Chapter 45: Apostate

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Chapter 45: Apostate

Rey's men were skittish enough as it was when they landed on the forest moon Dxun, and the raging thunderstorm was doing nothing to comfort them. It had been a rough re-entry, as their transport had been hit by enemy fire, and it was by the sheer skill of their pilot that they had landed safely at all. It was clear to Rey that the Resistance outpost was in all likelihood already overrun, or else very near to it.

The space battle overhead was a rough one indeed, and though the Finalizer was not among enemy ships, Rey did not take this to mean that Ben would not be on the moon.

"Cap?"

Rey snapped her gaze to the soldier that had called her, a small frown still on her forehead.

It was Rem, her tracker for the day.

At least that man was one of the few people in her squad who didn't look at her like she was doom incarnate, and it made her incredibly happy to see him back on his feet and rearing to go.

He was looking at her with a kind face that bore a questioning expression. Unlike most of the others, Rem was excited, even with the raindrops pelting his face and rolling down his cheeks.

"Right," Rey cleared her throat, "Listen up everyone, since we're a ways from our target we're going to need to change our plans a bit. The enemy has pushed their lines further in than we projected, so I'm going to need two scouts to power up their stealth units and check the path that Rem here-" She gestured at him and his navigational gear while two of her scouts stepped forward. One was begrudging, and the other had pushed him. Rey elected to ignore that, "-will provide. Preferably one that keeps us out of any ambush spots or open air."

Rey said that last part to Rem, and he nodded while tapping on his datapad.

As he was busy, Rey flicked her gaze over all the soldiers who were scrapping the downed transport for essentials, or simply waiting for command. The rain beat down on them, and they were all rather soaked already. About a third of them looked either indifferent, or fairly at ease. The rest were a foreboding mix of frustrated, disgruntled, downcast, or plain resentful. Pushing her own hurt at the hostility aside, Rey only hoped that it wouldn't cause any issues resulting in unnecessary death. Losing her men was simply not an option.

Rem pulled up a holo of the path he had mapped, and transferred it to the scouts.

It reassured her to know that somewhere in that mess of blue signifying forest, Finn and Myri were in a squad together, and looking out for each other. Also drenched. Rey knew that Luke was on the moon as well, having been joining more and more fights while she was out scouring wild space and mostly unmapped planets. That, however, only served to make her heart clench. She missed him. Despite their disagreements, Rey knew they had shared many good moments, and while he would never really be a father figure or true master to her, Luke had still taken a place in her heart as a guardian. The few flashes of her younger years had only amplified that fact, even though she had ignored it at the time.

Rey knew that while she and Luke may never really agree on most things, she still cared for him as her guardian and friend. She was reluctantly aware of how deeply he cared for her. Why else react to her decisions so? Naturally he feared her fall. He had loved his nephew, and as far as Rey knew, she acted a lot like Ben did before he deserted Yavin Four. To Luke, he was watching history repeat itself, and was most likely too scared to want to invest himself further, lest she dissent too.

No matter, Rey would show him that she was not going to, but she knew she would have to talk to him first. So much had gone unsaid and open-ended where her training was concerned, she needed to let him know her decision and her stance. Luke would appreciate it.

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