Rey awoke on Valentine's Day at a surprisingly decent time in the morning.
She jumped out of her cot and opened her window shade fully to peer outside. She smiled happily at the view. There was a blanket snow covering almost everything. "Perfect," she thought.
Eagerly she entered the refresher and showered thoroughly. To save time she shaved her armpits and brushed her teeth at the same time. Hair stubble, toothpaste and dead skin mingled together around the drainage. Rey had always been good at multi-tasking and using the Force had accentuated these skills to a new level. Afterwards she roughly dried her clean skin and her hair with a soft towel.
She rifled through the meagre collection of outfits hanging in her wardrobe and selected the warmest garments she could find. First she pulled on some thick thermal underwear and a padded bra, before buttoning up a beige long-sleeved shirt over the top. She chose grey woollen trousers to keep her legs toasty and the ewok-fur boots that her sandwich-loving friend Lieutenant Porkins Jnr bought her for her birthday. They were ugly-looking but would stop the cold from freezing her small tootsies.
She effortlessly tied her hair up in her practical three-bun style, but in addition to the normal elastic bands that kept everything in place she thought she would get in the spirit of the day and tied the two lowest coils of hair with thin red ribbons. Rey also carefully tied a larger pink ribbon into a cute bow on the topmost bun. Admiring herself in the mirror, she giggled at her uncharacteristic girly look.
Just as she was about to leave her room, there was a mechanical tapping at the door of her quarters.
"Geez, will I ever have a day where someone doesn't come knocking?" she thought with irritation.
She was beside the door, so she pulled the switch to open it and blinked in surprise at the gleaming bronze-coloured protocol droid who greeted her. It was the D'Qar base postal droid C3M41L-O, on his morning delivery round.
"Good morning to you Mistress Rey, I have a delivery for you this fine Valentine's Day," he said in a pompous mechanical voice. He had a large red envelope in his hand which he was now offering to her like a poisoned chalice. Rey's eyes widened and she felt a twinge of unease in her abdomen. It was a valentine card.
"Finn!" she thought immediately. That sweet but clueless fool of a man had clearly not understood the subtle friendzone hints she had sent his way yesterday. She doubted he had clocked on to the not so-subtle romantic advances of his friend Poe either.
Gingerly she gripped the card away from C3M41L's robotic hand. "Thank-you," she muttered casting her head downwards in resignation. The droid did not acknowledge the sarcasm in this pleasantry and politely responded "You're most welcome mistress, it is always a pleasure to serve you." He bowed slightly, making a rusty creaking sound and briskly waddled down the corridor to continue his postal duties.
Rey retreated back into her quarters and sat down on her cot to look at the envelope she had received. From the outside it looked quite ostentatious and expensive. The address was written in a beautiful cursive hand. Rey frowned for a moment. It seemed strange that Finn would be an expert at calligraphy, she was sure it wasn't a skill the First Order taught their stormtrooper cadets.
The queasy feeling in her bowels was starting to become more prominent. "Could this card be from someone… else?" she thought with uncertainty. Rey examined the post mark.
"Hang on… this card has come from offworld!" Her mind was running wild. What was going on here?
As she grasped for explanations, one thought hit her suddenly… "Master Skywalker!" Of course, sending her a card on Valentine's Day was his token of fatherly affection for her. No doubt he'd been lonely since she'd returned to the D'Qar base after completing her stay with him on Ahch-To during her first term of Jedi-training. Perhaps this was his way of saying he wanted her to come back soon.
"Don't worry dear old Master, it won't be long before I keep your company again, I'll cook you my patented portion bread that you like so much."
Feeling more at ease now, Rey opened the envelope seal and let the card slide out.
She gasped and put her hand over her mouth. The card was definitely not from Master Luke… nor Finn… or anyone with a shred of decency!
The card in her hands bordered on obscene and Rey's face started to blush as red as the fires of Mustafar.
The detailed picture on the front was of a man and woman embracing… or to be more precise 'making love in the missionary position'. The figures were wrapped in black satin sheets which left nothing to the imagination. The woman in the image had long brown hair and sort of looked like her…
Wait a minute, was that the picture on her Forcebook profile? The creator of this card had digitally edited it into the scene! Who would be sick or cruel enough to do such a thing? Her focus shifted to the male in the picture. The man was facing downwards, his face hidden but he was tall and lithe of frame; with pale skin and long flowing black hair not unlike… his hair.
"Surely not!" she squeaked out loud. She opened the card, hardly daring to breathe. The same elegant handwriting that had been on the envelope also graced the inside.
"I am the shadow… and you are the light,
And when last we met… you gave me one hell of fight,
But I'm coming for you now… to set all things to right,
And force-bound… you'll fuck your Dark Knight!"
Love from Kylo Ren Esq
(Master of the Knights of Ren)
"Shiiiiiiiiiitttt!" Rey shouted and threw the card away as if it were on fire. It was so dirty and very scary. This intense man was bloody crazy and obviously had an ego the size of Jabba's arse!
Yet she secretly had to admit to herself that it was also kind of… exciting?
She had long ago admitted to herself she was attracted to him. There had been so much Force wielding and charged tension between them back on Starkiller Base; and he'd not been unpleasant to look at. However she could never envision them as a couple. They were enemies and the only time this status would change would be the inevitable day that one of them brutally killed the other.
Throwing herself back on her blankets she pulled a pillow over her face and screamed into it to muffle the sound. Her plans for a fun day in the snow were now in tatters and she was unsure of what action to take next. Fortunately… or unfortunately for Rey, the emergency alarm of the base made the decision for her.
"ALERT! ALERT! ALL PILOTS TO PLANES! ALL SOLDIERS TO BATTLE STATIONS! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK FROM THE FIRST ORDER FLEET! REPEAT ALERT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!"
Rey snapped to attention at the sound. "Gods no, please no," she wailed.
The lights suddenly dimmed and crackled and Rey heard the hum of the shield generator coming to life. The base would now be covered in a dome of protective plasma which would hopefully limit the damage of any turbo laser fire and phased bomb blasts that the First Order threw at them.
She sat up and quickly opened the drawer beside her bed, grabbing the lightsaber she had recently built while training with Master Luke. She clipped it to her belt and then rushed over to a closet and took out the large flak jacket inside. She shrugged it on and zipped up, pulling the hood tightly over her head.
There was suddenly a large explosion on the opposite side of the base and Rey stumbled a little from the shockwave. The ceiling of her room started to rain pieces of plaster and her mirror fell off the wall, smashing upon the tiles of her floor.
She steeled herself determinedly, no matter who was leading this attack; she would do her duty for the rebellion.
Her assigned role during an attack was to control one of the ion cannons near the main entrance to the base, thus she left her quarters and ran through the quaking corridors so she might reach her destination quickly. She noticed sadly that the paper hearts that had been hung as decorations were now peeling off the crumbling walls.
Although they had all practiced for such an attack many times, Rey had a bad feeling about the outcome of this particular First Order raid. Even though she was still indoors, she could hear the screech of what must be hundreds of TIE fighters above. Also the thud of turbo laser fire on the shields was so frequent, that she estimated there must be at least three, maybe more star destroyers firing upon them! She knew D'Qar could not withstand such an assault for long.
There were people and droids scrambling everywhere, Rey was nearing the door of Poe's quarters. She saw the dashing pilot exit, fully dressed in his orange X-Wing gear and black squadron helmet. She raised her eyebrows as she noted a certain friend had followed him out. Finn look dishevelled and was hastily pulling on his gloves and strapping his blaster into the holster around his shoulders. Poe gave her a wink as he ran past her towards the hangar. Finn gave her a sheepish smile as she high-fived him and waved goodbye. There wasn't time to say anything else, she needed to get to her station.
Finally she arrived at the main entrance and the cannons were already firing in earnest into the freezing atmosphere. She could see her friend Qwi toting a huge blaster on her shoulder as she departed to the battle field outside, ready to add more stormtrooper kills to her tally.
Rey glanced behind her, the rebel leaders would hopefully be safe in the central bunker. She could hear commands being given by General Organa over the loudspeaker and Rey hoped that the former princess had a plan up her sleeve.
She clambered up to a nearby ion cannon and used the controls to raise the gunner seat. The screen in front of her lit up to give her a view of the environs surrounding the base. Rey moaned despairingly as she viewed the legions of stormtroopers who surrounded the shield wall. She could see star destroyers looming menacingly in the grey skies above and everywhere there seemed to be hails of green and red blaster bolts and laser fire.
This raid seemed like pure overkill on the part of the First Order!
Taking aim at a group of TIE fighters attacking a rebel fighter position, Rey pulled at the triggers of her ion cannon. Using the Force, her aim was true and she destroyed two of them with one shot. She'd always detested the annoying sound TIE fighters made and started to target another squadron…
However Rey did not get the opportunity to fire any more rounds as a gigantic blast rocked the base to its very foundations, blowing the goggles from her face and critically damaging the ion cannon she was manning.
The comm system blared:
"THE SHIELDS ARE DOWN! CONFIRMED THE FIRST ORDER HAS DESTROYED THE SHIELD GENERATOR, PREPARE FOR GROUND ASSAULT AND INFILTRATION, FALL BACK, REPEAT FALL BACK!"
She dejectedly climbed down from the ruined cannon and turned towards the large open entrance that served as the main gateway of the base. The wind was coldly gusting in her direction and she could hear the monotone voices of the First Order soldiers yelling at her compatriots to surrender and drop their weapons. She could already see in the distance that white armoured troopers were leading rows of captives along the snowy trenches with hands on their heads.
For some reason the old golden C-3PO droid with the stupid-looking red arm chose to approach her at that moment and stated in a whining tin voice "We're doomed!"
Rey had to agree with him though, this was definitely a 'shit your pants' moment.
Above D'Qar base the Star Destroyer Finalizer was hovering like a huge dark hawk, ready to pounce on its prey and clutch it within its talons.
Kylo Ren stood on the command deck of the bridge, intently checking the progress of the devastating raid on a large viewing monitor. He smiled in satisfaction beneath his gleaming mask as he saw the shield generators finally explode in an orange flower of flame. It had taken twenty minutes of sustained non-stop turbo-laser fire, but it had been worth it.
General Hux soon joined him at the monitor and touched his cap slightly to salute Ren.
"The shields are now confirmed to be down," stated Hux, "Captain Phasma is leading her troops into the structure itself now. The rebels seem to be retreating back into the centre of the base, but we have them surrounded. There will be no escape for your scavenger girl or anyone else for that matter."
"Good," said Kylo Ren in a deep voice. "Are you sure the stormtroopers understand their part in the spectacle we will perform once the base is ours and the surviving rebels are all captured and shackled?"
Hux grimaced a little, "Yes, Phasma has selected the most appropriate troops to assist in this matter, but she… I… we don't quite understand why…" Ren cut off his query abruptly. "It is not for you to reason why Hux, but rest-assured it is pivotal to the successful completion of our mission."
The general nodded and reached for a datapad on the console where Kylo Ren was leaning. As he grasped the pad his hand brushed the dark knight's leather-gloved hand. "Apologies Lord Ren," said Hux with a slight blush to his pallid cheeks. However Ren was not listening to Hux anymore… instead he was keying in commands on the communication console.
The picture on the large monitor changed from the birds-eye view of the besieged D'Qar base into a sea of static, before slowly the image of a mature and dignified woman appeared. Her hair was greying and bound in tight braids around her head. Her lips were pressed in a thin line of disapproval as she glanced icily at Ren. "No change there then," he thought. He opened the channel to commence conversation.
"Happy Valentine's Day mother dearest, I've returned home; have you missed me?" he said jovially.
General Leia Organa, leader of the Galactic rebellion; silently stared daggers at her wayward son.
"I'm guessing you didn't get a card this year, seeing as your husband is dead and all… Sorry I couldn't make the funeral, but I figured that since I'd already scattered Han Solo's ashes on Starkiller Base, there was really no point in attending," he continued just as cheerfully.
"Just tell us your terms Ben Solo!" shouted Leia.
Kylo Ren bristled at the sound of his former name, but decided to let it go… for now.
"Very well, mother," he responded curtly. "You and all the rebel scum you have hiding in that shithole of a base are to lay down your weapons and surrender unconditionally to the First Order troops who are at this very moment, already taking control of your operations; room by filthy room."
Leia looked uncertain and Ren sensed her emotion through the Force. He knew she'd be holed up in the safest area of the base and he suspected there could still be some sort of secret exit that some of the rebels might use to escape… that might include Rey and he would not allow that to happen.
"Don't even think of letting anyone slip away General," growled Ren. "If you do, I shall have no choice but to execute every worthless rebellion prisoner I take this day. Surely the death of so many is not worth the lives of a few escapees?"
Leia gritted her teeth and screwed up her eyes in anger, but begrudgingly nodded to him. "Alright we will surrender the base, but you had better keep your end of the deal." She said bitterly.
"Oh don't worry mother, I prefer to take traitors alive rather than kill them if at all possible," he chuckled. "The First Order will be able to buy some choice ships and equipment with the money we make from selling you all to the slave traders. Maybe your next home will be the spice mines of Kessel or who knows, perhaps a sleazy Tatooine brothel?"
Leia's eyes widened in absolute disgust at her son's insolence. Kylo Ren was enjoying pissing off his mum but he needed to instill fear into her to ensure she complied with his next request, the only reason this attack was taking place at all, if truth be told.
"Now General Organa, my leniency depends on you obeying this specific instruction." Kylo Ren leaned forward eagerly. "The scavenger girl Rey… I know she is hiding down there with you somewhere. You will order her to go outside and wait at the front of the base alone… I will greet her there… personally."