Chapter 54: Desperate Measures
In a small cave near the local resistance cell, Luke Skywalker was assembling a new weapon.
The components had been scavenged from various pieces of imperial technology, from blasters to shields and even communications equipment. Luke assembled the tiny bits of tech into a handle, like that of a sword only without a blade or cross guard. It was very delicate work, often needing the Force to hold some parts in place while others were connected, something no machine could mass produce. Luke didn't have any physical schematics for this weapon, building it from memory of instructions given to him by Yoda long ago, and trusting the Force to guide his hand.
The final piece was the most peculiar of all, both to Luke and to the few people watching him work. It was a tiny green crystal, glowing with a dim green light. However, this crystal was not from some disassembled power source, but a natural resource found beneath the largest city on Earth. It was known to the galaxy as a kyber crystal, an exceptionally rare material used in the weapons of both Jedi and Sith. Luke had been surprised to learn that Earth had a large deposit of kyber crystals beneath Ba Sing Se, and had been shocked to learn that they had been used as mundane light sources.
Luke used the Force to insert the crystal into his new weapon, completing the creation of a new lightsaber. He flicked a switch to activate it, igniting a bright green beam of light in the shape of a blade. Luke listened to the distinct hum of the weapon, slowly swung it around, getting a feel for the balance before testing his creation. He swung the green blade at some rocks, cleaving them in twain with no resistance, the cut ends smoldering with the heat. Satisfied with the lightsaber's performance, Luke turned it off and hooked it to his belt, certain that he would need to use it very soon.
Watching in silence the entire time, Sokka whistled after the demonstration. "You think you could build one of those for everyone?"
"I suppose I could, but it wouldn't be practical," Luke answered. He started walking with Sokka out of this cave, heading back to the main part of the resistance base. "All the fancy stuff I can do with a lightsaber, like deflecting blaster bolts, well it needs attunement with the Force to pull off."
"Still a laser sword that cuts through just about anything," Sokka reasoned. He put one hand on the hilt of his space sword. "Don't get me wrong, I like my sword. Made it myself, but yours is way better."
"I think it might raise suspicions if a bunch of lightsabers show up out of nowhere," Luke reasoned. They passed through a tunnel to reach the cavern that contained the base. "The imperials would wonder where all the crystals came from. Quite frankly I'm surprised they haven't found the deposit already."
"Well it's not a thing many people know about," Sokka said. "Those that do know don't think they're anything special, and I doubt anyone that knows what these crystals are bring them up in conversation."
"Let's try to keep it that way," Luke advised. "If your people are right about the sheer volume of crystals, and I really hope they're not, there's enough here to arm another Death Star."
"I don't know what that is, but it sounds terrifying," Sokka said.
They continued on their way through the base, passing by all the people busy with preparations for the next strike against the Empire. Most of them lived in small tents that could be disassembled quickly, should they need to flee at a moment's notice. The largest of these tents was set up near the center of the cavern, which was the command center for the resistance leaders. It contained just about every valuable piece of information that went through the resistance, and so it was kept under constant guard.
Kori and Suki were already inside, currently discussing the vetting of their most trustworthy fighters. Zuko and Iroh were present, though standing in silence while waiting for the meeting to begin. Katara was looking over some paperwork, transcribed copies of documents seen by spies in imperial facilities. Han and Chewbacca were discussing something about the Empire, though only half of the conversation could be understood by everyone else. Sokka and Luke entered to join them, and they were greeted with a warm welcome.
"There you are farm boy," Han said, walking over to Luke. He held out a hand and let Luke shake it, and then pulled him in for a friendly side-hug. "I hear you've been through a lot on this rock."
"You could say that," Luke said. He pulled himself away from Han and patted him on the arm. "I'm just glad you guys are getting by in one piece."
Chewie roared something in an upbeat down, and he took his turn pulling in Luke for a big hug.
"I missed you too big guy," Luke said. It took a moment to pull himself free from the wookie. "Good to know you've managed to keep Han alive out here."
"If you two are done over there," Kori interrupted. "We have some business to discuss."
In the center of the command center there was a table covered by a map of Ba Sing Se and the surrounding area, and everyone here gathered around it. The map was marked with all known locations of imperial forces and facilities, with little stone figurines for ones likely to move around. Next to the map was a chart of the sky, marked with points that represented Star Destroyers in orbit, their positions tracked by portable telescopes on clear night skies. There were three that stayed in geosynchronous orbit over or near Ba Sing Se, and others that came and went on patrol of the globe.
"I'm not going to lie, we're in a bad position," Kori said. She twiddled her fingers to move some figured with earthbending, simulating the known patrol routes outside the city. "They're closing in on us."
"It was going to happen sooner or later," Suki said. She had just reviewed recent resistance activity. "They were bound to narrow down the search by studying where we've been hitting them."
"And they've got ground penetrating radar to make searching easier," Han said. "We're fortunate to be far enough underground to be beyond their range. But if we're not careful they're going to detect the tunnels you guys create to move people in and out."
"If we try to relocate they'll find us for sure," Sokka said. He was eyeing the gaps in the imperial patrols, certain they were traps. "It won't matter how good your earthbenders are, moving that many people is going to be noticed."
"Trying to evacuate underground is just going to tire everyone out for nothing," Kori said. Besides, she had no intention of running. "This confrontation is going to happen whether we like it or not."
"Make sure it is on your terms, not theirs," Luke advised. "Because when they decide to blast their way in here, they will hit you with overwhelming numbers."
"So we need to hit them first," Katara said. "The question is how are we going to do it."
Zuko finally spoke up. "It has to be from below. We can strike in small groups at critical locations, all at the same time. If we do this right it will look like there's more of us than there really are."
Kori unrolled a map of the crystal catacombs beneath Ba Sing Se, along with all the connected tunnels in the surrounding area. "There are natural exit points across the city we can reach easily enough. The problem is that every imperial facility is built on solid steel foundations over a dozen feet thick."
"No doubt equipped with seismic sensors to detect any nearby earthbending," Han noted. "You're not going to be able to set up anything to pierce those floors without being discovered ahead of time."
"We could emerge away from the facilities and approach through the streets," Suki suggested. "It would be a lot easier to knock down doors than to go through armored floors."
Chewbacca grumbled something that sounded like a question.
"What's the objective?" Han translated. "It sounds like we will be going out with a bang, so there had better be something we can accomplish."
"There's really only one thing that will make a difference," Luke said. He pointed to several facilities on the city map. "We need to contact the Rebellion. These communications towers are the only way we can do that, short of smuggling someone onto a Star Destroyer."
"It won't take long for them to lockdown," Sokka said. "We'll have to hit them as fast as possible and pray someone inside screws up."
"Other places will need to be hit too," Zuko said. "So that what we're doing isn't glaringly obvious."
"Barracks, supply depots, offices, anything of value," Kori said. "Most of our people can keep the stormtroopers pinned down while our best target the comms towers. I assume you three know how to circumvent imperial tech and get a hold of your people.
Han smirked while Chewbacca laughed. "We've hotwired more than a few control consoles before. As long as they're not jamming their own frequencies we should be fine."
"I can handle it," Luke said, neglecting the mention that he would be using the Force to do so.
"Okay, so you guys will split up and take a different facility," Sokka suggested. "We'll provide backup and make sure you get inside. Hopefully at least one of you will succeed."
"That sounds good to me," Katara said. "But there's still one thing left. What are we going to do with Appa? He doesn't do well in tunnels."
"He will just have to deal," Suki said. "He's been fine since we've gotten him down here. Haru's looking after him and making sure he doesn't freak out down here."
Sokka raised his hand. "Actually, I have an idea for Appa…"
An armada of imperial troop transports was soaring over the outer wall of Ba Sing Se, heading out into the countryside with a full compliment of stormtroopers, both normal and bender varieties.
Standing in one transport and wearing stormtrooper armor, Jet was eager to carry out this mission he had volunteered for. This so-called resistance was nothing more than Fire Nation sympathizers, and they were going to be wiped out today. It was personal for him at this point, after the embarrassment of having the resistance leader escape while under his watch. He had wanted to lead this mission, but that role was given to an imperial general giving orders from afar, but Jet was allowed to command the stormtroopers in this particular transport.
The order to begin came through the radio, and Jet put his helmet on. "Here we go."
Earthbenders amongst the stormtroopers, marked by the green stripes on their armor, nodded to Jet. The transports stopped and hovered over a meadow in a hilly forest, which was believed to be the location of the resistance base. Doors opened and the earthbenders jumped out, falling about a dozen feet before hitting the ground, bending it on impact to rip the soil asunder. Working together the fifty earthbenders created a deepening shaft into the ground, wide enough for all the transports to descend through, breaking through the bedrock with ease.
The shaft reached a large cavern, though they had almost missed it entirely, being at one edge of the wide underground space. The transports came in immediately after the earthbenders, each with one door open, the stormtroopers inside aiming blasters outward. Bright spotlights shined from the transports, filling the cavern with blinding light. The stormtroopers opened fire, shooting at anything that moved and anything that looked like a target. Thousands of blaster bolts shot through the cavern, obliterating the tents and shacks all along the floor, setting them ablaze and filling the cavern with fire.
But there were no screams of dying enemies, nor any blasters returning fire, and Jet raised one fist. "Cease fire. Something's not right here."
The stormtroopers in his transport stopped shooting, and the rest soon followed. They observed the cavern after their surprise attack, and there was still no retaliation. It was nearly silent in this cavern, save for the crackling fires spreading from one abandoned tent to the next, and the humming of engines as the transports hovered in place. There was no one here, that much was clear now. It seemed that they had left sometime recently, but had done it so hastily that they had left much of their things behind.
"Damn it!" Jet yelled, slamming a fist on the side of the transport. "We must have just missed them!"
Orders came down to search the cavern for any signs of the resistance, in case they left behind any clues as to where they went. But they were to stay off the ground as much as possible, in case there were earthbenders lying in wait just beneath the cavern floor. The transports slowly flew through the cavern, spreading out as their spotlights swept the area, taking a methodical approach to searching the abandoned base. Some earthbender stormtroopers dropped from the transports, inspected something of note, and then returned to the transports by launching themselves from pillars of stone.
But while most people were looking down, Jet was looking up at the cavern ceiling. He saw an overhang at the far end of the cavern, his eyes narrowing as he imagined how it could be used. "Take us up there. Someone might be hiding in that overhang."
The stormtroopers looked up there and agreed with the order, so the pilot maneuvered the transport toward the cavern ceiling. It took a steady hand to bring the transport up there without hitting anything, needing to be very close to the top to see into the airspace above the overhang. There was a deep void in between the overhang and the ceiling, and as the transport approached there was a breeze pushing back. The stormtroopers assumed it was a tunnel that led to the surface, until they got close enough to see what was inside.
Jet's stomach was sinking by the second. "I have a bad feel-"
Four blaster turrets opened fire, and at near point-blank range the transport could not maneuver away. It was followed by the roar of a large beast, and the furry horned head of a sky bison emerged. Appa flew out from the overhang, clad in armor forged from salvaged imperial steel, with the turrets mounted on that armor and manned by earthbenders. The ambush damaged the transport to the point where it could no longer fly, and it fell straight to the cavern floor in a burning wreck, while everyone inside had bailed out in the fall.
Earthbender stormtroopers softened the landing by turning solid rock into fine sand, though it still hurt like hell when Jet landed on his back. He got to see the sky bison take flight and soar through the cavern, turrets firing at the other transports and inflicting significant damage. Everyone else fired back at the beast, but it was moving fast and already getting behind many of the transports. It was flying straight for the wide shaft at the far end, even when the transports turned around to pursue it, their stormtroopers firing at the beast now.
Appa reached the shaft and turned straight up, while the earthbenders riding along stopped shooting and started bending. They shattered the rock along the sides, collapsing the shaft as they ascended, dropping thousands of tons of rock into the cavern. Although it made the shaft wider, all that rubble piled up at the bottom, blocking off that end of the shaft. All of the transports inside were trapped, until their earthbenders could clear out the rubble. Appa flew out into the open air above ground, glad to be back in the natural winds and soaring into the sky.
Stuck in the cavern for the foreseeable future, Jet was quite upset. "Where are the rest of them!?"
Meanwhile, resistance fighters were emerging from all the old dark alleys of Ba Sing Se.
These were the secret passages once used by the Dai Li, given to the resistance by former agents of the secret police. Many of them had either been found by imperials and destroyed, or simply rendered inaccessible when newer infrastructure had been built on top of them. Enough remained intact for the resistance to appear within the city, most scattered across the lower and middle rings, though a few could still access the upper ring. Resistance fighters emerged in groups of ten or more, each with earthbenders to clear the way.
Near a communications tower in the lower ring, Han was in one group accompanied by Kori and Zuko, along with some earthbenders and regular fighters. They all had salvaged imperial gear to some degree, Han had taken a blaster pistol from somewhere, and they opened fire into a street behind the building. Kori was swinging a pair of heavy hammers to assist in her earthbending, the blunt force amplifying the effect when she needed something shattered. Zuko had a new set of twin dao swords, set aflame with his firebending, and the stormtrooper helmet he wore was painted with the visage of the Blue Spirit.
They ambushed a ground patrol station around the building, eliminating the stormtroopers before they could retaliate. Han ran past a body and snatched up an identification card, the poor sop wasn't using it anymore, and took it to the back door of the building. With it he unlocked and opened the door, then blindly fired his blaster inside. Zuko followed and swept his swords upward, creating twin infernos that rushed through the door, burning anyone that survived Han's shooting. Everyone else followed them inside, with Kori being last and barricading the back door with a big slab of rock.
"Okay, which way do we go now?" Kori asked.
"If it's like every other imperial building, we need to go this way," Han said, heading down one corridor. "Come on, we need to be quick."
"Stay behind me," Zuko said. He crossed his burning swords in front of his painted helmet. "You do not want to get burned."
Elsewhere, over in the middle ring, Chewbacca's group had already breached another tower, via the raw strength of a wookie ripping the door off its frame. Haru and Iroh were with him, providing earth and fire support, while Chewbacca wielded his blaster-crossbow to deadly effect. Suki was there and firing off her energy blasts when needed, conserving her strength for important targets. They made their way through the building and up some stairs, fighting through stormtroopers and officers that were trying to stop them.
Chewbacca roared something that sounded like a battle cry.
"I don't know what that means but I am down with it," Haru said.
Someone was burning alive as Iroh sent flames down a corridor. "At the very least we need to keep moving forward."
Suki blasted apart a defensive formation of stormtroopers, clearing out a spot that was giving the wookie some trouble. "We're right behind you furball."
The stormtroopers were not prepared for the charging wookie barreling through their formations, nor the stone blocks or fireballs or energy blasts supporting Chewbacca. After he passed through them the earthbenders mopped up the survivors, and took more blasters from the fallen stormtroopers. Suki and the others trusted that Chewbacca knew where he was going, even if none of them could understand him. At one point Chewbacca stopped to interrogate a stormtrooper, which meant a lot of roaring and threatening to rip the man's arms off.
Not hearing the quick interrogation, having been busy fighting other stormtroopers at the time, Haru turned toward the wookie when he was finished. "Did he tell you where we need to go?"
Chewbacca grumbled something as he dropped the armless corpse.
Suki looked away from the body. "I'll take that as a no…"
In the upper ring Luke ignited his lightsaber and started cutting through a wall, ignoring all the expected entrance points that were surely guarded by now. Katara and Sokka had their backs to him, along with the small group of earthbenders holding stormtroopers at bay. It only took a moment for Luke to cut a wide hole into the side of the building, and he used the Force to push the severed chunk of wall into anyone on the other side. There had been a handful of stormtroopers on either side of the hole, having been nearby when Luke had started, and he quickly cut them down with his lightsaber.
"We're in," Luke said, and the others came in after him. "We need to find the stairs."
The equipment they needed wouldn't be on the ground floor, so they needed to find a way up. The earthbenders in the group brought as much stone with them as possible, turning it into moving barricades that held up the rear. Luke kept in front of everyone, lightsaber held in both hands as he moved forward. Stormtroopers quickly arrived to stop them, but when they fired at him Luke deflected the blaster bolts with the lightsaber, bouncing them right back at the stormtroopers. He quickly struck down the first wave of stormtroopers, all without firing a single shot.
They quickly reached the stairs, barged through a door to get inside, and made their way up the building. Luke jumped up a flight of steps, assisted by the Force to jump that high, and swiped his lightsaber through a group of stormtroopers coming through a doorway. He held that position until the others climbed up to him, and leaped up to a higher floor to do it again. When he reached the tenth floor he figured they were high enough, and when the others reached him they left the stairs and entered this part of the building.
It appeared to a typical cubicle farm, though with high tech equipment at every station. The people that worked here had already been evacuated, and Luke was fine with that. The stormtroopers that had taken their place were another matter, and there were far too many of them to take on alone. He dealt with a portion of the blaster bolts while the earthbenders blocked the rest, shaping their stone into shields framed beside Luke. Reflecting the manageable number of blaster bolts enabled Luke to steadily bring down the stormtroopers, though the pace was a bit slower than he'd like.
"We need to pick up the pace," Luke insisted.
By now sirens were blaring across the city, alerting everyone to the attacks taking place. Legions of stormtroopers were being mobilized, along with hundreds of hover tanks and AT-ST walkers moving down the streets. They converged on many of the attack sites, shooting at the resistance without hesitation. Stone walls were thrown up to block the counterattacks, but they did not last long against imperial machinery. For most of the resistance this was about inflicting as much damage as possible, and drawing attention away from the important places.
Back in the lower ring tower, Zuko's blazing swords and oni visage carved through panicking stormtroopers. He seemed like a supernatural being more than a firebender, constantly moving from one target to another and striking without hesitation. It helped that he was supported by Kori's earthbending and Han's blaster, having stone shards and blaster bolts passing through the flames helped sell the illusion of supernatural effects. The lower ring stormtroopers were largely conscripts of the local population, and they weren't getting paid enough to face down the Blue Spirit.
He burned a path to the center of the building, where a set of computer servers were housed, which they were going to need to get a signal out. The earthbenders in the group quickly secured the area, while Han approached a console connected to the servers. He didn't bother with the controls, since this interface would be locked out by now, and pried off a panel instead to access the wires inside. While Han rewired the server to bypass the lockout, Kori and Zuko stood guard near him, expecting a counterattack at any moment.
"How much time do you need?" Kori asked.
"Depends on the quality of- okay never mind," Han said. He had already finished his hotwiring and the console lit up with authorized access. "That is my fastest time yet."
"Not the time for bragging," Zuko said. "Just get the job done."
"Working on it," Han said, at the console now and operating it. "Okay, manual access is on the second highest floor. We can take over the transmitters from there."
Zuko was already heading out the door. "Come on."
"You heard him," Kori said to everyone else. "Move it or lose it."
At the middle ring tower Chewbacca and company had reached the rooftop, with the wookie kicking down the door that led outside. The top several floors were heavily guarded, and Iroh had suggested finding a way around. A massive radio antenna stuck out of the roof, its base buried within the building, with the controls buried down there. Haru and his earthbenders had hauled all of their rock and stone up here, some of them wearing it like armor. Chewbacca grabbed Suki by the shoulder and pointed to a spot three meters from the antenna, holding his hand out like he saw Suki do before.
"Understood," Suki said. She held a hand toward that point. "Everyone get back!"
Haru and the earthbenders fashioned a thick stone wall between everyone Suki. "Ready!"
Suki blasted that part of the roof, and the large explosion tore open a hole in the rooftop. Debris rained down on anyone unfortunate enough be in the floor below, including some stormtroopers that were crushed by the shockwave and buried under rubble. Chewbacca leapt over the stone wall and dropped into the hole, landing on the rubble and shooting at anyone still standing. Haru and Iroh and Suki were right behind him, and the earthbenders dismantled their wall and brought the material down with them. From there they stormed into the building, heading down one hallway back toward the antenna.
They barged through one more door, and found the base of the antenna with control consoles around it. Iroh was sufficiently perplexed to understand they were in the right place. "I believe this is correct."
At this point in the upper ring tower, Luke was cutting through another wall with his lightsaber. It was the last wall in their way to the transmission controls, and it bypassed the secured access points guarded by stormtroopers. Luke used the Force to push the severed chunk of wall into the room, and then the earthbenders bombarded the interior with dozens of stone blocks hurled through the hole. After the initial barrage Katara filled the room with mist, reducing visibility for the stormtroopers still shooting back.
Luke leapt through the hole, and reflected blaster bolts shot at him. While he held their entry point Katara and Sokka came through, the former wielding whips of water and the latter holding his space sword and shield. They dispensed with anyone that fumbled their way through the mist, expanding their foothold while the earthbenders came in. The hole was sealed with stone, and the earthbenders recovered the stone blocks they had hurled into this room. Once the blaster bolts stopped coming Katara condensed the mist back into water, and everyone could see the room was secure.
"Okay, we're here," Sokka said. "Now what?"
Already at the control console, Luke was uploading a message that had been recorded ahead of time. "We just need to hold this position until the signal gets through."
"How long?" Katara asked.
"It's a big file, going a very long distance, so a few minutes," Luke answered. Once he had done all he could with the transmission he started accessing other files. "But as long as we are here, we might as well do some research."
Having the same idea in the lower ring tower, Han was accessing data on the servers, once the control room had been secured. Zuko and Kori were watching him work, not understanding any of what was going by on the monitor, though they could tell Han was very interested in what he found. The earthbenders were keeping guard at the entrances, though there was a lull in the fighting while imperial reinforcements were gathering outside. They were expecting to face another wave of stormtroopers any minute now, and anything else the imperials might throw at them.
"Now this is interesting," Han said. "Apparently a bunch of Star Destroyers got redeployed recently."
"Is that good or bad for us," Kori asked.
"Good, since they left Earth," Han answered. "Looks like they went to Coruscant."
"That's the capital planet, right?" Zuko asked, recalling the name from conversations back at base. "Seemed like that's the only place they care about."
"Still, they usually have more than enough ships defending it already," Han said. "And unless the Rebellion tripled their forces since I last saw them, they wouldn't dare strike there."
"There has to be a reason for it," Suki said.
"Maybe they're putting down an uprising on the home front?" Zuko speculated.
"In any case, the Emperor must think he needs the extra ships guarding him," Han said.
"Can you add that to our message?" Suki asked. "I mean, having you and Luke here might be incentive enough for your friends, but the rest of your rebellion might need a little more convincing."
"Already attaching," Han said. "There, done. Now we can get going."
Meanwhile there was no speculation going on at the middle ring tower, since anything Chewbacca might say would not be understood by the people with him. Chewbacca simply uploaded his copy of the message and had it transmitted, then downloaded anything he found interesting to share with the others. His group of earthbenders were standing guard in this room, with Haru and Iroh and Suki keeping an eye out for any more stormtroopers. They had secured this room a few minutes ago, and the counterattack had to be coming soon.
Chewbacca roared something and pulled out a transfer drive, then fired his weapon at the console to destroy it, turning it into a smoldering wreak before turning away.
"I take it we're done here?" Haru asked.
With a nod and a low roar Chewbacca agreed.
"Not a moment too soon," Iroh said. "Here they come."
"And we're ready for them," Suki said.
A dozen stormtroopers were heading their way, seen through little slots in the stone walls the earthbenders were using to hold the doorways. Then they noticed the green coloring on the armor, realizing what it meant a moment too late. The stone walls were shattered by enemy earthbending, the fragments propelled into the people behind. The imperials had deployed their own earthbenders, and it quickly became a battle between opposing earthbending, with the stone turning into sand and dust and back again as both sides fought over control of the limited resource in here.
It lasted until Iroh punched plumes of fire into the opened doorways, and his flames cooked their targets alive in their armor. "We have to go, now."
"No argument here," Haru said.
Meanwhile, the next wave of stormtroopers at the upper ring tower had blue stripes on their armor, and the waterbenders were fighting with whips of water and blades of ice. They cut through the stone defenses put up in their way, and had struck down several earthbenders before Katara seized much of their water. She had enough now to form a pool around her legs with several tendril of water stretching out from there, with the visual effect similar to an octopus-squid made of water. With this advanced technique Katara snared her foes and threw them across the room, and often into one another.
While his sister worked Sokka stayed near Luke. "Are you done yet?"
"Yes," Luke said. He removed a transfer drive and swiped his lightsaber into the console, reducing much of it to molten slag. "We can leave now."
"Great," Sokka said. He turned back toward his sister. "Katara, it's time to bug out."
"Give me a second!" Katara yelled back. She snared several enemy waterbenders, despite their efforts to take the water away from her, and threw them into the others still standing. "Okay, I'm good."
The earthbenders broke down the rock wall they'd made earlier, and everyone starting going back through the hole. Luke was the first one through, lightsaber swinging at everything in his path. But when more waterbender stormtroopers arrived Luke held back, not wanting to get his new lightsaber shorted out by submersion. Katara was there to dispose of those waterbenders, reforming her octopus-squid technique while ripping the water from their control. Sokka pointed out any targets either Luke or Katara missed, and long before those enemies could get too close to either of them.
"I don't think we're getting out the way we came in," Sokka said.
"Yeah, there's too many coming up that way," Luke agreed. "But there's more than one way down."
In the lower ring tower firebender stormtroopers were fighting the earthbenders and the so-called Blue Spirit, wondering if they were fighting an actual spirit or just a man in painted armor. In any case this person fought unlike any other firebender they knew, wielding his swords and his flames in tandem to slash with searing heat. His attacks were cutting through their own firebending and striking them down, all while their earthbenders were assisting him with stone hurled through the flames. Next to them the one person shooting a blaster at them seemed insignificant, and it was almost ignored entirely.
Having already destroyed the control console to cover their tracks, Han and the others were trying to get out as quickly as possible. "The fastest way out should be over there."
Kori was currently bashing in a stormtrooper's head with her hammers, then glanced in the direction Han pointed his blaster. "Sounds good to me."
Zuko was cutting and burning alive several stormtroopers at once. "Stay behind me, I'll clear the path."
He hurried ahead of everyone else, finding a set of stairs different from the path they'd taken up here earlier. There were more firebender stormtroopers coming up the stairs, and Zuko leapt from the top to descend upon his foes. With flames burning from his feet to slow his fall, Zuko swept his burning swords round and round, filling the stairwell with fire. It came too fast and too much for the enemy firebenders to control, burning many of them alive as he fell to the ground level. Those that survived the inferno suffered severe burns, and they did not last long when Kori and her earthbenders attacked.
As Han surveyed the carnage on his way down, Han had a whole new appreciation for the local talents. "Remind me to never get on your bad side."
Struggling to get past the earthbending stormtroopers on their way out of the middle ring tower, Chewbacca roared something to the effect of 'screw it, going around.' He pointed Suki at a nearby wall, and she proceeded to fire an energy blast at it. The explosion demolished the wall and made a hole big enough for everyone, and sunlight poured through from the outside. They were still many stories up, but this was the most expedient way down in the wookie's opinion. Fortunately Haru understood what Chewbacca was going for, and he brought all the stone he still had to the hole in the wall.
"We need a slide," Haru instructed. All the other earthbenders hurried over and lent every bit of rock they had, and with some teamwork they created a covered slide from the hole to the ground. "Alright, one at a time, and mend any cracks on your way down."
"Sounds like fun," Suki said.
One by one people went down the slide, with the earthbenders repairing damage from blaster bolts as needed, until it was Iroh's turn and he got stuck in the middle. "Uh-Oh…"
It was too late to warn anyone, for Chewbacca was already coming down the slide, being the last one to leave. The wookie slammed into the old man feet first, which got him loose in the most painful way possible. They came out at the bottom, with Chewbacca more annoyed than anything else, grabbing Iroh by the back and lifting him back up. The stone slide collapsed afterward, and the earthbenders reclaimed their ammunition. They were now in a back alley behind the tower, and there were stormtroopers coming around the corner.
"Come on," Haru ordered. "Let's go."
After cutting another hole into a wall of the upper ring tower, Luke leapt outside to the top of a nearby building, using the Force to land safely. The others hesitated to jump out after him, but when they did so in single file Luke used the Force to control their fall and bring them down safely. One by one they made the jump, since it was either take the plunge or die in the tower. Sokka screamed all the way down regardless, until his feet were safely on the next roof over. Last one down was Katara, and she threw up a wall of ice over the hole as she fell.
"That's everyone," Katara said.
"Okay, now we run," Luke said.
"Where to?" Sokka asked.
"Does it matter?" Luke asked back.
He swept a hand across the view of Ba Sing Se, drawing attention to the state of the city. Much of it was burning from all the other resistance attacks, and the imperial forces had been called out to deal with them everywhere. It was only because of so many distractions that they were able to survive this long, for it had prevented the imperials from dedicating all of their might to any one place. But even from here one could tell the imperials were turning the tide in their favor, eliminating the resistance threats one by one and redeploying those forces elsewhere.
"We just need to keep running," Luke continued. "And we hope we survive long enough for Leia to get our message."