Work Text:
34 ABY
First Order Star Destroyer
On the holoscreen aboard a First Order Command ship a Lieutenant appeared. All eyes turned toward the screen as the First Order Lieutenant shouted out “resistance troops have boarded, repeat resistance troops have boarded.” He said, barely holding his anxiety in check.
Captain Phasma could not believe her ears. “Lieutenant, where are you? What is your status?”
“I am in the detention level, the rebels infiltrated through the trash compactors.” He stated and then his video screen went fuzzy and blank.
“Lieutenant are you there? What is happening?” Captain Phasma shouted in anger. “They’re jamming our sensors,” she turned to the trooper next to her, “get me back communications. All units—converge on the detention level!”
As Phasma and her troops made ready for the detention level, the screen suddenly came back. A stormtrooper stood at the screen.
“That’s a negative captain, we have a major reactor leak down here. Everything is fine here.” The trooper stated. “How are you?”
Phasma was suspicious immediately. “Trooper what is your identification and report on your situation.”
“I was FN-2187, but you can call me Finn, and I have infiltrated your ship, Captain.” Finn said as he removed his helmet, a smile on his face.
“Traitor!” She shouted at him and then to those around her “find him and bring him to me alive!”
“That’s not how this works, Phasma.” Finn said. He waved his hand and the doors around them shut closed. “You are now on lockdown and I am in control here.”
“What do you hope to accomplish?” Phasma was incredulous. “Wipe us all out? Make us surrender? You cannot take all of us. The First Order does not surrender.”
“Is that what you believe or what they made you believe? Give your own life for a cause greater than yourself? All in the name of peace and justice?” He was shaking his head while he spoke, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“I know those words and those phrases too, they drilled them into my head after they kidnapped me. Took me from my home.” Finn continued. “But I don’t believe them anymore. There is more to this life than empty servitude.” He was speaking not to Phasma, but to the troopers around her.
“It is an honor to sacrifice our lives for our Order.” She said.
“Honor?” Finn laughed harshly. “Where is the honor in kidnapping children? In brainwashing them? In forcing them to kill and die all in the name of tyranny?”
“We were chosen.” Phasma said.
“No.” Finn said. “Your choice was taken from you and I am here to give it back to you.” He continued speaking to the troopers.
“What are you talking about?” She asked.
Ignoring Phasma, he continued to speak to the stormtroopers. “My first battle, I ran.” Finn said. “I knew what I was being asked to do was wrong, so I ran.”
“You are a coward.” Phasma said icily.
“No.” Finn said. “Do you want to know how I overcame all that brainwashing? Huh, Phasma? Do you?”
Phasma was silent. “The Force.” Finn said. “It flows through all of us. It’s a guiding light in the dark. It showed me a path away from all this.” He gestured around him, his voice was strong and calm
“And yet you are back.” Phasma’s voice was full of disdain.
“I have returned yes.” Finn said. “Not as a stormtrooper, not as a soldier, but as a Jedi.”
He closed is eyes and brought the Force to bear, not against Phasma, but at the programming in the minds of her troopers.
Phasma laughed. “You!? A Jedi!? Please! You’re nothing but a stormtrooper! Canon fodder! Nothing more than a pawn, ready to be wiped off the board and replaced by the next bantha fodder!”
“I’d be more careful with my words if I were you.” Finn said as all around Phasma her troopers turned to look at her. Some with their blasters raised directly at her.
“What are you all doing?” Phasma shouted. “I will have you all exterminated! Drop your weapons! Now!”
Other troopers started to remove their helmets as their brainwashing faded. “Put your helmets back on now! That is an order!” And suddenly Phasma was no longer surrounded by stormtroopers, but regular men and women.
“You have the same choice as them too, Phasma.” Finn said softly. “There is no dishonor in choosing a different path. In admitting you were wrong.”
Phasma was quiet for a moment, as if contemplating Finn’s words. Then she shook her head. “You bring dishonor wherever you go! You may stop me, but one man cannot stop the First Order!”
Finn shook his head at her words. “But I’m not alone, don’t you see?”
The former stormtroopers were advancing on her now. She raised her weapon against her former troopers. “Stop now! I will shoot to kill!”
“You will die if you do.” Finn said calmly. “If the tyranny of the First Order does not die, it will grow and I cannot allow that.”
“A Jedi wouldn’t let me die like this.”
“I have no control over the will of others and that is as it should be.” Finn said. “And they are not Jedi.”
With that she fired her weapon at the first trooper she could and all around her blasters fired in anger and defense. She collapsed to the ground, her life spent for nothing more than a twisted sense of honor.
Slowly the troopers all looked around at each other and then at Finn on the HoloScreen, but he was not there.
His voice spoke from behind them, “over here!”
They turned to find him standing in a doorway behind them and he smiled at them, warm and kind.
He wore a light tunic and pants and dark robe, white lightsaber lifted high above his head. “Welcome to the Resistance!”