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

STAR WARS: STRUGGLE FOR VANDOR

It has been over two years since the death of SUPREME LEADER SNOKE

and the crippling of THE FIRST ORDER and THE RESISTANCE. The remaining

soldiers of both factions meet each other in skirmishes across the galaxy.

REY and her fellow heroes aboard the legendary starship THE MILLENNIUM

FALCON travel to the Mid-Rim planet VANDOR to gather support

for their cause, but they may already be too late...

Chewbacca brought the Millennium Falcon out of hyperspace behind Vandor's larger moon, and Rey watched as Poe Dameron's X-wing zipped in front of them and slowed to a stop on the edge of the moon. Rey reached up, and flipped the Falcon's radar on, using Poe's ship, Black 2, as a satellite. Lieutenant Kaydel Connix's voice came in over the cockpit's speakers, "There's a Dissident-class cruiser and couple dozen TIE fighters." Rey's heart dropped at the thought of losing another system to the First Order. "It looks like they're sending troops down to the planet via shuttle," Connix continued, "It looks like maybe they just arrived. I'm getting short range signals all across the planet talking about their arrival." Rey sprung into action, "Chewie, we need to get to Vandor as quickly as possible and land before they can pinpoint our heat signature." Rey pressed the transmission button on the Falcon's control hub, "Poe, we're headed planet-side, you'll need to cover us."

"Roger that." Poe's voice replied, followed by some beeps from BB-8. Finn, who was sitting behind Chewbacca, protested, "What?! We can't go up against that many fighters! They'll rip us apart!" Rey rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the armpit, dragging him out of the cockpit, "Shut up and jump in a quad cannon." Finn was now jogging behind her, and gave Rose Tico a nod of acknowledgement as they passed her. Rose wiped the sweat from her brow, unwittingly rubbing black grease across her forehead, "You're going to have limited range of vertical movement while the new scanning system is still up." "Don't touch those scanners!" Lieutenant Connix called from her communications hub in the engineering bay, "We'll never find a landing zone without them."

Finn climbed up the ladder to the quad cannon muttering to himself "that's great, that's really really great..."

Chewbacca's war came in over Rey's headset, and she could see the horizon of Vandor's moon disappearing under her. They passed over Poe Dameron, who looked up and gave a slight salute. Rey adjusted herself in her chair, gripping the controls of the quad laser. Connix's voice came in over the radio again, "Setting a path for seventy degrees east, looking for something along the equator. The First Order is headed for population center Fort Ypso, but most of the planet is accessible by Empire-era magna-rails, so we'll be able to access anywhere as long as we're near one." Rey took a breath and responded, somewhat annoyed, "We can worry about that later, just get what data you can and we'll analyze it on the ground. Is there any ship movement?" Lieutenant Connix paused a moment before replying, "The TIE fighters seem to be busy providing escorts to the shuttles. Maybe they aren't running their scanners."

Just then, a hail of laser fire erupted from the First Order cruiser. Chewbacca banked the Millennium Falcon to avoid it, but there was no need, as the lasers fell wide of the ship. "Incoming transmission," Connix said sheepishly, "Sorry about that. Patching it through." Rey stiffened as a familiar voice erupted in her ear, "The Millennium Falcon! What a wonderful day for General Armitage Hux of the Vulture to rise again in the First Order. Surrender now and you may be granted your lives!" Rey yelled down to Connix, "Kill the feed!"

Hux's voice was still blabbering about returning to glory as his voice was cut off by a soft blip. Rey brought her headset's microphone close to her mouth, "Punch it, Chewie." Chewbacca roared in response and brought thrusters to full speed, leaving Black 2 behind him as the Falcon raced toward Vandor. Poe Dameron laid in wait, invisible to the Vulture's scanners behind the orbiting body. Connix's voice came over the comms again, "TIE fighter's incoming, good luck." Poe counted a dozen fighters screaming toward his friends aboard the Millennium Falcon. BB-8 offered a few anxious whistles as he gripped his control stick. "Hold on, buddy, not until they're close enough to hit them..."

On board, Finn swung his quad-laser toward the incoming bogeys and let off a blast directly down the middle of the group. Four green laser bolts erupted from beneath him, but the fighters dodged them with ease, splitting up into four groups of three. "Wait until they get close," Rey called up the ladder, "Let the Force guide your hand." Finn shook his head and trained his turret on an incoming fighter, waiting for a chance to pull the trigger. A stream of green flew from the fighters, but Chewbacca was banking from port to starboard, and they whipped past the Falcon into empty space. More laser blasts whipped past Finn's turret, and he looked at the ship's stern to see a group of fighters hot on their tail.

Just as the fighters were launching another round of lasers, they were interrupted from behind by Poe Dameron. One after another, three TIE fighters exploded from a flurry of red lasers coming out of Poe's upgraded X-Wing. Each one was engulfed in a fireball, which immediately was dissipated by the vacuum of space. Finn smiled and turned his attention to the group of fighters coming in from above, and let out a volley at the same time they launched their own. Finn caught one on the wing, sending it spinning out of control toward Vandor. Finn braced himself as the other two fighters landed direct hits on the Falcon's shield, and bright blue flashes illuminated Finn's veiwscreen. More fighters flew past him, but he was unable to track them. In the other turret, Rey was whooping in excitement, and Finn heard similar exclamations coming from Poe over his headset.

"It looks like Hux is sending more TIE fighters over, I intercepted an order that they are only to target the Falcon," Lieutenant Connix informed the crew, "Chewbacca, I've sent you an updated course correction. We're going to try and lose the fighters in the magnetism of the mountain range." Finn gritted his teeth as he pulled the trigger on another passing fighter squad, this time catching one dead center with all four lasers. Black 2 flew past him, eliminating the surviving ships. Finn smiled, reassured by Dameron's expert piloting skills as the X-Wing turned back and took out a stray TIE fighter while inverted. The Millennium Falcon was close to the planet now, and Finn could see the Vulture disappearing behind the planet, along with the system's white sun. Six more TIE fighters were flying directly toward them at top speed.

Finn's stomach dropped as he felt the Falcon abandon artificial gravity, Chewbacca was diverting all power to the shields to buy them more time. A TIE fighter made a pass across their bow before Poe took it out, and Finn watched as a First Order pilot fell flailing toward Vandor's surface. "Last one is all yours," Poe said as he flew Black 2 at the next wave of TIE fighters. No longer in space, Finn's quad-laser cannon shook his seat as he let off a spurt of blasts at the remaining enemy. They fell short, and the fighter turned to take another shot. This time, the lasers penetrated the shields of the Millennium Falcon, and sparks flew around Finn as they struck the ship's hull. Finn shielded his eyes and managed to let off another round before the fighter flew below him, and he soon heard another cry of victory. "Got him!" Rey yelled up to Finn. "Good job!" He yelled back, turning his attention to where Poe had flown.

Black 2 and the First Order ships were on the other side of the clouds, which were alight in green and red flashes. Finn watched as flame and smoke erupted from the sky, and a burning TIE fighter was sent to its destruction. "Fly down into the range, Chewbacca, Commander Dameron will have to find us visually." Connix ordered. Finn felt his stomach rise as the Millennium Falcon descended into snowy, metallic mountains. Above them, the laserfire had ceased, and Finn saw a lone X-Wing fly down over the mountain range. An orange droid poked out under Black 2 and began to scan the range for a few moments, before the ship flew down towards the Falcon and flew low behind it.

Finn and Rey exited their turrets and met in the corridor, where Rose was kneeling with her head stuck into a wall panel and a mess of tools by her side. Rey was wearing a canvass vest with a beige shirt underneath. Her brown hair was falling loosely onto her shoulders as her thing lips smiled at Finn, her friendly hazel eyes alight with life. "That was amazing, Finn! We did it!" Finn couldn't help but return her natural excitement. Every time Rey walked into a room, it was suddenly filled with life, and Finn couldn't help but wonder if it was due to her connection to the Force or simply her natural charisma and beauty. Rey hugged him, gave him a kiss, and ran to the cockpit.

Finn and Rose were now alone in the corridor. Rose pulled her head out of the wall, looked up at Finn, and gave him an awkward smile. Finn smiled and walked past her. Two years ago, Rose had come out of a coma with no recollection of their kiss. Finn never had the courage to tell her, unsure and slightly afraid of what might evolve from it. He couldn't deny that he had feelings for both her and Rey. In the cockpit, Rey was in the copilot's seat with control of the Falcon. Chewbacca was scanning for a piece of land on which to land. Snow was whipping past the ship, making it seem like they were in hyperspace. Chewbacca let out a soft roar, and Rey steered the Millennium Falcon into a valley, landing near the foot of a grey and white hill.

Finn went to the loading dock, and lowered the ramp, and two porgs waddled down before retreating back from the cold. Finn walked down onto the cold ground of Vandor, breathing into his hands to keep them warm. Finn was chilly even though he was wearing the leather Resistance jacket Poe had given him years ago. Black 2 landed behind him, letting a hiss of steam from its exhaust port as it settled onto the ground. BB8 ejected itself from the bottom and rolled gleefully toward Finn and the Falcon. Finn leaned down and let the droid roll into his arms, and then watched him roll up the ramp. When Finn looked back to the X-Wing, Poe was walking across the barren earth in his flight gear, with a rucksack under his arm. Finn greeted him with a hug, and took the bag for him, "Man, you really saved us up there!" Poe smiled and pushed his curly, disheveled hair behind his ear, "Hey, I'm just doing my job, Finn, but our mission has barely started. Let's not get too excited."

The pair of friends climbed the ramp laughing, and Finn raised the ramp behind them. They assembled in the main hold with the rest of the crew. A few years ago, this would be a strange sight, but the Resistance had taken so many casualties that their very existence was a blessing. Poe Dameron was the ranking member of the Resistance, but Kaydel Connix was leading this mission on special instructions from Lieutenant Leia Organa. Leia had justified this by telling Poe he could take command at any moment, but his skills in combat were temporarily more valuable than his leadership as an officer.

Chewbacca, the owner of the Falcon and first pilot, was stretched out on the couch. His hair had trails of gray throughout, and he had to comb it more often than he used to in order to keep it from matting. Rose, the ship's engineer, was seated next to Chewbacca, resting her feet on BB-8. Rey was sitting cross-legged on the Dejarik table, waiting eagerly for their next move. Poe and Finn shooed some porgs away and sat on some cargo boxes and turned towards Lieutenant Connix. Kaydel was standing with perfect posture in the center of the room, hands behind her back. She had changed out of her resistance uniform into a tan, padded suit. Kaydel had soft facial features and brown eyes, and her hair was let down from the usual buns, falling loosely onto her chest. She took a deep breath before speaking to the crew of the Millennium Falcon.

"Welcome to Vandor, population one hundred million of sentient creatures. Fifty years ago, this was one of the first locations where the Rebellion agains the Empire was founded." Kaydel placed a personal hologram projector on the floor, and the ghostly blue image of Vandor came into being. "Vandor has been changing hands for decades between the Rebellion, the Empire, the Republic, First Order, and Resistance due to its resource rich environments. When Vice Admiral Holdo destroyed the First Order's fleet, the people of Vandor drove the First Order out. Now that Kylo Ren has consolidated power in the Order, Vandor has been deemed a high-value system for both factions. The local population might not be receptive to the resistance, but we're hoping to persuade them by recognizing their planetary government as legitimate."

Finn raised his hand, posing a question to Kaydel, "Why wasn't their government recognized before? Before the Republic fell." Poe leaned back against another box of cargo, "Because they're criminals, aren't they, Lieutenant Connix?" Kaydel nodded, ever so slightly, "The current government is a coalition of criminal organizations, led by the Crimson Dawn and the Cloud Riders. The Cloud Riders seems to be our best bet, as General Organa was once close with their leader. Commander Dameron, would you please open that container you're sitting on." Poe Dameron hopped off the container, and opened the latch with a smack of his fist. The box swung open, revealing two dozen blaster rifles, along with thermal detonators and a large rocket launcher.

Finn hopped off his box in surprise. Lieutenant Connix laughed and said, "Don't worry, Finn, that one only has Bacta. As the rest of you might have guessed by now, this expedition is a significant investment for the Resistance." Poe frowned and pulled the lid of the box of armaments closed, "So our plan is to start a war against trained First Order storm troopers by giving guns to civilians, or are we just arms dealers now?" Kaydel's voice heightened, "Our plan is to make contact with the Cloud Riders with the intent to ally against the First Order, and if necessary apply leverage in the form of arms and medicine."

Poe stood up, towering over Lieutenant Connix, "If those are General Organa's orders, then I'll follow them, but I'm not going to let these fall into the hands of the wrong person." Poe paused a minute, obviously frustrated, "and I'm not going to let innocent people die in this war. They've already had enough of that on this planet." Poe left the room to the Engineering Bay, and the Wookie growled in agreement. Kaydel nodded and addressed the rest of the crew. "Very well then, I've disguised our location to radar and thermal imaging, so we'll be proceeding on foot. Chewbacca and Rose, you'll stay with the Millennium Falcon. The rest of us will proceed on foot to the magna-rail. We'll catch a ride to the next town over and try and make contact with the Cloud Riders. We'll radio in when we need you."

Kaydel looked at the crew, reassured by Rey's beaming smile. "Very well, then. We leave in one hour. Dismissed."