STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS (Rewrite Fanfiction)

Chapter 2: Innocence

By Rey's estimate the star destroyer had been abandoned for at least thirty years. Most of the good stuff had already been taken by other scavengers that came before but with a ship this large there was always bound to be something she could sell or use. 

Scavenging was the only life Rey knew. She had been left as an infant just outside a trading outpost, one of only a handful of settlements to be found in the vast Jakku wasteland. A few scavengers had raised out of pity her till she was seven when she was old enough to fend for herself, at least by their standards. 

Sometimes when she found time to climb up to the ship's bridge, Rey would pretend to be an imperial officer giving orders. She would re-enact what might have happened during the battle that brought down the mighty star destroyer. Likely a rebel cruiser had blown through its armor using turbo-lasers. Just about all the weapons on board the craft, whether ship mounted or handheld had been taken and sold. Occasionally Rey would find some blaster cells for stormtrooper rifles. No one ever took the stormtrooper armor since only a fool would wear The Empire's uniform for themselves. Rey however found some use for them, breaking down the armor pieces and re-purposing the material as she saw fit.

Satisfied with the parts she had collected, Rey climbed through a large hole in the hull and slid down the sand hill, using a piece of debris like a sleigh. It seemed to Rey that she was destined to be going through the trash of the desert till the end of her time. 

"Maybe we should change it up a little Rey," she thought to herself. "We'll go for the fighter we spotted farther from here."

She sold the parts for a satisfactory sum at the local trade post. After so many years she had earned enough respect as a survivor of the wasteland and a fighter to not be swindled at the scrap shop.

Dinner back home was the usual dried jerky and bread. Ten years ago Rey dug out an abandoned imperial walker, a perfectly good AT-AT that had fallen on its side. It's interior had been her home ever since. In the Jakku wasteland it was everyone for themselves. It was simply the way it had always been. To keep herself from feeling lonely Rey kept herself busy, always tinkering, repairing, scavenging, or sleeping. Anything to keep her mind from filling with unnecessary thoughts. In the past she would cry herself to sleep at the thought of being stuck in the endless stretches of sand for the rest of her life. But she was young, healthy, and still capable. Rey had made her peace with that. Many settlements had gotten themselves in a bind resisting the First Order. Rey often considered joining them. Perhaps she would die a heroic death like the ones that perished in the last major battle of Jakku. 

Rey chuckled to herself before biting into her bread. "What could the First Order want out here?" Rey thought. "This whole planet isn't worth the effort."

When she had finished her meal she dimmed the lights and tucked herself into her imperial  army sleeping bag. 

"Just be glad your far away from the fighting Rey," she thought before drifting off into a deep slumber.