Fire and Gold ⚬ Poe Dameron [ON HOLD]

chapter three ⚬ the massacre of jakku

By the time they landed on the notorious wasteland of Jakku, it was night.

The sky was clear as day. Most of the fires put up by the villagers were put out already, so the only light that shone dimly across the desolate village was reflected by the stars. Cass stared up at the constellations, BB8 whirring beside her, as Poe entered the shack that Lor-San Tekka called home. When the pilot was gone, BB8 beeped accusingly at her. Cass laughed breathily, focusing on the darkening horizon ahead.

"I know I should have asked him first. But I didn't—what were the chances of him agreeing anyway?"

BB8 let out another series of beeps again. Cass glanced at the unusually brassy droid, half-amused by what she had heard. "He ranted to you about me asking to go on the mission with him?" when BB8 bobbed up and down in a nod, she chuckled. "Always knew he had the diva inside of him."

  The atmosphere stilled when a trio of lights—too bright to be stars—neared Jakku. BB8 whirred a little more after a moment of scanning the source of the light, before hurriedly rolling off towards the shack Poe and Lor-San Tekka were in. Cass followed, breaking into a run as BB8 accelerates abruptly.

  The pair crashed through the curtain of bamboo hung by the door. BB8 started beeping rapidly, and Poe glanced over at Cass, who nodded—a single gesture of affirmation that told him the First Order had come. The pilot turned to Lor San Tekka. "You need to hide."

  Lor San Tekka locked worried eyes with Poe. "You need to leave." his gaze latched with Cass's, before moving down to the lightsaber holstered at her waist. "She needs to leave."

Poe nodded curtly, before grabbing her hand and running out of the home, BB8 rolling furiously behind them.

Jakku had become a site of genocide. The villagers had awoken at the first few blaster shots, and had started firing their own weapons. Several stormtroopers had fallen already, pure white uniform tainted with ruby red bloodstains. Many of the villagers were wounded as well—mainly the children who could not keep up, and the young men who had been shot down by the blasters of the stormtroopers.

Poe was still sprinting towards the X-Wing, occasionally turning around to fire a few shots at the stormtroopers. Cass turned around just in time to see the shot of Poe's blaster whiz by her ear and collide with a stormtrooper's chest.

They climbed into the X-Wing, BB8 being lifted up by the mechanical crane. But the noise of the engine starting had been too loud, for within a few seconds, the stormtroopers noticed their attempt at leaving the planet, and blasted the motor. A shower of amber sparks rained down on the sand, the engine blown to pieces. Cass jumped out and lifted her blaster, her deadly aim hitting stormtroopers each time as she shielded Poe and BB8 from the shots that were fired at her.

Poe knelt down behind her and opened BB8's secret little compartment, slotting in the map to Luke Skywalker and whispering, "This is safer with you than with me." after which he glanced up at Cass, who was still fearless shooting at the several stormtroopers that had surrounded them. The compartment slid shut again, and BB8 let out a sad, but firm nod.

A stormtrooper fired a shot just as another did, and while she managed to duck one, the other collided with her shoulder, leaving a burn mark. Cass winced, but ignored the searing pain that was slowly spreading throughout her arm, shooting down the last few stormtroopers who had clustered around the flaming plane behind her. A quiet groan left her lips as she sank to the ground, the excruciating pain turning into a fire that had ignited on the left side of her body.