Chapter 24: From Top to Bottom
Approaching Earth from the night side, Darth Vader's Tie Fighter went unnoticed as it flew toward the planet. He ignored the rebel fleet entering orbit around the planet, and they were too busy to notice a single small ship passing through the planet's shadow. At this part of its orbit the planet's northern pole was in eternal night, and his ship was lost in the shadows as it reached the planet. He entered atmosphere above the higher latitudes, descended to the lower altitudes, and then flew further northward toward his destination.
In the darkness of a midday night, there was very little light to see by. The stars and the planet's moon were the only natural light, and it sparkled off the surface of the seas and the tops of glaciers. The planet's ice cap appeared and passed by underneath Darth Vader's ship, accompanied by thin clouds above and around him. Darth Vader saw the frozen city pass by to the east, illuminated by artificial lights installed by imperial occupation, which he ignored and continued to fly north. His destination was at the very top of this world, where there was no sign of intelligent life.
Sensors became unreliable at the northern pole, the planet's magnetic north pole creating strong interference here. Darth Vader did not require them anyway, instead using the Force to guide his way forward. On that path he flew his ship to the center of the ice cap, where he could no longer travel further north without going south instead. Darth Vader landed his ship on the frozen tundra, inside a frozen mountain range that covered the pole. After shutting down the engines Vader exited the ship, stepping foot on old snow that crunched beneath his boots.
Darth Vader looked at the place ahead of him. "Well what do we have here?"
Nestled in a valley between several frozen mountains was a lush green forest, an oasis of life surrounded by cold desolation. It was illuminated by wide bands of aurora in the sky, brilliant colors of light fueled by the strong magnetic field here. Somehow the vegetation in this forest remained in full bloom, despite having no sunlight for months at a time. Something sustained this forest instead of the sun, a mystical power with a strange sensation that Vader was unfamiliar with. The mere existence of such a place was worth investigating, especially to someone with the Force.
Walking into the forest and observing the foliage, Darth Vader's curiosity grew with every step forward. There was a narrow path leading through the forest, winding back and forth around trees and bushes, with occasional small shrines left by natives that revered this place. The deeper Vader went the more it felt like there was something unseen here, like another world was overlapping with this one, right here yet out of reach. At the end of the path there was a small meadow in the center of the forest, the tree branches along the edge all reaching towards the center.
As he walked Darth Vader sensed strange presences in the forest, a kind that was unfamiliar in every possible way. He caught glimpses of strange creatures lurking about, their forms transparent and varied in shape and size. They seemed to be there and yet not there, a semi-corporeal state that made little sense to him. They were also keeping their distance from Darth Vader, like any reasonably intelligent being would, and did not dare get in his way. The walk through the forest was a quick one, ending at the clearing that covered the center of the forest.
Vader stopped just before the center, looking down at a faint glow that pierced the snow covering the ground. He held a hand forward and focused his mind, using the Force to move the snow out of the way, exposing a thick layer of ice hidden underneath. Underneath the ice was a strange dark red sphere, made of some substance that was not of this world. With the Force Vader broke the ice apart, removing the last physical barrier over the dark red sphere. He placed one hand on the surface of the sphere, focusing his senses to get a feel for what it was like in the Force.
One thing was certain. This required further investigation.
The Fire Nation palace was finally complete.
Barely resembling the old palace from before the war, this one was a fortress taller than the caldera rim behind it. Three distinct spires of steel overlooked the capital city, itself completely rebuilt in the imperial style and conforming to galactic code. Aside from being built in the caldera of a volcano, this new city was well on its way to being a match for any city in the Empire. The obvious hazards of having a city here were being addressed by imperial engineers, using technological means to vent the pressures inside the volcano, ensuring that it would not erupt and destroy the city above it.
All that hard work was being undone in a day.
Identified as a stronghold for the Empire, the rebel fleet in orbit had sent a squadron to neutralize it. Dozens of X-Wings and Y-Wings flew into the city's airspace, and had to evade blaster fire from antiaircraft turrets placed on the palace spires and the caldera rim. A few fighters were shot down and crashed into the volcano slope, but most crossed over the caldera and opened fire. X-Wings fired blasters at the antiaircraft turrets to destroy them, and the Y-Wings dropped bombs across the city below, striking the first blow against the imperial here.
Inside the palace Fire Lord Zuko felt the floor shake, safe from the first bombs by being in the lower levels. "What's going on?"
No one bothered to answer his question, or at least no one in the throne room with him. Everyone important was already on their way out, responding to an alert made before the first bombs fell. Stormtroopers remained in the throne room with Zuko, keeping an ever watchful eye on him, and had very little to tell him about the attack outside. Zuko walked away from the throne and left the room, found some imperial officers heading down the hallway, and followed them to find out what was going on out there.
They led him down to the center of the palace's ground floor, where an operations center had been built with state of the art imperial technology. Zuko still had only the most basic understanding of the technology use in here, being that it allowed communication faster and further than he could comprehend. He saw imperial officers working frantically at their stations, struggling to coordinate defenses during a crisis. Zuko overhead some of them complaining about the Star Destroyers being gone, which gave him some idea of the situation.
"I presume we are under attack," Zuko said.
A commander in the middle of the room turned toward Zuko, and then looked back at what he had been doing. "Someone get him out of here."
The stormtroopers watching Zuko quickly escorted him back into the hallway, getting him out of the way of work in the operations center. "I'm going, I'm going."
More tremors shook the palace, and Zuko imagined the upper levels being bombed into oblivion. So he headed down to the lower levels, taking the central stairs to descend below the ground floor. The stormtroopers remained right behind him, silently glad for the excuse to be on safer ground. Very few people were down here at the moment, most of the imperials remaining above to handle the situation. No one got in Zuko's way as he walked through an underground corridor, heading to a part that predated the imperial renovations.
Leaving halls of steel behind for halls of stone, heading down to one of the old bunkers, Zuko looked for something in particular. "There."
On the wall was a dragon shaped emblem, mouth wide open around a hole in the wall. As he passed it Zuko put his palm against the emblem, firebent some flames into the hole, and triggered a hidden mechanism in the wall. Part of the wall slid back and then down, revealing an entrance to the tunnels below the capital city. The stormtroopers were surprised, until Zuko threw flames in their faces, leaving them blinded and furious instead. Zuko leapt through the entrance, firebent into a second dragon emblem on this side, and the hidden mechanism closed the wall behind him.
The stormtroopers pounded their fists on the resealed wall. "Hey!"
Zuko was already running through the tunnel, getting as far from the palace as he could. "This better be the right time to leave…"
Throughout the Earth Kingdom, imperial forces were in retreat.
Without support from Star Destroyers in orbit, the imperials on the surface had to make do with what they had planet side and nothing more. Most of their forces on the continent were either in Ba Sing Se or the former Fire Nation colonies, and so they retreated towards the centers of those two areas to concentrate their resources. Small towns and villages were abandoned outright, the locals left to fend for themselves after the imperials departed. The commanders coordinating the retreat considered the matter temporary, vowing to return even as they converged on Yu Dao.
Although the barracks in that city had been destroyed, Yu Dao remained the most fortifiable position on this part of the continent. The walls surrounding the city remained intact, still reinforced with imperial steel, and could withstand considerable punishment from ground based attacks. The city itself was big enough to house thousands of stormtroopers and support personnel, with enough supplies inside to last for several months. The imperials could hold out here as long as needed, despite the loss of the barracks.
The resistance fighters responsible for the damage had been captured and imprisoned, scheduled to be interrogated at a later date. The prisoners were kept on the highest floors of several steel buildings, kept as far away as possible from the earth most of them could command. Although the commanders in the city wanted to interrogate the prisoners now, coordinating the retreat took priority over everything else. This left the prisoners waiting for the inevitable interrogation, wondering what forms of torture awaited, fears growing worse with each passing moment.
During the wait Kori and Haru were in adjacent cells, sitting with their backs to the metal wall in between them. Kori looked through the bars of the cell door, wishing she could see anyone out there. "What do you think is keeping them?"
"No idea," Haru answered. Though their voices were dulled by the wall between them, they could still hear each other well enough to talk. "They seem to be really busy. There must be a lot going on out there."
"Hopefully we can stick around long enough to find out," Kori said. "Still, if they're too busy to deal with us, it must mean everyone else is causing quite a ruckus."
"They did have easier missions than we did," Haru said. He thought about the cost of their mission, both in people and in equipment. "Shame about those bikes, I'm going to miss them."
"I'm sure you can get new ones," Kori said. She heard something from down the hallway, and she lowered her voice. "Someone's coming."
An imperial officer was climbing up the stairs, flanked by a pair of stormtroopers holding their blasters at the ready. They seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, wanting to get their task done and over with so they could move on to other matters. The officer went to Kori's cell first and unlocked the door, and the stormtroopers aimed their blasters at her as the officer entered the cell. Kori stood up and crossed her arms, but did not resist when the officer pulled her toward the open door. Haru could only stand by his cell door and listen, unable to do anything at all.
"What do you want?" Kori demanded.
"I think you can imagine," the officer said, taking her out of the cell. "We're just going to ask some questions. Answer truthfully and you won't be harmed."
Kori nodded, understanding what would happen if he believed she was lying.
But as the officer led Kori away, one stormtrooper was slower than the other, and leaned toward the bars of Haru's cell. "Stay calm and wait."
Not knowing that woman's voice, Haru could only stare as the stormtrooper walked away. "Okay, will do."
While most of the rebel forces remained in orbit above Earth, a few ships landed in the southern Earth Kingdom.
Gaoling was chosen for a temporary base of operations for the rebels, after the imperials were driven out of the city. The facilities the imperials had managed to build were destroyed by aerial bombardment, while most of the preexisting infrastructure was left intact. After taking the city the rebels landed their ships in the lands just outside, taking care not to move too much equipment or resources into the city itself. Dozens of X-Wings and other assorted fighters patrolled the skies of the region, searching for imperials that would surely be plotting a counterattack.
The Millennium Falcon had just landed near the largest rebel ship, and Han Solo was heading into the ship ten times bigger than his. "I won't be in there long Chewie."
From atop the Falcon and currently fixing a power regulator, Chewbacca grumbled something at Han down below.
Han ignored that remark and entered the larger ship, passing by many rebels coming in and out. He saw a few of the locals with the rebels, some being shown the lower levels of the ship, others showing what could be done with earthbending and firebending. Han entered a turbolift and ascended to the middle levels of the ship, and from there he walked to a small meeting room. He looked through a small window in the door, saw that there was a meeting taking place, and that he should wait before speaking with that royal pain in his backside.
Inside were Leia with Katara and Aang, in the middle of a long conversation at the time. Leia had briefed them on the progress of rebel advancement, from the victory in space to the ongoing battles on the surface. In turn Aang and Katara told Leia about the various places on Earth, where they could find the greatest concentrations of benders, and suitable locations to land ships to provide assistance. However the conversation had turned to a sour note, something that Aang did not want to hear, but had suspected might be the case."
"You're not really going to leave?" Aang asked. He looked Leia in the eye, wishing that he knew her better than what Katara could tell him. "You just got here."
"And we can't stay here," Leia said. She saw looks of disappointment, which were justified in her opinion. "I'm sorry, but we can't hold this planet. The Empire will return in force and wipe us out if we are still here. We have to leave before they come back."
Katara slammed her fist on the table. "Then what was the point in coming back?"
"We want to recruit as many benders as we can," Leia answered. "From what we've seen, we can't allow the Empire to have sole access to your kind of power."
"Would have been nice if you said that upfront," Katara said.
"Is this going to be a problem?" Leia asked. "If it is, we need to settle it right now."
"Fine," Aang said. "You want benders? Okay, that's fair. Can you promise you will at least try to keep them safe?"
"Yes, we will try to keep them safe," Leia promised. "Keep in mind, they will be expected to fight. We will be sending them to fight on worlds that will enhance their abilities, but we still expect casualties even on those planets. That is the nature of war."
"I understand that part," Aang said, remembering the consequences of the Hundred Year War. "Wait, what was that about enhancing our abilities?"
"Bending has been going nuts out there," Katara said, remembering the experience firsthand. "We've got a theory right now that seems to be working. Well at least for water and fire, not sure about earth and air yet. We haven't been able to test those two yet."
Remembering the time he had power greater than the Avatar State, Aang was intrigued by the possibilities. "Alright, let's do it. But we evacuate as many nonbenders as your ships can carry. If it's anything like the last time, they should get bending on the worlds where bending is better."
"They do," Katara confirmed. "Well Sokka did anyway."
"Really," Aang said, glad to have Katara's word on the matter. "Well that should be the end of it. You have a reason to take all of us with you."
"Not all of you," Leia said, voice dripping with disappointment. "Our ships have limited space. Your planet has nearly a billion people on it. It would take decades to evacuate everyone."
"We understand," Aang said, as much as he didn't like it. He pushed his chair back and stood up. "If there's nothing else, we all have things to do."
"Of course," Leia said.
With the meeting over Aang and Katara left the meeting room, passing by Han on their way out, not inclined to talk with him right now. Han waved and said hi, Aang and Katara did likewise, and they went on their way. Leia remained inside the room, going to a terminal to deal with matters she could address from there. Han entered and walked up to Leia, getting a brief look at the terminal before Leia shut it off. Han understood the discretion, knowing there were things Leia kept from him, things that the Rebellion didn't trust in the hands of a smuggler like him.
"So how long are we staying here?" Han asked. "The Falcon needs a lot of maintenance done. I'd rather not be in the middle of it when we have to pull out."
"I figure we have a few days at most," Leia answered. "They need time for that Star Destroyer to rendezvous, time to assemble a retaliatory fleet, and time to get that fleet here."
"Long enough to get the little things done," Han noted. He tilted his head toward the door and then back to Leia. "So what were you three talking about?"
Leia sighed. "Their main issue is keeping their people safe. I promised them we would try to keep them alive and well."
"Well they're no good to us if they die," Han pointed out. "We really should keep the benders alive at least. Katara's proven that they are quite useful."
"Not just her," Leia said. "If all of their so called 'nonbenders' can acquire powers in the right environment, we could have a whole army of supernatural warriors. But so far all we have for proof on that is Sokka."
"And he wasn't very good at this bending thing," Han added. "Speaking of whom, I thought the kid would be in this little meeting. Where is he?"
"How did I let you talk me into this?"
Riding in the back seat of a borrowed T-47 airspeeder, Sokka was not enjoying the ride in this small wedge shaped vehicle. Facing the rear end of the vehicle and seeing the ocean and sky moving backwards was disorienting, mostly because he couldn't see where they were going, what with it being behind his back the entire trip. In the opposite seat Luke was flying the airspeeder, keeping it at a low altitude while nearly maxing out the throttle. He hoped to have the airspeeder returned before it could be missed, as this wasn't exactly a sanctioned mission of sorts.
"You said you were feeling a little homesick," Luke answered.
"And this is not helping with that," Sokka said. He saw water give way to ice, and could almost swear he saw his home village pass by on the right. "In fact, you just passed by my home. And I doubt we're going to make a stop there on the way back."
"Probably not," Luke admitted. He kept the airspeeder flying straight south a little while longer, until he spotted something that had to be their destination. "That must be it up ahead."
"I wouldn't know," Sokka said. "I can't see it."
"Oh, sorry," Luke said. He turned the airspeeder to fly around the destination in a wide circle, putting it on his left and Sokka right. "There, how about now?"
Sokka turned his head and saw a massive storm, unlike any he had ever seen before. "Yep, if I had to guess, I would say that is the Everstorm."
Every southern Water Tribe member knew the stories, and even a few in the northern tribe had heard the legends. It was said to be a storm that never ended, raging since time immemorial. It thwarted all attempts to reach the center of the South Pole, all attempts either ending in failure or in death. Rumor had it that there was an ancient secret protected by the storm, and could only be obtained by someone that could find the light in the dark. Of course, the first tellers of those rumors hadn't accounted for spaceships, which had Sokka thinking this would be a lot easier than he would have expected otherwise.
"I'm not seeing an eye to this storm," Luke said. From here it looked like a big mass of green clouds stretching beyond the horizon, swirling in strange ways very different from regular storms. "It's going to be rough flying in."
"Let's just get it over with," Sokka said. He braced his arms on the sides of his seat, expecting to feel some turbulence. "I'm ready."
Luke turned the airspeeder toward the Everstorm, heading straight for the center to dive into the strange clouds. Visibility quickly dropped to zero in the clouds, though the white out had a strange blue-green tint to it. The altimeter was still working and reporting their position at a safe altitude, but Luke didn't bother to look at it. He trusted his instincts and flew the airspeeder through the storm with ease, compensating for turbulence and slowly descending towards the ground. The clouds thinned at the lowest altitudes, revealing the terrain below them.
For the most part the tundra was covered by thick snowdrifts, a few mountains and several small hills sticking up from the snow-filled valleys. However, in the center of this frozen wasteland was a strange forest, full of gnarled trees covered in ice and snow, yet somehow still alive despite the intense cold. There were no clearings in the frozen forest to land in, requiring Luke to land the airspeeder on the tundra at the forest's edge. It was a soft landing in the snow, nestled between the trees and a hill, headlights illuminating an entrance to the forest on the ground.
After shutting down the engine Luke opened the airspeeder's canopy, and he took in a breath of cold air. "We'll have to walk from here."
Sokka did the same and then climbed out of the airspeeder, setting foot on snow just after Luke. "Are you sure you still want to go in there? This place is giving me the creeps."
"What's there to worry about?" Luke asked back. He heard a growling sound from the forest, as if many small creatures were waiting just out of sight. "I mean, besides that."
Sokka drew his space sword and held his space shield up, hoping he wouldn't need them. "Well, let's see what's in there."
Luke was in front as they entered the forest, setting foot where none had gone in centuries. The headlights of the airspeeder illuminated the entrance, but the light was soon lost behind the dense foliage. None of the light of the midday sun penetrated the clouds, leaving the forest in near total darkness. Luke activated his lightsaber for its blue light, using it to see the path ahead. Sokka appreciated the gesture, not having a light source of his own to use here. He stayed close to Luke as they walked down the path, staying close to the light in the middle of all this darkness.
"Handy gadget you have there," Sokka complimented, wishing he had one of those. "Badass weapon, and a flashlight."
"It's called a lightsaber," Luke insisted. He swept it back and forth as needed, pointing the light around corners and tree in inconvenient places. "Are you seeing anything unfamiliar in here?"
"Everything here is unfamiliar," Sokka said. "Strange trees, strange weather, strange… I don't even know what those are. Shadows? Eels? Shadow eels? Sheels?"
Luke saw the strange shadow eel things coiled around tree branches, watching from afar and keeping their distance. Their translucent black appearance was most discomforting, as if they were there and yet not there at the same time. Their eyes followed the lightsaber blade wherever it went, drawn toward a light source unlike anything they had ever seen. More of these creatures appeared on the path ahead, quickly moving out of the way as Luke approached. They completely ignored Sokka's presence, as if he wasn't even there to begin with.
"I don't suppose there are any local superstitions about those things?" Luke asked.
"Well in ancients times the South Pole was home to spirits," Sokka said. Judging by what he saw, there was only one conclusion. "I guess they never left."
As if knowing they had been identified as such, the spirits finally reacted to their presence. They leapt into the air and swarmed around Luke and Sokka, blocking the view of the trees with their numbers. In the light of the lightsaber the spirits looked like a solid blue wall, reflecting the blue light back towards its source. Hundreds of screeches merged into a symphony of noise, only a few decibels short of being absolutely deafening. Sokka got closer to Luke and put his back to Luke's, holding up his space sword in a similar way Luke held the lightsaber.
"This is not good," Sokka pointed out.
"Stay calm," Luke recommended. He saw the swarm of spirits slowly close in on them, wondering what they were waiting for. "Let them make the first move."
So they did. Spirits lunged toward Luke in particular, and he swung his lightsaber into the first ones to reach him. On contact there was a bright flare of light, the spirits were cleaved in two, with the middle ends burning in blue ethereal flames. In a mere moment those spirits were consumed by the flames, their screeches silenced, and not even ashes were left behind. Luke swung his lightsaber into more spirits and got the same result, cleaving them in half before they burned up into nothing. More swings split and burned spirits, stopping them from landing any kind of attack on him.
Sokka was not so fortunate. While his space sword did cleave spirits in two, the halves immediately reconnected and made the spirits whole once more. His space shield did little to keep them at bay, for the spirits simply curved around the sides of the metal. The spirits wrapped themselves around Sokka's arms, legs, and torso, bound his limbs in their semi-corporeal forms, and lifted him off the ground. By the time Luke noticed Sokka was already out of reach, struggling to escape from the spirits' grip, screaming all the way.
"Not this again!" Sokka screamed.
"Hang on!" Luke yelled. He sliced through more and more spirits, trying to clear a path forward. "Get out of my way!"
The spirits carried Sokka away and deeper into the forest, and Luke cut through the spirits still nearby and chased after him. Luke quickly lost sight of him, as more spirits arrived to block the view. He cut through them anyway and kept on going, running straight to the middle of the forest. There the spirits carrying Sokka vanished and he vanished with them, and Luke realized that he had lost them. Now he was all alone here, looking back and forth for any sign of Sokka. Instead he found another source of light, one beneath his feet.
Underneath a thick layer of ice there was a bright sphere, its blue glow a much lighter shade than Luke's lightsaber. He stabbed the ice with the lightsaber, got a shower of sparks as the melting water threatened to short out the weapon, and took his time cutting through the ice. He cut the ice into several small chunks and lifted them out, uncovering the bright sphere below. Luke dropped into the pit he made and stood next to the bright sphere, then put his hand on the surface, feeling something unlike anything he had ever felt before.
"They must be guarding this," Luke muttered. He held up his lightsaber and looked up at the storm above him. "Bring Sokka back! Or I will destroy this!"
There was no response of any kind, so Luke carried out his threat. Or he tried to. Luke slashed the sphere with his lightsaber, but it didn't leave a mark on the surface. Confused, Luke slashed the sphere a few more times, to no effect. This time he stabbed the sphere, and saw the blade end at the surface, unable to penetrate whatever the sphere was made of. He even tried burying the blade up to the hilt, but still inflicted no damage to the sphere. Luke shut off the lightsaber and put it away, then put his hand back on the surface.
Looking into the surface of the blue sphere, Luke could almost swear he saw his reflection in its glow. "What is this thing?"
Looking into the surface of the red sphere, Darth Vader realized something important.
"There is another…"