In•hale

Criminy!

Author note: So when I was making the picture above (based of the title art for the book Master and Apprentice) I was only trying to focus on drawing Obi-Wan, so sorry that Qui-Gon looks a bit messed up.

An explosion from somewhere on the ship caused Obi-Wan and his master to immediately stand up and ignite their lightsabers defensively.

TC-14 spilled the drinks that were on the tray with a quiet "Sorry.", right before a hissing sound was audible and a green gas began leaking from the vents.

"Dioxis." Qui-Gon alerted Obi-Wan before deactivating his green lightsaber and quickly taking a deep breath and holding it; his padawan doing the same.

The foggy, deadly gas filled the room until Obi-Wan could no longer see. He could, although, hear TC-14 shuffling around, and it was thoroughly annoying him. This stunt couldn't have been an accident. He thought surely. Sombodies trying to kill us...Viceroy? Jumping to conclusions to say that the person was the Viceroy was not wise, but it seemed like the most probable suspect in their current situation.

After holding his breath for nearly eleven minutes, Obi-Wan had about had it and didn't think he could do it for much longer. He tried to calm down and not focus on the fact that he wasn't breathing, but it wasn't quite working. Come on! Open the door to retrieve our dead bodies Viceroy! He thought in vain.

His prayers were finally answered when the door suddenly opened. Obi-Wan could see the outlines of battle droids in the hallway and was about to engage and cut them all down until he received a mental message from Qui-Gon.

Wait. It said. Let the protocol droid go out first, then we will fight.

Obi-Wan nodded though he knew his master could not see. Letting the droids think they were dead for as long as possible was a good strategy; it would make them drop their guard.

As soon as TC-14 was out of the room, both Jedi ignited their lightsabers and jumped out of the poisonous room to the surprise of the battle droids, and the droids immediately started shooting at them. The Jedi though, easily chopped them down into pieces. Obi-Wan finished the last three of them off with a rough push from the force that sent them flying down the hallway.

"To the bridge!" Qui-Gon yelled to his padawan, already running down the hallway. They would find the Viceroy there and get to the bottom of his murderous attempts.

As soon as the bridge door came into view, more battle droids rounded the corner. "I'll take care of them, Master." Obi-Wan said, as Qui-Gon nodded and plunged his green lightsaber into the bridge door.

As Obi-Wan made quick work of the battle droids, Qui-Gon began moving his lightsaber in a circle through the door to cut a hole that would allow them to enter. He had completed a semicircle when he felt another door close behind the one he was currently cutting through.

At the same time, another stray battle droid came rounding down the hallway in an attempt to kill them. As it fired its gun, Obi-Wan deflected it back at itself and it collapsed on the ground.

Qui-Gon was not having as much luck with getting the door open. He took his lightsaber out, rethought through the situation, and tried again. This time, he plunged his lightsaber in the doors as far as it would go. He was satisfied when he felt the second door melting at the heat.

Won't be long now. He thought surely, until his padawan called out in an urgent tone, "Master! Destroyers!"

He removed his lightsaber from the door and watched as two metal balls rolled towards them. The balls came to a stop, transformed into a standing position, raised blue shields around themselves and started firing.

The Jedi tried to reflect the blasts back at them, but it had no effect against the blue shields.

"They have shield generators." Qui-Gon informed his padawan obviously. "It's a stand-off. Let's go."

They both took off down a hallway to their left, and upon seeing a ventilation shaft, Qui-Gon had an idea and quickly jumped inside, his padawan following closely behind.

Inside the vents was much calmer than it had been outside. Obi-Wan now had a chance to gather his thoughts and think about what had just happened below. As he crawled along behind his master who seemed sure of where he was going, he thought about how bad he wanted to say 'I told you so' about the time he had said he had a bad feeling and his master said he hadn't felt anything.

But Obi-Wan knew that now was not the time for that.

Miraculously, they came up to a vent opening that dropped down back into the hangar. Qui-Gon jumped out first and Obi-Wan followed.

In the cover of crates that were stacked up, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon peaked around them and saw hundreds of battle droids in formation, tanks behind them, and even flying vulture droids.

Obi-Wan wondered where Master Plo and Chalset were. He had an awful feeling that the explosion from earlier had something to do with them. He hoped that they were okay.

"Battle droids." Qui-Gon spoke up quietly. "It's an invasion army." As he inspected the army a little longer, he added, "This is an odd play for the Trade Federation. We must warn the Naboo and contact Chancellor Valorum."

He made a quick glance at Obi-Wan who was looking at all of the battle droids in awe. Once he made sure he had Obi-Wan's attention, he said, "Let's split up. We'll stow aboard separate ships and meet down on the planet. I have a feeling we will meet our friends down there as well."

Obi-Wan nodded his head in acknowledgement, still wondering why in the galaxy would the Trade Federation want to invade Naboo.

Before they split up to stow on different ships that were going down to the surface, Obi-Wan smiled to lighten the tense mood. "You were right about one thing, Master. The negotiations were short."

In the atmosphere of Naboo:

"Reduce all thrusters!" Plo instructed Chalset. She did as he commanded, but it did little to stop the flames that were now practically engulfing the ship. "Turn off the engines. It's causing the ship to move too quickly. We'll glide down to the surface."

Again, Chalset followed orders. The engines were failing anyways. The only hope they had was to land in the water somewhere, because crashing on land with the state of the ship was not an option.

Warning sirens and lights were going off in the cockpit as the Naboo tree line came into view. "Master, we need to find water to land in or else the ship would explode immediately!" Chalset warned.

"Of course. Scout out for something while I try to keep the ship from blowing up mid-air."

Chalset frantically looked for water, but the trees were restricting her view. As a new approach, she stretched out her senses and miraculously found a large water source straight ahead.

"Fly low Master, there's a large water source straight ahead."

Plo nodded. "Place your aqua breather on because as soon as we get this ship in the water, we'll need to get out before it inevitably explodes.

Chalset took out her aqua breather from her belt that was on her clothing and put it in her mouth. Her master on the other hand did not need to because of his face mask.  Adrenaline coursed through her body as the large river came into view and Plo dived the ship straight into it.