Halo

Disclaimer; all characters and copyright belong to their respective owners.

A/N-thank you to everyone who kindly reviewed the last chapter.

Chapter Sixteen-The Rescue Begins

When the introductions were over, it gave Rey a chance to observe her new companion. Rose was shorter than she was by a few inches. She was pretty, with shoulder length silky black hair framing her pretty face. "Where are you from?" Rey asked a little shyly.

"Hays Minor." Rose revealed, sadness tinged her eyes as she spoke. "And you?"

"Jakku."

"Oh…." Rose seemed at a loss for words as she struggled to say something nice about the dry and dusty desert planet. "That's…."

"Awful." Rey finished for her with a weak smile.

"I was going for hot." Rose responded with a smile of her own.

"It was definitely that."

Despite their desperate situation the two girls descended into a fit of giggles. There was an impatient rap on the other side of the sealed doors as the stormtrooper guarding their cell told them to be quiet or there would be consequences. His warning sobered both girls up and their brief amusement quickly faded.

"Kriffing idiot." Rose muttered darkly.

Rey put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She wasn't used to reaching out to other people. Living a life of isolation on Jakku had made her wary of trusting others. But she found she already felt an infinity with Rose. "Tell me more about your home world and how you ended up here."

The same sorrow that had touched Rose's eyes before now took over her whole face. Rey immediately felt guilty for asking such a personal question. It was so out of character for her, she immediately said sorry, but Rose waved away her apologies. "It's okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Rose let out a heavy sigh. "My home's gone, Rey. The First Order…they took over the mines and forced my people to mine our planet's resources to feed their war machine." She hung her head and fought back tears. "My sister Paige and I…we tried to protect our parents from the First Order mining pollution. I managed to blow up twelve Ore Diggers and stop the First Order's mining operations for three days. I was arrested and brought here…but Paige…she…." Rose couldn't go on as her tears burst forth like water from a dam, spilling down her face. "She was killed by one of the troopers as she tried to mount a rescue for me."

"Oh, Rose." Rey murmured sympathetically as she pulled the stricken girl into her arms and hugged her tight. As Rose cried, Rey wondered how long the poor girl had been forced to suppress her grief. She must have been so scared, being stuck in this bare cell, all alone. "Its going to be alright, I promise. We're going to get out of here."

A tiny lapse in her grief enabled Rose to pull away, blinking lashes heavy with tears. A small ray of hope lit up her glassy eyes. "How? Do you have a plan?" She asked tremulously.

"Not exactly." Rey admitted. She saw the hopeful light in Rose's eyes begin to dim and she rushed to reassure her. "But my friend is coming for me. He'll get us out of here."

"How?" Rose was disbelieving. "What can he do alone?"

"He's not alone. He has high connections in the Resistance." Rey explained eagerly.

Rose's eyes turned wide with surprise. "Really? What's his name?"

"Ben." Rey told her. "Ben Solo."

The dark blanket of space spread out before Kylo in front of the viewscreen, the intense blackness broken by a myriad of stars shining like thousands upon thousands of tiny jewels. The First Order fleet was terrifyingly close. His small starfighter looked like it could be swallowed up by the lead dreadnought's gaping maw as he hovered in front of it like a tiny insect. He had decided if he was going in to rescue Rey from Starkiller base, the best way was to cause some damage to the fleet as a distraction. If the First Order thought they were under attack from the Resistance they would scramble more Tie Fighters from Starkiller base to protect the main ships.

A swarm of Tie fighters streamed out of the lead dreadnought's hanger. Kylo's X-wing starfighter stayed floating aimlessly in front of them, providing a tempting target. He stared out into the velvet dark, letting the light of the stars be his guide. His small starfighter remained suspended in front of the gargantuan Dreadnought. Wave upon wave of Tie fighters flowed toward him in a seemingly endless stream of death.

The enemy was almost on top of him when his X-wing fighter suddenly surged forward, the engines firing on all cylinders as he cut a swift path through the centre of the swarm of Tie fighters. Taken by surprise by his skilful manoeuvre, everything descended into chaos as the enemy tried to scramble and realign themselves and chase him down. Kylo threaded his way through the fighters, at points spinning the X-wing completely on its axis. He fired on anything in his way, causing the destroyed Tie fighters to smash into each other as they exploded in a shower of sparks.

The Force flowed strongly around him until he could feel the very air vibrating with it. Kylo revelled in the feeling, the reckless endangerment only adding to his exultation. The hanger bay was directly in front of him. "Get ready, BB-8."

The little droid responded with a series of anxious beeps as he determinedly did his best to stop the wiring overheating as Kylo boosted the engines.

Kylo forced the X-wing to go at impossible speeds. He could feel the outside chassis shuddering under the strain. He propelled the ship sharply to the left as he entered the ship's hanger bay. Chaos ensued as the service personnel, stormtroopers and maintenance droids scrambled to get out of his way. They were never going to be quick enough. "Now, BB-8." Ben cried as he veered sharply to the right and fired.

The hanger bay exploded around him. Kylo swung around in a desperate attempt to stay ahead of the unfolding explosion. BB-8 was losing the battle against the wiring. It began to spark and flame around him. As soon as he put out one fire, another started. A fiery ball of yellow flame, billowing outwards, filled the hanger bay, escaping through the sections destroyed by the blast wave. The noise reverberated around the dreadnought as efficiently as a thunder clap. Ben wrestled with the controls of the starfighter as he tried to keep ahead of the blast.

The X-wing shot back out into space. A lance like ray of blue-white light shot up into the darkness-a clump of five rays, really, from five deep shafts in an irregular pentagon half a mile across, blended into one by the distance. An instant later, there was a blinding flash, like sheet-lightning, and a huge ball of varicoloured fire belched upwards. That fireball flattened, then spread to form the mushroom-head of a column of incandescent gas that mounted to overtake it, engorging the smoke-rings as it rose, twisting, writhing, changing shape, turning to dark smoke in one moment and belching flame and crackling with lightning the next as the Dreadnought began to break apart.

Kylo let the Force guide him as he kept ahead of the chaos descending behind him. The explosion had taken out most of the Tie Fighters. As BB-8 finally managed to put out the last of the tiny fires smouldering in the engine bay, Kylo let himself relax, his dark eyes glinting with an inner fire as he let the X-wing drift in space for a few minutes before heading back down to the surface.

Starkiller Base, also called "the Starkiller", was a base located on the forested ice planet of Ilum, rich in kyber crystals, that was located in the Unknown Regions. The First Order had converted the planet into a base of operations owing to its unique energy-transmitting crystalline deposits, and used it to house a superweapon capable of destroying entire star systems. The superweapon consumed suns as a power source. Its mobility was provided by rocket ports on the far side of the base.

The weapon was powered by a type of dark energy called "quintessence", which was ubiquitous in the universe, and offered a practically unlimited power source to the First Order. Using a star as a power source, an array of collectors on one side of the planet would gather dark energy in stages, redirecting it to the planetary core, where it was held in place by the natural magnetic field of the planet, as well as an artificial containment field maintained by the machinery the First Order had installed within the crust. As the planetary magnetic field would not be enough to contain the amount of energy that the weapon required, a thermal oscillator was also built into the planet. It generated an oscillating containment field which allowed the installation to expend considerably less energy at containing the dark energy than would be required using a steady containment field. A colossal hollow cylinder, embedded within the massive trench left by the Empire's mining and large enough to dominate the view of the planet from orbit, penetrated the containment field to a predetermined distance, in order to direct the blast towards its target, and also to absorb its energy, which would otherwise cause catastrophic ground quakes. This design made the weapon vulnerable when it was fully charged, as the destruction of the containment field oscillator the moment before the weapon fired would release the accumulated energy not through the firing cylinder, but throughout the planetary core where it was being held, leading to the gradual collapse of the surface into the core.

Kylo piloted Dameron's X-wing as close to the base as possible. As he made his descent, he saw a deep trench embedded on the planet's snowy surface. He guided the X-wing expertly, following in the trench's wake. It was clear some ship had suffered a rocky landing. When his curious gaze landed on the Millennium Falcon half embedded in the snow, just shy of the cliff's edge, he rolled his eyes. He should have guessed his father was behind it. The closer he got to the surface, he could see the deep footprints embedded in the snow belonging to Han, Chewie and the ex-stormtrooper, Finn, as they headed in the direction of the base.

Kylo landed the X-wing, leaving it parked a few meters away from the Falcon. As he climbed out of the cockpit, he saw the first of the Tie Fighters shoot off from the planet's surface as they went to the aid of the beleaguered fleet. While he was pre-occupied watching the skies, BB-8 was lowered to the ground. The small droid rolled to join him, beeping excitedly in his binary language. He was raring to go, eager to be reunited with Rey again. Kylo glanced down at the little astromech, suddenly feeling a twinge of guilt as he realised that BB-8 was expecting to be part of the daring rescue.

"You're too easily recognisable. I can't take you with me." Kylo said as he hunkered down and brushed some snow crystals off of BB-8's dome head. BB-8 let out a disappointed whistle as he begged to come along. "I need you to stay here and guard the ship. While I'm gone it will give you time to fix any issues. I'm counting on you."

Kylo couldn't believe he was trying to comfort a droid. He was definitely losing it. His efforts were rewarded by a series of happy beeps from BB-8. The little lighter shot out from its base, indicating a thumbs up. Kylo refrained from rolling his eyes as he copied BB-8 by raising his own thumb. "I'll be back." He promised as he pushed himself back onto his feet.

The wind howled, piling up snow in drifts, blinding Kylo's eyes with ice-white dust. Breath pale against the numbing air, he narrowed his eyes against the icy glare and reached for his saber. He ignited it, the fiery red blade crackled, casting an eerie red glow on the snowy surface. With a determined set of his jaw he took off at a fast sprint toward the base.

"I'm coming for you, Rey." Kylo called out to her telepathically in his mind, not even certain she would even hear him. "Be ready."

Deep in the bowels of Starkiller-still trapped in the holding cell with Rose-Rey heard him.

A/N-thanks for reading! Please review.