Sorry for the delay. Happy Pride Month! Thanks to everyone who left a review! It's much appreciated!

This is sort of a filler chapter. It was supposed to be the Battle of Starkiller Base, or at least the first part, but then I wrote too much, so it's its own chapter haha. This means you'll have to wait longer to see how the actual battle plays out :P

Hope you like it!

34 ABY

With torn skin and blood dripping from her fingertips, Rey couldn't hide the smile that emerged on her face when the small piece of metal she had stripped off the restraints was able to disable the locking mechanism on the cuffs through a trial and error of poking and prodding. One hand was freed, and she immediately got to work on the other one, a sense of urgency flowing through her, quickening her already beating heart.

She needed to get out of there before Kylo returned.

The second set of restraints popped open, and Rey rubbed her forearms, attempting to ease the soreness before she bent down and started on the cuffs around her ankles.

Once she was completely freed, she hopped down from the interrogation chair, wobbling as she gained her balance. She didn't know how long she had been there, but by the stiffness of her joints, it had been quite a number of hours.

Moving over to the nearby cabinets, she dug around in the hopes of finding a makeshift weapon. She grimaced at the torture tools and needles filled with strange liquid and moved on, looking for something, anything she could wield against the troopers on the base. Unfortunately, she didn't find anything other than a large, metal jar. She didn't want to know what was in it but figured she could use it as a blunt, temporary instrument.

Hefting it off the shelf, Rey went to the cell door, knocked, then pressed herself against the wall further in to wait for the trooper to come in. The stormtrooper walked into the room and barely had a chance to react to the empty interrogation chair before Rey came up behind him and slammed the heavy jar against his head. The trooper crumpled to the floor, his blaster clattering to the side.

For a moment, Rey felt a brief feeling of guilt flow through her as she remembered what Finn had said about the First Order stormtroopers being raised from infants and brainwashed to follow orders. And Karena said they were only ever given numbers, not names. But she couldn't focus on it. She was desperate. She needed to get out of there before Kylo returned, and she knew he would return.

The way Kylo had invaded her mind scared her, but it didn't scare her nearly as much as the power she showed when repelling him, throwing him against the wall in an act of desperation.

Rey looked at her hands, recalling the way Karena had levitated the hilt of a lightsaber into the air, but she didn't know how to replicate that at all. What she had done was on pure instinct. She couldn't recall ever doing something like that before, but then again, she'd never felt such pain before either. The only silver lining she could think of was at least she knew Karena had been telling the truth about what she had sensed. But Kylo had sensed it, too.

Shoving the thoughts away, Rey picked up the dropped blaster. She could think about the mysterious Force later. First, she needed to get out of there. Fast.

It took eight hours for Karena, Finn, Han, and Chewie to get to Ilum. The starfighter squadrons and two command ships that were following them would arrive in two hours due to their slower hyperdrives, giving Karena and co. plenty of time to infiltrate Starkiller Base and lower the shields. As far as Karena knew, Leia had also sent word to the few other Resistance bases to send as many as they could spare too while working on their lockdown procedures, so hopefully, they would arrive before it was too late.

A few minutes before they would drop out of hyperspace, Karena moved to raise the cloaking device. Han stood behind her, his hands resting on the back of the pilot's seat to keep himself steady. "Ready, kid?" he asked as he watched Karena prepare the cloak.

"Yeah," she said. "I just hope Rey is there, too. Knock out two nunas with one blast." Especially since the guilt was eating at her for not running after Rey sooner on Takodana, not letting her run into the forest alone in the first place, or sending Chewie or Finn to go find her before the First Order attacked. But it didn't bode well to dwell on the past. They had a mission to complete. "Go strap yourself in."

"Will do."

Han patted her shoulder then left her side, returning to Chewie and Finn who were playing dejarik in the main area. He warned them to buckle up, and a few minutes later, they felt the jolt of the Desert Dragon dropping out of hyperspace.

Karena glared at the planet in front of her. What used to be a beautiful, snowy planet had been ravaged by first the Empire and now the First Order. A hideously large base could be seen from orbit, nestled on the equator. She always thought she'd visit Ilum if she needed a new lightsaber crystal if she damaged one of hers she got on Christophsis, never imagining going to Ilum to fight a rising splinter of the Empire.

Everything about the First Order managed to piss her off. She knew about the remnants of the Empire that remained after the signing of the Galactic Concordance in 5 ABY, having been told of a few encounters her parents had with one in particular a few years later. But for most of her training and growing up on Yavin IV, Karena and Kelin had been fairly isolated from the rest of the galaxy until they had been assigned to masters when they were older, and nothing had been said about what remained of the remnants after that point.

Maybe Karena had been hopeful that they had either been wiped out or had given up their plans for galactic domination, but she didn't remember.

It wasn't until her mother died and her aunt formed the Resistance that she learned what had become of the struggling remains of the Galactic Empire. They had banded together, after years of struggling with each other and with the New Republic, under a new banner and a new leader: Supreme Leader Snoke. Leia didn't know much about him, so not much could be said about the shadowy leader, but for some reason, the Imperial remnants had decided to follow him.

And he got his clutches on her cousin Ben. How, she didn't know, but she planned to find out.

There were still planets and warmongers that preferred the Empire to the New Republic, so it wasn't a surprise that they had backing. The Empire allowed slavery and ruling by fear where the Republic, both old and new, didn't. And if enough of their supporters were interlaced within the Republic government, then ignoring the rising threat was easy. Implanted moles could turn the tide of any war if they were good enough at their jobs. Charismatic enough, skilled enough, patient enough.

But it wasn't so easy for people who actually cared, like Leia and Poe. Then there were those who refused to leave the Republic, hoping to fight corruption from within, like Wedge and Hobbie.

Now, the First Order had finally decided it was time for them to unveil themselves to the galaxy, or at least, the ones who didn't already know, weren't in utter denial, or didn't have the truth hidden from them. And civilians on multiple planets paid the price.

Karena still hadn't heard from Ezra and Sabine though. Something in her told her they were okay and fighting back, but she'd rather hear it for herself. See it for herself. She needed to know if they and their kids were doing well. Perhaps she'd get the chance to check on Lothal personally after the assault, but that wasn't where her hope resided.

Gray beeped from his perch on her shoulder, and she gave him a gentle smile. "Thanks, buddy, but I'm alright," she told him. She needed to stay focused. "Keep an eye on the stabilizers for the descent." Gray beeped again and flew over to the screen.

With a lack of response from the base or from the small armada of ships stationed in orbit nearby, she flew her cloaked ship toward the outer reaches of the energy shield, and Karena knew they weren't tracing for magnetic fields as that was the only thing a cloak didn't cover. It wasn't common to trace for magnetic fields as it required a specific technology to do so and was usually unnecessary, but it was still incredibly important to remain unnoticed for as long as possible. Such as keeping her Force signature hidden so her cousin didn't sense her.

Finding cover in the trees a short distance from the edge of the shield, Karena began the landing cycle and set the Dragon down.

Karena stood from the seat and told Gray, "Start scanning for lifeforms and electrical pulses in the surrounding area. I want to be warned before we come up on anything." Gray saluted with one of his arms and zoomed out of the cockpit toward the loading ramp to start on the scans. She left the cockpit after the droid and said to the other three, "Let's suit up."

The last thing any of them wanted was to freeze in the snow, though Chewie and Karena would last the longest due to fur and the Force, respectively. As Karena bundled up in a cold-weather jacket, she heard Gray whistle a complaint about the cold bothering the joints for his arms. Even though Karena laughed, she did feel bad for the little droid and promised him an oil bath at a later time. Then they set off through the snow-covered forest with Chewie carrying a large metal box that reminded them all of a coffin, only wider.

Han trudged forward ahead of everyone with Gray next to him constantly scanning their surroundings. Chewie walked behind him, not only carrying their means of entering the shield but also using his keen eyes and sense of smell as an added means of scanning in case the weather messed with Gray's sensors or Chewie picked up something from the wind outside of the reach of Gray's sensors. Finn and Karena took up the rear, Finn gripping a blaster rifle and duffle filled with explosives while trying to ignore the pervasive cold and Karena antsy for a fight right beside him.

"So, uh, what's this Force thing tell you?" Finn asked over the wind running through the trees and their feet crunching the snowy ground. "You sensed the destruction yesterday, right? Han said it was because of you being Force-sensitive, like how you can lift things without touching them. It telling you anything now?"

"Other than caution?" Karena silently debated on telling him the full truth then decided against it, mixing the lie with the truth. "Not really. Kel is better at Force premonitions than I am." The Force was definitely telling her to remain cautious, mixed with a sense of death and despair, but the latter part was right. Kelin was parsecs better at clairvoyance and visions than she had ever been. Their parents had always likened it to her mind being on the "here and now" rather than the future and possibilities like her twin. His mind was more open compared to her closed.

"Kel? Like Kelin?"

Karena side-eyed him as they stepped over a large branch. "Yeah, though he prefers Aput or Colonel from people who he's not friends with." She didn't think anyone in the Command Center would dare introduce her brother as "Kelin". Honestly, she didn't think half of them knew his first name since he never went by it, and they didn't care enough even if hers was the only actual mystery. But then one person popped into her mind who not-so-secretly loved to get under her brother's skin. "Don't copy Poe. He has a knack for annoying people who live by protocol."

Finn quickly nodded. "Right, yeah, that makes sense." He kicked a small piece of ice away from their path then asked, "So he's Force-sensitive, too? Like you?"

"Yes."

"I thought that was supposed to be a rare thing. Interesting that at least two people in the Resistance can use the Force."

Karena eyed him again but didn't say anything. Interesting that Poe mentions my brother's first name but not that Kelin and I are related. She then chalked it up to habit considering he kept her secrets to himself for years. It'd make less sense for him to stop right then rather than any given moment previous.

Then Finn continued talking, and Karena grew to suspect he talked when nervous. "Can't say I know much about the Force. Only a few confidential files about it and stories of not getting on Ren's bad side otherwise he'd use it, or Supreme Leader Snoke being his master. That and the stories demonizing Jedi, but I always kind of liked those stories. I couldn't tell anyone, of course." He let out of huff, looking off into the distance. "Maybe that should've been the first clue that I wasn't like the rest of my squadmates."

"How did you realize?" Karena interrupted before he could continue rambling.

Finn took a moment, taken aback by someone cutting into his train of thought. "Oh, uh, I don't know exactly." He stared at the ground, letting a few seconds pass as he thought about what he could remember of his past. He couldn't remember anything aside from the First Order, obviously, but the longer he stayed out of a stormtrooper uniform, the more he realized how strange he had felt in it. How often he had secretly questioned everything. How much he didn't fit in.

"I think I always knew," he eventually said, quieter than before. The forest they were walking through thinned out to open, rocky, snow-covered terrain. "When they taught us things like protocol, Imperial history, strategy, weapons, politics, I. . . I remember glancing around at everyone else not asking questions and copied them. But it never seemed right, you know? I think I always knew I was different, but it was easy to hide if I followed what everyone else was doing. But then Jakku. . ." Finn shook his head. "That was the first time I'd ever been asked to kill. I'd been told many times I'd have to eventually, but. . ."

"You rationalized it," Karena said in understanding. "You told yourself either that it'd never happen to you or it was a long way off." She patted him on the shoulder. "Same thing with Jedi training." She unhooked one of her lightsabers and held it up for him to look at it. "A lightsaber is a Jedi's weapon, and many masters consider it a Jedi's life. We're usually pretty young when we build our first one, depending on when training started, and it's wicked, but you don't truly consider it a weapon until the first time you have to use it. You tell yourself all kinds of things before that. 'It'll only be used for defense. I'll never have to use it when I'm not comfortable. I'm still a padawan, so it'll be some time before I get real practice with it. Maybe I'll be like that one Jedi who was famous for stopping a battle without having to ignite his lightsaber.' Then it actually happens one day, and it's not what you expected. It wasn't like what you were told or what you had told yourself."

Finn stared at the sleek silver hilt of the weapon glinting in the sunlight and nodded. "Yeah, exactly."

"So did you?"

Finn did a double-check on Karena as she hooked her lightsaber back under her coat. "Did I do what?" he asked.

She raised a brow, and her voice was deadpan. "Kill." She nodded ahead of them, in the direction of the First Order ray shield that they could see in the distance. "For them."

He quickly shook his head. "No. The village on Jakku was filled with innocent people. I wouldn't-"

"But you had no problem killing other stormtroopers to get away mere hours after the village massacre."

"No, that wasn't the same."

"Wasn't it?" Karena asked.

"They weren't innocent," Finn insisted. "Not like the villagers who were being killed just for housing someone who had a map piece."

The corner of her mouth perked up, but he barely registered it as she responded. "You know better than anyone what it's like to be a First Order stormtrooper."

Finn's shoulders tensed and his jaw clenched and unclenched. "I do."

"And?"

"I didn't like it, okay?" Finn said, growing sterner. "But I did what I had to do to survive."

"And what makes your life more precious than theirs?" She tilted her head, watching his reaction. "They were brainwashed the same as you, only the thing is, they couldn't break through the programming. That's not their fault. They're victims of the First Order, pawns the same as you. So what makes your life worth more than theirs when you did everything you could to escape, including killing people who might have considered you their friend or brother?"

Finn's mouth opened as he prepared to retort, but nothing came out, and his chest grew tight. His eyes drifted down again as the bland black and white of the ground. Such different colors, contrasting in every way. But life wasn't like that. Life was grayer, blurred, unclear.

What makes your life more precious? It isn't.

"It's not," he muttered.

"Hm?"

"It's not," Finn said louder that time. "It isn't more precious than theirs, alright? Where are you going with this?" He refused to believe she was trying to get a rise out of him for no reason. A few of his superior officers used to do similar things to test the resolve of the troops or sometimes even just for fun, but while he had seen some of Karena's dry wit, he didn't think she'd do something like that without a real reason.

"Never forget it," she told him, glancing over. "The difference between us and them is that we recognize the freedom of choice that they don't have. That's it. So try not to let your fear or anger at the First Order out on the regular troopers while we're on the base."

"What ang-"

Karena cut him off before he could continue his question. "I can sense it radiating from you. Fear for the mission, fear for Rey's well-being, fear for Poe and his pilots. Anger toward the First Order for destroying planetary surfaces, killing millions of people, and enslaving you and your fellow stormtroopers. Fear for being forced back into the First Order. Anger toward yourself for not trying to leave sooner."

Finn picked at the fingers of the gloves he was wearing. "I'm not sure I like the Force much."

"I think you'd get along with the Mandalorians then." She sent him a wry grin, though he didn't seem to appreciate it much. "Just remember the differences, don't rationalize it, alright? Do that and you'll do just fine."

Gray let out a sharp whistle, letting the group know about them coming up on the ray shield a couple of yards ahead and keeping Finn from responding to Karena's advice.

"Showtime," Han said as he looked back at the other three.

"I'll go first," Karena offered as Chewie was lowering the metal box, prepared to set it down.

"Okay." Han waved her forward when the group stopped a few feet in front of the shield radiating a faint red light. "Remember what Kelin said: stay under the box and you'll get in without tripping any alarms or being zapped by the electric field. Then push it back through and we'll follow you in."

Karena nodded, and Chewie lifted the box to set it over her once Gray had clung to the back of her coat. Chewie carefully lowered it until the bottom side touched the forest floor. Karena had to crouch to fit as it was hardly longer than five feet, but there was plenty of room to maneuver. She couldn't say she enjoyed the total darkness, though. But she did her best to reach out through the Force to still have a sense of where she was going while trudging through the snow with a metal box covering her.

The sound of the ray shield passing of the box was distinct, filled with crackling electricity that reminded her of a lightsaber, and after a few more steps, she stopped and pushed the box off her. Looking around, she was completely inside the Force field.

The others were waiting.

With a simple Force push, the metal box slid across the snow through the shield, and the three others followed suit, each individually crossing over with the metal box and Karena sending it back over. Chewie was the last to cross over, with the poor Wookiee in a tighter space than the others had been due to his larger size. But only after a few short complaints, he crossed too.

"We'll leave the box here," Han said. "No sense carrying it all the way. Worst case scenario, we'll need it to leave." He pointed to the droid. "Mark the coordinates." Gray saluted him, then the group set off.

They still had a way to go before they reached the full base.

Soon after, they reached a steep incline that they had to climb up. Well, most of them had to climb up. Karena took the duffle of explosives from Finn then Force jumped up to the top of the incline with flat ground and Gray flew up next to her. The other three quietly grumbled complaints to themselves as they climbed.

Karena scanned the horizon and spotted the large tarmac dotted with Starkillers ready to be magnetized to ships, and up ahead a few yards was a tower.

Aside from the jarring industrialization, the planet was stunning from her view. Untouched snow, high mountains, numerous cliffsides, and a shining sun in the sky. She bet the caves below the surface were even more wonderful with the kyber crystals and ice lining the rock walls. If they could rid Ilum of the First Order, then perhaps after a few decades, Ilum could return to its old beauty.

Chewie was the first to reach the top of the rocky incline then both he and Karena helped haul Finn and Han up over the edge.

Han rolled back his sleeve enough to see the comm on his wrist counting down. "Come on," he said. "We've got about an hour before the fleet arrives." Han pointed to the tower up ahead. "Anyone home?"

Karena turned to her droid who zoomed forward to get a closer look as the group walked. Gray's beeps resonated through her comlink, and Karena translated, "Relay station. No personnel."

"Great, let's go." Han led the way to the tower and picked up the pace despite the difficulty of the snow.

Karena easily understood why her parents decided to settle on a jungle planet rather than something harsher even if it would've been more secretive.

As the group came upon the tower, they ducked behind the edge to overlook the valley. Finn gestured to the ridge Karena had been looking at. "The flooding tunnels are accessed through that ridge," he said. "We'll get in that way."

"What was your job when you were based here?" Han asked.

"Sanitation."

Han grabbed Finn's jacket and hauled him back, pinning him to the side of the wall. "Sanitation?" Han repeated harshly. "Then how do you know how to disable the shields?"

"I don't," Finn admitted. "I'm just here to get Rey. She shouldn't have even been dragged into this."

Karena sighed and shook her head while Han was pissed that they had come all that way without any actual assurance that they could get the shields down. "People are counting on us," Han reminded. "The galaxy is counting on us!"

"Solo, we'll figure it out! We'll use the Force."

Did he just call him Solo? Karena thought. She was more surprised by him calling her uncle by his surname than she was by Finn saying they'd use the Force when he didn't even know how to use it. She also wasn't nearly as peeved with Finn as Han was. Finn was still young, and Jakku was his first assignment. Of course, prior to that he would have mostly been training and doing menial jobs like cleaning, but that didn't mean he wasn't useless. He still knew the layout of the base and wasn't bad with a blaster.

"That's not how the Force works!" Han argued. He was about to berate Finn further, but Chewie moaned in Shyriiwook, getting Han's attention. "Oh, really, you're cold?"

Karena cut in, "Do you at least know where the control room is?"

"Of course," Finn said.

"Then the shields will be easy. It's usually just a few buttons or levers, and they're always labeled."

Han was still peeved but he nodded. "Fine. Lead the way, Big Deal."

Karena didn't ask about the nickname as they followed Finn to the slope leading down into the valley.

They were almost there. They'd disable the shields, find Rey, and leave explosives throughout the base to send a little present to Supreme Leader Snoke. The First Order had no business on Ilum, and Karena would make certain they left it forever.

Ilum was supposed to be protected by the Jedi. The Jedi had been gone, hidden, regrouping, healing. They were back with a vengeance.