INCEPTION

20|The Battle Part 2

A bruised and bloodied Anakin Skywalker, King of the Naboo, with his man servants, Captain Panaka and the rest of his Naboo freedom fighters, left the main hangar and moved quickly through the corridors leading to throne room of Theed Palace.

The swift climbing of story after story of the palace quickly turned into a slowing running battle between Anakin's group and the Trade Federation. Every corridor they ran down had either battle droid patrols or singular battle droids defending key areas of the palace. And each time they stopped to fight them, hoping to avoid a full-fledged engagement with a dwindling group.

Consequently, these continual distractions of enemies forced Anakin to seek out a more indirect route to necessitate less contact with the Federation battle droids. Turning down another corridor, Anakin and his group stopped slightly before they took cover behind giant pillars against a full droid patrol.

Fire broke out in the palace as the droids signaled the intruders and called for back up. Alarms sounded all around the palace as droid after droid was shot down, while behind them, more were pouring in still.

"Theres no time for this Captain. We have to find another way to get to the throne room," Anakin shouted between firing his own blaster and ducking for cover. Firing again he managed to knock down several battle droids.

"What are you suggesting, Your Highness?" Panaka asked between shots as well.

"We should take a more risky approach. We should take the outside approach," Anakin stated, smirking.

Panaka gave him a wry smile before calling a few men toward him. He signaled to those that were staying, including Deylin, the decoy King, that they should continue battle and work their way toward the throne room the way they were going.

During the Captain's conference, Anakin whispered instructions to his decoy before blasting away the windows on the other side of the corridor. Running swiftly across the corridor, Anakin, Panaka and a handful of security guards followed heading out the window and onto the ledge. Once there, Anakin, removed and cast aside his overcoat revealing another blaster. He with drew it and armed the ascension mechanism. Everyone beside him was discarding their cumbersome features of their clothes and withdrawing their own blasters.

"Ascension guns," he shouted to his small crew.

Each member fired directly up and their ascension pieces buried themselves deep into the rock of the roof of the palace. Fingering a small button, they rose up from the ledge and headed up towards the top floor. Jumping on to the top ledge, they disconnected the ascension parts and Anakin blasted a hole into the window. Anakin led the small group into the palace again, checking both ends of the corridor before running toward the direction of the throne room.

The small crew ran as fast as they could down the corridor. They were just about to round the corner leading to the throne room when six droidekas rolled around the corner and unfurled themselves into their battle stances. A battle droid appeared between the two foremost droidekas and signaled to the Naboo King to throw down his weapons.

Anakin, with a small swallow, threw down his weapons, ordering the others to follow suit.

"Your Highness?" Panaka questioned.

"Captain, throw down and live to fight another day. They win this round but there may be a surprise yet," Anakin whispered conspiratorially to the Captain.

"But Your Highness." Panaka tried again.

"Do as I say," Anakin ordered with an imposing look.

Having no choice, the Captain and the small crew threw down their weapons and were led off toward the throne room.