"Master, do you sense those two powerful presences coming towards us?" Obi-Wan asks Qui-Gon a nervous quiver entering his voice.
"Focus on the present my young Padawan. All is as the living force wills it." Qui-Gon offers his sagely advice and rests a comforting hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder.
"Yes Master." Obi-Wan murmurs softly, but his attention is drawn to his beeping holocom.
Both Jedi take their holocoms off of their utility belts. "An open channel broadcast." Both Jedi murmur in shock, and answer the broadcast.
A large Mandalorian male sits on a command chair of a ship with a much smaller Mandalorian child on his lap.
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon both feel the unimaginable power in the force that these two Mandalorians have and share a look with each other.
Both silently listen to the Mandalorians demands, Obi-Wan can't help but wonder if Satine was responsible for this. He knew the newly elected Queen and the newly crowned Duchess had a friendship.
Suddenly the conference room seems to tremble like an explosion just went off. Then the pain hits him and he can see through the force, that the lives of the crew of the ship that brought him and his master here have been extinguished.
Suddenly a hissing sound fills the conference room. "Dioxis gas, hold your breath!" Qui-Gon orders with a very small amount of panic leaking into his voice.
~- — — — — — — — — — — -~
Padmé can't seem to stop replaying the recording of the Mandalorian man. Though it is not the time she agrees with her friends and handmaidens that he has a very handsome sounding voice, and it is a shame that he's wearing his helmet.
"My Queen…did you send a secret message to Duchess Satine, asking for assistance from the Mandalorian Sector's protection fleet?" Sabe asks her softly after the gossiping and fantasizing about the man underneath the helmet comes to an end.
"I did not Sabe, nor do I expect that if I did Satine would dispatch an ancient battle cruiser to aid us. I also have my doubts that if she could she would if she had knowledge of the Jedi Ambassadors dispatched by the Chancellor. Not after everything that happened with her Jedi protector." Padmé offers in an almost frigid tone, her faith in the Jedi had been shaken by the revelation that a Jedi could abandon a pregnant mother and his child.
"Hmm, when she first shared her story I thought it was something out of a holo…it sounded so romantic at first. The dashing young Jedi night and the Maiden in need of protection. Who knew Jedi could be so roguish and deceitful?!" Sabe mutters angrily, her little tangent a welcomed distraction from current events.
~- — — — — — — — — — — -~
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon were currently hiding in a ventilation duct, overlooking a hanger.
When a heavily armed and armored Mandalorian man seemingly appears out of thin air and starts commanding black armored…droids.
"Squads one through ten secure the core room and engineering. Squads eleven through twenty secure the bridge and command staff only execute if necessary. Squad twenty one and two keep the ship secure and offer aid to any Jedi who may make their way here to us. Squads twenty three through thirty secure the hanger!"
~- — — — — — — — — — — -~
I wait patiently as I'm sure the force will guide Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to me if it didn't already guide me the hanger that they would make their escape through.
As I lean my back against the right side hydraulic arm for the main boarding ramp, I see a vent grate fall to the floor and two brown blurs fall to the floor.
'Huh…they kinda look like giant turds when using force speed while wearing brown robes.' My unkind thoughts bring a small disgusted smirk to my lips.
And I nearly have a fanboy moment at coming face to face with an Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson look-alikes.
"Jedi, we have a couple of options. One we can work together to take command of this ship and shut down a large portion of droids from here. Option two, we GTFO and hit planetside to rescue the young maiden in great danger. Then take her to the republic and have her futilely beg the Republic to do something about the Trade Federation's blatantly criminal act of conquest under the guise of collecting a private debt."
"Or the three of us can engage in lightsaber combat and fight each other to the death. Because you guys look like you're going to shit yourselves because my force presence is too powerful…too heretical to be left unattached to the Order." Qui-Gon lets out a full belly laugh, while Obi-Wan looks ready to shout heretic and try to cut off my limbs and leave me for dead.
"I believe collecting the young Queen and taking her to Coruscant for her own safety so the Trade Federation can't use her to make this invasion legal is the best choice for us at this time." Qui-Gon offers with a sort of roguish grin appearing on his face.
"Master!" Obi-Wan whines like a fed up teenager and both follow me into my ship.
"Pilots, get us out of here and take us to Theed!"
"Roger Roger!"
~- — — — — — — — — — — -~
"Excuse me?" Obi-Wan suddenly speaks up as he lingers behind me, after Qui-Gon had chosen to go to the lounge.
"What is it Padawan Kenobi?" I return his question with my own while trying not to be a fanboy.
"I…uhh…do you know how Satine…I mean Duchess Satine Kyrze is doing and if Mandalore space has stabilized yet?" I can feel Obi-Wan's concern for Satine like it's a thick fog lingering around him.
"As for personal knowledge of the Duchess I have very little…only what I've gleaned from the holo-stations. She seems to be passing off her infant son, as her nephew, even though a quick search of the records would tell you her brother and his wife died before having a child. And from the medical records I've seen her sister hasn't endured childbirth…not once. As for Mandalorian space the civil war is officially over but there are still battles sparking to life all over the sector."
"I-I see…" Obi-Wan has a tremor in his voice and paying attention to what my HUD shows me Obi-Wan looks like he's going to faint.
In a daze Obi-Wan walks, stumbles out of the cockpit and Qui-Gon enters. "That was rather cruel of you…but then I should expect nothing less from a Mandalorian given what our order has done to your people in the past. As it was, you went out of your way to rescue my Padawan and I from a dangerous situation. Just as you saved Aayla and Quin on Tatooine." I don't answer Qui-Gon back immediately as I'm preoccupied with watching the monitors and scopes on the bridge. I see our maiden in need of a rescue being escorted through an alleyway along with her entourage surrounded by a dozen B1's and four Droidekas.
"Hover over that group being escorted by the droid." The droid pilots follow my command.
I start to leave the cockpit and Qui-Gon starts to join. "Stay here and stay the fuck out of my way, Jedi. You'll just get yourself or the hostages killed if you try to assist." Using the squad commands function I check on the progress of the droids I dispatched onto Nute Gunray's command ship, and smirk as all objectives turn to green with only a couple of the droids requiring repairs.
'I think I might be being a little mean. But Aayla's warning keeps bugging me, especially since I know that Jedi are capable of genocide…and that they like to hide behind a facade of for the greater good. "Purging those that would use the dark side to dominate the galaxy" and all that.'
Mentally shrugging as there's only so much good will that the Jedi can earn with me knowing how fucked their order actually is.
Walking to the edge of the now opened ramp some thirty feet above the VIP's in need of rescue, I command my remaining squads to join and to protect the VIP's by highlighting said VIP's.
When I look at the Queen's entourage through the force. I can't help the gasp that leaves me or the thought that pops into my head, which is... 'Are you an Angel?' I finally understand why Anakin asked that question especially if he saw her through the force.
Padmé Amidala is surrounded by a warm golden-white aroura of energy that radiated love and compassion.
'Anakin my Bro…I totally get why you asked that question now. I think I'd get addicted and maybe a little obsessed with her too. If I had been in your situation and her appearance in my life directly led to me no longer being enslaved.' With that thought in mind I step off of the ramp and plummet towards the ground, my ten Dark Troopers joining me.