The Scramble [Complete]

[Omni]

It was an amazing sight that had the denizens of Minas Tirith and its surrounding villages staring out of their windows, called out by the commotion in the streets. In the air above, an entire fleet of pegasi were flying. The direction they were heading in could not be mistaken – the gate to the Nexus. Everyone was squinting their eyes to see if they could see the King. But the horses were there one moment, and gone the next, leaving a disappointed sigh in their wake.

Still, they asked one another. What could cause so many to leave the castle at once, completely unannounced? It didn’t take long for the villages to send riders out to the castle, where they were met by crowds from the city residents. The guards were looking very stressed, trying to dismiss the crowds with ever more exuberant body language at the same time more people arrived to ask the same questions.

“I want to talk to the King!” several people started demanding. “We want to see the King!”

“The king’s not in right now,” said one guard, and as soon as he’d spoken those words, he regretted it. “Ahh, I mean--”

But that was that.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, in Coruscant, several large transports were humming their way through the night sky. They were given significantly less attention – after all, in Coruscant, lots of things happened at night, and those things weren’t limited to the lower tiers. If they suspected, or even thought that the transports probably were owned by the government, it wasn’t something to talk about. Not unless you were one of the anarchists of the lower tiers. They were comfortable here in Coruscant, and it was thanks to the Emperor’s methods that they stayed that way. If Palpatine was doing something at the Nexus, it was for the good of all.