Chapter 6
Location: Planet Rugosa
Finn had learned to pilot their shuttle well enough to be the group's pilot for the mission, and when they came out of hyperspace he knew that they were in roughly the right place.
"No ships on my scope, no signs of technology at all," Rose called out, and started scanning the coordinates provided by Leia, "And there is an old base down there…"
"Alright," Finn responded, smiling at her, and the sergeant in charge of the troops with them walked in.
"We've got a base to check out?"
"Sure do, we're making an approach now," Finn acknowledged, "Should be there shortly."
"Excellent, I'll get the boys ready."
The shuttle dove through the clouds, and the forests of purple and green land coral lit stretched out above the tan sand and rocks. A few massive corals with leaf-like appendages were scattered about, some big enough to land on. Finn saw that the base coordinates placed them within a box canyon with steep walls that was covered by the "leaves" of the largest green corals. They all saw that their destination was actually incredibly well-hidden. From above, it was invisible, from the side as they approached they were able to make out the door of the hangar built into the base and a row of buildings and a pair of power generators built into the wall and a runway up to the cliff. Small purple corals were starting to grow on the ground and on the buildings, such had been the extent of the base's abandonment.
"Go ahead and land out there, we're hidden now," the sergeant instructed.
"Yeah, we also don't know how stable this place is, if it's from the Clone Wars it's been abandoned for more than forty years," Rose reminded him.
"Don't want any rocks coming down on top of us," a trooper behind them laughed.
"Especially if this base has nothing of value," one of the others reminded them.
The shuttle dropped down onto the tarmac and Finn powered them down gradually and lowered the ramp. The four Resistance troopers were immediately out of the shuttle, dropping to a knee with blasters aimed out, creating a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree field of security. They wore tan fatigues with hoods and dark brown vests and brown pants, decent for their current surroundings. Each had their helmet's face plate on for a full protective mode.
"Clear," the sergeant called out.
"No surprise there," Finn shrugged as he walked out, EL-16 in hand, and saw just how derelict this place was.
"Man, not much for a base if we do choose it," Rose noted.
Around them it looked as if the base was a good windstorm away from coming apart at the seams. Metal panels on the buildings had paint flaking away, rust and dry rot was all over them, and piles of collected sand were against the bases of the buildings everywhere they looked. The main armored door was pretty much rusted in place they all saw as they approached, shining their flashlights into the interior of the hangar which had several V-19 Torrent Starfighters falling apart inside and a single LAAT/i hull in a corner. Supply crates were scattered about, and fuel canisters that had long since breached had long evaporated remnants of their contents around them. There were pieces of the ceiling on the ground or hanging by a single few wires hanging over their heads. The Republic had never bothered returning to this place after the war, and it seemed that no one else had either.
"Man, this place is falling apart," Finn said, hearing a slight echo of his own voice.
He reached over to a V-19 fighter whose wing was still pivoted up and shook it to see how tight its mechanics were, but the wing just creaked and fell over onto the floor, sending a cloud of dust and sand into the air with a loud bang.
"Easy, you wanna bring this place down on top of us?!" one of the troops called out.
"Looks like it'll do that anyway," the sergeant growled, shining a flashlight around at the structures holding up the ceiling, none of which were in good shape, "Better call the General, this place is too far-gone for us to use it as a base."
"We're not done yet, there's gotta be more here," Finn replied in protest and pushed on, into the facility's main entrance where he saw the dusty interior with black metallic floors and metal walls and ceilings. It was classically Republic-Imperial style.
"Finn!" Rose called out, and shook her head to follow.
Neither did either of them know that a sensor tripwire was rigged across the doorway, and when it was tripped a signal went out to a long-dormant trap. Machines were awoken, deadly machines with a deadly purpose. But the six Resistance members weren't even aware of their actual existence, as old as their past conflict was they never expected a trap set for the former owners of the base by their former enemies.
"Alright, but be quick you two!" the sergeant called out, shaking his head unhappily, "It's hot out here!"
"Sarge, we've got a storm coming," one of their men called out, pointing to a black flashing wall of clouds.
"Oh isn't that perfect," the man growled as he lifted a hand to his comm attached to his wrist, "Finn, we've got a big storm system coming, probably bringing wind and rain too strong to take off."
"It is the rainy season after all. Expect some big storms."
The four troops split into pairs, each taking sections of the outdoor buildings, half and half, aiming to check them out before the storm hit rendering any sort of move to go outside extremely unpleasant. They each had their EL-16HFE's, newer models with the circular forward loop sight up front on the barrel housing and long scopes up top. With full military-grade combat gear and uniforms these weren't the volunteers of the old Resistance, these were fully realized Republic troops, they knew what they were doing, each pair went up to a door and scoped it out, sweeping their flashlights attached to their rifles with expert precision, blasters leveled at the ready, expecting anything to be hiding in the falling apart metal barracks.
"There's nothing here," the sergeant in charge of the fireteam said as he and his partner moved through one of the buildings, and started to drop their guard.
"Nah, seems like a waste of fuel to me sarge. Think these Resistance folks know what they're doing?" the private next to him said as the young man moved forward into an open doorway.
"Some do," the sergeant responded as he lifted up a crate lid, but only found some old tools.
Then he heard a blood-curdling scream and whipped around to see his comrade's lower body being lifted into the air, legs flailing wildly. When the sergeant reached him the man's body dropped, and he was left looking at several small holes cutting through his uniform starting to ooze blood and one through his yellow blast goggles, now turning red. The man looked up and could only get out a scream and tried lifting his blaster rifle. But the weapon only went off into the sides of the building as death nerves twitched his fingers when sharp metal legs drove down into his shoulders, chest, and one into the face. But the crashing of thunder drowned out his scream and the flashing of lightning lit up the sky. The danger was now very real.
Location: Canto Bight, Planet Cantonica
The parties here were lavish, wines and other exotic liquor flowed like water, in one particular case Poe and Zay were amazed to see an actual bubbler flowing with champagne and bubbling with carbonators in the bottom and kept cold. It was enough that Poe felt like he was an inch away from just drawing a blaster and robbing everyone in range. But that would have netted only a solid twenty thousand credits, not much when the promise of millions was so close at hand. The two left their latest party, and Poe handed the ticket for their speeder to the valet at the hotel and Zay looked out at the city which was before them.
"This place…how is it so many can be so rich?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"Weapons and war, mines and fuel, important businesses to war net big profits. It is what it is, not much we can do but take what we can from where we can," Poe sighed as the speeder came zipping around the corner.
"And we're doing that right? We're not just sitting here enjoying the spoils of these people's immorality?" Zay snapped quietly as she got to the speeder door.
"It's a cover, you know that, come on, let's go back to the room, maybe order some room service and see how the Resistance is doing."
"Fine," Zay sighed after a moment and the two got into the speeder, "Best go the long way, enjoy the ride a bit, for the sake of our cover."
Poe sighed, and in thought he stopped and looked over at Zay, "Wanna drive? Seems like you could use a pick-me-up."
"Huh?" Zay asked, caught slightly off-guard by the offer.
"When I'm down I usually go flying whatever I can, I think driving a superspeeder on these roads might just be what you need after…well after the last month."
"Yeah, maybe it is," Zay smiled warmly and the two gratefully switched places and Zay winked to him and then floored it, launching both of them into their bucket seats until the acceleration lessened, "Whoa, I like this," she said as she turned them around a sweeping turn on the road along the seaside.
"See? Great isn't it?"
"You know how to treat a girl that's for sure Poe," Zay said as they reached a hairpin turn in the road and banked hard, with no small amount of expertise banking into the apex of the corner and emerging on the throttle back into the straight and the gentle curve of the road.
"Oh I have always known how to do that," Poe smirked confidently.
"Oh is that so?" Zay deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Yeah, but granted most girls aren't like you," Poe responded, but kicked himself as soon as the words left his mouth.
"What's that supposed to mean, 'most girls aren't like me'?"
"Well, not many have fought the First Order, or whose parents taught them to fly X-Wings or were former special forces."
"Oh, and that makes me any less of a girl? Is that it Dameron?" Zay said with a much more serious tone.
"Hey now you're putting words in my mouth I just said most girls aren't like you," Poe raised his hands defensively.
"Relax Poe I'm messing with you," Zay laughed, pulling them onto a very windy road that took them on a scenic road towards the city.
"Good, was afraid I'd have to put the real charm on to salvage myself there."
"The real charm huh?" Zay again deadpanned, hoping that she wasn't going to here a script pulled from any men's magazine on how to talk to women, "What does that look like?"
"Well you asked for it," Poe smirked and sat up and leaned on the armrest between them, and then he tipped his head down and adjusted his tone, "Did anyone at that party tell you that their dates refused to allow them to come near us because of how you looked in that dress? Because I could tell a jealous woman when I saw one, and I saw a bunch of jealous women looking at you."
"Is that so?" Zay remarked.
"And I'm glad they didn't, because frankly I can't stand the thought of some pompous rich desk rider even attempting to woo you and turn you into something they show off to clients and business partners. You deserve better," Poe replied, "Because the moment they got close enough to look into your eyes they would have abandoned all commitments and all pretenses to call you their own."
"My eyes?" Zay asked, looking to Poe, this one was new to her.
"Your eyes are windows and mirrors rolled into one perfect device, it tells me who you are, and it reminds me of who I have to be to be on the same level. When I look into your eyes I see someone who is proud of who they are, and is willing to fight with every ounce of their being to be that person," Poe explained, reaching a passionate crescendo at the end.
"Hmm…not bad Poe, if that were for real I'd give it a B plus," Zay laughed.
"I never said anything about making anything up," Poe smiled back, "I meant every word. When I was in that party with you every lewd glance from those stuck-up pretty boys made me despise them, and every glance of envy from those pompous fake broads made me proud to say I was with you."
Zay let her jaw drop slightly and looked at Poe silently out of the corner of her eye, that was something no one had ever said to her about her. The immediate feeling that she got was pride, joy even. If what Poe was saying was true then it was certainly the most sincere flirting that she'd ever been target of. However, she wasn't entirely sure that what Poe was saying was sincere, she barely knew him. They talked a bit on the ship, but they hadn't spoken a peep of their pasts or aspects of who they actually were since arriving on the planet, it was just too dangerous. This was a first from Poe, and was a first for her. She held her tongue, she didn't want to keep playing like she wasn't interested, Poe was handsome, brave, and passionate, good things to look for she'd been told. The possibility was one to explore, so she didn't want to make herself look like she was a deflector of all advances and force Poe to look elsewhere. However, her mom always said to strike a balance between being hard-to-get and being easy. But Poe interrupted her thoughts with a big bright smile.
"Struck a cord there didn't I?" he teased.
"N-no, okay that wasn't bad, I mean…shutup!" she warned him as Poe seemed ready to burst out laughing. She could feel herself getting flustered, and she knew for a fact Poe saw it, "This is new for me okay? I never really dated very much growing up, we moved around too much. My dad kinda encouraged me to find someone, but my mom…well, I was her little girl, she wanted me to wait until we'd settled somewhere. Neither of them…well, you know."
"I'm sorry Zay, Shriv told me how close you guys were. I remember how hard it was when I lost my mom when I was little, she's the one who taught me how to fly. I learned to fly sitting on her lap in her old A-Wing, and now…I every time I sit in the cockpit I can't help but feel her chin on my shoulder as she looked over to tell me for tenth time what this button did or what that switch controlled or no you can't fire the lasers at that piece of debris…she was…amazing. It's why I love to fly so much, it reminds me of mom, and she'll always be there with me."
Zay steadied her shuddering breath, and tried to fight the water pooling in her eyes. With the makeup she was wearing it wouldn't look very good to shed even one tear. Tears were usually a sign of weakness, but she couldn't help it, she missed her family, the pain was still close. But Poe's opening up to her helped.
"Thanks Poe," she whispered, smiling as best she could.
"Your mom and dad would be proud of you y'know," Poe nodded respectfully, and then looked out of the window, sensing that now was not the best time to push any sort of romantic advances upon her. That day would come, Poe sensed that there was something receptive there, but courtesy dictated that he give Zay some time to fully come to terms with her parents' passing. How much time he wasn't entirely certain, that was up to her.
The two reached the casino within a few more minutes, and they resumed their roles as a couple on vacation and were back to acted smiles and lovey dovey gushing over one another. It wasn't comfortable in the least for either of them, but they didn't have to do much, not many people were out and about amongst the hotel rooms at the moment. The casino and dining areas on the other hand were packed full of guests and employees, including different security guards. This was a pattern for the group duo, they'd counted at least twenty different individual security guards amongst the casino tables and now had their routes memorized perfectly. Other things that they committed to memory were the high-points of business, and where the security cameras were, of which there were many.
That last part had come courtesy of Zay's ID-10 Tactical Droid, Dio, formerly her mother's. The little droid had spent over two hours combing through the hotel ducts on their first night, tapping into the security circuits from within the security hub. It had been tense watching the droid's feed, but the little guy had successfully gotten in behind the sleepy guard and silently downloaded the blueprints for the casino, its grounds, its security, and its support structure. Everything needed to make the assault happen. But Poe and Zay still had to be on site for the sake of measuring security in person, seeing if the patrons brought their own security with them that Dio would never see in the data he collected, and to get a count of how many civilians would be in the way and to map out what they were doing and how to avoid casualties. Plus they needed to be on the inside to effect any unforeseen sabotage to assist their comrades.
Poe and Zay still had time to figure out things. The attack wasn't scheduled to occur until the end of the casino's big party-laden celebration. They would wait until the casino had amassed millions of credits into its vaults and then strike it hard and fast. If they used the full might of their starfighters and full compliments from their shuttles then they'd overwhelm the local police, casino security, and assorted bodyguards. That meant Poe and Zay might not have had to take an active role, but they wanted to. At the moment though the most sensitive part, getting information out, was being handled by Dio who was manually transporting his data back to the Millennium Falcon for transmission, leaving their room empty.
"So, what're you thinking for dinner honey?" Poe asked as the two reached their room and Zay pulled out a key from her borrowed purse and presented it to the reader which beeped, flashed green, and opened the double sliding doors.
The two entered the luxurious room, stepping down the three stairs to the main floor where they had a white leather half-circular couch around a large circular white ottoman on a shag carpet. The bedroom and bathroom were to the left, through an opaque glass automatic door. Poe kicked off his shoes and went to the table by the window where they had a small table for two and picked up the menu.
"I don't know…surprise me I guess," Zay shrugged, undoing the pin that had kept her hair up all night and let it bounce free, "I'm gonna wash off this makeup and change."
"Got it," Poe nodded and undid his own tie and unbuttoned his top button on his white shirt and looked through the sizeable menu. He was about to tap send on his order for them when he noticed something.
On such thick carpet like what they had footsteps usually left an imprint, and if they were wet the print was as noticeable as it would in snow. He looked down and saw several such prints in the carpet by the window-door and followed them, and his eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat when he saw the prints lead from the balcony door to the bedroom door. Poe dropped everything and pulled out a pocket knife he'd always had and burst into the bedroom. The first thing he saw was Zay on the ground to the right, lying facedown on the tile into the bathroom, a three-pronged dart in her arm and eyes closed. Poe looked around but a sharp jolt of pain pinched him in the back of his left arm and he looked down and saw the same kind of dart in Zay now imbedded into him. The dart found itself removed, making a slight tear in his suit just as Poe began feeling a powerful tiredness swallowing him. Like Zay he'd been drugged, but by whom?
Looking about Poe didn't see anything, but then he saw the small squat fishlike figure of a black-clothed purple, blue, and red-skinned Patrolian holding a rotating wrist device and a small jetpack and big boots. The little being had hidden himself behind the bed and now emerged, ready to take advantage of his trap.
"Well, well, well, lookie what we've got here," the being laughed happily through a characteristic gurgle of his species as Poe started to drift away as the individual said and leaned down to Poe, and then to Zay, "Smells like money, hmm…pretty money…"
Poe tried lifting his head, but there was nothing in him capable of pushing through the massive dose of tranquilizer. The black closed in, and there was not a thing he could do about it.
Location: Abandoned Republic Base, Planet Rugosa
"This place is a bust Finn, sorry," Rose sighed as the two exited the door into the hangar, and both saw that the storm had finally arrived, and was pounding the area with sheets of large rain as thunder boomed right over their heads and lightning lit up the sky.
"Yeah, there's not enough here to make the expense it worth it," Finn shook his head, he didn't like it, but the base was simply too old and too decrepit.
"Best just call the General, maybe we can see about looking into nearby systems," Rose suggested, trying make something of this mission.
"Hold on," Finn replied, looking around, "where are the others?"
The two looked around, shining their flashlights around, searching for the other Resistance members. They'd left them out here, but hadn't heard anything in some time.
"Hey sarge?!" Rose called out, walking out into the hangar, "Where are you guys?!"
Finn followed, but he could just feel something being off, and he couldn't put his finger on it. Something was wrong. He pulled his EL-16 off his back and held it ready, and then he and Rose both saw something, a figure standing by the shuttle.
"They're probably in the shuttle, there's one," Finn pointed, and started running towards the shuttle to avoid the drips from above that were coming down in sheets.
"Finn! Wait!" Rose tried to stop him, but then saw something, the figure turned, but it didn't appear as if the man had touched the ground.
"Wait…sarge?" Finn said as he squinted through the rain and then saw a spider-like droid with red photoreceptors moving and holding the body of the soldier and now was looking at Finn, "Oh no…Rose, droids!"
He lifted his blaster and aimed it right at the droid and fired, sending a blue bolt right past the rapidly moving droid which tossed the body at Finn who dodged it and moved to the side and the body landed in a puddle and he saw the damage the droid had done but then the droid came scrambling towards him, sparking and warbling rapidly. Finn kept firing, landing a shot that severed a leg and the droid skidded to a stop and Finn then fired into the top of it, panting rapidly as Rose ran up next to him and kept firing as malfunctioning half-functioning mini droids started to scramble out. Finn fired as well as the dozens of mini droids came out. They didn't stop until there was nothing but debris at their feet.
"An old Assassin Probe, I heard about these, bounty hunters still use them," Rose informed him, kicking it.
"I think we know why the Republic never came back," Finn nodded, "We need to take their advice and get outta here."
"Uh…Finn, I think I know what happened to the others," Rose tapped on his shoulder and pointed at three more figures, limply hanging from the side of the barracks across from them.
"More droids, great…" Finn said as a dozen more assassin probes surfaced from the building, and they saw that they were all malfunctioning, barely even operating.
"Let's go Finn…" Rose implored on him.
"Yeah, I'd rather not stick around."
The two lifted their blasters and started firing as the group of dangerous droids started to charge. The clanking of their pointed legs striking the ground filled the air as rain poured down around the two Resistance members who fired as quickly as they could to ward off the coming attack. But with every struck assassin probe dozens of mini droids popped out and continued the charge.
"Get aboard and get the ship started now!" Finn implored to Rose.
"Done!" Rose replied and turned into the shuttle and ran back inside.
Finn heard the ship starting up and turned around as well, running into the passenger bay and pounded against the hatch control as the swarm now approached in a sea of tiny droids and a handful of larger assassin probes. He heard the tinking of metal on metal as the door closed at the last minute, but a sharp jab against his shin made him look down and notice that one of the smaller droids had managed to sneak in, and was stabbing its needle-like legs into his pants. Finn started waving his leg around, yelping and yelling with each stab and stomp of his foot to get the droid off until he finally managed to kick it off and flung it against the door and stomped on it as it ran at him again. Rose had the ship lifting off by now, and they were powering through the storm and was trying to look back to Finn.
"Finn! You okay?!" she yelled to him.
"I'm fine, one of the little ones gave me a scare."
"You're bleeding," she pointed out to him as the rain slackened off and the ship rose into the upper atmosphere.
Finn looked down and frowned as he saw that there was indeed a stain on his shin and a drip of blood was being left as it dribbled down his shoe. But he didn't make much of it, "I'm fine, just a couple pinpricks from its legs."
"Yeah, but they've got barbs, best get a bandage on it," Rose advised, "Must've hurt huh?"
"I'm not worried about that, I'm more worried how we came out here didn't find a base worth moving to and…we lost four good men," Finn sighed as he pulled his pantleg up and saw the small wounds, barely big enough to matter, but there were about a dozen of them.
"It's not your fault y'know, a trap was laid for the Republic, that was over fifty years ago. How were you to even know to suspect it?"
"I know, but we're so few that every sacrifice has to count for something," Finn reminded her as he nonchalantly took a disinfectant and cleaned himself up and wrapped a small bandage around him slight pinpricks, "I just hope everyone else is having better luck."
"Getting a call, it's General Organa," Rose called out after a few moments of her trying to figure out what to do with themselves.
"Put it through," Finn said as he dropped his jacket over the co-pilot seat and sat down.
The figure of Leia came up on the comm station in between the two pilot seats and Finn sighed to have to break the news.
"Finn, Rose, hadn't heard from you two in a bit. What's your status?" the blue figure inquired of them.
"General, we found the old Republic base like you said but…" Finn started, but paused to fully gather himself. But Rose beat him to it.
"It was rigged with old Separatist assassin droids, it was a trap set for the old Republic if they ever came back. Sergeant Hokes and his team didn't make it and we barely got out ourselves."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Leia replied sadly, shaking her head, "Were there any signs?"
"No ma'am, the place was almost coming apart."
"There was no way for you to predict or sense a trap, not on an old Clone Wars era base, not after fifty years. I'm just glad you two at least made it. In the meantime I do have some good news. We made contact with the Republic base on Serenno, it was as the new officers reported and more. A thousand personnel were rallied there from nearby systems to add to the six hundred already there. They've got three full squadrons of X-Wings and a squadron of A-Wings on site, along with ships, real ships. Niv reported that they've got a commercial tanker, four Vakbeor-Class transports, an escort frigate, and a pair of corvettes. And he said they have enough shuttles to transport personnel and supplies and equipment."
"Type of ships?" Rose asked, very interested now.
"Mothballed ones, the troops pulled them from breaking yards over Serenno, Nebulon-C and Free Virgillia-Class, gunship variants, or so I'm told. They're preparing to evacuate as we speak."
"How long?" Finn instantly asked, "We're still out here, we can still find us a base."
"That's what I was hoping you'd say. I'm sending you coordinates, the planet Hrill, an old colony that got wiped out by the Hutts after its owner refused to pay a debt. I hear it's nice, lots of rainforests, meaning there's plenty to hide us if we can find the right place to establish ourselves. See what you can find there," Leia ordered the two.
"We'll be there in…" Rose trailed off as she calculated the jump, "About three hours, it's close."
"Good, see what you can find, someplace near the ocean is preferable so we can limit our workload as far as defensive fortifications. We've got an engineering officer here is woefully bored and seeking something to do," Leia laughed.
"We'll contact you when we arrive General," Finn nodded respectfully.
"See you in three hours."
The transmission cut off and Finn dropped back into his seat, shaking his head in astonishment.
"A thousand people? Fifty fighters and eight ships? Jeez," the man scoffed, but filled with hope, "We might have a chance now."
"We have more fighters and ships and people than we ever had," Rose acknowledged, "Way more. I think the Resistance itself back before Starkiller Base only numbered about six hundred. We're double that now."
"And who knows how many more troops, pilots, and crews are out there hiding and waiting for someone to rally towards? If we could rally a hundred starfighters and eleven ships and two thousand people in less than a few weeks imagine what we can do in a month or-or a year?"
"This war is only beginning Finn, the galaxy hasn't lost hope yet."
"Which means our job just became that much more important," Finn reminded Rose.
"Let's go then."
The shuttle launched into hyperspace, its destination being the Hrill System.
Location: Canto Bight, Planet Cantonica
Rey was leading Shriv forward behind the young boy that they knew as Temiri, a stable boy at the race track. He cared for the Fathiers and the stable itself, and therefore knew it like the back of his hand. The boy was trying to sneak the two Resistance members into the stables where there was a sewer entrance that was in cover and had a full run of the city from the police prison to the stable without anyone knowing they were there.
The boy stopped, hearing something in the bushes ahead of them. The two Resistance members were armed, and held their blasters tightly, but then from the bushes between them a familiar yellow and white droid and a red photoreceptor burst out and stopped within inches of the three. It was erratic, snapping its claws and beeping at them rapidly.
"Easy, easy, easy little guy," Rey pleaded, knowing that the disturbance would be heard.
"Dio, hey what's going on?" Shriv asked the droid, which landed on his outstretched hand. It immediately began to speak to him, and Shriv's facial expression changed to concern, "Poe and Zay are in trouble, looks like a bounty hunter's nabbed 'em."
"What?! We have to save them," Rey whispered back.
"I know, I know, the problem is that bounty hunters usually don't work alone out here. If they are alone then they'll have a plan."
"Or he's just stupid," Rey tersely said back.
"Yeah there's that too. But there's another aspect to this, we have to up our time table."
"You're right," Rey nodded but then she sensed something, and seemingly the boy did too, and they both looked to see the stable manager, the ill-tempered and ugly Bargwill Tomder.
He had sensed them, following the noises they made and their scent thanks to his species' heightened senses. The Cloddogran was stomping over to them with his whip in hand and their guide Temiri rushed out, and spoke to him, pleading that he was just out with friends. But the manager was not fooled and raised his whip in one of his hands and struck down, lashing the boy's shoulder with an electrostatic shock that made him yelp in pain and fall back onto his back and knocked his hat off.
"Hey!" Rey protested, and sensed anger creeping into her as the equally angry Cloddogran raised his whip and lashed out against them, popping Rey against the chest from a distance, yelling at them in his gruff language.
Shriv lifted his blaster without a word, the manager lifted his hands in surrender when he saw the GLIE-44 aimed at his head. Rey had recovered from the blow and took the whip from his hand and then snapped the wooden shaft across her knee and then stacked them together and went to smack the man across the face. But his upper right arm was up and blocked the attack and the lower arm reached out and grabbed Rey around the throat, and forced her windpipe to constrict with great strength, nearly lifting the blonde up and between he and Shriv.
"Rey!" Shriv yelled, "Out of the way!"
"Trying…" she struggled out and tried to reach for her weapon and then felt herself brought closer to the wretched man and kicked him in the nose, getting quite a good blow that sent blood spewing from the odd gnarled nasal structures. But it worked, and he dropped her and Shriv fired a stun blast that dropped him to his knees and then he hit him again full-force and he keeled over.
"You alright?" Rey asked the boy, who nodded at the two.
"Yes, this way," he told them, "We're almost there."
"Right, Rey, go with him, I'll be right there, gotta get rid of this guy and call the general, we're hitting this place now. Can't risk Poe and Zay being turned into the police and the owners moving their cash."
"I'll get Poe," Rey nodded.
"Don't start without me."
And I think this'll do for this chapter. I'm actually having a lot of fun with this one, and I'm beginning to figure out a series of plots and potential battles as we're drawing closer to open war as the Resistance grows in strength. In the meantime our first big battle is coming, I'll get going on it soon, this is a very fast-paced section of story that deserves to be updated soon, so I'll do so ASAP.
Also, I know that the ships of the Resistance supposedly included other Mon Cal cruisers but the movie states that they had only what was shown and subsequently destroyed, so apparently something happened to their previous cruisers and they only had the four ships we saw on screen. So until more ship classes are revealed I'll keep them restricted to what is shown in TLJ.
Next Chapter Preview: The Resistance strikes.