Death Watch: Part 12

Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya ran down the stairwell, trying to reach an exit. "See anything?" Tanya asked, searching desperately for some sign of an exit.

"A whole lot of black smoke," Ahsoka shouted back, over the crash of the falling machinery and the roar of the burning fires. The air was indeed mostly smoke and it was becoming difficult to see twenty feet in front of them.

"We need to keep moving," Barriss pointed out, as part of the stairwell that they had just been on gave away and fell into the burning hot debris below. Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya ran down the stairs, jumping down them two and three at a time. Suddenly, a shot zoomed past Barriss' head and the padawans crouched under the railing, peering through the smoke to find their attackers.

"Over there!" a mandalorian warrior yelled at his companions. Several warriors seemed to have returned to the smoldering factory to find and finish off the Jedi. Most were on the catwalks still standing, with jetpacks ready just in case the catwalks gave away. The remainder of the warriors were on the clear ground, searching for the Jedi. The mandalorian warriors used the scopes on their oxygen-filled helmets to peer through the smoke to find the Jedi. The snipers fired at the Jedi from the catwalks and the catwalk collapsed from under their feet. They jumped and landed, kneeling on the floor. Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya ran toward an exit but were quickly surrounded by the warriors on the ground floor. Surrounded by the Death Watch warriors in the middle of the collapsing factory, with snipers' blaster rifles trained on them, things were looking grim.

"Prepared to go down fighting?" Tanya whispered to her friends.

"To the death," Ahsoka answered, Barriss nodding slightly. Then, Death Watch charged.
Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya stood back-to-back, literally having each other's backs. Ahsoka kicked a warrior down and Barriss pushed another back with the Force. The girls backflipped away to avoid getting shot by the snipers and threw debris at them with the Force, stopping the oncoming shots. Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya continued to fend off the warriors, dodging their shots while pulling their blasters away with the Force.

When the warriors realized their blasters had no affect, they brought out thermal detonators, primed and ready to throw. A warrior threw his behind the girls and they had to backflip away to avoid getting hit by the blast. Before the warriors could throw the rest of their detonators, Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya charged. Barriss twisted her body in the air and kicked a warrior in the head, while Ahsoka swept her leg around the floor, knocking another warrior off his feet. Tanya kicked a warrior in the chest, then threw him against the wall with the Force where he slipped to the floor unconscious.

Once a few of the warriors had been knocked out, the trio looked around the smoldering factory surveying the damage they had caused and assessing whether they need to do any more, when more warriors Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya ran deeper into the damaged factory. They ran on the conveyor belt, ducking under demolished machinery, trying to find another way out. Finally, they found one. In the middle of the factory roof, was a large hole, with several low hanging chain lifts near it.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Ahsoka asked, just as a few warriors appeared behind them. Tanya threw a detonator on a vat still full of molten mandalorian iron. The detonator blew a hole in the vats' side and the warriors retreated, for the fear of being scalded to death. Ahsoka, Barriss, and Tanya leaped onto broken machinery to boost themselves high enough to reach the chain lifts easily.

They jumped on the chains, gripping the chains with their legs and pulling themselves up. They reached the ceiling and flipped themselves onto the rafters. But before they could reach the hole, some warriors used their jetpacks to reach the rafters. They trained their blasters at the padawans, moving in for the kill. Suddenly, Tanya grabbed the first warrior's blaster, elbowed him, and flipped him off the beam. As the warrior fell, Tanya used the Force to slow down the warriors' descent, so he did not die on impact. The second warrior, surprised by his comrade's fall, turned his gun on Tanya, but she backflipped, kicking the blaster out of his hands and catching it in the air. She threw the blaster to the side and the warrior charged at her, only to be kicked in the head and fall like his friend, Tanya again slowing down his descent. The remaining warriors inside the factory started firing at the padawans, regardless of the fact they saved their fellow warriors' lives.

"Well, I see no point in staying here," Tanya said to Ahsoka and Barriss. They flipped on a metal bar hanging from the roof before flipping through the hole onto the roof. Barriss ran to the edge and looked down.

"How are going to get down? There's no fire escape," Barriss questioned.

"Who says we need a fire escape," Tanya replied. She walked backward a bit, before breaking into a run and leaping over the edge of the building. She slowed her fall down through the Force and rolled when she landed. "Coming?" she called, straightening up.

Ahsoka looked at Barriss. "On the count of three?"

Barriss nodded.

"One." Ahsoka and Barriss walked backward a bit. "Two." They got into a running position. "Three!" They sprinted toward the edge of the building, jumped, and landed on their feet.

"Nice landing," Tanya complimented.

"Thanks," Ahsoka and Barriss said. Suddenly, the factory behind them exploded and they ducked while covering their heads to shield themselves from the flying debris.

"Well, I think we did a pretty through job in destroying the factory. Don't you agree?" Ahsoka replied.

Barriss and Tanya smiled.

Barriss pulled the straps of her pack higher on her shoulders before saying, "Come on. We still have a job to do."