The Battle Begins

Captain Phasma entered the hangar of the Finalizer, gazing fondly at the transports as they left the destroyer for the planet’s surface. She would board one of these transports and when it landed the Resistance would feel her wrath.

•

Alarms blared and chaos ensued as Finn ran through the city, a blaster in his hand and his gaze scanning the crowd. Where was Rose? He hadn’t seen her since they went to talk strategy with Leia in preparation for the First Order’s assault.

He heard an explosion and when he looked upward he saw a TIE fighter plummeting to the city in his direction. He gasped. He was just about to run as fast as he could away from the area when someone grabbed his hand and pulled him in the opposite direction.

He looked to see who was holding his hand and found that it was Rose.

“Rose?” he said.

They were knocked to the ground as the TIE fighter crashed in an explosion behind them.

Finn looked at Rose.

“I was just looking for you,” he said with a smile.

She seemed peeved but she nodded. “Sure you were.”

Finn’s eyebrows creased as he rose to his feet. He held his hand out to her but she didn’t take it, choosing to stand on her own. She dusted herself off and Finn noticed that she had rid herself of her mechanic outfit, wearing appropriate soldier’s clothing and holding a blaster in her hands.

“You’re going to fight?”

Rose’s expression was stern. “Shouldn’t I?”

He nodded. “Yes, I was just…surprised.” He paused. “Your sister would be proud.”

Rose’s expression slightly softened but then hardened again.

“The only way we’re going to survive is if everyone plays their part, right?”

He was about to respond when a throng of Zipher warriors rushed past, whooping and hollering as First Order transports began landing around them.

Finn’s grip tightened on his blaster.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

Rose nodded grimly. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

With that final exchange, they followed the Xeeter warriors to the fight.

•

Poe Dameron entered his black-and-orange X-Wing, preparing the vessel for takeoff. Around him on the tarmac, other pilots were doing the same. The red-haired Captain Timara was in her X-Wing right beside him. He looked over and she saluted him. He saluted her back.

“Squadrons,” he began as his X-Wing fired up, “you only have one objective. Take everything that belongs to the First Order out of the sky.”

“Yes sir,” he heard his fellow pilots respond.

He launched his X-Wing up toward the sky just as a swarm of TIE fighters appeared from the gaseous cloud cover shooting at everything in sight. “Come on Resistance. Let’s show the First Order what we’re made of.”

•

Leia gazed at the console before her, Warden Yartuda, and the Resistance and Zipher officers standing alongside her. She could see the First Order’s force and her eyebrows were creased with worry. But she had confidence. Confidence that the Resistance and Zipher clan would defeat this insolent foe with ease.

She could only hope she was right.

•

Rose had never been in a war before. She had heard tales of battles all of her life but to be in the fray of one was a lot different. Now, as she stood behind a building, watching as stormtroopers poured from First Order transports down the city streets she was slightly afraid.

Finn, however, shot at the troopers with no qualm or look of fear. He simply did what he had to do, and he was good at it too, downing a trooper with every shot.

Rose did the same, or as best she could. It was becoming apparent, as the troopers’ droves were continuously defeated, that maybe the Resistance would win this battle more easily than they expected.

And then, there was a boom. The Zipher warriors began to yell something in their native language before running away. Rose’s eyebrows furrowed.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

There was another boom that sounded a lot louder. Finn’s eyes widened.

“Walker,” he gasped.

Rose’s eyes enlarged in response. She looked around the corner and sure enough, three gigantic AT-AT walkers unlike she had ever seen before were walking through the streets, shooting at everything in sight.

“We gotta go,” she said, grabbing Finn’s hand and pulling him down the street just as a Walker shot where they had been standing.

She screamed as a blast blew a crater in the ground to their immediate left seconds later, knocking them to the stone floor. Around them, soldiers were caught in blasts and instantly killed.

X-Wings flew by overhead, shooting at the Walkers but to no avail.

Rose shakily stood, pulling Finn to his feet and running with him through a set of alleyways where they eventually ran into even more stormtroopers.

Rose screamed, raising her blaster to shoot. The stormtroopers were just as surprised. Finn caught a few of them with his blaster, using the weapon like a bludger and knocking them senseless while Rose downed two of them with quick shots.

They took this brief respite as a chance to catch their breath.

“Those walkers need to be destroyed,” Finn said.

Rose nodded. “The X-Wings won’t be able to take them out. It’s going to have to be us.”

“But how?” Finn asked.

Rose wracked her brain. And then she snapped her fingers. “Electro-magnetic shocks.”

Finn frowned. “What?”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out two medium-sized disks. “If we place these on the Walkers’ legs they will immediately detonate and send an electric current that will shut down the walkers. Then the X-Wings can get past their shields and boom, they’re down.”

Finn grinned. “Great plan…but how are we going to get near the walkers without being killed?”

Rose smiled mischievously. “Are you up for riding a speeder bike?”

Finn’s eyes widened. What was he about to get himself into?