Protracted Impacted
“A communications disruption can mean only one thing,” Sio Bibble said, ominously. “Invasion.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions, Governor,” Amidala advised. “The Federation would not dare go that far.”
Panaka nodded. “The Senate would revoke their trade franchise, and they’d be finished.”
Bibble frowned.
“I take your point, but I don’t see what else they could possibly be doing,” he said. “Yes, an invasion would be a bad idea for them, but we cannot assume that they will be behaving rationally. Your Highness, if they did not mean to invade, if they planned to negotiate, why would they cut off our communications? We are out of contact with Coruscant… we are out of contact with them. We cannot concede at this point even if we wished. The only reasonable conclusion is that they will be seeking to invade us and force us to concede.”
“Perhaps, but it shall not work,” Amidala replied. “Yes, they have cut off communications, but we were already speaking with Senator Palpatine. He will surely realize something is wrong.”
“Whether he does or not, there is nothing we can do now to influence it,” Bibble said. “Captain – we must prepare to defend ourselves. Is that possible?”
“Our security volunteers will be no match against a battle-hardened Federation army,” Panaka said.
“...hold on,” Bibble requested. “Battle-hardened? In what war?”
“I was only making an assumption,” Panaka replied. “The Trade Federation has a reputation for being heavy-handed. If they have an army, it must have been used at some point.”
“Anti-piracy operations, perhaps, but no more,” Amidala said. “Panaka, does that change the situation?”
“It might,” Panaka frowned. “Your Highness, I must warn you – the Trade Federation army will doubtless be ready for this in a way we are not. With communications largely cut off…”
“They can’t jam all frequencies,” Amidala pointed out. “They must be using their own channels… aren’t there rumours that they use droids controlled from a control ship? They can’t do that if everything is jammed.”
“Regardless, if they’re jamming hypernet frequencies and sticking to sublight radio…” Panaka mused, frowning. “We could communicate internally, and possibly even reach out to them if we wanted. But we couldn’t contact Coruscant.”
He began to pace. “If they brought an army, then they’re prepared for the possibility of hostile operations. The problem is that the Naboonian army is public knowledge – we don’t have anything that’s covert or concealed. Our starfighter corps would fight valiantly, but they would be destroyed.”
He glanced at Bibble. “We have twelve thousand volunteers in the security force. I don’t think we have any cache of weapons that could expand that?”
“There are some stockpiles,” Bibble replied. “Mostly they’re for policing purposes, but a blaster on stun is still going to be effective against droids.”
“I don’t think we should be talking about any kind of general attempt to fight,” Amidala said. “If we have no chance of resisting successfully, should we fight at all? I cannot condone a course of action that would lead us to war and lead to the devastation of our world.”
“Your Highness,” Bibble said. “Whether or not you want a war, a blockade is an act of war. An invasion is an act of war. Jamming communications is the act of someone who expects that there will be no further need for discussion.”
“I was elected to represent the people of Naboo, not to commit them to a war that would kill thousands,” Amidala replied, but she was frowning. “What are our options?”
“A lot depends on the specifics of the situation,” Panaka replied. “Technician – search the frequencies, find what they’re jamming and what they’re not jamming. We can send out the starfighters to deliver hard copy information on what frequencies to use to the cities of Naboo – the more we know the better.”
The technician nodded, and as she got to work Panaka went on. “The government could go into hiding – that means both of you at minimum. If that happens then the Federation cannot legitimize their occupation.”
“Will it matter?” Amidala asked.
“Yes,” Bibble replied, firmly. “The blockade was already being voted on by the Senate… if Republic observers have not already been sent, they will be soon. If the Republic arrives and finds that the Trade Federation has occupied our world, then unless the Federation has a legal treaty to use to excuse their presence they will be clearly the aggressor and they will lose their trade franchise.”
He shook his head. “Highness – this applies especially to you. The way the Trade Federation can win, long-term, is for them to capture you and force you to sign a treaty – otherwise, they are finished.”
“If they are invading,” Amidala replied.
“If they are invading,” Bibble conceded. “But what else would they be doing?”
“In that case…” Amidala began, then shook her head. “No. We need more information. What do we know?”
“Nothing yet,” Panaka replied. “We’ll send out the starfighters as soon as we have a set of comm codes to use.”
An hour later, one of the lower rooms of the Theed palace had been turned into a situation room. Panaka was there along with half a dozen security volunteers, several astromech droids, and Amidala along with four of her handmaidens, and she examined the holographic map.
“Explain?” she requested.
One of the droids whistled and beeped, and the hologram changed.
“The blue-green-brown overlay is the geography,” Panaka said, pointing. “Yellow circles show where we have recent overflight, and orange circles are within line of sight of major cities now on the sky watcher networks. We don’t have full coverage of the planet’s surface, but there’s at least one person with electrobinoculars watching all the Trade Federation battleships.”
“Fast work,” Amidala told him. “How up to date is the information?”
“Data link from the fighters is real time,” Panaka answered. “It’s low quality but it’ll serve. Everything else is coming in through voice reports, that’s what some of the astromechs are doing.”
The same droid whistled again, and the hologram display altered – showing a particular area of the map, zooming in.
“I see it,” Panaka said. “Your Highness, there’s twelve landing ships heading for a touchdown some distance from Theed – about five hundred kilometres. A good mechanized formation should manage to travel that distance in… two to three days.”
“Why so far?” Amidala asked, as the holographic ships slowly approached the planet.”
“It’s much like first arriving in a new area,” Panaka said. “They’re scoping the place out for threats first. Our military is public knowledge, but they don’t know we haven’t concealed anything… and a single ion cannon could down one of those landers, it would cost them millions.”
“Of credits,” Bibble said.
“They are the Trade Federation,” Panaka replied. “I was thinking about that. Regardless of their reason for this, if we could make the occupation expensive enough then they might leave.”
He frowned. “They’re landing in the Paonga Swamps area… that’s an unusual choice.”
“How long before they finish unloading?” Amidala asked.
“I don’t know,” Panaka admitted. “Your Highness, you should consider going into hiding.”
“Not until they approach Theed,” Amidala replied. “I may be forced to retreat, but I will not run in fear before I am threatened.”
One of the droids made a beep sound, and the spokesdroid whistled in reply before turning his probe in the interface slot.
“...four to Theed Base, Bravo Four to Theed Base,” a hurried voice said. “Come in!”
“Go, Bravo Four,” Panaka said.
“I can see fighting going on!” Bravo Four said. “There’s some Gungans – they’re attacking the invaders!”
“Gungans!” Bibble gasped. “Why would-”
Amidala stepped forwards. “Captain!” she said. “All of Bravo Flight is commanded to shoot down any droid fighters that they see firing at the ground!”
“Your Highness?” Bibble said, as Panaka relayed the orders.
“We don’t have an army,” Amidala said. “Not one worth the name, but the Gungans do and it sounds like the Trade Federation landed right on top of it. The invasion force is vulnerable and we can deliver them a defeat here.”
She looked dismayed, but resolute. “And in the final analysis, if we can get the Gungans on our side by helping them out here… that is worth our starfighter corps.”
Bibble nodded, slowly.
“I understand, Your Highness,” he said. “And I agree.”
“Explain,” Sidious said, icily.
“You did not tell us that Naboo had an army!” Gunray replied, hotly. “We have lost an enormous amount of assets! One hundred and forty four million credits of bulk shipping, one hundred and two million six hundred thousand credits of tanks, eighteen million two hundred and sixteen thousand credits of troop transports, fifty-eight million credits of battle droids-”
“What army?” Sidious asked. “You lost that much to the security volunteers?”
“I mean the army in the swamp!” Gunray said. “Obviously!”
“You mean the Gungans?!” Sidious asked. “What could those mudbunnies ever achieve?”
“Over three hundred and twenty million credits of damage,” Rune Haako provided, helpfully.
“Then send reinforcements,” Sidious said.
“We don’t actually have any,” Gunray replied. “The Naboo security forces have twelve thousand soldiers and forty heavy speeders. We only brought around fifteen hundred tanks and thirty thousand battle droids to deal with them. You said they didn’t have an army!”
Sidious was absolutely stone-faced for several seconds.
“I will give you more instructions later,” he said, and closed the channel.
“Well,” Haako mused. “He’s stumped. And racist, apparently.”
“I did notice that, yes,” Gunray admitted. “...do you think it was a mistake that we turned off the jamming to have that conversation?”
Haako looked concerned.
“I wish you’d mentioned that before we did it, sir,” he said.
