User:Menkooro/R2-D2

Invasion of Naboo
"Clean this droid up as best you can. It deserves our gratitude."

- Sabé

In 32 BBY, R2-D2 was in the possession of the Royal Engineers of Naboo, and was assigned aboard Queen Amidala'sRoyal Starship as a maintenance droid. The Royal Engineers were famous for making after-market additions to their R2 units, which rendered the droids some of the most sought after units in the galaxy. During that year, the Trade Federation created a blockade of battleships around Naboo in response to legislation passed by the Senate of the Galactic Republic which called for the taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems, and began landing their army of battle droids on the planet. Accompanied by the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Queen and a group of her royal personnel boarded the royal starship in the capital city of Theed and attempted to flee the planet by breaking the blockade. When the turbolasers of one of the Federation's battleships damaged the royal starship's shield generator, R2-D2 and several other astromech droids made their way through a turbolift to the ship's hull to effect repairs; R2-D2 bumped into the Gungan Jar-Jar Binks on his way out of the ship. As R2-D2's droid companions were systematically blown off of the hull by laser blasts, the deflector shields gave out completely until R2-D2 was able to bypass the main power drive and bring the shields back online. With the shields again intact, the pilot Ric Olié was able to break the blockade and flee the planet.

As the ship traveled through hyperspace to the planet Tatooine, a dirty R2-D2 was brought before the queen by Captain Panaka, the head of the Royal Naboo Security Forces. Sabé, a decoy posing as the queen, thanked him for saving the lives of everyone aboard, and ordered Padmé Amidala, actually the queen posing as a handmaiden, to clean the droid up. Amidala cleaned R2-D2's exterior while Jar-Jar Binks watched; the trio later accompanied Qui-Gon Jinn to the city of Mos Espa on Tatooine in a search for a new hyperdrive generator. R2-D2 accompanied Jinn and the others to the Toydarian Watto's junk shop, and later to the home of Anakin Skywalker, a young slave working for Watto who offered his home to the party as a reprieve from a coming sandstorm. In Skywalker's home, R2-D2 was introduced to C-3PO, a protocol droid that the boy was building. As C-3PO was yet to be covered with an outer plating, R2-D2 candidly remarked that his parts were showing, even calling him "naked". The astromech droid stood in the home's kitchen as the guests dined with Skywalker and his mother, Shmi Skywalker, and later helped Skywalker make final adjustments to his podracer in time to race it in the Boonta Eve Classic race. Despite C-3PO's shock at R2-D2's initial candor, the two droids fast developed a friendship of sorts, working on the podracer together and noting the clumsy actions of Binks.

On the day of the race, R2-D2 helped pull Skywalker's racer onto the course, and later stood on the sidelines with C-3PO and two of Skywalker's playmates, Kitster Banai and W. Wald, who cheered their friend on. Skywalker won the race, which secured the hyperdrive generator and freed the boy from his enslavement. R2-D2 was waiting inside the royal starship and next to its boarding ramp as Skywalker entered the ship, and was present shortly thereafter when Jinn entered, having just dueled a Sith Lord on the planet's sands. The ship and its crew traveled to the galactic capital of Coruscant and remained there for several days, before returning to Naboo in an effort to rid the planet of its Trade Federation presence. Onworld, R2-D2 accompanied the queen's party to the Gungan sacred place as she requested help from Boss Rugor Nass of the Gungans in the impending battle. After Nass accepted, R2-D2 attended an informal council of war, and projected a hologram of Theed as plans were made to lay siege to the city.

Amidala, along with her handmaidens, bodyguards, Jinn and Kenobi, Skywalker, and R2-D2 stormed the Theed Royal Palace through its hangar; after the area was cleared of battle droids, R2-D2 was pulled into the droid socket of a Naboo Royal Starfighter that Skywalker hid in the cockpit of. After locating the firing controls, Skywalker destroyed several droidekas with the ship's guns, but found the ship in an automatic pilot mode. R2-D2 was able to override the auto-pilot, but only after the ship had made its way to a space battle that was raging above the planet's atmosphere. The astromech droid instructed his pilot to return to the hangar, but Skywalker refused, and joined Bravo Squadron of the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps as they assaulted the Trade Federation's Droid control ship. Shortly into the battle, Skywalker's fighter was hit and made a crash landing inside one of the control ship's hangars. Firing proton torpedoes at the ship's main reactor, Skywalker was able to destroy it, but flew his ship to the safety of nearby space. The ship's destruction played a large part in the day's victory over the Trade Federation.

Following the victory, R2-D2 attended the Funeral of Qui-Gon Jinn, who had been slain during the battle by the same Sith Lord whom he had fought on Tatooine. R2-D2 was later present at a ceremony which celebrated the battle's victory, and stood by as Amidala presented Boss Nass with the Naboo people's Globe of Peace.