A shooting star. Rey smiled at her luck, closed her eyes, and made a wish. She wished for the same thing every time she saw the flicker of a star's tail darting past: to see her family again. So far it'd yet to come true, especially on this night. The smile that had curled on her mouth slowly melted from her face as the star came closer. Closer. And closer still.

She rose to her feet as it began taking shape, following the burning ship with wide eyes as it plummeted to Jakku. And close behind was an X-wing fighter, still shooting. Rey ducked as they flew overhead covering her face as the wind threw a wall of stinging sand over her. She looked back in time to see the first ship make a more than haphazard landing as it crashed on the planet's surface.

It was enough for Rey to pull on her hood, sling her staff across her back, and climb atop her landspeeder. If she could get there fast enough she knew she'd be able to collect what was valuable before anyone else arrived. If she was right, and she often was, it was only a few minutes away.

What Rey hadn't anticipated was the X-wing's pilot still scouting the crash site. It forced her to stop, Jakku was barren the area around them mostly flat, she had nothing to hide behind should she be noticed. And if it weren't for the idea of profit she wouldn't have chanced it, she would've turned the speeder around and gone back to her home. She wouldn't have dared creep closer on foot; but burnt or not parts were still parts.

Up close she realized the ship was actually an escape pod. And whoever had been in it was surely dead from the way the side of the pod caved in when it struck Jakku's surface. But from the way the orange-suited pilot flashed a small handheld light around the site Rey realized whoever had been inside that pod had somehow gotten out.

The pilot wasn't leaving without a prisoner or a body, and this wasn't Rey's fight. Maybe if the pod hadn't been so wrecked she might've thought of trying harder, but she knew there wouldn't be much to scavenge or at least nothing worth the risk of it. So she turned, keeping low to the ground, and quickly scurried back to her landspeeder. Any minute now she knew someone else was certain to arrive, drawn to the promise of treasure; she wouldn't be caught without weapon in the dark.

And then she heard it, a soft breathless moan. Similar to that of an injured animal. She steeled herself: this wasn't her fight, an innocent person wouldn't be shot down. But a small pitiful cough changed her mind.

Rey turned to her left finding what she'd first thought as ripples in the sand was actually the shape of a body as it rolled along the ground. Stupidly she followed it, and even more stupidly crept closer to where the pilot was slowly making his way around the ship. He'd look their way in a few minutes and Rey herself would be the target. But curiosity carried her forward, until she found what at first glance appeared to be an innocent lump in the sand.

It was a woman. She wasn't small but she looked small then, burrowed in the sand with only her blood stained face showing. She looked hurt, innocent, not worthy of the pain her furrowed brows indicated she was in. Rey looked back to the pilot to see he'd come around the ship and was broadening the search area, coming closer to where she knelt. Then she turned back to the woman to see her eyes fluttering, as though she felt Rey beside her.

"Help me," the woman pleaded in a whispered breath.

Rey stared hard down at her weighing her choices; leave without the possibly of being captured herself, or help this woman who might very well deserve to die. But the stars echoed in her luminescent eyes as she lay half conscious with her only hope hovering over her. For Rey there was no other choice. She grabbed the woman's wrists and began pulling her back the way she had come.

By the time the pilot found the tracks her body made as it was dragged across the sand it was too late, Rey sat atop her landspeeder with the woman hanging limply over her lap as they made their escape.

This story is set several weeks before the start of the movie, and in a few chapters will go right into the movie. The crux of this story, because it's only part one, is the relationship I'll be building between my character and Rey. However, there will be Poe later (lots of him); cause he was too much for me and I just loved him. I hope you enjoy, and I thank you very kindly for reading.