The Jakku Graveyard was the colloquial name for the rusting remains of the dozens of the hulking Imperial Star Destroyers and New Republic capital ships left off the coast following the Battle of Jakku. Just shy of one year after the death of Emperor Palpatine during the Battle of Endor, the remnants of the Empire made their final disastrous stand against the New Republic under the command of Admiral Gallius Rax on both the Jakku coastline and dunes.
Rax had been chosen to assemble any remaining forces in this remote land in the event of the Emperor's death and use everything at his disposal to lead the New Republic's military into a crushing defeat. The contingency plan fell apart due to internal squabbling between the Imperial Remnant's leadership, ultimately leading to Rax's death at the hands of fellow Admiral Rae Sloane. Following the battle and the signing of the Imperial Instruments of Surrender, the surviving Imperial commanders scattered into the untamed regions.
Jakku itself was a barren, arid land far removed from nearly every nicety of civilization. What few people lived there were either the native Teedo, small religious groups, or the scavengers of the coastal Niima Outpost who made their living off of scrap pulled out of the Graveyard.
Just after noon, one of these solitary scavengers by the name of Rey toiled away in the maze of twisted metal that was once a Star Destroyer's hangar. She pried open an access panel and let the little magelamp on the strap of her goggles light up the interior. With a gloved hand, she reached inside and pulled out an intact voidspark pipe. After wrapping the delicate glass in a rag, Rey tucked it carefully into a satchel next to other valuable components she had found that day.
Rey stood and leapt to the hanging rope that she had used to reach the lofty trove. She slid down and listened to the sounds of her gloves against the rope echo through the empty hangar. Her feet stirred up a cloud of sand dust on landing and she released the rope, leaving it for the next time she needed to reach the hangar's ceiling.
Figuring she had gathered a decent enough haul for the day, Rey headed back towards the open hangar doors where her scrap metal sled awaited. On reaching the door, she unslung her metal staff from over her shoulder and set it next to her as she sat and looked out at the choppy sea. As her feet dangled over the edge, Rey tugged down her face wrap from her nose and mouth and pulled out her canteen. Only a tiny bit of water remained in the metal bottle, barely enough to take the edge off her thirst.
After a few minutes of rest, Rey stood back up and walked over to her sled, taking a seat in the center of the assorted larger pieces she had scavenged. She pushed off and slid down the tall sand bank that had built up on the side of the Star Destroyer, occasionally correcting her course with her staff.
Once at the bottom, she stood and dragged her sled over to her self-assembled runabout. The waves had picked up again and the little metal boat rocked side to side while Rey began to transfer her haul. After ensuring that everything was secure under the cargo netting, Rey pulled in the anchor and unfolded the sail.
Sailing the rough waters of the shallow Jakku coast was nothing new to Rey. She had been riding these waves every day since she was a child. She knew the names of each wreck by heart and how to navigate between them blindfolded, so long as the ever-shifting sandbars cooperated.
As Rey rode the peaks and troughs of the sea, she passed by the rusting hulk of the Proclaimer. This wreck was by far one of the most challenging to scavenge, with the sharp forward angle it rested at. Congresses of carrion birds known as steelpeckers also roosted in the superstructure, eating away at the crumbling rust while ties descended from those leftover from the battle made their nests in the shelter of the hangars.
By the time the first orange of sunset appeared in the sky, the mast of the pile of junk Unkar Plutt called a ship came into view. Despite being the largest settlement and the closest Jakku had to a port, Niima Outpost had only four permanent buildings. The one around which the town was constructed was a blockhouse surrounded by awnings called the "concession stand" at which the scavengers sold their finds. The port authority, the constable's office, and a black market weapons shop rounded out the rest of the permanent buildings with tents, yurts, and scrap metal shacks making up the vast majority of dwellings and facilities.
Rey pulled into port and lashed her runabout to one of the vertically set broken cannons that served as a mooring. She unloaded her collected wares onto her sled and dragged it over to the concession stand.
Nearly every piece retrieved from the Graveyard had at least a surface coating of rust. As such, scavengers would clean each piece before presenting them to Unkar Plutt for appraisal.
Rey sat at one of the cleaning tables and worked quickly but thoroughly, scrubbing and picking at each item. It was a dull task and Rey's attention often drifted, sometimes inspecting what her fellow scavengers had found, sometimes fantasizing about what life outside of Jakku was like. She didn't want to leave though, she needed to wait until the promise to come back for her was kept.
The displeased voice of one of Unkar Plutt's thugs next to Rey startled her and made her realize that she had zoned out again. She hurriedly resumed scrubbing her current piece while another scavenger laughed at her.
The Crolute Unkar Plutt was not just Niima Outpost's junk appraiser, but its leader. He was a vile worm of a man that enforced his authority over Niima Outpost with his brutal thugs.
Unkar scowled at the odds and ends that Rey had brought him that day. Beads of sweat ran down his blobby face as he turned the voidspark pipe over in his chubby hand. "What you brought to me today is worth... hmmm..." He put the glass tube back on his counter and turned his scowl to Rey. "...one quarter portion."
Rey watched Plutt's pale, moist hand reach under the counter and pull out a waxed paper sachet before sliding it towards her. She took the sachet and walked away from the concession stand, dragging her sled behind her.
Rey's home sat halfway between Niima Outpost and the Graveyard on a high dune overlooking the sea. At one time, it had been an AT-AT of the Imperial 501st Legion, but the Battle of Jakku had left it as an empty hulk without a head. All the valuable bits had been stripped out long before Rey had found it and it had taken a long time to make it liveable, but it made the perfect shelter against Jakku's brutal sandstorms.
Rey had decorated the interior of the walker with her various treasures. Among them were a hand blown glass vase with red and blue flowers on it, a scrap copper panflute, the dolls she had made as a child, and a tintype of an unknown smiling family.
After entering her home through the AT-AT's neck hole, she picked up a scratch awl and added another hash to the thousands of tally marks covering every surface. Her day marked, Rey sat down at the dead communication font she had for a table and poured water into a small shallow dish resting atop it. She pulled out the paper sachet and dumped the powdery contents into the dish, stirring it with her finger. While she tended to a cook pot of bush meat stew nearby, the water and powder reacted, transforming into a small, round loaf of crude bread.
Rey sat outside and watched the sea as she ate her meal. It was meager, as it always was, but it kept her going. Up the coast, a merchant ship sailed away from Niima Outpost, undoubtedly loaded with scavenged goods.
After licking her plate clean, Rey picked up the faded and yellowed Rebel rider's helmet she had found a while back. She shook out the sand and put it on, tapping the runes on the right side to see if the target display worked that day. It didn't, but no matter, she still liked to wear it and try to imagine what it would have been like to fight in the battle.
Rey leaned back and closed her eyes, visualizing herself riding on the back of an arcwing. So vivid was this daydream that she even imagined the sound of the nautical automaton on the saddle behind her...
She snapped her eyes open and bolted upright. The chirping she heard was not her imagination. Rey removed her helmet and looked around the sunset darkened dunes. Again, the chirping came to her ears, but with it was the voice of a perturbed Teedo.
Rey grabbed her staff and followed the sounds over the dune. Sure enough, over the crest was a Teedo on a pachyderm known as a luggabeast struggling with a netted micronaut.
Despite laws banning occupational prosthetic modifications to creatures as the Empire had done with their ties, most of the tame luggabeasts of Jakku had numerous augmentations to pacify their bullish nature. Teedos in particular modified the beasts heavily to suit whatever need they had of them. Overharvesting of wild herds led to the extinction of several subspecies that once roamed the Goazon badlands and the Sarcan flats.
"(This is my claim,)" Rey yelled in Teedospeke. "(Release the automaton!)"
The Teedo dismissed her. "(Go away. I've been following this thing for an hour. I saw it before it entered your claim. It's mine.)"
Rey ran over to the ensnared micronaut. "(It doesn't matter when you saw it! It's on my claim now, so it's mine!)" She pulled out a sickle knife and started cutting the net.
"(What are you doing? Get your hands off my find!)"
Rey stood and pointed the knife at the Teedo. "(Remember what happened last time I caught you claim pirating? I won't be as lenient now!)"
The Teedo hurled a particularly offensive statement directed towards both Rey and the micronaut but released the net. He pulled his luggabeast's reins to the side and slowly rode off empty-handed.
Bibi-Eit beeped after Teedo angrily.
Rey hushed him, not wanting to re-escalate things. "That's just Teedo. Wants you for parts. He has no respect for anyone."
The little micronaut looked up at Rey with admiration. His journey across the desert had been frought with danger and this human was the first organic to show him kindness since he had had to leave Poe behind.
Rey looked at Bibi-Eit with a faint smile, but it quickly inverted. She knelt in front of the micronaut. "Your scrying antenna's bent."
Bibi-Eit tilted his domed head slightly forward to give the kind lady a better angle to the antenna. Rey pushed the brass rod in and gave it a quarter turn to release it. The micronaut watched intently while Rey carefully straightened the antenna.
"Where did you come from?"
Bibi-Eit chirped excitedly.
"Classified? Really?" Rey refitted the antenna. "Me too. Big secret." She sat back onto her heels and pointed up the coast. "Niima Outpost is that way. Stay off Kelvin Ridge and keep away from the Sinking Fields in the north. You'll drown in the sand." Rey stood, using her staff as a support.
Bibi-Eit warbled happily and began to follow Rey as she headed back towards her home. She turned and looked at the micronaut. "Don't follow me. Town is that way." Rey pointed to indicate.
Bibi-Eit gave a mechanical sigh, then let out an inquisitive series of chirps.
"No," Rey said firmly, walking away again.
The micronaut moaned dejectedly.
Rey stopped and looked back at the white and orange ball. Despite lacking any means of expression, she saw pleading in the automaton's black glass eye. She knew all too well the loneliness he was feeling. What was the harm in helping him on his way?
Rey cocked her head in a gesture for Bibi-Eit to follow. He let out a happy chirp and rolled over to her.
"In the morning, you go."
He beeped happily.
"You're welcome."
Poe moaned as his consciousness slowly returned. Bruises, burns, and lacerations covered his extremities, but as far as he could tell, the First Order torturer hadn't removed anything. He strained weakly against the torture table's restraints, but gave up.
From the shadows in front of him, a familiar distorted voice spoke. "I had no idea we had the best sky pilot in the Resistance on board."
Poe looked at Kylo Ren with his unswollen eye. "You didn't? I'm hurt. I thought we knew each other better than that."
"Comfortable?"
"Not really."
"I'm impressed," Ren said, walking towards Poe. "No one has been able to get out of you what you did with the map."
"You might want to rethink your technique. A simple 'please' goes a long way, you know."
Kylo reached his hand towards Poe's head. Poe heard a dull hum in his head, as though he had a purring cat in his skull. Then came the pressure, like every part of his head was trapped in a vise. A groan involuntarily slipped from his mouth.
Kylo Ren released a wave of Force energy that pressed Poe back into the table. The pressure began to take hold of Poe's entire body.
"Where is it?"
"...Guh... The Resistance... will not be intimidated by you..."
The pain redoubled. Poe's face contorted and he struggled to breathe.
"Where... is... it...?"
Poe yelled, unable to stand the agony his body was subject to.
A minute later, the door to the torture room opened and Kylo Ren stepped out. General Armitage Hux, a weaselly looking man with red hair looked at him impatiently. "Well?"
"It's in an automaton," Ren said. "A white and orange micronaut."
"Well, if it's in Jakku, well soon have it."
"I leave that to you," Kylo said, walking away.
Far across the world, in the D'Qar province of Ileenium, a Resistance communications officer watched his Autopress decipher and print an incoming message. The instant it was finished, he tore the printed tape off the reel and hurried across the busy command bunker, excusing himself as he squeezed between command staff.
"Any word from Poe," asked one.
"No," the comms officer replied, not slowing down.
Finally, near the map table, he found who he was looking for. She had grey hair and a wrinkled face, but she had an undeniable regal air to her.
"General?"
General Leia Organa looked up from the map table.
The comms officer presented the paper message tape. "Tuanul village has been wiped out. I'm sorry, your Highness, there was no sign of the map lens anywhere."
"If they get to Luke first, we haven't got a chance. What about Poe?"
"They found his crosswing destroyed. The bullet holes and the scorch marks around the rest of the village indicate it was the First Order."
Leia skimmed the words on the tape. "There's no mention of Bibi-Eit?"
"He... wasn't recovered."
"Never underestimate the resourcefulness of an automaton."
"No, ma'am." The comms officer saluted and started back to his station.
Temmin "Snap" Wexley, second in command of Poe's Black Squadron overhead the conversation and watched the officer go. He then approached Leia. "General, should we contact the Republic?"
"We have to be smarter than that. We need to find Bibi-Eit as soon as we can. Our future may depend on him." Leia walked over to a gold diplomatic automaton with a red arm. "Threepio, send out a be-on-lookout message to our spies concerning Bibi-Eit."
"Of course, General." Threepio turned around and started to type up the message. "Oh, this is a catastrophe..."
Rey woke up at dawn as she always did. After a quick breakfast of what morsels remained from her dinner, she tied her hair up in the three bun style she had had since she had been left in Jakku. When her family came back, she wanted to make sure that they could recognize her. Bibi-Eit waited by the door eagerly until Rey was ready to go.
The two of them scavenged until mid afternoon, just enough for Rey to earn her food for the day. Once Rey moored her runabout in Niima Outpost's harbor, she placed Bibi-Eit onto the scrap metal dock. "Don't give up hope. He might still show up. Whoever it is you're waiting for."
The micronaut chirped as he followed Rey up the dock.
"Classified, yes." Rey adjusted her staff's shoulder sling. "I know all about waiting..."
An inquisitive warble.
"For my family. They'll be back. One day." Rey stared out at the sea wistfully for a moment. She looked back to Bibi-Eit and smiled. "Come on."
Unkar Plutt scowled at what Rey had presented. "These five pieces are worth... Let me see here... Hmm... One half portion." He slapped the sachet onto the counter.
Rey frowned. "Last week, they were half a portion each."
"What about the automaton?"
Rey looked to Bibi-Eit. "What about him?"
"I'll pay for him." Plutt counted out twenty full sized sachets and placed them on the counter. Rey's eyes went wide and the scavengers around her muttered to one another. The muttering increased as Unkar pulled out another twenty, then a further twenty. He slapped his hand on the stack. "Sixty portions."
Rey started to gather the sachets eagerly but then stopped. Her eyes went to the little micronaut on the ground next to her. "Actually... the automaton's not for sale." She pulled her arms away from the two months' worth of food and took the half portion that had been initially offered. "Come on," she told Bibi-Eit.
Unkar Plutt snarled as Rey walked away. He mashed a sausage like finger into his communication crystal. "Follow the girl and get that automaton!" The blockhouse's steel shutter closed.