Mandalorian Menace

Chapter 15 - War

Grogu shrieks with glee, waving his arms in the air as they roll over and over. A few laser bolts tear into the side of the fighter, and Anakin winces. That was way too close. Artoo trills at him shrilly. "I know we're in trouble!" Anakin yells, grabbing for the control for the guns and weaving rapidly around the massive Trade Federation ship, shooting at one of the droid fighters. He scores a hit, and his former spike of fear is momentarily replaced with delight.

But then, another laser bolt hits one of the wings, and as Anakin tries to twist away from the coming danger, the fighter plows headlong into the massive hanger in front of him. He yanks on the controls, desperately trying to slow the fighter before they crash and die. If that happened, he knows that Buir – and Mom – would bring them back to life just so he could scream at them. Buir has never actually gotten angry at Anakin, but this would definitely warrant it. He ignores Artoo beeping at him to stop the fighter because he's trying, okay? But it's hard, especially when Grogu keeps trying to poke one of the buttons in front of him.

"Everything's overheated," Anakin realizes with dismay as the fighter finally stops in the hanger. "This is not good." The control panel is flashing with red lights, so they're stuck. For now. This is very bad. On second thought... maybe he should have taken them back to Naboo.

He flips the levers and pushes the switches. It takes a few moments before the engine roars back to life and not a moment too soon; droids are approaching the fighter, having realized that he shouldn't be there. With a squeal of glee that's matched by Grogu, Anakin opens fire on the droids, some instinct nudging him towards another button. He slams it, and proton torpedoes are launched from the fighter, barreling away, and slamming into something with incredible force.

Explosions break out, and even Grogu perks up with an inquisitive sound. "No, I don't know what I just did, but we're getting out of here," Anakin announces, turning the ship around and pushing it as fast as he can towards the exit. The faster he goes, the more excited he becomes, his worries falling away amidst the exhilaration of flying. "Now this is podracing!" he squeals as they race towards the exit, flames and explosions chasing them the whole way.

Grogu bounces up and down in Anakin's lap, cheering the whole time. They zoom out into the blackness of space, angling away from the battle station as it comes apart behind them. Oops? Anakin hadn't meant to do that, but he doesn't regret it either, obviously. Now, they really do need to get back down to the surface.

***

Padme arrives with her half of the group – including Shmi, who seems exhausted but uninjured – though some of them are missing now, probably dead. Both Jetii are with her. She looks around with a pleased expression before pointing her blaster at Viceroy Gunray's head. He's bound tightly, sitting on the floor. He couldn't escape even if he wanted to, Din suspects, and nor can any of the others.

"Now, Viceroy," Padme declares confidently, "We will discuss a treaty."

Sabe comes in with her group, and they close the doors again, barricading them against the droids which are sure to be coming. The Throne Room is massive, but it doesn't provide that much cover, all things considered. Still, with the Jetii here, the odds are in their favor. They only need to hold out until Gunray agrees to a treaty and shuts down the droids, or until the Naboo starfighters destroy the droid control ship.

With the situation under control, Din holsters his blaster and approaches the mobile holoprojector in the corner of the room. He might as well see if he can get anything useful from it. It would be nice if he could hack into the droid control system to shut them down, but he's not counting on it. While he doesn't fully understand the political situation, he knows that any pieces of evidence in Padme's favor will help Naboo as a whole when they take their case to the Senate. He has no doubt that Gunray will go on trial – assuming that they're not overrun by droids in the next few minutes – and if the Viceroy is not convicted... well, there are other ways of obtaining justice, albeit not normal ones, per se.

His anxiety increases when he hears the droids outside, attempting to break through the sealed door, but suddenly, everything stills. He turns towards where Padme is (bullying) negotiating a treaty with Gunray, and from the way the Jetii are standing there, Din knows that they sense it too. He scrambles over to activate the viewscreen with security recordings from inside and outside the Palace. Panaka gives him a surprised look when he gets past the security measures which prevent just anyone from gaining access, but he disregards it.

The viewscreens show what he already had come to suspect.

"The droids have been deactivated," he reports. "The control ship must have been destroyed." No one cheers aloud, but they don't need to. Their relief is nearly palpable. They did it. It's over. Now, it's time for them to clean up the aftermath. 

Mando'a Translations:

dar'jetii - Sith (literally: not Jedi)

Jetii - Jedi

Goran - armorer

aliit - family, clan

beskar'gam - armor

buir - father, mother

vod'ika - little brother, little sister

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