Chapter Thirteen

Final Orders

Commander Larma D'Acy stood in the middle of a crush of Resistance personnel. An all-hands meeting had been hastily called, but it was hardly necessary; no one wanted to miss this briefing.

D'Acy spoke. "Today is a sad day for the Resistance. Our leader, General Leia Organa, has passed. She was not only a princess, or a commander; she was, to many of us, a dear friend. She shall be sorely missed.

"However, she would not have wanted our sorrow over her loss to cause us to fail in our convictions. We must carry on the fight she no longer can. To this end, we must find new leadership. Luckily, Leia herself left instructions as to what should be done in the event of her death or permanent incapacitation, so that there will be no uncertainty as to our course of action." D'Acy shot Poe Dameron a significant look. He shifted uncomfortably.

Commander D'Acy glanced down at a datapad, then continued. "First, Aftab Ackbar shall be promoted to Vice Admiral." She drew a rank badge from a small case. A lieutenant passed it to the Mon Calamari.

"Next, Kaydel Ko Connix shall be appointed as General—"

It makes sense, Poe thought. The young officer had shown herself to have a brilliant strategic mind and an unflinching loyalty to the cause, having risen quickly through the ranks to become Leia's de facto chief of staff. She would be a good General. He tried to shrug off the slight, irrational twinge of disappointment he felt. After all, he was just a pilot. That was what he was good at, that was—

"—of the Resistance ground forces."

What?

"Finally, Poe Dameron is hereby appointed Admiral of the Fleet and acting General of the Resistance."

Connix sidled up next to him. "I guess you are in command now…Admiral Dameron."

Poe numbly received the metal rectangle displaying his new rank. He had imagined leading the Resistance, but it had always seemed a distant possibility, something that might happen when the war was all but over and Leia felt she could leave the mopping up to others. Except that would have never happened; he knew her better than that. She wouldn't have given up until the fight was done. But now she was gone, and the responsibility fell on his shoulders. Had he really been hoping for this, mere moments ago?

He suddenly became aware that the crowd was looking at him expectantly, doubtless hoping for an inspiring speech. He scrambled to think of something to say.

"I…ah…." Great beginning, Dameron.

"I can't replace Leia," he managed finally. "I'm not a politician or a great speech-maker. But I promise all of you…I will do my best to lead you, and see this war through."

His words seemed rather hollow to himself, but the gathered pilots, troopers, and techs seemed satisfied. A few nodded.

"Meeting dismissed," Poe finished. "May the Force be with you all." And with me, especially.

The Lady Luck, a long, sleek Sorosuub Luxury 3000 space yacht, descended towards Ajan Kloss. It glided over the jungles like a huge white shorebird, following an encrypted beacon to its destination. The vessel decelerated as it approached the Resistance base, then settled lightly next to the Millennium Falcon.

Pilots and engineers looked up with curiosity, and in a few cases recognition, as the ship's owner descended the boarding ramp. He surveyed the Resistance encampment, breathing in the humid scents of the jungle, a pleasant change from dry, dusty desert air. Then he stepped onto the spongy, rain-moistened ground and headed for the command center, his cape trailing after.

Poe sat in a dim nook in the rear of the base, staring at the cot on which Leia had rested. Now there was nothing on it but a bundle of clothing and personal belongings covered with a white sheet.

"I gotta tell you, I don't really know…how to do this." Poe breathed, clasping his hands together as if in supplication. "What you did…" He shook his head. "Yeah, I'm not ready."

"Neither were we," said a voice.

Poe looked up to see General Lando Calrissian step into the alcove. The former smuggler and baron was dressed in a bright yellow shirt, a flowing black cape, and black trousers. A shiny chromium-plated blaster hung at his hip. "Han, Luke, Leia, me." He shrugged. "Who's ever ready?"

Poe stood up. "How'd you do it? Defeat an empire, with almost…nothing?"

"We had each other," Lando said with a smile. "That's how we won."

D-O rummaged around in a box of tools.

"Hey, don't touch that," scolded Finn. "That's my friend's."

"So—sorry." The droid cocked its head. "Your friend is gone?"

Finn looked to the sky. "Yeah, she's gone. I don't know where."

"You miss her."

"Yeah, I do." Finn rested an arm on the back of his metal chair and looked at D-O. "So, what's your story?"

Finn and Poe hurried towards each other. D-O trailed behind Finn.

"I gotta talk to you about something," Finn said.

"I gotta talk to you about something," Poe responded, pointing at him. "I can't do this alone. I need you in command with me."

"Well this droid has—thank you. I appreciate that," Finn said, touching his friend's chest.

"General," Poe addressed him.

Finn nodded. "General. This droid has a ton of information about what Snoke has been doing."

"Wait, what, cone-face?" Poe asked incredulously.

"I am Dee-Oh," D-O volunteered.

"Sorry, Dee-Oh."

"He used to belong to a Jedi hunter, a Sith cultist named Ochi of Bestoon," Finn explained. "He says that once, they traveled to the Western Reaches. Jakku."

"Why was Ochi going there?"

"To bring the little girl he was supposed to find to the Supreme Leader. He wanted her alive. Snoke's been trying to build an army of Force-sensitive soldiers." Finn's eyes burned with anger. "They were going to do to Rey what they did to me."

Chewbacca sat morosely on a large crate, wiping down his bowcaster with a rag. Lando walked up to him and leaned on a long black cane topped with a polished metal ornament in the shape of Cloud City.

"How are you, Chewie?" Lando asked quietly.

The Wookiee looked up and mumbled something softly.

Lando said, "Yeah, I guess we are the last of the old crew. These young folks seem pretty capable, though."

Chewbacca growled that they were, except at Dejarik. Lando laughed.

Poe and Finn carried supplies to the Phantom Hawk, a ship Rose had pieced together from scrap and cast-off parts. Its front had a bulbous cockpit, a laser turret set immediately behind it. A pair of exposed, oversized engines hung from the sides of a hull taken from an old gunship, while two large fins and a few smaller ones splayed out from the rear at odd angles. Various parts of the vessel were haphazardly painted a mossy green, while the rest was bare metal.

Rose exited the ship, holding a datapad. "I've been studying Star Destroyer schematics in conjunction with the spy's data," she said. "I may have found a weakness."

"What?" Poe asked. "I'll take any good news."

"If the Final Order plans to use their Destroyers to crack open planets, the Axial Superlasers must consume a tremendous amount of energy," Rose stipulated. "They're probably directly connected to the main reactors, without the usual safety throttling. Hitting the cannons might kick off a chain reaction and blow the whole ship. Of course, I haven't run all the math yet, but I've told my best engineers to work on it."

Finn said, "I like it."

"I'll pass your idea on to the Starfighter Corps and the rest of the Navy," said Poe.

Lando and Chewbacca wandered towards them. "What's the plan, Admiral?" Lando asked, sitting down on a box.

Poe answered, "Finn, Rose, Artoo, and Threepio are going to Coruscant. There's a beacon under the Jedi Temple that the First Order can't jam. We're going to rally the galaxy."

Lando gave a half-shrug. "That's our chance! Any way I can help?"

"As a matter of fact, we do have a mission in mind for you," Finn put in.

"We want you and Chewie to take the Falcon to the Outer Rim," said Poe. "Send out a call for help to anybody listening, and round up every smuggler, pirate, and mercenary you think might be sympathetic to our cause."

"We can do that," said Lando, grinning. "Can't we, Chewie?"

Chewbacca roared his assent.

"We'll rendezvous at Ord Mantell," Poe declared. "Send us a message when you get there. Rose has figured out the Final Order's frequency-hopping algorithm, so we can get around the jammer somewhat, but if we tried to broadcast to the whole galaxy they would shut down all frequencies."

As they talked, Rose had been tinkering with the Hawk's innards. She called to a nearby pair of droids. "This is a Corellian hyperdrive. Artoo, do we have a keycode for this?"

R2-D2 projected a holographic jumble of letters and numbers. A line of gibberish lit up in red; a perfect match. He whistled proudly.

"This is every hyperdrive key in the old Imperial fleet," Rose marveled, studying the rows of text. "They still use these. Artoo, where'd you get this?"

The astromech beeped.

"I thought I told you to erase the data from Bespin's central computer," C-3PO chided. "You don't know where it's been."

"He won't want to erase this, though," said General Connix, walking up to the group gathered around the ship. She waved a datacard at them. "Finally finished putting together the message." Connix looked down and said sadly, "I only wish Leia herself could have delivered the speech she wrote."

"We all do," agreed Poe.

Connix bent over R2-D2 and inserted the datacard into the slot under his photoreceptor. He beeped, acknowledging that the information had been transferred.

Finn looked at Poe. "Guess this is goodbye."

"Don't say that," the pilot said, shaking his head. "We'll meet again. On Coruscant, with any luck."

"Right."

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Finn pulled Poe into an embrace and hugged him. "Take care."

"You too."

Finn forced himself away, swallowing back his emotions. He halted by the open bay doors on the side of the Phantom Hawk.

Rose sweated, straining to loosen a recalcitrant bolt with her Harris wrench. "No, hop onboard, relax," she gasped, her voice dripping sarcasm. "I'll handle all of this…work."

Poe watched as his friend disappeared into the ship.

Lando stood aboard the Falcon, taking in the familiar sight of its rooms and corridors, light fixtures and instrument panels. He sighed. Once, the Falcon had been gleaming and new, ready to meet the galaxy and take on anything; just like he had been. Now, they had both been worn down by the years. Still, it was good to be back.

Chewbacca walked past him, growling something about old times come 'round once more. Lando smiled and followed him towards the cockpit.

Rose and Finn took their seats under the rounded plasteel of the Phantom Hawk's cockpit. C-3PO and R2-D2 stood behind them.

Artoo whistled a question.

"Nervous? I'm not nervous," said Threepio. "I have the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission."

The shorter droid blatted skeptically.

The Millennium Falcon rose out of the jungle. The freighter turned and gathered speed, engines whining, before streaking away into the pale blue sky. Behind it, the Phantom Hawk lifted through the treetops and flew away in the opposite direction.

Poe's eyes followed the ships as they left. Words came to him; whether he had heard them before, he wasn't sure, but they felt right. He said them aloud.

"Godspeed, Rebels."

Armitage Hux stood in the First Order Capitol's control centre, leaning over a table as he studied a large screen that displayed a map of the galaxy. Officers bustled about, informing him of ship movements and taking messages.

A hologram of Snoke's head flickered on in front of him. "General Hux. Report on your preparations for the battle."

"All is proceeding apace, Supreme Leader," Hux responded. "The fleet is in place above Coruscant, ready to fire on any Resistance ships the moment they exit hyperspace. All major hyperlanes around the planet are monitored and guarded by Interdictor vessels."

"And what of Protocol Base Delta Omega?"

"Our ships are ready to fire as soon as you give the command."

Snoke's mouth curled back like a wound. "Good. Keep me informed of any major developments."

"I will, Supreme Leader."

The hologram snapped off.

Snoke turned off the communications array built into his throne and nodded to the armored warriors before him. "Speak."

"We have still been unable to sense our brethren," said Solonny Ren. "We have no choice but to presume they are dead."

Snoke scowled. "Unfortunate, but not unexpected. We always knew the girl was a formidable opponent."

Solonny lifted her head slightly. "We are at half strength, milord. I fear our order may not survive the coming fight."

"You wish reinforcements," observed Snoke. He tapped a button on the throne. A holographic line of Red-armored stormtroopers appeared between himself and the Knights. "I possess a legion of Sith Troopers. A few of them are slightly Force-sensitive, and all have access to an infusion of midi-chlorian-enriched blood. It gives them a boost of power. The effects fade after a few hours, and they are obviously not as skilled as yourselves in their use of the Force; nevertheless, they are well-trained, effective fighters. I have personally scoured their minds to ensure there is no trace of treachery in them. You may each have a squad to command."

Solonny inclined her head. "Thank you, Supreme Leader." She turned to go, motioning Ott and Lorl to follow.

"I have one more matter to discuss with you," said Snoke. The Knights stopped. "I am adopting a new, or rather a very old, throne room. The excavations have been successful."