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Suddenly, the First Order seemed to have caught the gist of what the Resistance was attempting to pull off. Their enormous ships began firing at the small transports and all the pilots began to panic. They had no shields and no weapons to defend themselves with. Plus, there transports weren't exactly fast ships. "Full speed to planetfall! Full speed!" Celestia frantically ordered her fellow pilots as a few of them were being taken out in the small fleet.
They hurried to the Rebel base, losing a few more transports on the way. They quickly landed and sought refuge in the hideout, sparing them enough time to seal themselves in as the First Order came flying in right behind them.
The planet was covered in a thin white salt and a lot of red soil beneath it, almost mimicking a layer of snow. Small creatures that blended in with the white salt—which resembled foxes—infested the planet and the abandoned base as well. They were curious little things, seemingly alone on the mineral planet.
First Order fighters began zooming in toward the base, firing at the shutting door. As the door was slowly creaking closed, one of the First Order fighters came frantically flying toward the base. Celestia's breath hitched in her throat as she saw the fighter fly closer and closer to the base that seemed to be taking an eternity to seal shut. By the time the fighter reached the door, it slid right under what little space the door left and crash landed inside the base.
Suddenly, the door finally completely shut. The other First Order fighters that were kept out began to shoot blasters toward the enormous metal door. Every soldier in the Resistance inside the base drew their blasters and pointed it at the first order ship that had just invaded them. Suddenly, two pairs of hands popped out from the top of the ship, raised in surrender. "Wait! Don't shoot!" Celestia heard the voices of Finn and Rose call out.
"Relax! They're allies." Cel lowered her blaster and the dozens of other soldiers followed pursuit.
Slowly, Finn and Rose's heads appeared at the top of the fighter they had flown in on. They must've stolen it on their way back from the First Order dreadnoughts. "Finn!" Celestia heard Poe shout from amongst the various Resistance soldiers in the base. "Rose! You're not dead!" Poe smiled widely at the sight of his friends alive and well. "Where's my droid?" As if on cue, the door to the first order ship opened up on its side and BB-8 came rolling out. Poe sprinted over to greet his droid.
* * *
Poe seemed to have been promoted back to his original position as Commander by Leia now that they were locked up in the base, unable to flee their enemy that lurked right outside. Poe was giving orders to various Resistance leaders to get on sending distress signals to their allies all the way out in the Outer Rim. Apparently, the First Order had some pretty heavy artillery outside their door and the Resistance had crap for ships and weapons. The enemy's weapons were very capable of cracking open the door to the base they sought refuge in, leaving every very worried. There didn't seem to be another way out of the base other than the front door.
So, they sent out the distress signal, had hope and began to buy time by sending out what few soldiers they had to the trenches. The pilots of the Resistance were sent out on rusty old speeders to distract the enemy and try to take out that miniaturized Death Star canon that could crack open their sealed base, which was essentially a mine sealed by an enormous door. The speeders were confronted by enemy fighters, but, managed to hold them off by dodging their blasters for a bit. Rey and Chewie showed up just in time to return on the Millennium Falcon to take out some of the fighters in the sky. In addition, she proved to be a grand distraction to draw all the enemy fighters away—the First Order seemed to despise that ship as they used all their forces to chase it down.
The resistance pilots on the speeders continued to glide directly toward the canon, taking a few losses on the way. The canon was charged up before they could get to it, though. Poe instructed them to retreat, but Finn did not listen. He pressed on to destroy the canon that was beginning to blast its power at the door to the base. It was a suicide run, but, fortunately, Rose saved him by knocking his speeder off course and pulling him away from performing the stunt that would've killed him.
Everyone else retreated back into the base, as the canon managed to crack open the door. The First Order began to advance on the base, ready to kill all that remained. The distress signal they had sent had been received, but there was no response. Hope had been lost. "They've heard us, they've had to heard us, at least." Celestia's eyes flickered across the screen over and over again. All the messages had been delivered and listened to by at least one person.
Leia stood beside Celestia and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We fought until the end. But the galaxy has lost all its hope. The spark is out." Leia mournfully looked down to the ground.
Just when they thought all hope was lost, a hooded figure from the shadows came creeping out. Leia's heart fluttered as the man's face was revealed by the divulging light. It was the Luke Skywalker. She looked up at him in astonishment, unsure if she was dreaming. "Luke." She whispered up to the brother she shared a womb with.
"Leia," Luke took a deep breath, "I'm sorry."
Celestia's jaw was dropped open. She knew the man was alive, but he had been such a mythically spoken of figure that she was beginning to believe he was made up. She couldn't help but to gawk as she saw the man in the living flesh. "I'm sorry to intrude..." Celestia coughed, interrupting the reunion between the siblings, "but, how did you get in here?"
She needed to know, so they could escape however he managed to creep in. Luke turned his head around to face her, and shot her a small smile. "Follow the creatures of this planet." He spoke cryptically, then left them to go—seemingly—sacrifice himself for the Resistance as he faced Kylo Ren who was hidden within one of those First Order AT-ATs.
"The creatures of this planet?" Celestia mumbled to herself.
"The Vulptices, the little foxes we saw when we first landed." Leia elaborated for her.
Celestia looked around the base and noticed the hundreds of Vulptices had disappeared. They must've found an escape elsewhere in the base. She scurried around the walls of the base, until she spotted one Vulptex looking at Celestia with its head cocked. She chased after it and followed it out through a tunnel hidden deep in the mines. It led upward and out of the base, behind the mountain in which the min was burrowed in. This would allow for an easy escape without the First Order spotting them as they were on the other side of the mountain.
"Over here!" Celestia shouted as she spotted the light of day. Many soldiers hurried over and began squeezing between the boulders that lined the tunnel out of the mine.
When she reached the outside, there stood a young girl with the Millennium Falcon stationed right behind her. "You must be Rey." Celestia smiled, almost grateful to see a face that didn't belong to an enemy awaiting her outside of the base.
Rey nodded after her. "I've heard much about you. You don't know how happy I am to see your face." Celestia sighed out in relief.
What was left of the Resistance was salvaged and managed to escape without being tracked, followed or harmed off of Crait. The Resistance moved on to a new base, one where they would not be found and could restore and reheat their army to battle against the First Order once again.
