Nothing is Ever Truly Over
Chapter Fourteen
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Mika, Jacen, Ana, and Nat, having Force-jumped all across the urban skyline, finally arrived at the Senate Building. What they found was a sight all-too-familiar.
War.
War was controlled chaos, but each side would only experience half of that mantra. The winning side would exercise total control, but the losing side, by contrast, would fall into chaos.
Even at just a glance, it was obvious which side was which. The red army of Sith troopers were the aggressors, and were totally confident in their movements. Anyone who wasn't them were either trying, unsuccessfully, to fight back, or were running away, with no sense of coordination.
Their attention then shifted to the elite squad of Sith jet troopers pushing out of the building. The glowing red of a lightsaber followed.
There she was, with her blades of injustice.
The self-declared Empress Palpatine could only relish at the four Force-wielders that stood in her way.
"Hold," she commanded, holding up her fist to her escort.
Despite their eagerness to eliminate a new enemy – as demonstrated by how their weapons were raised – they obeyed and stepped back.
"YOU!"
The angry yell came from Jacen.
"YOU'RE GONNA DIE FOR WHAT YOU DID!"
The son lit his green lightsaber, eager to avenge his mother.
Mika could see, though, Rey's eyebrows raise amusedly. She wasn't put off at all, which, to him, meant she was ready for Jacen's anger.
Before his childhood friend could charge at her, he grabbed his arm and held him back.
"Not yet!" he urged him to hold back and avoid doing something stupid.
Jacen, despite having every reason to disregard him, listened. Had that been anyone else, he probably would've just gone ahead anyway. But he trusted Mika completely, enough to put his own self-interests to the side.
Empress Palpatine watched as the rest of them ignited their lightsabers, a brief flare of intrigue cropping up at the two Nightsisters' unique blades. Those two felt different compared to their respective partners.
They felt darker.
Interesting opposition, but not completely unfamiliar to her. She had fought darkness before, and won.
But the main observation she took away was that there was a weakness within the greenhead. One that she could exploit.
The self-crowned Empress calmly issued another command to her escort, "Go fulfill your original mission. They're mine."
"Yes, my Empress," the squad commander acknowledged.
Said trooper then gave a hand signal to the others. In response, all of them took off into the air and off to their original mission, leaving their Empress behind.
Her smirk grew. "You're the Twi'lek's son, aren't you?" she said to Jacen. "You have her courage. But there's a fine line between courage and foolishness."
His nostrils flared in anger.
"Don't listen to her!" Mika urgently whispered.
"She was convinced you were coming to rescue her," she taunted with mocking concern. She then sighed out of feigned sadness. "But you never came… and so the last thing I saw in her eyes before the light left them, was betrayal. She couldn't believe her own son left her to die…"
That was enough to light a fire under Jacen, and he wrestled himself free from Mika, charging after her with an angry cry.
"Jacen, NO!" Mika tried to stop his friend, only for him to completely disregard him. "Dammit!"
Jacen had a one-track mindset to just shut that woman up.
That was exactly what the dark Empress wanted. "Come and get it," she muttered tauntingly.
Jacen immediately tried to deal a heavy opening blow, jumping up and coming down on her with an overhead attack, only to be parried instantly and with great effect. Any advantage he may have hoped to gain immediately disappeared.
She countered quickly, striking with hard, swift strikes using her double-bladed lightsaber to its strengths.
He was forced onto the defensive, having to block her successive blows. But he could only block for so long before his guard was finally broken.
Having broken him, she knew he was ripe for the plucking, but knowing she wasn't up against just him, she took a moment to take stock of her surroundings.
It was good that she did. This quartet was not dumb. While she was scrapping with the Twi'lek's son, the rest of them had maneuvered to surprise her.
The attempt at a surprise attack was blown, thanks to her perceptiveness. But it was still four against one, so she had to tread carefully. Taking quick note, she noted Mika to her left and Jacen to her front, with the two Nightsisters behind and to her right respectively.
She settled into a defensive stance, choosing to face Mika, having recognized him as the de facto leader. With her burning golden eyes watching him like a hawk, she waited to strike her prey.
Neither side made a move just yet, both wanting the other to make the first move.
Mika made the first move, though it was not an attacking move. He shifted his stance slightly, into one a little more direct, like he was merely preparing to attack. On the surface, that's what it looked like.
But the dark Empress's senses tingled, behind her and to her left.
A quick glance to her left revealed nothing. That set off alarm bells in her head when she remembered who was in those respective positions.
The Nightsisters. She had been baited.
As Mika and Jacen chose to attack now, she acted quickly. She jumped up in the air, performing a roll, and used her off hand to slam the ground, sending out a shockwave and pushing away everything close to her.
Mika and Jacen were caught out and had to abort their attacks, jumping to avoid the shockwave in the nick of time.
The same could not be said for Ana and Nat. The two Nightsisters were completely caught out by the Empress's instincts, and they were hit. Their respective invisibility spells dissolved, revealing their red-clad selves on the ground.
By the time they regained their bearings, they witnessed Empress Palpatine charging straight for them with her twin blades.
Mika and Jacen intervened, however. Both of them teamed up and used the Force together to hold her back, saving their wives in the process.
The self-crowned Empress struggled to break free as she felt herself be lifted up into the air by the two men. Though her movement was not completely frozen, it was like moving through quicksand. Slow, but still possible, with enough determination.
Knowing that, she pushed herself through her next planned sequence of movements. She holstered her lightsaber first off, and then followed up by unleashing Force lightning from her hands at the two men holding her captive.
The Force lightning worked as intended, stunning Mika and Jacen enough to enable her to break free from their grip.
Dropping down to the ground, she then was confronted with both Nightsisters attacking her with their distinct magickal green double-bladed lightsabers. She had no time to draw her own lightsaber and defend, so she could only evade.
Various swipes and strikes came from the Nightsister duo, but she dexterously evaded each and every single one of them. Despite how close they came, it was through her sheer agility that not a single one landed.
Eventually, the two Nightsisters had a hiccup and slightly overextended themselves. That was the opening she was waiting for to turn the tide. She jumped high in the air, drew circles through the air with her two swordfingers, and unleashed two powerful, deadly lightning strikes from above, one from each hand.
Mika and Jacen had no choice but to abort their attacks and dive out of the way.
The dark Empress slowed her descent down to the ground, generating lightning in her fingertips once again.
"I see the only way to make you understand is to take away your loves!" she threatened while holding lightning in her hands. "Just like mine was!"
She vaulted into the air again, and then released two more lethal lightning strikes.
All four evaded them, the massive gouges in the ground showcasing just how lethal her lightning strikes were.
The divide-and-conquer approach wasn't working like Mika thought it would. So he went for a change in plan.
"Together," was all he had to say for Jacen and the two Nightsisters to understand.
The four of them charged towards the Empress, this time together as one.
Empress Palpatine reignited her lightsaber, prepared to meet them head-on.
When they did meet, it was an explosion of combat.
The dark Empress met Mika first, parrying his opening strike. Following that, she kicked him away and swiftly countered Jacen's attack. Instead of parrying his next attack, she evaded, and moved to intercept the two Nightsisters. She recognized the threat they presented. She knew they were more dangerous thanks to their magick.
Instead of allowing them to attack her at their own discretion, she chose to take the advantage into her own hands by attacking first.
And attack, she did. She came down hard on the two of them, forcing them onto the defensive immediately with swift yet heavy blows. Wherever her blades couldn't reach, her senses in the Force could.
One such instance arose when she found herself with one Nightsister each ahead and behind her simultaneously. She responded by blocking Ana's incoming strike, and then, while their sabers were locked, extending her other hand behind her and unleashing Force lightning on a charging Nat, stunning her long enough to take away her advantage.
She used the Nightsisters' surprise to her advantage, disengaging while they were stunned and moving to head off Mika and Jacen.
The two men shifted their tactics slightly, choosing to allow her to attack first and focusing on having an unbreakable defense.
That was exactly what Empress Palpatine unwittingly played into, wanting to assert her dominance over her enemies. Despite her putting great force behind her speedy strikes – enough to break the guard of any one enemy – it wasn't enough to put down two enemies.
Neither of the two men could withstand her attacks alone. If they were facing her one-on-one, both of them would be toast. But two-on-one, they were capable of taking half the burden and resisting.
As both sides exchanged blows, that gave enough time for the two Nightsisters to re-enter the fray.
Empress Palpatine felt them close in and prepare to attack. Breaking off from the two men, she found herself in the center of a four-on-one situation.
She could handle two-on-one in direct saber combat, but four-on-one was perhaps a little much.
Though she was confident in her abilities, she thought it more sensible to not put them to that kind of test.
As the four of them charged, she threw her lightsaber in a circle around her, forcing them to abort their attacks and block the revolving red blades.
As Mika blocked, he had a brief moment of reflection. The fight was not going the way he thought it would. He was certain that, with the four of them, they could stop her.
But… that wasn't happening.
It seemed that, no matter what they did, they just couldn't bring down Rey. She always found a way out. And here she was, breaking out of yet another trap.
Man, was that frustrating.
Almost as if to rub it in even more, she made quick work of deflecting Jacen and the two Nightsisters, making them back off so she could then attack Mika.
He blocked, but she folded her saber in half, trapping his blade down in between her two in a pincer. She then manhandled their blades back up, casting the clashing blue and red light across their faces.
"Give up," she commanded him with a self-assured smirk.
Up close, Mika could see her sharpened teeth. Out of everything that he had seen of her so far – the burning golden eyes included – this one actually gave him shivers.
She was a monster.
"You'll never win."
Her words, confident as they were, triggered something deep within his subconscious. He had heard them before, a long time ago.
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Fourteen-year-old Mika grunted against the hard overhead blow he parried, only to get his legs swept out from under him from a second blow.
"Dead," came the voice of the first person he ever knew.
His mother, Ahsoka Tano.
The middle-aged Togruta lowered her two practice swords, made out of bamboo. One of them was shorter than the other, reflective of her characteristic twin lightsabers.
Mika looked up at her and couldn't help but feel annoyed. It was never a good feeling to lose at anything, even if it was just practice fights. It was especially demoralizing to lose so comprehensively to his own mother. It wasn't a knock against her abilities, nor did he wish to imply such. He knew his mom was the biggest badass in the galaxy. But considering she had wiped the floor with him, that compounded just how much worse his own skill was.
But he was never one to give up. He picked back up his own single practice sword.
"Again!" he insisted as he got back up.
"Are you sure?" his mother asked him, raising one of her eyebrow markings in doubt.
"Yes!" He readied his weapon.
Ahsoka's doubt was still there, but seeing her son was so insistent, she decided to allow it.
She twirled both her practice swords and settled into her preferred reverse grip hold for each one, lowering herself into her combat stance.
Then, without warning, she dashed forwards.
Mika settled into his defense. He was determined to not be caught out this time.
She swung the first strike and made a quick follow-up.
He grunted against both, successfully blocking.
The experienced Togruta gave no quarter, though, and continued delivering blow after blow to his defense.
The son's guard could not withstand the onslaught, and eventually he broke as he was forced down on his knees.
The mother could've sealed her victory here, but instead, she did something different.
"Give up?" she posed.
Mika looked up and snarled, revealing the fangs he had inherited from her. He had her bite, through and through. In some way, it made her a bit self-conscious of how she had been at that age.
Now she knew to an extent what Anakin had to put up with.
"Never!" he swore, stumbling his way back to his feet and attacking again.
It was very easy for her to evade, and he overextended himself massively. She then tapped him in the back with the end of her practice sword.
That light tap was enough to push him to the ground.
"Dead," she proclaimed for what felt like the millionth time.
"Ah, come on!" he pounded the ground in frustration.
Mika instinctively tried to get back up again, but his body rebelled, crying out in exhaustion.
"Again!" he insisted nevertheless, actively ignoring his body's signals to stop.
Seeing this, Ahsoka had had enough.
"Mika," she sighed. "Go take a break."
"What?" Mika was bewildered. "No, let me go again! I can do it, I know I can!"
"And as your mother, I'm telling you no."
Her raised voice made him shrink, and his fire waned. After that happened, he was just so downtrodden. She could see perfectly that he just wanted to make her proud of him. He wanted that acceptance from her. He had just taken it too far and prioritized that over his own health.
"We've gone through twelve rounds straight without a single moment to breathe. I'm not about to let you hurt yourself because you're too stubborn to stop," she continued, lowering her voice into a gentler tone. "Go take a break, then come back and we'll go again."
This time, he didn't oppose. Obeying his mother, he dragged his practice blade along the ground and trudged his way off to the side of the palace courtyard they had been sparring in.
Finding a stone bench off to the side, he plopped down, dejected.
Why was this so hard? He was trying everything, and nothing had worked.
He then sensed someone sit next to him. He turned his head.
It was his dad, with a cup offered out to him.
"You look like you could use some water."
Mika hadn't even realized he was panting. With a nod of thanks, he took it, downing it in seconds.
"Now," his father began, looking out to the courtyard, "want to talk?"
That gave Mika permission to open up the gates.
"I just don't get it," he complained. "She just said we were going to spar but nothing beyond that. Are we fighting just for the sake of it? Because that's what it feels like. All she's been doing is beating me down every single round and not telling me what she wants! It's not fair!"
Lux Bonteri listened to his son vent his frustrations. He then glanced over to his wife, who continued her own solo exercises in the meantime, unbothered.
Oh, bless the inner complexities of Ahsoka's mind.
"Ah well, you know your mother," he told Mika, running a hand through his brown hair. He wasn't greying yet, though he was on the verge. "She never tells you everything. But she never does anything without reason."
"Well, why is she doing this then?" Mika asked, a slight whine in his voice. "What reason does she have to be completely merciless now? She's never like this!"
That was a question that Lux himself had thought about. Usually whenever she and Mika had their saber combat lessons, Ahsoka would go easier on him to ensure he fully understood what she was trying to teach. So why now did she ramp up the intensity to the max?
He didn't know the exact reason, but he had an inkling.
"If you ask me, I think she wants you to learn something for yourself," he posed.
"Learn what?" Mika sardonically replied.
"I can't tell you that. But if there's one thing I do know, it's that you're smart, Mika." He patted his shoulder in an encouraging, fatherly manner. "Just think about it, and you'll get it."
Having said all he could, he then left his son to it, with the faith that he would.
Mika hadn't actually stopped to think about it before. Now that he had cooled off, however, he felt stupid for not doing so before.
His mother continuously overwhelmed him every single round. What could he learn from that? He could see now that she didn't do so out of malice. So why?
Dissecting every round left him with a very familiar pattern. First, she would come out the blocks with an overwhelming offense, leaving him no room to counterattack. Then, she would effectively render him powerless to continue, in various ways, whether it be disarming him or breaking his defense and leaving him vulnerable.
Then, for whatever reason, she would always ask him if he gave up, to which he would always answer with a vehement no.
Following that, she would simply use his own imbalance and exhaustion to her advantage and put him away in seconds, always proclaiming he was dead, which, had it been a real fight with real lightsabers, he would've been.
Wait… asking if he gave up… was that it? Was that what she wanted? For him to give up?
He didn't really get it. For the longest time, he saw giving up as a bad thing.
But, now that he thought about it, there was no way he was going to beat Ahsoka Tano at her best. Giving up was humiliating, indeed, but doing so would at least spare him an even more humiliating beatdown.
It was a prospect he didn't want to do, but considering the circumstances, it was the one that spared him the most humiliation.
Freshened up once again, he came back out into the center of the courtyard, where his mother stood.
"I'm ready to go again," he told her, much more confident but, more importantly, calm.
It was obvious to Ahsoka he truly was ready, that he wasn't just saying it to salvage pride. With that knowledge, she got into her fighting stance.
Mika reciprocated, settling into a defensive stance.
Through the Force, he could feel himself, his mother's stalwart yet serene signature ahead, and that of his father as well, behind him at the edge of the courtyard. With his dad in particular, he could feel that he believed in him to know what to do.
It made him feel reassured and confident.
When his mother dashed forwards, he was ready for it. She opened with heavy attacks, which he chose to evade rather than defend against.
That decision was rewarded when she next hit him with a flurry of rapid strikes. These were far easier to block than her heavy attacks. All he had to do was position his blade right and let her hit him. These attacks would take far longer to break his defense than her heavier blows, meaning he didn't have to worry about her tiring him out.
She then broke away to reset and try again, but he took advantage of her break to break away himself.
When he looked back, he saw his mother's surprise, and felt her cautious optimism.
As both pairs of ocean blue eyes locked, something clicked between them, as if a missing piece had been dropped into place.
"Give up?" Ahsoka posed, still maintaining a combat-ready stance, prepared to continue the fight.
This time, though, there would be no such continuation.
"Yes," Mika replied humbly, lowering his practice sword.
At last, he saw his mother break into a smile.
She lowered her own blades, letting them drop to the ground as she walked up to face her son.
"Do you understand now what I've been trying to teach you?" she asked him, laying a familiar hand of stability on his shoulder.
"To give up?" he replied, not a hundred percent confident and his voice betraying the desire to learn more.
"Mm, I wouldn't put it that simply," she shook her head with a smile. "The key to winning a fight is to know your enemy and to know yourself. If you only know one of those things, then you risk losing. Part of knowing both of those things is being able to recognize when you are vastly outmatched and have no hope of winning. If that happens, then the best thing to do is retreat, so you can live to fight another day."
Hearing her explain it that way made it sound so simple and obvious. Yet, it still made him drop his practice sword in wonder. It was something he never would've thought of on his own, at least before his dad planted the idea in his head.
Speaking of which, the very man laid his hand on his other shoulder.
"See? I told you you'd get it," he told his son, beaming with pride. Then, with a teasing grin aimed at Ahsoka, he remarked, "Quicker than your mother did, if what she says is true."
She rolled her eyes in return, with a fond smile. "Who says I ever told you the truth?" Then, addressing her son, she said, "I want you to remember this lesson, Mika. It could save your life one day."
Mika rolled his eyes, almost identically to how Ahsoka had. "You say that about every lesson," he retorted.
"I know, but that makes it no less true," his mother reasoned. "If you run into an enemy you can't beat, then don't try to. Instead, pull back and wait for an opportunity to present itself. If you try to fight on regardless, you'll never win."
The seriousness in her voice showed just how much she wanted him to learn this lesson. And he could see why.
Ever since he was little, his mother took his safety super seriously, even more so than other parents did with their children. That was the whole reason behind their various lessons: to prepare him for the worst.
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As red and blue blades remained locked together, Mika came back to the present, re-enlightened.
Not for the first time in his life, he was glad for everything his mother did for him, even if he was a bit of a brat about it at the time.
Empress Palpatine had Mika right where she wanted him. There was no escape.
With him in perfect position, she unfolded her blades and then prepared to attack.
But Mika sensed it beforehand. To counter, he simply retracted his blade.
When she swung, there was nothing to clang against, leading her to greatly overextend herself.
She gasped in surprise when she realized she was truly made vulnerable for the first time. She did not expect that at all.
Mika used her vulnerability to Force-push her away. She shrieked as she flew back.
"Come on, let's go!" he beckoned to Jacen and the Nightsisters. "We're retreating!"
"What?!" the former exclaimed, outraged. "But she deserves death!"
"If you want to get revenge then fine by me!" Mika retorted, not in the mood to deal with Jacen's unreasonableness. "But you'll sign your death warrant if you do!"
Jacen growled, wanting vengeance but also unable to deny Mika's logic. Swallowing his own pride, he followed him and the Nightsisters.
When Empress Palpatine recovered, she looked on with distaste as that quartet Force-jumped away. She had gone into the fight expecting to subjugate them all but came out having not incapacitated a single one.
She wasn't quite willing to give up yet. She had one more trick up her sleeve.
She drew swordfingers in circles through the air, generating electricity.
In the air, Mika felt a tingle in the Force. He glanced back, his instincts screaming that something was going to happen. His instincts were very rarely wrong.
He preemptively ignited his lightsaber, and then swung at the right time.
"Hyah!" he grunted as he swatted away the dark Empress's lightning strike up into the sky.
But it was a heavy blow, forceful enough to jar his grip on his lightsaber.
He quickly extended his other hand, pulling his blade back to him. He then rolled his shoulder. It ached from the strength of the blow.
Empress Palpatine narrowed her eyes as she observed the quartet Force-jump away to the west. She had underestimated them, but in the end their objectives remained unrealized.
Though she hadn't pummeled them, they also equally failed to defeat her.
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Meanwhile, Poe and his group had continued heading west, reaching an airfield the Resistance had set up base at.
But they were not in the clear. They were locked in battle with a squad of Sith troopers.
"Enemy at the gates!" Jannah called out, nocking back her energy bow and releasing an arrow.
Poe was forced to slide behind cover, only narrowly avoiding getting blown to pieces by a quarrel-bolt explosive shot which slammed into his hiding spot.
The weapon capable of firing these explosive shots was actually an integral under-barrel attachment to the Sith troopers' standard ST-W48 blaster rifles, a highly advanced yet still conventional weapon system that outmatched everything the Resistance had by a considerable margin.
"Need cover!" Poe's voice rung out as he returned fire.
Zorii heard the call and ran across to help, firing her two pistols on the move. Her shots didn't land – it would've been by sheer luck if they did – but they were enough to get the enemy to duck behind cover.
Rose, meanwhile, was just trying to keep Finn safe. The both of them were in cover behind a barrier, and Rose – with an EL-16HFE blaster rifle – shot at anyone who even came close to them.
Finn, however, was in no state to help. Despite that, he still wanted to.
But the Sith troopers were relentless. Not only did they have the superior equipment – among them being their leading-class armor and advanced blaster rifles – but they also had the greater drive and will to succeed.
Such advantages explained why only four of them were giving the Resistance's best such a hard time. The Sith troopers were a formidable enemy.
The red-armored trooper engaging Rose threw a special Oppression grenade over towards her.
The mechanic saw it and ducked behind cover. The grenade blew up, but thanks to there being a barrier in between it and her, she remained safe from the fragmentation.
But the Oppression grenade had a secondary effect. When it exploded, it made Rose's ears ring. However, the ringing continued for far longer than other explosions. The main benefit to this was that it effectively rendered those on the receiving end deaf for a time.
In short, Rose could not fight back. Not having her hearing meant she had less situational awareness, meaning the enemy had the advantage over her. She knew the moment she stuck her head up, her head would get blown off. Someone likely had her pre-sighted and was ready to fire the moment she popped up.
That was enough motivation for Finn to grab his own EL-16 off his back. His differed from Rose's in that it was a shortened version with no stock and a shorter barrel, much more suited to close quarters combat.
It was awkward for him, as he couldn't fire the weapon the way he was used to. He could no longer look down the sights with his right eye, considering he had no right eye anymore. That meant he needed to use his left.
As a consequence, that meant he would have to shoot left-handed, which was unnatural to him as a rightie.
But, needs must.
Mounting his weapon atop the barrier, Finn aimed.
And then fired.
Though he didn't hit his target – totally understandable, considering he had just lost an eye – putting down suppressive fire did force the enemy trooper to take cover. Oftentimes the little things really mattered.
Rose turned to Finn in surprise.
"Finn, what are you doing?!" she asked, bewildered and concerned.
"Helping out!" he retorted, and then continuing to engage the enemy.
Rose remained stunned, but grew even more enthralled with him. She always knew he was a brave man, but this occasion topped everything she had seen so far.
Despite the Resistance's attempt to fight back, it was being blunted by the ruthlessness of the Sith troopers. The red-armored troops had such high-quality training and equipment that they were well equipped to deal with any army that opposed them.
Suddenly, though, coming out of the thunderstorm cast across the sky was Mika, followed by Jacen.
The Sith trooper squad were caught out by the new hostiles, and some uncharacteristic sloppiness creeped into them as they struggled to deal with the new threat.
Mika dashed to his enemy, rapidly deflecting all incoming blaster fire as he did. Then, upon closing the distance to his opponent, he attacked and made easy work of them.
Jacen, however, hung back and let Mika draw their fire while he waited. Then, while they were distracted, he pounced, Force-jumping and coming down on a second trooper and making quick work of them.
The other two troopers focused their fire on the two newcomers, only for both of them to collapse on mystical green blades that appeared out of nowhere.
Ana and Nat materialized again after the troopers were dead.
Poe looked upon these newcomers with wonder. He couldn't believe their luck.
"Who are these guys?" Zorii asked him, her pistols aimed in their vague direction just in case they were hostile.
"I don't know." Curious about this for himself, he came out of his cover and walked towards them. "Hey! Who are you guys?!"
"Friends!" Mika replied, very much to the point yet being sure to lower his blade and present no threat. Jacen and the two Nightsisters followed his lead.
Poe noted that, and appreciated it. "Then do you mind helping us out?"
Mika nodded his assent, but was immediately interrupted by the sound of jets.
Looking up into the sky, they saw a squad of Sith jet troopers flying.
Any hopes of them not being noticed were extinguished when they changed direction.
Poe, with his flight expertise, noticed they had entered a dive, and put together exactly what they were doing.
Dive bombing.
"Everyone find cover!" he yelled out.
The Resistance, the two Jedi, and the two Nightsisters all paid heed to the warning in different ways. The Resistance scrambled to find anywhere that was safe, but the Nightsisters both performed their invisibility spells and simply disappeared. They were safe since it was impossible to track a target that couldn't be seen.
Mika and Jacen, however, took a different approach, and chose to stand out in the open, seemingly presenting themselves as easy targets. But they both used the Force to pull two panels off an electrical unit.
Two of the flying troopers targeted various Resistance members. They waited until they were sufficiently low enough in their dives to launch a high-explosive round from their launchers, and then pulled up back into the sky.
Those that targeted the Resistance failed to breach the hard cover that they had ducked behind, but the Resistance were pinned down regardless. They couldn't move or else they were dead.
Mika and Jacen were also targeted by the other two troopers. They launched one explosive round each and pulled up.
The two Jedi responded by Force-pushing the metal panels they had up into the rounds' projected paths. Once the rounds impacted the panels, they prematurely blew up in mid-air.
Despite thwarting their attacks, the Sith jet troopers simply carried their speed and regained altitude. Poe knew from aerial combat experience that they had the advantage, and that to swing that advantage around was immeasurably difficult.
As the flying troopers prepared to double back, however, one of them looked up in surprise.
A figure with twin blue lightsabers landed on the trooper from above, and wasted no time beheading them.
They then used the corpse of the trooper, with their jetpack still intact, to manhandle their way to another trooper as if they were flying a ship. They hopped across the thundering skyline and performed a cavalry-style swing on them, cutting down the next trooper.
The two remaining jet troopers switched to their primary center barrel and opened fire on the figure, but the newcomer used the dead jet trooper's jets to evade every single one, buzzing the third trooper and bisecting them in half.
The Resistance members came out of cover, looking upon the aerial fight with astonishment. To them, it was quite obvious that this was a Jedi of some sort.
The last remaining jet trooper held their ground and returned fire, but that ended up being a big mistake. The Jedi was just too evasive and managed to close in enough to throw one of their lightsabers like a javelin, impaling the last trooper and killing them.
The Jedi called back the blade with the Force, and finally dismounted their makeshift steed, which plummeted its way to the ground.
As they hit the ground, the dead corpses of the Sith jet troopers blew up on impact. The new Jedi landed with no trouble.
Now that they had a clear view of them, they saw that the Jedi – a man – was extremely polarizing. Mika recognized the Jedi outfit he wore: the black Jedi clothes once worn by Anakin Skywalker.
But beyond that, the truly polarizing part was that everyone recognized the new arrival. All that joy of having another Jedi suddenly eroded into fear.
Standing before them with twin blue lightsabers, was Kylo Ren.
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… Except it's not, it's Ben Solo, but they can't see that.
But how exciting is that?! He's finally here!
I loved getting to divulge a bit of Mika's past, and not just because I was able to use Ahsoka again. I enjoyed crafting that backstory because he just feels so real now. I wanted to go into greater detail with that and craft individual nuance for him. I know I could've made it shorter, but I preferred taking more time with that flashback just because it allowed me room to build the characters of that generation of the Bonteri family: Lux, Ahsoka, and Mika.
Regarding the weapons and how they work, I took a lot of inspiration from Battlefront II 2017. That's why I made the Sith jet troopers so strong and powerful. Though only the normal jet troopers are in the game, I remember them being incredibly powerful, enough to even overpower lightsaber heroes in the hands of a skilled player. So I thought why not just amplify that?
The same is true with the Oppression grenade. It only appears in Battlefront II as a gadget for the Sith troopers, but it works a little differently. It works much like a normal thermal detonator, except it takes far longer to regenerate your health after being hit by one compared to a normal explosive. Since that regen delay is an element introduced for the sake of gameplay, I had to think of something else for the story. I arrived at the temporary deafening. Explosives do trigger ear ringing if you stand close enough to one, so for the Oppression grenade, I thought to make that time spent with ears ringing noticeably longer.
But the next chapter is gonna be great, I can already tell. I expect nothing less with Ben Solo now in the picture.
Hope you enjoyed!