Chapter 1

Location: Millennium Falcon, in Hyperspace

Eighteen, that was all that remained. Leia had repeatedly counted her remaining soldiers, officers, and pilots. The number came out to the same pitiful number. But she still had Poe, Finn, Chewie, and Rey. But she'd lost what family she had left. She hadn't seen it, but she knew Luke was gone, now one with the Force. Her brother's last act had saved her, he'd come in to the rescue just like when they were barely adults on the first Death Star. But this time he wasn't going to be here, and neither would Han, who had also saved her. She knew that memory was really hurting Chewbacca as well. That poor Wookiee was all that remained of the original crew, save C-3P0 and R2-D2. But looking around she saw young faces, Finn, Rey, and Poe, and they needed a leader.

"Everyone," she called out to the group sitting and standing in the main rec room of the Falcon, "We still aren't out of danger, and we're not out of the fight."

"General, with what? We have no ships, weapons, or money," Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix protested, her hair in its buns coming undone.

"We'll find weapons, we'll find ships, we'll find beg or steal whatever we can get our hands on," Poe Dameron responded, "This war isn't over so long as we're breathing."

"He's right," Finn agreed, "The war's not over. The First Order will continue to search for us, no matter who it's leader is."

"Which is why we're going to Dantooine," Leia told the assembled handful of men and women.

"Dantooine?" Poe asked.

"There's an old Rebel outpost there," Leia informed them, "hidden amongst the canyons in the south. There may be some supplies and weapons, maybe a shuttle or two. But it'll at least be safe."

Rey hadn't been there, she was sitting on passenger seat in the cockpit of the Falcon, holding her knees against her chest. She had heard, but had nothing to say. There was far too much going through her mind. She'd lost so much, Han and now Luke. Who would teach her the ways of the Force now?

Location: Planet Dantooine

The Millennium Falcon dropped out of hyperspace over the outer rim world. There were no enemy ships, but no friendly ones either. The only thing that they could do was listen to the news broadcasts. None were any good. All the major systems were bowing to the First Order. Fleets of Star Destroyers were appearing over world after world. Dreadnoughts pummeled cities that refused to submit, and those few that resisted were crushed. No one would face the First Order, no one but them. And here they would start.

"Take us in Chewie, these coordinates please," Leia told him.

Chewbacca opened the throttle and the Falcon dove down towards the planet's surface, towards a long complex series of gnarled canyons dropping down into the larger main canyon. Rey, Finn, and Poe were in the cockpit, watching the planet rising towards them as the ship moved into the canyonlands. The land was parched and dry, with only a few mountain herds of grazers being the only living things that they could see. Tangled dark green-leaved trees were everywhere, with lighter softer greenery on the riverbanks of the canyon floor. All life in these canyons depended on the river that created the canyon and its amazing topography. Above this canyon was rolling ocean of tall grasses, where wild nerf herds roamed in the thousands.

"Never seen a land like this," Rey said softly.

"Wait until you see the rest of the planet," Poe replied, "It's pretty impressive."

"Not as impressive as this," Rey shook her head.

Poe smiled, for the first time in a long time he was smiling, this girl was amazing, she was just so new to everything. It was nice to see someone so untouched by the wonders of the galaxy experiencing them for the first time. Leia as well was enjoying Rey's newly seen appreciation for something new. While they did that Chewie expertly piloted the ship to the end of the river, canyon, to a dead-end point where they saw another length of canyon open up and dropped additional water into the canyon where the canyon dropped down and united the low forks around them. Two waterfalls plunged into the sinkhole, where the water pooled in a pond that flowed down the larger main canyon where the view was so much grander, with dozens of towers of stone carved away, protecting the hidden outpost.

The ship dropped into this main canyon, which measured only about a hundred meters across in this place and was another hundred meters down. Inside there was an opening between the two waterfalls and in that opening was a metal hangar door. It was shut, the Rebellion had long ago left it when they became the New Republic. They had no need of a small hidden outpost when they were winning the war and driving the Empire further and further away. In fact this place was so minor Leia could barely remember what it even did as far as its mission was concerned. When they got low enough they saw that the hangar was recently visited. A First Order TIE/sf Space Supremacy Starfighter was sitting in the side of the hangar.

"Zay," Leia said on her personal comm, "We're coming down now."

"Roger that general, we've been waiting for you," the voice of a young woman responded and Poe and Finn and Rey all looked with anticipation at the hangar to see two people standing by the TIE, one was a human female, the other was a Duros, so they were most definitely not First Order.

"Who's that?" Finn asked.

"Inferno Squad, I sent them to find help before the evacuation but…they weren't in time," Leia sighed, "They then scouted out for potential bases, making sure that this one was safe. We're now all together, or what's left of us."

"It's a start," Poe nodded, looking down at the girl in particular as the ship landed within the hangar.

It wasn't much, but it had some decent size. More than twenty carved out cubbies for starfighters and some rickety old maintenance walkways and lifts. There were a few derelict personnel transports left, and there were more than a few hoses and pumps to fuel cells laying about. A few crates and fuel barrels were scattered about, but it was solid. There was a smaller opening behind the thick stone cubbies where starfighters could be held in a more reserve function, and would have to be threaded through the cubby holes. And hanging over the back of the hangar a large white and red Rebel flag, looking no worse for wear save for a layer of dust. The lights were also on, with more than a couple being broken or flickering.

"Not the most intact of outposts," Poe said as he walked out.

"We didn't have any time to roll out the red carpet, but it's in the back if you want to land again I can get it," Shriv responded.

"Who're you?" Zay asked, putting her hands on hips.

"Commander-er…Captain, Poe Dameron."

"Zay," the girl replied, and saw the others coming down, "You must be Finn, and Rey."

"Hi," Finn nodded, waving a quick hand.

"So you're Inferno Squad?" Rey asked, having heard the name a couple times before.

"And you're the Jedi," Shriv said, flashing a broad smile, "Shriv, I think I can say I'm the leader."

"Are you?" Zay questioned.

"By the chain of command, I think so. Your mother may have been the leader but the military isn't hereditary. As much as many would like to think it just doesn't work that way."

"Not normally, Shriv," Leia chuckled.

"But yes, I guess I am the Jedi," Rey sighed.

"I'm sorry about Master Skywalker. My dad…he said he was a good man," Zay said, reminding herself of her back-to-back losses of family.

"He was," Rey nodded.

A bit of silence fell on them, and Poe stepped up, knowing now wasn't a good time for this, "We have work to do. Zay, Shriv, what did you find so far?"

"The turbines are still functional, we've got power. But the shield generator's going to need some work and the communications system will need even more work," Shriv explained.

"That's something we expected, any ships, weapons, supplies?"

"The arsenal's got a few blasters and we found a couple crates of old rations. The medical bay has some bacta, and a broken medical droid," Zay responded, "Looks like most of what they had they left here. Must've left in a bit of a hurry."

"There's a U-Wing in the lower maintenance bay, but it's engines are off the frame and the controls are a rat's nest," Shriv said offhand, "And we haven't looked at the whole base. It's a bit of a maze."

"Okay, first thing's first, let's get the comms and shield up and running, everyone else let's get this place cleaned up and operational!" Poe ordered loudly, "BB-8, get to work on those comms. R2, on the shields, let's go!"

The ragged crew of Resistance members poured out, leaving Rey standing there as Finn helped carry Rose from the Falcon and Shriv helped show him to the medical bay. The young Resistance officers began dividing crew and troops into working parties as Chewie stood next to Leia and made a few grunts and growls.

"I know Chewie you don't like the underground," Leia said patting the hair arm and started walking towards the command center, with Chewie's help holding an arm for Leia to steady herself, although she didn't need it.

"It'll be a rough climb up from here," Rey said as she followed.

"It will, but we have what we need," Leia said as the door groaned open at their approach, but stopped halfway across. Chewie pushed it the rest of the way. Leia walked in as BB-8 rolled in, beeping and booping as he looked around the old tech of the control consoles and computers. Leia sat down at the comms station, and rolled up her sleeves, and pounded a fist on the top, opening up the side panel, "Let's get started my dear," she smiled warmly to Rey, who smiled back and grabbed a toolbox that was on a shelf dug from the stone where a few other small boxes were stored.

Poe had gone straight to the maintenance hangar, and was gravely disappointed with what he found. The U-Wing, the standard four-engined variant, hadn't been in flying condition when the Rebels had it, and he saw the tarps covering its engines were off to the side, and old dried residues of oil and other fluids were everywhere. Tools, thankfully, were also laying scattered on numerous workbenches and shelves were filled with parts and toolboxes. It was fairly large, big enough for more than twenty X-Wings to be placed in close proximity. The overhead lifts were seemingly in decent shape, they'd need some work, but he knew that they could make it work. They would need them to get any maintenance done on a major scale for any more starfighters that they got their hands on. But first they had to make this place work, and this U-Wing would greatly help in terms of scavenging for supplies from other Rebel and probably abandoned Republic outposts.

"This thing's ancient, but it'll work," Poe nodded as he put his hands on his hips, analyzing the shuttle.

"You sure? I mean…how're we going to get this thing up and running?" one of his two remaining pilots responded.

"We can't without getting the maintenance bay running," the other pilot, an Abednedo named C'ai Threnalli, informed them both, referring to the chaos of the bay.

"Yeah, let's get a figure for what we've got," Poe nodded, knowing that they had to get things cleaned and organized, then they could work.

"Captain Dameron, incoming X-Wings!" one of the troops called out from the stairs as they got started.

"They made it!" Poe smiled broadly, remembering that four of his pilots had been out trying to rendezvous with any Republic military forces that survived. Kare Kun, Niv Lek, Jessika Pava, and Temmin Wexely had all been dispatched, and now they were returning.

He rushed up, and saw the four T-70 X-Wings entering the hangar and landing within the side cubbies as several people rushed to them. Poe saw Temmin, the stocky bearded pilot who was one of their more capable mechanics and experienced pilots popping his canopy. He tore off his helmet and started climbing out.

"Temmin!" Poe yelled out.

"Commander! Boy am I glad to see you!" the big man said as he jumped to the deck and the two embraced, glad that the other was alive, "Where's…is this it? Is this all that made it?"

"I'm afraid so," Poe nodded, "As far pilot's go, we're it now."

"We'll make it work sir," Niv said from his X-Wing.

"I'd love to bring some good news Commander, but I'm afraid we don't have any," Kare Kun, the short-haired blonde lieutenant and former commander of Stiletto Squadron said glumly as she joined the pilot gathering as Jessika, Black-3, also walked over, giving a hug to her comrades.

"The Republic Fleet's been annihilated. The remnants massed for a counterattack against the First Order but they were jumped, they tried making a break for deep space, but the First Order found them and wiped them out completely. We tried to help sir," Jessika said in response.

"The Republic military's collapsed, bases after base is either being destroyed or surrendered, desertion's gutted the army and the fleet's…just gone," Temmin sourly surmised, "With that tracking tech the stragglers were just picked off."

"They did the same to us, but got a good lick in, we destroyed Snoke's ship," Poe said proudly.

"The Supremacy?! How?!" Temmin demanded to know, he knew better than most what that ship was capable of.

"Admiral Holdo, she jumped the Raddus right into the dreadnought, tore it in two," Poe said quietly, "She took fifteen Star Destroyers with her."

"Bloody hell…" Niv said in awe, "A hyperspace ramming…and we killed Snoke?"

"That's a question for Rey, the Jedi."

"Well, we now have four fighters," Poe nodded, seeing the hangar not looking so empty any more, and it helped, "Best go report to the General, she'll want to hear this. Even if it's only bad news."

"Yes sir," Temmin and the others responded with a salute and walked towards the stairs that went up to the command center. They walked in and Poe could just sense Leia's response to the bad news.

"Hold on," Poe said as he thought of what he'd been told, "Desertion…bases…that's it!"

He sprinted up the stairs, and burst into the command center as the other three pilots made their report.

"Something you want to add Captain?" Leia asked.

"Yes General, a mission, to take advantage of the situation," Poe replied, "The Republic's military is collapsing right?"

"It probably already has," Kare replied honestly.

"That means their bases near here are probably only staffed by the most determined of their personnel, people we can trust to recruit into the Resistance. We go there, and tell them the fight's not over, bring them back and show the galaxy there's still a spark of hope."

"You want to steal from the bases?" Rey asked.

"It's not stealing if no one is there to say no," Poe reminded her.

"I know one, a reserve depot on the planet Lah'mu, Han helped set it up, there shouldn't be much there except for a token garrison," Leia explained.

"A garrison we could recruit or overpower," Niv remarked.

"Preferably, recruit," Leia reminded everyone present.

"General, request permission to salvage whatever we can from the military reserve depot on Lah'mu," Poe said with a confident smile, one that hadn't been seen in a while.

"Permission granted, take Chewie, Rey, Finn, and three of your pilots, and Inferno Squad, we need as many ships as you can bring back. Most important necessities are starfighters, those will be the first to be stolen or destroyed, Chewie, Finn, you two pack the Falcon with whatever medical supplies, weapons, and equipment you can get. We're on Dantooine, supplies are in no short supply," Leia told them all, now in the zone.

"Alright," Poe clapped his hands, "Jessika, C'ai, Niv, you're on me. The rest of you, you're on clean-up and repair, Temmin, there's a U-Wing down in the maintenance hangar, we could really use that if you can get to it."

"Roger that Commander."

"Uh, it's actually captain now," Poe sighed, remembering his demotion.

"Oh, rough couple days eh Black Leader," Niv poked.

"Easy there pilot, you're not immune to the chain of command yet," Poe warned as they all filed out to get going on their mission.

They needed this, and it was just the kind of boost the other members needed to have, to see their numbers boosted a bit, some equipment and weapons and some starfighters parked in the hangar would be a big morale boost for everyone. However, Poe noticed something, Rey had been referred to as a pilot. But she would need some proper flight gear before that happened. For that he knew that if this place had starfighters it would have flight gear, perhaps enough to take home with them to outfit other new pilots.

"So, you're pilot huh?" Poe asked the girl as they boarded the Falcon.

"Yeah, I uh…had a Y-Wing computer that I salvaged and learned to fly using the simulator function it had. I flew the Falcon when Finn and I saved BB-8," she said calmly as they went to the cockpit, but Chewie shoved him back as he went for the co-pilot's chair.

"Oh come on Chewie I haven't flown a ship in days," Poe whined and Chewie growled in reply.

"Chewie says that that's his chair."

"Yeah I see that," Poe shook his head as he begrudgingly sat down in the chair behind Rey.

"You're supposed the be the best pilot in the Resistance, right?" she asked as Chewie lifted off.

"That's right, and you, you're supposed to be this super powerful Jedi, right?"

"Well, I don't exactly have a teacher anymore," Rey shrugged, looking down at her hands.

"You at least have friends," Poe reminded her.

"Yeah, I guess I do."

Location: Planet Lah'mu

The Falcon dropped out of lightspeed over the quiet world as close as Chewie felt comfortable with. There were no Republic ships in orbit, and no authorities challenged their approach. All law and order that the Republic once had out here had completely evaporated.

"Normally there's a Republic customs agent standing by to catalogue each ship with a corvette on standby to scan, now there's nobody," Poe sighed, shaking his head, lamenting the complete lack of Republic presence.

"Let's hope the arsenal's still there," Poe responded, leaning against the door as the other pilots watched as well.

"You and me both pal, get ready to land guys," Poe ordered as the Falcon dove into the atmosphere, converging on the location Leia had provided.

"There it is Chewie," Rey stated once they got through the lit misty rain coming down over this black sandy and rocky coastal area, "There, the entrance is just under that overhang."

She was pointing at a flat sandy valley that had a low wetland flowing below it. An overhang was held up by a rocky column that she could see had a pair of bunkers and V-232 artillery turrets facing out to both sides of the support beam. Below the overhanging stone there was a large closed hangar door opening, and they saw that it was indeed undisturbed. Chewie piloted them in close, and were both relieved and disappointed to see no life in the base. The freighter went through the pouring water flowing down the face of the stone cliff and then landed next to the hangar doors. It was old, but seemed maintained. The other pilots were the first to leave the ship, blasters raised.

However the place was not abandoned. There was the hiss of a door behind them by a bunker hidden from sight from the outside behind the column between the turrets. They turned around and four soldiers, Republic soldiers, had raised their EL-16HFE blaster rifles towards them. Their faces were masked by their helmets with only their eyes visible behind their yellow blast goggles. They wore a dark uniform with a vest and a holster for a pistol. The Republic symbol was painted onto their helmets' front and they had the Republic seal against on patches on their arms.

"This is a restricted zone, identify yourselves," the soldier up front warned, and they saw he was a mere corporal, and they knew that he was just a kid.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey same side," Poe said quickly, "Captain Poe Dameron, Republic Fleet."

"Prove it," the young NCO demanded, aiming his blaster at Poe.

"Okay, alright," Poe said quickly, holding a hand up while he grabbed his old ID card with his other hand, "See, Republic."

"That's him alright, I recognize his face from the Resistance posters," one of the other kids replied.

"The Poe Dameron, you're him?" the third man responded.

"Yeah, the Poe Dameron," Poe nodded, lowering his hands, and waved down the rest of his men.

"Didn't know you were famous Dameron," Zay smirked.

"Well, ace pilot, y'know it's hard not to be seen as a celebrity," Poe grinned confidently.

"Who're you guys?" Finn asked.

"Just guards, we're just caretakers really," one of the men replied, "Our officer's disappeared, never showed up. None of us can fly so we can't really go anywhere."

"You still willing to fight for the Republic?" Rey asked.

"We haven't fought for the Republic very much. Most of our time has been spent playing Sabaac and fishing, reckon we can at least give a shot," the Corporal shrugged, "What do you need?"

"Everything. Ships, equipment, weapons," Poe explained, "Whatever we can get."

"Well," the Republic trooper said with a smile, "We've got plenty of that."

He waved to one of his men who walked over to the control panel within the bunker and then the massive hangar door began opening. And Poe was tickled by what he saw as the door opened. Double stacked T-70 X-Wing Starfighters ran along the wall to his right. His initial count was almost forty starfighters right off the bat, and there were several Montura-Class Shuttles along the opposite wall, those along with the Falcon would come in handy for transporting their haul. The group knew that this was a big moment, if they could scavenge these fighters they'd be more than ready to start fighting back. A pair of interior doors were large enough to signal the presence of storage units in the back, and that was where the group went to first.

"Alright, we've got fighters, let's get them fueled up," Poe said, pointing to BB-8, "Buddy that's you, get the best ones fueled and ready to go. The rest of us, let's grab what we can, weapons, equipment, and supplies," Poe declared, laying out the plan and then pointed at one of the shuttles, "Finn, can you fly one of those?"

"You bet I can," Finn nodded.

"Good, we'll load the shuttle and the Falcon while the fighters fuel up, Rey, with me. Let's see if we can get you some flight gear," Zay said before Poe could, catching him off-guard.

The two women walked away, following the clearly labeled signs to the sections with uniforms and personal gear. Poe knew that he wouldn't be welcome where they were going and what they were going to do. But he did have an interest in that section of the warehouse.

"Zay, make sure you grab some boxes of flight gear and helmets. We need uniforms," he called out.

"No you can't go with the girls to change, pervert," Jessika replied over her shoulder in a good-natured taunt, joining the girls as well, despite already being in flight gear.

"What was that about?" Finn asked in confusion.

"Women Finn, women," Poe shook his head, "Alright pal come on, let's go grab some weapons. We'll need as much as we can get."

"So, who's Inferno Squad?" Niv asked as the group of guys followed the aisles of tall box-bearing shelves to the locked weapons storage.

"We," Shriv explained, "Are the remnants of a turncoat Imperial spec ops unit. Zay's mother and father defected after the Empire destroyed their own homeworld. Her parents were recently killed by the First Order. Her mother, Inferno's leader, was Iden Versio. She uh…did quite a bit to save you guys. We were the ones who got Commander-I'm sorry, Captain Dameron," he corrected himself, "The plans for that dreadnought you took out."

"Nice job on that by the way," Poe nodded in appreciation.

"You're most welcome," Shriv nodded.

"Here, the weapons locker," one of the Republic troopers that had joined them pointed, and pulled out his pass card, "Take what you want, should be enough for you to run a small war."

"That's the idea," Finn said as the door opened and he went in first, shining a flashlight around, grinning at the wealth of armaments that they were seeing.

Inside were boxes upon boxes of blaster rifles and ammunition. All of it was old, dating back never less than a decade. Poe knew that they were going need these weapons, and so he grabbed a hovercart, and pulled it in.

"Let's get to work," Poe said, and grabbed onto a crate marked with having thirty-six EL-16HFE Blaster Rifles, Finn grabbed the other side, and pulled it off the stack and lowered it onto the cart.

"Now we're getting somewhere," Finn grinned.

They all began getting to work, grabbing up crates of weapons that didn't have a repulsorlift function and putting them onto the cart. Crates of power packs and detonators and other explosives were actually required to be in repulsorlift crates, and so a whole conga line of them was arranged aiming towards the hangar. It was an easy task, but one that they had to hurry with.

"Alright, get this stuff to the Falcon," Poe said once they had filled the cart with another seven of the rifle crates and eight full E-WEB Heavy Repeating Blaster Rifles, complete with power packs, cables, and tripods.

"Roger that sir," Niv nodded in response and started pulling the weapons out.

"C'ai, get the explosives as well, Finn and I will get another load," Poe ordered, "How's your team doing?" Poe asked the trooper who had been assisting them.

"They're loading the shuttle with munitions for the X-Wings, proton torpedoes and concussion missiles."

"Good," Poe nodded as he thought of something that he kicked himself for not remembering sooner, "You have droids in storage here?"

"Yeah, we should have some BB units or R2 units," he nodded.

"Grab as many as you can," Poe ordered, "and get them to the fighters that are being fueled up. I'll send one of the girls to help you."

"Yes sir," the soldier nodded and saluted before turning to go about his orders.

Elsewhere Rey stepped out from a small closet wearing her new orange flightsuit and white vest and a life support box on it. She had picked out a pair of black boots in her size and held the helmet under her arm. Rey was absolutely giddy to be wearing something that she long dreamed about. It was frankly a dream come true.

"Very nice," Zay said as she walked over, tightening a couple straps on her vest that were a bit loose, "You look like you're ready to take on the whole First Order."

"That'll have to wait until we've finished here," Rey said as she took the haversack that held her other clothes, the ones she'd grown so used to.

"Agreed, come on, we've gotten a couple crates, thankfully they shrink wrap this stuff so there's hundreds of uniforms and other clothes in here," Jessika said as she patted the carts of uniform boxes that they'd gathered. Among them were helmets for infantry and pilots, new ones.

"Right, let's go, we've got a lot to stow aboard the Falcon," Rey smiled, excited to get this done so she could maybe lay claim to an X-Wing. It was an exciting time, and for the first time she was hyped up for the opportunity to stand and fight against Kylo Ren.

The other female pilots also grinned, the whole feeling of the room had changed, Rey's joy had struck a cord within them. It was an amazing thing how a smile could see everyone's mood change. Even when they were just a percentage point of what was left of the original Resistance just days ago. Their prospects now were far greater than they had been mere hours ago.

They all began to push their haul back towards the hangar, and Rey stopped when she forgot something, she turned around and grabbed the blank white helmet she had put down. That may have been rather important. However when she grabbed it she felt a slight ripple through the Force, and she focused on it for a split second before the cold feeling swept over her and pointed towards the direction of the hangar, where her comrades had just gone. She ran out, grasping her NN-14 blaster pistol in her right hand she sprinted towards the hangar, but when she got there she was shocked, familiar red and black uniformed cyborg soldiers wearing a red helmet with a black circle were holding blasters to her comrades. Shriv and the Resistance pilots C'ai and Niv were all on their knees with binders holding their arms tight behind their back. The soldiers had all taken strips of black spacer's tape and slapped them over their mouths, keeping all of them quiet, keeping the trap well-hidden. Next to them all four Republic soldiers had their helmets and vests on the ground and all their weapons were tossed into a pile in front of them. Zay and Jessika had only just gotten caught, with Jessika having had her arms bound and she was fiercely resisting as her captors pushed her to her knees. Zay however hadn't been restrained yet and saw Rey rush in.

"Run!" she yelled at her, but was grabbed around the neck and a stun baton jabbed her in the side and she nearly collapsed from the electric shock.

It was a fair warning, But Rey was not going to listen. She lifted her blaster, but a pair of blasters were charged right behind her, and she looked to see a very familiar face, Bala-Tik, of the Guavian Death Gang.

"Afternoon love," the man said with a grin holding his concussion blaster aimed at her, "Drop it, and you and your friends live. If you don't…"

One of the security soldiers lifted his blaster at Chewbacca and the Wookiee growled threateningly, and Rey got the picture instantly and dropped her blaster.

"Alright, alright!" she said desperately, throwing her hands up, "Just don't hurt them."

"Smart lass," Bala-Tik smirked victoriously, and Rey felt her wrists get grabbed roughly and pulled behind her back and a pair of stun-cuffs tightly applied to them. This was the third time within two weeks she'd found herself detained and was getting sick of it, "Now, where's Solo?"

"What?" she asked.

"Don't take me for a fool! I recognize that Wookiee and that junker," he pointed at the Millennium Falcon, "Now where is he?"

"He's dead," she said quietly.

"Is he now?" Bala-Tik responded with a smile, "Search the warehouse," he ordered a handful of his troops, the one holding Rey started pushing her towards the others, but Bala-Tik grabbed her roughly by the jaw, "Be warned, if you're lying you'll watch your friends die one by one."

He released her and the soldier warbled something in the cyborg language that came from the helmet. She was shoved down to her knees and one of the others roughly applied a strip of tape across her mouth. Rey pulled away roughly, showing as much indignation as she could.

"Keep them out of sight," Bala-Tik ordered the security soldiers, pointing at the back of the room.

The group was yanked to their feet and roughly made to walk to the back of the hangar. Their captors made them each sit against the wall, lined up shoulder to shoulder. Rey was ticked, but beyond that she was afraid. There was most definitely a huge bounty on her, and if these gangsters had any sort of method to track bounties they'd find her out. As she ran the options through her head she looked up, and saw a very welcome sight, BB-8, he was hiding beneath the storage racks of X-Wings, which meant that there was still some hope.

Poe and Finn were still loading up a cart full of weapons and ammunition. Poe's comm started going off on his belt, and he reached down and activated it. Before he even got a word in there was a long series of beeps and boops from BB-8. Poe's eyes went wide, and he looked to Finn immediately.

"We've got trouble."

Well I've gone for it, I'm pretty excited to write for these characters for the first time. I am not a supporter of the new movies' tendencies to SJW the hell out of the franchise. I do not like Admiral Holdo, her point in the movie was…pointless. The arrogance with which the directors have treated us the fans who disagree with their decisions has made me an enemy of them. So this story is sort of my attempt to show them the fact there's a better way to go, and I, a college kid, can do a better job at doing justice to Star Wars than a multi-million dollar Hollywood director and writer. So, we'll see about that.

Next Chapter Preview: Finn and Poe, back in action together once again.