"I'm going, I have to" said General Leia Organa, leader of the Resistance. "The Onderon's won't treat with anyone else. We need their support if we want to defeat the First Order"
Poe Dameron listened as the general explained her position. They were in the general's office at Resistance headquarters. Onderon was a planet in the Inner Rim and it had recently sent a message to the Resistance, informing them that they would agree to support the Resistance, but only if it was General Leia herself who went and worked out the details. No doubt they'd heard of her skills in diplomacy, and surely they remembered the part she played in toppling the Empire. But that didn't mean he had to like it.
"I want to come with you, I have to" said Poe, the pilot had been informed of Onderon's potential support, and had instantly volunteered to escort her there, the general, however, had refused his offer, telling him he had to stay and wait from word of Rey about Luke. A couple of weeks ago, R2-D2 had mysteriously woken up after being on low-power mode for several years, and had revealed the last piece of the map that BB-8 had provided. The map had revealed the location of Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, and hero of the republic, the man who had helped topple the Empire and brother to Leia Organa. He had secluded himself away from the galaxy after his attempt to train a new generation of Jedi had gone wrong when one of his pupils, Ben Solo, also his nephew, had been seduced to the dark side of the force by Supreme Leader Snoke, and killed all the other apprentice Jedi. Rey had taken the Millennium Falconand Chewbacca to the planet Luke was hiding on, to ask for his help in defeating the First Order, a remnant of the tyrannical Empire. So far Rey had not reported back to the Resistance or to Leia. When Poe suggested that they send reinforcements just in case, the general had told him no, saying that she felt Rey had made it. Poe assumed she meant she felt it in the Force. Poe was not Force-sensitive, but he did believe in the Force and the Jedi and the Sith. In his many days flying for the New Republic and the Resistance, he'd seen too much not to believe in the Force.
"As already told you, this is a diplomatic mission, not a military one. I won't need you on Onderon. Besides, if I'm gone, who is going to run the Resistance" said the general.
"Ackbar, he's been with you for over thirty years, surely you trust him enough to leave him in charge" said Poe.
"Of course I trust Ackbar, but he sees the First Order everywhere, he'd happily invade a peaceful planet if he suspected it housed Snoke."
As much as Poe wanted to argue with her, she was right. He was the logical choice, he'd been with Leia and the Resistance for years, he was cool and calm under pressure, and he had a logical mind.
"Fine, leave without me. But it doesn't mean I have to like it".
The general smiled, and said to Poe "I trust you".
The next day, Leia left the Resistance headquarters at 0900 hours, onboard a shuttle carrying her, half a dozen guards and a pilot. Even using hyper speed, it would take her a couple of hours to reach Onderon, there; she would work out a treaty with their king, who had allied his planet with the New Republic almost as soon as its inception three decades ago. Poe watched the shuttle take off and leave the atmosphere of the planet, before entering hyper speed and travelling thousands of miles an hour per second.
Twelve hours later, Poe was asleep in the temporary office he'd been given in the general's absence when he was awakened by a young Resistance messenger, looking shocked and horrified. Poe immediately registered the look on his face and said, in a shaky tone, "what?"
The news raced through his head as he ran to the main room on the base. When he got there, everybody was standing around with solemn looks on their faces, not doing anything. Poe thought he heard someone crying. General Jacen S'orik, a high-ranking Resistance officer who'd led battles on numerous planets, one of the strongest men Poe knew, had tears welling in his eyes.
"So then, it's true?" asked Poe.
General S'orik nodded, and in a shaking tone of voice, said "General Organa's dead"
The tears started to appear in Poe's eyes as well, but he held them back, now more than ever he had to be strong.
"How?" he asked. The messenger had not given the exact details of the general's death.
"The First Order. On her way back from the peace treaty, her shuttle was ambushed and destroyed by a First Order Star Destroyer" said S'orik, "we don't know how they knew of the general's location, but we suspect there's a spy in the Resistance. Somewhere higher up in the ranks, only a few dozen people knew of her mission."
Poe nodded, and then said "find the spy, and then bring him to me. I want to interrogate him before he's imprisoned"
S'orik nodded, and Poe went back to his office, where he finally let go and all the tears came out of him. The general, no, Leia, had been more of a leader to him, she'd been a mother, not just to him but to everybody she met, the entire Resistance owed her a debt of favour. Without her, the First Order would be in a severely strengthened position. Unless Luke Skywalker agreed to help them, they would fail and tyranny would return to the galaxy, perhaps forever.