Chereads / Star Wars: Skywalker / Chapter 16 - V.1-C.16│Phantom Menace II│

Chapter 16 - V.1-C.16│Phantom Menace II│

Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.

Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.

While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict…

[]

Grievous, born as Qymaen jai Sheelal, was the cyborg Supreme Commander of the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems in another timeline, another universe.

Grievous was originally a Kaleesh from the planet Kalee, where he lived his early life. During the Kaleesh conflict against the Huk, Qymaen jai Sheelal quickly learned the art of war, specializing in a slugthrower rifle. Quickly amassing a great number of Huk kills, he became a demigod among his people.

He eventually met the female Kaleesh Ronderu lij Kummar, a master with the sword. The two became very close before Kummar's death at the hands of the Huk. Heartbroken, Qymaen jai Sheelal renamed himself Grievous and turned all his anger and grief toward the Huk.

Aided by his elite, he forced the Huk off Kalee and then swarmed their homeworld, conquering them. The Huk turned to the Galactic Republic for help, and the Kaleesh were forced back to their own world by the Jedi and left to starve.

Grievous did not do all of this without some aid helping him within the background though. The body he had meet with all those years ago had him joining the boys cause.

Unfortunately even with the aid of his new leader he had been defeated and so too his people along with him despite his legendary status and capabilities.

Helped him he did, reforming his body anew with some top of the line mechanical parts enhanced and created by his now leader, Anakin. Grievous was told that he had come to help him and bring him into his fold, his army he would be amassing to free people of slavery.

Grievous himself was not against the idea of saving some helpless souls and when it had been revealed to him the scale of this operation and what he would be lead into, he became excited.

Being left to help train the droids as they seemed to be alive. As if they were truly aware of their surroundings, of their leader and his goals, wants and desires. Grievous would be lying to himself if he said he did not fear the boy.

Grievous himself was bored and craved for some action but it would not come for him, at least not yet but he could entertain himself with this sentient droids. Fortunately there were only a few and not all of the army was like this.

Grievous had heard Anakin say resources were limited and he could only grant life to a select few elite droids.

[]

"Then I will plead our case to the senate." The Queen replies while following the Jedi out into the open space of the hangar bay simultaneously saying to her councilor. "Be careful governor."

[]

Back within the hangar, everyone advances towards the droids encircling the pilots held captive.

The captain of the guard says whilst pointing in the direction of the cluster of droids and people. "We will need to free those pilots."

"I will deal with that." Obi-Wan replies as he nudges the captains gun downwards. Qui-Gon continues in another direction approaching the commanding droid.

"Halt." Comes the synthesized voice of the droid.

"I am ambassador to the supreme chancellor, and I am taking these people to Coruscant." Qui-Gon replies.

In turn the droid questions. "Where are you taking them?"

"To Coruscant."

The droid stutters a bit. "Coruscant. That doesn't compute." The droid then points a mechanical finer towards Qui-Gon and exclaims. "Wait, you're under arrest."

With no other words exchanged, Qui-Gon ignites his lightsaber in a flash and engages the droid splitting it in half before getting to work on the others. Obi-Wan is also quickly dispatching the rest of the droids holding the pilots captive with the droid barely able to fire some shots off.

Other droids start firing at the group as they board the spacecraft. Qui-Gon reflects the shots fired in defense of the others and after Obi-Wan has finished off the droids around the pilots, the pilots hastily get up and escape.

Most of the pilots head for the same ship the others boarded while others head for their own ships. Everyone manages to get aboard including the two Jedi and their companion Jar-Jar.

"Now stay here and keep out of trouble." Obi-Wan says to the lone Jar-Jar as he leaves him with some astromech.

"Hello boyo's." Jar-Jar greets the astromech.

Within the pilots area Qui-Gon rushes inside to see the current pilot and the captain of the guard. They zoom past the atmosphere of the planet easily with barely any resistance but they have yet to pass their greatest obstacle.

"There is the blockade." Says the pilot as everyone within the room stares out into space where a fleet has them surrounded.

One of the ships starts to fire in their direction and a shot unfortunately is able to land damaging their ship.

"Shield generators been hit." The pilot exclaimed.

The astromechs within their parking area activated as soon as the alarm was heard. Multiple of them quickly made their way to the deploy shaft to do their jobs.

On top of the ship the droids hard at work are going as fast as they can to repair the damage. The astromech droids were being destroyed one by one and not in a slow manner, but very fast and Obi-Wan could see that. "We are losing droids. Fast."

"If we cant get the shield generator fixed we will be sitting ducks." The guard captain says.

Another explosion is heard on top and with only one droid remaining to repair the ship this puts them into a desperate situation.

"The shields are gone." The pilot says.

The silver and blue patterned droid gets to work, reestablishes and repairs the broken shield generators successfully.

The pilot is surprised. "The powers back! That little droid did it. It bypassed the main power drive." The fleet continues to fire upon them. "Deflector shields up at maximum."

Its a success. They escape the blockade but a problem has been brought up by the pilot. "There is not enough power to get us to Coruscant. The hyperdrive is leaking."

"We will have to land somewhere to fuel and repair the ship." Qui-Gon says to everyone, awaiting ideas.

"Here Master, Tatooine, its small, out of the way but the Trade Federation has no presence there." Obi-Wan directs to his master.

"How can you be sure." The guard captain questions.

"Its controlled by the Hutt's." Quin-Gon replies.

"You cant take her royal highness there, the Hutt's are gangsters. If they discovered her-" The guard captain says in concern.

"It would be no different if we landed on a system controlled by the Federation. Except that the Hutt's aren't looking for her, which gives us the advantage." Qui-Gon interjects.

[]

Within another room of the cruiser everyone has gotten aboard in, the Queen sits upon a chair within the back center of the room while Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, the captain guard and the astromech droid that survived were present.

"An extremely well put together little droid your highness. Without a doubt it saved the ship as well as out lives." The captain guard speaks to his Queen.

"It is to be commended. What is its number?" The Queen asks.

Taking a quick glance at the astromech droids number before replying, the guard captain then says. "R2-D2 your highness."

"Thank you R2-D2." The Queen thanks the droid while R2-D2 replies in a series of synthesized beeps and humming sounds indicating its response. The Queen continues. "Padme."

One of the Queen's handmaidens, identified by her name Padme steps forward from behind the Queen. "Clean this droid up as best you can. It deserves our gratitude." The Queen tells her handmaiden. "Continue captain."

The captain turns towards Qui-Gon expecting him to speak up about their current problem.

Qui-Gon then steps forward. "Your highness, with your permission we are heading for a remote planet called Tatooine. It is in a system far beyond the reach from the Trade Federation."

"I do not agree with the Jedi on this." The captain disagrees with the Jedi's decision because of the potential danger against his Queen.

"You must trust my judgement on this." Qui-Gon insists.

Within another room, Padme the handmaiden to the Queen diligently cleaned the astromech droid that had helped save all of their lives, is disturbed by an intruder and introduced to the Gungan named Jar-Jar.

"That's it, Tatooine." The captain informs everyone within the cockpit nearing the scorching planet of Tatooine.

"There is a settlement." Obi-Wan comments.

"And near the outskirts. We dont want to attract attention." Qui-Gon continues.

Their pilot take them to the outskirts of the settlement they have located, the cruiser finally landing on what could be their salvation. As they land the cruisers landing gear comes out.

Within the ship Qui-Gon enters the same room as Obi-Wan is in while dressed up in a different outfit. One that is distinctly grey.

"The hyperdrive generator is gone Master, we will need a new one." Obi-Wan directed towards his master.

"That will complicate things. Be weary, I sense a disturbance in the Force." Qui-Gon says.

"I feel it also Master."

"Don't let them send any transmissions."

[]

Qui-Gon, R2-D2 along with Jar-Jar head off into the settlement.

"The sun doing murder to mesa skin." Jar-Jar complains.

"Wait!" Qui-Gon and Jar-Jar turn around to face the voice that called out to them. "Wait." Turning around they identify the person whom had called out to them as the guard captain and along side him is another person.

"Her highness commands you to take her handmaiden with you." The captain continues as he meets up with them.

"No more commands from her highness today captain. The spaceport is not going to be pleasant." Qui-Gon replies.

"The Queen wishes it. She is curious about the planet." The captain emphasizes.

Qui-Gon sighs as he thinks it over. "This is not a good idea. Stay close to me." The handmaiden Padme joins the two and R2-D2 to explore the spaceport.

After a short walk under the grueling twin suns of Tatooine they make their way into the settlement.

"Moisture farms for the most part. Some indigenous tribes and scavengers and a few spaceports like this one are havens for those who dont wish to be found." Qui-Gon directs his explanation to Padme.

Padme responds. "Like us."

"This is bery bery bad." Jar-Jar comments while stepping in some dung.

There are many people of various races spread throughout the area most travelling in groups. Qui-Gon's group travels further into the spaceport.

Looking around Qui-Gon vocalizes his thoughts. "We can try one of the smaller dealers." Qui-Gon walks into the direction of a small shop with the name emblazoned just outside.

'Skywalker Technologies' was engraved on the outside of the shop.

Qui-Gon tries to remember something at the back of his mind, but cant seem to place it when seeing the word Skywalker.

'Well, lets try first.'

[]

Within a secluded workshop, a boy that looks like a teen is working on various bits and pieces reconstructing a droid to make it better in some capacity, this young man is 1.5 meters tall and has sandy-blonde hair with bright blue eyes. This teen is Anakin.

'I had been planning for awhile now and had gotten the required things necessary to start a relationship with Qui-Gon Jinn when he undoubtedly comes to this very same shop. I did not do much to upgrade the exterior knowing full well the reason he originally entered Watto's junkyard was because he would try smaller dealers first.'

'Of course I could of changed it to make it look more extravagant and he may have in the end come to a bigger dealer if he knew the Skywalker name, but I was not willing to take the risk of not being able to become a Jedi.'

'All that knowledge is there for me to take, how could I leave it?'

'So I had restocked on the supplies I know the group coming here would need and would semi-manipulate the events to go similarly to how it might have gone. This is so my knowledge of what is to happen in the future is not tainted.'

'But I do know that is unlikely to matter and everything should have changed a lot without my influence. I may very well be the icing on the cake.'

'Another reason is because I could not help but be excited at the prospect of meeting an important character, Padme. So I restricted myself a bit in my actions to ensure I get to meet her.'

'It wont go the same considering my now different look form how I should appear, but that is only better for me.'

'For now though, I had gotten my mother to stand in at the front of the shop to greet these customers in specific because she would be taking Watto's place instead. I would soon make my appearance but I currently have other things I would be working at, at that time.'

'The podraces.'

Podracing was a dangerous racing sport performed by repulsorcrafts known as podracers, which were small, one-man craft propelled by large engines. Popular on planets such as Malastare, Kergans, Theron, Cantonica, and Tatooine, individuals who competed in these games were also known as podracers.

'I plan to show off a bit of my skill, and would have to try act a way similar to my age but not similar enough that it would be a turn off for Padme. But from what I know she did find the original cute especially when he said that cheesy pick up line.'

'So it shouldn't be too hard for me to persuade her for various purposes and one of those purposes is to propose some sort of agreement with the Naboo. I would like to try and slowly take over that planet as well and make it apart of my future empire of sorts.'

'I have grown ambitions outside of continuously growing in power, physically, mentally and spiritually within the Force. Growth is apart of the process but desiring to achieve something should be apart of my goals.'

'Right now I am working towards freeing my people, in a sense. Freeing the slaves of Tatooine and controlling the planet and I am not too far off from achieving this goal. Only within a few more years would I be able to accomplish this.'

'The problem is where do I go from there?'

'And what greater direction then taking over and developing alot of planets that are abandoned or otherwise incapable of growth due to economics, geographic's, lack of population or not enough militaristic might to overcome alot of problems.'

'So that is what I would do, not become some sort of savior but I doubt I would not be seen this way but a sort of pioneer for a greater future for myself and those around me.'

'Sounds reasonable enough for me and it starts with declaring myself the sole sovereign of Tatooine.'