And we have another one! I am not sure how often I'll be able to update or how long the story will be, but as long as you enjoy it I'll keep writing. Thank you for all the faves, follows and reviews. Seriously, it's been amazing! I have never had such a response before!
Forgive any spelling errors, though I try to limit them.
Lets get on with it then!
Chapter III
Finn was sure he was going to die.
"I can't do this!" He said into the comm of his pilot helmet as he had a death grip on the stick of his X-wing.
"Negative on that, Blue 4, you've got plenty of room on either side." Said the voice of a calm woman on the other end, named Mara, who was doubtlessly enjoying a hot drink of some kind judging by the occasional slurps Finn kept hearing. Or she was a non-humanoid. Finn hadn't exactly gotten used to being around those yet.
Having been in flight training for well over eight months, Finn was doing his best to pilot his X-wing through a massive asteroid belt, trying to weave his way through the giant space mountains. In a cold, nervous sweat, Finn tried to steady himself with regular, deep breaths. He had been in countless simulations during the past weeks, including both Death Star runs and a special scenario designed by the late Rogue Leader Antilles himself called 'Wedge's Gamble' which took place over Coruscant.
But all those had been fake on some level despite the great effort to make them feel real. Therefore, a test in a more hazardous and probable environment was inevitable. Finn had to fly into the belt, find five moving probes, tag each one with simulated fire, and return to the heavy cruiser Red Katarn for the next rookie pilot to fly. Finn knew he wasn't anywhere near the top of his class. And to make matters worst, he was picked to go first, which would mark the time to beat for everyone else.
"These meteors are getting closer," Finn turned his head from side to side, feeling trapped at nearly every angle. "I'm going to get sideswiped and be a stain on some forsaken rock!"
"Blue 4, you have more than enough room to maneuver. The asteroids, not meteors,are very large and move slowly. We chose a section of the belt that doesn't contain a lot of collision activity, so put aside your fears and focus on your assignment ." Mara said over the comm to reassured him. "Trust your droid, trust your ship, trust your training and trust yourself. Got it?"
Finn took a deep breath through his nose. "Aye, ma'am!"
Pressing down on the acceleration clutch under his right foot, Finn fired his X-wing forward, swinging the ship around the titanic rocks as his datascreen displayed the nearest probe.
"R2-M6," Finn told his purple astomech, "Keep an eye out for any surprises while I concentrate on tagging the target."
The whistle of confirmation was all Finn needed to kick it into high gear. Rounding an asteroid the shape of a rough diamond, Finn saw a small, silver glint in the darkness just as the probe appeared on his scanner. Finn positioned his X-wing, aiming the probe into his cross-hairs and fired. Though the lasers blasts were tuned down to 0.001%, the bolts shone red and bright as they sped off from their guns and harmlessly hit the probe.
"Confirm hit!" Finn smiled.
"Hit confirmed. Bringing up second target."
A beep came from Finn's datascreen and showed him the quickest route to the next probe. This continued on through the rest of the test. Whenever Finn hit a probe, the next would be lit, and the next after. Each one was a little trickier to hit as the probe moved at a slightly more accelerated pace each time. In fact, the fourth one was going so fast Finn couldn't close the gap as they raced through the belt and had to fire at maximum distance when he got a clear shot.
"That one was rough!" Finn remarked as he turned to avoid collision with a smaller asteroid that had managed to bounce its way to the outer edges of the belt. "I wonder what surprises the last one will have for us, eh M6?"
Suddenly Finn's ship screamed an alarm at him.
"What do you mean I've been hit?!" Finn cried, seeing on the screen that his rear shields were down 20%. It wasn't his real shields, only simulated ones like the weakened quad-lasers, but still...
Then a Tie Fighter flew by over head at blinding speed.
"There's your last target, Blue 4." The comm-woman announced cheekily. "Go get 'em!"
Finn flew and fought with his last "probe" for ten minutes, getting more and more frustrated with every miss he had and every hit his opponent made. The Tie was able to fly in loops like a springed coil, pulling off maneuvers as though it were in open space rather than an asteroid belt.
"I can't believe this!" Finn growled as he struggled to follow, "Whoever is flying that retired model Tie Fighter is one hell of a pilot..."
Suddenly it dawned on him.
"Poe is flying that Fighter!" Finn wanted to kick himself. The ace pilot had been acting nonchalant all week, which certainly explained a lot! The whole time he had been secretly anxious to put the rookies in their place! "M6, how are we supposed to compete with the best pilot in the Resistance?"
Well, Finn had just about enough surprises for this test. It was time to pull out some of his own. As he flew, Finn quickly began typing on his datascreen. "M6, please broadcast the comm over this frequency. I want to have a little chat with our friend."
M6 let Finn know the job was done with a series of quick beeps.
Finn spoke into his headset, "I thought you were supposed to be good, Poe. How is it you haven't knocked out my shields yet?"
The voice of the older pilot laughed in Finn's ear. "You knew the frequency of this model of antique Tie Fighter! I'm impressed! But don't forget that it's your job to take me out."
"Is this the thanks I get for saving you from the First Order?" Finn teased, tailing Poe, trying in vain to hit the Tie. "I shoud've just flown myself out that day."
"You would've been hit." Poe mocked back.
"We were hit, ace pilot!" Finn laughed, squeezing the trigger on his stick repeatedly. One laser tagged Poe's left wing as he began to turn. "Ha! Got ya!"
"Good job, buddy!" The man's smile could easily be heard in his voice. "Poe to Mara, hit confirmed. Test over. We're coming home!"
"Over? I only hit you once." Finn frowned, guiding his X-wing to follow Poe's Tie as it left the asteroid belt and headed back to the Red Katarn.
"That was the objective, to get me once." Poe explained, "I just had to make it hard for you while hitting you now and then, putting you under pressure. If my goal was to take you out it would've been over in seconds."
"Oh..." Finn sighed. For a moment he had allowed himself to think he was going to be able to brag that he had outmatched the great Poe Dameron in a dogfight. No such luck.
"Hey, you did well with a respectable time and you have the rest of the day off. Enjoy it!" Poe said cheerfully. "I, on the other hand, have another twenty pilots to test. Oh, and don't tell anyone about the twist sneak attack at the end. Even that new girl, what's her name..."
"Kira." Finn answered, a little too quickly for his liking. "Kira Jade."
"Oh. On a first name basis, I see." Poe said slyly from inside the cockpit of a ship Finn had seen far too often in his life. "I guess that first date went well, then?"
"It wasn't a date." Finn said.
"It was dinner." Poe shot back.
"It was in the mess hall." The former trooper clarified.
"An empty mess hall. Late at night. Just the two of you."
Finn could imagine the grin on his friend's face. "Will you just stop?"
"Hey, she's one of the best candidates in your unit. I'd say she's a catch! And what's more, she seems to like you, for some reason." Poe stabbed again. "Maybe she's got a thing for turncoats!"
"That it!" Finn swung his X-wing at Poe's fighter. "M6, bring the quad-lasers to 100%! I'm going to blow this loud mouth to oblivion and make him a legend!"
"Alright, boys." Mara said patiently over the comm. "As much as I love to hear the two of you gossip, no killing or damaging what few fighter ships the Resistance has. Now hurry up and get back here, Blue 4. We've got a line of young pilots waiting, including your new girlfriend."
"She's not my girlfriend!" Finn insisted as he could hear Dameron burst into laughter. "See what you did, Poe!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
By the time Finn had parked his X-wing, was evaluated on his test, congratulated by his peers, went to his quarters and showered, his stomach was growling for a meal. Supper was still an hour away, so after drying himself off and putting on a pair of pants, Finn decided to take a short nap and climbed into his bottom bunk. But after twenty minutes of tossing and turning, the young man found himself unable to close his eyes for good.
Instead, Finn got up and went to his dresser. Staring at the top drawer, Finn's hand hesitated to open it, knowing full well what was inside. It was the gift that General Organa herself gave him for his bravery during the battle with the First Order and the destruction of Starkiller Base.
"I don't want your cybernetic spine to be the only thing you remember that day by." The older woman had expressed to him less than a week after he awoke from his coma. "Rey told me what you did for her and for our pilots. You stood up to my...my s-son, and saved Rey's life. You paid a price, but I sense you would do it again without a second's hesitation."
Finn had wanted to say something about Han Solo and that he had been the real hero that day, but thought it was better and more respectful to keep quiet.
Leia had continued, "I want you to have something very special. It belonged to a young rebel before the destruction of the first Death Star, before there even was a Rebel Alliance. He was part of a brave team that helped my father and our cause during the darkest years of the Empire. He was a Force user named Ezra Bridger. This was his."
Finn opened his drawer, looking at the weapon the general had given him a year earlier. At first glance it looked like an oddly shaped, rectangular blaster. But a closer inspection revealed it had a lightsaber as a grip, making it a hybrid of the two. He remembered his reaction, having refused at first.
"I'm not a Force user." He had said.
The general had smiled knowingly at him. "Despite how you feel, please keep it. It's useful to have a weapon that can be both a sword and a gun. Besides, you have proven to me that you have the spirit of a Jedi. And that's enough."
Lifting the item out of his drawer, Finn admired its craftsmanship. He had never heard of such a hybrid, and he couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of person would have even considered meddling two very different kinds of weapons together. But he had to admit it was ingenious.
Then Finn turned it on.
The room filled with a bright blue glow when the lightsaber made an electric splashing sound as it erupted from the hilt. It hummed with raw energy as Finn stared in awe at it, his heart beat faster as he could feel the heat of the energy blade on his hands, arms and bare chest. He imagined all the legends he had heard about the Old Republic, before the Empire, when an entire order of knights, Jedi, would fight across the galaxy for peace and justice, using weapons like the one he was holding. The first time Finn ever used a lightsaber he had been too preoccupied to appreciate it. But now...
"Finn."
Turning off the laser sword, the young man quickly turned around, but saw that he was alone. But...he had heard someone just call his name. It was soft, like a hushed whisper, but he had heard it. And the voice seemed very familiar...
"Rey?"
Heading toward the door, Finn opened it to see if anyone was in the hallway, almost running into Kira Jade, who had been just about to knock on his door.
"Finn!" The beautiful orange Twi'lek gasped upon seeing the half-dressed young man, the skin of her cheeks turning a darker shade. "I was just...er...is everything okay?"
Finn was looking up and down the corridor, disappointed that no one else was around. "Is anyone out here?"
"You mean besides me?" Kira asked, adjusting her beige vest over her white undershirt. "Not a soul."
"I guess not." Sighed Finn. He then noticed his state of undress and awkwardly walked back into the room, leaving his fellow pilot at the opened entrance as he went to get a shirt and boots. "So...how did you do on the test?"
"Poe Dameron was such a huge shock! It caught me entirely off guard." The Twi'lek girl smiled, her green eyes shining. "But I managed to score second in the whole squad!"
"Really? Congratulations!" Finn decided to wear his black shirt with his old brown and red jacket. He could never go wrong with that.
"And, guess who made it in the top ten?" Kira grinned at him, hands behind her back.
"Who?" Finn slipped on his boots and put his lightsaber away before Kira asked what it was.
"You!" Kira laughed. "You scored seventh!"
"What?" Finn's jaw dropped. "But I took forever!"
"Some took longer." The young woman explained. "It was a very hard test. My stomach was doing back-flips!"
"I hear that." Finn looked down at himself, finally ready. "Sorry about forgetting we were supposed to join up for dinner. I was...thinking..."
"Thinking with a lightsaber?" Kira teased. "That must be hard, seeing how it's so loud I could heard it down the hall."
Finn rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed at being caught. Fortunately, his dark skin prevented any blushing from being too visible. Kira laughed, took his arm and led him down the corridor in the direction of the mess hall.
"So, are you training with it?" She asked, her orange headtails gently swinging behind her.
"A little. But it's not like I'll get, you know, great with it."
"You should ask General Leia for some pointers." Kira, being practically born on the heavy cruiser, knew all the twists and turns, whereas Finn was just grateful that he didn't have to leave his quarters to find a bathroom.
"I thought she wasn't a Jedi." Finn remarked.
"Well, she isn't a Jedi, but she is Force sensitive." The beautiful Twi'lek explained. "You do know that she is the twin sister of Luke Skywalker, right?"
"Well, yes, but I didn't know that meant she would be able to use the Force. I thought it was a random thing." Finn said, suddenly wondering who Rey's parents could've been. It was proven that many Jedi went into hiding after the infamous Order 66. Maybe...
"I'm not sure exactly how it works, but the general did train a little under her brother for a while, or so I've heard." Kira continued. "Eventually it seems that she decided to discontinued once Ky-I mean Ben was born. In any case, it wouldn't hurt to ask her if she could help."
"Thank you. I will."
Arriving at a turbolift, the two walked in as Kira selected the appropriate level and begin to descend. Finn was distracted, wondering how the Force worked exactly. The First Order knew it was real, but never openly spoke about it. From what he had heard back in those days, those who could tap into that power either joined the Knights of Ren, or were killed by them.
"Finn..."
"Yes, Kira?"
The Twi'lek turned her head and looked up at him. "I didn't say anything."
"Wha...you didn't?" Finn said in surprise.
The young woman shook her head. "No. Is everything okay, Finn?"
As turbolift doors slid opened, Finn said more to himself than to her, "I hope so. But I'm not sure."
If case you haven't noticed, I am including references and tributes to other Star Wars works, now under the title of 'Legends'. The names Mara, Jade and Katarn being the most obvious. Others are little more subtle, mostly because I don't want to bash anyone over the head with it. Oh, and the name Kira was Rey's original name in the making of The Force Awakens before it was changed. Movies have cameos, books have references.
See you all soon!
