Chapter 6 - Broken
Author's Note: All hell breaks out. :)
~ Amina Gila
Ahsoka draws her lightsabers, heart pounding as she tries to deflect away the barrage of laser blasts, some of them coming far too close. They're – they're bombarding the planet, destroying everything, and she has no idea how they even got here in the first place. There's no way they could've been followed, but there's no other explanation.
Lightsabers weren't made to withstand the force of weapons on massive ships. Blaster bolts, yes, but not this size. And they can only give themselves cover, not the surrounding area.
"We have to find cover!" Anakin yells over the sound. The area is already thick with smoke, making it hard to see, hard to breathe. There are gaping holes in the ground. The attack was sudden enough that they didn't have time to react, not as though there was anything they could've done, anyway.
And Ahsoka can only hope their ship won't get blown up in all this. She can't see what's happening to the others, but she can still feel them dying.
Death is lingering in the air already, the way it always did on the battlefield, and she doesn't know why she expected they'd be too powerful for that to happen so easily. This caught them off-guard and they're humans – err, normal sentients – too. And there's nothing Ahsoka can do to help them now except try to survive herself.
The Separatists don't stop shooting, though. They're planning to level everything, aren't they? Do they know what's here? How do they know what's here? They must, or she doesn't know why they would've come.
They're still fighting blindly through the smoke and flames when Ahsoka senses something shifting in the Force. There's a massive surge, and she can see what looks like an invisible barrier being formed a distance away by the village.
For a moment, she can only gape at it, because, of course, Force barriers to deflect blaster shots are possible, but this is a Force shield of a new level entirely. It makes sense that it's possible, but it still caught her by surprise.
"We can help them," Anakin urges breathlessly, and she senses as he reaches out with the Force, reaching for the other users to help strengthen and widen the shield they're forming. Ahsoka still remembers what Anakin did on Mortis, freeing her and Obi-Wan from the Son and Daughter, and she has no doubt he's capable of doing more than all the others are already, with enough practice.
She doesn't fully know how to do it, but she senses how the others are twisting the Force, drawing it together to create a physical thing, and she joins after ducking through the energy field. It's hard, and it's unfamiliar, but she lets go of everything else, letting herself reach deeper than she has even in the time they've been here and preparing.
The shield holds.
For a few moments, Ahsoka almost didn't think it would, but it's holding in a light blue film covering the area around them. It's oddly soothing to use the Force so deeply with so many other people, letting go and intertwining within a countless series of other presences, even if she can feel the death so clearly in the air.
"It's holding," someone says, from what sounds like far away.
"The shooting stopped," Anakin says, and he sounds far away, but Ahsoka can feel his words just as much as hear them. His presence is a hot and burning fire surrounding her, and she instinctively reaches closer to its comfort and protection.
No matter where they are, with Anakin, she's safe.
Or at least so she thinks, for a full minute as they slowly pull back from the Force... only for a massive ripple to surge through. She can feel the screaming of danger and wrongness in every inch of her body, and Ahsoka stumbles as it overwhelms her. Anakin catches her arm, keeping her upright, though he looks genuinely close to faceplanting himself.
"What is that?" Ahsoka demands breathlessly as Anakin drops to his knees, hands pressed to his head.
"It's the shield around the galaxy," Haishana breathes, appearing next to them. She sounds faint, her huge eyes full of fear. "It's collapsing. The barrier was created a long time ago, using this Temple to fuel it, but the Temple was damaged and too many of us have been lost. We can't hold it any longer. A ritual was done to maintain it long ago, but it needs a constant energy source to keep it holding. It's gone now."
Oh. Oh no. This cannot be happening. "What do we do?" she demands, desperately.
"I don't know," the Rodian answers bluntly, and Ahsoka frantically looks to Anakin, hoping that... something. She has no idea what this is going to mean now. This was never supposed to happen when they came here.
"Can't we recreate it?" Anakin asks, a little unsteadily climbing to his feet.
"We'll have to gather together and try. Quickly," Haishana replies, running for the Temple, "I need to find Master Chesta."
She only hesitates a moment before running after, but now that she's in the middle of where most of the damage struck, she doesn't think any of them are in any condition to be re-creating the barrier right now. So many are lying dead or injured, and others are frantically trying to save those they can. She doubts more than a few are in the mental state they need to be, either.
Except, Anakin suddenly stops walking, expression tight as he looks up at the sky. Ahsoka touches his arm uncertainly, unsure what he's sensing now, if it's something massive, or –
"We're too late."
Her stomach drops to her toes, maybe lower. "Already?"
He nods, faintly, and they hardly have more warning than that before Ahsoka can start making out some enormous ships flying down towards the surface of the planet. They're about to be attacked again, and this time, she has no idea what it is they're facing. It's something from beyond the known galaxy, something that nearly wiped it out millennia ago.
The first ship that swoops into view almost looks like a flying... She doesn't even know, but she has never seen ships like that before. They're not from this galaxy.
"We need to get everyone to shelter," Anakin calls, backing up.
Ahsoka can only watch with wide-eyed horror. They need to – to reseal this portal, and fast, before it spreads across the entire galaxy. The technology of these extragalactic creatures no doubt has much improved since, and they have no way of knowing how far the damage will go. She has never handled something of near this severity, and she feels lost.
"I'll help get the others to safety, but we need to stop those things," Haishana says, stopping a distance from the Temple entrance.
The ships are coming to the ground, fast. "Do you have an air defense system?" Ahsoka asks. "It won't be long before those things reach us." Travel through the atmosphere can take up to an hour. Usually, it's a minimum of half, but those things seem to be moving a little faster than that. She doesn't want to think about the implications.
"Not one that's been operated in a long time," Haishana replies, "But I'll see what I can do."
They don't even have time for that, though. They have what Ahsoka estimates as fifteen minutes max to gather defenses, though it could just be her fear speaking. The wait is forever as the tension increases, but it's not nearly long enough.
The ship touches down, dropping a series of towering machines.
It's dropping off an army of creatures, too. They look vaguely Kaleesh like, though they're gray, and Ahsoka suspects they're partly cybernetic.
They have blaster-like weapons, though shaped very differently.
Ahsoka jumps forwards into the fray, deflecting their shots and cutting through lines of them. They're living, but dead enough that their deaths hardly ripple in the Force at all. The Force twists around them in a way as though trying to unwrite them from existence, like removing them is necessary.
She'd have no sympathy for them, either way.
The machines start stalking forwards, and that's when Ahsoka realizes those things are actually the most dangerous ones. They're massive, metal, and there are very few weak points. They have a central... eye-like thing, that ignites with blueish white energy before firing at the ground. It moves in lines, literally melting anything it touches. The heat is enough that Ahsoka can already feel the temperature rising a few degrees, and the rocks stay a molten orange shade.
Force. This is so much worse than she thought.
A group of the Force-users split off, cutting forwards to take out one of the three machines.
"Ahsoka, you take that one," Anakin calls to her, "Circle around it. Hit it from the back. Be ready to run."
"What about you?" Ahsoka yells, though she's already off and running. Anakin may not have this entirely handled, but he knows what to do, because he always does, and she trusts him blindly. He knows what he's doing, even if she feels lost.
"I'm taking the other." She wants to nod to him, to... something, but there's not time. She almost wishes the clones were here to fight with them, but if they were here, they'd be dying right and left, and there'd be nothing Ahsoka could do to stop it.
She circles around, using distance and speed to circle around it. Ahsoka jumps at one of its smooth metal legs, slashing. The blade burns against the metal, but it's melting far too slowly, and the machine steps forwards. Ahsoka yelps, sliding and falling off, hitting the ground ungracefully and Force-jumping aside barely in time to avoid being squashed.
She can see the eye starting to activate again, and a beam of that intensity isn't something she'll be able to deflect with a lightsaber. The fastest place she can go to hide is trying to duck under the machine, but another beam of energy blasts out of it before she has the chance. Ahsoka only has a frantic split second to wonder what it would feel like to be incinerated by that thing – it's literally about to happen – when the energy blast hits a Force shield instead.
Ahsoka turns to see Anakin holding up a hand to contain the blast, expression tensed in concentration. The energy blast is too strong to dissipate on impact, though, so it builds and builds until it suddenly surges back right at the machine's eye. It rips straight through the metal, melting it the instant it's hit. There's a blinding explosion, and then, the machine is falling right towards them.
Ahsoka scrambles for cover, shielding herself with the Force as what's left of the thing crashes to the ground, unmoving.
Well.
That... destroyed it. One down, and hopefully not an infinite number more to go. But at least they know how to do it now. If that can really be called an 'at least' when there's so many.
They take down the next couple machines closest to them before running to where the other Force users are fighting. There's debris everywhere from what's been destroyed of the intergalactic army, but they just keep coming. And no matter how skilled the Force users here are, they're still mortal, and they have an energy limit. These things aren't stopping, no matter what.
The planet is being overrun, and Ahsoka has no idea what to do or what this is going to mean for the rest of the galaxy.
Anakin suddenly sucks in a sharp breath, running to one of the people lying on the ground. Ahsoka nearly freezes when she realizes who it is. "Haishana?" he asks, dropping next to her.
They hardly knew each other, but she's the only one they've really interacted with here, and she's – she's dying. Ahsoka can already tell it's too late to save her.
"Go," the Rodian urges, though it's obviously difficult for her to speak, "Protect... yourselves. We can hold out here, but you must stop this from spreading across the galaxy."
The words only flood her with more desperation and fear. They do need to warn the rest of the galaxy, and they have no idea how far the attack has spread already.
**w**
It's just another normal day with endless meetings Council meetings, trying to deal with one crisis to the next when Obi-Wan senses... something is not right.
Yoda stills suddenly, ears drooping.
"What is it?" Windu asks, warily. He must sense something, too.
"A disturbance in the Force, there is," Yoda murmurs, "Something terrible has happened."
That... isn't ominous or anything. What could it be, that they'd sense here? There's nothing they can do but continue the meeting, though, until a sudden call comes in from Anakin. He looks shaken and like he just finished a long battle, which immediately sets Obi-Wan on edge because he was supposed to be searching for a planet, not fighting.
"We have a... situation," Anakin begins, breathlessly.
"What happened?" Obi-Wan demands. Somehow, he's almost certain there's a connection, but he can't imagine what. These people weren't actually a bunch of Sith, were they?
"There's... invaders, coming from beyond the galaxy," he replies.
Obi-Wan's blood runs cold, remembering what the machine said about them, and how –
"How is that possible?" Windu demands, sharply, "The galaxy has an impenetrable barrier. No one can enter or leave."
"There's a... planet in Wild Space where some Force users live, and they helped sustain this shield," Anakin explains, "Ahsoka... found them. But somehow, the Separatists found the place, too, and attacked it. The shield... fell."
Oh. Oh. "How could the Separatists have found it?" Obi-Wan asks, incredulously. They shouldn't have had any reason to be tracking Anakin. That doesn't make sense. They've hardly told anyone unless... Unless what?
"And you went to this place, home to an unknown Force using sect, without any approval from the Council?" Windu demands.
"There wasn't any reason to believe the Separatists could find out about it. Nor do we know there's any connection," Obi-Wan points out. Once, he wouldn't have argued with the Council about most things, but things are... different now. He can't see things the way they do anymore.
"You knew about this?" Windu deduces, looking very unhappy.
"We need to focus on this attack," Plo speaks up.
"Yes, send forces to contain it immediately, we will," Yoda decides, "And go to help young Skywalker you should, Obi-Wan." Not that that was as even a question. He was already planning to go. This destroyed the entire galaxy once before. They have to stop this before it gets any further.
**w**
Rex had the feeling something was going to go wrong when Anakin left, he just didn't expect an urgent call about intergalactic invaders. He gets the boys ready to go immediately, though, and they make the jump to Wild Space.
Rex is not expecting countless, enormous ships slowly spreading through space above the surface of the planet though, aside from the ones that are heading for the surface there. They're... spreading across the galaxy, just like was mentioned in that recording, and it fills him with a sudden, overwhelming sense of dread.
What they saw on those recordings never felt so real until this very moment. Because another galactic apocalypse could be about to unfold, and someone tell him that's not why the Force or... whatever directed them to find the machine in the first place.
"What are those things?" Fives asks, and he sounds genuinely nervous which is rare.
"Nothing we've ever seen in this galaxy," Rex replies, as the Admiral gives orders for them to start firing on the creatures.
The ships have very strong shields, but with constant fire they start to give way, some of them colliding into each other and being pulled into the planet's gravitational field. Their own cruisers are sustaining heavy damage from the return shooting, though. The intensity of the lasers isn't something he's ever seen before, but finally,after a long time of going back and forth, many of the ships still in orbit around the planet have been shot down or are badly damaged, and then, they send in reinforcements for the ground. They couldn't do it before without risking being shot down.
His General and their kid are down there fighting on the ground, and Rex wants to know they're alright. They will be, no doubt, because they always are, and Anakin always finds ways to pull them through tight spots, but he's still worried.
Rex doesn't like how any of this looks, but it isn't something he can control. This is what they've trained for, and this, at least, is something he's willing to fight and die for, because this is for the galaxy as a whole. It's not like the Clone Wars.
He and the others touch down on the planet's surface, spreading out to locate and eliminate the hostilities. Anakin and Ahsoka, of course, are amidst the chaos. The creatures they're being attacked by are much more difficult to kill than droids, but they're not as skilled as the 501st.
It takes a while to find his General, but Anakin and Ahsoka are fighting back-to-back in much the way they often do when they're not outright charging. Spotting them amidst a group of the cybernetic warriors is easy once he's able to find them, and Rex jumps from the shooting as he approaches. They're far harder to destroy than droids, and they'll have to manage somehow.
"Rex," Anakin greets breathlessly, when he stops next to them.
Another wave is coming, but they have a few moments to breathe and recollect themselves.
"We came as soon as we could, General," he says, glancing around. Though he doesn't know if it was soon enough. After a pause, he turns to Ahsoka. She's... grown a bit and is dressed differently, but she's still so young.
"Glad you could make it," Anakin offers, nodding to him. He doesn't smile this time, which isn't normal, but it would hardly be appropriate considering what's currently happening.
"We've repelled the first wave," Rex notes, some minutes later, once they've finished making it through the ones in the area.
"More will be here though, right?" Ahsoka asks, extinguishing her lightsabers and wiping her forehead on the back of her gloved hand. She looks exhausted, worn. She doesn't have the normal post-battle cheer, which is so jarringly not normal that it hurts. The severity of the situation is beyond what they can even joke about. They're being put up against something that's far more advanced than what the galaxy as of now has any way of knowing.
"We know some of how they fight now," Anakin says, "That can help us. I wasn't able to focus on that much, but they sent in those machines first."
"Which machines?" Rex inquires, warily.
"We better get a look at them up-close," Anakin replies, "It's massive. Our lightsabers could hardly cut through them. We'll have analyze them for more weak points."
Rex calls Echo and Fives over to take a look at them, and he moves out with Anakin and Ahsoka to get a look at the damage.
It's bad, worse than what he's seen from the Separatists most of the time, which says a lot.
"I don't understand," Ahsoka admits with a sigh. "Why would someone want this kind of control? What could they think would be worth it?"
Force, she's still so young sometimes, their Commander or not. Rex has never thought anything wrong about her fighting in a war, because that's what he and his brothers were literally made for, but his General doesn't like it. For as badly as they all missed her in their short time apart, Anakin seemed to think it was for the best, that it was better with her away.
"I'm not even sure it's about control," Anakin offers slowly, "It seems more like the... desire to destroy life."
"Why would someone ever want to do that?"
"They're part-droid," Rex points out, and he's definitely inclined to agree with Anakin's assessment, though he couldn't be certain. "Maybe we can try to talk to them."
"They feel mindless," Anakin admits, "I don't know what that means. I've never felt anything like it before."
Ahsoka shudders. "I don't like it."
"If it's a machine they use, there's got to be some way to neutralize it," Rex points out.
"Yeah," Anakin agrees, "Artoo and I will get to work on it immediately."
"You okay, kid?" Rex queries, turning to Ahsoka. She's stumbling slightly, and Anakin looks as visibly exhausted as she does.
"I'm fine," she assures, offering a half-smile.
He's still worried, but if something's wrong, she'll say so.
"We've used the Force more heavily than normal," Anakin explains, "It's... a bit exhausting, but that's why were we able to hold off as much as we did."
They keep searching, scanning.
It's Jesse that calls it in – he found a crashed Separatist ship not far out. Grevious's ship, which must've been damaged in the attack. He must've had an encounter with another group of the giant machines that Anakin was talking about, because they find the burn line marks, and the remnants of two machines themselves. One was destroyed by a lightsaber, and the other was... something else. Explosions, maybe?
"Look," Jesse says, crouching by something amidst one of the burn streaks. "This is what I wanted to show you."
Rex moves forwards to get a closer look, Anakin at his side. Ahsoka shadows a few feet behind.
He recognizes the twisted, scorched metal mask, and the unrecognizable metal pieces beside makes it obvious.
Ahsoka groans, shuddering. "Was that Grievous?"
"Yes," Anakin says, kneeling beside it. He touches the ash with his mechanical hand, lifting a scorched handful and letting it run through his fingers. "It was him. He's gone."
On account of how the war is now the last of their concerns, it probably doesn't matter, but Rex still feels a ridiculous amount of relief by that. Grievous has killed countless of his brothers. With him down, that leaves the Separatists at a major disadvantage.
"Not sure how to feel that he died fighting the same thing," Echo says flatly, hovering nearby.
Ahsoka walks away from the literal cremation site, looking nauseated. Rex glances at Anakin, who's watching her just as helplessly as he feels. Rex was raised knowing he'd see his brothers die in all sorts of horrifically graphic ways, and violence never bothers him anymore. They were trained for it. Anakin grew up surrounded by it on Tatooine, though he never talks about the details of his time there. Ahsoka was... different. She was never used to this life.
"Hey," Fives points out cheerfully, "That's a couple less clankers to worry about."
Which is fair.
**w**
The attack might've been temporarily pushed back here, but that doesn't speak much for the rest of the galaxy. Anakin stands next to a holomap of all the known positions of those ships right in this region of the galaxy, considering their next moves. They have to try to contain them, but when they're still trying to fight the Separatists, forces are spread very thin. And not many people realize the true danger of these creatures.
"It doesn't look good, sir," Rex says grimly.
"It doesn't," Anakin agrees, "We could... use reinforcements." The clones are being killed off far too easily, and really, it's Force users who do the best against these things, preferably at a distance, so they don't get injured as easily.
"I've asked the Council to send in more, but I don't think they realize how serious it is," Obi-Wan muses, standing near him. "But the way you were using the Force was... impressive."
"I was learning, on that planet," Anakin replies.
"What did they teach you?" Obi-Wan asks, obviously interested.
"They were teaching us how to use the Force for... anything. They say the practice will help with using it more deeply and for extended periods of time."
Obi-Wan makes a noncommittal noise – once, Anakin knows he would've been very grumpy about such "frivolous" use of the Force, but he doesn't say anything about it this time.
"Where's Ahsoka?" Obi-Wan comments after a pause, glancing around. He came in after – Anakin and Rex have been in here for a while now.
"We sent her to bed," Anakin replies, exchanging a glance with Rex. She'd been reluctant if they weren't going to rest, too, but they didn't need her help for this strategizing. It's not getting very far right now, anyway.
"So, where you ought to be," Obi-Wan muses, giving him a pointed look.
"I am... occupied." Even if he is starting to get worn out.
"They aren't going to show up in a couple hours. So, I'd advice using it wisely, or I may have to learn more about this... deep Force usage so I can mind-trick you to bed."
Anakin gives him an incredulous look. "Really, Master,"
"Yes, really. You look about as alive as those... space creatures." Which is to say, half alive but too zombie like too actually be alive.
"You're hardly one to speak, Master. When was the last time you showered or –"
"That has no connection to your well-being –"
"It has a connection to yours, because if you're too tired to even clean your boots, then you certainly should have been sleeping long ago." Because seriously, Obi-Wan has always had a weird thing about that. Anakin doesn't get the point. Then again, keeping things shiny was impossible on Tatooine, except the things Watto forced him to spend hours scrubbing.
"That has nothing to do with this, Anakin," he replies with a huff.
"I must say I agree with him, sir," Rex speaks up, "You've been in here for hours now. We know the situation. Perhaps you should join the Commander."
Anakin deflates a little. He wasn't arguing the point because he disagreed, mostly just... for the sake of it. He hasn't been around Obi-Wan much in a long time.
Rex is right, though, and Ahsoka often has a hard time sleeping alone without waking up from nightmares. Anakin slips them from the room, going to her quarters. She's sleeping soundly on her bunk, and he scoots in next to her, careful not to disturb her. It makes him feel better to have her at his side, too, and it's been months since they actually had the chance to do this.
The creatures are spreading from planet to planet in Wild Space and into the Outer Rim faster than they're able to contain them – they've already begun attacking Separatist systems – and it's going to take significant effort to even contain them now. He doesn't know how massive the destruction is, doesn't know if he wants to.
Ahsoka rolls over, almost as though subconsciously sensing his presence next to her, until she's halfway on top of him. He slips an arm around her waist, and just holdsher, content to maybe actually take a few moments to sleep.
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