An airspeeder carrying bounty hunter Cad Bane and a motley bunch of passengers flies towards the domed Senate building on Coruscant. Senate Guards immediately rush the speeder, which has stopped in a restricted area. Blaster bolts from afar begin dropping the Senate Guards. At an adjacent tower, bounty hunter Aurra Sing snipes her targets as the rest of the hunters also open fire.

Elsewhere inside the building, Senator Padmé Amidala works at her office. Anakin Skywalker is visiting her, trying to convince Padmé to take some time off so they could go away together privately. He chides her with a display of devotion, handing over his weapon -- his lightsaber -- to her for safekeeping. Padmé thinks Anakin is simply teasing her, and puts the lightsaber aside.

Padmé and Anakin are interrupted by the approach of C-3PO and Senator Bail Organa to Padmé's office. Anakin hides and Padmé conceals his lightsaber in her robes. She is forced to leave the office to attend a meeting with Organa, still carrying the lightsaber and leaving Anakin hidden.

Senators Amidala and Organa meet with other senators in the building's lobby atrium when they are suddenly surrounded by Bane's mercenaries.

Elsewhere, Chancellor Palpatine is notified of the situation in his executive office by a holographic communication from Bane. He holds the Senators hostage, and if Palpatine wants them to stay alive, Ziro the Hutt must be released from the Republic prison where he's currently incarcerated.

Bane gathers all comlinks from the captive Senators. Padmé avoids being searched -- she still hides Anakin's lightsaber in her robes -- by causing a distraction, demanding the Senators be set free. Anakin hears her voice and approaches the atrium.

Bane spots Anakin and opens fire. The Jedi, without his lightsaber to defend himself, dashes into a corridor and is chased by the bounty hunters. He ducks into a vacant Senatorial office and splices his hand comlink into a terminal, contacting Palpatine for an appraisal of the situation.

Bane contacts Chancellor Palpatine again, this time with more specific instructions. He is to make a pardon disc, and give it to Orn Free Taa to deliver. Cad Bane will transport the Senator to the prison and free Ziro the Hutt. Once the Hutt is free, the hostages will be released. Palpatine reluctantly agrees.

Aurra Sing, aware that Anakin is unarmed, hunts the Jedi down. Locating him at the power control room door, she puts him on the defensive with a hail of blaster fire, allowing hunter Robonino to zap him with an electrical prod. She orders him tied up and delivered to Bane.

Orn Free Taa, with pardon disc in hand, is piloted to the prison by one of Bane's assassin droids. Clone troopers receive the disc authorizing Ziro the Hutt's release. The colorful Hutt slithers out onto the landing and boards the speeder transport. The assassin droid pilots it back to the Senate building.

Meanwhile, Bane's hunters affix peculiar electronic devices -- Bane calls them "parting gifts" -- around the perimeter of the atrium. Bane contacts Palpatine, handing over control of the Senate and the Senators back to the Chancellor. He warns Palpatine not to try anything until the sun has set.

The bounty hunters activate the devices, creating a grid of lasers that keep the Senators pinned in the center of the atrium. Disrupting the lasers would trip a series of explosives that would destroy the atrium and everyone inside. The bounty hunters leave.

Republic gunships arrive at the executive office and clone troopers dive in through the window to secure the chancellor. Two other gunships land at the Senate platform, and troopers debark to hold the hunters at gunpoint.

Speaking to Palpatine holographically, Bane reveals the laser traps he's set around the Senators. Standing down, the clones allow Bane to pass undisturbed. The getaway speeder with Ziro arrives and the hunters board and leave the platform.

Anakin finally awakens and reclaims his lightsaber from Padmé, cutting a hole in the floor of the atrium. The Senators escape through the hole just as Bane detonates the explosives.

Ziro congratulates Bane on a job well done. Bane just wants the payment promised to him.