Danger Zone

Chapter 7: Shields and Rescue

All throughout our travel to Starkiller Base, my palms are sweaty and both my head and heart pound in worry. Whatever Han is thinking of getting us past the shield around our enemy's Base doesn't sound like a good idea, yet that's not what is troubling me. Instead, it's the infiltrating. It's millions of them against the four of us if we're discovered. Yes the odds are always against the Resistance and Poe and I have been worse situations, but this particular mission most likely has one element that I have never faced before; the Dark Sider, the Knight of Ren, the son of our one and only General Leia Organa and the pilot of the Millennium Falcon Han Solo....Kylo Ren.

It makes sense that he'll be there, if he is. After all, from Han and Finn's accounts, Kylo is the one who had captured the girl and, according to Finn, bought her here. I don't think I'm ready to face Ren; not after what he had done to my brother. But, to ease my mind, I focus on the low possibility of running into him on a Base as expansive as the First Order's....but deep in the back of my mind, I have a bad feeling about this.

A sudden jolt and the sound of a slight argument snaps me back to the present where Han, Chewbacca, Finn and I have literally just come out of hyperspace....and almost crashed into the planet's surface. We literally cut through the trees after avoiding one crashlanding, but the momentum of breaking through the thick trunks of the closely packed trees has us unable to escape pummelling into the snow and skidding to an abrupt stop. Sighing softly and shaking my head slightly, I stand from my seat and start heading out; the pilot, Wookie co-pilot and ex-Stormtrooper shuffling behind in a bit of an irritable silence.

I can feel the low temperatures chilling me down to my bones despite the warm clothes I'm wearing. The four of us have been ploughing through the ankle-high, dense snow for a few minutes before reaching a side of the location we are heading. Even though there are oddly no guards in sight, we conceal ourselves behind a steel wall to figure out a plan.

"The flooding tunnels are over that ridge there. We can get in through there," Finn informs, all four of us peeking round the corner at the ridge.

The flooding tunnels? Like where the waste comes out or something?

Before I can voice my thoughts, Solo asks with a bit of suspicious confusion "Out of curiosity, what was your job whilst you were based here?"

Finn hesitates and I sense that he feels like he has just gotten caught something that he shouldn't be doing. "Sanitation," he finally admits.

A small pause later, Han pins the ex-Stormtrooper against the metal wall and interrogates with annoyance "Sanitation? Then how do you know how to disable the shields? Do you even know how to disable the shields?"

"Han, calm down. We'll --" I start, looking calmly at the smuggler hero.

"Look. I don't know how to disable the shields. I'm here to get Rey," our pinned ally responds to the provocative queries with level-headed clarity.

Han Solo lets go of Finn, emphasising "The Resistance are counting on us. The New Republic are counting on us. The galaxy is counting on us."

"Solo, chill it! We'll figure something out, you just gotta be patient," I snap a little, getting annoyed by the testosterone battle.

All three men, Wookie and human alike, look at me in surprise. My face plastered with a hint of my own irritation, I raise my eyebrows at the two that were kind of arguing. They look at each other while Chewbacca mutters something. I barely know how to understand Wookies, but from my basic knowledge I can tell that Chewie's comment is something along the lines of either not expecting me to snap or being proud of another female standing her ground.