Chapter 21: Touching the Darkness
A few hours later Ilyana stands on a rooftop on the fourth terrace surveying the city around her. The sun has begun to set and the last orange rays bathe the city in a warm glow but mix with the smoke and ash to create an eerie haze. There is no denying that the city is in its death throes. Odoan had given her their radio frequency so she could listen to reports on the enemy's movements and get to critical locations as quickly as possible and she had responded to as many calls for help as she could. However, the city is so massive that she has had to rely on the Force to get around quickly enough to be of any help and the last time she tried to make a jump she had felt the ripple waver as if it might slip out from under her.
I'm getting tired. I don't usually tire this easily. It must be the Force, I'm not used to it, much less using it like this. It's more draining than I expected.
Ilyana knew before coming here that this was not a battle to be won, but a tidal wave to be held back as long as possible. Still, each victory came with more losses. One step forward, three steps back is disheartening and she wonders how much longer she will be able to keep this up.
Her comms crackle to life, "We need backup!" an unknown voice breaks through, "Drop ships are landing in the main market square!"
Ilyana turns her attention back from the burning city and onto the task at hand. Time to go! This battle won't slow down for me.
Once again she focuses on the Force between objects but this time it takes much longer for her to make sense of the space and when she steps into it, she knows immediately that something is wrong. Just before reaching the level below, her connection slips away and the waves evaporate completely. With no way to slow her descent, she slams onto a rooftop a few terraces down with such a force that she thought she might lose consciousness.
She opens her eyes through the pain to find herself in a seated position, her back against the low rooftop wall on the far side from where she had lept and staring back up the mountain. For a minute that felt like an age, she watched carrion birds circle above the city, swinging wide to avoid towers of smoke billowing up from below. Voices are speaking over the comms but she cannot make out what they are saying. Slowly, the tunnel around her vision begins to clear and she starts to take stock of her body.
Nothing seems to be broken, just sore. I will definitely be bruised later.
She drops her weight fully back against the wall again and sighs.
"Damn," she whispers, knowing that she was not yet trained enough to use the Force to such extremes. She had wanted so badly to make up for the years she had helped the Empire bring horror down on others that she pushed too hard.
I should hold back for now or next time could be catastrophic.
The voice from earlier comes over her comms again. "Another wave of drop ships incoming! We can't hold the market much longer!"
She urges herself to her feet and rushes to the side of the rooftop facing the market. She may not have landed how she had hoped, but she does have a direct line of sight to the market square and the approaching drop ship. The market is a massive open bazaar covering nearly as much area as a dozen city blocks. It begins at the center of the crescent wall where the main gate into the city is located and creates another crescent curving inward into the city. The buildings around the outer rim house shops, cantinas, and artisans of all kinds. In the center stands a large ornate trading post where incoming merchandise was delivered and distributed to the shops and vendors. The open space between the shops and the trading post is speckled with the remains of vendor carts, tents, and booths that have been splintered and obliterated by the aerial bombardment.
Ilyana swings her rifle off her back and checks it for damage.
It seems to have made it through that fall alright. Okay, I may not be able to fight like a Jedi right now but this? This I can do.
She kneels down, steadies the rifle on the low wall and looks down the sights. The Defenders are in fast retreat to the edge of the market while more than a dozen troopers pursue them through the wreckage. A dropship following behind the troopers opens fire on the retreating fighters as it descends. Ilyana takes aim and fires at a weak point just above the dropship's guns. The cannon jerks then goes silent and droops. With the gun no longer a threat she turns her sights to the troopers on the ground and begins firing in patient and controlled bursts. She is able to take out enough of the troopers for the Defenders to re-engage and clear the last of them just in time to fend off the next wave jumping from the drop ships.
Near her positions, the sound of boots grows louder and she realizes that several troopers are running through the street below her. She leans over the wall and opens fire, but she is only able to take out one trooper before they dive for cover and begin to fire up at the roof. She drops down behind the wall for cover but there is no break in the blaster fire for her to make another shot.
I need a different line of sight.
Ilyana rushes to the center of the roof where there is a hatch in the floor. She wrenches it open and drops into an attic space below. She runs down through the building to the street level, takes up position near the entrance and peers cautiously out an open window into the street. The troopers are still firing at the rooftop and have left themselves completely open to attack from below. Just as she prepares to open fire on the troopers, a group of Defenders emerge from the alleys and attack.
Once the firing ceases, Ilyana steps out of the building with her hands raised to show that she is a friend.
"Thanks for the help," Ilyana says, extending her hand to the lead fighter and introduces herself.
"Amora," the fighter replies, shaking Ilyana's hand.
"Where are you headed?" Ilyana asks one of the fighters.
"Down to the market. Most of the other plazas have been ruined and they are no longer able to land. They've started concentrating the drop ships in the market so we're focusing our remaining forces there."
"Let's go," she says and joins them as they move through the streets down toward the market. "Do you know how the evacuations are going?"
"The last of the ships are preparing to leave now," Amora says, "the rest of the people are already heading into the old city. It won't be long now till we fall back there as well."
They turn down an alley, then continue down several more streets before reaching a set of wide ornate stairs that lead into the market as another pair of drop ships prepare to land. Ilyana and the fighters rush into the market and take cover behind the nearest rubble, joining the other fighters already in the market. A nearby Defender is able to take out two drop ships with a missile launcher before running out of ammunition.
"It's a good thing we're almost done evacuating," says another Defender to no one in particular, throwing down a drained blaster and grabbing another out of its holster, "We don't have much left to fight with!"
Just then, another drop ship flies into the area and manages to deliver its complement of troops who move in on the Defenders. Ilyana trades out her rifle for the electrostaff that was slung over her back and steps out from behind her cover. She rushes the incoming troopers and deflects their blaster fire, sending several bolts directly back at her attackers. She closes the gap in moments then engages the troopers in direct combat. Several drop their blasters and pull out batons and staffs to fight. She had long since stopped using the Force in combat, reserving it to get around the city quickly, and was now relying on her combat training alone. The Defenders stop firing to conserve their ammunition and watch as, in only minutes, all the troopers were defeated.
"Where did she come from?" Amora asks the Defender crouched next to her who only responds with a shrug.
As the last trooper falls, Ilyana looks up to see if any more drop ships are coming but the sky is clear.
"Fall back!" Amora calls out to Ilyana and the Defenders, "The last of the transports are away! Fall back to the ancient cities!"
The Defenders begin to cheer but their excitement is cut short as the air rent by an ear-splitting crack. The sound had come from the main gate. The gate is at least two blocks wide at the base and tapers to a point about halfway up the wall height of the wall. The design mimics the many towers throughout the city both in shape and extravagant ornamentation. On a normal day, the gates would stand open and welcoming to all who wish to enter the city, but they have been closed since the Empire arrived. Despite its massive size, the gate is the weakest part of the wall and while it has managed to withstand a days-long onslaught, it could not hold the Empire back forever.
The Defenders look up at the gate in horror as pieces of timber and steel splinter off and fall to the ground. Another round of cannon fire from the Walkers outside the wall deals the final blow as the left side of the gate explodes, sending enormous pieces of the gate flying into the market and directly for the Defenders.
There is no time to run and nowhere to hide so Ilyana raises her hands, closes her eyes and summons all the strength she has left. In her mind she sees the wave burst out from her, rebounding off the incoming rubble. The pieces of wall slow their advance but they do not stop and she is unable to change their direction.
It's not enough!
Ilyana is too tired from the battle and too untrained in the Force to stop them completely or redirect them. Fear rises inside of her; fear that she will fail and the Defenders will all be killed and the familiar comforting feeling that usually moves through the waves is replaced with something dark and angry. She tries to push it down but the rubble will not be stopped and that feeling, that pull that had reached out to her from the red kyber crystal grows and takes over her thoughts until it is released with a deafening crack.
The Force, dripping with the dark side, explodes out in every direction as it had done back on Lah'mu. The fragments of the wall shatter and are sent hurtling back toward where they had come but the Defenders, unable to protect themselves as Cal had, are thrown back and slam into the buildings.
Ilyana collapses in the dirt and dust, the call of the dark side ringing in her ears, and her head, and her heart.
I can do it now. I can destroy them! I make them suffer as I have suffered! It would be so easy to give in to it. So easy to defeat her enemy with this power.
She pushes herself back up ready to unleash all her fury, her anger, her hate onto the Empire but as she stands she catches sight of the Defenders scrambling to their feet, still reeling from the shockwave. As they turn and run from the market she sees in their eyes that they are not only running from the war machines stepping through the wall but they are also running from her.
Their fear is the same as every other person she has ever seen suffer at the hands of the Inquisitors and her as a hand of the Empire. The realization crushes her and the hate and her rage that had given her power is replaced with shame for what she has done, what she almost allowed herself to turn into and she lowers her eyes to her hands, staring at them in disgust.
The ground beneath her feet trembles as the walker steps over the wall, one foot at a time, but she does not move. The world seems to slow down as she stands there staring at her hands, numb, the sound of her heartbeat drumming in her ears and a single moment seems to stretch on for ages.
A wave washes over her as the ground trembles and she looks up to see the AT-AT towering above her, a beastly machine so massive she is but an ant at its feet. It has cleared the wall and now steadies itself as it trains its cannons on her. A feeling of peace and acceptance washes over her.
They'll be safe now. They will be safe from me.
She does not try to escape as the Walker opens fire but allows it to destroy her.
The wave passes and the ground trembles again. She turns and looks up to see the AT-AT towering above her as it had in her vision. It has cleared the wall and now steadies itself. The Force had presented her with an option: to allow the Empire to destroy her so she would no longer be a threat to others or ever again be used as a tool of the Empire.
She watches the canons train on her and is about to accept that fate when another image cuts through: Cal standing at the doorway of the Mantis after she had jumped from the ship. Once she landed and could no longer change her mind, she had finally allowed herself to look back at him. He nodded to her as the door closed and she saw his confidence in her and she saw that he expected to see her again.
That was all it took. Her feet start moving and she runs just as the walker opens fire, narrowly misses her. The exhaustion from the day's battle is shed as adrenaline pumps into her system. She runs out of the market toward the main street into the city proper and halfway down catches sight of her electrostaff and snatches it up as she runs. The force of her shockwave had managed to blow it all the way back here. She turns back to the AT-AT just in time to dodge incoming blaster fire. The first two shots slam into buildings but the last one landing precisely where she had been standing if she had not begun to run again.
The Walker continues to fire after her as the Empire pours into the city through the broken gate. Troop transports, smaller two legged AT-STs and more AT-ATs follow the first and begin firing on the city. The remaining Abednedo flee to the nearest entry to the Old City where their only hope is to escape the onslaught in those catacombs and reach their transports on the far side of the mountains.
Ilyana rushes up the wide staircase to the first terrace and turns down the street toward the closest entrance to the old city; but before she is able to go far, weapons fire from the AT-ATs slam into the building ahead of her. Bringing it crashing down into the street and completely blocking her way.
A memory of the Empire attacking her homeworld flashes through her mind as she abruptly changes direction and runs to the next closest escape route. With each footfall she relives that day when the Empire had invaded her world. With each building that crashes down she sees her city fall as well but instead of reliving the pain, reliving the fear, she chooses to live.
"Not this time," she says to herself, "They won't take me this time!"
She turns another corner and joins a crowd of Defenders climbing a long, thin, winding staircase to the third terrace. Soon enough the staircase leads out onto a street with a direct line of sight to an opening to the Old City. The entrance is intricately carved much like the city on the surface, but without the addition of bright colors. Instead the last light of the day reflects off of the well polished bluish-gray of the underlying rock making it look like a gaping maw ready to devour them as they run inside.
Ilyana and the last of the Defenders are ushered past the entrance deeper inside the cave as technicians finish setting charges.
"Now!" comes Odoan's voice from somewhere amongst the crowd of Defenders and the charges are triggered, ripping apart the ancient carving and the history within it and collapsing much of the tunnel, hopefully sealing the Empire out.
The city has fallen.