Star Wars IX- Balance Of The Force

Chapter 6- The Nightmare Revisited

Fondor was an ugly planet, and the immense downpour of rain was not currently helping that. There was no grass or mountains, just a vast flat land of dirt, which was now a thick mud from the rain. It was dark, but the sky seemed hazy and dingy despite the rain; as a planet of industry, the atmosphere closest to the ground was shrouded in permanent smog from the burning of furnaces and smelting of metals. A few buildings, stark blocky and just as ugly, were only visible in the distance via a few dimly lit slits for windows in the darker hulking masses. Industrial buildings didn't need to look beautiful or improve the landscape. They needed to be functional. What Rey assumed were the workers' homes were similarly designed: small functional boxes a little further out from the leading industrial buildings.

Rey sat in her X-Wing, watching the rain hit the transparent canopy above her; the noise was deafening. She'd never seen rain quite like it. It was almost coming in waves, sheets of more torrential rain cascading over the canopy, followed by a lighter sheet, then a heavier one again. From the specially designed socket behind her, R2-D2 gave a series of beeps and whistles; the little droid's beeps appeared anxious in their tone. Apparently, R2 did not care for the situation- the conditions being the least of the concerns the astromech droid cared to mention.

"Yeah, me too," she responded. She was going to get wet. She'd packed a hooded cloak she'd used back on Ahch-To made of a slight leathery material, which there had been effective at maintaining general dryness, but in this, she was going to get wet cloak or not.

"You stay with the ship R2," she continued. "I'll keep my comm device to you open so you can hear what's going on, but it'll be safer if you aren't with me. If anything goes wrong, head back to the Resistance immediately; do not wait for me."

R2-D2 did not like this idea, leaving without her and despite being seated securely in the droid compartment of the X-Wing, the little droid made its feeling on the matter heard. It squealed loudly, and its little barrel-shaped body rocked from side to side. Rey smiled to herself as the droid continued screeching and beeping.

"I'll be fine, R2." It was nice to have Master Luke's unit with her; it would've been nice to have BB8, but BB8 was Poe's droid, not hers, and he got very little done these days without BB8 at his side. In fairness, that had always been the case.

This rain wasn't going to ease up. Rey tried the Resistance soldiers again on the short-wave communicator Poe had given her.

"Machine Head, Machine Head, come in."

As a planet whose sole purpose was munitions, the building of weapons and parts, Rey understood why the local Resistance group had named themselves this, but she thought it was funny regardless. Poe had informed Rey they were expecting her when she'd left the base, and that had been but a few hours earlier. Worryingly, there was still no response. She couldn't hear any sounds of machinery and the buildings, both factories and homes alike, appeared empty. What dim lights were there were scattered too sparsely.

"R2, I'm gonna check it out." 

She got out of the cockpit as quickly as possible to avoid the pouring rain from drenching the ship's interior. She grabbed her lightsaber staff and her cloak, what good it would do her, pulling it on quickly and yanking the hood down as far as she could over her head. She attached the staff to her belt. She used to carry her old staff across her back with a strap, but her former staff had been a large length of wood. This one was nowhere near as heavy, mostly because it was only full-sized once ignited. She had a sizeable walk to the main buildings, where she was told to meet the Resistance group. It had seemed sensible in case something went wrong not to be too close. However, given the mud she was now standing in, she was beginning to regret that decision quickly.