Episode III: Attack of the Clones
Chapter 11: The Battle of Geonosis
The guards returned for Anakin and Padme at their scheduled time and dragged the loyalists to the New Republic out of their cells. With staffs directed at their backs, the Jedi and Senator were walked to the Geonosisan High Audience Chamber located inside the Petranaki Arena, or as it was commonly known as, the Geonosisan Execution Arena.
Padme gave a snort of disgust upon seeing Viceroy Nute Gunray in the stands, along with the Trade Federation's Settlement Officer, Rune Haako, Count Dooku, Jango Fett, and an adolescent boy whom she knew was a clone of the bounty hunter.
Gunray laughed with delight at seeing the Seantor, yet she merely held her head high and ignored him and the other jeers of laughter that were directed to her.
The Archduke of Geonosis, Poggle the Lesser, then spoke from the head podium in the Geonosisan tongue. Nonetheless, Padme understood every word.
'You have been summoned with high treason, and will hereby be sentenced to death.'
Amidala scoffed. "You creating an act of war Archduke. I hope you're prepared for the consequences."
Poggle seemed to laugh. 'We build weapons Senator. That's our problem not yours.'
Suddenly, Nute Gunray spoke up from where he sat. "Get on with it! Carry out the sentence. I want to see her suffer."
Padme seethed with rage, but for the most part remained silent.
'Your Jedi friend is waiting for you,' the Archduke continued. 'Take them to the execution arena!'
The guards standing on either side of the duo raised their staffs once more and gestured for Anakin and Padme to proceed forward.
They were led out of the High Audience Chamber and taken below to the execution area. Arriving outside the entrance that led inside the vast interior of the arena, the captives' hands were cuffed to the inside of a cart, which would take them out into the arena. They could easily hear the audience outside chattering, obviously growing impatient for the entertainment to begin.
The Petranaki Arena on Geonosis had originally been brought about by both a need for entertainment in the rigid Geonosisan society, and an efficient way of disposing of otherwise resource-draining prisoners. The most popular attractions used deadly beasts in combat, resulting in the extinction of some of the more crowd-pleasing creatures on the planet.
While waiting to be taken inside the arena, Anakin turned to his companion.
"Don't be afraid."
"Afraid of what?" Padme asked. "Dying?" She gave a dry laugh. "We won't be dying today, Anakin. It'll take more than a Geonosisan Archduke ordering my death to kill me."
Anakin seemed to study her a moment before speaking again. "Do you really think we have a chance out there?"
"I thought there was a chance when the Trade Federation blockaded Naboo," she replied. "This is no different."
"I suppose not," he said with a light grin. He leaned over and kissed her briefly, but soon stopped when the cart began to move into the arena.
The Geonosian execution arena itself was a natural formation carved out of a millennia of weathering. Its floor consisted of sand and silt upon which event took place. The lower walls of the arena base included ancient low-relief carvings depicting famous battles and events. The arena could also be flooded if needed for aquatic events.
In the center, four poles laid with Obi-Wan handcuffed to the first. Padme refused to make eye contact with him as they rode by, for she had heard his thoughts.
Ridiculous! There's no reason for them to be here. Why are they here anyway?
Once the cart stopped several meters in front of the last two poles, the Geonosisan that had been driving it led them over to them. Though, Padme was barely paying attention. She had found a pin in her pocket and was trying to use it to undo her handcuffs. During this, she heard Anakin and Obi-Wan's tense conversation.
"I was beginning to wonder if you got my message," the older Jedi was saying.
"I retransmitted it just as you had requested master," Anakin said humbly. "Then we decided to come and rescue you."
Padme saw Obi-Wan look up to his handcuffs sarcastically. "Good job."
Through the duration of speech, their handcuffs had been chained above their heads and hooked onto a hook above them.
Suddenly, the audience began to cheer loudly, causing Padme to look up and see why. The top box, located at the center peak of the arena and used by only those of importance, was being filled with all of those that had been present earlier for the trial: Archduke Poggle, soon followed by Dooku, Gunray, Haako, Fett, and the young boy clone whom Padme assumed the hunter was using as a son or apprentice of some sort.
'Settle down, settle down,' Poggle said in Geonosisan to the crowd with a raised hand. They quieted down almost instantly, and he spoke again. 'Let the execution begin!'
At one of the side entrances, three different monsters were making their appearances one by one in the arena while the crowd cheered, but Padme wasn't paying attention. She was determined to get out of this arena alive.
Glancing over to her fellow captives showed her that they were watching the monsters enter the arena in disgust. Anakin, however, kept glancing over at her, but after a while finally stopped when the Sith Lady sensed the monsters getting closer. It was then that she risked using the Force to unclick her handcuffs. She hastily checked to made sure Obi-Wan nor Anakin hadn't seen her. But there was no reason to worry, for the monsters were about ten meters away from them now. The last thing they would be thinking about was her.
Now that her hands were free, she used the chain to climb up the pole, all the while hearing Anakin and Obi-Wan talking again.
"Just relax. Concentrate." Obi-Wan advised.
"What about Padme?" Anakin asked. She felt Obi-Wan glance at her before replying, "She seems to be on top of things."
Anakin also glanced up at her, but didn't reply because the monsters were finally upon them.
Padme had just reached the top of the pole when the smallest of the monsters, a feline creature native to the forest of Indona on the planet Cholganna called a nexu, started to climb after her up the pole. She hit it a few times with her chains, but that did nothing to stop it. It reached to the top, and before she could do anything, the creature had slashed her across the back with its sharp claws, ripping some of her shirt.
She yelled in agony and, not caring who was watching, angrily used the Force to throw the beast to the ground. Glaring down at it, she was ready when it got up and made a leap for the top of the pole. She used the chain to swing herself through the air and kick it in mid-jump. This resulted in the nexu falling to the ground in a heap.
Padme stayed alert and ready as she awaited the nexu to get up again, during which time she glanced around the arena to see how her fellows were doing. Obi-Wan was busy battling an ackley – a vicious, surprisingly agile creature with sharp claws and pointed fangs that were over 3.05 meters in height and native to the planet Vendaxa – while Anakin was attempting to strangle a reek – a large thick-skinned, horned quadruped native to Ylesia. She also noticed several Geonosisans walking around the arena with staffs, though most of them were hovering around Obi-Wan and the ackley.
When the nexu finally got up again, it started to roar up at her. Yet before it could attack, the reek came charging over with Anakin riding on its back and using his chains as reins. The nexu was knocked out of the way by being trampled under the reek's tough hooves.
Padme didn't need to be told twice when Anakin called up for her to jump. She landed safely behind him on the reek and they charged forward.
Obi-Wan quickly ran to catch up with them. She assumed he'd given up battling his ackley, for it was still alive in the arena. When he jumped up behind her, she placed a hand on his leg to keep him from falling off.
Turning her gaze up to the top box, she tapped into her Sith senses to hear what was going on up there. For it looked to be nothing less then confusion.
"This isn't how it's supposed to be," she heard Gunray say with fury. "Jango! Finish her!"
"Patience Viceroy, patience. She will die," Dooku said calmly.
Upon breaking the connection, Padme saw that they were being surrounded by a dozen droidekars. And when she shot a look up into the top box again, she saw that everyone up there was looking down on them with looks of utmost satisfaction. But something wasn't right. She suddenly sensed a large amount of Force sensitive beings making themselves known on the planet. That could mean only one thing: the Jedi had arrived to rescue them. And sure enough, she saw a violet lightsaber blade light up in front of Jango Fett. Quickly tapping into her eavesdropping senses once more, but cloaking it now that more Jedi were here, she began to listen in.
"Master Windu," she heard Dooku say. "How pleasant of you to join us."
"This party's over," was Windu's no nonsense response.
A moment later, she saw lightsabers of blue and green activate all around the arena in the stands, scaring away the Geonosisans who were all flying out of the arena in fear. By now, Anakin and Obi-Wan had noticed the presence of their fellows, and were looking around at them all in relief.
"Brave, but foolish my old Jedi friend," Dooku was saying. "You're impossibly outnumbered."
Windu scoffed. "I don't think so."
"We'll see," Dooku responded, and next thing Padme knew, she saw Master Windu flying through the air and onto the field. The estimated two hundred other Jedi were in the arena now as well, and the Droid army that had been in the factory earlier was running out to meet them.
A full-scale battle broke out, and two random Jedi whom Padme didn't recognize threw lightsabers at Anakin and Obi-Wan.
If only I could have one of those, she thought, jealousy eying the lightsabers as her fellows caught them.
But all thoughts of a lightsaber were lost to her when abruptly they were blasted off the reek by an exploding cannon. Padme landed on the ground several feet away and picked up a lone blaster that was lying next to her. She got up and began shooting everything in her path, with the exception of the Jedi of course.
Not too worry, she slyly told herself. I shall get my time to slaughter them.
Padme totally and completely felt in her element in the battle. It was an amazing and exciting feeling. After a while of shooting on foot, she ran towards the same cart that had brought them into the arena and was now being driven around the arena by the same Geonosisan from earlier. Upon reaching it, she kicked the Geonosisan off the orray and began to ride it herself, still shooting anything in her path. It was then that she saw Anakin running towards her, and he jumped into the back of the cart still deflecting blaster blots with his lightsaber. A few minutes later, another one of those exploding cannons shot the orray, and she and Anakin went falling to the ground. Quickly getting up, they used the cover of the cart, which had fallen on its side, and continued to fire and deflect blots of fire.
"You call this a diplomatic solution?" Anakin asked in a quip.
"No, I call it aggressive negotiations," she quipped back, smirking.
Anakin laughed and they continued on with the battle.
Eventually, they left the cover of the cart and joined the remaining Jedi in a ring in the middle of the arena while continuing to fight. Abruptly afterwards, though, the droids suddenly ceased fire. Padme was mildly taken aback by this, as were the others, yet when she looked up at the top box, she saw that it was Dooku's doing. He was currently looking down at them with a grim expression on his face.
"Master Windu," he called out in a loud, Force-amplified voice. "You have fought gallantly; worthy of recognition in the archives of the Jedi Order. But now it is finished."
As Dooku was speaking, Padme noticed several other Jedi being brought into the circle with them. "Surrender. And your lives will be spared," the Count finished.
Right!
Obviously, Master Windu felt the same way. "We will not be hostages to bought with Dooku," he called out to him.
"Then, I'm sorry old friend." Dooku gave them a sad look before making a hand gesture and all the droids in the arena were aiming at them again. Glancing around, Padme noticed that there were only about a dozen or so Jedi left out of the original two hundred. She didn't see how they had much of a chance. But suddenly, she heard something moving overhead. Looking to the sky, she saw approximately a dozen Attack Gunships, which she recognized as those apart of the secret army on Kamino lowering to land in the arena.
Despite her confusion as to what they could be doing here, she called out to the others. The droids in the arena began firing at the ships instead of them and she began firing once more, while the Jedi deflected the few shots aimed at them with their lightsabers.
Once the ships started to land, clonetroopers came out; some firing at the droids, others helping the survivors' aboard ships. On her way to one of the ships with Anakin and Obi-Wan, she saw Master Yoda on board one with, to her utmost shock and bewilderment, Antellica and Arica! But she didn't have time to ask them what they were doing here of all places. After they got on board the ship, it took off.
"Was that Antellica and Arica I saw with Master Yoda?" Anakin asked her over to howl of the ship.
"I think it was," she called back. "I just don't understand what they'd be doing here."
Both Antellica and Arica had seen Padme's look of surprise when she saw them here on Geonosis, but they didn't dare risk communicating mentally with all these Jedi around. The Jedi that had boarded the ship they were on with Master Yoda were Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, and Kit Fitso. They too appeared slightly bemused as to why the twins were here, butsaid nothing of the contrary, for as they took off, the small green Jedi expressed his concerns to Windu. "If Dooku escapes, rally more systems to his cause he will."
Suddenly, the sound of firing overheard was heard...
It turned out that the Separatists had followed them and were attempting to shoot all Republic ships out of the sky. There were also Separatists droids and battle machines on the ground far beneath them.
"Hold on," Obi-Wan called to Anakin and Padme during this. Again, she didn't need to be told twice. The gunship they were in started firing at some of the enemies in the air and on the ground.
"Aim right above the fuel cells," Anakin advised the pilot. He did as commanded, aiming at two of them on the ground as they passed. Looking back, she saw them collapse onto the ground, destroying a slew of the Separatists land forces.
"Good call, my young Padawan," Obi-Wan said to Anakin, and Padme sensed his annoyance once again at being called 'Padawan', though, he said nothing in objection.
Antellica and Arica had never been in a battle before so found this to be quite fun and exciting to watch. Glancing over at the gunship across from them, however, they were shocked to see it blasted out of the sky by a Separatist gunship. And they weren't the only two who'd seen the ship shot to the ground, for a few seconds after which Windu called, "Pilot! Land in that assembly area."
"Yes sir," the pilot responded and landed the ship.
Windu, Fisto, and Mundi exited the ship and were approached by a Clonetrooper lieutenant. "Sir. We have five special command groups awaiting you orders sir."
Master Windu motioned for the other two Jedi and lieutenant to follow him to battle.
As the twins lifted into the air with Master Yoda, he spoke to the pilot. "To the Forward Command Center, take us."
Upon arriving, Clone Commander Cody, the de facto leader of the bunch for the most part, approached them as they were exiting the ship. "Master Yoda: all forward positions are advantage."
"Very good," Yoda croaked while wobbling with his gimmer stick. "Very good."
Commander Cody led them over to the main Self-Propelled Heavy Artillery-Turbolaser (SPHA-T walker). It was then that Antellica noticed globe-shaped starships rising into the air. She tapped Arica on the shoulder to show her, and Arica took a pair of electrobinoculars from one of the clones to get a closer look. They were Trade Federation Starships.
"Concentrate all your fire on the nearest starship," the frog croaked at Commander Cody.
"Yes sir," he said before relaying the message to the other clones. When they took one of them down a few moments later, a large avalanche of sand came up over to them.
Antellica yelled as she and Arica ran inside one of the gunships with some of the clones. Yoda soon followed.
The next ten minutes or so, Padme spent basically just watching the battle unfold around them. Suddenly, Obi-Wan called out, "Look over there!"
She followed his gaze and saw Count Dooku riding a speeder bike ahead of them.
The bastard's trying to escape.
"It's Dooku," Anakin said with venom, "Shoot him down!" he barked at the pilot.
"We're out of rockets sir," the pilot explained.
"Then follow him!" Anakin once again barked.
"We're gonna need some help," Padme pointed out, for even if they did somehow corner Dooku, what could the Jedi do to stop him? Besides, the Sith Lady foresaw the Count escaping.
"There isn't time," Obi-Wan responded to her. "Anakin and I can handle this."
Yeah right.
As they got nearer still to Dooku, the sleek and small gunship duo that were flying escort for him suddenly left, only to fly behind their gunship and open fire. Padme held on as best she could, but when one of the shots hit the back of the ship, she fell off along with one of the clones. She heard Anakin call her name before she hit the sand covered ground and fell into unconsciousness.
They had brought down two more starships before the rest had flown into space, Arica observed as she, her sister and Master Yoda exited the land gunship they were on and watched as the Separatists Army was retreating.
Commander Cody approached them. "The droid army is in full retreat," he reported.
"Well done Commander. Bring me a ship."
Wow, that's the first actual sentence I've heard the green frog say in proper basic, Arica thought to Antellica. They both mentally laughed.
When their transport arrived, the three of them boarded it and flew towards the ship hanger where they knew Dooku would be trying to escape. Once they landed, Yoda told them to wait outside while he went in to face his former apprentice.
Padme let out a moan as she re-entered consciousness.
How long have I been out? She wondered.
The clone that had fallen off the gunship with her was now kneeling beside her. "Are you alright?" It asked.
"Yes," she said while getting up.
"We better get back to the Forward Command Center," the clone said to her.
She shook her head. "No. Gather what troops you can, we've got to get to that hanger. Get a transport. Hurry!"
"Right away," the clone said before running off. Padme followed.
A few minutes had gone by since Master Yoda entered the hanger, and the Grievous twins were growing restless.
"I'll just have a peak," Antellica said, getting up from her seated position. Arica nodded and also got up. "Yeah, I'm interested as to what's going on in there too."
They approached the entrance cautiously, with their hands on the hips of their blasters. The sounds of lightsabers clashing could be heard from inside, and when they peaked around the side of the entrance, they gapped in shock at what they saw. The little green frog was swinging through the air, wielding a lightsaber and fighting Count Dooku. When he landed on the ground a few seconds later, he spoke. "Fought we you have, my old Padawan."
"This is just the beginning," Dooku snarled and used the Force to make a tower pole in the room collapse. It was just then that both noticed Obi-Wan and Anakin lying sprawled on the floor beneath it. Yoda, however, caught the pole with the Force before it could collapse on the fallen Jedi. The twins then noticed with disgust that Dooku was trying to escape.
Oh no you don't, Antellica thought as she and Arica ran out of their hiding spot, pulled out their blasters, and began firing at Dooku. Antellica knew it was too late before they came out. As soon as they started firing, Dooku ran into a door that she knew led to his ship.
He was gone.
Padme arrived at the hanger with a group of troopers in tow. As soon as they got off the ship, she held out her arm to halt them. Distantly, she heard the unmistakable sound of a ship engine starting, and not long afterwards a ship came flying out of the hanger. She knew it carried Dooku.
Oh no. That bastard's not getting away.
She began to pointlessly fire with rage at the ship, the clones soon joining her, as it flew away, and into space. Giving a roar, she desisted and ran into the hanger. Antellica and Arica were helping up Obi-Wan and Anakin as the small form of Yoda was slowly approaching them.
"Anakin! Obi-Wan! Thank goodness you're alright!" she called as she ran to the duo. Halting several meters in front, she looked them over.
"You're injured," she observed, "but you don't look that bad."
Obi-Wan had a few cuts on his right arm and leg that Antellica was looking over, muttering, "Ow."
"I'll live," he commented dryly.
Padme than turned her attention to Anakin. Arica was openly gaping at his right arm…or at least what was left of it.
"Your arm!" Padme exclaimed, stepping closer to him. "It's practically gone! That monster sliced your arm off!"
"I'm fine Padme," he said softly. "I'll be all right."
Antellica was now gaping at Anakin as well.
"A very grave day this is," Yoda commented from where he was standing not too far off.