Welcome to the seventh days of Star Wars Xmas! Thank you all for your awesome engagement, and I am glad most of you are enjoying the story so far. Were getting a small taste of some action here in this chapter before the real actions comes in the Clone Wars and beyond.
It also seems that Fanfictions is failing to give people some updates when the story gets a new chapters, if you are not seeing the new chapter the following day close to its end (my time) try changing the chapter number in the URL to force the chapter to load for you.
Chapter 7:
Harry was standing at the private landing pad where his CR90, named HPI: Trade Nine was parked. He and Shmi were saying their final goodbyes before he left to join the small fleet he was assembling to help the Nabooian people.
"Please…. Promise me you'll be safe." Shmi pleaded to him while holding him close in a hug. "I can't lose you too." she said sadly.
"I will do my best, but you forget I am harder to damage than most, and even harder to kill." he said eluding back to when she had found out about his extra durability during a 'minor' accident in his workshop, cough reactor explosion cough. "I feel I must go, or something really bad will happen." he said to his long time lover. Their relationship was odd, as Shmi insisted that he needed to find other lovers too, so that he may ensure his species doesn't die out here in this galaxy. However he had really held off on doing that, and had been enjoying her company as is. He also had just realized that it had been 15 years since he arrived and there was still no sign of Hermione, so there was a good chance she wasn't coming. He would still keep his eyes out though for some time.
"Show those Trade Federation bastards that they messed with the wrong people." she said putting on a brave face, being the strong woman he knew her to be. He gave her one long deep kiss before marching to the elevator that quickly retracted with him inside, after which he went to the bridge. Looking at the command droid standing behind the holo readout of the sensors from the ship he gave his orders.
"Set course to rendezvous with our fleet." he said to the droids in the bridge.
"Sir." the command droid said while saluting him before he started issuing orders through both speech and his link with the computers. The CR90 took off smoothly to a slight engine roar as Harry went to the Estate deck, or floor three to relax while he waited for whatever it was that his force senses were telling him to wait for. It would only take the ship about a day to get to Naboo, so he would work on his designs while he waited. Currently he was working on a self destructing code for his Navi computers to prevent people from stealing their data either physically or via slicers if they picked up one of his probes or ships. In many ways he had a huge advantage due to the often significantly different approaches used from Earth that could be translated into computer systems here. Let alone he could simply code in a programming language of Earth to almost ensure security.
"The force is strong with him." Master Ki-Adi-Mundi said as they stood in the council chambers. Obi-Wan could not understand why his master was so convinced that Anakin was the chosen one. It also incensed him some that he seemed to be so dead set against following the direction of the council.
"He is to be trained, then?" asked his master of the council.
"We are still in deliberation, his age causes concern." Master Windu said. "Many of us believe that his prior training with this Hadrian offsets this, however others are in doubt and we still deliberate." It seemed that the masters were split on young Anakin's fate. Obi-Wan personally was not sure himself, but it seemed that was a shared sentiment.
"Young Skywalker's fate will be decided later." Master Yoda said, closing the discussion for now. The debrief then went into the current events, and the soon to be departing Queen of Naboo back to her planet. Obi-Wan was not quite sure what she hoped to achieve with that move, but could see the council's concern.
They were ordered to go to Naboo and try to draw out the Queen's attacker, and discover the identity of the darkside warrior his master had seen on Tatooine. This was an important mission, he could feel it, and this may even be what leads him to gaining his knighthood. He put those feelings to the side and centered himself in the force, and to immediate concerns.
"This may be the clue we need to unravel the mystery of the Sith." Master Windu said after their discussion about their mission to Naboo concluded.
"May the force be with you." chanted Yoda, as they made their way out of the room.
"Sir we are receiving a transmission." the command droid said over the ship's intercom to him.
"Put it through," he said. He was sitting in the receiving room of the suite on the third level of the CR90. It was quite comfortable and Harry was enjoying his few day stay so far with his fleet. He always has enjoyed the quiet that space provided. With him being the only organic besides the Elves in the small fleet of 12 CR90s, he could let his Force senses spread out a bit without having to worry about reading other's signatures. In front of him popped into existence a screen showing Padme in her Handmaiden outfit.
"Hadrian! I have a plan, and I may require your assistance for it to be successful." she said to him, clearly alone in the room she was currently in. However, Harry could see she was on a ship of some kind. "The timing may need to be just right if they have the planet Jammed, but I hope that won't be the case with them having it mostly under their control." she said a bit heatedly. She outlined her plan about getting the Gungan army to help draw the droids out, so she can capture their leader Nute Gunrey and force a surrender.
Her backup plan was for some of her royal pilots, and his ships to try and take out the droid control ships in orbit, disabling the droid army. It wasn't a terrible plan, but still bet quite a bit on them succeeding in space if the operation failed on the ground, unfortunately he didn't have a better one. The plan had them to arrive at noon Naboo time, or when contacted. Harry felt good about this, and went directly to the bridge of his ship after telling Padme he was in. When he was there he started giving orders to the command droid.
"Have the fleet prepare for hyperspace and battle. We will be departing in a few hours." he said to the droid. He looked over their assets, and what they were bringing to the battle. He didn't have a huge fleet or anything but felt it was respectable nonetheless, with 12 CR90s, and 120 CloakShaped Droid Starfighters. "I want half the fighters to lead us in and engage in anti-fighter operations in close." he said to the command droid who relayed what he was saying to the Droid Control Units. "The rest of the ships will engage the battleships, and attempt to disable or jam their ability to control their army on the ground. I want everyone aiming for their Hangars where we may get additional secondary explosions when they launch counter fighters. The central sphere of Lucrehulk is known to be heavily shielded so should be avoided." He gave the breakdown of their operation to his fleet of droids.
"It will be done sir, and ourselves?" the command droid beside him asked.
"We will be heading into the heart of battle and directly towards the planet, I can sense I will be needed on the ground." he said to the droid. "We may need to break through some ground fire on the way, but once we come out of hyperspace we shall make for the palace hanger proper." he ordered as he peered out into the black pensively, waiting for their signal or the timer to run down. He decided to spend the rest of the wait meditating on the coming events, and centering himself.
"Captain." Qui-Gon said to the Captain just as the man had just arrived back from Theed having done some scouting. They were all standing just at the forest edge by a speeder looking out over the rolling hills that surround Theed, the capital of Naboo. He was worried that this plan would not work, as he felt something sinister in the force was at work. His Padawan though was a bit more confident now that there was only a single battleship in orbit.
"Your Majesty." Captain Panaka said as he walked up to them.
"What's the situation?" Queen Amidala asked.
"Almost everyone is in camps. A few hundred police and guards have formed an underground resistance movement. It seems some foreign droids from a ship that ran the blockade have been distributing aid to those they can, as well as helping some of the resistance groups." the Captain said to his Queen. "I brought back as many of the leaders as I could. The Federation's army is also much larger than we thought, and much stronger." he said to everyone present, before turning back to her majesty. "Your Highness, this is a battle I do not think that we can win."
"The battle is a diversion." The queen said as she explained her plan to enter the city in secret, and capture the Federation's leader, or as a last resort take out the control ship in orbit with ships from the hangar. She also told the Gungan leader about her ally, who she didn't name, that would be arriving with a small fleet of ships to help them knock out the control ship.
"What ally is this my Queen?" Captain Panaka asked a question that Qui-Gon already knew the answer too.
"Lord Hadrian Peverell, owner and operator of HPI. Who I know you are aware has been selling medicine out of Naboo, as I approved your own order for the guard months ago. He was also the one on Tatooine to provide the parts for our ship, for free." she told her Captain and the leader of the Gungan.
"Strong name, Hesa sounds likes a big bomdad." the large Gungan leader commented, happy to be involved.
"He is quite an interesting person." he said to them with a bit more hidden humour than even he had expected, a merchant giving things away for free was the last thing he was going to believe. Most likely Harry or PA would find many ways to profit from this. Interesting was also the least he would use to describe his new friend. "It was his ship that ran the blockade, and his droids providing the aid. At the Queen's behest." he said to the group earning the young Padme some points with her subordinates. "As well a conceived plan that can be in these circumstances. The weapons on Hadrian's ships may be enough to penetrate the shields on the control ship, it would have been difficult if not impossible without him your Highness, but with him it should be possible."
"We can only hope that Lord Peverell will be able to stop the Viceroy if he tries to escape." Obi-Wan said, finally speaking up. "Otherwise he will return with another droid army."
"I feel we can trust in Hadrian to do his part." the Queen stated.
"I concur." he said, feeling that this plane was right in the Force, and with some caution, they may see victory here today.
"Sir, it is time." his command droid said, breaking him out of his meditation, just in time to see the lead fighters jump into hyperspace, followed quickly by his own ship. They were only minutes out now having moved closer in preparation for the battle. However he was surprised when they came out of hyperspace and found only a single battleship present. Sure it was three 3km across and dwarfed his ships, however they still had quite a few advantages over the slow moving donut.
"Sensors are picking up no other vessels or allied pilots in the sky." relayed the command droid. "The battleship is launching fighters. They appear to be droid class fighters. Scan confirm, Vulture droids." Harry watched as Green laser cannon fire came from his fighters as they engaged the droid fighters of the Federation almost upon arrival. Those Nubian hyperdrives certainly allow for more precise jumps. You could immediately tell the difference in quality in hardware, as his fighters started tearing their counterparts to shreds. With missiles and green laser fire instantly blowing their enemies to bits on contact.
Whereas the Federation's fighter's were having a terrible time of it, as even when they managed to score hits, Harry's CS fighter's shields were enough to tank a few hits no problem. Let alone the armour under that. It was also extremely clear who had superior programming for their droids. He was quite proud of his AI code that he had developed for the droid control units and that he kept on improving. Though he definitely could not take all the credit as R3 was certainly his partner in crime in coding those boxes.
The rest of the fleet pushed forwards when the two groups of fighters were engaged, and started exchanging fire with the Federation battleship. The Trade Federation clearly used cheaper blaster gas for their laser cannons with red bolts being fired at his ships. As this was the first large scale battle for his control units, it meant that their capabilities would only get better from here on out as they continued to fight enemies and learned. The fact that he was already satisfied made him feel proud both of himself and his creation.
He could see his CR90s fire their turbo lasers, and laser cannon fire onto the hangar bay openings of the battleship, causing launching droid fighters to explode on contact with his fleet's firepower. Missiles also flew in swarms, and proton torpedoes impacted on the battleship's shields causing massive drains to their power. You could visibly see the impact his ship fire was having on the Lucrehulk's shields. That being said, it was clear from sensor readings the deflector shields of the massive ship were still holding strong for now, but slowly getting weaker, as he saw small amounts of laser fire start bleeding through.
He was observing this all on the holo display as his own CR90 made for planet side and the Royal hangar. "Sir, Nubian fighters are launching." said his command droid, who changed the display over. "They are taking fire, shall we assist?" the droid asked him.
"Fire on those tanks shooting at the fighters and get us lower." he said to his droid as he started to observe things out of their windows as they were still a few kilometers out from their target. He saw the green laser fire from his ship streak out into the cloud cover that currently blocked his view. As they cleared the clouds he saw more fighters leaving the hangar and that the two tanks that were providing anti-air fire for the Federation were now black rubble piles.
"Sir, there are two armies about to engage in battle just on the outskirts of the city. It appears that the Gungans are taking heavy weapons fire from grav tanks." the droid pointed out to Harry as he switched his view on the holotank display.
"After I have disembarked, I want you to strafe those tanks for the Gungans." he said to the droid. As he spoke the ship smoothly swooped down and pulled into a makeshift landing spot just to the side of the hangar and he quickly disembarked. As he did, for a second he thought he felt Anakin's force presence pass by him, but he then thought he was just going crazy as it was already gone when he looked around for it.
He felt the force leading him somewhere into the palace instead of where he could here fight from in the city, making a quick decision he followed the pull to where the Force felt he needed to go. He ended up getting lost for about five minutes, and was deep in the bowls of.. well... somewhere, but he could still hear the sounds of battle elsewhere. When he turned the corner he finally saw where he was being led to. There in front of him was the Sith fighting with a new lightsaber against Qui-Gon.
Harry could see Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon's Padawan, was separated from the other two by some shield. They were in a circular room, with only the entrances being the one he came through and the one Obi-wan was stuck in. As he took this in he realized that Qui-Gon was losing his battle, being clearly worn down, just then force sent a huge warning to him that the Sith was going to strike, and just as he hit Qui-Gon in the face Harry acted without thinking.
In desperation he yelled out and launched his hands forward sending his magic forth, quickly it surrounded the alien and stopped him cold. Harry could feel the strain that doing this was having on him, as the darksider was using his anger at being thwarted to fuel his own force powers trying to counter Harry's continued attempts at halting him in place. A single bead of sweat started to form on Harry's forehead, as everyone in the room including the Zabrak who struggled to turn his head, saw him there for the first time with his hands outstretched stopping the alien.
Just then the force field holding back Obi-Wan ended, and he came flying over and cut the Sith in half as he went to stand over his master who had been knocked down stunned from the face hit. The darksider's top and bottom half both comically tumbled down the shaft in the middle of the room. Harry walked over to look down, and saw how far down the now half man had already fallen, and he could not even see the bottom.
"Well that ended quickly." he said to the two winded and stunned Jedi, trying to defuse the tension that built up from their fight. "So if you two are here, did I actually feel Anakin earlier or was I imagining things?" he asked a bit upset now, as this was seriously not the level of protection he was expecting the boy to have with the Jedi. Who thought bringing that kid or well any kid to a war zone was a good idea needs to be reintroduced to kids in general, let alone Anakin.
"Ah.. yes he was in our custody, when we were assigned here to bait out the Sith. The Jedi council is still deliberating on his acceptance. I thought he was in a safe spot out of the way." Qui-Gon said still a bit winded but recovering his stamina through the Force or he was just that much of an athlete, Harry imagined a bit of both.
"I told you, old men sitting around doing nothing." he said in a fit of frustration. Qui-Gon was good stuff, and his Padawan didn't seem too bad either, but the verdict was out on a lot of the rest of the Jedi. "I told you it was going to be like that." he said letting his temper defuse, as it wasn't really Qui-Gon's fault. What was the man to do, just leave Anakin alone on Coruscant, he would disappear to the underbelly faster than someone could say 'bantha poodoo'.
"Master, we must see if the queen needs our assistance." Obi-Wan said breaking them out of their reminiscing. Harry looked down to the lightsaber he had stolen earlier that was attached to his waist, he was sad he didn't get to try it out today like he wanted to, but maybe he could try batting away a few blasts from droids with it at least.
"Yea! The Queen may need help." he said a bit out of character, getting the two Jedi looking at him. "It wouldn't be right if we three sat around here talking while others fight and lose their lives now would it." he said regally, being a bit more of the Wizard he is supposed to be, and not the merchant he has become.
"I concur." Qui-Gon said getting up leading them out of the place he had gotten lost in. Apparently the man knew where to go because it only took a few minutes to find a hallway with a dozen or so droids and a few royal guards exchanging blaster fire. Seeing this as his opportunity, he ran forward and pulled out the blade and activated it.
It didn't take long for a droid to point his gun at him and fire a blaster shot. Harry had been preparing himself for this moment and he took a swat at the blaster bolt to deflect it back at the droid who was shooting at a royal guard, but failed, spectacularly. The blaster smoked him in the chest where his Basilisk suit was covering him and impacted him like a small gentle push. "Outch, that hurt you know." he exaggerated to the droid as the blaster shot had basically done minimal damage to his suit. Thank Merlin for enchantments and runes.
Immediately three other droids changed their target to him, and fired away. Nearly everyone else was looking at him stupidly as he got hit by a dozen blaster bolts before managing to swat one back at the droids. "Ha Yes!" he exclaimed, just as all the droids in the room shut down. "Dammit and I was just getting the hang of it." he said as he looked down at his suit seeing it a bit more damage than he expected. It seemed blaster shots ate more of the magic in the material and the enchantments faster than he expected. However it was still in good enough shape to be able to repair itself given some time.
Looking around he saw everyone looking at him like he was crazy, so he deactivated the light saber and put it away. Before his Jedi friends broke out of their stupor at what he had just done, and started closing the gap between them again.
"I told you it was harder to use than it looked." Qui-Gon told him, the Jedi's exasperation clear to see. However he was looking him over in surprise to see that he was fine even though he had just taken a dozen blaster shots to his body. "Your armour is more durable than it appears." Qui-Gon said knowingly.
"Yea, it's good stuff, but then I wasn't too worried even without it." he replied honestly to the Jedi having already tested his natural runic enhanced durability against light blaster fire. "I wanted to give this bad boy a try." he said, patting the lightsaber on his side. "I still got work to do on cleansing it though, as I felt it fighting me the entire time." he said thinking back to his attempted use, as when he has used the lightsaber the dark side corruption in the blade tried to corrupt him, having zero success, but also tried to put him out of sync somehow with what he wanted.
"We should find the Queen." Qui-Gon said as he led them towards somewhere new.
"We should also find Anakin." he said to the Jedi.
"I left him in a fighter to keep him hidden and out of the way." Qui-Gon replied sagely while they were moving briskly, and missing Harry's utter disbelief.
"Wait, hold on a second. You put Anakin in a starfighter during a battle, and didn't expect him to somehow get in a situation that put him smack dab in the middle of things?" he asked in utter disbelief to the confused Qui-Gon's face, but he could see some understanding from Obi-Wan. "Ah, my friend you have much to learn about young Anakin. Much to learn." he said patting his buddy on the shoulder and started walking towards the direction he felt the hangar was in. He chuckled a bit to himself at the headache Anakin was going to cause Qui-Gon.
"I can see what you mean." Qui-Gon having finally come to understand what Harry was saying.
"If there is one thing that Anakin might even be better than he is at working with machines, it is piloting them into trouble." he said to the Jedi. "Don't tell his mom, but me and him built a few podracers and tried them out a couple of times in the desert flats." he confessed to the older man. "He's even better in the pilot's seat than I am."
"I am surprised you have survived this long." Obi-Wan finally said something to him that nearly had him bursting out laughing at just how true that was. The fact that since he had arrived here he had really no true near death experiences compared to the nearly monthly occurrence back on Earth, he found that comment to be more amusing than it should be.
They finally made it to the Hangar and saw the Queen there as the pilots were landing in their Nubian starfighters. It seemed quite a few of them had survived, and he of course saw Anakin leading that same R2 unit away from a fighter that clearly had been in battle with a massive smile on his face. This kid was going to be the death of him, or his mother will be when he ends up telling her about this.
"Anakin please for my sake and to save me from your mother's wrath, please tell me you did not just take that fighter there and help out with the battle in orbit?" he asked the boy who had just joined them near the queen. He also saw a PAM droid zooming over too. "If I have to tell your mother, she is going to kill me even though I had no part in it." he said exacerbated. There was one thing Anakin and he both knew, that was how protective Shmi got of her 'boys'.
"Ahh... no." Anakin lied so poorly Harry wouldn't even be able to say that he thought the kid was telling the truth to Shmi.
"At least tell me you didn't get in the thick of it." he asked pleadingly, to save his sex life over the next few days.
"Harry." PA's voice came out through the PAM droid. "He certainly did, he even was responsible for firing the final shot. A proton torpedo through the hangar bay doors, it caused secondary explosions from what I believe to be their Vulture Droid refueling stations. He arrived on the scene just as the CR90s, and the CS fighters, along with the arriving Naboo Royal fighters were just able to disable the shield generators on the Federation battleship." PA said giving them a brief run down of the battle. Harry would study it later in detail but for now this would work. "Young Skywalker arrived in time to fire a well aimed shot that took out the ship, and at a timely moment too, as we were taking heavy losses." PA said clearly upset about that.
"Heavy losses?" Padme asked in her decoy clothing, having dropped trying to hide that she was the real queen and not her handmaiden Sabe who was dressed as the queen right now standing just slightly to the back.
"Yes, we lost 5 CR90s, and 36 Starfighters." PA said sadly but not for the reasons everyone else thought, as Harry knew it over the loss of credits. "The biggest loss to our company since its foundation, by any scale or measurement." PA clearly homely voice was no longer present, as it was both laced with sadness and sorrow. Honestly he felt she was maybe taking this a bit too hard.
"Your company will be well compensated!" Padme said to him and to PA. "Is there anything you wish in return for your aid to Naboo?" she asked. Harry had thought it over since they had arrived, and felt there were a few things.
"Well your Majesty, this endeavor cost my company well over 30 million credits, and that doesn't even include the aid we are distributing." he said to her with many people listing in around them. "However as I said I would give you the friends discount... so in exchange for our help I would like to take one working example of each of the Federation's vehicles and droids, as I really wouldn't mind getting a closer look at them." he said to her. "For our aid we have distributed, and for future aid over the next two months, how about we say market price here on Naboo before the invasion minus 25% for your discount and to help out Naboo in its time of need?" he asked the Queen.
"The vehicles are not ours to give away, they still do belong to the Trade Federation, however your generosity with your price on further aid does not go unnoticed." Padme said is her more formal and less feminine voice she used when talking in her official role. Kind of reminded him of Margaret Thatcher from back home who changed her voice when she took the role of PM.
"Your Majesty, they invaded your planet. I think the least you can do back is confiscate their property here on Naboo and take their army into your possession." he said back to her with a big smile, clearing winning her over if her vicious smile was anything to go by.
"This is all you want? It is not nearly enough to cover your losses." Padme asked seriously. Apparently she felt they were getting too good of a deal, however, Harry wanted to see if he could find that Sith's ship, it would most likely have some nice tech on it. However he didn't want to mention it, and if questioned later on why he took it, he can just say he thought it was one of the federation crafts.
"I think it is fair your Highness, there is quite a bit my company may learn from some of Federation tech lying around here." he said, but not before also continuing. "However if you would give us the first option of refusal to buy all the rest if you plan to sell it, I would be extremely happy with the whole arrangement." he said to her with a smile, seeing she was going to cave.
"We thank you for helping Naboo, and accept your more than generous terms. You as well Master Jedi and you too Ani." Padme said handing out her thanks, and a special smile for the kid. "There is much rebuilding to be done, and new sources of revenue will need to be found to supply my people in the long and short term." she said, giving a quick glance over to the PAM droid which perked up at hearing that.
"With your permission, your majesty, I would have our droids start to collect HPI's payment for our assistance, and we could talk about HPI possibly supplying Naboo in the long term." PA said excitedly at the chance of making more credits; her mood had done an entire 180 at that. That definitely brought a smile to his, Padme's, and Qui-Gon's face at PA's predictable behavior.
"You have it, and yes PA I think you are the right person to talk to about the future of commerce on Naboo." she said as she made her way out of the Hangar with the PAM droid now following her like a puppy.
"Did my droid just abandon me for the Queen?" he asked the room after the Queen and her entourage left the room along with the PAM droid.
"That is one interesting droid." Obi-Wan said. "You know I swear I could also feel it in the force." the Padawan commented. Harry was honestly not sure what to do now that the battle was over but he looked over to Anakin.
"Ani, you better stay safe in the future, you can't give me or your mom a heart attack like this again." he said to the boy taking him by his shoulders.
"But I was perfectly safe and didn't mean too. It was the autopilot!" Ani said giving his excuse, which may even have been true, but it was not like he would not have been able to disable it if he had really wanted to.
"I figured there would be something like that, the force is always working around you Ani." he said to the boy, bonking him on the head and giving him a smile. Letting him know he wasn't truly in trouble. "It's not that I am not proud of what you did, it's just that your mother and I worry about you regardless. As a Jedi in training you will get into a lot of trouble, just think about us once and a while and tone it back ok?" he asked the boy before turning to the Jedi not waiting for an answer. "So what now for you two?"
"Once word arrives on Coruscant about our victory, I imagine a ship with the Chancellor and a few Jedi will be sent to take the Viceroy into custody." Qui-Gon answered honestly as they moved off to the side to get out of the way of people starting to clean up what they could from the few battles in the hangar. "That will be a few days at least." finished the Jedi.
"Hmm, that is probably my sign to leave then. I hate getting directly involved in politics, or well I should say I prefer to avoid politicians. Which means avoiding politics when I can." he said as he saw another PAM droid coming from the same direction the first one had arrived from. It seemed PA had a few of them running around here already. "I need to handle a few things before I leave again, but you should be able to find me on Tatooine if you need me." he said before turning a bit more serious. "Take care of Anakin for me." he finished saying seriously to the Jedi, looking him directly in the eyes before walking off to talk to his droid without another word.
He walked towards the outside of the Hangar where the burnt out wreckage of the tanks the Federation had been using to shoot down fighters were. He looked around and saw no one observing him, but just in case he put up two charms to prevent others from listening in.
"PA, I want you to have our ships search for where that Sith's vessel is, I want to claim it and get it out of here before anyone can think to look for it." he said to the ever present droid.
"At once Harry, do you have any plans for it?" PA asked clearly interested in his future plans.
"Well I figured I need a good personal ship, and with a few modifications, unless my guess is far off, that Sith's ship would make for a great ship to use. Not having one around on hand at all times really ended up biting me in the ass here these last few weeks." he said before adding on. "I also got a good feeling about this from the Force. Let me know when you have found it, and I will go over to disarm any of the booby traps I am sure it will have." he said to the droid.
This whole debacle had been odd to Harry. Nothing about it really made sense, or even played to the usual modus operandi of any of the players involved. Including the young Queen, her bold plan was probably not anticipated by whoever was behind organizing this whole situation. Nor was his involvement, and part of that was why he wanted to get lost asap, he didn't need to draw any more attention to himself than he already had over this last week or so.
However, he wasn't going to leave without first getting what he is due. It was going to take a bit of magic, as he didn't actually have any ships big enough for one of those massive troop transports. He would have to just shrink it down and put it into a trunk, at least he hoped he was powerful enough, as that is quite a big ship. With that thought in mind, he got on a 'commandeered' speeder bike and took off for the battle site. He also wanted to snag a few of the Gungans tech if he could. If it was interesting he might even buy or license it from them in the future if they did that kind of thing. The devastation to the beautiful city as he passed by was actually fairly light. At least that was a positive for the people of Naboo as he saw them coming out of hiding excited at their victory.
Harry was sitting in the pilot's seat of the Sith's ship trying to catch his breath after the afternoon he had. First it started with him finding one of those C-9979 Landing Crafts and setting up a ward around it to hide it and him from sight before he shrunk it down to fit in one of his trunks. That took a lot out of him and even almost caused him to pass out for a moment or two as his vision had gone blurry after the day's magical exertions. Nor did it help that he oh so smartly chose one that still had a dozen or so Federation land assault vehicles still inside as a bonus, adding even more for his magic to shrink.
He then went around and grabbed a copy of everything he could see, getting an armoured assault tank, Multi-troop Transports, a smaller older looking tank thing, and about five different battle droids, and a smaller silver worker droid. All in all he probably lost more credits than he made in equipment he had picked up, but some of this stuff he got today was simply not sold on the market. So that made it quite the catch for him, and at just the right time too for his ongoing droid project.
From there it was a matter of him taking his not stolen speeder to the location of the Sith's ship, which his droids had found even though it was parked in the jungle away from the city. PA had done well in finding it, however, when he arrived he had nearly got his head blown off. Had he not been warned by the force he would have been hurting bad, as the heavily modified transport vessel's automated defenses popped out of concealment and fired quickly at him with two of its laser cannons when he first approached.
He dodged to the side and quickly cast a protego, and backed up. He clearly knew there had to be some way to get through the defenses, and there was most likely a backup contingency activated by the Force. So he stood a bit outside where it had attacked him from and used his Force senses to start to scan the ship. He imagined if someone who didn't know where and what they were looking for, even if they had the force, they would not have been able to find the small hidden manual switch to disabled the defenses. It was hidden inside a panel of an otherwise normal relay box, in the center of a number of systems, so only reachable with the Force, and it was disguised amongst other switches.
However even then, one had to know what they were looking at in the first place, and that took Harry's fairly extensive knowledge of starships and their systems to achieve success. Even if it took him an hour to find it. That being said, some of the other equipment inside he sensed had given him a bit of a shock, as they were not things he had ever encountered yet on any ship. There were a few banks of crystals he didn't recognize that had a tingly feeling in the force to him. However using so much force or magic, in such a short period of time had left him fairly exhausted, so by the time he got to the cockpit and had sliced into the computer, as he didn't have the ignition key, he was pooped.
Unfortunately he had one more thing to do before going to bed and that was for him to meditate in the force to find all the various traps that may be left over on or in the ship. He had already found a few trackers he had removed during his initial search for the switch, but he still felt there was something else to deal with. The few droids he had found on here had thankfully had been deactivated, so he simply shrunk them and stored them away for later examination and safe keeping.
It didn't take him long to find a small explosive that would go off if not disabled once every two months, and another tracker, but this time in the computer system. After that he simply started the ship up, and set course for their staging point about 45 minutes outside of Naboo by hyperspace. The reason for this was that he needed a long awaited sleep to fight off his exhaustion, however even then during the trip he could not quiet his mind and kept thinking about a bunch of the new possibilities opened up to him now with his new loot and contacts.
"PA." he said to the ever present PAM droid beside him. "I think we may need to move and expand a bit more aggressively in the future, and I got some ideas bouncing around in my head I think we should discuss when we get back to Tatooine." he said to the droid and he lay back in the nice lazy boy chair he transfigured. He was certainly not going to sleep in that Sith's bed, no this ship was going to get a remodel, a sanitation, and a few upgrades from Harry before he could call it his own.
"I agree Harry. Though there is quite a bit of interesting information in this ship's systems that you may wish to go over later." PA said to him, getting his attention.
"Anything really interesting?" he said, asking for the highlights.
"Just some clues pointing to your theory of someone working from behind the scenes or to be more accurate, orchestrating this invasion of Naboo. However it is mostly the experimental technology that is in this ship that I believe you would be most interested in." PA said piquing Harry's interest, but not quite enough to get him out of his incredibly comfy chair. "I believe you will want to make some changes to the ship before using it yourself however. The hyperdrive is somewhat lacking for your personal standards." PA said a bit snootily if that was at all possible. "Regardless, it will still be there when you arrive on Tatooine, so get some sleep." PA said moving off to somewhere else in the ship as Harry finally let his exhaustion consume him.
He was beyond furious! Someone had gotten to the Scimitar before he had or had at least gotten lucky and destroyed it! He would not put it past those blasted Jedi getting lucky with a stray shot from some ship during the battle. Even if it was only a small loss, it still angered him regardless.
Palpatine looked over the black blasted ground and burned out wreckage of what was left of the stealth ship. It had taken him nearly a day to finally lose his various watchers notice to slip out and get to the location his trackers had last pinged the Scimitar at. His plan was to disable the defenses then have the droids on board return the vessel to the secure hangar on Coruscant it had initially been stored in.
Now he would have to come up with another stealth based craft to use for his more clandestine movements. It would make holding the office of Chancellor even more insufferable. It would all work out in the end, even if minor parts of his plan had not gone according to plan here on Naboo. The Queen should have died, and he had not anticipated her to have any allies, let alone the Gungan army and a dozen corvettes from a merchant company he had never heard of before. The fact that Darth Maul had also failed in killing either of the Jedi, but especially Qui-Gon Jinn was the larger failure in his mind.
It would be imperative to ensure that Qui-Gon is either removed from the equation or sent somewhere out of the way to not somehow stumble into his plans with his blasted use of the 'Living Force'. He would not allow for anymore interruptions or delays to his plans as a result of Jedi meddling. He reigned in his rising anger and reinforced his shields around his Force signature at the same time. He had to be careful with so many blasted Jedi on the planet who were all still of high alert.
He only needs to wait a dozen or so years more to see his plan come to Fruition to bring the Jedi to extinction and by proxy the entire Republic. When he was Emperor he would not need to waste his time as he did now waiting on idiots, and simpering fools. He strode away from the destruction of the Scimitar without looking back and moved back towards Theed with his mind on plans for the future and the death of the Republic.
Qui-Gon and his Padawan were already back on Coruscant and meeting with the Jedi council once again after a long week of celebration on Naboo. They had arrived back with the Masters that had been sent to escort the Viceroy to Coruscant from Naboo to face the Senate. Anakin was currently standing outside the room waiting for them to finish discussing this situation, and the boy's fate. In front of him was something he had been expecting for some time now, but still brought pride and happiness to him, and that was his Padawan rising to the rank of Knight.
"Confer on you the level of Jedi Knight the council does." Master Yoda said to the order's newest Knight. "Task for you, we have."
"We have conferred and have come to the conclusion that the boy, Anakin shall be trained. He has some control over his emotions, and his prior force training does him well." Master Windu said, surprising Qui-Gon a bit that they had agreed so readily. "But many here still believe his age will hamper him. So we wish for Master Qui-Gon to take Anakin as his Padawan, but with heavy assistance from Knight Kenobi. We think Anakin will need extra assistance in training, due to starting in the order so late." the Master of the order said, making more sense than Qui-Gon had come to expect from the council of late, but also going against tradition.
"Another reason, there is." Yoda calmly stated, eyes closed, obviously observing through the force.
"Your recent report about Hadrian Peverell, and his force abilities has raised several concerns within the council." Master Windu said, looking directly at him. "You have stated that your relationship with him has become friendly, therefore we wish you to keep a closer watch on him, and learn more about him and his people." None of that surprised Qui-Gon, so he still didn't see how this had to do with Anakin. "However the council does not believe any extended visits with Anakin's family will do the boy well in his future training as a Jedi. Therefore during your extended trips to investigate this new force user, Anakin will remain with Knight Kenobi to be trained." Master Windu stated more than asked either of them their opinions.
"I am honored to conduct this duty for the council." his Padawan, sorry his former Padawan said to the council, having warmed significantly to Anakin since the battle of Naboo.
"I concede to the council's wisdom on this matter." he said knowing this was the best he could hope for, and more than he expected. It was honestly not something he would expect from the council. "I warn you though, I do not believe the standard practice of no attachment will work here with Anakin, as we will be hard pressed to keep him from his family entirely." he warned the council.
"Felt this in force, I have." Yoda said calmly. "Discussed it the council has. We believe there is little to be done at this point. Mitigate future damage, the only route the council has." Yoda said calmly, clearly still not entirely sure what the effects on the future teaching the boy will have. Qui-Gon felt the old master relied too heavily on his sight in the force, and as the future has become more clouded through the force lately, it has made the old man too wary and blinded to some of what was going on in the Galaxy.
"We hope that you will hold off on taking a Padawan of your own, till you both feel that Anakin is ready to move onto Knighthood." Master Ki-Adi-Mundi said to Obi-Wan changing the subject. "However if you find a youngling that a strong bond is forming with, do not turn away the will of the force." finished the old and often wise master.
"May the force be with you." Master Windu chanted, clearly dismissing them. The council still needed to discuss the details on the battle and the aftermath. He and his former Padawan walked outside to share the news with the clearly nervous boy. It was heartening to see the young lad so excited to become a Jedi, as Qui-Gon felt he would bring much needed change to the Jedi order. Hopefully taking the Order out of the slump it has found itself in. With that thought he approached the boy to share the good news.
There was so much to do now that he had finally arrived back on Tatooine and stored the Scimitar in his private hangar. He had found the name for the Sith's vessel in its computers. It was a good name, but Harry planned to change it once he had finished all the modifications he wanted to do to the ship. He had gone over the information PA had teased him with, and had been even more shocked at how modified the vessel was than he had been expecting with her teasing. It was basically entirely different besides the frame it was built on. Expensive too, extremely; it probably was his most expensive ship he now owned by a factor of 5 at least and seeing how much smaller it was compared to his largest, that said a lot. He may have actually ended up with a net positive amount of credits from the debacle.
From the cloaking technology Harry had only heard snippets about before, to the experimental Ion engines, and the other amazing tech, it was Christmas come early for him. Unfortunately he couldn't even concentrate on it as there were a few things he needed to handle before diving into a project of this scope. He needed to create and approve a design for their new Arquitens-class or AC light cruisers he wanted to have built. Obviously the base model was not quite good enough for him, so he had 'some' changes to make.
It was already fairly good base design, and Harry couldn't really make any real major changes to the structure, so he stuck with simpler improvements. He had them upgrade the already present weapons, put in a class 1 hyperdrive, and changed the engine system out. This was in part to make it more viable for his company and the role he wanted them to fill, however also to make them able to use his new Fuel Runic Array he was going to install on each of his ships.
It wasn't even hard to get thousands of the rune arrays ready to use, as all he had to do is get his droids to carve the runes, and he used his magic to empower them. He had tried to get Anakin to power one in the past, however for some reason it simply did not work, even though Harry already confirmed that the Force is principally the same as magic. He assumed it was the same reason that even house Elves couldn't initialize runic arrays either, however they could brew potions, use charms, and use their own type of magic. It was extremely weird and something he would need to research into in the future, but for now he didn't have the time to spare. Though to work he had to allow the Force to seep over all the 'fuel caps' before empowering them so he had each in his mind's eye, otherwise the effects could be unpredictable.
PA had him empower a few dozen crates full of the fuel arrays that were carved onto caps that went on the tiny auxiliary fuel tanks he was going to be using on his ships, and droids. The caps would then simply produce fuel whenever the pressure gauge on the array said there was low pressure, i.e. low fuel. It could also be changed, for both flow rate and volume for different engine systems. There were also large fuel 'caps' for even bigger ships as the tiny ones for droids clearly would not work for this new ship he was planning to order.
Now thanks to his astromechs he has dozens of metal crates for various sizes, each filled with thousands of caps. Many of the crates were shrunk down for storage, but had an easy spot to tap for anyone to un shrink them permanently. This meant he could make them here on Tatooine and send them wherever they were needed without having to be present to unshrink them or activate them once installed, or have to send an Elf. Each array would activate and start producing fuel when it came into contact with a special bronze lip to the fuel tanks, and stop when removed. Each array did have contingencies built into them in case they were damaged or permanently removed from 'their' tank they bonded to on first activation, which was part of why they took him so long to develop.
The first thing he did after getting back and after he had settled down with Shmi, was getting the new ship designs sent off to Kuat. All so that PA could start her ordering spree, however before then he had a few ideas he wanted to run by the droid.
"Hey PA, I realize that we have gotten the approval for more ships, and of higher classes, but if we start producing them in the numbers I expect us to, people will start asking questions that we may not want them to." he said to his droid and arguably one of his best friends now. "So I was thinking, with the fuel caps, the cost of operating our ships are extremely low, therefore we could make a truly profitable enterprise by setting up our transport and cargo service. We target the Outer and Mid Rim systems and a few key core worlds and transport both people and goods. We buy up spaceports, or build them in the worlds that don't have a proper one, and use our highly armed ships to move things around safely." he said to the droid looking over at him, as she clearly started to get excited as he could hear electrical noises coming from her body.
"We could then sell services from our space ports that we are already producing, like power, water, and other services for the planet. We could even sell our products in stores in all of our spaceports for travelers." PA said getting on board with the idea. "We can also artificially increase the size of the market by having stopover services for those traveling with us. All so we can sell them things like booze, food, and sleeping accommodations. Well anything really we can get them to buy." PA said clearly having taken his idea and ran with it. "This could mean a massive increase in our product exposure and market size." the droid said as Harry swore he could hear even more electrical noise from her circuits as she went into overdrive, hopefully she would be ok. "THE CREDITS!" Maybe not.
"Ah, PA?" he asked, getting the droid's attention back and bringing her back down to earth. "We could also ensure better security of transports by sending a few CR90s with each AC class light cruiser we buy soon when on more dangerous routes." he said thinking about the rising pirate activity in the Outer Rim, and even mid rim sectors. "It would have minimal cost to us, besides droids and ship maintenance, and we could easily undercut competitors. This could make otherwise unprofitable businesses on some planets profitable with our cheaper rates for shipping cargo in and out. The ACs also have a large enough hangar bay to transport vessels or even larger cargo we couldn't ship before without raising too many eyebrows." he said also getting excited, but just then Shmi walked through the room and gave them a knowing look, the look that he and PA got when they got too carried away before she left the room leaving them to their devices not bothering to stay. He watched her tight buns in appreciation as she walked away before turning his attention back to PA, getting a knowing 'look' from his droid friend.
"I think we may also need to purchase a few very large transport vessels anyway Harry." PA said to him seriously. "We will also need a few salvage ships if we want to take advantage of our ultra low cost transport. We can transport salvage and scrap from all over the galaxy to be recycled into materials to be used or repaired with magic. The future of our business is looking stellar Harry, you should have these types of ideas more often." PA said to him back in her motherly tone, which was so odd when she switched so quickly between the motherly droid persona and the corporate tornado she could be.
"Well I was also looking over those schematics for the Scimitar, and realized how stupidly powerful the cloaking device could be in a lot of situations. The fact is, the only really hard to come by component of it is the Stygium crystals needed for it to work." he said to PA. "However I checked and there are almost no laws currently limiting their sale, but that is bound to change with the rising tensions and the tactical advantage a cloak can give. So I want you to start buying it up, quietly, wherever you can, and start stockpiling it up for us until I can think of a good use for them." he said to PA.
"I can do that Harry, I am not sure how the Republic could have overlooked something like this." PA said to him as she checked her own databases, obviously looking over the same laws. It honestly felt like it was a purposeful omission in the legal code so that someone could take advantage of cloaks. However, he had not heard of anyone doing so, and could just imagine whoever put the loophole there ended up getting disappeared before they could put their plan into motion.
"It is partially because there has not been a battle like on Naboo in the Republic for centuries, war is foreign to the Republic, as they have been in a period of peace for so long. They simply don't grasp the possible danger something like that possesses, though I have no idea besides costs why smugglers aren't buying this stuff up." he commented to his droid. "Regardless, I want to get those hyperspace probes done so we can start on some of our serious projects, and look over those droids we acquired from the Trade Federation. We really need some more protection around here." he while looking out his office window at all that he had worked hard to create.
Well another slightly shorter chapter, I hope everyone enjoyed the battle over Naboo! I shall see you all tomorrow with the next chapter! May the Force be with you!