Disclaimer and such in Part 1
Red warning lights flared as the ship started its descent towards the misleadingly peaceful looking planet. All the Jedi could hear the screams of the frightened crew, both in their minds as well as through their keen sense of hearing. It was their duty to stay calm and make sure that, although they were going to crash this ship, they would do it with inflicting the least amount of damage possible to both the ship and the crew.
Padme quickly pushed herself up from the ground where she had fallen when the blast had hit. Her eyes sought out Obi-Wan. Even though her awkwardness towards him was still present in the perilous situation, she wanted to make sure that he was all right. In moments she confirmed that he was and moved her gaze to her master, in hopes of seeing some sort of plan forming in his eyes.
Qui-Gon sensed her unease, along with her eyes on him, and gave her a comforting look while he spoke to her.
"Padawan, retrieve the rest of the crew and bring them here. We all must quickly brace ourselves for the impact that will soon come."
Mentally counting how many people she needed to gather up, Padme nodded and rushed through the cockpit doors and down the corridors of the ship. Halfway to the crew's quarters, the ship lurched and the power went out, leaving her in utter darkness.
~Great~ she thought ~As if this task wasn't hard enough.~
True, the tumult the shaking of the ship caused was making it hard for her to complete her task with great speed. It did get completed with efficiency, however, when she found the last crew member only a few minutes after Qui-Gon had sent her out. She looked over the man, and to her relief, he, like everyone else she had found previously, had not been harmed in the explosion. Her relief was short lived, though, when she realized that they would not be so lucky when they attempted to land.
"Come, you need to get to the safety of the cockpit immediately." Padme extended her arm towards the slight-framed engineer and pulled him up from the floor.
They started to make their way back to the cockpit; the frightened man clasped to Padme's arm so tightly he was cutting off the circulation to her fingers. Having a numb arm from the bicep down wasn't Padme's idea of fun, but she knew she needed to keep the painful physical contact since the poor man she was holding wasn't nearly as adept to maneuvering in complete darkness as she was. About halfway to their destination, another blast hit the small ship, sending the engineer reeling to the floor, taking Padme with him.
Padme felt her master reach out to her with concern.
~Are you all right Padme?~ Qui-Gon's soft voice floated into her mind.
~My charge was a little unprepared for that, but we're both unharmed.~ She replied back and felt her master's relief and exit from her thoughts.
Padme helped the man next to her up and continued to guide him back to the cockpit, all the while sending him calm, warm feelings through the force, even though she herself was afraid of what was to come of them. When they reached their destination, Padme took a small gasp. Iagone was certainly a lot closer than she had expected.
The engineer finally released his tight grip on the young Jedi's arm and flung himself into a nearby seat. Clasping himself securely in among the other crew members, he braced for impact.
Seeing that her last charge was finally gathered up, Padme looked around the cockpit. Rohhe Antol had commandeered the pilot's chair and was trying with all his might and mind to control the spiraling ship. Obi-Wan was settled next to him, along with Master Jinn, and both were concentrating on "encouraging" the constant barrage of lasers to steer away from the prone ship. They were doing a good job, although a few shots still managed to slip through.
Padme was somewhat at a loss as to what to do, seeing as she had never been in a similar situation before. Sure, she had her share of crashed cruisers, but that was nothing like spinning headfirst towards an unknown planet.
Obi-Wan felt her indecision and turned to her. With a small, reassuring smile and warm eyes, he motioned her to join her master and him. Feeling the awkwardness between them ease a bit, she complied and started to focus on the blaster shots, willing them to do no more harm.
Despite the fact that Rohhe was an amazing pilot, the best Obi-Wan or Padme had ever known, the crash was inevitable. Once they broke the atmosphere, they spent a few moments skidding above treetops and then narrowly missed landing in a lake. Soon after, though, their ship hit a hidden outcrop of rocks and started in a horizontal spin towards the dense greenery of the jungle below.
The ship tumbled and shook as they smashed into the branches of a cluster of large trees just below the jungle canopy. A sudden jerk brought Padme's synch tightly around her ribcage, causing the air to escape her lungs. The ship was hanging nose down and suspended in the trees simply by a few slim branches.. Hanging only by her synch with her back to the sky, Padme felt as if she would pass out any minute from the lack of oxygen. A loud creaking sound echoed through the hull as branches started to break from out beneath them. Another explosion racked the ship, forming a large hole in the side of the cockpit and causing the ship to spiral from the treetops. As they fell even further to the ground, Padme's world filled with horror.
"No!" The throaty cry came from her lips as she saw Obi-Wan and her master fall from their chairs and towards the broken glass window of the cockpit. Her worry and panic was brief, though, as she felt a sharp pain in her left shoulder, and her world went black.
Tbc...