FN-2187

IV

His first mission came four months later.

A Resistance Pilot, Captain Poe Dameron, in charge of both fleets, had been tracked down to a small village on Jakku.

FN-2187 and his squadron marched onto the troop carrier, ten by twenty.

They stood still as the carrier flew, lights flashing.

Eight-Seven rocked back and forth slightly as they dropped out of light speed.

The doors opened down with a hiss and they ran down, shooting.  Some of the villagers tried to shoot back.

They were quickly killed.

He lost track of Nines quickly, and saw Slip a little ways away.

Out of the corner of his eye, Eight-Seven saw a glint of a blaster.

It fired, and Slip fell.

Eight-Seven made no noise, but inside, he was screaming.

He knelt by his friend.

There was too much noise for them to say goodbye.

Slip pulled off his glove, and touched his bleeding side gingerly.

Then, in a last attempt to save himself, he reached towards Eight-Seven.

But he was too weak.  He rested his hand on his friend's helmet, and it fell as he died.

Eight-Seven, marked by his friend's blood, stood.

A very old man was being dragged out of a small mud hut.

Kylo Ren's command shuttle landed nearby and he descended, all in black.

Eight-Seven stood taller in the presence of his leader.

Kylo Ren stood before the old man.  "Look how old you've become."

"Something far worse has happened to you," the old man responded.

"You know what I've come for."

"I know where you come from, before you called yourself 'Kylo Ren'."

If he could see his leader's face, he would have guessed he was scowling, his anger growing with each word this ancient man uttered.  Eight-Seven was a bit surprised that the man hadn't already been sliced with the cross-blade lightsaber.

"The map to Skywalker. We know you found it. And now you're going to give it to the First Order."

So that's what they were there for?

"The First Order rose from the Dark Side. You did not."

Eight-Seven stood a bit taller, at the mention of the dark side.  That was his cause!  His life!

"I'll show you the Dark Side."

From stories FN-2187 had heard of Kylo Ren, he had an extreme anger problem.  It was surprising that he had not killed the man yet.

"You may try. But you cannot deny the truth that is your family."

Kylo Ren's family?

"You're so right."

With that, he raised his blood red lightsaber into the air and sliced the man down.  Then he turned and put out his hand.

Eight-Seven looked in the direction his leader's palm was facing.

A laser bolt was suspended in the air.

Two troopers went and retrieved the man who shot it.

He had dark hair and a brown flight jacket.

Could this be the infamous Poe Dameron?

Brought, quite literally, to his knees by Eight-Seven's own squadron?

"So, who talks first?  Do you talk first, or do I talk first?  I talk first?"

"Search him."

The two troopers made sure he had no more weapons.

"You know, I can't really understand you under all that mechanism."

Kylo Ren instructed them to take him on board.

"What about the villagers?" Phasma asked.

"Kill them."

Troopers began to torch the village.

The people were gathered into one place.

Eight-Seven raised his blaster to shoot, and froze.

These were innocent people!  He wanted to fight the Resistance, not shoot unarmed civilians.

He slowly lowered his blaster, as his fellow troopers shot the people.

FN-2187 stared at Phasma and Kylo Ren.

The one trooper not killing, standing in the village of fire.