Chapter 19: Diverging Paths
The next day, Ilyana wakes with a start and knows exactly what they need to do. She dresses quickly and heads up to the common area. The others are preparing for the day when she hurries into the room.
"Greez, set a course for Tholoth," she says, interrupting what he was chattering about while preparing the morning meal.
"What?" Greez asks.
"Now!" She barks and he gives her an insulted look at the affront of being given an order on his ship and by her of all people.
"Cal," she says, turning away from the Greez who is making it all too clear from his stance that he is refusing to comply and addresses Cal with equal intensity, "We need to move now or you'll lose the last lead as well."
"Wait," Cal says, raising his hands to slow her down, "Tell me what's going on?"
"I'm a fool!" she rebukes herself, "In the past, when a Seeker is lost, their leads are put back into the queue to be assigned later. I'm so used to it that it didn't occur to me that it would be different this time, but I wasn't lost. I didn't die. The leads left with me. They must have reassigned them immediately. We have to get there now."
"That Jedi had been dead for a while," Cal says disheartedly, trying not to think about the days they had stayed on Savareen waiting for the boy to return "We may already be too late."
"And they're obviously using those leads to hunt you down, Ilyana," Cere adds. "They were waiting for you on Lah'mu. This could be another trap."
Ilyana turns away out of frustration but knows Cere is right. This is a trap. If they go, it will put the whole crew at risk. She's already lost two Jedi on her watch; she can't bear losing another.
"You're right, Cere. It's not worth it." Ilyana concedes with a sigh.
"What is the next lead?" asks Merrin who had been watching quietly from a seat in the corner.
Ilyana turns to her, "A Tholoth girl, maybe five or six, suspected of being force sensitive."
"A kid?" Cal asks quietly, running his hand through his hair. He knows all too well how frightening it is to be a kid running from the Empire and doesn't want to think of the things the Inquisitors would do to her. He steps toward the holotable and leans on the edge, looking at the blue display in the center as if weighing a heavy decision.
For the first time since coming into the room, Ilyana realizes there is a planet being displayed on the holomap. Cal, Cere and Merrin must have been discussing it when she had come in but she had been so caught up in the urgency of her own thoughts she had not noticed it.
"What's going on?" she asks, looking between the three of them. Cal stands up straight again and looks at Cere.
"I heard from one of my contacts," says Cere, "A city on Abednedo is under siege by the Empire. There has been an increase in uprisings on the planet and the Empire intends to destroy the city to send a message."
"Why is it under siege?" Ilyana asks, "They can easily destroy it from space?"
"That's comforting," Greez throws at her from the galley, yet another reminder that he still sees her as an Imperial.
"While cities on Abednedo are built on the surface today, the ancient cities are underground and easily accessible to the people on the surface," Cere explains. "The people can hide there till an orbital bombardment is over. The city on the surface would be destroyed but the people would survive."
"And the Empire wants to destroy the people," Ilyana says, finishing the thought.
"Yeah," Cal confirms with a nod. "They've been under siege for a full rotation and have managed to evacuate many of the people, but they need help holding the Empire at bay till they can get the last of them out."
Cere steps up to the holomap and navigates to the city. The city is built at the base of a massive mountain range that covers half of the continent. About half of it extends up the mountain in a series of irregular terraces. The base is surrounded by a crescent shaped wall that connects with the mountains at either end.
"While the Empire tries to break through the wall," Cere explains, "they're also bringing troops in by air and dropping them in any one of five large plazas. So far, the people have been able to keep down the number of troopers dropped in, but they are starting to get overwhelmed."
"So you need to be in two places at once," Ilyana observes.
"Yeah," says Cal.
Ilyana considers the situation. It's bad no matter how she looks at it but she knows Cal won't be able to forgive himself if he loses another kid. She takes a deep breath and puts her hands on her hips.
"I'll go to Abednedo," she says resolutely, "You and your team need to get that girl safe."
"Alone?" Cal asks her.
"Cal, that girl needs a Jedi to find her. Not an Inquisitor, not a Purge Trooper; a Jedi."
"I thought you said you couldn't trust yourself."
"I thought you said I'd have to learn how."
Cal doesn't like the idea of her going alone but she's right, at some point she will have to trust herself to make the right decision without the rest of them present.
"Fair enough," he admits but shakes his head, "Are you sure about this?"
"No," she admits, "but I know I can bring down havoc onto some stormtroopers and that might be enough to buy them the time they need."
"Just be careful," he says.
"You should be careful," she insists and grabs the fallen Jedi's lightsaber off the table nearby. "You're more likely to run into an Inquisitor than I am. I've already lost two Jedi on my watch, I don't want to lose a third," she continues, holding the broken lightsaber up in front of him.
"Two Jedi?" asks Cere.
"Don't worry," Merrin chimes in before anyone can answer Cere, "We'll make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble."
The Mantis drops out of hyperspace a safe distance from Abednedo to avoid being picked up by any Imperial ships. Merrin had begun using her Nightsister power to cloak the ship before they arrived and it was worth it. A variety of Imperial warships were in orbit, supporting the operations on the ground, any one of which could have registered them on their scanners at this distance had they not been careful. It is vital that they make it to the surface undetected if they are to deliver Ilyana and leave again without getting caught up in the battle.
Greez and Merrin successfully bring the Mantis into the atmosphere without raising any Imperial alarms but their confidence is short-lived as they break through the cloud cover and the first signs of the battle are laid out before them. The image they had seen on the holomap did little to convey just how breathtaking the city is; or at least it would have been had so much of it not been on fire. At least a dozen terraces wound up the mountainside and each one covered with a visual cacophony of brightly colored towers and spires, flags dancing from every one of them. At the base of the mountain, the city fanned out for miles. The winding and intertwining roads that spread out through the city as if the many meandering paths of a wide river delta twisting through extravagant architecture. Finally, the city came to an abrupt end when the massive crescent wall encircled it and seemed to grow out of the mountainside itself. On a map it seemed a simple design, but in person the wall was a massive bulwark towering over the Imperial AT-ATs gathered around the base on the great open grassy plain beyond.
Ilyana had never met an Abednedo before coming here and wished they were arriving under entirely different circumstances. Any beings who would build a city so deliberately chaotic are a people she would love to know better. The city alone was enough of a reason for the Empire to dislike them. It is in such glaring contrast to the practical, ordered…mundane design of Imperial construction that many in the Empire would see this city as an offense by its mere existence.
Ilyana could smile at the thought of how a city like that would sit in the eye of an Imperial, if only they were not currently determined to raze it and its people to the ground. Fires burn on every terrace amidst crumbled and collapsed towers. This city had already sustained heavy damage from days of Tie Fighter and mortar barrages from the air and AT-ATs and tanks assailing the outer wall. Large parts of the wall have already been blown away and fractures have opened across its face. It will not be long before sections of the wall crumble away, providing an open path for the AT-ATs to march into the city. The crew of the Mantis stare in silent horror at the destruction before them.
"Hey, Ilyana?" Greez asks, with pure sincerity in his voice, "Are you sure you want to go down there?"
"No, I'm not," she answers honestly and she can feel Cal looking at her concerned but she refuses to look back for fear that his look might make her change her mind. Instead she turns to Cere and asks, "Where is the rendezvous point?"
"My contact says it's that large plaza in the center of the upper terrace," Cere answers.
"On my way," says Greez
"Who's your contact?" Ilyana asks.
"You don't need to know that," Cere shoots back coldly.
Ilyana understands the need for secrecy but also does not want to risk the little trust she's developed with Cere so she does not push the point.
"Your contact on the ground," Cere continues, "Is a man named Odoan. He will meet you in the plaza."
"Thanks," she says and heads back to the main door and checks that her rifle and electrostaff are secure. It won't be a far jump but the last thing she needs in all of that chaos is her gear coming loose when she lands.
"Why are you bringing that?" Cal asks, pointing to the fallen Jedi's lightsaber she has attached to her belt.
"I don't know," she says, checking her gear again.
"It doesn't work."
"I know," she says, still unable to make eye contact with him.
"We're coming into position," Greez' voice echoes over the internal comms, interrupting the uneasy moment.
Cal turns and hits the door release and the door whoosh opens as the ramp extends. As soon as they are near the plaza Ilyana walks down the ramp and jumps using the force to control her fall and cushion her landing. As she comes to her feet she looks back up to the ship in time to see it suddenly bank hard to the side, narrowly avoiding a mortar round, then shoot away into the atmosphere.
The last time she was on a mission alone she was still looking for a Jedi; now she was alone again but watching the Jedi leave. It was disorienting, but she didn't have time to think about it.
"Are you the Jedi?" comes a voice from behind her.
"No," she says, turning towards the voice, "Not a Jedi." She has never met an Abednedo before and was a little surprised by the man in front of her being taller than she had expected. She had to crane her neck a little to look up at him. His eyes were set wide in a long face that he might have been intimidating except for the kindness in his eyes.
"Who are you?" the man asked, his voice giving away the fear and exhaustion of the assault his people were suffering.
"Someone who is more than happy to cause problems for the Imperials that have been bothering you. Are you Odoan?"
"Yes," he confirms with a sigh of both relief and concern. If she knows his name then she is the help they were promised but if she's not a Jedi, what can one person actually do to change their circumstance?
"What do you need?" Ilyana asks with a tone of determination meant to encourage Odoan's confidence in her abilities, despite her own doubts.
Odoan is still a bit unsure but he can see by her posture that she is a warrior. So he leads her to a low wall at the edge of the plaza and points to the terraces below. What is there to lose?
"See those five plazas," he says, pointing out several wide open cobblestone spaces that contrast starkly against the ornate architecture around them. "They've been dropping troops in those plazas. My people have been able to hold them so far but they're starting to get overrun."
In one of the plazas two terraces below Ilyana and Odoan, the troopers had managed to set up bulwarks and build a defensive position. Now they are working to assemble a turret gun to cover the approach of another drop ship. Once that gun was ready, the fighters wouldn't stand a chance.
"That looks like a problem," Ilyana says.
"Our Defenders can't get close enough to do anything about it," Odoan says, "We're not trying to defeat the Empire here. We're just trying to hold them off long enough to get the last of the transports out and those plazas are critical. We only need a few hours."
"Okay, I'll get it," Ilyana says as she steps up onto the low wall and ignites her electrostaff. She closes her eyes and thinks about what Cal had taught her: to focus on the Force between objects. In her mind she sees a ripple form and radiates out from her in every direction, reflecting off buildings and structures. As the pattern builds she focuses on the wave that comes from the center of the plaza, then bends her knees and pushes off of the wall into that wave.
She feels as if the wave is pulling her down into the center of the plaza and as she closes in, she focuses the Force into the end of her staff and releases just before making contact with the ground. The impact cushions her landing while exploding outward from her, throwing the troopers off their feet. She has never done anything like that before and could hardly believe it had actually worked. The feeling of the force moving through her and around her with such intensity was more freeing than anything else she has ever experienced and she gives herself to it, springing into action before the troopers can recover.
Under normal circumstances, stormtroopers are not a challenge for a Purge Trooper but now, with the Force behind her attacks, they don't stand a chance. She is able to move faster and hit harder than ever before and within moments all the troopers are down.
The local fighters, Defenders, come rushing into the plaza as soon as the area is clear and over to the turret. They quickly finish assembling the gun and turn it on the incoming drop ship. It will now be used to defend the plaza from invaders instead of destroying the people.
Ilyana looks back up to the plaza she had jumped down from and sees that Odoan had been watching. Again she focuses on the Force between things and pushes off and lands softly back in the plaza above.
"Are you sure you're not a Jedi?" Odoan asks her.
"I am sure," she says with a laugh. The feeling of the Force moving through her like this and the adrenaline from the fight is exhilarating.