Chapter 17: Theed Palace — Three Battles and One Invisible Enemy

The plan was sound. That was the worst of it, Arthur thought, moving through the tree-line with Padmé's small force in the pre-dawn grey — the plan was genuinely sound, and sound plans still broke, and you had to be ready for the breaking before the break arrived.

Three engagements, simultaneous. Boss Nass's army, all that amphibian thunder and the grinding rumble of their strange vehicles, would draw the droid forces out onto the Theed plain where the Federation's mechanical advantage met the Gungans' terrain knowledge. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would find Darth Maul — Arthur had not discussed this openly, but he knew the red-bladed assassin was somewhere in the city, waiting, and the Jedi knew it too; they'd exchanged a look in the clearing that said as much without spending words. And Padmé's force — twelve Royal Guards, Panaka, four handmaidens, Obi-Wan until they separated, and one displaced king without a rank that meant anything in this galaxy — would press directly through the palace corridors to the throne room where Viceroy Gunray had made himself comfortable in a queen's seat for five days too many.

Arthur had not slept. He registered this the way he registered weather: information, not complaint.