Author's Note: Hi! I had a five hour flight on which to write uninterrupted so here's part 2. Unfortunately I can't promise regular updates with speed like this, you'll come to know me as a painfully slow writer, but the story will go on regardless. If you're feeling kind, review or follow, if not, then have a fantastic day anyway... enjoy!
Part II: The Invisible Eclipse in the Sky
"Captain Eclipse, we have about thirty TIE fighters swarming around my master's location, should we do anything about that? It would be a shame for me to be unable to fulfil my programing because of these pesky First Order pilots," Proxy drawled in his oddly chipper voice from the training area in the aft of the Rogue Shadow.
Proxy, the incredibly sophisticated training droid made his way into the co-pilot's chair as Captain Juno Eclipse as she evened out her rapid descent. The woman at the helm scowled for a moment before replying, "I think it'll take more than a few TIEs to kill Galen. For the moment we won't engage until they disperse a bit so we can take them down one at a time rather than have them all return fire at us as a united front." She paused for a minute before turning to her friendlily sadistic companion, "I thought Galen overwrote your base programing that Darth Vader saddled you with."
"Well, no. He considered it, but decided that I keep him on his toes when I'm still programmed to kill him one day." Proxy replied with glee. Juno just rolled her eyes and returned her full attention to flying the ship. The castle in which the cantina resided began to crumble as two TIE fighters did a fly-by, beaming it twice in the towers. They peeled off away from the rest, flying over the forest. Scarecely watching the place collapse; Juno accelerated, overtaking them, and then flipping around, switching on the relatively recently installed reverse thrusters, keeping pace with them while facing them at the same time. Captain Eclipse briefly lifted the active camouflage and fired two quick shots into the cockpits of the TIEs killing them both instantly. After watching both burning husks crash into the woods, Juno flipped the ship again into active camouflage mode and turned back on the forward thrusters, bringing the ship about for a pass to surveil the ruins of Maz's Cantina.
"Galen, are you there? Looks like you got a roof dropped on you a little bit." Juno spoke into the dashboard communicator with her lilty snark. There was about a ten second silence before she got her reply.
"Juno? You didn't let Proxy try to kill me did you? I had to save some people with the Force, though it seems they aren't normal since Maz seems to trust them." Galen replied jokingly, if a little strained. Juno glanced down at the ruins to see a large section of rubble shift to reveal a Wookie and an older fellow step out into the firefight weapons blazing, with storm troopers paying the price.
"Galen, we've got some X-wings inbound, so there's going t be some more fire in the sky. When they arrive I'm going to deactivate camo and properly join the fight." She paused, looking at the indicator on her dash, she addressed Proxy, " Grab my blade and put some armour on, there isn't much more we can do from the sky that'll make a difference." Proxy nodded and withdrew to the vault where the weapons and armour were kept.
As she was hoping, the X-wing pilots proved to be a match for the TIE pilots, in three cases, far more than a match for their First Order counterparts. Wow, one of them took down at least eight of them in quick succession and the two fighters who re-joined it in a flanking position put several away apiece as well. Proxy had returned, handing his captain an ornate silver hilt trimmed with black and gold. She clipped it to her belt opposite her blaster. The special black-winged shuttle was just departing; maybe there was one thing that she could do. The Rogue Shadow ascended with the winged shuttle, active camouflage engaged again as Captain Eclipse readied her shot. As if on cue, Starkiller came back on the comms, "Juno! Don't shoot down the shuttle. The girl with the Force is on there!" Juno's hands relaxed on the trigger and she fell back as the shuttle and its escort ascended into high atmosphere while she brought the Rogue Shadow back around towards the wrecked cantina.
"Well, the shuttle's gone obviously, I'm coming down to you now. Any luck locating who we were looking for?" Juno replied resigned, sitting back in her chair as she eased into a controlled descent on the edge of the forest.
The rest of the TIE fighters had left following the exit of their commanding officer in the shuttle no doubt. Captain Eclipse disengaged the active camouflage, settling her ship down adjacent the Millennium Falcon. "I'm afraid not, Maz said they left before we even got here. I think Hondo might be throwing us for another loop. We'll have to check in with him later, but things have changed." Starkiller hesitated before adding, "I feel we might be needed here." Galen shut off his comms, as Juno emerged from her cabin adorned in a mobile armoured suit of Mandalorian origin, with a few choice alterations made by Juno since the original make left some glaring vulnerabilities and pink just wasn't her colour anyway. It was a bit lighter than the ones that Proxy and Galen wore, since they had advanced mechanics and the Force to aid their respective movements. But the contrast in the weight of their armours allowed Juno to move quicker quieter, befitting a stealth-minded fighter like her anyway. Starkiller and Proxy didn't have Mandalorian armour as Juno's was a gift from one of her old friends who used to run with the Rebel Alliance, a young woman at that time named Sabine Ren. The ramp lowered amid the smoke as Juno Eclipse and Proxy disembarked, heading for the others. "I suppose we'll have to postpone our daily sparing sessions for the foreseeable future until this mess is sorted," Juno said as they navigated around the mangled corpses of both bar patron and storm trooper alike.
"I believe you are correct, though I doubt a few missed training sessions will hinder you much. For a non-dominant Force user, you are a prodigious study in the known forms of lightsaber combat. Lord Vader himself would've been pleased" Proxy supplied encouragingly.
"Nonsense. That thing thought of me as nothing more than leverage, and besides, Darth Vader's approval was limited to acts of murder, so I'm afraid I'd have ended up disappointing him anyway." Juno replied flippantly, though inwardly smiling at Proxy's praise, his invocation of that long dead Sith Lord was the highest praise he knew. "I'm still no match for a fully-trained Jedi or Sith. But anything less than that would be contestable. Even with a prosthetic arm," Juno bent to pick up a small stone in her now ironically dominant left hand and crushed it into dust to illustrate her point. Juno peered around the wreckage, looking for her friend. Instead, her eyes found a young man sprinting through the rubble clutching a lightsaber in his right hand. Well, that's certainly something not seen every decade, Juno beckoned to Proxy as they followed the young man to the rest of his party.
Han Solo. So that's why things changed, Juno surmised as she passed the old smuggler ogling a descending shuttle; a legendary reputation for attracting trouble, and in the same cantina that was bombed by the First Order; which happened to be the cantina owned by Maz Kanata of all people, to which they were directed by Hondo, who had his own turbulent relationship with the Old Jedi Order if the Galactic Empire's records were to be trusted. Galen would say it's the will of the Force, but as relative outsider, Juno just considered theses events lining up to be nothing short of irritating if mildly interesting.
Like a delayed action bomb, something that Proxy said earlier hit her, "What do you mean non-dominant Force user?" She turned to Proxy as they continued to walk around the ruins.
"Master Galen says that the living force touches all. Though only precious few have the rapport with it that a Jedi or a Sith would. Everyone's on the spectrum, it's why there were Jedi he was able to defeat with far less time spent using the force, it's not all about effort. The Force affects everything, from lightsaber combat to piloting to successful and intelligent diplomatic skills. Non-dominant only means that you don't access it as readily as Master Galen or the Jedi of old. But you still have it. Everybody does. At least according to what my master says and archive records I've come across that were in the possession of Darth Vader at the time of his death." Proxy finished his explanation as they both laid eyes on their friend Galen Marek, also known interchangeably as Starkiller, though less frequently called that since The First Order filched that name from the archives of the Galactic Empire, seeking a name for their now planet-murdering base. They apparently found the Starkiller moniker applicable since the records showed him to be a dangerous experiment that went wrong, costing the Empire several Destroyers and a frightful plurality of casualties: a nightmare for foot soldiers of the Empire, officer and storm trooper alike.
"Master!" Proxy exclaimed as they came face to face with Galen. He was coated with dust, but other than that he was unfazed by the First Order's attack. He smiled at the appearance of his friends and was accompanied by the renowned Maz Kanata. The small sage looked up at the new arrivals and nodded at Juno, "Fancy flying Captain." she said with a twinkle in her magnified eyes.
Juno smiled and nodded her thanks, though her brow furrowed a smidge, wondering if, then how the little creature knew it was her who shot down the pilots who blew up the cantina. Then it clicked, of course it did, the Force, that's how. "So," she addressed both of the adept Force users in front of her with the only important question really, "Why did you stop me from sinking the Black-wing? Who's the girl?"