BEYOND THE STARS → POE DAMERON

XII. New Discovery

Chapter Twelve

Retribution, 34 ABY

Zay got to the left side of the door while her mom took the right and they waited for Dio to finish slicing the door.

"What do you think we'll find in there?" Zay asked.

"I don't know honey," her mom replied. "But we're about to find out."

Suddenly, the two heard the sound of someone's boots coming down the hallway behind them and they turned around with their blasters raised. Zay tightened her hand on the grip of her targeting rifle but loosened it when she saw that it was Shriv.

He ran up to them and nodded at the room in front of them. "What's in there?"

"No idea," Iden replied. "Dio's still slicing the door."

Dio abruptly began beeping that he had just about finished slicing the door and the trio turned around. Zay raised her targeting rifle and trained it on the door in front of her. Likewise, her mom and Shriv did the same with their blaster rifles. When the door slid open with a soft whoosh, Zay scanned the room with her targeting rifle. "Area clear."

"Look at all this..." Shriv said in amazement.

The three fanned out to search for anything useful. Zay took a second to glance around at all of the various terminals and workstations. There was a small viewport at the back of the room and on the other side, Zay saw a large room that held the Star Destroyer's hyperspace generator on a raised platform with walkways extending to the left and right sides and a small platform on both ends connecting the walkways to the platform in the middle.

"You see anything?" her mom asked.

"Nothing yet, Mom," Zay replied as she started to look around.

"Not yet," Shriv replied.

Out of the corner of her eye to the lefthand side of the room, Zay spotted a terminal with a screen above it with words that scrolled by and she walked over to it. She saw that the screen was talking about Project Resurrection and more specifically, what they did to children and where they got them from.

"Over here," she called out. "Project Resurrection!"

Shriv and Iden walked over to her. Her mom got next to her and Shriv was on the other side of her mom.

"What? Wait a minute. Jinata. Otomok system," Iden said as she looked at the screen. "The First Order kidnaps children and forces them to become stormtroopers."

The military numbers must be—I can't even imagine," Zay said.

"Try to find a manifest," Shriv suggested.

Iden quickly typed a few keys and a new image popped up showing around thirty red dots in numerous places on the screen, some of them in clusters of two or three.

"Are those?" Shriv asked.

"Capital ships," Zay said in amazment.

"Enough to reclaim control over the entire galaxy," Iden said.

Zay watched her mom start clicking on the terminal two more times and each time, a new statistic about the First Order popped up on the screen. After a third click, a diagram of a large flagship appeared. The ship, of course, emulated the same dagger-shaped design and it was two and a half times the length of a Resurgent class Star Destroyer. However, the ship's armament was different. The ship had two orbital autocannons, twenty-six point-defense laser cannons on its dorsal surface, and six tractor-beam projectors on the bow. The ship also came with a name, the Fulminatrix.

"Stop there," Shriv said.

"What is that?" Iden asked.

"A First Order Dreadnought," Shriv replied after a beat of silence.

That doesn't sound good at all, Zay said to herself. "That sounds bad already," she said audibly.

"It is," Shriv said. "I've heard stories from General Organa. Rumors, mostly but... but they're terrifying."

Zay turned her head slightly to the right and looked at her mom and Shriv. "Then we need to find a weakness." 

"Dio, you're up," Iden said as the droid unhooked from its holder and flew between the two Versios'. "Download the schematics for that ship. We need to bring it to Leia and the Resistance."

Dio beeped in acknowledgment, nodded, and gave the equivalent of a thumbs-up with one of his four legs. Then, he plugged himself into the terminal and started downloading the schematics for the dreadnought.

"Until this ship's outta hyperspace we're not going anywhere," Shriv said as he took a step back from the terminal.

Iden turned to face him. "I got a plan for that," she assured him. "Find us a ride out. Make it a fast one. You'll know when it's time to move."

Shriv readied his gear and started walking towards the exit. "I dislike this already. Good luck you two," he called out over his shoulder.

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