Hi guys! I saw Solo: A Star Wars Story recently and thought that the character of Enfys Nest was fascinating, so here's something I just felt inspired to write. Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in Star Wars.
Hope you enjoy! -Amanda
The bunker was booming now with the heavy footfalls of stormtroopers. By the sound, Enfys estimated that an entire legion had been deployed to hunt them down, maybe more. The game was finally up. Quickly she descended into the bunker, through the increasingly winding tunnels and cramped spaces, toward the computer room. Finally, she reached the metal door, quickly typing in a code so that it slid up with a metallic shriek.
The room within was cramped, but it glowed with the red, yellows and greens of computer screens and control boards. With a twang, Enfys remembered the first time she had entered the room. It had been a cave then, stalactites still spouting from the ceiling. There had been only a single computer then, stolen by Weazel when he ran from the Hutt. The coaxium had bought the rest, and it was here that the Rebellion had begun, five years before. She refused to let it end here as well.
Quickly Enfys dashed to the largest computer, located in the center of the room. Her fingers flew over the keys. All the intelligence the Rebellion had gathered so far was stored here; secret plans, weapons, blueprints, and allies. If the Empire gained it, the Rebellion was finished. Every last Rebel ally would be hunted and killed in a matter of days.
She began downloading the data to a flash drive, praying that there would be enough time to get the information into the drive and to wipe the computers as well. But she was beginning to hear boots in the distance, even from this remote corner of bunker. They weren't a good sign. She tried not to think about her warriors- her friends- standing inside the entrance, making their last defiant stance against the Empire's power. She had seen the looks in their eyes before she had come down here to make her last desperate move. They knew the stakes; knew that this was the one fight they they wouldn't make it out of. Yet they remained, guns drawn, their profiles faintly outlined in the dim light of the bunker. Then the door had blasted open, and the Empire began their genocide.
She heard the metallic shriek of the door opening, and she whirled to face it, brandishing her javelin. But it was just young boy, a face she had seen in the bunker before but could not put a name to. The metallic door hissed shut behind him, and Enfys relaxed, though the boy's eyes remained wide with fear. He was scrawny; dirty blonde hair lay in a tousled mess on his head. He looked young, perhaps fourteen at the oldest. Enfys' heart panged. He was the same age as she had been when she had led the Cloud Riders and formed the Rebellion, after Han Solo had given her the coaxium.
"You're a rebel" she said. "Please, remind me of your name."
The boy still looked on edge. She noticed a red stain on his shirt, and her throat threatened to close.
"I'm Jay" he finally said, "I work in the computer room, I just came to check…"
"Then you know what is on these computers."
Jay hesitated, then nodded.
"And you know why it is imperative that this information is prevented from getting into the wrong hands"
Jay nodded again.
"Then you must listen very carefully to me, Jay. In this room I had a tunnel built. It's a long walk, but it's sturdy, I assure you." Enfys led Jay around to a cabinet, and with a heave she pushed it aside, revealing a tiny trapdoor. "It will lead you to a very small bunker, with a ship, small enough that it can be cloaked. You can escape unnoticed." Jay's eyes shot to hers. They were a stormy gray, and they raged with uncertainty.
"Me? I'm just a computer guy."
"Then you will do fine flying the ship, I'm sure of it"
The booming of the stormtrooper's boots was growing ever louder, the thumping laced with the high pitched blasts of guns.
Enfys knew that time was running out. She led Jay over to the computer. The download was complete, and she yanked the flashdrive from the computer, placing it in Jay's hand and folding his fingers over it. She looked into the young boy's eyes.
"The Rebellion rests with you now, Jay. There is a man, on Tatooine. His name is Ben Kenobi. You must bring this to him if we are to have any hope."
Jay's hands were shaking. "General Nest, won't you come with me? Please, I can't do this on my own!"
Enfys shook her head. "The computer will take minutes to delete all the data, and I must stop the Empire from getting it."
The banging was even louder. Enfys knew they had just a minute left, and gently she pushed Jay toward the trapdoor. He shook his head, and she saw tears forming in his eyes as he protested.
"You take it. Please. The Rebellion needs you more than they need me. If you stay…"
She placed a hand on his shoulder.
"The Empire took my life from me, once, for a cause I did not believe in. It would be my honor to give my life now for a cause that I do."
Jay hesitated, but she saw his teeth clench, his shoulders straighten imperceptibly. He nodded, and then he was gone, vanished into the darkness of the tunnel.
Enfys dragged the cabinet back over the door, pausing just a moment to touch it, letting her thoughts go to Jay. In his hand was held everything she had given her life for, all of the hope of ending the carnage that the Empire had rent on the galaxy for so long. Then she turned and strode away from the door, past the deleting computer, erasing everything her people had spent countless years and lives acquiring. The metal door slid up, and she brandished her javelin one last time.
Already the stormtroopers were rounding the corner, sending red streaking past her. She took the first few out easily. She remembered the exhilaration of setting up the base with her Cloud Raiders, of the coaxium lighting up the cave that first night, when they had rested together and planned how to use it; how to build the Rebellion.
More stormtroopers came; again she dodged their blasters, cutting them down easily.
She remembered how the recruits had come: orphans, impoverished, outsiders of every species, all of them with stories of tragedy; all of them willing to give their lives to take down the Empire that had taken everything from them.
A blast caught her in the arm, making her stagger; it was the trooper's last act.
She remembered fire, screaming...her mother telling her to run. How she had hidden in the mountains until it was over, and how she had returned and found only ash; the remnants of her childhood. She had let it run through her fingers; she could still remember how it felt on her skin.
Another blast hit her stomach, sending her flying back. She didn't feel any pain, so she got back up and kept fighting, as she always had, as she always would.
She remembered when Batcha and Weazel had led that raid on a Star Destroyer… how they had escaped with information on the blueprints, but not their lives.
There were too many of them. Her javelin was knocked from her hands, and several blasts finally took her to the ground. She could no longer see, could no longer feel her body. She hoped she had done enough.
In a room nearby, the message "Deletion Complete" blinked on a computer screen. A stormtrooper smashed through its screen in frustration.
In a dark, cramped tunnel, a 15 year old boy ran for his life, the hope of millions clutched in his hand.
On another planet, an old man named Ben Kenobi watched two suns setting over the desert, the land finally blessed with the coolness of night. Not far away, a boy slept in his bed, dreaming of the stars.
Enfys closed her eyes, and became one with it all.