Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter.
Let's get to it.
Rico: I'm not going to address any remaining Imperial remnants, except that they will join the First Order. And no, I'm not includign Jagged Fel.
Guest: Yes, they will have new walkers and tanks.
MatbeK01: I'm still trying to work out exactly how Jacen will be in this. I really liked Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens and in The Rise of Skywalker (not as much in The Last Jedi), so I'll try and combine what we saw in the films with Jacen Solo from Legends.
Chapter 13- Dire Situation
At the Resistance base on D'Qar, the base is in an absolute uproar. Less than an hour ago, the Hosnian System and much of the New Republic's military power had destroyed. In addition, the Resistance had sent a strike team to engage the First Order in battle on Takodana, finally retrieving BB-8 and the map fragment he held.
Now, the strike team is just beginning to return. The strike team had consisted of 9 T-70 X-Wings and 3 SFA-181s led by Poe Dameron, and a small force of Resistance troopers accompanied by General Organa herself aboard one of the Resistance's troop transports. While there, they had found Han Solo, with several companions and his old ship, the Millenium Falcon. They had brought Han and his companions back to D'Qar with them aboard the Falcon.
As the strike team is beginning to touch down on the flightline of the Resistance base, Ben walks out onto the flightline to watch as the fighters are landing. As he is watching the ships touching down, he sees the Millenium Falcon up ahead. As he watches the Falcon, Ben sees a familiar figure come walking down the ramp. Two of them in fact. Ones he has not seen in years.
Ben smirks a bit as he puts his hands in his pockets as he walks over to the Falcon. As he gets closer, he confirms it is in fact who he thought it was. He waits until he's a few feet closer before he calls out, "Uncle Han!"
Han turns towards the sound of the voice, and feels surprise run through him as he sees his nephew approaching him. As Ben is wearing a black uniform similar to the one Luke commonly wore around the end of the war, Han experiences some major deja vu as he sees both Luke and Kelly reflected in Ben's face.
"Ben," Han says in surprise, not having expected to see Ben here.
'It's been a while," Ben says simply, hands in his pockets as he looks at his uncle.
The two stand there for a few moments before Ben says, "Took you long enough to come back."
Han, not entirely sure of the tone he heard from Ben, responds after a second and says, "I know. I just…"
"I know, I know. You just tried to handle what happened with Jacen. We all did," Ben says. He pauses for a moment before he says, "I'm not angry with you, Uncle Han. I just wish that you hadn't just left all of us behind for 7 years."
"I know," Han says.
The two stand there before Chewbacca grunts a few times as he walks over to Ben. Ben smiles a bit and accepts the hug Chewie is trying to give. "Good to see you again, Chewie," Ben says with a smile.
After Chewie steps back from Ben, Ben looks back at his uncle. "Uncle Han, what happened? How did you come here? What happened on Takodana?"
Han is quiet for a moment before he says, "I found the Falcon not far from Jakku. Chewie and I pulled it into our ship with a tractor beam. We found BB-8 on board with two people. One was a former stormtrooper, calls himself Finn. The other was a scavenger from Jakku. A girl named Rey."
"I took them to Takodana to meet Maz Kanata and have Maz get BB-8 here. But the First Order showed up before we could. We tried to help fight them off, but…Jacen captured the girl, Rey. I don't know why, except that maybe he thinks he can get the map from Rey's memory," Han says.
Ben is quiet, thinking about all this. Then, Han says, "Come on. I need to go talk to Leia."
"Good luck," Ben says. Han just nods and walks off with Chewie, heading for the command center to talk to Leia.
Ben stands there for a few moments. As he does, he watches an X-Wing taking off from the flightline, with a pod attached to the underside of the fighter that Ben knows is meant for reconnaissance. He guesses this must be for a recon run on the First Order's base that apparently was home to the superweapon that destroyed the Hosnian system. Finally, Ben starts making his way back to the command center.
As he makes his way into the command center, Ben looks around and sees his uncle and aunt in the corner of the chamber, having a quiet but intense discussion. As he watches, Leia eventually seems to leave the discussion and walks away from Han.
Ben walks over to Leia. As he approaches her, he says to her, "Aunt Leia, can we talk for a moment?" Leia nods and walks over to him.
"What is it, Ben?" Leia asks her nephew.
Ben looks at Leia intently for a moment before he asks, "Aunt Leia…what exactly happened with Jacen? What caused the whole incident? And why does he seem so intent, from what I hear, on finding my dad?"
Leia looks at Ben for a few moments before she says, "Ben…I'm sorry, but it's not the time for you to know everything. And even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I don't know everything that happened. But…your cousin has long felt the burden of our family line. Sadly, he chose to honor the legacy of your grandfather from his time as Darth Vader." She pauses, then says, "You'll know more soon." Then, she walks away.
Ben stares after his aunt, his mind focused on his cousin. It's been so long since he spared any real thought towards his cousin, but now that he is giving more thought to his cousin, he can't help some feelings of anger and hate for his cousin for all that he did. It takes him a moment before he manages to suppress those feelings. He can't afford to let his feelings take the reins right now.
(Some time later)
Deep in the command center, the Resistance's most important personnel and most of the Terran personnel on the base have gathered in the main briefing room. It's been some time since the Resistance strike team returned to D'Qar. The Resistance, thanks to Finn, had managed to pinpoint the general location of Starkiller Base, and sent one of their pilots, Temmin Wexley or Snap, on a reconnaissance run to the base. Although the Resistance would've liked to commission the Alliance to use one of their highly capable SR-71Ds to make the run, Leia insisted they didn't have the time to wait on an SR-71.
Now, all of the personnel who have been summoned for this briefing are gathered around the main projector as the briefing of the terrible situation that the Resistance is now finding themselves in.
Poe Dameron, the Resistance's top pilot, begins the briefing. "The scan data from Snap's reconnaissance flight confirms Finn's report," Poe begins.
"They've somehow created a hyper-lightspeed weapon built within the planet itself," Snap continues.
"A laser cannon?" one of the intelligence officers gathered around the projector asks.
"We're not sure how to describe a weapon of this scale," Snap responds.
"It's another Death Star," Major Ematt pipes up to add his two cents.
"I wish that were the case, Major. This was the Death Star," Poe says, pressing a button to show a projection of the Death Star. Then, the Death Star shrinks and moves to the side as an image of Starkiller Base comes up. As it does, while Resistance personnel gasp at the image, Poe declares, "This is Starkiller Base."
"How is it possible to power a weapon of that size?" Admiral Ackbar asks aloud.
Finn, the stormtrooper who had deserted and saved Poe from the First Order, steps forward to explain what he knows about the weapon. "It uses the power of a star. As the weapon is charged, the star is drained until it disappears. They then mix that with some kind of dark energy to fire the weapon."
Suddenly, an intelligence officer steps up next to Leia and hands her a slip of paper. Leia looks down at it and reads it before looking back up at everyone gathered around and informing them, "The First Order. They're charging the weapon again now. Our system is the next target."
"Oh my. Without the Republic fleet, we're doomed," 3PO pipes up.
"And then Naboo will be the next target," Ben chimes in to the conversation. Although they can't know for certain, Ben feels confident that it's a given that the First Order's next target after destroying the Resistance will be Naboo.
"Okay. How do we blow it up? There's always a way to do that," Han insists.
"Han's right," Leia says quickly, drawing a look from Han.
General Statura, who has been examining the hologram of Starkiller Base, begins to voice his thought process aloud, "In order for that amount of power to be contained, that base has to have some kind of thermal oscillator."
"There is one," Finn responds immediately. He moves around the projector to a better spot and points towards the oscillator as he says, "Precinct 47. There." One of the attendants hits a button to highlight the oscillator.
"If we can destroy that oscillator. It might destabilize the core and cripple the weapon," Statura proposes.
"Maybe the planet," Major Ematt adds.
"We'll go in there, we'll hit that oscillator with everything we've got," Poe volunteers his squadrons.
"They have defensive shields that our ships cannot penetrate," Admiral Ackbar advises.
"Not true." Everyone looks at a man on one side of the projector. The man is Captain Bryce Parker, an American fighter pilot who currently serves as the commander of the Hammer Squadron. He's one of the most talented fighter pilots the Starfleet has had since the days of Jonathan Page's time as a pilot.
"Our fighters have been fitted with the latest hyperspace navigation systems. These systems are still somewhat experimental, but they are so finely tuned that they can be programmed to bring us out of light speed within a planet's atmosphere. With a shield like that, a ship moving at light speed can penetrate the shield," Captain Parker says. He pauses, then says, "Send the squadrons. I'll take an advance force of a few fighters from my squadron. We'll penetrate the shield using our hyperspace jumps and use our heavy ordnance to destroy the shield generators to open the shield for the rest of the squadrons."
Parker then looks at Finn. "Are the shield generators exposed enough for us to hit them from the air?" he asks Finn.
"Yes. Some will be difficult to get to, but not impossible," Finn responds.
"That's all we need," Parker says with a smile.
"Alright. The Hammer Squadron takes out the shields, we go in and destroy that oscillator and we blow up their big gun," Poe says.
Chewbacca grows a bit to show he agrees with the plan. Poe looks around at everyone around the room and says, "Alright. Let's go."
The gathering begins to break up, and everyone who is need start heading up above ground to the flightline to start getting the starfighters ready to fly.
As the briefing breaks up, Ben sees Finn rushing over to Han and Chewbacca. Curious, Ben carefully makes his way closer to them. As he gets close, he hears Finn talking urgently with Han.
"She's on that base. If we don't go get her out of there, she's gonna die either when Kylo Ren kills her or the fighters blow up the base. We have to get her out of there. I can't leave her in there," Finn is saying urgently.
"Don't worry, kid. We'll take you there and we'll get her home," Han says.
"Count me in," Ben pipes up.
Both Han and Finn turn to face Ben. "Who are you?" Finn asks.
"Ben Skywalker. You might have heard of my father, Luke Skywalker. And Han here is my uncle," Ben says. Finn looks at Ben in awe and shock.
Ben looks at Finn. "Don't worry, Finn. I'm not gonna let an innocent get drawn in to the First Order's darkness and get blown up with this planet. I'm going with you guys. Plus, if we have to deal with Kylo Ren…best to have someone with my skills with you," Ben says.
"Thank you," Finn says.
Ben then looks at his uncle. "Let's do this," he says with a grin on his face.
And, I'll end the chapter there.
I hope you liked this chapter so far, and the interactions of Ben with his aunt and uncle. As for Leia not telling Ben about Jacen, rest assured that we will get Jacen's story soon enough. Though it will be Luke who will tell Ben the story.
Next chapter will start the incursion into Starkiller Base. It should be up soon. Until it's up, please leave a review, and stay tuned!