It was late at night and quiet on Ruusan, and for the fifth and final time, Altor was sneaking out of the barracks where he and the other troopers slept. Altor was dressed plainly in the black base layers the troopers wore underneath their uniform, having stripped off his armour and left it in the barracks. His blaster was the only symbol he'd brought with him from his time amongst the First Order. He'd become quite attached to it in his time as a spy, and no doubt it would be helpful. Currently, he was crouched in the woods behind the makeshift barracks. Altor would be meeting the other spies here as well as any troopers they thought might join them. Altor had three with him, not many; he was sure he could have got more, but the noise was not worth the risk and had more been absent, it would have drawn attention. He didn't know the other spies by face, only by name; he'd joined the initiative early and been located on Vice Admiral Renor's Dreadnought from the beginning. He was hunched in the dirt in silence, trying to blend into the ground. He watched as small groups in black scurried their way over to the woods. He shifted with his small group to join the new groups. Everyone was hunkered low as they approached, looking anxiously at each other; one of them finally spoke.
"Altor?"
Altor let out a huge sigh, "Yeah."
"Caleb", "Hally", "Roan", and "Eva," each of the spies introduced themselves nervously raising a hand in greeting. Each had three or four First Order deserters with them who were looking apprehensively about them. They were so young, so many of them were so young.
"This way, keep quiet and keep down."
Altor knew where the valley was, so he led the way, and the group followed as silently as they could, creeping along as close to the ground as possible, occasionally pausing to check the way was clear from behind a tree trunk. The valley was nearby but not so close that you could hear the ships and transports landing. It was a good hour-long walk, and trying to remain hidden at this speed, it would be longer.
-X-
Admiral Nunb and Admiral Statura came out of light speed in the system around Ruusan, purposefully avoiding being directly outside Ruusan. They were cloaked, but anything to avoid detection was worth doing. From here, Admiral Statura could release their transports to the planet with their forces. Admiral Nunb, however, had to lower into Ruusan's atmosphere in order to land their tanks.
"Slowly, Captain, slow and gentle, we want to avoid all detection," Admiral Nunb commanded to his Captain in his native tongue; all the crew on his ship had been under his command long enough to learn his language. Admiral Nien Nunb knew all about being discreet. Before joining the Alliance under Princess Leia Organa, he'd been an arms dealer, a smuggler, and a good one. Princess Leia had said to herself, "Only you could have smuggled an entire rescue craft under the Empire's noses," that was years ago now, and Nunb was a veteran pilot and now an experienced leader of the Resistance. The MC80 Star Cruiser descended through Ruusan's dark sky, the hum of the engines lost in the breeze running through the valley. It landed gently, and vast swathes of dust wafted around it.
"Nicely done, Captain. Inform General Ematt they can depart our forces and the tanks."
Down in the loading bay, General Ematt stood with his three squadrons. In front of them, the bay door lowered, and the tanks departed. General Ematt said nothing, merely raised a hand, and the fleet followed the tanks into the dark, dusty valley.
At the rear of the loading bay, Rey went to move forward, but Ben grasped her hand, holding her back a moment, and she looked at his face with concern. She saw a look she hadn't seen since their bond had begun during his interrogation of her on Starkiller Base when she'd managed to read his mind as he had read hers and found his greatest fear: that he'd never be as strong as Darth Vader, his grandfather.
"Ben, what is it? What's wrong?" she had stopped trying to pull him forward with her and was facing him concerned.
He was breathing hard; his other hand was tense at his side. He looked at her intently. Once, he had wanted everything for himself, but now he wanted everything for her. In his heart, he was afraid, terrified that anything might happen to her.
He grasped her arm hard, "Don't leave my side. No matter what happens, you stand with me. I won't lose you."
His words made her anxious, but she tried to still his anxiety and now her own.
"Never," she said as she squeezed his hand and again pulled him forward to follow the troops. They walked forward together, hands intertwined as they departed the ship. Behind them, the boarding ramp raised, and the Star Cruiser very slowly ascended towards the sky to join Admiral Statura. Clouds of swirling dust rose and blew in all directions, creating a brown fog through which they could barely see the heavy-duty transports containing the rest of the fighters landing around them.
Commander Finn stood with his squadron onboard one such transport. The squadron fighters inside were tightly packed, almost wedged together; there weren't many transports, and they needed every soldier. As the hatch opened, a sense of relief from the hot and stuffy interior came over the group, and Finn led the way into the dust-filled air outside.
"Here we go," he said to himself as they joined the squadrons already waiting.
Led by General Ematt, the troops made their way tentatively through the valley. Squinting in the predawn light, the haze of unsettled earth making it even more challenging to see, General Ematt could make out a dark, moving mass ahead of them. As they moved closer, he could see a small group of people dressed in black. To his left, Commander Finn approached them, bidding the rest of the squadrons to hold back.
"Altor?" Finn couldn't see clearly, but Altor had to be in amongst the group somewhere.
A man stepped forward with short bristly blond hair and a large button nose. He was short in stature, and his ears stuck out a little- Altor. Finn gave a grin, stepped forward and embraced the man in a firm embrace, banging him hard on the back.
"Good to see you, buddy."
"You too, man, you too."
Jakub moved from his squadron to join them. As Finn, Jakub and Altor greeted each other, the other spies and First Order deserters, General Ematt's communications device crackled into life.
"General Ematt, come in this is Calrissian."
"Reading you loud and clear, Calrissian, go ahead."
"General Targo's division and Commander Kramer's squadron will be joining us. They will meet you just before dawn at the edge of the valley, just outside the encampment. We'll still be outnumbered, but it's a lot better odds. May the Force be with us."
"May the Force be with us," General Ematt spoke back into the communicator. He turned to Altor, "How long is the walk to the First Order's encampment?"
"About an hour or so. Dawn is in a few hours."
"Commander, Jakub, get your squadrons into battle formations. Altor, you and your troopers are with me." The troops around them started to arrange themselves into their squads, check their weapons, adjust their helmets and those with the tanks boarded or stood next to them. Slowly, they advanced forward.
-X-
General Targo had received an encrypted call from Admiral Deltan very late. She took the call privately as she did all Admiral Deltan's encrypted calls there had been more of these calls recently since their mutual discontent about their roles and their leader.
Admiral Deltan had the leader of the Republic and the Resistance aboard his Dreadnought, and Admiral Deltan was going to join them for peace. General Targo had required as much persuading as he had they'd both been looking for a way out or a different path, and the Republic had offered it to them. It seemed too easy, but accepting the offer was easy; the execution would not be. The First Order was vast, but the numbers were still unfavourable even with her division and Kramer's joining the Resistance. Admiral Deltan had said that the troops of Resistance fighters were on Ruusan in a valley nearby and would be heading towards the First Order encampment just before dawn. There would be no sleep tonight as General Targo left her quarters, met with Kramer and started organising their divisions and troops.
Hux's training was faultless; stormtroopers were loyal, and the First Order was their home, but their individual leaders were their parents, and Supreme Leader Hux was a stranger to them, someone to be feared who ranted at them from far away. He did not know them, and he did not care; General Targo knew her entire division personally, as did Kramer. The division's loyalty was to her. She went to her division's quarters; most of them were readying for bed or already in bed, those that weren't stood to attention.
"At ease. I apologise for the lateness of the hour," she paused mildly apprehensive, but she did not have time for apprehension. "Admiral Deltan, Colonel Kramer and I are joining the Resistance in their efforts to bring peace to the galaxy. I understand this may be a shock to all of you; however, we have had misgivings about the First Order's directive since Supreme Leader Snoke was killed and if we're honest before then. If you aren't with us, we understand, and you are free to leave; however, I would ask you if you really want a lifetime of war, a lifetime of fighting. We have a chance for something else, something better."
Her entire division was standing now and looking at her intently. Her Captain SQ 1491 stepped forward.
"We're with you, mam."
She nodded, "I'm afraid we need to prepare now. Armour on, and that means full-battle gear, blasters checked, we meet the Resistance in three hours. Oh, and I want each of you to have a distinctive red mark on your armour. I don't want anyone getting shot by the Resistance by accident."
-X-
Directly above the valley, hovering in the space outside Ruusan, Admiral Nunb's Star Cruiser joined Admiral Statura's.
"Colonel Dameron, your squadrons can depart," Admiral Statura gave the command from the deck. Once they'd departed, he and Nunb would join Admiral Deltan's Dreadnought in position against the other two.
In the hangar, Poe sat in his X-Wing cockpit, and he felt... great, nervous but great. This would be a challenge, and he had missed this feeling. He felt at home in a cockpit with his hands moving over the instrumentation, feeling the ship coming to life around him as he ignited the engines and it began to hover.
"BB8, how are we looking back there?" Poe spoke into the mic on his helmet.
BB8 chirped and tweeted back at Poe. Poe got the impression from BB8's beeps that the little droid was as excited as he was.
"Yeah, me too, buddy. Red pilots, this is Red Leader check-in."
Poe got confirmation from his squadron pilots. "Red Two standing by," Rose responded. "Red Three standing by." "Red Four standing by." "Red Five standing by." Full house.
"Blue Leader, Black Leader, White Leader, we all set?"
A moment of static white noise filled Poe's headpiece as each of the squadrons checked their pilots. One by one, they responded.
"Ready to execute on your command, Red Leader."
The double wings on Poe's X-Wing split apart, displaying four wings. The wing-mounted armament and quadruple engines deployed, giving Poe maximum firepower and manoeuvrability. I love these ships!
Poe left the hangar, followed by the red assault squadron, then Blue Leader and their assault squadron. On Admiral Nunb's ship, he could see Black Squadron and White Squadron departing their hangar. All four squadrons aimed for the planet's surface to defend their troops, swooping low into the valley and slowing their pace to hover above the soldiers. Poe was lower than the other ships, enjoying testing his unpractised skills. In the predawn light, he could make out General Ematt, Commander Finn and Jakub at the front of their squadrons about to meet the division of red-marked troopers, and at the front with them, Poe could see two shimmering lights, one red and one purple- Rey and Ben.