"This is Black Leader requesting permission to land."
"Permission granted."
Poe Dameron quickly jumped out of his X-Wing, followed closely by his BB unit. He paused and peeled off his helmet and glanced down at his BB unit before making his way around his X-Wing, meeting the officer waiting for him.
"Sir, General Organa has requested your presence in the command center."
Poe nodded his head and extended his arm, "lead the way."
"You want me to what?!" Poe dragged his hand down his face and let out a long sigh. "You're asking me to purposely get caught by the First Order on Jakku?"
"I know it sounds ridiculous-"
"It sounds like a suicide mission!"
"-But I can only trust you to get this done for me."
Poe sent General Organa a halfhearted glare and sat down, Organa kneeling down in front of him.
"I can understand your hesitance, and I'm sorry that I have to ask you to do this, but I have a contact inside the First Order that needs to be extracted immediately. Her name is Marsa Carrillo, she used to be a pilot for us. She went missing over two years ago and I haven't had any contact with her until two days ago when I got an urgent message."
Poe's eyes narrowed and leaned forward. "What did the message say?"
"Vanocolate. It's... a code word that we set up right when she joined. If you agree to this you are planned to leave before dark. What's your choice?"
"Come on BB-8! Hurry!" Poe dashes through the panic-stricken village as he runs towards his X-Wing, the sound of blasters going off behind him. He slides across the sand, barely missing a blaster shot. He stops at the side of his X-Wing and crouches down to BB-8's level, quickly pulling out the map piece from his pocket and extending it towards BB-8.
"You take this. It's safer with you than it is with me. You get as far away from here as you can. Do you hear me?" Poe roughly pushes BB-8 in the opposite direction before slowly standing to his full height. He takes a deep breath taking slow, cautious steps forward. Dropping his blaster beside him on the ground, he quietly makes his way forward, his hands raised as he draws closer to the Stormtroopers.
"I surrender! I surrender!" Poe steeled himself as two troopers advanced toward him, their blasters aimed at him. Poe doubled over when the two troopers slammed the butt of their blasters into him, silently cursing whoever he was supposed to be extracting for causing this. The troopers dragged him forward to the masked man ahead of them, his breath coming out labored as he could feel his chest already bruising.
The troopers stopped, the masked man kneeling down in front of him.
"So who talks first? You talk first? It's just very hard to understand you with all the... Apparatus." Poe raised a hand and gestured to the man's face.
"Search him." The Troopers roughly pull Poe away. A Stormtrooper begins a brutal pat down. Poe glares at the man in front of him as he moves closer.
"Nothing sir."
"Put him on board."
Poe couldn't remember the last time he had felt pain like that. Sure, he had been knocked around during missions before but never has someone ripped through his mind like that. He opened his eyes at the sound of troopers conversing outside his cell. Poe raised a hand to his forehead, his fingers coming back bloodied.
"Ren wants the prisoner."
Poe's shackles unclasped, leaving a surprised look on his face. He glanced up and squinted at the new trooper, the trooper grabbing Poe's upper arm, hauling him out of the room. The halls blurred past him, his eyes unable to focus on anything properly. The trooper shoved him into a small corner "turn here." Poe leaned against the wall and closed his eyes, his muscles on fire.
"Listen carefully. Listen carefully: you do exactly as I say, I can get you out of here."
Poe stuttered, confused. "If- what?"
The trooper pulled off his helmet. "This is a rescue, I'm helping you escape. Can you fly a TIE fighter?"
Poe gave a dull smirk "I can fly anything."
The trooper gave a large grin before sliding his helmet back on and grabbing Poe's arm again and heading back into the hall. Before the two of them could get very far a voice rang out in the empty hallway.
"And who gave you permission to move the pilot, FN-2187?"
The trooper- FN-2187- slowly turned around, his blaster slowly lowering from Poe's side. A shorter woman stood at the end of the hallway, dressed in unofficial clothes, her hair tied back in a tight bun.
"General Becten. Lord Ren has requested his presence."
General Becten tsked and shook her head. "That's funny 2187 because I was just with Ren. So I'll ask again. Who gave you permission?"
FN-2187 looked panicked. He glanced down at Poe for help.
Poe coughed and muttered the word 'Vanocolate,' 2187 quickly looking back to the General.
"Lieutenant Vanocolate, Ma'am."
The General looked shocked and crossed the space between them while Poe looked at the shorter woman out of curiosity.
"FN-2187, please report to my office with the Pilot for punishment." She growled and spun on her heel, taking long strides as she walked away.
FN-2187 started to move after her and dragged Poe along. Poe stumbled slightly before regaining his balance, letting out a long sigh.
"Who the hell is that?" Poe growled, tugging FN to face him.
"General Marsa Becten Carrillo. Showed up two years ago, one of the few people that can hold in a fight with Kylo Ren. Now hurry up, we need to follow her."
Poe's eyes widened and he quietly followed FN. Poe couldn't focus too hard as FN dragged him through the hallways to follow Becten. His mind raced. Is she a General? I thought she was going to be a prisoner. How the hell am I going to get her off this base? They came to an abrupt stop outside a black door, 'General Becten' inscribed on the door. FN slowly pushes the door open, revealing a large room similar to that of a control room, with computers everywhere. Poe's eyes snapped back to the center of the room when a cough broke his staring. Becten sat on a large desk at the center of the room, her arms crossed over her chest, a scowl etched on her face.
"Take a seat boys." She gestured to the two chairs in front of her and waited as the pair of them slowly sat down. She gestured to FN's helmet, "take that ridiculous thing off."
FN quickly peels his helmet off, reveling his panicked, sweat covered face. He sent a nervous glance at Poe, his head snapping back towards Becten when the sound of a blaster charging
Within seconds she had a blaster aimed at FN, the look of shock was quick to take over as he stuttered.
Poe sobered up fast as he shot to his feet, one hand outstretched as the other braced himself against the chair he was just sitting in. "Whoa, calm down." Poe rapidly blinked is eyes to clear away the darkness creeping into his vision and leaned more of his body weight against the chair.
Becten turned and looked at Poe with narrowed eyes, her blaster still aimed at FN. "Ah... The Pilot. I've heard quite a lot about you." She smiled, her cold gaze softening.
Poe gave her his signature smirk though it looked more like a grimace before passing out.