Chapter Four: Tanabanta
With the macrobinoculars you could just about make out the structure. A squat grey prefab building with a dome stood amidst the tall, bright yellow treeshrooms that surrounded and enveloped it. A few smaller buildings stood around the perimeter. They were on a bluff overlooking a valley that ran between two high plateaus. While official galactic records listed Tanabanta as devoid of settlements that was because no one had ever told them that Senier Fleet Systems had built a secret research facility.
"Still no activity," Sabine reported as she looked up from the macrobinoculars. They had come in cloaked and landed a day's walk from the facility to avoid detection.
After that they had spent a cold uncomfortable night taking turns watching the site for any activity; scientists, droids, troopers. There hadn't been a peep. Standing up, she let the macrobinoculars hang around her neck. "But that only means we haven't seen activity.
"BB-8, you pick up anything on your scanning?" Poe asked. BB-8 shook his dome and beeped dejectedly. "Nothing."
"Probably too many of these treeshrooms," Tallie offered. Though they were sparser on the plateau, the valleys and warmer areas of the planet were covered in thirty to forty meter tall fungal stipes holding up thin wide caps that varied in color from chartreuse to deep golden brown. On the way in, Sabine had warned them not to touch the treeshrooms at all. The females were harmless, but the males, the neuters, and the drones were poisonous and secreted a painful and debilitating neurotoxin. Most of the treeshrooms were female, though it would have taken an expert to identify the differences between the females and the other sexes. So it was best to simply leave them all alone.
"Don't touch-" Sabine started to warn again.
"Understood," Tallie and Poe said in chorus. BB-8 beeped in agreement as well.
"Well, Poe asked. "Do we go in already?" For a moment Sabine scanned the site again. Tallie knew why she was doing it. Some activity, even heavily armed troops, provided at least some information on what they were heading into. But no activity was worrying. Either there really were no activity, or they could be heading into anything.
"Yeah," Sabine said thoughtfully.
"That wasn't too hard," Tallie said as the door slid open. Hotwiring a door wasn't too different from hotwiring a skyhopper or an RSB assault speeder. Even close up to the main building there appeared to be no one around. They had been able to sneak up from the treeshroom forest, past a couple small, nearly crumbling buildings and a grimy yet chugging atmo generator without anyone seeming to notice.
Once inside they found themselves at the end of a hallway that was brightly lit, though the light only seemed to illuminate dust and skitterwebs. There was a gentle humming of far off equipment but otherwise the place seemed empty. As the hallway seemed to lead toward the building's center, Sabine took the lead and started walking that way with two blasters at the ready.
"This still the right place?" Poe asked. BB-8 let out a small, worried whistle to which Poe responded "I hear you buddy. It's creepy all right."
"Shhh," Tallie shushed him and then felt silly about it. If the place was an empty as it seemed to be there was no need to be quiet. Still, the place felt like it should be quiet, like it demanded quiet. Her self-consciousness didn't matter. Poe shut up and they walked quietly to the end of the hallway. There they found themselves in front of a large blast door. With a rotating of his dome, BB-8 looked around for a terminal, found one, plugged in, and slowly the door began slowly creaking open.
"I don't know," Tallie whispered. "I got a bad feeling about this." Metal grinding on metal echoed through the hallway as the door finally opened, revealing the facility's main laboratory room with its giant retractable dome. Hanging from a complex assemblage of catwalks and cranes were two old Imperial TIE fighters. Each fighter had a rough and unfinished looking booster attached to the back with pipes running back to the main hull. Below the fighters there were a few computer terminals lining the walls along with engine coils, hyperdrive coolant tanks, power couplings and all manner of fleeling wire, binding bolts, and piles of random other ship parts. There was so much junk lying around you could barely see the starfighter lift in the floor that indicated the lab must have once been a military outpost.
"What? What? What?" repeated an old woman as she waddled up to the intruders. "You can't be in here! Who are you? Get out!" Standing no more than a meter tall, the woman's face was a dirty laundry pile of wrinkles with two goggles set on top.
"Oh, dear!" announced an aging, limping protocol droid with each of its limbs a different color than its torso. "This is unacceptable." Tallie could see a few more droids milling about amongst the wreck of starship parts; a couple gonk droids, and a multi-armed maintenance droid.
"Is it just you here?" Sabine asked as she pointed a blaster right at the scientist.
"No blasters!" the scientist shouted. "You'll damage my equipment. Who are you brutes? This is a private research station. You're not welcome here."
"Hey, chrome face," Poe said as he walked up and shoved his blaster in the protocol droid's chest. "Anyone else here besides droids and this Ugnaught?"
"I'm not an Ugnaught!" the scientist protested. "I'm a Dressellian. A civilized race."
"Doctor Amarka is the only sentient biological being in the facility," the protocol droid said with its arms up. "Please don't shoot. I am unarmed and only doing my job."
"Are they flight worthy?" Sabine asked, pointing a blaster up at the two TIE fighters.
"Of course they're flight worthy," snapped Doctor Amarka.
"All systems at ninety-nine point nine eight eight three-"
"Great," interrupted Poe. "We're here to steal 'em."
"It's for a good cause," Tallie pointed out.
"Don't you dare!" ordered Amarka.
"Looks like we get up here," Tallie said as she visually traced the catwalk down to an access ladder on the far wall.
"You two take the fighters," Sabine said keeping a blaster pointed at Amarka's angry looking head. "Get 'em back to your base. I'll keep her from doing anything rash." Tallie took a couple steps to head to the ladder only to notice a familiar sound roaring in from outside.
"TIE fighters," she said. "The First Order must have tracked us." The experimental TIEs didn't look like they could take out a sleepy mongroo much less a fresh batch of First Order fighters.
"How?" Poe asked as he looked all around, as though he could see the ships landing from inside the dome.
"Ha!" Amarka barked. "They're going to roast you on a spit! That'll teach you to steal my designs."
"It doesn't matter," Sabine said. Involuntarily, Tallie's head jerked up. Across the laboratory, a blast door opened and a squad of white armored stormtroopers marched in. Tallie fired a couple shots and ducked down behind a scrap pile. Quick as they could, Poe and Sabine did the same while BB-8 rolled behind them. Blaster bolts began to fill the air.
"Don't shoot, don't shoot!" cried the protocol droid. "Oh, I'm an innocent bystander!"
"Find them," commanded a dark, harsh voice from beneath a helmet.
"Is that who I think it is?" Sabine asked.
"Just some kid I grew up with," Poe smiled.
"Poe Dameron," the voice said with a predatory growl. The sound of an ancient weapon igniting could be heard.
"Yep, I'm here," Poe called out. "Is that you, Darth Solo?" Standing up, Poe took a few shots at the black clad Kylo Ren but the shots ended up deflected by his crackling red lightsaber. Tallie could barely believe it but she saw Poe literally pulled up in the air with nothing supporting him. In an instant he was slammed against the far wall and slumped down unconscious. It was all BB-8 could do to let out a terrified cry and rush over.
"Go check on him," Sabine ordered Tallie. "I'll draw their fire." With that Sabine took off in a run toward the left only to be picked up and flung into the wall like Poe. She too fell to the floor unconscious. With a quick motion, Tallie glanced at her two incapacitated companions. She swallowed hard and wished even harder for an A-wing or an X-wing. Anything. Even a Z-95. But there wasn't a starfighter. It was just her and a single blaster against the First Order.
Looking around, Tallie tried to figure out what to do. She could try and make a run for it. She could lose them in the treeshrooms, get back to Sabine's ship and head back. The mission would be a failure and Sabine and Poe would be captured, and probably tortured and executed, by the First Order. Not a great plan. She could try and get up the catwalk, hop in a fighter, and take off. But that would probably just get her shot and plus everyone would still be captured. She also doubted she could get past whatever ships that the First Order had in orbit. There didn't seem to be any good plans. But then she remembered what she had seen when she had first come in the lab.
"BB-8," Tallie whispered, doing her best to stay hidden amongst the junk. She motioned the droid over and he abandoned his vigil over Poe to come by. Leaning over, she quietly whispered the plan to him. Breathing out, she tried her best to steady herself. It would work. And even if it didn't work, it couldn't possibly be worse than her other plans. Tallie shooed BB-8 away. He rolled to a good hiding place underneath an ion charger cover.
"Alright," Tallie said as she stood up and put her hands up. "I surrender." Dropping her blaster, she walked out from behind the pile of trash. Standing in the center of the lab were at least ten First Order stormtroopers and their leader Kylo Ren. In the Resistance, Tallie had heard stories about Kylo Ren. People said that he was the General's son, that he had studied the Jedi ways under Luke Skywalker, and that he had turned to evil. With his dark robes, helmet, and dangerously glowing red lightsaber he certainly looked the part. Kylo Ren took a step toward her.
"Where are the other criminals?" he growled at Tallie.
"They're dead," Tallie said as she took a step back. "You killed them." Taking another step back, she noticed that Kylo Ren took a step toward her. She backed up one more step and Kylo came forward and tilted his head as he held out his saber toward her.
"Good," he said. "The galaxy doesn't need any more criminals. And you will lead me straight to their hidden base."
"Sure," Tallie said with a smile. "It's right below you. Now, BB-8!" Behind her, the droid let out an affirmative beep as his saw attachment cut through the main hydraulics line. Instantly, the starfighter lift fell straight down taking Kylo Ren and the stormtroopers with it. There was a crash and a cloud of dust as it hit the deck below. Rushing over to Sabine, Tallie shook her and she soon woke up groggily. Across the lab, Poe stood up on wobbly legs.
"Did we win?" he asked as he hobbled over.
"Not yet," Tallie said. "I slowed 'em down but I don't think I stopped 'em."
"You two get to the fighters. I'll keep the goon squad busy until you're off."
"No," Tallie protested. "There's room for two in these old TIEs if we scrunch."
"Go," Sabine said calmly and firmly. "I'll get the dome. Get back to base. Don't worry about me. I outlived the Empire. These thugs are nothing." Tallie smiled and gave Sabine a tight hug. Poe shook her hand and then the two scrambled up to the catwalk with BB-8 using his cables to pull himself up after them.
As they roared out of the atmosphere, Tallie could see that the First Order had brought along a star destroyer and its full complement of fighters. An entire swarm of the bugs was bearing right down on them. Inside her cockpit, Tallie noticed some customizations to the controls. The crazy scientist had managed to cram as much new gear into the old ship as possible. The TIEs had been outfitted with a separate hyperdrive and a navicomputer. On top of that there was a new set of controls for the experimental booster. There was a main power switch, a launch switch, and a power meter that was currently set to zero.
"We got company, Poe," Tallie reported over the comm. "I'll cover while you get your hyperspace jump readied. Then you do the same for me, okay."
"I got BB-8 to help," Poe said. "You get ready."
"Copy," Tallie said. Clicking on the navicomputer, she entered the coordinates for Oontooine. Once back there they could get a pick up from the Resistance and get back to D'qar. Outside, she could see Poe's TIE accelerating right into the mess of the First Order ships. It was twenty to one, something Poe could have easily handled in his X-wing. In an old Imperial TIE? That was another thing. Quick as she could she readied the hyperdrive and, just in case, she switched on the booster's power. On the readout the orange power bar began to slowly go up.
"You good to go, Tallie?" Poe called out in obvious distress. "I'm a little outnumbered here." A TIE swooped down on him from above and landed a shot that blew off half of Poe's right wing panel.
"Good to go, Poe. Wanna see what this thing can do?" Tallie said. Then she smiled as the orange power bar flashed green. Punching the launch switch, Tallie was pushed right back in her seat. The TIE hurtled toward the melee at blinding speed. Her fingers tapped the triggers and she got some lucky surprise shots on a couple TIEs that thought they had Poe target locked. Forty-five and forty-six.
"Thanks for saving my neck, Tallie," Poe said. "I can't wait to try that booster out. Jump is locked in. I'm hitting the blue." With that Poe's TIE blasted off to hyperspace. Tallie caught one more First Order ship in her crosshairs and blasted it into white hot plasma. Forty-seven. The star destroyer was gonna have to wait for another day. Pulling back on the hyperdrive lever, Tallie watched the stars blur to lines as she made the jump to hyperspace.
