Music rises, battle starts

Plagueis watched the displays as they showed his old bedroom though the feeds of hidden sensors as his apprentice, Sidious, stood over the now deceased cloned body double. Plagueis cut the flow of his force to the room the monitors showed, completing the illusion that it was him that was in the bed, the monitors showed Sidious reveling in the "accomplishment of killing" his master. Plagueis let loose a sigh of disappointment, as his apprentice had not even looked for "dead-man switch" traps, just started laughing like a sun crazed sand person. Plagueis held his hand over a button, hovering over the switch that would activate the fail-safe traps in the room that would atomize everything... but no, it was not his place anymore. Let him think Darth Plagueis died today, he would use this time as a vacation, and to catch up on his experiments, the data that came in from the Jedi hall of healing had sparked a plethora of ideas, and he could not wait to set them into motion. For now the figure formerly known as Plagueis would let the Dark Side to take care of itself, he had SCIENCE to do.

Maul carefully made his way though the hidden passageways that his master had told him of, the twisting and turning paths did not lead to the throne room as the Dark Side apprentice expected, instead the force seemed to pull him to the bowels of the palace, where the important machinery and support systems were. As he entered the power generation room, he saw a section of opening and closing shield walls, the force calling out for him to go though there, a brief meditating moment revealed a moment close in the future and he saw the Jedi he had briefly dueled on the desert planet enter the hangar bay beyond with a group that included the target his Master had demanded he take out. With a grin Maul set out with a silent but springy step to his gait, today he would lock blades once again and this time... there would be no easy escape for his foe.

On the command deck of the Lucrehulk class Saak'ak, a quiet controlled pandemonium existed as all crews were called to stations. As the Trade federation relied on droids for almost everything except command functions, this meant that every organic on the ship gathered in the command center for the coming excitement. The acting commander grinned at the trained efficiency of the crew making sure all the systems ran well, the only problem being that the droid controllers had reported that the strain of controlling all the droids that the entire blockade fleet had left on the planet would start to cause some power draws and exceed the standard safety limits of the power conduits. Seeing as loosing to a bunch of indigenous amphibians would not only lose a massive amount of the legitimacy that the trade federation needed in the operation, but the shame of it would make them the laughing stock of the sector, no while the Saak'ak remained operational then defeat was all but impossible, a situation that the acting commander was happy to keep as the Viceroy had entrusted him with the honor of the position while he was on the planets surface.

The Gungans readied their weapons as the first of the droid ships landed and started to unload their deadly mechanical cargo, the activated combat droids quickly forming rows and blocks in a perfection of motion and position that was eerie in its too precise nature. The droid commander of the forces on site did a quick calculation, if the shield the locals had deployed was strong enough, then just driving its tank forces and heavy weapons across their positions, the optimal course of action to dealing with a local uprising as stated by his coding, would be impossible. This was because the hovering armored vehicles, as good as they were across most terrain types, large shields like the bubble before the droid forces, would overload the drive systems turning the expensive machines to massive paperweights. This needed a double check, as the next alternative plan involved marching droids through the shields, and into range of the Gungan weapons, losses would be assured, and every credits worth of equipment lost or damaged pushed the priority of the plan down. The battle droid commander gave the order and a brief barrage impacted the shield, the only visible effect was ripples where the shots impacted, as the shield did not look like it would simply fall the droid commander looked over the Gungans positions, the cost/worth balance edging over certain thresholds and sending signals for additional troops, and air cover. If the Gungans had not dug in with defenses it would not have bothered, but if the droid had to waste shots to batter the shield down and take out any runners with air support to achieve its orders, then even with the extra cost its orders would be achieved. The ground Battle of Naboo had commenced.

The infiltration group made it to the hangers without issue, their communications to the resistance holding them back till they needed a distraction, as with every step towards the inner palace they took without being spotted made the chances to capture the Viceroy rise. The group started to split up, the pilots going though their pre-flight checks to make sure there were no traps set on the craft by the Trade Federation. When the group approached the dogleg leading towards the generator room a unwelcome figure made itself known, a tense moment hung in the air before the figure removed it black hooded cloak and set up in a combat stance igniting both ends of its light saber with a menacing grin on its black and red face. The Jedi instantly took up guard positions and told the rest of the group to continue on, they would take care of this. The communications to the resistance at this point became a bit confused and because of this they took this as a sign that the infiltration team had been spotted and needed that distraction now. This kicked off action all over the city as groups attacked droid checkpoints and clusters in an effort to give the plan the best chance it could. This also caused the pilots to use the hurried up version of their plans, as the lead pilot sent the autopilot course to orbit to all the ships in the hanger. As the pilots were rushing around, they did not notice the addition of two extra ships at the back being prepared.

Captain Aphab recognized the face of the one wielding the red dual bladed light saber, the physical wounds of their previous encounter might have healed, but the slow burning coals of anger were far from extinguished. He tossed a bandolier of his grenades to the guard Captain and flicked his head to tell them to move on, he would assist the Jedi, and hopefully... get his revenge.