—STAR WARS—

CHAPTER THREE

"I had no idea that we had the best pilot in the Resistance on board." Poe weakly opened his eyes at the menacing, robotic voice of his captor, staring back at him. It hurt him to do so. "Revealing yourself through your futile attempt on my life was foolish. Vengeance is little more than an adolescent concession to personal vanity. Even had you not been slow and ill-prepared, Senator Binks was already dead."

She saw him tense, his hands balled and struggled against the bindings that kept him. He was place on a cold, metal slab that was raised and flipped vertically. He refused to even acknowledge her. Slightly vexed, Ren adjusted the holding board, moving the top forward until he was almost facing the ground.

"Comfortable?" she asked feigning care.

Poe did his best to sound nonchalant. "Not really." He gestured as best he could with his shackled hands. "The accommodations leave much to be desired, I'm afraid. Room services could do with some tweaking as well."

"I regret the necessity. They are gratuitous in my presence, I grant you, but those others who had made your acquaintance possess only the most primitive abilities." She began to pace around him with hands barring her cape behind her back. "Further defiance on your part would demand their unnecessary exertions." Ren then stopped before him once again, bending down to come closer to the horned Zabrak's tattooed face. The lines that marked him were unique, arranged in almost floral or vinelike patterns. "None of this unpleasantness need be necessary. We both want the same thing from the old Gungan. Perhaps he was more forthcoming with you than he was with me."

Poe made a show of serious considering the proposal before replying phlegmatically, "Might wanna rethink your techniques. Hard to get cooperation from the dead."

Ren stood back, looming over the prisoner. "A truism on which you might personally wish to reflect." She paused for a moment, a weary sigh sound through her apparatus. "It is pathetic, though. Is it not? You and I…we are both in pursuit of a ghost." Her tone suddenly darkened. "Where did you hide it?"

The Zabrak stared up at her innocently. "Where did I put what where?"

"Please. All time is transitory, and mine especially so. This will go more quickly and less awkwardly if we dispense with childish nonsense and give us what we want."

Poe chuckled laboriously. "The Resistance will not be intimidated by you."

"As you wish, then. There is no 'Resistance' in this room, no Republic. Only the Zabrak pilot Poe Dameron. And I."

The masked warrior held out her hand toward the shackled prisoner.

"Tell me, Poe Dameron," Ren murmured, relishing in the moment she saw realisation dawn aggressively upon the pilot. His eyes suddenly grew large with fear emanating off of them. "Where…is…the map to Skywalker?"

—=O=—

General Hux Armitage was waiting outside the interrogation cell. As expected, the interrogation had not taken long. The senior officer did not have to ask Knight-Master Ren if it had been successful. She was if anything…effective.

The metal-covered face regarded the general, the voice that emanated from behind it dispassionate. "The pilot has hidden the map to Skywalker's location in a BB Astro-droid unit."

Hux was plainly pleased, though that meant nothing to Ren. "That narrows it down then, Ren. The droid is still on the planet."

"A single planet offers innumerable places for concealment," the masked knight pointed out.

"True enough, but the world below is primitive. A simple droid will likely gravitate towards technology and other support facilities for its kind." General Armitage began to lead the way back to the bridge with Kylo following beside him. "Of these, Jakku has few. Hm, with any luck we may not even need to search for it ourselves."

"All the same, I'll send a small detachment squad and some airborne support to retrieve it."

Hux did not know whether to be affronted or not. He would have done the same but the tone of her voice felt like he sensed a hint of distain. They entered the bridge in silence, though he could feel it. She often let her drive free over her reason when it came to finding the last Jedi in particular. Hux wanted to say some words of assurance but he knew that if he were to get in her path right now, he would be trampled.

—=O=—

He was still breathing. Slumped and shackled still upon the interrogation table, but still alive. Beyond that, Poe no longer cared much what happened to him. He kept on telling himself that it was not his fault. For an ordinary person, no matter how strong they thought themselves, resisting the probing of a creature like Kylo Ren was simply not possible. He was given the opportunity to try…and there was no shame in the failure.

All in all, he could guess what they would do to him now. He had given up what little value he had possessed, he was no longer of any use to them.

He would not be expected to know anything about military movements or tactics that they themselves had already become expert in, nor could he school them on X-wing weaponry or maybe even piloting for that matter. He had rendered himself expendable, and they would not let that stand, nor let him live.

Suddenly the doors opened and a single stormtrooper came marching in, addressing the guard left behind for him. "Kylo Ren commanded FN-2133 and I take the prisoner to holding but FN-2133 is still in Hanger Bay 4 so could you just help me take him to the elevator?"

The guard sighed in annoyance but complied, unlashing the prisoner's binders from the table and magnetising them to each other. "I swear, Ren is getting more paranoid by the minute."

The new trooper shrugged. "I'm just glad every day that we just keep getting escort errands. Less likely to get on Knight-Master Ren's bad books."

The guardsman chuckled and when they finally got to the small cylindrical lift, he bade the trooper farewell.

In the confines of the lift, Poe did consider making a break for it— knock out the stormtrooper, use his key to open his cuffs and steal his armour. It worked for Clone captain Rex apparently. But Poe was far too weakened. He could barely stand as it was.

Suddenly the trooper began to whisper low and fast. "Listen carefully and pay attention. You do exactly as I saw and I can get you out of here."

Within Poe's wounded brain, something like cognisance stirred. He turned and gawked at the stormtrooper's mask. "If…what? Who are you?"

At first the trooper said nothing, glancing at the small barely noticeable security camera above their heads. He knew that the security systems were scheduled for maintenance and should be down for at least another rotation— he knew this was his chance but he still couldn't be a hundred percent certain. In lieu of reply however, the stormtrooper removed his helmet—a helmet that had been cleaned of the blood that had smeared across it, yet still has some visible traces in the corners by the visor.

"Will you be quiet and just listen to me? This is a rescue. I'm helping you escape. Now can you fly a TIE fighter?"

Poe finally stopped gaping at the dark-skinned young man and found his voice if only meekly at first. "Are you with the Resistance?"

"What?" the trooper responded with momentary bafflement. "No, this is a rescue. I'm breaking you out. Can you fly a—"

"I can fly anything." The stormtrooper's face suddenly lit up but before they could continue any further, the Zabrak pilot took his shoulder, searching his eyes for a sign of his true nature. "Wait. Why are you helping me?"

FN-2187 composed himself again, imitating the heroes in the holovids. "Because it's the right thing to do."

Poe stared at the boy for a moment before a small, half-smile appeared on his face. "You need a pilot."

"I need a pilot," FN-2187 resigned.

Suddenly vitality was returned to the pilot's face and his confidence was restored. "We can do this."

"Yeah?"

Just like that, Poe Dameron was back in the game. His more alpha tendencies took over and he told the young stormtrooper to put his helmet back on and act as he had been before: obediently transporting a prisoner to the hanger bay where they had a whole squadron of TIE fighters at the ready.

It took another three more minutes for the hyper-lift to stop at Hanger Bay Six. When it did, the stormtrooper needed a little shoving in order to get moving. FN-2187 was told to point the blaster against his back and to not be afraid to push aggressively, just sell the scene convincingly.

"Relax, just keep calm. Stay calm." The stormtrooper repeated those words in hushed whispers. He swallowed hard as several officers began to draw nearer— and walked on by.

"I am calm," Poe whispered back.

"I was talking to myself."

A smirk appeared on the pilot's face but he tried to hide it again as they passed by more troopers. The hanger bay was not particularly busy at that moment. Most of the occupants were just passing by or doing rounds to keep busy while they were still stationary.

They were approaching a Special Forces TIE fighter. Poe couldn't help it, raising his gaze he raked the ship with his gawking blue eyes. If one discounted its origins, its dark angles took on a deadly beauty. The First Order sought to dominate the galaxy, to champion the fallen Galactic Empire and resurrect the ancient Sith. It was no surprise they would keep many of the motifs that became synonymous to that dark time.

In between the two large, solar energy panels, the spherical cockpit with transparisteek viewport, also hosted P-s6 twin ion engines for more improved manoeuvrability—though not as versatile as his own T-70 X-wing starfighter, Poe had no doubt these newer models far surpassed what the Empire had been playing with.

No one stood near it, and the entry hatch was left open. All too easy, thought Poe. "This one," he said, slightly leading the stormtrooper to the open TIE. Unlike the ones he'd seen before, these ships were painted black with two red stripes on the left fin.

Inside the TIE seemed to have been built for two people. A pilot at the front and behind commanded the heavy turret and warhead launcher. When they got in, Poe freed himself of his bloody, confining jacket, and examined the controls laid out before him. He'd always wanted to fly one of these ships. Poe was more than impressed by the T-sj1a targeting computer supplied for them. He recognised some of the other components, and the ones he didn't he felt sure he could work around. A modern fighter like this one would be naturally forgiving, its computational components engineered to compensate for pilot miscues and oversights. The sound of uncomfortable movement behind had Poe seeing the stormtrooper struggling to seat himself. "Can you shoot, kid?"

"Blasters I can."

The Resistance pilot reflected that his companion sounded less than confident. "Well, same principle. Toggle on the left switches between canons, missiles and pulse. Instruments on the right to aim but let the autotargeting help you— triggers to fire, hold on to the triggers real tight because its going to be very powerful, very sudden."

FN-2187 was looking around him at the weaponry, feeling increasingly lost. "This is very complicated."

Working with semi-familiar controls, he was able to persuade the enemy ship to lift up off of its landing bay. Unfortunately, it was still tethered to its support lines. The cables twanged as they went taut, holding the TIE fighter to the deck. "Hang on, I can fix this!"

Confused tech officers in the Hanger Six Control Room turned from their consoles. One of them took the attention of a passing supervisor.

"Sir, we have an unauthorised departure attempt from Bay Two."

The First Order colonel halted, peering out the sweeping port that overlooked the hanger floor. At the far end, a starfighter could be seen struggling to decouple from its support cabling. He thought perhaps it was a serious miscarriage of duty that one of their pilots would leave their ship on and ready for lift. "Get me communications with the vessel. Alert ship command and notify General Armitage. And somebody stop that fighter!"

Throughout the Finalizer, confusion expanded exponentially. Hanger Bay Six became busy all of a sudden. First Order officers and stormtroopers started lining up, surrounding the floating TIE.

"Okay," Poe started. "Now would be a good time to start shooting!"

It took FN-2187 some time to get started, but when he did, he managed to fire three bolts that were successful in filling the enclosed space with chaos and explosions, hitting soldiers as well as destroying several docked TIE fighters, and though he did not intend for it, he shot a laser square into the main control room, the explosion that resulted also set fire to the soldiers below. Which definitely saved them as the troopers had begun to assemble blaster turrets there.

The others however, had began firing off their own weapons, some having hit the cables which aided in Poe finally being able to rip the support line off, sending the fighter zooming out of the shielded hanger portal.

They found themselves in the deep emptiness of space. Though by Poe's reckoning, it felt far too claustrophobic.

"Wow, this thing can really move!" Poe laughed as he started to manoeuvre the Finalizer's many defences.

The TIE buzzed around them with relative ease, but the guns on the front that Poe had control of did little work to penetrate the hard shells of the Star Destroyer's canon towers. Behind him, the renegade trooper unleashed blast after blast, triggering explosions in a frenzy of random damage that could only panic and confuse the battlecruiser above.

"Dammit, a target is coming to you. My right, your left, do you see it?"

The targeting controls brought the major weapons emplacement into bold view on one of the trooper's screens. "Hold on…I see it." FN-2187 readied himself, then unleashed fire at the precise moment when aptitude interlocked with instrumentation. Bright green laser beams illuminated the darkness, followed by sparks from the cruiser. With one shot per tower, the renegade stormtrooper was able to clear a path for them out from underneath the Star Destroyer. Unable to restrain himself, the stormtrooper let out a yell that echoed around the cockpit. "Yes!" he cried out. "Yes! Did you see that?!"

Poe whipped the TIE fighter around to the side of the Finalizer. "Told ya you could do it!" he chortled. "What's your name, kid?"

"FN-2187."

"FN…what?"

"That's the only name they gave me, sir."

The longing in the stormtrooper's voice was all too human. He had heard more rumours about the First Order stormtroopers being comprised of kidnapped babies that were trained almost from birth to become the most fearsome army in the galaxy. "Well, if they gave it to ya then I ain't using it. 'FN', huh? How about Finn, can I call you that?"

"Finn?" the stormtrooper tilted his head. "Finn? I like that!" He was beaming now and confidence was beginning to well up within him.

"My name's Poe," said the pilot. "Poe Dameron."

"Good to meet you, Poe!" the renegade greeted, still beaming excitedly.

"Good to meet you too, Finn!"

They took the ship for a few more rounds around the underside of the Finalizer, apprehensive about going topside or coming into view of the main canons or overhead turrets he was sure were being prepped for them. It was then that Poe realised that they had been flying about for far too long but their enemy had not yet sent out their own starfighters in pursuit.

Dammit!

High Intelligence Concussion mile, at least for of them was launched from their ventral turrets. The missiles began to swerve and sway yet still maintained velocity, it was like they were doing standard star-pilot tricks.

First Order's got some new toys, Poe cursed to himself at his rotten luck. He immediately took their TIE fighter around again, hoping to trick the missiles into crashing into the Star Destroyer, but they were not just payload for detonation, the rockets behaved like droids. Every trick Poe pulled had no effect and he was forced to rethink.

"Probably should have asked you if you guys had any new toys at your disposal."

Taking the initiative, the renegade stormtrooper began to fire at them. It took a while but by some luck was able to just barely nick the rocket's fin, causing it to swerve and hit another rocket. He watched satisfied as they exploded. He wanted to shout out that he was getting good with the blasters, given until then he'd never actually fired one.

Finn took a closer look at the remaining rockets now following them and though his confidence was shrinking by the moment, especially when he realised that they were now heading at a specific destination as apposed to simply trying to lose the missiles. "This isn't right! Where are we going?"

"Back to Jakku, my friend."

"What?" the renegade exclaimed. "We can't go back to Jakku! We need to get out of this system." The TIE fighter rocked crazily as the rockets gained more traction, closing the distance between them. "Tell me you're going to circle the planet at sub-atmosphere and then strike for lightspeed, right? I mean, I hear these pilot missile things lose power once they hit atmosphere."

Poe chuckled. "Well, Finn I think I might have liked to have this information before. But no, I've got to get my droid before the First Order does!"

"A droid? We're going back for a droid?"

"He's a BB unit. Orange and white. One of a kind."

"I don't care what colour it is!" Finn shot back, heart rate suddenly bouncing off the charts as he continued to shoot but was no longer aiming, too preoccupied with trying to wrack his head around his new companion's odd decision. "No droid can be that important!"

"Well, this one is, pal."

"I'll tell you what's important, Poe. Getting as far away from the First Order and its representatives as we can, as fast as we can. That's what's important." He lowered his voice but turned to better look at the pilot. "I saved your life, Poe. At the very least, you owe me mine. We go back to Jakku, we die!"

"That's a chance we've got to take, Finn." The pilot's stance was unshakable. "This isn't about your life or mine. I'm sorry but there are far greater forces at play, greater stakes."

"Then we'll play them afterwards. Going back to Jakku now is suicide!"

Poe couldn't argue his logic there, his more rational mind told him to forgo his mission, acknowledge momentary defeat and recuperate. But BB-8 was more than a droid. He and his father had found the droid in parts on Bracca, one of their many adventures. They fixed BB-8 up and he's been a loyal companion ever since.

He took a deep breath. "My droid's got a map that leads straight to Luke Skywalker!"

It took Finn a moment…a long moment for the full impact of the pilot's declaration to hit home. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me! Skywalker— man, I never should have rescued you!"

Even as he spoke, the last remaining smart-rockets finally caught up to them. Sparks flew within the cockpit, followed by an eruption of acrid smoke and fumes. The fighter's engines flared wildly, sending the TIE fighter out of control and straight to the desert planet of Jakku…as Poe had originally intended…

—=O=—

"Is it the Resistance pilot?" The bridge was working double time by the time Kylo Ren arrived.

Hux turned to face her. Unable to see past the metallic mask, unable to perceive eyes or mouth. He had to rely on subtle changes in voice and tone. She was pissed, and he could not blame her, but for his own safety he tried his best to ignore her anger and continue in his duties. "He had help from one of our own it would seem," he admitted. "We're checking the registers now to identify which stormtrooper it was."

Ren stopped him, bowing her head in meditation before finally looking up at him again. "It's a soldier from Batch Eight, the one that was deployed with us to confront Binks on Jakku. FN-2187."

"Well, we've reports they've been hit and are on a collision course back to the planet as we speak," Hux explained.

"They're not destroyed; our fighters were engineered to withstand forced re-entry," a corporal at a monitor added. "We have their trajectory somewhere in Goazon Badlands."

"Then we'll just have to accelerate our plans," said Ren. "They had ample opportunity to jump to lightspeed but did not. They are now after the droid." She then walked up to General Armitage. Though he could not see her eyes, he knew the feeling of her glare and it was most unnerving. "You've started the timer, general. We'll send every squad we have available. They depart now."

"We do not need everyone to retrieve the droid, Ren," Hux countered. "At least not in one piece and by the looks of it we don't need it in one piece…just the data chip it carries. Supreme Leader Snoke was explicit. Retrieve the droid if possible but destroy it if necessary, and trust me, my friend…it will be necessary."

Again, Hux could not deduce her facial expression, but he certainly felt her beguiling smirk. She began to whisper, as close to his ear as she could. "Perhaps you should not try so hard to appear the bigger man in this, Hux. Snoke knows your uses and they are few. That should make it easier for you to consolidate your priorities."

Then she backed away and everything seemed to return to their usual dynamic.

"I trust your men will not have any problems retrieving the droid and the map…intact?"

Hux was left a little stunned but after a while found composure again. "Yes…yes, my Lady. My men are exceptional, trained since birth by Imperial legacies."

Ren bobbed her head and then without another word, marched out of the bridge control room. Hux was left even more exasperated, letting out a breath he'd not noticed he was keeping in. He looked to his officers and they all continued on with their work.

—=O=—

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I feel like I wanted to reinvent General Hux, somehow changing the order of his name certainly helped. It just felt more natural, like it rolls off the tongue more. I also needed to change his dynamic within the story. In the films it felt disjointed then becoming more comedic and stupid as it went along. The First Order then became annoying rather than threatening.