Empire Day ✓

Chapter 45 - This Is My Fight

Ahsoka charged at the stormtroopers to her left. She pulled her blades wide, catching four laser blasts at once and reflecting them back to her attackers. She somersaulted backward in an arabesque to face the troopers behind her. She brought her white sabers into an X in front of her. The blasts ricocheted to the walls. The smell of ozone stifled the corridor.

She looked back to the portal. Obi-Wan was right behind her when she jumped through earlier, but now, he wasn't there. 

As the soldiers ahead of her pressed in, the ones behind her fired. She twirled in a full circle and held her sabers parallel to the reflective floor. Bolts flew in every direction.

When she stopped her spin, the Togruta leaped onto the wall and then sprung past the troopers she had first engaged. Slicing diagonally, two rows of soldiers fell to her blades before the rest turned about-face and attacked.

She used a round house kick on the far right trooper's head. Then she cartwheeled over the two to the trooper's right. Pulling both of her sabers from behind her, she vivisected the pair with a coordinated swipe from ankle to head. 

She side-armed the farthest left trooper and then pushed him to the ceiling with the Force. The armored man crumpled to the floor. A dozen more troopers remained. 

She jumped up, swinging her sabers wildly, crashing down on the next row of four. Their helmets rolled from their corpses as Ahsoka swiveled once more, blocking the laser blasts from the middle row. 

Pivoting from one leg to the other, she altered her round-house kick from right to left to right to left. Each soldier fell to her feet. She held out her hands and pushed them down the corridor until they hit their heads on the far wall.

Four left. Ten meters away. 

Dodging their erratic blasts, the Togruta twisted and turned and leaped, attacking with handsprings. Two fled. She pulled her blades through both torsos, watching the top halves tumble to the floor. 

As the last two pounded away, she threw her blades. The white sabers tumbled end-over-end, scoring long marks through the backs of their armor. Ahsoka Force-pulled her blades into her hands and swiped diagonally through their backs as the final two screamed. "This is how cowards die." 

She holstered her blades while the two gurgled their last breaths.

"What kept you?" she asked.

"You seemed to have things under control," Obi-Wan said with a smirk.

Padmé stood beside him, her gun drawn. She looked down each side of the corridor while Master Yoda jumped out of the portal. Bail climbed out after Yoda

Anakin burst through the tunnel in a somersault and yelled, "Down!"

Blaster fire erupted from both directions. Instead of a two dozen troopers, they now faced two cohorts cutting them off from both directions.

Ahsoka flipped in an arabesque to face the ones approaching from the left. She flicked her blades wide and then crossed them in front of her. She deflected the bolts as they pushed her backward.

Obi-Wan said, "Back-to-back."

"Padmé stay behind me. Bail, behind Obi-Wan," Anakin ordered.

The Jedi blades slashed through the air, ricocheting the laser blasts. Once Ahsoka had joined the group, Master Yoda stepped forward. The stormtroopers stood a lightsaber's length away, but many had fallen from ricochets alone.

The little green Jedi Master said, "When outnumbered . . ."

Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan said in unison as they all took a step toward the stormtroopers, "Attack!"