Scene 4: The Jedi ship drifts in closer to Nabooine. From inside the cockpit, we see Qui-Gon’s furrowed-brow and Obi-Wan’s startled reaction. Then we see the planet itself – Nabooine is practically encrusted with matte-black Trade Federation ships, droid fighters zooming past in swarms, other independent-looking ships all docked with and, presumably, being boarded by, Federation vessels. High over the planet hangs a huge hemispherical vessel or station, watching over it all.
“This is insane!” Obi-Wan says. “They must have their entire security fleet here… I didn’t think the Federation had this many vessels!”
“They don’t,” Qui-Gon says, shaking his head, appearing a little worried for the first time. “At least, they never appeared to… this is far bigger than we thought.” He turns to Obi-Wan. “We must return to Coruscant, my padawan, and inform the Senate. There is nothing we can do here.”
Obi-Wan: “What? Master, that planet is being invaded, who knows what the Trade Federation is really doing down there, these people need our-”
Qui-Gon: “Obi-Wan, we are walking in a blind corridor. We are Jedi – we must proceed with reason and knowledge, above all other concerns.” He sighs. “We cannot win in a battle against these foes. You are a formidable fighter, Obi-Wan… but there are alternatives to fighting.”
Obi-Wan looks ready to protest again, but then he closes his eyes, breathes for a moment, then nods. “You’re right, of course, Master. I-”
But, of course, before Obi-Wan can continue, an alarm goes off, and Qui-Gon, examining it, says “it seems we may have to fight after all.”
A trio of droid fighters peels off from a patrol group, heading straight for the Jedi ship. Obi-Wan switches the engines back on, but they start up with a coughing, backfiring sound – they don’t like starting cold. The fighters open fire on the limping vessel, and fire rakes the hull.
“Obi-Wan,” Qui-Gon says, calmly. “We need to leave, now.”
“I’m trying, I’m trying!” Obi-Wan says, panic edging into his voice, as he throws switches and turns knobs.
Qui-Gon turns his attention to the fighters, and extends a hand out, fingers splayed in a warding gesture.
Suddenly, one of the droid fighters careens into one of its partners, destroying both of them – the shrapnel from the explosion gets caught in the third fighter’s engine, and it, too, explodes. Just as the debris is clearing, however, more fighters, nine of them this time, are swooping in.
Obi-Wan seems to have gotten the cantankerous freighter moving finally, and he dips and spins away, trying to avoid enemy fire, though he doesn’t succeed entirely.
Scene 5: Inside the Trade Federation’s command station, we can see the distant laser flashes through a giant observation window. Federation personnel, living and droid alike, are hard at work at consoles and desks. A Federation commander, Ursana, in an absurd-looking uniform, leans forward in her command throne, examining the battle. “Who is that, down there?” she asks. “Those little twinkling lights… so pretty.”
“Sector seven reports an intruder, commander,” a console droid says. “Came out of nowhere.”
“Well, we can’t let them escape,” Ursana says, though somewhat dismissively. “Go ahead and smash them already.”
Scene 6: Two larger Federation vessels are moving in to pin the Jedi ship inside the blockade, to prevent their escape.
Qui-Gon: “Can we go to lightspeed?”
Obi-Wan: “Not in the middle of all these ships, we’d smash right through them and blast ourselves in the process-”
A solid hit slams the ship about.
Qui-Gon: “It would appear we are headed that way nevertheless.” He looks around the battlefield, and then makes a brushing motion with his hand, as if shooing away a fly. A droid fighter that had been headed straight for them is knocked away, and instead smashes through a set of bay doors on one of the Federation ships. “There!” he says, pointing. “We cannot escape out – we may try to escape inside. Find out what we can about what’s happening, maybe take the ship ourselves.”
Obi-Wan, slightly amused: “What was that you said about avoiding fighting?”
Qui-Gon, who doesn’t have time for Obi-Wan’s sarcastic shenanigans: “Go, now!”
Obi-Wan slams the throttle forward, and their ship spirals out and away from the fighters toward the damaged ship. The ship’s landing bay has defenses, though (think the little roof-mounted laser that blows up the ship in LI), and Obi-Wan’s landing doesn’t quite come off all that nicely – in fact, the ship skids in on its side, smashing an engine off or something cool and explosive like that.
The landing bay (which contains a sleek, drop-of-mercury-chrome ship as well) is quickly flooded with battle droids, all of them taking up cover positions and pointing their weapons at the crashed ship. For a moment, there is tense silence, and some of the droids move forward, covering the entrance with their guns.
“Go check it out,” one of the droids says.
“Roger roger,” it replies, and it and four of its buddies enter the ship, staying low, just in case. Nothing happens at first…
And then we hear the iconic sound of two lightsabers starting up and cutting through something thick and metallic, and a great big piece of bulkhead drops onto the battle droids standing guard in front of the ship.
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon jump down from a giant hole in the ship, its edges still glowing with heat, their lightsabers ignited. The battle droids behind cover open fire, and Qui-Gon sets to work deflecting their blasts. The droids inside the ship start to rush back out, but Obi-Wan slams the ship’s door on them, cutting of one of them in half. The torso-head of the battle droid says “Uh-oh,” as it flies through the air.
Together, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan advance on the battle droids, and make quick work of them (thirty second battle, tops – we’ve got things to do and people to see).
The Jedi escape into the corridor, but start heading in opposite directions. They stop and turn to each other. “The control room will be this way,” Qui-Gon says.
“Yes, Master, but… there’s something this way, too,” Obi-Wan says. “Someone, I think. Important.”
Qui-Gon considers this, then nods. “Go. Meet back here.” The Jedi go their separate ways.
