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A Young Girl's War Between the Stars 103 3 3 BBY/ 9 6 7 GSC. Naboo Conflict +2 4 days. Naboo. The holocom picked up, showing the head and shoulders of now Chancellor Palpatine. I put on a smile and nodded.

"Sheev, it's good to see you again."

"Tanya," the man smiled back.

"You as well."

"Congratulations on your promotion to Supreme Chancellor."

"Thank you. You as well, Mandalore," he chuckled.

"In charge of a whole system at your age. That's quite the feat." I nodded.

"Thank you. Unfortunately, this isn't a social call." Palpatine sighed, nodding himself as he shifted on the other side of the hologram, sitting up a bit straighter.

"Ahh. To business, then?"" Yes. I'm on Naboo at the request of Queen Amidala, helping to sort things out and remove the Trade Federation's fleet and troops."" Are you, now?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I see."

"This isn't about the disagreement Naboo is having with the Republic, however," I continued, and he frowned.

"It's not?" I shook my head.

"No. I'll just lay it out. Yesterday afternoon, during an engagement between my forces and those of the Trade Federation, two derelict Lucrehulk -class battleships were knocked out of orbit by the Trade Federation. They came down in a swamp, in the foothills of the Gallo Mountains." Unlike Padme, Sheev immediately recognized the location.

"Oh dear. If I recall correctly, that's the general vicinity of the Gungan capital city, Otoh Gunga. I'm not entirely certain, because they've kept the exact locations of their major cities hidden since the last war and have mostly retreated underwater. Was anyone hurt?" I ripped the bandage right off." The city was obliterated." T he man blinked." Oh."" It's bad.

Combined search and rescue teams from my own troops and the queen's people are combing the area for survivors now and have been since the fires died down enough to work in the area safely. So far, they haven't found anyone." Sighing, I leaned back in my own seat.

"I thought, as a native of Naboo and a friend, you would prefer to hear the news from me rather than in an announcement from Queen Amidala."

"Yes," he nodded.

"Yes, thank you. I should go call an emergency Senate meeting and inform them."

"One more thing, before you go. It's minor, but it affects you directly." Chancellor Palpatine sent me a curious look.

"Go on."

"The Trade Federation dropped anti-air emplacements when they first began their invasion. Some of those were close to Theed. One of them misfired and its fire destroyed a small portion of the city—just a few buildings and homes. However, when we dug into the records to see who they belonged to, your name came up. I had to actually go out to be certain, but it looks as though your home in Theed was destroyed. I'm sorry." That even had the benefit of being true. Or at least, mostly true.

One of the TradeFed AA emplacements did misfire and it did take out Sheev's home. … After I had looted it and had everything of value removed. Or at least, everything of value that wasn't a Sith artifact that I suspected he could track or feel out in the Force.

Those had unfortunately been inside the building when the AA misfired, due to some freak accident—absolutely not because someone with the ability to turn invisible had slipped up to it, plugged in a computer, and then made it manually fire on that neighborhood after evacuating it. For the first time, the man actually looked genuinely upset.

"Did anything survive?" I shook my head.

"Not that I saw. The surface level burned in plasma fire and the floor collapsed into the basement, before it was all buried in rubble. We haven't tried to clean up the area yet, so it's possible that something may have survived, but I doubt it. If you'd like, I could go by and check it out myself?"

"Please," he agreed. A considering look crossed his face, before the Chancellor nodded.

"I'll try to make some time to visit Theed soon. Once the Jedi have managed to get things mostly settled."

"Very well. I'll have it cordoned off in the meantime, after I poke around, and let you know what I find." With that, we said our goodbyes and I disconnected the call. An amused snort escaped me as I shook my head. Unfortunately for Sheev, I highly doubted anything had survived—and if it had, it wouldn't for much longer. 3 3 BBY/ 9 6 7 GSC. Naboo Conflict +2 4 days. Naboo.

"Leave us." At the two words, Padme's handmaidens scurried from the bedroom. She waited until the door was closed before collapsing onto the bed with a groan, planting both hands over her face. I raised an eyebrow as she streaked the white makeup covering her face, feeling the stress pouring off of her. After a minute or two, she finally asked, "How could this happen?" I shrugged.

"You could arguably blame the Trade Federation. They sent those ships in the first place. They did nothing to move them out of the battlespace and simply left them to drift when they detected them upon entering the system. When we sprang our trap, they fired upon the derelicts, destabilizing their orbit without first confirming where they would come down. They signed the ceasefire and our hands were tied when it came to taking any action to shoot them down or break them up so they wouldn't cause further damage."

Padme eyed me with a frown.

"So you're saying it's not your fault?"

"No," I shook my head and continued.

"An argument could be made that the blame lies with the Jedi Order, for negotiating a ceasefire without properly accounting for the battlespace and the current state of things. Likewise, you could blame the Republic Senate for sending the Jedi to do so, or for choosing to step in at all, when this conflict didn't concern them. It's the simple logic of they touched it last and it broke, which can in some cases be enough to establish liability."

The young queen sat up and opened her mouth, but I kept going before she could speak up, even as I felt her anger turning to me.

"And yes. You could absolutely make the argument that it's my fault for ordering the derelict hulks be used as a trap. That the CIS is at fault, as I represent them here. That it was our failure to predict that the enemy would shoot the derelicts and destabilize their orbit. Or failure to predict that they would maintain enough structural integrity to survive reentry. You could blame the failure of our ships' sensors to detect the city beneath the impact zone."

Moving closer, I pulled my armored glove off and laid a hand on her shoulder. Padme looked up at me, brown eyes red and wet with unshed tears, makeup smeared on her face as I held her gaze. Quieter, I added, "Or you could blame yourself. It was your fault for forgetting the location of the Gungan capital and not warning me in time for my ships to fire and do enough damage to the derelicts to make sure they broke up, before the ceasefire was signed.

It's your fault that millions of gungans are dead—men, women, children, all lost because of a simple oversight." Padme sighed as all the anger drained out of her, replaced with grief and self-loathing. She broke eye contact and leaned forward, her head thumping solidly on the armor over my stomach as her hands wrapped around my waist.

"…You're hard. Stupid armor."" Sorry," I apologized, reaching up and hesitating only a moment before running my fingers through her hair. Her shoulders shook, but if she was crying, she was very quiet about it." If you want to punish yourself over something that wasn't your fault, I can't stop you—""But it was!"" It wasn't," I denied." I'm the queen! It's my responsibility—"" Padme." I blasted her with calm, until it penetrated her fog of misery.

"You didn't start this war. You didn't bring those ships here. You didn't shoot them down. You didn't put a shield around the city to keep people from detecting it with scans. This is no more your fault than if a volcano had erupted under it. But you're right. You are the queen and you do have a responsibility to your people. Your people, who are suffering at the hands of the Trade Federation's army.

So get your shit together and get to work, unless you want to see your own cities blasted and burned out, just like the villages the Trade Federation have already marched through." H uffing a frustrated sigh, she let go and pushed me away, albeit weakly.

"Fine. What should I do, then?"" Never let a tragedy go to waste. This is the perfect opportunity to slam the Trade Federation. G iven they signed an agreement to pay for any damages related to the ceasefire, that is as good as a signed agreement of liability. They are legally, financially responsible for the destruction of a city and the deaths of millions of gungans who were completely uninvolved in the war.

They'll be forced to pay damages, pay out reparations for the negligent deaths, and either pay to have the city reconstructed or pay out its value. This helps both the gungans and your people while at the same time hitting the Trade Federation in the one place they're most vulnerable—their wallet. I wouldn't call it a 'win/win,' but it makes the best out of a bad situation." Standing, Padme moved over to her vanity and took out a rag, then began wiping the smeared makeup from her face.

As she did, she asked, "I should place the blame for this at the feet of the Trade Federation. But what about the Republic? Could we use this to get leverage over them? None of this would have happened if they had upheld their own charter, after all." I hummed, considering for a moment.

"You have to be careful about slinging mud here. Anything the Senate can pass off onto the Jedi Order, they will. And as much as I dislike how the current Order has been mismanaged, we don't actually want to make an enemy of them."

"Are you only saying that because Master Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are your friends?" the young queen asked, glancing at me in her mirror. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"A fair question to ask," I acknowledged, before shaking my head.

"But no. Master Dooku is working to form his own sect of the Jedi Order. Painting the Jedi in a negative light tars all Jedi with the same brush, because those not in the know won't care to differentiate between the various factions and sects. They're all 'that hokey religious group that worships the Force,' as far as the average layman is concerned. Unfortunately, the Jedi have worked to cultivate that image as part of the mystique, in order to be underestimated and dismissed by those not in the know.

It's one of the many mistakes made over the last thousand or so years since the Reformation. Loss of confidence in the Jedi as a whole will discredit everyone associated with the Order—including Master Dooku and myself. So doing anything that would allow the Republic Senate to pass the blame off to the Jedi and make us look incompetent would be not so much shooting ourselves in the foot, but handing the Senate a blaster and asking them to shoot us in the foot.

Which I'm sure they'd like, seeing as they've been trying to discredit and phase out the Jedi as an official arm of the Republic for ages now." Padme frowned, but nodded.

"Then, perhaps lead with thanking Master Qui-Gon for negotiating a ceasefire?" Thinking over my own experience with speeches, I thought it sounded like a good idea. The lead in to the classic 'shit sandwich' technique.

"Lead with that. Follow with a heartfelt statement about this regrettable tragedy and how saddened you and all of Naboo are at the loss of so many valuable gungan lives which brought such vibrant, celebrated diversity to Naboo—" Padme snorted quietly. At my curious look and raised eyebrow, she blinked, then her mouth fell into an 'o' of realization.

"Oh, you don't know. We Nabooians dislike the gungans and the feeling is mutual. It's been that way since we settled here. I personally don't have anything against them, but the general sentiment of my people is dislike and disdain. They view the gungans as… simple, but with the sort of low cunning to be wary of. They're no i some, loud, clumsy, and only speak in pidgin basic."

"Oh?"" Deysa be speek in likes disin, okieday?" I twitched, a full body cringe rolling from the top of my head down to my toes.

"Never do that again," I glared at her, and Padme giggled." That does explain some of the feelings and things I've heard around the palace, when people thought I couldn't hear."" I imagine," Padme murmured, turning away.

"It's not something we're proud of, but it's also not something my people are going to change. As a people, we don't like talking about it and have generally buried that history—keeping it out of the light of wider galactic scrutiny. So as guilty as I feel over it, I can't exactly look into the cameras and s ay with a straight face that all of my people mourn the loss. They don't. In fact, I'm sure that somewhere, many are celebrating it. The Gungan-Naboo war ended not quite ninety years ago.

There are still plenty of people alive who remember— who served in that war. They're the reason we have an elected monarchy now —the gungans killed our hereditary monarchal line." I shrugged.

"So lie." Padme's mouth fell open as she looked at me in askance." You're a politician. Lying comes standard as part of the toolkit. And in this case, it's a lie that benefits your people and makes them look better in the eyes of the rest of the galaxy. It's the same game all of the other politicians are playing."

"Even you?" Padme asked, raising an eyebrow." Sometimes," I agreed.

"Though personally, I find it much more effective to tell the truth. It's one of the most powerful weapons in a politician's arsenal. Besides, i t's always best to build a reputation for telling the truth so you can use lies or deception judiciously, than to have a reputation as someone who lies more often than not. In this case, at least you aren't lying to your constituents. In fact, you're upholding the lie they themselves have been telling. I don't think it'll be a problem."

The young woman considered for a moment before nodding.

"Very well. So I should play up the Gungan Massacre—"" Nice name," I nodded approvingly, earning a small smile.

"—and then move on to criticism and assigning blame?"

"Correct," I confirmed.

"Hammer the Trade Federation. Make sure to emphasize that it was Trade Federation vessels that fell on Otoh Gunga. Vessels that wouldn't have been there if the Trade Federation hadn't engaged in an illegal blockade, then escalated to war when the blockade failed. Follow that up with pointing out how the Senate wasted everyone's time debating the issue in circles, so much so that the Nabooian Supreme Chancellor couldn't intervene and force them to act.

Maybe give him the benefit of the doubt by suggesting that it was out of a sense of fairness and not wanting to seem as though he were playing favorites for his home world. Then close out with thanking the Confederacy for coming to Naboo's aid, breaking the blockade, and for our ongoing efforts to defend Naboo. Finally, end on a statement reaffirming your decision to join the CIS. Perhaps point out that even with troops on the ground, the Republic still has failed to uphold their duties to Naboo, while the CIS are.

I think that should about cover it." S ighing, Padme leaned back in her chair and asked, "Is there anything else you can think of that we need?"" Footage," I nodded." Visuals make things real for people. A disaster in some remote corner of the galaxy goes from being some abstract thing that happened to someone else in their minds to a hypothetical what if this happened to us instead—which will allow you to play on their sympathy and extract more out of them than you otherwise could have.

It's an exploitable weakness that high empathy races haven't managed to patch and politicians and others have been taking advantage of for time immemorial."

Padme sent me a reproachful look at that and I shrugged.

"You're only upset because it's true, and you recognize you are one of those people susceptible to it."

"Aren't you an actual empath? Shouldn't you feel more broken up about this than…?" Padme asked, gesturing at me where I stood, which I took to mean my own calm demeanor." I am. B ut there's a difference between sensing others' emotions, which is what I do, and guessing what they're feeling from observations, then mirroring them based on that guess and feeling sympathetic because you made yourself feel bad—which is what you do. I never had that problem for anyone to exploit."" I believe it," Padme muttered."

Isn't a lack of empathy one of the signs of sociopathy?"" Rude."" You're only upset because it's true," Padme shot back with an amused look, before shaking her head.

"Do I need to send someone to collect footage from the site?"

"No need," I shook my head. I'd given that order within the first few minutes of the strike, letting my people know to go start disaster relief and take video as soon as the fires died down and it was safe.

"I've got some coming back from the disaster area now. It should be here soon, since we didn't want to broadcast it and have the Trade Federation intercept the surprise. As soon as it gets in, you can hand it off to your PR department and let them broadcast it when you make your speech." Sighing, the young monarch tiredly asked, "What about after? Are we to just continue negotiations, knowing both the Trade Federation and Republic are doing so in bad faith?"

"For now, yes," I confirmed, to her displeasure, as I felt the annoyance and frustration coming off of her.

"I know it's frustrating, but sometimes you have to wait for these situations to develop and give them time to breathe. It's very similar to a phenomena we call 'hurry up and wait' in the military. Hurry to prepare as fast as you can, then wait to see how the situation plays out. There is good news, however." Padme perked up at that.

"Oh thank the Force. What's the good news?"

"This ceasefire means the Trade Federation can't fire on our ships. Neither we nor they are allowed to bring more military vessels into the system per the agreement, but civilian vessels explicitly carrying 'relief supplies' are allowed, thanks to Qui-Gon. A neutral party, specifically the Jedi along with up to two representatives each from both the CIS and TradeFed, are allowed to board any ship entering the system and inspect them to make sure no one is smuggling in weapons.

Meaning that it's now safe to resume sending food shipments. We've had ships on station waiting and more arriving since the attack began and I just received word this morning that they'll be arriving in system some time this afternoon. It's not a small number of ships, either. From what I've been told, we've got a convoy of over a thousand medium to large civilian freighters coming in the first wave with enough food to last for six months, with more coming after."

Padme let out a relieved laugh at that as she abruptly relaxed in her seat.

"Thank goodness. That's a relief."

"Yes. Though I imagine the Trade Federation are going to kick up a stink about it," I mused, before shaking my head.

"Thankfully, that's not our problem to deal with. I do feel a bit bad for Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, however. Now, I'll leave you to relax for a while until the footage arrives. There are some things I need to take care of."

"Before you go," Padme began as I turned towards the door. I paused, sending her a raised eyebrow. She smiled, then turned away.

"Could you get the zipper? I'm afraid I'd suffocate if I tried to take a nap in this thing." I rolled my eyes, but quickly found the zipper in question and undid it, before leaving her to it. Closing the door behind me, I set out to find my Padawans. 3 3 BBY/ 9 6 7 GSC. Naboo Conflict +2 4 days. Coruscant. Sheev paced in his office, hands clasped behind his back as he silently fumed. Everything had been going so well.

The Trade Federation blockade had been in place over Naboo and he had thought that even that idiot Gunray couldn't mess things up. And then she showed up, his jaw clenched at the thought. Tanya Mereel.

Sheev had been aware that a new Mandalore had come out after the dust had settled over the Deathwatch, after they had been effectively neutered after the death of Tor Vizsla at Tanya's hands some years ago—which was really rather unfortunate, as the Mandalorians had featured heavily in his future plans, after stoking their anger and stirring them up to convince them to go on another crusade.

Now, it seemed every agent he sent to Mandalore simply disappeared—he had to assume they had been discovered and either imprisoned or killed. He hadn't learned just who had taken up the mantle until recently. For all her faults, Tanya wasn't a braggart and had no need to wave her political accomplishments around like a flag, as the career politicians he was used to dealing with typically did. She had apparently simply taken on the job and then immediately gotten to work.

He had assumed that as Dooku's latest Padawan, she would be fairly high up in the CIS chain of command, even if it was an unofficial position, but this… She had been placed into a position to oppose his own pawns directly. So when the young Queen Amidala had contacted the CIS for aid, it was Tanya who answered. From there, it logically followed that she did as he knew she would—her own dark nature wouldn't allow for anything less than the complete destruction of whatever obstacle was placed before her.

So it was that she had proceeded to wreak havoc on the opposing force. That those opposing forces were his own by proxy was an unfortunate coincidence. Once again, he was forced to acknowledge that she would make a fine Sith apprentice—a tool suited for practically any use, as opposed to the hammer than was Maul. Except now, that tool was turned against him—whether she knew it or not. She had become the spanner in the works and needed to be removed before she completely derailed the takeover of Naboo.

With the CIS a separate faction hostile to the TradeFed, they actually needed the fuel Naboo could supply, or they would quickly find their droid army running out of power halfway through any war.

Mereel had broken the blockade over her knee and, according to reports from the current replacement'ambassador' to Naboo, had taken Viceroy Gunray, several TradeFed captains, and a number of their living crew as prisoners of war during a 'communications blackout' that most assuredly coincided with her forces taking control of the system's hyperspace communications relay.

He hadn't heard news of what happened until the Trade Federation sent more scheduled reinforcements—and then, several groups of those 'disappeared' until they finally managed to get a report out about what was going on. For some time after that, Trade Federation forces had been engaged in an ongoing battle to control the space over and around Naboo—a battle his proxy forces were only not losing by virtue of sending in a constant stream of fresh replacements and reinforcements.

The Trade Federation had managed to land troops on the planet, but the last report had them being attacked and delayed again— and it had been a constant stream of attacks meant to harass and slow them down from the moment they made landfall. Now, she had the audacity to call him personally and inform him of her latest strategy for stalling his forces! Using his own forces to destroy the gungan capital? Inspired, really. Honestly, he wished he had thought of it himself.

The next move would obviously be to spin the incident politically in her favor. Blame it on the Trade Federation and the Republic Senate, likely through her own newly made puppet in the queen of Naboo. That would put pressure on the Senate that they couldn't simply deflect onto the Jedi—after all, the Jedi had only just been brought into the situation. The incompetence of the Trade Federation had just handed her a political victory. And just to add insult to injury, his home had been destroyed! …

Though, to be fair to Tanya, he gave it fifty/fifty odds of the Trade Federation ground forces actually just being that incompetent. The droids had to act within certain limitations to avoid them becoming an actual problem for the rest of the galaxy, after all. Well, at least now he knew whose feet to lay the blame at. It's a shame, really. She would have made an excellent apprentice.

Tapping the controls for his desk holocom, he waited for it to route through the secure system that would disguise who he was and where he was coming from, before it rang through. A few moments later, the feed picked up and he found himself looking at Maul.

"My Master," the Zabrak bowed his head.

"What's your status on resolving the problems on Naboo?" Sidious demanded.

"I have infiltrated the city of Theed. I found your home destroyed, so I have secured an alternate location to operate from. Two Jedi have arrived, but they have yet to leave the palace. As for the palace itself, security is very tight. They have Mandalorian reinforcements. I will not be able to maintain complete stealth if I wish to infiltrate further and make an attempt on Queen Amidala. However, a ceasefire has been declared. It is possible that security will grow lax in the coming days or weeks."

Sidious nodded at that.

"Take advantage of the ceasefire to speak with the Trade Federation and organize things. When you make your move, I expect you to succeed."

"Yes, my Master." Tapping at the holocom, Sidious sent over an image captured barely an hour ago.

"This is the person in charge of the Confederate forces. Tanya Mereel. She's a Zeltron, so she should be easy to spot." Briefly, he considered warning Maul that Tanya was a Jedi, potentially a dark Jedi even, but dismissed the thought. It would be a good test. Either Maul would discover it himself before he made his attack and prepare accordingly, or he would not… and then it would come down to a question of who was stronger, more skilled, and more ruthless.

If Maul won, he proved he was worth Sidious investing his time and effort into. If Tanya won, it just bumped up the priority of recruiting her to his side.

"Understood. The Queen, the Jedi, and the Commander will die."

"See that they do." 3 3 BBY/ 9 6 7 GSC. Naboo Conflict +2 5 days. Naboo. Outside the ruins of Otoh Gunga.

"Captain, we found a survivor."

"Excellent. The Mandalore will be pleased. Where are they?" At a gesture from the armored Mandalorian, an alien was brought over. It was lanky, with disproportionately long arms and legs, a mouth that was more like a muzzle, two eyes on short stalks, long ears that hung down to the middle of its back, and an orangeish brown coloration. It moved with an odd, clumsy gait and as the captain watched, it stumbled and nearly knocked over one of the men before it was shoved back upright.

Frowning under his helmet, the captain asked, "You from here?"

"Yes'n, meesa born in Otoh Gunga. Meesa comes from here, and den meesa goes a while ago." The captain took a few moments to parse that before asking, "You were here when it happened?"

"Oooh yes! Meesa was outside de city. Meesa heard da beeg whoosh from up in da sky, lookin up an see da beeg fireballs fallin on da lake. They hit an it was bombad boomen! Big bada boom!" the creature nodded, sending its ears flopping up and down.

"Da boomen knocked da trees down and me fell over and meesa head went big thunk on a tree and meesa went nightnight! When meesa wakin up, yousa was here looken! What happen to da lake and Otoh Gunga?" Taking a breath, the captain hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.

"Probably better if you see it from the air. Come on, we'll transport you back to Theed. The Mandalore and the Queen will want to speak with you."

"Okieday! Weesa flyin dere? Meesa get all dizzy an whirly an go bleh ifn it get too bumpy!"

"I'll tell the pilot to take it easy. What's your name?" the captain asked, tapping away at his datapad.

"Meesa Jar Jar Binks."