Chapter Text
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
A bead of sweat inched down Poe’s spine, its lazy progress ending only when it disappeared into his waistband. They were packed into the hold like animals, and the reek of unwashed bodies was already threatening to overpower him. For a second, he wobbled, his vision flickering before coming back into focus. There was no air back here, and the thick cloak was certainly not helping the situation. Determined to stay on his feet, Poe gripped the strap in front of him that much tighter.
Across the hold, Finn stood at attention, seemingly unbothered by their current conditions. Then again, he supposed Finn was used to the cramped feeling, First Order troop transports being what they were. Though Poe would have given anything to breathe in the slightly noxious fumes of fresh plastoid armor right about then.
An eternity passed before Poe felt the familiar swoop in his stomach, the transport dipping into the atmosphere and letting gravity take hold once more. There were no viewports in the dismal ship, so Poe was just as surprised as the rest of them when they hit the ground. The landing would have sent him to his knees had there been so much as a centimeter of floor space to spare. As such, he simply knocked into the Gamorrean next to him, the mass of bodies holding them both upright.
He nearly wept when the ramp finally lowered, sucking in a fresh blast of air while a group of troopers herded them towards the ever-growing line at the checkpoint.
Things were about to get interesting.
Everything had to be timed just right, all parts of the plan working in perfect concert for this to succeed. Even in the cooler air, Poe began to sweat. He looked heavenward, toward the orbital ring where BB-8 was hopefully infiltrating the main computer disguised in the graphite and black the First Order was so fond of, opening doors and bypassing scanners. That is, if he hadn’t been caught. A shiver went through him at the thought.
It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in Rose and his droid. In fact, the opposite was true. He’d trust either of them with his life. It was just that this plan required, among other things, a whole lot of luck, and it seemed like the Resistance was fresh out of that these days.
The five years since Crait had been rough on their ragged little band of Resistance fighters. While their numbers had grown, so had the First Order’s, and out of the chaos borne of the Hosnian Cataclysm a new Empire had risen, taking over every system until there was nothing outside of their punishing control.
Labor camps, prison worlds, public executions, these were the new realities of the galaxy, every day bringing a fresh horror courtesy of the Supreme Leader and his Chancellor.
Kylo Ren - or should he say Supreme Leader Kylo Ren - was really outdoing himself these days. One tiny uprising on Hays Minor (courtesy of Rose and her contacts, of course) and he shut down all long-range communications across the galaxy. Talk about a temper.
Though it had been done in the Supreme Leader’s name, this whole thing screamed of Hux, the Chancellor of their fledgling Empire turning particularly ruthless after Snoke’s death.
Though Poe supposed the biggest surprise of all was that the two hadn’t managed to kill each other in the five years since Kylo Ren’s ascension. He had a feeling it had something to do with the rumors that Ren had taken a step back from the Empire, spending his time in the Unknown Regions looking for answers to questions as old as the galaxy itself.
A familiar presence materialized at his left hand side as they made their slow progress toward the scanners, the rags on his back doing little to hide Finn’s unmistakable form.
Even Poe had to admit they’d been lucky so far, despite the delay. It had taken longer than expected to work their way onto one of the ships bound for the migrant camps on Kuat, but here they were. And in the scheme of things, what was two extra weeks over the course of a war?
“Checkpoint. Keep your head down,” murmured Finn, barely audible over the din of the crowd.
Poe swore he could feel the other man’s tension as he nodded his head, keeping a wary eye on what was quickly becoming a bottleneck up ahead.
It seemed they weren’t the only two on edge as a shouting match broke out in front of them, the shouting quickly turning to shoving as more and more species joined in the fray.
A Trandoshan knocked into Finn, sending him stumbling back into the ragged looking Drovian male behind them.
The Drovian growled, Finn’s eyes going wide at his bared teeth.
“Whoa, hey,” he said, lifting both hands in a pacifying gesture. “No trouble here.”
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as the Drovian immediately closed his pincers around Finn’s throat, lifting him off the ground like he weighed nothing more than a loth-cat.
“Trouble! TROUBLE!” Finn managed to grunt out, his hands trying to grapple with the three-pronged pincer to no avail.
With one hand, Poe dug a dried fish from his pouch - remnants of the hasty lunch they were provided before boarding the ship - the other hand firmly on the blaster hidden between the folds of his long cloak.
“Here,” he said, offering the fish to the Drovian, “couldn’t finish it.”
There was a tense moment when the Drovian’s golden eyes looked between the fish and Finn as if deciding which he wanted as a snack before he dropped Finn and devoured the fish in one.
Poe released a shaky breath.
Finn dropped to the ground, coughing and sputtering and grabbing at his throat.
“Come on,” said Poe, extending a hand to get Finn to his feet before ushering him forward in the line.
“That was your big plan, rescuing me with a fish?” spat out Finn, his voice hoarse in the crowd.
Poe looked around, making sure they weren’t being watched, before brushing back one of the folds of his cloak to reveal the blaster still gripped in his hand for a second before covering it back up. “Satisfied?”
“Yes.” They moved up another step. “How will we know if BB-8 hacked the mainframe?”
Alarms blared from the scanners in front of them, stormtroopers rushing toward a terrified Gotal gesturing wildly at his metallic horns.
Poe closed his eyes as blaster bolts rang out, the stench of scorched fur reaching his nostrils.
When he opened his eyes, the Gotal was being dragged off, chest still smoking.
He turned to look at Finn’s darkened expression. “Oh, I think we’ll know.”
And just like that, they were next in line, Poe’s heart thundering somewhere in his throat as they stepped into the scanner.
There was a buzz, and for a split second Poe thought their luck had finally run out before the machine gave a sputtering whine and powered down.
Poe exchanged a look with Finn as two stormtroopers approached, barrels of their blasters still smoking slightly. Sweat gathered along his hairline while they conferred, the one on the left smacking the machine once, twice, three times.
The scanner whirred to life overhead, the troopers motioning them through when no alarm sounded. “Move along.”
Next to him, Finn exhaled audibly, Poe elbowing him as they walked through the border walls of the camp.
He was gonna kiss that droid of his when they all got back to base.
The camp was massive, a sprawling patchwork of temporary dwellings that stretched as far as the eye could see. Beings of every species stood huddled in front of trash bin fires, trying to stave off the brisk winds of Kuat’s harsh winter while the orbital ring with its skeletal Star Destroyers stood watch over all.
Everywhere Poe looked, there was more misery to be had, children shivering in rags, men and women half-starved and freezing in the streets. Squads of stormtroopers patrolled the makeshift streets, workers fleeing to the relative safety of their huts. A blaster bolt rang out. Babies screamed and women wailed. Not for the first time he wondered how this could be better than wherever they came from.
They worked their way further into the camp, the stench of unwashed bodies and unidentified cooking meat haunting their every step. Poe’s stomach churned as they passed the small spit turning over a trash can fire. Kowakian monkey-lizard. A shiver went up his spine.
Bright splashes of paint drew his eye away from the macabre sight, symbols from all of the galaxy peppering the huts in a cacophony of color, obviously the work of amateur artists (or bored teenagers). As they walked, he picked out more than one First Order insignia, a very stylized take on a rathtar, even a series of loth-cats in repose, but when they came up to a smoldering pile of twisted metal, he found the most interesting one yet.
There, poking out of the rubble, were the unmistakable curves and points of the Alliance Starbird. Even now, hope still lived.
“This way,” said Finn, leading him past a large hovel decorated with a rough drawing of a mythosaur and deeper into the alley behind.
Poe was acutely aware of all the eyes on them, the migrants inherently mistrusting newcomers. Work and food were always scarce, so more mouths meant more competition. Poe couldn’t blame them.
Though he could still feel uneasy as a lone Tusken Raider watched their progress from the shadows of one of the more ramshackle huts, a makeshift staff poking out from behind his back.
But all thoughts of the Tusken were banished when Poe finally locked eyes with a furry Ryn outside a small shop, the walls of which looked more permanent than anything else around them.
The Ryn tapped his cheek, Finn nodding once before they followed him inside.
Poe had enough time to take in the strange, hairless child hanging from something that looked suspiciously like an animal stomach and a female working at a lathe before a familiar face emerged from the beaded curtain separating the back room.
“You said two days; I’ve been here two weeks,” said Rose, her tone all business.
Poe laughed. “Good to see you too, Rose.”
She huffed at him, but looked no worse for the wear, the off-white sleeves of her shirt rolled up to reveal pale forearms, marked here and there with the occasional healed burn or spot of grease.
Without further ado, she unfurled a huge, canvas map on the main worktable, the ends curling off the edge. It was the surface of the planet, the migrant camp they were currently standing in marked by a giant square, the surrounding landscape dotted with factories and settlements between large swaths of forest.
“This is our access point,” she said, pointing to a circle simply labeled SHAFT. She placed a small holochip over the mark. With the flick of a switch, the orbital ring flickered to life in holographic form, the massive powershaft that connected it to the planet lining up perfectly with the marking. “This powershaft delivers raw ore to the orbital ring. A detonation directly into the energy stream, here, will cause a chain reaction-”
She hit another button and a small red dot traveled up the shaft and triggered a series of explosions that decimated the entire ring.
Poe blinked as holographic debris floated through the air. “-And take the whole thing down.”
“Along with their new fleet,” added Finn, eyes trained on the hole in the ceiling and the orbital ring beyond.
A quick and dirty count yielded a dozen Star Destroyers attached to the ring overhead, with another dozen or so likely out of view. Now those were some results Poe could get behind.
Grudgingly, Poe dragged his attention back to Rose. “How do we know they haven’t detected BB-8’s signature up there? That they aren’t waiting for us to make our move?”
Rose shook her head. “I doubt you would have gotten this far if they were on to us.”
“There’s a lot we don’t know,” said Poe, crossing his arms and starting to pace in the cramped little room.
“That goes for any plan.” Rose hit a button and the orbital ring disappeared. “And we all voted.”
“Yeah, and I voted for the other plan,” answered Poe. There were too many variables, far too many ways for this to go wrong. After the madness on D’Qar and Crait, he’d become more cautious, apparently overly so if the looks on Finn and Rose’s faces were any indication.
Finn’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. “This is when we second guess the plan? Right now?”
“Listen, we can take out the enemy’s fuel source and be light years away before they know what hit them.” Rose looked to Poe, eyes determined in the light of the hologram. “But we have to move now.”
The weight of Finn’s gaze joined Rose’s as they awaited orders.
Poe scrubbed a hand over his face. It was his call. Not for the first time, he wished that the mantle of leadership fell on anyone’s shoulders but his. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, they said, not that he was anything approaching royalty. No, that was Leia’s burden, but as her second in command, he shared that weight far too often these days.
He looked skyward again, the sight of all those Star Destroyers just ripe for the picking strengthening his otherwise shaky resolve. “Okay, let’s blow this thing and go home.”
Decision made, they wasted no time, Rose packing her things in a flurry of movement. She paused only briefly to thank her hosts, speaking in a low, unfamiliar language before leading Finn and Poe out the door.
The camp was much as they’d left it, though there was a new, sharper edge to Poe’s fear now that they’d decided to do this. It was all in his head, logically he knew that, but there was no shaking the feeling of eyes on them as they made their way toward the base of the powershaft. Looking over his shoulder, he wore he caught another glimpse of that Tusken Raider from earlier, but when he blinked, the cloaked figure was nowhere to be found.
Rose elbowed him back to attention, handing over a small comm unit.
Poe looked at her, brows raised in question.
“Our man on the inside,” she simply said, a knowing smile on her face.
He snatched the comm out of her hand. “BB-8?”
A string of binary came over the device, the beeps and warbles soothing something inside Poe he hadn’t even realized was frayed.
Oh, how he’d missed the little droid. Even the way he tended to get underfoot when Poe and Rey...
Poe shook his head, as if to clear the thought from his mind. Now was definitely not the time.
“Good to hear your voice, buddy,” he said, pausing to listen to BeeBee. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught another glimpse of those dust-colored robes, the Tusken hovering just out of sight. Not good. “Don’t worry, I’m still alive.” He waited for another flurry of beeps. “Hey, watch it! I’m more than capable of taking care of myself.” A doubtful beep. “Just unlock the powershaft doors and get ready with that shuttle.”
They finally found themselves in the shadow of the massive shaft, a small durasteel hut providing coverage as they assessed the situation.
It appeared the main doors were guarded by three grey-armored mechtroopers. Three. How careless the First Order had grown, so certain of their absolute control of the camp that they’d deemed three troopers sufficient protection for their greatest asset.
Well, their hubris would be the Resistance’s gain.
“Now, BB-8!” Poe whisper-shouted into the comms, the doors whirring open a second later.
As one, the troopers turned in confusion.
“What the-”
But he never finished the thought, Poe coming up behind him and knocking him out cold with the butt of his hidden blaster. Finn and Rose made quick work of the other two, electro-prods sparking as the troopers sank like stones to the ground.
“Come on,” said Rose, leading them deeper into the base. There was no time to waste pulling the troopers out of sight. The First Order would know soon enough what they were doing.
The building was empty, save for the giant cylinder of bright blue light disappearing into the sky. Poe looked up, the beam connecting the core of the planet to the orbital ring above, a straight shot into the heart of First Order operations.
He turned to Finn and Rose, their faces lit up a matching blue as they gazed up at the powershaft.
Reaching into his cloak, he grabbed a thermal detonator. “Ok, we’ll have twenty seconds before detonation,” he said, handing it to Rose. “Give or take.”
“Give or take how long?” Rose’s voice was sceptical as she accepted the explosive.
Poe handed the second one to Finn. “Long enough.”
Keeping one for himself, Poe weighed it in his hand, attempting to judge the amount of force he’d need. “Nice and easy,” he said, more to himself than anyone else, “just like pitching pilmetto stick.”
Finn came up behind him. “Pilmetto stick? We didn’t have-”
Poe hit the activation, the charge buzzing to life in his hand.
“We’re doing this right now?!” Finn’s voice was slightly panicked as Poe tossed the charge into the stream, the little sphere hovering for a second before being swept up and out of sight.
Rose followed suit, her detonator making a perfect arc before disappearing into the particle stream. Poe made a mental note. Rose would make one hell of a pitcher.
Poe started toward the door, realizing a second later that Finn wasn’t with them. “Uh, anytime now, buddy.”
Finn stood frozen for a second before chucking his own charge into the powershaft and taking off after them, a simple yet effective approach.
“Bombs away, BB-8!” Poe shouted into the comms as they ran. They only had seconds left. “We’ll meet you at the relay point!”
The door was in sight, Poe picking up speed as they reached the exit…
Only to skid to a stop when an entire unit of stormtroopers materialized in front of them.
“Drop your weapons!” shouted the leader, blaster raised and pointed at Poe’s chest. Behind him, a number of those grey mechtroopers filed in.
Poe lifted his arms in surrender.
“What now?” murmured Finn, his own arms above his head.
Poe looked up toward the orbital ring. “Distraction in three, two, one… now!”
The three of them dove for the floor, Poe covering his head with his arms in anticipation of the explosion.
One second passed. Then another.
No explosion.
“Any second now,” he half-prayed, ignoring the shouts of the troopers around them.
Finn and Rose exchanged a look.
Just then, a wail pierced through the crowd.
Poe looked up in enough time to see that Tusken work his way through the crowd, staff in hand. The troopers turned to see what the commotion was.
It was the last mistake any of them made.
Either end of the staff illuminated in brilliant, blue light, the movement as familiar to Poe as his own face in the mirror.
“Rey,” he breathed, half word, half prayer.
A second later, all hell broke loose.