The Naboo Plasma War : Episode VIII

Captain Kael ducked behind the grounded Gian speeder, a Federation e-web emplacement overlooking the intersection The droids had set it up on the third floor of a building that had a clear view of the road leading up to it, and had waited until they were too close to disengage to reveal it. The speeder that had been providing them with heavy firepower had taken a hit to one of the engines, and the driver had shut it down entirely to stop it from veering out of control and crashing. Unfortunately, it was pointed the wrong way to use its guns as a result.

"Corporal, can you fix the damn thing?"

The engineer winces as a blaster bolt barely missed his head, and ducked back down. "I think I see the problem, sir... I could fix it right here if I weren't getting shot at." He explained. Kael grimaced as he responded, "not what I wanted to hear. Damn it all, looks like we're doing this hard way."

Kael fired a few shots around the corner of the speeder, scrapping a droid that had been trying to advance. He was tempted to order someone to fire a rocket at the E-web emplacement, but the droids had started to prioritize targeting anyone carrying launchers. He risked a peek at the E-web, confirming its position, then ducked down as it swept his position with a burst of blaster fire.

"Sykes, we're pinned down by an E-web emplacement, think you can hit it with your laser cannons?"

The Captain's comm was silent for a few moments. When Sykes did reply, his response was drowned out by the engineer firing his blaster shotgun at a droid. Kael shot the man a half-hearted glare before responding.

"Repeat that last?"

"Got a couple of vultures on my tail. Can't shake them, this tank handles like an airbus."

Kael glanced towards his rear, checking the Security squad ducked behind a fallen column and statue. "Take the shot Lieutenant, we'll take care of those vultures."

"I'll hold you to that. Sit tight, coming in hot."

Moments later, the low roar of the Royal Bomber's engines could be heard. Kael wasted no time, he waved down the sergeant behind him. "Sergeant! Lieutenant Sykes is coming in with vulture droids on his six! Take them down!"

He didn't wait to hear the response, instead of firing a few blasts at the E-web to draw its attention. Then, he ducked down and waited. Sykes's bomber started to close in, chased by two vulture droids doing their best to shoot down the heavily shielded and armored flying tank. The bomber fired a burst from its laser canons, the first shot too low, and ripping apart several droids on the street in front of the building. The second was too high, hitting something important and collapsing the roof of the building. The third was right on target, slamming into the E-web emplacement and leaving a massive crater in the side of the building. The stone masonry cracked loudly, and after a tense pause, the entire structure collapsed.

Skyes flew past the security officers, started to gain altitude. A pair of rockets shot out from the men behind Kael, slamming into the pursuing vulture droids and destroying both. One simply exploded in mid-air, while the other spun out of control and crashed somewhere in the city ahead of Kael's men. "Excellent work everyone! Keep up the pressure!" Kael shouted over the comms.

-----

Padme Amidala was not fond of fighting. That said, she had found herself far better at it than she would have ever expected. With the help of the two Jedi, she and the men she was leading had made excellent time towards the secret tunnels into the Palace. The Trade Federation, thankfully, had no idea the tunnels were there. As such, once they had made their way down the streets towards the nearest tunnel entrance, it had been a simple matter of having several squads continue advancing down the streets while she led her personal guard, a single squad, and the pilots into the Palace tunnels.

Less fortunately, the Trade Federation had spotted them the moment they came out of the tunnels, inside the palace. She fired at one of the battledroids, then ducked down behind one of the stone pillars lining the corridors. Seeing how readily the pillars and alcoves protected her security from blaster fire, she couldn't help but note that perhaps, given how old the Palace was, the intricate designs of the Palace had never been merely decorative. Naboo had been colonized before the Jedi Civil War, after all.

Amidala recognized the distinctive sound of a droideka barreling towards them. Thinking fast, she fired her blaster's grappling hook at the oncoming destroyer droid. The grapple hit the droid, and the cable rapidly became tangled in the droid's mechanisms. Her blaster was ripped out of her hands as the droid was abruptly thrown to the side by the entanglement. Even now, she could he its mechanisms straining and grinding as it tried and failed to deploy. Several of her handmaidens began firing at the downed droideka, overwhelming its armoring with the sheer volume of fire. Padme quickly found and located her blaster, disconnecting the grappling hook. There was no time to try and untangle the mess, she'd just have to leave it.

The resistance fighters made their way to the Royal hangers, barreling through any opposition thanks to the unexpectedness of their sudden appearance. Once their, pilots and R2 units quickly began piling into the N1-Starfighters, starting them up one by one while the rest of them took cover to hold off any response.

Before long, the doors opened, battledroids and a pair of droideka's storming the hangars. A pair of security officers repeated her trick with the grappling hook, disabling the two destroyer droids while the OOM-droids were gunned down. The starfighters took off, launching from the hangars without issue. An AAT attempted shooting down the starfighters as they joined the air battle, but one of Montoo's D-13 droid fighters destroyed it before it managed to land a hit.

Padme saw Obi-Won accept a water canteen from a security officer, taking a moment to rest during the lull in the battle. He glanced at her and smirked.

"No offense to you, your Highness, but if this is an example of protecting a VIP, I pray I am never again assigned as a 'Protective escort.'"

Despite herself, Padme felt a smile tug at her lips.

-----

An alarm from my command console caught my attention. I tapped it, opening a comms channel to one of the Indomitable's security contingent. A panicked Trandoshan's face filled the screen.

"Captain, there's... there's a Jedi on the ship! They boarded while we were launching a wave of vulture droids! He's ripping us apart!"

My eyes widened in shock, and I quickly entered a set of commands, bringing up the security footage. I felt my heart skip a beat at the image of the man tearing his way through battledroids in my hangar.

Maul.