Star Wars fic: "Queen's Gambit" (6: No Rest for the Wicked)

[bedlamsbard]

Queen's Gambit (56812 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 7/?
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Dooku (Star Wars), Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Mace Windu, Yoda, Bail Organa
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Parallel Universes
Series: Part 2 of Ouroboros
Summary:

Civil war threatens the galaxy. Hundreds of star systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic and form a Confederacy of Independent Systems.

In the hopes of securing a quick peace, the Jedi Council has dispatched two Jedi to capture or kill the leaders of the separatist movement, Queen Amidala of Naboo and her lover, the former Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Into this period of conflict have come four refugees from another universe, fleeing a devastating massacre triggered by the death of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, secretly the Sith lord Darth Sidious, at the hands of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker…

*

Alarms blared through the palace, echoed in the distance beyond the walls.

Every Naboo in the War Room except Padmé froze for an instant, before an officer hit a button and the sound cut off, though Anakin could still hear it elsewhere. “What is that?”

“It’s an air raid siren,” said Eirtaé, her voice remarkably calm. “We used them during the Occupation when the Federation bombed the city.”

Without another word, Amidala picked up her skirts and ran towards the door, her handmaidens trailing after her. Anakin hesitated for an instant, then followed, Obi-Wan and Padmé on his heels.

The War Room was deep within the palace, protected by layers of walls and shielding from aerial bombardment. Amidala ran up wide staircases and through empty corridors, eventually coming out in a wide, deserted room with a window that looked out over Palace Plaza. She stopped in front of it, breathing hard as she stared out the paned glass.

The crashed warship wasn’t visible from the window, which meant that it probably hadn’t made landfall somewhere in the city itself, but of more immediate concern were the Hyena-class droid bombers and their Vulture-class droid starfighter escorts swooping down through the clouds. The other Federation ships must have jumped in between the remaining Home Fleet ships and the planet, close enough to launch their fighters and bombers without being shot down by the Naboo.

The air raid sirens were screaming their warning across the city. Anti-aircraft batteries lit up the sky, the darkened city already illuminated as bombs splashed down, sending up gouts of flame in their wake. A handful of Naboo starfighters had made it off the ground already and were attempting to harry the droid fighters, their yellow-and-chrome bodies gleaming sleekly in the light from the flames. As they watched, one of the battery towers exploded as a proton torpedo struck it, and a burst of laserfire sent an N-1 starfighter spiraling into the dome of the Theed Royal Library, flames spiraling up where it had crashed.