The Knights of Ren - Star Wars Episode IX

Chapter 15 - Change

Rey looked at Ben, this had happened before, but something was different. Liquid still wet Ben's red eyes. Ben nodded at Rey. Rey let a slight smile crack her mouth, and turned around to look at her opponents.

But instead of attacking Sosh, she swung at Baldaar Ren and Dandor Ren, while Ben Solo attacked Garmoth, Raj and Laq Ren. Sosh Ren backed away from the fight.

Baldaar Ren made a loop and swung down powerfully on Rey with his axe. Rey tried to block with her saber but the sheer power of the swing made her fall to the ground. Baldaar swung again as Rey was on the ground, but Rey instead used a Force push to make the axe of Baldaar jerk upwards a bit. She tumbled away and got back up to her feet.

Rey acrobatically jumped behind Baldaar and swung. Baldaar backed up and blocked her swing from above. Dandor Ren swung at Rey's feet and she jumped and swung at Baldaar.

Baldaar swung again at Rey and she blocked with one side of her saber, then carefully angled the saber to tap the end of the axe handle. This dislodged the weapon from his hand and he fell to the floor without a defense.

Ben aggressively swung at Garmoth. Garmoth backed up and blocked with Kylo's red saber. They said nothing, and looked at each other directly in the eyes. Garmoth and Ben violently swung and parried, swung and parried. Fear came into the eyes of Garmoth. Ben faked a swing at Garmoth's upper body and instead swung at his legs and sliced the side of his calf. Raj and Laq Ren stood a pace away, and had not engaged yet, then decided to attack in unison, one swinging high and the other low. Ben ducked and blocked the low swing. He then moved to engage Raj Ren alone. With a quick, powerful swing he knocked the weapon out of Raj's hand and sliced his torso. Raj fell, and Laq Ren backed up in fear.

General Hux suddenly appeared behind the Knights, and pulled the clothing covering the instrument on his forearm. He pushed a button and out flew several flying bots. The bots spread out about 15 feet up and covered an area of about 20 meters in a circle. They then started firing on everybody in the circle from every angle. Ben and Rey were unable to block all the shots and fell, stunned. The Knights cowered from the blasts, but arose unscathed.

"Enough!" yelled General Hux.

Garmoth stood over Ben, who was on the ground, unable to move. "The difference between you and me? I saw this coming and had armor made." Garmoth pointed to his chest.

"I didn't organize this coup only to have it fall apart from incompetence!" said Hux as he strolled in front of Rey and Ben.

Hux stood over Ben Solo. "Look at you know, you bumbling, weak fool! Your reign has ended Supreme Leader." Hux raised his pistol and shot Ben Solo in the stomach.

Ben fell against his back, shocked at the pain.

Rey weakly said "Ben" and reached out with her hand.

The Resistance fighters and storm troopers stopped firing. The Resistance's Jedi had fallen, the four remaining Resistance fighters were not enough to take on the storm troopers and Knights. All was lost.

General Hux stood over Ben Solo. He then raised his head and yelled, "CHANGE HAS COME TO THE FIRST ORDER, ORDER HAS COME TO THE FIRST ORDER. THE RESISTANCE HAS FALLEN. ALL YOU FIRST ORDER LEADERS, YOU WILL FOLLOW ME NOW. I AM YOUR SUPREME LEADER."

General Hux smirked and strutted. The Knights rose and stood behind him.

Ben Solo was writhing in pain, his movements slowing. Rey was helpless to do anything. Finn lowered his weapon in defeat. The other Resistance fighters looked around, unsure what to do.

"ARREST ALL RESISTANCE!" yelled General Hux. The troopers ran to the Resistance fighters with guns raised, "You! You are under the arrest of the First Order!" The Resistance fighters raised their hands to show they had no weapons. The troopers gathered all Resistance fighters, Finn, Rey, Ben and the kids in the center of the hangar, guarded with guns pointed.

Rey sat near Ben Solo, tears in her eyes, "Hold on Ben, be strong..."

General Hux strode over to Rey. "Your boyfriend is dying. Nothing can stop it."

Rey looked up at Hux and snarled. "You are a despicable creature."

General Hux smirked "Yes, well, I won and you will be dead soon."

Garmoth Ren spoke with a raised voice, "Hey Supreme Leader!" He pulled out an object from his pocket and pushed a button. Suddenly General Hux vibrated and shook uncontrollably, he pulled out the small communication device the Knights had given him, and looked at the Knights in shock. He reached for the button on his forearm, but was unable to reach it. He fell to the ground, completely still. General Hux was dead.

Garmoth Ren then shouted "GENERAL HUX WAS RIGHT, CHANGE HAS COME TO THE FIRST ORDER. THE KNIGHTS OF REN ARE YOUR NEW SUPREME LEADERS. YOU WILL OBEY THE KNIGHTS OF REN!"

Finn turned to one of the Resistance fighters next to him, "Oh great, the First Order leadership has gone from one force user to many..."

Garmoth Ren circled the small Resistance band. "Kylo Ren, how the might have fallen. We could have ruled the galaxy together, now look at you!"

"And the mighty Rey, I gave you a choice, and you chose wrong."

"As for the rest of you Resistance fighters, I have nothing against you, but I suppose you are my enemy now."

"And two little kids! Baldaar, should we give them back to Sosh, or just kill them?," said Garmoth.

Baldaar Ren smirked, "Eh, they just eat our food. Just kill 'em."

Sosh looked at Baldaar, aghast.

Haita stood and looked at Garmoth, "You are ugly, gross, and smell bad. We are not going to be anybody's slaves anymore!"

Garmoth turned and backhanded Haita across the face. She fell to the floor. "Maybe you are right Baldaar, they aren't worth the trouble!"

"STOP! The kids are mine!" said Sosh and raised her weapon.

Garmoth raised his weapon, "I've tolerated your pet project for a long time now, if you will not obey me you will be destroyed."

Sosh raised her weapon against Garmoth, but didn't see Laq Ren stab her from behind. She fell.

Sosh was dying. Rey did not exactly like Sosh, but felt some compassion. She moved over to her and held her hand.

Sosh looked up at her and said "...I would have taken good care of the kids..."

"I know you would have," said Rey.

Rey said nothing more, and Sosh's breathing stopped.

Suddenly a shot came from the Resistance ship in the hangar. C-3PO had fired the main weapon, although it did not hit anything.

"Take that, First Order! That's what my friend R2 would do!" said C-3PO.

Everybody scrambled. Garmoth Ren pointed at the ship and yelled, "Somebody destroy that ship!"

Eight troopers ran to the loading ram of the Resistance ship, then loud explosions were heard across the ship. Someone was attacking the Star Destroyer!