Bernard nodded to the Pathfinder who introduced himself as
Gorthalon
, barely registering his surroundings as the Force, despite his best efforts to limit its influence, cried out suddenly. A heaviness struck him, and he seemed to have stepped into a dark storm that passed over the City within the Force, yet he couldn't tell from where it was coming. He mumbled a "
As with you," to the Yuzzem, while his eyes continued to search for the source of whatever seemed to be coming.
The Force was warning him of something, the deep uneasiness in his chest began to spread and with it came flashes of people crying out in terror. Was it the Maw soldiers? No, he'd felt the fear they spread. It was a horror to witness them move through the streets with ruthlessness, systematically tearing apart families and chaining them into a life of indentured servitude while killing anyone and everything who resisted with some of the most horrific weapons known to sentient beings. Their horror sparked anger, it made him want to move, to fight, to give in to that voice telling him if he just let go, he could...he shook his head. No, that was not this terror.
This terror, it felt like it was coming closer and closer, fast. But where...?
His head snapped up. Green lines of energy split the clouds directly above him. Brilliant lines of
turbolaser fire raining down from a fleet in orbit and aimed directly at his location. For a brief, frozen instant, it seemed as though the sky itself was falling down upon the people of Jedha, a judgement made by the Force itself that roared "I will destroy you."
In that instant, Bernard stared down the wrath of the skies themselves, a mortal against a power beyond him. A lightsabre couldn't protect from a turbolaser, let alone a full barrage. They had no shields down here, Jedha's hadn't been made operational in time. Around him soldiers looked out at the Maw Forces, confused by their halted advance. They weren't rushing the Holy Quarter. Because they'd decided it simpler to wipe them out from above.
The world started again, and Bernard found himself standing in the middle of the plaza next to the Chiss and troopers who were ushering the last of the civilians inside the great hall looming over the plaza opposite the barricades. There was no sign of the Pathfinder who'd introduced himself when Bernard came to again. The earth shook around him.
Had the turbolasers already....? No, he could see explosions go off in the distance. Ordinance from the local troops, an artillery bombardment that prepared the city for the doom coming from above like a mallet to raw meat.
"
Cover!" He yelled. "
Enemy bombadment, everyone get yourselves into—"
A powerful wave in the Force struck him moments before the impact of the turbolasers. He sensed, somewhere close by, an intense desire to protect within the Force (
Seto Du Couteau
the hero). A grand barrier formed around a distant building, almost invisible save for the imprint it left behind in the all-permeating energy field the Jedi could tap into. Bernard let that same desire engulf him, further bolstering his own resolve, and the path forward became a little less muddied.
As the first turbolaser bolts struck Jedha's Holy Quarter, Bernard leapt to the Great Hall, landing at its entrance. No matter what happened, a Jedi's duty was to protect. A nagging voice at the back of his mind whispered, telling him that he wouldn't be strong enough to create a barrier that would save him, let alone anyone else. That rational part of his senses had already assessed the situation and concluded that one Jedi, no matter their power, could not save all the people, and it was telling him to stop. To just lay down his duty to protect, and to save himself. There were more he could save that way, right? If he survived here, if he just focused all that
power he held on himself, he would survive and fight again to save more than would die here, today, that tempting whisper purred.
Bernard gave pause, a split second, but the words struck him nonetheless. Were those thoughts really his own? Was he, when the credit chits fell, truly such a coward that he would think to preserve himself over others? Against everything that the Codes of the Jedi taught?
No, he thought, shaking away that debilitating feeling that had crept up his spine. He wasn't a coward. He was not the same being that nearly succumbed to the darkness those years ago. He had a duty, as a Jedi, to protect, and there was nothing that would keep him from trying everything he could to do that.
As the second, then third, fourth blast of turbolaser fire struck Jedha in quick succession, like a thrumming drum beat that shook the very earth beneath his feet with its power. By the time the fifth struck, Bernard had reached out through the Force, engulfing the Great Hall within the Force. In his mind, his hands sheltered the massive stone structure, gently holding the stone together from every side.
The first of many green lines of energy struck Tythoni Square at the entrance opposite Bernard, sending a shockwave over the entire plaza. The archway there was vaporized in as brief a moment as it took to snap. The soldiers who'd held the barricades either gone with it or strewn about the area as charred remains. The buildings on either side collapsed, half of their foundations blasted apart by the impact, and the burnt yellow stone collapsed onto the streets in various hills of debris.
Bernard felt the wave strike his back, like a storm gale that whipped a cliff face with relentless fury. Pain lurched through his body, knocking the breath out of his lungs. His back felt as though he'd leapt from that cliff and hit the water back-first. The control he maintained upon the Force wavered as he staggered to his knees, gasping for air. The ground shook, again and again. Explosions rang throughout the city. Stone crumbled to dust, cries of horror rose over the staccato burst of the bombardment.
The duty of a Jedi was to protect.
He grit his teeth against the pain, and rose, shakily, back to his feet. The grip he held on the Hall reestablished itself, in time for a turbolaser bolt to strike it.
It wasn't a barrier that Bernard projected around the building. He wasn't skilled enough to accomplish such a task on his own, not on this scale, not in his wildest dreams. Instead, what he'd done, was wrap the Hall in telekinetic energy to hold the stone together, even against an explosive force such as that raining from above. The stone would be vaporized, the Hall's roof opened, but it wouldn't collapse on the people. The energy of the bolt, expended on the stones of the roof, would heat the air below it, but not kill anyone. At least, that's what Bernard hoped. The flaw, he saw, was that each laser hit tore apart a large section of the roof, leaving it exposed to the sky above. If the bombardment struck the same places multiple times, there'd be nothing Bernard could do about it anymore.
To bind the stone was all he could hope to do to save these people.
The bombardment continued. Strike after strike. Each time a piece of heaven fell onto Jedha City, Bernard felt like it would strike the Hall. He would have died several deaths of anguished trepidation were it not for the intense focus he required to hold together the roof of the Hall. Another blast struck the plaza, this time just outside its eastern entrance. The shock wave was mostly dispelled by the arches of the entrance, sticking out, but Bernard still felt it as it passed him by. He heard screams echo, both from behind him and from inside the Hall.
Then another struck nearby, and again, and then, another section of the Hall's roof was vaporized. And another again. The bombardment became relentless in its precision, blasting away at and around the plaza half a dozen times. The Hall's roof was struck twice again.
But then it paused. And it continued to pause. No, it didn't pause, it stopped. The bombardment had come and passed, like an apocalyptic storm he'd weathered it and survived.
Bernard fell to his knees, exhausted, still holding onto the Hall through the Force. His arms seemed frozen in place, holding up an invisible surface. His muscles wouldn't let go of the tension running through them, still supporting a grand weight. Awareness slowly bled back to his senses, of the world around him.
He heard screams. So many screams, of horror, of anguish, of pain and fear. For an instant he thought he'd failed. His efforts must not have been enough, and the Force had deemed it fit to let him alone survive the cataclysm to bear the burden of his failures. But the people
screamed. They still
lived.
The battle was far from over, but the people had survived. An intense relief spread through Bernard's chest and limbs. A great burden lifting from his soul.
He
had saved them. Not all, but he'd saved enough.
Bernard thought to let go in the Force, and give himself a moment to rest before joining the fray against the Maw, but, in the Force, he felt the Great Hall's structure. The roof was in shambles. Broken apart and barely holding together. Most of the buildings upper floors had been vaporized, along with the roof stones, and the whole structure would fall in on itself if he let go. The weight of the roof had become lighter, much of it now missing, but much of its weight was no longer supported by the walls. It took every ounce of Bernard's concentration to not let it drop on the people below. People he could feel in the Force. Terrified, but so graciously alive.
"
Master Jedi," a voice coughed from his side. "
Master Jedi, we—" another violent cough interrupted, "
we have Marauders incoming, sir," the Chiss said. He'd managed to survive the bombardment somehow, though as Bernard glanced over to him he could see the man was rattled and wounded. Debris had been flung by an explosion and had pierced his arm.
The rest of the square looked like a field of craters. The street opposite Bernard was a mountain of rubble. Buildings in between the streets stood hollow and collapsed, the barricades were a complete mess. The few surviving defenders were reassembling, picking up their gear and that of the dead to remount a defence. Beyond them, he could see the black mass of the Maw approach, a darkness seeping from their horde and staining the very Force around them. Bernard was too tired to face so many. He was too exhausted to do anything more than hold up that roof. He couldn't face both threats at the same time.
"
No," he whispered through grit teeth. "
I—I can't," he felt the edge of fear whisper in his mind again, that same seductive voice from before attempting to convince him to
just let go.
Explosions began ringing, and the thunderous echo of boots against stone rang through the streets.
"
Commander," Bernard managed, "
I—" he stopped. Something brushed against his mind. A presence in the Force, distinct from the one he'd felt before. This one belonged to another Jedi, another Jedi,
Zark San Tekka
. The brief connection recentred Bernard.
<
Master. Tythoni Square, civilians. Can't hold...much longer. Need escort...back entrance...Great Hall.>
He hoped the plea would be received.
"
Com-...mander...lead civilians...out through...back. Need...them out," Bernard managed to the man standing next to him.
The Chiss hesitated a moment, connecting the dots, then he nodded sharply and rushed inside to get the civilians out and away from Tythoni Square, and, hopefully, lead them towards a bastion of hope that still stood.
Romi Jade
- - - - - - Engaging |
The Mongrel
