717 FNM (21 BBY) Month 8
Coruscant, Federal District, VIP Landing Docks
Anakin Skywalker
"Be sure to keep in contact with Rex and the rest of the 501st, alright, R2? . Most have shore leave, but if anything comes up that needs my attention, let me know." I pressed the cockpit hatch release, which opened my starfighter's cockpit, allowing Coruscant's cold air to assault my nose. Most of the Clones exercising their leave had been trading their passes, upgrading to visit Mid-Rim sectors was unexpectedly popular.
R2 chirped an affirmative as he descended in his elevator to the dock for its routine maintenance.
"Master Jedi?" One of the flight deck crew greeted me gruffly. "Diplomatic shuttles from the Jedi Temple and Naboo Embassy are both here for you."
"Oh, uh,right. Thank you." How did she know I was here? I then turned to Ahsoka, "Uh, I'll need to speak with the Chancellor about getting the 501st resupplied. Boring, flimsy work you wouldn't want to deal with. Might take all day, you know, so why don't you go to the Temple and catch up with Barriss."
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow as she smiled at me. "Alright, Master, I know when I'm not wanted. I'll go give Barriss a visit. If you need me, I'll be at the Temple." With her piece said, she turned around and made her way to the Temple shuttle.
With Ahsoka out of the picture, I breathed a sigh of relief. While I had told Obi-Wan about my relationship with Padmé, I am not ready to tell my Padawan that particular can of worms. With nothing else to do, I made my way to the waiting Naboo shuttle. As the doors opened, I saw that Padmé was already inside. I entered a bit stiffly, waiting for the hatch to seal, and the privacy screens built-in to the shuttle windows to activate.
Once the shuttle lifted off we embraced each other as the shuttle entered the stream traffic heading towards the heart of Coruscant. "Padmé, you know I love you but we have to be more careful, especially in Coruscant. You shouldn't have come here to meet me, people are going to start asking questions if we keep doing this more often."
Her face turned into a beautiful frown. "Your schedule says you're meeting the Chancellor. It'll be fine."
"You could have missed the vote for the... what was it called?" I paused, trying to dredge up the name of the legislation from the HoloNet.
"Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill." She finished. "The vote isn't going to be held for a couple of hours, I will make it in time."
"Your opposition would use any excuse, any slip-up, against you." I countered. "It may be fine now, but we can't risk more meetings like this, you can't risk us. Just look at how the HoloNet treats Tanya." The HoloNet loved playing clips of Tanya's guards getting into diplomatic incidents.
"Tanya maintains her reputation on purpose and she is doing alright." Padmé shot back.
"Uh-huh."
"She told me."
I just grunted in response and wrapped my arm around her. Now I couldn't bring up any other topics on Tanya. At least not today.
"You-You don't believe me!" She stiffened in my arms.
"I believe that she told you that." I could tell this wasn't working.
"Now you don't trust my judgment, either!" She hissed back.
The argument spiraled from there, and didn't end until I handed her my lightsaber as a demonstration that I did trust her. When we arrived inside the Senate Building, the shuttle landed inside Padme's private parking before going our separate ways.
Coruscant, Senate Building, Chancellor's Office
Anakin Skywalker
I wasn't alone in the Chancellor's office, so I was limited to topics about the 501st and the war in general. The Vice Chancellor, Mas Amedda, and Senator Shayla Paige-Tarkin were present, which was fine, as my men are what I am prioritizing at the moment.
"The replacement cloning facilities for those lost on Kamino are fully operational across the Republic. Some of the faster growing Clone variants should be available in a couple of months." The Chancellor sounded eager to return to the offense now that we aren't going to experience a shortage of troops.
"That's a relief, the Jedi Council was worried that the attack on Kamino would affect troop replenishment. And even still, the sector armies may need additional t-" The lights went out suddenly, replaced by red emergency lights.
The red on white light scheme was eerily sinister in the dim emergency lighting.
"What the Sith." Senator Shayla Paige-Tarkin stood up and spoke, reaching for a sidearm that wasn't there. The Chancellor was similarly standing.
Vice Chancellor Amedda was dabbing his thick thumb at his oversized datapad and moaned. "My HoloNet access has been cut."
"What is going on?" I asked, turning towards Palpatine. His face was a mask of bafflement, the same as the others.
If Vice Chancellor Amedda wasn't pale before, he was now. "I-I have a comm request. I don't know how, I still don't have network access." He pressed a button on his datapad and accepted it. The comm squawked out a harsh sounding voice, full of amusement.
"Apologies for the inconvenience, Chancellor, but I've taken control of the east wing of your Senate Building, and the occupants are now my hostages. If you care about their lives, I'd advise you to free Ziro the Hutt from your Detention Center so that my men can pick him up."
I froze. Padmé had arrived with me at the Senate. The communicator cut off, the Vice Chancellor having muted it.
"Wha-what should we do?" The Vice Chancellor was all cold fear. I felt cold as well, but for an entirely different reason. There was only one kind of diplomacy that worked on hostage situations, in my experience. "S-Senator Taa was supposed to meet u-"
"The Senate Building has a backup hardline to the HoloNet." Palpatine announced, taking control of the situation. I unfroze, of course the building would have a back up connection. The Chancellor had already turned about, and reached his desk. "Let me try and access it from here."
A moment passed and he frowned. "The line from my office is not working either. Anakin, there's also a hardline terminal directly a few floors below my office. It won't have been cut as that would trigger the alarms."
"I have no idea where that might be." I said, slowly. "I'm not that familiar with the Senate Building layout." I admitted, wincing at Senator Shayla Paige-Tarkin's frown.
"It's in the basement levels, I believe." Senator Paige-Tarken said slowly.
A look passed between Mas Amedda and Palpatine, and the Vice Chancellor spoke up. "I can give you detailed directions, take this datapad if you need."
"Senator Tarkin, the Vice Chancellor, and I will stall them as long as we can." Palpatine pledged, his glance taking in all the others in the room in a confident sweep.
"I'll try and direct Senator Taa's entourage up here if I see them." It shouldn't be too difficult to find the portly senator from Ryloth, if he wasn't with the other hostages.
"Please, Anakin, focus on the objective."
"I'm sure I-"
"The hardline, we need to summon reinforcements." Palpatine reiterated, "You might be trading one life for many, otherwise." And so I was forced to nod in acknowledgement.
Coruscant, Senate Building, Mandalorian Office
Khae Morson
I woke up on the couch in Tanya's office. I wasn't sure what woke me from my nice nap, but unfortunately, I still remembered why I'd been so exhausted in the first place. I was up late last night dealing with a holocall from my father. He was rather upset, especially after our recent adventure in the Outer Rim.
Actually, no, it was worse than that because Kamino was in Wild Space. He complained a lot about that fact repeatedly. That whole situation bothered him; he thought sending me to the Core would keep me safe. Instead, I'd gone with Tanya on an adventure around the Galaxy, from Tatooine to Geonosis. I am very lucky that Neimoidian laandur thought that Tanya was the one in the arena instead of me. I can just imagine how long he would chew me out if he found out I was the one running away from giant monsters.
Stretching, I wondered what woke me up. Tanya didn't really use this office; people usually visited the main tower because Tanya held most of her meetings there. I was only here in case someone wanted to find Senator Kryze this afternoon, so I could redirect them back to the Senate atrium. But before I could return to napping on this wonderfully made couch, the communicator on my vambrace started to emit static noise. Again. I thought I muted it.
Right, that might be what woke me up.
At first, I was annoyed, and checked the screen to see who left the comms open. Then I noticed Tanya's vambrace was offline. Vai's vambrace was the source of the static on our group comm channel. Annoying, but stuff breaks. I sent a brief message to Mok, maybe he'd know how to fix the equipment malfunction. But it failed to send due to not having HoloNet access. Now that I looked again, somehow only Vai's vambrace was still connected. Huh. Maybe it was mine that was busted?
I left the room to find Tanya in person, and was barely in the hallway before I halted in stunned silence. Ahead of me, a protocol droid was destroyed, pitted with harsh blaster burns. I vaguely thought I recognized its model, one of the Senators owned it. So what in the Manda had happened while I was asleep?
Instinct caused me to crouch down and curse my long dress. I was in my handmaiden uniform, rather than my armor. Then I heard a pair of voices approaching. I darted into a nearby open office door. The offices had a complex security system; however, it was frequently circumvented by the doors being propped open by waste baskets and other items. For once, that was to my benefit.
"Do we go to the next phase? Bane should have the atrium locked down and taken the Senators hostage by now." The voice sounded distinctive, like a Quarren, and peeking out of the floor to ceiling windows at the front of the office, I caught a glimpse of him and an IG-86 sentinel droid out in the hallway. Both were armed and dangerous. I didn't like my odds against them without armor and weapons.
"Negative. Robonino has sent a new data feed. There is an active comm source nearby. We are to find it and deactivate it." I almost turned off my vambrace in a panic at that. However, I recalled it would make a sad noise when powering off, so I hesitated. The droid started moving away in the direction it came from, but then the Quarren swiped a device against the nearest office door's badge reader, and it chimed open. Great, they were searching every office.
Putting that aside, the real question was, what would White Silver do...
While he was still searching through some unfortunate Senator's office, I darted back through the hallway and back into Tanya's office. It would only take them a few minutes to search this far. So as quickly as I could, I unlatched my vambrace, and tossed it on the couch I had been napping on earlier. Then I shifted the desk as softly as I could, to create a blind spot and place where I could wait in ambush. This would only work because I knew they had separated. If they had decided to regroup, this would end very decisively, and not in my favor.
The door's security access chimed open.
"Knock, knock. Anyone in here?" The Quarren called. I heard his heavy footsteps entering the room. He didn't spot the vambrace yet as he wandered away from my blind spot and towards the window.
I scratched my head, trying to think of a way out of this situation. Running wouldn't work, there was a sentinel droid nearby. And I'm pretty confident I wasn't the fastest runner of the three of us. My talents lie elsewhere, and for some reason, that summoned memories of that fateful night back home in Gargon city.
The intruder fiddled with his earpiece, and then started bragging to other members of their team, which brought me back to reality. "Damn, what a view. Rich fools get the best stuff. Glad we're not going to let them keep them, ha." So Tanya and the rest of the Senators were taken hostage, but it sounds like the hostage takers are going to kill them no matter what. Important info, but useless to me right now. I needed to acquire a weapon.
"What do you mean, I'm in the room with it?" He asked into his earpiece. He finally noticed my abandoned vambrace on the couch. "Wait, I have something. Looks like one of those MandoTech arm communicators. No one here, though."
He looked the device over for a second, before tossing it on the floor, clearly annoyed at it. Then he pointed his blaster at it, oh look a weapon, and then blasted my commercial vambrace a few times. I was very glad I left my personal beskar vambrace back at the tower. I took one last look at the destroyed fragments of the plasteel vambrace, which couldn't help me now. It's not like it would have been that useful anyway, it didn't have any weapon mods, which meant the Senate Guard couldn't confiscate it. Tanya had acquired them for everyone so that we can still communicate with each other while in the Senate, since my personal beskar vambrace had weapons built in.
"Alright, taken care of. I'm heading back." Then he turned around, with his back to my blind spot. I'd never get a better opportunity like this.
I sprung forward and wrapped my arm around his throat, putting him in a chokehold. As he gagged for air, I just kept pulling to get better leverage until I heard a crunch. I kept my grip on him until he stopped struggling. I waited a few seconds to make sure he wasn't faking it before I gently put him to the floor.
I think I broke something important in his neck. This isn't the first time I've killed someone. When Gargon was at war, I think I killed a few mercs from blaster shots, but that was much less personal than killing someone with my own hands. Dad had taken me big game hunting before on Gargon; this was much more unpleasant.
I'd deal with that later once this is all over, for now, I quickly reached out to his side and took his blaster pistol and wallet. I left his earpiece alone since it could be possible that they could use it to track me. Next, I carefully heaved his body onto Tanya's rolling chair. Now to figure out what to do next.
I needed to contact Mando Tower for reinforcements and to let them know what's going on here. I also needed to rescue the other Senators. Tanya had probably broken herself free and caused problems for her captors by now. But what did Vai's active signal mean?
Looking at the Quarren, I could imagine that his team would be looking for him sooner or later when he hasn't returned to them yet. That IG-86 sentinel was still lurking nearby, too.
I need to change clothes, or at least shorten the dress if I am going to be fighting. These gowns were going to get in the way of whatever fight I was going to do. I grabbed the knife off his belt and got to work shortening my dress at the knees. Once I felt like I had enough room to maneuver, I kicked off the heeled boots too, since there was a bit of a heel. I wish I'd brought something other than fancy boots to this, but I hadn't exactly expected to be playing commando today.
Taking a breath, I moved to the door and opened it before looking both ways to determine that the area was clear. The last thing I needed was to be snuck up on by that sentinel droid. Once I saw that the hallway was clear, I moved the chair with the Quarren's body as quietly as I could, three rooms over to a supply closet. It was better for him not to be found in Tanya's office. It could give away who I was. The less they know about me, the better.
Then again, what would White Silver do to throw off her enemies? Something to distract them from knowing who was responsible for this and make people more paranoid. Looking at the corpse, I thought for a moment before an idea popped into my head. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out some lipstick and got to work writing down a threat, at least one I believed would be quite effective, but hopefully would throw them off enough to distract them.
Once I was sure that it was clear enough that they could read it, I stepped back and left the door ajar with his foot sticking out. The scene before me looked a little bit unhinged, this situation was unhinged — who would dare attack the Senate, so maybe it would work. Even if it wasn't exactly as good as one of White Silver's clever schemes, it should throw the enemy off, and I didn't have any more time to fix it. So, for now, I moved deeper into the building while avoiding any potential patrols.
I couldn't help Tanya and Vai if I was captured. I needed to come up with a plan, maybe link up with other survivors who had evaded capture. A Mandalorian could hope. There was a certain safety in numbers. Though I probably could take on the criminals one-on-one, I doubted that they would come at me one at a time.
Coruscant, Senate Building, Senatorial Offices
Cad Bane
"All agents, check in." I had a man missing. And as I made my way down the offices where his earcomm tracker said he would be I had a suspicion that we had some rogue moving about. I listened as everyone checked in; Robertino cycled the power in my section with his check-in, his attempt to impress Aurra Sing, no doubt. No one saw me roll my eyes.
I didn't know why the Hutts wanted Ziro back, but I was being paid not to care. I was being paid a lot of Republic credit ingots not to care. The meeting had been memorable; they offered a king's ransom of Republic ingots to retrieve Ziro the Hutt. Enough to buy Jabba's Palace on Tatooine twice, with some extra to spare. There must have been complications if Jabba was offering that much, but I could handle the Jedi. Jabba knew this as well, which is why he hired me. I suspected Ziro knew too much, and this wasn't a rescue so much as a transfer.
I noticed a foot sticking out into the hallway up ahead and drew my pistol from my side, the two IG droids raised their blasters as I moved closer. As I got closer, I saw the foot belonged to my missing man, Ralok, who was dead. I'd say he probably died in the last five minutes by the looks of it. He must have died just after he said he was heading back. The interesting thing, though, was the writing on his chest. It was in Galactic Basic, so that didn't narrow down exactly who could be responsible for this, but the message written in red was quite clear.
HAHAHA I HAVE A BLASTER NOW
"Deranged guard?" I muttered. No, the Clones weren't creative enough for this, and the rest of the Senate staff was purely ornamental. Some unfortunate military officer, visiting the Senatorial offices today, then?
As I got closer, though, I noticed something off about the writing. It wasn't a spelling issue or anything that simple. No, it was what the material used for the writing was. Leaning closer, I inspected it: lipstick. I was not the type to know this kind of thing, but I did recognize it from one or two liaisons.
Reaching for my communication device, I reached to activate the device and contact Sing. She's a woman, she'd be more of an expert on this. Before I could, though, the comms squawked to life.
"I found Shahan. Someone killed him. He didn't listen to my fashion advice, either." Sing was always a romantic, especially about the dead.
"Ralok's dead too. Any clues on who killed Shahan?"
There was a pause before she answered, "No, not that I can see. Used a good bit of strength, though; neck was crushed to a pulp. Yours?"
"Crushed windpipe, but the only other clue is that someone left a deranged message on his chest with lipstick. Don't know what the point of it was, but it's there."
"What brand?" She asked.
"If I knew, I would have led with that information, Sing. Don't push my buttons." I spat.
I heard a sigh before she said, "Fine, tell me where it is, and I'll take a look myself. Finding out what corporation it's from will tell us a lot about who wrote it. If we're lucky, it might be unique to their home system."
"Thirty second floor, west side janitor's closet."
"What? Why would they move it?"
"Probably knows that if we found a body in one of the senator's offices, we'd know who to blame."
"So, whoever killed Ralok is female, but the one who killed Shahan is either a cyborg or a Jedi. We got all the Mandalorians, right?" Sing asked.
"Kryze and her handmaiden are all tied up back in the central area."
"Well, the person who killed Shahan had a bit of strength. Put that together, and I'm going to say we have two potential candidates who are skulking about down here, some kind of cyborg, most likely a military officer, or a Jedi."
"That could be a problem." I said, shaking my head. "Considering we're on Coruscant, let's go with the worst-case option and assume it's a Jedi. I've killed a few Jedi in my time, but I don't like to fight them head-on. Double the teams, make sure no one walks alone. We need to clear this place out and make sure we have full control. We also need to make sure they don't just pick us off one by one."
"That's going to slow our progress in clearing this place out, give the people we missed time to get a signal out." Sing warned.
"Not the biggest issue. We almost got who we came for, better for you all to stay alive so you can do your jobs than being dead weight."
"Alright, I'll continue my search. I'll contact you as soon as I'm done with this floor." Sing signed off.
If I wasn't aware of some of her past, I might have been worried about her out there alone with only a droid. But, she wasn't just a bounty hunter. She had quite a few career changes in her life, and she could probably rival me for the title of best bounty hunter if she didn't have her own reasons for being such.
"Come on, you two." I said to the droids as I shook my head and moved on down the passageway.
Coruscant, Senate Building, Senatorial Offices
Anakin Skywalker
What a day, what a kriffing day. The senatorial offices were completely deserted and darkly illuminated only by red emergency lights, so I continued forward. The building felt strangely sinister in lockdown, as if a menace lurked around every corner. I shrugged that feeling off and kept looking. I was trying to find a way to access a communication terminal to contact the outside world, and let the Judicials or the Clone Army on duty know that the senators were in danger. Unfortunately, I would guess a slicer had hacked into the security systems of the Senate building and put it on lockdown. It might even be a team of slicers, and they'd have to be on site somewhere to pull it off. I kept expecting to stumble into them around each corner.
According to the Chancellor, there was a secondary access point to the computer systems that ran the place, hidden in the basement of the Senate Building. Getting there unseen, though, was the challenge. There were droids patrolling in the halls looking for intruders in larger, increasing quantities, ever since I had to kill that mercenary who attempted to shoot me.
I wish I had more time to loot him for his weapon, but I had heard footsteps coming down the hall, so I made a run for it, not trusting my luck. That probably was the wisest move, considering who I'd spotted.
There were few people who could qualify as officially Dark Jedi. Some in the Temple argue that Count Dooku was a Dark Jedi. After experiencing several fights with him, I disagreed; I believe he has firmly fallen to the ways of the Sith.
Aurra Sing, on the other hand, was firmly a Dark Jedi. There was no other way to say it. After abandoning the Temple, Sing never displayed any Sith influences, but drew attention from the Council by taking bounties on Jedi and her preference for assassinations. From what I researched after I met her on Tatooine years ago, she had been an apprentice of a particularly notorious Jedi Master, An'ya Kuro, the "Dark Woman". The Dark Woman was notorious for her controversial training methods, which worked until it didn't, ending with Aurra Sing.
Windu had known Master Kuro and Padawan Sing personally, but had little good to say about either. I don't know the exact details, but in her training as a Padawan, Sing ended up getting captured by an assassins' guild and turned into a cyborg. However, the Council didn't act until Sing had become a successful bounty hunter, hunting victims and Jedi alike. Honestly, it was typical, the Council tends to let these kinds of mistakes go uncorrected, especially when the victims were of no great significance. Mom and I might have had similarly awful fates, if not for Master Qui-Gon wisely ignoring the will of the Council.
Sing was very dangerous, a Dark Jedi who could rival me in power, especially when I was disarmed. The only good news was she probably didn't know where I was, which would give me an opportunity to try and sneak past her. Otherwise, I might be rejoining Padmé sooner than expected.
Or the Force could intercede, that could happen too. I felt an acquainted presence in the Force, as I rounded a corner and came face to face with a blonde girl carrying a blaster.
She quickly raised it before lowering it and saying, "Oh, it's you."
I raised an eyebrow before I recognized her. "Kay, right? You're one of Tanya's handmaidens."
She shook her head before saying, "Khae, but close enough, Master Jedi. It's good to see you. I was beginning to think that I was the only one who wasn't captured."
"Same," I said with a nod before continuing, "I'm just glad to have someone who knows how to fight. Figures a Mandalorian would have a blaster hidden somewhere."
"Um, no, I stole this after I took down one of their members."
There was a raised eyebrow, saying, "Right, well, that's good. The hostage takers can't have too many people, and their numbers must have dwindled to the point that they'd stay close to the hostages, which means we might be able to make it."
"Make it where?" she asked.
"To the HoloNet hardline, it's in a secondary comm station in the basement. We're going to have to skirt by the hostages to get there, but it's the best and only way to get help. If we can get there, we can call for help."
She nodded before asking, "Doesn't that put the hostages in more risk, though?"
I shook my head, saying, "No more risky than they already are. I went there earlier, and I saw a couple of their droids setting up bombs and sensors around them to keep them in place. We could at least make it so that this is a proper siege, and we might be able to negotiate their freedom."
Khae frowned and shook her head in disagreement. "From what I overheard, it sounds like they are going to get rid of the hostages no matter what..."
Padmé... "We'll make it, we'll get to the hardline. Summon help." Your focus determines your reality.
She nodded and said, "Alright, I'm going to trust you, Jedi, so lead the way."
I did as she said and led the way towards a set of stairs I knew wouldn't be as watched as others. We'd only gone a few steps when she asked a question that stammered me a bit.
"Where's your lightsaber, by the way?"
"Uh, my lightsaber? There are rules about keeping weapons on the Senate property, I'm not allowed to do that."
"You're a terrible liar, you know that." Khae whispered. "I'm familiar with the rules. Tanya made sure we memorized them all. You're not allowed to keep weapons unless, of course, you're a Jedi, then you can have as many weapons as you want as long as it's ceremonial, so you should have had your lightsaber."
"Haha, I just left it somewhere I can't get to today."
"... So Padmé's office?" She whispered back towards me.
I stopped mid-step and looked at her, wondering how she came to that conclusion.
"Come on, you guys do an okay job of hiding it, but it's fairly obvious the two of you care for each other." Khae said softly, with a wave of her hand. "Plus, I saw how she was reacting when you went off to fight Count Dooku back on Geonosis. She obviously cared about you, and you have a thing for her. I doubt you two aren't at least pursuing something. It's not like the Jedi have an oath of celibacy."
I nodded, and kept my voice quieter, "Well, let's just say yes, she happened to have it in her hands at the wrong moment, and it is currently with the hostage takers."
Khae grunted, shaking her head, and we started moving again. We slowly moved down the stairs and I didn't make too much noise as we headed towards the lower levels. "So, out of curiosity, what is the deal between you and Padmé?"
I shrugged my shoulders before saying, "Don't really feel like talking about that. I barely know you."
"Fair. I mean, have you seen the rumors swirling around Tanya? Almost every other week, there's a HoloNet report about someone getting added to her harem. I guess if the Hero With No Fear started to do the same, the HoloNet would be even worse. Probably once a day, you'd have a new so-called fling in the media."
I chuckled softly, "I actually kind of already had something like that happen a couple of weeks back."
Khae asked, "You did? How did I miss that?"
"It was more of an Outer Rim story. According to one particular paper, I am totally in a relationship with Aayla Secura. Their evidence? She saved my life when our ship crashed."
I heard a stifled chuckle from behind me before Khae spoke up, saying, "Isn't that just more of an Aayla Secura thing? Like on the HoloNet last month, there was a whole exposé about her fashion interests, Jedi clothing choices, and what's her favorite perfume."
I chuckled at that before saying, "I think it was Master Coleman Trebor's idea. He's trying to improve the public opinion of Jedi in general because of the whole situation with the Maelstrom. He thought the greatest idea was to turn Aayla into an idol, I think that was the term he used."
"Oh gods." Khae muttered behind me, her tone made me turn to face her.
Her hand was firmly placed on her forehead as she softly said, "I remember now. Tanya was talking to Jedi Master Trebor about the concept a few months ago. He came by to ask about the Mandalorian idols, after they had been such a hit inside our own sector, and if it could be implemented elsewhere."
"Yeah, I thought it felt like something Tanya would come up with. Did she suggest that for Aayla?"
Khae shook her head, saying, "She only said to make sure to find someone who could enjoy the position."
I scratched my head, "That does sound like something Aayla would agree to."
There were certain oddities about the Jedi Order that I noticed the longer I stayed in it. Like there was a firm set of rules that people were supposed to follow, and then there were just, I guess you would say, radicals within the Order who didn't follow them. Master Secura was more relaxed and open about accepting her culture. Master Mundi technically broke the rule about having a family, but he is an exception due to his species' low male population. Master Windu was, well, he was always investigating the Dark side when it came to his powers to try and meet the Sith at their own game.
There was a certain hypocrisy to the Order if you looked at it the wrong way. But if you looked at it another way, it was more like, yes, there were rules, but there were exceptions too, as long as you obeyed the rules in intention.
It was a struggle, but I tried to obey the boundaries of rules as intended when it came to my relationship with Padmé. I wanted to be with her, to have a life with her, perhaps something more. But I also wanted to be a Jedi Knight, to make the galaxy a better place. I just had to find the balance between those two. It was a tough and hard path, but I was the chosen one, after all. If I was destined to find the balance in the Force, perhaps I was destined to find the balance between the Order and actually having a family.
Or maybe I was being a bit presumptuous.
Obi-Wan always said that I was being too forward with my thinking. But then again, I just spent the last few years convinced he was also a hypocrite to some extent. After all, Tanya was definitely his daughter, and now I had that confirmed. But I also had confirmed that he had no idea the entire time, which still stunned me. How could he not recognize his own child, especially a Force sensitive one? Shouldn't he have sensed a familiar presence between them? I'd always sensed a similarity between them to some extent. I knew I would have recognized my own kid if I had one.
It probably wasn't as clear-cut for Obi-Wan to sense, since Tanya tended to keep a lot of her emotions bottled up, and that did seem to tint her Force presence from being as clear as it could be, but still.
Could that be what Palpatine was getting at when we had that conversation a while back? But Tanya was the type to keep to herself and put on a mask of professionalism. Perhaps he had picked up on that and was simply worried because it made her look a bit shady, especially with concerns that she might be using her Force powers to coerce votes.
I doubt that she would actually do that, she's too good of a person from what I'd seen her do. But then again, unlike most senators I'd seen, she'd also stepped out of the role a senator was expected to take on many occasions.
At the end of the hallway, I tried to recall the directions. "I think there's supposed to be a maintenance access hatch somewhere around here." I muttered. The turbolifts would be disabled in a lockdown, and I didn't want to climb down one of those.
Khae tapped an ordinary looking wall panel with her blaster. "Here, I think." I noticed it had a faint yellow border, barely indistinguishable from the others. A moment later, she pressed on the bottom section, and it opened. The panel swung upwards to reveal a vertical maintenance shaft illuminated by dim red.
Khae then said, "You can go first." I grunted and stepped into the shaft, not looking down.
Descending, the bottom was revealed to the basement levels. The ladder ended in a wide hallway, likely used to transport supplies for the various Senate delegations. Khae dropped behind me, while I started inspecting the rooms. Immediately, though, I found something.
A diminutive techno-service droid was hovering over a control panel in the center of the room, a somewhat unpopular model from the Colonies I recognized, a Vertseth Automata. The droid was preoccupied with something, with what I suspected was a powerful HoloNet jammer. I recognized some of its function from my starfighter equipment I'd disassembled and repaired. Also, I spotted the terminal for the hardline in the back of the room. Khae had also peeked into the room, before crouching back into the hallway.
"I'll distract the droid and try to disable the jammer." Vertseth Automata droids were all based on the same base design, if I had to grapple with it up close, I should be able to deactivate it quickly. I nodded towards her, "You go for the HoloNet hardline." Khae nodded, adopting a focused expression.
One step into the room, though, and the droid whirled about, alerted. "Come any closer, and I trigger the explosives." Groaning, now I spotted the motion sensors. Hidden in the corners of the room, and only focused at ground level. Flying smugly above the sensors, the droid pulled out a communicator. "Master Bane, there's a Jedi here."
"Oh," came a voice from the communicator in its hand. "Put them on. They must be the ones who have been causing me problems. I'd like to have a little bit of a nice conversation with them so we can come to some sort of understanding."
The droid nodded and, from where it was floating, it tossed me the communicator. I grabbed it out of the air and said, "You're supposed to be Bane?"
"Cad Bane, Bounty Hunter, at your service. Listen here, Jedi. Where is your female accomplice? Step forward and show yourself."
"I have no-"
Khae marched into the room, blaster still aimed at the hovering droid. "Khae Morson. If you harm Senator Kryze, I'll hunt you down, scum."
"Mandalorians." Bane seemed amused and wistful, rather than annoyed. "See, I don't care about any senator in particular, but I do know one thing. If you disable my jammer, the chances of anyone escaping this building goes down to zero. I have the Senate Atrium set to explode if anyone enters without my personal approval. So you really have two choices: surrender, or kill every senator you're trying to protect."
"How about you surrender?" I countered. "After all, there's no way you're getting out of this. The security on this planet is top-notch; we're in the middle of a war. If you kill those senators, the whole Republic military will come down on your heads."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. The Chancellor has already negotiated quite a bit with me already. The whole reason I'm here, Ziro, is going to be released shortly. All you have to do is not cause me problems until then, and everyone will leave this place alive. Well, almost everyone. Idiots will, of course, remain dead. Why don't you just come on up to the main area and surrender?"
"You're stalling, there's no deal." Khae asserted, the tension in the room rising as she shifted the blaster in her grip.
"Wait," I held out a hand, signaling her not to shoot. "I want to hear confirmation from Chancellor Palpatine that he's agreed to your deal. After all, right this moment, I hold the room that can lift the lockdown. With a flip of the switch, everyone will know you're here."
"Ah, I see you're thinking ahead, but perhaps you're not thinking with your head. Todo, execute File 37." I rushed the droid, better than finding out whatever that was.
"Oh no! Not File 37, please, sir, no!" The droid ignored my rush, hovering absentmindedly. Khae fired, but then the droid displayed remarkable agility; it flipped upside down to avoid it.
"Todo, execute." I leapt, and grabbed the upside-down droid in midair. There was a control port on the left shoulder of these models. If I could just-
Todo exploded in a shower of electrical sparks. Electricity came out in a wave, hitting me. I could feel every muscle in my body shivering and stressing at the same time as I slowly collapsed to the ground. I tried to maintain my consciousness, but it was quite apparent I'd been hit with some sort of stun bomb, which had discharged entirely into my body, instead of the surroundings. Entangled, the pair of us fell to the floor with a thud; it had basically emptied its entire core at once to accomplish that. Khae was out of range of it, so there was still hope.
"Go! Get help!" I growled out before I finally collapsed to the ground, my eyes forced to close by the electricity and the pain. My body shivered with energy flowing through it.
Coruscant, Senate Building
Khae Morson
"Sith spit." I cursed as I watched Anakin fall over unconscious thanks to the droid. The only good news was that the droid was downed as well. Aiming my blaster at the jammer device, I switched it off before blasting the control panel so no one could reactivate that jammer. Once done, I went over to check on Anakin to determine that he was alive and okay.
"Oh, how the hell am I going to get you out of here." I groaned, trying to lift him and realizing that he was six foot two. Damn, no matter how I do this, he's just far too heavy for me to lift and pull out of here. Which meant I was in a room with an unconscious Jedi while invaders were very likely on their way here. I didn't like my chances against more than one of them; earlier we noticed that patrols now had four people. I need to get a message out before they could get here.
My options were not looking great. In fact, they were looking absolutely terrible. Grabbing my blaster, I moved towards the comm terminal in the back of the room. I wasn't familiar with how to console, it was full of diagnostic and system information, but after a few panicked moments of searching, I found it. A manual connection entry, a few button presses later, and I brought up the first person Tanya forced everyone to memorize.
"Who is this?" A disembodied voice of Royal Guard Captain Struc came from the terminal, sounding annoyed.
"Captain, this is Khae. I need back up, right now!" I said in a rush.
"What's going on?" he said, the certainty in his voice indicating he recognized my voice.
"The Senate has been taken over by bounty hunters. Tanya and the majority of the senators are being held hostage. They are surrounded by explosives, and the bounty hunters are trying to negotiate the release of a prisoner."
"We're on our way. What is your sitrep?" The captain sounded like he was on the move now. By the Manda, things were looking up.
"No time, they are on their way here, so I gotta go."
"Okay, get out of there. Good luck, Morson. Help is on the way." Captain Struc signed off.
With that done, I sprinted out and ducked behind a bunch of machinery; as several mechanical footsteps approached. I didn't want to risk getting spotted, so I just listened as four sets of footsteps entered the room and quickly went back out the way they came.
Once I felt that they were far enough away, I went back into the comm room, only to find that Anakin was indeed gone. Hopefully, he's still alive. The only thing I can do now is to find some way to rescue the prisoners. Reinforcements were coming, and protecting Tanya was my job. Now to find my way back up to the floor where the hostages were. I tried to recall the route Anakin had led us, and retraced my steps.
Coruscant, Senate Building
Tanya Kryze
Today has been undignified, humiliating, and quite annoying, to say the least. Here I was, the Senator of Mandalore, home of the most feared warriors in the galaxy, tied up like a Christmas Day turkey. My hands were firmly tied and bound behind my back, along with Vai behind me.
Neither one of us could escape, the droids seemed to pay special attention to our location. In fact, a few times, some senators had come over to possibly adjust us so we had more room, but the droids had come into the circle to push them away, making sure that we were prevented from having any cover to do anything.
Did my activities while I was a Senator really draw that much attention to me? Or was this just because I was Mandalorian? It was hard to say. Yes, Mandalorians are a very impressive lot when it comes to skills and escaping problems, before proceeding to make problems for the person who put them in that position. But it was also true that I have had quite a few well-known actions over the years, from what happened on Geonosis to issues I had brought about here on Coruscant, to my fights with a couple of gangs. Getting the infamous Jango Fett to peacefully retire from bounty hunting was likely to be the one that drew the most attention to those in the bounty hunting community. It would be like a completely unknown company managing to poach your star employee without any warning. Of course, the others would want to investigate what happened.
So it was not outside the realm of possibility that I was trapped in a prison of my own design. If I was that well-known problem person, of course they're going to be prepared for me. Like by being tied up and watched like a hawk.
We weren't even allowed to talk to the other prisoners. Padmé had come up to try and reassure me, but a droid had immediately stepped forward and motioned her away with his gun, which said a lot about how much my reputation preceded me.
I sighed, wondering what they wanted? I knew from listening to some of their conversations that something had gone wrong, and that Chancellor Palpatine was in communication with their leader to negotiate our release. But that was about it. For all I knew, the whole Grand Army of the Republic was rolling up outside and ready to break the doors in, which was not great at all when multiple laser sensors prevented us from leaving our position. And those lasers seemed to be connected to large bundles of explosives.
I did not feel like becoming a fine red mist because the Grand Army of the Republic charged in the front door guns blazing. Hopefully, the police of the planet had some better options, maybe an EMP weapon to disable those explosives. That was my best hope, which really said a lot about the security of the Senatorial Guard.
From what I heard from the gossiping senators, not only had they been wiped out in apparently a few minutes, but based on the whispered gossip from the other group of hostages, none of them had managed to get a warning out that this was going on.
Who was running this nightmare organization? They were full of corrupt officers who were either involved in assassinating senators or helping prisoners of war escape. I was not going to forget that a certain member of the CIS defense council who had been under our custody had recently escaped because of them, and now they've been eliminated easily by mercenaries, bounty hunters of all things. It's like the Secret Service got taken down by a bunch of cowboys.
I'm not one for suddenly making bills for the Senate to vote on as a legislative tactic, like some senators do, but this was a big enough failure that if I survive this, I'm drafting a new legislation to prevent this from happening again. I'll create a caliber of Senatorial Guard that can actually fulfill their purpose. If they're going to steal the Mandalorian look for their armor; the least they could do was not embarrass themselves at their job.
I may be a bit angrier than I thought I was, but I only have myself to blame. Mandalorians have a stigma against those that are deemed useless, the fact that I got captured and made into a damsel was going to murder my reputation back in the Mandalorian sector. I'm going to be a laughingstock for this. It only takes one political mistake to make yourself look like a fool, and this was going to make me look like the biggest fool of all. But, of course, I could shift the blame onto the Senatorial Guard to save face, it is probably all I could do.
That might save my career, and it's not like anyone in the Mandalore sector cared about the Senatorial Guards. They would be more likely to get a kick at seeing such an ancient organization fall apart under massive scrutiny because it weakened the hated Republic. One less barrier to conquer if the Mandalorian sector succumbs to radical barbarism and attempts to reconquer the Galaxy.
I examined the rope holding my legs together, wondering if I could cut my way through. I might be able to slide under if I could get up to speed. I carefully moved my wrist back and forth to see if I could get them free. They were behind my back, so I couldn't exactly see what the knot was like, but perhaps it would weaken after prolonged abuse. I doubted I could muster up enough friction to cause the ropes to burst into flames, but maybe I'd be able to weaken the middle enough that I could squeeze my hands through the openings.
Hopefully, Vai would be able to sneak her hidden knife close enough to cut us free. However, we were watched constantly by the droids and there was never an opportunity for her to retrieve it. Sighing, I looked up at the door, wondering where the hell our rescue was and what happened to Khae?
Well, one of those answers came through the door as two droids came in dragging a half-conscious Anakin Skywalker into the center of the room before tossing him next to me. Bane followed in right after them, "Well, well, Jedi, who would have seen that coming?"
A pale nonhuman woman stepped forward, approaching Bane, "Still fell for a trap, though. Must not be a very bright one." I watched Anakin mumble something as he started to get up, and Padmé moved over to him. I also watched the look she gave me, which told me that I needed to cause a distraction, as I saw what appeared to be a lightsaber in her sleeves slowly push its way forward.
Coughing into my gag, I attempted to get their attention. Bane looked over at me before shrugging and stepping forward and lowering the gag from my mouth. "Is this charade almost over?" I spat. "I know that you probably don't give a damn about what politicians do, but we have a busy schedule to work through. What with a whole vote to keep privacy alive in this galaxy and this delay would mean that some of us will have to work overtime. To top it off, you've killed the leader of the opposition party, so we'll have even more work to do to prevent the Republic from becoming a galactic police state."
Cad Bane chuckled darkly, "Ah yes, a true believer in democracy. You truly believe in those democratic principles, don't you? How droll. There's only one rule in this galaxy, and it's that anything can be done for the right price. Your vote doesn't matter; it's already happening, I can assure you of that."
"Easy for you to say when you likely have a criminal record a parsec long. But if you have evidence to back up your statement, the Senate would love to hear it. If you can provide actual evidence and not conspiracy theories, of course." I stalled.
Cad Bane and the non-human woman were both looking at me now, buying Padmé the time to slip Anakin the lightsaber. Stupid hormonal couple, I don't know what those two have been whispering, but at least now the Jedi had a weapon.
"As for your question about whether this is almost over, yes it is. We've already got what we came here for, so we'll be taking our leave. A shame about the jammer, that was an expensive piece of equipment."
Clearing my throat, I asked, "Do you really think the Republic will keep to the deal? After all, you killed a senator, held senators hostage, and are trying to get a convicted criminal out of prison. You haven't acted in good faith, so why should the Republic? I don't think you're going to escape the consequences of today."
"I don't need faith or the Force when I have explosives." Bane held up a device that clued me in that they weren't going to leave us alive.
"You'll hold us hostage to the last possible moment to give yourself time to escape, that explains a lot." I said with a nod, I might be facing a fourth life in a moment if those explosives go off.
"Goodbye, Senator of Mandalore, and goodbye, ladies and gentlemen. We have a guest to pick up for our next meeting, and you have your day to get back to. I'm sure the Republic will send their people inside very soon." Bane mocked, leading out the group of mercenaries, bounty hunters, and droids.
As soon as I was sure he was gone, I said to Anakin, "Get up and cut through the floor."
"Got it." He muttered as pulled his lightsaber out. After getting on his knees, he activated his lightsaber, quickly cutting a circle around him through the floor and creating a passageway down.
Thankfully, the level beneath us was a standard height, a few meters down. The senators didn't complain at this point, everyone seemed tired of captivity. They moved to the hole and dropped to escape to the second floor. Before long, it was just me, Vai, Anakin, Organa, and Padmé. Vai managed to cut through her binds, and moved on to cutting through my binds.
The ropes came loose just as I heard audible beeping coming from the bombs. Suddenly, a powerful Force pushed me and everyone else into the hole. We collapsed onto the ground, but Anakin landed upright. He used the chunk of concrete he'd cut free to fill in the hole he created as the room above exploded. The impromptu plug mitigated the explosion to a harmless distraction, everyone sighed with relief.
Once I was sure that I had all of my limbs, I dusted myself off before I shouted, "Is everyone alive?" A chorus of "Yes", "We're goods" and other tones responded, by some miracle, we managed to escape that situation.
Sitting up, Vai said, "I guess your assumption that Bane was more interested in making a splash in the political world rather than mayhem wasn't correct."
I shrugged, shaking my head before saying, "Could be-"
Anakin cut in, "Bane's an enemy of the Republic now. We're going to have to track him down, and we will not take this attack lightly."
I nodded my head and with a smile said, "Good, happy to have the Jedi after an actual criminal for once and not be a general that doesn't know how to use an army."
Coruscant, Senate Building Entrance
Sheev Palpatine
What an unexpected turn of events, I mused as I watched the senators being cared for after their near-death experience. A bit of a shame. Had events worked out properly; I would have had the leadership of most of my opponents wiped out by someone else.
What a wondrous thing this war was turning out to be, that the Hutt's would have the gall to employ bounty hunters to invade the Republic Senate. It was obviously a hit. Why else would they have come for Ziro the Hutt? It did result in some interesting outcomes nonetheless. This should be effective propaganda material for COMPOR in further vilifying the Hutts and non-human aliens. The fact that there weren't any humans among the bounty hunters is a fortuitous coincidence.
Taa had survived, discovered hours later cowering in supply closet. That useful idiot always proved capable of surviving a crisis. Philo had been killed, by calling on the bounty hunter's threat as a bluff from what I heard from the witnesses. Though he was only one amongst many, with his death it was likely that I would be able to pass a few more bills that I had planned. While there would always be a rallying cry against me and my agents, one less senator in the field causing me problems was useful to me in the long term.
Although, the young Mandalorian senator had survived as she was taking part in the vote against my attempt to increase the surveillance state. Unfortunate. But with Tanya still on the board, there are still ways that she could be of use to my plans. If she died, the least she could do would be a loss of incentive for Count Dooku, I'm sure.
But with her alive, there were many possibilities that he may attempt in mind, Dooku may show himself to be a worthwhile student... though he was still too old and set on his ways to be my perfect apprentice. I was on my way to congratulate Anakin on saving the senators when I noticed said Mandalorian senator walking towards me with a rather annoyed gait.
"Senator Kryze." I said with a smile, giving a nod to her as she approached. "I'm so glad that you're unharmed. This whole situation is very unprecedented in the history of the Republic."
"Yes, unprecedented, that's one way to say it." She said, folding her arms across her chest. "It's also an extreme example of the degradation of the Senatorial Guard and how it has continued to fail in its service."
Oh. Now, this could be useful. Feigning shock, I said, "Miss Kryze, what are you saying? The Senatorial Guard has guarded the Republic Senate for generations."
"Yes, and in that time, they've grown complacent and corrupt. Before the war even began, one of them was responsible for the death of a senator. Another has helped a known member of the CIS escape. And now, their incompetence has seen every Senatorial Guard on duty killed in a single decapitating strike."
She was absolutely fuming and saying some rather known truths. I watched several senators looking this way, listening in. Oh, how very useful this would be if she reacted just so. I leaned into my role.
"But what exactly do you suggest should be done, my dear?"
"They obviously need proper military training, since their peace time procedures have been proven multiple times to be inadequate. Perhaps bringing in some of the clones that are currently guarding the city could aid them, or hire some other security force to train them."
I held my smile, teeth in my heart, as I nodded along, saying, "Yes, of course, I assumed you would not recommend your Mandalorian forces; that would break your neutrality agreements, correct?"
Tanya nodded before adding, "Correct. However, I would ask that the CNS be allowed to bring Mandalorian Security forces into the Senate as a secondary force in case such an operation like this happens again. As well as allowing religious exemptions for armor during wartime."
Hmm, the last one, I had not expected, but I could swing that. Oh, how I could swing that. Visions of Mandalorians in full armor walking the halls of the senate would be a jab to the gut of so many senators who clung to ancient history. Yes, I nodded in my head. I said, "Of course, of course. We'll have to put this to a vote in the Senate, but I will see if I can get that religious exemption through as quickly as possible."
"Good." Tanya said with a nod, seeming pleased by my offering of religious exemption. That would be rather fun to watch, I imagine, a Mandalorian senator in full armor arguing for peace. It would be hilariously ironic from a historical perspective. Of course, very few would get the joke, considering the last time a Mandalorian in full armor stood in the Senate, the Supreme Chancellor lost his head. But it was amusing to me, doubted any Mandalorian is capable of taking my head from me.
But the key points here, that Senator Kryze was advancing my agenda by helping me get what I wanted all along: clone troopers within the Senate grounds for added protection and the ability for senators of note to bring their own security forces everywhere within the facility. Meaning, I could finally bring in loyal forces from Thyrsiansa. A personal Red Guard to protect me in place of the Senatorial Blue Guard that had been found to be incapable of fulfilling their duties. Oh, how amusing.
I nodded my head before adding, "Well, I think you should go get some rest. It has been a trying day. I'll have some chocolates from Regal Star sent over to you to help you recover. It will take time to reorganize the Senate, especially with the loss of Senator Philo. We're not going to be able to have that vote today or tomorrow or anytime soon until then."
"Shame." Tanya said with an odd expression before adding, "Thank you for your ear, Supreme Chancellor. I know I was a little bit heated, but I do not like being at gunpoint."
"Of course, nobody would really, so it is completely understandable." I sympathized with her plight. Every other time someone has done so, events usually spiral out of control that lead to unforeseen, unpredictable consequences. And though I quite enjoy riding the chaotic wave of this war, I didn't want her to turn that wave into a whirlpool that sucks us all into some chaotic mess that will never end.
Coruscant, Outside the Senate Building
Engiz Ordo
Damn, Tanya could pull an oppressive presence when she wanted to. And I only had to stand behind her. which was both terrifying yet somewhat arousing.
When we learned that the Senate had been taken hostage, the majority of us had dropped what we were doing to get our armor and show up as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we reached the Senate building after the event ended.
I was not happy with this turn of events either. If I had known, I would not have taken the day off as Tanya had recommended. But what's done is done. It didn't really give much room to make me feel better about the situation, just the realities of it. All I could do was is to stay focused on doing my job now. Standing guard and keeping an eye open for assassins or any other attempts on Tanya's life.
Although it was hard not to listen as Tanya practically demanded for more competent Senatorial guards and be allowed to wear Mandalorian armor on Senate grounds. Which is impressive considering that Palpatine seemed rather enamored with her idea. But that was hardly a surprise, Palpatine was well regarded in Mandalorian space as one of the few people in the Republic with any sense due to his support of Satine and Mandalorian self determination.
I had to wonder if this was some sort of attempt to try and salvage some of her reputation after the whole ordeal. After all, I heard she'd been tied up for most of it, and well, that was not exactly a situation that Mandalorians are gonna respect, especially when Tanya had been captured before on Geonosis. Being seen as useless is a pretty big hit to any Mandalorian reputation when the survival of the clan historically relied on everyone pulling their weight. That sentiment was still alive today in Mando'a as laandur, and other Mando'a insults were still very much in use.
Getting the ability to officially wear armor within the Senate Building would probably play well when it was reported back home. Tanya could definitely point to the Senate's own rules as a reason why she wasn't able to do anything when she was captured. Hopefully, there won't be a second time. I know I would be there to prevent it if it's possible.
Once Tanya ended her conversation with the Chancellor, she made her way back to us, "Thank you for waiting. Where are the others?"
"Securing the area, my princess." I said matter-of-factly, which was half true. Guard Captain Struc was not with us here; he had taken Peacemaker to try and follow the criminals, staying far enough back but close enough to try and find what ship they were using so that he could report it to the Jedi.
I had volunteered to do it, but he ordered me to stay with Tanya. Then, he gave me a knowing pat on the shoulder, one that seemed to tell me that he knew about our prior night's situation. Mok probably spoofed the club's camera's or something.
Still, I wasn't really sure if I made the right decision with that, but I hadn't been fired, so things were possibly going in a good direction, I hoped. I was about to inquire what we should do now when Vai came over while pulling Khae with her. Vai then pulled Tanya into a group hug.
"Good to see you, Khae." Tanya said, seeming hopeful. "You didn't have too much trouble hiding from the enemy?"
"I did alright, I think. Didn't get captured this time." She joked, referencing the last time they had been in a situation like this, where they had all been broken up.
"Well, that's good. Vai and I were worried about you. Are you feeling alright? I know you had a bit of an ill feeling this morning." Tanya said.
"Feeling much better, I think. The adrenaline pushed whatever bug was eating at me out of my system." Khae commented before looking over her shoulder and seeing two more people approaching.
Padmé and Anakin joined us, giving Tanya a nod as he said, "Good to see you, Khae. I was worried that after I got knocked out; you might have been in trouble since I didn't see you when I woke up."
Khae smiled and said, "I'm fine, just a little frazzled."
Anakin nodded before looking at Tanya, "Hey there, Tanya. I wish we had time to talk earlier. The whole Senate crisis is unexpected."
Tanya smiled before saying, "We live in unexpected times, I guess. The Republic's been at peace too long with the way things are going."
"Yeah," Anakin raised an eyebrow at that before saying, "I was just wondering, though, how you're dealing with everything, you know, the chaos of the Republic, finding out who your dad is, all that."
My eyebrow raised because the way he said that kind of implied that he was fishing for something, and I didn't like that. I didn't know Anakin that well, but he wasn't one to fish for information from what I had seen. If so, he was fairly bad at it.
"I'm fine. Yes, there's a lot of chaos going on, but I'm thriving in it." Tanya's smile was a tiny bit forced.
"Good, good. Well, if you ever feel a little bit overwhelmed, you can talk to me. I might be able to help you out."
Still fishing for something, I thought, and Tanya seemed to have picked up on it as well. She seemed to have a slight twinge in her eye, as if she's looking for a way out of the conversation.
Coughing into my helmet to get people's attention, I said, "Well, I'm sure we can arrange a meeting between you and the Princess later, Master Jedi. But right now, my Lady has been through a lot, all of them have. We should retire to the Mandalorian Tower to rest."
"Right, right. I'll catch up with you another time, Tanya." the Jedi Knight said, looking at me and giving me an understanding nod. I didn't sense any hostility in the gesture.
Padmé took this moment of me and Anakin talking to step forward and hug Tanya with the girls as well, saying, "I'll come by later as well. We still need to work together to try and figure out what to do now that we lost Senator Philo."
"Of course." Tanya said, patting her shoulder. "One less ally in the coalition, taken randomly, will be troubling for the rest of the coalition. But I think we can still pull things together and crush this bill. You most likely need to step up, though."
Padmé Amidala stiffened a bit at first by her direct challenge, but Tanya continued, "Well, you or Bail Organa to be more exact. I can't take the lead on this one. I have a conflict of interest as I'm a founder of the CNS. It would not be a good look for me to be the one in charge. It has to be someone who's not tied to the CNS."
"Of course, I'll talk to him about it as well." Padmé softened before sharing one more hug, saying, "Talk to you later, Tanya."
With that, we make our way out of the building. Mok, Skota, and I escorted the entourage through the heavily damaged Senate Atrium, now bustling with security and emergency officials. We ignored them to make our way back to the elongated speeder we kept for when the Peacemaker was busy. The green and blue vehicle waited patiently with X4 inside, already preparing a few drinks to help calm the nerves.