Galaxy in Chaos.
By TimeTraveller-1900.
-8-
There is unrest in the Galactic Senate. Several thousand solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic. The separatist movement, under the leadership of the mysterious Count Dooku, has made it difficult for the limited number of Jedi Knights to maintain peace and order in the galaxy. Senator Amidala, the former Queen of Naboo, is returning to the Galactic Senate to vote on the critical issue of creating an ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC to assist the overwhelmed Jedi….
-8-
Padme Amidala Naberrie, Senator and former Queen of the planet Naboo, remembered the very first time she had travelled in hyperspace. She had heard it from dozens of people hyperspace travel was the closest you got to being a God. For her, the multidimensional wormhole folded on itself in another reality, allowing faster than light travel through the galaxy, was godlike.
Sometimes she wished she lived in a galaxy where such chaos didn't exist; as a child, Padme had been brought up, believing in the wonder of the Republic and seeing it as the single greatest organisation in the galaxy, secondary to the Jedi Order, and that diplomacy would solve all troubles, but ever since her first term in office as the Queen of her people, where she was chased off her planet, forcing her and her entourage to land on Tatooine before that disaster in the Galactic Senate, and dealing with the corruption over the last decade and now this new mess with the Separatist movement, Padme wondered if her parents and teachers were deluded, but she was stubborn. She refused to let such chaos destroy the galaxy and everything she believed in.
It was almost time.
-8-
As the spinning wormhole of the hyperspace vortex faded, transforming into normal space, and the enormous amber city planet of Coruscant, patterned with lights like the golden-silver-coppery stitching of a vast quilt wrapped around the globe. Two yellow Naboo Fighters flew around the senatorial starship, gleaming silver and reflected in the alloy plating was the lights of the planet. toward the planet, followed by a large Naboo Cruiser and one more Fighter. The starship, once cleared by Coruscant Space/Air traffic control, passed through the atmosphere. Coruscant was a vast city complex, with a long history of building layers on top of layers like a vast cake. There were now so many levels of the planet, nobody had seen the true ground for centuries; the lower levels were forbidden, rumours and legends and warnings of hideous creatures and mutated humans and aliens living in the dark shadows.
The senatorial starship landed on a mobile landing pad, which would take them to the senate for the meeting. Once the ship landed, preparations would be made for the diplomatic party to disembark.
The lieutenant and two security officers flanking him walked through the corridors before they met a white-garbed woman with an elaborate hairdo. "Senator, we're making our final approach into Coruscant," the lieutenant said.
The Senator nodded, "Very good, Lieutenant."
The ship skimmed across the surface of the city landscape. The sun glints off the chrome hulls of the sleek Naboo spacecraft as they navigate between the buildings of the capital planet, just as the two Naboo Fighters landed nearby.
The Naboo Cruiser landed on the central leaf, and the third Fighter landed on the remaining platform with the others.
There was a small group of dignitaries who were waiting to welcome the Senator back to Coruscant. One of the fighter pilots jumped from the wing of his ship and removed his helmet, revealing a dark, weather-beaten face. He was Captain Typho, Senator Amidala's Security Officer. He looked around with his single eye, looking for any signs of danger, but the dense cityscape of Coruscant, with its towering monoliths of durasteel and glass and speeders, made it hard to see the danger.
A second later, Typho went over to one of the pilots, a woman dressed in a Naboo security uniform. "We made it. I guess I was wrong, there was no danger at all."
The woman said nothing while the ramp lowered, atmospheric gases venting as the ship powered down. Two guards appeared with Senator Amidala, handmaidens and four troopers walked down the ramp.
Typho and the female pilot watched anxiously as the dignitaries started to move forward. Senator Amidala had only just reached the foot of the ramp when suddenly there is a blinding flash, followed by a huge explosion. The force knocked the dignitaries and the pilots were to the ground of the hovering landing pad as the starship was destroyed.
The female pilot's eyes widened under her mask as she took in the destroyed starship. 'Th-They'd planted a bomb on the ship!' She hissed mentally in horrified disbelief. 'Was someone paid to do this on Naboo, and nobody knew, not even the maintenance droids? Disable the security systems which would have detected this? Whoever's doing this, they're better connected than I thought?'
Klaxons blared loudly, echoing through the Coruscanti air. Captain Typho and the escort pilots got up and ran to where Senator Amidala was lying, dying, her body shattered by the blast. Beyond, astrodroid R2-D2 dropped down from one of the Naboo Fighters and rolled toward the wreckage. Desperately, the female pilot knelt down by Senator Amidala and took off her helmet, revealing the true face of Senator Padme Amidala.
Padme was desperate and furious at this savage attack, and uncaring about any assassin lingering in the area as she struggled to get to her friend, who was lying, dying on the ground as her decoy. As far as she was concerned, Typho, who'd likely chide her for being so reckless later, or the threat of being killed meant nothing to her right now.
"Cordé...," Padme desperately gathered up her decoy double in her arms.
Cordé's eyes opened weakly, looking up at her. "...I'm so sorry, M'Lad" she gasped. "… I'm... not sure I... I've failed you, Senator," she finished weakly before she died in Padme's arms.
Padme hugged her to her chest. "No…!"
She sat there, for what seemed like an eternity, hugging Corde to her chest. She didn't care if the body she was hugging so tightly to her chest was bloodstained or not, she needed this. She needed to use Corde's corpse as a shield against her fury.
She was tired of this.
She was tired of the never-ending violence her career had been saturated in ever since she found the Trade Federation motherships were preparing to land an invasion army of mindless battle-droids on her planet's soil. She had personally travelled to this damn planet back then, hoping for some kind of aid, only to get nothing but two Jedi Knights, and even that was barely enough. It took a 9-year-old boy who was untrained in space combat to destroy the droid mothership and end the invasion. If that wasn't a massive embarrassment, she didn't know what was.
She was tired of looking over her shoulder every single time she came to this planet to meet with the Senate over some radical vote. She was tired of looking into the eyes of her friends who died as her decoys or because they happened to be in the wrong place, wrong time, and seeing the silent accusations in their souls. She was even more frightened of the thought of these bastards going to Naboo, and killing her family including her young nieces simply because they were her family, and being alone for the rest of her life.
Padme dimly heard Typho's voice as he crouched down next to her, his voice low and desperate, "M'Lady, you are still in danger here."
Padme didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay here. She somehow felt a lot safer here, on the landing pad, holding her friend to her chest; a part of her mind and soul was screaming at her, begging to just….give up, go to the Senate and repeal her stance on the whole army act, and just return home.
But her sense of duty made Padme nod at Typho's logic. She lowered Corde's body to the ground with reverence and love. She got to her feet, not taking her eyes off of her friend's face and looked around at the devastation. There were tears in her eyes.
"I shouldn't have come back," Padme whispered, staring at the wrecked ship, clenching her fists angrily as she took in the destruction, picturing the crew who had died on board, as well as any other living person.
Why?
Why were they doing this?
Why did the Separatists want a war so badly with the Republic? That was what Padme just couldn't grasp in her head. Did they really think that war was the only answer?
"This vote is very important," Typho was saying. "You did your duty - Cordé did hers. Now come."
But Padme didn't reply. Inwardly she felt a hot rush of anger she could barely hold back from the mention of the word duty.
"Senator Amidala, please!" Typho said, and at last, Padme gave in, and she turned around. As the two walked away, leaving R2 behind; the droid let out a small whimper at the sight of the destruction and followed.
Meanwhile, Typho and Padme were talking.
"I'm sick and tired of playing these games, Gregor," Padme was saying.
"I know," the captain whispered. "I just wish we knew what the Separatists wanted so badly-."
"I know they want to leave the Republic, but what I want to know is this; why are they so determined to go to war against us?" The adrenaline and the anger made Padme's voice shake. "I know that slimy bug Gunray got off and is part of the Separatists, but I just wish this ended."
"And it will."
"When?" Padme snapped, shaking her head. "This Military Act has been driving me insane since I first learnt of it, but so many in the senate want it. They want this war! Can you believe that? A thousand years without a major galactic-wide battle not counting the various interplanetary wars, and everyone wants one! It is insanity!"
"And others don't," Typho reminded her, doing his best to reassure her. "That's what matters."
Padme sighed, "I know," she whispered, trying to master her temper while rescue teams and other emergency vehicles carrying triage and paramedic technicians and droids to analyse the destruction and to see if there were any survivors arrived, "but I sometimes think I'm wasting my time…"