101 Over Outer Space 101
Title Crawl
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
STAR
WARS
Episode VIII
ESCAPE FROM REN
Uncertainty possesses the galaxy.
The Empire and Republic are each
using their Death Stars to gain an
advantage in the war. Planets can
be destroyed instantly, and once
peaceful leaders struggle to
choose a side.
Finn and Rey train under Luke
Skywalker, both fighting the
Empire alongside Poe Dameron.
The trio has found themselves in
battle at the contested planet
Bezdize. The KRANNEK looms over
them, preparing to strike if our
heroes win the day...
.
102 Satellite Station In Orbit Around Bezdize 102
We pan down from the stars to see a distanced MDS Krannek, then the beautiful blue surface of Bezdize, dotted by violent flashes of red. Finally, in our foreground, we see a military satellite station floating in orbit. A blue-tinted spherical shield protects it. It has ten long arms where starships are parked. The shot rests on one of these arms. At the furthest tip sits The Eagle, along the arm are other ships, and at the end the entrance to the station. Things are still...
The arm's entrance explodes!
Seven Republic soldiers rush out with shots firing behind them. They find cover behind other parked ships. Throughout this scene, only four more people will emerge from the flaming doorway. First is Finn, bearing the same blue lightsaber Vilpus gave him. He wears a tight dark blue suit with a single maroon lapel, and holstered on his hip is a non-lethal one-handed scrambler. He smiles, welcoming us to a brand-new adventure (while canonically, he is happy to see The Eagle is still there).
His brief respite is interrupted by the second figure emerging from the doorway, an old male frog-like alien: This man is Remahn Sizenceez, a shield guardian of the planet Bezdize. He wears a plain orange uniform. The frog-man is coughing from the smoke, Finn uses his lightsaber deflecting a fatal shot at the man. He helps him into cover, deflecting more shots on the way.
REMAHN THIS is going according to plan!?
Finn smiles.
FINN The way our plans always go, your eminence.
The third leaves the door, a woman emerges with a purple lightsaber. A thin layer of electricity coats her body. She wears full-body light armor, including a bio-mechanical metal face mask, resembling a rose (rough concept art can be found on A3O). She sees The Eagle. While she is hiding her face (and name), this is our Rey. She rushes to The Eagle and jokes with Finn:
REY I was worried you forgot where you parked again!
FINN Shika, did you see Poe?
REY Haha, he had to grab his favorite cellmate!
Finn tilts his head in response. Rey reaches The Eagle and just by her touch it hums to life. It opens as Finn, Remahn, and the Republic troopers get inside. Finn only drops off Remahn then stays behind. He looks back.
REMAHN You're waiting for that nutjob?
FINN It's Poe. He won't keep us waiting long.
Finn gets out and deflects more fire while Rey preps The Eagle. As Finn advances, the shots suddenly stop. Silence —then Poe jumps out with a minigun. The gun has a large shield on the front. Poe is wearing the same plain orange uniform as Remahn. He turns back to fire more shots.
POE COLD SHOWERS EVERY DAY! EVERY DAY WITH YOU IMPS! NOW IM GIVIN' OUT HOT SHOWERS!
Finn is happy to see Poe and rushes toward him.
FINN Poe!
As Poe greets Finn, they back up to The Eagle. Finn deflects shots onto the ground, and Poe returns fire.
POE Heya Finn, you seem too calm for a prison break.
FINN You seem a little too happy.
POE Ahh, could be better. This gun's great, but its got this here shield. No danger, no fun.
Finn chops off the shield for Poe once they reach the entrance to The Eagle. Poe fires a few more shots, stopping once The Eagle starts attacking.
.
103 The Eagle — Int. 103
Poe sets the minigun away from everyone. The Republic Soldiers are manning guns, reloading some missiles they fired, preparing for the next offensive on the Bezdize surface. They raise their fists and give brief cheers as they see Poe pass by. Poe smiles and returns their favor. BB8 rolls over, using his mini pickaxe to carry Poe's Alderaanian Pilot's jacket from The Hidden Danger.
BB8 *Enthusiastic beeping!
BB8 waves with his fan protector and lifts the jacket to Poe. He smiles puts it on as they all make their way to the cockpit. Inside is a focusing Rey and a nervous Remahn.
.
104 The Eagle Cockpit — Int. 104
Rey has her arms extended, with bands of electricity reining the ship. Poe sits in the pilot seat as Finn stands next to a pacing Remahn. Poe starts readying systems while looking at the scanner.
REMAHN We're all here now. Great! The shields are still up, and they're getting their turrets ready. Is there a plan anywhere in this insanity!?
FINN It's all taken care of. Poe, are we ready?
Poe keeps checking the scanner. He smiles.
POE Two Pulsar.9's hanging by.
REY Then I'm dropping the shields.
Rey makes a gesture, and as the electricity reduces around her, the station shields drop. Two Pulsar.9s swoop in and shoot the turrets. Poe punches it, and The Eagle dives toward the planet. Remahn is dumbfounded. BB8 loves it.
BB8 *Electric Whoo-hoo
POE Alright, there you go, Remahn. How does that prison break tingle feel?
REMAHN Poe... who are you?
Poe's demeanor shifts to talk to a superior.
POE Apologies, Guardian Sizenceez. My name is Captain Poe Dameron of the Republic Cluster of Planets. Beside you are my close friends, Jedi apprentices Finn...
Finn shakes Remahn's hand.
FINN Hello.
POE And...
Rey unfurls her mask to reveal her beautiful face.
REY Shika Dagr! May the Force be with you!
Rey shakes Remahn's hand —Poe winces right before, then smiles at how much progress Rey has made.
REMAHN Yes, greetings to all of you...
POE Onto the meat of the matter: My mission needs you, Guardian Sizenceez. After I found the prison holding you, Finn here drafted a plan for an exfiltration. I went in as cover a week back so that this female creature could sneak on.
REMAHN Alright, but that station —while polluted now— is a proper gem of Bezdize. The shields are immaculate, intricate. Some iron gripped souls spent their life braving its construction here in space. This planet's pride demands an explanation of your... subversion of them.
POE That's all Shika.
REY There is no problem with your planet's genius craftsmanship! I was given blueprints and guided through all its details before I arrived, and your people deserve their acclaim. However, with my hold of the Force, and if I know the machine, then even in disrepair, I can get it running. I sabotaged the shields earlier. After that, I was the only thing keeping them up!
REMAHN That's... an incredible trick.
POE Her only good feature. I staged the riot earlier so that Shika could take care of the shields. Right before she put them back up, Finn and my men landed this ship.
FINN With the illusion their shields were back to normal, the Republic solders and I found you and invaded the compound without the Empire properly preparing any anti-aircraft.
REMAHN They'd be fools to shoot a classic ship this fine anyways. Our station could hold it securely in its ample storage.
REY Without me, they couldn't move our ship there.
REMAHN What?
POE It's true. What Shika did to those shield generators of yours, we did the same a long time ago to our ship, The Eagle. We took a piece out. If Shika, or Finn, or Me aren't here, this baby won't fly.
FINN Since they couldn't fly it into a garage, they'd need to tow it, needing more resources that were busy with the riots Poe started.
POE After that, I had two men in Pulsar.9s shoot the turrets right as Rey dropped her support of the shields. Giving us our now safe passage.
FINN Like I said Remahn: all according to plan.
REMAHN Wait, this all worked out, but there would have been no way to communicate with each other. Our blocking is too robust. The Force can do this too..?
POE I'm no Jedi, Remahn. No patience.
REY We don't have much patience for it either. We've been rushing our training. Neither of us can use the Force that way.
FINN But we're working on it!
REMAHN ...then how—
POE We trust each other, Remahn.
Remahn is taken aback by such faith. He sees an old optimism he once had in them. Just out of his eyesight Finn and Rey look at each other in quiet guilt.
Revealing itself to the viewport is Bezdize: A planet without land-based continents, originally an ocean planet before life sprung up in massive defiance. The plants that reached from the seafloor to the surface interwove and evolved into dense super-clusters, filling the empty ocean with bio-archipelagos. Parasitic plant life then grew atop this, and various amphibious animal lifeforms after. And soon, intelligent life mastered this land, even constructing synthesized plant islands. To survive massive tidal waves and the pressures of the bottom of their seas (the only way to mine for resources), they became the foremost shield designers in the galaxy. These shields cover every city, currently protecting against aerial assaults.
The viewport shows the most significant archipelago in Bezdize: Sen Temahtuhully, meaning New Salvation. Nearly all of it is artificial (save for two plant-islands). The city is directly under the best minerals in the ocean. Intercontinental bridges made of shields a kilometer wide connect it to every relevant archipelago-country. The valuable mines underneath were a gift to every person on the planet. It was the salvation for a war-torn people.
All the bridges have shut off, except one. In the sky, fighters strike each other. In the sea, the Imperial hovercraft battle the Republic seacraft. Our heroes fly past the conflict, heading to the only remaining active shield-bridge.
Remahn returns to his depression seeing "New Salvation" engulfed in these bloodied waters.
REMAHN The fighting has reached Sen Temahtuhully, eh?
POE With your help, this will end by nightfall.
REMAHN This island we called New Salvation. A peace untouched by war.
Poe stays silent and lets the man adjust to this new reality.
REMAHN How will you use me?
POE You can see outside; we have the advantage in naval warfare. The Bezdi military and our Mon Calamari will win the sea.
REMAHN Good, good.
POE On land, however, we have had to fake retreats to placate the Empire. Now they have taken most of Bezdize's archipelagos. They opened the Nize Wespha bridge. If they break through into Sen Temahtuhully, it's over.
REMAHN How far have they reached?
POE As far as we have allowed. We can't start mounting a serious counter-invasion with that overhead.
Poe points to the MDS Krannek.
REMAHN I see.
POE Thankfully, it should be leaving soon. Once it's gone... you'll need to lower the bridge.
REMAHN Our shielded bridges have dual operating stations, but only need one to work. If the Empire has the station on the other side, then there is nothing I can do.
POE As we understand it... you can activate both at the same time.
REMAHN That redundancy wouldn't affect anythi—Oh. You want me to misalign the one on your end.
POE Exactly.
REMAHN That will render both ends of the bridge inoperable and irradiate the sea beneath it.
POE And the Empire will dive right in.
REMAHN This will scar this planet for decades, Poe.
POE A scar left from cutting off the Imperial cancer.
Remahn keeps a morose silence. He remembers his time in prison and growing up during the Empire's control. He understands.
REMAHN This maneuver has only ever been theorized. I accept my role as the first guardian to achieve it.
POE There we go!
They arrive in a hot zone at the end of the bridge. The twin skyscrapers at the entrance generate the roadway. Imperial ground soldiers have already taken the ground of the area. The Republic fighters push hard to regain this advantage. The Eagle lands on top of the taller entrance tower. Several Republic troops are waiting for them.
.
.
.