SAVIOR [Kylo Ren]

The Hunt

The sun was blinding Ree. When she and Kylo had been there before it had been night and cold but now it was in the middle of the day, hot and bright. Sweat beads ran down her temples and she had to squint to see anything, at least the red scarf over the lower part of her face kept out the dust. An endless sea of sand and a light blue sky to meet it. No sign of the traitor, the TIE fighter or the pilot. "Commander, shall we turn back?" One of the two stormtroopers who accompanied Ree asked.

"No, I think we're close," Ree sounded as she continued walking further away from the Command shuttle they used to get there. She looked down at the tablet in her hands which displayed a map of the area with the ship pointed out and their position. 

After some more walking, the Command shuttle had become a small figure in the distance and there was no TIE fighter in sight. Even Ree was starting to give up, they had been walking in circles around the spot where the TIE fighter was supposed to be. Ree sat down on the sand, feeling like a failure. The two stormtroopers continued to stand, not allowed to rest while on duty. "Sit, you must be more tired than I am. With all that heavy armour of yours." She gestured to the ground and the two stormtroopers looked at each other with unsure looks, not knowing if that was some sort of test. "Just sit. I won't report you or anything." Slowly the two stormtroopers sank down two the ground and tried making themself comfortable. 

The three sat there in silence, the stormtroopers were awaiting orders but Ree just wanted to give up. The sun was getting closer to the ground, it was only a short while until they would be engulfed by darkness. "Commander, it's getting dark. we should be heading back."

"Yeah... I just need to rest a minute." Ree laid down in defeat, this whole mission of hers was a total failure and with 100% certainty was Hux going to mock her for it. When Ree's back hit the sand dunes she couldn't seem to find a comfortable position. The ground under her back felt different from the soft sand under her legs. She prompted herself up to investigate what was causing the discomfort and all she saw was sand. Not satisfied with that answer she started digging and soon enough her hands made contact with something cold. "Can you two help me with this?" Ree said to her guards and they got up and also started digging.

After a while, they had dug out the tip of a TIE fighter wing. "I knew it." The Commander smiled to herself. Moments later they had dug out the entire piece, it was just the tip of the wing. "Look if you can find some other parts!" Ree ordered and the two stormtroopers nodded in answer. The three of them ran around the area and stamped with their feet to find differences in the ground.

After a while, the area was filled with small holes and Ree was in the middle of digging a new one when one of the stormtroopers shouted, "Commander you might want to see this!" Ree ran in the direction of the voice, over some hills and then down and then she slid down to find the two stormtroopers looking down at something. 

"What did you find?" She asked as she had reached the two.

"This." They pointed down at the hole in the ground and she saw the window of the TIE fighter cockpit. "And that's not the best part." One of the stormtroopers said and they moved to the side, revealing what was behind them, footprints.

"A trail! Leading from the cockpit! That's great! Ree was ecstatic. "Call over the shuttle!" One of the stormtroopers took up their com radio and talked to the pilot in the shuttle telling them to get here ASAP.

Moments later the shuttle landed next to the trail of footprints. The three ran inside and Ree bolted to the pilot. "Fly low and follow that trail of footprints!" The pilot nodded in answer and Ree could smell the scent of victory.

---

Flying this low to the ground forced them to go slow, otherwise, the wind of the motors would blow up too much sand and destroy the trail. It took the rest of the night to catch up with the trail who had probably been walking for 24 hours straight. In the early morning, they reached Niima outpost where the trail ended. The villagers looked nervously at the Command shuttle landing and were even more scared when Commander Keelor exited the ship. Stories about her had spread through the galaxy, even to small places like Niima outpost.