Saga of the Skywalkers - A Fantasy Retelling: The Force Awakens

by Silas Kaiser

In the three decades since the fall of the Empire, a new evil has risen from its ashes to threaten the world once again. Working tirelessly to combat this First Order, a brave Resistance seeks the aid of a missing legendary Jedi. Heroes both new and old will unite to combat the threat while The Force Awakens in ways not seen for millennia.

5. 5 Han Solo

Rey hurried down to the main deck while Finn stood from his Treeby gun's seat. "Great shooting!"

"That was some kind of sailing," Finn said.

Rey smiled broadly. "Thanks!"

"How did you do that?"

Rey's brow twitched. "I don't know."

"No one trained you?"

"I mean I've sailed small boats before, but nothing like this. Your last shot was dead on. That was amazing! You got him with one blast!"

"You set me up for it."

"It was perfect!"

Finn nodded and smiled proudly. "It was pretty good."

Bibi-Eit rolled up from below deck and gave an inquisitive chirp.

"Oh." Rey knelt down in front of the micronaut. "You're okay. He's with the Resistance."

Bibi-Eit looked at Finn with a look that the former stormtrooper interpreted as skepticism. The micronaut looked back to her.

Rey smiled. "He's going to get you home. We both will." She cocked her head and stood, turning to face Finn. "I don't know your name."

"Finn. What's yours?"

"I'm Rey." She smiled. For the first time in a very long time, Rey felt as though she could say she had a friend.

Finn wanted to believe that he had made another friend, but the pain of losing two in as many days made him hesitant. He pouted slightly. "Rey-"

There was a loud bang from below deck followed by a constant hiss.

"The engine!" Rey dashed towards the deck hatch. "Come on, help me with it! Quick!"

Finn followed her to the engine room. "What's going on?"

Kylo Ren stared out at the Jakku coast from the side window of the Finalizer's bridge. Something had been nagging at him since he had first made landfall. It might have been nothing, but something reminded him of his recurring dream.

An officer approached Ren. His hands shook as he removed his peaked cap and flattened his hair. He cleared his throat. "Sir... We were unable to acquire the automaton in Jakku."

Kylo turned his head slowly.

"It escaped capture aboard a stolen Corellian White Star light freighter."

Kylo Ren was silent for several seconds. "...The automaton... stole a freighter?"

"N-not exactly, sir. It had help."

Ren fully turned to face the officer.

"We have no confirmation, but we believe FN-2187 may have helped in the escape."

Kylo Ren ignited his Lightblade. The officer flinched, expecting to feel the blade cut him down. Ren instead slashed the unoccupied scrying station next to him, cutting crisscrossing glowing furrows in the metal. Sparks and droplets of molten metal flew everywhere and the officer ducked to avoid being hit.

Once there was nothing left of the scrying station but a glowing slagheap, Kylo Ren deactivated his Lightblade. He breathed heavily and stared at his handiwork. "Anything else?" His voice was calm, which frankly scared the officer more.

"The... two were accompanied by a girl."

Kylo snap turned to the officer and held out his hand. The officer flew towards him and Kylo's fingers closed tightly around his throat. "What girl?!"

Rey shut off the main steam valve and looked over the engine. She was astounded that the ship was even capable of moving considering the multitude of amateur repairs.

Finn wasn't even sure what he was looking at. "So what's wrong with it?"

Rey wanted to say "everything" but resisted the temptation. "It's the steam inlet pipe." She gestured to a corroded pipe with water dripping out. "There's a toolbox behind you. Grab me a Harriss wrench."

Finn started digging through the box, unsure of what a Harriss wrench was. "How bad is it?"

"If we want to move, not good."

"They're hunting for us now. We have to get away from here."

"Bibi-Eit said the location of the Resistance base is 'need-to-know.' If I'm going to take you there, I need to know!"

Finn pulled out a wrench that he supposed looked like it could be named after someone called Harriss. "This?"

Rey took the tool. "Yes, thank you."

While Rey worked on the pipe, Finn knelt down in front of Bibi-Eit and spoke as quietly as he could. "You got to tell us where your base is."

Bibi-Eit shook his head and chirped.

"I don't speak that." Finn sighed. "All right, between us, I'm not with the Resistance, okay?"

Bibi-Eit rolled back in alarm.

"I'm just trying to get away from the First Order. But you got to tell us where the base is. I'll get you there first. Deal?"

Bibi-Eit peered around Finn to look at Rey.

"Micronaut, please!"

Rey's hand shot out. "Flathead driver and that pipe over there. So where's your base?"

Finn set to digging through the toolbox again. "Go on, Bibi-Eit, tell her."

Rey looked to the automaton expectantly. Bibi-Eit repeatedly shifted his gaze between the two humans.

Finn said a quiet, urgent "please."

The micronaut dropped his gaze and chirped.

Rey blinked. "Ileenium?"

Finn smiled and felt a weight lifted off his chest. "Yeah, Ileenium. That's the one. Get us there as fast as you can." He handed Rey the driver and shot Bibi-Eit a thumbs-up when she turned her back. The automaton responded by igniting his blowtorch and angling the flame upwards.

"I'll drop you two in Ponemah." Rey put her hand out again. "The exhaust pipe is rusted through. I need the metal bonding tape."

"What about you?"

"I've got to get back to Jakku."

Finn's jaw dropped. "Back to Jak- Why does everyone want to go back to Jakku?!" Finn picked up a roll of tape.

"No, it's not that one. No. No, the one I'm pointing to. No!" Rey groaned in frustration. "If we don't patch this pipe, the exhaust fumes are going to build up and flood the ship with toxic gas!"

Finn held up a roll of silver tape. "This?"

"Yes!"

Finn tossed it to Rey and she immediately tore a piece free and patched the hole.

"Hey, Rey, you're a sailor. You can go anywhere. Why go back? You got a family?" Finn grinned. "You got a boyfriend? A cute boyfriend?"

Rey spun to look at Finn with a fire in her eyes. "None of your business, that's why."

The ship started moving backwards with more sustained force than any wind on a clear night could produce.

Finn looked around. "That can't be good."

Rey stood up. "No, it can't be." She moved past him out of the engine room and to the moonlit top deck. She was already on the bridge by the time Finn was topside. "None of the runes are helping. I think we're in some kind of attraction field."

There was a loud metallic clang from the darkness. Something large was moving towards the ship from the direction of the stern, silhouetted against the night sky.

Rey squinted. "What is that?"

Red magelights flickered on in the middle of the dark mass, revealing a large grimy drydock. Mechanical claws and thick chains hung from the ceiling. Beyond the drydock were mountains of crates. On the far wall, large letters written in flaking paint read "ERAVANA."

Finn went cold. "Oh, no... It's the First Order..."

The ship slipped backwards into the red lit drydock, then lurched to a stop. Docking clamps screeched and closed around the hull. The doors through which they entered closed in front of the ship with a climactic bang.

Rey scowled. "What do we do? There must be something."

Finn's face brightened as an idea hit him. "You said toxic gas."

"I fixed that."

"Can you unfix it?"

Rey nodded and she and Finn raced back to the engine room. A quick sabotage later, the engine's exhaust started pumping directly into the ship.

Rey pulled open a poorly disguised section of the passenger cabin's floor, revealing hidden compartments large enough to hide in. Finn climbed in and Rey passed Bibi-Eit to him before climbing in herself and closing the compartment over them.

All nautical automata including micronauts come equipped with foldaway propellers to facilitate underwater repairs. So too do they possess an air collector and a pair breathing mask for any organics they may be assisting.

Rey put her mask on. "Wait, will this work against stormtroopers? Don't their helmets have a purification enchantment?"

Finn frowned and paused as he adjusted his mask's fit. "No?"

"Oh. I guess that was only Imperial era."

The three stowaways heard a pair of footsteps on the top deck and endeavored to stay as silent as possible, though the soft hissing of Bibi-Eit's air collector made this quite challenging. The footsteps entered the passenger cabin and stopped a stride away from the hidden compartment.

Finn clamped his eyes shut and unconsciously stopped breathing. Rey's heart hammered in her chest like she had run the length of a Star Destroyer.

One of the boarders chuckled, then spoke with the voice of an older man. "Chewie... We're home."

The other boarder released an animalistic roar.

"Smells like the exhaust has a leak," said the first voice. "Go check the engine while I..."

Both boarders went quiet. Finn and Rey looked to one another in panic. The heavier set of feet approached the compartment and stopped.

Suddenly, the panel concealing the compartment lifted away, revealing a man with shaggy grey hair and a week's worth of stubble standing over Rey, Finn, and Bibi-Eit. In his hand was a large caliber flintlock revolver.

The man glared at them, although there was the hint of puzzlement. "Where are the others? Where's the captain?"

"I'm the captain," Rey blurted out.

The man looked at the panicked Rey and cocked an eyebrow. "You?"

The Wookiee that was holding the compartment cover set it down and roared angrily.

"No, it's true," Rey insisted. "We're the only ones on board."

Finn looked to Rey. "You can understand that thing?"

"And that thing can understand you, too," said the man. "So watch it." He twitched the muzzle of his pistol upwards. "Come on out of there. Chewie, see what you can do about that exhaust leak."

Rey removed her mask and climbed out while Finn lifted Bibi-Eit. The Wookiee returned within two minutes and growled that he was successful in his repair.

The man holstered his pistol. "Where'd you get this ship?"

"Niima Outpost," Rey answered.

"Jakku? That junkyard?"

Finn held out his arms toward the man. "Thank you." He looked back to Rey. "Junkyard."

The man sighed and turned to his Wookiee companion. "I told you we should have checked the Western Reaches."

The Wookiee shrugged.

"So who had it? Ducain?"

"I stole it," Rey said with a hint of pride. "From Unkar Plutt. He stole it from the Irving Boys, who stole it from Ducain."

The man hooked a thumb towards himself. "Who stole it from me! Well you can tell them all that Han Solo just stole the Millennium Falcon back for good." He turned and started to walk away.

If Rey's eyes were any wider, they could have fallen out of their sockets. "This is the Millennium Falcon? You're Han Solo?"

Han hung his head and sighed. "I used to be..."

Rey looked to the Wookiee. "And you're Chewbacca?"

Chewbacca nodded.

Finn scrunched his face in thought. "Han Solo..." He perked up. "The Rebellion general?"

Rey scoffed. "No, the smuggler!"

"But wasn't he a war hero?"

A skeptical scowl crossed Rey's face. "This is the ship that made the Kessel Run in thirty minutes?"

"Twenty-four," Han yelled down from the deck hatch. He shook his head and scoffed. "Thirty..."

Han stepped onto the bridge and ran his hand over his dryrotted chair, then the wheel. The Millennium Falcon needed extensive repairs, but having her back brought a tear to his eye. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of gold dice connected by a small chain.

Han smiled and tied the dice around one of the wheel's inner spokes. His eyes trailed to the rune console. A few new ones had been cut and he frowned at one of them. He stormed to the engine room and confirmed his suspicions.

Han reentered the passenger cabin in a sour mood. "Some idiot rigged the engine to run over pressure!"

Rey nodded. "Unkar Plutt did. I thought it was a mistake, too. Puts too much..."

"...stress on the crankshaft," Rey and Han finished, simultaneously.

Han chuckled. "Chewie, throw them in a balloon. We'll drop them off in the closest civilized land."

Chewbacca roared an agreement.

"Wait, no," Rey said. "We need your help."

Han's forehead wrinkled. "My help?"

"This automaton has to get to the Resistance base as soon as possible."

"He's carrying a map to Luke Skywalker," Finn said.

A chill went up Han's spine.

Finn's gaze nailed Han in place. "You are the Han Solo that fought with the Rebellion. You knew him."

Han took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Yeah," he said quietly, nodding. "I knew him. I knew Luke."

A very loud bang echoed from somewhere in Han's bulk freighter.

Han sighed in annoyance. "Oh, don't tell me a rathtar's gotten loose." He ran to the deck hatch.

Finn's eyes bulged. "Wait, what?" He took off after Han. "Did you just say rathtar?!"

Rey, Chewbacca, and Bibi-Eit followed them topside while Finn continued his tirade of disbelief.

"You're not hauling rathtars on this freighter, are you?!"

"I'm hauling rathtars," Han said matter-of-factly. He stepped off the gangplank and walked over to an internal security looking glass on the wall of the drydock.

Rathtars are the more ambulatory cousins of sarlaccs from the land of Twon Ketee. Effectively little more than a stomach and toothy mouth in a round, tentacled body, rathtars do very little other than hunt and eat anything that moves and reproduce via budding. They are regarded as one of the most violent and ravenous creatures in existence and owing to the difficulty of observing them, there is still woefully scant available information.

Han tapped through the runes of the looking glass, shifting the image to different views of the Eravana. He stopped on one and groaned. "Great..."

Finn panicked. "Are the rathtars loose?"

"No. It's the Guavian Death Gang. Must have tracked us from Nantoon."

"Err," said Rey. "What's a rathtar?"

"They're big and they're dangerous," Han answered, starting for the door to the rest of the ship.

Finn leaned towards Rey as they followed. "You ever hear of the Trillia Massacre?"

"No?"

"Good."

"I got three of them going to King Prana's menagerie," Han explained, leading the way down a corridor.

Finn balked. "Three?! How'd you get them on board?"

"I used to have a bigger crew."

Chewbacca growled something akin to a dry laugh. Bibi-Eit warbled nervously.

Han stopped and opened a maintenance hatch on the floor. "Get below and stay there until I say so. Don't even think about taking the Falcon."

Rey looked to the little micronaut beside her. "What about Bibi-Eit?"

"He stays with me until I get rid of the gang, then you can have him back and be on your way."

Finn frowned. "What about the rathtars? Where are you keeping them?"

There came an alarmingly loud fleshy thud from the sealed compartment door behind Finn. He and Rey both flinched and screamed in surprise.

Han pointed at the door. "One's in there."

Rey collected herself. "What are you going to do?"

"Same thing I always do," Han said with a smirk. "Talk my way out of it."

Chewbacca roared at Han.

"Yes, I do. Every time."

Finn and Rey lowered themselves through the maintenance hatch. The crawlspaces beyond were dimly lit and smelled indescribably off, but they would have to do until Han came back.

Han saw the heavily armed Guavians coming up one of the side corridors at a four-way junction. He turned to Chewbacca and gave him his hand signal for "wait, but keep an eye out."

The red armored Guavians marched towards them, two abreast. They stopped, faced inwards, then took a step back towards the corridor walls, revealing a particularly grumpy but sharply dressed man. He slowly walked between his men towards Han.

"Han Solo," said the man in a thick accent. "Yer a dead man."

Han put out his arms and shrugged innocently. "Bala-Tik. What's the problem?"

"The problem is we loaned ye fifty thoosand fer this job."

Under the grated floor, Rey struggled to see what was going on."Can you see them?"

"No," Finn whispered back.

Rey jerked her head towards where Han and Chewbacca stood and she and Finn crawled quietly down the maintenance tunnel.

"I haird ye awso borrowed fifty thoosand from Kanjiklub," Bala-Tik said.

Han scoffed. "You know you can't trust those little freaks. How long have was known each other?"

Rey stopped and looked up through the holes in the floor. She craned her head back to Finn. "They have guns," she whispered.

"Not long," Bala-Tik answered. "We want our money back now."

"You think hunting rathtars is cheap? I spent that money."

"Kanjiklub wants thair investment back, too."

"I never made a deal with Kanjiklub!"

"Tail that tae Kanjiklub." Bala-Tik nodded for Han to look behind him.

Han turned and saw a group of heavily scarred men in battle worn armor. At their head was a man with long black hair partially tied up into a topknot.

Han put on a winning smile. "Tasu Leech. G... good to see you!"

Tasu Leech peeled his lips back in a snarl, revealing his ink blackened teeth. "(Wrong again, Solo. It's over for you.)"

As Tasu continued to threaten Han, Rey and Finn crept further down the tunnel.

Han gave a friendly laugh. "Boys, you're both going to get what I promised. Have I ever not delivered for you before?" He smiled again.

"Aye," Bala-Tik replied flatly.

Tasu Leech nodded. "(Twice.)"

Han looked to Chewbacca, hoping to have the Wookiee back home up. Instead he nodded as well.

Han frowned in thought. "...What was the second time?"

"Yer game is old. Thare's no one in the world left fer ye tae swindle."

"(Nowhere left to hide.)"

Bala-Tik smirked. "That micronaut. The Fairst Order is looking fer one just like it..."

Bibi-Eit rolled behind Han's legs.

"...and two fugitives," Bala-Tik finished.

Rey and Finn froze.

Han shrugged. "First I've heard of it."

Tasu Leech turned to his men. "(Search the freighter.)"

Finn and Rey hurried down the tunnel while trying to remain quiet. Rey noticed something on the wall up ahead. "Wait. Wait, wait." She crawled over to it.

Rey's suspicion was confirmed; she had found a maintenance junction box. She opened the panel. "If we can close the bulkheads in that corridor, we can trap both gangs!"

"We can do that from here?"

"Removing the bulkheads' voidspark pipe should do it." Rey pulled the glass tube away from its holding pins.

Elsewhere in the Eravana, several compartment doors opened. Low rumbling roars echoed through the freighter's corridors. The gang members all looked to one another with unease.

Han slowly turned to Chewbacca. "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Oh, no," Rey said, looking at the faded labels in the junction box more carefully.

"'Oh, no,' what?"

"Wrong pipe."

"Kill them," Bala-Tik yelled to his men. The Guavians cocked and aimed their guns. "And take the automaton!"

Han tried to come up with words that would calm the situation, but it turned out that there was no need. Thick dark red tentacles lashed out from behind the Guavians and dragged two of them into a mouth lined with innumerable sharp teeth.

Han grimaced at the screams and turned to see that a rathtar had set upon the Kanjii as well. Gunfire added to the screams and roars, but only momentarily before the gangsters started to run for their lives.

With their prey fleeing, the rathtars gave chase, dragging themselves up the corridors with alarming speed. Han, Chewbacca, and Bibi-Eit ran up the main corridor, hoping the right angle turn would slow the rathtars. It did, but only somewhat.

As they approached a side passage, one of the Kanjii poked his head out. Han socked him in the jaw as he ran past, leaving the disoriented thug to the lead rathtar.

Rey and Finn crawled away as fast a they could. Drops of blood and rathtar digestive juices flecked their backs, adding to the collection of other stains they had accumulated since leaving Jakku.

It took everything Finn had to keep moving instead of curling up and screaming. "This was a mistake!"

"Huge," Rey agreed.

As though reinforcing the sentiment, a thug ran by overhead, yelling with the full force of his lungs.

Rey opened the next maintenance hatch and peered out cautiously. Not seeing any bloodthirsty monsters, she climbed out with Finn close behind. The two started running, relying on instinct to guide them.

"What do they look like?" Rey asked.

They rounded the corner and saw a thug get ensnared by tentacles and subsequently dragged towards a whirlpool of teeth. The thug screamed and desperately clung to the grated floor. Rey clamped her hand over her mouth in wide-eyed horror, unable to look away as the man was eaten alive.

Finn pointed a shaky finger. "They look like that." He grabbed Rey's hand and dragged her away while she stared unblinking. "This way!"

"Are you sure?!"

The rathtar slithered after them, tentacles lashing out ahead of it. Finn suddenly tripped as one wrapped around his ankle. He yelped and fell forward before clawing at the floor. "No, no, no!"

Rey screamed Finn's name and ran back towards him all while the writhing red tentacles dragged him down the corridor.

"Rey!"

"Finn!"

Rey yelped and jumped back when one of the tendrils nearly grabbed her. Sadly, this also put more distance between her and her friend. She started running again, following Finn's terrified yells and the slavering rathtar's trail of drool. The toothy horror moved too fast for the scavenger to keep up, though, and Rey lost track of them when the slime trail crossed another at a four way junction.

Rey put her hands to her mouth, smudging her face with old grease. "Finn!"

"Rey! Get it off me!" Finn's voice was somewhat close but she couldn't isolate his direction.

A flicker next to her caught her attention. It was one of the security looking glasses and on it was the rathtar dragging Finn. Rey pressed the rune to switch the view to follow the rathtar and saw it approaching a bulkhead door. If she timed it right, she could remotely seal the bulkhead and sever the tentacles.

Rey tapped in the bulkhead's rune sequence and held her index finger over the command rune. She started to hyperventilate, knowing she only had one chance to save Finn.

Rey watched the monochromatic blue view on the looking glass carefully. Just as the rathtar's round body passed through the bulkhead, she mashed her thumb into the rune.

Finn and the now severed tentacles wrapped around him fell to the floor. The fleshy appendages squirmed erratically and Finn screamed as he struggled against them. One by one, he pulled them away and stood, panting from both exertion and residual terror.

"Finn!"

Finn shrieked and turned towards who had spoken and found a smiling Rey standing behind him.

Finn pointed at the still wriggling tentacles. "It had me," he said in a voice higher pitched than his normal one. "But the door!"

"That was lucky. Come on!"

Han, Chewbacca, and Bibi-Eit reached the sealed drydock door with the Kanjii and the Guavians in hot pursuit.

"Chewie! I got the door, cover us!" Han started putting in the door code.

Chewbacca roared an affirmative and raised his Wroshyr wood crossbow. Bolts of pale green magic flew down the corridor, striking anything that poked out from around the corners.

One of the Guavians fired blindly while Chewbacca was loosing a bolt towards a Kanjii. The bullet hit the Wookiee in his right bicep and flattened against the bone. Chewbacca roared and fell to his knee.

Han turned to his wounded friend and picked up the crossbow. As the Guavian cocked his carbine for the next shot, Han put a bolt squarely into his red armored chest.

Han inspected the Wookiee weapon he held. Even under the sleeves of his leather jacket, Han felt the hairs on his forearms prickle as the crossbow collected ambient magic to recharge. "Whoa." He looked to his friend. "Chewie, you okay?"

Chewbacca had his hand clamped over his bicep and blood matted his brown fur. He looked at Han and nodded. Chewbacca groaned an instruction to Han.

Han pointed the crossbow at the door's sigil plate and fired. The bolt overloaded the magics of the plate and the door opened, much to Han's surprised delight. "Come on! Come on!"

Rey and Finn ran into the drydock just as Han and Chewbacca reached the bottom of the Millennium Falcon's gangplank. Bibi-Eit chirped an excited greeting from the deck.

Han pointed to Rey. "You, close the doors behind us." He then pointed to Finn. "You, take care of Chewie."

Finn let Chewbacca put his good arm around him while Han sprinted to the bridge. Han was alarmed to see Rey joining him on the bridge while he was starting up the engine. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Rey tapped a pair of runes on the control console. "Unkar Plutt installed a water pump, too. If we don't prime that, we're not going anywhere."

Han hissed. "I hate that guy."

"And you could use a first mate."

"I've got one. He's below deck."

Chewbacca groaned loudly as Finn tried to apply bacta paste to his wound. The paste was likely spoiled, judging by the amount of dust on the lid of the medical chest, but it would still help start the healing process.

Han tapped out a destination into the brass navigation box. "Hang on, we're getting out of here by Hyperion gate."

Rey shot him a worried look. "From inside the drydock? Is that even possible?"

"I never ask that question 'til after I've done it."

The loud crash of falling crates and a rathtar roar filled the drydock as Han waited for the brass box's amber crystal to turn green. Rey yelped upon seeing the tentacled mass slithering towards them.

Han let out an irritated laugh. "This is not how I thought this day was going to go..." He stood and put his hand to his mouth. "Hang on down there!"

"No problem," Finn's voice returned.

A quartet of Kanjii forced open one of the doors to the drydock and opened fire on the Falcon. The rathtar crawled ever closer, though slowed by its missing appendages.

Han chewed his lip, waiting for the crystal to turn green. "Come on, baby, don't let me down."

The crystal turned green, but before Han could hit it, the engine stalled.

Han looked around. "What?"

Rey pointed to a rune. "Compressor."

Han frowned and restarted the engine. He opened a Hyperion gate inside the drydock and went to full steam. As the Millennium Falcon started to enter the gate, the metal of the Eravana's drydock groaned and bent, trying to squeeze to fit into a portal far too small. The Falcon fully passed through a fraction of a second before the drydock and everything in it crushed in on itself.

Bala-Tik watched the rathtar and metal carnage from one of the corridors. He snarled and tapped his comm crystal. "Inform the Fairst Order that Han Solo has the automaton they want. And it's aboard the Millennium Falcon."