Star Wars: A Resistance Story. Book 2

Chapter 3: Jakku.

"Warn Poe! Warn Poe! Warn Poe!"

BB8 was beeping madly as he was rolling as fast as he could despite the sand, the rocks and his little round body. Poe and the little droid had landed on Jakku few hours before the Sunset and the Commander of the Resistance gave him a simple instruction: keep watch and warn him in case any problem would appear. The human left to meet an old man, leaving the droid alone and kind of frustrated. He had already proved several times that he was able to do more than a simple droid, with Ly'ra but also with Dameron. But for this mission, Poe decided to give him just a little part, a part that was, in the end, much more useful than it seemed. BB8 finally reached the old man's hut and warned his new owner with several panicked beeps.

"We've got company."

Poe quickly stood up and left the hut before checking through his binoculars. Several First Order's ships appeared. A lot of them. Somehow, they found out that the map was brought here and they were coming to take it back.

"You have to hide."

"You have to leave."

Poe turned to face Lor San Tekka. He knew he was right. The map was more important than anything else right now, and Dameron knew he couldn't afford to lose it. He gestured to BB8 and quickly headed towards his X-Wing, that was waiting few feet away from here. As soon as the first ships landed, Stormtroopers stepped out and started shooting. Poe took this opportunity to reach his Fighter quicker.

"Come on BB8, hurry!"

The little droid answered with a quick beep, already at his spot under the ship, ready to be pulled up inside. The pilot jumped in the cockpit and put on his helmet. The engines of the X-Wing roared but the droid noticed a group of Stormtroopers coming in their way. They saw them! Before the pilot could react, the back of their ship was hit.

"I see 'em!"

Dameron changed the position of his canon and shot the soldiers before leaving his ship and quickly checked the damages. Unfortunately, he found out that they would not be able to take off and his droid would not have any time to fix it. They needed a plan B and quicker than that. BB8 followed his human's gaze towards Lor San Tekka's village. People were being arrested, one after another, their belongings destroyed or burnt. The pilot stepped back before kneeling in front of the little droid. He took out from a little bag an object just big enough to be hidden in the round body of BB8: the map.

"You take this. It's safer with you than it is with me. You get as far away from as you can! Do you hear me?"

Worry was not something a droid could feel. But when Poe gave him the map, BB8 thought he was actually feeling nervous. The human was sacrifying himself so he could hide this object or at least getting it as far from the First Order as possible. It was an important and dangerous mission, but suddenly, he wasn't so sure he wanted to do it alone. Poe must have felt the hesitation of BB8 as he added:

"I'll come back for you! You'll be alright!"

And with these words, the pilot stepped away, leaving BB8 alone. The little droid hesitated few more seconds, but he was given a very important mission; so he turned his little round body and rolled away as fast as possible towards the desert. He could hear Poe who was shooting at the Stormtroopers to cover him but quickly, the sounds of the battle trailed away. Just before they totally stopped, BB8 saw a black ship arriving above the village. From his database, he understood that it was Kylo Ren's ship. It was a very bad sign and he started hoping that Poe could hide without being arrested. A second later, he didn't receive anything anymore and he slowed down his race but he was surprised by an explosion. He turned around and quickly scanned the remains that were falling around. They were fragments of the X-Wing in which they arrived on Jakku with Poe. The pilot had been arrested, or worse, killed. As he understood he was now alone, BB8 let out a long and sad beep before turning and going on rolling across the desert. He would need a way to leave this planet and go back to the Resistance by himself.

It was really dark and the droid was making a list of the various options he had. His battery was almost full, so no worry from that point. He still had few times before the First Order understood that Poe and Lor San Tekka didn't have the map anymore. They would then scan the surroundings and they would find out that an astromech droid had escaped from the village. But then, they would need to find which type he was and where he went. So, he estimated his advance as several hours, maybe a day. His battery could hold on all this time. According to his scans, he knew there was a little city few miles away from his position. Luckily, he would be able to contact the Resistance or Ly'ra who could come to pick him up. He was missing the young human. It probably was thanks to his former owner that he had extraordinary capacities for a droid. With her friend, the technician, she had hacked BB8's microprocessor and had added datas and programs as steering and a lot of other things. If it was possible for a droid, he hoped to see her again soon and that, this time, she would stay, for him and for the human Dameron. BB8 had had a lot of owners, but Ly'ra and Poe was surely the best. He liked them as possible it could be for a little robot like him.

On his side, Poe started to have a feeling of Déjà-Vu. He had been arrested by Stormtroopers, taken aboard a First Order's ship on a military base before being enchained and soon, tortured. Yep... It all seemed familiar... Led by the Stormtroopers across the various corridors of the base, the Commander of the Resistance was vainly trying to find a way to escape as soon as he would have the opportunity. But it wouldn't be for now, it seemed. As the group turned to take another corridor, the prisoner saw a familiar face.

"And I find you again..."

"General Hux! Well... I could say I'm happy to see you but it would be a total lie."

A small smirk appeared on Hux's face. It had been months that he was trying all the possible ways to to find this muckworm and his ex fiancée. One on two would be good though.

"Ly'ra says Hi and... By the way, how Mummy Hux is doing?"

The General couldn't hold back himself. He sent his fist in the pilot's jaw, and Dameron would have fall on the ground if he wasn't held by the soldiers.

"Take him away!"

Okay, so the day wasn't really going the way it was supposed to, but Poe couldn't hold back a satisfied smile. He pissed off a High member of the First Order. It already was a victory.