A klaxon began a deafening blast throughout the Starkiller Base. To all Stormtroopers, this signified only one thing: an interplanetary attack. One of these, FN-2187, sighed to himself as he made his way to the base armoury. More innocents slaughtered in the name of the First Order, he thought grimly. He was thoroughly sick of having to do "jobs", as the Stormtroopers called them. The term made him recoil; it was as if killing was a routine operation. It was, to his chagrin. Most of his colleagues had hardened hearts, and so were quite happy to obey the orders of their commander to kill.
FN-2187 had, admittedly, killed in the name of evil. At the time he did so because he was told to. Stormtrooper convention stated that it was grossly improper to defy orders from authority.
He would wake at night trembling from his scarily vivid dreams.
A child screaming as its mother was killed by a laser blast. Bodies strewn around the planet. The sickly smell of death. The endless sea of blood.
It all haunted his mind. This was why he wanted to defect from the First Order. To spare himself from the continuous and torturuous exploits. To spare himself from witnessing horror, murder and violence.
To be free.
"Get going!" shouted the commander impatiently.
FN-2187 started for the ship that would transport him to scenes he would not soon forget. He closed his eyes briefly and mentally made an apology for what he was going to do.
Rey awoke from yet another nightmare of familial abandonment. Her desperate plea as her brothers, sisters and parents hastily boarded a spacecraft. No words of encouragement. Nothing.
Just a deafening roar of engines and then complete, shattering silence.
Five-year-old Rey was alone, vulnerable and utterly inconsolable.
She snapped out of her thoughts and began to start preparing for breakfast. Even as she did so, she continued to be plagued by the horrible memories at the back of her mind.
Alone. The word spun around her head wildly, colliding with her emotions violently. She fought back tears as she started the stove. Her cruel mind was torturing her yet again.
She narrowed her eyes, determined not to let the past dictate her present and future. Her mind's grip on her faded as she sat down to eat. Try as she might, the word alone still lingered in her mind, taunting her as she chewed bacon.
Rey tried to concentrate on her idea of the lush, green planet with the quaint little village again, but her attempts were thwarted by that word again.
Come on. Green fields of untamed grass. Straw huts.
Alone.
No! Children playing in the outskirts of the village. Steam rising from the cooking of meat. Fertile fields...
Your family abandoned you. They never wanted you.
Rey stormed outside, clamouring for fresh air to clear her clouded and fragile state of mind.
She wanted freedom, freedom from the monotony of scrounging for ship parts. Freedom from the bland desert landscape.
Her time would come. For now, it was an arduous wait and she had to keep living.
One fateful night, her circumstances would change dramatically. Her freedom would be granted.