Rey could feel Ben's pulse growing stronger as she held his hand in hers. She pushed his dark, unruly hair out of his face.
The hall grew dim very abruptly; she looked around, unsure what was happening. It seemed something was blocking the sun.
No, she thought, it can't be...but of course, yes, Hux would have had a fail-safe in place for if anything went wrong. The First Order would not be thrown into disarray so easily.
She ran to a door left flung open after the exodus of the massive crowd. The enormous Star Destroyer loomed above her.
No doubt it was powering its weapons.
She frantically looked about at the city filled with innocent life. They deserved better than to become a pawn in this game of the First Order. Her anger raged at their hatred and carelessness. It was time for this to stop. If violence and aggression was the only language they understood than she was more than willing to comply.
In the distance, she could see a large field, a marshy area bearing only a small hutch that seemed to house livestock of some sort. It was her only hope.
"Just like floating rocks," she muttered, her eyes narrowed. She raised her hands toward the ship; her eye caught the light glinting off the ring. It still sat on her finger; she could feel it enhancing her connection to the Force already flowing through her. The ring focused and pulled the Force around her, the dark side blending with the light in a grey mix she couldn't distinguish exactly.
She directed every thought and intention inside her to reach for the Star Destroyer. She could feel it, sense it just out of her grasp, then closer, and closer still.
Captain Phasma stood aboard the Resurgent-class Star Destroyer bridge. The ship was in her command. All contact with First Order leadership on the surface had been lost. As of that moment, she was the acting Supreme Leader.
"Ready the ion cannons." She instructed the armory officer at post.
"Yes, ma'am," The officer answered, already tapping the order into system controls.
Phasma turned to the observation screen, the planet lay before them, the hall tucked into a city that was about to be destroyed. Riosa would look something like her own stricken planet in just a moment, Phasma mused.
"Captain," the officer at the helm called her, his voice was excited and nervous and grated on her nerves, "I've lost control of the thrusters."
"You what?" Phasma turned incredulously to face him.
"I have no active controls...everything just went...it's all dead now." He stammered.
Phasma typed in an override command into the console before her, there was no response.
Then every console on the bridge went dark.
"What's going on! Why have we lost power?" Phasma demanded to know.
Bewildered officers gaped back at her, unsure what to say.
The ship lurched to the side knocking several officers off their feet. Phasma held onto the console to steady herself.
"Do we have any instrumentation?" She asked.
"None, ma'am," A young woman answered as she scrambled back into her seat.
Phasma edged her way across the severely tilted bridge toward the window; the surface of Riosa appeared much larger and was quickly growing closer.
"How is this happening?" She whispered.
Rey struggled to control the Star Destroyer as the planet's gravity took a stronger hold of it, but it was important that she direct the ship to the field and away from the populated city. Her anger wanted to let it smash into pieces as it descended but she reminded herself of Finn, another unwilling participant in the First Order's plans and all the other kidnapped storm troopers aboard that Star Destroyer, brainwashed since childhood into believing they were in the side of the good. She cried in agony for a moment as she gave everything left inside her to direct a controlled decent of the vessel. The ship came to rest in the marsh, outside the city, without having fired a single laser blast.
Rey wanted to collapse there on the pavement beside the building but she desperately needed to see Ben. She needed to know he was alright.