17 Chapter 16
32 BBY, onboard Lucrehulk class battleship in orbit above Naboo.
"Look, I'm just saying If this blockade is just a political thing why is this hangar filled with battle droids and vulture droids." Republic navy crewman Cod Seisho said conspiratorially from the co-pilots seat of the Consular class cruiser he was sat in.
"Its not our job to worry about that. I'm sure the jedi have it handled. We just need to fly the ship." Lieutenant Zaste Joti said tiredly from the pilot's seat.
The lieutenant was started to get a bit annoyed after being stuck in the cruiser with Seisho for so long. They had been assigned to escort two jedi to Naboo to meet with the Trade federation leader, Viceroy Nute Gunray, to resolve the blockade that the Trade federation had imposed on Naboo.
It was supposed to be just a simple escort mission, but crewman Seisho's constant conspiracy theories and weird ideas were driving him up the wall.
Now that they had arrived at Naboo they had landed in a hangar onboard the lead Trade Federation ship and the jedi had gone off to negotiate. Which caused the lieutenant to be forced to sit on the bridge of the cruiser and listen to Seisho's theories until the jedi came back.
"Yeah, but if there are this many droids in this hangar what about the other hangars on this ship, or all the hangars in all the ships in the fleet orbiting the planet." Seisho was starting to rant, again.
"hmm" Lieutenant Joti pretended to listen but was focused on the data pad in his hand.
"So, like if this whole fleet is full of droids wouldn't this all be like super illegal. The Republic let the Trade Federation arm their transports to deal with pirates but not turn them into battleships." Seisho continued.
"Uh-huh" the lieutenant continued not listening.
"And these Federation types are massive cowards so where did they find the guts to do this. I think its all like a conspiracy, there is probably some real shady stuff goin on behind the scenes.
What do you think lieutenant? Lieutenant??"
"Huh? What sorry?" Lieutenant Joti became aware that Seisho had just asked him a question so turned to look at him.
"I asked, what you think about this all being a big conspiracy, sir?"
"Seisho"
"Yes sir"
"Shut up"
"Yes sir"
With peace restored on the bridge of the cruiser Joti went back to silently reading his data pad while Seisho turned back to looking at the cruiser's controls, slightly dejected.
Seisho checked some of the readings on the controls before looking out of the view screen at the droids in the hanger. He watched them for a while his mind conjuring all sorts of theories behind what was going on from cabals of corrupt republic Politian's trying to gain more power to a secret sith invasion.
Suddenly a heavy turret dropped down from the hangar's ceiling right in front of the cruisers bridge.
"Sir look out!" Seisho yelled out causing Joti to snap to attention and look out for the danger.
"Raise shie---!" Joti's order was cut of when heavy blaster bolts ripped through the ships bridge killing both him and Seisho instantly.
More battle droids swarmed into the hangar bay to secure the burning remains of the republic cruiser. But they proved to be unnecessary as none of the republic naval personal onboard had survived its explosion.
-
Queen Padme Amidala was scared. She was pretending otherwise but deep down she was scared. Scared for her people, scared for her planet, and scared for herself.
She had only been queen for a short time before her planet had been blockaded by the trade federation. The republic had promised to send ambassadors to resolve the situation but that hadn't happened yet and now they had lost all communications off planet.
The governor of Theed had Sio Bibble had then warned that the communications failure likely meant that the trade federation were planning an invasion.
He had been right, and Padme had barely swapped places with her body double Sabe when news of the Naboo Security forces defeat at the hands of the trade federations droid army reached them.
Naboo was a peaceful world and its people believed in neutrality and non-violence, believing that they could achieve peace through diplomacy with other planets. Unfortunately, this made them completely unprepared for an invasion of an army that was very pro-violence.
The trade federation's droid army quickly took control of the planet, and the brief engagements between the Naboo security forces and the battle droids ended with the battle droids as the clear winners.
The Naboo forces quickly surrendered allowing the droids to claim a complete victory as they seized the Naboo royal palace and captured queen Amidala.
Padme, disguised as a handmaiden, was now being marched towards a prison camp along with her handmaidens, some members of her security forces, and some of her advisors.
She was the trade federations battle droids dragging her citizens away to prison camps and installing fortifications throughout the city of Theed. She began to wonder what would happen to her and her people and what the trade federation were planning.
As she was wondering these things three figures dropped from the bridge they were about to pass under, startling her out of her thoughts. Two of the figures landed gracefully and then ignited lightsabres and began quickly destroying the battle droids escorting Padme and her group. The third figure, a Gungan, fell in a heap and began flailing madly like an idiot not really contributing anything to the fight.
After being rescued by the mysterious strangers, who then introduced themselves as the jedi assigned as ambassadors to mediate the dispute over the blockade. The jedi then began escorting Padme and the others towards the hangar of the royal palace so that they could escape off world.
The jedi then lead them to the hangar and after a brief fight, freed some captured pilots and liberated the Naboo royal yacht from the control of the trade federation before making their escape.
The escape off world had been terrifying and their ship had nearly been destroyed by the trade federation blockade. In fact, it was only due to the heroic efforts of an astromech droid that managed to get the ships deflectors back online after the ship had been damaged that saved them from destruction.
Despite escaping from the blockade, the ship's hyperdrive was damaged so they would be forced to land somewhere to repair it. The planet selected for them to stop at was Tatooine, a desert planet controlled by the Hutt crime syndicate.
