His subtlety seemed lost on the brutes programming him, and after a few short hours, they led him out of the room and across the large assembly hall.
It was there that C-3PO heard a plaintive and familiar whine.
“Artoo!” he called, swiveling his head. There was his dome-shaped companion, working at a console. R2-D2 swiveled his head and gave another “oooo.”
“Oh, Artoo!” C-3PO wailed, and before he could even consider the action, he brought a laser sight up before his eyes, focusing on the restraining bolt set into his friend.
A single blast flew out, skimming the bolt from R2-D2, then ricocheting about the room.
“Hey!” cried one of the instructor droids, moving fast to C-3PO’s side.
“Looks like this one needs more programming,” another said.
The chief maintenance droid looked about the room and shook his dome. “Nah,” he said. “No damage done. Get this one out to the yard and out of here!”
They led C-3PO away.
Soon after they were gone, R2-D2 rolled away from his console without notice. Since all of the relatively benign droids working in here were restrained by bolts, there were no real guards in the room.
The little droid was out and free soon after.
The tunnel was dark and fittingly gloomy, and quiet, except for the occasional echo of cheering from the huge crowd gathered in the arena stands beyond. A single cart was in there, an open oval with a sloping front end that somewhat resembled an insect’s head with the top half cut away. Anakin and Padmé were unceremoniously thrown into it, then strapped in place against the framework, facing each other.
Both of them jerked as the cart started into motion, gliding along the dark tunnel.
“Don’t be afraid,” Anakin whispered.
Padmé smiled at him, her expression one of genuine calm. “I’m not afraid to die,” she replied, her voice thick and soft. “I’ve been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.”
“What are you talking about?”
Then she said it, and it was real and genuine and warm. “I love you.”
“You love me?” he asked, overwhelmed. “You love me! I thought we decided not to fall in love. That we would be forced to live a lie. That it would destroy our lives.” But her words had brought a wash of contentment over him.
“I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway,” Padmé replied. “My love for you is a puzzle, Annie, for which I have no answers. I can’t control it—and now I don’t care. I truly, deeply love you, and before we die, I want you to know.”
Padmé leaned against her restraints and craned her head forward, and Anakin did likewise, the two coming close enough for their lips to meet in a soft and gentle kiss, one that lingered and deepened, one that said everything they both realized they should have spoken to each other before. One that, to them, mocked their false heroics in denying the feelings they’d had for each other all along.
The sweet moment was just that, though, a moment, for a crack of the driver’s whip had the cart jerking out of the tunnel and into the blinding daylight, rolling onto the floor of a great stadium filled with Geonosian spectators.
Four sturdy posts, a meter in diameter, were centered on the arena floor, each set with chains, and one holding a familiar figure.
“Obi-Wan!” Anakin cried as he was pulled down from the cart, dragged over, and chained to the post beside his Master.
“I was beginning to wonder if you had gotten my message,” Obi-Wan replied. Both he and Anakin winced as Padmé was similarly, roughly dragged over to the post next to Anakin, and roughly chained up. They saw her curl a bit, defensively, in what seemed a futile resistance. What they didn’t see, though, was the resourceful Padmé managing to slip out a wire she had hidden in her belt.
“I retransmitted your message just as you requested, Master,” Anakin explained. “Then we decided to come and rescue you.”
“Good job!” came Obi-Wan’s quick and sarcastic reply. He ended with a grunt as his arms were pulled up above his head, locking him helplessly in place. Anakin and Padmé were receiving similar treatment. They could turn a bit side to side, though, and so all three were able to watch the arrival of the dignitaries, the masters of ceremony—faces they had come to know all too well.
“The felons before you have been convicted of espionage against the Sovereign System of Geonosis,” announced the lackey, Sun Fac. “Their sentence of death is to be carried out in this arena immediately!”
The wild cheering deafened the doomed trio.
“They like their executions,” Obi-Wan said dryly.
At the dignitary box, Sun Fac gave way to Archduke Poggle the Lesser, who patted his hands in the air, calling for quiet. “I have decided on an especially entertaining contest this day,” he announced, to more appreciative roaring. “Which of our pets would be most suited to carry out the executions of such distinguished criminals? I asked myself this over and over, and for many hours, could find no answer.
“And finally, I chose—” He paused dramatically and the crowd hushed. “—the reek!” At the side of the arena, a gate was lifted and out stepped a huge quadruped with massive shoulders, an elongated face, and three deadly horns, one sticking up from its snout and the other two protruding forward from either side of its wide mouth. The reek stood as tall as a Wookiee, as wide as a human male was tall, and more than four meters long. It was prodded forward into the arena by a line of picadors carrying long spears and riding creatures that were bovine in size, with elongated snouts.
After the cheering died away, Poggle surprised the crowd by announcing, “The nexu!” A second gate rose, revealing a large feline creature. Its head was an extraordinary thing, half the size of its body and with a fang-filled mouth that could open wide enough to bite a large human in half. A ridge of fur stood straight in a line from head to rump, ending right before its whipping, felinoid tail.
Before the surprised crowd could erupt again, Poggle shouted, “And the acklay!” and a third gate rose and the most hideous creature of all rushed in. It moved spiderlike on four legs, each ending in huge elongated claws. Other arms waved menacingly, similarly topped with claws that snapped in the air. Its head, crested by a long and wavy horn, was more than two meters above the ground, glancing about hungrily, and while the other two creatures seemed to need the prodding of the picadors, this one surely did not.
This last one, the acklay, seemed to be the true crowd-pleaser, especially to the young boy, Jango Fett’s cloned son, sitting with the dignitaries. Boba grinned and began reciting all that he had read of the deadly beast’s exploits.
“Well, this should be fun—for them, at least,” lamented Obi-Wan, watching the frenzy mounting around him.
“What?” Anakin asked.
“Never mind,” Obi-Wan replied. “You ready for the fight?”
“The fight?” Anakin asked skeptically, looking up at his chained wrists, then back at the three monsters, which had been milling about, and only now seemed to take note that lunch had been served.
“You want to give the crowd its money’s worth, don’t you?” Obi-Wan asked. “You take the one on the right. I’ll take the one on the left.”
“What about Padmé?” The two turned to discover that their clever companion had already used the concealed wire to pick the lock on one of her shackles, and had turned her body about, facing the post. She climbed right up the chain to the top of that post, then went to work on the other shackle.
“She seems to be on top of things,” Obi-Wan commented wryly.
Anakin looked back just in time to react to the charge of the reek. Acting purely on reflex, the young Jedi leapt straight up, and the beast plowed into the pole beneath him. Seeing an opportunity, Anakin dropped upon the beast’s back and wrapped his chain about its strong horn. The reek bucked and tugged, tearing the chain free of the post, and they were off, the reek bucking and Anakin holding on for dear life. He slapped the free end of the chain
at the side of the reek’s head, and the vicious beast bit it and held on, its stubbornness providing Anakin a makeshift bridle.
* * *
After downloading the schematics, R2-D2 had little trouble navigating the huge factory complex. The small droid rolled along, whistling casually to deflect any suspicion on the part of the many Geonosians milling about.
None of them seemed interested in him, anyway, though, and R2 thought he knew why. He had learned of a huge event taking place, a triple execution. He could easily enough guess the identities of the unfortunate prisoners.
He wandered along a meandering course through the complex, avoiding as many Geonosians as possible, passing those he could not with an air of detachment, trying not to look out of place.
He knew that it would get more crowded as he neared the arena, though, and could only hope that the Geonosians there would be too distracted by the thrilling events to bother with a little astromech droid.
Obi-Wan quickly came to learn why the acklay was such a crowd-pleaser. The creature reared up high and came straight in at him. When Obi-Wan rushed behind the pole, the acklay took a more direct route, crashing into the pole, its gigantic claws snapping the wood and the chain. Freed by the beast’s fury, Obi-Wan turned and ran, sprinting right at the nearest picador, the acklay in fast pursuit. The Geonosian lowered his spear at the Jedi, but Obi-Wan dodged inside and grabbed it. A sudden tug pulled it free, and Obi-Wan snapped it against the picador’s mount, causing the creature to rear. Hardly slowing, Obi-Wan planted the butt of the lance in the ground and leapt, pole-vaulting the picador and his mount.
Again the acklay took the more direct route, slamming into rider and mount, sending the Geonosian tumbling to the sand. Grabbing the picador up in the snap of a claw, the monster crunched the life from him.
Atop her post, Padmé worked frantically to free the chain. But already the felinelike nexu was leaping up to swipe at her with its deadly claws. She dodged, but the nexu came on again.
Padmé whipped it with the chain.
The beast didn’t stop, its claws tearing into the pole as it climbed. Then, with a sudden burst, it leapt up to the top and reared before Padmé issuing a victorious roar.
The crowd hushed, sensing the first kill.
As the nexu slashed, Padmé turned in a circle the other way, and while the claws tore her shirt and superficially raked her back, she came around hard, delivering a solid blow across the beast’s face with the free-flying end of the chain. The nexu fell back off the pole. Padmé leapt out and back, away from the creature and to the side, and let the chain tug her back, sending her in a spin about the pole. She tucked her legs as she spun, then double-kicked out, knocking the nexu to the ground.
Hardly pausing to consider her handiwork, she scrambled back up the pole, working furiously to free herself completely.
The crowd gasped as one.
“Foul!” cried Nute Gunray in the dignitary box. “She can’t do that! Shoot her or something!”
“Wow!” Boba Fett yelled in obvious admiration. Jango put his hand on his son’s shoulder, enjoying the show every bit as much as Boba.
“The nexu will have her, Viceroy,” Poggle the Lesser assured the trembling Neimoidian.
Gunray remained standing, as did everyone else in the box, as did everyone else in the stadium. The crowd gasped again as Obi-Wan ran around behind the picador’s fallen mount, then launched the stolen spear into the neck of the furious acklay. The beast screeched in pain and slapped the struggling orray mount aside.
Across the way, Padmé continued to work the chain as the nexu regained its balance and began to stalk back toward the pole. Finally, she was free.
But the nexu was right below her, looking up, drool spilling from its oversized maw, death in its eyes. It crouched, ready to spring.
And got trampled into the ground by Anakin and his reek mount.
“You okay?” he called.
“Sure.”
“Jump on!” Anakin cried, and Padmé was already moving, leaping down from the pole to fall into place right behind Anakin.
They passed the wounded and furious acklay next, and Obi-Wan was quick to take Padmé’s hand and vault into place behind her.
Boba Fett yelped in glee again, as did many of the Geonosians.
Nute Gunray, though, wasn’t quite so pleased. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!” he yelled at Count Dooku. “She’s supposed to be dead by now!”
“Patience,” the calm Count replied.
“No!” Nute Gunray shouted back at him. “Jango, finish her off!”
Jango turned an amused expression Nute Gunray’s way, and nodded knowingly as Count Dooku motioned for him to stay put.
“Patience, Viceroy,” Dooku said to the fuming Gunray. “She will die.”
Even as he spoke, even as Gunray seemed about to explode with rage, the Count motioned back to the arena, and the Neimoidian turned to see a group of droidekas roll out from the side paddock. They surrounded the reek and the three prisoners and opened and unfolded into their battle position, giving Anakin no choice but to pull back hard on the makeshift rein and halt the creature.
“You see?” Dooku calmly asked.
The Count’s expression changed, though, just for a moment, as a familiar hum began right behind him. He glanced to his right quickly, to see a purple lightsaber blade right beside Jango Fett’s neck, then turned slowly to regard the wielder.
“Master Windu,” he said with his typical charm. “How pleasant of you to join us! You’re just in time for the moment of truth. I would think these two boys of yours could use a little more training.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Dooku,” Mace coolly replied. “This party’s over.” With that, the Jedi Master gave a quick salute with his glowing lightsaber, the prearranged signal, and then brought the blade back in close to Jango Fett.
All about the stadium came a sudden and synchronized flash of lights as a hundred Jedi Knights ignited their lightsabers.
The crowd went perfectly silent.
After a moment’s reflection, Count Dooku turned about just a bit, looking back at Mace Windu out of the corner of his eye. “Brave, but foolish, my old Jedi friend. You’re impossibly outnumbered.”
“I don’t think so,” Mace countered. “The Geonosians aren’t warriors. One Jedi has to be worth a hundred Geonosians.”
Count Dooku glanced about the stadium, his smile widening. “It wasn’t the Geonosians I was thinking about. How well do you think one Jedi will match up against a thousand battle droids?”
He had timed it perfectly. Just as he finished, a line of battle droids came down the corridor behind Mace Windu, their lasers firing. The Jedi reacted at once, spinning about and flashing his lightsaber to deflect the many bolts, turning them back on his attackers. He knew that these few droids were the least of his troubles, though, for as he glanced around he saw the source of Dooku’s confidence: thousands of battle droids rolling along every ramp, in the stands and out into the arena below.
The fight began immediately, the whole stadium filling with screaming laser bolts, Jedi leaping and spinning, trying to close into tight defensive groups, their lightsabers deflecting the bolts wildly. Geonosians scrambled all about, some trying to attack the Jedi—and dying for their trouble—others just scrambling to get out of the way of the wild fire.
Mace Windu spun about, recognizing that his most dangerous enemies were behind him. He faced Jango Fett—and found himself looking down the barrel of a stout flamethrower.
A burst of flames reached out for the Jedi Master, igniting his flowing robes. With both Dooku and the bounty hunter so close, and in such a vulnerable position, Mace just leapt away, lifting himself with the Force to fly out from the box and land in the arena. He pulled the burning robe from his back, throwing it aside.
All around him, the fight intensified, with Jedi battling scores of Geonosians in the stands, and many other Jedi rushing down to the arena floor to join the battl
e against the largest concentrations of Battle Droids. Mace winced when he spotted Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Padmé sent flying into the air by the terrified and bucking reek. He motioned to other Jedi, but needn’t have, for those closest were already rushing toward their vulnerable companions, throwing lightsabers to Anakin and Obi-Wan.
When those two ignited their blades, Anakin’s green and Obi-Wan’s blue, and Padmé came up between them, a discarded blaster pistol in hand, Mace breathed a bit easier.
But only for a moment. Then the Jedi Master was a blur of motion once more, working his blade furiously to turn back the storm of laser bolts screaming at him from the multitude of battle droids. He joined Obi-Wan near the center of the arena soon after, and back-to-back, they went into action, moving into a crowd of droids, taking down several with deflected bolts, then slashing through, turning in unison as they went. Obi-Wan went at one droid with his lightsaber up high, but when that droid lifted its defenses appropriately, the two Jedi turned about, Mace coming around with his lightsaber down low, shearing the droid in half.
Behind Mace Windu and Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padmé fought in a similar back-to-back posture, with Anakin working in a mostly defensive manner, deflecting all the bolts coming at him and at Padmé, while she picked her shots carefully, taking down droid after droid after Geonosian.
But despite all the gallant efforts, despite the mounds of slaughtered enemies, Geonosian and droid alike, the outcome was beginning to show clearly, as the Jedi were being pushed back by sheer numbers. The general retreat flowed toward the arena, though that area would provide little respite. In addition to the droids and Jedi, the two monsters rushed about crazily, destroying everything in their path.
Into this maelstrom marched C-3PO, his body at least, with the head of a battle droid fixed firmly upon it. Shortly, however, this motley droid caught a blaster bolt in the neck. Down it went, the battle droid head bouncing free of the torso.
Attack of the Clones Page 27
