When Padmé and Boss Nass agreed to work together, I heard a wave of wild cheers erupt all around us from the Gungans.
“Yippee!
Yippee!” They all seemed to be jumping with joy.
I was shocked by how quickly they agreed to serve as a diversion for the Queen’s plan.
Apparently, having a common enemy made cooperation much easier.
They didn’t make any demands or set any conditions.
Honestly, if this species ever fell into the hands of the wrong people, they could be exploited down to the very last shirt on their backs.
To make the plan succeed, the captain of the Royal Guard sent his most trusted men to gather as many soldiers as they possibly could.
Thanks to those who had gone underground, he managed to gather several dozen more armed people.
I calmly waited to see how things would unfold, watching Padmé carry out her plan with increasing confidence and courage.
If I had been a normal child, I would have wanted to ask, why the hell are you dragging me along?
I would have happily stayed on the safe, peaceful ship.
What a bunch of irresponsible adults.
But since I had my own objectives, I wasn’t complaining.
Once everyone who was still free and ready to fight arrived on speeders, Padmé began explaining the entire plan and asked the Jedi Masters what they thought of it.
Out of the corner of my eye, while watching the projection displayed by R2-D2, I noticed Boss Nass talking to Jar Jar.
A few seconds later, Jar Jar was already lying unconscious from the stress of being appointed Bombad General.
Honestly, it would make for a fascinating experiment to determine exactly what process occurring inside his brain was responsible for his rather unique behavior.
PADMÉ: What is the situation?
CAPT.
PANAKA: Almost everyone’s in camps.
A few hundred police and guards have formed an underground movement.
I brought as many of the leaders as I could.
The Federation Army’s also much larger than we thought, and much stronger.
Your Highness, this is a battle I do not think we can win.
PADMÉ: The battle is a diversion.
The Gungans must draw the Droid Army away from the cities.
We can enter the city using the secret passages on the waterfall side.
Once we get to the main entrance, Captain Panaka will create a diversion so that we can enter the palace and capture the Viceroy.
Without the Viceroy, they will be lost and confused.
PADMÉ (Cont’d): What do you think, Master Jedi?
QUI-GON: The Viceroy will be well guarded.
CAPT.
PANAKA: The difficulty’s getting into the throne room.
Once we’re inside, we shouldn’t have a problem.
QUI-GON: There is a possibility this diversion will cost the lives of many Gungans.
BOSS NASS: Wesa ready to do are-sa part.
PADMÉ: We have a plan which should immobilize the Droid Army.
We will send what pilots we have to knock out the Droid control ship orbiting the planet.
If we can get past their ray shields, we can sever communication, and their droids will be helpless.
QUI-GON: A well-conceived plan.
However, there’s great risk.
The weapons on your fighters may not penetrate the shields on the control ship.
OBI-WAN: And there’s an even greater danger.
If the Viceroy escapes, Your Highness, he will return with another droid army.
PADMÉ: That is why we must not fail to reach the Viceroy.
Everything depends on it.
Once everything had been discussed, the Gungans began marching toward the battlefield to draw the Trade Federation’s attention.
Meanwhile, we set off through the tunnels on the waterfall side toward the palace aboard one of the speeders equipped with a cannon.
The operation itself didn’t seem particularly complicated, but an awful lot depended on the small team tasked with capturing the Viceroy.
Destroying the Droid Control Ship in orbit—the Lucrehulk—was just as important.
Without that, the Gungans would be wiped out, because they were the ones who had to face the full firepower of the Droid Army, drawing it away from the city and giving the Queen, the Jedi, the pilots, and me a chance to sneak through the secret passages near the palace.
If any one of those operations failed, we would lose this war.
I have no idea who was commanding the droids, but I couldn’t imagine a more pathetic defense.
We managed to get within a few dozen meters of the palace before encountering even a single reconnaissance droid.
I understand they weren’t a professional military but a Trade Federation, yet all it would have taken was a little forethought, and our entire plan would have fallen apart.
We were incredibly lucky that such great incompetence existed on the other side.
Knowing I couldn’t contribute much to the fighting, I honestly stayed close behind Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan, not wanting to get hit by some stray blaster bolt and bring my adventure to an early end.
We began our assault on the palace.
It started with cannon fire from the speeder carrying the Queen’s ship.
As soon as the first few tanks exploded, we launched the attack.
Padmé had obviously received blaster training because she was taking down droids like a professional.
I, on the other hand, wasn’t given any weapon.
Apparently, they decided that nine years old was too young to carry a blaster, but perfectly old enough to enter an active war zone.
After defeating over a dozen droids and running through several corridors, we approached the starfighter hangar.
I actually felt sorry for the idiot who was in command.
Along the way, we encountered maybe ten B1 battle droids.
Two of them were arguing with remarkable determination over who was in charge.
Honestly, I have no idea what they program into those things, but common sense certainly isn’t one of them.
As expected, one of them quickly lost his life to a blaster shot in the back of the head.
When the hangar came into view and the adults began the assault, I realized which moment was rapidly approaching.
I quickly grabbed Master Qui-Gon Jinn’s cloak and gave it a hard tug.
“What is it, Anakin?
We don’t have time for this!” the Jedi blurted out while shielding every one of the Queen’s soldiers he could, doing his best not to deflect blaster bolts back into the droids and resisting the urge to simply wave his hand and crush them like soda cans.
Even though his hands were tied, he was trying his hardest to prevent catastrophic casualties on our side.
At the same time, however, the Jedi Council had ordered them not to escalate the conflict, so I could clearly see he was conflicted.
“I had a vision, Master Qui-Gon Jinn.
It concerns you.
I’m certain you’ll want to hear it.”
I noticed that those words completely broke his concentration because he turned his full attention toward me.
“In my vision, I see you becoming separated from your Padawan.
Then you’re defeated and killed, and Obi-Wan, in a fit of rage, kills your opponent.”
“You must be careful and under no circumstances allow yourselves to become separated.
You have to stay together.
I saw some force fields separating you, Master, from your apprentice.
Be careful of them—they seemed to be red.”
For a brief moment, doubt appeared in his eyes.
He seemed to wonder whether I was making fun of him.
How could it be possible that he would die to an opponent whom his inexperienced Padawan would somehow defeat alone?
But then I noticed memories of the previous times my visions had come true resurfacing in his mind.
So, when I tugged on his tunic a second time to pull him out of his thoughts, his expression became serious.
He realized that the opponent who killed him in my vision had to be the same Force user we had encountered on Tatooine.
“Thank you, Anakin.
I’ll follow your advice.
But now you need to find somewhere to hide.
If you’re right, things are about to become very dangerous, and I won’t have time to look after you.”
“Understood, Master.
Please don’t worry about me.”
We finally reached the starfighter hangar, and I separated from the group.
I headed toward one of the starfighters parked farther away.
To my surprise, R2-D2 had already attached himself as the astromech.
It only proved that our fates were connected.
I climbed into the cockpit, fastened my seatbelt, and began preparing us for takeoff.
All under the accusing stare of the clearly displeased droid, who immediately began protesting with a series of frantic beeps.
Since I didn’t want Qui-Gon Jinn to stop me, I pretended to be hiding inside the cockpit while activating only the basic systems as the rest of the pilots launched into space to begin fighting the invaders.
> I watched as Padmé and her guards destroyed the remaining droids inside the hangar.
One of the pilots, whom I had seen only moments earlier climbing into his starfighter with hope written across his face, dreaming of defending his planet from the invaders and perhaps becoming a hero, was shot down shortly after leaving the hangar.
A few seconds later, I heard a massive explosion announcing his unfortunate—but thankfully quick—death.
Once they had finally destroyed all the droids, they began discussing the Viceroy’s location.
Most likely, he was in the throne room, since it was the central point of the building and the easiest place to defend from every direction.
As Qui-Gon Jinn passed by me, I gave him a reminding glance.
He simply nodded, confirming that he understood.
Suddenly, the main hangar doors opened, and standing behind them, like some emo teenager in the middle of a rebellious phase, was Maul.
He had obviously struck a very dramatic pose beforehand.
I honestly wondered how long he had been standing there under his hood before opening the doors.
The blood drained from every guard’s face, and the hands gripping their blasters turned white from the force with which they held them.
Despite the importance and grandeur of the moment, I felt like it was missing music.
The only sounds I could hear were the faint groans of the wounded and the crackling sparks coming from the damaged droids.
Qui-Gon Jinn stepped forward, drawing Maul’s attention.
For a brief moment, however, his gaze seemed to settle on me.
During those few seconds of eye contact, my blood pressure shot into orbit.
The cold, hatred, and rage I felt within him made me realize I had never before seen such an overwhelming range of emotions in a single glance.
Maul seemed to hate the entire universe.
He was one of those people who genuinely delighted in watching the world burn.
What Sidious had done to him had shattered him mentally, and the corruption of the dark side certainly hadn’t helped, leaving him in a truly terrible state.
I genuinely felt a little sorry for Maul.
No one deserved to be treated that way.
Unfortunately, my sympathy had nothing to do with reality.
I was still just a child with no real authority and only limited skill in the Force.
As the guards and Padmé moved off, leaving Maul to Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan as they prepared for battle, I desperately wanted to witness the beginning of their historic duel.
Unfortunately, I had things that needed to be done, so I had to miss it.
I knew the fight had begun because the powerful clashes of lightsabers echoed through the corridors.
But what caught my attention instead was that the Droidekas had pinned Padmé and her guards down.
Just as I had planned from the very beginning, thanks to the connections of my acquaintance, I had managed to obtain the schematics of the N-1 starfighters and had studied both their systems and piloting back on Tatooine.
Thankfully, those long hours spent studying the blueprints hadn’t been wasted.
I powered up the starfighter and began the launch sequence, bringing the enormous engines online.
At the same time, I grabbed the control stick for the laser cannons and began wildly firing at the Droidekas as the fighter rolled down the runway.
Against the starfighter’s laser cannons, their shields seemed to be made of paper.
After only a few shots, I had turned them into piles of black scrap metal, allowing Padmé and her escort to rush deeper into the palace.
Calmly continuing the launch sequence and preparing for takeoff, I suddenly heard an irritated:
“Piii…
piiiiiii…
piiiiiiiiii!”
Which, translated into Basic, probably meant:
“What are you doing?
Why are we leaving?
We were supposed to stay!”
“Everyone has their own mission, R2-D2.
We do too.
Just remember, this will be our little secret.”
“You’re about to experience a real space adventure.”
Seeing that he still didn’t seem convinced, I decided to encourage him a little.
“Don’t worry.
We’ll help Padmé while also taking care of a few important things for me.”
We reached the end of the runway, and I slammed the throttle forward.
The starfighter shot straight toward the sky.
As we climbed, I engaged the autopilot to take us to the proper destination.
Unfortunately, I still hadn’t figured out how to operate the navigation system, so I preferred relying on the fighter’s automated systems.
As we climbed at a fairly steep angle, I began feeling stronger and stronger G-forces and started shouting like a complete idiot:
“Wooohooo!
I’m finally flying my own personal spaceship for the first time!”
[POV QUI-GON JINN]
Our opponent was exceptionally well trained in lightsaber combat.
Even more surprisingly, he wielded the rare double-bladed lightsaber and defended himself against our attacks with remarkable skill.
No matter how hard Obi-Wan and I pressed our assault, we were unable to break through his defense.
As a result, the duel began to resemble a long and exhausting tug-of-war.
…
Get mee some stooone😊
…..
Interesting facts about the capital of Naboo
Theed was built on high cliffs overlooking massive waterfalls, making it naturally difficult to assault.
The city’s architecture blends classical Naboo design with elegant plasma-powered technology hidden beneath its historic appearance.
Beneath Theed lies an extensive network of ancient tunnels and waterways, many of which were used during the Battle of Naboo.
The Royal Palace of Theed served as both the Queen’s residence and the center of Naboo’s government.
Theed is famous for its energy generators, fountains, and carefully maintained gardens that symbolize Naboo’s harmony with nature.
Many of the city’s buildings were constructed from the local golden-yellow stone, giving Theed its distinctive warm appearance.
Despite its beauty, Theed was designed with numerous hidden defensive positions and protected access routes in case of invasion.