—STAR WARS—

CHAPTER SIX

Aboard the battlecruiser Finalizer, within the confines of his secluded office, General Armitage sat at his desk, staring at his monitor which was filled corner to corner with data with weary eyes. He had been at this ever since he had let the Republic prisoner slip from his fingers. He was sure to lose the respect of his men. Without respect, the men's discipline would be void, and without discipline, order would collapse.

That was the chief problem with the Rebel Alliance, and it's the same problem carried over to this 'New Republic'. Their freedom has a price, and that price is chaos and destruction, and judging by these data reports provided by Kylo's spies; their government was on the brink of that very collapse.

Weak, Hux thought.

"Sir," came a voice on the intercom. "We have a visual on the crash site. You are requested up on deck, sir."

Hux Armitage got up, straightened his suit and marched off toward the bridge. The Republic is weak, feeble…but his First Order is also weak. Armitage came from a long line of public servicemen, from the Old Republic to the Empire, and they had served honourably…until their dying breath…

Once on the ship's command centre, General Armitage sighed. He was directed to a computer station at the front where one of his officers had put on display a holoprojection of a desert pit with several black pieces of metal sticking out. Nothing else of the ship had survived. He was told that the sands in the pit had devoured the ship quickly and unfortunately, taking many of the tracks with it.

He cursed under his breath.

"Alright then, keep searching nearby settlements and fuel outposts."

Suddenly the commanding officer was startled when he turned only to meet Kylo Ren's dark visor. "You have found them?"

"Erm…no, Ren. The TIE had crashed onto quicksand," said Hux. "It will make locating FN-2187 difficult…if he still lives."

Silence washed over the black clad woman as she stared at the wreckage and Hux swore he could feel something moving around him, like a gust of wind too small to stagger him, yet powerful enough to leave the hairs on his forearms standing. "There is a trail in the sands," Kylo started to say. "It is heading eastward toward a graveyard of ships…you can start there." That was the last word she said and then just walked away, leaving the others a little perplexed.

General Armitage sighed and followed up with an order to send a small and undetectable squad down to track and hunt down the renegade stormtrooper and with some luck, the Resistance pilot as well.

—=O=—

FN-2187 felt a searing pain in his head as soon as he opened his eyes. He was lying on the ground, on what appeared to be a metal slab, and a rather angry girl staring down at him with a long black rod held against him.

"No sudden movements, thief!"

The renegade continued to look up at her with bafflement that swiftly turned to fear when she pressed her foot on his chest harder. "Sorry…but what?"

"I said don't move."

With frustration Finn tried to fight back against the girl's weight but he found she had a very solid centre of gravity. Almost unmovable. "Look…" he instead tried to reason or plead with her. "I've had a pretty messed up day, alright. So, I'd appreciate it if you didn't—"

FN-2187 jumped in his spot as a slight but irritatingly powerful jolt of electricity shot into his thigh. He turned to find himself face to face with a ball-like droid; white with orange patterns…just like Poe said. He was about to say something else when the girl whacked him gently across the face, forcing his attention back on her.

"You're a thief," she repeated. "That jacket…it belongs to my friend here," she pointed at the droid. "It belongs to his master."

Said droid did not even wait for prompting and continued to zap him, eliciting more squeals from his victim. "No wait…stop that!" he turned to the heavily sought-after droid. "Look, droid…"

"BB-8," Rey told him.

"…BB-8…you're master, his name was Poe, wasn't it? Resistance Pilot Poe Dameron?"

The droid gave an affirmative whistle.

Suddenly the boy's face darkened with a mix of shame and sympathy. "The First Order captured him. I was able to get him out and we took one of their TIE Fighters. We were going to make it out of the system but Poe, your master, he wanted to come back for you. We were shot down…" He paused, maybe he was afraid to tell the droid who clearly had some next level of devotion for his master. Or maybe it was because he too had started to like the Zabrak pilot. "BB-8, I don't think he made it. This jacket was all I found."

At hearing this, the droid lowered his domed head and began to roll away in sadness.

"I'm sorry, my friend." Said Rey to her round acquaintance. She then turned to the boy and stepped off of his torso. "Are you okay, any bones broken?"

The renegade shook his head, but mostly to shake off the blurry cloud surrounding his brain. "Nah, I think I'm good. Those creatures before, that attacked me?"

"They're known as Sand Stalkers: carnivorous pack hunters, that swim in the sands as though its water." Rey offered her hand which he gratefully accepted and pulled himself onto his feet. "They should had left the Graveyard, so I certainly did not expect them to still be here,"

"They're monsters."

"They're survivors," Rey felt she needed to correct the stranger. "So…are you with the Resistance?" she guessed, making a rather soft leap seeing as she didn't even know about any 'Resistance' before meeting BB-8.

Suddenly the renegade's slouched back straightened and as discretely as he could, puff out his chest. "Obviously," he lied. "I'm with the Resistance. I am… with the Resistance."

There was a glint in the young scavenger's eyes as they talked. Rey admitted that he had never seen an actual Resistance soldier. Her only experience was the stories from the cantina, the rumours and here-say that occupied those pilot bars. Still, in all of those stories, the heroes were clear. She then stuck out her hand and waited for the strange boy to take it. "I'm Rey by the way."

Not wanting to seem ungrateful, the renegade stormtrooper…or he guessed it was 'Resistance Agent', accepted her gesture. "I'm FN…" He stopped himself just short of the numbers, feeling those digits stuck in his throat. No, he was not FN-2187; that was a stormtrooper number and he was no longer a stormtrooper. "I'm Finn. Nice to meet you."

Rey did not think much of it and began loading up her speeder. "So…what exactly is the Resistance?" she asked. "I keep asking BB-8 but he keeps telling me its classified."

"Wait…really? You've never heard of the Resistance?" when Rey shook her head Finn had to laugh to himself. But then an uneasy feeling surged in his gut. He may have chosen a name but one thing he had no choice in whatsoever…was his history. He was a stormtrooper for the First Order…not a Resistance fighter.

"Well, I've heard space pilots talk about them from time to time. Are they like the Rebellion?" When the stranger said nothing, Rey shrugged. "You know what, I've got a lot of questions here. But I guess we'll have to continue this once we get to Niima outpost."

The renegade stormtrooper FN-2187 sighed in relief at his luck. "Say… you wouldn't have any water in your cannister, would you?" Finn asked.

The scavenger unclipped the bottle from her belt and checked. To her dismay she found it dangerously empty. "No, sorry. We'll get some more when we get to the Outpost. From there you might be able to charter a vessel out of here. If not, you're welcome to stay here and become a scavenger like me. I mean I wouldn't recommend it but to each their own."

"Tempting offer and I don't mean any offense, but I think I'll pass for now."

Rey smiled at him. Apart from Mashra, she did not have much in the way of friends. Friends did not often survive here.

With Finn riding behind her and BB-8 sandwiched between them, Rey kicked her speeder in high gear for Niima Outpost. They had wasted enough time and she knew she couldn't give Unkar Plutt any more reason to deduct rations from her. Rey sighed and shuddered just thinking about it. The Crolute had once let her starve for a whole week because it took her a week to locate and submit twelve Clouzon hyperfuel cells from a hauling freighter.

It wasn't a good time for her.

It did not take them long to finally get back to civilisation. Their new stray who appeared not to have had much experience on speeders had naturally wrapped his arms tightly around the scavenger's midriff, hoping to cling on for dear life as her vehicle broke all kinds of physical barriers, with poor BB-8 squished in between.

"Not much of a flier, are you?" She chided as they hopped off her speeder.

"Suffering from some fresh trauma on the subject, no biggie." The boy had to kneel down and pace himself to ease his stomach again. "I just…need a breath…" he was suddenly stopped when he saw just a few feet away, a large circular trough of water, currently in the service of an even larger creature. He was there in a heartbeat, leaving Rey to watch in loose amusement as her rescue dunked his whole head into the trough of less than sanitary water.

She gestured BB-8 to stay with the boy but the droid ended up following behind her anyway.

Oddly enough, she saw Unkar Plutt out of his booth which he seldom did these days. The junk dealer seemed to be locked in some sort of argument with a pilot— an older man with thick, grey hair adorning a scruffy, tired and slightly bearded face was dressed in attire one would normally associate with your typical freighter space pirate. Black, leather boots, black trousers and navy-blue jacket was mostly hidden behind a camouflage trench coat.

The two were standing in front of what she speculated was the newcomer's ship. It was a Corellian YT-1300f light freighter vessel. It wasn't much to look at, Rey decided. The ship was old and looking rather decrepit, with rust overtaking most of the ship's top. In between the freighter's forward mandibles was a slim metal container held in place by the ship's tractor beam.

Rey regarded them for a moment, completely forgetting her work. The pirate seemed to be losing his patience with Plutt, a feeling she was all too familiar with.

"Unkar, I've been waiting here for half a day now," the grumpy old pirate was saying. "When I sent you the manifest of the parts I needed, you said that you already had it collected and ready to load into the container. Where are the parts that I paid for, Plutt?!"

"Yes, I was getting to that…. captain…I was…" her handler was stuttering, choking. Rey had never seen him so flustered. Then he saw her and immediately perked up again. "Well, here she is, the one I had sent to collect your things. Just hang in there for a moment, captain." With that the alien rushed back to his stall, gesturing Rey to come forth.

The young scavenger turned in her datapad, showing him her finds and informing him that he should be expecting a drop off soon, much to Plutt's delight. Then the Crolute had her bags taken into his hut. In exchange, he dropped a single ration pack on the counter in front of her.

She frowned at him, more than a little insulted by the prize she was awarded with. "Unkar, come on. I hauled in at least seven weeks' worth of rations today. I'm giving you a flak gun rotor for goodness' sake!"

"But you were late, Rey!" the older alien barked back, though after seeing him whimpering before a pirate, mere moments ago, lessened a lot of the fear she would have gotten. It was all just a façade. Then he looked around, behind the scavenger where his bulging, dark eyes, zoned in on the small, spherical droid. "What about that droid. For that Astro droid I will give you…" The junk dealer then poured onto the counter a mountainous pile of ration packs.

Rey was left with her mouth wide open, eyes as large as saucers as she stared at the glorious sight in front of her. Her hands, acting upon their own volitions, came forth to lay claim to the sachets of food. It was only momentarily, and she stopped herself and turned around, looking down at her robotic companion. The BB unit tilted its head to her, as if to make himself look more pitiable.

"Sorry…" she started. "But he's not for sale." Rey took one portion, the one owed to her and gestured for BB-8 to follow.

Unkar's dangerous glare followed his esteemed junk hunter. Hidden within that flabby head of his, a scheme was being formed; he needed that droid. Working droids on Jakku were a rarity— but this particular Astro droid?... he needed this droid.

The junk dealer discretely gestured to a group of marauders loitering among the scraps. They seemed to understand this wordless command and immediately went to act on it.

As for Rey, she walked over to where Finn was well refreshed if not a little disturbed by the strange tinge of a heavily used animal water trough. He was heaving on the dusty ground by the drinking tray, drenched and exhausted. His arm was still in it, splashing water around which displeased the large beast-of-burden who grunted in annoyance.

"Having fun there, Finn?"

"I just…needed a drink."

Mockingly, Rey walked over where a few feet away from them stood a working moisture vaporator, filling up her cannister with nice and refreshing, purified water. "I mean: hey if you prefer the drinking hole of our Happabores, then by all means."

Finn was left speechless but was too tired to worry about his own pride. He was happy to just sit there with the Happabore and chill. The two humans smiled and chuckled and Rey even offered Finn her bottle which he graciously accepted.

"So, what do you guys have to eat around here?" Finn suddenly asked.

Rey sighed and perhaps unironically, she presented the rations sachet to him. It would be the only food they get for a while. Be thankful, Rey, she scolded herself. The scavenger girl helped Finn to his feet and with the droid following closely behind, they made their way back to the speeder.

The three only made it halfway, sidestepping fellow colleagues carrying large cruiser parts about the outpost, when they found their path blocked by two of Unkar Plutt's enforcers. Draped in dark, rags and broken ship pieces as makeshift armour, the marauders approached them with aggression. Rey and Finn made to back up but found their rear similarly blocked by another three more adversaries.

The marauders then produced their weapons from under their garments— electrostaves, old and battered electrocuting weapons that buzzed with unstable currents. Finn instinctively raised his hands in surrender. Rey on the other hand knew exactly how to deal with these posers.

"Hello, there, Ri-Jo." Rey took out her own staff from her back pack. "You guys doing alright?"

They were not much for words, at least Ri wasn't. His companions which consisted of Kenn, her father Pah Idalgo, their adopted son Briego Larris and Lexi Freed, were huge talkers. War once broke out between Niima Outpost and Kush Outpost in the north just to get them to stop from boasting about their victories into the late hours of the night.

"We want the droid." That was all she was able to get out of Ri-Jo Idalgo before he initially lunged at her. Anticipating the assault, Rey was able to dodge it, getting herself to one side and with her own weapon, knocked his out before bashing him on the side of the head. The marauder fell to the dusty ground but was still conscious, if not reduced to pathetic sobs at his hurt pride. Ri commanded the others to go on and capture them and suddenly those marauders still standing began jabbing their electrocuting sticks at the scavenger.

Rey shouted for her friends to run, bursting into a sprint herself but not before sweeping Kenn across the leg. The marauder landed onto her back with a hard thud, and the young scavenger ran after her new friends.

She saw BB-8 and Finn already by her speeder, awaiting her arrival…

A long, metal rod hit her across the nose which almost took her off her feet, though if that didn't do it, the junkyard marauder holding it would, his electrostaff was jabbed against her chest, sending her flying over the piles of space junk. The older Pah Idalgo stood over her, his cloth mask down revealed a sly and almost maniacal grin. Soon enough the other enforcers joined him, encircling the girl like a pack of deadly predators, even Ri-Jo came limping to his compatriots. Rey was clearly and utterly outnumbered.

A few feet away, the old pirate watched it all unfold before him, leaning against one of his ship's landing gears. He was rather impressed with this scavenger girl and how she held herself. But his attentions were brought to her rolling companion that certainly garnered some recognition from his aging mind. Did Leia say something about a rolling droid?

Soon he was joined by a large furry Wookie wearing a khaki vest with pockets that were filled to the brim with blaster ammunition. He held his old custom bowcaster very close to his chest and made some low growling, reminding the pirate that they were on a rather tight schedule. The man looked up to the skies. There was nothing there but clear blue—but he knew they were there. Those First Order maniacs hovering above the atmosphere.

Reeling his attention back to the there and now, the pirate sighed as he took out his gun and marched over to the quarrelling locals.

Each one of those junk-clad militia had electrocutioner sticks aimed against a seemingly defenceless desert girl. That was reason enough.

"Unkar is really getting tired of you, Rey." Said the limping marauder. "So are we, and now we gotta take that BB unit off of your cold dead fing—"

In a sudden flash of light, a blaster bolt has hit Ri-Jo right in the head. As his body slumped down limp and lifeless onto the dirty ground, the rest of his family turned toward the shooter and at first were ready to retaliate but at seeing the pirate, after a moment's hesitation they all ran for the hills.

"You okay there, kid?" Rey was a little dazed but welcomed the stranger under her breath as he offered his hand. This close, Rey could make out more features on his face, like that small scar below his bottom lip, camouflaged perfectly within his stubble. His aged, weary eyes was somewhat clashing with his more mischievous half-grin.

"I'm fine…I had that sorted." The scavenger girl was trying as best as she could to salvage whatever pride she had left, though it seemed wasted on the strange newcomer.

"Yeah, I could tell."

All the same, Rey thanked the man and was about to call Finn and BB-8 back to them.

"You know, that droid?" he began, and Rey discretely gestured for her companions to halt. "Got any idea what he is, and why your boss wants him so badly." The pirate sensed her weariness and decided it was best to back off a little.

At first, she said nothing in response, she thanked the man once again and bade him farewell. She was half afraid that he would run after her and considering he had a blaster, it would not be a fair fight, but when she got to BB-8 and Finn, she turned around only to find the mysterious pirate that did business with Unkar Plutt had vanished.

Finn asked her if she was alright, commenting on her flustered and jittery hands, the look of anxiety plain on her face. Rey shook her head, then looked toward the spherical droid in her midst. "Why are there so many people after you?" Rey could not hide the annoyance in her voice as she recounted the three instances of trouble finding its way to her ever since meeting the droid.

BB-8 started to beep and spin purposely which made Rey's brow furrow.

"What's he saying?" Finn asked.

Rey shrugged her shoulders. "Well BB-8 is saying he's on a very important mission for the Resistance and is in need of our help to get off this planet."

Finn groaned when he heard her. Suddenly he recalled Poe's mission. "Yeah, apparently he's carrying a map that leads straight to Luke Skywalker and everyone's after it."

At first Rey did not hear him, she just nodded absently to him. But that name held such weight that her mind had run a double take on its own and her eyes widened with disbelief. "Wait, what?"

—=O=—

AUTHOR'S NOTE: First thing's first; I am not a fan of how Solo tries to explain that empty space in front of the Millennium Falcon as an escape pod that they jettisoned. It rubbed me the wrong way more than I think it ought to have. I envisioned that empty space to house a magnet or tractor beam used to hold metal containment units for hauling, I think I saw something similar in Star Wars Rebels. That always made sense to me seeing as the Falcon is always described as a Freighter.