Living Legend : Book 5 : The Locket Chapter 37: LL5 36 The Plaza, a star wars fanfic

Kess didn't hesitate. The ramp was disabled. She shot out of her straps and ran to yank open the hatch for the access tube to get out from above. Vanech climbed down from the upper turret with unlit hilt in hand, ready to follower her up the ladder. Han and Chewie shouted at each other as they dove out of the cockpit and yanked out their blaster and crossbow to follow.

Keeping her head low, she chunked down the lever to open the top hatch and saw a clear view of the Coruscant sky. The distant battle still spit red and green bolts amongst knots of big ships out there, but a dozen troop transports were fighting their way down to the surface all over the city like falling parachutes.

She released her lightsaber from her hip and lifted it to rise —almost— entirely out of the hatch, and ignited the amber blade.

Blast shots fired at it from several directions, but not all directions. She concentrated. She breathed quickly, and she shoved her body the rest of the way up the ladder spinning the amber blade madly to absorb and deflect blaster fire. She wasn't very good at it until she climbed out enough to see the scattered storm troopers aiming their guns at her. She squatted on her knee, and focused on nothing but blocking shot after shot as the men climbed out of the hatch behind her and began to fire back from a battle crawl.

Some of the stormtroopers fell from the return fire. Some of them turned and dove for cover. Some of them ran. Civilians screamed and cried and raced away, many huddling into a ball right there on the open deck of the plaza itself. A troop transport slammed down on the other corner of the plaza and poured out its rebel guts. More blast shots added to the fray, granting the Falcon crew enough cover to shimmy down between the nose mandibles and jump down to the duracrete surface under the ship.

TIE fighter shots sprayed down on top of the Falcon and the surrounding deck, splashing up bits of pretty plaza tile wherever it hit. Still not yet on their feet from the jump down, Han grabbed Kess's head with both arms covered over her with his body. Kess closed her eyes and reached a hand up, fumbling to eject the pilot in the blind. The TIE's path was audible as it screamed close overhead, angling up to swoop down in a circle again, but Kess managed the grip and yanked. The pilot ejected with a hollow pop in the air. And the TIE aimed its dead face to crash right into the side of a towering building.

Luke dropped Five to the edge of a city canyon, stopping surface traffic to a screeching halt by landing in the middle of the street and hovered there only long enough to turn the ship from left to right and fire his guns at every building and body that fired back at him. Once enough of the blaster fire was snuffed out, and crowds of civilians leapt from their speeders to flee, he punched the canopy open and scrambled out of his straps and life support.

Artoo raised himself out of his socket with a fast spinning dome and reported the distance and direction of nearby allies and enemies. Luke jumped down to the street and shed the white panel from his orange suit, which was all he intended to do, but he decided bright target orange wasn't the best color to be wearing on a day like this. He ducked under the X-Wing's belly to unzip the flight suit off his street clothes too.

"Get to the Senate!" He shouted at Artoo as he stripped. The droid spun around and burned rubber down the road, weaving between crashed and abandoned speeders along the way. The little guy already knew exactly where he was and how to get where he needed to be. Luke stepped out of the orange suit and ducked before getting hit by new blaster fire. A Coruscant cop hovered over the canyon behind him, with both officers firing the hood guns to scrape across his X-Wing.

The green blade ignited. He lunged hard to swipe in fast jerks, blocking shots from hitting himself, but there was nothing he could do about the fighter. He couldn't cover a shot from sailing into her fuel tank because his blade was amidst covering a shot landing against his hip. Thankfully, he bounced it back and nailed the cop car in the windshield, but the other shot hit Five on the quarter panel. Luke dove down and tried to roll away from the blast, but the belch of flame knocked him ass over teakettle along the asphalt. His hair singed and the back of his hands burned from the outer reaches of the explosion, but he'd gained enough distance and angled to miss the brunt of it. He rolled back to his feet without pause and dove to a full run up the street. He didn't look back because he didn't want to see his beloved Red Five burnt to a crisp.

Soldiers fanned out over the plaza and knelt at key positions to start the growing bubble of secured territory. Rifles aimed at civilians who ran away until they were out of sight, not hesitating to return fire in when occasional civilians fired back at them. But they had a problem, because now a half dozen Coruscant police craft hovered overhead, firing shots as they floated behind the cover of nearby buildings. Rebels fired up from doorways and broken windows of shops on the outer rim of the plaza. Chewie yanked Kess to her feet and pointed even as they still ducked under the angled body of the Falcon. Madine had secured a big notch against the buildings on the south side, surrounded by a dozen other soldiers firing out from behind a series of fruit stands. Han ordered them to split up, and shoved Kess's shoulder ahead until all four of them were racing a hard run across the half kilometer of open space.

All surrounding cops aimed their noses at the four-person crew and fired fast, but the move managed to bring a few of them out into the open where rebel rifles nailed their hoods and windshields until they fell out of the sky. Kess heard Madine shouting his location and status into a comm as they came closer. Rifles barrels lifted out of aim and hands yanked shirt sleeves to pull them faster behind the fruit stands. With the glad-to-have-it extra force of a fellow rebel yank, Kess landed hard against the exterior wall of the buildings, amidst the wide notch between entrance porticos, and cussed at the intensity of ground battle. She thought, I will never insult a grunt soldier again.

Chewie bounced against the wall and dove to his knees to join the troopers with crossbow fire. Han ducked behind a corner and shot out with his blaster. Kess lifted her amber blade back to the task of defending shots from these fellow troopers.

Slowly but surely, the attacking blasts began to fizzle out, but a new rain of fire came down from west and rattled closer along the outside of the building. A ship. Kess heaved her body into the corner and Han ducked back against her before they were shot by the angle. A blast narrowly missed her arm and hit the wall beside her. She squeezed her eyes shut for the hit, but opened them again to find a green bar of light shaking fast to come around the corner to join them.

Now in black from neck to feet, Luke ran so fast his body landed in a vertical crash against the other corner. The cop car that chased him came down with a scream and crashed uncomfortably close to the fruit stands. They all ducked and covered until the explosion passed and debris finished stabbing shards of metal into the wall. Madine's troops instantly popped back up and resumed fire at the remaining two hover craft, still floating too distant to land a decent shot.

Kess uncovered her head and panted in the adrenaline of it. And her big eyes moved to Luke also coming down from a hard breath of his running.

He looked over at her and smiled through his panting. "Hi."

Kess couldn't help but to flash a fast smile back. No one else paused for a hello. Madine was already moving out from behind the fruit stand to order his forces forward and take down those last two hover cops. Han brought up his comm and poked around the west corner to get a layout of where they were, shouting for the rest of his team report status and location. Vanech curled around the corner with little blue blade in hand and ran west. Han shoved Kess's shoulder to go to Luke and disappeared around the west corner too, firing fresh as he ran.

Luke motioned Kess over just as another shot nailed the ground between their feet. She jumped over it and landed against him in the east corner, holding her blade near his to cover them both in case any more shots sailed their way.

Luke wrapped his free arm around the front of her shoulders as extra protection and poked his head for a peek around both west and east corners. The Imperial Palace loomed black several kilometers distant to the west of them. The Senate Dome was out of sight behind other buildings several kilometers to their east. "Where is he?!" He shouted over the booms and blaster fire.

Kess grimaced away from the occasional close shot and realized what he meant. If the Coronation Ceremony had already started, they probably had Nik in the Senate Dome for it, but the Jedi needed to be certain before they wasted travel in the wrong direction. She closed her eyes to try to sense her brother, but another shot landed uncomfortably close.

Luke grabbed her by the shirt and shoved her roughly back in the corner behind him, blocking her cowering body with his own and grabbing his hilt with both hands to wait and guard any more nearby shots. Madine's troops were already gone with their advance.

The Jedi were on their own.

Kess closed her eyes behind his back and fought for concentration to sense out in a Force Telepathy scream. "NIK!"

Z-Z-Z-Z-Zap! Nik shuddered limply as the electricity left his fingertips. He stared at the black surface of the big desk without seeing it and recited it in a fast mumble.

"MynameisDarthTovecus. PeaceisalieThereisonlyPassion. ThroughPassionIgainStrength. ThroughStrengthIgainPower. ThroughPowerIgainVictory. ThroughVictorymychainsareBroken. LonglivethePalpatineEmpire."

As soon as he was finished saying it, the whole thing started again.

Z-Z-Z-Z-Zap! "MynameisDarthTovecus. PeaceisalieThereisonlyPassion. ThroughPassionIgainStrength. ThroughStrengthIgainPower. ThroughPowerIgainVictory. ThroughVictorymychainsareBroken. Longlivethe PalpatineEmpire."

His ears couldn't hear the battle raging outside, he couldn't hear the frantic shouting of Jakobi on the other side of the room, he couldn't even hear his own voice, much less the voice of someone trying to talk to him through a skill he didn't know how to use.

"I can't sense him!" Kess cried, part in fear and part to yell over the noise.

"You have to!" Luke shouted back at her and grabbed her arm to insist it. "Kess! You have to!"

She closed her eyes again and tried a different tactic. This time, it wasn't a scream.

Nik. Nik it's me. Remember that time we used up a bunch of water to make sandcastles behind the house? Remember how Grandpa taught you to block punches? Remember Grandma and Grandma dancing in the courtyard? It's me, Nik. Try to remember.

Remember when Dad treated us all to the good seats at the pod races? Remember when your son Ben was born? Remember calling me on Yavin to show me a photocap of Grandpa with a lightsaber? Remember me coming to your house with Luke Skywalker? Come on, Nik. Remember!

Remember when you beat the crap out of my boyfriend in high school? Remember when you gave me Grandma's locket after she died? Remember that time mom brought home cheesecake from a street vender and I threw up all over the place?

Z-Z-Z-Z-Zap! "MynameisDarthCheesecake—

Nik blinked.

His eyes found the brightness of a light. "Kay Kay?"

Z-Z-Z-Z-Zap!

"YES!" Kess shouted behind Luke's shoulder and motioned him to go. "East!"

Luke shot his head around to search for clearance.

"He's east of us! Senate Dome!"

He nodded without looking back at her, took a single step out, ready to duck and cover again if need be. Ships rained down from above as the Imperials retreated all atmo-capable craft back to home base, but the surface fire was gone from this area.

Luke slapped her shoulder and pointed hard at a far away open door around the east corner of the plaza. She nodded and gripped her hilt with her left hand to ensure she didn't hit him with it as they ran side by side.

"Stay close to the building!" He shouted, ducked as a blast shot splat nearby from directly above, and slapped her shoulder again. "Go!"

Kess ran hard and fast along the south edge of the plaza, fearing that she'd left him behind when she didn't hear his feet moving with hers. Madine's troops were out of sight now, and all the civilians were gone, save for a random few still frozen in shivering balls against the corners of buildings. The attacking craft overhead had nothing else to shoot at but the glowing green and amber blades of fleeing Jedi.

She ran fast and scared, and panicked more when someone inside the building slammed shut the door before she raced through it. Kess ducked as she slammed a shoulder against the wall, now seeing a glimpse of Luke racing only a few paces behind her, and both turned their feet to head south down the wide open lane leading away from the plaza.

In seconds, Luke motioned her at another closed door and looked up at a craft angling around them overhead. As Kess stabbed a hole into the window of the little shop and broke in like a burglar, Luke angled his back against her back and pointed two fingers at the ship above, focused on the pilot, and waved his fingers in a quick swipe to the south.

The ship fired down at the exterior of this commercial block and drew a blast line further south as if they were still running full speed down the street.

Her shoulder landed against the door and broke open so fast Kess fell to her feet in the middle of the little store. Luke stepped in, lightsaber first, and pulled her up by the elbow. Kess was running again before she made it fully to her feet, and both dove through the back door of the building to the service strip in the back alley.

Luke flattened against the wall and disengaged his lightsaber. His eyes aimed at the sky. His hand motioned her to shut down her lightsaber too. The craft flew over the alley enough to see them, but wasn't shooting anymore. Other explosions and blast shots echoed from all directions, but those remained at a distance.

"They lost us."

"I can't see the Senate Dome." Kess tried to peak over buildings but this alley was too tight and tall to see anything.

"East." Luke said as he trotted a little to the nearest perpendicular alley that led in that direction. Kess kept her unlit hilt in hand and ran to follow.