DROID ARMY ON THE MARCH
Jedi General OBI-WAN KENOBI and the 212th Attack Legion rushed to the aid of the 501st Legion, led by Jedi General PONG KRELL in pursuit of a phantom fleet of CIS warships cutting a swath of devestation across Republic controlled space.
In low orbit above NABOO former jedi ANAKIN SKYWALKER is conducting a test flight of a prototype nabooian starfighter when a massive SEPARATIST ARMADA suddenly attacks the peaceful planet, forcing the few brave defenders into a desperate struggle for survival.
Under the flashes of fire and death from the furious battle in the skies above Senator PADME AMIDALA rushes to the THEED PALACE in the hopes of sending out a distress signal before the planet falls to the separatists and her husband dies defending her in a war neither one of them want a part of…
Episode 1: Fire Above Naboo
When the Separatists came there was no warning, no sign. One second Padme is beating her metaphorical head against the metaphorical wall negotiating for a reduction of clone trooper production with a selection of allies and vital players in the Senate.
The next, half of the city was on fire.
A breath before the first bomb landed raid alarms triggered from the Low Orbital Defense Arrays lit up across the city, then the first wave of droid starfighters took out the Comms array scattered out across the city of Theed, knocking out any type of communication with the outside world. Their objective was to cut Theed off from the outside world, and they succeeded.
With the connection with the LOD arrays cut off the raid alarms sputtered out, leaving only the thunder and screech of droid starfighters ravaging the city. Only Theed Palace sat mostly untouched. The raid alarms automatically activated the palace's shield generators, saving it from the worst of the bombardment. Then the screams. A collective wail of shock, pain, and despair rose up from the city itself, the terrible sound rising in pitch and volume as more voices joined the horrible chorus.
"Oh dear! Oh my! Oh Heavens! Oh Mistress Padme what are we going to do?!"
Oddly, Padme felt more annoyed than scared in the seconds following the attack. Annoyed and incredibly pissed off. Though, that may in part be the fault of the panicking protocol droid scuttling around her underground office. When the vulture droids knocked out the comms array they cut off the incredibly important discussion she was in the middle of. She's been attacked enough times to feel more exasperated then terrified outright, though the horrors of battle itself she could never get used to.
Having most of the administrative and political offices built into the plateau itself proved to be a wise choice in case Theed comes under siege. Padme figured she should be counting her blessings she came out of the initial assault completely unscathed, though all she was doing right now was slowly counting down from ten.
"Oh dear! What are we going to do?!"
"THREE-PO!" Padme snapped, her eyes screwed shut and her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose to stave off the nauseating wave of conflicting nerves roiling in her gut. The golden droid jumped at her shout, shuffling to face her.
"Y-yes Mistress Padme?"
Padme took a deep breath to center herself and leveled a serious frown in his direction. "Just calm down, okay?" She gathered herself and rose from her chair just as another tremor from the attack on the city above rocked the underground complex.
She she was still catching her balance the double doors to her office slid open and Captain Typho, Padme's faithful head of security since childhood, swept into the room, his last remaining eye darting around with his MPL-1 blaster -the very same model Anakin carried- in hand. After sweeping the room Typho made eye contact with Padme.
"Senator, we need to go. If we hurry we can take refuge inside the palace before the enemy begins to land troops and swarm us." Captain Typho's voice was calm as always, his words spoken in an unhurried cadence. Typho was by no means a large man, but his presence was that of a silent giant, never in the way but always within arms reach.
"Right." Padme didn't argue. She unclasped the gray skirt straddling her hips and let it fall to the floor unveiling the white body glove hugging her toned figure. She had always been more comfortable with wearing something she could move around easily in underneath her more formal attire. Tearing the loose and gangly gray blouse from her shoulders the young senator pulled back a desk drawer and clasped a belt and holster around her waist with her trusty ELG-3A holdout blaster sitting snugly in its leather restraint.
"Let's go Three-PO." Padme crossed the room and snatched the hapless protocol droid's arm and dragged him from the room, the droid weakly protesting the entire way.
"B-but Mistress Padme, why are we going outside the office? Isn't that where the b-battle droids are?"
It seemed Three-PO's brief stint as a quasi-battle droid on Geonosis scarred him deeper than Padme had thought. Or he's still just a coward. How this droid was the product of someone like her brash and fearless husband was beyond her.
"We can take the tunnels to the palace." Typho swept ahead a few yards in front of his charges as panicking workers and civilians ran up and down the halls in hysterical confusion.
Padme's heart broke seeing her people in such a state, and these are the lucky ones. The poor people on the surface were in far more dire straits. For all her outward confidence the young woman was inwardly trembling, her heartbeat pounding wildly in her chest. Only her experience in similar situations and Typho's presence allowed her to keep her cool.
Another violent tremor rocked the complex, this time a thundercrack ripped through the spherical corridor and Padme's world went white. She blinked and found herself sprawled against the wall, her ears ringing. To her relief Typho was only a few feet in front of her his expression hard enough to seem as if carved out of stone as her stared down the hallway ahead, his blaster held aloft in one hand.
"What was that noise?!" She tried to say over the ringing in her ears. A part of her felt foolish for trying, knowing full well that if she couldn't hear herself talk than her bodyguard certainly couldn't either.
Captain Typho considered the corridor ahead for a moment longer then gestured for her and C3-PO to follow. The people around her were in various states of disorientation, some crawling away, others clutching onto limbs of those passing or leaning heavily onto each other while a few were just screaming incoherently, those their voices were left unheard in the aftermath of whatever made that noise.
Padme had a bad feeling that she might know what that blast was.
Her fears were confirmed when they rounded a bend in the corridor and a cloud of dust billowed out and swallowed them in a suffocating haze.
Coughing into the crook of her arm Padme followed Typho's hazy figure further into the dust. The grey haze cleared at the same time her hearing, enough to both see the hundreds of tons of rock blocking their way, and the pinprick of light through the rubble filtering in the sounds of battle and screams of the dying.
Unfortunately, that also meant that Padme could now hear Three-PO again as well.
"Oh Heavens! The tunnel is collapsed! Oh no there is no way to get to the palace now! What are we going to do?!"
"Can it droid." Typho growled. The normally stoic bodyguard's grip on his control slipped for a moment but Padme couldn't help but agree.
"We are going to have to make a run for it." Padme said with a steel that she didn't feel. Fake it 'til you make it, just like Anakin says.
Captain Typho let out a weary sigh and nodded his reluctant agreement.
"You're right. Let me see if I can't move some of this rubble so we can squeeze through." He didn't wait for a reply, only pausing long enough to holster his blaster and scaled the concrete and rock and begin throwing aside the more movable pieces aside. Padme drew her own blaster and trained it on the slowly widening hole above them just in case.
"The surface! But Mistress Padme we can't possibly go up there! There's those terrible vulture droids and bombs and-"
"THREE-PO!"
"THREE-PO!"
"Right, muting now Mistress Padme..."
A few tense minutes of struggling and grunting and Typho managed to shift enough rubble out of the way to create a hole large enough to crawl out of. At first he was wondering how a bomb had managed to gorge out such a massive chunk of solid concrete to penetrate the tunnels underneath, then he poked his head out and balked.
The tunnel they had been following ran parallel with the main strip leading to the palace, now one side of the entire road and imploded in on itself, one of the bombs must have set off a chain reaction that set off one of the underground power reactors. A huge section of the road and a good two blocks of buildings had been swallowed, the tunnel had been on the very outer edge of the sink-hole and buckled the roof from the explosion.
Even now the seasoned bodyguard could see bodies strewn across the broken buildings, and no few people struggling to free their friends and family from the devastated wreckage as red laser fire rained down from above.
He closed his eye for a half second to block out the sight. He could allow it to haunt him later. He turned back to the tunnel below and stretched out a hand.
"Senator Amidala, Can you coax the droid up here."
"Ugh Three-PO, have you been putting on weight?" Padme did as she was bid and yanked a reluctant Three-PO forward by his golden chestplate and shoved him up the crumbling rocks into Typho's waiting hands.
" Gain weight? Me? How rude! W-wait Mistress Padme! The rubble will scratch my finish!"
Padme answered with a harder shove and Typho almost threw the floundering gold droid through the hole above. Padme clasped Typho's waiting hand and pulled herself up into the sinkhole with the Captain in tow. As they both gained their barings a flash of fire and a burning vulture droid hurtled out of the sky and smashed into the side of the sinkhole, throwing up shrapnel and plasma-fire.
Padme and Typho dove to the ground, Padme having to drag Three-PO down with her, just in time to avoid a dislodged flight stabilizer zip past their heads and detonate into the rocks behind them.
Padme made eye contact with her bodyguard and pointed to the spire scraping the clouds over the lip of the sink-hole. "We have to move!" She shouted over the din of battle.
Typho took it upon himself to drag Three-PO to his feet and the three scrambled up the sinkhole onto the street above. As they climbed Padme passed bodies of the dead and dying, some of her people were no more than pulped piles of meat and bone splattered among the rubble. Some of the living were trapped under the crumbling rock and bent steel, their limbs pinned and mangled.
Padme tore her eyes from her surroundings and focused forward, then stuttered to a stop. Just a few yards above her, over the lip of smashed shelf she saw a child, a little boy no more than six or so with curly blonde hair, clutching a teddy bear.
She couldn't ignore a child, especially when he was within reach. She knew it was stupid but she couldn't ignore the tearing in her heart.
The senator tore forward, her hands catching on a few jagged edges and drawing blood in her haste as she rushed to the little blonde body laying there. When she was a few feet from the shelf she called out to him.
"Hey, little boy!" He didn't seem to hear her so she hauled herself onto the shelf with him and shook his tiny shoulders. "Hey, no need to be scared, I'm a frien-"
Then she looked up to the rest of the boy, or lack thereof. The child's tiny figure ended just below his tiny ribs, the rocks were stained a deep sticky red with his insides spilling out from what was left of his little chest. The rest of the little boy was just… gone.
Padme didn't remember falling from the shelf and straight into Typho below her. She didn't remember him half-dragging half-carrying her to the street above.
What she did remember was the ragged teddy bear drenched in the little boy's blood. What she did remember was what she had to do.
They needed to get a message out. She only prayed the palace's emergency communication array had survived the assault.
Padme will not allow these bastards get away with this.
Harsh red laser fire churned the ground around them, the screech of vulture droids swooping overhead tore the air. Plasma bolts impacted and threw shattered stone and cobble into the air, showering Padme, Typho, and Three-PO in a painful hail of pulverized rock. The impacts were deafening, setting an agonizing ringing through the senator's head and throwing her across the street.
When the vulture droids pulled up from their dive Padme and Typho were cut in a dozen places, their ears bleedings, and breaths coming up ragged. Typho slid across the cobble dodging a stray laser bolt and hooked his charge's arm over his shoulder, pulling her to her feet. Three-PO's golden plating had been scarred and dented, his shiny finish marred badly, much to his dismay. The plating served its purpose though, his internals were rattled but intact.
"We gotta get to the palace steps!" Typho yelled, his booming voice barely a whisper over the din of battle and the ringing in Padme's ears. "If we can make it there the palace's shield generator will protect us!"
Padme absentmindedly nodded her agreement and grunted in pain, one leg torn at her thigh and bleeding profusely, staining her white bodysuit with red and filth. When the dust cleared to a foggy haze she saw the shapes of more of her people, some motionless and sprawled on the street, others running for their lives or pulling their friends and family to safety while some cradled the bodies of their loved ones, frozen in shock.
A pair of Gian Landspeeders barreled out of the dust, heavy laser cannons mounted on their hoods and Palace Guards manning them. One of the palace guards recognized the senator and her bodyguard and pointed, the driver cut a hard turn and the landspeeder slid to a stop a few feet in front of them. One of the Palace Guards leapt from the passenger seat and rushed over to help the wounded trio to the vehicle. The young man's padded brown uniform was splattered with someone else's blood and his leather bound steel helmet had a rent in the brow from deflecting a piece of wayward shrapnel.
"Senator Amidala! Captain Typho, thank the Force you're both alive!" As the young guard took Padme's other arm to carry her to the landspeeder the guard manning the cannon on the hood fired a burst into the air, green light splashing into the chaotic sky above.
The answering salvo of red lasers went wide, impacting harmlessly into the street around them and Padme saw a Vulture Droid's burning husk crash through the roof of an apartment building and explode, flinging brick and mortar earthward.
Typho deposited Padme and Three-PO into the back of the landspeeder and grabbed the guard's arm. "We need to get to the Palace! Is the emergency comms array still intact?"
The young guard pointed to the multi-layered spire piercing the sky, splashes of red and green light washing over a transparent field hugging the structure. "Right before the shields kicked on a laser bolt slipped through and torched the signal relay. We do have a team of techs rerouting the terminal to the array. Last I heard it should be back up in just a few more minutes."
"Good." Typho jumped into the passenger seat and the guard sat side-saddle on the edge of the landspeeder. Typho turned to the driver. "Get us to the palace steps!"
"Yessir! Hang on!" The driver whipped the landspeeder around and punched the throttle, throwing everyone back in their seats.
The driver didn't seem to have been familiar with the brake, the way he ducked and weaved through the battlefield Padme wouldn't have been surprised if he didn't know what a brake pedal was.
Was it bad that it reminded her of her husband's driving?
Probably not, Anakin did used to podrace. If anything this guy was tame as a grandma out for a morning toodle in her hover-buggy in comparison, and judging from the stories Obi-Wan had told her Ani still hasn't found the brake pedal himself.
The all too familiar screech of diving vulture droids broke Padme from her thoughts. She and several of the others turned around and saw a wing of the droid fighters bearing down on them, their laser cannons spitting red laser fire in a rapid alternating staccato.
"DODGE!" Typho screamed. "KRIFFING DODGE!"
The driver threw the wheel and the landspeeder jerked to the right, barely avoiding a fiery and sudden death. They didn't get out unskathed however, one of the laser bolts kissed the rear left repulser-lift with a nasty crunch and a gout of flame, trailing a dark cloud of smoke in their wake. The vulture droids shot past them overhead and banked sharply to the left.
"They're coming back around!" the young guard cried, at some point during the violent evasive maneuver the poor guy went from sitting side saddle to straddling the hood next to the cannon. He craned his head towards the driver. "Can't this thing go any faster?!"
"I have the pedal to the floor! We can't go any faster!"
"INCOMING!" Typho shoved Padme and Three-PO's heads down as the shrill scream of rapidly approaching droid fighters grew.
Padme glared over her shoulder to look at the ugly shapes tearing out of the skies towards them. If she was going to die she wanted to look death in the face at least.
A sudden burst of green light and the droid fighters became balls of fire and scrap metal. Those watching in the landspeeder gaped up in the sky in confusion until several blurs of yellow crossed the sky.
"It's the royal fleet!" The young guard laughed with only a touch of hysteria in his voice. "We're saved!"
The wing of three yellow N-1 Starfighters that saved them cut an elegant turn and let loose their twin cannons into a scrambled cloud of vulture droids. More than a dozen of the invaders were either destroyed or disabled, doomed to spiral earthward. More N-1's joined the first wing, the royal fleet quickly assembling into their squadrons and accelerated to meet the droid fleet head-on.
Padme let out her own little laugh of relief that soon sobered into a grim frown as the landspeeder passed through the transparent shield, the hair on the back of her neck sticking straight up from the static in the air around the rippling field.
The Gian Landspeeder slid to a halt at the foot of the palace steps between two massive bronze statues of Theed's founders at the statues' feet was a makeshift triage, the bodies of the dead and dying laid out on the stone in an orderly line as palace guards and volunteers rushed between the wounded trying their best to treat them.
Typho leapt from the Landspeeder and Padme followed with a bit of struggling under the weight of her wounded leg. Three-PO had to have help getting out by the young guardsman but by the time the protocol droid was finally free of the vehicle his mistress and her bodyguard were already inside the palace making a beeline for the emergency communications room. Within the palace's marbled halls were even more people fleeing from the destruction outside and no small amount of crying children.
Padme tamed the throbbing pain in her leg into a mild limp as she dodged palace guards and sidestepped clusters of terrified civilians. The worst part of the trip to the emergency communications room though were the unholy amount of stairs. How is anyone with shrapnel in their leg supposed to get anywhere in the place?
Finally they made it, the emergency communications room was just off the main audience chamber or more specifically they made it to the dual layered blast doors the communications room is sealed behind.
A pair of heavily armed and armored Royal Guards in silvery chromium reinforced plating stood ready at both sides of the door, their polished ornate long-blasters tucked to their shoulders and aimed loosely down the hallway in their direction. One of the guards recognized the battered figures making haste towards them and lowered his weapon and stepped forward, concern on his face.
"Senator Amidala, Captain Typho." The guard greeted curtly, lending his arm to the limping senator.
"Can you get us into the Comm room?" Typho asked, straight to the point.
"The Queen is already inside, attempting to hail Coruscant for reinforcements." The Royal Guard answered.
"And how is that going exactly?" Padme asked dryly.
"If you think you can be of any help I doubt her Highness will object." He admitted sheepishly, throwing the other guard a look and a nod towards the sealed door. The other guard stepped briskly to the blast doors and punched in the access code. The doors unlocked with the heavy snap of slamming bolts and the doors slid open with a hiss.
On the other side of the door was a circular room centered around a holo-console. A team of technicians in yellow and white leather uniforms were scattered around the room, two underneath the center console as the others ran thick cables from a panel in the wall to the console. In front of the console's controls stood a young woman -Queen Apailana- in silver livery and white face paint accented by deep red lipstick and a tall headdress with a curtain of beads running down her face, on both sides of the young matriarch stood a handmaiden and her personal bodyguard.
The young Queen looked up at the sound of the doors opening and the frustration and fear on her painted face melted away into a relieved and gentle smile.
"Padme!" The young woman shrugged off her overbearing bodyguard and met her friend halfway up the stairs leading to the console and embracing her in a quick but tight hug which Padme returned.
"My Queen, I'm so glad you are unharmed." Padme greeted in a far more reserved tone then her slightly younger matriarch.
"I'm happy you are alive." Queen Apailana released the senator and held her at arm's length, taking a look at her and her smile twisted into a frown when she caught sight of the blood staining her form, both from her friend and otherwise. "Though it seems even you haven't come out unscathed…"
"Enough about me my Queen, I'm a big girl." Padme replied with a smirk filled with confidence she didn't completely feel. "Any luck on contacting reinforcements from Coruscant?"
Queen Apailana's painted visage pulled into a scowl. "No, I'm afraid. According to the lead Technician the invaders managed to damage the Deep Space Transmitter. We can only transmit a message to anyone nearby. Having to relay a message from another planet will take time." The Queen sagged. "Time I fear we may not have."
Padme paled, a flash of despair flaring the ache of her wounds, magnified by a violent explosion rocking the entire palace.
They were all going to die.
She was going to die and never see Anakin again. Never feel his warmth again, his touch, never kiss that stupid, overconfident, smug, wonderful face of his. She was never going to hear his sweet, warm voice.
She was never going to be able to tell him she loved him ever again.
Her breath hitched and Padme fought down her sobs. Drawing on all of her schooling and experience as a politician Padme cleared her throat and stuffed her feelings in the back of her heart to deal with later.
If there is a later.
If only she could just yank her feelings out with the Force like Anakin says Obi-Wan does and-
"Obi-Wan!" Padme cried, hope soaring sharply in her chest. Queen Apailana nearly jumped out of her face paint and just stared at her friend with a bewildered expression.
"What?"
Padme noticed the weird look her Queen was giving her and composed herself, realizing how she must look like a raving lunatic.
She coughed self-consciously. "Not what, your Highness-"
"-But Who."
Middle Rim
Hyperspace Lane #4375A
Onboard Venator Class Star Destroyer "Vigilance"
"General Kenobi, General Krell is hailing us."
Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi let out a quietly frustrated sigh but straightened up and rose from his seat against the wall on the command bridge. He nodded to the clone trooper in yellow accented Phase 1 clone armor.
"Thank you Cody. I'll handle this, you go get some rest. I have a feeling you will need it."
"Thank you sir." Cody said, shedding his helmet with a twist and tucking it under his arm. "Oh and good luck." He added with a meaningful smirk before walking off to the mess hall.
Obi-Wan chuckled and reluctantly moved to the command console taking up center stage in the briefing room. With a calming breath he pressed the blinking receive button and the muscular four-armed visage of a towering Besalisk in Jedi battle robes burst into view in a shimmering cloud of blue motes.
Besalisks were a species Obi-wan was somewhat acquainted with. His favorite diner back on Coruscant was run by a rotub Besalisk by the name of Dexter. Obi-Wan got on well with Dexter but the other he unfortunately knew was a Jedi master of similar age and rank as himself, Pong Krell.
Besalisks are known as a war-like race, their thick hide, tall and bulky stature and four articulate arms made for a naturally intimidating form. Their faces were toad like in appearance with bone plating scaling from their brow to the nape of their truck-like neck and a waddle hanging beneath a thin wide mouth full of sharp teeth.
Pong Krell is tall, even for a Besalisk, the Jedi standing at a massive 7 foot and 7 inches and where a normal one of his kind was barely taller than the average human, and where there normally would be girth and fat there was only corded masses of powerful muscles.
Jedi General Pong Krell was not a being to cross, that was putting aside his nasty attitude.
Even through his foot tall hologram Pong Krell seemed to look down at his fellow Jedi master, his inferior arms crossed at the small of his back and his superior arms across his broad chest. The Besalisk wore a pair of folding double bladed lightsabers on his belt and an everlasting sneer on his face as he address his human counterpart.
"General Kenobi," Krell ground out from between his teeth. "About time."
Obi-Wan decided to just ignore the irritable Jedi's remark. "You must have hailed me for a reason General Krell. What is it? Do you have an update on our quarry?"
The Besalisk clicked his tongue and stared off into some off screen distance. "Chasing this "Ghost Fleet" is a fool's errand. How do we even know if it truly exists anyway?"
Obi-Wan fought to keep a sneer of his own off his face. Perhaps Anakin is a bad influence on him?
"I mean how can we trust the word of some clueless civilians and clones?" Krell continued.
Obi-Wan's anger flared for a second before exhaling through his nose and bleeding his emotions out into the Force.
Careful to keep his voice level and calm Obi-Wan replied, "I have seen this destruction with my own eyes Master Krell, Do you doubt my word?"
Krell fell silent for a moment, stewing on Obi-wan's words with a frown.
Wanting to be rid of his unpleasant colleague Obi-Wan pushed on.
"When you do get an update do keep me in the loop Master Krell. Good Day."
The Besalisk huffed a reply and Obi-Wan cut the connection.
The Jedi Master dragged an armored hand down his tired face. Perhaps he should follow his own advice he gave Cody and get some rest himself.
Telling a nearby clone deck officer to wake him once they left hyperspace Obi-Wan exited the bridge and made his way from the neck of the Star Destroyer to his quarters in its belly a dozen floors down.
Obi-wan's quarters were spartan and small, more akin with a walk-in closet then a room, but it was his home away from home. A bed on the left side of the room with a thin mattress (it's an absolute killer on his back) with a desk and terminal against the far wall with a small closet and dresser drawers across from his bed.
Without bothering to strip out of his battle robes Obi-Wan fell onto his bed and fell asleep.
Though it had been several hours when the deck officer knocked on his quarters to wake him as asked Obi-Wan felt as if only minutes had passed. Dragging himself from his quarters he returned to the bridge with dark bags under his eyes.
Blinking away the drowsiness from his mind Obi-Wan drew up to the command console and brought up the galactic map then focused it on their position in the Middle Rim. He had only been studying the map for more than a few minutes when the console's receive call button flashed red and squawked out an urgent alarm.
Is it Krell again? Who could be calling me now?
Clicking the flashing red button Obi-Wan's heart seized in his chest at the sight of Padme's battered and bloodied form sputtering in and out of focus above the console. It seemed that the signal was weak and quickly growing fainter.
"Obi-Wan? I-I-I-I-Zzzzzt-" Padme's face dissolved for an alarming second before solidifying again. "I don't know if you can hear me, or if we really are alone out here."
The normally steadfast woman he had just talked to that morning looked on the verge of breaking. Panic gripped his heart but his Force-bond with Anakin remained strong, so his worst fear had not come to pass.
Yet.
Padme continued, her form fluctuating more frequently and her voice crackling and becoming more distorted.
"I believe we may have found your ghost fleet. Naboo is under heavy assault by a massive Separatist armada-ZzzZzt- -an't hold out for much longer."
Padme's voice fell fainter and fainter until it was barely a crackling whisper among a sea of static, but her words still struck him.
"Please… Help us Obi-Wan. You are our only hope."
Then the connected failed and Padme vanished.
The room was deathly silent as every officer and trooper on the bridge watched the Jedi Master stare at the space where his friend's love had disappeared.
For a moment it seemed the Jedi Master had fallen into shock, then he exploded into action, arms flying to point at his officers and his voice booming, involuntarily amplified by the force.
"Admiral set a course for Naboo! Cody, rally your men, tell them to get ready for a fight."
"Yessir!"
Obi-Wan spun around thrusting a finger at a flight officer with fire in his eyes. "Lieutenant! Get our fighters prepped for launch as soon as we drop out of hyperspace in the Naboo system."
The deck officer rushed off to the flight deck already speaking urgently into his headset.
Obi-Wan turned back to the command Console as the rest of the room instantly became a mad house of controlled chaos and bellowed over the din. "AND SOMEBODY GET GENERAL KRELL ON THE HORN!"
A few seconds later a grumbling and clearly agitated Pong Krell shimmered into being above the console and scowled down at Obi-Wan.
"What is it now-"
"Get your fleet ready to move immediately." Obi-Wan ordered, interrupting the Besalisk. "I just received a call informing us of a large separatist armada attacking a nearby system."
General Krell frowned at the news, his face turning grim. Obi-Wan's lips on the other hand split into a wolfish flash of teeth.
"We found our quarry, now to tighten the noose and end them once and for all."
Onboard Venator Class Star Destroyer "Executor"
General Krell cut the call with Master Kenobi and growled out orders to chart a course to Naboo then turned to a clone commando in blue striped phase 1 armor, dual DC-17 Blaster Pistols holstered at his hips.
"CT-7567, Ready the troops immediately and have them standby in the hangar."
"Yes General Krell!" The Commando snapped a brisk salute and sprinted from the bridge, unaware of the look of disgust from Krell that followed him.
General Krell had a particular distaste for the degenerate life-forms under his command. Clones were a tool, and instrument of war and nothing more. They were not people.
If only he could beat that into that useless apprentice of his…
Now that he thought of it, where is that snivelling little rat Togruta anyway?