"I will not fold
She's in control
I will not fold
No, never
I will not fold
She's in control
I will not fold
No, never"
-"Scotland" by The Lumineers
Starkiller Base:
The sound stomping of boots bounded down the hall. The flutter of a large cloak immediately followed. Every worker turned away from their leader in submission as she passed. No one dared cross Rey. She wouldn't hesitate to kill them on site.
Rey Palpatine's clamor of servants followed at her beckon call behind her. Her most loyal follower, General Hux scampered next to her. He sought to serve her every need. It was pathetic seeing such a powerful man grovel at her feet, but it's what she required of her inferiors. The others that followed behind knew this fact all too well. It was considered an act of bravery to speak around the Supreme Leader, so no one dared. Rey loved it that way.
"Excuse me, Supreme Leader Palpatine?" A courageous boy stepped in Rey's path. This is appeared to be a death wish or an attempt at conversation, both ending the same way.
"What right do you think you have to address the Supreme Leader?" Hux barked at the scared technician.
"Well, I-I j-just wanted t-to say that um-"
With a quick flick of Rey's hand, the worker was now suspended in the air. He attempted to grab at his neck's invisible restraints, to no avail. Rey hates loosing a fight.
"You are wasting my time." Rey whispered to the suffocating boy.
The hovering worker began to turn blue as he attempted to speak through his loss of breath.
"Does the imbecile have something to say?" Rey spoke with no emotion to the dying boy.
The technician's head began to nod furiously. Rey released her invisible grip and the boy fell.
"Well, spit it out." She was looking down at the coughing creature in contempt and annoyance.
Coughs came in rows out from the boy's writhing body. It was obvious that Rey was growing tired of this inconvenience.
"GO ON!" Rey boomed.
"I-I just thought you should know that I was informed that we are dangerously low on fuel and if we don't stop soon, we will run out in Resistance territory."
While the boy still laid in pain on the glossy black floor, Rey knelt down to meet him. In an act of what appeared to be tenderness, she gently took his hand and held it in her's.
"Thank you," The entire hall stood in awe as Rey appeared to have a soul. "What's your name?"
"Fletch, Mrs. Supreme Leader."
"Fletch, you should feel honored that stood up to say something, even if you only wasted my time."
Her grip on the Fletch's hand tightened until he was in pain again.
"What?" Fletch looked at Rey's face with confusion and loss of hope as he realized his fate.
"You've wasted my time. Time is something I don't have. So, I don't like it wasted... Fletch."
Rey released his hands to wave her's swiftly in the air. Without warning, Fletch was flying into the wall. Blood splattered onto the freshly cleaned floors. He was obviously dead on impact. Workers covered their mouths in horror. Some even began to cry for their comrade.
"Back to work!" Hux yelled into the crowd.
Rey stood up and adjusted her intricate black uniform. She strode out with the same composure as she had entering. Her servants followed suit.
Resistance Base in an Undisclosed Location:
General Organa was nervously running down the ship's corridors. The brave pilot turned Resistance hero, Han Solo followed behind her. He was trying to calm down the General but she was a pacing, nervous wreck.
"Leia, he will be fine." Han whispered tenderly.
"How do you know that, Han?!" Leia shot back at the old man.
"Because, he's done this so many times! He never ever fails us. You just need to calm down before-"
"I'm sorry that our son flying directly into the First Order's path makes me nervous!" Leia cut him off with pain and worry in her tone.
Han reached over to Leia and took her nervous hands into his. He knelt his head down and placed a single tender kiss. Her breathing began to slow and she grounded herself. Han let go of her hands to caress her cheek in reassurance.
"Ben is strong, like his mother."
Leia let out a soft laugh under her breath.
"I just worry for him so much," General Organa paused for a moment in contemplation, "we already almost lost him once when he was with Luke, I can't bear to lose him again."
"Neither can I, but we still have to trust in what we trained him to do."
Han placed one last kiss on her forehead before letting her go. Leia walked the opposite direction from him to the command center.
Everyone at the Resistance base offered their upmost respect and admiration for General Organa. She was their princess in practice and in soul. When she walked into the command center, everyone grew silent and looked at her for their commands.
"What do we got?" She yelled.
Commander Poe Dameron walked over to her excitedly. He was carrying a data pad lit up with transmissions in his hand.
"General Organa, we have recieved a warning that Starkiller base is almost out of fuel. With any luck, they were crash where our army will be waiting for them."
"What about without any luck, Dameron?"
A look of confusion crossed Poe's face.
"What?"
"You can't depend on luck, Poe. You have to have enough faith in the plan that luck will not have to be a factor."
"Of course, General."
The sound of a hazy deep voice came across the monitor.
"I have their base in perfect view!"
Leia pushed passed Dameron and ran to the monitor. She grabbed a headset from the table and held it to her face.
"Ben? Can you hear me? Ben!"
"Yes, I can hear you perfectly."
Poe ran over to Leia and pushed several buttons in front of him. He then grabbed the microphone part of the headset from General Organa.
"Ben, listen to me! It's Poe. I need you to distract them so they don't have time to get fuel. Can you do that?" Poe yelled into the headset.
"Yes. I won't let you down." Ben yelled back from his X-Wing before disconnecting.
Leia began to nervously pant again. Poe rushed over to place his hand on her back to steady her.
"Ben is the best pilot we have, General."
"No, he isn't."
Poe stepped back from Leia. She slowly composed herself and looked at Poe's startled face.
"Ben is our strongest, but not our best. You are our best pilot, until you quit."
"I didn't quit I-"
Leia waved her hand in his face to silence him, already knowing what he was going to say.
"I know, you took a promotion. But, I know you still yearn to be out there. You don't wanna be in here. Poe, you lost your luck. Find it again."
"I thought you said we needed more than luck."
Leia reached her hand up to caress his cheek.
"I know."
Ben Solo's X-Wing
Ben truly was one of the best pilots in the galaxy. He took after his father in that way. He was also an extremely skilled Jedi. If he turned to the dark side, he would undoubtably give Rey's reign of terror a run for its money.
Only three other Resistance pilots were assigned to this mission. Their job was to fire whatever they could at Starkiller until it had to crash. When it crashed, the Resistance would decimate their troops. But, Ben had his own mission. He was strong-willed like his father. So, Ben decided that he wanted to get inside the First Order base and kill Rey himself. She was the only other Force user in the galaxy, this made Ben her perfect opponent.
"BB-6, prepare for some fireworks!" Ben yelled to his droid sitting outside the cockpit.
BB-6 whirred in response. Ben laughed to himself and shifted his controls around until he was holding the blasters in his hand. He began firing at the massive base in front of him. One shot made it directly into one of their cannons. Ben and BB-6 cheered in response.
Suddenly, a First Order TIE fighter was charging at them. Ben dodged but the ship followed them.
"Okay, you ready for this?" Ben laughed.
Then he ran directly to the TIE fighter. He carefully positioned himself before pressing the buttons on his blasters. They fired perfectly at the ship. It erupted into ash instantly. BB-6 yelled at Ben.
"I know, BB-6! I'm almost done."
The base was slowly going down. Ben should turn back, but we was too close to abandon his mission. He thought for a moment about his mother and how worried she would be. But, he was doing this for her. With a few clicks he was back in transmission with the command center at the Resistance.
"Command, this is Ben. Come in, command."
A muffled transmission came over the other line. It was Poe Dameron talking back to him.
"Wonderful job, Solo! Their base is going down! You are free to come back."
Ben took his hands away from the blasters. He once again second guessed himself. He was scared of what could happen, but Ben knew his father would tell him to not be afraid.
"Have the other pilots returned?"
"Yes. As far as I can see, you are clear."
"That's great," Ben stopped himself again, but his choice has been made. "I'm sorry Commander Dameron, but I can't return right now.
Ben heard the sound of abrupt shuffling and yelling from his radio.
"Ben?! Ben! Come back! Ben?!" Leia yelled over the line.
"I'm sorry, but my mission isn't done."
"Ben, this is your General speaking! I order you to turn around immediately!" Leia sounded frantic.
"Trust me, mom."
Ben disconnected the radio before he gave into Leia's cries. He stayed still for a moment to survey his surroundings.
"BB-6, do you trust me?"
The droid yelled back some incoherent sounds in response.
"I knew you'd say that."
Ben grabbed tightly onto his controllers. Then, without any hesitation, he charged directly into Starkiller base.
Starkiller base
The First Order pilots were returning back bloody and injured. Rey was pacing in a heated fury. The ship had begun to tilt towards the nearest planet.
"Supreme Leader?" Hux piped up behind Rey.
"WHAT?!" Rey charged towards Hux and lifted her hands as if she was about to choke him.
"We need to stop."
"If we stop, we lose."
Rey got close enough to ignite her lightsaber into his chest with one breath.
"If we don't stop, we will be trapped here. Then we will loose."
Rey stepped away from Hux and walked backwards in shock. She went over to the monitors to look at the map of the battle.
"Why are we loosing?" Rey callously whispered under her breath. She was seething in anger.
"I don't know, Supreme Leader." Hux annoyingly retorted.
"Somehow I am led to believe this is your fault."
With one swift motion Rey turned around and Force lifted General Hux into the air. He gasped for air as his feet dangled below him.
"I should kill you right now and take over the army by myself, maybe we'd win then." Rey spit at the writhing advisor.
Rey's hand tightened around the air as Hux turned a frightening shade of blue.
Their dance around death was interrupted by the officer frantically running in.
"Supreme Leader Palpatine, we have something important to show you."
Rey let go of Hux. He fell to ground and gasped for the breath he almost lost. Rey washed the bloodlust from her eyes and attentively listened to the small subordinate.
"What is it?" Rey calmly spoke.
"We have a visitor in the loading dock."
A devilish smile crossed Rey's face. She already knew who was visiting her. She had been waiting to talk to him for a while.
"Excellent." Rey said in the most pleased way she could.
Rey brushed passed Hux on the ground and bounded out the door. Suddenly, she thought that she had won something better than a battle. She had Ben Solo.