I woke to the quiet hum of Ben's breathing and the harsh light of the sun shining unopposed into the otherwise dimly lit room. I moved my head slightly and felt Ben's chest hair brush against my cheek. I wasn't sure how I ended up falling asleep on him, it seemed odd and I felt like I'd invaded a personal space boundary that was only ever implied. I tried to recall that the events of the evening and I felt my heart skip a beat. That's right, I could remember now. The bar, Ben, coming here, having sex, him telling me he loves me, having sex again...it all seemed too absurd to be true. Then again, just over a month ago I was on Starkiller, doing my job without a care in the world.
I felt him stir under me, and his eyes suddenly opened. He looked down at me under a half-lidded gaze and when I went to move I felt his arms around me, holding me in place. It felt weird here, and I felt goosebumps emerge as his hold tightened around me. His eyes fell shut.
"I don't think anyone's ever been this close to me." He mumbled. I flinched at the sound of his voice. What?
"I don't think I've slept in a bed with someone either. I don't mind it with you." He said, and I felt my heart lurch in my chest.
"We should go to the ship and prepare for departure. " he finished. I pulled myself off of him and he sat up against the headboard. I trotted to the fresher and flicked on the water.
…
"Okay, this should be everything. We should be going soon." Ben said as he zipped up a brown duffel filled with our dirty robes and our first order suits. I pulled a fresh tunic over my head and tugged my hair into three tight buns.
We stepped out of the deep inn and onto a street busier than the day before. There were creatures in almost every available space to stand, and each tent seemed filled to the brim. The sun was especially harsh; the moment I set foot out of the shade I could feel it slowly boiling my skin.
Ben rested one hand on my shoulder and pointed in the direction of the garage with the other. I nodded and stepped into the sea of people. Despite all of the activity around us, I could sense Ben's Force signature burning bright from behind me. I could sense something else, a familiar but uncertain disturbance in the usual sensations that radiated through the town. I sensed an acknowledgment through the Force from Ben but we kept our pursuit towards the garage.
We were mere steps away when I sensed a blaster shot flying from behind me. I spun around in time to stretch out my hand and force it back. The creatures all around us scattered as more shots fired out. Ben's lightsaber ignited with a loud crack as stormtroopers appeared on the roofs, by the tents, on the tops of vehicles, from inside shops. I saw Unkar seated in the back of a speeder as the driver pulled up to the scene. This was bad.
"We need to get to the ship!" Ben yelled as more and more troopers began to attack. I reached behind me for my staff but quickly remembered I'd left it on the ship. I had to do something else.
I cartwheeled sideways and landed just behind Ben as a stormtrooper tried to grab me. I rose and sent a kick to the helmet of another one as Ben sliced a third in two and crouched to deflect more shots. I shut my eyes and felt my face scrunching as I focused on the Force. I focused on ice, on the snow that patterned Starkiller's mountains, on how soft and cool it was to the touch, and on how I had found myself dreaming of it almost immediately after I'd set foot on Argonar.
I held my arm out over Ben's shoulder and felt a wall build up in front of us as I watched the blaster shots start to bounce back. Ben rotated on his heel from beneath me and grabbed my waist, hoisting me up over his shoulder so I could hold the wall in place while he made haste into the garage.
Once we got inside he gripped the door and shoved it shut then put me down. We ran to the bay and stormed towards the shuttle. As we ran up the platform and into the main room, First Order troopers came running into the bay from all sides. I Fore-pushed a blaster shot as the platform door shut.
Ben was already seated and turning on the ship when I got to the cockpit. I jumped into the copilot's chair and helped him ready the ship for flight. There were alarms ringing throughout the bay and vibrant red lights flashing all around us. This ship lifted and we peeled off of the planet, only to see several other ships lift off from outside the garage and follow us.
"Go to the back pit, there's controls for the cannons down there." Ben ordered and I did as he told.
I flew down the steps and fired up the cannons. there were far too many to be manned by one person, so I picked the centermost and grabbed the handles. I could see our speed picking up as the surface of Argonar became smaller and smaller, but the ships followed us nonetheless. I fired a few shots and tugged on my headset.
"There's quite a bit of them on our tail" I said into it.
"There's a lot ahead of us too. There's two battlecruisers and a lot of TIEs" He replied.
We entered the space above Argonar and the shuttle spun a few times as shots rang out around it. It didn't fly with as much speed as some of the better ships in the galaxy, but it dodged easily and smoothly.
The ship spun again and I found myself pointed at the immense squadron of ships that the First Order had sent. Ben wasn't kidding, there were a ton.
I started taking down TIE fighters as Ben weaved the ship in and around the barricade. I slid my seat to one side and operated some of the cannons on the left, sending a few larger shots into clusters of TIEs. We swooped around Argonar's moons and sent some of the forces on our tail smashing into the rocks.
Ben sent the ship into barrel rolls as I shot at the battlecruiser's shield generators at the top of the ship. They exploded with a orangish boom. He flipped the ship in time for me to shoot out one of the ion engines and I heard Ben mumble sounds of approval through the microphone. We swooped below it and he shot out the reactor from the front cannons without missing a beat. As the battlecruiser fell I couldn't help but wonder where he learned to fly so well.
The TIE fighters kept coming but Ben managed to take out the reinforcement ship that floated near the other battlecruiser.
"If we want to make it out of here we'll need to take down that other destroyer" Ben barked into the microphone.
"It's got TIEs all around it so we'll need to think of something good." He finished. I looked about as we flew around Argonar. There were ships swarming the planet and the moons and debris was everywhere. I looked to Argonar's smallest moon and a thought crossed my mind.
"how strong is our strongest cannon?" I asked him.
"It's on your side, it is the one with the white handle and the silver button. I think it's on the left. It's got enough power to blow up a small planet, but if we use it we'll only be able to use the smaller cannons until we land." He instructed me and I slid my chair over to where it was. I gripped the handles and rested my thumbs just above the buttons.
"I have an idea" I told him.
"what is it?"
"fly past that small red moon to your left and fight the TIEs from there. When the Battlecruiser gets close enough, Turn the ship to it's side and then go into light speed." I told him.
"If I go into light speed and one of these ships doesn't get hit with our cannon we'll be followed!" He exclaimed.
"Trust the Force! This will work." I told him and I heard him grumble.
We sped towards the planet and I felt our ship lift as Ben dodged the moon and the TIE's didn't. More came swarming over the moon in our pursuit and I shot them down as they came, the mob of ships slowly moving it's center away from Argonar.
Ben flipped the ship a few times to keep the lure in place and I watched the wings on the sides adjust for the upcoming blast off. I shut down most of my cannons and directed the blaster energy towards the largest cannon. I shut my eyes and sensed each shot as it swirled out of the tips of the laser shooters on the fighters and launched into space. I focused on the lack of oxygen around the blast, on the velocity of the beam as it whirled it's way towards us. I focused on each TIE, sensing them through the debris that clouded the eye's vision. I sensed the battlecruiser, I sensed the fuel that erupted through it's engines and the many layers of protection placed there only from years of exploded star destroyers. I could sense the Force flowing through me, tickling the undersides of my skin and wrapping it's arms around my skull. I felt it creeping under my eyelids and tugging at my fingertips. I focused on the Force. I was one with the Force.
I opened my eyes and the ships had moved. The TIEs all seemed to be centered around the moon, the battlecruiser moving towards the plethora of fighters for support.
"now!" I yelled to Ben and the ship turned. I fired the cannon and watched it hit the moon and explode. I felt every soul on every First Order ship within range disappear as the moon's destruction took it's toll and our ship hit light speed.