Naboo Space Battle

"This is tense! Whoa! Artoo, get us off this auto-pilot! It's gonna get us both killed!"

- Anakin Skywalker to R2-D2

The Naboo Space Battle was the skirmish in orbit around Naboo during the Invasion of Naboo that marked the end of all battles down on the planet.

Prelude
In 32 BBY, The Trade Federation was forced into the Invasion of the planet Naboo by its hidden master, Darth Sidious. Over the course of the engagement, the Federation failed to capture the planet's Queen, Padmé Amidala, despite the assistance of the Sith Lord Darth Maul. She fled to Coruscant to plead her case to the Galactic Senate, and the Federation lost support for the blockade. By the time Amidala returned to the planet, only the Droid Control Ship was left. When she landed on the planet, she gathered support from the surviving security officers and the Gungan Grand Army. She hatched a plan to end the blockade by capturing the Federation's Viceroy, Nute Gunray while the Naboo pilots of Bravo Squadron knocked out the Control Ship. The Gungan Grand Army planned on staging a diversion while the Queen entered Theed. During the battle to retake Theed, the pilots infiltrated the Theed Hangar and acquired their N-1 starfighters.

Opening stages
"Bravo Leader! One of our fighters just flew into the hangar!''" "''I copy. Buy him some time to escape. And nobody else try that stunt."

- Lt. Sykes sees Skywalker fly into the hangar

Once in orbit over Naboo, the pilots of Bravo Squadron, including Porro Dolphe and Arven Wendik, assaulted the Droid Control battleship, which coordinated all droid forces on the planet. Various wings of pilots, including Lieutenant Gavyn Sykes, Rhys Dallows, Bravo Eight, and Bravo Twelve engaged the ship, taking down its first wing of droid fighters. Dallows led the strikes on the battleship's fourteen Receiver Stations and knocked them all out. The loss of the control signal prevented the battleship from launching additional fighters. Dallows and other Naboo pilots realized the ship would be destroyed only if they could enter it through one of the hangars and reach the main reactor. At that point, a mercenary leader, allied with the Federation, appeared and took one of the Naboo starfighters. Dallows engaged him before chasing him inside the ship, flying into the right-hand hangar bay when the hangar shield was lowered to launch another C-9979 landing craft.

After the first wave of droid starfighters was down, Bravo Squadron moved in close to engage the Control Ship. One of the Naboo pilots and Rya Kirsch were killed during a strafing run by the battleship's Quad turbolaser cannons. . Palmer was captured by the hangar tractor beams and drawn into range of the hangar guns. Her engines were knocked out and she was sent plummeting down to the planet and her death. One of the Naboo pilots subsequently knocked out a tractor beam generator, then Sykes took out the remaining three.

The battleship was able to reroute the control signal and launch additional starfighters to harass the Naboo pilots.

Intensified conflict
As the battle raged, the young individual Anakin Skywalker accidentally entered the battle when his starfighter refuge took off from the Theed Royal Palace hangar on autopilot. He asked his astromech droid R2-D2 to disengage the autopilot; Skywalker then succeeded in taking down several droid starfighters before having his own starfighter shot down, and landed in the battleship's left-hand hangar while its shield was down.

Dallows, meanwhile, was engaging the mercenary leader, chasing him into the depths of the ship, first into the hangar bays and then into the power grid and finally into the last hangar, where Dallows killed the other pilot. Dallows also attacked and destroyed the interior ceiling turrets and Lander Assembly Cranes.

Lt. Sykes attempted to assist the pilots trapped inside the battleship by destroying key systems, including the shield generators, from the outside. Ric Olié, the flight leader, ordered them to not try to repeat Skywalker's stunt.

Naboo victory
"We're losing power. There seems to be a problem with the main reactor.''" "''Impossible! Nothing can get through our shields."

- Tey How and Daultay Dofine discover that the control ship is about to explode

In the hangar, Skywalker's ship landed on the hangar floor, overheated. After his starfighter rebooted, he unintentionally launched a pair of proton torpedoes into the main reactor when trying to escape, causing an explosion which practically ripped the ship in half. The explosion disabled the sheilds of Rhys Dallows' fighter, but he narrowly escaped by destroying the shield generator inside Hangar 3 and escaping through the entrance to a side hangar. Ellberger was the first to spot the explosion. The explosion killed Daultay Dofine and all on board; this process deactivated all the battle droids occupied on Naboo and thus marking the end of the Federation's invasion of Naboo. The Bravo Squadron pilots cheered, and Olié congratulated them. Captain Panaka then contacted the squadron and informed them that Naboo was free at last.

Aftermath
"This is Captain Panaka to Bravo Flight. Great work, group. The Trade Federation Army is out of commission. Naboo is finally free."

- Captain Panaka to Bravo Squadron

After the battle was over, peace returned to Naboo. Viceroy Gunray was captured and forced to sign a treaty and end the war. The Gungan people and the Naboo united as one world. Despite a series of trials in the Courts, Gunray would remain as the Viceroy. With his plans foiled and his apprentice dead, Darth Sidious would have to find another one. Eventually, Amidala would become the senator for Naboo, replacing Palpatine.

Behind the scenes
This scene first appeared in materials relating to the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. According to Star Wars: The Making of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the sequence was produced through a combination of computer animation and motion-control model photography.

2000 brought the release of the video game Star Wars: Battle for Naboo. The player, using an N-1 starfighter in the role of Gavyn Sykes, flies in this battle in the game's final campaign mission. The battle took place over two parts. The player must first wipe out a wave of droid starfighters, then after a cutscene moves in to engage the Droid Control battleship. The next portion involves destroying three tractor beam generators, allowing access to the ship. Portions of the battleship, including the Receiver Stations, are able to be destroyed but have no effect on the game. After awhile, Skywalker flies into the hangar and the player is ordered to destroy the shield generator. When the generator blows, the mission ends with a message by Captain Panaka to Bravo Squadron. The destruction of the shield generator was later confirmed as canon by Leland Chee on the now-defunct StarWars.com Message Boards.

The 2001 video game Star Wars: Starfighter showed the battle from the point of view of Rhys Dallows, who also flew an N-1 starfighter as the mission's default craft. The player was tasked with first destroying the droid starfighters and receiver stations. After those targets were destroyed, a mercenary craft appears in a cutscene, and the player must land hits on it before the mercenary retreats inside the Federation battleship. The player chases the mercenary through the ship. If the player chooses to do so, certain secondary targets can be destroyed to fulfill the mission's bonus requirements, although this is not necessary. After the mercenary's ship is destroyed, a scripted event happens: Skywalker destroys the reactor, as in the movie. The player must destroy a shield generator in the hangar to escape before the ship explodes. The game's strategy guide walks the player through the mission's goals and lays out the path to follow while inside the battleship. The guide also recommends ignoring the droid starfighters until the receiver stations are destroyed.

This article assumes all parts of the video games are canon and attempts to lay out the battle in chronological fashion.

There are inconsistencies as to the number of N-1s participating. Star Wars: Battle for Naboo shows seven starfighters, not including Skywalker's in the opening cutscene. Four are seen leaving, including Skywalker, with one confirmed loss (Palmer) during a cutscene. Star Wars: Starfigther shows 8-9 fighters at the beginning, not including Skywalker's; 6 show up at the ending cutscene, with one confirmed loss in a cutscene at the hands of the mercenary leader. The Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace comic shows 7 taking off from Theed, as does the film itself. In a deleted animatic from Episode I, 12 starfighters participate, with one shot down by a droid starfighter.

Appearances
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace video game
 * Star Wars Episode I Journal: Queen Amidala
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace novel
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace comic
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace junior novel
 * Episode I: The Phantom Menace ½
 * Star Wars: Battle for Naboo
 * Star Wars: Starfighter
 * Star Wars: Republic: Honor and Duty
 * Star Wars Episode I Journal: Anakin Skywalker
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Tatooine Ghost
 * The Saga Begins
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga