Chapter 4

Plots to Leave

The dim underworld of Coruscant was never known for being pleasant, not even to the lowest in the society. But here was Ren, camouflaged in his hood strolling through the streets and walking around lamp posts. He was kind of forced, in his own words, as he wanted as less attention and less people to know about his plans as possible.

The night time of Coruscant has never been so helpful to him. The last few times he came down here at night all ended in a load of trouble. Th first time was an attempted robbery, which was foiled when Ren suddenly landed brutal attacks using only his bare hands. There was no word of the incident ever since he dragged the unconscious intruder into an infested alley to get rid of the evidence.

The rugged houses lined up in a parallel formation until a small junction blocked the road. Further ahead was the continuation of the buildings that got slightly taller and then shorter again, looping infinitely until fifteen minutes and a mile later where a speeder park was located. Ren flipped the hood off his head as he approached his speeder, no different to most other speeders within the two-storey parking lot.

He pushed the joystick of his speeder to the right and to the exit after he unlocked it with a remote in his pocket. And in a moment's notice his craft was airborne and among a line of traffic, all heading to the sector where the majority of New Republic facilities were located. Only he wasn't heading to get himself screened by a line of soldiers and scientists, he was heading back to the temple while he'd still not raise an alarm if he made it back on time.

When he was halfway through his walk in the underworld he made a pit stop at a store in the middle of the block. There he got his hands on some sticky charges he'd been so desperate to find. Months of planning and rehearsing were nearly coming to an end, and it was time for the rogue youngling to get the right equipment to pull all this off.

Across the known galaxy, another plot was taking place inside the young mind of youngling Leo and the scavenger Rey. Though they weren't planning to cause mass destruction and casualties, their plan could be equally dangerous when everything falls into place.

A speeder was everyone's must-have, but a spaceship was a whole different matter as its cost and maintenance were a whole different level. Meaning the only way for Rey and Leo to get their hands on one was through a coordinated theft. Neither of them were a fan of it, but they both agreed some steps were necessary.

So every other day their shadows could be found in nearby towns and villages, especially if there's a retired spacecraft lying around. It took them half a week to set their sights on a two-seater fighter from the times of the Clone wars, located in the starship graveyard as every other option involves them meeting the grim reaper.

Normally they'd still need a pilot suit to go anywhere else, but Rey suggested that they'll do fine without it. "Just no stunts." She stated. Leo reluctantly agreed as he carried on gathering every part the Y-Wing was missing with the exception of fuel. They would have to search the destroyed Ravager nearby for the tibanna it runs on.

It has been a week and a half since Leo and Rey started their spaceship hunt. They've got just enough rest to make it all the way to the graveyard with all the tools. And after that one would get the starfighter fixed while the other fills up bottles of tibanna and return. None of them though about anything after that.

It was rare for a scavenger to hunt at night, and the pair decided to take advantage of that. They departed at dusk without saying much, and arrived at the windy graveyard as the sky painted itself with darkness. The stars were the only light they could see, save for the torch Leo borrowed from his companion. He left for the now tilted and disabled Ravager and treaded through the sinking sand seeming ready to consume him any moment, with the bottles strapped to his back and hip.

He tripped over a couple of times to make it to the secondary hangar of the once almighty super destroyer. There he caught sight of a tipped fuelling droid with half of its tank still filled with precious tibanna. "Well that didn't take too long." He whispered to himself.

Out of nowhere he felt a slap landing on his shoulder. Startled by the sudden jolt he turned around. "Rey? I thought you're supposed to be..." He asked, only to find an angry red eye staring at his. Acting on instinct his lightsaber was drawn from his belt and made short work of the protocol droid starving for power and instructions. But as he ignited his weapon he noticed he wasn't alone in the hangar. The droid that though he was a power output brought some nasty friends as well.

Not wanting to waste stamina, Leo carefully used his Force and evasion skills to speed up his progress. He would run into fuel-hungry droids every once in a while, sometimes forcing him to make use of his lightsaber. It ended up taking almost an hour just to gather the much needed tibanna, but Leo could care less about the time. To him, finishing his job of protecting his comrades at Coruscant was way more important.

"How are the repairs going?" He shouted as he stumbled out the wreckage of the super star destroyer with bottles of tibanna. The weight of the fuel was taking a toll on his weary body, giving him trouble to stay in a straight line. Rey noticed it, and rushed to carry a part of his load to the Y-wing.

"Pretty solid. We can go within half an hour." She replied. "Let's hope no one else sees this ship. Heard its price tag is pretty high."

"How so?" Asked Leo.

"The older something is, the more somebody would pay to get their hands on it. And don't ask me how I know that."

Leo instinctively glances around upon hearing Rey's advice. He was relieved to see no flashlight but their own. But the other smugglers weren't their only problem. The invisible spikes and needles hammering their exposed skin was dragging their body temperature way below normal levels, definitely not helpful to the adolescent bodies of theirs. by the time the Y-wing was ready to fly they were both on the brink of hypothermia. Nonetheless they listened to the humming of the twin engines and the retracting landing gear as a shroud of G-force started running down their bodies.

None of them muttered a word from the moment they strapped themselves to the seats of the Old Republic starfighter, as Leo was fast asleep and Rey was concentrated on keeping the craft stable until it made its way out of Jakku's atmosphere and into a hyperdrive course to a space station some parsecs away from a hub called Takodana. there they would take a brief stop for refuelling and arming themselves and more detailed planning before they approach the place Leo calls home.