Chapter Two of Ten

BRIDGE OF THE SUN CRUISER

Warden Exi has returned to the bridge and has finished summarizing the events to Commander Bearin. Warden Exivy is sitting within earshot working at a terminal.

Commander Bearin: "The problem is that the life pods fired earlier could be a diversion. They could have done anything with the nav-computer as soon as they reached the Outer Rim; including hidden it somewhere on the freighter."

Warden Exi: "Man talk."

Commander Bearin: "Then are we to wait here until he does?"

Warden Exivy stands up from her computer and comes over to join the conversation. Commander Bearin looks uncomfortable at her approach.

Warden Exivy: "No, drop the freighter and destroy it with a sun flare."

Commander Bearin: (shocked stutter) "A sun flare!" (determined) "We are in Imperial space. To be without our main weapon for a fourth of a cycle is is…is."

Warden Exi: (hint of humor) "Madness" (he looks at Warden Exivy) "Explain reasons."

Warden Exivy: "The imperials—whether a full battle ship or a simple scouting vessel-will be here soon. Any battle will only draw imperial reinforcements."

Commander Bearin: (condescending) "I'm not worried about having to knock out more Imperials."

Warden Exivy: (looks directly at the Commander Bearin) "You misunderstand Commander. I am not suggesting we flee to spare lives on both sides." (pause) "What is our main objective?"

Commander Bearin: "Retrieving the stolen nav-computer."

Warden Exivy: "Precisely. Staying here to fight would be the same as you broadcasting our main objective to all Imperial forces nearby. It would be like asking them to stop us."

Commander Bearin: (a tad more humble than earlier, but still haughty) "That's reason to leave, but the resources of the First Order are limited. Why destroy a precious freighter?"

Warden Exivy: "To reach our objective. The Imperials will arrive to find no sign of us save for the wreckage of the freighter. They will think we have achieved our objective and left, so they too will leave. Then we will be free to return and find what we seek without interference."

Warden Exi: "Cunning. Fools leave tricked-we return victorious."

Commander Bearin: (to Warden Exivy) "Forgive me Warden. I was foolish. Your plan is wise."

Warden Exivy: "There is nothing to forgive. You sought only to meet the objective even if it meant risking your life in battle. Your words prove your dedication to the Order."

Commander Bearin: "Thank you Warden. I'm honored by your words." (pause) "If I may, why a sun flare when we could blast the ship apart?"

Warden Exivy: "On the small chance that they have hidden the computer on the ship, a flare would certainly destroy it. Also, the use of our main weapon will further convince the imperials that there is nothing here of interest to the First Order any longer."

Warden Exi: (to Commander Bearin) "Solid plan. Do it!"

Commander Bearin: "At your command Wardens." (he calls out to the crew) "Order the hanger bay crew to drop the freighter. Command central weapons to prep the sun flare."

The crew moves to follow his orders.

OUTER SPACE ABOVE JAKKU

The freighter is slowly pushed out of the hanger by a reverse tractor beam. Once the freighter is clear, the sun cruiser moves away as the freighter comes to a stop in dead space. The yellow zigzag lines begin to glow faintly and then fast bright pulses of light run down each zigzag from the bridge area towards on a point on the prow where they converge. As they converge, the prow shines brighter and brighter until it is almost as intense as a small sun. Suddenly a brilliant sphere of solid light with faint white rings around it shoots out from the prow. It hits the freighter and disappears. All seems calm for a moment. Then sparks ignite across the hull as dozens of small explosions across the ship tear the freighter apart as its own systems shatter from power overload. The sun cruiser turns back towards the Unknown Region and disappears into hyperspace.

A single flare can easily destroy a ship the size of the Millennial Falcon or potentially cripple a Star Destroyer. A flare can only be fired about once every six standard hours since it takes that much time for the generators to build up the power for the flare. A flare is not intense laser fire like the Death Star. Instead, it is a shot of excessive energy. (In other words, it is the opposite of an ion attack. If an ion attack is a blast of negative energy that cuts power, a flair is a blast of positive energy that injects power.) That means when a flair hits a shield, it passes straight through it (like how a wet hand can go through a bubble without popping it) and strikes the ship. Power systems near the strike are overloaded and explode. Based on where it strikes, a flair can take out weapons, artificial gravity, life support, computer terminal systems, safety controls, etc. The explosions caused by the flair result in even more damage to the ship. Ships the size of the Millennial Falcon are destroyed by dozens of their own systems exploding. Though large ships remain intact, they may or may not be crippled so badly (if the life support system is destroyed) that crews are forced to abandon them or they are useless in battle.

JAKKU

Jakku is a desert planet covered by sand as far as the eye can see. Almost half buried in the sand is a large imperial star destroyer from the early days of the empire. Sections of the ship are missing and blaster burns clearly show signs of a battle.

INSIDE WHAT WAS ONCE THE ENGINE ROOM OF AN IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER

Rey is slowly repelling down a long rope from the top of the destroyer into the structure.

Rey is a desert scavenger who finds valuable parts to sell at a local business in exchange for food rations. She was born elsewhere, but has lived on Jakku alone for over seven years. Before that, she lived on Jakku with her Uncle Prox for over four years with random rare long visits from her mom. Prior to that, she lived with her mom, dad, and Uncle Prox on a ship for as far back as she can remember.

Rey is dressed the same as in the movie.

She stops and pulls out a climbing anchor that has seven yards of cord that can be wound and unwound as needed. Rey pushed the anchor against the ship and it adheres itself to the structure. She then attaches the new anchor cord to her belt before detaching the previous anchor cord, which rewinds itself, before continuing to repel down. About ten feet down and still five stories from the ground, she stops again in front of what looks to be what is left of an old engine unit. Locking her harness in place, she takes out her tools and carefully removes several components and places them in her shoulder bag. Then she unlocks her harness and begins to climb back up the rope. About three feet up, her foot slips on a large loose ship part. The part falls the five stories to the ground. Rey reaches out a hand to brace herself against the wall. As her fingers touch, she has a force vision.

Two imperial soldiers are standing on the ship as it once was. One is a highly decorated human commander with gray hair (looks to be in his 70s) and the other is an adult male carrying a data pad (looks to be in his late 20s).

Adult Male: "How do you feel about your retirement sir?"

Elderly Male: (full of emotion) "It's the right time…but" (he reaches out and touches the exact same spot Rey touched "I'm going to miss this ship."

Rey snaps out of the vision to find herself falling upside down. (Her muscles relax when she has force visions.) She reaches to grab the rope attached to her harness, but the angle of her body as she falls upside down and the way the rope is flapping make it impossible to grasp. She falls. As she falls, her locket that she normally keeps under her clothing slips out and dangles by her ear. Suddenly, Rey's safety line she'd just anchored earlier catches her. The locket whacks against her left ear as Rey jerks into an upward position before her body slowly swings to a stop about ten feet from where she'd been. Rey grabs the safety line with both hands and clings to it for a moment before looking down to see the ship part five stories below her shattered on the ground. She carefully releases one hand and grabs the locket. Flicking it open, she touches the button that turns on the holo-projector. The device projects a photo into the air like how the image of Ezra's family is projected in Star Wars Rebels in season one. The photo shows a slender woman with short platinum blond hair wearing a Rebel Alliance officer's jacket over a dark outfit is holding a six year old Rey warmly in her arms. The woman is looking at Rey and smiling. Six year old Rey's attention is focused on something off screen and away from the camera. Rey's hand is outreached towards the unknown object and she has a big smile on her face.

Rey looks at the picture and smiles gently. She then turns off the holo-projector and tucks the locket back under her clothing. The locket settles right at her collar bone. Then taking a firm grip on the line, she begins climbing.

Rey's necklace is round two-inch diameter holo-locket. The front is slightly humped and the back is flat. The front of the holo-locket is dusty black and the back is tarnished gold. On the front are engraved silver and red lines that run from the edge to the center. At the center, is a small clear bead like a marble embedded into the holo-locket. When opened, the bead projects the images inside the locket's memory chip. Printed in red on the back of the holo-locket is a symbol of a stylized rising phoenix—aka: The symbol of the rebellion in episode IV A New Hope.

Rey wears the holo-locket under her clothing to keep it safe.

INTERROGATION AREA FOYER ON BOARD THE SUN CRUISER

Warden Exi and Warden Exivy enter the foyer of the interrogation area. There is a half circle desk with two guards behind it. Off to the right side of the desk is a heavy closed blaster proof door that leads to the interrogations cells. As the Wardens enter, one of the guards at the computer console stands up and hold out a voice analyzer to Warden Exi.

Guard A: "If you please Wardens."

Warden Exi picks up the microphone attached to the voice analyzer data pad and speaks directly into it: "I Warden Exi. Recognition code 39411."

A light on the analyzer flashes green. Warden Exi hands the analyzer to Warden Exivy.

Warden Exivy: "I am Warden Exivy. Recognition code 34989."

The indicator flashes green and Warden Exivy hands the analyzer back to the guard. The other guard enters his command code into the computer and the security door opens. He shows both Wardens a code on a datapad. They nod once they've memorized it. Then Warden Exi and Warden Exivy walk through and it closes behind them.

HALLWAYS OF THE INTERROGATION AREA

Like the rest of the ship, the hallway is gray. There are four doors on each side or eight total interrogation rooms. The hallway stops at a dead end after the last two interrogation rooms. Standing in front of an open doorway to the second to last interrogation room on the left is a man dressed almost entirely in red.

Colors show profession. A red stripe on the pants shows a highly focused skill such as interrogation, language interpretations, intelligence, etc. A green stripe shows services such as cleaning and cooking. A light blue stripe shows medical. A dark blue stripe shows computer engineering or IT skills. A yellow stripe is a pilot. An orange stripe shows combat troops such as the ones who handle battle operations (firing the ship's cannons) inside the ship or ground troops that operate without armor. An orange stripe is also what the off duty armored troops wear around the ship. Ground troopers do not have a colored stripe since they are recognized by their armor. If the individual is only wearing a color—and not a gray uniform with a colored stripe on the pants—he or she is a civilian hired by the military for his or her excellent skills. (Ranking in the military is shown through white or black stripes on the uniform.) Civilians hired by the military have a bit more freedom regarding whose orders they have to follow based on where their skill puts them, but even they must obey the orders of someone wearing white. Note: There are very, very few civilians working with the military. One has to be extremely skilled to work with the military without joining it.

The Wardens approach the man who is standing slightly slouched. Poe is unconscious in the background strapped to an interrogation table in a circular well lit room.

Warden Exi: "Well?."

Interrogator: (gleefully and a bit mad) "I have it. It took days to get what you wanted, but I managed it. He didn't want to tell me, but I was oh so careful in my persuasion. He's so stubborn. Oh the fun I'll have getting him to spill everything else. Once he recovers of course. Torture is a precise art of pain and recovery."

Warden Exi: (edge of impatience) "Information?"

Interrogator: "He hid it in a droid, so clever. But I'm more clever. A BB model droid that he deactivated to trick your scans. How delightful. Now it's wandering around the desert looking for help poor little thing."

The interrogator laughs at the delightful though of more suffering and then goes off to find a guard.

Warden Exivy: "Impressive….most impressive. If he had perished like the woman, our mission would have failed."

Warden Exi: "She wieldier. Their kind deserve only death."

Warden Exivy: (with conviction) "She was a talent yet to be discovered."

Warden Exi: (no remorse) "No matter, she dead."

Warden Exivy: (with sadness) "Yes, she is dead."

Silence

Two guards appear and after saluting the Wardens, they free Poe from the interrogation table and carry him out of the room.

Both wardens calmly watch.

Warden Exivy: "Our contact on Jakku said that the imperials have come and gone. That alone is proof that the droid did not reactivate in time to contact them. We have the vectors of all the escape pods. The droid can't have gone far."

Warden Exi: "Blockade planet. Use jamming net. Trap droid and all communications. Move full force. I arrange troops."

Warden Exivy: "Very well. I will return to the bridge and instruct the contact."

She walks towards the barred door. There is a keypad next to it. She enters the code given by the guard before she entered. The door opens.

INTERROGATION AREA FOYER ON BOARD THE SUN CRUISER

It shuts right after she passes through the doorway. She doesn't even glance at the guards as she exits the interrogation foyer.

All secure areas require identification before entrance and a code to exit. Codes are given as one enters and are changed hourly.

HALLWAYS OF THE INTERROGATION AREA

Warden Exi activates his comlink in his helmet.

Male Voice on the comlink: "Warden."

Warden Exi: "Commander, prep troops. We hunt."

JAKKU

BB-8 is rolling as fast as he can across the sand. The heat and sand have scrapped off most of the thin layer of grey paint. He bumps into Ray who is still wearing the bag with the salvage parts she took from the Star Destroyer earlier. She has a long bow staff that she's currently using as a walking stick. When BB-8 her bumps into her, she quickly spins around and slides smoothly into a fighter's stance with her bow staff at the ready. Rey relaxes slightly when she sees BB-8 who begins to frantically beep and hum

Rey: "Slow down. I can't understand when you go that fast."

BB-8 slows his mad twittering and beeping only slightly

Rey: "You need to find an imperial agent on Jakku?" (She takes a step towards BB-8)

BB-8 rolls away and twitters anxiously

Rey: (in a mildly irate tone) "You bumped into me. Remember. And I know of no imperial agents here. This is nowhere. Nobody cares about Jakku and most of the people who live here would love to get off of this dust ball." (She turns to walk away)

BB-8 beeps an offer

Rey: "I said most people would love to leave. I'm not one of them."

She walks off leaving BB-8. He rolls back and forth uncertain before rolling after her beeping that getting off planet it vital

Rey (disbelieving as she keeps walking away) "And what could be so important that it's vital to the galaxy for you to get off Jakku?

BB-8 stops rolling and projects an image of Poe and Marae and twitters that they are family.

Rey freezes: "Your family?"

She turns to study the image: "You're separated from them?"

BB-8 beeps an affirmative.

Rey reaches up and lightly touches a point near her neck where there is a slight bulge from the necklace underneath: (softly) "I know what it's like to be separated from family." (firmly) "Okay, I'll help you. There's a market nearby, we'll start there."

She turns back the directions she had been walking and motions BB-8 to follow.

ON BOARD THE SUN CRUISER

A weakened and now conscious Poe is being half carried half dragged towards the detention center. His arms are wrapped around the shoulders of two unarmored troopers: Troopers C and D. Poe's head seems to be rolling aimlessly from one direction to another. The trio enter a turbolift and one guard keys it for non-stop to the detention center. Poe watches him do this—a glint in his eyes.

Poe: (to the troopers rambling) "So I get the whole gray for low ranks, white above, and black on top, but why is everything in the ship gray? The walls are grey, the blankets are grey—bantha feathers! I bet even the food is grey. Your supreme leader needs to visit Coruscant. Unrefined sludge has better taste."

Trooper C looks at Trooper D, who gives a slight nod in response. Trooper C pushes Poe's arm off his shoulders as he turns to deck him. Poe appears too dazed to move until the last moment when he uses his weight and what little strength he has to pull Trooper D's head directly into the line of fire. Trooper C's punch hits Trooper D and sends him stumbling back hard enough to wallop his head against the back of the turbolift. His eyes roll up and he slumps to the ground unconscious. Poe who had pulled his arm free the moment Trooper C hit Trooper D puts up his fist to defend himself against Trooper C. Trooper C takes one step towards Poe when suddenly the turbolift jerks to a stop. Both men are thrown off their feet and the lights flicker off and on a couple of times. The lights flicker on and stay lit. Both men hasten to their feet, but Poe collapses while Trooper C approaches. A panel in the ceiling falls to the floor and lands near Trooper C. Suddenly, Trooper C goes ridged and then drops to the floor completely unconscious. A rope drops down and a dark skinned man in a gray uniform with a green stripe climbs down. Hanging from his belt is a small strange rod with a small orb on one end that is glowing faintly blue.

Poe: (in a confused tone) "wh"

Unknown helper: "Can you fly a scout ship?"

Poe: (still confused) "What?"

Unknown stranger: (As he helps Poe stand) "This is an escape and I'm rescuing you. Now can you fly a scout ship?"

Poe: (a little unsteady on his feet) "I can fly anything, but why are you helping me."

Unknown Stranger: "It's the right thing to do."

Pause as Poe looks at him.

Poe: "You don't know how to fly."

Unknown Stranger: "Basically yes…but I can get us to a ship. So, are you in?"

Poe looks at the two unconscious men at his feet: "Got nothing better to do. Let's do it."

Poe grabs onto the rope as the unknown stranger goes over to the control panel and slides and card into the system.

Poe: "What are you doing?"

Unknown Stranger: "I'm registering this turbolift as out of order due to a mechanical failure. They won't find these men for a while."

Poe: "You got a name stranger?"

FN-2187: "I'm FN-2187

Poe humphes but doesn't comment. He learns against the side of the turbolift while FN-2187 finishes the job. Once finished, FN-2187 motions for Poe to climb the rope. Poe does so with difficultly and FN-2187 follows.

PILOT READY ROOM

Poe is slowly finishing putting on a scout pilot flight suit. FN-2187 is behind him—also wearing a scout flight suit—heaving the second of two stunned men into a closet. Two flight helmets rest on the table.

Scout flight suits are long-sleeved grey jumpsuits with a yellow stripe. They are worn over the daily uniform.

Poe: "What's the plan?"

FN-2187: "An entire search party is being sent out to imperial space. We'll join as one of the crew. Once in imperial space, we'll fly away."

Poe: "We have to find BB-8 first."

FN-2187: "BB-8?"

Poe: "My friend. He's probably..."

An alarm cuts through their conversation. The two men grab the flight helmets, put them on, and rush out the door towards the hanger.

SUN CRUISER HANGER

Twelve groups of 24 beings each are standing at attention facing towards the back bulkhead. Behind them is the hanger bay exit and space. Two-thirds of them are fighter pilots, half of the other third is armored troopers, and the other half is scout pilots. Behind the troops are various ships such as fighters, scout ships, and troop transports. Suddenly a large rectangular section of the floor in front of everyone rises slightly off the ground. A woman wearing gray with three white stripes on her arms and an orange stripe on her pants steps onto the platform along with two technicians. She is the mission leader.

The mission leader is an adult human female.

All of them are wearing gray. The armored troopers are wearing gray armor with various silver or white marks of different sizes here and there. The pilots are wearing grey flight suits. All the pilots have a yellow stripe on their flight suit. The difference is that the fighter pilots are not wearing helmets since theirs hook directly into the ship's flight system while the scout pilots are already wearing their helmets.

Mission Leader: (to everyone assembled) "Troops of the First Order. Your objective is to find and bring back intact a Republican astromech BB-8 droid (one of the technicians shows an image) from what is—currently—Imperial space."

There's a light chuckle as the First Order Troops laugh at the joke.

Mission leader: "This mission must not come to the attention of the Empire. Flight squadron one and two will establish a jamming net around the entire planet. The scout unit will trace the droid from their assigned starting point. Ground Troopers will seize control of the only (scoffs as the diagram shows a pathetically tiny spaceport) spaceport and key markets. Fighter squadron one and two will provide support to the troopers and prevent any other ships from reaching orbit." (The technicians are showing diagrams of the planet being wrapped in a jamming net as well as the location of the main spaceport as the first leader talks.) "Order will prevail. Glory to the First Order!"

Since this mission is supposed to be low key, there are only 288 life forms going. Two flight squadrons with 48 life forms per squadron. Two fighter squadrons with 48 life forms per squad. One scout unit with 24 life forms. There's two life forms per ship, so 12 (the number of life pods) ships total. And 60 ground troopers.

Everyone: "Glory to the First Order!"

Mission leader: "You have your assignments. Move out!"

Everyone turns to their right, and then the first group of twelve (armored troopers) merges together to form a line. The other groups follow suit. Each line walks through a gray framed doorway (like a metal detector at an airport) before getting on their ships. Poe and FN-2187 also walk through and head towards the next available scout ship. The ramp closes behind them and the ship takes off after the others. It flies outside the ship and hooks onto the bottom of one of the large transport ships.

Scout ships look like imperial probe droids from Episode V, but the legs are folded up inside the ship unless they are being used to gather samples and the head is a clear dome. One person is responsible for flying and firing (if necessary) while the other devotes his or her entire attention to the scanners and probes. Since scout ships are designed to operate within a planet's system, they have no hyperdrive and poor internal artificial gravity generators.

First Order Fighters look like MOC's ship from season two of Lego Star Wars the Freemaker Adventures. The area that MOC used to imprison Rowan in episode one can house a second pilot or gunman or passenger or prisoner, jamming equipment, medical supplies, extra shielding generators, or whatever else is needed as needed. On this mission, the blockade ships would have long range high powered jamming equipment while the fighters wouldn't.

The transport ships and fighter ships take off into hyperspace.

AT A SMALL SUPPLY SHOPPING AREA ON JAKKU

Rey is standing in line with BB-8 at a shop that buys parts for food. Rey hands over the parts she found earlier in the destroyer to the alien store owner.

Store Owner: "These pieces are worth...let me see..one half portion."

Rey: "Last week, they were a half portion each."

Store Owner: "What about the droid?"

Rey: "What about him?"

Store Owner: "I'll pay for him." He puts a large number of portions on the counter. "60 portions."

Rey expresses shock and the others in line also murmur their amazement. Rey reaches almost eagerly for the portions and then stops. She turns and looks at BB-8. BB-8 twitters quietly.

Rey: "Actually, the droid's not for sale."

Rey grabs the half portion from the earlier sale.

Rey (to BB-8) "Come on." She leaves. BB-8 follows. The others watch with greedy eyes. Some fingering weapons.

OUTER SPACE/ATMOSPHERE ABOVE JAKKU

The transports exit hyperspace above Jakku. The transports and half the fighters head towards the surface of the planets. The other fighters break away to take up position around the planet for the jamming net.

ABOVE PLANET'S SURFACE

Once in the atmosphere, the transport ships halt and release the attached scout ships, which then take off in different directions each heading towards one of the escape pods.

INSIDE THE SCOUT SHIP COCKPIT

Poe has stripped off the flight suit and his jacket. His forehead is slick with sweat and his skin is pale. Tremors rack his body and his breathing is labored.

Poe: (half delirious) "FN-2187 ridiculous. I'm going to call you Finn. Alright?"

This is Finn's first time in a ship like this and the state of his pilot terrifies him.

Finn: (note of panic) "Sure, but shouldn't we land and find a ship off this planet?"

Poe: (unfocused and dazed tone) "Off this planet? Yeah, we need to find BB-8 and get off this planet." (He trails off at the end)

Poe passes out. His limp hands pull down on the flight controls sending the ship into a crazy climb straight up. The ship skyrockets into the air. Poe's jacket and flight suit hit and wrap around Finn. Poe's eyes open and he fumbles to correct the angle of the ship, but he pushes too hard and it flips the ship several times. Poe blacks out again and Finn screams in terror. Finn starts pushing buttons and accidentally turns off the ships thrusters. The ship slowly stops spinning and hangs in the air for a moment. Finn thinks for that moment that he's fixed the problem when the ship drops straight towards the ground.

Finn screams in terror and then starts to shout with the thought that shouting may help him find the eject button.

Finn: "Eject! Eject! Eject!"

The ship's emergency system responds. Both Poe and Finn are sucked seat and all into the under area of the ship where they are sealed into two small eject pods and shot out of the ship. Computerized thrusters slow their descent. The scout ship continues to fall and crashed onto the dessert floor. It explodes as both pods draw near. The explosion throws the pods several hundred feet away in different directions from the ship. Finn's pod hits the ground hard, bounces high into the air before hitting the ground again and rolling down a large sand dune into a deep crater. It comes to a stop at the bottom.