Guess who's baaaack?! That's right, the Nutty Buddy has finished another chapter. This one has a semi-big reveal, and I realize that with recent comic releases, what I viewed as possible canon is now becoming very different from the actual canon. Yes, I am aware of Thrawn being in Rebels season 3. Yes, I'm aware that up to five years prior to the events of The Force Awakens, Luke was traveling with Ben to try and find the Jedi Temple. That being said, I will attempt to stay as close to continuity as possible, though if I need to take certain artistic liberties, I shall. This is what fanfiction is for. Anyways, time for the disclaimer and then the chapter you've been waiting for.
Mara: The following is a non-profit fan-based fanfiction. Star Wars and all its affiliates are all owned by Disney, Lucasfilm, and George Lucas. Please support the official release!
Chapter 10: Family Reunion?
Finn peered around the corner before relaxing. No guards were in sight in the entrance to the detention center. They probably got called away for the attack on the oscillator. That would make things a little easier. 'We're coming Rey,' he thought before trying to figure out how to breach that detention block. The Empire had learned its lesson from the first wild Death Star escape, beefing up the security in detention blocks to prevent a second escape like that from ever happening again. The First Order had carried that tradition over from the Imperial background it hailed from, and Finn knew that there were going to be at least a dozen guards in that detention block, if not more. He gulped nervously before glancing back at the group. "So we'll use the charges to blast open the doors. We'll have the Jedi take point and draw the fire. Han and Chewie will lay down cover fire while I go look for Rey."
Mara nodded in approval of the plan, though it needed a slight tweak. "Kat should go with you Finn, to help protect you and to locate the right cell block, otherwise it might take hours to find her." She sensed Finn's nerves swelling once again as he thought about ducking and dodging more blaster fire. "You sure you're up for this?"
"Hell no," Finn answered quickly, "Once the troopers know you're down here, they're going to swarm the place."
"Sure wish we had Artoo with us right now," Mara mused as she focused her attention towards the detention block.
"Yeah, well, we don't," Han grumbled, "he's in that depressed lockdown mode of his, has been for the past ten years ever since Luke vanished." He glanced backwards to make sure no troopers surprised them from behind and a bit of movement out the viewport caught his attention.
"There's an access tunnel that'll lead to the outside," Finn continued, trying to finish out this desperate plan. It wouldn't help them if they got trapped in the detention block. "We can head out that way and get back to the Falcon."
Mara kept her Force senses attuned in the detention area, though something was nagging at her, as if the Force were telling her to look beyond Finn's shoulder. Doing just that, she saw Han turn around with that lopsided grin on his face. Wondering just what it was that would have him change moods so suddenly, she looked past him, extending her senses in that direction. She couldn't help but gasp as she felt the presence in the Force. "Ben…" she said quietly, knowing that she would upset Captain Solo if he had heard, but the figure she saw climbing the wall couldn't have been her son. For starters, it was clearly a human female. She didn't have the red hair that she would've expected either, but Mara had been for certain that she had sensed her son for a second. Mara glanced at Finn. "What did you say her name was again?"
Finn was confused, not noticing what Mara was looking at. "Rey, why?"
"Are we doing this or not Master?" Kat asked, standing by the detention doors, lightsaber not ignited but in her hand. Mara ignored her. She was trying to remember where she had first heard that name, and not in this dimension. Concentrating, she let the Force guide her memories, until it finally clicked. It had been nearly fourteen years prior, when she was showing the first signs of morning sickness thanks to the conception of Ben. Mara remembered their discussion about names.
"You won't take no for an answer, will you?" she asked her husband as they lay on the couch together in their room in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.
Her farmboy had smiled at her. "You've got that right. If our child is a boy, I want to name him Ben."
"Obi-Wan meant that much to you, huh?" Mara asked, getting a nod from her husband before continuing in a teasing tone. "And what if she turns out to be of the fairer sex? I don't think she'd be a big a fan of Padme."
Luke sighed deeply. Ever since they had discovered that holo in Artoo of his father and mother getting married on Naboo, he had spent less time than he would have liked to learn more about his mother. This damn Yuuzhaan Vong war prevented him from sifting through the Imperial records that the Empire had tried to erase, most likely to keep Vader from thinking about his wife while he served the Emperor. "I was thinking something more along the lines of light. Like Reyna. She could be our little Rey of light in these dark times."
Mara smiled as she leaned up against Luke, hand on her belly, which showed the slightest bulge of pregnancy. "Reyna, eh? I kinda like that name. Sappy, but it fits."
Luke chuckled. "Then it's decided. I don't know why it took Han and Leia so long to pick Jacen and Jaina's names, even when they knew they were having twins."
"Maybe it's because they're both stubborn," Mara said. "I'm hungry."
"What'll it be this time?" Luke asked, a light playful tone, "Hopefully not that spiceloaf chocolate fruit combination you had last night."
"I can't help it if your child is giving me weird cravings," Mara had protested with a laugh.
"Reyna," Mara whispered. The Force had given her the answer. She felt the woman's Force presence, and while she was not trained, not much at least, Mara could practically taste Rey's power within the Force.
"Looks like we won't be needing those explosives after all," Han said, jabbing a thumb at the window. Finn followed his thumb and saw Rey climbing up the wall, making her way towards the hanger. He knew just where they could cut her off. The grin that split the former stormtrooper's face was from ear to ear. One because he had found Rey, and two, perhaps the more important of the two reasons, was that he didn't have to go charging into the detention block, even if the plan involved a Jedi protecting him.
The New Force Awakens
To say that Rey was stressed was putting it mildly. All of her senses were on alert, trying to ensure that no stormtrooper patrol caught her by surprise. She felt a prickle on the back of her neck and she ducked into a dark alcove as another door opened, allowing a quartet of troopers to pass without seeing her. The Jakku scavenger didn't know how these prickles were warning her. It was probably the same power that had allowed her into Kylo Ren's mind. The Force was guiding her, though how she did not know. Regardless, she had to keep moving. As soon as the troopers were out of sight, Rey was on the move again. Perhaps it was the Force once again, but she was very lucky she didn't have her finger on the trigger when the familiar face of Han Solo appeared around the corner. She raised the stormtrooper blaster and lowered it just as quickly, narrowly avoiding accidentally shooting the legendary smuggler. The roar of Chewbacca assured her that it was not a stress-induced hallucination.
"Are you alright?" Han asked as he gently pushed Rey's blaster away from his body.
Rey took a couple of deep breaths, trying to relax a little, as much as she could relax on this crazy base. "Yeah."
"Good," came the simple response before Han took up a sentry post by the corridor she had just left in order to allow an emotional reunion.
Finn was the next one to register in Rey's vision as he came up to her, grabbing her by the shoulders gently, looking her over for injuries. "What happened to you? Did he hurt you?"
"Finn, what are you doing here?" Rey finally managed to get that burning question out.
"We came back for you!" Finn explained.
"He wasn't going to let us leave without you," Kat remarked from the Wookie's side, to which the Wookie roared an agreement.
Rey peered curiously at this newcomer in silver and black. Perhaps a member of the Resistance? "Who are you?" Then an older woman with flaming red hair stepped forward, apparently covering the rear and Rey suddenly had a pounding headache. Her face contorted in pain. "Ow!"
"Rey!" Finn exclaimed, concern on his features. "What's wrong?"
"Master?" Katerina asked slowly, watching this odd turn of events.
"Rey," Mara said carefully, projecting a soothing aura in the Force. She felt the pain of this young woman and she felt the echoes of her husband within that. Obviously the Luke in this dimension had done something to this woman, and Mara extended her reach out to remove that pain. She felt a lump on Rey's Force presence, as if it were a barrier of some sort. While it was too strong for her to remove, even with the familiarity of her husband's Force presence, Mara was able to remove the pain it was causing her. Apparently seeing Mara had triggered something within Rey. "It's alright."
Rey stepped back, looking at Mara with a healthy fear on her face. "Who are you?!" Those green eyes seemed so familiar to her. It was there, at the edge of her memory, but she couldn't figure out why it felt so familiar.
Mara took a deep breath. There was no point in overwhelming this young woman, who looked painfully malnourished and stressed out. Given the circumstances, it would be best to keep the rescued as calm as possible after their recent capture, and while Mara had no doubt that Rey was capable, there was only so much one could take. The Jedi Master decided to give as much as she could, while simultaneously giving as little as possible. "My name is Mara Jade Skywalker."
Confusion replaced fear on Rey's face. "Skywalker? Then you're related to-"
"Luke Skywalker, yes," Mara finished. "It's a long story, one we don't have time to explain. We need to get off this Force-forsaken rock."
"The coast is clear," Han told everyone, "let's get out of here!"
"I promise I will tell you everything when we're safe," Mara told Rey, whose face held so many questions.
"I'll hold you to that," Rey said simply, looking at Finn, who shrugged. He had no clue where to begin. The group darted across the hall, back to where they had first entered.
Katerina sighed as Chewie handed her the fur jacket she had worn earlier. "Back into the cold." Chewbacca chuffed a few times humorously as he picked up Han's coat and passed it along to him, prompting Kat to continue, "Yeah yeah, you have your own fur coat, I get it." The Wookie rumbled another laugh, enjoying teasing his new friend.
Starkiller Base Exterior Skies
"You got one on your tail! Watch out!"
"I can't shake him!"
"I'm coming in for an attack run!"
"I'm hit!" Another X-Wing came apart. While Black Squadron was individually more than a match for the TIE fighters, there were just so many of them. That, coupled with the ground fire meant that Black Squadron was slowly taking casualties.
"There's too many of them!"
Poe's voice came over the comms, even as he wiped out another small squad of TIEs. "As long as there's light, we still got a chance!" The crazy actions of their leader was an inspiration to the pilots of Black Squadron, but even with their inspired efforts, it was only a matter of time before the sheer numbers overwhelmed them.
Starkiller Base Exterior Ground
They emerged from the base and were halfway across the wide snowfield on their way back to the woods when Mara stopped, which effectively stopped the group from advancing. About twenty yards ahead, a TIE fighter came crashing to the ground, having been shot down in the dogfight raging above them. Mara looked at the fight raging above the oscillator, a couple hundred yards away from their position. It looked grim.
Han voiced her thoughts aloud. "They're in trouble." He was having the same thoughts and he glanced at the bag of explosives Finn had carried with him the entire time. "It'd be a shame not to use those explosives we brought."
"How're we going to get in?" Mara asked, eyeing the oscillator in the distance. "No doubt they got the place looked up tight."
"You worked here kid," Han said, though there was a dismissive tone to it. "Even a sanitation worker ought to know how to get in."
Finn thought back to his long days of training, preparing for any kind of scenario. There had even been a recreation of the escape on the first Death Star, one where the escapees were rounded up rather quickly. It helped that they knew where they were going, but even so, Finn knew that the First Order wasn't going to let anything crazy like that happen again. And yet, here they were planning to break into the oscillator, a scenario they had once planned against a few years prior. He recalled a general plan they had come up with in the planning session of such an invasion, but they had discarded it as too high risk. "Well, the main entrance is where we can get the best results with the explosives, since it leads right into the heart of the oscillator, but that's sealed up as soon as the first signs of X-Wings appeared."
"I'd rather not use the explosives just blowing a door open," Han said, "You have a back door in?"
"Sort of," Finn admitted, "There's a power regulator that if removed will trigger the emergency release of the blast doors, which won't set off any alarms like if you tried to cut through with a lightsaber or blow the doors open."
"I'll be able to find it no problem," Rey offered, nodding at Finn, "So long as Finn points me to the right cluster."
"So where is it?" Mara felt her pouch, where she had a special explosive concocted by Aves. She had hoped she would never need to use it, but if ever a time called for it, this was probably it.
"Around the far side," Finn admitted. "The door will remain open for about ten minutes, so we don't have much time."
"That'll be plenty of time," Mara said reassuringly. "We'll split up. Han, Chewie and I will take the explosives and place them on the inside. Kat, you go with Rey and Finn to the power regulator." Katerina nodded an affirmative while Mara directed her gaze at Finn. "How long of a walk will it be Finn?"
"Over an hour," Finn admitted. The oscillator was bigger than it appeared from this distance. "But there's a speeder station not too far from the main entrance. We can swipe a speeder and be there within ten minutes." He glanced up at the darkening skies. "And it doesn't look like we have that much time." Everyone looked skywards, seeing the energy streaming from the sun towards the horizon. It was a grim reminder that the very ground they stood on held the power to wipe out so many lives.
"Well," Han said solemnly. "No point in standing around. We got our jobs to do, let's do them."
"Take care of them Kat," Mara told her former apprentice. "This is the easier job, but that doesn't make it any less crucial. Remember your training and trust your instincts."
"Yes Master," Kat said with a nod, fighting back a shiver under that bulky coat. "May the Force be with y-you."
Mara smiled at her shivering young Jedi. "And remind me to teach you that heat retention technique when we get back to base."
"W-will do Master," Kat said before motioning for Finn to lead the way. "Let's go." The three younger members of the group jogged off.
Mara turned to see Han and Chewbacca jogging towards the entrance to the oscillator. Chewbacca turned and roared at Mara, who couldn't help but smile as she shook her head. "Yeah yeah Chewie, I'm coming."
Ileenium System, Planet D'Qar, Resistance Base
"General, we've just lost two more X-Wings," Lieutenant Connix reported from her station.
"That's half our fleet destroyed," Admiral Ackbar noted.
"And worse still, our scans show that their weapon will be fully charged in fifteen minutes!" Threepio announced, red arm waving at the display for emphasis. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one. It'd take a miracle." Leia just stared at her own monitor. She had been in this scenario once before, over thirty-three years ago, and it had indeed been a miracle that had destroyed the first Death Star. She just hoped that they'd be able to pull off a second miracle. The Force had to be with Mara and Han.
Dannard listened to the readouts from the technicians and watched the battle being played out in front of him. It was grim, and he had to force down anger at his feeling of helplessness. He was a warrior at heart, and it drove him nuts not being in on the action, even though the throbbing in his shoulder reminded him why he stayed behind. "Come on Master, don't let us down. I'm counting on you, you and Kat." He thought about his best friend, how far they'd come, and what trials they were going to have to face in this new dimension. At the very least, he wanted to spend them together. "May the Force be with you Kat."
Starkiller Base
Mara sensed about five guards near the entrance. She relayed the info to the two smugglers behind her and began to concentrate. This would reduce the risk to her party, as while she could defend herself from nearly anything, you never knew when a stray blaster bolt could ricochet at an awkward angle. It would be a sad tale to go join the Force in an accident. The door whizzed open and Mara stopped thinking about odd ways to die and unleashed the Force wave she'd been gathering, knocking all five Stormtroopers off their feet. After that, it was easy pickings for Han and Chewbacca as they shot each trooper. The last one had gotten to his feet and fired in their direction before Chewie's bowcaster launched the unfortunate trooper off his feet, the power of the bolt slamming him into the back wall. Mara deflected that desperate shot harmlessly into the wall. She extinguished her blade and took stock of the little room they were in. It was a simple room, one meant to keep the chilling cold out.
"You've made some serious upgrades to that thing," Mara commented to Chewbacca as the Wookiee came out from his cover. Chewbacca groaned an explanation.
"Highly charged Tibanna gas?" Mara asked, raising an eyebrow. "That can't be legal."
"The New Republic's had other things to worry about than ammo used by smugglers," Han pointed out. "They cared more about bringing old Separatist planets back into the fold."
Mara shook her head. "Out of all the tasks the New Republic had to focus on, regaining Outer Rim territories does not seem like it should be that high a priority."
Han simply shrugged. "I'm not a politician, the hell do I know?"
Starkiller Base Exterior, Speeder Station
"Four guards," Finn noted as he peered around the rocky outcropping. "It'll be hard to take a speeder without being spotted."
Katerina closed her eyes, reaching out with the Force. "There's two more right b-by the entrance."
"You really don't like the cold, do you?" Finn asked, past the point of questioning the powers of a Jedi. He just accepted the fact that there were six guards to possible have to contend with. He glanced back at Rey, who was wearing the jacket that had been given to him by Poe. She didn't seem to be enjoying the cold, but at the same time, her fascination with this relatively new sensation as well as the snow she was seeing for the first time seemed to take away from the fact that she was cold. "You holding up Rey?"
The Jakku scavenger glanced up at Finn, looking away from the palmful of snow that was slowly melting in her hand. She'd heard tales about this substance from the occasional offworld traveler, as few of those that did visit Jakku. "Yeah, fine." Her resolve hardened. "I can hotwire the speeder easily enough, I just need some time."
"Alright, then I'll distract the troopers," Kat said simply, glancing between the two. "Rey, you and Finn will grab the speeder. As soon as you're ready to go, signal me and I'll hop on."
"What signal?" Finn asked.
"You'll know," Kat said with a smirk. She shed her bulky coat, rubbing her bare arms to rid them of the goosebumps that had popped up almost immediately. "It'll only be a moment." She shed the bulky fur coat and began to stride towards the stormtroopers.
"What is she doing?" Rey asked incredulously. She watched the young Jedi approach the troopers, who were too busy chatting to notice her slip out of cover. Kat adjusted the lightsaber on her belt so that it was on the back of her belt, out of sight of the troopers.
"I know we're pressed for time, but she can't seriously think that suicide will help us," Finn said, equally skeptical. They watched as Katerina got within fifteen yards of the troopers before one of them noticed her and pointed. All four of them raised their blasters, but to Finn's amazement, Kat waved her hand dismissively as she approached the stormtroopers.
"Put those down, I'm here for a speeder," she said with an air of command. Mara had told her the story of how she had barely managed to survive Grand Admiral Thrawn's campaign by putting on the air of one who belonged there when the Imperials had gotten the jump on her. Granted, she couldn't exactly claim she was the Emperor's Hand, but Kat was trying to emulate what Mara had told her during training now. "I'm here on the general's orders." The fact that she hadn't been shot yet was a good sign.
The trooper, needless to say, was skeptical. "Let me see your identification."
The young Jedi rolled her eyes, reinforcing the idea that she belonged there in both the physical realm and the gentle Force nudge she was giving the lead trooper. Splitting her attention between the physical acting and the Force nudging, she wasn't able to nudge the other troopers minds like she would have preferred, but Kat decided to gamble on the fact that the trooper with the command insignia on his right shoulder was the only one she had to convince. "We've been over this," she said with a huff, waving her hand in his face. "You don't need to see my identification."
The trooper hesitated, his next sentence coming out rather stiffly. "I don't need to see your identification."
The young Jedi didn't let up. She waved her hand again, trying to make it appear casual. "You'll let me take the speeder to the general."
"I'll let you take the speeder to the general," the trooper commander echoed, lowering his blaster. He motioned to the other three troopers to lower their weapons as well.
One of the troopers started the motion, but then he brought it back up as the realization hit him. "She's using a Jedi mind trick! Blast her!" He fired at Kat, who dove to the side, narrowing avoiding the shot.
"Stang," she cursed simply as she felt her mental grip over the leader slip away. So close, and yet so far. She cast a mental glance back in the split second she had before the rest of the troopers began to fire on her. Rey and Finn were at the speeder they needed, she could sense Rey's intense concentration as the scavenger focused on overriding the speeder controls as well as Finn's fear as they brought their weapons to bear on her. She reached for her lightsaber with her left hand and her right hand dipped into a small pouch on her right hip. The young Jedi leaped into the air, high over the first few shots, and spun. In one smooth motion, she ignited her lightsaber, the purple blade deflecting the next shot that threatened to hit her body, and flung her secret weapon with her right hand. With a flash of silver, one of the troopers went down, clutching at his throat. Blood dripped from his hands onto his armor as the trooper went down.
"Don't let her get away!" another trooper shouted as he grabbed the stun baton off his belt, activating it and charging at Katerina as she landed on the ground, lightsaber in a guard position. Kat blocked the first two swings from the trooper, who had unwittingly placed himself in the path of his comrades. The third swing of the stun baton was sidestepped as Kat brought her purple blade down, severing the trooper's arms at the elbow. Ignoring the scream of the disarmed trooper, she spun and blocked the next two shots. There was a brief pause in the action as the speeder revved up. Obviously Rey had finished hotwiring the speeder. The commanding stormtrooper realized just how much trouble he was in now.
"Stop them!" came the shout of yet another stormtrooper, this one coming from the entrance. The two that had been inside had heard the commotion and came out guns blazing. Kat deflected several more shots, backing up as fast as she could in the snow.
"Come on!" Finn shouted as he fired his own blaster back at the troopers, forcing them to dive for cover. With that reprieve Kat leaped onto the back of the speeder, landing next to Finn, extinguishing her blade to avoid any accidental cuts. The former stormtrooper turned to shouted at Rey. "Go! Go!" With a loud roar of the repulsorlifts and a confident Rey at the controls, the speeder shot off like it had been launched from a magnetic accelerator.
"That could've gone better," Kat grumbled as she used the Force to keep her attached to the speeder. It was only built for two, and with Rey and Finn taking the two designed seats, she was resorting to perching herself awkwardly on the back left side of Finn's seat.
"What did you hit that trooper with?" Finn asked her, shouting over the rushing wind.
"One of these," Kat answered simply, pulling out a silver throwing star out of her pouch and holding it up for Finn to see. "These things help me and Dan survive the Vong war on Coruscant. It's why Kolir called me the Silver Star when we were training together." A blaster shot crashed into a tree nearby, stalling any further conversation.
"Can we outrun them?" Rey called back to Finn, not daring to look back as she sped through the trees.
"No time!" Finn shouted, seeing three speeders hot on their tail. He began to fire back at them, though the armor on the front of the speeders proved more than a match for the light weaponry. "We gotta open the door for Han and the others! Head around the oscillator"
"We'll hold them off, you focus on driving," Kat commanded, swiveling around in her seat and igniting her lightsaber. "Finn, aim at the drivers. That'll stop them." With that word of advice, the Knight focused on deflecting the incoming speeder fire away from their vulnerable engines. She trusted Finn to make the needed shots.
To his credit, Finn was starting to get used to these sorts of scenarios. First it was the hijacking of the TIE Fighter when he was helping Poe escape, then it was the crazy ride in the Millennium Falcon back on Jakku followed by the wild battle of Takodana, he was becoming an old hand at shooting on the run. It was still an adjustment, getting used to the ebbs and flows of the speeder. While he knew how to drive such a speeder thanks to his First Order training, he hadn't yet received training on the gunner position. Several of his initial shots were wide of the mark, especially as Rey made several jukes and turns to evade the incoming fire. He flinched as some of the return fire came a little close to him, but any bolt that had a chance of hitting him was deflected by the purple blade of Katerina. Realizing he had what amounted to a blast shield protecting him, Finn relaxed ever so slightly, taking a deep breath before squeezing the trigger. The line of blaster fire caught the driver of the lead speeder in the helmet, killing him and causing that speeder to crash in the ground.
"Nice shot!" Kat shouted as she watched the other two speeders avoid the crash and come at them with a renewed intensity. "Keep it up!" The incoming fire was so intense that she had to wrap her left arm around the back of Finn's seat in order to keep herself stable as Kat opened herself up to the Force more, using it less in keeping herself on the speeder and more on deflecting the incoming shots. Finn kept up the fire, even as the speeders weaved in and out of each other, throwing off Finn's aim just enough. He glanced up at the sky, seeing how dark it was getting, and knew they had to end this quickly. The former stormtrooper stopped firing for a few seconds, trying to get the timing of the pattern down. He knew it well enough, having been trained in such a pattern, and it took careful timing to take down. Without Finn's cover fire, the enemy troopers were intensifying their own shots.
"Anytime now Finn!" Kat called, strain in her voice. A few blaster bolts pinged off the side armor of the speeder as if to emphasize her point. Finn was mentally counting down the timing, aiming carefully with the blaster. One pass, two pass, and then it was time. Finn let loose with the blaster, catching the second speeder's driver in the chest. That speeder spun out of control and the tail end caught the third speeder, sending it spinning into a tree. With twin explosions, they were free of pursuers. Finn's stomach lurched as Rey guided the speeder through a close grove of trees.
"We're clear!" he shouted triumphantly, which prompted Rey to slow down to a much less hectic pace. "Nice driving!"
"Nice shooting!" she shot back. She glanced up at Kat, who had extinguished her lightsaber as soon as the last speeder chasing them crashed. "Thanks for keeping us safe."
Katerina shrugged, though it looked more like a shiver to the casual observer as the cold wind bit at her now exposed shoulders. "Just doing my job. Now let's get Master Mara and Captain Solo inside!"
Finn nodded as he turned back around. Their mission wasn't done yet just because they'd survived one misadventure. "We aren't far now. Head that way!"
Starkiller Base Maintenance Tunnel
After the hair-raising speeder chase, it seemed almost too easy as the door slid open at their destination. Katerina took up a guard position at the entrance while Finn and Rey practically dove into the cluster of wires and regulators in front of them. Finn looked at all the parts in front of him, painfully lost amidst all the technology. Rey however, knew exactly what she was looking for and it took a few seconds of scanning before she saw it and yanked it out with a few tugs.
Starkiller Base Entrance
Han grinned when the blast doors slid open with a quiet hiss. No alarms, no ceremony, just a smooth opening. "That girl sure knows her stuff," he commented as he grabbed his sack of explosives. While they had been waiting for the younger members of their group to release the doors, they had divided the explosives amongst themselves and were ready to split up in order to spread their explosives as widely as possible. Chewbacca grunted an agreement as they entered the heart of the oscillator.
Mara paused as she felt a tremor in the Force. This one was a warning. Something dark and powerful was coming this way, and he had some training in the Force. It wasn't on the scale of Vader, but it was more than enough to be a threat. "Aye, and we better hurry. The less time we spend here, the better." The narrow corridor they were running down opened up into a huge cavern. Power regulators supersized for such a superweapon ran up every wall, catwalks allowing access to each part of the oscillator for maintenance.
Han nodded. "Chewie can take the top, I'll head down below." He handed his old friend a small device. "There's the detonator. We'll meet up back here once all the charges are set." Chewbacca rumbled a Wookiee good luck phrase and set off.
"Be careful Han," Mara warned, "I've got a bad feeling about this."
"It's me," Han retorted with that famous Solo grin of his.
Things are going to get very interesting next chapter. Mara has met one new member of the Skywalker family (in my opinion. You are welcome to disagree, but I am a firm supporter of the Rey Skywalker theory), she'll get to meet the other one next chapter, and oooo boy you do NOT want to miss it! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Response to Guest Reviews (in order with which they reviewed)
Denz-El (1): It's a pity you don't write out these awesome ideas of yours. Sending the cast from the Disneyverse into the EU is another fascinating possibility that could be explored very well if done by the right author. Your idea for Mara in this new canon is also a fun idea to think about, though I will leave that up to another author to write.
Denz-El (2): I was wondering if anyone was going to pick up on the Back to the Future reference, lol. I love your fancasting ideas as well. It isn't often someone comes to me with a fancast for my OC's, but your picks are damn near perfect.
Denz-El (3): Yeah, I got meta with Connix, hehe, and yes, I found out about the actual name of the system after I'd posted several chapters about the Resistance Base. I was going off of what I heard in the theater, so yeah. Perhaps my ear isn't as good as the others.
Denz-El (4): I couldn't resist that little homage to the prequels. People give them crap, unnecessarily at times too, but I enjoyed the prequels. I didn't let the nostalgia goggles fog my vision. Threepio was built by Anakin, whether people want to accept that or not. As talented as a 9-year-old was, I want to believe he had some fun with the programming as well. As for Mara's age, well, I'm just going off her being the relatively same age as Luke, so that would put her around 28 when she first appeared in Heir to the Empire and around her early-to-mid-fifties by the events of Betrayal in the Legacy of the Force series, which is when I decided to pluck her out of the EU and place her in TFA. Hope that helps. I know she wouldn't exactly be young anymore, but she's still able to kick some ass, being a Jedi Master and all that.
Denz-El (9): I didn't really see enough from Phasma in the film to really get a feel for her character. I don't know what to make of her. She didn't live up to the hype that they made for the Chrome-trooper, lol. Perhaps that'll change in 8, but for now, I'm just going to stick with the movie/book version that I know about. I'm glad you decided to follow my story, and I'm glad you're enjoying it. God bless my friend, and I hope to hear from you in future chapters!
Guest: Well, the Force is very complicated, especially when in regards to light vs dark side. You will see my interpretation of how these events will play out next chapter. It's complicated, but I hope to capture that feel of Star Wars we all know and love.
CG: Aye, the Jedi Order has been around for quite a long time. And then Bane comes around and sows the seeds that nearly wipes it out with the Clone Wars conducted by Palpatine. So I hope that in the end, the Jedi Order can be rebuilt, as the galaxy is just a better place with more Jedi running around. I'd hate to see all the work that Yoda and Obi-Wan did ultimately go to waste.
CG: A pity, really. Though I'm seeing several efforts to recanonize Old Republic material in the Clone Wars (Bane) and Rebels (Malachor, with a possible Revan mention coming in Season 3), there's a lot of good work being thrown by the wayside. And man, I really hope those leaked details were fakes. Reincarnation is not the way they need to go. Sigh…well, there's always fanfiction I guess. And speaking of Season 3, well, your next review, I can't wait to see what Rebels does. Should be fun. Until the next chapter my friend!
Guest: Aye, though some might argue that's just Sith armor in general. Vader's armor was designed for intimidation, which is probably why most Sith armor designed afterwards similarly. I see where you're coming from though.
Guest: I will never abandon a story. Never! Too many authors do that. I don't want to be among their number. I want to finish what I start. So long as I have the support of youse guys, I'll keep on writing, though school, work, and life in general.
Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Please leave a review, as I welcome any and all constructive criticism. As an author, I'm always looking to improve. Until the next chapter my friends!
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From your Nutty Buddy,
The Eagle Nut