Star Wars: Duel of the Fates

Chapter 7

The Resistance Starcruiser was orbiting one of Onderon's moons, Evas. The only thing of note about it was its incredibly strong magnetic field, which meant that if your trajectory was just right a vessel could arrive through lightspeed undetected.

In the landing bay Beaumont clicked a button on the wall to activate the com, "That's the last of the transports, closing bay doors now."

On the cruisers bridge Commander D'Arcy walked briskly towards the viewport, "Are the autocannons primed?"

"Primed and ready," an operator sat at a control panel said.

"Bring us out from behind Evas and target the base," Commander D'Arcy ordered.

The cruiser moved sluggishly at first before turning about. Its front tip broke out from the edge of the moon, drawing within range of the planet.

Commander D'Arcy walked towards General Leia. They exchanged a nod.

"Fire," Commander D'Arcy said.

Deep below them the autocannons moved to point directly towards Base Seven. A sequence of four huge, red molten energy spheres shot from the two cannons, leaving red streaked trails in their wake. They arced before entering the atmosphere, falling through the sky and colliding with the very centre of the base. Fire violently erupted out from the collision points as the building was blown to atoms and the outer walls were scattered into the jungle.

"Base destroyed," the operator said.

"Plot a course to the Verig system and jump to lightspeed," Commander D'Arcy replied.

Buttons and dials were adjusted, causing the familiar sound of the engines preparing themselves.

The individual stars changed from single dots to long white streaks centred around a dark spot. The cruiser was still for a moment and then shot into the crinkled bright blue currents of lightspeed.

Back inside every transport in the landing bay, small holographic projectors were activated at the front of each ship's deck to reveal Finn.

The closely packed children and teenagers exchanged confused glances as his message started.

"Some of you may know who I am," he began, "some of you may not. I was FN-2187 and a stormtrooper in the First Order. Like you I was stolen from my family as a child and trained to be a soldier to fight in their war. They took everything from us: our childhoods, even our names.

"On my very first mission I was ordered to fire on unarmed civilians: men, women and children. I could not and did not follow that order. After a very complicated series of events I joined the Resistance.

"You're on a Starcruiser where we'll help you to find your lost families. For those of you unable to, we'll find you a new home.

"I won't lie the transition has its...challenges but any free day is better than a thousand under the boot of the First Order. Today it's your turn: you can choose who you fight for, what you fight for," he paused, "May the force be with you."

Beaumont and several others monitored their varied reactions from outside the transports.

"Get the children in grey and the red out first," Beaumont said, "Make sure it's quick; I don't like the look of how some of the older children are taking this."

Inside one of the transports, the children in stormtrooper armour with blue arm guards were muttering angrily.

"It's a lie," one boy said loudly, "this must be a trick...a test."

"I recognise his face from security reports. That is him," a girl replied, "I think this is real."

"I fight for the First Order," he snapped, "We all do. They gave us purpose, a cause. We bring order to the galaxy."