Chapter word count (for reference):
Prologue: 292
Monarchs: 660
Senators: 289
Bounty Hunters: 591
Kids: 762
Jedi: 1509
Counts: 1663
Kaminoians: 1428
Separatists: 3788
Beasts: 2942
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Chapter 9: Beasts
Anakin and Padmé are escorted through the hallways of the Geonosian Hive Center after being captured by Jango for trespassing and entering the droid factory illegally. They are taken to the council chamber that Dooku used to host meetings with his allies and the dinner with Tara. Padmé takes a seat at the table, the same seat Tara was in the previous night, with Anakin standing just behind her chair. On the other side of the table Dooku is seated, with Poggle the Lesser sitting next to him. Jango moves to stand behind Dooku's chair.
"You are holding Princess Tara captive, along with a Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi," she states to Dooku. "I'm formally requesting that you hand them both over to me now."
"We don't recognize the Republic here, Senator," Dooku replies. "But, if Naboo were to join our alliance, I could easily hear your plea for clemency."
"Clemency? Princess Tara is still a child." Padmé's voice remains ever stern. "I am requesting that I leave with her, and Master Kenobi. And I will not consider joining your rebellion on this matter or of any other."
"The Republic cannot be fixed, my lady. It is time to start over."
"I know of your treaties with the Trade Federation, the Commerce Guild, and the others, Count. I will not forsake all I have honored and worked for and betray the Republic."
"Then, I have done all I can, Senator. Now, regarding your espionage charges. I will allow Archduke Poggle to work on that matter."
Anakin and Padmé have found themselves standing before Poggle the Lesser, who is on a balcony speaking to them.
'You have been charged and found guilty of espionage,' he states.
"You're committing an act of war, Archduke," Padmé replies. "I hope you're prepared for the consequences."
'We build weapons, Senator, that is our business! Of course we are prepared!'
He pauses before saying, 'Your Jedi friend is waiting for you, Senator. Take them to the execution arena!'
Anakin and Padmé turn to face 2 Geonosian guards, who escort them out of the room and take them to the Petranaki Arena.
Dooku stands up from his seat, looking at Gunray and Lott Dod. "I will be there at the arena, but first I have to get one more guest to go with us."
Gunray laughs. "Will she do anything like what she did last night?"
"Not unless her wish is to join the Senator and Jedi."
Tara is lying on the ground in the holding cell, still in the robes Dooku gave her last night. Her lekku hurts after falling on it last night. She imagines that there is some bruising there. She gently touches it, trying to find where exactly it hurts, having limited hand ability due to the binders still on her wrists.
She wonders if Kenobi is alright, and if anyone else in the Republic knows that she and him are being held on Geonosis. If anyone else knows, they might come, but if they would be able to deal with the droid forces that are also on the planet.
The door suddenly opens. She scrambles back and up to her feet to try and face whoever it is. She finds herself looking straight at Dooku.
"Good," he chuckles, "You're all ready for today's events."
"What's today?" She asks.
"You'll find out soon enough, now we best be off."
He gestures for her to leave the cell. She does, and then turns to face him again. "Can, can you remove these binders?" She asks.
"My dear, I will have to keep an eye on you after what you did last night, so no, I will not remove them. And today will be a long day, so best get used to it."
She sighs. He gestures for her to keep walking, which she does. They both board the shuttle there, which takes them to the Arena, leaving Dooku's solar sailer in the hangar.
They land in a hangar in the arena. Dooku and Tara both walk through the passages up to the balcony, all the while escorted by 2 droids, both of them with grips on Tara's arms.
When they reach the top, Tara looks out over the edge. A massive sand pit, with 4 pillars in the middle. Seating surrounds the pit, with various entrances on the pit level. Waiting for them in the balcony is Gunray, Lott Dod, Poggle the Lesser, along with Jango and Boba, which surprises Tara.
Dooku turns to face the droids holding onto Tara. "You can let go," he instructs. "I can deal with her from here."
"Roger, Roger," one of them says. They each let go and turn to take posts at the back of the balcony.
Tara walks to the edge of the balcony and leans against the railing, looking down at one of the pillars.
Boba steps to be right next to her. "Um, hey, Tara."
"No," she says sternly. She keeps looking out at the pillar. She is looking at the person chained to it. She freezes. She recognizes them as Obi-Wan. She tries to say something, but Poggle the Lesser starts addressing the crowd.
'Fellow Geonosians, we are gathered here to watch the executions of 3 people convicted of crimes against the Separatist cause. Bring in the other 2 now.'
A gate on the pit level lifts up, and a cart exits, carrying on it Anakin and Padmé. 2 people that she did not expect to see. As they are chained to 2 of the other pillars, she turns to face Dooku and begins pleading. "Please Dooku, you can't kill them. That-that is an act of war, an execution for no reason."
"Tara, you must know that the Jedi committed treason against the Separatist Alliance, and will be paying for his crimes along with other people who were charged with similar crimes."
He takes a big step towards her. "Now, unless you wish to join the Jedi and the Senator who are to be killed, I would suggest that you not make any more requests or do anything that would make me consider sending you down there."
Tara backs away from Dooku in fear. She takes a deep breath in, and tries to calm herself, as he chuckles, moving back to where he was to watch the execution. She does succeed in calming herself and bites her lip when 3 more gates lift up, releasing beasts to kill her friends.
On the far left, an acklay emerged, its shriek loud and scratchy. It walked on 6 legs, each hooked like one giant claw; with a dark green hide and white underbelly. Its head stuck out from a long neck, with teeth several inches long filling its mouth.
In the middle, a reek came out, roaring. Its reddish hide implied that it only ate meat, with 3 horns sticking out from its head, one in the middle at the top and the other 2 off to the sides, about where the creature's cheeks would be. It had a thick body and strong legs, and a nose ring as the cherry on top.
On the right, a nexu comes out, hissing. It was not as big as the other creatures, but just as ferocious. It had a striped, furry hide, and 4 eyes on the front of its head. The wide mouth showed up many teeth, with hooked claws on its paw to complement them. A long tail that split into 2 partway came out of the creature's backside. A Geonosian riding a smaller creature used an electric spear to try and get it to charge. Instead, it pounced on the Geonosian, killing it, to the crowd's cheer.
Tara winced as she saw the creatures begin to get herded towards her friends. Unlike the many Geonosians present, she didn't want to see them, or anyone here, get mauled to death or eaten by these beasts. She noticed Padmé start to climb up the pillar she was chained to. 'Smart,' Tara thought.
The acklay has reached Obi-Wan. It swings one of its legs at him, which he dodges, and get the acklay to strike the pillar, snapping the chain. His hands are still chained together, but he can now move freely away from the pole as he keeps dodging jabs from it.
The reek charges at Anakin, ready to smash him into his pole. He jumps high into the air, making the creature smash the rock, as he lands on the creature's back, wrapping his length of chain around its center horn. The reek rears his head away, breaking Anakin from the pillar with a length of chain binded to him still.
The nexu starts climbing the pole Padmé is on, who uses the chain to whip at the creature. The creature hisses in pain as it claws at Padmé, leaving several gashes on her back. Padmé cries out in pain as the creature jumps down to the ground level. The crowd cheers. Tara gasps. Gunray snickers. The creature tries to climb up to her level again. Padmé jumps down, holding onto the chain to control her movement, and kicks the Nexu, knocking it all the way to the ground before it slowly gets up and starts whimpering. She uses this, and climbs back up to the top and unlocks her other wrist from the chains.
Anakin is trying to control the reek enough to ride it, with two mounted Geonosians, armed with spears, come up beside him. It finally shakes Anakin off of it, dragging him along with the chain around its main horn. Anakin yells in pain before the creature eventually comes to a stop, with the two Geonosians continuing on. He gets up, and uses the Force to calm the creature's mind, and when it is calm he mounts it, wrapping the chain around it, through the creature's mouth. He starts riding towards where Padmé is.
Obi-Wan gets the acklay to bash into the pillar, knocking it over. He gets up off the ground and starts running away from it. As one of the Geonosians comes up near him, he grabs the spear from it and flips it off its mount, still keeping the spear. He hits the Geonosian with the spear, who gets impaled when the creature steps on it. Obi-Wan tries to fight the acklay with his spear, before opting to throw it into the creature. He does, but it seems to do nothing as the beast pulls the spear out of its body using its mouth, before snapping the spear with its bite. Obi-Wan turns and continues running.
Anakin uses the reek to charge into the nexu, killing it. He shouts at Padmé to jump down, which she does. They ride towards Obi-Wan, who jumps onto the creature, seated astride behind Padmé.
Gunray complains. "This isn't how it's supposed to be! Jango," he directs at the bounty hunter, "Finish her off!"
Dooku calms him, "Patience, Viceroy, patience, she will die."
Several droidekas come out into the arena, surrounding the trio on the reek. Tara panics internally, praying that someone comes or something happens to save her friends.
Mace Windu comes up quietly behind the people in the balcony, before activating his lightsaber right in front of Jango. The 2 droids point weapons at him, but he uses the force to throw them off the balcony.
Dooku turns to face him. "Master Windu, how pleasant of you to join us."
"This party's over," he responds.
All around the arena, hundreds of lightsabers are activated to show off the amount of Jedi that are there, about 200. Tara smiles at seeing all of them.
Dooku sighs. "Brave, but, foolish, my old Jedi friend," he says to Windu. "You're impossibly outnumbered."
"I don't think so," Windu replies.
"We will see." As Dooku says this, two Type-2 battle droids come into view from down the hallway, and begin shooting at Windu. He deflects the blaster fire, pulling Tara behind him to protect her. Jango activates his flamethrower, and shoots it at Windu, who uses the force to redirect the fire away from him, before grabbing Tara and jumping off the edge.
The 2 land on the ground. Windu sheds his cloak, and grabs Tara's forearm so he can cut the binders off. "Stay with Kenobi," he directs.
"Yes, Master Windu," she responds. The Geonosians in the stands all flee the arens as the Jedi all jump down into the pit. One of the gates opens to release dozens of droids upon them. Anakin, Padmé, and Obi-Wan make their way into the group after the reek forces them off its back. Tara runs towards Obi-Wan.
"I got told to stay with you!"
"Alright," he says while activating a lightsaber that another Jedi gave him.
Kenobi begins deflecting blaster fire, and slicing through droids, keeping Tara right up behind him at all times. Tara keeps her head low, hoping not to get blasted by anyone. After some time, Windu runs up next to them, giving Tara an extra protector, as hundreds of more droids keep entering the arena.
Suddenly, the reek charges at the three of them. Obi-Wan grabs Tara, and pulls her out of the way, leaving Windu running from it. Obi-Wan gets off the ground and helps Tara up, before turning his back to continue destroying droids.
The acklay comes up on them, not being noticed until two droids that were attacking Obi-Wan back away. It shrieks at them, making Tara wince, grabbing at her lekku. Obi-Wan pulls Tara behind him and dodges a lunge from the creature before slicing off part of its front legs. The creature shrieks in pain as he again slashes at its throat, before stabbing it in the heart to finish it off quickly.
The Jedi find themselves being surrounded by the droids as they are corralled into the center of the arena, with many of them slowing due to exhaustion, which only results in them being shot and killed. They form a defensive circle, when suddenly the droids stop shooting and lower their weapons, while maintaining position on the Jedi.
Tara looks around in horror. What was about 200 Jedi coming to save her, Padmé, Anakin and Obi-Wan were down to about 20 standing in the circle. 'Is this because of me? This is because of me,' She thought. She couldn't help but feel guilty for all the dead Jedi lying in the pit, while looking at Obi-Wan trying and failing to feel a pulse on one of them right next to her.
Dooku speaks for the survivors to hear. As he speaks, some other Jedi that had surrendered elsewhere were escorted into the center with the rest.
"Master Windu, you have fought gallantly. Worthy of recognition in the archives of the Jedi Order. But now, it is finished. Surrender, and your lives will be spared."
"We will not be hostages to be bartered, Dooku," Windu shouts back at him.
"Then, I am sorry, old friend."
The droids point their weapons at the Jedi. Tara's mind scrambles, thinking this is it.
"Tara," Obi-Wan mutters. She tries to respond, but is cut off by a shout.
"Look!" Padmé's shout brings everyone's attention to what's above them.
Several gunships are hovering down onto their position, with a few cruisers visible in the distance higher up. The droids begin firing up at them, but many of them are shot by the gunships, which begin circling down to create a perimeter around the survivors.
Windu grabs Tara's hand, pulling her away from Obi-Wan. He leads her onto a gunship with Master Yoda, and several soldiers suited up with white armor, which she will learn are clone troopers. Boarding after them is Masters Fisto and Mundi. Tara looks across, and sees Obi-Wan on a ship with Anakin and Padmé. 'Good, they're safe,' she thinks.
The gunships lift off, and fly over the top of the arena, over the desert flatlands where several Federation ships are off in the distance.
The gunships fly over the flatlands, towards the droid forces.
Yoda turns to face Windu. "If Dooku escapes, rally more systems to his cause, he will."
Some anti-aircraft defenses start shooting from the ground at them.
"Hold on Princess," Fisto requests, smiling at Tara.
"Yes, it's good to see you too, Master Fisto," she responds, smiling back and grabbing onto one of the bars inside the ship.
The artillery fire being rained on them starts getting thick. A gunship flying nearby gets hit badly, and starts falling from the sky. Tara looks on in horror.
"Pilot," Windu shouts, "Land in that assembly area!"
The gunship descends into an area filled with clones. Windu, Fisto, and Mundi get off the ship and approach the Commanding officer there to meet them.
"Princess Tara, to the command ship, you should go," Yoda says to Tara. "Safe, you will be there."
"Yes Master Yoda, that seems like a good plan," she responds.
The gunship lifts back up, and turns back around to get to the command ship, landed on the ground. It flies to the port side and into the hangar. The gunship hovers above the ground, and one of the clones offers Tara a hand to get down the gap, which she takes.
A clone with yellow markings indicating rank of Commander is there to meet her. "Your Highness," he says with a slight head nod.
"Trooper," Tara responds.
"Would you like to stay on the bridge while the battle is going on?"
"Y-yes, that sounds good. Lead the way."
She thinks his voice sounds familiar, but she can't think of where or who she has heard it from before.