This is pretty much an action-packed chapter. I rarely wrote action before, but I had a lot of fun writing this one. With how much success - it's on you to decide. ;) Again, a dreadnought is destroyed with the help of an unorthodox ally. Ben shows reckless courage and Rey loves him even more for it.
This technological terror is nothing compared to the power of the Force.
Sith Lord Vader.
A Mandator IV-class Siege dreadnought "Nephallactis" and a Resurgent class Starship "Invictus" approach Pau'an City.
Ben saw them already on the screen of his TIE silencer and recognizes their names and the names of their newly appointed generals, all young men loyal to Hux and all desperately eager to recapitulate the old glory of the Empire.
"They bring that dreadnought with one single purpose", Poe says and tenses. "They will obliterate the Pau'an City. They didn't falter with Coruscant who is an Imperial stronghold, so why would they be gentler to old Rebel and Jedi sympathizers"?
It's a terrifying thought to all of them.
Soon enough, as they are priming their ships for a quick evacuation, the loudspeakers and the screens on the landing dock activate with an emergency broadcast from the First Order.
"Pau'ans", Hux roars in his insufferable tone. "You hide a gang of dangerous criminals that demolished the centre of Coruscant and a deadly traitor, Kylo Ren. Relinquish them and your planet will be spared".
"Great, just great", Poe mutters. "Rey, go to the turret. We'll make them chase after us and pull them away from the city".
"No – you hyper-jump immediately with the "Falcon"," Ben interferes. "I'll distract them. Hux hates me more than he cares about the rebels right now. I'll meet with you later".
Rey feels weary of all these rushed decisions and Poe frowns even further, which is by now almost a physical impossibility.
He has to concur with Kylo Ren, which is in a way a greater challenge than being tortured by the man.
Take the saber, he speaks to her mind. Ahsoka Tano. The data-pads are on Naboo in Padme's family villa.
Rey frowns.
Once we meet there, you'll show it to me yourself, she retorts and rushes to the guns of the "Falcon".
Rey.
But they are already gone.
Of course, Poe won't leave Pau'an City to its doom: the pacifist population of the planet was more often than not at the side of the Republic, with the sole exception of the Inquisitor who was considered something of an anomaly on his own home-planet; and Maz is still there, trying to accelerate the evacuation and protect her smuggled goods she has hidden on the planet (the old alien was always that special mix of idealism and practicality) – and also, Poe wants to make a statement.
"Connect me to their ship, Chewie", Poe says.
Hux's voice breaks from the other side almost immediately:
"Relinquish that traitor and I might even consider sparing your lives".
But Poe flexes mentally:
"This is General Poe Dameron of the Resistance fleet. You are now officially breaking the Galactic treaty regarding the safety of civilians. Your penile overcompensation of a gun destroyed Coruscant, and you fired it away too much and too early. Problems in that department, aye, Hugsie"?
Short silence ensues.
"I'm not falling for that cheap trick again, you rebel scum", Hux shrieks and the connection breaks.
Poe grins from ear to ear.
"Well, if we die today", he says, bringing the priming sequence to the end. "I'll die laughing".
Rey's heart twitches. She feared Poe might even negotiate with Hux: that's how much hatred he has for Kylo Ren – but he didn't. A true general he is, indeed.
Loyal until the end.
A direct hit to the Insurgent class ship snaps Hux from his crimson rage.
It is the TIE silencer.
"So, he is not their prisoner as I suspected – he is protecting that scum now", Hux hisses, but is in a way exalted. "Wonderful – I'll obliterate them both in a single blow. General Winsted, prime the dreadnought. Aim for the city".
His relentless eyes dart a glance to his other newly appointed general.
"General Paze, destroy the traitor".
But by that point, Ben is already shaving off their lateral guns.
Finn sees this from the control room. His jaw falls down slightly and Rey smiles. How proud Han and Leia would be.
"He saw that from me", Poe grunts, as the "Falcon" plunges away from the ship, followed by a TIE squadron.
Why haven't you hyper-jumped yet? Rey?
They are priming the dreadnought anyway. They are murderers.
Rey - .
No, Ben.
He makes that impossible spinning maneuver again and sends 3 TIE fighters chasing him into a blazing swirl.
I'll take out the dreadnought. You run. Do you understand me?
Rey instinctively raises her eyes to see his ship, but it is beyond her vision. She ponders for a nanosecond, but sees his reasoning as the least of two evils.
"Poe", she yells through the communication device. "Let Ben take the dreadnought down. You cover him with "Falcon"."
"I do what?!"
"That silencer is faster and smaller than "Falcon". They can't hit him the way they can hit us. Stay away from the ship and clean their guns".
"Damn it", Poe is exasperated, but follows the lead. He again has to admit that the man has a point.
The space is ablaze with explosions: brilliant golden, yellow, green and red, the most majestic kind of fireworks galaxy has seen – one of them hits the TIE silencer and mutilates its weapon system. Miraculously, the craft itself is still in one piece and is still roaring under his pilot's command to its target.
Only now, it's a straight-forward suicidal mission.
Poe sees a kind of poetic justice in it.
Only if Rey could see it that way.
"Leave him to his fate, Rey", Poe sighs.
If he dies, I might even consider seeing him as human, he thinks the obvious.
Although the body count is not on Kylo Ren's side no matter what he does.
"Ben", she yells to the communication device. "Disengage now! Poe knows the way to deflect the beam!"
Actually, he doesn't. He doesn't want to see Pau'an City destroyed, but he can't do anything from this distance and with TIE squadrons swarming around them like flies.
"Rey", Finn utters. "He does this so you can escape".
(He never thought he would see a day like this – his former leader, the cruelest man in existence, sacrificing himself for what he loves, not destroying what he hates. Strange things, Finn thinks. Almost as strange as a deflecting Stormtrooper, trained and conditioned since birth.)
But Rey is relentless.
"No!"
Ben!
But the silence answers her in place of the Force bond. He is shut off - again. He'll finish what he started - the suicidal mission that began a long time ago.
"Ben, what are you doing"?
"I'm taking down the dreadnought", he hisses with his own voice as he avoids another three TIE fighters.
"I can see that", Luke adds matter-of-factly, but the frustration of an old teacher permeates his tone. "What I mean is, how do you plan to pull down the dreadnought since your weapon system is off"?
Ben stays silent as he rushes into another spiraling maneuver that seems impenetrable to the squadrons that spring at him like swarming flies.
Finally, he squeezes his answer through clenched teeth.
"Why do you have this unsavory habit of disappearing when you're needed the most, and showing up again when you're the least wanted"?
He is at the verge of using expletives, but contains himself. He never saw himself as a man who'll die with the F word on his lips.
Luke is apparently exasperated.
"You always had this tendency of over-dramatizing things, Ben".
Rey's voice permeates through the communication channel.
"Ben", she screams. "Disengage now! Leave the dreadnaught, Poe knows the way to deflect the beam. Ben"!
But he doesn't answer and rips off the device's chips this time – she managed to override his block last time: that is, some minutes ago when she realized he is now without a weapon and still rushing to the core of the dreadnaught.
"I helped them build the First Order", he squeezes again through his teeth as his ship starts trembling, caught in the energy field of the dreadnought. "I'll help them destroy it".
Ben has no time to debate with this old man. He won't die with an expletive, but he won't die arguing with the old fool either.
He is at the periphery of the dreadnought core as his former master sighs - then gestures.
And the Force bends underneath them like a tsunami.
The veins on Ben's neck tense to a breaking point as he tries to keep the steering under control – the silencer is convulsing violently. But he is determined to remain disobedient until the very end.
And he can't be quite sure, but at the precise same moment, he thinks he sees Luke's eyes rolling.
"Pull the ship up, Ben", Luke says with the same undertone of an annoyed school-master at the end of a long school day.
Ben now openly barks at him.
"What"?!
"The dreadnought will implode in 10 seconds", Luke adds. "And I don't think you want to be there when it happens".
"What have you done, old man"?!
"Just pull the ship up, kid".
"General", the first officer of the "Nephallactis" screams at the top of his lungs. "The sequence is in an overload!"
The panic spills over in the control room like molten lava.
Winsted tries the last desperate attempt, one he knows for sure is quite impossible – all his training and all his days at the military academy taught him this. Dreadnought is a powerful weapon, but once instigated, it soon reaches a point no code can override. It's a death trap, but his will to live makes him irrational.
"Pause the sequence, officer"!
"I can't – it's the point of no return now, General"!
And as the stranded crew, some 100.000 of them, scrambles to escape the doomed ship, it implodes. Only a single TIE silencer escapes by springing up from the burning fountain of the crumbling ship underneath.
Parts of dreadnought crumble on the Destroyer, wreaking havoc on the unprepared ship.
No one within the "Invictus"'s crew suspects a disembodied spirit can do this sort of damage.
Naboo. Go to Naboo.
His voice betrays weariness and immense relief and a sort of shock – she can sense all his wonder and all his disbelief.
Rey would gladly reach out with her hand to the battered TIE silencer seconds before they hyper-jump. Reckless, stupid, and brave – Han would be so proud. She knows it.
"Let's go to Naboo", she says to Poe. "There is a shelter the First Order knows nothing about".
Poe finds it unfathomable – the First Order occupied the planet the moment the Hosnian system was destroyed – but some kind of wild and unrelenting determination in her voice makes him comply, albeit begrudgingly.
"Damn it, Rey", he says, but a smile escapes his frowning face.
What a day.