Invasion! The planet Cato Neimoidia is under Separatist attack! Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano rush to the rescue as they lead a squadron of starfighters to the planet below....

From the launch bay of a Jedi cruiser soar two Jedi interceptors, leading a quartet of clone Headhunters and four gunships past Separatist frigates and vulture droids. In the red fighter, Ahsoka punches a hole through Separatist defenses, and the Republic ships dart through the polished spires of the Cato Neimoidian bridge-cities.

Droid tri-fighters give pursuit, launching a buzz droid-laden missile at the Jedi ships. Anakin's yellow fighter zips through a cloud of buzz droids, and is quickly swarmed by the mechanical vandals. Ahsoka's fighter escapes unmolested.

Anakin uses the Force to push chittering droids off his canopy, while Artoo squashes one by collapsing the fighter's solar panel. It looks like Anakin is all clear, until Ahsoka catches a glimpse of his fighter's undercarriage. It is crawling with buzz droids.

One of the tenacious gremlins drills into Anakin's cockpit, shorting it out. A sudden shock knocks Anakin unconscious, leaving his ailing ship to glide through the fog. R2-D2 can't fly back to the cruiser with all the damage inflicted by the buzz droids. It's up to Ahsoka to save her Master.

Ahsoka orders Artoo to land the ship on a nearby cliff ledge. She has her droid, R7, match speed with Anakin's ship and pulls up alongside it. Artoo skids the ship on the cliff, crushing the buzz droids while Ahsoka pops open her cockpit and leaps from one vessel to the other.

As the fighter grinds towards a precipitous drop, Ahsoka slices open Anakin's cockpit with her lightsaber, and lifts her unconscious Master to safety. She leaps from the craft just as it plummets over the edge, landing safely on the cliff. R2-D2 uses his rockets to escape the doomed fighter.

A bewildered Anakin calls in Captain Rex for a gunship pickup, and then receives a priority message from the Jedi Temple. Master Yoda recalls Anakin and Ahsoka to Coruscant for a shocking reason: the Jedi Temple hangar has been bombed by a terrorist.

Inside the Jedi Council chamber, Anakin and Ahsoka have difficulty believing the news. It was not just an act of infiltration by a Separatists saboteur -- it's possible a Jedi Knight did this. As Ahsoka and Anakin were not present at the time, they are above suspicion. Mace and Yoda appoint them to lead the investigation.

Anakin and Ahsoka enter the smoldering wreckage of the Jedi Temple hangar where forensic droids are already at work scanning the debris. It's a disturbing sight -- made all the more disturbing by the possibility that a Jedi is responsible. Anakin reminds a disbelieving Ahsoka that Count Dooku and General Krell's betrayals are sad precedents.

The two confer with Russo-ISC, a crime scene analyzer droid. Russo is to share the duties of interviewing surviving maintenance staff with the Jedi, given that there may be some distrustful of the Order.

In the Jedi Temple medical labs, where many of the workers are recovering from the blast, Ahsoka is alarmed by the fear exhibited by longtime Temple workers. One shaken Pantoran worker tells her that he believes maintenance crewman Jackar Bowmani was responsible for the attack. He had been working on the area of the hangar where the blast originated. There are no traces of Bowmani's current whereabouts. They inform Anakin and continue their investigation.

Anakin meets with the Jedi head of security, Cin Drallig, who stands at the steps of the Jedi Temple. A throng of protestors -- family and friends of workers killed in the explosion -- have gathered to decry the violence of the Clone Wars, holding the Jedi responsible. Anakin shows Cin a hologram of Jackar Bowmani, hoping Drallig might have a lead.

From the protestors, Letta Turmond steps forward. She identifies herself as Jackar's wife. She's been trying to reach her husband. Anakin ushers Letta into the Temple for questioning. Letta explains that Jackar dedicated his life to the Temple. She seems desperate to find her husband.

Back in the hangar, Ahsoka studies a holographic reconstruction of the explosion. Tracing the trajectory of the blast, they find the bomb-origin point, but no residue. Russo-ISC discovers instead evidence of nano-droids -- a solid clue.

According to Jackar's personnel file, he was a munitions expert tasked with maintaining the bombs and weaponry of the Republic gunships. He had specialized knowledge of nano- technology. If he is at large, he may be planning a second strike. Russo scans through hours of security recordings, but finds no trace of Jackar anywhere else in the Temple.

Anakin and Ahsoka report back to Mace Windu. He warns them that a swift resolution to this investigation is imperative, as already there are whispers in the Senate that the military police may need to become involved.

Russo-ISC calls back Anakin and Ahsoka to the Temple hangar with a surprising development: he has found the remains of Jackar -- a severed hand recovered from the crime scene. The nano-droids were inside Bowmani's bloodstream. He was the bomb.

Anakin and Ahsoka take a turbo speeder to a street-level apartment in a rundown section of Coruscant. They head to Jackar's apartment and Ahsoka begins scanning the rooms with a handheld sensor. She finds evidence of nano-droids on food scraps in the trash -- Jackar must have ingested the explosive droids.

Just then Letta enters the apartment. She is shocked to find the Jedi there. Ahsoka's scanner finds no trace of the nano-droids on the widow, but she of course is still a suspect. The Jedi take her in for questioning, but as they leave the apartment, she makes a run for it.

Ahsoka and Anakin corner her, and when she loudly claims innocence in the death of Jackar, Anakin realizes she knows more than she's been letting on: the Jedi never told her that Jackar was dead.

When Anakin's temper starts to boil, Letta realizes she's been caught. Her attempts at misdirection have failed. She admits to feeding Jackar the bomb, but reveals nothing else. The Jedi bring her to the Temple for questioning.

At the Temple, Anakin updates Masters Windu and Yoda. Russo-ISC reports that no other nano-droids were found in the Temple, and no evidence of Jackar having accomplices have surfaced. Ahsoka is relieved that no Jedi were involved. But Mace is still concerned at how sharply public opinion has turned against the Order. The Jedi relationship with the Republic seems far more fragile than Ahsoka had imagined.