The droid army began its invasion on Naboo.

Queen Amidala stood by a window in despair as many crafts filled with what had to be at least a thousand droids arriving, and that was just in the pathway to the palace.

Outside, Gunray and an official, whose name was Rune Haako, exited their ship to be notified by a battle droid that the queen had been captured.

"Ah, victory." Gunray said.

___________________________________

On the surface, birds began squawking as the bongo rose from the water. The engine powered down as Obi-Wan opened the top so he and the others could exit.

"Dis'en lovely." Jar Jar commented, seeing the palace.

___________________________________

Inside, things were not quite as pretty as the outside of the palace.

The droid army captured Queen Amidala, her guards, and much of her court.

"How will you explain this invasion to the senate?" said one of Queen Amidala's advisors.

"The queen and I will sign a treaty that will legitimize our occupation here." Gunray said. "I have assurances it will be ratified by the senate."

"I will not cooperate." Queen Amidala said.

"Now, now, Your Highness. In time, the suffering of your people will persuade you to see our point of view."

As the invaders and their prisoners reached the bottom of the stairs, a battle droid approached Gunray.

"Commander."

"Yes, sir."

"Process them."

"Captain, take them to Camp 4." the commander ordered.

"Roger, roger."

___________________________________

The queen and her allies were escorted out of the palace, where they could see the droids had taken many other prisoners as well.

Fortunately, the droids were unaware that a small rescue team had arrived right in the nick of time.

Qui-Gon and the others hid behind one of the outside walls and saw the queen being escorted by the droids.

Following Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Jar Jar snuck carefully into another hall where there was a little garden of beautiful flowers.

Follow my lead. Qui-Gon instructed Obi-Wan through the Force.

And on Qui-Gon's count, the Jedi and the gungan leaped from the windows, landing just in front of the droids guarding the prisoners.

Jar Jar just fell and clung to the wall, whereas Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan sliced many of the battle droids or threw them with the Force.

"We should leave the street, Your Highness." said Qui-Gon.

"Get their weapons." one of the guards instructed.

The guards immediately went and grabbed the droids' weapons, while Jar Jar fell from the wall, one of the guards' helmets (and his body) cushioning his fall.

"Whoa! Yousa guys bombad!"

_______________________________

Qui-Gon introduced himself and the others as the supreme chancellor's ambassadors.

"Your negotiations seemed to have failed, Ambassador." said Governor Bibble.

"The negotiations never took place." Qui-Gon explained. "It's urgent that we make contact with the Republic."

"They've knocked out all our communications."

Qui-Gon was afraid of that.

"Do you have transports?"

"In the main hangar. This way."

Immediately, Qui-Gon followed where the guard said to go, while ensuring the queen, especially, remained safe.

However, when they got to the hangar... it was crawling with battle droids!

"There's too many of them!" said the guard captain.

"That won't be a problem." Qui-Gon said. He looked at the queen. "Your Highness, under the circumstances, I suggest you come to Coruscant with us."

"Thank you, Ambassador, but my place is with my people." said the queen.

"They will kill you if you stay."

"They wouldn't dare." said Governor Bibble.

"They need her to sign a treaty to make this invasion legal," said the guard captain. "They can't afford to kill her.

"There is something else behind all this, Your Highness." Qui-Gon said. "There's no logic in the Federation's move here. My feelings tell me they will destroy you."

"Our only hope is for the senate to side with us," said Governor Bibble. "Senator Palpatine will need your help."

"Either choice presents great danger... to us all." said the queen, looking at one of the handmaidens.

"We are brave, Your Highness." said the handmaiden, whose name was Padme.

"If you are to leave, Your Highness," said Qui-Gon. "It must be now."

If that was the case, the queen could see leaving was the best option.

"Then I will plead our case to the senate. Be careful, Governor."

And so, the queen followed the Jedi into the hangar to be escorted to Coruscant. The handmaidens and guards followed close behind. Getting in the hangar was easy, but getting a ship out of there was another story. There were battle droids surrounding a bunch of pilots sitting like a bunch of kindergarteners at circle time.

"We'll need to free those pilots." said the guard.

"I'll deal with that." Obi-Wan said, leaving the group.

Qui-Gon continued to lead the others until a battle droid stopped them.

"I'm ambassador to the supreme chancellor. I'm taking these people to Coruscant." Qui-Gon said.

"Where are you taking them?" asked the battle droid.

"To Coruscant."

"Coruscant? Uh, that doesn't compute. Uh, wait. You're under arrest."

Qui-Gon responded by igniting his lightsaber and slicing the droids surrounding the ship, whereas Obi-Wan slaughtered the droids guarding the pilots.

Qui-Gon urged the others to move quickly onto the ship while Obi-Wan got the pilots to flee.

As soon as everyone was on board, the Jedi boarded as well, and they took off to head to Coruscant.

_________________________________

Obi-Wan brought Jar Jar into another unit on the ship, where some astromech droids were recharging.

"Now, stay here and keep out of trouble." Obi-Wan instructed Jar Jar.

When Obi-Wan left, Jar Jar took a look around at the droids in there.

"Hello, boyos." Jar Jar greeted.

The droids all beeped and whistled to say hello back.

________________________________

Qui-Gon met the pilot up in the cockpit, and sure enough, there was a blockade waiting for them outside Naboo's atmosphere. The pilot tried to steer the ship away and managed to dodge most of the blockade's blaster fire, but...

"The shield generator's been hit!"

An alarm blared throughout the ship. This was a mission for the astromech droids!

_______________________________

Four astromechs were lifted up in a little elevator to the outside of the ship where they began working on repairing the shield generator. Unfortunately, that also placed them in a position that made them vulnerable to blaster fire, and two of them were blasted away less than two minutes after they'd arrived outside.

"We're losing droids fast." Obi-Wan pointed out.

"If we can't get the shield generator fixed, we'll be sitting ducks." said the captain.

Pretty soon, a third droid was blasted, leaving just one silver and blue droid left. The little droid beeped and started working quickly as the shields were all the way down. He may have been alone in the job now, but he managed to get the power back on just in time.

"That little droid did it." said the pilot. "He bypassed the main power drive. Deflector shields up at maximum."

With the shields back in operation, the Naboo ship was able to escape the blockade... but now a new problem emerged.

"There's not enough power to get us to Coruscant. The hyperdrive is leaking."

"We'll have to land somewhere to refuel and repair the ship." Qui-Gon said.

Obi-Wan checked a map to look for the closest planet to refuel, but also a good place to hide.

"Here, Master. Tatooine. Small, out of the way, poor. The Trade Federation have no presence there."

"How can you be sure?" asked the guard captain.

"It's controlled by the Hutts." Qui-Gon said, his tone indicating he was familiar with that place, in a rather disgusted way.

"You can't take Her Royal Highness here. The Hutts are gangsters." said the captain. "If they discovered her-"

"It'd be no different than if we landed on a system controlled by the Federation, except that the Hutts aren't looking for her, which gives us the advantage."

_____________________________

The Trade Federation had yet another holo-meeting with Lord Sidious, this time regarding the treaty to legalize their invasion of Naboo.

"And Queen Amidala, has she signed the treaty?" asked Sidious.

"She has disappeared, my lord." Gunray explained. "One Naboo cruiser got past the blockade."

Sidious snarled and said, "I want that treaty signed.

"My lord, it's impossible to locate the ship. It's out of our range."

"Not for a Sith."

And that was when another figure entered the picture. A tall hooded figure with a red and black face.

"This is my apprentice, Darth Maul. He will find your lost ship."

The call was ended once more, but Gunray became fretful.

"This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them."

"We should not have made this bargain." Haako said, regret clear in his voice.

__________________________

With things calmed down slightly now that the crew was safely on their way to Tatooine, Queen Amidala wished to know who was responsible for saving everyone.

And the lone droid who'd repaired the generator was brought before the queen.

"An extremely well-put-together little droid, Your Highness." said the guard captain. "Without a doubt, it saved the ship, as well as our lives."

"It is to be commended. What is its number?"

The captain checked the droid's number. R2-D2.

"Thank you, R2-D2." the queen said.

R2-D2 chirped happily.

"Padme. Clean this droid up as best you can." said the queen. "It deserves our gratitude."

R2 beeped.

"Continue, Captain."

Then, Qui-Gon spoke up.

"Your Highness, with your permission, we're heading for a remote planet called Tatooine. It's in a system far beyond the reach of the Trade Federation."

"I do not agree with the Jedi on this." said the Captain.

"You must trust my judgment, Your Highness."

_____________________________________

Meanwhile, Padme was working hard to clean R2-D2 up. He was filthy! There was grime and debris on his dome, his body, even on his metal legs.

"Hello," said a new voice. It was Jar Jar, peeking in from the doorway. "Sorry. Husa are yousa?"

"I'm Padme." said the teen girl.

"Mesa Jar Jar Binks."

Padme looked intrigued by the gungan.

"You're a Gungan, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh."

"How'd you end up here with us?"

"My no know. Mesa day starten pity okeyday witda brisky morning munchen. Den boom! Getten berry scared and grabben dat Jedi, and pow- mesa here."

R2 chirped.

"Huh. Mesa getten berry, berry scared."

But Jar Jar didn't know that things were going to be a lot scarier very soon.