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Rey hated Jakku. Granted, no one actually liked the junk heap of a planet, but she held it with the sort of distain that could only come from living there for years. If it was up to her, she wouldn’t have come back, but the captain had been insistent. Someone was willing to pay a lot of credits to have a package delivered with no questions asked.
Nothing had changed at Niima Outpost. Everything was threadbare and covered in sand. The people still looked hard-bitten and worn, they went from task to task without looking up from the hand packed sand earth. Somewhere in the distance Rey could hear Unkar Plutt bellowing too low prices at scavengers too beaten down to argue.
The squealing of a droid caught Rey’s attention and she spun around to see a Teedo, yet another familiar face that seemed unchanged, dragging a brightly colored BB unit into the outpost. The little guy seemed to be doing its level best to make the task as hard as possible while beeping out an impressive assortment of verbal abuse.
Clearly the droid was stolen and trying to either escape on his own or solicit help. Under normal circumstances, neither would be likely. Teedo was tenacious when credits or supplies were on the line, and the scavengers of Jakku rarely looked beyond their own survival. Fortunately for the droid, Rey had never been the sort that could leave another to their suffering.
The former scavenger unslung her staff from behind her and stomped over to the pair, her footfalls were clearly audible, but only the droid paid her any mind. He beeped out pleas for help as soon as he’d noticed that he had her attention.
“Let him go.” She demanded in Teedospeak as soon as she had the male within swinging range. The scavenger finally took notice of her, but clearly either didn’t recognize or remember Rey. It wasn’t too surprising. The last time she’d set foot in Niima Station she’d been fifteen and scrawny. Time and generous rations had filled out her frame.
“He’s my find.” Teedo snarled. The BB unit protested loudly, shrieking about a master that was sure to come looking for him.
“He’s stolen!” She retorted, despite knowing that word meant little on Jakku. Things belongs to whoever could get their hands on them here. No buyer would ask questions about ownership, and a memory wipe would stop the droid from causing any new owner any trouble. That was if it wasn’t just busted down for scrap.
Teedo reached for a weapon, but Rey was faster. She knocked it out of his hand before he could even make to attack her. A few more strikes left the scavenger unconscious on the ground. The scuffle, short as it was, drew attention from the people around them, but no one made any move to intervene. As long as it didn’t look like Rey was going to start rampaging through the outpost, no one cared about a little violence.
“Come on, we should go before he comes around.” She quickly freed the droid from the netting Teedo had been using to drag it around, and he beeped out his thanks as she worked. The droid followed Rey as she moved back towards the ship, beeping out an introduction as he rolled along.
Apparently, the droid was named BB8 and he was on a secret mission with his master. They had been separated, but he fully expected the man to show up any minute. Rey winced, remembering the years’ worth of scratch marks she’d left on the inside of a hollowed-out AT-AT that had once been her home. Leaving hadn’t been her choice, but she’d been half dead with sickness when the captain had found her. He’d taken her off-world to save her life and then never really found the time to bring her back. Not until now anyway.
“I hope you’re right,” Rey said sympathetically, despite knowing the odds weren’t in his master’s favor. “Jakku is a big planet, and dangerous. Teedo won’t be the only one to see you as their meal ticket.”
BB8 beeped even more insistently in response but sped up his roll to be even closer to Rey. She noticed that his antenna was bent, likely a result of his confinement. “Well you can stay with me for now. I don’t think the captain will be done with his business anytime soon. Come on, I’ll even fix your antenna while we wait.”
***
Poe hated Jakku. He hated the sun. He hated the sand. He hated the sand pits that made ships just disappear. He especially hated that it was large and every inch of it looked the same. How was he supposed to find BB8 when he didn’t even know where the he was, let alone where his little buddy had ended up.
A glance to his left showed that Finn, his new best friend, was just as enthusiastic about the planet. It wasn’t surprising considering that the other man had been vocally against returning here. That he was wearing all black after shedding his plastoid armor was probably only making him hate the sun more.
“You’re sure this is the right way?” Poe asked. Again.
“Yes,” Finn responded. Again.
Poe was a great navigator in the air, not so much on the ground. Thankfully, Finn had memorized the maps of Jakku from his briefings and claimed to know which way they needed to head to find civilization. With any luck it would be the same civilization BB8 had headed for after escaping Lor San Tekka’s village. Assuming that Finn wasn’t wrong about the outpost.
"Happy beeps.” He muttered to himself as he continued trudging through the desert. He would find BB8 and they would complete their mission. The fate of the galaxy depended on it. The Force was with them, as the general would say.
Finally, after what had surely been hours, the two men reached what passed for an outpost. There were people and structures at least. All either of them could think of after a day spent in the desert was finding water. Finn went headfirst into a trough, and Poe wasn’t too far behind them. They were sure to regret it later, when whatever microbes lived in the water set up shop in their guts, but for now they were just happy to avoid death by dehydration.
Poe wiped off his face and took a better look of their surroundings. There was no sign of BB8, just a bunch of tired looking people and a Teedo making his way towards the main tent on unsteady feet. He tried not to give into despair. BB8 was a smart droid. He wouldn’t be rolling out in the open where anyone could see him, not when he was running from the First Order. Hopefully.
“Do you have any credits?” Finn asked, “Anything we could use to barter our way off this planet.”
“We don’t need credits, we have me.” Poe assured him.
“You and what ship?” Finn shot back, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
Poe had to concede that a pilot wasn’t much good without a ship, so it was good that Resistance training had covered … alternative ways to acquire those. So long as they found something flight-worthy and not too heavily guarded, he could get them away from here. But only after he found his droid. “Don’t worry about it.”
Finn’s eyebrow remained skeptical, but he didn’t say anything else about it. Probably because he knew that the First Order interrogators hadn’t left anything of value in Poe’s pockets. Together they headed towards the docks, or at least what passed for them. Really it seemed to be a bunch of dusty ships parked wherever they could fit. Each and every one of them looked like a pile of junk.
There was a quadjumper that looked promising, but it was unfortunately too close to the tents for them to have much of a chance at sneaking aboard unnoticed. He continued looking for better prospects, but everything looked either guarded or half disassembled. Finally, his eyes landed on a disk-shaped vessel at the very edge of the settlement. It barely looked space worthy, but Poe was certain he could make it work.
“Come on,” He said, inclining his head towards their target. They would steal the ship and then start scanning the dessert for BB8. He had to be somewhere between here and Tuanul. Hopefully closer to here, because it was only a matter of time before the First Order caught up with them.
***
When Rey reached the ship, she was annoyed, but not surprised, to see someone else was already there trying to rewire the gangplank. The someone else was obviously not the two other members of her crew so she readied her staff once again.
Before she could violently defend the ship, BB8 rolled forward unleashing a flurry of excited beeps. The two men both spun around to look at the little droid. The man with tan skin knelt down and began to rub his hands excitedly on BB8’s belly. “Little buddy!”
The responding beeps were enough to tell Rey that this man was obviously the droid’s master. What it didn’t explain was what he had been doing with his fingers buried in the ship’s security panel. “We’re you trying to steal the Falcon?!”
Secret mission be damned, she would take down anyone threatening her ship. Or, well, the captain’s ship.
The other man, the one in all black, spoke up. “What? No! We were just.” He looked around, obviously trying to come up with some good reason for their obvious attempt at thievery. “Doing a security inspection. We’re the port security.”
Rey couldn’t help but look skeptical at the obvious lie, while the first man brought his hand to his face in frustration. The only thing that kept her from attacking the pair with her staff was BB8. The droid wouldn’t be so loyal if his master was some half-baked thief.
“Please, we’re on a very important mission. We needed a ship to find BB8 and get off this planet.” The man gestured to his droid and then paused and took another look at the ship. “Wait did you say the Falcon. Like the Millennium Falcon?”
Rey’s burst of frustration at his excuse was cut short by rush of pride of at his recognizing the vessel. The YT-1300f light freighter was as old as it was distinctive. It was also a legend. “That’s right. I’m the second mate.”
“The second mate? To Han Solo?!” He asked, clearly excited.
Rey nodded, hoping this wasn’t yet another person to whom her captain owed a debt. Usually that sort seemed more angry than excited, but given that this man was apparently stranded on Jakku, he could just be happy to have a chance to call in a favor.
This is perfect! I’m Poe Dameron, I’m with the Resistance. This is Finn” He gestured to the man standing beside him, who gave an awkward wave. “We need to get BB8 to our base.”
Rey’s stomach dropped. Resistance was worse than a debt. Han went out of his way to avoid them when he could, Chewie had explained the basics, something about heartbreak and an old flame. “Oh no, no! The captain-“
“Please” Poe begged. Help us, you’re our only hope.”
Anything Rey might have said in response was cut off by the sound of ships screaming across the sky towards the Falcon. They all looked up to see tie fighters approaching at speed. The first shots hit the opposite side of the outpost, causing instant destruction.
“Onto the Falcon!” She shouted, knowing that she could not in good conscience, leave these men behind. Poe spun around and finished slicing his way through the gangplank’s security and they all rushed aboard. Rey ran towards the cockpit with Poe and Finn on her heels, she threw herself into the captain’s seat and began preparation for takeoff.
Before she was even halfway through preparations, she could hear two sets of familiar stomping towards them. Rey swallowed nervously; Han wasn’t going to be happy.
“Rey we need to get out of here fast.” Han shouted as he neared the cockpit. She heard him slid to a halt as soon as he saw the unexpected guests. “Who is this.”
“They’re Resistance.”
“We’re Resistance”
Poe and Rey shouted at the same time. Chewie roared as he pushed his way into the copilot’s seat. He obviously knew there was an argument coming and wasn’t interest in any delay it might cause. Rey turned the controls over to him as she finished the last of the take off procedures. “I know you’re going to be angry, but what was I supposed to do? Knock them out and leave them in the sand?
“Yes,” Han said with a wide gesture of his hands. Poe and Finn looked offended at the suggestion, but a load roar from Chewie shut them all up. The captain gestured for her to surrender his seat. Chewie grumbled again and Rey nodded.
“Come on,” She said as she pushed the two men as she pushed them out of the cockpick, “we need to man the gunner’s stations.
Back in the cockpit Chewie gave Han a knowing look. The old smuggler just sighed. “Here we go again.”