A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

STAR WARS

EPISODE I

The Starkiller Legacy

A SPARK OF HOPE

Luke Skywalker has vanished.

In his absence, the sinister FIRST ORDER has risen from the ashes of the Empire and will not rest until Skywalker, the last Jedi, has been destroyed.

With the support of the REPUBLIC, General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy.

Leia has sent her most daring pilot on a secret mission to Jakku, where an old ally has discovered a clue to Luke's whereabouts . . . .

Prologue

Ambush on Jakku

It was a small, peaceful village. The distant sound of native animals bleated, as a single wind chime finished the serenity of it all.

Suddenly a droid burst into view as he rolled on the sand: round and skittery, orange and white; the droid's name was BB-8. He focused on something past the village, his small, black lenses eye searching intently. The droid beeped as he watched, -fast, morse code-like sounds-, and moved even closer, clearly worried. He then turned, and rolled off towards a primitive hut, night close at hand.

An old man with sparse white hair handed a small, leather sack to the man opposite towards him. The man, who had a mane of unruly black hair and wore a brown pilot's jacket, held onto the small object, feeling the weight of its importance in his hands. Lor San Tekka placed his hand on top of Poe's. The elderly man watched Poe carefully. The pilot had intense dark eyes, and an air of charisma about him.

"This will begin to make things right," the older man spoke. "I've traveled too far, and seen too much, to ignore the despair in the galaxy. Without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force."

"Well, because of you now we have a chance," Poe held up the small sack. "The General's been after this for a long time."

The old man smiled. "The General. To me, she's royalty."

"Well, she certainly is that." Poe smiled.

He looked as if he was about to say more, but before he could, the droid BB-8 burst through the entrance, bleating madly. Poe turned to the droid, listening intently, and then back, to Lor San Tekka, concerned.

"We've got company," he said intently, and exited the hut fast.

Poe raised a pair of quadnoculats to his eyes, zooming in as he saw bright white searchlights on the horizon, and then the steadily approaching enemy ships which loomed dark and great. The pilot lowered the quadnocs, watching with unnerved eyes as the village began rush with a flurry of activity. A frightening thunder grew as Poe turned to San Tekka.

"You have to hide," Poe said.

"You have to leave," the older man replied. Poe looked conflicted. "Go!"

He finally nodded and hurried off, BB-8 hot on his tail. They sprinted through the village, various armed villagers taking position, preparing to defend.

It was already too late.

There was a roar of wind and dust as the transports landed. Stormtroopers ran out, firing blasters, as the villagers fought back. It was already obvious that they were outmatched ten to one. When one villager got a shot off, ten more frightening, white troopers appeared behind him.

Adjacent to the village, Poe ran to an X-Wing fighter, parked at a distance, hidden behind an outcropping of rocks. The small orange and white droid hurried behind him as fast as he could roll, his antenna flying in the wind.

"Come on, BeeBee-Ate , hurry!" Poe called back.

He climbed onto his X-Wing as BB-8 rolled under the droid socket and was grabbed by a metal magnet. Moving into the cockpit, the canopy closed shut above him and the controls came to life. Poe shot a quick look towards the back as Stormtroopers began coming over the ridge.

BB-8 bleated with panic as Poe urgently worked the controls. The landing lights flashed on, and the engine whirred to life. As Poe began initiating the flight sequence, the cockpit suddenly shook with blaster fire. Two Stormtroopers had caught sight of the rogue X-Wing and had begun to attack. BB-8 screeched in alarm and Poe grabbed the controls.

"I see 'em! I see 'em!" he called.

The X-Wing dropped down an antipersonnel blaster and began shooting down the two troopers in automatic mode. Getting that off his plate, Poe tried to start the ship again, but the engines sputtered, refusing to start. Concerned, he opened his canopy and jumped down, moving towards the back to assess the damage.

One of the troopers had gotten off a good hit. The rear engine was badly damaged. Poe touched the blackened panel slightly trying to see if he could do anything and retracted his hand quickly, feeling the metal still hot and melted. He grimaced. There was nothing he could do, it had to be replaced completely.

They were in real trouble now.

BB-8 was lowered out of the X-Wing, confused, as Poe knelt beneath his ship, pulling from the leather sack a small, old artifact, that looked like a microchip.

"You take this," he said, raising the chip and prompting BB-8 to open up his multi-reader. "It's safer with you than it is with me." Poe placed it inside the compartment and it snapped shut as BB-8 accepted it. "You get as far away from here as you can. Do you hear me?"

"Wooo," BB-8 beeped, hesitant.

"I'll come back for you! It will be alright," Poe gave him a reassuring look as he stood up.

In his heart, the pilot knew there was a slim chance of his return. He would just have to hope and pray that General Organa would hear of his capture and locate the droid on Jakku. Droid and human shared one last look, and then Poe ran, drawing the troopers away.

BB-8 watched Poe run off. Whining nervously, he turned and headed off into the opposite direction. He paused, and then turned around once more to look at Poe's retreating figure, torn. It was protocol for BB-8 to follow what the pilot told him to do, yet as his integral system had already calculated, there was a one-thousand to one chance that his master would keep his word. Knowing he was leaving the pilot to die, he zoomed off as fast as he could, hoping to keep his friend's last wish.

Poe ran back towards the village and swung his blaster up on an outcropping of rock. Catching sight of two Stormtroopers about to attack, he trained his blaster on them and shot, scoring one in the head.

The trooper that was hit fell down, injured and dying. Another knelt to help. The hit trooper raised a torn, bloody glove, his human hand visible, and reached out to touch the helping Stormtrooper. It was too late. He died before reaching the trooper, fingertips barely brushing the other's helmet, marking the Stormtrooper's mask with blood. The bloodied trooper stood, watching the events unfold around him, overwhelmed by the battle. He whipped around as a dark imposing shuttle craft, boasting a vertical wingspan of ninety feet, landed near the much smaller transport vehicles. The shuttle craft door opened. Through the wind and smoke, a tall, dark figure exited the ship. He strode toward the chaos towards San Tekka and the captured villagers.

A senior trooper moved to the blood-marked trooper, corralling him into the circle with the other Stormtroopers, all of whom had their blasters trained on the defenseless villagers . "Stay here."

The cloaked man stopped before the outraged Lor San Tekka, dwarfing him. Only now did it become apparent that the man wore a dark mask, marked by battle. Inset metal lines reflected the fire and destruction from the village.

The dark man spoke after contemplating the elder, a deep mechanical voice coming out from under the mask. "Look how old you've become."

"Something far worse has happened to you," San Tekka replied woefully.

The masked man paused, keeping his composure. "You know what I've come for."

"I know where you come from. Before you called yourself Kylo Ren."

Kylo Ren ignored this statement. "The map to Skywalker. We know you've found it, and now you're going to give it to the First Order."

"The First Order rose from the Dark Side. You did not," San Tekka said.

"I'll show you the Dark Side," Ren retorted with a hint of a whine in his voice.

"You may try, but you cannot deny the truth that is your family."

"You're so right," Kylo Ren replied simply.

Suddenly, he raised his lightsaber and ignited it. Perpendicular smaller blades shot out at the hilt. It had a unique buzz, unsteady, unstable with a yellow red energy, spitting sparks and smoke. Ren ripped it across San Tekka in a flash of fury.

Poe ran out as he saw this, yelling, and fired his blaster at Kylo Ren. Instantly, Ren turned and raised his hand. Poe's blue blast froze, the bolt of energy straining and vibrating in mid-air. Poe suddenly found himself unable to move, straining against an invisible force. Sweat beaded his upper lip -he was in for it now.

He was grabbed by two Stormtroopers who dragged him past the frozen blast to Kylo Ren. One of his captors kicked out Poe's legs and he landed hard on his knees. Kylo Ren knelt to look at Poe. The pilot only gave him a blank stare back.

There was a moment of silence and then Poe spoke. "So who talks first? You talk first?"

"The old man gave it to you," Ren stated, contemplating the pilot's face.

Poe indicated Kylo's mask. "It's just very hard to understand you with all the-"

He was cut off as Kylo Ren interrupted. "Search him."

"Apparatus," Poe finished as a Stormtrooper began a brutal pat down. Kylo Ren watched closely to see if they had found anything.

Poe only glared as the pat down ended.

"Nothing, sir," the trooper reported.

Kylo Ren silently seethed. "Put him onboard."

He regarded the Stormtroopers with the rounded-up villagers, then turned to a chrome-skinned, black caped Stormtrooper captain named Phasma.

"Sir, the villagers," a metallic female voice came from her helmet.

"Kill them all," Ren ordered without hesitation.

Captain Phasma nodded, and then stepped forward. "On my command!"

The troopers, including the blood marked one, aimed at the villagers. They began to panic, holding each other.

"Fire!"

Poe was roughly pulled into a transport ship as he struggled, looking behind him at the carnage as the ramp lifted.

All around the blood marked Trooper, blasterfire erupted. He raised his own hesitantly, and then dropped it, unable to kill innocent people. Once the shooting was over, all the Stormtroopers began to spread out to search, except him, still shaken by the scene that had unfolded before him.

Kylo Ren headed back toward his ship, but then he paused, feeling something. He turned and watched the blood marked Stormtrooper for a long moment. The trooper could barely meet his gaze. He knew he was doomed.

Casting away his thoughts, Kylo Ren strode off, passing the frozen blast, which, after a beat, went free and slammed into a nearby structure, scaring the trooper as he stumbled in surprise.

Some ways away from the village, a Stormtrooper climbed down from the cockpit of Poe's X-Wing after a search and backed away.

"Nothing here. Go ahead!" he called.

Three other Stormtroopers fired laser cannons at the X-Wing, destroying the ship in a large explosion.

In the outskirts of the Jakku village, the small, circular droid was rolling as fast as he could, away from the attack. The sudden explosion made him turn, flames of the X-Wing fireball reflecting in his black lenses. The fleet of ships that had arrived to capture him, and his friend flew away into the darkness. He gave a small, sad whir, wondering if he would ever see the cheerful pilot again. Afraid, he continued on his own in the mysterious, dark desert, beeping to himself, lonely and frightened.

XXX

With the sandy planet of Jakku as a backdrop, troop transports and Kylo Ren's shuttle approached massive Star Destroyer. As they landed, a shackled Poe was ushered roughly from the transport through the hangar. The pilot was disgruntled by this and yanked his arms free from the trooper's graps. He knew he was a prisoner of war, but the man could walk on his own.

"All right. All right!" Poe snarled, annoyed. He looked as if he was about to say more, but stopped, awed by the imposing space of the Star Destroyer. He had only ever really seen Resistance hangers, old, broken and beat up, some not even really designed for the rows of X-Wings that they had parked. The First Order hangar was sleek and smooth, almost ten times bigger than the Resistance's base. It was filled to the brim with TIE fighters and tens of thousands of troops filled the ship. The pilot blinked. What they were facing was even bigger than what he had imagined.

The blood marked Stormtrooper passed by Poe, moving fast. He entered a dark transport, removing his helmet. A man resurfaced, gasping, sweat beaded on his dark skin. He was likable, and faithful, but in this moment, terrified, and desperate. He didn't know what he had just witnessed. It was entirely different than what he had been taught to believe his entire life -the First Order was to bring peace and order to the galaxy. Not the bloodbath that had just occured. After a brief moment, he heard the sharp clattering of boots in the transport, and knew he was in trouble.

"FN-2187," Captain Phasma's said. "Submit your blaster for inspection."

"Yes, Captain," FN-2187 responded quickly.

She turned to leave, but then noticed a small detail and hesitated, giving him a steady look through her black lensed helmet. "And who gave you permission to remove that helmet?"

"I'm sorry, Captain," he replied.

"Report to my division at once," was all the Captain had to say as she marched off, blaster in hand.

Shattered, FN-2187 replaced his helmet.

XXX

"No! Don't leave me! Please! No!"

A young man with a strong jaw and dark blue eyes gasped, and bolted upright out of his cot, breathing hard and sweating. The scenery he was met with were hills and hills of desert sand, covered by what almost seemed like a thin blanket of dark blue, giving everything a blue tint. The effect made it as though he was sitting in an endless dark blue ocean.

It was still in the young hours of the morning, but the man got up, brushing a layer of sand off his face and chest that had stuck there from his sweat, and put on a thin tan colored robe over his bare shoulders. His R9-M5 unit beeped, concerned. His friend had been having more nightmare visions lately, and it wasn't good for him. The droid nudged the man's legs, trying to get him to go back to sleep.

"Arnine, I'll be fine," the man laughed the droid off.

The red and silver droid made a small noise that almost sounded like a snort and rolled back into the cave. The man watched from his hilltop home as the fallen AT-AT Walker beneath flickered with light. She too was awake. He knew she had been awake long before he had been. He knew she lay awake at night wondering if they were ever going to come back for her. He knew she would tally the days on her walls and she would recount how many days had passed. But most of all, he knew that she remembered nothing about him. "Rey," he whispered.