Star Wars VII - Revised and Redacted

Chapter 04: The Swamp

Author's Note: Here's where Finn rescues Poe. The original seemed slightly odd in that Finn was heavily bothered by the death of a fellow trooper to the point of abandoning the First Order, but he immediately turns around and starts killing his fellow troopers to escape. For a guy who doesn't want to fight and kill, he was sure quick to fight and kill. Time to change that.

I couldn't write the actual escape as it was too similar to the original, so this chapter picks up after they've gotten away from the Star Destroyer and crashed on Jakku.

There has been criticism about planets in the Star Wars universe being all one type of environment such as ice, forest, city, desert, swamp, or salt. The planets should have variations due to the tilt of the axis, rotation around the sun or suns, tidal effects of moons or the lack thereof, and a host of other factors, so when Finn and Poe crash, it's in a swamp and not a worldwide desert. I saw no reason for them to be separated, so I kept them together for the journey to the starport, and this is how it went...

"Finn. Wake up, buddy," said a voice, but it was muffled and distant. A hand took hold of Finn's shoulder and shook him slightly. "A search party is sure to be here, so we need to leave."

"What?" Finn mumbled groggily as he returned to full consciousness. Looking around, he discovered he was lying on his back near the crashed fighter. Poe was kneeling beside him in the mud of the swamp where they'd ended up.

"Still alive I see," Poe observed with a grin. "Good. I didn't want to carry you."

"Where are we?" Finn asked as Poe helped him back to his feet.

"A swamp from the looks of it," Poe said, stating the obvious. He pointed through the thick trees. "I noticed a settlement some distance in that direction. We should be able to reach it, but if you don't want to be immediately noticeable to everyone, you'll need to lose that armor."

"Yeah," Finn agreed. He took off the exterior white armor covering his black under suit, dropping the plates in the water at the base of the trees, and they sank, vanishing from view.

"Here, try this," Poe offered, handing over his flight jacket.

"No. I couldn't," Finn denied. "I'm not a member of the Republic."

"Not yet," Poe agreed. "But, it will do for now. Let's get out of here."

The swamp had little in the way of solid ground as the majority was inundated by water. Many of the trees had the base of their trunks submerged in the countless lakes covering the landscape. What ground did exist was soft and muddy, making footing unsteady and threatening to sink the travelers up to the their ankles in mud.

"So tell me," Poe began. "What's the deal with your aim? You managed to shoot a missile and a turbolaser turret, but in the bay, you couldn't hit a thing and missed every stormtrooper you shot at."

"I wasn't trying to hit them," Finn admitted.

"Why not?" Poe asked. "They were shooting at us."

"Do you know how the First Order gets their troops?" Finn questioned.

"I'd heard they raise them from birth to be the perfect soldiers," Poe answered.

"Not all of us," Finn denied. "Some come from border raids with the Republic. I lived in a small village on a world in the Outer Rim. The First Order came when I was very little. They killed everyone who resisted, rounded up those they wanted for their army, and then slaughtered everyone who was left."

Finn paused and turned to look at Poe.

"The raid where you were captured reminded me of the death of my village, the day I was captured and pressed into service," Finn explained. "I had only one friend during those years of training, and he died during the Jakku raid. When they ordered the people killed, I couldn't bring myself to do it."

"So that's why you didn't shoot the stormtoopers either," Poe concluded. "You were wondering how many were like you, ripped from their homes and forced to fight and die for the Order."

"Yeah," Finn confirmed. He started walking again.

"Unfortunately, we're at war," Poe lamented. "As much as you don't want to fight and kill them, you may have to in order to survive."

"I know," Finn admitted in a solemn whisper.

Poe and Finn looked to the skies while ducking down as a pair of TIE fighters screamed past over the canopy of trees.

"Looks like they're heading for the crash," Poe commented.

"I hope that settlement you saw is close," Finn said.

"It will take them time to search the wreck before they find out we're not there," Poe stated. "It gives us a slim advantage, so let's move."

The two of them adopted a faster pace; it wasn't easy through the sinking mud, but the knowledge of the search teams' arrival urged them on.