17 || escaping the first order

"NICE SHOT!"

JAKKU, WESTERN REACHES, INNER RIM-

"Stay low!"

The ship, which was already halfway out of blasting into the next system, took a sudden dip when Rey had heard Finn yell that message, the girl yanking the controls stick sharply. The sudden lurch made BB-8 screech in the back, the sounds of him screaming obvious as the ship fell.

"Shit!" Kyra yelled, barely hearing Finn's call over the communications system as the ship leaned left heavily for a moment, barely keeping itself in the sky. "What the hell were you thinking, Rey?!" She questioned, trying to work in cohesion with the girl that was trying to do anything and everything at once inside of the ship.

"I was thinking that I was trying to listen to what Finn said about the First Order! You said you worked inside of there, how come you didn't know that information about the trackers in the stormtrooper's ships?!" Rey fired back, gritting her teeth as she tried to pull away from the sand dunes that were threatening to knock them out entirely.

Suddenly, two TIE fighters came rushing at them from the front, green blasters almost obscuring Rey and Kyra's point of view. Kyra watched as she saw Rey instinctively duck, nervous at the First Order ships that were going to inevitably come back around and start firing towards them.

"I was a mission runner on the ground, not a pilot!" Kyra yelled back, trying to push the buttons that would allow the shields to be raised. If they were going to make it off of this planet in one piece, it would help if they had a little bit of coverage on the ship itself.

Hearing the faint sound of TIE fighters circle back around and come back towards their rear, Kyra looked back at where BB-8 was still cabled into the wall, holding on for dear life. "Finn, if you're going to do something, now would be the time to start doing it!" Kyra exclaimed, her eyes quickly turning back around to focus on the space in front of her.

"I'm working on it!" Finn exclaimed, a jostled yelp coming from him as he tried to focus on how exactly the aiming system worked. "It's not the easiest thing in the world! The damn chair moves!" He groaned, almost getting sick with how sharply the machine moved. "Have you gotten the shields up yet?"

"Yes, but it's not going to give us a lot of coverage for very long!" Rey warned the young man in the gunner position, seeing a nod of confirmation from Kyra to reaffirm that fact. "That means you gotta start firing back, and fast!"

The ship then swerved sharply to the right a little bit, Rey giving a surprised yelp as she accidentally jerked the controls a little bit too far. There was another screech from BB-8, which made the girl's expression mold into a wince. "Sorry about that!" She exclaimed, trying to weave her way around the sand dunes to evade the two First Order ships on her trail.

"We need cover, and fast." Kyra muttered to her fellow pilot, seeing small bursts of red come up on the radar, indicating that Finn had finally learned how the system had worked. "These TIE fighters are staying hot on our trail. The easiest way to get rid of them will be to shake 'em."

"Well, we're about to get some." Rey muttered, pressing countless buttons in front of her in an attempt to make her piloting a little bit better. She had never flown a ship of this magnitude, and it was a lot to process all at once. "I hope." She whispered, her eyes falling upon the wreckage of the Star Destroyers from the Battle of Jakku that they were coming close to.

"Are you serious about this?!" Finn yelled, feeling the ship turn towards the huge broken front of the Star Destroyer. They had entered a ship graveyard, and the only way that they were going to find cover inside of this place by going through and into the ships that were left behind. "We're really doing this?" He asked, in a form of disbelief as the ship charged towards the wreckage of the Empire ship.

"If you start making shots, it's going to make all of our lives a hell of a lot easier!" Kyra snapped back, her patience starting to wear a little thin. To be frank, she had experienced the shittiest day of her life, going from being interrogated by Kylo Ren to crashing down onto Jakku and losing Poe, and then getting chased down by the First Order again. "Rey, I don't care what it takes. Get us that cover. Now."

"On it!" Rey agreed, making a hard left turn into the wreckage, the TIE fighters now firing at the three again, finally recognizing what they were attempting to do. She yelped again, tucking her head in as the blasts got closer and closer, trying her hardest to continue to keep her eyes on the path in front of her.

Green blasts of light echoed against the grey ruins of the Star Destroyer, pieces of the old ship falling to ruin from the missed blasts of the First Order ships. The ship kept weaving its way through the wreckage of the Star Destroyer ship, pieces of it jutting out from the sand dunes inside of the ground. The trio seemed to barely be escaping the hold of the blasts, and Kyra wasn't sure how long their luck was going to last at this point.

She could hear a frustrated groan from the back, Finn not doing so well inside of the gunner's seat. At this point, Kyra was almost positive that she would've done better in his position. There was a moment that she saw the wreckage coming in front of them, and Kyra knew that this wasn't going to be an easy maneuver. "Rey, what do you need me to do?" She asked, seeing the wreckage coming up closer and closer.

"Help me bank left.... Now!" Rey responded, feeling the ship lurch as she and Kyra collectively helped the ship dodge the huge piece of a Star Destroyer ship that they had found within the ship graveyard. At this point, the two women were feeling a little bit nervous about the whole idea of being inside of the dead battlefield, but it was a little too late to change courses now.

Luckily for them, there was a yelp of excitement from the gunner position, Finn cheering loudly as they banked hard to the left. Kyra knew that cheer. That meant that Finn had hit one of the TIE fighters. Which was good, it meant that there was one less problem that they currently had to worry about.

"Nice shot!" Rey exclaimed, the both of them giving a small sigh of relief knowing that cover was soon coming, and that one ship was easier to shake off than two were. Her head turned to look at BB-8, who was still cabled into the walls. "You doing okay, BB-8?"

You two need to straighten out your flying. The droid groaned, his little head going a little bit dizzy from all of the turns and flips that the ship had been doing. You guys are worse than when Poe does fancy flying with the Resistance.

Suddenly, a blaring alarm kicked Kyra back into action from where she was listening to the droid, a screen on her side of the ship indicating that something had happened to the gun in the back. "Finn's gun's stuck in the forward position!" She hollered out, getting a holler of confirmation from Finn in the back. "It's up to us to shake them, unless you've got any fancy flying tricks up your sleeves, kid."

"Get ready!" Rey yelled to both Kyra and Finn, a warning as she stared straight at the dead engines of a Star Destroyer ship. If she needed to shake this last TIE fighter, she knew exactly the way that she was going to go about it.

The ship started to weave through more areas of debris, rotating all the way to the right as they dodged a piece of an old Star Destroyer cannon. Arriving in front of the huge engine of the old Empire ship, Rey swerved the entire ship around clockwise, blasting the three of them into the interior of the old ship.

"That was... not what I expected, but I can go with it." Kyra muttered, starting to flip and adjust switches on her side of the ship. The two of them had to adapt to their new surroundings and fast if they were going to survive this wreckage.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Finn exclaimed, seeing the shadows of the Star Destroyer ship start to pass by his small gunner window. He reechoed his sentiment from earlier, still unsure about the fact that they were in a ship graveyard. "Are we really doing this?"

Explosion after explosion kept occuring in front of the two co-pilots, both of them letting out a large yelp as they almost hit the left side of the interior of the ship. There was no room for error inside of the wreckage, and one small move could kill the both of them.

"Oh no." Rey muttered, seeing an end to the corridor in the Star Destroyer that they were in. They were going to have to make a quick escape out of there. Hurriedly pressing buttons, the girl waited until the very last second to turn right out of the ship, an open and crumbling space in the ship allowing them to make a hasty escape.

"Kill the power!" Kyra exclaimed, feeling them dip. If Finn's cannon was stuck in the forward position, they might as well let him try and get a shot off even if it meant they were about to almost go into freefall. "If we can get Finn this shot, we can get the hell out of here!"

There was a hum in response to Kyra's command, feeling them lurch down towards the ground. It seemed as if all of them were on the same page, Finn quickly recognizing what the two were doing for him. He intensely watched the screen that would help him aim, pressing the two buttons to let him fire when he heard the beeping screaming at him to shoot.

The sound of an explosion rattled through the ship, and Rey immediately turned the power back on in the ship, narrowly missing the ground as the TIE fighter trailing them became a part of the wreckage inside of the ship graveyard. An elated whoop from Finn and a breath of relief from Kyra was all that could be heard as Rey started to pilot them out of the atmosphere of Jakku, the bright blue sky giving way to the deep purples and blues that almost formed a black against the stars of the galaxy.

Kyra sat in silence for a moment, hearing Rey excitedly unbuckle her seatbelt to rush back to greet Finn. The way that the two of them talked about the flying and nicely timed shots brought a sense of elation to Kyra as she just stared at the stars, soaking in the first moment in which she was truly free from the First Order and happy.

There was no more worrying about what mission she would have to go on next, which person would be caught in the crossfire of the unnecessary fight that she had been suckered into, no worry about being found out by the First Order as a spy for the Resistance.

There was just Kyra and all of the galaxy ahead of her.

There was a few seconds more of Kyra's private moment to herself before she heard BB-8 roll up beside her, looking at her with a sense of sadness and admiration. You finally did it. He chirped happily for her, nudging her leg with a little happiness as he did so. You escaped the First Order.

"Not without some tough sacrifices along the way." There was sadness in the both of their eyes as she spoke that sentence, the two of them knowing the sacrifice that Poe had made for them. "I was going to go back and look for him, but-"

He would've wanted you to get back to the Resistance even if it meant that he didn't get back. Contrary to popular belief, I really do think that he really liked you. He would've wanted this situation to happen instead of the opposite. BB-8 pointed out to Kyra, seeing the young woman's face fall into a soft smile as she looked down at the droid. Besides, now I get to have you hang out with me. You're a much better conversationalist than Poe was at some times.

"I'm sure that isn't true." Kyra chuckled, staring out at all of the stars. She wanted to savor the few seconds she had left a little bit longer before she got into the business of what she had given BB-8 a few days before. "Although I know what you're up here asking about, BB."

The information you gave me. I still have it. BB-8 started, seeing a serious look fall upon Kyra's face. What does it all mean? What exactly did you give me that is going to help the Resistance take down the First Order inside of that hard drive?

"They have the names of your people that are supposed to be reconnaissance agents throughout the galaxy." Kyra explained, unbuckling her seat and turning to fully face BB-8. "That drive has a list of all of them. I was able to grab it from them before it was uploaded from the mainframe, but if they're found out, they're toast. Along with the Resistance. On top of that, there's an updated schematic of the Star Killer base. I know in the days before I left they were placing the finishing touches on it. We need to get this to the Resistance so that you can blow that thing to kingdom come."

A mini explosion happened behind the both of them, Kyra jumping in her seat in surprise. Realizing that the hissing was coming from inside of the ship, she rose from her seat and ran to the lobby of the ship, seeing smoke come out of one of the ground panels. "What the hell did you two do back here?"

"I need your help!" Rey yelled, gesturing for the two of them to help her pull the grating from the ship. "I think we blew something on our escape!" She muttered, seeing the smoke start to fill the lobby of the ship.

"Rey, what's going on?" Finn questioned, Kyra realizing that the two had finally aquantinced themselves. Which made her life a lot easier in the long run. She wasn't really in the mood to do introductions at the moment.

"We're about to find out." Rey responded back, hopping inside of the paneling to try and figure out what was wrong with the ship. Suddenly, an emergency alarm blared, making Kyra jump. Rey's head popped out quickly, looking over to Finn and Kyra. "It's the motivator! Grab me a harris wrench." She yelled at the both of them, Kyra turning to grab the kit.

Finn grabbed her arm before she could, pulling her in tightly, pulling back her hair to check on her injury again. Kyra gave an audible wince as he did so, the young man whispering an apology as he did so. The bruises around her face had faded since they had first met, the dried blood all chipped away on her face. However the scalding red injury from where her ear used to be still remained, a small bit of fresh blood still there. "I'll handle this." He muttered, gesturing his head back to the slowly hissing steam in the ship. "You get yourself all healed up."

"There should be a box right next to the med kit." Kyra muttered as she gestured to where the two kits were, finding a small open seating area that was shaped like a hole and sitting in it. She watched as Finn tossed her the med kit, the young woman catching it with ease and unzipping the pack quickly. "You need to grab the first wrench on the right side." Kyra informed Finn, searching for the bacta salve that she hoped was in here.

Finn found the wrench quickly, tossing it to Rey in a hurry. "How bad is it?" He questioned, leaning over the side of the ship to stare down at her. He could barely see the edge of her head as she ducked down to review what was going on inside of the ship, worry coming to his face when she hesitated with her response.

"If we wanna live, not good!" Rey exclaimed in response, looking up at Finn with a small smile of gratitude, leaning her head over at Kyra to see the young woman trying to tend to a wound that she had no idea about.

"They're hunting for us now, which means that we gotta get out of this system, and fast!" Finn responded, getting more antsy with every second that they spent drifting in the middle of space. He turned around, looking back at Kyra for confirmation.

"That's putting it mildly." Kyra muttered in amusement, thinking about how angry Kylo Ren would be at this very moment, probably issuing out a bounty for her head and warrants for BB-8, Rey, and Finn. "The entire First Order is probably on our tail."

"Well, BB-8 said that the location of the Resistance base is on a need-to-know basis." Rey sighed, trying to fix everything down in the paneling that she could in order to make sure that they weren't going to die aboard this ship. "If I'm taking you there, I need to know!"

There was a moment of silence as Kyra wanted to mentally facepalm herself. Of course the Resistance base location was a secret. Why would it not be? But the problem was, one of the "Resistance members" was a liar and the other had never been on the base before in their life. Which left only BB-8 with the information.

"Finn was stationed somewhere else within the Resistance." Kyra lied, giving a look to Finn to just go with it. "I betrayed the First Order and started feeding intel to the Resistance through mission runners, so I've never been to the Resistance base. It was a security measure to ensure that if I was mind searched I wouldn't give up the Resistance."

"Pilex driver, hurry!" Rey popped up, looking between both Finn and Kyra, trying to see if the young woman was telling the truth. Seeing no lie within her eyes, Rey turned her attention to Finn, who was searching through the tool kit anxiously.

"Second tool to the left." Kyra pointed out, rubbing the salve that she had gotten from the jar onto her wound with a towel. She winced in pain, the bacta salve stinging against her open wound. "BB-8, tell her the location of the base for me, will you?"

The droid looked at her for a moment, seeing the pain and worry in her eyes. There was a moment in which he almost hesitated, unsure if he could really tell the location of the base to everyone in the room for Kyra and her companion. But then he remembered how many times that she had saved Poe's ass from getting completely obliterated by stormtroopers, and the sacrifices she had made to get information to the First Order. He couldn't let all of her sacrifices be in vain. BB-8 turned to Rey, focusing on her as he beeped out the answer. The base is in the Illenium System.

"The Illenium System?" Rey questioned both of the "Resistance members", surprise coming to her base. She most definitely didn't expect for the Resistance to have their base out there, and she wasn't sure if she was willing to go that far from Jakku to deliver them there. Then again, what did she have to lose?

"Yup, the Illenium System." Finn confirmed a relieved smile coming to his face. "That's the one." He threw the wrench down at Rey, who caught it with ease, ducking her head back into the paneling of the ship. "Get us there as fast as you can." He gave a thumbs up of gratitude to both BB-8 and Kyra, BB-8 repeating the sentiment with a small little flame igniter thumbs up.

"I'll drop you three at Ponemah Terminal. I have to get back to Jakku." Rey sighed, popping back up to stare at Finn and Kyra. "I'll need the bonding tape, hurry!" She exclaimed, worrying about how much time she would have before the repairs in the ship would be done.

"Back to Jakku-? Why does everyone want to go back to Jakku?!" Finn was hastily searching through the bag of tools, unable to find the tape. There were groans of frustration as he was unable to find the proper equipment from Rey, the girl on a short fuse.

Kyra got up from her spot inside of the seat, finding the bonding tape and throwing it down to Rey. "Why do you got to go back to Jakku, kid?" She questioned, seeing a saddened look come to the girl's face as she asked. There was a moment of silence as Rey popped back down, using the tape to quickly repair the leak that they had just caused inside of the ship. "You're a pilot, you can go anywhere!"

The look in Rey's eyes answered Kyra's question.

She was waiting for someone on that planet.

Before Kyra could ask further, all of the power shut off inside of the ship, only the red backup lights blinking ominously at the three and the droid. In the darkness, Kyra immediately ran to the cockpit, trying to press any of the controls as Rey scrambled out of the paneling hole. "Someone's locked onto us- all controls are overriden." She stated, trying to press any button in an attempt to get the ship working again.

"Who could it be?" Rey questioned, hopping up on the copilot seat in an attempt to try and get a view of who was bringing them into the hangar. All she could see was the red light that was being displayed from inside the hangar, and the dark black shadows of the inside of the ship they were being sucked into.

"The First Order." Kyra answered grimly, a frown forming on her face as she stared up at the red lights that were overshadowing the ship that they were on. There was no other logical explanation. Who else would have been roaming this part of the galaxy?

"They've found us."

<~•~>

yeET this took like a week to get out but do I care?

absolutely not.

I've been prewriting and starting to release other books on my profile plus I've been making trailers!

on that note if you guys want a trailer from me, please go check out my new trailer and graphic shop, fever dream , I'm pretty bored and I've been having fun playing around in photoshop and making trailers! sorry for the little self promo but there's that ^ :)

quarantine has got me busy y'all.

I've baked too many cookies and eaten too many of them. I gotta get back on a workout regiment or I'm gonna be so out of shape by the time we escape quarantine I'm going to drown when I get back in the pool 😗✌🏼

anyways, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, because the next few chapters are definitely gonna ramp up! we're getting close to the climax and some major plot points!

alright that's all from me, peace out people!