Chapter 7

Location: Resistance Headquarters, Planet Dantooine

"General, flash message from the team on Canto Bight," a comms officer called out to Leia who had actually taken a break to take a nap in her office.

"Read it," Leia said, looking at the intercom receiver at her stone desk.

"Dameron and Meeko compromised, bounty hunter responsible. Mission a go, recommend immediate go," the word came.

"How many fighters and troops can we send?" Leia asked.

"Red and Blue Squadrons are ready and we can dispatch our strike team immediately. They'll be there in six hours."

"Six hours?!" Leia replied quickly, "They need help now Lieutenant Connix," then she remembered their newest acquisition, "What about Serenno? They have four squadrons and several large ships and a full battalion of troops."

"We could send them, they could be there in less than an hour."

"Get word to them, have them deploy immediately," Leia ordered, and then sighed, she sensed that something was happening out there, but at this point her worries were growing as her responsibility did likewise, "And any word on our recruitment cell development?"

"We've reestablished contacts on Chandrila, Corellia, Coruscant, Anaxes, Commenor, Fondor, Sullust, Rodia, Kashyyyk, Bothawui, and Lothal. But we're still unable to contact Mon Cala," Commander D'Acy said, she was one of the few survivors from Crait, and a right-hand to Leia.

"Any word of the planet at all?" Leia asked.

"Nothing aside from holonet broadcasts, the First Order's moved a massive fleet to subjugate the planet. But that's all we know, the Mon Cal shipyards are an obvious target that the First Order's probably already destroyed."

"Keep trying," Leia sighed, knowing that the planet was going to have a tough time aiding them with a First Order fleet over their world.

But then again, they had to make a nuisance of themselves to start stretching the First Order to be able to allow worlds like Mon Cala to rise up. So she looked back at her list intelligence reports, First Order ships had subjugated more worlds, every world from Commenor to Kashyyyk, seizing a vital line of movement and trade. The First Order just kept getting more and more of the galaxy under its thumb, the Core was under their control, soon the remaining holdouts in the Colonies and the southern Mid Rim would fall. The Resistance was running out of its buffer of chaos and power vacuum.

Location: Canto Bight, Planet Cantonica

Zay started to stir, her head was swimming, and she was very nauseous on top of a sore spot in her arm from what she remembered to have been a dart. That dart was the reason she realized she was in the current situation that she was in. She hadn't managed to change out of her dress, but she was barefoot now. However upon attempting to move Zay felt something around her ankles and wrists behind her back, keeping them bound together and she managed to get her bearings enough to realize she was laying on the bed on her side. She felt her lips completely sealed by a strip of spacer's tape pressed tightly against them. She wasn't blindfolded however, and was able to see that Poe was tied to the wooden desk chair across from her with his hands bound behind his back and his ankles tied together. He too was gagged, another strip of tape over his mouth.

Zay began struggling, pulling against the plastic zipties holding her arms behind her back, grunting with the effort as she began to chafe her bare skin. The immediate thought she got was that this was not the ideal position to be in, not again. As she struggled she saw that Poe was starting wake up, and she looked down past her feet and saw a pair of drunken passed-out Patrolians snoring loudly after they had seemingly feasted upon the pair's own room service, and then discovered the mini bar in its own little fridge within the ottoman/table in the main living room. This gave Zay the feeling that they had been given a golden opportunity to make good an escape and turn the tables.

She pulled against her restraints continuously as Poe's eyes fluttered open and he finally snapped fully awake as he discovered his predicament. Zay locked eyes with him, and motioned with her head to the two Patrolians that she could see. The Resistance pilot looked over his shoulder, craning his neck heavily as he got a good look from his heightened point of view and nodded back to her in response. This she took to mean he was up for attempting to free themselves and fight back. They'd tucked a pair of tiny hold-out blasters under the pillows on the bed, a bit stereotypical, but Zay didn't see evidence that they'd been tampered with so they might still be there. But they didn't do much good if she couldn't her hands unrestrained.

But Zay could tell that these weren't some cheap commercial ties, these were purpose-built for restraining people, and she decided to use some of her own flexibility to her advantage. Bending forward she pulled her legs up as close to her chest as she could and pushed her arms out away from the small of her back and with some discomfort thanks to her dress she got her wrists over her toes and pulled her arms out in front. From there she reached under the pillows and felt the handle of one of the blasters and pulled it out but found that it wasn't a blaster, it was a tiny folding knife. She looked to Poe with a confused expression, she'd never seen this get put there.

Poe smirked beneath his tape gag and shrugged his shoulders, as if saying, 'so what?' But Zay didn't have an issue with it and pulled the knife out and carefully maneuvered it so the small serrations were just against the restraining black plastic and quickly began sawing through it, careful to make sure that there was an eye on the passed-out intruders. As the sawing progressed she heard a knock on their door, and saw one of the Patrolians stir, groaning as the person on the other side of the door knocked again. This time Zay had finally snapped through the restraints and reached under the pillow and snatched one of their blasters and laid back down pretending to still be restrained and unconscious, Poe did likewise, although he just had to hang his head.

"What is it?" the second Patrolian growled as he sat up.

"No idea…stupid room service, what else did these people ask for…" the first bounty hunter grumbled as he got up, throwing on a bath robe that disguised his clothes and gear.

"Well if it's like the others might as well enjoy it until they come around," the second said as he walked into the bedroom, checking Poe and Zay with a quick scan, "Which should be soon. Go ahead and answer. They're not going anywhere."

He hit a button that darkened the glass door into the bedroom and Zay heard the door into the main room open up and then couldn't help but snap up at what happened next.

"Good evening, I'm Ivy, you massage therapist, as scheduled," the voice of Rey said aloud, albeit somewhat awkwardly.

"Oh, a massage," the gurgling voice of one of the Patrolians replied happily.

Poe looked over to Zay, shaking his head at that, telling her he hadn't ordered that, but Zay knew what was happening. Rey had found out and was here to rescue them. That meant Shriv wouldn't be far behind, and so would Dio, who was going to be appearing at their window any moment, and low and behold her prediction came true, the red eye of the droid appeared outside the floor-to-ceiling door/window and picked the electric lock into the room and floated over Zay quickly cut through her ankles' binds and then ripped off her tape as she heard Rey trying to bluff her way through the process of getting into the room and fully fooling the bounty hunters.

She cut Poe's restraints with Dio's help without a bit of trouble and she handed Poe the first blaster and reached under the pillows and found the second and waited by the door, listening for trouble. Poe removed his tape and nodded to Zay he was ready. However a smacking sound and a yelp from Rey got both of their attention.

"You're no massage therapist!" he yelled loudly, but was followed by an angered growl from Rey and then a powerful wooden snap. And then a metallic bang sounded out followed by another crashing noise of plates and trays.

Poe and Zay then burst out together and saw that Rey was standing over the two individuals wearing a stolen ID badge and a short tight white dress and white heels, fuming at the two with red on her cheeks. She had a heavily dented metal tray with bottles of lotion on the ground all around her and a wooden roller on the ground next to one of the unconscious Patrolians. The second was surrounded by the remnants of their feast having fallen into it after apparently getting launched up and over the couch by a particularly vicious blow from Rey.

"Rey?" Zay asked, looking at the girl's outfit with an odd glance, lowering her pistol.

"Men are…" Rey fumed, pointing at the two, but couldn't find words and just clenched her fist and looked at the two, placing her hands on her hips, "You know what this one did?"

"No but I can guess," Poe said as he looked Rey over, estimating he could guess with a degree of certainty judging by what they'd heard before Rey had apparently gone berserk. She cut an amazing figure in a dress that tight which left nothing to the imagination. The very basic make-up application had also helped her get in.

"He smacked me on my bum!" she snapped, "Complete pigs! All of them!"

"Well you came to save us, so yeah…sorry about that," Poe shrugged.

"Where'd you get that dress? I know I suggested you expand your wardrobe but…damn," Zay chuckled, standing back looking at Rey who scoffed in response.

"Shriv said it would get us in," Rey rolled her eyes.

"And it did didn't it?" the voice of said Duros said from outside the door where he wore a stolen butler's outfit with a small stolen casino bag with their gear in it.

"How'd he guess you weren't a masseuse?" Poe now asked as Shriv entered and closed the door.

Rey reached behind herself and pulled out her NN-14.

Poe and Zay looked to one another and back to Rey. The girl was wearing a dress that came only to just above her knees with slight cuts to allow movement and hugged her legs and torso with a generous but still classy low cut across her bosom. On the back there was a bowtie at the small of her back that covered the bottom of the zipper going up to her neck, signifying that it was an employee's outfit. This was where Rey had hidden her weapon. She also had her still-blonde hair pulled into a simple low ponytail.

"Well, despite that you definitely can pull that look off," Poe complimented her.

"That's what I said," Shriv replied, getting a roll of the eyes from Rey, "And we don't have time to wait around, we've got twenty minutes before the Resistance hits this place."

"What?!" Poe snapped.

"You're compromised, the General agreed, and sent our new forces on Serenno to do the mission."

"Serenno? There were Republic forces there still?"

"Over a thousand troops, officers, and some ship crew. They're sending two X-Wing squadrons and one A-Wing squadron plus a company of troops. Chewie's standing by with the Falcon to help exfil us and they'll lower one of their corvettes to the landing pads once the area's secure. Our job is to prevent the safes from going on lockdown," Shriv told them, "If they do it'll take a proton torpedo to crack 'em open. So if you don't mind we have to rob this place. You packed?"

"We can be in five," Poe replied quickly and ran into the bedroom and started shoving clothes into the big bag that they'd brought along for just this reason, emergency packing was hard when the bag was too small for disorganized stuff.

"Shriv wait, what about the boy and his friends? If they find out they helped us…we can't leave them and the boy's…I don't know, I can't explain it," Rey said, now remembering their insider assistance and a peculiar feeling Rey kept getting around the boy, who was the little threesome's leader.

"Don't worry, I sent them to the Falcon. I know what the Canto Bight justice system will do if they catch 'em so they're coming offworld with us."

"Rey, what do you mean there's something about the kid?" Poe asked curiously.

"Like I said, I'm not sure, but my instinct says he'll be safer with us," Rey shook her head.

"Okay, done, I'm calling room service to take our stuff to our ship," Zay said and quickly typed in the command and placed their three bags at the door, "Let's get rid of these two," she then suggested.

"Here," Shriv said, and grabbed one and lifted the being over his shoulder and then walked out of the balcony door and then simply dropped him over the rail.

"Shriv!" Rey yelled, amazed at such a callous thing from the normally common-sense Duros.

"Wait for it," Shriv piped up and then there was a splash, he'd dropped the being right into a pool and then Poe did the same, being sure to throw their blasters in after them, "Hotel security will arrest them in moments."

"Then let's go," Rey replied, straightening her outfit and re-hiding her blaster.

"After you, ladies," Shriv offered them a way out, and the two girls left after giving a mock-bow in return.

Poe and Shriv were left looking back at the two ladies' lithe forms as they left down the hall. Both nodded at the other, knowing that this was a unique mission indeed to get so tough a pair of Resistance fighters into dresses like those. The two followed behind quickly and Dio was quick to follow Shriv.

"Okay little guy, you know the plan, take care of their security center, we'll take care of the cash and guards," the droid gave an affirmative and zipped straight up as Poe walked up next to Zay, and she quickly grabbed his arm and Rey decided to push ahead so it wasn't looking like they were all together. A pair of hovering valet droids zipped on down the hall past them carrying their luggage on their built-in metal pallets and they saw that they were well and truly committed now.

"Shriv, how much longer?" Poe asked.

"Ten minutes, and Dio's almost there. Chewie's got the Falcon primed and ready, he'll strafe the police HQ and knock out their air vehicles before they can take off. Rey, you'll need to get us to the safe, use some of that Force stuff," Shriv informed them as they got to a balcony overlooking the veranda, where the casino proper actually began.

"We'll see what we can do about drawing off the guards," Poe replied.

"There's security doors there," Zay pointed, down a side hall, "We can use them to trap the hotel security staff in between two doors."

"No blood that way," Poe agreed, "How do you intend on doing that?"

"Give 'em something to chase, like blaster fire," Zay responded.

"Attention will be focused inside rather than outside, right where we need it," Shriv agreed, and looked at his wrist comm which had a countdown timer on it, "Okay…we have ten minutes, let's do it."

"Going," Rey responded and turned to the stairs along with Zay and Poe, Shriv stayed up high and walked around the balcony to get a better view.

Rey moved right towards a door marked with 'Employees Only' and pulled out her security card, stolen of course, and slipped it in, she held her breath nervously until it flashed green and the door opened and she strutted on in, following her memory of the schematics they'd studied for the better part of two days. It was a long hallway that ran past a pair of money counting rooms on the right where droids went about their business without worry and a couple biologic employees monitored transactions and acted as managers to deal with customer complaints at the exchange desk. Rey saw these through the glass and was astonished by the sheer numbers of credits passing through the rooms in credit chip form, thin gold and black cards the same size as one's business card. Rey was seeing more money being processed than she'd ever seen in her life. Entire locked metal boxes full of them were being shipped through the hall she was in by droids that didn't seem to take notice of her. She lifted her comm when she got good looks at the boxes, each was labeled, and some had numbers as high as fifty thousand painted on.

"Shriv, I'm in, there's probably millions of credits back here," she said in astonishment and followed one of the droids moving through the hall and into a back hall that she saw a single human guard standing at, and he saw her, and narrowed his eyes curiously when she ducked back slowly, "Found the depositing safe," but then the footsteps of the guard caught her attention, "And the guard sees me…"

"Play it cool," Shriv told her, "We can't trigger any alarms yet, but knock him out if you have to."

"Excuse me," the guard called out to her as he rounded the corner and Rey managed to hide the comm before he saw it, "I do believe you're in the wrong place miss."

"Oh," Rey replied, but then remembered her lesson from Leia about using her own beauty to her advantage and decided to give it a try rather than club him with her pistol, "Sorry, I'm new and…" she inhaled nervously, "Kinda lost…" Rey clasped her hands together and bounced a bit looking up at him through puppy dog eyes, "Can you help me, please? I don't wanna get fired, I really need this job."

"Uh…yeah sure," the guard stammered, "Don't worry about it, people make mistakes."

"Thank you so much," Rey replied, "I'm Ivy. A new massage therapist."

"A masseuse? What're you doing here in the casino?" the man asked, sensing something was up.

"I uh…heh, this may sound suspicious but I'm here for money, I thought this was where I could pick up my paycheck, I'm guessing I'm wrong?" Rey continued racking her brain for anything that could stall him.

"Yeah, yeah big time. That's behind the check-in desk, where you clock in and clock out, just ask the receptionist," the man pointed back where she'd come.

"Oh," Rey responded and feigned relief, and then repeated her puppy dog eyes back at the man, "You're-you're not gonna tell anyone I was in here are you?"

"Nah, it's fine, it's happened before," the guard replied with a nonchalant shrug.

"Thank you, in fact, while I'm here…" Rey said and changed her tone and lifted a hand and pressed a finger to the man's chest, "You will show me the vault."

Rey felt the change in the man, the mind trick had worked, and he straightened and his eyes went hollow, "I will show you the vault."

He turned and went to the door with Rey right behind him and typed in a code that Rey saw and she slowly pulled out her blaster and set it to stun behind his back. As he hit the last button and the thick sealed durasteel doors opened a voice called out from behind them.

"Guard! What're you doing?!"

Rey turned and lifted her weapon at a Toydarian manager who gasped at the sight of the weapon and she fired, sending a blue stun beam right into the flying alien who collapsed to the ground. But this definitely snapped the guard out of his force-induced stupor and saw the weapon and pulled his stun baton and took a swing at Rey as she came back around and fired at him. It knocked away the NN-14 and Rey had to dodge the next swipe at her body as the guard realized she'd duped him. He closed on her and raised the stun device and brought it right down at her. Rey caught the blow against his wrist with crossed arms and stopped it short. But the man shoved her back until she was up against the wall, and he began pushing hard with his other hand to get the stunner to touch her.

But as the stunner got closer Rey closed her eyes and opened her left hand and narrowed her eyes and leveled her breathing and with a charge of power she sent a force push out that launched the man into the wall with enough force to lodge him in the plaster and knock him out. Then a series of explosions shook the building from afar that Rey could just barely make out.

"They're here," came the voice from Shriv.

Location: Casino Entrance

Outside Poe and Zay walked into the side hall and Zay lifted a comm, "Dio, you have control," an affirmative beep answered her, "Alright get ready to lock down blast doors two and four on my signal. Ready?" she asked Poe as she drew her hold-out blaster from the holster on her thigh and Poe pulled another from his coat pocket.

"Always."

The two went to the end of the hall and pointed their blasters into the ceiling and fired multiple blue blue bolts into the metal ceiling that sent down dust and in the casino sent screams echoing from the room as its wealthy patrons ducked to the ground. The guards jumped to action, drawing their pistols and rushed to the sound of the blaster fire. They were trained with stun on, and Poe and Zay did likewise. The first man rushed headfirst into a pair of shots that leveled him instantly and three more fired back as they rushed up the stairs into the veranda with a half dozen more on their tails, their red suits making them easily seen and identified.

"There's a lot more of them than I thought!" Zay told Poe as they ducked into cover on opposite sides of the hallway they were in.

"No that's about right," Poe shrugged as a stun blast zipped by close enough to raise the hairs on his arm and so he swung around and fired one-handed catching another man as he tried rushing forward, collapsing onto the dark tilework, "Now?" he asked her after ducking into cover.

"Not yet…" Zay shook her head, getting a look at the nine plus men still standing and moving towards them, "Dio…now!"

The blast doors slammed shut between them, and then the doors shut between the guards and the casino. They could hear the banging on the doors of the gaggle of security guards and the two looked out to see orange flames rising from the police station, and the Millennium Falcon hovering over it, firing every so often as puny green bolts zipped back at the ship, hardly doing a thing. Then red glowing engines and the dots of starfighters got Poe's and Zay's attention. The ships roared by the casino at low level, shaking the building and Poe knew he wanted to see this. He blasted open the window in front of him, and he and Zay both climbed out in time to see that shuttles were coming in, and within them, troops that threw out fastropes that the soldiers within slid on down professionally and rapidly.

"Poe!" Shriv's voice called out from the left as the soldiers rushed inside past them.

"Shriv, how'd Rey do?" Poe asked as they got up next to them.

"She's got the vault completely open, and I've got the patrons emptying their pockets," Shriv said as patrons with turned out pockets empty of cash rushed by in a panic.

"What'd you make 'em do?" Zay asked.

"If they want out, empty their cash on the biggest table and scram," Shriv laughed, "It worked like a charm, if I do say so myself."

An officer from the attack force holding an EL-18 Blaster Rifle, a more modern version of their venerable EL-16's, rushed up to them, and saluted.

"Commander Dameron, Company A of the 245th Battalion reporting, all boots coming down," the captain said proudly through his helmet.

He wore a full uniform and tactical vest, and all their shuttles had Republic markings. As did the fighters that patrolled the skies, and so did the corvette hovering over the city, daring any police craft to challenge them. The troops moved with grace and precision, more than what Poe was expecting.

"Captain, we've got a lot of cash in there to move out, so let's get the job done quick before the First Order gets wind of what we're up to," Poe told them.

"With a hundred troops we'll get the job done sir, go ahead and get outta here, we've got this."

The man rushed past and started ordering his troops around, and the three soon saw Rey coming out as carts full of metal boxes of credit chips and credit coins came rolling out and the corvette began descending to take the cargo on. The Falcon also descended, and Rey and Shriv quickly grabbed their bag and ran aboard, knowing that it was best to get out as soon as possible. At the rate the troops were going they'd be done in mere minutes. Zay and Poe had to run to their ship, resting on the far end of the landing pad past the golden statue of a fathier just calling their name.

"Wanna see what the ship's really capable of?" Poe raised an eyebrow.

"Is that a date, honey?" Zay laughed, and the two ran past the troops now creating a constant line of carts and troops carrying sometimes a hundred grand in money aboard the corvette now lowering several of its side ramps, its three hundred meter long hull dwarfing all other craft around them.

The two ran aboard, and Poe got into the pilot's seat and activated his comm, "Any Republic craft this is Black Leader, taking off in a Nubian yacht from the casino landing pad."

"Black Leader, Hatchet Leader, we read you loud and clear, vector out at two-five-zero, hug the deck and climb and jump, how copy?" the X-Wing squadron commander called back confidently.

"Roger that Hatchet Leader, Black Leader taking off, vectoring at two-five-zero, low to the deck."

The yacht powered up, and Poe decided not to take it easy on their expensive craft and turned it loose, throttling up to full speed and the ship practically beamed away, about knocking people over who were too close. Poe had a massive grin on his face as he always did when flying at near-death speeds so close to the deck. The water of the ocean rippled and then fell away as they cleared the waterfall and Poe pulled the ship up and started climbing.

"Man I love this ship," Poe declared happily.

"Almost as much as winning?" Zay asked from her seat.

"Almost," Poe winked as they cleared Cantonica's atmosphere, "Okay…let's wait to make sure that the troops get what we came for and get out safely."

"Good call," Zay nodded and pulled up the scanners, and zeroed in on the city, and saw that the shuttles were on the ground, and the fighters were still making passes. The Falcon was also climbing out of the atmosphere, joining them.

It didn't take long at all, soon the shuttles were loading up and taking off, and the corvette lifted away, and the assembled formation began to climb and broke through the clouds. The two Resistance civilian ships watched as the military formation jumped away back to Serenno, where they'd come from, and then they too made the jump for home. Poe typed in the encryption for a call to Dantooine and was beaming at the prospect of sharing the news. Leia soon appeared on the console before them, a smile on her face.

"I'm assuming by your smile that you're alive and the mission is accomplished?" Leia asked.

"Yes ma'am, we've got a treasury again," Poe nodded back.

"Millions of credits from what Shriv just told me. But my bigger question is, are you two okay?" Leia further demanded.

"Yes general, we're okay," Zay replied, relieved that they were done.

"Good, I do have some bad news though. Finn and Rose and a fireteam of troops went to Rugosa to locate a viable place to set up headquarters. But there was an old trap set by Separatist droids, we lost four people, and Finn and Rose barely escaped with their lives."

Poe sighed, they'd lost people before, but this was war, "Well, at least those two made it."

"Yes, there is that. But they are on their way to check out another planet. We're waiting on word from them now. By the time you all get home we'll know if we'll be packing up again," Leia told them, "Home base out."

"Okay," Poe sighed, leaning back and smiling broadly, "How much?"

"How much? Oh-oh yeah…twenty million plus? I mean did you see the carts those guys were bringing out?"

"Some big ones, I'm betting thirty, thirty-five," Poe guessed and then got up, "I'm gonna tap into that booze cabinet."

He got up, and moved to the rear and opened the locked black wood cabinet. There were numerous bottles of some expensive alcohols and he picked a whiskey and grabbed a square glass cup. Zay walked in after him, and she grabbed one as well.

"You want some?" Poe asked, holding up the bottle.

"Got ice?"

"Oh, how could you?" Poe scoffed playfully.

"What? Whiskey on the rocks is classy."

"You don't water down something as fine as this Corellian Whiskey?"

"Just give me a shot would ya?" Zay rolled her eyes and held out the glass and Poe caved and poured a generous shot into the glass and snatched a few ice cubes from the tray underneath the cabinet.

"Well, cheers," Poe said proudly, "To the Resistance."

"To mission complete," Zay nodded and clinked the glasses together and then they both downed the glasses, she coughed a bit, not really prepared for the strength of the ninety-proof beverage.

"Not much for anything over fifty-proof," she replied honestly and she poured another glass, "But it's good."

"You sure?" Poe laughed.

"Yeah," Zay responded, sitting down and leaned back comfortably in the couch, "Poe, were you serious? Back on Cantonica?"

"About what?" Poe asked as he sipped at his cup.

"The other guests looking at me at that party?"

"Yeah, every word," Poe responded as he sat down next to her.

"It's not just that you were…a little clouded in the head? Too many at the party?"

"I only actually had one drink," Poe responded honestly, "And I'm not that lightweight."

"So if…I don't know…I kissed you you'd…mmm!" Zay yelped as Poe leaned in and kissed her, surprising her when his hand gently tilted her head up and he gently pressed his lips to hers. He held them together a moment then parted.

"Kiss you back?"

Zay simply smiled and pulled him back in and looped her arms around his neck and then Poe pushed back as their lips came together again and pushed her back onto her back on the couch.

"Should we really be doing this?" Zay asked breathlessly.

"We've got six hours to ourselves," Poe shrugged.

"Plenty of times."

Location: Planet Hrill

Finn stepped out of the shuttle into the early morning fog that enveloped the island that they were on. He stepped off the ramp and onto a rocky shore with large rounded stones that shifted slightly underfoot. Scans had revealed no life, no technology aside from a burnt-out village on the opposite side of the planet. The area was tropical, very humid, with white-barked trees having red leaves all around him. Fog wisps went everywhere, seeming to be generated from the massive trees themselves. Birds were chirping all around and Finn knew that this place was where they wanted to be.

"I think this is the place," Finn said aloud as he looked around, listening to the lapping of the waves behind him and the wildlife in the large island in front of them.

"A dense jungle to provide concealment, dense stone mountains there in the middle to dig into for hangars, and an isolated location off of the beaten track away from the First Order's bases of power," Rose agreed as she stepped out, "And it's beautiful."

"Let's look around," Finn suggested, and started walking towards the mangroves which had deep rocky channels that their roots dove down into, and Finn realize that this place had a tidal surge that leaked quite a ways into the area.

The two walked up past their mangrove cover and saw that there wasn't much of a dense underbrush like most jungles, instead red ferns covered the ground, every so often a smaller tree was sprouting up, trying to make a run for the light. But the fog was so thick that they couldn't get a good look forward through the jungle. There wasn't much to the jungle that they could see. A couple small hog-looking creatures scampered away, squealing as they ran from beneath the ferns. They disturbed a group of ground birds that flew straight up, their white and gray feathered bodies showing that they were quite plump.

"Well, there's some life around here," Finn shrugged.

"Oh come on we're not hunting them."

"Did you see how many there were? This place…it works."

"Incoming call from the General," Rose said as she got a call from the shuttle transmitted to her comm and answered.

"Good news, the Canto Bight mission was a success, the holonet's lighting up right now," Leia told the two.

"That's great, anyone hurt?"

"No, no casualties, and thirty-three million in credits has been seized. Tell me that you have some more news for me," Leia inquired.

"General, this place is perfect, there's not a ship anywhere near here and the terrain is ideal for building a new headquarters," Finn told her, "I think you can make the call to send our forces here."

"Very well, we'll be there shortly," Leia nodded, "In the meantime, go ahead and stay there, monitor the goings-on there. Find somewhere we can make a base facility, we need a place to dig into, with a plain large enough for ships to land, and is defensible. Rose will know what to look for."

"Yes general, see you in a few days."

Location: First Order Star Destroyer Finalizer, Orbit over Planet Mon Cala

"Supreme Leader," General Hux interrupted Kylo Ren's private thoughts, "We have received word of a Resistance attack on the casino on Canto Bight."

"Canto Bight?" Kylo asked without turning from the viewscreen looking down upon the blue water world and the scattered remains of their ruined and drifting shipyards.

"Yes Supreme Leader, many of our allies in the armaments industry are expressing grave concerns with our ability to protect them now that we have taken command of the galaxy," Hux responded.

"If they have the audacity to voice doubts of our abilities then they are treasonous, don't you agree General?" Kylo simply responded, turning his head slightly, "Take your pick of one to execute, then split his holdings to the rest as restitution for their losses. Our message will be clear enough."

"And to the rest of the galaxy, this strike cannot go unanswered," Hux responded adamantly, walking up to Kylo Ren's right side.

"How convenient it is that we have a rebellious world before us then. Order the dreadnoughts into position, bring their shields down and level their cities. The Mon Calamari will not be able to help their rebellious friends in this war," Kylo ordered coldly.

"Supreme Leader Mon Cala has a double-layered planetary shield powered from the surface by underwater and underground shield generators, the most advanced in the galaxy. It will take time, even with our forces' full firepower."

"Then there's not a moment to waste, commence firing!" Kylo ordered loudly to the bridge officers.

The fleet over the planet was powerful, dozens of Resurgent-Class Star Destroyers hung menacingly over the water world, TIE's zooming about in pairs on standard patrol. In a half ring over the planet a half dozen Mandator-IV Class Dreadnoughts awaited the order to open fire with their massive autocannons, prepared to accomplish their designed duty, crush planets from orbit. There was not much that the Mon Calamari or Quarren could do now. Their fleet lay in ruins, their shattered hulls spread out in orbit amongst fields of debris and crystalline fields of water with the bodies of their crews interspersed amongst the carnage. The ring of shipyards that encompassed the planet was completely gone, destroyed by the dreadnoughts that stood above them silently. The gnarled metal that was still in orbit was settling into a ring of debris that choked Mon Cala space, making it difficult for even starfighters to maneuver around the world.

This wasn't a worry for the First Order, in fact it was an objective of theirs. The Mon Cala shipyards were too important to leave untouched. So they'd launched a lightning fast assault, first with starfighters, pulverizing the Mon Calamari's defenses and drawing their attention inwards before the fleet arrived and opened fire from short range. Now they were doing so again, this time against the now active planetary shields. Red blobs of fire from the dreadnought autocannons rained down onto the shield, splashing against it, but for now the shield held, such was the power of Mon Calamari shielding that this process would take time.

"Tell me about the attack on Canto Bight."

"We have identified several perpetrators from the Resistance, the pilot, Poe Dameron, the daughter of the traitors of Inferno Squad, a Duros who assisted her and her mother in disabling one of our destroyers, and the girl from Jakku," Hux responded with tact, handing over a datapad with the identified individuals pulled from security cameras.

"Rey," Kylo said, softening his gaze as he looked at the girl, now having her hair dyed blonde and cut a bit shorter, "The Jedi. How'd they do it?"

"Dameron and Versio's daughter infiltrated the casino as guests, and from there they seemingly let in the girl and the Duros who gained access to the casino's main vault and lured away the guards. The YT-model freighter of theirs also assisted by destroying the local police station's landed aircraft. Then a hundred troops supported by shuttlecraft, a corvette, and three squadrons of fighters launched a full-scale assault," Hux explained, hiding his admiration for the skill and daring of such of a plan.

"I see," Kylo mumbled.

"Supreme Leader, the Resistance was left with only as many people as could fit on that lone freighter when we last saw them on Crait. Now they have gathered not just a few radicals, but regular Republic forces into their ranks. They must be dealt with immediately if we are to prevent full-scale war before we are fully established," Hux pleaded to his new sovereign.

"Full-scale war is already upon us General. And we will destroy them by starting here, continue the bombardment. Make our course for Coruscant."

Yes, the Mon Calamari are in trouble. This actually makes sense, I mean the Mon Calamari are almost single-handedly responsible for the success of the Rebellion in multiple battles and campaigns and were the industrial heart of the Alliance fleet. The First Order would quite obviously make a mission of annihilating the Mon Calamari, or at least their industrial capacity, which is what really matters.

So yeah, I'm actually having a lot of fun right now writing this while I'm going back and forth with a couple of proof-readers that I'm working with for Soldiers of the Republic. As those of you who don't already know I'm in an Arma 3 Realism Unit, and we take our stuff pretty seriously, many of the members are military themselves and I'm bouncing a lot of stuff off of a couple of them to make that story as good as I can. It'll be a couple more days until I'm able to give that story an update, so I'm hitting the iron of this story while its hot, so to speak. So yeah, another chapter coming soon.

Next Chapter Preview: Moving to a new home, and growing pains start to arise.