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| - On their way to the bridge Padmé and Obi-Wan came to the agreement that it would be better for him to handle the negotiations as there was more of a chance of Grievous taking them seriously. After all, Obi-Wan was as famed for his skills as a mediator as Anakin was for his piloting. “Ah, General Kenobi the negotiator,” Grievous greeted. “And Anakin Skywalker, I was expecting someone of your reputation to be a little older.” “General Grievous,” Anakin replied with a nod, “you’re shorter than I expected.” “Anakin, please try not to upset him,” Obi-Wan warned him. But Obi-Wan needn’t have spoken, Grievous was well able to react accordingly without help from Anakin or anyone else for that matter. “We have the upper hand, General,” Padmé reminded him, bringing forth their captive. Obi-Wan might be in charge, but she knew they had to get back on track. They were running out of time. “I am willing to accept your surrender,” Obi-Wan said amiably. “We have Count Dooku, taking you with us is merely secondary.” “And what if I don’t come willingly?” Grievous challenged. “What if I don’t want to surrender?” “Is not Count Dooku the leader of your organisation?” Obi-Wan asked. “Surely if he has surrendered you are obligated to follow him.” “The only thing I am obligated to do, General Kenobi, is to see that all of you never leave this ship alive,” Grievous spat. Padmé was hoping that Dooku would contribute to this, but he remained impassive and silent. Why didn’t he give Grievous any instructions? Why did he just stand there? “And I’m not a fool,” Grievous continued. “I never give in.” “Well that’s news to me,” Anakin remarked dryly. Grievous turned to look at him and Obi-Wan made a subtle gesture with his hand. This was the signal that R2-D2 was waiting for. The little droid fired sparks, extending all his projecting arms and making a long high-pitched shriek. “Crush them!” Grievous shouted to his guards as he stood back to let them fight. “Make them suffer!” Anakin and Obi-Wan instantly went to work, igniting their lightsabers and cutting through the magna guards that massed towards them. The tall droids were humanoid in shape, and brandished crackling electro-staffs that could deflect a lightsaber blow. Grievous had trained them himself and they were formidable enough. Even so, Obi-Wan found them quite predictable and lacking any originality. It took little to match the droid’s blows with some of his own, whirling his lightsaber round and bringing down to slice through the droid’s head. Yet after this the droid kept fighting, and it was a good thing that Obi-Wan hadn't completely turned his back on it. A few more minutes saw the droid in pieces, but soon enough he was fighting another. Padmé was having problems of her own, Dooku had broken from his bonds and grabbed Chancellor Palpatine and several battledroids. She cut through the battledroids, grabbing the Chancellor and pulling him behind her. “Take cover!” she told him, relieved when she saw the politician crawl under a console. Using her lightsaber as a shield she grabbed Dooku’s wrist, turning him around to make sure the collar was around his neck. It was. She dragged the Sith Lord back to the bridge, quickly shackling him to a chair. Almost all the droids were gone, Padmé sent Artoo to watch Dooku then confronted Grievous with Obi-Wan and Anakin beside her. The droid general examined his three adversaries. “We’re dropping out of orbit!” screamed the Neimoidian pilot. “The ship is breaking up!” They were out of time, and soon enough the volley of laserfire began again from the Integrity. He surveyed the Jedi one more time, then picked up an electro-staff and brandished it before him. “You lose, General Kenobi!” he bellowed, throwing the staff into the transparasteel of the viewport and making the panel explode and air to suck out of the bridge. Grievous leapt through the smashed window, crawling along the side of the ship. All Anakin, Padmé and Obi-Wan could do was hold on as everything inside the ship was sucked out into space. Droid parts, discarded weapons, the Neimoidian pilot…Anakin quickly looked back, Palpatine was holding onto something and was in no danger. A few seconds later a blast shield closed the hole where the window used to be. Outside the Invisible Hand, Grievous scuttled towards an airlock, his feet held to the hull by strong magnets. He keyed in a code then re-entered the ship. Grievous was exactly where he wanted to be, the escape pod bay. He walked over to the panel and pressed the buttons to launch the pods. “Time to abandon ship,” he said with a laugh, getting into the last remaining pod and launching it from inside. While Padmé saw to Dooku and Palpatine, Anakin and Obi-Wan examined the controls. The readouts were grim. “All the escape pods have been launched,” Anakin said. “Grievous.” Obi-Wan looked at Anakin. “Can you fly a cruiser like this?” “Flying’s not the problem,” Anakin explained. “It’s landing which you know this cruiser isn’t designed to do even when it’s in one piece.” He sat at the console, ignoring the bloodstains of the Neimoidian who had once sat there. “Strap yourselves in; it’s going to get rough.” Once they were all seated, Anakin and Obi-Wan at the front with Padmé, Dooku and the Chancellor to the sides, Anakin took a moment to orient himself. Yet before he pressed one key the entire ship shuddered and several more alarms started to blare. “It wasn’t me!” Anakin said as he jerked his hands away. “I haven’t done anything!” “That was the Integrity,” Padmé told him. “They’re shooting at us.” “Well, tell them to stop!” Anakin flicked a few switches to try and bring the bucking ship under some sort of control. “Let them know we’ve captured the ship.” “Here.” Padmé handed Palpatine one of the blaster pistols that hadn't been sucked out when Grievous had smashed the window. She changed the setting to ‘kill’ and cocked it. “Don’t hesitate if he tries anything.” Palpatine looked at the weapon with somewhat bewilderment as Padmé hailed the Integrity. “Steady…steady…attitude…eighteen degrees,” Obi-Wan said, checking then double-checking his readouts. “Pressure rising,” Anakin murmured, feeling the sweat pouring down his face. “We’ve got to slow this wreck down! Open all hatches, extend all flaps and drag fins.” “Temperature steady,” Obi-Wan told him. “Hatches open, flaps extended, drag fins—” Obi-Wan’s voice broke off as a large part of the ship broke away. “We lost something,” Anakin muttered, he didn’t need the instruments to tell him, he knew. “Not to worry,” Obi-Wan said with a smile, “we are still flying half a ship.” “All ships are moving from this vector, Anakin,” Padmé told him. “You’re clear to go right in, here’s your landing strip.” She sent it so it came up on his control panel, but Anakin barely heard her. Padmé didn’t mind, she knew if anyone could land this wrecked hulk of a ship, Anakin could. From the bridge of the Integrity Lieutenant-Commander Needa and his crew watched the Invisible Hand come in below them. He had had relayed a series of orders to make the ship’s landing as easy as possible, yet this was little compared to the monumental task of landing the ship itself. Needa knew it was impossible, it simply couldn’t be done. But here it was, the pride of the Confederacy’s fleet wrecked beyond belief, better off to be abandoned for scrap than anything else and one of the best pilots Needa had ever heard of was at the helm. And not only that, but on that ship was Chancellor Palpatine and Count Dooku. The first the mainstay of the Republic and the second the one they knew they could use to disable the Separatist’s power. Yet for all this, and for the fact they had won the battle, Needa could not help wonder if they were about to lose the war. “Now we’re really picking up speed,” Anakin said, he changed their trajectory slightly. “I'm going to shift a few degrees to try and slow us down.” “Careful, we’re heating up,” Obi-Wan informed him. “Twelve thousand…thirteen thousand…” “What’s our speed?” Anakin asked suddenly. “Eight plus sixty-forty,” Obi-Wan replied. “Eight plus sixty-twenty…eight plus sixty…” It took all of Obi-Wan’s self-control not to wipe the moisture on the back of his neck. “Temp ten thousand… nine thousand…we’re in the atmosphere.” Obi-Wan permitted himself to smile, but it wasn’t over yet. Anakin pointed one of the controls. “Padmé, grab that! Keep us level.” “Steady…steady…”Obi-Wan murmured. “Easy now, Padmé,” Anakin said, not looking at her unless he was distracted. “That’s it. Hang on…we lost our heat shields. This may get a little rough.” “Five thousand, three thousand, two thousand,” Obi-Wan read to Anakin, then spotted another transmission. “Fireships on the left and right.” “We’ll take you in,” said the fireship pilot. “Copy that,” Obi-Wan replied. “Landing strip up ahead.” “We’re coming in too hot,” Anakin complained, the engines were almost failing now. “Easy…easy,” cautioned Obi-Wan. “Hang on!” Anakin held his breath as the landing strip neared and hoped to the Force they would all survive. In the last part of the landing Anakin lost all sense of direction. Nothing was there but the ship around him and the controls beneath his finger tips. Instinctively he moved and changed them, his eyes not seeing and his ears not comprehending the results. The only feeling outside this was the hard jolt that signalled planet-fall, yet this was only a slight nudge to him. He worked without speaking, without even listening to what Obi-Wan was saying until suddenly Padmé tapped him on the shoulder. “We made it,” she told him, smiling warmly. “Another happy landing,” Obi-Wan remarked dryly.
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