Senate hostage crisis

|prev=*Blockade of Pantora
*Rescue on the Pantora Droid Control Ship
*Rescue in the Mos Eisley Cantina
|conc=
|next=Battle of FlorrumThe War of the Ring: Hunting the Hunters (Part I)
*Skirmish on Risha Synata's ship
|name=Senate hostage crisis
|image=
|conflict=War of the Ring
|objective=Take senators hostage to force Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine to free Ziro the Hutt from the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center
|date=December 14, 1981
|place=Senate Office Building, Minas Tirith
|result=Mezmaron and his team escape with Ziro
|side1=Hutt Clan 
|side2=*Galactic Republic
*Jedi Order
|commanders1=Mezmaron
|commanders2=*Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine
*Senator Orn Free Taa
*Jedi Knight Frodo Baggins
*Clone Commander CC-1010 ("Fox")
*Captain Jayfon†
|ppl1=*4 bounty hunters
**Shahan Alama
**Mezmaron
**Robonino
**Aurra Sing
*2 BX-series droid commandos
*3 IG-86 sentinel droids
**HELIOS-3D
**HELIOS-3E
**Another IG-86 sentinel droid†
*2 airspeeders
|ppl2=*1 Hobbit
*Senate Commandos
*Clone troopers
**Coruscant Guard
*4 LAAT/i gunships
|casual1=1 IG-86 sentinel droid
|casual2=*At least 22 Senate Commandos
**Jayfon
*4 Republic droids
*1 Republic Senator
**Philo
|civilian=Trace and Rafa Martez's mother and father}}
The Senate hostage crisis took place at the Senate Office Building on Minas Tirith during the War of the Ring when bounty hunters employed by the Hutt Clan, led by Mezmaron, held Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine of the Galactic Republic and several senators hostage in order to free Ziro the Hutt from the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center.
==Prelude==
During the War of the Ring, Jabba the Hutt's uncle, Ziro, was arrested by the Republic Coruscant Guard and Naboo Senator Padmé Amidala. He revealed that he worked with Separatist leader, Saruman the White in kidnapping Jabba's son, Rotta, in order to become master of all the Hutt Clans.The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring (film) Following his confession, Ziro was then imprisoned at the Republic's detention center.
Ziro hired bounty hunter Aurra Sing to assassinate Amidala, but after the attempt failed, Jabba and the Grand Hutt Council were concerned that Ziro would give the Senate their records, which detailed all of the Council's wrongdoings. Therefore, Jabba paid bounty hunter Mezmaron to get the Galactic Senate Building's blueprints from Amidala's protocol droid, C-3PO. However, 3PO did not have the blueprints, but he revealed that his counterpart, Frodo Baggins's astromech droid R2-D2, did. Mezmaron was thus able to get the blueprints after capturing R2, before returning both droids with their memories of the events erased so as not to draw suspicions. Returning to Jabba's Palace on Tatooine, Mezmaron was then paid for the blueprints. Jabba, with the Council's approval, hired Mezmaron to carry out the mission to rescue Ziro. Mezmaron agreed to do it, for the right price.
==The incident==
===Hostage crisis===
Mezmaron assembled a team of bounty hunters; Aurra Sing, Shahan Alama, Robonino, HELIOS-3D, HELIOS-3E, another IG-86 sentinel droid, and a pair of commando droids. Together, they then went to the Senate Building. Mezmaron was then confronted by Senate Guard commandos and Captain Jayfon. Sing then took out the commandos. Mezmaron and the rest of the bounty hunters then finished off the remaining ones. The commando droids then disguised themselves as Senate Commandos. Mezmaron and the others then entered the white city of Minas Tirith.
During this time, Jedi Knight Frodo Baggins was meeting with his wife, Senator Amidala. However, their meeting was cut short when Senator Bail Organa barged in. Organa asked her to join him in a meeting with Senator Philo about the Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill. Amidala then went with Organa and left Frodo. However, Amidala left with Frodo's lightsaber.
Mezmaron and his bounty hunters then made their way through the building. Mezmaron then finished off the remaining Senate Guards. Mezmaron and the others then went to Control Room, taking out the droids and guards stationed. Mezmaron then left Robonino to cut the power. Mezmaron and the others then went to talk with the senators.
Mezmaron and his bounty hunters surrounded the Senators and took them hostage. Senator Philo refused to listen to Mezmaron and tried to leave. Mezmaron then shot Philo. He then contacted Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, demanding that Ziro be released and turned over to him. At first, Palpatine refused until Robonino cut the power and building was placed on lockdown. Communication with the outside was lost. Mezmaron then searched the Senators for communicators. However, as he comes across Amidala, Mezmaron spotted Frodo. He then ordered Alama and the IG-86 sentinel droid to go after him. Frodo attempted to contact someone but was unable to do so.
Frodo was then confronted by Alama and the droid, but realized that he did not have his lightsaber. So, he evaded them. Frodo then went to a room with communication equipment. There, he was able to modify his comlink and contact Palpatine. Palpatine told him to get to the control room to reestablish communication. However, Frodo cut him off when Alama came to the room. He was able to use a Mind trick to throw Alama off. When the two bounty hunter split up, Frodo confronted the droid and was able to destroy it. However, it proved to Alama that Frodo had no lightsaber. Mezmaron then sent Alama with Sing to meet up with Robonino and to subdue Frodo.
Frodo then made his way to the control room. However, Robonino then sealed the door when Frodo ran towards him. Frodo attempted to use a mind trick on him, but was then held at gunpoint by Alama. He then took Alama's blaster and held him at gunpoint. Sing however was able to shoot the blaster out of Frodo's hand. Robonino then attacked Frodo, shocking him unconscious. They then tied him and took him to Mezmaron.
Mezmaron then contacted Palpatine, instructing him to make a pardon disk and give to Senator Orn Free Taa. 3D then goes to the Chancellor's office and takes Taa to the detention center. There, Ziro was then freed and taken back to the Senate building. Mezmaron and the other bounty hunters then placed bombs around the senator as they prepare to leave. However, as they make their way towards the landing platform, Mezmaron's bounty hunters were then surrounded by Commander Fox's detachment of the Coruscant Guard called in by Taa and Palpatine. However, Mezmaron refuses to surrender threatening set to kill the senators. Thus, Mezmaron and his bounty hunters were allowed to leave. The senators were then able to wake up Frodo and Amidala gave him back his lightsaber, saying he dropped it. As Mezmaron, his bounty hunters, and Ziro made their escape, he set off the bombs as Ziro's payback. Luckily, Frodo was able to cut a hole in the floor, and saved them before the bombs went off.
===Escape===
Mezmaron, Ziro, and company were pursued by a party of Jedi, with the chase eventually going down an underworld portal. The spectacle, which included the Jedi leaping between speeders, drew the attention of large crowds. As a distraction, Mezmaron shot out the engine of a transport ship in the portal, which spun out of control and began heading for a packed landing platform. The Jedi managed to divert the ship away from the landing platform, leading it to strike the side of the portal instead. On the other side of the wall was the home of the Martez family. While their mother and father saw the ship coming, they sacrificed their lives so their daughters, Trace and Rafa, could escape. The diversion allowed Ziro, Mezmaron, and the other bounty hunters to evade capture and disappear into the Coruscant Underworld.
==Aftermath==
Following their escape, Mezmaron transferred the reward to his comrades' accounts and ordered them to flee separately, escaping from the eyes of the Republic. However, Alama was ambushed by a Confederate Munificent-class frigate and a Republic LAAT/i gunship over the planet Florrum. Similarly, Robonino was attacked at his underwater headquarters on the planet Rodia by Republic forces.The War of the Ring: Hunting the Hunters (Part II) Meanwhile, Jedi Master Quinlan Vos pursued Mezmaron and Ziro the Hutt across Minas Tirith's skylanes as they escaped in an airspeeder, but Vos was unable to stop Mezmaron from delivering Ziro to the Hutt Council's headquarters on the planet Nal Hutta. After Ziro abstained from revealing the location of his holodiary record, he managed to escape from the Hutts' custody with the singer Sy Snootles, who, unbeknownst to Ziro, had secretly been hired by Jabba to retrieve the holodiary. Ziro's pursuers soon grew to include Mezmaron, whom the Hutt Council contracted to track down the fugitive crime lord, and Master Gamgee and Vos, whom the Jedi High Council had dispatched to apprehend Ziro and Mezmaron, the latter for his hostage takeover of the Senate. Mezmaron's and the Jedi's manhunt for Ziro culminated in a confrontation on the planet Teth.
The Jedi who had pursued Mezmaron returned to where the crash had been. A female Jedi with green skin and dark robes approached Rafa and told the Martez sister that she had needed to make a choice about the transport ship, but the Jedi told her not to worry, saying the Force would be with her. The Jedi then left, but both of the sisters were left disillusioned about the Jedi and the view of them as heroes. With the loss of their parents, Rafa instilled a view in her sister that the two of them could only rely on each other. Rafa later told Eowyn, a new friend of Trace's who, unbeknownst to either of them, had been a Padawan before leaving the Jedi Order, the story while they were imprisoned in Pyke Palace on Oba Diah.
Following the crisis, Amidala agreed to take time off and traveled with her husband to Risha Synata's ship, only to become embroiled in a skirmish. Sometime before 2001, Bail told his adoptive daughter Minnie Mouse about the incident.Minnie, Princess of Alderaan
==Appearances==
* 
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*The War of the Ring: Hunting the Hunters (Part I) 
*The War of the Ring: Hunting the Hunters (Part III) 
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*Minnie, Princess of Alderaan 
==Sources==
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*Ultimate Star Wars 
*Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know
*Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded
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*Rise of the Separatists
*Collapse of the Republic
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==Notes and references==
Category:Missions