooku enters, several of his colleagues stand to greet him. He returns the greetings, and walks over to his seat on the chair at the head of the table, furthest from the door.
"I thought you had invited an ambassador here, Count," Lott Dod asks. "Where are they?"
"She is just outside the room," Dooku responds.
Gunray's curiosity sparks at hearing 'she.' "May we meet her?"
Dooku smirks. "You may. Gentlemen, I would like to present Tara Pruveen," he says as the door opens to reveal Tara, who steps through, holding her head high.
"Princess of the Republic. Daughter of King Eric Eric and Queen G'yaté," Dooku continues as Tara takes the seat at the other side of the table, furthest from Dooku.
Gunray groans. "This is not who I was hoping to see, Count," he says, turning towards Tara to continue, "But you are welcome here as well, little girl."
Tara winced at being called 'little girl.' "Thank you, Viceroy," she replies. "I am honored to be here, at Count Dooku's request."
She looks around the room at Dooku's allies. Most of the people present she hasn't met, but has an idea of who they are. She sees the bounty hunter Jango Fett standing behind Dooku's chair, with his helmet off. He stares at her with an indifferent look in his eye. She quickly looks away from him and keeps looking around, her eyes eventually stopping on someone she recognizes and has talked to in the past several times.
"Senator Organa!" She says with surprise at seeing him there.
"Your Highness, I was not expecting to see you here, being so young," he responds, being caught off guard at being addressed by Tara.
"Well, I wasn't expecting to see you here either. Which doesn't make sense, considering that you joined this Alliance not long ago."
"Well, I felt it was the best for my people," he pauses, not noticing Tara's pleading look in her eyes, not recognizing the silent call for help. "Are your parents around? Are there other ambassadors here as well from the Republic? I can imagine if you're here, then there must be some Jedi here as well."
"Well," she hesitates before saying, "There is one Jedi here, but I don't believe he is attending this meal. He and I both were," she hesitates again before saying, "Not expecting to come here, this invitation came at very short notice."
Organa looks at her funny, still not understanding the message she's trying to give. "I see," he replies. "Well, either way, it is good that you're here.
Tara chuckles. 'He's so naive,' she thinks, before saying, "Yes, it is good that I'm here."
"Now, my dear," Dooku says from across the table, "My friends and I have spent a good deal of this day already negotiating over alliances and treaties, I think by now we could all use some good food."
The door opens and several droids walk in, carrying with them platters of food. They spread them throughout the table, and begin serving food to the attendants. One of them goes to serve Jesseny worm larvae to Tara, but she declines the offer.
Poggle the Lesser sees this and snorts. He speaks in his native tongue of clicks, 'You don't know good food when you see it, girl. You look Togrutan enough to stomach it.'
"Yes, well" Tara replies, "I would rather not take my chances with death on your planet, Sir."
Jango chuckles from across the table. "The kid knows her way around the galaxy," he announces, to the laughter of the attendees.
Tara fakes a laugh to try and fit in. "It's an important skill to have, when you're in this position."
"What do you mean, My lady?" Organa asks.
Tara hesitates and thinks for a moment. "I'll, I'll answer that in a bit," she decides to answer with. "For now, we should dig in."
Dooku stares at her with a hint of irksome as she picks up a womp rat leg and begins to eat. Her realization of how long she hadn't eaten isn't thought about by her, until she asks for more a third time.
"Now, now, little girl," Gunray says to her, "I think you've had enough."
"Sorry," she replies, "I'm just a little hungry. Hadn't been feeling well the past couple days, and I hadn't eaten well as a result."
Organa stares at her. "What do you mean, Your Highness?"
Tara thinks about this for a moment. She had noticed Dooku staring hard at her once or twice already, and she realized that most of these people weren't aware that she was kidnapped in order to be here, and that only some of them may have figured it out by now, Organa definitely not being one of them. She assumed that Dooku would get mad or annoyed if she flatout said what was going on, so she decided that she would have to avoid that, while still trying to get Organa to understand. She felt that him being aware of the situation would be the best way for her to possibly get freed, and that he should be considered the most trustworthy on this planet, after Obi-Wan.
"I came here on short notice, and have not come here under any context of negotiation or alliance forming," she says, avoiding looking at Dooku, who is shooting glares at her. "I came here alone, escorted by the bounty hunter Fett," she continues, gesturing towards Jango.
Organa looks at the bounty hunter, still with a look of indifference on his face before turning and looking at Tara, eyes open wide as he starts to realize what is going on. "Princess Tara, are you here willingly?"
Tara takes a deep breath before softly saying, "No."
Organa looks at Dooku in shock. "My Lord-"
He is cut off by Dooku quickly pushing his chair back from the table and standing up. "I think that Princess Tara has been here for enough time, now. She should be heading back to her chambers."
The 2 droids at the door walk forward and grab Tara's upper arms, who makes an impulse decision, shouting, "There's a Jedi here somewhere, Obi-Wan Kenobi, tried to rescue me, being held somewhere else on the planet, please help the 2 of us!"
The droids start forcing Tara towards the door. She pulls out of their grips and runs out the door, turning down the opposite direction from where she knew she came earlier.
Dooku walks briskly out the door. He motions for 2 more guards, both Geonosisans to take posts inside the room they were all just eating in, saying, "Don't let anyone leave," before continuing off in the direction he sensed Tara went in.
Tara runs aimlessly through the vast hallways. Not knowing where to go, only that she must find Obi-Wan if she is to have a chance at escaping. She turns a corner, and runs smack into a Geonosian soldier. She falls backwards, right onto her lekku, feeling the sensitive part of her body be hurt badly. As she winces in pain, the Geonosian she ran into points his spear at her as 4 battle droids come running up, having been chasing her.
The Geonosian clicks, 'Cuff her,' and 2 of the droids grab her arms and pull her into a standing position, while a third pulls out a pair of binders, and cuffs her wrists in front of her. 'Anymore problems, girl,' the Geonosian clicks, 'And the droids will stun and drag you back to where you belong.'
"Understood, Sir," one of the droids says as the 2 of them that lifted her up keep a firm grip on her arms as they force her back through the halls towards the shuttle to take her back to the hangar.