Chapter 57

Guard duty was incredibly boring. I had a part to play and that part was guarding Padmé Amidala but I couldn't branch out and fill my time with other activities while I protected her. How would I explain my force powers if they were seen when I was supposed to be a simple Lieutenant, i needed to stay at an arm's length so I could see without being seen.

Padmé Amidala was a freshly elected queen. My guard duty meant I had to protect her but I knew that the one I was protecting was her lookalike and the real queen was the handmaiden. I watched the Queen and her entourage do their activities. My mind wondered why and how such a young child was elected to the highest position on Naboo. I understood most queens were elected young due to their youth and purity but politics were not like that at all. Being pure was not a lasting trait in the dirty underbelly of politics, very often a pure person was quickly taken advantage of before they learnt what it meant to be part of this world.

Still, I was here because of Palpatine, he had started his long career messing with the Galaxy here on Naboo. This would be a great place to sow a little mayhem into his plans while keeping the timeframe intact.

The first step was Naboo vs the Trade Union. The trade union was hungry for wealth and for three hundred years had successfully bullied their way to the top, even though they weren't a planet or representative to a species they had members in the galactic senate working for their benefit. However, despite bullying the outer rim of planets and forcing them to sign illegal contracts earning them great wealth, they wanted more.

The Trade Federation tried their luck with selling energy and they didn't like competition. Unfortunately, Naboo was located near the border of the outer rim and with their weird planet core producing plasma energy they were a target for The Trade Federation.

I found this all weird because I had created a vast business of energy-collecting Dyson swarm machines, fifteen suns had a collection of swarms gathering large amounts of cheap energy to be sold, but the price never went down. I expected the Trade Federation to not even care but having a peaceful planet that produced high-quality energy on their border was too tempting and they started their usual invasion tactics.

It was such a stupid thing to do. The Republic barely cared what happened on the outer rim and the Trade Federation could get away with their illegal activities as long as they paid the senate members well but they blocked a peaceful planet that had a small voice in the senate.

The reason was simple why the Trade Federation would risk everything they had. Due to bad luck, the previous leaders of the Trade Federation had been killed and a Neimoidian party jumped into the power vacuum, anointed Senator Nute Gunray as the new Viceroy who went on to consolidate his power by forming a pact with a Sith. Probably the worst thing you could do at the beginning of an invasion. The Trade Federation was now a game piece for the Sith at the start of a war that would only harm them.

The Trade Federation blockaded Naboo and started their usual grandstanding in the Senate to explain what was happening. I knew they wouldn't succeed but it was a delaying tactic to gain enough time for the contracts to be signed.

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On Naboo, I was protecting Queen Padmé Amidala from the attacking droids with some spectacular shots that I would have been proud of if it wasn't for the fact that the droids were made cheaply and a weak hit with a normal meat fist would shatter them apart. I would probably be promoted to captain if not for the fact I had to let the Trade Federation capture the queen so the Jedi could save.....us.

It didn't sit well with me as we were paraded down some stone steps with nothing more than a few crappy droids as our captures and to my shook the viceroy of the Federation. What didn't surprise me was how fast Naboo had been invaded, as we marched I saw many groups of people being marched away by crappy droids that couldn't hit shit. I could have torn these droids apart with my bare hands and I was itching to do so.

As we marched near to an overhanging arch two Jedi and a gundun dropped and cut down the weak droids like nothing. Qui-Gon Jinn took command immediately and after a small conversion, we left Naboo for Coruscant and get attacked, taking damage that a little droid fixies and saves our asses. That was the point I was most wary of. I was hovering over the shield matrix ready to rip its cover off and repair it. It's a terrifying thing to let others handle your fate when you know you could do so much better.

We were hit and wouldn't make it to Coruscant so we made our way to Tatooine. I had been there a couple of times. There was a crime syndicate with a Hutt at its head and a very unsafe Pod racing course that the local Tusken Raiders would take pleasure at sniping but overall, it was a dive bar-like planet that had only one thing worth mentioning, it was the home planet of Anakin Skywalker.

Talking about things that caught my eye I wonder what I should do with Qui-Gon Jinn. Qui-Gon Jinn was considered a maverick but he was well-liked and respected, he had been offered a seat in the council but turned it down to follow the living force. Qui-Gon Jinn would be the one to rediscover or invent the Force Ghost thing.

I thought about helping him out when he fought Darth Maul but he needed to die to become one with the force and pass the teachings to Yoda and then Obi. It would be a waste as the Jedi master was close enough to be a grey Jedi and help teach Anakin Skywalker the proper way to control his emotions. I can see that Obi-One Kenobi's brash sarcasm wouldn't translate well when teaching Anakin. Obi One was able to stay on the path of a Jedi because he took joy in his odd and fun sarcasm moments but I don't think Anakin will.

No, Qui-Gon Jinn had to die to pass on his teachings, but did he have to die? I was at odds because if there was someone that I could help that would rock the plans of Palpatine and it would cost me very little then I should do something, but that would screw with the timeline utterly. No Darth Vader, no future offsprings of Palpatine, maybe no super weapon death star, a lot of maybes and guesswork. Fate might work it all out but I wasn't sure.

Just then one of the handmaidens asked me a question, it was Padmé Amidala in disguise.

"Would you like a towel" I shook my head very slightly to indicate a no.

"Your shooting was excellent, but I wonder how many shots did you do, I stopped counting when you hit that droid in the shoulder causing its weapon to fling away and explode when you shot it disabling three other droids"

I pulled out my blaster. "A modified blaster that holds more energy doesn't overheat as fast and can fire twice as fast as normal blasters, the downside is that it doesn't have the best stopping power" I hand over the weapon to Padmé.

"What happens if you need stopping power" asked Padmé

I reached over and holstered the weapon "Then you shoot twice and hit the same mark, but...." I pulled out a second weapon, "a smaller but powerful Modified pistol with ten shots that can rip armour apart and cause disintegration if hit in centre mass" This weapon I don't hand over.

"Why does a Naboo lieutenant need such a weapon" asked Padmé.

"Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it" my answer didn't seem to please her "Also it makes a wonderful breaching weapon that breaks down doors and walls for easy access"

This made her a little happier as now she could see I had a legitimate reason for having it.

"Me so hungie"

That was the other thing on my mind, Jar jar Binks. The potential Sith master in disguise.