Once again, war has come to the galaxy.
Word of Luke Skywalker's miracle on Crait has
ignited an inferno of dissent to the despotic
FIRST ORDER, lead by Kylo Ren.
The Supreme Leader seeks nothing less than
the destruction of the RESISTANCE, and of
Skywalker's final pupil, the young Jedi Rey.
But Ren must maintain his fragile alliance
with the rest of the First Order's leadership,
lest his dark ambitions fall apart at the last
moment. All the while, his loyal Knights scour
the Galaxy for sources of power in the Force. . . .
The full moon was bright over the snowfields on the night the First Order invaded Kijimi. The silver disc was obscured by a long, pointed shadow. Like a passing cloud, a massive dreadnought cleaved through the moon and plunged the drifts into darkness.
As the giant starship approached a nearby city, smaller craft began to pour from its sides and underbelly. In the streets, citizens wrapped in warm cloaks ran for shelter as rows of Stormtroopers in gleaming white armor marched into the settlement.
"This city is now under the authority of the First Order," a voice boomed from the dreadnought above. "Mandatory curfew is being enforced. Return to your residences immediately!"
As the occupation began to crack down across the city, there was a stirring in the alleys. Small bands of Kijimans ran out with blaster rifles and fired on the troopers, only to flee back to cover as they were answered by much larger bolts of light. An AT-ST Walker slowly, unflinchingly waddled down the street towards them. Its canons screamed in a terrible rhythm as it approached, blowing divits out of the walls near the cowering freedom fighters.
Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and the sound of the canons stopped. When the rebels peered around the corner, the walker was a smoking wreck propped against the side of a building. One of its legs had been cut clean off. The soldiers could just make out the shape of a cloaked figure disappearing into the blowing snow beyond.
Further away, a group of civilians was huddling into a safe house. Some of them had already been displaced from their original homes by the First Order, and had come to Kijimi to take advantage of its distance from anything of particular repute.
A small Twi'lek girl yelped as the red glow of a laser cutter appeared on the wall she had been sitting against. The frightened crowd watched as someone on the other side cut a doorway into the wall. Could the storm troopers have found them? Two men in scarves and thick hats pulled the chunk out to allow a short girl with dark hair and a man in a brown overcoat into the room. The woman raised her hands to show she was unarmed.
"Everyone alright? We're with the Resistance!"
Everyone gave a sigh of relief.
Rose Tico had always admired her sister Paige. They joined the Resistance after the First Order took over their planet, what felt like a lifetime ago. They were part of Cobalt Squadron, Rose a mechanic on Paige's bomber. Now Rose was one of the only members of Cobalt left. Looking at the faces of the Kijimans in front of her, she wondered how many people like her were being made today.
Her companion was Finn, a storm trooper that defected from the First Order around the same time her sister died. His insider knowledge of the Order wasn't often as helpful as either of them would have liked, but when the chips were down he was someone she could count on.
Finn stepped forward now to address the crowd.
"We got a distress signal from someone. Who's in charge, here?"
"I am," an older voice came from the back. It was a smartly dressed man with a dark blue cape and a greying mustache. "And that would be my signal you're tracking."
"No way," Rose breathed.
"You know this guy?" Finn asked.
"He's a legend. Everyone in the Resistance knows about him. You're Lando Calrissian, right?'
"Ha! A legend? I like the sound of that. You bet I am. Lando Calrissian, lady. At your service."
As the skirmish mounted outside, a black and orange X-Wing fighter weaved its way through the bursts of laser fire.
Poe Dameron was used to risky maneuvers, but even the self-proclaimed greatest pilot in the galaxy barely made it through planetfall with his thrusters intact. The air was thick with Probe Droids and TIEs of several models.
"Finn! Tell me you guys made it down there."
"We're in one piece, and rendezvoused with the refugees. There's someone hear you oughta talk to."
On the ground, Finn and Rose were leading Lando's refugees back to the shipyard through the sewer tunnels.
"Good to hear you're still kicking, flyboy," Lando smirked. "Or do you prefer General Dameron these days?"
"Lando? Lando Calrissian? I thought you were KIA six years ago. Man, when you drop off the grid you drop way off."
"Well, I figured I always did my best work out of the spotlight. I still know a few old guys from the old days who could help get the Resistance's message out."
"If you were any further out of the spotlight, you could have waved goodbye when me and Rey escaped from Jakku," Finn rolled his eyes.
"Speaking of which," Lando's eyes lit up. "Where is our budding Jedi?"
"Good question," Rose nodded. "Poe, do you have eyes on Rey?"
"Do I - can you not see the huge space battle going on in the sky?"
"Technically I'm in a tunnel, I can't see anything going on in the sky."
Behind the cockpit Poe's astromech droid BB-8 whirred and beeped.
"Well, technically, I do have eyes, because BB-8 is tracking her life signature. She's downtown, going after the main target."
In the narrow, sloping - and now empty - streets of the city, a man clad all in black strolled purposely forth. Flanked by two Flametroopers, he carried a huge broad cleaver over his shoulder. He stopped at a door, the lamp overhead shining over his masked face. The man raised his hand, and with a crunch the door folded inward.
"Wait here," he ordered the troopers as he stepped over the crumpled door.
It was a disaster inside. Rows of racks stood throughout the store laden with buckets of scrap metal and computer parts. This would take too long. He needed to find the owner...
Outside, the cloaked figure approached the junk shop.
One of the troopers raised his flamethrower.
"Halt! You're out past curfew."
"I'm allowed to be here," she said, waving her arm before her face.
"She's allowed to be here," the trooper's partner lowered the weapon with his hand.
"What are you doing?" The first trooper asked with alarm.
"Return to your division and await further instructions, allow me to enter."
After a pause, the first trooper's posture relaxed.
"We're going back to our division," he said to the woman matter-of-factly. "You may enter."
Inside, the sound of a stack falling over alerted the man to the presence of an alien, about a foot high and with long gangly fingers. The alien said something in an angry tone, the voice high and the language unfamiliar.
"Babu Frik," the man said with a hint of fascination. "Word around this part of the Galaxy is you deal in interesting tech. The sort of tech the First Order might be interested in."
The small creature cocked his head and chattered in a confused tone.
The man pointed his blade at the alien. If he didn't understand Common, he'd understand fear.
"Trudgen Ren."
The voice came from the doorway. It was a woman, hair pulled back in tight brown knots, a staff at her back. She was dressed in khaki and grey, with a black cloak shielding her from the cold. In her hand was a sword with a blue blade of pure energy.
"That's you, right? I've crossed paths with five of your Knights of Ren. But not you, until now."
"The Scavenger," Trudgen said flatly. "I do love to complete a collection. Come to admire the scrap as well?"
"Is all this really worth the trouble?" Rey angled her head towards the ceiling, through which the wail of TIE Fighters over head and the booming steps of First Order Walkers thrummed and echoed.
"All this destruction, and blood - you've invaded a whole planet - for a piece of old junk?"
"I thought you might have understood," Trudgen Ren turned slightly, his back still to her. "Growing up on Jakku."
He rooted through a pile with his cleaver, then moved on.
"For the scavenger, it is a necessity. For the collector, it is a need, a compulsion. I wonder, which are you now? An impressive reconstruction, that saber in your hand. A Clone Wars-era model, not particularly rare or exciting. But of course we both know that's no simple mass-produced Jedi weapon."
"Don't change the subject."
"But it is our subject. Our realm of expertise. To the uninitiated it seems mad to scrounge about for baubles and trinkets. But we know the truth - ah-ha."
He pushed aside a sheet of metal and turned to face Rey. Floating between the two was a prism of metal and translucent crystal. It pulsed softly with violet light. Rey's eyes widened when she saw it - when she felt what was inside it.
"Now you see. Some junk is worth its weight in blood."
She rushed at Trudgen Ren, her blade spitting sparks where it grazed the metal racks of Babu Frik's shop. The Knight of Ren flicked a trigger on his cleaver, causing the massive blade to begin vibrating. Rey chopped down with the saber, and her opponent blocked it with his larger weapon. The lightsaber blade faltered and shuddered, turning ragged and roaring with a distorted hum.
"Laudable craftsmanship, at a glance," Trudgen continued his speech. "Truly the Skywalkers chose a worthy heir. But a closer look shows the flaws, the flaws in your crystal, and in its mighty legacy. Of course, you had help with that part, no? That boy could never take good care of his sabers."
Rey grunted and leapt back, pushing over a shelf with a wave of her arm. Trudgen swung upwards and through the entire structure.
Rey was faster with her smaller, lighter weapon. But Trudgen Ren accommodated his slow attacks with raw power. At last, he broke the beam of the lightsaber, causing it to fizzle. Rey narrowly evaded being chopped in half by propelling herself backwards with a Force Push.
Determined to finish the fight, the young woman sheathed her blue saber and produced a new one in a smooth motion from inside her cloak. The hilt was a gunmetal grey, embossed with swirling patterns of a brighter silver. When she pushed the trigger, the blade flashed out strong and stable - and bright red.
"Oh, I was so hoping I would get to see it," Trudgen cooed as if seeing pictures of a newborn. "Now this is a true collector's piece. A relic from a simpler time. If only it could talk. What sort of terrible secrets could it tell?"
Rey lunged with the new saber, catching the tip of Trudgen's vibrocleaver with more force than the previous weapon and forcing it downward. Trudgen now found their duel a lot more evenly matched than it was before.
The Texts taught Rey that Kyber Crystals had their own independent connection to the Force, a pseudo sentience. Using the two sabers this past year or so, she had started to get a feel for how they differed. Luke's saber was younger, but there was a weight there, the burden of countless battles and shared experiences with its previous masters. This red crystal was discovered by Luke on one of his adventures and doubtlessly ancient. But it acted with wildness and aggression Rey was often unprepared for.
She was unclear of how that was possible. The saber could not move under its own power. But when she turned it on it was as though a circuit was completed, and she sometimes wasn't sure who was in control. She hated the history that the red saber represented. But then, the two blades were hardly different in that regard. The blue had borne witness to the birth of Darth Vader himself. And with its crystal still fractured by her struggle with Kylo Ren four years ago, she needed to improve her arsenal.
The blade swung wildly out of its arc, Rey straining against its momentum to try to control its movements.
Trudgen needed to wrap it up. He recovered the artifact and looked for an opening. At the same time, the blade finally flung from Rey's hands, spinning towards Trudgen.
The knight narrowly avoided losing several fingers as the blade sailed straight at the prism, connecting with a crunch and a loud metallic screech. It fell to the ground in a fractured heap.
Rey looked at the shattered artifact with horror. Trudgen seemed unmoved.
"Damn. Looks like we're both leaving empty handed today. Goodbye, Scavenger."
He lifted his arm and spoke into his wrist.
"Burn it."
Rey was instantly aware of the roar of a dozen flamethrowers outside, a cadre of Flametroopers training their weapons on Babu Frik's shop.
"Think fast."
The knight threw his knife at the young Jedi. By the time she dodged out of the way, Trudgen was gone, and flames were starting to lick at the ceiling.
"Rey!"
Finn and Rose ran up to the burning building as the woman exited.
"Rose, Finn!"
They exchanged hugs and looked around. The street was littered with dead Flametroopers.
"The Ren?"
"Gone. Did you all do this?"
"That was me," Poe's voice came over Finn's radio, "I'm here too."
"Nice going, Poe," Rey called back.
She saw Lando coming down the stairs.
"Where's Babu? We have to get Babu out of there before the whole place comes down."
The inside was already thick with smoke. Rey closed her eyes and concentrated.
"There," she pointed to a stack of strange gadgets.
Lando pushed some scrap aside and pulled out Babu.
"Good to see you, little buddy," he said. Babu reacted with delight upon seeing Lando.
Dropping down to the floor, Babu tugged on Lando's pant leg and frantically pointed at a large case on the wall.
"We need to get out of here, Babu," Lando urged him. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave the shop behind."
The alien did not stop his routine. Lando sighed.
"Alright. One box won't hurt."
He reached for the box and was surprised by its weight.
"Gosh. What do you have in here, Babu? Rocks?"
Rey found the remains of the prism on the floor and scooped them into her satchel. She also recovered Trudgen's knife.
"We should leave before we draw any more attention to ourselves," Rey said to her friends.
"Agreed," said Finn. "Lando has some clean ships, we're taking a group of refugees back to base."
Chewbacca, the Resistance's resident Wookiee, was waiting for them at the ship.
The Millennium Falcon, a beat up old Corellian Freighter, used to belong to hero of the Civil War (and notable smuggler) Han Solo. Han and Chewbacca had met Rey after she used the stolen ship to escape from Jakku, and soon reclaimed it as the rightful owners. Or so Chewie would like her to believe, anyway. Han died not long after; cut down by the First Order's leader Kylo Ren. At that time though, he was just his son, Ben Solo.
Since his death, Rey and Chewie had been taking care of the Falcon in Han's stead. Rey had some ideas for a long-overdue facelift for the ship's fast-approaching centennial birthday, but with the new war with the First Order raging on, it seemed unlikely she'd have time.
"I'm going ahead to clear you a path out of here," Poe's voice crackled over the comlink.
"It will be good to go home again," Lando sighed as the ships took off. "Where is home, these days?"
"Forest planet, called Ajan Kloss," Rose replied. "General Organa said the Rebellion picked it out years ago. You might have heard of it."
Chewie engaged the hyperdrive and the small fleet of rebels surged off into space.