Spark of Hope

Chapter XIX

With a hard jolt, the Millennium Falcon came out of lightspeed. Set against a surreal backdrop of black space with a gazillion of stars and the blue planet of Ragoon VI, was the enormous Mega-class Star Dreadnought of the First Order, the Sovereign. Resurgent-class Star Destroyers escorted it.

No TIE Fighters streamed out of the flagship yet. Perhaps their entire fleet could complete the jump to get here before the First Order launched their defenses...

Too late. Small dots left the ships and flew toward them.

"Here comes the welcoming party!" Poe said through the comlink. "Let's show our appreciation for the last time!"

Green lasers shot at them as the Resistance fleet broke formation. Rey watched their X-wings, Y-wings, ARC-170s, and other scavenged ships from the Clone Wars fly off, being chased by the black TIE Fighters, as they did the same. Her grip tightened on the controls as she swiveled her view around, searching for a TIE Fighter to shoot. She longed to ignore them and go find Ben, but the most-pressing obstacle needed to be taken care of first, or it could hinder her. And, besides, they were the perfect outlet to unleash her anger on.

The Force warned her of approaching danger before the scream of that TIE Fighter did. Whipping the gun around to her right, she fired before the ship came into sight. Rey had to turn from the explosion to destroy another Fighter.

Rey relied on the Force to guide her—wherever a feeling directed her, she turned that way and shot down the TIE Fighter headed toward the Falcon. Chewie performed several aerial maneuvers and Rey on the gun wiped out those tailing them many times. She even took down the ones following others when they came in range.

"At this rate, we could leave the Fighters to Rey and she'd wipe out their whole fleet! Wow!" Rose crowed.

"Hey, I'm getting some!" Finn protested.

"But not like Rey!" Chewbacca warbled and Rose translated for the ex-Stormtrooper who didn't understand Shyriiwook. "Chewie agrees with me."

"Leave some for the rest of us, Rey!" Poe said.

He didn't say that in the joking, playful manner the pilot was known for. Poe was still mad at her. If only he knew it hadn't been Rey who had used the Force on him but Ben, and how close he had come to being killed but she had saved him, maybe Poe wouldn't be so cross.

All of a sudden, an ARC-170 in Rey's view exploded. The laser did not come from a TIE Fighter, nor was it as small.

Rey swiveled in the direction of the shot to see another large white streak coming at her. Chewbacca roared as Rose yelled a warning; the Falcon took a sharp nosedive, so the laser missed them. It came from the Sovereign.

"Bronze Three, Bronze Four, follow me!" Poe ordered. "We're taking out those guns! The rest of you protect the shuttles as they get to the hangar bay!"

Poe's black X-wing, flanked by two Y-wings, flew toward the Sovereign.

Asking the Force to be with those three pilots in particular, Rey focused on what she had been doing. She continued to shoot down TIE Fighters and even caught one's shot using the Force and sent it flying back, blowing up that ship.

Sensing another missile shot from the Sovereign, Rey rotated to face the Dreadnought and released the controls.

"Don't dive, Chewie!" she yelled.

With her hands raised, Rey diverted the shot to streak toward one of the larger ships accompanying the flagship of the First Order. The laser hit and blew a giant hole in that Resurgent-class Star Destroyer; the ship began to nosedive.