Chapter 7: True Colors
It was early in the afternoon and Appa was flying over Ba Sing Se, with Aang and Katara taking a ride on the sky bison. They soon crossed over the innermost wall and flew over the middle ring, heading straight for the cleared area shared with the lower ring. From the air they could see the two remaining ships that had landed there, although the larger of the two was taking off and slowly rising upward. That didn't really matter since Aang was headed for the smaller ship anyway, which was conveniently still on the ground.
Meanwhile, inside the Millennium Falcon, the three men and a wookie wanted to follow the other smuggler ship's example and get the hell out of here. Han Solo had the ship prepped for takeoff, but when he tried to engage the engines something somewhere exploded. Wedge and Wes had to use a couple of fire extinguishers to put out a small blaze, whereas Chewbacca got to work finding out what part had failed this time. Given all the patchwork and mods the Falcon had gotten over the years, it could take a while.
A loud thud brought the two together.
"What now?" Han grumbled, head and shoulders deep in a maintenance hatch cutting off burnt wiring. "Chewy, get up there and find out what hit us!"
Appa had landed on top of the Falcon and was lying comfortably right above the engines, soaking in the heat coming out of it after an unsuccessful launch. Aang and Katara leapt off the bison and onto hard metal, just as a roof hatch opened not far away. Aang's jaw dropped at the sight of a large furry man rising out of hatch, wielding a weapon that resembled a high tech crossbow. Katara, having met Chewbacca once before, was startled but remained calm in front of the wookie, who was aiming that weapon at them.
"Friendly!" Katara said, holding up her hands and making peaceful gestures at the wookie. "We're just here to talk."
Chewbacca grumbled something that neither of them could understand, and he jerked his weapon toward the hatch.
While walking over to the hatch with Katara, Aang found the sight very surreal. "When you mentioned this creature, I didn't believe he was real."
When all three of them were on the lift Chewbacca hit the switch, lowering them into the Falcon with the hatch closing after them. When they reached the bottom Chewbacca pointed down one path, grumbled something at Aang and Katara, and then walked away in the other direction. The two teens watched until Chewbacca stopped at a junction, removed a panel from the wall, and started tinkering with the apparently broken components inside. When Chewbacca noticed that they were still there, he growled and jerked his head in that same direction he had pointed at.
"I guess he's done with us," Aang figured.
"Apparently," Katara agreed. She started walking down the path that Chewbacca had pointed towards. "Han must be this way."
Sure enough that path led to the rear of the Falcon, and they just barely avoided tripping over Han's exposed legs. He was still deep in the maintenance hatch trying to fix things, having to lie on his back in order to do it. A power relay had burnt out here and scorched some conduits next to it, all of which had to be replaced with third-hand parts. The repair work was going well enough all things considered, but it still needed to have a part replaced. After a muffled curse Han reached out from the hatch, looking for something he needed by touch.
"Where's that damn screwdriver?" Han muttered, feeling for the tool with his hand. He felt someone press it into his palm. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Aang said.
There was a muffled thud inside. "Ow…"
"You okay?" Aang asked.
Having been startled by the unfamiliar voice, Han had instinctively tried to get up, and he had knocked his head against a bulkhead. He quickly finished the work inside, and then got out of the hatch. "Who are you?"
"I'm Aang." He reached down to offer a hand. "Katara's told me about you."
"Uh huh…" Han said. He took Aang's hand and let him pull Han up, and then turned away to go somewhere else. "Don't care. Trying to leave."
"We just want to talk," Katara said.
Han was in no mood for any of that. Instead he hurried straight for the cockpit, not caring that Aang and Katara were following him there. Han got to the controls and fiddled with some buttons and switches, restarting the takeoff sequence for what felt like the tenth time today. Suddenly all the lights in the cockpit went dark, so Han slammed his fist on a panel and the lights came back on. Then he put on his headset and turned on the comm system, needing to make sure no one was in a compromised position before trying to light this thing.
"Chewy, how're we doing back there?" Han asked. There was an excited growl for a response. "Alright, here we go!"
More buttons were pushed, switches were flicked, and a faint humming resonated throughout the Falcon. Then there was a boom, the ship shuddered, and everything went silent. Han cursed and beat on the controls again, but this time that did not fix the problem. A roar came through the comm, and even Aang could tell that it was pissed off. Two other voices came through as well, reporting what had happened in their respective areas of the ship. Han yanked the headset off and headed out of the cockpit, grumbling all the while.
"How can this get any worse?" Han grumbled.
Aang noticed some new and temporary shadows in the cockpit, and he looked out the window at something in the sky. "You had to say it."
Meanwhile it was early morning in the Fire Nation, and for the populace it appeared be the start of just another ordinary day. Well except for the two smuggler ships that had arrived yesterday, and they were now leaving back the way they came. Those ships had delivered enough food to feed the entire Fire Nation for nearly a year, and enough raw materials to finish the capital's reconstruction. There was a bright future ahead, and this was just the beginning of it. So as far as ordinary days went, this was looking to be a good one.
They couldn't have been more wrong.
It started with the shadows that dotted the capital, starting large and slight then turning to small and dark as time went on. The shadows got the people to look up at the sky, and they saw many vessels descending towards them. But these were not the small shuttle seen before, but vessels three times as large and much bulkier. They were like big metal boxes with wings attached to the top, flying with all the grace of a thrown brick. The people looking up were frozen in place, dreading what the vessels were bringing to the capital.
Five of these vessels landed in the palace courtyard, evenly spaced along the perimeter. Two dozen more of them landed in the capital, and more were on their way down from the sky. They were landing primarily in key intersections of the city's roads other large spaces, wherever there happened to be enough room to land. Naturally the locals using those roads and wide spaces retreated into their homes, fearing the worst when those vessels opened the large doors on their sides and revealed their contents.
Each vessel came with three dozen soldiers inside, all in the same white armor carrying the same black blaster. Those soldiers marched out of the vessels and took positions around them, forming rings of men around the vessels to guard them from the locals. The exception to this was the soldiers coming from the vessels in the courtyard, their combined squadron of six score soldiers massing in wedge formation in front of the palace. But they did not approach any closer, seemingly waiting for a signal before starting an attack.
Inside the palace the Fire Lord was receiving constant updates, and from one of the unfinished towers he saw the soldiers at his doorstep. "So it begins…"
In response to this blatant show of force the Fire Nation responded in kind, having red armored troops march out of every barracks in the capital. Hundreds of men and women in uniform marched down the streets, claiming the routes in between each of the landed vessels. People inside their homes saw the troops on the warpath, off to confront the soldiers in their city. Inside the palace the Fire Lord's personal honor guard was mobilized, thirty of the most elite firebenders in the nation taking point at the entrance of the palace.
Where the two factions met the soldiers and the troops stared at each other, skull face plated helmets looking into the eyes of white and black helmets and vice versa. The commanding officers on both sides were hesitant to give the order to fire, both in the sense of blasters and the very literal fire. Not when this could still be resolved without resorting to armed conflict, however small that possibility was and dwindling with each passing moment. Each side chose a representative to meet at the palace, their respective military commanders in charge of the forces here.
At the palace the front doors opened just wide enough for one man, with General Shinu standing there in front of the honor guard. On the other side an imperial officer stood in front of the soldiers, his grey uniform with a commander's pin stripes standing out amongst the formation of stormtroopers. For a time the general and the commander looked into each other's eyes, each trying to guess at what the other planned to do in this confrontation. That time quickly came to an end, and the first to speak was on the Fire Nation side.
General Shinu did not give anything away, crossing his arms and glaring at his counterpart. "Alright, you have our attention."
Commander Gradd did not bother to hide any smugness. "Don't worry. We will have far more than that."
Captain Zed was grinning.
It felt good to be back on the job, back to what he had been doing before Darth Vader commandeered his Star Destroyer for this little escapade. When not assigned special details or engaged in Death Squadron joint missions, the Stalker was usually sent out into the uncharted territories on the other fringes of Imperial Space. That default mission was to seek out new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one had gone before, and bring those worlds and civilizations under the Empire's heel.
On the Stalker's bridge Zed watched the crew hard at work, coordinating the effort to bring yet another world into the Empire. In the center of the bridge there was a hologram of the planet, displayed in different shades of blue with red dots where the landing parties were deployed. Right now those red dots were clustered in two places, the two capitals on opposite ends of the planet. It was standard procedure to subjugate the largest population centers first, as that usually got the rest of the locals to fall in line.
While looking at the hologram Zed heard the bridge doors opening behind him, exactly on schedule. "Ah, Zuko, so glad you could join us."
He really didn't have a choice in the matter, what with the half dozen stormtroopers that insisted Zuko come here. "What's going on?"
"Oh I'm just taking a moment to show proper courtesy." Zed took a step to the left, letting Zuko see the hologram with the western hemisphere rotating into view. "Soon you will have the honor of becoming a part of the Empire, whether you like it or not."
The meaning of that was all too clear. "So this is an invasion after all."
"I'll admit, invading wasn't the original goal," Zed said. "But as they say, no plan survives contact with the enemy. The situation has changed, and our tactics have changed with it."
"They'll have to change a lot," Zuko assured. He would have liked to strike down Zed with a fireball right now, were it not for the stormtroopers aiming their blasters at his back. "We're going to fight your empire for every step on our soil."
"I'm sure you will," Zed conceded. He gestured to the stormtroopers, who then closed in tighter around Zuko. "I should warn you though, more advanced civilizations than yours have tried to repel us. They have all failed."
"So far," Zuko said.
Zed made a noncommittal grunt and shrugged. "There may yet be a world that succeeds. But I can assure you, it will not happen here."
And with another hand gesture from Zed, the stormtroopers took Zuko away.
As Appa flew across Ba Sing Se yet again, the view from the sky became worse more and more. Aang could see many of the large landing crafts descending into the city, two dozen of them landing in the upper ring alone. Three more had already landed on the palace roof, and the soldiers deployed there were already securing a perimeter. And far beyond them Aang could see more landing craft in the distance, likely heading for key locations in the middle and lower rings. From the look of things, this was the beginning of a full scale invasion.
"This is bad," Aang muttered to himself. "This is very bad."
In his haste to respond to this all but announced alien invasion, Aang had hurried straight to Appa and took off without a second thought. It wasn't until he passed over the wall to the upper ring that he realized he had left Katara behind, who had spent a few minutes on the Falcon's hull trying to wave Aang back down. By then it was too late to turn back for her, when these next few precious moments could decide everything. Aang had to get back to the palace as quickly as possible, and he was already halfway there.
Over the upper ring Aang could see dozens of soldiers already emerging from their landing crafts, but thankfully were staying around their transports instead of marching down the streets. Aang could also see Ba Sing Se's city guard mobilizing, although only at a fraction of the size it was during the height of the war. While the city's troops moved to intercept the invading soldiers, there were Dai Li agents watching from every dark corner of the upper ring, ready to pounce on the enemy at the first opportunity.
In record time Aang reached the palace, leaving Appa at the entrance while he ran into the building with the wind at his back. There were guards on the move in the main hallway, none of whom challenged Aang on his way to the throne room. He soon reached the big fancy doors and entered the throne room, finding Azula and Long Feng reviewing constant updates delivered by courier. Also in the room was Hakoda, and he was being told a lot more than what was going on right now, and he was none too pleased with the situation.
"Seriously, why did no one bother to come get me," Hakoda complained. "I leave for a few days and everything changes."
"You were gone?" Aang questioned, stopping at the table in the middle of the throne room.
"You didn't notice?" Hakoda asked.
Aang shrugged. "It's been pretty hectic lately."
Hakoda scoffed and shook his head. "Never mind, we'll talk about it later. Now we need to act fast before they act first."
"Agreed," Long Feng said, finished with the most recent update from the latest courier. "As this appears to be a true invasion, our first choice is no longer viable."
"Asking them to leave isn't going to work now," Azula said. She looked around Aang, and realized that someone was missing. "Didn't you leave with Katara?"
"Yes, I know I left her behind." Aang ignored the looks that got him, having more important matters right now. "So we're going with the bluff then?"
"Once their leader arrives here with his demands," Long Feng specified.
Sure enough, soon another courier came rushing into the throne room. "Sirs, Ma'am, another one of those ships landed just outside."
Already the occupants of that landing craft were coming into the palace, five imperial officers accompanied by twenty stormtroopers marching behind them. They stopped at the threshold to the throne room, the officers studying the group inside. Aang took a stand first in opposition to the invaders, with Long Feng and Azula behind him while Hakoda stood behind those two. All four of them crossed their arms, standing in defiance against the invaders. But the invaders weren't backing down, not when they only saw four people opposing them.
Aang made eye contact with the officer in the middle, the obvious commander what with the most complex markings on the uniform. "So this is it? We didn't say yes quickly enough? Now you're just going to take over anyway?"
"Yes," the commander answered.
"And it wouldn't matter if I asked you to leave?" Aang continued.
"Probably not," the commander admitted.
"Well then I might as well warn you," Aang said, trying to sound as confident as possible. "You have no idea what you're getting into."
"Uh-huh," the commander said. "Such as…?"
"This," Aang said. He held his arms apart, clenched his fists, and his eyes and tattoos glowed bright blue. "The Avatar State!"
The commander raised an eyebrow at the sight, yet did not appear fazed by the deeper voice Aang now possessed. "Neat trick."
Taken aback by the low key reaction to the Avatar State, Aang hesitated to make his next move. Normally entering the Avatar State had the superstitious folk cowering in terror, with only few exceptions from those not easily intimidated. The mere threat of using it usually had people doing whatever Aang asked of them, but that was not the case here. It soon dawned on Aang that these invaders had none of the context for either standard reaction, and that they only saw the glowing eyes and tattoos as some kind of magic trick.
To correct this oversight a demonstration was required, something to display the power that everyone else knew to expect from the Avatar State. Aang opened his hands and fire spewed from them, and the flames encircled Aang in a thick ring of fire. He then clenched his fists again, pieces of the floor broke off and floated around Aang in another ring. Air rushed in and formed a sphere of wind around him, lifting Aang off the floor. But there was no water to summon to complete another elemental ring, so Aang made due with three out of four.
Now the commander had some understanding of what the Avatar State was, and he quickly gave an order to the stormtroopers behind him. "Open Fire!"
All of the stormtroopers took aim and fired their blasters, all targeting the glowing boy before them. Aang was already reacting to the commander's order, pulling more rock from the floor to make a floating barricade just in time to block. Red blaster bolts converged on Aang's position, the vast majority of them hitting the rock and leaving scorch marks in it. A few of the red bolts slipped through gaps in the rock, but most of those missed the target. One red bolt struck an arm, burning Aang just behind his left wrist.
Aang let out a cry of pain, and in the deeper voice of the Avatar State it sounded like a mythical beast vowing vengeance. Aang stomped a foot on the floor, and a vast web of cracks spread from it towards the enemy. The floor in front of Aang shattered and the stormtroopers plummeted into the level below, some of their shots hitting each other as they fell. For good measure Aang made the next floor below collapse, dropping the enemy even further into the palace underground, hearing the stormtroopers scream all the way down.
"aaaaAAAAaaaahhhh!"
When he was finished Aang left the Avatar State, and his no longer glowing eyes immediately looked at the burn on his arm. "Man that hurts." After that complaint he turned around toward the others. "Is everyone okay?"
Fortunately when the commander had given the order, Long Feng had raised a stone wall to shield himself and the others. Now he put the stone back where he found it, and he was none the worse for wear. "We are fine. But we have to act fast."
"Asking didn't work, and that guy didn't fall for the bluff," Aang said. "We're left with our third option."
"We fight," Azula insisted. "For as long as we can."
It was chaos in the Fire Nation.
Commander Gradd had demanded the Fire Nation's unconditional surrender. General Shinu had refused. There had been no argument over the terms, or even a halfhearted attempt at peaceful diplomacy. Instead the commander gave the order to open fire, and the general gave the exact same order. Inside the palace the firebenders attacked first, but everywhere else the stormtroopers shot first. Blaster bolts and fireballs were soon flying everywhere the eye could see, transforming the capital city into a warzone.
From their landing crafts the stormtroopers advanced down city streets, marching in formation while firing at every firebender in their sights. The armor that Fire Nation troops wore stopped the first few blaster bolts, until burn holes were numerous enough to let successive shots through, burning into the soft flesh underneath. In the short time their armor lasted the firebenders threw as much fire as they could manage, drenching the stormtroopers in flames and heat that quickly seared through their armor to burn the skin below.
But the stormtroopers were far more expendable than the Fire Nation troops, and they pressed forward in spite of their fallen comrades. Those that were cooked inside their armor were trampled on by their still marching comrades, maintaining a high rate of fire on the enemy. Soon firebenders were falling every minute to blaster fire, and those still fighting had to retreat. So they took cover behind buildings and threw fire around the corners, burning the stormtroopers as they tried to get the troops back in the line of sight.
Inside the palace the fighting did not last long. Since the firebenders under General Shinu attacked first, a third of Commander Gradd's stormtroopers were cooked alive before any of them could shoot back. When they did open fire many of the firebenders fell, but by then half of the stormtroopers were dead and more were dying. Half of the palace antechamber ended up in flames, and the other half ended up with scorch marks all over the walls. In five minutes all that work building this part of the palace had just gone up in smoke.
During all the chaos general and the commander took shots at each other, Shinu throwing fire and Gradd shooting blaster fire. The blaster bolts pierced the fireballs, neither of them making any resistance to the other, and so both were hit by the other's attacks. Shinu set Gradd's uniform on fire, and Gradd shot Shinu in the chest. Shinu collapsed from the resulting wound in his chest, and Gradd screamed in pain from the blaze burning him alive. When the fight was over Shinu was still breathing, while Gradd was a freshly burned corpse.
Barely holding on to consciousness, Shinu was breathing heavily and clutching a wound just to the right of his heart. "Take that… alien…"
Shinu's sight was blacking out as he lost consciousness, and the last thing he saw was Fire Lord Ozai arriving on the scene.
"Get him to the infirmary." Ozai looked at the entrance to his palace next. "And get those doors closed."
Before the second order could be carried out there was blaster fire coming in from outside, all of it confined to the narrow middle of the antechamber by the barely open doors. Everyone inside the palace was out of the narrow firing line, so the blaster fire only struck the back wall of the antechamber. At Ozai's command the firebenders all threw fire at the doors, filling the narrow gap with an inferno that spilled outside and burned anything that got too close, blindly attacking in the vain hope that the enemy was close enough to be burned.
There was a halt in the blaster fire, and Ozai seized the moment to strike. He quickly charged a bolt of lightning, stepped in front of the doors, and fired his lightning through the gap. He couldn't see whatever it was that he hit out there, but he could hear dying screams and shrieks of slightly electrified foes. There was even an explosion somewhere in the mix, likely a blaster being overcharged by lightning and blowing up. Ozai fired a few more bolts of lightning through the doors, electrocuting more of the stormtroopers out there.
Ozai stopped shooting lightning when the firebenders got the doors closed, and it became safe in here for the moment. "Barricade the entrance. Weld those doors shut if you have to. We are not letting those invaders back in again."
Captain Zed was scowling.
The reports from the landing parties were coming in steadily, and while the news was mostly good there were a few troubling details. The populace of both capitals had unanimously rejected the Empire's demands, and had quickly turned to violence to defend their world. While that development had been expected, the casualty rate was unusually high. The worst part was that the two commanders in charge down there had turned up dead or missing, and precious time had been wasted replacing them in the chain of command.
Still the invasion was progressing, if slower than on most worlds. More troop transports were being deployed to reinforce the ones already on the ground, and the Stalker had far more than enough stormtroopers to fill them. And if the casualty rate continued to be high, well then there was still the option of bombing the place and getting it over with, but Darth Vader had not granted authorization to use that extreme just yet. Regardless of what actions had to be taken, Captain Zed was certain that conquering this world would not take long.
But there was still a potential wild card here, so Zed turned to one of the officers on the bridge. "Lieutenant, are any of the smuggler ships still here?"
"Just one sir," the lieutenant reported. She checked the computer to be precise. "Only the Vortando is still on the surface. The rest have all gone into hyperspace."
"Vortando…" Zed muttered. "Wasn't that the YT freighter?"
"Yes it is sir," the lieutenant answered. "Do you want the specifications?"
"No, that won't be necessary," Zed said. "Just keep an eye on it."
Zed dismissed the thought that was nagging him. Sure the YT1300 freighter wasn't exactly common these days, but this one couldn't be the same freighter captured by the Death Star. This one had taken a job provided by the Empire, and not even the rebels were stupid enough to do that.
"I knew it was stupid to come here!"
Han Solo was understandably upset. After the seventh repair job today the engines were finally working right, and the Millennium Falcon was just about to take off. A couple of warning lights were flashing at him, but that was nothing new. Han was in the cockpit working the controls, whereas Chewbacca was monitoring the engines along with Wedge and Wes. It looked like they were finally going to get off this rock, with only a few minor things left to deal with. The biggest problem now was the local still aboard, standing in the cockpit right behind Han.
"So you're just going to leave?" Katara asked.
"Yup," Han answered.
"Right in the middle of a full blown invasion?" Katara continued.
"Yup," Han answered again.
"You do realize we need you?" Katara said.
"Nope," Han answered. "You need an army, and that I do not have."
"There must be something you can do!" Katara pleaded.
"This," Han answered. He put on his headset and turned on the comms. "Chewy, get this girl off my ship." There was a long growl coming from the other end. "Fine, Wedge, you get this girl off my ship."
"I'm going," Katara said, realizing that she wasn't going to make any headway here. "Clearly I'm wasting my time here."
"That you are," Han said, taking off the headset and turning his attention back to the ship.
Katara left the cockpit and ran through the ship, heading back to the spot that she had entered from earlier. She found the lift that would take her to the dorsal hatch, and spotted the floor switch that Han and Chewbacca used to operate it. Katara stood in the lift and put her foot on the switch, but then nothing happened. She stomped on the switch but still the lift would not move, and Katara felt a sickening pit in her stomach. Something was stopping the lift from working, and she could certainly guess at the reason why.
"This can't be good," Katara muttered. Then she felt the whole ship rumbling, and a sudden thrust upward knocked Katara off her feet and slammed her back into the floor. "Yup, this is not good."
The Millennium Falcon was finally taking off, and what few safety features this ship still had prevented the exits from being opened during liftoff. More upward acceleration pinned Katara to the floor, but that didn't stop her from trying to scoot her way out of the lift. The ship ceased its acceleration and it flew at a steady speed, and Katara was able to get up and move about. Katara ran back to the cockpit as quick as he could, and when she got there she saw clouds through the window, all of them moving straight down.
"And this is even less good," Katara said.
Han looked back and saw Katara. "You're still here?"
"No thanks to you!" Katara yelled. "You took off before I could get out!"
"Your fault for not leaving with your little friend," Han said. He sighed, turned his chair towards the other one, and offered that seat to Katara. "You might as well get strapped in. It will be a bumpy ride. And before you ask, no, I'm not turning my ship around."