"Deal!" Poe exclaimed, shaking hands with Guular as Finn rounded the corner – the small scavenger had returned with a bundle of data-sticks. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Poe and Kaydel turned to Finn cheerfully, but their smiles died at the look on his face.

"First Order?" Kaydel asked.

He nodded, and Threepio translated it without thinking.

"No!" Poe and Finn shouted in unison. The droid at least had the decency to look embarrassed. Then they looked at one another, the same unwelcome question running through their minds; would the junkers sell them out to the enemy?

Poe stepped forward with the agreed stack of credits. "Chief Guular, you need to know that the info we're after relates to deserting Stormtroopers. Now you could sell that to the First Order, but the second they realise that you might know, they'll come back and burn you and this world to the bedrock, to keep that secret."

"They're coming from the east and expecting to find us," Finn added. "You take tunnel routes away from this place, they shouldn't realise you were even here."

Guular took the credits, and for a moment they held their breaths. Then he motioned the little scavenger to hand over the data-sticks and growled something at Poe.

"He says he won't forget this," Threepio affirmed to Poe.

"Glad to hear it," he replied, as the sound of distant engines reached them. He started running. "Now everybody, let's go, this instant!"

/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\

Rey scrambled down the slope, seeing the gunships swoop down. She'd ducked back into the tunnel and ordered the Scrappers out. They were ahead of her, moving swiftly down to the foot of the mountain.

She had a clear view of what was quickly becoming their battlefield. The enemy had picked out two landing points around the mountain. Their bombing run against the Resistance's site had failed, beaten off by the gunships and the fighters. But now they had Stormtroopers on the ground and moving out, aiming to cut off the causeways and push into the superstructure. Then Rey felt something else, two loathsome presences in the Force.

She had a nasty suspicion about what that was.

"Got a bad feeling about this," she muttered. Then she heard the howl of incoming TIE engines and looked skyward.

Tannel groaned. "You spoke too soon."

Fighters and bombers swept in as gunfire and grenade bursts echoed up through the holes in the mountain's metal skin.

"Finn!" She had to strain to make herself heard over the din. "What's going on in there?"

Finn was struggling to cut through the sound of fighting. "Fighting retreat," he grunted. "We're going for the causeways, but we've got Stormtroopers in here too." A crackle told her that he'd gone for his shock-baton. That wasn't a good sign.

There was a fizzing blow and a scream. "Lots of Stormtroopers," Finn resumed grimly.

Rey saw figures on the causeways. Resistance troops. "Poe's out. Where are Rose and Kaydel?"

"I don't see them!" She heard muffled cursing and more shots. "Tunnels are caving in, I think the enemy are trying to find another way round." He was trying and failing to keep the worry out of his own voice. "Rey, can you-"

"I'll try. Just let us get down there."

Then Rey heard a distant boom, and an explosion rippled through the metal underfoot. She watched in horror as one of the causeways came apart, sending soldiers flying to plummet into the bile-yellow plasma. "Kriff! Finn you need to move, they're bombing the bridges!"

She saw Poe at what had been the end of the bridge, leaning over and dragging a man up from the edge. Further off, Snap and Jess' squadrons were rising into the air to engage the attackers.

"They've seen us!" Ki'rii shouted from a way down the slope. "Take cover!"

A second later a TIE Bomber dived on their position. Rey hurled herself into cover and balled up, throwing up a barrier around herself, just long enough to ward off the worst of the blast. Even so the impact shook her bones and made her vision swim. She stayed curled up, feeling shreds of metal ping off her armour. When she opened her eyes, she realised that one long splinter had stuck in a vambrace, still quivering from the impact.

She leapt out and found a gaping chasm in the metal, with no other clear way down – and the bomber coming back again. Reaching out with the Force, she grabbed a chunk of metal the size of her head and catapulted it into the craft's wing joint. There was a loud bang. Suddenly short of a wing, the bomber spiralled away and out of sight.

Rey didn't wait to hear the explosion, focusing on the lack of a way down the slope. Her Scrappers were staring up from below. Nyzar had started to move back up towards her.

"Go!" she barked, jabbing with her hand. Gritting her teeth, she leapt into the open hole, shimmying down a girder and then awkwardly clambering down until she found a gantry. Everything was smoke and firelight.

She followed the sounds of gunfire, kicking into a full sprint when she heard Kaydel and Rose's voices. She unslung her staff and activated the shock-coils as she rounded a corner and found Stormtroopers. Weaving through their shots, she smashed into them and with a flurry of blows, left the squad sprawled along the passage.

The next squad heard her coming. She almost lost her head turning the next corner, ducking back and freezing against the wall as plasma bolts whipped past her face. She heard the crackle of shock-batons behind the constant barrage. They were getting closer, advancing up the tunnel. And any minute now, there'd be more coming from the other direction.

She needed to be calm. "The Force is with me, and I'm one with the Force," she breathed.

Her hand went to her belt, pulling a flash-bang grenade free. Keeping the staff steady with the crook of her elbow, she reached up to her helmet with her other hand and pulled down the blast-visor, shutting out all sight. "The Force is with me, and I'm one with the Force."

She let her breathing slow and reached out, letting the Force look for her, feeling the presences of the approaching Stormtroopers. "The Force is with me, and I am one-" she armed the flash-bang, pivoted, and lobbed it down the tunnel "-with the Force."

The magnesium charge ignited. Pained yells immediately followed the detonation, followed by a panicked volley of shots. Rey waited it out before springing from cover and into the midst of the enemy. Feeling for them with the Force, she found them still staggering, blinded for a few moments.

The grenade had ten seconds to burn and she used it ruthlessly. One Riot Trooper, marked by the sound of his weapon, heard her approach and swung for her head. She caught it on her staff before pivoting and smashing it into his exposed shin. Another trooper came blindly for her, trying to bludgeon her with the stock of his blaster. He got the crackling point of her staff, full in the faceplate.

She raised the visor when she got around the next corner. The flash-bang was still going, but now she was seeing dead Resistance fighters in among the in the distance... Kaydel and Rose's voice. She gritted her teeth and moved on.

/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\

Major Kesina, commanding the ground assault, had remained aboard his lander to orchestrate the assault, but his captains hadn't been quite so fortunate. One of them stood with his retinue of Stormtroopers in the cavern where Poe and Guular had been negotiating, directing operations within the confines of the mountain. His guards were getting restless.

"The enemy are running, from what the comnet says," one reported to his squadmates. "No sign of locals either."

"Then they have what they came for," growled one of the others. "We should be there, killing scum."

None of them were pleased to be on security detail. They were among Hux's finest, tested in many a fight. And they could hear the sounds of combat from deeper in - growing fainter as the Resistance withdrew.

"Orders," said their sergeant. That was enough to end the matter. "And - hold up… look sharp. It's the ghouls." He fairly growled the word.

Torlun and Gwaelyn Ren approached, weapons drawn. They seemed to suddenly coalesce from the shadows, stalking forth in that predatory way of theirs. The captain turned at their approach and saluted.

They didn't return it. Instead, Gwaelyn spoke a single word. "Report."

"The opposition are withdrawing."

"Then break off any search within the complex," Torlun rasped. "They've located something. They wouldn't give up the field." He was silent for a moment, deliberating. Then his head snapped back up. "It's with Dameron, I sense him here. I will intercept. Captain, your men will assault the landing sites - without delay."

"At once, sir." The captain turned to Gwaelyn, still looking uneasy. "And…"

Gwaelyn stepped away, her fingers flexing on the haft of her glaive. "She is here. The Scavenger." Her charnel mask whipped around to face Torlun, and her next words came as a hiss. "My prey."

"Then claim it. I have mine." Torlun racked his handcannon, which whined with a build-up of power. "Hunt well, sister."

The two Knights vanished into the dark.

/¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯\

Rey pelted down the tunnel, hammering her way through another enemy squad. Rose and Kaydel's shouts were louder now, and led her into an open chamber. She risked a look, and her stomach lurched when she saw Kaydel and Rose below with half a beleaguered squad, pinned down by Stormtroopers.

They hadn't spotted her. Well, that was fine by Rey.

She reached out with the Force, finding a weakness in a strut next to the Stormtroopers, and shoved. The metal buckled and twisted, and the Stormtroopers shouted out in alarm – but too late. The chunk of metal it had held up caved in on top of them.

Rey leapt down to land catlike in front of the others, seeing relieved grins break out across their faces. But there was no time to celebrate yet. "Let's go."

Then she heard an electronic bleat, and turned to see a single white-armoured hand sticking out from under the heap of metal. It was still holding a thermal detonator.

An active thermal detonator.

On a countdown.

"Run!" She screamed, and threw up another barrier with the Force. It spared them the blast, but the structure around them wasn't so lucky. A horrible groan rippled through the metal. Rey turned to the others. This time she didn't need to tell anyone to flee.

Her reckless ploy with the strut had laid the ground perfectly for an avalanche of scrap, and the walls of the tunnel itself buckled and cracked around them as they fled. They barely made it into the next chamber as the tunnel collapsed behind them. They were almost out, though. Almost.

"Finn," she radioed. "I've got them."

"Doesn't count 'til we get back to the ships. Move, Rey!"

He had a point. They also had to hope that Snap and Jess's squadrons were prevailing in the air, otherwise they'd never make it offworld. But more immediately, one of those dark, caustic presences was there again, stronger now. Closer.

As they emerged into another cavern, she realised it was above them. A black-clad figure leapt from the shadows, a vibro-blade suddenly crackling into blood-red life and aimed dead at one of the soldiers.

Rey jumped, hitting the attacker in an awkward tackle that sent them both tumbling away.

She regained her feet to find herself facing a slender figure, unmistakably female and wielding a glaive with predatory grace. It was strikingly at odds with her mask, which resembled a partially veiled skull, two black hollows staring out from under a hood.

"Knight of Ren," Rey said, falling into a defensive stance. She'd put herself between the warrior and the tunnel leading out of the mountain, trying to gauge if she'd seen this one in her dream. No, this one's new to me.

"Gwaelyn Ren, to be precise." It was the sort of voice that Kaydel liked to call "ripe" and Poe called "hammy", when a holo-reel villain spoke that way. From Gwaelyn Ren however, it was all too fitting, a venomous hiss. "My master was generous with this tasking. I have longed to test myself against the scavenger, the last Jedi. A worthy foe. When this is done, I will flense your skull and set it before the throne."

Kaydel's voice echoed back down the tunnel, calling Rey's name. She resisted the urge to look back, but she stiffened all the same. Gwaelyn saw it and Rey knew, just knew that the smile behind Gwaelyn's mask had widened.

"But maybe I'll have some fun with the scavenger's dear ones first."

Rey lashed out with the Force, which Gwaelyn threw up a shield to resist, and ducked into the tunnel, the Knight lunging after her with her sizzling blade.