Force Destiny

Millennium Falcon

Rey awoke to a throbbing headache. She was dizzy, and she couldn't remember how she had lost consciousness. She heard Finn's voice and realized he was carrying her. "Take them down!" he was shouting. When he realized she was awake, he set her down in favor of using his blaster.

"What happened?" she asked groggily, but he only grasped her hand and dragged her along after him. It was only as her mind cleared that she understood how dire their situation had become. The destroyer had erupted into anarchy. The stormtroopers were rebelling. The officers had taken position on upper floors, aiming at the stormtroopers below, regardless of whether or not they had joined the rebellion. Troopers were falling around them at an alarming rate as the officers made deadly use of their elevated position. There was nowhere to hide. She thought for a moment that the officers would quell the rebellion before they could all escape. But her best friend continued to shout orders, continued to inspire hope, and the others rallied around him like a true leader. The indiscriminate firing from above only served to encourage more troopers to join forces against the Order.

Whether or not the rebellion was working, it wasn't much of an "Order" anymore.

The scene around them was pandemonium. Blasterfire surrounded them, striking the tiles around their feet. Finn cried out when one grazed his arm, but he immediately lifted it again to continue firing. Screams filled the air, blood stained the floors. His injury inspired Rey to use the Force to the best of her abilities in her weakened state, creating as large of a shield as she could to protect them from the blaster bolts. They stumbled over the dying and dead. Rose stopped to help pull whoever was capable of standing to their feet. Blue was glued to Finn's side, projecting a holomap of the ship onto the floor in front of them to guide the way.

The blasterfire that had been raining from above, vibrating against her Force shield, suddenly eased. Rey glanced up as Finn pulled her along in her dizzied state. Tiny black objects began to fall from the upper levels. It wasn't until they came crashing down to the surface with a sickening thud that she realized they were the officers. The troopers were overwhelming them both in numbers and strategy. They had found them and were overthrowing them in the most literal of ways. The troopers had trained to be weapons of war, and now they turned on the people who had controlled them.

Rey switched her focus from above to the path before them. A line of officers, droids, and deadly weapons was organized to create a barrier between the rebellion and the Main Hangar. At Finn's command, a group of stormtroopers surged forward, easily outnumbering the officers and droids that stood to stop them. Many of the troopers fell, but there were simply too many for the officers to contain. The troopers had nothing to lose—and that was impossible to defeat.

Some officers held the line. Most fled. When a military order ran on fear, its troops had no reason to die for the cause. As they entered the hangar, the troopers broke off to escape onto the fighters and shuttles. As Finn pulled her to the left, Rey realized the Millennium Falcon was in front of them. Something inside her screamed not to board that ship. It was only then that she tried to piece together how she had gotten there, and she remembered the events on the bridge. Once they reached the boarding ramp, Rey started to fight back. Finn stopped and tried to reason with her as Rose boarded with Blue.

"Let go! You shot me!" she screamed.

"Rey.... We did it. The entire fleet is disabled. We sent a message to the Resistance and left Mitaka on the bridge. We did it. The attack is underway. Now it's time to get out of here!" he reasoned with her, his hands grasping each of her shoulders tightly to prevent her escape.

Rey shook her head vehemently. "No! Ben is still here!"

His eyes flashed with fear. "He's leaving on an escape pod! He's meeting us out there, okay?" He grabbed Rey's hand and tried to pull her onboard. She stood unwavering.